Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 126 to 150 of 606 results

126. If the Son Makes You Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... with me," he implored once again. "Caterpillars can’t fly," maintained his companion. "Have it your way," said the first as he stepped off the limb and stepped into the air. His flight was instinctive, though not effortless. Its gracefulness not learned, not acquired, not the result of hours of practice, but innate, automatic, the simple exercise of a magnificent and magnanimous gift. If he wanted to be graceless, now that would take some effort. He soared and darted, floated, paused for a moment to light ...

127. Giving Up Our Monkeys

Hebrews 12:1-13

Illustration

Several years ago the news media reported on a man who was, for a prolonged period of time, marooned alone on a small Pacific island. A passing ship was prepared to rescue him, but he refused to go. It seems that while there he had acquired a pet monkey which he was unwilling to leave behind, and the ship's regulations would not permit it on board. Here in church today we meet Christ, our rescuer, our deliverer. He says, "Come, go with me." He comes to set us free - and he will, if we are ...

128. Living Life The Easy Way

Acts 3:1-10

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... once have I heard a single person on their deathbed look back over their life and say, "I wish I had spent more time on my business!" Not one! To view the college experience or any segment of life only as a time to secure something that will help you acquire silver and gold is a genuine loss. College is not only a time to secure the resources and means by which to earn a living. It is also a time to learn how to live. Life was meant to be lived in love and service. Life was meant to be ...

129. Coping With Anger In A Close-up World

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... and hate the very people with whom we are the closest. The two feelings exist side-by-side.1 All of us compete with one another for honors and recognition, and if we do not get them we become angry. We compete for power, and if we do not acquire it, more anger is generated. Fathers and sons compete with one another, and daughters and mothers compete with each other. We live in a competitive democracy. Consider Jesus. Like most of us, he found it easier to be a star in other places than in his own hometown ...

130. Pentecost 23

Exodus 22:16-31, Leviticus 19:1-37, Ruth 2:1-23, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 22:41-46, Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon Aid

... , Paul reminds them that he and his companions tried to be an example of Christian living for them, commending them on their positive response at being "imitators of us and of the Lord." In their Christian faith and life style, they acquired the reputation of exemplary Christian living and influenced other people of Greece by renouncing the worship of idols and accepting the good news in Jesus Christ. They heard the gospel, learned of Jesus' death and resurrection, and lived in expectation of his ...

131. Strong Words

1 Kings 2:1-12

Sermon

... , sunset," sings Tevia in "Fiddler on the Roof." The years swiftly pass and we cannot halt their blitzkrieg through time. We can pause and refresh one another with the gift of open, giving love. A cannibal chief roasted a missionary for lunch, and by so doing acquired a taste for religion. In our day when the family is attacked, the role of the church and family togetherness are vital. Some say that if absence makes the heart grow fonder, a lot of people must love the church. A father does not send his ...

132. Epiphany 4

Matthew 5:1-12

Bulletin Aid

... BECOME GLORIOUS REWARDS! Collect Sovereign God, you have set before us the promise, not of worldly wealth, but of royal riches in your coming Reign. Help us to alter our ambitions and to adjust our aims: that, no longer seduced by the thrill of acquiring and procuring, possessing and accumulating the things of this world, we may set our sights on the true treasures of your spiritual realms. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession Long-suffering God, we humbly confess that we have sold our souls ...

133. Proper 23

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon Aid

... to these: "We have heard that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Helmut Thielicke, in his book of sermons, The Waiting Father, says that "... The road to hell is paved ... with things that are quite harmless, with pure proprieties ... [which] acquire a false importance in our life, because they suddenly get in our light.' (p. 186)" Now, during a period of extended silence, ask the people to think about, pray about, those "harmless" things which get in the way of obedience to Christ. Introduce ...

134. For He Shall Save His People

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Staff

... of their own lives. But there is a fine line here. The question is do we see in these books empowerment or do we see in them self-help salvation. For example, if we read a book on how to win friends and influence people, are we doing that to acquire communicative skills, or are we doing that in an effort to save our life from non-acceptance. If the latter is our true motivation then that is a theological problem. It is not easy to discern the two. I readily admit it is a gray area. What I am suggesting ...

135. Do You Have the Great Pearl?

Matthew 13:47-52, Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... man makes the accumulation of wealth his aim. He toils into the late hours in order to get more of this passing treasure. He neglects his wife, his children, his health, his Bible, his God, and his prayer life just to have more time to acquire material things. But the appetite for earthly wealth keeps growing with the eating. He can’t seem to fill his bottomless bag. In the end he finds that he has forfeited the pearl of great price for an accumulation of trinkets. Another man, of hedonistic persuasion ...

136. Your Money and Your Life

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... treasures on earth and laying up treasures in heaven. We cannot have it both ways. "You cannot serve God and mammon," Jesus says. The conventional wisdom in our consumer society is that life’s end and happiness can be achieved by acquiring possessions. "Women," say our advertisements, "buy this perfume and you will find happiness with the man of your dreams." "Men, buy this car and women will compete ferociously for your attention." We sophisticated moderns tend to scorn the idol worshipers of antiquity ...

137. THE AGE OF ANXIETY

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... , "Do not be anxious about tomorrow. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, then all else will be added unto you." Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "If a man owns land, the land owns him." In some ways he is right. As we begin to own things in life and acquire better things, there are times that it seems that these things own us rather than the other way around. Our increased bills dictate to us that we must work overtime, work on Sunday, or that both husband and wife need to go to work. Maybe if we decided to own ...

138. The Miracle of Christ

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... but it cannot solve the deep, inner, eternal questions of life. The spirit has to become the central factor or we die. By the computer alone, we are more "hung up, than we are hung out." People are not born hung up. This they acquire. Perhaps newborn children are "little computers waiting to be programmed," but the question is what kind of programming is it to be mathematical, scientific, financial, sheer intellectual; or is it that God will have some opportunity to touch the programming with the mystery of ...

139. Issachar

Genesis 49:1-28

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... brother and sister lose everything. At the close, the heroine realizes she and her brother have refused to grow up. They have spent a lifetime "being nice to people," but have never learned to do anything. Those who worked on the estate acquired skills and now stand on their own feet, but brother and sister remain broken-down patricians, useless and penniless. SLAVERY Jacob tried in vain to warn Issachar and his children that the spiritually lazy become spiritual slaves, "... he ... became a slave at ...

140. Can a Christian Go to Hell?

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... him in." Can you not imagine the disgust on the part of the other men toward the merchant’s church and religion? They probably said in their hearts: They’re praising God on Sunday. They’ll be all right on Monday. It’s just a little habit they acquired. Some time ago I had a black student who submitted a sermon titled, "Damn it, Where Are the Christians?" In anger he told of his poverty and about the conditions in which he grew up. He said, "Damn it, where were the Christians when our floors were ...

141. The Cross Way of Life

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... statesman and writer, said in an address at Edinburg in 1887, "The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without, and to depart." Of the four central functions of life, "to do without" is the one most difficult, the one most of us never learn to acquire. Many of us are like the boy who said during the World War II, "I wouldn’t mind going to war and being a hero if I knew I wouldn’t get hurt." The same reaction was expressed under church circumstances. A boy witnessed the high regard everyone had ...

142. Virtue Won’t Hurt You

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... have been some sinners in the world who weren’t fools when it came to controlling their lives. There are people in our midst who are a part of this spirit. And we need to praise these people. Perhaps the best and surest way to acquire virtue is to associate with people who have it. The presence of one brave, virtuous person has always and everywhere been a strength and inspiration to his companions and has prevented them from resorting to panic. The possibility of value transformation is very real in ...

143. In Which Direction Do You Travel?

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... individuals, critics, exhibitionists, and sharp talkers. Yet people searching for a new life-style had much rather see a few people that you can depend on for support. You see, we cannot teach truth, we can only awaken it in people. Do you remember how we acquired trust in the Christian life-style? It was not through explanations of our parents or other people. No verbal attempts to preach goodness really got through to us. In like manner, we make a mistake in the church when we try to preach the gospel of ...

144. For Those in Church: Joy and Service

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... a joy. Another warning in this Gospel is: Beware of showing off in our practice of the faith. The religion of the Pharisees was one of ostentation. If religion is keeping rules, if you keep rules, if you keep all of them, then you can acquire an air of perfection. Jesus selected certain practices where the Pharisees were showing off. He says, "... for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in ...

145. Numbered Hairs

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... 9 But none of us can be satisfied with this kind of feeling. We long to know that we matter, that we count, that we have value. Jesus says that we do count, because we are valued by God. We are not valuable just because of some knowledge we have acquired, or because of some virtue we have developed, or because of some good we have done. Rather, we are valuable because God knows and loves us. The price has been set on us by God himself. It follows from this that we should hold other persons in the same high ...

146. The Christian’s Style - 1960

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... indulgences, our cultivated prejudices, our materialistic motives, our system of values, our firmly fixed faith in false philosophies. Consider the unabashed and unabated acquisitive instinct. How persistently we measure life in material terms, the things we can acquire, the money we can make, the control over others we can exercise. Suppose that into such an atmosphere of unashamed, well-rationalized selfishness the authentic Spirit of Jesus should be effectively projected. What do you think would happen ...

147. Significance in Life

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

... happiness on one of them. Our problem is to take life seriously, to be able to believe the primary fact that our lives have meaning and purpose, that there is a reason for living. Father John Powell has said: "God does not create in order to acquire something, but in order to give something, to share Himself, in other words, to love. And God, whose very nature is love is, obviously, the model of our love." The crusty old sports announcer, Red Barber, once said: "When I boil down thirty years of experience ...

148. Chapter VII

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... lets everyone else free to have intercourse with anyone other than a married woman, we need to know that sexual relations between two people who were not married was seen to provide the bond by which they became married. There were three ways for a man to acquire a wife in the days when this Commandment was given. He could get her through betrothal, which led to the marriage ceremony. Or, he could get a wife by paying the "bride price" or dowry. Or, he could get her through sexual intercourse. If a man had ...

149. Willing Servants

Luke 22:26

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... who wanted to call himself a Christian would have to first serve other people? Jesus did and so must we. We want to always help someone else, to use ourselves so that other people know that we love them and really care for them. (If you have been able to acquire some plantings, here is the place to pass them out and tell them how much you want them to be like their tree. That the greatest trees are those who serve the most)

150. INTERPRETER

Genesis 42:23

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... thing going for them. Just as today, we respect the man of learning and accomplishments, and give him a high position. The same was true for the ancients. Interpreters in general were highly regarded and given many honors. Interpreters today acquire their knowledge of languages through schooling or, in some rather exotic instances, through living in foreign lands. But the ancients learned their languages through travel - sometimes as merchants, who later rose to a position of importance; or sometimes as ...

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