Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2001 to 2025 of 4934 results

2001. Abide In Me

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

Once upon a time there lived a man whose nickname was Mr. Will Power. As you might expect, Mr. Will Power had an iron will. He could do anything he set his mind to. He was the champion of mind over matter. People loved to challenge his powers of will. One of the ways he first caught people’s attention was his ability to withstand hot and cold. They dared him to walk through a bed of fiery coals. They dared him to expose himself to the bitter cold for a full day. They dared him and he did it. "Just a case ...

2002. All I Need Is A Little Rest!

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

One of the most effective sermons I have ever preached was shared ten years ago when I was just beginning to preach. I didn’t expect it to be good because I was tired when I wrote it and tired when I preached it. In fact, I was afraid I was failing the people that day because I thought the sermon wasn’t much good at all. In the sermon I shared with the folks why I was so tired, all the things that had happened to me that week. A child had died in City Hospital. The parents had no friends, no family, no one ...

2003. A Match Made In Heaven

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Sermon

John W. Wurster

I have a friend who wanted me to preach on this passage at his wedding. A good friend, a minister friend, someone I love and trust, wanted me to read and preach from Hosea before some 300 people, his own parishioners, at his own wedding: “Go take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (1:2). I protested loudly, not wanting to stand up and in any way imply that my friend was marrying a woman of dubious character. It’s just ...

2004. The Ten Commandments #5: Honoring Parents

Exodus 20:12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The family. "The basic building block of society," they call it. We are born into families, cared for by family until we can begin to take care of ourselves. We share the same roof, the same table, even the same faith. Nothing unusual there. It is expected...despite the differences of individual personalities, interests and abilities that are gathered into the family unit, it is a unit. The basic building block of society. The joy I have in living with my wife and children I would not have were it not for ...

2005. A Mother's Gift

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

If there were ever a day that felt like Mother's Day to Hannah, this was it. This was the day she would get to see her son, Samuel, for the first time since last year. Each autumn, Hannah and her family would make the pilgrimage from their home in Ramah to the religious center of the nation in Shiloh for the Feast of Tabernacles - the annual celebration of the harvest, a time to renew the covenant between Israel and her God - one of the three holiest festivals of the Hebrew year. To be sure, Hannah was a ...

2006. God's Plan For Empowerment

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you know that there was once a sit-down strike in space? It's true. This strike occurred on the Skylab 4 flight in December 1973. Ground control in Houston was trying to make this final space mission as profitable as possible. They scheduled the astronauts' days so tightly that they were even forbidden to participate in their favorite pastime ” watching the sun and the earth. Houston daily "sent up about six feet of instructions to the astronauts' teleprinter." The civilian physicist on board begged ...

2007. Ultimate Thanksgiving

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

When Helen Hayes cooked her first turkey for Thanksgiving, she called her husband and son together and said, "Now I know this is the first turkey I've ever cooked. It if isn't right, I don't want anybody to say a word. We'll just get up from the table without comment, put on our hats and coats, and go down to the hotel for Thanksgiving dinner." She then went into the kitchen to get the turkey. When she returned to the table, her husband and her son were standing there with their hats, gloves, and coats ...

2008. The Deal Of A Lifetime

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Many of you pride yourself on being good business people. Suppose someone reputable made you the following offer: You go into business with me. It will be expensive, but I guarantee it will be worth it. You dig up whatever cash you can find. Take out an equity loan on your house, cash in the value of your life insurance policy, pay the penalty, and take the money out of your IRA accounthowever you can come up with cash, do it. Then, if you work hard, and follow the company manual, sacrifice and give your ...

2009. Sorry, The Doctor's Been Delayed

John 11:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

Doctors are so busy nowadays. More and more of them are running their practices like an assembly line. Doc Blakely tells about a fellow who walked into a doctor’s office and the receptionist asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles." So she took down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat. Fifteen minutes later a nurse’s aide came out and asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles." So she took down his height, weight, a complete medical history and told him to wait in an ...

2010. What Fragrance Are You Leaving?

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

In the city of Boston is a memorial to the Holocaust. On one of the clear plastic walls of the memorial, built in a corridor that runs for about a city block, is a moving story attributed to Gerda Weissman Klein. Gerda experienced first-hand the horror of the German concentration camps in World War II. It is hard for us to imagine the stark conditions in those camps. However, in the midst of the hate and violence of the Nazi regime Gerda tells a lovely story of beauty and grace. Gerda is befriended by a ...

2011. Whatever It Takes

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: some swimming trunks, children's flotation devices, other swimming paraphernalia Good morning, boys and girls. Do you know how to swim? That's good. Do you like to swim? It's fun, isn't it? There are two ways we can learn how to swim. One way is to very slowly put one foot in, and then put another foot in, maybe dip a hand in the water, maybe put our face under water a little bit. We can just put one body part at a time into the water and slowly learn how to swim and float and paddle around in the ...

2012. Choices

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Choosing Christ at The Crossroads, #1 (First Sunday in Lent) In August of 2002, the Associated Press carried a story from Los Angeles about a would-be carjacker who made some seriously bad choices. Tyron Jermaine Hogan had already stolen the car of an elderly couple earlier that August morning, and had gotten away scot-free. So Hogan was probably feeling a little cocky when he reached inside an occupied van and tried to steal the driver's keys. Bad decision. The van belonged to the Florida International ...

2013. Missing The Real Miracle

John 6:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

John and Ruth Jones were celebrating the 4th of July by having their extended family over for a cookout. They had planned a spectacular home fireworks display--even though fireworks were illegal in their state. A relative called at the last minute to ask if he could bring a friend to the cookout. John and Ruth graciously said yes. The friend turned out to be a police officer. What were John and Ruth to do? John quietly whispered to their son, John, Jr., "Hide the fireworks--quick." That is no surprise. If ...

2014. The Art Of Borrowing And Lending A Donkey

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Imagine it. You've just bought a brand new BMW. You have had it a week. It only has 200 miles on it. You are coming to church on Sunday morning and you stop by the bank to get a little bit of cash from the automatic teller. While you are there, two men walk up and tell you that their leader has told them to borrow your car because their master is going to ride in it down Poplar Avenue to the center of the city to demonstrate who he is. They tell you that they will have the car back to you in about three ...

2015. Alive In Christ

Colossians 2:6-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There is an old story about Albert Einstein. He was going around the country from university to university on the lecture circuit, giving lectures on his theory of relativity. He traveled by chauffeur-driver limousine. One day, after they had been on the road for awhile, Einstein’s chauffeur said to him, “Dr. Einstein, I’ve heard you deliver that lecture on relativity so many times, that I’ll bet I could deliver it myself.” “Very well,” the good doctor responded. “I’ll give you that opportunity tonight. ...

2016. Slaves of a Different Master

Romans 6:12-23

Sermon

William G. Carter

Earlier this week somebody asked what the sermon was about. I said, "I'm preaching about slavery." That was a good way to stop a conversation. Slavery. In Romans 6, Paul talks about slavery. It was an established institution of his time. There is no evidence that he tried to reform it. One of his letters was written to a slave owner named Philemon. During one of his vacations in jail, Paul met a runaway slave named Onesimus. They got to talking, and Onesimus became a Christian. When his sentence was up, ...

2017. A Pilgrimage To Bethlehem

Matthew 3:1-12

Drama

Matthew Powell

Cast Storyteller 1 Storyteller 2 Gregory Ivan Peasant Man Peasant Woman Gregory's Wife (The Storytellers remain seated or standing throughout the performance, as the director chooses. The other actors sit until they make their "entrances," then they stand) Storyteller 1: Once in Russia there lived two men who had decided to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of them was a well-to-do farmer named Ivan Petroff, who was short and had curly hair. Storyteller 2: The other, Gregory Radinsky, was not so ...

2018. Proper 25

Deuteronomy 34:1-12, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 22:41-46, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 34:1-12 (C) The Lord buried Moses. At age 120 Moses' life comes to an end. For forty years he led God's people from Egypt to the Promised Land which he was permitted to see but not enter. In all of history he probably was the only human buried by the Lord. His greatest accomplishment was his face-to-face experience with God. Lesson 1: Exodus 33:20-26 (RC); Exodus 22:21-27 (E) The first and great commandment. Lesson 2: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 (C, E) In spite of opposition, ...

2019. Looking for Shoots or Roots?

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The more we move into the Advent season, the more our scripture texts bring the Christ-child’s birth closer and closer to us. Yet here in Matthew 11:2-11 we are back to the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist. Yet even though this is not part of our text for this week, the mere mention of John’s name should remind us of their cousinly kinship, even of an in utero jump for joy that marked their first meeting--making cousin John the first person to celebrate Advent. As out text opens Jesus has ...

2020. Friends

Proverbs 27:6, 9, 17

Sermon

James Merritt

I saw a cartoon in a newspaper once, and the first frame showed a thief that was wearing a mask, and his gun was pointed toward a frightened victim. The next scene the robber is holding out a sack and saying, "Give me all of your valuables!" In the next scene the victim begins stuffing into the sack all of his friends. I don't believe there is hardly anything in life, outside of salvation, that is more valuable than a true friend. With few exceptions, people every-where hunger to have friends; I mean real ...

2021. Advent 2

Mark 1:1-8, 2 Peter 3:1-18, Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 40:1-11 These verses open the second part of Isaiah dealing with the exiles in Babylon. The opening verses constitute good news to a people sitting in the darkness of bondage and despair. God tells second Isaiah to comfort the people with the news of promised deliverance. They have suffered enough. A highway is to be built for God to come and rescue his people and bring them back to their homeland. In contrast to Yahweh, man is as insecure and temporary as grass. The only ...

2022. Proper 15

John 6:25-59, 1 Kings 2:1-12, 1 Kings 3:1-15, Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 We have come to the end of the story of great King David who reigned for 40 years. He was succeeded by his son, Solomon. Soon after succession to the throne, Solomon had a dream in which the Lord asked him what he should give him. He asked for wisdom to govern the nation. This pleased God so that he gave Solomon more than he asked: wisdom and riches. Epistle: Ephesians 5:15-20 The exhortation to Christian living continues in this pericope. It was probably ...

2023. Christmas 2

Psalm 147:1-20, Jeremiah 31:7-14, John 1:(1-9), 10-18, Ephesians 1:1-14

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter - Psalms 147:12-20 or Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21 First Lesson - There is reason for joy in the regathering of the people of God after their dispersal. Jeremiah 31:7-14 [OR] Wisdom has a place of honor in the divine purpose. Sirach 24:1-12 Second Lesson - God's earthly family is adopted through Jesus Christ to enlarge the heavenly family. Ephesians 1:3-14 Gospel - We are a new humanity through Jesus Christ and our rebirth through receiving him. John 1:(1-9) 10-18 CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: The ...

2024. Mind Games

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Sermon

James Merritt

(After a video of Hershel Walker) Oh, those were the glory days! Now there is something most of you probably missed in seeing that video. You thought the focus was on Hershel Walker, but the key to what you just saw was the offensive line. Not even Hershel Walker, the greatest college running back who ever lived, who happened to play for the greatest college football team, at the greatest university in history, cannot run one yard unless he has an offensive line opening the holes. There is an old football ...

2025. In God We Trust – Or Do We?

John 4:46-54

Sermon

James Merritt

[Have everyone take out either a dollar bill or a coin] This is the most recognizable currency and the most universally accepted currency in all of the world. On this currency are four words that is the official motto of the most powerful nation in history. The words of course are - In God We Trust. It is interesting to know where this motto came from and how it came to be put on our currency. During the Civil War, Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase received a letter from a pastor in Pennsylvania ...

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