Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2101 to 2125 of 5000 results

2101. You Can Know What to Do With Your Life

Proverbs 3:5-6

Sermon

James Merritt

Two hundred years ago, banks invented checks so they could transfer money between company accounts and between banks themselves without actually having to risk moving large sums of cash. Eventually, someone came up with the idea of allowing individuals to use checks so they, too, could forego carrying large amounts of cash on their person that they could either lose or someone could rob. People began to learn that you could take a check from one person to a bank and then the bank would redeem the check and ...

2102. The Driver’s Seat

Proverbs 16:4

Sermon

James Merritt

I want to read one-half of one verse in the Bible from which we are going to base two months worth of messages. It is a verse that is packed with unbelievable implications for you, your life, your family, your future and particularly our church. "The Lord has made everything for His own purposes." (Proverbs 16:4, NLT) I believe everything means everything and I believe purpose means purpose. Behind everything and everyone that has been created on this earth there is a purpose - specifically God's purpose. ...

2103. Things Change

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

Stan Purdum

Here's a fact about life: things change. Now that is hardly a profound observation, but it is a significant shift in thinking that for many of us can only be gained by living a while. Think back to when you were a child living with your parents. Whatever the circumstances of your home life, you likely had a sense that how things were in your family was more or less how things would always be there. It is a natural mark of immaturity to think that things won't change. In high schools, for example, kids who ...

2104. The God of War and Peace

1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49

Sermon

Stan Purdum

The United Methodists came out with their most recent hymnbook in 1989. Three years before that, while the hymnal committee was deciding which hymns from the previous book would be included in the new one and which would be deleted, they concluded that "Onward Christian Soldiers" should be omitted. The committee voted to delete it, feeling that the hymn was overly militaristic and thus was inconsistent with the church's goal of eradicating war and establishing world peace. The announcement of this decision ...

2105. A Pair of Ducks and Abundant Life

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: A Pair of Ducks and Abundant Life New Title: Paradox Blocks It’s always interesting to discover a child’s take on things. The Internet recently carried a series of letters from children ...

2106. Mary’s Magnificat

Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

Christmas songs have a way of staying with us from childhood. In fact, if you were to ask someone their favorite Christmas song it may range from, "Silent Night" to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Many Christmas songs do carry the element of the holy in their lyrics and sometimes in the melody. Most of all, though, Christmas stands alone from all other holidays by the fact that it carries its own genre of music. The message of this season can be sung as well as spoken. The world has come to know the all ...

2107. Bethlehem: Where Extremes Meet

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

Every year at this particular season, I am amazed all over again at the impact that the old, old story of Christmas has on people. In light of how "fad-conscious" we tend to be in this country, it is a wonder to me that we have not grown weary of this ancient story and the figures of the babe and the manger and the shepherds and all the rest. After 2,000 years of exhaustive repetition, why do you suppose the events of Bethlehem still lay hold of our depths and continue to intrigue us? Is this simply the ...

2108. A Frightening Friday

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

So much happening in so little time! We are left gasping for breath. We stagger under the weight of the mighty arm of historical occurrence. You and I praise God because we know the rest of the story. Those present did not know how things would turn out. They must have been like awestruck children nearing exasperation. Those of us who have read and perhaps studied the great writers amazingly discover that Saint John tops them all. Shakespeare was truly brilliant but there is a peculiar demeanor about our ...

2109. A Good-bye Topping All Others

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

Those bidding good-bye are around us all of our lives. Sometimes there are almost unbearable feelings and other times merely a shrug of the shoulders. We may sense terrible lostness. Occasionally, it may be a matter of saying under our breaths that it is good riddance. Perhaps most of us have been there and done all of that. In the case of our dear Lord's ascension, we discover quickly that this is not a usual parting which is common to our experience. There is something very different here! We weren't ...

2110. Compassion Can Do More Than You May Think

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

A teacher was fond of asking students in his counseling classes this question: "What can you know about a perfect stranger the moment you meet?" After the students had a go at the question, the professor shared his own answer, "You can bet that the stranger has just lost something." That person has just lost a job, a promotion, a loved one, a home, a car, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, their health, their zest for living, or God forbid, the very desire to live. Whatever it is, you can bet your life on it. The ...

2111. Ministering When You Are Not Welcome

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

Jesus knew what to do all the time, and he knew how to go about it. He knew how to serve God in good times and in bad. In these scriptures from Luke, we continue to follow Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. But for now, the apparent destination of the trip has receded to the background. Something else has caught our attention. For one thing, Jesus' message of announcing the coming of the kingdom of God is being met with increasing curiosity. There is, at the same time, growing hostility to what Jesus has to ...

2112. Cured Cripples and Crabby Critics

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Have you ever been crippled by something that happened to you? At age seventeen, Joni Eareckson, dove into the Chesapeake Bay, hit the rocks, and was paralyzed for life. She lives in a wheelchair today. Physically, she is still crippled by the accident, but she has overcome the excruciating mental and spiritual pain of her situation. Faith in Jesus Christ made a major difference in her life. Ron Heagy, a football player from Oregon, broke his neck in the Pacific Ocean in California when he dove into a ...

2113. A Tax Collector Becomes Rich

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

This chapter of Luke brings us ever closer to the end of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus enters Jericho, just fifteen miles or so from the holy city of Jerusalem. It is here that Jesus transforms the life of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. This is one of the few stories that is peculiar to Luke and is a wonderful human-interest story. The fact that Zacchaeus is willing to climb a tree to see Jesus is a clear indication that he really wanted to see and meet the carpenter from Nazareth. His eagerness to see ...

2114. The End of Time

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

No reading of Luke is complete without coming to realize that Luke is concerned that the world understands that Jesus is the hope of the world and that any teaching that leads away from that fact is a false teaching. No matter what, no matter when, Jesus will be there to give us life. In our own time, there have been those who have predicted that the end was near because of some tragedy that has shaken our world. Each time some doomsday people took from that awful event that God was getting ready to shut ...

2115. My Earlier Life

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

John Jamison

You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. Trust me on this one, everybody had heard about Paul's earlier life in Judaism. It was one of the most common topics of conversation whenever members of the new church got together. And the opinions about that earlier life were mixed, especially when it came to how it compared with the Paul that was converted. Those opinions were so mixed that it threatened to split apart and destroy the church itself. So when people read Paul's opening line — You ...

2116. God’s Grammar

Galatians 3:23-29

Sermon

John Jamison

In the last reading from Paul's letter to the church at Galatia, he addressed the ongoing feud in the early church and reminded the folks that salvation comes from faith alone, and not from working to follow some collection of man-made laws. This week's reading continues Paul's warning to the Galatians. But if he faced strong resistance over the issues of clean and unclean foods, and the issue of circumcision, it was just a dress rehearsal for the real battle he faces now. As we did last week, it might be ...

2117. Fruit with Feet

Acts 9:1-20

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

There has rarely been a transformation from sinner to saint as dramatic as that of Paul, former persecutor of Christians, who became the apostle to the Gentiles. However, the story of Cain Lackey from PatrickCounty, Virginia, comes close. Cain Lackey was known as the Meanest Man in PatrickCounty. He was rough and tough. The year was 1892 and PatrickCounty, Virginia, was a place of dirt fields and mud roads. There wasn't always enough food. People died because there were no doctors. Some places were almost ...

2118. What a Deal: Investing in Hope

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

What is the most ludicrous business deal you ever got into (or out of) just in time? In the tiny town of Flushing, Ohio, amidst the coalfields of Belmont County, stands a brick building which used to house the Citizens' National Bank. Like a lot of community financial institutions of its day, this bank specialized in small loans made to local farmers, sheepherders, and working-class folks in the nearby area and harbored the hard-earned dollars of their working-class neighbors. Their capital was fortified ...

2119. No Small Parts

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

Characters (in order of appearance) First Child (Lead Angel) Second Child (Lead Shepherd) Third Child (Mary) Fourth Child (Second Angel) Fifth Child (Third Angel) Joseph Director (Mrs. Cassidy) “Real” Joseph (RJ) Mother (offstage voice) Costumer Stage Manager Narrator Second Shepherd Third Shepherd Angel Choir Props Scripts Robe Angel costume parts Sewing accessories Notes This is another play that would work well with multigenerational casting. The Director, the “Real” Joseph, the Stage Manager, and the ...

2120. Christmas: Before And After

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

Characters (in order of appearance) Narrator Elizabeth Mary Samuel Joseph King 1 King 2 King 3 Props Two chairs Small table Medium sized piece of black cloth, plain on one side, stars painted or pinned to other side Two glasses “Logs” for fire Three crowns Small piece of rope or cord Notes “Christmas: Before And After” is simple, spare theater, designed to be performed by a small group of older youth with no set and only a handful of props that are moved around the stage by the cast, and used in different ...

2121. Seeing God In The Ordinary: Friends

John 11:1-45

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A Shoebox Greetings card had this message about friends: "You're the kind of friend who wouldn't laugh if we were in a fancy restaurant and I came out of the bathroom with a streamer of toilet paper on my heel." (inside the card) "O.K., you'd laugh, but you wouldn't start singing, "I know something yoooooou don't know" and make me guess till I figured it out." (1) One of the greatest human longings and desires is to be close to someone through the bond of friendship. Friends offer us companionship. Friends ...

2122. No Room At The Inn

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Luke 2:1-7 (NRSV) [1] In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. [2] This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. [3] All went to their own towns to be registered. [4] Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. [5] He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a ...

2123. Only Jesus

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A little boy asked his mother, "Marriage makes you have babies, doesn't it, Mom?" The mother reluctantly answered her son, "Well, not exactly. Just because you are married does not mean that you have a baby." The boy continued his inquiry: "Then how do you have babies?" His mother, not very enthusiastic about continuing, answered, "It's kind of hard to explain." The boy paused and thought for a moment. He then moved closer to Mom, looked her right in eye, and carefully said, "You don't really know how it ...

2124. Easter: Seeing Is Believing

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I read a great story about a six-year-old boy named David who was taking a walk one day with his grandmother. They decided to detour through the local graveyard. They stopped to read some of the tombstones and Grandma explained that the first date on the tombstones was the day the person was born and the second date was the day the person died. "Why do some tombstones only have one date?" little David asked. "Because those people haven't died yet," his grandmother explained. David was obviously stunned by ...

2125. A Chance To Drink

John 4:5-29

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

There was a cartoon I saw sometime back which showed a little boy kneeling by his bed saying his bedtime prayers. He prayed: "As you know, God, Monday is the first day of school. I hope you won't lose sight of me in the crowd. Amen." Then he climbs in bed, thinks for a minute, and then crawls out again and adds to his prayer: "Oh, and by the way God, I'll be the one wearing the red shorts and a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt." Like this little boy, the woman in the passage for today, needed someone to see her. She ...

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