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 1726 to 1750 of 2815 results

1726. Voluntary Blindness

Matthew 6:1-15

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... , one soon comes to feel though perhaps without saying as much - that one deserves the recognition and admiration of people. Then it is only a short step from there to the feeling that God is in one’s debt, and that, as the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable implied, God ought to consider himself fortunate in having such a fine person as this on his side. Walter Bagehot said, "So long as men are very imperfect, a sense of great imperfection should cleave to them."8 But letting one’s left hand know what one ...

1727. The Christian’s Style - 1960

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... and in various places, or whether it is a single address - what does it matter? It is his style. It is not Buddha’s, nor Mohammed’s, nor that of Confucius. It is the Master’s. Likewise the story of the Good Samaritan and the immortal parable of the Prodigal Son - who can mistake them? And the unforgettable account of the woman caught in the act of adultery - what of that? Because most of the ancient authorities omit this incident, it is considered by some to be apocryphal. But the heart of humanity ...

1728. To Bethlehem and Beyond

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... spirit of Bethlehem. In a large department store, crowded with Christmas shoppers, a young husband was overheard impatiently saying to his wife, "What do you want me to do, stand on my head?" A few years ago The Saturday Review of Literature published a modern parable, written as though it were a story from a local newpaper: "Last night John Elzy, watchman at the Grand Eagle Department Store, while making his rounds of the bargain basement, found the body of a man lying under a counter. He was thin to the ...

1729. Become an Ant

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

... in the God who promises not to abandon his people but, because he once delivered them, to deliver them again. This might be another good time to call to the people’s memory again what God did on the Cross. The incarnation-crucifixion-resurrection could be parabled in this story. A man was taking a walk through a pasture. He came upon an anthill and amused himself by watching the ants as they busily scurried in and out. Then he happened to move into a position which cast his shadow over the anthill ...

1730. Trumpets in Church on Easter, The Very Idea!

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

... of fallen man, quarantined by the powers and dominations of the divine milieu around it. But those who escape the silent planet can recover their cosmic orientation. [Time, August 21, 1972] Earth is not entombed in a stone of space. We are not limited to this atmosphere. This is a parable about death. The huge stone which so worried the women on their way to the tomb had already been rolled away. God does not weigh us down. He is the weight lifter.

1731. No Withdrawal

Sermon

James Bjorge

... not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounding imperiously deep in the forest. But as often as he gained the soft unbroken earth and the green shade, the love of John Thornton brought him hack to the fire again." Is not this the parable of life? May the love of God so gloriously demonstrated at Christmas draw us back again and again to his side. As we are lured by the longings to live our selfish way, may the memories of a God-oriented Christmas style bring us back to the Master’s ...

1732. Perhaps Next Summer...

Acts 24:1-27

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... that while He was concerned about people taking the wrong bus in life, He was perhaps much more concerned about their not taking any bus at all, their missing every one that arrived, because they always thought that there would be another one along. The parable of the five wise and the five foolish virgins saw half of them missing the wedding and the feast that followed, because they POSTPONED getting oil for their lamps. In another narrative of the Gospel, you see a great supper ready and the invitations ...

1733. Chapter II

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... power of choice to accept God’s proffer, or to reject it. God built that power of choice into us. He expects us to use it positively. That is why God wants, and has a right to expect, us to do what he asks. Jesus affirmed this fact in the parable of the Waiting Father (Luke 15:11ff.). He tells the now familiar story of a son who gets his father to give him his inheritance on the spot, being unwilling to wait for the old man to die! Taking the money, he leaves the father and heads for the bright ...

1734. Chapter IX

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... way we try to close the gap is by trying to cut them down to our size. To some degree we too frequently treat people the way I one day watched my younger brother split a bottle of pop. His technique for dividing up a bottle of Pepsi became a parable for life. It happened one day when he went to the refrigerator to get each of us a soda. Looking inside, he found that we had only one bottle left. Since I wasn’t going to let him have it all, and he wasn’t going to give it to ...

1735. Wearing the Ashes

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... story. The Lenten theme of this book is often missed. The part that is slighted is perhaps ignored because it is more fascinating to portray the exciting adventure of a man swallowed alive by a huge fish and to argue whether Jonah is a factual account or a parable. But then we miss a large point. The people of Assyria were not part of the chosen people of God. They were like persons in a foreign country today to whom we send missionaries to share with them the Good News of Jesus the Christ. Yet, look at ...

1736. Three-Dimensional Christianity

James 1:19-27

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... responsibility by a futile rationalization, avoiding the smug self-righteousness too often found in American Christianity, a self-righteousness that fails to remember all people are made in the image of God, avoiding the attitude of the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, both of whom thought it was more important to attend to their "religious duties" than to do the truly Christian thing of helping the man in need. Remaining unstained is avoiding the notion that the principle is more ...

1737. BANKER

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... Hellenistic period. By New Testament times, however, some of these restrictions had been lifted. Loaning money on interest to help people engage in business was not condemned, and banks and bankers were part of the common sense. Even Jesus spoke of them, in the parable from which we have taken our text. But even there, the concept was not the same as ours is today. We walk into large buildings that somehow seem to convey a sense of power; they are usually majestic, marble-invested shrines to commerce. The ...

1738. THE DAY LABORER

Deuteronomy 24:15; Matthew 20:1

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... and it be sin in you." Matthew 20:1 - "For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard." In every city there were many people who worked by the day. If we read the entire parable of the householder, from which our text is taken (Matthew 20:1-16), we will find mention of this common sight. These people gathered in the public market places to seek employment; some were porters, who carried heavy loads from place to place; some were mason’s ...

1739. The Kingdom of God Is a Party

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... church. Here within the church we should have the radiance of Christ's love on our faces and warmth in our handshakes and hugs. We are part of the best party on earth! Something else about the Kingdom party is special: Everyone Is Invited! In the parable Jesus told, there were guests invited to the wedding but they would not come. In fact, they abused the messengers who brought the invitations. So the king sent his servants out into the streets and invited to the wedding party anybody who would come. I hate ...

1740. Broken and Beautiful

Luke 18:9-14, Psalm 51:1-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... sinned against the Lord." That is beautiful brokenness...no excuses, no rationalizing, no game playing. David was sorry for his sin, not just sorry that he got caught or that other people would find out. One day Jesus slanted one of his parable-stories at those people who were convinced of their own righteousness and regarded other persons with contempt. I wonder if that describes us. Jesus, the master storyteller, paints a classic portrait of two men at opposite ends of society, religiously and socially ...

1741. Jesus and Judgment

Romans 2:11-16

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken." Perhaps the toughest part of God's judgment has to do with what we did not do or say that we should have done or said. The pastor, William C. Duckworth, has offered this modern parable of God's judgment: "For when I was hungry, you were obese. I was thirsty, and you were watering your lawn. I was a stranger, and you called the police and had me taken away. I was naked while you were saying, 'I must buy some new clothes. I just ...

1742. The Prodigal Daughter

Drama

Maxine Dudley

... material.) Reflective music may be sung as participants enter. When all are seated, the Narrator introduces the service. Narrator no. 1: To begin our reconciliation service we will have a short play The Prodigal Daughter. This drama is taken from the parable "The Prodigal Son" and is adapted to include our Savior, Jesus Christ. Characters: Mother Sarah, youngest daughter Martha, oldest daughter Clarissa, young model Photographer no. 1 Photographer no. 2 Act 1 (The living room of the family home. Mother sits ...

1743. Reconciliation

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

... of this, we become anxious about life. We feel that we do not fit in anywhere. We sense that, somehow, now we are alone and lost in this world. We fear that we no longer belong. There is no place for us. The Garden of Eden story is simply a parable of this truth. We were created to be God’s "image," God’s representative, in the world for others to see and hear. But, rather than be who and what we are, we have chosen to listen to the serpent’s trick. We want to be God - the center of ...

1744. Forgive Us Our Debts - Sermon Starter

Matthew 18:21-35

Illustration

Brett Blair

As with so many of the stories of Jesus, the parable of the debtors arose out of a question that was posed to Jesus. Simon Peter said to him: "Master, if my brother sins against me, how many times should I forgive him? Seven times? Even as he asks that question my mind cannot help but think about children and how ...

1745. Reviving Our Moral Responsibility

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... love as a redeeming power is to prattle a sheer fiction or is as useless as howling against the wind. There is an old saying from our American poet, Longfellow: "The mills of God grind slowly." Consider, for example, the prodigal in Jesus’ parable: he carried the spirit of rebellion, disloyalty and loose living to their logical conclusion and discovered neither happiness nor fulfillment, but sorry defeat in a pig sty. Why so? Simply because there is a moral order in this universe which says, "You reap ...

1746. Returning to Genuine Religion

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... and maker is God." The ancient Law written on tables of stone must be replaced by the law written upon our heart. Outer nature can be governed by rules, but our inner nature calls for harmony with the will of God. The elder brother in Jesus’ parable could run the farm efficiently by rules, but to come into the fellowship of the father’s home, his younger brother had to say, "I have sinned." 1. The Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948), pp. 149, 150. 2. From ...

1747. Song of an Historian

Psalm 78:1-72

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... on Israel’s throne. Nor can he refrain from calling on his contemporaries to consider their heritage carefully lest they lose their sense of direction. Give ear, O people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. (Psalm 78:1-3) Thus, the psalmist will instruct and rebuke as he sums up the past for his hearers to reflect upon that they may profit ...

1748. Five Minutes After Death

Revelation 21:1-27

Sermon

Robert Allen

There is an old Arab parable about a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to the market one day. Before very long, the servant returned, white and trembling with fear. There was great agitation in his voice as he said: "Master, down in the market place I was jostled by someone in the crowd. When ...

1749. The Scandal Of Redeeming Love

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... , and even when it abandoned Yahweh, whoring after the pagan Baal gods. And the love of Yahweh would even redeem Israel from the lowest degradation, to be restored again in the family, and the covenant renewed. That is the very theme that Jesus portrayed in the parable about a prodigal son. The socalled foolishness of God is love that knows no limits. Jesus portrayed in his life this loving and redeeming God. Mark’s gospel, in the reading for today, tells first of Jesus teaching by the sea, and then as he ...

1750. Coming Down The Mountain

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... , going from place to place on the dusty roads to teach and preach. They tell of conflicts with local village elders, and criticism from the religious establishment, and the friction of differing ideas. Luckily some give us a few of the teaching parables of Jesus. But for the most part it is everyday routine, but nevertheless energy-consuming activities - crowds of people, teaching, ministering to individual needs - from which Jesus and the disciples tried to get away alone for a brief time of quietness. So ...

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