Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1401 to 1425 of 1679 results

1401. What If He Shows Up?

John 2:13-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

I know that you remember Murphy's Law, which said, "If anything can go wrong, it will." There are a thousand variations of that law, such as, "Buttered toast, when falling to the floor, will always fall face down." But it seems that one day in this particular house the toast fell to the floor, and to the amazement of the family, it landed buttered side up. Immediately the scientists were called in to analyze this. Did this really refute Murphy's Law, which said that "buttered toast, when it falls to the ...

1402. Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50:1-11, Matthew 27:11-54, Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 50:4-7 Yahweh's servant faces suffering confident of his help. This pericope constitutes the third of the four servant songs in Isaiah. Yahweh's servant hears his voice and is therefore fortified with determination to suffer mental agony in terms of ridicule, false accusations, humiliation, and shame. He suffers confidently because Yahweh will vindicate, help, and pronounce him innocent. Epistle: Philippians 2:6-11 Jesus' humiliation and God's exaltation of him. Paul is ...

1403. The Power of Positive Dreaming

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

According to tradition, Joseph was the strong, silent type - an older carpenter who willingly submitted to impotent fatherhood - a second-string player in the drama of God's human birth. But according to scripture, none of this is true. All that is actually recorded in the Bible is that Joseph was a dreamer - a righteous man who transformed the meaning of righteousness by taking seriously his dreams. To be righteous, according to Torah, is to be law-abiding. And so, as a law-abiding Jew, Joseph could have ...

1404. God, the Enemy

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Do you remember when Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, was executed? As the time of his execution drew near, McVeigh gave a handwritten statement to the warden, intending it to take the place of any verbal comment. In that statement, McVeigh quoted a section of the poem "Invictus," which is Latin for "unconquered." That poem, by nineteenth-century British poet William Ernest Henley (18491903), reads, in part, "I am the master of my fate: I am the ...

1405. Redundant Love

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

You're redundant. Did you receive those words as a compliment or an insult? We've been trained to hear this word "redundant" as a negative. But in saying "You're redundant," I've just paid you a compliment that's based on one of the most essential features of life. We hear redundancy as meaning repetitive, uninspired, not creatively useful. But for engineers and technicians, redundancy is a goal and an expression of grace. Take electronics and information processing: systems must back up one another. Take ...

1406. Four Cornerstones

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Both Elizabeth and I hail from paper-mill towns. A few years ago the blue collar-redneck-good-old-boy logging town Elizabeth grew up in (Springfield, Oregon) found itself very interested all of a sudden in building sushi bars and trendy, high-tech fitness centers. Why? Sony Corporation seriously considered the town as a new factory headquarters site. Like every other economically struggling small town, the prospect of a large employer coming to town with deep pockets and wide wants encouraged the community ...

1407. Pay It Forward!

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There is no place like an island to bring home how vitally interconnected we are to each other. The other night, one lone deer on tiny Shaw Island managed to plunge all the San Juan County islands into complete darkness and powerlessness for about five hours. This deer, it seems, decided to cross the road at the same time some unsuspecting driver (and there are only about 50 cars on the entire island) came around the corner. Whether to save Bambi or the front grillwork, the driver swerved sharply. He ...

1408. Saved by the Bell

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It's one of the most powerful images in the history of Christianity: Jesus on the cross, flanked on either side by two thieves. Or if you were a first-century gawker at Golgotha, here are three criminals lifted up for humiliation on three crosses. In the final hours of their lives, these three criminals formed a community of the dying. They entered into relationships with each other, shared intimacies, and conversed with each other about matters of life and death. If you listen carefully to this dialog of ...

1409. Life's Four Big 'Ds' and One Bigger 'D'

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Here are the catalogues that came to our house this past week. (Save in a box or basket all the catalogues that arrive at your home for one week, and empty them out in front of the congregation.) Order anything from any catalog and you immediately get on the mailing list for hundreds of others. Depending upon your attitude, these catalogs can either be a delightful escapist fantasy, or a miserable consumeristic experience in "wannabe-ness." Here are some exclusive, high-end catalogs. These are especially ...

1410. A Sign or a Son?

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

If you've ever driven across this great country of ours, you've undoubtedly heard of a place called Wall Drug Store. Not Wal-Mart Drug Store. Wall Drug Store. Though located in Wall, South Dakota (pop. 800), this little business starts advertising its distant presence while you're at least a dozen states away. Especially on interstate 90 somewhere around Idaho to the West and Iowa to the East, strange little signs start popping up every couple hundred miles. "Only 2314 miles to Wall Drug." Or "Just 829 ...

1411. Get Out of Your Big Pickup Truck!

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

A few years ago, just before Thanksgiving, Tom Lind, a salesman from Montana, was making his rounds, traveling his regular route along the southern Oregon coast. As usual he was in his older model pickup, piggybacked with his small camper. Looking to continue his route south and east, Lind made a fateful spur-of-the-moment decision. He opted to take the scenic route. Only a few miles on this blue highway, however, the elevation rose rapidly and good ol' Oregon drizzle transformed into swirling snowflakes. ...

1412. Set in the Dark Places

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

I learned a song in Sunday School that has stayed with me for lo these many years. The song is "This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let It Shine." Anybody else go to the same Sunday School? (Sing it here, or better yet, have them join in singing it with you.) As we've just heard, the song has three verses. Two of the three verses are theologically profound. One verse is theologically bankrupt. A. I'm Gonna Let it Shine The first verse is "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." Where does the ...

1413. Cha-cha-cha Christians: The Dance that Advances

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Theme: You were made to dance on the divine dance floor. Can you hear the divine music? This sermon is a call for Cha-Cha-Cha Christians. Exegesis On this Transfiguration Sunday the gospel lesson (Matthew 17:1-9) describes the event itself—-the mountaintop, the cloud, the disciples as witnesses, the presence of the prophets, the heavenly voice. The epistle text, however, demonstrates how the transfiguration event was understood and used by the first generation of Christian churches. The epistle of 2 Peter ...

1414. Lent 4

Jn 9:1-41 · Eph 5:8-14 · Ps 23 · 1 Sam 16:1-13

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The Old Testament texts explore what it means to be anointed by God. I Samuel 16:1-13 is the account of the anointing of David by Samuel and Psalm 23 is a prayer song in which the worshiper who has experienced threatening events also experiences the security of God through anointing. I Samuel 16:1-13 highlights the risks that accompany the anointing of God, while Psalm 23 outlines the unique security that God offers each of us. 1 Samuel 16:1-13 - "The Risk of Anointing" Setting. I ...

1415. Ten Days of Prayer

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

In his book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of The Boat, Pastor John Ortberg tells a wonderful true story about the power of prayer. It involves a Christian leader in Washington, D.C. named Doug Coe. Doug became a spiritual mentor to a new Christian whose name was Bob. One day, Bob came in all excited about the verse in the Bible where Jesus says, “Ask whatever you will in my name, and you shall receive it.” “Is that really true?” Bob asked. Doug answered with a qualified yes, it is ...

1416. Just the Right Touch

Mark 5:25-34

Sermon

James Merritt

The fifth chapter of the gospel of Mark is a menu of miracles. There are three miracles in this chapter, each of which illustrate the authority and the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the first miracle, a man comes to Jesus bound in chains, bleeding from cuts, controlled by demonic forces. Jesus cast out these demons. He frees this man from the hounds of hell that have hunted him and haunted him, and changes him from a child of the devil to a child of God. Then Jesus encounters a woman with a ...

1417. Going the Second Mile

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

James Merritt

Mark Twain once said this about the Bible: "I have no problem with those parts of the Bible I don't understand. It's those parts of the Bible I do understand that gives me fits." The passage that we are going to study certainly fits into that category. This passage illustrates something I bet most of you have never thought about before. One of the easiest things in the world to do is to become a Christian. It is ridiculously easy. All you have to do is confess you are a sinner, repent of your sin, believe ...

1418. Body Building at Its Best

1 Corinthians 12:13-27, Ephesians 4:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

Take a moment and just think about your body. It represents a state of engineering that IBM, Mercedes, and Lockheed combined, could not ever match. Listen to this eloquent description of the magnificence of the human body: The body is a temple, warehouse, laboratory, pharmacy (the brain alone produces more than 50 cycle-active drugs), electric company, farm, mass-transit system, library (the brain stores the equivalent information of 500 sets of the Encyclopedia Britannia, utility company, hospital, and ...

1419. Fiscal Fitness

Proverbs 3:9-10

Sermon

James Merritt

"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat." Jane Wagner, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe"[1] You would expect that the richest man who ever lived would have something to say about money, and, in Solomon's case, you would be right. He has plenty to say. There is a wealth of wisdom about wealth in Proverbs. With money, there is not only much to earn, but there is much to learn. In fact, the entire Bible has much to say about money. Howard Dayton, the ...

1420. Faithful Fathers Fortify Families

Deuteronomy 6:1-15

Sermon

James Merritt

Malachi 4:6 is the last verse in Malachi. Now that is significant because Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi 4:6 is the last verse in the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament. Now all of that is interesting because when Malachi put his quill down, for 400 years God was absolutely silent. He gave no further revelation; for four centuries not one word. Now think about it. If you were God and you were not going to speak for 400 years before your son came into world; before ...

1421. No Fear

Psalm 23:4

Sermon

James Merritt

Fear—we all know what it is. It is one of the most debilitating emotions known to the human race. As a matter of fact, it is fascinating to see just what it is that people fear most. Here are the three greatest fears people have in America: Fear number one: Going to a party where they will be surrounded by strangers. Fear number two: Having to speak before a crowd. Fear number three: Being asked a personal question in public.1 Fear is unbelievably powerful. It penetrates the heart, it poisons the spirit, ...

1422. Parades and Crosses — The Challenge of Ministry

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

He had grown up in a fashionable suburb of a large American city, a cosmopolitan area of considerable size and sophistication. He was a winner from the time he was born; you know, one of those babies that comes into the world with a smile and a confident air that life is friendly and meant for success. Oh, yes, he did his share of crying, and as an infant and pre-schooler, he had his share of sickness. But all in all, he was the kind of boy you would expect to see in a prize-winning television commercial. ...

1423. Are You a Taker or a Giver?

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

It was quite a picture — on the front of the New York Times magazine. There were the "Little Big People" as the cover article names them — "little big people" who are precocious, even out of control, with affluent parents who have only themselves to blame. The picture shows a yuppie- dressed eight- or nine-year-old boy, stylish, cool with his own cellular phone in hand. In the center is a modishly over-dressed twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl, stylish, sexy, and eating high priced Chinese take-out food. ...

1424. Don’t Fear the Wait

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

Richard Gribble

A long time ago there lived a little boy whose parents had died. He was taken in by an aunt who raised him as her own child. Many years later, after the boy had grown and become successful in business, he received a letter from his aunt. She was terminally ill and from the tone of her letter, quite afraid of death. Thus, the man who had been raised and strongly influenced by this woman decided to write her a letter in response. He began, "It is now 35 years since I, a little boy of six, was left quite ...

1425. Living Out the Promise of This Child

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

It is impossible for me to listen to these words from Isaiah and not hear the baritone part of Handel's Messiah somewhere in the back of my mind. No matter how many times I read or meditate on this passage, the same music courses through my soul. I guess that's a good thing. For many of us, certain events or words serve as triggers for memories or thoughts. There are some things that cause us to smile, some that cause us to wince, and some that stir the fertile substance of hope in our hearts. Isn't that ...

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