Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2026 to 2050 of 3099 results

2026. More Than A Kumbaya King

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a harsh dictator, a “kangaroo king.” “Kangaroo” kings, like “kangaroo courts,” make up their own rules and do not allow for any dissension. As self-motivated, and self-centered as a kangaroo king might be, such a ruler makes it easy for his subjects to give up all of their own concerns and worries. The kangaroo king declares his opinion, and there is no discussion, no division in the ranks. Personal conscience and individual sacrifice are unimportant. Only the will of the “king” is will of ...

2027. The Call to Confession

Luke 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

... parish celebrated the annual festival of its patron saint, Saint Joseph. It was a big event, and the theme of the Sunday mass was to be fatherhood, as Joseph was the father of Jesus. The priest prepared what he thought was a particularly good sermon on the subject. But when he went up into the pulpit, and surveyed the packed house, something came over him. He set his homily aside and instead he began like this, "Today is the Feast of our blessed Saint Joseph. St. Joseph, as you know, was a carpenter, and ...

2028. How Could God Let This Happen?

Matthew 2:13-18

Illustration

King Duncan

... reflected the kids' disillusionment with a God who didn't seem to hear their prayers or feel their pain. One nine-year-old, identified as Chris G., used up all his film taking pictures of the sky. When an interviewer asked him why he chose this as his subject, Chris answered that the sky is where Heaven is, and his little sister, Tina, was in Heaven. As he explained, "There was a fire. My mom got out, but she (Tina) didn't. She died at a bad age." The interviewer asked, "If God is as powerful as you ...

2029. Having Lost All, All Is Found

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Having reached the end of the Beatitudes, we naturally ask if there is any place on this earth for the community which they describe. Clearly, there is one place, and only one, and that is where the Poorest, Meekest, and most sorely Tried of all men is to be found—on the cross at Golgotha. The community which is the subject of the Beatitudes is the community of the crucified. With Him it has lost all, and with him it has found all.

2030. Believe and Behave

Illustration

David E. Leininger

There is a church in Columbia, SC near a seminary which has one of those bulletin boards out front to list service times, special events, sermon subjects, and so on. For several years there was one other thing on that bulletin board, one of those little "sentence sermons" that we see so often. It said, "The same Bible that says BELIEVE also says BEHAVE." I do not know if there were any significance to the fact that ...

2031. Rock Solid

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... . As he put it, “I may have great hopes if I find even the least thing that is unshakably certain.” Ah, that is the problem, isn’t it? Where do we find that which is unshakably certain? Even the most solid bedrock can be shaken if subjected to an earthquake of sufficient force. Of course, Jesus wasn’t talking about building skyscrapers in Matthew 7, but building lives. Where do you find that point that is unshakably certain upon which to build a life? You find it, of course, in Christ’s teachings ...

2032. That First Longing

John 4:5-42

Illustration

Robert Bachelder

... are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we ...

2033. Passion Sunday: Surprising and Inevitable

Matthew 21:1-11

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

... . Palm Sunday and the events of Holy Week are both surprising and inevitable. The truth is that we are not completely sure what to make of Palm Sunday. After forty days of Lenten travel that have often focused on serious and sometimes dark subjects, suddenly we arrive at a day that seems at first blush to be surprisingly cheery. The Palm Sunday parade has color and spectacle, cheering and singing, festive voices and joyful exuberance. This seems like a happy day. Yet it would be completely appropriate ...

2034. From Temple to Table

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... s text, Jesus uses similar familiar information to carry a new message to his listening audience. After bringing sight to a man blind from birth, you would think everyone is now lauding Jesus as a great, miraculous healer. But no. Instead the healed man was subjected to an inquisition and then ultimately was rejected and thrown out of his synagogue because he had been healed by Jesus. Who was it who first said, “No good deed goes unpunished”? Today’s text is offered in the aftermath of that fiasco. It ...

2035. It's Not Fair!

1 Peter 2:13-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... people, they sing.” That brings us to our theme for the day. Sometimes life isn’t fair. That’s what Mary Martin was saying. For some people birds sing. For others, they simply make a mess. It isn’t fair. Futurist Faith Popcorn approaches this subject from a different angle. She writes about the “Right, But” Club. The “Right, But” Club has as its members all the people who did the right thing, BUT life still didn’t work out for them as they had planned. “I exercised BUT got heart disease ...

2036. Family Resemblance

John 14:5-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... It always amuses me with a newborn how people will say, “Why he looks just like his father.” Well, if Dad is bald and wrinkled, I suppose that is true. We could say that the newborn looks like its mother. However, according to research on this subject, usually people will say of a newborn, he or she looks like his or her father. Go figure. An objective observer might question whether a newborn resembles anybody at all. But who wants to spoil the moment? Nevertheless, it is common as children grow toward ...

2037. Because I Live (Memorial Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... learning games that reinforced the fundamentals of math and reading and writing. This particular school was chosen in order to make the computer’s job as tough as possible because year after year, its students scored in the lowest statewide percentiles in every subject. The experiment took place ten years ago, when computers were still pretty exotic contraptions to find in a public school. Naturally, the principal wanted to minimize the risk that the computers would be damaged in any way. And so he made a ...

2038. A Picture of Evangelism

John 17:1-11

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

... of humankind's hopeless condition. And, true to the Gospel, the only hope of salvation was "the Rock of Ages", a shelter in the time of storm. But as the artist reflected upon his work, he realized that the painting did not accurately portray his subject. So he discarded the canvas, and painted another. It was very similar to the first: the black clouds, the flashing lightning, the angry waters, the little boat crushed by the pounding waves, and the crew vainly struggling in the water. In the foreground the ...

2039. Grabbing up the Truths

John 17:1-11, Phil 3:12-17

Illustration

... to see if it was as I remembered it. But I did. And it was. Anderson shared a legend, suggesting that in the beginning there was a valley filled with truths. And the truths were all beautiful. There were truths about every subject under the sun. There were truths about virginity and truths about passion....truths about wealth and truths about poverty....truths about thrift and truths about profligacy....truths about carefulness and truths about abandon. There were hundreds and hundreds of truths, all of ...

2040. Wrong!

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... document of the Reformed tradition, the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was drawn up in 1646 by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, has a total chapter devoted to the church. Point 5 of Chapter 25 says this: The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated, as to become no churches of Christ, but sanctuaries of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on earth, to worship God according to his will. Wrongness could have been the mantra ...

2041. The Trinity: Who’s on First?

Matthew 28:16-20

Drama

Mickey Anders

... a mystery that is impossible to solve like a puzzle. When we examine it like a puzzle, we cannot help but be confused. It is a confusion that is not unlike that of the famous Abbot and Costello skit "Who's on First?" Someone wrote a similar skit on the subject of the Trinity that begins this way: When you come to church you need to know the key players . . . you know, the ones who are worthy of honor and praise. Honor and praise huh? Well who are they? O.K., now listen closely. There is one God. One God ...

2042. The Wrong Question

Matthew 13:1-23

Illustration

Charles Hoffacker (adapted)

... about the story of the sower, or any of the stories told by Jesus. "What does it mean?" is the wrong question if we think that by having an answer, we can somehow get a handle on this story, domesticate it, make it safe. The stories Jesus tells are not subject to our control. He tells these stories so that we can be transformed. He tells these stories, not so that we can ask questions about them, but so that the stories can ask questions of us.

2043. Finger Food

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... course in the one meal that can sustain us for all our life. But as Jesus gave himself for us, we are to give ourselves for others. John Buchanan, senior pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, received an email from a neighbor with the subject line of “Bums in My Neighborhood.” It seems that Fourth Presbyterian has a Social Service Center which feeds needy, homeless, hungry people daily with a noon-time sack-lunch and once a week with a sit-down Sunday Night Supper. The church does its best ...

2044. Don't Be Afraid

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... body of water, eight miles wide by thirteen miles long. Of the twelve disciples, Peter, Andrew, James and John were all fishermen. They knew the Sea of Galilee very well. They knew that, at this time of year (probably around mid-spring), the Sea of Galilee was subject to strong gusts of wind. The late afternoon and evening was not a good time to be out in the middle of the lake. (6) Maybe that is why Matthew tells us that Jesus “made the disciples” get into the boat. Perhaps the four fishermen could ...

2045. Thinking of Nothing Else

Matthew 15:21-28

Illustration

J. Curtis Goforth

... these notes in what was known as Martin Luther's Table Talks. One such example of the profound insight and truth Luther gave his students happened one day after class in the dining hall and they were all sitting around eating their meal and talking on the subject of prayer. A student of Luther's by the name of Viet Dietrich preserved Luther's words for us: "When Luther's puppy, Tölpel, happened to be at the table, looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes, Luther ...

2046. God's Day Off

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... are to get a day off ... sons, daughters, servants, animals, day laborers. Who is missing from that list? The wife and mom! Sorry, ladies. Even the Bible knows that a woman's work is never done. It would be nice to say that Jesus' word on the subject took care of the problem, and in the beginning it did. The early Christians enjoyed their Lord's day observances and fellowship meals so much that the Romans who passed by on the street outside a Christian meeting place thought they were having orgies in there ...

2047. Beating Babel

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... you to the other folks. Ours is a friendly community. Sincerely yours Mistaken impressions notwithstanding, research has been done which shows that some of what we hear and do not hear is quite deliberate. One experiment had two groups of subjects, smokers and non-smokers, listen to messages, some of which implied that smoking causes cancer and others which claimed the opposite. The messages were obscured by static, which could be eliminated if the listener pressed a button. Smokers more frequently ...

2048. When God Is Gone

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... poem to which there is a prose introduction to set the scene. Job is presented to us as the richest man in the Middle East, deeply religious, "blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:1). As the story opens, Job is the subject of a conversation between God and Satan (not the Satan of pop theology with horns, a pitchfork, and a tail, but this one tantamount to a celestial prosecuting attorney). God says to Satan, "Where have you been?" and Satan responds that he has been checking things ...

2049. When Did This Start? — Part 2

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... and mornings to remind us of a world in the absence of light. Many leave for more southerly climates in this season; they find the short days and long dark nights too taxing on their spirits. But we do have an advantage in this part of the world, when the subject turns to light in our Advent season, we know what it is to need a John the Baptist to bear witness to it. And we know what it is to need a light that is not our own. The most basic affirmation about who we are in relation to our ...

2050. Grand Opening

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11). The dying to sin is not to be discounted — it is real. Paul Stookey, of the Peter, Paul, and Mary trio, said that once upon a time the most popular magazine in our country was called Life. That's a pretty broad subject. Then came People. Now people are part of life, it is true, but not all of life. Later came Us, which is a smaller slice yet, since "us" is only part of "people." Ultimately — we should have been able to predict it — came the magazine called Self. It ...

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