Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1751 to 1775 of 4933 results

1751. All Saints' Sunday

Mt 5:1-12 · 1 Jn 3:1-3 · Isa 26:1-21 · Rev 7:9-17; 21:9-11, 22-27; 22:1-5 · Ps 24 · Ps 34 · Ps 149

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

COMMENTARY Epistle: Revelation 7:9-17 This is an interlude between the sixth and seventh seals. The saints are marked with the seal of God which affords protection from the plagues and coming judgment. During this period of great persecution under the Roman Emperor, Domitian, about 96 A.D., John encourages the struggling church with a heavenly vision of light and glory. A great throng of believers are gathered around the throne of God for worship and praise. They are clothed in white and are waving palm ...

1752. What Can I Do for You?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

Knowing James and John wanted something of him Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” The modern equivalent of this question is “What can I do for you?” We hear it on all sides; for many it is a routine way to answer the phone. “Hello, this is Frank.” “Yea, what can I do for you?” After a weekend together on retreat, a participant and I were at a dinner party. Looking at me seriously he said, “You do for a lot of people. I’m wondering if there is anything I can do for you. Just let me know, no ...

1753. Museum or Mission?

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

An inner city church, located in an area of the downtown where there were few residents, was forced to a decision. A large corporation was offering them a great deal of money for their site, on which the corporation wanted to put a parking lot. The money would enable the church to move to another part of the inner city where they would find many more people to serve. Even though this was exciting to some of the congregation, other members were resistant to the idea. They pointed out that the church was the ...

1754. Making a Choice

John 16:5-16

Children's Sermon

Object: Some dental equipment and, if possible, some demonstration teeth that would be used in a dental hygiene clinic for school children. It certainly is good to see you here this morning, worshiping God and sharing with your friends the good time we have here. I want to talk to you about a very important group in our church called the choir. What does the choir do? They sing, that's right. Did you know that when the choir was first used in worship the choir people did all the singing and the rest of the ...

1755. A Book Which Reads Us

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

Hans-Ruedi Weber relates a story which is often told in East Africa. A simple woman always walked around with her bulky Bible. She never was parted from it. So the villagers began to tease her: "Why always the Bible?" they asked. "There are so many other books you could read." Yet the woman kept on living with her Bible, neither disturbed nor angered by all the teasing. But finally one day, she knelt down in the midst of those who laughed at her. She held up the Bible, high above her head, and said with a ...

1756. God of Wrath and Grace

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

There is a certain character on a British TV situation comedy who is always saying to someone else, “I have good news and bad news for you. Which do you want first?” Somehow the bad news always turns out to be worse than the good news is good. One day a hospital surgeon told his patient, “ I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” The patient said, “Give me the bad news.” The doctor said, “We are going to have to amputate both of your feet.” The patient said, “Oh, that’s ...

1757. We May Have to Change Our Name

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

You can find them in almost every big, old downtown church: the pictures of the pastors of that congregation. They are lined up in a rogues’ gallery of clerics. And they look down at us over their names and dates. As you walk down the hall and move back through the decades, some things are easy to notice. The collars get out of date, and then simply strange-looking. Sideburns march up and down as if matched to the stock market cycles. Above all, the farther back you get, the sterner they look in those ...

1758. He Commanded Us to Preach

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

Opposition to preaching the risen Christ and reaching the Gentiles emerged early in the ministry of the apostles. Peter and the others quickly found themselves on the front lines of defense against attacks regarding the cogency and credibility of the message they were preaching. Emboldened by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, many of the apostles gained renewed fortitude in proclaiming the message of Christ to Jewish and Gentile communities in the early days of the church. Anytime the gospel is ...

1759. Struggling with God

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

David E. Leininger

In all of scripture, and even in all of literature, you would be hard pressed to find a character more interesting than Jacob. We meet him first before he is even born - his mother Rebekah is in such agony during her pregnancy carrying him and his twin brother that she wants to die. When the babies finally make their appearance, little Esau comes out first, but his brother is holding on to his heel, and, as the legend has it, that is why he was given the name Jacob - it meant "heel" or "trickster" or " ...

1760. The Lord's Prayer: Hallowed Be Thy Name

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

An old, old story has a minister going from Sunday School class to Sunday School class one morning to meet with the students to see how their studies were going. He came into one first-grade group and began to question them as to what they had been learning. They had been studying about God and eagerly, the youngsters shared their knowledge. One little boy said God created the whole world and everything in it. A little girl said that God loves us very much. Another little girl said that God had a son named ...

1761. A Meal with Friends

Luke 9:10-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"...looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke..." Familiar sounding words. Reminiscent of the Last Supper. A foreshadowing of what we ourselves will do today. Our lesson is a well-known one, the feeding of the 5,000. Of all Jesus' miracles, this is the only one repeated in all four gospels.(1) Five loaves, two small fish...and by the time it is all over, 5,000 men PLUS their women and children had been fed and were satisfied, with twelve baskets of left-overs collected. How did Jesus do that? I have ...

1762. Does Jesus Care?

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, speaking at the annual sales meeting of the Western Insurance Companies, said, "I've been on the top and I've been on the bottom. At Arkansas my first year, we won the Orange Bowl. Then everybody loved me. "They put me into the Arkansas Hall of Fame and issued a commemorative stamp in my honor. The next year we lost to Texas, and they had to take away the stamp. People kept spitting on the wrong side. "One year I tried to sell cemetery plots for a living. My wife told ...

1763. Sleeping Through A Revolution

Ephesians 2:13-14

Sermon

King Duncan

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. (Ephesians 2:13-14) You may have seen the story in this past week's newspaper. Way back in July 1984 Terry Wallis and a friend were riding in a car that left the road and plunged into a creek. They were found the next day underneath a bridge. The friend was dead and Wallis ...

1764. Only a Carpenter

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

William Muehl of Yale Divinity School tells of visiting a fine old ancestral house in Virginia. The aged owner was the last of a distinguished colonial family, and she was proudly showing him through the home. Over the fireplace he noticed an ancient rifle which intrigued him. He asked if he might take it down and examine it. She replied, “Oh, I am afraid that wouldn’t be safe. You see, it is all loaded and primed to fire. My great-grandfather kept it there in constant readiness against the moment when he ...

1765. The Other Side of Christmas

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

I would fully understand if you told me that the scripture lesson read today is not found in your top ten list of favorite Bible passages. This reading from the word of God doesn't allow us to be "cozy and comfortable" about the reaction of King Herod to the birth of Christ in the drama of world history. We often place all our attention on the three kings who traveled from afar to the birthplace of Christ--we fail to devote any significant time to the one king who doesn't present himself to worship the ...

1766. Say What?

1 John 3:5-6

Sermon

Rick Brand

Say what? Saint Paul never thought he got to the place where the power of sin was completely gone in his life. Saint Augustine never preached that once you received the power of Christ into your life all sin was gone. Martin Luther, from whom we get all these Reformation slogans, preached "always sinner; always justified." So what does this mean? "Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who ...

1767. When I Am Tempted

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

I was a freshman in college when what was billed then and still is known as "the fight of the century" took place. I was so excited, because I could only get updates on the radio. This was far and long before cable or pay-per-view TV. It was the talk of the entire campus. For the first time in history, there was going to be a match between an unbeaten, former, heavy-weight boxing champion against the current, unbeaten, heavy-weight champion. It was March 8, 1971, and it was the first fight between Smokin' ...

1768. The Dark Side Revealed

Numbers 32:23

Sermon

James Merritt

The dark side - all you have to do is to simply say those words and in this day and age an image comes to your mind of a creature in all black, who breathes heavily through a mask - called Darth Vader. Star Wars – a classic battle between good and evil, has now filled the Hollywood screens and home theatres for 30 years. Teresa and I were newlyweds when it first hit the screens in 1977, and to this day, this saga is still one of the best sellers of all times. The final movie, Revenge of the Sith, released ...

1769. Nice Guys Finish First

Proverbs 1:20-33

Sermon

Stan Purdum

One day, a Sunday school teacher asked her class of children about their favorite Bible verses. One boy volunteered that his favorite was John 11:35, "Jesus wept," because it was short and easy to remember. A girl said her favorite was John 3:16, because she'd been told it was a summary of the gospel message and had memorized it for Bible school the previous summer. One boy said he liked the story of David and Goliath, especially the part about David killing Goliath with a stone from his slingshot. Next ...

1770. By Faith

1 Peter 1:3-9

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

One thing I have quit doing the last couple of years is cleaning gutters. Every time I mention it, Sandy immediately hires someone to do it and sends me the bill. Maybe she has heard me tell this story too many times. A certain husband was cleaning leaves off his roof when he slipped and fell. As he slid off the edge, he managed to grasp the gutter for dear life. Dangling there between the heavens above and earth below, the frightened homeowner cried out, “Can somebody up there help me?" Quick came the ...

1771. What'll You Have?

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A woman went into a restaurant and ordered the breakfast special, "I want my pancakes well done," she said. "You need to cook them all the way through and golden brown on both sides. Use the light syrup because the regular syrup is too sweet. Make the bacon crisp and thin, not oily or soggy and put it on a separate plate. The eggs must be over-easy, not broken or runny." "And would you like butter or margarine?" asked the waitress. The woman answered, "Oh, it doesn't matter; I'm not that picky." (1) A ...

1772. God’s Most Troubling Promise

Romans 8:28

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that life is full of challenges? Have you noticed that, sooner or later, all of us are going to have some pretty steep mountains to climb? I heard about a woman named Jill whose car was unreliable. She called her friend John for a ride every time her car broke down. One day John got yet another one of those calls. “What happened this time?” he asked. “My brakes went out,” Jill said. “Can you come and get me?” “Where are you?” John asked. “I’m in the drugstore,” Jill responded. “And ...

1773. Job Is for Real

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

Sermon

Donna Schaper

We find Job on the edge of town, his money gone, his children dead, picking at his innumerable sores and scabs. In the Joni Mitchell version of his sorrow, Job speaks of how the children of the wicked frisk like deer while his are dead and gone. In her version, we are also told that Job sees the diggers waiting, leaning on their spades, at the site of his grave. Job's three friends, Eliphas, Bildad, and Zophar show up to comfort him but they do so in a way that only pours iodine on his wounds. God is just ...

1774. On Loan From God

1 Kings 21:1-10 (11-14) 15-21a

Sermon

Stephen P. McCutchan

Sometimes it is hard to understand what it is in human nature that allows people to become so crass in their dealings with each other. We have all had the experience of being treated like a thing — a nonperson whose only value is to be used by someone else to accomplish their goals. No one likes that. We all want to be treated with the dignity that we believe belongs to humans. I think that some of the problem may be that we have forgotten how to treat things with proper respect. The degradation of the ...

1775. When We Don't Know God

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

In one of his books, writer Bruce Wilkinson reminds us of the story of the late Howard Hughes. Wilkinson says that, if there was one word that would describe Hughes’ ambition, it was the word more. “He wanted more money, so he invested his enormous inheritance and increased it in just a few years to a billion dollars. He wanted more fame, so he went to Hollywood and became a filmmaker and a star. He wanted more sensual pleasure, so he used his fabulous wealth to buy women and any form of sensual pleasure ...

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