Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1876 to 1900 of 5000 results

1876. Confronting Hypocrisy with Humility

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

... find because…. 1. Hypocrisy keeps most leaders from being effective leaders. But first, what is it that keeps most leaders from being effective leaders? It is Hypocrisy. It can quickly undermine the work of the greatest teachers. What is hypocrisy? Charles Shultz illustrated it well in one of his Peanuts cartoons. Lucy is playing her role as psychiatrist. She sits in her booth with the sign that reads: "Psychiatric Help - 5 cents." The sign below says, "The Doctor Is In." Lucy says to Charlie Brown, "Your ...

1877. RISK-FREE RESOLUTIONS

Drama

Angela Akers

... t that nice!" Mr. J: "I enjoyed that message, too. I''ve decided to enter this new year with high goals." Pastor: "That''s great! And what are those goals?" Mr. J: "Well, first I''d like to work on my golf swing, and then alphabetize my SPORTS ILLUSTRATEDS." Preacher: (looking a little confused) "Um...good luck with those. I''m sure you''ll give it your best effort. What about you, Janie? Do you have any plans to go out and change the world?" Daughter: "I don''t know. I think I''m going to ...

1878. In the Meantime: Between the First and Second Comings

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

David Busic

... my son watched Sesame Street, but the songs still get me sometimes. How about this one? “One of these things is not like the other; one of these things just doesn’t belong.” Well, that one gets a bit of redemption, because it is now a sermon illustration! It is a song that goes with the activity of showing kids how to categorize on the basis on likeness and difference. Well, that’s the song we should be playing as we read the early chapters of Isaiah. We come to the passage before us in chapter ...

1879. To Hell and Back

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... into hell to redeem those who had never had the chance to hear His message of God’s love while He lived on earth. It sounds just like something Jesus would do, doesn’t it! The great Swiss theologian Emil Brunner, in one of his writings, used this homely illustration. He said: “Jesus Christ went into hell to get us out of there. Just as a troubled wife goes into a bar late one Saturday night knowing she will meet her husband in there who is spending the whole pay check in drinking, so he has come to ...

1880. Why the Church?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... The New Testament says that Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it. (Ephesians 5:25) Is it too much to expect that we should love the Church and give ourselves to it? Harry Emerson Fosdick is the source of many excellent stories and illustrations for sermons. Here is one which I came across recently in an article by Bill Quick, pastor of Metropolitan UMC in Detroit. It seems that a major women’s college was conducting a financial campaign and a wealthy, prominent Alumna was asked by the committee ...

1881. What the Heck Is Sin?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... , that by the grace of God we can be changed and reformed and transformed. No matter how bad our sin may be, God will forgive it and help us to become new creatures in Christ Jesus. But it costs God something. There is a beautiful illustration of this in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Jean Valjean had stolen some candlesticks belonging to the Bishop. Later he was apprehended by the police and brought by them to the Bishop. The police asked, Bishop, are not these your stolen candlesticks? The Bishop said ...

1882. What Happens When I Die?

John 14:1-4

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... And the Life Everlasting. It contains some 220 pages of closely reasoned theological and philosophical argument supporting the Christian’s faith in Eternal Life. But ultimately he rests his case upon his faith in the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ and uses a homely illustration to drive home his point. It seems that a dying man was informed by his doctor, who was a devout Christian, that the end was very near, and he asked the doctor if he had any convictions as to what awaited him in the life to ...

1883. Grace Is Not a Blue-eyed Blond

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... can best be summed up by dividing the word into: “atonement.” We need “at-one-ment” with God. Therefore, the image of a Law Court must give way to the image of a Family. “Grace” is a personal, relational matter. To go back to our illustration of an injured party in a dispute: If the injured party insists that the friendship cannot be restored until the guilty party has paid the debt, then it becomes almost impossible for a relationship to be restored. A criminal can properly speak of having paid ...

1884. Is Suffering Punishment for Sin?

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... us for our sins, because sin is itself the punishment for sin. God’s “wrath” is the inexorable working out of God’s moral laws in the universe. If you jump off the roof of a building, you do not break the law of gravity, you simply illustrate it. Likewise, you cannot really break God’s laws, you only break yourself against them. Human history is littered with the wreckage of persons and nations who have ignored this basic principle of life. God doesn’t punish us for our sins; God doesn’t have ...

1885. Love Is Extravagant

John 12:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . We may feel awkward or shy. And it may be that when we get around to doing it the person we wish to speak to will be gone from this earth (as Jesus, in our story, was soon to be). One tragic story from the world of literature illustrates this. The great Scots writer Thomas Carlyle loved his wife Jane Welsh Carlyle, but you would never have guessed it from his conduct toward her. He was an irritable, harsh-tempered, close-mouthed man and he never really made life very easy for her. Then, unexpectedly, she ...

1886. Does God Give Out Blank Checks?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... what is perhaps Leslie Weatherhead’s magnum opus, Psychology, Religion, and Healing, a great pioneering work dealing with the relationship between the three disciplines, written in 1951, he wrote: “It is clear that in a great many matters Augustine’s dictum is illustrated, Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not.’ It seems that God waits for man’s co-operation before certain things can be accomplished. The mistake often made is that while man clearly sees that he must co-operate with God ...

1887. The Jesus Connection

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... and our worship says it all. One beam of the cross reaches upward to God, while the other reaches outward to others. To be in right relationship with God, according to Jesus, is to be in right relationship with one another. I have read the following illustration several times now, and so there must be some truth in it, although I have no idea how to check it out. It may be “apocryphal,” which means “if it didn’t happen, it should have.” It seems that somebody wondered why Canadian geese fly only ...

1888. The War of Malchus’ Ear

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... we can tell, took the words of the Lord literally, and were absolute pacifists. They heard Jesus tell them to love their enemies, and, not realizing that it was impossible, they went out and did it anyway! They were like the famous illustration of the hummingbird. Somebody figured out that with its tiny wingspan and oversized body, the hummingbird is unable to fly. But, not knowing about these matters, the hummingbird goes ahead and flies anyway. The earliest Christians, however, were in a unique situation ...

1889. The Saint without a Name

Luke 6:12-16

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... known many people who have no guile. Most folks seem to have an “angle,” especially if they are trying to sell you something. But Nathanael was a man without guile. He was not perfect, but open and willing to learn. Some folks seem to be walking illustrations of the motto, “My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts.” At first Nathanael seemed to be that sort of fellow. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” he asked. There was probably a rivalry between the two Galilean towns. He ...

1890. Secretary to Saint Peter

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... when he created us; called to cast them off, and to rise up and follow Christ. The Christian life is not so much contemplation as it is commitment. I am indebted to the Rev. Paul Van Dine of Cypress Lake United Methodist Church in Forty Myers, Fla. for the following illustration (Ibid., p. 57) He tells the story of a wife who came to the living room one day after having answered the front door. There’s a man at the door who wants to see you about a bill you owe, she told her husband. What does he look ...

1891. On Not Knowing What to Say

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... tub filled with “Old Milwaukee.” And one of the friends says to the others, “Fellows, it doesn’t get any better than this!” (I am indebted to Roland Perdue of First Presbyterian Church in Birmingham for reminding me of this, and the closing illustration. Master Sermon Series, Cathedral Publishers, 8/85, p. 361) We have all had those kinds of experiences. Everything is “just right.” It seems as though it simply cannot get any better. We have a good experience in our religious life, and we want ...

1892. Holy Monday

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... has been the source of a great many social reforms. Edmund Burke, you remember, said that “all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good folks to remain silent.” Jesus did not remain silent in the face of evil. Nor should we. In my piles of illustrative materials which I have clipped out and saved over the years I found an empty package which once contained a pair of pantyhose. Inasmuch as we have married clergy in our church, I do not need to apologize for finding it there. What was it doing there ...

1893. Did You Leave the the Door Open? (I am the gate)

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... accomplish their goals. These leaders would use the language of God and faith--but they neither knew God nor had genuine faith. The doors they opened led only to death and ultimately destruction. In verse 6 Jesus sees that the people did not fully understand this illustration--so he applies this truth on an even deeper level. Notice how Jesus changes the figure of speech from that of a shepherd--to a door or gate. This lovely image is taken from the normal work day of this ancient culture. During the warmer ...

1894. The Lord's Prayer: Hallowed be Thy Name

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... healthy balance in our understanding of and relationship with almighty God. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, "The test of intelligence is the ability to hold two contrasting ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." Let me share an illustration here. In C. S. Lewis''s masterpiece work, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, the lion is the Christ figure. C. S. Lewis depicts the lion in the book as a fun-loving character. The children love to hold onto the lion''s mane as he runs across ...

1895. The Lord's Prayer: Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... our best resource, which is the Holy Spirit. We are taught in Holy Scripture, "That greater is He that is in us, than He that is in the world." WOW! Let faith also be an inside job. Let God''s voice speak to us from the inside out. Let me illustrate it with this story. I recently heard of a black American who grew up in the poor rural South. He was raised in an atmosphere of religious bigotry that discounted his worth as a person because of the color of his skin. His parents were non-existent and he was ...

1896. Half-Time is Now Over

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... of God who is changing the world." (3) Christ is Alive. The Easter Story continues. Let it continue in you. Half-time is now over. The same team that started the first half will start the second half. Thanks be to God. Amen and amen. 1. Leadership, Spring 1992, "To Illustrate," page 49. 2. Youthworker, Spring 1993. 3. Tony Campolo, You Can Make a Difference, Word, Inc., 1984, pp 54-55.

1897. The Second Commandment: What Is Your Golden Calf?

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... talk about the Ten Commandments. The young man, after hearing the great sermon, said, "At least I haven’t made any idols." However, the young man was wrong. We, unfortunately, do create idols. Let me share an illustration here. Presbyterian author Fred Buechner writes: "Idolatry is the practice of ascribing absolute value to things of relative worth. Under certain circumstances money--patriotism--sexual freedom--moral principles --family loyalty--physical health--social or intellectual preeminence--and ...

1898. The Tenth Commandment: How Zacchaeus Got His Groove Back

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote an insightful story titled How Much Land Does a Man Need? This story beautifully illustrates the attitude and principles that the 10th commandment was written to address. It goes like this: A peasant who had never owned a piece of land was given 20 acres with which to do what he wanted. He was excited at first. Then he decided he needed more. A traveler ...

1899. Don't Let Your Tongue Bite You

James 3:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... of men and angels, if I have not loved I have gained nothing." Our tongue, if used for harm, leaves a great stain in the fabric of life. That, unfortunately, is not a winsome witness for our Lord. As I studied and researched and gathered material and illustrations for this sermon, I could remember an insight learned from childhood days in Sunday School Class: The good Lord gave us two ears--but only one tongue. We should try to listen twice as much as we speak. Today, our world is on the brink of war ...

1900. Looks Like We're in for Stormy Weather

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... and Thomas, "We can handle it. No sweat." The situation is one of pure panic. The storms of life can overpower any one of us, even when we are most sure of ourselves, especially in our family circles or work places. Please notice that this story further illustrates that storms never come at the right time. It would have been nice if the disciples would have had a Sony Walkman on their heads tuned in to the local Galilean radio station and had heard about the storm BEFORE THEY PUSHED OUT FROM THE SHORE LINE ...

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