Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1501 to 1525 of 4490 results

1501. Workaholics Anonymous

Genesis 2:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

Are you a workaholic? See how many of these questions you answered yes to: Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else? Are there times when you can charge through work and other times when you can't get anything done? Do you take with you to bed, on weekends, on vacation? Is work the activity you enjoy most and talk about most? Do you work more than 40 hours a week? Do you turn your hobbies into money making ventures? Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of ...

1502. The Adventure Begins

Ephesians 1:15-23, Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A third-grade Sunday school teacher was giving a lesson on the commandment, "Honor thy father and mother." "Now, does anyone know a commandment for brothers and sisters?" she asked. One sharp girl raised her hand and said, "Thou salt not kill." (1) A first and second grade class Sunday teacher says that when she asked what the two main divisions of the Bible are, one little boy responded "The Old Intestine and the New Intestine." (2) Every page of this Book is filled with part of the Adventure. From the ...

1503. There Is Always a Load Limit

Luke 10:38-42

Illustration

Arthur E. Dean Windhorn

Dr. John Anderson tells about a cartoon that appeared in the NEW YORKER magazine. Approaching a small bridge plainly marked, "Load Limit " 8 tons" was a truck, also marked on its side, "8 tons." When the 8 ton truck was about in the middle of the bridge with the 8 ton limit, a bluebird lighted on the top girder. At that point the bridge gave way and crashed with the truck into the river below, to the obvious surprise of the bluebird. The bridge was built as indicated for 8 tons; the truck weighed exactly ...

1504. Aprons or Bibs

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Sermon

Tony Everett

Potluck dinners are wonderful! We enjoy marvelous fellowship, contagious laughter, and the comfort of being in a place where everybody knows your name. And, oh yes, the food! Tempting aromas fill us with anticipation of the glorious feast to come. Gazing and grazing at the buffet table is one of the true joys of parish life. The major challenge at a parish potluck is that the vast array of tasty choices always exceeds our ability to sample each selection! There is always more than enough to pile our plates ...

1505. A Blessing in Disguise

Genesis 32:22-31

Sermon

David J. Kalas

I wonder how many of us here are named after someone. Chances are that a good many of us carry family names. We are named for a parent, a grandparent, an uncle, or an aunt somewhere on the family tree. Others of us had parents who named us after a character in the Bible, or perhaps some other significant character from history. All told, I expect a pretty fair number of us are named after someone else. When Isaac and Rebecca had their twin boys, they took an unusual approach to naming their babies. They ...

1506. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Can there be a less true statement? In our Google world of instant communication, constant internet connections, incessant tweets, blogs, and IM’s, words create the only reality most people know. Words cannot only “hurt.” They can transform, destroy, recreate, panic, popularize, polarize, or annihilate any person, idea, cause, politics, reputation, or national debater. Thankfully for those first century faith communities known now as the ...

1507. The Five-a-Day Rule

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

By now all last week’s hard-boiled eggs have been transformed into egg salad and consumed. Right? Of course, it goes without saying that the contents of all those Easter baskets have disappeared, except, of course, the nasty black jelly beans. On this Sunday the spiritual and sugar high of Easter Sunday is wearing off. Hence the colloquial designation of this week as “Low Sunday.” After the “high” of Easter, we come back to the everydayness of life. It is when we are most “low” in energy, in desire, in ...

1508. The Story That Shapes Us

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

Note: This sermon is intended to be presented before the reading of the Passion narrative as a way to prepare the listeners by reflecting on its significance. Imagine a Friday night and you're caught in heavy traffic. It's bumper to bumper and you're late. You're in the right hand lane on the freeway and all the cars come to a stop. You look into your rearview mirror and notice that, a long way back, a car has gotten out of line and it's traveling on the shoulder, passing all the other cars that are stuck ...

1509. Loving God

1 John 5:1-6

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

Are you in love with God? In 1 John, the author has a lot to say about the love of God and the way that love changes our lives. We love because God first loved us. God's love fills us to overflowing so that it flows through us to other people. Annie Dillard said that we catch grace like a man filling a cup underneath a waterfall.1 That's the way we receive God's love. But there can be a problem for us when we put a lid on our cups and the water can't get inside. We're closing our hearts off to the love of ...

1510. Walls, Walls, Everywhere Walls

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

King Duncan

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down!” wrote poet Robert Frost. I wish that everyone shared that sentiment. Unfortunately most people do not. Most people love walls. They see walls as their security, even their salvation. It is interesting that the largest construction project ever undertaken by humanity was the building of a wall. I’m talking, of course, about the Great Wall of China. It is said that enough stone was used in that 1,700‑year project to build an 8‑foot wall ...

1511. Remember!

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Oft in the stilly night, Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Fond memory brings the light Of other days around me.[1] Memories ... we like them ... and we need them. As those words of Thomas Moore remind us, we are comforted and instructed by them. That is why a day such as this is a good day. Our text from Deuteronomy is Moses' instruction to the people of Israel on the establishment of a Thanksgiving tradition once they enter into the promised land. Get in there, work the land, plant, water, harvest, then ...

1512. Divided We Fall

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

The power of a vision can transform people. We just celebrated Martin Luther King Day. Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech spoken on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, captivated the entire nation. He longed for the day when the color of a person’s skin no longer mattered. We continue to be diligent in combating the sin of racism in fulfilling that vision. Powerful God-inspired visions can and do change people. A passionate sense of mission and vision should motivate everyone within the ...

1513. The Christian's Royal Jelly

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

“Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word.” The dream of a new start, a fresh beginning, a blank slate is a big part of something known around the world as the “American dream.” The opportunity to take a new path, to get off old roads and out of deep ruts has brought hundreds of thousands of immigrants to this country. By the mid-nineteenth century, starting over in America meant moving west. The opening of the rich farming and grazing lands in the prairie, the vast expanse of wilderness beyond the Rocky ...

1514. What Does Jesus Look Like?

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Tony Everett

Jenny had spent the past half hour working quietly all by herself at the art table in her Sunday school classroom. This was unusual behavior for any three-year-old child, but for this gregarious extrovert it was extraordinary. When class time was over, Jenny’s parents came in to take her to the sanctuary for worship. “Come on Jenny, it’s time for church,” said Mom. Jenny just shook her head and continued with her crayon drawing. “Jenny, we have to get moving,” added her father. “Just a minute, I’m almost ...

1515. One Thing

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

James Merritt

I believe that every year that God gives us on this earth is to be a year where we are as productive as we can be for His work and as pleasing as we can be for His glory. The longer you live the more you realize just how fleeting these years are and just how important it is to maximize the potential of each year for being what we ought to be and doing what we ought to do. Every year at least half of us in this will do something that in the beginning will be very exhilarating, but in the end very ...

1516. Nehemiah's Final Reforms

Nehemiah 13:1-31

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

Guidelines Established and Monitored: Was there anything else left to do after the grand finale of the wall dedication ceremony? Indeed there was, according to the editor. At the close of Ezra 1–6 the narrator recognized in the dedication of the rebuilt temple an opportunity to put into place normative guidelines that echoed the Torah concerning the regular staffing of the temple. Similarly here, the editor supplements the wall dedication story with the enactment of two guidelines that brought the ...

1517. Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 18:1-24

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

18:1 The MT is ambiguous and the meaning uncertain. The NIV understands it as a description of the conduct of an unfriendly (lit. “separated”) and foolish person. 18:2 Antithetic. Without understanding, the fool lacks the sense to be silent or to learn, and instead reveals an (empty) mind. 18:3 Synonymous. The saying describes the sad effects of wicked and shameful conduct. 18:4 Antithetic? Juxtapositional. The NIV implies an antithesis between a and b. The disjunctive but, which is not in the MT, is ...

1518. Rend Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

“But Even Now” (2:12-14): 2:12–14 This is one passage in Joel where it is absolutely necessary that we understand what the original Hebrew says, because the NIV translation has missed the force of the opening words. Verse 12 begins with “But even now,” the “but” being translated from what is known as a waw adversative, and it is that “but” that is all important. If God had not said “but” in human history, the human race would be lost. That lostness is pictured for us in the primeval hamartiology (doctrine ...

1519. Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed

Genesis 19:30-38, Genesis 19:1-29

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

The Rescue of Lot from the Destruction of Sodom: God finds it necessary to execute judgment again, and as was the case in the deluge, God rescues those who are righteous. The great difference in these two accounts of judgment is that this time God punishes only a small region where wickedness had increased intolerably, rather than the entire inhabited land. The narrator tells about Lot’s fleeing Sodom (vv. 1–29) and the children of Lot’s daughters (vv. 30–38). In the first section there are five scenes, in ...

1520. Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

Deuteronomy 21:1-9

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

Rectifying Public and Private Wrongs: Each of the five sections of this chapter deals with a situation of human distress or misconduct and seeks either to rectify the wrong or to mitigate its worst effects. We have seen already that this is a characteristic feature of Deuteronomy—part of its “pastoral strategy.” Another feature is that the first and fifth of the laws both require actions that involve removing pollution from the sight of God and from the land. 21:1–9 Atonement for an unsolved murder. ...

1521. Woe to David’s City

Isaiah 29:1-24

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

29:1–4 Here alone is Ariel a name for Jerusalem. It means “God’s lion,” but a similar word means “hero” in 33:7, while “Ariel” sounds the same as a word for the hearth around the temple altar where animals were burnt in sacrifice (see Ezek. 43:15–16). So we hear Isaiah lamenting “God’s lion” or a hero or the altar hearth, and we are not helped a great deal by the next line that makes clear that the term refers to Jerusalem, which David had once besieged. Parabolic communication is again at work. Isaiah has ...

1522. Jesus, Isaiah’s Servant of the Lord, Heals Many

Matthew 8:14-17, Matthew 8:5-13, Matthew 8:1-4

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: Matthew encourages his readers to trust in Jesus, as he brings the power of God’s kingdom to bear upon human sickness and suffering, both to Israel and as a foreshadowing of Gentile inclusion. Understanding the Text As Matthew’s earlier summary of Jesus’ teaching (4:23–25) indicates, Jesus’ messianic ministry is characterized by preaching (4:17), teaching (5:1–7:29), and healing (8:1–9:38). This section of Matthew introduces Jesus’ healing and miraculous ministry in Galilee, accentuating themes ...

1523. Jesus, Not Jewish Leaders, Interprets the Torah Rightly

Matthew 15:1-20

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: Jesus and his followers are shown to be true adherents of the Torah, contrasting with the Jewish leaders who disobey the law and so are defiled even as they follow their traditions. Understanding the Text In this passage Matthew narrates another conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees and teachers of the law (15:1). This controversy, like the earlier one (12:1–14), focuses on Torah observance, particularly teaching traditions on the Torah. Matthew affirms Jesus as the one who rightly interprets ...

1524. The Ark Finds a Resting Place

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: The Lord’s willingness to dwell among his people is cause to celebrate, but he expects his people to respect his holiness. Understanding the Text When Samuel was young and Eli was old, the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant (1 Sam. 4). The ark wreaked havoc in Philistine territory: the image of Dagon in the Ashdod temple ended up decapitated, and the Philistines’ cities were devastated by a plague (1 Sam. 5). The Philistines sent the ark back to Israelite territory, but when it arrived ...

1525. David Listens to the Voice of Wisdom

1 Samuel 25:1-44

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: The Lord’s chosen servants should embrace the wisdom that he provides. Understanding the Text Chapter 24 ends with David’s being vindicated as Saul acknowledged David’s innocence, pronounced a blessing upon him, and assured him that he would someday be the king of Israel. However, he did not invite David to return to the royal court; Saul and David went their separate ways (v. 22). As we move to chapter 25, Saul remains backstage for a brief time as the narrator focuses on David’s dealings with ...

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