Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1801 to 1825 of 2844 results

1801. The Persecuted

Sermon

John A. Terry

Matthew 5:1-12John 15:12-27 Jack Cahill, an advertising executive from Kansas City, Missouri, has suggested new marketing techniques which can help to tap the appeal to popular blessings. Beginning with the Roman Catholic Church (24 percent of the U.S. market), he suggests a strategy of market segmentation, a clear positioning of the church identifying specific subgroups within the brand name. For the contemporary branch of the Roman Catholic Church, "the one that features hip priests, guitar playing, hand ...

1802. Grampa Noah And When The Flood Came

Genesis 6:1-8:22, Genesis 9:1-17, Genesis 9:18-29

Drama

Jerry Eckert

Comment: One of the difficulties of telling the Genesis stories is that they are a slushing together of variant religious traditions and stories of the Hebrew tribes. Some stories do not lend themselves to a singular telling. The story of Noah is an excellent example. To open it up to the variations within it, I imagined a family reunion many years after the flood and after Noah's grandchildren had heard the stories a hundred times from their own families. At the reunion, the children finally have a chance ...

1803. On Not Being First

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

We Americans have long had a love affair with winners. Successful undertakings of nearly every sort quickly receive the admiration of those around us. As a group, we take great delight in banquets and other ceremonies at which honors are distributed. People who come in second are rarely remembered in our culture. The runner-up usually receives a brief word of recognition and then is quickly forgotten. If you happen to be a sports enthusiast, you'll remember the poor old Buffalo Bills of the NFL. Never mind ...

1804. Lyrics For The Centuries

2 Samuel 1:1-16

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

When David received the report of the battlefield deaths of Saul and Jonathan, he expressed his sorrow and tribute by composing and chanting a lament, that beautiful elegy that is today's first reading. A line from an old spiritual comes to mind. "Little David, play on your harp." Yes, David, play and sing for us the lyrics that span the centuries. Sing the songs that help us express our mourning while celebrating the lives of those whose loss we mourn. Sing us the songs that sustain us when we are beset ...

1805. When We Feel God Has Moved And Left No Forwarding Address

Job 23:1--24:25

Sermon

Zan W. Holmes

There are times in our lives when we have a greater awareness of God's absence than we do of God's presence. Indeed, this is the experience which confronts Job in our text. In the midst of his suffering he has tried to lay his case before God. He goes forward and backward, to the left and to the right, seeking in every place to find God. To be sure, Job wants to find God because Job knows that he is an innocent sufferer, that he is an upright person. And since God is just, Job is confident that he would ...

1806. The Wisemen

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

I hate it when Christmas is over. There's so much good music, such tasty foods, so much color and warmth. And presents! I love presents! I wish we celebrated all twelve days of Christmas. I could be dissuaded from that last enthusiasm if it meant that I would be given all the presents from that funny Christmas carol: 22 turtle doves 30 French hens 36 calling birds 40 gold rings 42 geese a'laying 42 swans a'swimming 40 maids a'milking 36 ladies dancing 30 lords a'leaping 22 pipers piping 12 drummers ...

1807. Help Wanted

Exodus 4:1-17

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Object: The "want ad" section of the newspaper. Lesson: Discipleship; trust; courage. Text: "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak." But he said, "O, my Lord, please send someone else." "Have any of you ever gone to look for a job?" I ask the assembled children. My question brings looks of surprise to their faces, along with soft chuckles from the congregation. "Probably ...

1808. Those Who Mourn

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

John A. Terry

I believe we have developed a greater understanding of the meaning and means of mourning. In 1969, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross published her classic book titled On Death and Dying. In it she identified five basic stages in the grieving process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Personally and professionally, I have found these helpful categories in recognizing where I am in my grieving and where others are in theirs. I have also found it to be true that getting stuck in any one of the first ...

1809. The Peacemakers

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

John A. Terry

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." These are words from President Lincoln's second inaugural address, seeking to make peace after our nation's Civil War. Being the bringer and ...

1810. The Persecuted

John 15:18-27

Sermon

John A. Terry

Jack Cahill, an advertising executive from Kansas City, Missouri, has suggested new marketing techniques which can help to tap the appeal to popular blessings. Beginning with the Roman Catholic Church (24 percent of the U.S. market), he suggests a strategy of market segmentation, a clear positioning of the church identifying specific subgroups within the brand name. For the contemporary branch of the Roman Catholic Church, "the one that features hip priests, guitar playing, hand shaking, hugging, and other ...

1811. Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10

Drama

Jerry Eckert

[Comment: A month before, I had told this story at the church I was serving. A colleague at the Hispanic church in town invited me over to preach. I had embarrassed myself the year before by reading both the English and the Spanish versions of a sermon for them, so I decided to go with a translator this time. I sent her a triple-spaced copy of the text so she could get ready for the task. She came prepared. While I read the story, she translated spontaneously. Even I was more captivated with her rendition ...

1812. Paul, The Great Missionary

Philippians 1:1-11

Drama

Jerry Eckert

Notes: Hostage issues always appear to be before us. It seemed appropriate to look back into the scriptures to see if there were any materials that might have meaning in that kind of historical context. While Paul was not a hostage in the classic sense, he was under house arrest a number of times, thus separated from his family and friends, and from his task as ambassador for Christ. I decided to drop the hostage notion and just concentrate on the way things were for the story line. Storytelling can do ...

1813. Parables of Growing Seeds

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

We come now to the Sunday of the "great omission." Lectionary Cycle B skips over the first 25 verses of Mark 4: the Parable of the Sower. In chapter 12 we have given consideration to this parable at some length. Many interpreters see this parable as one of the keys for interpreting Mark's Gospel in its overall, narrative sense. We must find room in our preaching on Mark's Gospel to include the Parable of the Sower. This might be the Sunday for such inclusion. It is not only the Parable of the Sower that ...

1814. Who Do You Say I Am?

Mark 8:27-30

Bulletin Aid

RobertT D. Ingram

The Community Gathers to Celebrate (Leader 1 and Leader 5 should be at microphones in the front of the sanctuary. Leader 2, Leader 3 and Leader 4 should be sitting in the pews, and just shout out their response from there.) Leader 1: Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" Leader 2: John the Baptist! Leader 3: Elijah! Leader 4: One of the prophets! Leader 1: Then Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Leader 5: "You are the Messiah." Leader 1: Then Jesus began to teach them about the ...

1815. Giving with Open Hands

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

A couple stands before the pastor in the midday service. He asks, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” The father says, “I do.” Then the father takes the right hand of the bride in his right hand and places it into the right hand of the pastor who, in turn, places it in the right hand of the groom. The vows are given, and the groom, having taken the right hand of the bride, says, “I, John, take thee, Mary, to be my wedded wife.” Dropping hands, the bride offers her right hand to the groom and ...

1816. I Saw a New Heaven

Revelation 21:1-27

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Two ninety-five-year-old sisters died at the same time and went to Heaven. There they were overwhelmed by the magnificence and glory of heaven. They ooh-ed and ah-ed at the wonders they saw. They couldn’t get over what a matchless place it was. Then one said to the other, “You know, we could have been here five years earlier if you hadn’t insisted on our eating oat bran.” If you’re going to Heaven, the earlier the better, but let God appoint the time. There’s a barbershop quartet song that has these words ...

1817. Read the Directions

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Late in the evening before his little son’s birthday, a father was trying to put together a complicated toy as a birthday present. He was not making very good progress. There were a lot of parts in that shipping carton. He realized that he should have begun this days ago, but he had left it until the last hour. Yet he had confidence that he could complete the job with his mechanical knowledge. In his haste, he cut his hand badly on a sharp corner, and it bled profusely until bandaged. When he had finished ...

1818. God’s Great Final Day

Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Those who do weekend sailing on a very wide body of water have a way of charting their course. They keep their eye on a distant, fixed object on the shore. No matter how whimsically the wind blows, no matter how tricky the cross-currents in the water, they can keep their direction by that immovable landmark at the water’s edge. Otherwise, they would be swept far off their course by the wind and the waves, although they might think that they were headed in the right direction. That distant landmark keeps ...

1819. Walking Through A Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

Simon was in control of the boat. He was the oldest, and besides it was his boat. He had sailed the waters so often, and usually at night because that is when most of the fishing took place. The disciples pushed away from the shore, a shore still crowded with the village people. The sun had set but still cast a warm, red glow over the hillside, over the men, women and children who had come to hear Jesus and to be healed. The sun's glow worked out upon the gently moving sea. It may have been John, the ...

1820. Path To A New Life

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

The city darkness is very different from the hillside darkness. Out on the hillside, where the shepherds work, the darkness gently settles upon the landscape. It is a quiet dusk that melds into deeper shadows and finally, after so long a stretch of time, becomes the dark in which the stars are the only light. But in the city, the darkness comes as if some giant curtain was suddenly pulled tight, blocking out all illumination. It was in that darkness that Ely slowly made his way home through the maze of ...

1821. Have You Confronted Christ?

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

Simon bar Jacob - Simon, son of Jacob - had just finished the pruning of his olive trees, ending with the three old trees farthest from the road. He was pleased with his work and looked at it for some time, complimenting himself with satisfying grunts. "Job well done!" He turned to look out upon the full olive grove of 57 trees. Each one had received his careful work, talents learned through the years and taught to him by Jacob, his father. But as he looked toward the roadside near the orchard his heart ...

1822. What Kind Of King Is This?

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Sermon

Charles Curley

Around the end of November, just after Thanksgiving, we celebrate the beginning of the season of Advent: the advent, the coming of God into the world in a most unlikely form and in a most unlikely place. For we celebrate God coming as a baby, in a manger, in a stable, in the little town of Bethlehem. Today's scripture from 2 Samuel 6 is also about a kind of advent, which may serve to remind us that God's advent - the coming of God's presence into our world and into our lives - is something to be celebrated ...

1823. Let's Have A Fruitful Christmas Season

Drama

May Dembowski

Running Time Twenty-five minutes (including one two-minute break) What's It About? This is a skit written for a Christian Women's Pre-Christmas-Season program, suitable for a ladies' breakfast, brunch, luncheon, and so forth. It is not evangelistic, but rather an idea-filled dialogue which gives some practical suggestions for keeping Christ in Christmas and heading off the usual frenzy of the busy season. How Many Characters? The four characters are women who are meeting for their regular kaffee klatsch ...

1824. Advent 4

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: Both Old Testament and Gospel portray the theme of God building a house, a kingdom or a people. In the Old Testament text, King David desires to build a temple for God but finds out that God is going to be the One building a house (dynasty) of David's descendents. In the Gospel, Angel Gabriel informs the Virgin Mary that God is going to build up his Kingdom through the son she was to conceive through the Holy Spirit. COMMENTARY Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 David wants to build in Jerusalem a ...

1825. Easter 6

John 15:18--16:4, Acts 10:23b-48, 1 John 5:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: God calls his own and chooses those who are to live as his dear friends, regardless of our human categories and distinctions. COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Acts 10:44-48 (C); Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 (RC) The pericope for the Revised Common Lectionary features the outcome of Peter's encounter with Cornelius, the Roman Centurion. As Peter was explaining the gospel, the Holy Spirit came down on all the believers, including, for the first time, Gentiles. Since God had favored the Gentiles with the Holy ...

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