Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2126 to 2150 of 4963 results

2126. The Box

Drama

Cynthia Mercati Prigge

... : [Quickly] I've tried climbing out. I've tried every way I can think of. Nothing works. SECOND PERSON: [Becoming interested] Hmm ... That is strange. How about pushing? Push against the sides. FIRST PERSON: I've tried pushing. [She pushes against the box, but it remains immobile.] See? And pulling. [She tries unsuccessfully to pull the box apart.] It's no use. SECOND PERSON: How did you get inside the box? FIRST PERSON: I don't know. SECOND PERSON: You don't know? Of course you know. People just don't ...

2127. Confessional Services

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Bulletin Aid

G. William Genszler

... honest hearts that may honestly give a dollar's worth of service for every dollar earned. Congregation: Make me to be a Faithful Steward of Thy grace. Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Minister: O Lord, forgive me for the times when I have remained silent and let a lie go unchallenged. Forgive me for the delight I find in spreading bad news about others. When I speak the Truth, let it be in Love. I am more of a gossip than I like to admit. Congregation: O God, set a guard ...

2128. The Stewardship of Money in the Modern Church

2 Corinthians 9:11, 12

Sermon

Dr. John Thompson Peters

... frontiers. The modern Christian Church is an institution of tremendous dimension and importance. While her institutionalism has been decreed right and left by a thousand and one critics in the modern age, and not without some justification, the fact remains that national and world problems against which the church is matched are of such gigantic proportion that they can scarcely be dealt with by groups that are hopelessly divided and without substantial resources. It is not often that governments ...

2129. Talk! Talk! Talk!

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... , "He was always there, in the flesh. We knew that he was in it, that he was in it right with all of us." I reflected on how true that is. Unless the words are clothed in flesh, they are certainly of little consequence. If the Word of God had remained merely word, we wouldn't be preaching it today. But the Word was clothed in flesh. God's Word, his love, his grace, his concern for us his children, all became real for us in the person of Jesus Christ. As Christ himself reminds us:"The witness of the Holy ...

2130. The Call of the Disciples - James, A Fisher of Men

Matthew 4:23-25, Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Drama

Thomas Blowers

... had he let us down? The silence that followed was so thick the weight of it pressed in upon our chests, taking our breath away. For the truth of the matter was he had not let us down. Simply put his vision of life and our dream for life had remained as separated from each other as any vision and any dream might be. And we knew it. We knew it. Though we had been close to him, closer than anybody else, we had not really shared his vision. Though we had been with him day and night for a couple ...

2131. Give Them Good News...

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... . I remember a lady from my youth who was a brilliant witness for Christ. But her marriage simply did not work out and she was forced to get a divorce. The leaders of her church responded to her tragedy by telling her that although she would be permitted to remain in the church's membership, she would no longer be allowed to teach her youth class in Sunday school, she could no longer serve as president of the women's missionary group, and she would not be allowed to sing in the choir. At a time when she ...

2132. Waiting for Jesus

Romans 13:11b

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God. Object: Cup your hands with thumbs together leaving only a small dark hole to look into. Take any small object that will remain unseen in the dark. Try to get the children to make a judgment on what they see while it is still in darkness. This morning, boys and girls, I am going to need some volunteers for a little experiment. I am going to need some people who ...

2133. Christ, the Cornerstone

1 Peter 2:4-12

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

... and built upon it a spiritual temple where the hearts of all peoples may worship in joy and wonder. We praise You, O God. In Christ we pray. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Lord, so often, like those of the world around us, we have let the focus of our hearts remain on the despair of the Cross and the darkness of the tomb and we have failed to remember the joy and hope in Your Resurrection. Forgive us, Lord, and place in us Your wonderful Holy Spirit that we might become beacons of hope and joy to all. In Christ ...

2134. Taking On Christ's Likeness

John 13:31-38

Illustration

Lee Griess

... ." He concluded his sermon by suggesting that if you put a piece of iron in the presence of an electrified field, that piece of iron itself will become electrified. And in the presence of that electrical field, it is changed into a magnet. As long as it remains in contact with that field of power, it will continue to attract other pieces to itself. We are like that piece of iron. In the presence of Christ, we experience his love and take on his likeness. We are changed, electrified by the Holy Spirit, to ...

2135. In the City

Luke 24:36-49

Illustration

Thomas Long

... the center field stands, then to right field, until the whole outfield, including people who did not even know the story, were shouting, "Give the kid the ball!" Players began to glance up from the field to the stands to see what was going on. Horn Rims remained stubbornly firm. Finally, a man got up out of his seat, walked over to Horn Rims and spoke some words patiently and gently to him. Horn Rims hesitated, then reached into his pocket and handed the ball to the kid. "He gave the kid the ball!" someone ...

2136. Managing Disappointment

Romans 5:1-11

Bulletin Aid

Clement E. Lewis

... persons and things they have loved. These things we humbly ask in the name of our Lord Jesus the Christ. Amen. The Benediction May we go from this gathering, Lord, feeling better about ourselves and others than when we came. Grant that some of these thoughts may remain fresh in our minds, so that in the future, we won't be so easily hurt, or so judgmental in our reactions. Teach us how to live so as not to disappoint others or ourselves, and to recall the words of Paul: "Endurance produces character, and ...

2137. The Role of the Father (Father's Day)

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

... small child who wants to ride a horse, or scare off mice at the summer cabin, or display shoes that will be a challenge to fill." God worked throughout the night, giving the Father few words, but a firm authoritative voice; eyes that saw everything, but remained calm and tolerant. Finally, almost as an afterthought, he added tears. Then he turned to the angel and said, "Now, are you satisfied that he can love as much as a Mother?" Erma Bombeck concludes, “The angel shuteth up.” While it is obvious to us ...

2138. Independence Day - The Mission of the Mighty

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... . He knew the cost of freedom in toil, blood and treasure. One hundred years after that the issue was still in doubt, and another President spoke the words at Gettysburg that any schoolchild ought to be able to quote. The question still remained “whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, could long endure.” Lincoln knew the cost of liberty, also. He never spoke of liberty without coupling that word with responsibility, without tying it inseparably to an unfinished task. These ...

2139. Our Three Deepest Needs

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

Richard Patt

... have found such a person who listens to us and trusts us, we want to be assured that such a person is on our side. We don't want to be involved with someone who will misuse or abuse our story (through gossip, for instance), but who will remain on our side, perhaps despite our story. From personal experience I'd say the speaker touched on an important aspect of our deepest need as people. The promise of prayer -- of Christian prayer -- is that for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior, a loving Father is ready ...

2140. Learning to Walk on the Water

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

... would fall to the ground if it were in the upper air alone. But we can overcome the law of gravitation by use of other laws we have learned about: we can put the pieces of an airplane together in such a way that, instead of falling, they can remain aloft. Most pieces of a modern ship would sink, but put together properly, they float. You see, we have learned in small ways to use higher laws to overcome lower ones. And all our discoveries are merely the process of finding out what God has known all along. As ...

2141. Finding Life!

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

... the middle of cloud nine. There is a lot of the mundane in the total process of our living. "Naked we come into the world and naked we go" - I know this. A man is born without teeth, not much hair, and eyes that won't focus, and if he remains very long in this world, he will probably leave it without teeth, not much hair, and eyes that won't focus! This sounds like an unpromising start and an unfruitful end, but between the two a tremendous amount of living can be done. A good book is not all title ...

2142. An Everyday Theology

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... criticism, or the prevailing arts) we are overlooking the fact that we are creating a new mission field: those who drop out of the faith because it appears too simplistic, obscure and anti-intellectual. According to Cohn Morris, the pulpit is one of the few remaining places in our society where serious issues are discussed. It may be that neither the pulpit nor the church lives up to this high calling, and we should not let such a judgment easily slide by. One of my parishioners who was moving from our ...

2143. Full Barns and Empty Hearts

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... say in that agony? Do we catch a confession of a full heart when he cries, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him"? If our barns are full, then let us be certain that our hearts are filled also. III The gospel says that our hearts need not remain empty. We can be filled. Yet the way our hearts get filled may bother some of us. We are trained to think that we must do all the important things for ourselves. Of course, we don’t come close to this in any important area of our lives, but the ...

2144. Grateful For The Giver

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

... would be wiped out financially. Let’s make him a farmer and let’s say there was just too much rain - everything covered with water. Let’s also specify that when the land reappears and dries a bit, he’ll offer one-seventh of his remaining assets as a thanksgiving to God. Incredible? Not if you’re describing Noah. For you see, gratitude does not depend upon the circumstances. Invent an army general, whose lines of supply would fall apart. Let’s say his men will be starving, their uniforms ragged ...

2145. The Spirit and the Truth

John 16:5-16

Sermon

George Bass

... to convey the truth about his relationship with his creatures to them. When the world was young - and people were disobedient and wicked - God resorted to a terrible flood to cleanse the earth and correct the ways of the people living upon it. The flood remained in the memories of the survivors but people didn’t really live differently for very long. The deliverance of Noah and his family from the flood has made a deep and lasting impression upon those who have heard the story of God’s wrath and ...

2146. Tomb for Sale

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

George Bass

... of old age," but George Will of the Washington Post called his long life a "triumph of the spirit."3 Will says, "Aging, like a lot of other common things (life, love, memory, the existence of the universe, the infield fly rule), remains a mystery. But many gerontologists believe that, absent disease or imprudent living, an individual ages according to his or her genetically controlled ‘clock.’ A scientist says that, ideally, we should live fairly healthily and then go ‘poof’ rather than go into slow ...

2147. The Beginning of the End

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

... his way up through the administrative ranks until he became chief counsel, then president, and, finally, chairman of the board. His picture once graced the cover of Time. He was known all over the world, but he maintained a home in that town and remained faithful to his church. He has a small law office there today. Mr. Haggarty became superintendent of that school system in time. He earned advanced degrees and was offered opportunities to move to larger school districts. But he stayed in that small town in ...

2148. Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

... and I said, ‘Lord, this is the biggest problem I’ve run into in my living days.’ " She lifted her prayer to God shortly after she discovered that the two-million dollars had to be used for rehabilitation, not new housing; the problem would remain. When she learned that Augustana Lutheran Church had to move seven Victorian homes to make room for two new high-rise buildings for senior citizens, she was given a solution. She bought these houses for $1 each, moved them - and others later - to the empty ...

2149. The Gospel of the Little Man

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

... familiar with the story, for when pilgrims tour the Holy Land and come to Jericho, to see a sycamore rates high in their priorities, and travel guides who find exhibits in the land of Jesus for nearly everything the Bible mentions seldom disappoint them. A sycamore remains in Jericho to satisfy the curious. But the little man deserves to be remembered for much more than being up a tree. He may have been a little man, small of stature, as the record has it, but he stood tall among the tax collectors in ...

2150. How to Stay on Top of It

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... world of social justice, apartheid ended, terrorism finished, inflation at point zero, interest rates below the usury level, an economic boom without the bust, a bullish market, AIDS cured and cancer conquered, no more nukes. The coming of the Messiah was and still remains the hope of Israel. Pilgrims to Jerusalem will notice in the eastern wall the Golden Gate through which, it is suggested, the Messiah will arrive. The gate was blocked by Sultan Suleiman, as the story goes, to insure that no messiah would ...

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