Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1551 to 1575 of 4935 results

1551. Step Eleven - Spirituality

Mt 26:36-46 · 1 Thess 5:12-22 · Ps 25:1-15

Sermon

John A. Terry

This past week I had a new adventure. I did some plumbing work I had never done before. But I got out my handy homeowner's guide, and followed along step by step. It took longer than I thought it would. But at last it was almost complete. Close to the very end came the time when I put on the nuts and bolts that held it all together. As we reach toward the end of this series, we are approaching the step that tightens down and holds in place all the other work. The 11th step is: "Sought through prayer and ...

1552. Don't Just Stand There! - Get Involved!

Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Dr. John Thompson Peters

G.K. Chesterton one time said, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. Rather it has been found difficult and not tried." It would seem strange that after almost two thousand years of history there should still be confusion about the real nature of the Christian religion, and yet there can be no question but that it is widely misunderstood and hence misinterpreted. Some men reduce Christianity to something easy, while others make it impossible. With our contemporary situation bringing ...

1553. He Can Quench All Your Thirsts

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

One of the funniest and wisest commentaries on human nature is the cartoon strip Hagar the Horrible. In one cartoon Hagar's son, Hamlet, asks his blank-faced father if he could help put his model ship in a bottle. Hagar frowns and proceeds to lecture the boy on how he should be more industrious in seeking solutions to his problems, how he should read and reason and not wait for the answers to his problems to be handed to him. Hamlet mumbles, "Thanks, Dad." Then, in the next room, he tells his mother, "Dad ...

1554. Proper 13 & Pentecost 11

Matthew 14:13-21, Nehemiah 9:1-37, Exodus 12:1-30, Romans 8:28-39, Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE With one more Sunday remaining in August, the preacher may find more of a practical preaching clue in the approach of the fall season than a theological theme in the church year. For now, the latter part of August emphasizes a kind of homiletical eschatology; in many congregations, one has been preaching primarily to the faithful few during the summer months, and soon summer will be over. Attendance will increase in the next few weeks and one's preaching may have to be somewhat different ...

1555. God Sometimes Changes His Mind

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Name: God Sometimes Changes His Mind New Name: Forgive Us Our Trash Baskets A little boy was asked what we learn from the story of Jonah and the whale. His answer was, "People make whales sick ...

1556. The Bread Of God

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

King Duncan

Unbelief gives us a short memory. The Red Sea is forgotten in a month. The Israelites could sing their lyrics of praise but they could not believe that God would supply their daily needs. Discontent gives us a slippery memory. They murmured among themselves and wished to get back to the fleshpots of Egypt. But when they were in Egypt, they shrieked about oppression and were ready to give up anything for liberty; when they got liberty, they were ready to put their necks in the noose again, if only they ...

1557. Opposite the Treasury

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

In the first parish I served there lived an elderly widow. She lived alone, except for about a hundred parakeets. She supplemented her meager income from her late husband’s Social Security by raising and selling those popular birds. Her health was none too good, and during the cold winter months she was rarely able to make it out to church on Sunday mornings, so I tried to visit her as often as possible. I recall making one visit on a cold wintry day. We talked about many things, read the Bible together, ...

1558. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Luke 2:8-12

Sermon

James Merritt

The two most used words in the English language in the month of December without question are the words, "Christmas" and “Gift". From Ebay to Amazon, from the internet, to the mall, everybody is searching for Christmas gifts. Why do we do this? It is the only time in the year when people all over the world give gifts- oftentimes to people they barely know and many times to people they don’t even like. It all goes back to the very first Christmas gift ever given that God gave to you and to me at the very ...

1559. God's Christmas Gift

Luke 2:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

There is a word that you have heard more in the last twenty-four hours and you will hear more in the next twenty-four hours than you will probably hear in all the rest of the year combined. The most used word in this time of year we call the Christmas Season is the word "gift." Some of you spent today, frantically searching for gifts, trying to find the right gift for the right person at the right price. So often, I hear the question "What do you get for the person who has everything?" I did some research ...

1560. Lesson from a Prosthetic Toe

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

King Duncan

I’ve got a pop quiz for you this morning. Prosthetic limbs, artificial body parts, have been around for thousands of years. Would you like to guess what is the oldest prosthetic body part that has ever been found? Do you have a guess? It’s a big toe. Years ago, archeologists in Cairo, Egypt were excavating the tomb of an ancient Egyptian noblewoman who lived about 3,000 years ago. And they discovered that her body was fitted with a tiny, prosthetic toe made of wood with a leather strap that connected it to ...

1561. Bountiful Faith: Two All Beef Patties, Special Sauce, Lettuce, Cheese, Pickles...Etc

2 Corinthians 9:6-11

Sermon

John E. Harnish

Have Faith… Strong in faith: "Just a little dab'll do ya." Ministry by faith: "Does she or doesn't she?" Saints by faith: "Good to the last drop." In a day when everything changes, some things never change. And in it all and through it all, a bountiful God of grace gives us a bountiful heart, a bountiful faith… 1. God calls us to live boldly and to give bountifully. Our theme verse for this campaign includes the phrase "Live courageously," but at least one translation says, "Live boldly." I like that! To ...

1562. God's Math:Lose Life = Save It

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

When self-preservation is our central aim, we are never safe. However, when we are committed to surrender to the disturbances that Godly compassion produces we are never in danger.So Jesus said, "For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." We can be dumped into the most precarious situations but if God is with us we are not in danger. The worst that can happen to us is dislocation from Christ. Hence, as long as we are with the ...

1563. Illusion Or Reality?

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Back in the mid 1970s to early 1980s hypnosis was viewed as a major cure for many of society's ills. If you had a problem with being overweight, smoking cigarettes, drinking too much, or being a juvenile delinquent, many professional hypnotists would, for a hefty fee, offer their services to hypnotize your problems away. The church I pastored in Texas at the time contained among its members some overweight women with a passion for improving their bodies. These women had apparently tried everything they ...

1564. Dying to Become

2 Corinthians 5:17

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

GLENN E. WHITLOCK is a United Presyterian pastor who served as a parish minister and university chaplain before contracting polio and subsequently studying for a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. He is currently Professor of Psychology at the experimental Johnston College of the University of Redlands, Adjunct Professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, a consultant for a community crisis hot line, and a counselor with a Christian counseling service. He has published three books, numerous journal articles ...

1565. The Story behind the Glory

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

Welcome to the Sunday after Christmas! Tell me, has the glory begun to fade? A pastor recently described his shopping experience at one of the busy malls. He watched a small boy put his hand hopefully on an inexpensive Christ-child on a counter. "What is this?" he asked his mother, who had him by the hand. "C'mon," the hurried woman answered, "you don't want that." She dragged him grimly away, her mind dark with gift thoughts, following a star of her own devising. Strange, isn't it, the way the story ...

1566. Easter 5

John 14:5-14, John 14:1-4, 1 Peter 2:4-12, Acts 7:54--8:1a, Psalm 31:1-24

Sermon Aid

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

TEXTS FROM ACTS AND PSALMS The lesson from Acts tells of the stoning of Stephen. The psalm has no actual connection with Stephen's speech or the account of his execution, but in the story of his death Stephen prays. Psalm 31 is itself a prayer-song for deliverance from one's enemies in which the psalmist utters a line (31:5) similar to Stephen's first prayer (7:59), so there is an imaginative way to relate the texts to each other. Acts 7:55-60 - "Living and Dying as Jesus Did" Setting. The pattern of story ...

1567. Name Dropping

Exodus 20:7

Sermon

James Merritt

God's Name is so important to Him that it makes the "Top Ten" of the commandments He wants his family to live by. Most every one of us here very likely have some type of an alarm system in our home. We have that because we want to make sure our homes are secure. That is why we are in the middle of a series on the Ten Commandments that I have entitled "Homeland Security." Remember that the Ten Commandments are God's rules for His family. The Ten Commandments were not given to establish a relationship with ...

1568. The Missing Figure in the Nativity Scene

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

A three-year-old was helping his mother unpack their nativity set. He announced each piece as he unwrapped it from the tissue paper. “Here’s the donkey!” he said. “Here’s a king and a camel!” When he finally got to the tiny infant lying in a manger he proclaimed, “Here’s baby Jesus in his car seat!” Well, it wasn’t a car seat, but that would be an easy mistake to make, wouldn’t it? We all love nativity scenes. Baby Jesus in the manger . . . Mary and Joseph hovering reverently over the holy child . . . ...

1569. Up Close & Personal: Seeing Clearly

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

I am not much of a game show fan, but my all-time favorite is Jeopardy. If I ever became a teacher or a professor, Jeopardy would be the model that I would use to teach students. It makes learning fun. It is educational, challenging and makes you think. So, we are going to play the game, but we are going to skip all the way to final Jeopardy. The category is “Smarter Than A 5th Grader.” Remember – you have to put your answer in the form of a question. The answer is “By consensus the most brilliant person ...

1570. A Prophecy Against Babylon

Isaiah 13:1--14:23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Poems about Northern Powers: Introduction to Chapters 13–23: Chapter 12 would have made a fine ending to a book, and perhaps it once did. Isaiah has warned Judah of calamity to come, then looked at the other side of trouble to the punishment of the troublers themselves and to the fulfillment of Yahweh’s purpose for Israel “in that day.” Isaiah 13 then marks a new start. The word oracle announces something new; this distinctive title will introduce most of the sections within this next major division of the ...

1571. Being Wronged versus Claiming One’s Right

1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

Big Idea: The church must be vigilant in protecting its identity as a Christ-empowered community and recognize that it is more Christlike to accept being wronged than to pursue retaliation through means that contradict Christ’s teaching. In the community of Christ, no interpersonal differences should be irreconcilable. Understanding the Text In a second practical example of the troubles arising from the behavior and wrongheaded allegiances discussed in chapters 1–4, Paul confronts a situation where one ...

1572. Learning to Love

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

James L. Killen

Stephen R. Covey, whose book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989, p.132) was a best-seller for a long time, tells of an exercise he sometimes used with his students while he was teaching college. He required his students to think through what they would do if they had only the remainder of the semester to live. He said that exercise often produced some profound responses. The dominant theme of the resulting activity, the underlying principle, was love. Have you ever ...

1573. Praying With Bloody Knuckles

Isaiah 62:1-12, Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

William L. Self

My wife was conducting a prayer workshop recently and a member of the group told her this true story. She had grown up in London and her pastor walked from his home to the church every day. Along the way he had to pass through some rough sections of town, and as he passed one particular bar there was always the same man loitering outside, very drunk and very loudmouthed. The pastor was really angry at the wasted life and annoyed by the obnoxious taunts of the man. He started praying for the man every time ...

1574. Professor Of Paradox

Matthew 13:47-52, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

Once upon a time, a strange old man came to a small village. He carried a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon. This sight was odd enough to cause the people of the village to notice what the old man did next. The old man took the bowl to the plowed field next to the village and he put some dirt into the bowl until it was about half full. Then he went to the village pump and filled it with water to about an inch below the brim. Then the old man sat down on a rock next to the pump and began to stir the water into ...

1575. The Church

Acts 6:8-15, Acts 6:1-7

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

Theme: The church has had turmoil from the start. It was as difficult then as it is now. The church can only survive if Jesus is the head. Summary: A mysterious visitor from church "headquarters" calls on the Rev. John Baxter, pastor of a modern day church that is having some major problems. The visitor proposes some startling answers for the church's dilemma and firmly implants the solution by a unique object lesson from history. Playing Time: 10 minutes Place: A church meeting room and then thirty years ...

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