Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 126 to 150 of 201 results

126. Even Marriages Made In Heaven Require Earthly Care

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Almost everything began in the Garden of Eden. As Adam and Eve were leaving that paradise, driven from it because of their disobedience, Adam’s assessment of the situation was, honey, we live in a time of change. Prior to that, non-scriptural tradition has it that as Eve was coaxing Adam to eat of the apple, she asked, “Adam, do you love me?” His response was, “Who else?” The rest of you’ll get that in a minute. That was the beginning – the beginning of male-female relationships, the beginning of marriage ...

127. Christ Signs The Letter Of The Church

Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Donald English is one of the most outstanding Christian communicators I know today. He was in our church a couple of years ago, and many of you have heard him. He is providing dynamic leadership for the renewal of the church in Britain, and plays a dynamic role in the World Methodist Council. Donald tells a quaint English story that will speak to us this morning. "In Birmingham, England, there is a store called Lewis's. It's a great chain store in one of the main streets, and wanted to extend. Right in the ...

128. Count It All Joy

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Today we begin a new series of sermons on the Epistle of James. If I were to give a subtitle to this epistle, I would call it "A Manual of Practical Christianity." All of us should be able to identify with the thought. We are always asking that everything be made practical. Speakers are admonished to use the "kiss principle": "Keep it simple, stupid." There is a sense in which the Epistle of James is a "how to" book, and any bookstore has a large section of such books, from How To Build a Patio to How to ...

129. Servant Song

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

This is the stated text also in Cycles A and B. The preacher may want to consult those expositions, along with this one. This is a poem in the writings of Second Isaiah that scholars have long called a "Servant Song," one of the four that occur in this prophetic book. (The others are found in Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6, and 52:13--53:12.) Although the question has been hotly debated for many years, many scholars have said, and I would agree, that the speaker in the Servant Songs is Israel, but it is Israel as ...

130. The Work of An Evangelist

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Do we need to remind ourselves of what the work of an evangelist is? An evangelist is one who shares in word, deed and sign the good news of Jesus Christ – the good news that redeems us from sin, makes us whole, and transforms us into participants in God’s Kingdom enterprise. I like the way Paul expresses the work of God in our lives – Col. 1:13-14: “God has rescued us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the ...

131. Get off the Throne and Learn Wisdom

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

A check-out clerk once wrote columnist Ann Landers a letter of complaint: she had seen shoppers with food stamps buy luxury items like birthday cakes and bags of shrimp. The angry woman went on to say that people on welfare who treat themselves to non-necessities were “lazy and wasteful." A few weeks later Lander's column was devoted entirely to people who responded to the grocery clerk with letters of their own. One woman wrote: “I didn't buy a cake, but I did buy a big bag of shrimp with food stamps. So ...

132. Comfortable Christianity Is a Big, Fat Lie

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

“Thus you will know them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:20 In his novel A Painted House, John Grisham describes a pious Sunday school teacher eulogizing a character named Jerry Sisco. He was a mean guy who’d been killed just the night before in a back alley fight after picking on one person too many. In the words of the little boy who’d seen the fight with his friend Dewayne: "She made Jerry sound like a Christian, an innocent victim. I glanced at Dewayne, who had an eye on me. There was something odd about ...

133. Resurrection

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

King Duncan

A priest found a branch of a thorn tree twisted around so that it resembled a crown of thorns. Thinking it a symbol of the crucifixion, he placed it on the altar in his chapel on Good Friday. Early on Easter morning he remembered what he had done. Feeling it was not appropriate for Easter Sunday, he hurried into the church to clear it away before the congregation came. But when he went into the church, he found the thorn branches blossoming with beautiful roses. Welcome to this celebration of Easter Day. ...

134. Preaching to a Stone

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

I'm going to confess a trade secret. We preachers often wonder just how much good our preaching does. We all appreciate the compliments at the end of the service, especially when someone says that he or she really needed a particular sermon we have preached. At those moments, we begin to believe that our work and struggle have paid off. We wonder, though, about the compliments we receive at the end of the service. A friend of mine noted wryly that he has had parishioners compliment his sermons even on ...

135. When to Hold On

II Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Our text for this morning is from II Timothy. I have to say up front that II Timothy is not considered by biblical scholars to be one of the great masterpieces of biblical literature. Some have even raised the question of why it is there at all. The main problem that they have with it is its conservatism. It defines faith as holding on to the past. By the time II Timothy was written, faith had become a tradition. Faith is now a set of doctrines. In other words, faith had become a noun. It's "The Faith." In ...

136. Epiphany 2

Isaiah 49:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, John 1:29-34

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 49:1-7 Yahweh calls his servant, Israel, to bring the light of salvation to the nations. Here we have the second of the servant songs in Isaiah. The servant tells how Yahweh called and chose him before he was born. For the task of restoring Israel, he was equipped with a mouth "like a sharp sword" and was made like "a polished arrow." Yet, he feels that his labor was in vain. Then Yahweh speaks to him and becomes his strength. However, Yahweh has broadened his task to bring ...

137. Palm/Passion Sunday

Mt 26:14-27:66 · Php 2:5-11 · Isa 50:4-9a · Ps 31

Sermon Aid

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

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The Old Testament texts are very appropriate for Passion Sunday. Isaiah 50:4-9a explores the call of the suffering servant, while Psalm 31:9-16 is a lament from the perspective of one who is suffering. As we will see, both of these texts share a similar three-part structure and probe the meaning of suffering from different perspectives. Isaiah 50:4-9a: "A Call to Discipleship" Setting. Isaiah 50:4-9a is the third of the suffering servant songs Isaiah 42:1-4[5-9]; 49:1-6; 50:4-9a; 52:13- ...

138. The Scarlet Letter

Exodus 20:14

Sermon

James Merritt

Probably the mother of all misprints in any book, came in the misprint of a Bible. In 1631 someone discovered a word that was missing in a newly published version of the Bible, called The King James Version. The missing word was "not" in the seventh commandment which then made the Authorized Version to read, "Thou shalt commit adultery." From then on, this 1631 addition of the Bible became known as the "Wicked Bible."[1] Well, this seems to be the Bible the world is wanting to read today. Without question ...

139. Confronting a Christless Culture

2 Timothy 3:1-17

Sermon

James Merritt

I heard of a pastor who resigned his church to go to another pastorate. After announcing his resignation, he was approached by one of the sweet older members of his congregation. She was weeping over the pastor's decision to leave. She said, "Things will never be the same after you're gone." Well, the preacher tried to console her by saying, "Don't worry, I'm confident God will send you a new pastor who is far better than me." When he said that, she let out a large wail and said, "That's what the last ...

140. Doing Right When You Have Been Done Wrong

Ephesians 4:31-32

Sermon

James Merritt

I have been ordered by Dr. Freddie Gage to speak on the topic of bitterness and forgiveness. Now like most preachers, I don't like to be told what to preach, but in Freddie's case I gladly acquiesce because I knew if I didn't, Freddie would get bitter and never forgive me. Now some people might think it strange to speak on a topic of bitterness to a bunch of Baptists. But bitterness is certainly no stranger to Baptist churches. I heard about a Baptist businessman that was taking a business trip on an ...

141. 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 ...

142. Not Bad, Just Too Busy

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

When I was a little boy, Papa and Mama had a way of teaching me things when I didn’t even know that school was in session. One of those lessons concerned Christmas and the Hewitt boys. The Hewitt boys were like stair-steps, about a year apart in age, about 6, 7, and 8 years old. They were being reared by their overworked mother who had at least two jobs. The boys were often unsupervised and definitely undisciplined. Papa insisted that we transport the boys to church on Sunday mornings. Then on the Sunday ...

143. Is There Hope For World Peace?

Matthew 24:1-35

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

I received an interesting Christmas card from a dear friend, a retired Air Force General. On the front was a white dove with an olive branch in its beak, hovering above the world. Inside the card were these words: “Peace on earth.” Beside those words my friend had added a big question mark. Then he wrote, “Is peace possible in a world like this?” This General was asking the $64,000 question. Go to any barbershop or beauty parlor and you will hear various prescriptions for how to straighten out our troubled ...

144. Searching: MySpace

Hebrews 11:8-13

Sermon

John E. Harnish

I know I don't need to explain "MySpace" to graduates and Confirmands, but bear with me for the sake of the adults. "MySpace" is a website filled with over 70 million interactive, personal webpages and blogs. It's something like the old-fashioned personal pages in the newspaper (when news came on paper), but it's more like 70 million personal diaries, all hung out there for the world to read. Not all of it is innocent, however, as the story in yesterday's Free Press reminds us. They ran the story of a 16- ...

145. On the Mountainside

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

John E. Harnish

Words...words...words. Recently I read that last year, 100 new words were added to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary-words like bikini wax, brain freeze, chick flick, hazmat and Wi-Fi. Whether the world will be a better place because of it is yet to be seen, but we are overwhelmed with words. Words...words...words. The constant stream of rapid-fire raging rhetoric on talk radio; the unending stream of words on e-mail, i-Pod and spam; printed words, shouted words, confusing and contradictory words. To those ...

146. Training for a Purpose

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

Some years ago, many of us, like others before and after, went through basic training or boot camp. It was a time to get thoroughly acquainted, usually with either the army or navy. It was also a time of endurance. The hardened and veteran men of years' experience sought to teach us the elementary principles of living in the military. The "old salts" in the navy used to delight in bringing us down several notches. This was their method of clearing away obstructions to the teaching they were providing. Was ...

147. Precious and Privileged Children

Galatians 4:4-7

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

The remarkable world of children has always fascinated me. Their naturalness and innocence — in particular — thrills me and serves as a reminder of the intended relationship between us and our Father. Even more, when they are pouty and sometimes destructive, there is a genuineness about them that is so winsome. Regardless of our attainments, we never seem to rise above the fact we are simply the Father's boys and girls. The great and the less than great are called to admit to this eternal verity, in time. ...

148. Christ’s Twin

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to begin by stating categorically that Christ did not have a twin brother, in case you were misled by today’s sermon title. There are so many people around who are conspiracy theory buffs that you can’t be too careful. I can see the author of The Da Vinci Code weaving a complete novel out of the idea that Jesus secretly had a twin. So let me state categorically that Jesus did not have a twin. However, today’s lesson from Philippians provokes an interesting question. If Christ had a twin what would ...

149. Discipleship: The Beauty and the Cross

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Once upon a time a bowl was born. It was not much of a birth — no long months of planning and no great anticipation, no patient shaping under loving hands. Scarcely a thought went into the creation of this little bowl. The quick impersonal movement of a few machines and a trip through a hot oven was all it took for him to be created. There was really nothing to look at, no warmth and no beauty. He was shipped off to a store to be sold. One day this bowl was purchased, not because he was beautiful, but ...

150. The Golden Calf and the Golden Table

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Humanity continues to flex its creative muscles and invent new idols, new images of tiny gods at an impressive rate. From the moment that the ancient Hebrews began to worship only one God, people of faith have been confronted with the enticement of worshipping at the feet of many gods. What does the way of faith centered on belief in the omniscient power of one God have to offer to counter these gold-plated seductions of the spirit? Today this former yearning after wisdom has been replaced by an ...

Showing results