Sermon and Worship Resources

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Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

As the first, in-your-face Buster, Jesus said: "Don't listen to people's WORDS; look at their DEEDS." 1996 is a very significant year for baby boomers because it is the year the first wave of boomers hit 50. Boomers like rocker Bruce Springsteen and actor Diane Keaton, director Steven Spielberg, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and singer Dolly Parton (to name a few) are squinting into the sun of their golden years with a mixture of joy, fear and modulated anticipation. Boosters, the GI generation born ...

152. Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 17:1-27, Psalm 22:23-31, Mark 8:31-38, Romans 4:13-25

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter—Psalm 22:23-31 First Lesson—Abram’s name is changed to Abraham as God makes a covenant with him to provide a successor/son through Sarah his wife. Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Second Lesson—Paul uses the example of Abraham and Sarah as a model of trust in God’s promises of salvation. Romans 4:13-25 Gospel—Jesus rebukes the idea that his mission can be accomplished without suffering and says that all disciples have a cross to bear. Mark 8:31-38 CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus ...

153. Framing Values – Part Two

Daniel 1:1-21

Sermon

James Merritt

We are continuing to make progress on our Extreme Home Makeover as you can see and the framing is coming right along. Last week we talked about framing values for your children. Today, I want to talk about framing values for your teenagers. Have you listened to teenagers talk recently? I want to be honest and tell you that I suffer from TLD - Teenage Language Deficiency. If you have listened to your teenager talk lately, you know that their favorite word now is "like". I counted up one time and Joshua, my ...

154. The Freedom to Interpret

John 8:31-36

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

Reformation Sunday is one of those unique times in the church year when we take a moment to remember a movement that changed the religious landscape forever. It is within this landscape that we find John and his gospel message this day. How does this story of Jesus and Abraham relate to Reformation Sunday? First of all, it is important to see that Jesus' followers would be encouraged by this passage because it places them in the position of seeing that Jesus had faced what they were facing; some members of ...

155. Saintly Visions!

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

On All Saints, we are visited through the Hebrew Scripture by Daniel. For most of us, Daniel is a book to either be avoided altogether or used sparingly. It falls into that category of books, like the book of Revelation, that is difficult to understand and is often misrepresented. Daniel is not included in that list of books known as prophets because the authors of the prophetical books were men who occupied a special place in biblical history because of their special relationship with God. Prophets were ...

156. Thanks for Receiving Thanksgiving

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

This wonderful chapter of Deuteronomy speaks to us on this Thanksgiving Day of the forms for the presentation of the abundance of a good harvest. The verses suggest that only those who are in communion with the giver can present the gift with a clean heart. It was the custom at the time of the telling of this story that each year, a basket containing firstfruits of the soil was to be brought to the central sanctuary and presented to God. The Bible tells us that firstfruits for the people described in ...

157. Digging Deeper

Philippians 3:12-16

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Three students were discussing various versions of the Bible. One said, "I like the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. It is easier to read than the older versions." A second student said, "I like the Message. It's easy to read and it's pithy and to the point. I can use it in my daily prayer." The third student surprised them all and said, "I like my mother's version the best. She translated the Bible into action I can use in my daily life." I really like that. Somebody once said, "You may be the ...

158. The Family Album

1 John 3:1-3

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A mother realized that she had never shown her four-and-a-half-year-old son her own baby pictures. After going through the family photo album and showing the pictures to the little boy, he said, "If those are your baby pictures, where are the dinosaurs?"(1) In John Steinbeck's great novel, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, a migrating "Okie" family is told not to waste vital packing space on photographs and other items of family history and memories. One of the family members objects and asks, "How will we know it's us ...

159. No Instant Maturity

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A man went into a department store, picked up a game of chess took it to a salesman and said, “Tell me how to play it as you wrap the package.” That’s descriptive of our situation. We want to know how to do it quickly. We don’t want to take the time to follow each necessary step. No fascination is keener than our fascination with short-cuts. We want to be “saints suddenly”. We dream long for instant maturity. And that’s what I want to talk about today as we continue our consideration of Christian growth. ...

160. Holiness of Heart and Life

Romans 2:21-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

At Stanford University there is a psychologist named Festinger who has a theory which he calls “cognitive dissonance.’ If you teach at a university like Stanford, you are supposed to use big words like that. As strange and new as it may sound, it’s very simple. It means that there is a big gap between my ideals and my actions, what I believe and what I do, my goals and my deeds. There is a difference between the image I have of myself and the image I try to project for other people and that discrepancy is ...

161. In the Lions' Den (Dealing with Stress)

Psalm 16:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I don’t know when it began, but the symbol has been a pervasive one for a long time “The Lions’ Den”. It is a symbol for the conflicts in life. “They threw him to the lions,” we say of those who cruelly thrust an innocent, unsuspecting person into the most difficult of all situations. “The Lions’ Den” is the place where our testing comes, where we struggle to keep our integrity; where we wage the fiery battle with ourselves as well as with others and/or forces outside ourselves. It may be the arena where ...

162. Liberated Women

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

Barbara Walters, of Television’s 20/20, did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before the current Afghan war. She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands. She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Ms. Walters’ vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even farther back behind their husbands, and are happy to maintain the old custom. Ms. Walters ...

163. Judas, A Person Like Us

Mark 14:43-52

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Would you ever consider naming one of your children Judas? We name our children James and John and Matthew and Peter and Andrew and Thaddeus. You may not have thought of the apostles of Jesus when you gave these names to your sons. You may have been thinking of a father, or grandfather, but the names go beyond that, back to those disciples of Jesus. But Judas! The name is not in our repertoire of treasured names for our sons. Yet, the name was common among the Jews. There are several Judas’ in the Bible. ...

164. No Partiality

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

John N. Brittain

You may be looking at the most fortunate person on the face of the earth. Let me explain. It seems that without even entering, I've won several lotteries based all over the world. I've supplied them with all my personal information — social security number, bank accounts, all of that — so, any day now, millions of pounds and rupees and doubloons will be flowing into my accounts. And if that's not enough, I have signed on to be the executor for a number of recently deceased international figures who need me ...

165. One of the Family

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I read about a preacher whose daughter keeps a daily notebook. On one page she had drawn a picture of her father and written carefully his name and address. When asked why, she explained. She had been watching a movie about amnesia. And then she said, "If I ever forget who I am, I want everybody to know who I belong to." Belonging is very important. And knowing who we belong is even more important. This morning the author of the letter to the Hebrews talks about Belonging and our relationship with God. Let ...

166. See What Love . . .

1 John 3:1-7

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Hearken back to a time in life less stressful. To childhood. A simpler time. Not necessarily a better time, but a simpler time when we weren't in charge and the biggest worry we had was whether or not we were going to get a shot when we went to the doctor's office or whether the teacher was going to give a pop quiz. Think back to that uncluttered time in your life, when 25 cents, 50 cents, a dollar or even five dollars seemed like a great allowance and gave you more money than you could spend in a week. It ...

167. The Real Underdog!

1 Samuel 17:1, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49

Sermon

William J. Carl, III

Every boy I knew growing up in the Midwest loved this story. We acted it out. We imagined ourselves as David, the shepherd boy, with nothing but a sling and a few smooth stones. Goliath represented for us every neighborhood bully who had ever picked on us. Of course, we only had dime-store slingshots. You know the kind where you pulled back the bungee cord-like launcher with the little patch in the middle and tried to nail your target. The idea that David pegged Goliath with nothing but a leather strap and ...

168. What If You Truly Were Born Again?

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

“It’ll be dark soon,” a character says in the 1968 western Firecreek, starring Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda. Then he adds, “Things happen at night.” (1) Well, they do happen at night. Take our lesson from John for example. “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night . . .” So begins one of the best known stories in Scripture . . . and also one of the most important. Nicodemus probably came under the cover of night because he was ...

169. Vvvrooommm

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

A city boy decided he need to cut some wood and would DIY it. He went into a hardware store early one morning and asked for a saw. The salesman took a chain saw from the shelf and commented that it was their “newest model, with the latest in technology, guaranteed to cut ten cords of firewood a day.” The customer thought that sounded pretty good, so he bought it on the spot. The next day the customer returned, looking somewhat exhausted. “Something must be wrong with this saw,” he moaned. “I worked as hard ...

170. Jehoram King of Judah

2 Chronicles 21:4-20

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

Jehoram: The previous three kings, Abijah, Asa, and Jehoshaphat, were (mainly) positive role models of the Davidic kingship in both Chronicles and Kings. (For darker episodes, see the turn of events in Asa’s and Jehoshaphat’s reigns in 16:1–14 and 20:35–37, respectively.) However, the Chronicler even enhanced their exemplary profiles with some of his own material. The same does not apply to Jehoram’s history. His portrayal is very negative, with the ominous note already sounding early in the narrative: “he ...

171. Barnabas and Saul Sent Off

Acts 13:1-3

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

Chapter 13 marks a most significant point in the history. Hitherto, Jerusalem and Judea have been the scene of the believers’ activities and Peter the most prominent figure. But now the base of operation moves (at least for Luke’s purposes, ignoring, perhaps, other spheres of activity) to Antioch in Syria, and Paul becomes the center of attention. The very phrase by which Luke refers to the church in Antioch—a quasitechnical term in the Greek—seems to indicate its new status. The Christians are no longer ...

172. The Sin and Doom of Godless Men

Jude 1:1-16

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

Writer and Readers 1 By custom, Hellenistic letters began with a threefold formula: (a) the name of the sender; (b) the name of the recipient; and (c) an opening salutation. Greek writers followed the pattern “(a) to (b): greetings.” A NT example is the letter of Claudius Lysias to Felix (Acts 23:26). Jewish letters were introduced slightly differently. The opening sentence gave the names of writer and recipient. A second sentence invoked a blessing upon the reader. The three elements of (a) author, (b) ...

173. Offerings for the Tabernacle

Exodus 25:1-9

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

Introduction to the Tabernacle: The thirteen chapters that describe the tabernacle have posed a challenge for interpreters since the time of Philo (d. 50 A.D.). In The Life of Moses Philo gave a symbolic reading that has influenced interpretation to the present day. For him, the tent of meeting represented the spiritual world and the courtyard signified the material world. The colors (blue, purple, crimson and white) represented the basic elements; the seven lights of the lampstand were the seven planets; ...

174. The Angel of the Lord at Bokim

Judges 2:1-5

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Reproof and Response: As we move into Judges 2, we do not move into a new section. Originally there were no chapter and verse divisions in the Bible; these were added in the sixteenth century to facilitate referencing. Most of the time, interpreters divided chapters and verses correctly, but in some cases they did not. Judges 2:1–5 is an instance when they did not. Judges 2 follows closely upon Judges 1, describing God’s response to Israel’s disobedience. It again highlights the most important theme of the ...

175. Samson and Delilah

Judges 16:1-22

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Samson’s Downfall and Death: Few stories in the Hebrew Bible have more recognition factor than the story of Samson and Delilah. It is a gripping, poignant drama brought to life by a gifted artist who has skillfully combined plot and characterization to present a classic story whose elements, if not the whole, have been told and retold in many cultures through all varieties of media, whether story, song, art, or film. But as we turn to this famous story, we must remember that it is part of a whole and thus ...

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