Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1676 to 1700 of 4935 results

1676. Lent 4

Psalm 32:1-11, Joshua 5:1-12, 2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

A Father And Two Sons Jesus never discussed abstract and systematic theology as far as we have reported. He did communicate profound insights about the nature of God, human nature, and the relationship between God and people. The parable in today's passage is one of those instances where he did so very graphically. The parable is frequently called "The Prodigal Son." It is sometimes referred to as "The Lost Son" or "The Two Lost Sons." The parable does focus on the attitudes and behavior of the two sons. ...

1677. God Made My Day

Psalm 118:1-29

Sermon

Carl B. Rife

"God Made My Day" is one anonymous Christian's response to the infamous line of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character who says,"Go ahead, make my day," as he holds a gun on a thug and dares him to make a move. The implication is that Harry Callahan's day would be made if he were given the opportunity by a false move by his antagonist to mete out his rough version of justice by wasting the guy, as the language in these movies goes. Over against this cynical view of life is this affirmation on a bumper ...

1678. Room For Questions

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

It's interesting how we fix in our minds certain images of people and block other images of the same people. We do that to biblical characters. We remember Peter's denial of Jesus, but forget his powerful preaching recorded in the book of Acts. Or, we remember how women came to Jesus for help from time to time, but forget how Jesus depended on the women for financial support and to announce the news of the resurrection. We remember David's tryst with Bathsheba, but forget his courage and leadership in ...

1679. Pentecost

1 Corinthians 12:1-11, Joel 2:28-32, John 7:25-44, Acts 2:14-41, Acts 2:1-13, John 20:19-23

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: The gift of the Holy Spirit, as told by Luke (Acts 2:1-11) and John (the Gospel). The Roman Catholic and Episcopal lectionaries have the Acts passage as the First Lesson, while the Lutheran lectionary has it as the Second Lesson. The 1 Corinthians 12 text has to do with the gifts of the Spirit in the Church and the Lutheran First Lesson (Joel 2:28-29) is the passage referred to by Peter in his Pentecost sermon. COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Acts 2:1-21 (C); Acts 2:1-11 (RC, E) The promised Spirit comes upon ...

1680. The Great I AM

Sermon

Ronald Lavin

But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': This is my name forever,and ...

1681. Bread of Another Kind (Bread of Life II)

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

“I am the Bread of Life,” says Jesus. “Do not work for food that spoils ... work for food that lasts for eternal life.” I invite you to consider three questions: To whom were these words spoken? Who spoke them? What do they mean? First, to whom were these words spoken? They were spoken to the people whom Jesus fed the day before, the 5,000 who ate so generously from the little boy’s lunch bag. A quick mental walk through some of the events just prior to this will get us in perspective: One, it was the ...

1682. Advent 3

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28, Isaiah 61:1-11, John 1:19-28, John 1:1-18

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme For The Day: Joy and anticipation concerning what God was about to do. Isaiah promises the oil of gladness (Isaiah 61:3) as God brings the captives of Israel back to their homeland. In Thessalonians, Paul charges the church always to rejoice (v. 16). In the Gospel, John delineates his message as pointing to the One who was to follow him: the One who would be much greater than he. All of these messengers were filled with a sense of joyful expectancy. The third Sunday in Advent has in some traditions ...

1683. Epiphany 3

Mark 1:14-20, Jonah 3:1-10, Jeremiah 3:6-4:4, 1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: The right time. In the First Lesson (Jonah 3) Jonah warned the inhabitants of Nineveh that it was time to repent. In the Second Lesson Paul thinks that the time of Christ's return is very near. The Gospel begins with our Lord's call to repentance and faith. COMMENTARY Old Testament: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 After being vomited up by the great fish, Jonah reluctantly agrees to preach repentance to the citizens of Nineveh. The populous city readily repents and God retracts his decision to punish the sinful ...

1684. Selling One’s Soul

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Robert Allen

Universities in the Northeast take great delight in staging Elizabethan dramas. This is one of the cultural aspects which universities in the Northeast emphasize. It is a way of giving aspiring young actors and actresses some practical experience on the stage and it is a way of taking classical literature out of the boredom of the classroom and making it come alive in the minds of students as they watch it performed on the stage. Perhaps, one of the greatest of the Elizabethan dramas is Christopher Marlowe ...

1685. Table For Talkers

Luke 22:7-38

Sermon

The success of a dinner depends as much on fellowship as on food. This fellowship takes place through conversation. A banquet of friends buzzes like a beehive. Did you notice it or maybe you were too busy talking to have heard it? A dinner is a miserable occasion when two or more people sit down and eat their meal in a cold, bitter silence, because there is nothing for them to communicate. This dinner conversation need not be pleasantries or chit-chat, but it can be talk of substance. This was the case ...

1686. Proper 14 & Pentecost 12

1 Kings 19:9-18, Psalm 29:1-11, Psalm 106:1-48, Romans 9:1-29, Matthew 14:22-36, Exodus 13:17--14:31, Jonah 2:1-10, Psalm 85:1-13

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Little or no help is forthcoming from the church year as a theological clue for a worship/preaching theme for this Sunday. The title of the day - the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - is really the only reminder, suggesting how the church got to this point in the year and, for those in the "liturgical know," where we are going, Christ the King Sunday. On this "Pentecost pilgrimage," it is the business of the church to give thanks and to worship the Lord, to seek out the secrets of the ...

1687. The Yestermorrow Eclipse

John 10:1-21

Sermon

It was a fearsome sight ... striking terror to the hearts of city dwellers and country-folk alike. Mysterious, unexplainable, frightening. Surely the wrath of the gods had come upon them, and perhaps the end of the world was at hand. Few events in history have penetrated human lives with such universal mystery and fear. As the Greek writer Archilochus described it, "sore fear came upon men," and Theoclymenus notes that "an evil mist has spread over all." People would hide, tribes would dance feverishly, ...

1688. Opportunism? Or Opportunity?

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

A striking television commercial came into our living rooms not long ago. It showed a funeral procession of expensive vehicles, driving single file behind a hearse, toward a cemetery. As the camera focused on the passengers in the first one, and then the next and the next of the procession of luxurious automobiles, a voice could be heard. It was that of the lawyer, reading the will, which each would soon be hearing. "To my nephew," said the voice, "who didn’t know the value of a dollar - I leave one dollar ...

1689. God Can’t Keep a Good Secret!

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and he set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord God, thou knowest." Again he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold ...

1690. Naaman, the Leper

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Don Yocom

The Old Testament gives us many illustrations for evangelistic purposes. The story of Naaman is an excellent analogy for us. Leprosy in his day was considered incurable and we can compare it to sin. Leprosy was not confined just to the poorer class of people either. Both Naaman of the Old Testament and a man known as Simon the Leper in the New Testament had the dread disease; and neither of them was from the poorer or lower classes of society. It was so much like sin. St. Paul said we are all in need of ...

1691. Wade In The Water

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

The lives of the rich and famous hold a strange fascination for those of us who do not find ourselves in that category. From a very surface view it is easy to envy their glamorous and opulent lifestyles. How we’d like to be like them. We could really enjoy having their money, or their influence, or the adulation of the people who crowd around them. How nice it would be to have the athletic prowess of Michael Jordan, or the good looks and acting talent of a Tom Cruise or Geena Davis, the voice of Luciano ...

1692. Practicing Righteousness

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

Our minds remember the strangest things. Back when I was a freshman in college we all had to give speeches in English class. Henry gave a speech that I remember to this day. The thrust of his brief speech was to refute the old adage that, "Practice makes perfect." Henry’s point was that practice only makes perfect that which you practice. In other words you may practice something, say a piece of music on the piano, and have several of the notes wrong. You practice and practice until you play the piece ...

1693. King of Atlanta

Romans 8:28-39

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

"We are more than conquerors through Christ ..." Romans 8:35-39 Characters: Lector Announcer Antagonist Protagonist (Participants enter and take their places in the chancel. As they come forward, the congregation sings the hymn "Beneath the Cross of Jesus." When the hymn is completed, the drama begins.) LECTOR: Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it? Or hardship? Or persecution? Or hunger? Or poverty? Or danger? Or death? As the Scripture says, "For your sake we are in danger of ...

1694. JESUS: Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Lord

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Brett Blair

Before we read the text for this morning I am going to ask you to do something a little different. I want you to listen to the reading not with a heart of faith but with a skeptical mind. If it helps, imagine that you do not know that Jesus is anything else but a teacher. You are a first century person who has just been introduced to him. [Read John 6:35, 41-51] Pretty incredible isn't it? For someone to make such claims. What if, later today, you were introduced to someone and that someone said, "Hi, I am ...

1695. Look Up and Live

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Snakes. Do you like snakes? Not many do. I can think of no other creature on the face of the planet that so universally brings forth a sense of revulsion and disgust. True or not, we think of snakes as icky, slimy, nasty, and as our Old Testament lesson reminds, DANGEROUS. It seems that the children of Israel, in the midst of their wilderness wandering after the escape from slavery in Egypt, had stumbled on to a location south of the Dead Sea that is infamous for its lethal snakes. "Big deal," they no ...

1696. Two Promises For A New Year

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

Tom Ervin, Professor of Music at the University of Arizona was attending a conference for music teachers in New York. While at the conference he purchased a talking metronome. A metronome is a device for counting the beats in a song. Before Tom and his son boarded their flight home, Tom hefted his carry-on bag onto the security-check conveyor belt. The security guard's eyes widened as he watched the monitor. He asked Tom what he had in the bag. Then the guard slowly pulled out of the bag this strange ...

1697. The Lord's Pryaer: Our Daily Bread

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Dr. Fred B. Craddock tells of going to hear a well-known speaker talk about world hunger. He was not disappointed in her presentation. Her speech was well-organized and persuasive. However, five years later, he had for all practical purposes forgotten what this speaker had said. However, Dr. Craddock said that the most memorable and life-changing remark came from a little white-haired lady who had much less education and oratory skills than the main speaker--but she did something this conscious nature ...

1698. The Marvelous Meaning of the Cross

Galatians 6:11-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Toward the end of that marvelous classic, Pilgrim''s Progress, the character, Christian, is moving with tremendous difficulty on the highway between the walls of salvation. His heavy burden makes it almost impossible to move, though he slowly inches along. Finally, he reaches an elevated place upon which there stands a cross and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher. As Bunyan describes it: Just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden was loosened from his shoulders and fell from his back and ...

1699. Compassion Fatigue

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I’m excited about being here – I’m excited about what Hope Foundation is doing. As much as anything else we need to pay attention and honor those who are seeking to make a difference for the cause of Christ. I just came from South Africa – Nelson Mandella – In Jail for 26 years – He talked about his Christian faith and the role the church played in dismantling apartheid. Imagine that – in prison for 26 years – often tortured, poorly fed, manual labor all day, sleeping on a straw mat. Coming away from that ...

1700. Keeping Our Souls

John 13:18-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A seminary student (not one of you) preached his senior sermon in a homiletics class. When he got through, the professor gave him his critique. “John, I’ll give you an A- on the sermon. It was a good one. But I must give you an F on the title.” “An F?” said John. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong with my title?” “Well,” said the professor, “the title is one of the most important parts of the sermon. It should be so compelling and captivating that if a busload of people pass by your sign on Sunday morning, ...

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