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 1651 to 1675 of 3314 results

1651. Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 14:1-14, Acts 7:55-60, 1 Peter 2:2-10

Bulletin Aid

... into a growing fellowship of believers. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession Dear Father, we rejoice in the fact that your church is alive in our world today. We know that it could not be if it were not for the sacrifices of apostles who knew your church would outlast the forces that opposed them. Forgive us when we have not seen the real forces we are striving with today. Give us the courage of those engaged in serious battle, that we may give your church renewed growth in our society ...

1652. Seventh Sunday of Easter

John 17:1-11, Acts 1:6-14, 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Bulletin Aid

First Lesson: Acts 1:6-14 Theme: Prayer Call to Worship Pastor: After Jesus' ascension, the Apostles often gathered to pray together in expectation of the Holy Spirit. People: Prayer is God's way of opening our hearts to his love and power. Pastor: We are strengthened when we pray together, because it unites us with God our Father, and binds us together as brothers and sisters ...

1653. One Commandment is Enough!

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

... so much founded on obedience as on love. John Wesley wrote to Charles Wesley saying he had become convinced "the Law can be fulfilled evangelically by love." The religion of love," he said, "is the religion of the Bible. Moses, and the Prophets, and Christ and his Apostles, proclaim with one voice thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and thy neighbor as thyself. They all declare that love is the fulfilling of the Law." Do you love God with all of yourself? Who is the first person you think of ...

1654. Communion Is Real Presence

John 1:1-18

Sermon

... Word was with God and the Word was God." Then in verse 14 we find out what God did: "And the Word became flesh and lived among us ..." You see, God became a human being in Jesus, the Christ. The same event is described by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2 where he wrote about Christ who "humbled himself, taking the very nature of a servant and came in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death ..." The incarnation is central to our celebration ...

1655. Communion Is Rejoicing In Christ's Return

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

... our redemption. In Acts 1:11, just after Jesus had ascended into heaven, two angels told his disciples, "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go." In the Second Lesson for today, the Apostle Paul made reference to "... the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints," which he wrote about in detail in the fourth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. In today's Gospel from Luke 21, our Lord himself promised that he will return and he told us about ...

1656. Communion Is Running No More

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

... - have it your way!" We need no convincing about the presence of our sinful nature. We know how it can wreck relationships. We've experienced the pain it can cause as we seek momentary pleasure without consideration for the long-range results. We know that the Apostle Paul was correct when he wrote in Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." But on this Sunday when [six] of our young people are receiving Holy Communion for the very first time, we are reminded that something can ...

1657. Communion Is Refreshment

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

... . We must never forget. To help us remember, our Lord instituted a special meal on this very night nearly 2000 years ago. It is a simple meal of bread and wine but it has a powerful effect in the Christian's life. On Thursday night, after Jesus and the Apostles had finished the Passover Meal, the Lord took a piece of bread from the table and broke it - saying that it was his Body which would be broken with our sins. Then he instructed his followers to eat it in remembrance of the pain he endured for us on ...

1658. Communion Is Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

... expecting to receive the scolding we deserve, we are surprised when God whispers to our hearts: "I love you my child - you are forgiven. Go with my strength and sin no more." As easily as that, God lovingly reconciles us to himself. In 2 Corinthians 5:19 the Apostle Paul wrote, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." What God did in a cosmic sense through Christ's coming into the world, he does in an individual sense in Holy Communion. For in the Bread and Wine Christ will come to you and me ...

1659. Communion Is Response to an Invitation

John 6:25-59

Sermon

... old mule is so sad and stern - I guess he's a Christian too." It's sad when people get the impression that the Christian life is one of sadness and sorrow because nothing is farther from the truth. Joy is a hallmark of our lives in Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him ..." And again in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 he said, "Be joyful always." That joy should especially be evident in us today because the king of the universe ...

1660. Communion Is Repentance

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

... we can come with pretense - pretending to be someone we are not - or we can come with sincere and humble repentance - acknowledging ourselves to be the sinners we are. Christ invites us to come not pretensiously but penitently. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-28, the Apostle Paul gave the following instructions about Holy Communion: "Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of ...

1661. Image and Inscription

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

... to salvation, they do not equal salvation. Our ultimate allegiance does not and must never belong to Caesar. The people of God are committed to the state inasmuch as and insofar as it acts as God’s agent for justice and peace in the world. The Apostles Peter and John set the pattern for believers when they announced that, in any conflict between government and God, they would have to obey divine rather than human authority.3 It is for that reason that we must continually decide whether, when and to what ...

1662. Real Absence

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

... is there anything particularly new about this perplexing absence: Isaiah spoke of it when he said, "Truly thou art a God who hidest thyself" (45:15). The Psalmist sang of it: "O Lord ... why dost thou hide thy face from me" (88:14). And for the apostles and the early church, the delay of Christ’s promised return was the single most perplexing theological question. Text after text in the New Testament speaks of the "Master who delays his coming" (Matthew 24:48) or the Master who returns only after a long ...

1663. A Day For All the Saints

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

... . That is the way the Church has acknowledged people as saints, probably ever since the martyrdom of Stephen. Remember at Christmas, a few weeks from now, that December 26 is the Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr, December 27 is St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, and December 28 is set aside as for the holy innocents, martyrs. And while it may seem incongruous that two of the three days immediately following Christmas should commemorate martyrs and martyrdom, all three days are listed within the Twelve ...

1664. Interrupting Worship

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

... must recommit ourselves to the task of peacemaking. Your task is: do what you can where you are. We do this in the full knowledge that the supreme victim of violence was Jesus himself. Sometimes worship has to be interrupted. Even Jesus found it so. The apostle Paul wrote: Who shall separate us from the love of God. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril of sword? Perhaps now we can add yet one more thing to that list. Terrorism. Paul’s answer is the same: No, in ...

1665. Painting Out the Lace

Illustration

Staff

You are familiar, no doubt, with one of the most famous paintings ever done by any artist. I refer to "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, that classic portrayal of Christ and the twelve apostles at the table. Many students of art history believe that the painting, when first created, was somewhat different from the version which we now see. There was initially, it is believed, an exquisite lace border on the tablecloth. When, immediately upon completion, Leonardo invited a group of art students to ...

1666. Unscrambling The Voices

Illustration

Staff

... in the beauty of the sanctuary, before the altar of God. We are a varied people, of many ages and stations, with widely divergent backgrounds, interests, and pursuits. But here this morning there is one thing all of us are doing: listening. In I Corinthians 14:10 the Apostle Paul writes: "There are so many kinds of voices in the world." and we know the truth of this, don't we? We hear these voices all the time, all through the week - loud ones and soft, bright ones and dark, saying this and saying that, and ...

1667. In Quest of a Meaning

Illustration

Staff

... a day when he told them of his forthcoming death and resurrection. It is written of that conversation that his disciples "did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him what he meant." Then, half a century after he was crucified and risen, his Apostle, Paul, went into the city of Athens telling about him. The philosophers at the Mars Hill Academy called Paul into their council and said to him: "Tell us, what is this new teaching, and what do these things mean?" Now here we are together (in this ...

1668. A Wish and A Promise

Matthew 18:15-20

Illustration

... of his friends saw him alive walking in the burial garden. He said to them, "Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee - there shall they see me." In other words, "Go into Galilee and I will meet you there." They went, those eleven apostles - and perhaps others with them. They gathered there at a mountain where Jesus had directed them, and there he met them. And, my dear friends, it has been happening ever since: to his gathered people he comes - on other mountain tops, in ancient catacombs, in great ...

1669. A Phalanx of Faith

Ephesians 6:10-20

Illustration

Staff

In ancient times soldiers who went into battle were clad in heavy armor to protect them against the spears and arrows of their enemies. In Ephesians, chapter 6, the Apostle Paul urges his fellow-Christians to take upon themselves the "whole armor of God." Be equipped, he says, with the "breastplate of righteousness," "the shield of faith," "the helmet of salvation," "the sword of the Spirit." "Stand," he says, stand up against evil. "Withstand in the evil day," he says, ...

1670. An Exercise in Awareness

Illustration

As I greet you this morning, I think of something the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome: "I thank God for all of you." As I look about me here today, a swelling tide of gratitude rises within me, and I thank God for all of you. You know the kind of world we live in; you know about the ...

1671. A Joyful New Beginning

John 20:1-9

Sermon

... one's youth which are so often trampled upon by a cruel and careless world. Paul's words written to the Philippians can be very helpful to us as we face obstacles and setbacks in living. As he sat in his prison cell and wrote these words, the apostle must have been very disappointed with the way in which his ministry of 15 years was turning out. He had been let down by fellow workers such as Demas and even Peter. Nobody had supported him at his first trial. The church in Corinth was constantly fighting and ...

1672. Beginning A Healing Ministry

Sermon

... cup. Why does the pastor anoint the people with oil? In biblical times olive oil was considered to be the best medicine of the age. We remember how the Good Samaritan anointed with oil the wounds of the man who had been beaten, and how the apostles "anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them (Mark 6:13)." In the healing service, people are anointed so that they may fully experience the power of prayer united with medicine. We receive this instruction from James in the New Testament: "Is any among ...

1673. Being Different

Daniel 3:1-30

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... has to fear that we'll organize and march on Roberts Hall screaming, "We want the best morals we can get." Average is fine in some things. Or is it? The remaining question, of course, is this: "Where do I get this courage, this moral momentum, to be different?" The apostle Paul hit the nail on the head - "The good I want to do, I don't seem to do. The evil which I want to refrain from doing, I seem to be doing more and more." If being different were easy, we'd all do it all the time and ...

1674. The Shortest Distance Is Not A Straight Line

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... of the earth, the shortest distance is a curved line, not a straight one.1 No airplane would attempt to fly to Europe in a straight line. It would be too far. You either take the circle route by Iceland and Northeastern Canada or you stay home. The apostle Paul spoke of this: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child; when I became an adult, I reached a new plane of thought." Before Paul became a Christian, his life was fairly simple. He knew, he thought, the clear right and the obvious wrong. Amazingly ...

1675. The Christian Life False Humility

Colossians 2:6-23

Bulletin Aid

Call to Worship Leader: The Apostle Paul warns us not to let anyone who delights in false humility disqualify us for the prize of salvation. Anyone of us can be guilty of false humility. Men: If we think we’re special because we go to camp meeting every year and will drive a hundred miles to ...

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