Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1876 to 1900 of 2665 results

1876. The Gentle Healer

John 9:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... he took another bite of the apple. “Mr. Professor, I don't know much about the great thinkers you mentioned," as he took still another bite of his apple. “Mr. Professor, I admit I haven't studied the Bible like you have," as he finished his apple and dropped it back in the bag. “I was just wondering, this apple that I just ate, was it sour or sweet? The Professor responded, “How could I know? I haven't tasted your apple." To which the old preacher replied, “With all due respect, sir, I was just ...

1877. Sharing God’s Blessings

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... am not the center of the universe. 2) There are more things I do not know, than things I do know. 3) The greatest truths of life are mysteries. 4) I was born not to get, but to give. Mercy generates mercy. The quality of mercy is not strained; it drops like gentle rain from heaven above to earth below. The merciful are blessed with mercy. Nearly 100 years ago, we fought a war that was to end all wars. We called it World War I. The smoke had hardly settled when we saw another 6 million people killed in World ...

1878. Finding Our Place in the Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:12-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... class he asked the students to join him in that little jingle, "Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and there are the people." It was enough to make Jamie cry until a thirteen- year-old boy in the class, realized what she was feeling. He dropped down beside her and put one hand against her good hand and together they demonstrated what a real church is all about. We are the hands of Christ. We are the feet of Christ. We are the only Bible the careless world will read. We are the sinner's ...

1879. Fanning the Flames of Family

Ephesians 5:8-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... light consists of goodness, righteousness, and truth." In America we are experiencing a massive breakdown in communication. The storm knocked the power out, washed the roads out, and ran the batteries down. Such is the nature of a storm. People let the ball drop, the time pass, the chain of command control the channels of relief leaving people stranded in the flood and volunteers stuck in deployment centers. Such is the nature of chaos. When communication fails, blame becomes the name of the game. I don't ...

1880. The Temptation To Pass By On The Other Side

Luke 10:25-37

Illustration

Robert Beringer

Here's a story about how God's Spirit helped one man fight the impulse to pass by on the other side. On September 26, 1944, Ray Hamley, an RAF flying officer, and his crew flying an American-built B-25, dropped bombs on the town of Kleve just inside Germany's border with Holland. Ray was 21 years old, and his bombs that day hit the railroad station, a number of Nazi factories, and the town church. He had an inkling that day that one of his bombs hit the church, ...

1881. The Jericho Road

Luke 10:25-37

Illustration

Robert Beringer

... of one of the most compelling stories our Lord ever told. To this day, the actual road is little more than a strip of rocky terrain which leads us from Jerusalem south to the village of Jericho. What is remarkable is that in just 15 miles, the elevation drops from 2,400 feet above sea level to 1,400 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea. (I will always remember those figures because when I once preached on this parable, I announced that the Dead Sea was 1,400 miles below sea level! Afterward, a parishioner ...

1882. Colossians 1:1-14

Colossians 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is under that divine auspice that Paul’s apostolic identity is forged and upon which the authority of his word is anchored. As in several other Pauline epistles, in this letter to the Colossians Paul drops the name of Timothy, his colleague and companion, and declares his identity as “our brother.” Whether or not Timothy helped in the composition of Colossians, Timothy was an active co-worker in whom Paul entrusted his mission and message on more than one ...

1883. Being Open to the Impossible

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... presumptuous! Here I am, 800 miles from Memphis — what have I to offer these yearning, hurting, weary, frustrated souls? Not just that our cupboards are bare, and company has come in unexpected, but our resources are not enough to share with a friend who’s just dropped the bombshell on us – she’s leaving her husband; another friend – lost job he’s been with for 20 years. We don’t have the resources to cope with the veiled suggestion of suicide that we’ve picked up from a family member or a ...

1884. You Do Have a Prayer - Sermon Opener

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

James W. Moore

... that hinder people, that burden people, that disturb people… and keep them away from the Christian faith. One of the barriers he listed was…"unanswered prayer." It does seem to be a fact of our experience that many people do get discouraged and they do give up and drop out on the faith because they feel a sense of failure in their prayer life. This leads us to ask then… "How do you pray?" "Why pray at all?" "When do you pray?" "Is there a special formula or a sacred language that should be used?" One ...

1885. We Are Not Tenacious

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

... this kind of politics and the good people of the city took on the Boss Tweed element. At first they seemed to make headway. But as the campaign drug on they began to feel the pressures of machine politics. Many of these good people began to drop out. When the election was held and the results counted, to many people's disappointment, they discovered that Boss Tweed had been reelected. The next day the New York Times ran an editorial and analyzed what had happened. It said: The good people quit being good ...

1886. Do You Need an Air Conditioner?

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

Charles Swindoll

... mine before we went back to seminary. The phone rang, and on the other end of the line was a man I hadn't talked to in months. His name happened to be Richard. I said, "How are you." He said, "Great! Do you need an air conditioner?" I almost dropped the phone. "Uh, yes." "Well, we have just put in central air conditioning here, and we've got this little three-quarter ton air conditioner that we thought you might like to have. We'll bring it over and stick it in your trunk and let you take it back ...

1887. Anti-intellectual Christianity

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

Wallace H. Kirby

... who are flocking to the proclaimers of the gospel (whose presentation is untarnished by a serious grappling with the wisdoms of science, biblical criticism, or the prevailing arts) we are overlooking the fact that we are creating a new mission field: those who drop out of the faith because it appears too simplistic, obscure and anti-intellectual. According to Cohn Morris, the pulpit is one of the few remaining places in our society where serious issues are discussed. It may be that neither the pulpit nor ...

1888. Pastor, I'm Saying Grace

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

Robert Allen

... the mountain trails until the day he found himself face to face with the biggest ... ugliest ... meanest ... grizzly bear he had ever seen. He saw no means of escape and the bear was coming toward him growling. The minister did the only thing he knew to do. He dropped to his knees, closed his eyes, and began to pray. The longer he prayed, the better he felt. The bear had not attacked. So, the minister opened his eyes to see where the bear was and the bear was kneeling right in front of him. The minister was ...

1889. The Real Real Estate

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... concealed antennae in the iPhone 4 is uncleverly placed just in the spot where most people put their hand in order to put the phone to their ear. The simple act of putting your iPhone to your head blocks the signal and causes calls to be dropped. Apple has been all over this issue. You betcha. The problem, they insist, is NOT a design flaw. It is an issue of user patterning. In other words, their phone design is not the problem, YOU, the consumer, are the problem. The “fix” that Apple is distributing ...

1890. A Kingdom that Cannot Be Shaken

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... of you favored the bail-out of some of these institutions, but both the Bush administration and the Obama administration thought the bail-outs were necessary in order to stave off a catastrophe. Certainly many of you have seen your property values drop from the accompanying real estate collapse. This time we were reminded how vulnerable our financial markets are to man-made disasters. Such near disasters, of course, brought out many examples of grim humor. One witty writer asked, how bad is the financial ...

1891. Center Stage

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... how to tell Joseph. Can't we just see her, teary-eyed, shoulders heaving, handkerchief in a bunch, wondering what to do? What was the scene like when she told him? Surely his first impulse was that she had betrayed him. Can't we just see his jaw drop? Only the readers know by verse 18 that the child is of the Holy Spirit. Neither Joseph nor Mary knows of this until Joseph has his dream. Wouldn't Mary be beside herself, not knowing how her pregnancy had happened? Even though Matthew tells us that Joseph was ...

1892. Who's Who

John 1:29-42

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... commits sins in our name. Our first loyalty is to Jesus and to the truth. John's picture of how the disciples make their change in loyalty is important. Here John differs from the other gospels. Matthew especially presents a scene in which the disciples immediately drop everything to follow Jesus. Some of us are just not that way. Some of us need for one reason or another to take our time. John allows for that. In John, the disciples begin with a conversation. As always seems to happen in John, the ...

1893. Letting Go of Our Nets

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... . We heal when we pray for one another. We don't always know what will happen when we respond to God's call. We know that God is with us and that he will work through our ministries, even our shortcomings and incomplete successes. If God calls us, let us drop our nets and respond. Let us shine the light of God's dominion into the darkness of the world. Amen. ___________ 1. Troy Moon, "Couple Takes Pay Cut to Help Children," United Methodist Reporter July 7, 2006, p. 8B.

1894. Set Free for Life

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Lee Griess

... the island of Guam. Fearing that defeat meant certain capture and death at the hands of the American forces, Shokoi ran into the jungle and hid in a cave. He later learned that the war was over by reading one of the thousands of leaflets that were dropped into the jungle by American planes. But he still feared being taken prisoner, so he remained in his cave. For over a quarter century, he came out only at night. He existed on frogs, rats, roaches, and mangoes. A few years back, some hunters discovered him ...

1895. The Rest of The Message

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Lee Griess

... so Tigyne could run beside it. As he ran, he yelled to his friends, "Behold. Behold. Here is the one who redeemed me. Here is the one who set me free. He has returned as he promised." Finally, the car slowed to a stop. And as Davis stepped out, Tigyne dropped to his knees, put his arms around the legs of the missionary he had not seen for 24 years and began to kiss his dusty shoes. Davis reached down to bring him to full height and there they stood, their arms around each other, tears of joy running down ...

1896. One in Faith and One in Service

John 17:1-11

Sermon

Lee Griess

... watched Jorge mingle with the people in the town square and then go into a cantina to relax. The ranger came up with a plan. He waited until later when most of the people had left the cantina, slipped in through the back door and managed to get the drop on Rodriguez. With pistol in hand he confronted the bandit. "Tell me where you have the money hidden or I'll fill you with lead," he said. The ranger thought he had Jorge dead to rights. However, there was just one flaw in his plan. The ranger spoke no ...

1897. Why We Need the Pledge of Allegiance

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... orders to be about the missionary business of the kingdom of heaven. If people wanted wonderful worship, all they had to do was join the congregation on Sundays. If they wanted terrific children's ministries and youth programs, all they had to do was drop their sons and daughters off at the right times. If anyone wanted a little diaconal assistance, just stop by the office and a secretary would arrange for a modest handout. But the onus was on others to come and find the church. The congregation itself ...

1898. Ecological Politics

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... onto the cliff. "There!" he cried in victory. "Now I can go wherever I want!" Immediately, however, the tent began to collapse in on itself and started to plummet into the abyss. No matter how my friend tried to think and force his will on it, the craft dropped like lead. In spite of his urgent fear my friend knew instantly who the man was. It was Jesus! "Help me, Jesus!" he cried. Immediately, Jesus was in the tent with him, and it billowed out and steadied. The fall ended as quickly as it had begun, and ...

1899. The Road No One Wants to Travel

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... 16. Just before these verses Jesus had asked his disciples what people were saying about him. Did they get it right? Did they know who he was? They gave back a variety of answers, and Jesus didn't seem too surprised. But to his disciples' chagrin, neither did he drop the matter there. Instead he pressed the query home in a very personal challenge. "Who do you say I am?" he demanded. There was no room for fudging on this exam. Jesus had made it intense and immediate. No time to go back to the books for a ...

1900. Testing, Testing

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... this question, he has Jesus go on to tell a startling, stand-up-and-bite-you story to help unpack the implications of it. You can go home and read it beginning at Luke 10:25. But today we're sticking to Matthew's telling of it, and Matthew just drops it in like a time bomb and waits for it to explode in the middle of some situation in our own lives. So pick one. Pick something in your life that's pushing you, asking you, whether you've quite realized it or not, what your priorities are, what matters ...

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