Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1726 to 1750 of 4914 results

1726. Blazing a Path to Christ

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Richard Gribble

"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." When we were children we were taught this little rhyme as a way to remember one of the most momentous events in modern history. Columbus was a trailblazer who dared to believe that it was possible to reach the East Indies by sailing west across a vast uncharted ocean. By its very nature the voyage was dangerous and the sailors who braved the challenge were filled with fear. People are instinctively afraid of what they do not know. Yet, even with the odds stacked ...

1727. Healing in His Wings

Acts 14:8-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus spent his entire ministry doing three things: preaching, teaching and healing. This sermon explores the three steps to a healing ministry and healing church. The reign of modernism in our culture has been shored up by a very powerful myth we long to believe: that we can be in control through technological manipulation and mastery. The quest to control nature has led to an explosion in scientific knowledge - allowing us to splice genes, wipe out pathogens and multiply our food supply. Likewise our ...

1728. The Ultimate Soul Food

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus has two major metaphors for himself-Bread and Water: "Bread of Life" and "Living Water." For the Christian, the #1 soul food is bread and water. What makes bread come alive, what turns juice into wine, is YEAST. There is a Kudzu cartoon that shows the preacher reading from the pulpit the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily....low-fat, low-cholesterol, salt-free bread ..." The last frame has him saying to himself, "I hate these modern translations." Despite such modern translations, despite new ...

1729. Seventh Sunday of Easter

1 John 5:1-12, Acts 1:12-26, Psalm 1:1-6, John 17:6-19

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter—Psalm 1:1 First Lesson—Spiritual transformation, not merely new rituals, are what the Eternal One desires from God’s people. Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 Second Lesson—The greatest affirmative action in history is the sending of Jesus as the confirmation of God’s gracious promises. 1 John 5:9-13 Gospel—Only God has the final authority to forgive our sins and that authority was shared with the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth. John 17:6-19 CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be ...

1730. Mary: The Promise Conceived

Luke 1:26-55

Sermon

James Merritt

Promises, Promises. Every time someone breaks a promise, they just blame it on the old saying "Promises were meant to be broken." It is very hard not to believe that and accept that as a way of life. The world's three most famous promises are promises that are never kept. Do you know what they are? The check is in the mail I'll love you in the morning I'm from the government and I'm here to help you Let's face it. Politicians are famous for making promises they don't keep. In the 20th century these are ...

1731. All Is New in Christ

John 11:4-6, Philippians 3:4-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Running as fast as his feet would carry him, Androclus raced into the forest. He hoped he could survive there, finding roots and berries to eat and avoiding all wild animals. He had few other choices; people were always looking for runaway slaves. He wondered, however, how it would be to live in terror of being discovered. Every pine cone that fell onto the mossy surface of the forest made him jump and look around to see if soldiers were in pursuit. He needed shelter. Rain was in the air and it would soon ...

1732. Taking the Shape of Christ

Galatians 4:8-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The little girl had been giving her mother a hard time all morning. Finally her mother said, “Please behave your self. Don’t you know that every time you misbehave, I get another gray hair in my head?” “My,” the little girl said, “you sure must have been a bad little girl. Just look at all the gray hairs Grandmother has!” That’s a story about how we become the way we are. Apart from the obvious lessons that we parents need to be careful in the way we seek teach our children - we can’t put anything over on ...

1733. When You Are Up And Out

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

It’s been said of Jesus that whenever he met a person, it was as if that person were an island around which Jesus sailed, until he found where the real problem was and there he landed. He did that with the woman at the well and landed on the question of marriage. “Go call your husband,” Jesus said to her. He did that with the rich young ruler and landed on the question of money. “Go sell all of your possessions and give them to the poor,” He said to that man. He did that with Zacchaeus and landed on the ...

1734. The Victory Is Ours

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

All Saints provides an opportunity to remember and give thanks for all the believers who have lived before us. Some of the saints are people we might have known quite well, we might recognize the names of others, and still there are many more numbering in the millions whose names and lives are known only to God. There are people we knew personally who impact our faith in profound ways: our parents, grandparents, other relatives, good friends, fellow church members, or neighbors who now reside in heaven. We ...

1735. Step Into The Vision

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I remember reading once about a group of troops who were waiting for both reinforcements and supplies. Things weren't desperate but they were getting close. They'd radioed headquarters several times and were finally given these instructions. "Troops and supplies are currently being deployed. Suggest you procure a pair of binoculars, go out on the roof and keep your ears to the ground." I've loved binoculars ever since I was a kid. Early in our marriage, I had to have a pair. They weren't very powerful but ...

1736. The Inconcealable Christ!

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

In this amazing passage of two miracles, we find just one message. The first miracle is the healing of the daughter of a Greek woman, born in Syrian Phoenicia. In many ways, it is among the most significant of Jesus' miracles not just because the child received healing. Syrophoenicia is not a candidate region for the zip code 90210. The "pretty people" do not take up residence there. In fact, they do all they can to avoid going that way. It is a remote place sustained by commercial fishing and, if we can ...

1737. Hebrews 1:1-4

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The opening verses of Hebrews, called the “exordium,” offers both a theologically complete and rhetorically complex statement of Christian faith. It is a statement that upholds and validates the experiences of previous generations and yet testifies that the present and the future manifestations of the divine are the fulfillment of God’s plans. The Hebrews author declares a continuity of purpose and person, throughout the ages, from creation to salvation. That purpose is the right, repaired relationship ...

1738. No Time for a Sermon

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Merry Christmas! Christmas Day is “No Time For A Sermon.” No, it is not that there is no time for a sermon because the choir sang so many beautiful Christmas songs. It is not because there is no time for a sermon because it took so long to seat the “Christmas crowd.” It is not because the critters in the “live” nativity scene got loose and ate all the Christmas cookies for coffee hour. The reason that on this Sunday, on Christmas Day, there is “no time for a sermon” is because on Christmas Day there is ...

1739. Formula for Eternal Life

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sermon

Richard Gribble

George lives in FortPortal, a town on the western front of Uganda, some fifty miles from the Congo. Like the RwenzoriMountains (the Mountains of the Moon) that surround the town, George is a beautiful man in many ways. He works as a cook, among many other tasks, for a local school. There is actually little that George does not do. He is the one who washes, irons, and mends the students' clothes, cleans the dormitory, fixes what is broken, does the grocery shopping, and takes care of the outside yard. In ...

1740. Sin and Punishment

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

My Stubborn People (8:4-7): The next oracle denigrates God’s people for their foolish stubbornness. Through a series of rhetorical questions and comparisons, it emphasizes their unwillingness to restore their broken relationship with their God. 8:4–5 The oracle begins with two rhetorical questions. When someone falls they naturally get themselves on their feet again. When someone turns away, presumably from the right path, they try to return to go in the right direction. After these rhetorical questions, ...

1741. Miscellaneous Laws

Deut 23:15–25:19

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

Community Laws: Defining and Protecting the Community · These last chapters (23-25) of the central law code have a “flavor” of concern for a compassionate and caring community that takes seriously the claims of kinship and the needs of the weak and vulnerable. That community itself, however, needs clear definition and measures to protect its religious distinctiveness and purity. This need explains the presence, alongside laws that immediately appeal to us by their charitable nature, of other laws that ...

1742. Introduction and “Hello”

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

Big Idea: Paul introduces himself as a fellow Christ follower and reminds his Corinthian friends that calling Christ Lord should generate life patterns that reflect such a relationship to Christ. Understanding the Text If anything strikes someone who begins reading 1 Corinthians, it is how Paul packs content into every word from the outset. When we realize how well he knows the Corinthian congregation even on a personal level and recognize that this is at least his second letter to the church (5:9), it is ...

1743. Humanity Reaching Out

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

James L. Killen

There is a humanity that lives within us and among us that is always responsive to the showing forth of God whenever and wherever it happens. It is in the response of our humanity to the showing forth of God that fullness of life emerges. But there is also an inhumanity that lives among us -- and sometimes within us -- that pays no attention to God and that works to stifle real humanity wherever it lives. It also stifles life. We live our lives, and the world lives out its history, in the conflict between ...

1744. Daniel’s Training in Babylon

Daniel 1:1-21

Understanding Series

William Nelson

Daniel and His Three Friends Avoid Defilement: Chronological notations frame the opening chapter. It begins with the third year of King Jehoiakim of Judah, at which time the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem (1:1). It ends with the first year of King Cyrus of Persia (1:21). These are roughly the parameters of the exile; apparently they are also the bookends for Daniel’s career. Nebuchadnezzar deported to Babylon the Jewish leaders, including Daniel and his friends; Cyrus conquered Babylon ...

1745. Jesus Prays for His Disciples

John 17:6-19

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

Just as in verses 1–3, the Son’s work of “glorifying” the Father is defined as revealing or making the Father known, but in this case the revealing is to the specific group of disciples gathered to hear Jesus’ last instructions. The phrase those whom you gave me focuses on this limited group in contrast to all those you have given him (out of all people) in verse 2. Such phrases as they have obeyed (v. 6), now they know (v. 7), they accepted, they knew, they believed (v. 8) are Jesus’ testimony to the ...

1746. Planted for a Purpose

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

John M. Braaten

A hole is blown open in the cargo area of a 747 jumbo jet, and nine people are sucked out and killed instantly. It is natural to ask, "Why?" A tornado rips through a small community in Kansas destroying buildings and businesses which took a lifetime to establish and we grieve with them. Those are just a couple of the more spectacular of a whole series of tragic and painful events which occur daily, which trouble our hearts and create questions in our minds. Our text this morning tells of some people who ...

1747. In Need of a "Rally Monkey"

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

King Duncan

What do you do when you need a little extra motivation? When your strength or your spirits are depleted, and you’re facing a big challenge—how do you kick up your energy a notch? In June of 2000, a couple of video board operators for the Los Angeles Angels baseball team decided that their team needed some extra motivation. They were playing the San Francisco Giants and they were behind. So the guys on the video board threw up a video clip on the stadium’s giant video screen—a video clip from the movie “Ace ...

1748. House of Prayer

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” (Isaiah 56:7) “Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 7:11) "It is written," he said to them [Temple priests, leaders, and businessmen], "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it 'a den of robbers.'" (Matthew 21:13) When Toby, a little 3-year old boy, was chastised by his Mama for taking 7 cookies from the cookie jar without ...

1749. Suffering Leads to Victory

1 Peter 3:18-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

The Comanche people moaned aloud to the Great Spirit: “O Great Spirit, our land is dying and we are dying too. Tell us what we have done wrong to make you so angry. End this terrible drought and save your people before we perish altogether. Tell us what we must do so that once more you will send rain and restore our land to life.” For three days the people prayed and danced, they prayed and danced, but no rain came. When the rain did not come, the elders of the tribe went to the hills to listen to the wind ...

1750. Enduring the Trials of Faith

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

Richard Gribble

“In the seventh year of his reign, two days before his 65th birthday, in the presence of a full consistory of cardinals, Jean Marie Barette, Pope Gregory XVII signed an instrument of abdication, took off the fisherman’s ring, handed his seal to the Cardinal Camerlengo and made a curt speech of farewell.” So begins the power novel The Clowns of God, the second volume of a trilogy of tales about popes and faith written by Morris West, the Australian-born author. In the story the pope has seen a vision of the ...

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