Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1526 to 1550 of 2561 results

1526. On Level Ground

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A Sunday School teacher was checking with her students one day to see if they knew the people with whom Jesus lived. "How many of you know who Matthew was?", she asked. Not one kid raised a hand. "Well, then," she said, "what about Luke? How many of you know who Luke was?", she asked. And again, the class just sat there and no one said a thing. She tried again. "How about John? Do you know who St. John was?" And still the children just sat there in dead silence. Finally the teacher said, "Well, what about ...

1527. Naming And Being Named

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

...Comes from the 15th chapter of John's Gospel. I'm going to read verses 12-17. Let's share now this Word of the Lord. "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard ...

1528. A Rod For The Back Of Fools

Proverbs 25:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom, a collection of pithy expressions of practical advise. As I am contending in the theme for this sermon series, it is a compendium of guidance for daily living. Because it is a book of wisdom, it shouldn't surprise us that a lot is said about fools and foolishness. The word fool as singular or plural appears at least fifty five times in the book, and foolish or foolishness at least twenty one times. In this 26th chapter from which we have read our text, fool and ...

1529. The Baby Leaped

Luke 1:39-45

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Jerry Schmallengberger, former president of Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley, CA, tells a hilarious story about a Christmas program that went awry. The story concerned a Pastor Paul Dahlrimple who had a great scheme to illustrate baby Jesus coming down from heaven. Pastor Dahlrimple asked Elder Fred to help. In preparation, he carefully rigged a baby doll to an invisible fishing line, stringing it through hooks in the ceiling and across to Elder Fred’s fishing pole in the wings. This baby doll was ...

1530. The Waster

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

We live in a world where the concept of fairness is nearly elevated to a level of worship. If you live or work with children on a regular basis then you will recognize that most squabbles erupt from this very old emotion of feeling somehow slighted or mistreated. He got a tablespoon more Moose Tracks ice cream than I did. No fair! Why does she get to stay up a half-hour later than I do? That's not fair! She got to sit in the front seat last time. It's not fair that I always have to sit in the back. Sally's ...

1531. Costly Extravagance

John 12:1-11

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

"Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" Well, it's not a bad question. Judas may have been a thief and informant, he may have embezzled money from the common purse occasionally, he may have had other motives besides the high moral road he seems to project, and he probably really didn't give a fig for the poor. But isn't he basically right? Couldn't the pound of expensive perfume dumped on Jesus' feet have been used for a better purpose? I must admit that I ...

1532. A Church Shaped By The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Last words are important. Let that truth sink in. Last words are important. East Side Baptist Church is a little country church down in Perry County, Mississippi. It is the church in which I was converted under the preaching of Brother Wiley Grissom, a fifth-grade educated pastor who preached the Gospel with power. The church is about 200 yards up the hill from our old home place. Behind it is a cemetery where I’ll be buried someday. Mom and Dad—whom in my adult life I affectionately called, “Mutt” and “Co ...

1533. The Nature of the Church and Christian Discipleship

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

In my convocation address I shared with you the fact that I am preoccupied these days with the nature of the church – and the nature of Christian discipleship. Maybe my preoccupation with the church is triggered by the struggles going on in my own denomination – the United Methodist Church. The truth of the matter is, these struggles are going on in all mainline churches. Schism is a threat – I struggle with questions like when or does a person ever have enough reason to leave the church of which he is a ...

1534. The Prize of the High Calling of God

Hebrews 11:1-40, Philippians 2:12-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I am intrigued by bumper stickers. Someone was smart. Since modern Americans spend so much of their time in cars, why not turn the bumper into a kind of chrome or, alas with modern cars, plastic bulletin boards. Thousands would get the messages as they come near the car in front of them. It was a brilliant idea. Religious folks have not missed this communication opportunity. So you have the traditional bumper sticker message: “Honk if you love Jesus”. And the more avant-garde, “In case of the rapture, this ...

1535. The Proof Is In the Pudding

Luke 7:18-35

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Some of you will know the name Norman Cousins. For many years he was the eminent editor of The Saturday Review. During his last years he served as a faculty member at the UCLA Medical School. He had developed what was considered an incurable disease—and he discovered that laughter was a way that helped. In fact, he convinced some medical folks to include laughter as a part of their treatment programs. As a part of this, there was a particular room in a hospital in Houston, Texas, called the “Living Room.” ...

1536. On Level Ground

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

1537. The Perfect Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

If you worked in the post office, you would probably run into all kinds of people. One postal worker says she is used to dealing with moody people. She tells about an irate customer who stormed her desk one day. “What’s the trouble?” the postal employee responded in her calmest voice. “I went out this morning,” the customer began angrily, “and when I came home I found a card saying the mailman tried to deliver a package but no one was home. I’ll have you know, my husband was in all morning! He never heard ...

1538. Bear Love

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Bill Mosley

Do you remember everything your mother told you? Here's a list which sounded familiar when I first heard it. It's called Things My MOTHER Taught Me My Mother taught me LOGIC ... "If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me." My Mother taught me MEDICINE ... "If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going to freeze that way." My Mother taught me TO THINK AHEAD ... "If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job!" My Mother taught me ESP ... "Put ...

1539. 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 ...

1540. The Gifted

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Sermon

William G. Carter

If you ask me, a sermon should say only one thing. Some of us grew up listening to sermons with three points, and wondered, "What's the point?" The business of worship, the activity of preaching, is too important to be pointless. Each sermon needs to make a statement, to declare one thing that is vital for our faith, our hope, and our life, in the world. So lest you miss it this morning, there's only one thing I want to say today. This sermon has one point to make, one claim that I want to lay upon our ...

1541. What If It Is True?

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Well here we are already, the fourth Sunday in Advent. Christmas is just a few days away now. If you have noticed the sequence of lessons read here in church during these four weeks, they begin the first Sunday with longing, and expectation, and the hope that God will send a savior, a Messiah. Each week we move closer to that event that we as Christians believe is the event in which God kept that promise to send a savior, the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. It was here at Bethlehem, we believe, that God ...

1542. You Have Outwitted Me

Hosea 11:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

The title of this sermon, "You Have Outwitted Me," comes from the writings of Brother Lawrence. I am indebted to John Imel, who discovered the quote, shared it at a staff devotion some years ago. Brother Lawrence entered a monastic order thinking that he was giving up the happiness of this world to become a monk. He discovered instead a deeper happiness in a monastic life than he had ever imagined. He said, "God, you have outwitted me." That's a wonderful phrase, and a testimony to what we call the ...

1543. Call Waiting

John 1:29-42

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

Chaim Potok was an intensely religious man; a Jew who explored the dimensions of faith in our lives. From an early age, Potok knew he wanted to be a writer. But his mother wasn't so sure. When he went away to college she said, "Son, now I know you want to be a writer. But I want you to think about brain surgery. You'll keep a lot of people from dying. And you'll make a lot of money." To which Potok responded, "No, Mama, I want to be a writer." But, "No," is not what Mama wanted to hear. So, every vacation ...

1544. Rejoicing in Reality

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

Our text says that Jesus "went up to the mountain" and, oh, what a beautiful mountain it is! The Mount of the Beatitudes is not all that high, but in Galilee it is the equivalent of Mount Everest. Stretched out below is the most fertile agricultural land in Israel, intricately laid out next to the jeweled sea, that breathtaking, blue prism reflecting the hot beauty of the Middle Eastern sun. A few years ago, after wandering around on the hilltop for a while, our pilgrim group decided that this was the ...

1545. The 4 LAWS of a Whole Personality

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Is there anyone who at some time hasn't had to suffer through the dozen, lengthy, tongue-twisting, memory-testing verses of one of this season's most annoying carols, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"? I confess. From one Christmas to another I keep forgetting what there were eleven of, or what those six geese were doing. But our consumer culture has forgotten that those twelve days don't start today, on December 12 and go through Christmas Eve day. The twelve days of Christmas start on Jesus' birthday, ...

1546. Still in One Peace

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Every year, it seems, the fireworks of the Fourth kicks off the vacation season. The arrival of July, with its big 4th of July national party, really marks the opening of vacation season. Throughout June kids are still having to go to school. There are graduations and auspicious end-of-the-year occasions that make for mandatory attendance. For the many schools and corporations whose fiscal calendar ends on June 30, it's a month of deadlines, hoped-for-donations, and hold-your-breath budget squeakers. June ...

1547. The FUD Club: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Theme: In a world of doomsayers, where Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt reign supreme, disciples of Jesus are doom-slayers. EXEGESIS of the Text: Part 1: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 The 2 Thessalonians Epistle text for this week skips about in chapter two, cherry-picking verses first from the opening lines of the letter (vv.1-5), then landing on the concluding remarks of this first section (vv.13-17). This edited reading of 2:1-17, however, does succeed in focusing on the author’s primary concern throughout this ...

1548. Others

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

One of the most terrifying places you can visit with a small, speedy toddler is a big, slow-you-down department store. The marketing geniuses who design floor layouts for these big stores have come up with a common strategy. Do away with nice direct aisles through the store; Do away with any and all right-angled organization within the various departments; Do away with straight lines, and customers will be forced to wander into areas they would never go into as they searched for their intended merchandise ...

1549. The Real Winning Attitude

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

"The one who dies with the most toys wins." Have you seen that bumper-sticker? In the yuppified, narcissistic eighties, that single saying became the defining declaration among possession-possessed up-and-comers. As people surrounded themselves with hot new cars, snazzy stereo systems and miscellaneous gizmos, gadgets, and gratuitous consumerism, the popular mantra was everywhere: "The one who dies with the most toys wins!" Everybody loves to win. And everyone loves a winner. Winning brings a sense of ...

1550. The Weakest Link

1 Timothy 1:12-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Am I the only one left who gets embarrassed watching other people stand up and make fools of themselves? I cringe when anyone is caught on camera and on-mike saying and doing stupid things. I close my eyes when someone on television gets tongue-tied, looks ridiculous, or just generally exposes their humanity. I even get squeamish and decide it's time to pour another cup of coffee when Al Roker starts chatting up the crowd lined outside "The Today Show" broadcast window. But the rash of "reality TV" ...

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