Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2001 to 2025 of 4508 results

2001. Jesus' Mother and Brothers

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

Opposition Mounts: In chapter 12 Matthew relates a number of incidents that reveal the basis for Pharisaic opposition to Jesus and his ministry. Jesus vindicates his disciples’ plucking grain on the Sabbath (vv. 1–8), restores a paralyzed hand on the Sabbath (vv. 9–14), moves away when he hears of a plot against him (vv. 15–21), refutes the Pharisees’ claim that he drives out demons by the power o...

2002. A Mother And Her Son

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A purse or Handbag (Old and tattered if possible) (Mother's Day) Good morning, boys and girls. There is a very famous mother and daughter country singing act called the Judds. They sell millions of records and appear on television and on the stage. They are very popular. Years ago they were on television to be interviewed. The interviewer asked the mother what her most prized possession w...

2003. A Mother And Her Son (Mother's Day)

Sermon

King Duncan

A woman had quit work to stay home and take care of her new baby daughter. Countless hours of peekaboo and other games slowly took their toll. One evening she smacked her bare toes on the corner of a dresser and, grabbing her foot, sank to the floor. Her husband rushed to her side and asked where it hurt. She looked at her husband through her tear-filled eyes and managed to moan, "It's the piggy t...

2004. The Church As Family

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

When God made you and God made me, He made us a part of a family. He gave us grandmas and grandpas, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and lots of others. For when God made you and God made me, He made us a part of a family. When Jesus spoke of family, he extended it far beyond blood lines and DNA. He called the entire Christian Community a family, the family of God. I want to use that metaph...

2005. The Spreading Word

Sermon

Marc Kolden

Jesus told them a parable: Listen up, folks. A farmer went out to plant. This was many centuries ago, before modern machinery. He carried a large bag of seeds and threw them all around by hand. In those days, a farmer threw the seeds (or "sowed" them) before he plowed them under. He would come along later and turn ground over so that the seeds would be covered with soil and could grow. Therefore, ...

2006. On the Art Of Listening To Sermons

Sermon

Larry Goodpaster

I cannot imagine a more difficult place to preach than the setting of this parable-sermon. Although they were not out to get him, this surely must have been one of the toughest audiences Jesus had to face, outside of the religious establishment who were not receptive to much of anything he had to say anyway. The assembling of these people is handled in a rather matter-of-fact way by Matthew in his...

2007. Sowing Seed Is Never A Waste of Time

Sermon

Johnny Dean

I shared something with the Senior Citizens group on Wednesday of this past week that I would like to share with you this morning. Ministry can be and often is a difficult task. Oh, I know most of you only see me working for a couple of hours on Sunday mornings, and I’ve heard that old joke about us ministers only working one day a week more times than I care to remember. But it is hard work somet...

2008. Listening or Hearing?

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not...

2009. It Takes Two to Preach!

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Pentecost VIII That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, whe...

2010. Why Won't They Listen?

Sermon

King Duncan

Why won't they listen? Why won't they turn back before it is too late? Don't they see what they are doing to themselves? Is there any experience in life more frustrating than to see someone you love committed to a course that can lead only to heartache and despair and yet not be able to get through to them? An aging mother begins shutting herself off from her family and friends. She refuses to car...

2011. The Sower and the Seed

Sermon

Brett Blair

The Kingdom of God was the main emphasis of Jesus’ ministry and this is accepted by most. But defining precisely what the Kingdom was is a bit more difficult. Indeed, even Jesus himself was often elusive about it. He did not speak in absolutes; rather, he spoke in parables. Such is our scripture text for this morning. Jesus compared the Kingdom to a sower going out and spreading seed. Some of it f...

2012. The Four R's

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The Parable of the Sower and the Seed is a basic lesson in key survival skills for the 21st century: Roots, Rituals, Relationships, Realities. In the so-called 'good old days' wherever and whenever those were public schools used to boast that they taught the '3-Rs' 'reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic all to the tune of a hickory stick.' In the West Virginia holler from whence my family hails, ...

2013. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Matthew devotes all of chapter 13 to a compilation of Jesus' parables. Furthermore, he divides Jesus' parables into two separate formats public presentations of unadorned free-standing parables, and private 'explanations' of these parables. To explain this arrangement, Matthew's text includes a rather lengthy 'aside' in verses 10-17 that offers the rationale for this two-tiered, teaching technique...

2014. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's gospel text (like last week's) presents two "versions" of Jesus' favorite communication form a parable. More than mere "stories," less than full-blown "myths," and with a different focus and format than an "allegory," parables remain a distinctive part of Jesus' teaching ministry. While his own mastery of this story-form is unique and unparalleled, the parables of Jesus may have grown ...

2015. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Matthew takes obvious delight in retelling Jesus' numerous parables in great detail and with studied finesse. Yet, while Matthew records Jesus' "reasons" for speaking in parables - Jesus says their use fulfills prophecy and creates a specially informed group of disciples (3:10-16) - these tales take on new significance in the life of the Matthean community. The larger focus of the parables in Matt...

2016. Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The week's Gospel texts relay a series of "the kingdom of heaven is like" parables that were so crucial to Jesus' message. Our "kingdom" texts are from Matthew, whose overwhelming preference is to refer to the "kingdom of heaven" (literally the "kingdom of the heavens") instead of the "kingdom of God" (Luke and Mark's favorite designation). The two terms are essentially synonymous, however, and ac...

2017. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

“Clear as mud.” We are so familiar with hearing Jesus’ unique way of teaching, his use of that special story form known as a “parable,” that we miss the fact that for many first-century/first-time listeners, these illuminating animations were as “clear as mud.” Jesus’ message of the kingdom was a new idea presented in a new manner before crowds of simple, old-fashioned Galileans. These Galilean f...

2018. Parables Discourse: Importance of Response to the Kingdom Message

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: Though the kingdom has a hidden quality so that some do not see or understand it, Jesus teaches his disciples the importance of receiving the kingdom message and bearing fruit. Understanding the Text The third major Matthean discourse, the Parables Discourse (chap. 13), explores through teachings and parables the varied responses that have been narrated in chapters 11–12. Matthew’s two...

2019. The Parable of the Sower & Weeds

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

13:1–53 Review · Jesus’s third discourse—the Parables Discourse:Having narrated the rejection of Jesus’s messianic identity by Jewish leaders who represent “this generation” (11:16–24; 12:1–14, 22–45) as well as the wondering response of the Jewish crowds (12:23), Matthew follows up with an extended discourse by Jesus that comments on the varied responses to his kingdom message and also reveals mo...

2020. The Parable of the Sower

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

Parables of Jesus: In chapter 13 we come for the first time to Jesus’ favorite method of teaching, the parable. The seven parables recorded in this chapter form Jesus’ third discourse as arranged by Matthew, There are in the first three Gospels about sixty separate parables. In the LXX the Greek parabolē almost always translates the Hebrew māšāl, which denotes a wide variety of picturesque forms o...

2021. Playing One Hand

Sermon

Tom Garrison

In the beginning of any really significant human endeavor, be it a marriage or parenthood or a business venture, there is usually a high level of idealism and hope. We expect to do the thing we are beginning with great success. This was certainly true of Jesus' ministry. Who can read how he emerged out of Galilee saying, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe ...

2022. For the Hearing Impaired

Sermon

James Merritt

Of all the topics that a pastor talks about, by common consensus everybody would agree, the most sensitive topic that a pastor talks about is - money. However, the most difficult topic that a pastor deals with is the one we have been talking about for the last couple of weeks in the series we’ve entitled, “Missing Person.” We have said that a missing person is any person who is far from God - any ...

2023. Planting Seeds

Sermon

King Duncan

There’s a story going around about two women of a certain hair color who stopped at a service station on the coast of Texas and asked where the lighthouses were located. The service station attendant was a little confused and asked if there was any particular reason they were looking for lighthouses. One of them said, “We understand lighthouses have good paying jobs. There are lots of ads in the ...

2024. The Demanding Word

Sermon

"That same day Jesus left the house and went to the lakeside, where he sat down to teach. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and satin it, while the crowd stood on the shore. He used parables to tell them many things. 'There was a man who went out to sow. As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. So...

2025. It Takes More than Sun to Grow

Sermon

A father and his son went for a ride on a trolleycar. The boy seemed to be completely absorbed in the passing sights of San Francisco. His father, feeling a bit mischievous, lifted the boy’s cap from his head and pretended to throw it out the window. The boy began to cry, so his father whistled and placed the cap back on his son’s head. He made believe that he was able to bring the cap back by a m...

Showing 2001 to 2025 of 4508 results