Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 1426 to 1450 of 2273 results

1426. The Exalted Christ

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

When a Russian cosmonaut became the first man to walk in space, a conservative religious publication in our country published an editorial saying, "This Russian was not the first one to walk through space. This occurred two thousand years ago when Christ ascended to heaven." Such an interpretation of the Ascension leaves thinking modern men cold. Science has given us a view of the world quite different from the cozy little three-story universe of ancient times, according to which beneath our earth is an ...

1427. The Gospel for Labor Day

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

The parable of the workers in the vineyard is an appropriate text for meditation on Labor Day, not only because it speaks of labor and management but because it places everyday work in the perspective of the gospel of the kingdom of God. It helps us to bridge the gap that too often exists between Sunday and Monday, our worship and our work. The word of God is not limited to our Sunday worship. It is not confined within the four walls of the church and associated only with what we wear and what we eat on ...

1428. Paul's Thorn In The Flesh

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Around the turn of the century a young man named Ole took his girlfriend on a summer outing. They took a picnic lunch out to a picturesque island in the middle of a small lake. She wore a long dress with about a dozen petticoats. He was dressed in a suit with a high collar. Ole rowed them out to the island, dragged the boat into shore, and spread their picnic supplies beneath a shade tree. So hypnotized was he by her beauty that he hardly noticed the hot sun and perspiration on his brow. Softly she ...

1429. God’s Wounded Healers

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

ROBERT A. RAINES is a prolific author, currently Director of Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania, following twenty years in parish work. His sermon, God’s Wounded Healers, was preached on a return visit to First United Methodist Church of Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he had been co-minister from 1961-1970. In it he lifts up the principle that our preaching has its greatest strength and integrity sometimes when we are speaking from the experiential knowledge of our own wounds such ...

1430. The Vulnerable Christ

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

Before accepting the position of Professor of Pastoral Theology and Supervised Ministries at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., CHARLES STEWART also taught at the Institute for Advanced Pastoral Studies in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Illif School of Theology in Denver. His interests and publications have been especially strong in the area of marriage and family counseling. His sermon The Vulnerable Christ was delivered in a chapel service at Wesley Theological Seminary. The Pieta is an ...

1431. Bringing the Gospel to Marriage

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

MARCUS D. BRYANT is an ordained minister who served in a number of Christian Church congregations and on the faculty of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, before accepting his present position at Texas Christian University. There he is Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Pastoral Care at Brite Divinity School and a supervisor and consultant both at the Pastoral Care Center at Brite and the Azie Pastoral Counseling Center. His sermon published here was delivered at a seminary chapel service. In Bringing ...

1432. Backsliding

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Brett Blair

There was once a term frequently used in the church. In the old days it was used often. You rarely ever hear it today. Indeed, in my 12 years in the ministry I have never preached a sermon on the topic until now. Despite the infrequency with which it is mentioned, the concept, I think, is still valid. It is backsliding. The term backsliding, I discovered in my research, was popularized in the 1600’s by John Bunyan in his very famous allegory Pilgrim’s Progress. In the story, you may recall, the character ...

1433. Eyes to See

Mark 10:46-52

Illustration

William G. Carter

There's a woman who received eyes to see. A few years ago, with the help of Presbyterian mission money, she helped to establish a halfway house for women who are recovering drug addicts. She schedules twelve-step groups, arranges for child care, and generally tries to get the women back on their feet. In a lot of ways, you would never expect her to be involved with such work. She is even-tempered, gentle, and articulate. But something happened a few years ago that caused her to see anew. She was a graduate ...

1434. Ready or Not - Here I Come

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

When you were a child, did you play the game, Hide and Seek? If you did, you will remember that the person who was "it" closed his eyes while the rest went to hide. To give them time to hide, the child started counting: 5, 10, 15, 20 and up to 100. Then he would say, "Ready or not, here I come!" The point of the game was to hide oneself so well that the leader could not find you, for if he found you, and beat you back to the goal, you had to be "it" the next go-around. The secret of the game was preparing ...

1435. A Voice to be Heard

John 1:19-28

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

It had been a long time. History seemed more moribund and leaden than ever. Hope was either frozen or fanatic. Cynicism was the daily fare and optimism the dream of fools. So it was in those days of long ago. But now there was a stirring in history's corridors -- not in the throne rooms of Rome or Alexandria, not in the libraries of Athens or the armies of Caesar -- but in little backwater towns of a troublesome, rebellious, backwater country. The first of the stirrings began in Jerusalem with a tired old ...

1436. Home for the Holidays

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

William G. Carter

Laura was going home for the holidays. As she sat in O’Hare Airport one Christmas morning, she bristled with anticipation. Her vacation would last only two and a half days, but two bags of luggage were stuffed with presents. She had finally gotten the first job that paid any real money, and she was eager to go home and lavish gifts upon people she loved. Her family met her at the airport and took her back to the familiar neighborhood. The house was bigger than she remembered. They exchanged gifts that ...

1437. Today

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

In one of his books, David Buttrick tells about a cartoon in a magazine. The cartoon showed three men sitting in a row behind a long table. A microphone has been placed in front of each of them. One man was pictured in long flowing hair and a draped white robe. Another was battered, a wreath of jagged thorns on his head. The third was swarthy, with dark curly hair and a pointed nose. The caption said, “Will the real Jesus Christ please stand?”1 Everybody sees Jesus from a different angle, including the ...

1438. His Resurrection

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Sermon

Brett Blair

As I look around, I see great events playing out on the world stage: Democracy is being brought to regions of the world that never really understood the dignity of individual citizens or the joy of liberty. World health organizations are working around the clock to stem the tide of SARS a disease which if not fought might become another black plague. An unprecedented ability to communicate ideas and beliefs to any part of the world and to any person in the world is quickly becoming commonplace. And the ...

1439. What Can We Count On From God?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

James W. Moore

Recently I received an e-mail message that was entitled “Things I Really Don’t Understand.” It had a list of questions for which there seems to be no clear-cut answer. Here are a few of them: Why do doctors and lawyers call what they do practice? Why is abbreviation such a long word? Why is it that when you’re driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on your radio? Why is a boxing ring square? What was the best thing before sliced bread? How do they get the deer to cross the highway at ...

1440. Sometimes You've Got to Shout!

John 12:12-19

Sermon

David E. Leininger

This week will be my daughter's 18th birthday. Who woulda thunk it? Years ago, when I told my mother that I was getting married, her reply was, "Well, that's fine, David, but you ought not to have any children. You are old and set in your ways, and you wouldn't have enough patience to deal with them." (I was 33 at the time.) She continued, "God was very smart in letting us have children when we are young, because that's the only time in our lives when we have enough energy to handle them." HA! Well, we DID ...

1441. God Cares About Justice!

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The Gallup organization regularly conducts polls to determine the religious beliefs and practices of modern Americans. Despite new attitudes about morality, fluctuations in church membership, higher levels of education, and so on, there have been remarkably few changes in responses in recent years. The polls generally show that about 95% of us believe in a God of some sort. People may call God by different names, if indeed they believe that God is callable at all, but they do believe that a God exists. In ...

1442. The Ten Commandments #9: No False Witness

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Have you been watching the impeachment hearings? I spent much of Thursday afternoon and evening glued to the tube. Not because the testimony and questioning were so scintillating or riveting, but because this was historic. This process is only occurring for the third time in our nation's history, and as a history buff, I wanted to watch. As we all know (and better than any of us is happy with), for the past four years, the Office of Independent Counsel has been investigating the President - first it was ...

1443. A Mother's Gift

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

If there were ever a day that felt like Mother's Day to Hannah, this was it. This was the day she would get to see her son, Samuel, for the first time since last year. Each autumn, Hannah and her family would make the pilgrimage from their home in Ramah to the religious center of the nation in Shiloh for the Feast of Tabernacles - the annual celebration of the harvest, a time to renew the covenant between Israel and her God - one of the three holiest festivals of the Hebrew year. To be sure, Hannah was a ...

1444. The Voice

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Someone has suggested that the title for a sermon about this incident in the life of Samuel should be "The Danger of Sleeping in Church." As you Bible scholars know there is another story in the New Testament which could be titled the same way.(1) Young Eutychus of Troas was at worship one Sunday evening, seated on the window sill. The apostle Paul was the visiting preacher, and he DID preach...and preach and preach and preach. He preached till midnight. Eutychus dozed...and crashed. He fell out the window ...

1445. Of Rubble and Trouble

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Hmmm. "Wars and insurrections, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines and plagues...arrests, persecution, some put to death...days of vengeance...great distress on the earth...People will faint from fear and foreboding..." Whoa! What season are we in? What about "Peace on earth and mercy mild?" Actually, BOTH images are at play this morning. Yes, Christmas is coming - a beautiful time. But juxtaposed against that is a life of great uncertainty for all of us, a time when our ...

1446. When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough

Ecc 2:1-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear, does it make a sound?" You have heard that one. Or one more serious: if a person lives and dies and no one notices, if the world continues as it was, was that person ever really alive? What brings that question to mind is that sadly cynical passage from Ecclesiastes a moment ago in combination with a motion picture that is currently making the rounds called "About Schmidt."(1) When we were in Florida a couple of weeks ago, one of our ...

1447. Hope for Hurting Hearts

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"...Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Sure does sound like Christmas, doesn't it? I wish everyone could feel it. But the war in Afghanistan goes on. Families that lost loved ones on September 11th are preparing for a holiday that, a year ago, they could have never imagined. There is a certain dissonance to the season. Trips to malls and stores with the sacred Muzak in the air singing of "Joy to the World" or "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" mock the harsh realities ...

1448. Real Religion

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Micah 6:8..."He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Familiar words. Perhaps you memorized them in Sunday School in years past, or perhaps you saw them on the wall of the Library of Congress. (They are inscribed there.) They are an ancient answer to the modern acronym that Christian youngsters wear on tee-shirts, bracelets, and necklaces: WWJD - What would Jesus do? These few words spell it ...

1449. The Lord's Prayer: "Lead Us Not Into Temptation"

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I recently read of the Rev. Martin Perelra of the Roman Catholic Our Lady of the Airways parish in Moulton, Ontario. It seems he was downtown bringing Communion to a sick member but was unable to find a place to park. So he DOUBLE-parked and left a note on the windshield. It said, "This is a priest. I circled the area for 20 minutes but couldn't find a spot. Will be back in five minutes. `Forgive us our trespasses.'" When he returned he found a parking ticket with its own note attached. It read, "I have ...

1450. Good News for Tenant Farmers

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

David E. Leininger

A true story - an incident from the 1930's when the Tennessee Valley Authority was building its many dams on the Tennessee River.(1) To do that, they had to relocate a number of people who were living in the area that would be flooded when the dams were finished. One family in particular lived in an old, ramshackle cabin. The TVA built them a beautiful split-level ranch home on the hill overlooking the location of their former home. But when the Authority came to help the family move, they refused to go. ...

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