Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2051 to 2075 of 4977 results

2051. A Monolgue from Peter

Mark 8:27-30

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

... has little to say. Setting: The lectionary reading was Mark 8. It was the Lenten season. What does it mean for Messiah to die? Peter wrestles with that eventuality in a manner that we Monday morning quarterbacks sometimes can't quite comprehend. Dramatic Monologue In the year 1988, the Democratic Convention opened with a bleached blonde, whose time on terra firma was enough to designate her "numerically challenged," speaking of the then Republican presidential candidate.Her startling introduction began with ...

2052. Josiah Speaks: An Ancient King Brings Greetings

2 Chronicles 34:14-33, 2 Chronicles 34:1-13

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

... to them. Our rulers sought ways to buy them off. Money was borrowed from the temple treasury. Money that should have gone to the repair of the Temple was used instead for a form of national defense. One of the big threats to us that never quite became a reality was the Scythians. They gobbled up several of the nations around us. You know them as Russians. As with your nation the Russians were a threat to us for almost another century. They were, however, but one of many. Preparations for possible warfare ...

2053. It's Hell, I Say: Herod Speaks

Matthew 2:1-12

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

... from all that. I was reared to think in terms of power -- not to think in terms of others. I had no ability to comprehend. I never heard the screams of these mothers. Had I heard them, I'm still not sure I would have understood. They were rabble -- not quite human. I had no more concern than you might have if you trapped a rat. Vermin! That's what they were to me. I had heard an old wives' tale that when one dies, his life flashes before his eyes. That cut no ice with me. I had no reason ...

2054. A Mother · A Canaanite Woman

Mt 15:21-28 · Mk 7:24-30

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... him on his teachings and practices. (Matthew 15:1-8) It had been a trying ordeal, and he desperately felt the need to get away for a while. So he had withdrawn to the relative safety of Tyre and Sidon seeking a respite. (Matthew 15:21) Quite understandably he did not want to do anything that might attract attention to his whereabouts lest his enemies track him down and put a violent end to his mission. As a result of all this Jesus was emotionally drained, as his disciples apparently realized. For knowing ...

2055. A Patriot · Dysmas

Mt 27:38 · Mk 15:27 · Lk 23:32

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... very well have been times when, coming to day's end, the Master spent nights in Dysmas' hostelry. Nor would he have shared Dysmas' hospitality without the two of them talking into the wee hours of the morning. (cf. John 3:2) Hence it is quite probable the Preacher and the patriot were not seeing one another for the first time at Calvary. In fact, Dysmas' last words would seem to indicate otherwise. III There is a familiarity to Dysmas' petition that suggests childhood days of running in and out of Joseph ...

2056. Life As An Investment

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Donald Dotterer

... of the 1990s. And rightly so, I think. For it is through the spending of our time, talents, and money in ways that lead to future productivity and growth that nations, churches, and individual lives are improved and made more meaningful and enjoyable. It is quite natural then that Jesus would give a lesson on what a businessman might call investment principles. This is the subject of Jesus' well-known teaching called the Parable of the Talents. This is the story. Jesus tells of a man who goes away on a ...

2057. Surprised By Joy

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52

Sermon

Donald Dotterer

... 's Treasure Island, have had the search for buried treasure as their theme. Today, searching for buried treasure still has that romantic interest. However, actually finding buried treasure is something that rarely happens. But in Israel, in the time of Jesus, things were quite different. The reason for this was that in those days there were no banks in which ordinary people could store their money. One of the common ways of safely storing one's fortune during threatening times was to bury the coins in a ...

2058. Memory And Hope

Sermon

Deborah D. Steed

... bring memory to this occasion. We, your family and friends, bring them as well. We bring memories of you as children or teenagers, as our brother and sister, our parents and the spouses of our parents. And today those memories all come together for us. We are not quite certain what to do with those memories, for they are dear to us still. We are not ready to discard them and yet we are loath to cling to them too closely, lest they hold us back from participating in your future. Fortunately, we can look to ...

2059. In His Redeemer's Arms

Mark 10:13-16

Eulogy

Charles R. Turbin

... yes, ____________ sins, too. The sacrifice that God required has been made on our behalf by his very Son. Jesus Christ was like us -- he was us -- and he died for us, in order that all of our sins might be forgiven. And they are. But our hope can't quit there. Good Friday without Easter is just another tragedy. No, ____________ faith was not only in the God of the cross, but also in the God of the resurrection, and it is his faith and ours, in that one and the same God, that even allow us to be here ...

2060. Warning! In Case Of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned.

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Carl B. Rife

... use that we are not familiar with, for instance the word rapture. The word rapture refers to the belief associated with the second coming of Jesus. It is a belief that believers will be caught up into the clouds and transported directly to heaven. If you cannot quite understand what that is all about, all you have to do is watch Star Trek,when they say, "Beam me up, Scotty." That is a kind of rapture, a transporting up. Paul uses that language in 2 Thessalonians: "We shall be caught up together with them in ...

2061. Peter Rebuked

Mark 8:31--9:1

Bulletin Aid

Craig M. Sweet

Reader: Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, People: "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Reader: Jesus then called the crowd with his ...

2062. "The Rejection Of Royalty"

Psalm 22:1-31

Sermon

R. Sheldon MacKenzie

... ,that the will of God was being fulfilled as it had been predicted in the Hebrew Bible. As a part of the pre-crucifixion routine Jesus had been brutally beaten.It was a procedure that brought men to the edge of death.And sometimes to death itself.It is quite likely he needed help to carry the cross-beam of his cross as the procession left the city for Golgotha.The man chosen to help him was called Simon, a native of Cyrene. He must carry the cross-beam in the place of another man,-- Simon Peter of Galilee ...

2063. Easter Sunday

Luke 24:33-41 · Psalm 23 · Acts 4:33-36

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

... but it had fallen into debt, had all assets liquidated and now the family simply worked in the shop and drew a small pension in addition to wages. But the pension stopped when his father died. Being an only child, and his mother having died while he was quite young, Joseph had no ties to Cyprus. He worked hard and had a bit more success than his father, but Joseph was discouraged by his lack of progress as well as his lack of profit. When the word came of his inheritance he quickly disposed of his household ...

2064. Lent 1

Luke 4:16-30 · Psalm 103:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

... around with them." "If you thought that you would have cast him down and stoned him." "We ..." "Caleb, there was something more. You know that Jesus has always been more in touch with God than you or I could ever be. Am I right? We've never been quite able to understand him. You know that. And that's not since he moved to Capernaum. He's always been that way." "I know." Caleb paused to think about his long relationship with Jesus. "One year, when we were young, we all went to Jerusalem for the Passover ...

2065. Lent 2

Luke 13:31-35

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

... as your own father. Even though Levi's father was dead, he knew what this rabbi meant. As he listened it was as though all the pain and hurt from his father's death and his brother's absence had been lifted from his heart and mind. Lifted, no not quite, he still mourned the loss of his father, but he found a peace which was a blessing to him. All the time he was listening, Levi moved up further and further, closer and closer toward the teacher. By this time there were thousands of people and he was so short ...

2066. Lent 5

Luke 21:1-4 · Psalm 36:5-9

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

... at the walls of her small home, in which she sat most of the time when not out trying to sell flowers, or out gleaning the fields for grain to make porridge and bread. The small house in which she lived was more than adequate for her needs, however, and quite a generous gift from her third cousin (twice removed), who often told her, "I could get a hundred easy for this house, if I weren't so generous by letting you live here." She arose from her one chair to answer the knocking at her door. It was Malcolm ...

2067. The TV Audience

Sermon

Michael Rogness

... what and how we hear. *Psychological factors and past experiences affect how we hear things. *The left and right hemispheres of the brain hear and process information differently. *The meanings of words change. Religious terms particularly may carry quite different messages to people in the same audience. Noting that "our perceptions and understandings of the world are formed in far more complicated ways than merely by rational observation and judgment," Patricia Wilson-Kastner urges preachers to take ...

2068. Structure And Clarity

Sermon

Michael Rogness

... in Christian worship. It is an immortal fellowship .... "You are come to the spirits of just men made perfect" -- the immortal fellowship ... Fourth, it is a divine fellowship ... and every time you come to worship, says this writer to the Hebrews, you can be quite certain you are coming to Jesus ... One other fact about our fellowship in worship he adds, and so makes an end: it is a redeeming fellowship .... Where should any of us be if that were not true, if Christianity were not above everything else a ...

2069. Delivery

Sermon

Michael Rogness

I once visited a church in which the minister delivered what seemed at the time to be an interesting sermon, but I couldn't quite grasp the real thrust of the message, because it was delivered in a monotone, most of it read with little warmth or enthusiasm. [The church secretary] agreed to mail me a copy of the sermon I'd just heard. When the sermon arrived in the mail and I read it, ...

2070. Praying To Win

John 14:5-14

Illustration

John E. Sumwalt

... who looked absolutely terrifying. They were not only big and strong, they were mean. There were several occasions when we tried to convince Rolland to forfeit rather than risk getting hurt, but he always insisted on wrestling, and he always got pinned. Most of us would have quit after three or four matches like that. But Rolland was not a quitter. He went out, match after match, and gave the best that he had to give. After a while we began to root for him just to get through one match without getting pinned ...

2071. What Do You Expect Your Religion To Do?

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Clement E. Lewis

... undergirds the faith and aspirations of our lives. Our relation to our religion may be likened unto Jesus' story about those who had worked all day in the fields, and then were directed to prepare and serve the evening meal. (Luke 17) We never quite seem to get everything done that we desire -- there is continually something beyond. And that is good. That something else is life eternal! A Closing Prayer: O God, grant that we should be faithful in our religious affiliation, and in the performance of life ...

2072. Putting God In His Place

Matthew 6:33

Children's Sermon

Kenneth Mortonson

... inch off the center. Lesson: By just looking at this toy car, you cannot tell what kind it is; but when I spin the wheels, the sound tells you that this is a special kind of car. Once you have the wheels turning fast, they will continue to run for quite a while. The reason for this is that within the car are several other wheels. Some of these wheels have what we call teeth. They are gears. The teeth of one wheel mesh with the teeth of another wheel and, as the first wheel turns, it makes the second one ...

2073. Proper 9

Mark 6:7-13

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... Twelve underscores the continuity between what their mission is to be and what Jesus' has been: they are to preach, exorcise, heal and withal suffer rejection. Remarkable here is the eschatological urgency implied in Jesus' instructions to "travel light," which makes for quite a contrast with today's Christian mission, both theologically and practically. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns The Son Of God, Our Christ The Lord Will Come And Not Be Slow Dear Christians, One And All O God, O Lord Of Heaven ...

2074. Proper 11

Mark 6:30-44

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... to "do it all!" We have been taught to work hard in order to provide for those we love. When everything is complete, then and only then is it okay to rest. The problem is, we never seem to know when enough is enough. We do not know when to quit. We become caught up in our work. We generate lists for ourselves. We take on more and more, accomplishing less and less. The busier we become, the more we lose our sense of who we are. Jesus took time to rest. He encouraged his disciples to rest. It is time ...

2075. News Too Good To Keep

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... whom they had seen, but also for the angels' words that had revealed his true identity" Liturgical Color White Suggested Hymns God, Whose Almighty Word Silent Night, Holy Night Lo, How A Rose Is Growing, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing The Bells Of Christmas Christmas Eve This is quite a night, Lord! It is good to be here for the celebration of your Son's birth. The gift has been given! Your presence has been revealed in a way we are able to understand" You have come to us as one of us. The shepherds had the ...

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