Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2026 to 2050 of 4935 results

2026. A Time for Opportunity

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you are familiar with a 26-year-old blogger in Montreal, Canada named Kyle MacDonald. Kyle is the ultimate modern day horse trader. He has become famous for trading a red paper clip for a house. Yes, you heard right. A paper clip for a house. How did he accomplish this remarkable exchange? Well, he didn’t have a job, but one day he looked at a red paper clip on his desk and decided to trade it on the barter section of the popular website Craigslist. He asked people to trade with him anything of ...

2027. Testing Time

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

To live the Christian life is to be tested. As day follows night and night follows day, we experience it all of our days. The deeper we go, the more testing comes upon us. So, there is nothing unique about all of this. If we expect our daily walk with Christ to be any different, we are guilty of self-deception. Sometimes it is really severe and we wonder about its cessation. Patience becomes virtually non-existent. Strength seems to go out the window and we languish not only in pain but borderline ...

2028. Changing Dysfunction Into Function: Isaac, Jacob and Esau

Genesis 27:15-24, 30-34

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I'll never forget the time my little brother Scott got into major trouble. He was down in our basement shooting pool when dad called down and said, "Scott, supper's ready." Scott didn't answer. Again Dad called again. And finally Dad was mad, stood at the top of the stairs and hollered, "Scott, get up here, NOW, supper's ready." That last time got Scott's attention and just as he came up the basement steps, Dad yelled, "Where have you been?!" Everything would have been OK if Scott hadn't said, "I didn't ...

2029. Getting Real

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Sometime back there was a brief news report about a youth director of a local church who was fired because he had duct taped one of the unruly boys to the wall of the gym and left him there. The pictures you see are of kids and adults who consented to being duct taped to the wall not for punishment purposes but as fund raisers. The Darwin awards came out this week and the winner was James Elliot. When his 38-calibre revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, ...

2030. Choosing a Master

Matthew 6:16-24

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

It was supposed to have been fun. No one was supposed to have gotten hurt. Little children haven't become greedy yet have they? A minor league baseball team in Michigan held a promotion after a game, dropping $1,000 in cash from a helicopter over the outfield. Then they let the children run after it. The air should have been filled with giggles as the children plucked dollar bills from the air and scooped them off the ground. No one expected cries of pain. No one expected the older, bigger children to ...

2031. Tears, Perfume and Forgiveness

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

There was a certain young woman who was nervous about meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time. As she checked out her appearance one last time, she noticed that her shoes looked dingy. So she gave them a fast swipe with the paper towel she had used to blot the bacon she had for breakfast. Arriving at the impressive home of her potential in-laws, she was greeted by the parents and their much-beloved, but rotten-tempered, poodle, Cleo. Well, the dog got a whiff of the bacon grease on the young ...

2032. Moving Day

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Maybe you've heard about the absent minded professor. One day he and his wife were leaving church. The professor confronted his wife: "Ah-ha! So who is absent-minded now? You forgot your umbrella and left it in church, but I remembered mine and I picked up yours, too." His wife set him straight: "That's fine, dear, but the trouble is, neither you nor I brought an umbrella to church today!" The next morning his wife reminded her absent minded husband: "Now, don't forget we're moving today. If you come to ...

2033. How Big of a Risk Would You Take?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

Are you a risk taker? Do you know someone who is? A young man enlisted in the 82nd Airborne Division. He was assigned to their jump school. He eagerly asked his recruiter what he could expect at jump school. "Well," the recruiter said, "it’s three weeks long." "What else?" asked the young soldier. "The first week they separate the men from the boys," the recruiter said. "The second week, they separate the men from the fools." "And the third week?" the soldier asked. "The third week," the recruiter said ...

2034. The Man Who Wasn’t There

Acts 16:9-15

Sermon

David J. Kalas

I've never had a vision — at least not of the sort that Paul had. I don't know personally, therefore, what you feel the next morning. But it's clear from the story that whatever Paul felt, he felt it so strongly that he and his companions changed their itinerary immediately in response to that vision. Perhaps this sort of turn-on-a-dime operation is acceptable for a missionary. It's a little hard to imagine in other lines of work, however. Does the salesman staying in Phoenix tell his boss that he ...

2035. Lost Baggage: Flying Standby

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

Two young men walk into church. They both are the same age -22, same height, same weight, and same build. The first young man walks in with a crisply starched long-sleeved Polo shirt, freshly ironed slacks, clean-cut, fresh-shaven, and wearing shoes in the latest style. The second male walks in wearing a t-shirt, blue-jeans with more holes than pockets, flip-flops, tattoos on both arms, a nose-ring and orange hair. Immediately, if we are honest, most of us would look at the first male and think, “He needs ...

2036. Running over the Cat

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a story that Chuck Swindoll told years ago that is both sad and somewhat ironic. In 1978, firemen in England went on strike in the middle of a hard cold winter. This is not unusual in Great Britain. Civil servants are notorious for their “industrial actions.” The British Army was called in to take over emergency firefighting. On January 14 these substitute firefighters were called out by an elderly lady in South London to retrieve her cat. The soldiers arrived with impressive haste, very cleverly ...

2037. The Model of Jesus for Discipleship Service, Not Self-Seeking

Mark 9:33-37, Mark 9:38-41, Mark 9:42-50

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: Discipleship demands becoming like Jesus in self-sacrificial service to others. His people must embrace diversity in the group and defeat sin and temptation in their lives. Understanding the Text The disciple-centered movement of Jesus from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem continues in this section. The series of interactions carry on the gradual uncovering of the disciples’ inability to understand and their self-seeking responses to the various stimuli that they receive. Structure This passage is ...

2038. Exile for National Israel, Restoration for Spiritual Israel

Romans 11:1-10

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

Big Idea: Paul juxtaposes two types of Israel: national Israel (11:7–10) versus spiritual Israel (11:1–6). The former remains in exile and under the covenant curses, but the latter as the remnant is enjoying the long-awaited restoration of Israel as well as the covenant blessings. Understanding the Text Romans 11 moves from Paul’s day to a day in the future when national Israel will convert to Jesus the Messiah. At that time, national Israel will, for the first time, become spiritual Israel. Paul therefore ...

2039. “The Earth Is the Lord’s, and Everything in It”

Psalm 24:1-10

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Entering the King’s presence is an awesome privilege, and in worship we join the psalmist in preparation for that tremendous experience. Understanding the Text Psalm 24 is titled “Of David. A psalm [mizmor].” First occurring in Psalm 3, the term mizmor is generally understood to mean a poem that is sung to musical accompaniment (see comments on the title for Ps. 3). While the order of the words is reversed here (not “A psalm of David,” as it usually is), the order does not seem to have much ...

2040. “Taste and See That the Lord Is Good”

Psalm 34:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Having experienced God’s goodness, we invite others to “taste and see that the Lord is good” and thus experience the assuagement of their fears. Understanding the Text In addition to being an alphabetic acrostic,[1] Psalm 34 shares at least three other features with Psalm 25, another acrostic: (1) the waw (the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet) is missing from both poems; (2) each closes with a supernumerary verse beginning with the Hebrew letter pe; and (3) the same verb begins each of these ...

2041. This Woman Was a Fighter

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

She was a single mom with a special needs child, and she desperately needed Jesus’ help. Okay, so the scriptures don’t actually say that she was single. Our lesson simply doesn’t mention her husband, but I’ve seen enough single moms courageously facing difficult obstacles that I can imagine she may have been one of them. Perhaps her husband had been killed in an accident or simply died young as many people did back then. Maybe when he saw the extent of his daughter’s disability, he decided he didn’t want ...

2042. Three Wise Women

Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.” --Psalm 117 (Hebrew Hallelu) Everyone LOVES a baby shower. Babies seem to just create a spirit of silliness, natural joy, and celebration. When we look at a baby, we reflexively smile and think happily about the future. Preparing for a child brings out the creative ….and the downright “strange” in us. Grown men get all gushy and mushy and hand ...

2043. Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Will Willimon

I had this man in my last church who frequently greeted me at the end of the service by thrusting into my hand some newspaper article, usually from the Wall Street Journal, which he thought to be of help in his never-ending battle to educate his preacher. One Sunday, he gave me an article by a national columnist, in which the columnist described how a young woman had been indicted in Chicago after her baby was found to have died from complications brought on by malnutrition and infection from rat bites. ...

2044. Close! But No Cigar!

John 3:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever gotten an unexpected visitor? Maybe you’ve just settled into your easy chair for the evening. Your only plan is to turn off your mind and relax a while. And then the doorbell rings. There go your plans. Who knows what needs are on the other side of that door? All you know is your plans for the evening just got put on hold. You may remember a story that made international news back in 1982. Very early in the morning of July 9, 1982, a young man named Michael Fagan broke into Buckingham Palace ...

2045. No Box Seats In The Kingdom

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

William G. Carter

Historically speaking, the church has usually painted a pretty picture of the twelve original disciples of Jesus. All except Judas have been considered saints. Pious people have named churches after them, often referring to the first disciples as the rocks upon which Christ has built his church. Yet anybody who hears the Gospel of Mark's stories about the disciples gets a different picture of who they were and what they wanted. Sure, the disciples walked the road with Jesus. They listened as he taught. ...

2046. This House In Its Former Glory

Haggai 2:1-9

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twent-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son ...

2047. Lent 2

Philippians 3:12-4:1, Genesis 15:1-18, Luke 13:31-35, Jeremiah 26:1-24

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Yahweh makes a covenant with Abraham who is promised a son and a land. This passage is one of several accounts of Yahweh's covenant with Abraham. It is noteworthy that Yahweh came to Abraham with a covenant proposal. Yahweh comes to Abraham as a shield (v. 1) and thus Abraham has no need to fear being in Yahweh's holy presence. In this account, Yahweh promises Abraham three tremendous blessings: a son, a nation, and a country. The covenant is made legal and ...

2048. Written On The Heart

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

A place to start with this passage is the use of the word "husband" by Jeremiah to describe the message God has given him. But let's jump, for a moment, to the Old Testament book of Hosea. It's a metaphorical story about a man, Hosea, whose wife was unfaithful. Ancient law would have permitted all sorts of dire punishment for that, but Hosea loved his wife too much to think in terms of punishment. Instead, he wanted her back, hopefully as things had been before her adultery. Thereafter, the story tells of ...

2049. Proper 23

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

George Paul Mocko

Atlas, Hercules and Tantalus; a Powerful and Deadly Fruit; All About War and Rape and Divorce; Laziness and Guilt Trips and Punishment for All The Above But Don't Despair: a Touch of Salvation Too. As a boy, I was facinated with those Greek myths, the stories of Hercules and Atlas, Zeus and Mercury, Narcissus and Neptune. Let me tell you one of those - one which brings together the familiar words "Nectar", "Ambrosia", and "Tantalize". It was King Tantalus of Phrygia whose birth, as often is the case in ...

2050. The Interview

Matthew 9:35-38, Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Larry Goodpaster

The young woman squirmed uncomfortably in the cushioned chair to which she had been directed by the receptionist. Not only was she nervous about the impending job interview, but the shuttle service which had provided transportation from the airport to this office building had been the worst of her life. The others who had been on the van seemed as upset as she was -- and just as captive. Now, because of the traffic, and because that driver had not known which building was hers, she was late for her ...

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