Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2126 to 2150 of 3852 results

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... amongst politicians, radio talk show callers, and in many community "watering-holes" throughout the country. Pepsico even offered a short-lived "god-less" version on its Pepsi cans, which was soundly resisted by thousands of protests. Despite the fact that the original pledge lacked that controversial phrase, the likelihood is that most Americans memorized this pledge in its present form, and after fifty years it is not going to come out of their brains or their lips in any other version — regardless of ...

2127. Cliffhanger!

Mark 16:1-8

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... Because of a report that he himself had started the great fire of Rome], Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but ...

2128. Weaving the Spirit’s Trail

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... themselves with their distinctive cultures and lifestyles: Pueblos and Navajos. The Pueblo’s were settled cliff-dwellers. The Navajo were essentially nomadic. Yet both tribes, both cultures, became known for their intricate and beautiful weaving traditions. Originally native cotton and grasses were the primary components of these blankets. But after the Spaniards introduced the long-fibered, silky-fleeced “churro” sheep with its exquisite wool, the Navajo weavers found the art in their craft ...

2129. Pray, Baby, Pray

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... up, or more accurately cooling down (since the protons must be kept at a crisp -459 degrees Fahrenheit, or absolute zero Kelvin), for its potential first smash ups. The LHC is located outside Berne, Switzerland, the crossing between the French and Swiss border. Originally it was to have been built outside Houston, Texas. But a combination of naysayers, money woes, and bureaucratic bungling brought work to a halt in the mid-90s. When the US defaulted on the LHC, the Europeans picked it up and formed the ...

2130. Joy to the World!

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the grandest stories in all of human literature Luke’s telling of the Christmas story. You know the story. Caesar Augustus issued a decree that everyone in the empire was to be counted and that each should register in the town of their family origin. So a young father-to-be named Joseph was forced to leave his home in Nazareth, along with his betrothed wife, Mary, and make the arduous journey to Bethlehem. An explanation might be helpful at this point. Normal Jewish marriage procedures took three steps ...

2131. A New Day Is Coming

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... needed help, however; he could not do it alone. He found his assistant in the unlikely person of Nelson Mandela, a black man whose name has been closely associated with freedom in recent years. Mandela had been a member of the African National Congress, originally a nonviolent group, but more militant after 1944. In 1964, Mandela was convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to life in prison. Despite his incarceration, he kept the flame of faith alive that one day there would be freedom in his native land ...

2132. A Promise Fulfilled: A Gift Given

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... on behalf of others continues to bring a smile to all people of faith. Nicholas promised that he would divest himself of riches, but he was able to do so in a way that brought gifts and great joy to others. Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise, initiated originally with Abraham, but Jesus is the greatest gift as well. What can we do for Jesus; what can we provide to make his kingdom come in our world? The challenge is great and our response is awaited.

2133. Baptism: The Common Call To Holiness

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... have all been called. Our call is to be members with all the privileges which come with being part of God's family. Our membership gives us responsibility as well. We must go forth in an active manner to do God's work in our world. Baptism is the original call to a life which seeks to bring others closer to God. May the baptism that we all share, our common denominator in the faith, allow us to be disciples and show the face of God to others, drawing them and ourselves one step closer to eternal life, God ...

2134. God Is Amazing

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... , Peter, and Andrew had found "him about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote," Nathanael responds incredulously, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" His comment is not strange nor unexpected, since the Jews understood the Messiah to have origins from the House of David in Bethlehem. Galilee was the hinterland, the ancestral heritage of the Samaritans, the so-called ten lost tribes of Israel, conquered by the Assyrians some 720 years earlier. Nathanael was skeptical, but Jesus' amazing ability ...

2135. A Clock or a Compass?

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

David T. Ball

... the fold. As wonderful and as liberating as this message must have been to hear, back then when Jesus was spreading this good word through the communities of Galilee, we’ve had a harder and harder time as the years have passed by in reclaiming its original freshness. I think that our difficulty has to do in large part with how we think about time, a difficulty that we can ease if we try to reclaim our ancestors’ greater sensitivity to direction. Jesus called on people to repent because the time to do ...

2136. Seeing and Not Being Seen

John 12:20-33

Sermon

David T. Ball

... , but I had no doubt that, if I had been there alongside the disciples, I would have had firsthand knowledge of what Jesus was trying to accomplish. Of course, now I know that there are lots of passages in the gospels in which even the original disciples, who were right there with him, seemed clueless to the point of almost being funny. So I guess that the incredible privilege the disciples had, of being with Jesus all the time, including several private teaching sessions, didn’t ensure that they would ...

2137. Setting All the Idols Down

Hosea 2:14-20

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... we see Gomer substituting for Israel, as the prostitute being unfaithful to her husband. The comparison easily made here is about a nation being unfaithful to its God. Of particular concern was the influence of the Baal cults that were the religion of the original inhabitants of Israel. In this passage we see a restored relationship between husband and wife, where the prophet writes, "On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband,' and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal.' For I will remove ...

2138. What Part of “You Shall Not” Don’t You Understand?

Exodus 20:1-17

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... , God's name is to be used in worship and praise, not in cursing, swearing, lying, and deceiving. Third, God has a day. What we do with that day indicates what we think about God. The third commandment is, "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). Originally God's day was Saturday, the seventh day of the week, the day to remember that God created the world and all that is in it and a day to remember that God redeemed his people by bringing them out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). The early ...

2139. Final Instructions

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... tomorrow give us today."1 John Koenig, in his book, New Testament Hospitality, adds: From Jeremias' translation we ... learn that the word we call "daily" is best rendered with the phrase "for tomorrow." Furthermore, Jeremias and others have offered strong evidence that in the original Aramaic version of the prayer spoken by Jesus "bread for tomorrow" would have meant the bread of God's great feast at the final coming of the kingdom (as in Luke 14:15). But here in his own special prayer Jesus instructs the ...

2140. Tasting the Gruel of Love

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... leaned down, smiled broadly, and asked the server, “So! How’s the food in here?” “Oh, no,” Colson thought, “She’s going to offer us some. And we’re going to have to eat it.” Colson’s doctor had told him to avoid foods of unknown origins on that trip. And this prison gruel was definitely unknown. The chunks sticking out of it looked like no animal Colson was acquainted with. Colson writes, “The next thing I knew, my fears came true. The woman heaped a huge serving onto a plate for Jack ...

2141. The Complexity of the Situation

Matthew 22:34-46

Illustration

... Israelites content with just ten commandments? Oh, no. They ended up making 613 separate commandments, 365 negative and 248 positive. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Try following all those laws in order to be considered faithful and righteous, and you probably thought the original ten was hard enough. For the lawyer and the Pharisees there was certainly a complex issue at stake. The Israelites were under assault from a man who claimed to be God, and who did God-like things. But this man was a Jew; he should ...

2142. Would You Be a Saint?

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... make this as karaoke as you can ... You may want to prime the pump by arranging for some to wear their “dress ups” to church] On Halloween we “dress up” in costumes and put on masks to “hide out,” to conceal who we really are. Originally the “disguises” worn on “All Hallows Eve” were supposed to fool the demons and other dark forces roaming the planet on that fateful night. The idea was that good Christians would be left alone by evil spirits if they dressed to look like they themselves ...

2143. Matthew 23:1-12

Matthew 23:1-39

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... familial root of this identity is emphasized as Jesus calls all his followers to be “brothers” (or more inclusively “brothers and sisters”). The NRSV gender-neutral “students” (v.8) misses the intimacy and familial connectivity emphasized by the original. As “brothers and sisters” disciples have but one “Father,” the one in heaven” (v.9). Although “father” enjoys an ancient Hebrew history as a general title of respect for an elder or honored individual, Jesus rejects this tradition ...

2144. Moses’ Seat

Matthew 23:1-12

Illustration

Brett Blair

... gave the law to Moses. Moses, in turn, passed it onto Joshua; Joshua passed it onto the elders; the elders passed it onto the prophets; and the prophets passed it onto those who led the synagogue, i.e., the Pharisees and the scribes. So, because the law originated with Moses, the position of being a teacher of God's law became known as Moses's eat. In fact in the synagogue, there was a raised platform at the front. On that platform was a special seat, reserved for the most respected teacher in the synagogue ...

2145. Giving Whole-heartedly

Matthew 23:1-12

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

... of her life savings to the University of Southern Mississippi to help students get an education and have a better life than she did. Her unselfish gift inspired others to give as well. And some six hundred people have added over $330,000 to the original scholarship fund. And her gift is what inspired and prompted Ted Turner to give his Billion Dollar gift to the United Nations. Osceola McCarty was a servant all of her life. She worked for everyone else. Yet she became a leader and an inspiration through ...

2146. Stepping Out on Faith

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your money in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.” Don’t you imagine that he ducked his head in shame as he held out the original one talent which he had buried in the ground? It’s sad. Some people just don’t get it. They sit on the sidelines while the world passes them by. They’re good people. Nice people. They’re just overly cautious. We sometimes call them risk averse. Well, you ...

2147. How to Be a Pilgrim

Luke 17:11-19; John 6:25-35

Illustration

Alex Gondola

... The Pilgrim colonists willingly shared all they had. During their first three years, all property was held in common. At one point, they were down to five kernels of corn per day for food. Still, they divided the corn kernels up equally. And, the original group of fifty that survived the first winter shared their limited food with the sixty newcomers who arrived in the spring. One of their finest moments came in 1623, at the first real Thanksgiving. The small colony hosted over ninety Native American braves ...

2148. Twas the Beginning of Advent

Mark 13:24-37

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

... . Unfortunately, it seemed, no one was completely exempt From this seasonal virus that did all of us tempt. The priests and prophets and certainly the kings Were all so consumed with the desire for "things!" It was rare, if at all, that you'd hear of the reason For the origin of this whole holy-day season. A baby, it seems, once had been born In the mid-east somewhere on that first holy-day morn. But what does that mean for folks like us, Who've lost ourselves in the hoopla and fuss? Can we re-learn the art ...

2149. John the Stall Cleaner

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... cripple us, instead of embracing the Advent of God’s forever new, rebirthing, redeeming, fractal love in this world. Mark’s gospel starts, like Genesis starts, with everything new — “a new beginning.” The Genesis text introduces us to God’s original design for creation, for life, for humans. The Mark text reveals the continuation of God’s “beginning” in the “gospel,” in the “good news” of “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” This is the Advent that we “prepare” for. Nothing ...

2150. Where Is Loyalty in an Age of Immediacy?

Mark 1:1-8

Illustration

Elton Richards

... century U.S. culture: "to live for the moment is the prevailing passion to live for yourself, not for your predecessors or posterity. We are fast losing the sense of historical continuity, the sense of belonging to a succession of generations originating in the past and stretching into the future." There is little loyalty in the workplace. Our language gives us away when we speak of "headhunters," "corporate raiders," and "hostile takeovers." Few athletes remain with the teams that signed them. Free agency ...

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