Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1426 to 1450 of 4943 results

1426. An Up-Close Nativity

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

Heather Sugden

One of my favorite childhood memories of Christmas is the decorations. Growing up, about mid-December, all these special decorations would come out of boxes and appear around the house. Ornaments for the trees, stockings for the mantle above the fireplace, pretty snow globes that sat on top of the book-shelves, and my mother’s nativity scenes. My mother owns several nativity scenes. They come in different sizes, are made of different materials, and show different interpretations of what the holy family ...

1427. Next Man Up

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

In May 2001 journalist Giles Brandeth interviewed South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. As you know, Desmond Tutu has dedicated his life to bringing justice, peace and equality to the people of South Africa. There were a million questions Brandeth wanted to ask Tutu. But the Archbishop had been diagnosed recently with prostate cancer, and Brandeth realized that this interview might be the last one Desmond Tutu would ever give. So he asked the Archbishop to choose the topic of conversation. What ...

1428. When What You Signed Up For...

Acts 16:9-15

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to ask you a question this morning: how do you respond when God—or life itself—changes your plans? This question is relevant for everyone in the congregation because at some point in your life, God or life, if you will, will suddenly and unexpectedly change your plans for your day, maybe even for your life. There is an old “Peanuts” cartoon strip that I suspect we all can relate to. In the first panel Charlie Brown says, “I learned something in school today, I signed up for folk guitar, computer ...

1429. The Accent Of Heaven

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

She opened our eyes to the way that civilizations unfold and develop. Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead became the talk of society with her study, Coming of Age in Samoa. For decades she toured the world, explaining what she had observed as children were born, how they were raised, what families and groups did to reinforce certain behaviors, what happened to non-conformists, what marriage looked like, and how people aged and died. When Ms. Mead was speaking at a university, one student asked her what ...

1430. What It Takes

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

An insurance salesman stuck his head into a department store sales manager's office. "You don't want to buy any insurance, do you?" he asked timidly. "Young man, who taught you how to sell?" asked the sales manager. "Don't ever ask that kind of question! Your problem is a lack of confidence. Give me an application blank. I'll buy some insurance from you to give you confidence in yourself." After completing the application, the sales manager gave the young man a lecture: "Now remember, each customer is ...

1431. Take the Garbage Out

Matthew 3:1-12

Illustration

Brett Blair

The poet Shel Silverstein wrote a rather humorous poem called: Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out! Let me share it with you. Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would not take the garbage out! She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans, Candy the yams and spice the hams, And though her Daddy would scream and shout She simply would not take the garbage out. And so it piled up to the ceilings: Coffee grounds, potato peelings, Brown bananas, rotten peas, Chunks of sour cottage cheese. It filled ...

1432. Binding Up the Fractured World

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Hubert Beck

The universe is held together in a most remarkable unity. When one reads scientific descriptions of how everything works, whether it be in the cosmic dimensions of the heavenly bodies or whether it be in the mini-dimensions of the atom, one is overwhelmed with wonder. What keeps everything together and holds it in its place? Why doesn’t it fly off into every direction and dissolve into absolute chaos? We know, of course, for it is part of our confession of faith, that somehow we tie all this to the work of ...

1433. High and Lifted Up

Isaiah 6:1-8

Sermon

James Merritt

Several years ago Life Magazine devoted an issue to God. On the front cover was one big question: "When You Think of God What Do You See?" I began to imagine if that magazine came out today, how we, here in America, might answer that question. I believe there are some people who see a God who looks like Santa Claus, and really doesn't care whether we are naughty or nice; a God who winks at sin and giggles at iniquity; a God who is "too loving to let anyone go to hell;" a God who accepts everyone just the ...

1434. Reaching Up—Reaching Out

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

An elderly man was critically ill when he asked to see his doctor, his minister, and his closest business associate. As the three of them gathered around the man's bed, he said to them, "I know they say you can't take it with you, but who knows for sure? So, I'm giving each of you an envelope with a $100,000 in cash, in case I need a little spending money on the other side." A few days later the old man died. On the day of the funeral, the doctor, the minister and the business man all slipped an envelope ...

1435. Just Showing Up

Matt. 20:1-16; 22:1-14

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

Director/actor Woody Allen is known for a lot of quotes. But maybe his most famous quote is this one. Anyone want to guess what it is? "Ninety percent of life is just showing up." But Woody Allen is famously wrong. Ninety percent of life is what we do AFTER we show up. Why do we want to believe Allen's computations so badly? We eagerly embrace Woody's calculus because it takes us off the hook for all but ten percent of our lifetime of screw-ups, fall-flats, and melt-downs. It is easy to just "be there." It ...

1436. What It Takes To Be A Winner

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

William L. Self

This text for the fifth Sunday of Epiphany is probably the most sublime passage of Scripture in the Old Testament. It is the poetic description of the soaring of eagles. The Jewish people were in exile and it is likely that every one of them had looked up at the sky, seen eagles soaring, and cried out in their souls to the Lord to give them the freedom of the eagles. They were beginning to doubt that God cared for them. They desperately needed assurance that God was still in charge and that he cared about ...

1437. Watching The Eyes

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

John Jamison

The way it happened in my mind is that he walked into this little restaurant in downtown Jericho, took a deep breath and hollered, "Repent!" Folks stopped eating mid-bite. It got so quiet you could hear the motor running in that tall machine over in the corner that kept slices of pie turning around behind the glass all day. Every eye in the place was on him, and that was what he was waiting for. He started talking, and shouting, and waving his arms, and every time someone would try to laugh at him and go ...

1438. What Would It Take?

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

One fellow was bragging to another about his grandfather: "My grandfather," he said, "knew the exact day of the exact year when he was going to die. Not only that, he knew the time he would die that day as well." His friend said, "Wow, that's incredible. How did he know all of that?" The first fellow said: "Because a judge told him." An old man looks out from prison bars. This is a view he's seen before. He's been arrested many times. He has suffered numerous beatings. Funny how life turns out. He was once ...

1439. Speak Up for Forgiveness

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The Christian faith boasts a "Six Step" Recovery Program to repair and restore broken relationships. If, as we discussed in last week's sermon ideas, the marriage covenant is sealed in freshness and finality through the culturally dubious virtue of faithfulness, that is still only half the story. In order for one weak, struggling, stumbling, sinful human being to remain faithful to another similarly hamstrung human being, there needs to be an enormous flow of forgiveness between the two. Faithfulness ...

1440. Look Up and Live

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Do you like snakes? Not many do. No other creature on the face of the planet so universally brings forth a sense of revulsion and disgust. True or not, we think of snakes as icky, slimy, nasty, and as our text reminds, dangerous. It seems that the children of Israel, in the midst of their wilderness wandering after the escape from slavery in Egypt, had stumbled on to a location south of the Dead Sea that is infamous for its lethal snakes. "Big deal," they no doubt thought. "Why should we expect anything ...

1441. Which End Is Up?

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Exegesis: Ephesians 3:1-12 The epistle text for this week can be read with two different agendas in mind. On one hand the focus is on establishing apostolic tradition. In the first century there was a necessary concern with creating a continuity of tradition and authority for the fledgling Christian church. Hence Paul’s apostolic authority, his priority of leadership, is part of these verses’ testimony. Especially since these Ephesians probably had not known Paul’s preaching personally, it is an imperative ...

1442. A New Command

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Lee Griess

In his book Life Looks Up, Charles Templeton remarks how ironic it is that the course of human history has been affected so positively and negatively by events that have occurred in two small upper rooms. One of them is a drab flat in London's Westside, dirty, curtainless, with stacks of articles on the table and worn manuscripts, aborted attempts wadded up in the trash can. Seated at the table a man labors over a writing, a writing that would overthrow governments, enslave millions of people, and ...

1443. Enough!

Matthew 2:19-23

Sermon

John Jamison

There are many things that could be said about this passage. It is an amazing story. You have heard it before, but for just a few moments I would like for you to remember it with me one more time. Christmas has come and gone. The baby is born, the angels have sung their songs and have gone back to wherever it is that angels go after a performance, and the shepherds have gone back to sit with their sheep and tell and re-tell the story of their exciting night in Bethlehem. Everything is back to normal. ...

1444. Beaten Up, But Still Standing

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

King Duncan

Pat Kelly, a major league outfielder in the '70s, was a born-again Christian. One day Pat said to his manager, Earl Weaver, "Aren't you glad I walk with the Lord, Earl?" Weaver replied, "I'd rather you walked with the bases loaded." When one football coach was asked about his offensive team's execution he replied, "I'm all for it." Sports are popular because they are a metaphor for our life experience. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you feel like the champion of the world. Sometimes you just feel ...

1445. Get Up and Go

Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Matthew borrowed heavily from the Old Testament, especially from the prophet, Isaiah. That may come as a word of comfort to writers, and especially to preachers, who borrow heavily from other sources and hope nobody finds out about it. You can get in trouble doing that. In some places it is called "plagiarism." It is at the least embarrassing, and perhaps even expensive, if the material you borrowed has been copyrighted. But in Matthew's case, borrowing is not felonious, it is felicitous. Matthew, along ...

1446. Giving It All Up For Jesus And What’s Ahead

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Take a moment to consider all you have done with your life. Whatever you came up with, Paul says in our lesson that it’s just the past. We ought to look at the past like twentieth-century American poet Paul Eldridge once wrote: “Praises for our past triumphs are as feathers to a dead bird.” Get over your successes. No matter how good you have been, how spiritual you are, no matter how much you have accomplished, it does not matter. We Americans do not want to hear this. Think of Marvin and Harriet Thompson ...

1447. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Jesus was tempted. We know the story is there, but it isn’t our favorite, is it? Somehow it tarnishes our ideas about Jesus. Was he as wimpy as we are, almost ready to step over the edge of whatever morality we might have left, at the first offer? Ray Stedman, great twentieth-century preacher, remembered a morning at a restaurant. He was the featured speaker at a large church conference out east and was finishing his presentation notes as he ate breakfast. The eatery had unique décor, including good ...

1448. Feeling Down And Looking Up

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

The scripture for today is from the portion of Isaiah which scholars know as Deutero-Isaiah, or Second Isaiah - chapters 40 to 55. Those chapters certainly were not written by the eighth century B.C.E. prophet whose name it bears, but rather by an anonymous observer of the events in the closing years of Babylonian rule, and who interpreted the meaning of those events to the Jewish exiles in Babylonia. A momentous event stirred him to prophesy to the captives, and that event was the rise to power of Cyrus, ...

1449. Don't Give Up Too Soon!

Acts 15:36-41

Sermon

Harold Warlick

These are very exciting times in which to live. Eastern Europeans in communist countries are enjoying freedoms they have waited for, for 30 years. Nelson Mandela is free after 27 years of being in prison in South Africa. Perhaps it's hard for us to comprehend the faith and the hope which sustained these people for so long. Why didn't they give up sooner? Why not just accept failure, quit, drop out, transfer somewhere else, hang it up? One of my joys in life was visiting the famous Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam ...

1450. Gratitude Takes Practice

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

If any life was lifeless, it was the life of the lepers. Lepers were, in Jesus day, "the walking dead." They were considered outcasts. Their skin diseases were mistakenly considered contagious and, therefore, they were segregated in order to protect the healthy parts of society from their diseases. But something deeper than disease was also at work. Lepers generally were presumed to be people who were being punished for their sins. Their illness was evidence that God was punishing them. Can you feel just a ...

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