Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1576 to 1600 of 4946 results

1576. Where Are You From?

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

David T. Ball

Whenever we travel, we come into contact with new people. Often these interactions remain basic and simple, with us exchanging just the bare minimum of information necessary to complete our interaction, like when checking in for a flight. "Good morning, traveling to San Francisco today?" "Yes." "May I see your photo ID?" "Sure." "Any baggage to check?" "Yes, two pieces." "Two pieces." "Yes." "Okay, you're all set. Departure is from gate sixteen, and boarding begins in fifteen minutes." "Thank you." This ...

1577. Advent 1

Mark 13:32-37, Mark 13:1-31, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 63:16b-17; 64:1-8 This pericope comes from the third section of Isaiah (chapters 56-66). It was written by an unknown author(s) in the period of 540-500 B.C. The Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile. The exiles find a pathetic situation: Jerusalem is desolate and the temple has been burned to the ground. This passage is a lament and a cry for God to come and help them. The people are despondent and are impatient for God to come and do something about their ...

1578. Who Wants To Be a Millionaire

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

James Merritt

When it comes to millionaires, America has a monopoly. We have more millionaires than anyone else in the world; we have more people who want to be millionaires than anyone else in the world; and we have more people who can become millionaires than anyone else in the world. Recently USA Today ran a cover story entitled, "Everyone Wants a Shot at Being a Millionaire." The story begins this way: We live in a society gone millionaire mad. Our national fable used to be: Any kid can grow up to be President. Now ...

1579. The Hard Sell

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

Our blessed Lord presses the issue. Do you or do you not want to be my disciple? If you do not, then it is with great sadness that your Savior must move on with those who are willing to fully commit themselves. In our lives, each and every one of us receives Christ’s invitation of discipline and abandonment of the world. No longer are we getting acquainted. We are being asked to come into a relationship at once glorious and painful. Yes, it comes to all of us — sooner or later. It is like moving from an ...

1580. The Good News about the Future

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

The Rev. Douglas L. Meyer tells of working at a college radio station during his undergraduate day. These were the days before computers and CDs. They were a small operation so the deejays also read the news. The news they read each hour came in on two teletype machines which clattered away constantly. What he remembers most was that these machines had bells attached that the broadcaster could hear faintly even in the broadcast booth. These bells would go off when a particularly important story came over ...

1581. Joshua People: Remember, Remind and Recommit

Joshua 24:14-18, 2 Peter 1:10-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

The older I get the more I realize that memory is tricky. I can remember the address and phone number of the house I lived in when I was 5 (2470 Highway 66, Zone 2, St. Louis, MO. Harrison 8;7378) but I can't remember which of my kids or Grandkids I'm talking to. I seem to start at the oldest child and work my way down, including the names of all the pets we've ever had, too. But it's nice to know I'm not the only one with this affliction. A number of years ago, the church I was serving received a memorial ...

1582. Silly Putty, Play-Doh and Potter's Clay

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Somebody once said: "We are all made of common clay and that is why we all have the same kinds of problems." But someone else said: "We're all created in the same mold, only some of us are moldier than others." (1) There is a place in India where their legends agree with the Bible that humankind was made from dust. But they think that the upper class (or caste) was made from the fertile soil and the lower class was made from ordinary clay. But even I know, if you are going to create pottery, you want ...

1583. Dress For Faithfulness

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

One of my favorite comedians was Danny Kaye. I loved his movies and one of my favorites was the Court Jester. In this movie Danny Kaye is a volunteer with "The Fox" a Robin Hood type character who is trying to protect the rightful heir of the throne (an infant). Danny Kaye takes the place of the new Court Jester, Giacomo, to gain access to the throne and a key that will let "The Fox" and his men into the city through a secret tunnel. It's all typical Danny Kaye fair. One of my favorite scenes is the ...

1584. The Inconcealable Christ!

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

In this amazing passage of two miracles, we find just one message. The first miracle is the healing of the daughter of a Greek woman, born in Syrian Phoenicia. In many ways, it is among the most significant of Jesus' miracles not just because the child received healing. Syrophoenicia is not a candidate region for the zip code 90210. The "pretty people" do not take up residence there. In fact, they do all they can to avoid going that way. It is a remote place sustained by commercial fishing and, if we can ...

1585. All in God’s Time

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" is the way we say it today. That surely must have been a question on the hearts and minds of those first-century Christians as they suffered under the brutal persecution of the Roman empire. It is a question that surely was on the hearts and minds to whom John had written this extraordinary piece of literature we call the book of Revelation. Many of them were convinced that they were innocent and righteous sufferers sent to their deaths in the coliseum because ...

1586. From Slave to Brother

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

We often shortchange love. We think of it as sweet and sentimental, something that is good for children and family members. We think of love as sort of soft and cuddly, nice in its place, but not very useful in the things that really matter. Do we think of love as tough, transforming, powerful? This little book of Philemon, tucked into the back of the New Testament at the tail end of Paul's letters, teaches us about the potential of love. Thomas Long, who teaches preaching at EmoryUniversity in Atlanta, ...

1587. The Runner

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Your most beloved things are not always your most perfect things. And your most beloved relationships are not always your most perfect relationships. Remember your “blankie?” Come on now, you all had one. And it was in perfect shape, right? It was the rattiest, most stained, most beat up thing anyone has ever seen. But the condition it was in mattered not a wit at nap time, or bedtime, or cry time. Or what about that stuffed animal? Come on, now. You all had one. And it was in perfect shape, right? No ...

1588. In Praise of Perseverance

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

The newspaper cartoon is a favorite. It concerns the daily adventures of a family with attentive parents and small children. The scene shows the little boy and his mother walking out the front door of the church at the close of the Sunday morning service. There is snow on the church's front lawn. The child revels in wonder. He says, “Yes! My prayin’ worked.” The reader is left to imagine the previous scene from inside the church. The little boy spent the hour with head bowed, eyes closed, hands folded ...

1589. When Walls Shift and the Ceiling Collapses

John 8:31-36

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

A retired minister colleague says he feels as though he has been dropped into the present from an ancient era. "So much has changed. I hardly recognize the world in which I live," he laments. "When I walk the aisles of an electronics store I am bewildered by the products. Entire generations of technology come and go before I understand what it is, how it works, or why I might want to buy it. I tell my grandchildren that, technologically speaking, I am a middle twentieth-century kind of guy trapped in the ...

1590. In Pisidian Antioch

Acts 13:13-52

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

The missionaries cross to Asia Minor, where Paul’s first recorded sermon is preached in Antioch. The speech is given at length, so that on other occasions Luke needed only to say that Paul “proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues” (13:5; 14:1; etc.) without feeling obliged to give the content of the preaching each time. And like the speech, the response was also a paradigm, with some Jews believing but many rejecting the gospel. It is possible to see in the pattern of ministry outlined in this ...

1591. Let Us Love One Another

2 John 1:1-13

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

Salutation Second John begins with a greeting or salutation similar in form to other NT letters. The writer and recipients are identified, followed by a wish for God’s blessing. But this introduction also contains material that fits the writer’s and readers’ specific situation and recalls the controversy in which all three letters of John are set. The Elder quickly reveals the two main concerns which are on his mind, and they correspond to the two principal themes of the letters of John as a whole: truth ...

1592. The Book of Law Found

2 Kings 22:1-20

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

Josiah: Judgment has been announced. It is now simply a matter of timing. At this juncture in Judean history, strangely enough, Judah finds herself with yet another righteous king—a second Moses to match her second David (Hezekiah). Josiah is a king long-awaited (1 Kgs. 13:2). He is the best of all kings, but he is a king come too late. 22:1–2 The verses that introduce Josiah alert us to the kind of king he is going to be. There is reference to David—as we would expect. More significantly, however, there ...

1593. An Unholy History

Ezekiel 20:1-29, Ezekiel 20:30-49

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

Oracles of Destruction: The date formula in Ezekiel 20:1 is the first since 8:1; the next date in Ezekiel appears at 24:1. These dated oracles thus set chapters 20–24 apart. Still, we can find little if any formal unity here. Ezekiel 20–24 is a miscellaneous collection of various types of material, from historical recitation (20:1–26) to judgment oracle (21:25–27) to allegory (ch. 23). In many ways, this material reprises earlier images and themes (e.g., compare 22:23–31 with 7:23–27; and ch. 23 with ch. ...

1594. Impurity, Repentance, and Jealousy

Num 5:1-31

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: God’s people must deal with ritual and moral impurities. Understanding the Text Following the census of priests and Levites in Numbers 3–4, Numbers 5 introduces laws that involve priests: 1. Cases of ceremonial impurity (vv. 1–4) (cf. Ezek. 44:33) 2. Restitution given to priests for false oaths (vv. 5–10) 3. A priestly ritual regarding a jealous husband (vv. 11–31) In each of these cases the issue involves the need for Israel to be pure. Historical and Cultural Background Requiring those accused ...

1595. “Lord, Who May Dwell in Your Sacred Tent?”

Psalm 15:1-5

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Our worship and life in God are grounded more in ethical behavior than in liturgical correctness, though this does not suggest that the latter is unimportant. Understanding the Text Form critics often identify this psalm as an entrance liturgy (also Ps. 24), spoken perhaps to the temple gatekeepers (2 Chron. 23:19) before the worshiper entered the sanctuary.[1] Mays moves the discussion in another direction by pointing out that both Psalms 15 and 24, as well as Isaiah 33:14–17 (which is a similar ...

1596. What To Do While Waiting for the Judgment?

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Who hasn’t had the experience of being unready for a long-awaited guest? A thousand things have hindered our preparation. An unexpected phone call kept us late at the office. Traffic on the freeway was tied up by an accident. The super market was crowded and we ended up in the slowest check-out line. The oven won’t heat. The cat has walked down the middle of the table we set this morning, leaving unmistakable, sooty footprints. And our six-year-old knocks over a cup of milk. Then time runs out. The guest ...

1597. Captains or Parties

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

My father was not a particularly pessimistic person, but I remember one conversation we had that sure sounded like he was. I was a teenager and thinking out loud about what I might like to do with my life. My father was being the realist. I said maybe I would like to be a doctor. He said it took eight years of education after high school and we didn't have the money. I said, well maybe I will be a missionary to Africa. He said I would die from some awful, rare disease. Then I said I might like to be a ...

1598. In the Light of His Glory

Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Les Parrott in his book Shoulda Coulda Woulda tells an old legend about three men. Each man carried two sacks--one sack tied in front of his neck and the other sack resting on his back. When the first man was asked what was in his sacks, he said, “In the sack on my back are all the good things friends and family have done for me. That way they’re hidden from view. In the front sack are all the bad things that have happened to me and all the mistakes I’ve made. Every now and then I stop, open the front ...

1599. Little Ones

Luke 18:15-17, Matthew 19:13-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Animations: stuffed lamb or if you dare, a real lamb; Youtube: “Do Sheep Only Obey Their Master’s Voice?”; (optional: book of fairytales) How many children do we have in worship today? Raise your hands! Why don’t you come on up! All of you… I wonder if you’d come on up and help me with someone. [Bring in the lamb….if you can have some of the children help to hold his leash.] Do you know who this is? Her name is Nessa. Would you like to pet her? [Allow the children to sit up front anywhere they like.] There ...

1600. Let’s Really Know Jesus

John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

I am married to a directionally challenged person. In the car if I ask her which way to go, she may say left while pointing right. After years of marriage I have learned that the pointing is always correct, not so much the words used. Thomas was a wonderfully directionally challenged person. Jesus told him there was a place prepared for all. Thomas went... how do I get there? Jesus’ response to Thomas was one of the truly great responses of all time from Jesus. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No ...

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