Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1501 to 1525 of 1967 results

1501. The Same New Jesus

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

In most Christian churches Ascension Day is "A Silent Day." The church doors are closed and locked. The nave is empty. The pulpit and the choir loft are unoccupied. The candles on the altar are topped with charred wicks, indicating that worship has happened here in the past, but is in no way happening now. It is curious that we so easily confess the Ascension in our creeds, but we have great difficulty in celebrating it in our churches. Perhaps, this is due to the fact that Ascension is tucked away on a ...

1502. Complaint from the Kitchen

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

A mother once told me that she wanted her daughter to be a complete Christian, so she named her Martha Mary. I have often wordered why she put the Martha first. As we read the Gospel for today I sense an underlying sympathy for Martha in some of the housewives of the congregation. It just doesn’t seem right, somehow, for one sister to be in the kitchen doing all the work of getting the meal while the other just sits and talks with the guest. This sympathy is not limited to the housewives here today. I have ...

1503. He Lights Up My Life!

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

When this narrative begins, it is about as lacking in optimism and hope as the story my brother, B. J., tells about a farmer in southern Missouri who hired a man to split some post oak for his farm. Post oak is notoriously hard to work with, but it makes excellent fence posts and rail fences. It is so tough, that it's like trying to split rock. The farmer hired a man who was not too fast at thinking, and told him he'd pay him three dollars a dozen for the posts. After two or three days the farmer came to ...

1504. Eating at the King’s Table

2 Samuel 9:1-13

Sermon

Various Authors

King David said, "Mephibosheth, your master’s son, shall always eat at my table." (v. 10b) Are you a people watcher? I am. The most interesting thing about going to the State Fair is the chance to watch people. In fact, I find them more interesting than the livestock. Except for size and color, every cow looks and acts like every other cow, and every pig looks and sounds like every other pig. But that’s not true with people! I sat one day for about ten minutes waiting for a dental appointment. There were ...

1505. Palm · Passion Sunday

Isaiah 50:1-11, Psalm 31:1-24, Matthew 27:11-26, Matthew 27:32-44, Matthew 27:45-56, Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE By shortening Passiontide from two weeks to one and shifting Passion Sunday from the Fifth to the Sixth Sunday in Lent, several significant liturgical changes have been made. First, the Sixth Sunday in Lent can no longer be Palm Sunday, as it could when the period of passion stretched over two weeks and Palm Sunday was in the middle of it; Palm Sunday has to be a part, really the beginning, of the liturgy of Passion Sunday. Second, there is an attempt to return to the earlier practice of ...

1506. Is Your Sin My Business?

Ezekiel 33:1-20

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them a warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life." Is ...

1507. A SUNDAY OF THE PASSION [PALM SUNDAY] SERMON-DRAMA

Drama

Tom Eberle

The Sunday of the Passion [Palm Sunday] Modern reformers of the church calendar suggest that the observance of the passion of Christ be limited to Holy Week instead of extending it through the Lenten season. Because of this emphasis, the Sunday before Easter is designated the "Sunday of the Passion" rather than "Palm Sunday." The story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem might appropriately be used as part of the processional on Passion Sunday, but the focus of the day should be on the inauguration of the week ...

1508. No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The Reverend Sam Jones was a great Methodist preacher over in Georgia. His style was unusual. Often he would engage the congregation in dialogue. One Sunday morning he said to his people, "Let's pretend that the church is a locomotive. What part of that locomotive would you like to be?" One man held up his hand and said, "I'd like to be a wheel that just helps rolls that train down the track." Someone else said, "Brother Sam, I'd like to be the whistle on that locomotive that sounds God's praises ...

1509. Confronting Hypocrisy With Humility (I)

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Brett Blair

With Election Day upon us, I thought this text about hypocrisy was appropriate. I am reminded of a story about Theodore Roosevelt. During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on him at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up. "Ah, gentlemen," he said, "come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work." At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, "John, where's all ...

1510. The Glue of God's Love

Mark 1:21-28

Children's Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

Object: A bottle of glue Good morning boys and girls. I am glad you are here. Today in the Scripture lesson we will be reading about Jesus going to a town called Capernaum. Today I want you to look at this bottle of glue. They call this "School Glue." This is the same kind you use in school. As you already know this is really good glue because you can stick anything together with this glue. You can glue paper, plastic, wood, cloth, and just about anything else you can think of and it will stay together. ...

1511. A Grief Observed

2 Samuel 18:19--19:8

Sermon

Roger Prescott

Introduction When King David learned that yet another of his sons had died, even though he had been a rebellious and unloyal one, it broke his heart. He could not be comforted with the thought that he had regained his kingdom. All he could do was to cry in his broken anguish "O my son Absalom, my Son, my Son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" - 2 Samuel 18:33 These words have echoed down the centuries ever since they were uttered and they are one of the most distressing ...

1512. Have You Checked On Your Investments Lately?

John 6:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

Approaching 40, Bill yearned for a boat. Frugality won out until the day he came across the obituary of an old high-school classmate named Ted. Ted had been the same age as Bill and now he was dead. Bill was certain this was a sign that life was too short. So he went out and purchased a boat that very weekend. Days later, a former classmate called Bill. "Sure was a sad thing, wasn't it?" the classmate said. "You know, Ted's boating accident and all." (1) Experts tell us that the baby boom generation is ...

1513. Out Of Our Control

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

No matter what happened to a certain gold miner he always described it as pure luck. It was a particularly bitter winter. He was nearly freezing to death, but he kept digging for gold in the granitelike ground. Finally, as the Earth thawed in the Spring and he was down to his last meager ration of food, he broke through the hard crust and dug and dug until at last he hit a box. Inside the box was a carton of canned food left behind by some earlier miner. "Boy, am I lucky." he said, "it could have been gold ...

1514. The Conversion Of A Scoundrel

Genesis 28:10-22

Sermon

King Duncan

After important negotiations with business leaders in his high-rise office building, John D. Rockefeller used to say goodbye to his visitors at the elevator. While the visitors filed into the elevator, an innocent looking man would slip in and ride with them to the ground floor. He would follow the group out the door and then cross the street. A few minutes later, the innocent looking man would go back to Rockefeller’s office to deliver a detailed report of what the unsuspecting visitors talked about ...

1515. I Am Doing A New Thing

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

King Duncan

A story appeared in the newspapers on January second of this year. It was about a seventy-one-year old man in Evansville, Indiana who had his life saved in a most unusual way. A truck smashed into his house. It was 2:35 a.m. when a driver lost control of his truck on wet pavement, struck the curb and sailed on to the porch of Lee Roy Book's house. Later, a utility crew sought to restore electricity to Book's home and to check for gas leaks. They discovered that Book's chimney and pipes were plugged with ...

1516. Tevye's Question

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

Many of you are familiar with the Broadway musical, Fiddler On The Roof. It is a touching story about a deeply devout middle-aged Jewish man named Tevye and his wife Golde (pronounced Golda). They live in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their lives are hard, but filled with devotion. A complicating factor in their lives is that they have all daughters. Finding proper matches for their daughters is a major theme in the musical. This is in a community in which marriages are arranged by the ...

1517. The Longest Night

Psalm 143:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

"The air was so still that not a single leaf trembled. Dark gray clouds hovered overhead. Animals ducked for doorways as if by some mysterious instinct they knew that this would be a long dreadful night." That was how one man described the longest night of his life--a night when several tornados struck his small community leaving a path of unbelievable destruction. Wartime London must have been something like that. People huddling in fall-out shelters--never knowing when German bombers would strike-- ...

1518. Come On Down

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

One of the most popular television game shows is The Price Is Right hosted by long-time emcee Bob Barker. When you receive tickets to attend this highly-watched, fast-moving game show, you become automatically eligible to have your name drawn to become a participant. As the show opens, names are drawn, and an announcer exclaims, "Mary Jones, come on down!" Mary excitedly jumps from her seat and runs down to the front of the game show set to compete with other contestants for an opportunity to go on the ...

1519. The House Of Our Dreams

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There is an old Rabbinic story about a poor man who left the village of his birth, and set out to find the city of his dreams, where all was bright and perfect. After a day's walk he lay down to rest the night in a forest. Before going to sleep he removed his shoes and placed them carefully in the path, pointing them in the direction of his journey toward the magical city. While he slept, a practical joker came along and turned his shoes around so that they pointed in the direction of the village he had ...

1520. From Black Holes to Red Holes

Luke 18:18-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Does anyone here know how to snowboard? Anyone here snowboard in cyberspace? Thanks to DVD technology, our eleven-year-old son Thane and his buddies go snowboarding in our living room almost every weekend. I love to eavesdrop while their electronic selves slip and slither down impossible snowboarding courses. It's always an education. The other day Thane started shouting, "How can this guy keep saying 'gravity is my friend!'?" For some reason the character Thane had chosen would perform astounding 720's, ...

1521. A Sign or a Son?

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

If you've ever driven across this great country of ours, you've undoubtedly heard of a place called Wall Drug Store. Not Wal-Mart Drug Store. Wall Drug Store. Though located in Wall, South Dakota (pop. 800), this little business starts advertising its distant presence while you're at least a dozen states away. Especially on interstate 90 somewhere around Idaho to the West and Iowa to the East, strange little signs start popping up every couple hundred miles. "Only 2314 miles to Wall Drug." Or "Just 829 ...

1522. Changed Lives: Adam and Eve

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

Temptation. We all have our own ways of dealing with it. Some of us flee from it. Others, less wise, embrace it. Karen Hickey embraced it. Karen, of St. Louis, MO had often wondered how it felt to be handcuffed. She found out the hard way. The 22-year-old secretary discovered a pair of old handcuffs that her boss had brought to the office. She couldn’t resist trying them on. “Next time, I’ll ask first if there are any keys,” Miss Hickey said. She remained handcuffed for two hours until firemen working with ...

1523. John 11:1-45

John 11:1-16

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The gospel text for this fifth Sunday of Lent is the long, richly detailed story of the raising of Jesus’ best friend from the dead. Who wouldn’t consider this dramatic event the greatest miracle performed by Jesus during his earthly ministry? Can you imagine any greater demonstration of Jesus’ power and authority than him standing before Lazarus’ tomb and, in front of many witnesses, commanding the dead man to “Come out”? What could possibly be a greater testimony to Jesus’ identity than the stumbling ...

1524. Don't Forget to Remember

Jude 1:5-7

Sermon

James Merritt

There was a young preacher who was going to preach his very first sermon, and he wanted to have a smashing introduction. So he went to an older pastor he knew, and said, "Do you know of any surefire introduction that is guaranteed to get everybody's attention?" The old preacher said, "As a matter of fact I have an illustration that works every single time." He said, "When you walk to the pulpit, make this statement: ‘Some of the greatest days of my life I spent in the arms of another man's wife.'" He said ...

1525. Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

While Matthew and Luke begin their narratives with biology (Jesus’ birth), and John begins with cosmology (“the Word was with God”), Mark begins his gospel by looking backward and forward at the same time: recalling biblical tradition and revealing some “good news” — the gospel itself. Like Genesis (and later John), Mark’s fitting first word is “beginning” (“arche”), letting his readers understand that this new thing that was revealed through Jesus Christ is part of the same God-designed activity that has ...

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