Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 1576 to 1600 of 2273 results

1576. Faith for Troubling Times

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

King Duncan

Two-year-old son Jack leans on his father’s knee. His rumpled baseball jersey bears a fresh spaghetti sauce stain from that night’s dinner. "Daddy, tell me a bunny story." Rob tears his gaze away from the computer screen. "What was that, son?" asks Rob. "Tell me a bunny story," says Jack. "One with a truck in it." Rob sighs as his glance swings back to the screen. His paper is due in two days. His professor tries to be sympathetic, but there are only so many times she’ll let her students stretch a deadline ...

1577. On Defeating the Devil

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

At every baptism in the Lutheran church an old question is asked. A question used at countless baptisms all over the world. A question that is almost as old as the church itself. Just before water is splashed in the threefold name, I look at parents and sponsors and sometimes adult candidates across the pool and ask: Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? To tell you the truth, I've been waiting for somebody to laugh at the question. Who really believes in the devil ...

1578. Jesus, Desirous

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

In the powerful movie, Ulee's Gold, Peter Fonda plays a tired man who is a beekeeper by day. He runs the old family business of collecting and selling the golden honey that pays the bills. It is exhausting work for a man now in his late sixties. Ulee does most of it by himself because he cannot afford to hire someone to help him. He maintains and moves the hives, gathers the trays, separates the honey from the wax, spins the final product into jars, and ships it off to market. He worries about the ebb and ...

1579. Headlines and Holiness

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

Imagine for a moment that Jesus is watching television with his twelve disciples. They're on furlough from teaching and healing, taking it easy in the living room of Peter's mother-in-law, doing a little mindless channel surfing. Maybe they catch a little of an NCAA Tournament game, March Madness. These are guys, you know, just relaxing from a demanding schedule. But eventually the evening news comes on. They put down the popcorn and listen intently to the day's tragedies. One disciple says, "Hey, Jesus, ...

1580. Growing with God

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

There are times in the life of the world or of a nation when one individual changes the whole course of history. Perhaps we might say that such a change occurred when the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. Certainly we could agree that Martin Luther introduced an entirely new era when his actions initiated the Protestant reformation. And we might say that Mahatma Gandhi began the fall of the British Empire, or that Gorbachev began the dissolution of ...

1581. God Outwits Us

Psalm 31:1-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Many of you know the name, Brother Lawrence. If you have not read his book The Practice of the Presence of God, you have probably heard a preacher or teacher speak of Brother Lawrence. He served in the kitchen of his monastery and said he experienced the presence of God as clearly in washing pots and pans as in the Blessed Sacrament. Though known as Brother Lawrence, his name was Nicholas Herman. He was born into a peasant family in Lorraine, France, in 1611. At the age of eighteen, he awakened to the ...

1582. Let Me Say That Again

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Preaching is an awesome responsibility - to mount a pulpit and proclaim God’s word. I remember my first visit to China in 1979. The Bamboo Curtain was just being drawn a bit. Miraculous things have happened since then, as you very well know. But back then you couldn’t meet publicly with Christians - so, on my trip we met in secret. I remember being with three couples in a hotel room in Beijing. It was as near to what I think it must have been in the early church when Christians gathered in the catacombs to ...

1583. Paul Piper's Funeral

Proverbs 1:8-19

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Much of the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs is stated in the expression of stark contrasts between the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish. Chapter 10 is full of those expressions. Listen to a few of them: Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offences (vs. 12). The wise lay up knowledge, but the babbling of a fool brings ruin near (vs. 14). When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but the prudent are restrained in speech (vs. 19). The lips of the righteous feed many, but ...

1584. The Vocation of Leadership: A Prophet Among Them

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The original invitation to deliver this Johannaber Lecture included the general instruction that the lecture theme have something to do with spirituality and/or spiritual formation. The more I thought of that in the context of a “ministers week,” the more certain I was that I wanted to focus on leadership – the vocation of leadership. Pastors are leaders, but they are specifically Christian leaders. So that’s my focus: leadership from a Christian perspective. I begin with three pictures. The first is out ...

1585. In the Wilderness With Moses

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a hilarious story about a man who is walking along a lonely beach when he suddenly hears a deep voice that says to him: DIG! He looks around: nobody’s there. “I am having hallucinations,” he thinks. Then he hears the voice again: I SAID, DIG! So he starts to dig in the sand with his bare hands, and after some inches, he finds a small chest with a rusty lock. The deep voice says: OPEN! OK, the man thinks, let’s open the thing. He finds a rock with which to destroy the lock, and when the chest is ...

1586. What Making a Difference Looks Like

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

I am told there are at least eight million cats and eleven million dogs in the Big Apple. Since New York is mainly concrete and steel, when you have a pet that dies, you can't just go out in the back yard and bury it. In response, city officials decided that for fifty dollars they would dispose of your pet for you. Now in that grand city was a certain enterprising lady. She thought to herself, “I can render a service.” So she placed an ad in the paper: "When your pet dies, I will take care of the carcass ...

1587. What Is Required of Us?

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

“I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” In a message titled Seizing Your Divine Moment Erwin McManus speaks of his son Aaron: “One summer Aaron went to youth camp. He was just a little guy, and I was kind of glad it was a church camp. I figured he wasn't going to hear all those ghost stories.... But unfortunately, since it was a Christian camp and they didn't tell ghost stories, because we don't believe in ghosts, they told demon and Satan stories instead. And so when Aaron got home, he was ...

1588. Peacemaking and Self Control

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

The date was June 11, 1963; the place- The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Vivian Malone, a young black woman, enrolled that day as a freshman. Federal troops ensured her entrance, but the doorway was blocked by Governor George Wallace. Holding out for segregation, the governor ultimately failed, and Ms. Malone became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Alabama. Vivian wasn't the only newcomer that day. James Hood was at her side and needed encouragement. So she slipped him a ...

1589. Getting Your Politics Right

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

I grew up with the myth, universally absorbed but rarely argued for except by extremists with bad manners, that whites were superior. Exceptions were acknowledged, but only as exceptions that did not change the rule. Racism was one of the unspoken beliefs of my childhood culture before the Civil Rights movement rose up to challenge the great lie with the potent rhetoric of our founding documents, as in The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal ...

1590. Resurrection

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

King Duncan

A priest found a branch of a thorn tree twisted around so that it resembled a crown of thorns. Thinking it a symbol of the crucifixion, he placed it on the altar in his chapel on Good Friday. Early on Easter morning he remembered what he had done. Feeling it was not appropriate for Easter Sunday, he hurried into the church to clear it away before the congregation came. But when he went into the church, he found the thorn branches blossoming with beautiful roses. Welcome to this celebration of Easter Day. ...

1591. 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 ...

1592. The Blessed Promise

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

A few years ago, authors Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz drove more than 10,000 miles across the United States. All along the way they interviewed people about the meaning of life. They said that in their travels they may have discovered the most emotionally significant piece of real estate in the country. It is the few square feet right outside the gate of each airport terminal. On this patch of carpeted flooring, people greet loved ones who have just flown in. The excitement builds as they search the crowds ...

1593. Family Tree

Genesis 3:1-7

Sermon

Bill Mosley

The fence between Heaven and Hell was falling apart. It was badly in need of repair. Saint Peter consulted his records and saw that by the terms of an ancient agreement, it was Satan's turn to fix the fence. So he gritted his teeth and sought an audience with the Prince of Darkness. He found him in the nether regions, cleaning his pitchfork. Peter did not sit down. The smell of brimstone was heavy in the hot air. "You need to fix the fence," he said. The devil twitched his red tail. He scratched behind a ...

1594. Pass the Pigweed

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Bill Mosley

They tell a story about a hurricane blowing through Galveston, LaMarque, and Texas City heading straight toward Houston. A man's farm, his home and all he'd worked for, all he'd ever owned was directly in the storm's path. He didn't want to leave, and he believed the Lord would take care of him. A bus came by and a Red Cross volunteer told the man they were evacuating everyone in the path of the hurricane. The man sat tight on his front porch and said, "The Lord will provide." The water came up and the man ...

1595. Chimps, Mount Saint Helens, and the Holy Gust

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Bill Mosley

They didn't get a TV Guide so they planned their television viewing by the commercial previews. Sometimes the networks don't tell you everything in the previews, like, this particularly good adventure is a two-part mini-series, and you need to watch tomorrow night, too. And the most dreaded words in the English language flash across the screen: To be continued. You didn't know? You watched the whole show thinking it would all be resolved and over at the end? Then it happened at the most inopportune time: ...

1596. A Deliverer Is Born

Exodus 1:1-22, 2:1-10

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

The River Nile is the longest river in the world, snaking 4,160 miles from Burundi, Africa, to the Mediterranean Sea. And in this beautiful, exotic, life-giving river lives one of the most fearsome creatures in the world -- the crocidilus nilocticus -- the nile crocodile. Twelve species of this strong, ferocious creature watch from the shoals ready to spring and devour an unsuspecting animal or human. Hardly a place to hide a child -- a beautiful child. In fact, nowhere in Egypt was it safe for a Hebrew ...

1597. Grace for a Complaining People

Exodus 16:2-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

Bob Hope died in 2003 at age 100. Before Bob died, his wife Dolores asked him where he wanted to be buried. And Bob, in his usual comedic style, answered, "Surprise me!" One night when Bob was in his prime he reported his activity for the day. "Today," he said, "my heart beat 103,369 times. My blood traveled 168 miles. I breathed 23,040 times. I inhaled 438 cubic feet of air. I ate three and a quarter pounds of food and drank two pounds of liquid. I perspired one and a half pints. I gave off 85 degrees of ...

1598. Sheep that Count

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

Once upon a time there was a lamb named Edgar. Edgar lived with his family and friends in a large flock that roamed the countryside under the leadership of a kind and protective shepherd. Edgar followed his mother, along with the others, from one grazing spot to another, and seemed perfectly content with his life. He would play games with the other lambs, chase butterflies in the meadows, and nuzzle up close to his mother for afternoon naps in the sun. Like all the other sheep in his flock, he went ...

1599. A Radical Faith

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Some of you may know that Jean and I have just returned from a two-week trip to Germany, where we rented a car and visited the so-called Luther sites, the towns and cities where Martin Luther lived four hundred years ago, and where the Reformation began. It was a wonderful time and we are very grateful to your generosity in making it possible. We want to show you our slides, so we have decided we are going to have a potluck supper on Wednesday, June 25. You are all invited. You may feel that making you ...

1600. An Enclave of Resistance

Hebrews 1:1-14; 2:5-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Our scripture for this morning from Hebrews is one of the great affirmations in the Bible. The author writes: It has been testified somewhere, "What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou carest for him? Thou didst make him for a little while lower than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything ...

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