Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 2126 to 2150 of 2273 results

2126. Jair

Judges 10:3-5

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Minor Judges: Framing the Jephthah story are accounts of several minor judges, beginning with Tola and Jair and ending with Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon (Judg. 12:8–15). These, along with Shamgar (Judg. 3:31), are commonly designated as minor judges, because their stories are condensed into a few brief lines. In most cases, all we know about the judge is his tribal affiliation, his geographical location, and how many years he led Israel; sometimes we learn about his economic situation. But, strikingly, the ...

2127. Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

2 Kings 8:7-15

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

The End (of Ahab) is Nigh: The tension has become almost unbearable. In spite of Ahijah’s prophecy that Israel would be like a reed swaying in the water (1 Kgs. 14:15), the house of Omri has held the throne since 1 Kings 16:23. In spite of Elijah’s prophecy about the end of this house (1 Kgs. 21:21–24), we are now reading of Ahab’s second apostate son, who holds on to his kingdom with the help of Elijah’s successor. Did Elijah sabotage God’s plan by failing to anoint Hazael and Jehu (1 Kgs. 19:15–18)? Will ...

2128. Jehoram King of Judah

2 Kings 8:16-24

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

2129. Ahaziah King of Judah

2 Kings 8:25-29

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

2130. Judah - To Hezron's Sons

1 Chronicles 2:3-9

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

2:3–4 These verses introduce the five sons of Judah, the first three, Er, Onan and Shelah, being the sons of the Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, whom Judah took as his wife, and Perez and Zerah being the twin sons of Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law. Behind this short summary of Judah’s sons is, of course, the very enigmatic narrative in Genesis 38. It tells the story—amid the narrative of the highly exemplary other son of Israel, Joseph (Gen. 37–50)—of this ancestor who fathered twin brothers from ...

2131. A Cat In a Tree

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

One night a woman named Anna Ruth was cat-sitting her daughter’s feline. Somehow the cat managed to escape outside. When it failed to return the following morning, she found the cat clinging to a branch about 30 feet up in a spindly tree. Unable to lure it down, she called the fire department and asked for help getting the cat out of the tree. “We don’t do that anymore,” the dispatcher said. When Anna Ruth persisted, the dispatcher was polite but firm. “The cat will come down when it gets hungry enough,” ...

2132. 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 ...

2133. Deathbed Confessions

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you know that Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis and one of the most important figures of the early 20th century was a teller of jokes? He was. In fact, way back in 1915 he told a joke about a minister who was summoned by a group of anxious relatives. They wanted him to extract a deathbed conversion from an atheistic and unrepentant insurance salesman. The meeting between the minister and the insurance salesman took place, and the longer the meeting continued behind the hospital's closed ...

2134. All for Some Dumb Sheep

John 10:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

There was a best-selling book in 1995 by Daniel Goleman called Emotional Intelligence. This book provided us with many examples of the effects that our emotions can have on our rational brain. The book begins with the story of Gary and Mary Jean Chauncey, who were in an Amtrak train that crashed into a river after a barge hit and weakened a railroad bridge in Louisiana. Gary and Mary Jean were trapped in their compartment as they tried desperately to save their eleven year-old wheelchair ridden daughter ...

2135. The Advocate and the Street Where You Live

John 15:26-27, 16:4-15

Sermon

Ron Lavin

According to the dictionary, an advocate is "a powerful and influential person who defends or maintains a cause or proposal on our behalf." Someone working for us and on our behalf can be very beneficial when we are in some kind of difficulty or trouble. Someone working for us and on our behalf in life with integrity has value beyond description. In other words, a strong human advocate can save us from dire situations in which we might find ourselves. Let's take the case of a man, let's call him John, who ...

2136. Family Ties and Good-byes

Mark 3:31-35

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Jesus experienced family ties and good-byes. So do we. According to Mark 3:20-35, Jesus was about to be confronted by his frustrated and conflicted family as crowds gathered around him to hear his stories, behold his miracles, and observe with great interest the conflicts he had with religious leaders from Jerusalem. Conflict. But there were also good, tender, and beautiful joys in Jesus' family. Look at the tenderness at the time of his birth. Good-byes and ties. All families have stress, as well as ...

2137. Some Things I've Learned Since I Knew It All

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Have you ever suffered from "sophomoritis"? It's not a physical disease, like arthritis. It's a spiritual disease many college sophomores get when they get filled up with knowledge, come home on a vacation, and act like they know more than the folks around whom they grew up, especially their parents and younger siblings. That happened to a young man named Adam. He was studying to be an engineer at the University of Illinois in Urbana. On Christmas break, he got quite caught up with himself and started ...

2138. You Are What You Eat

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Sermon

Rick McCracken-Bennett

The Pharisees were grumbling -- doesn't it seem like they were always grumbling? Of all the things they could be concerned about, they were upset that Jesus' disciples weren't washing their hands before they ate. As I read this passage over earlier in the week I could hear my mom asking me and my brother and sisters before a meal, "Did you wash your hands?" This was an appropriate question for parents trying to teach their children good hygiene. But, at first glance, a strange concern for a religious ...

2139. What's in Your Wheelhouse...That You Can Offer Jesus?

John 6:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

Father Jerry Fuller once told a story about a young couple in North Carolina who were set to open their own restaurant. All that was needed was the final health inspection and the issuing of their business permit. They were scheduled to receive the permit the next day. This occurred in September, 1989. The couple named their little restaurant “Our Place” and they were excited--as you might imagine--that they were finally ready to open. But that morning the winds and rains of Hurricane Hugo hit the Atlantic ...

2140. Crisis Management

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

It is a newspaper image I will never forget. And for me it is an image of Advent. The time was the early 1990s. The place was Sarajevo — the gutted, bombed out epicenter of the Balkan War — when ethnic violence had destroyed beauty and buildings and any sense of human community. One day, a man put on his tuxedo, picked up his cello and a chair, and went and sat at the central intersection of town — in the cross fire of hatred and brokenness and devastation — and there he played his cello for hours — ...

2141. Patterns of Possibility

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

A few years ago I revisited the places of my childhood. Sim and I piled the kids into the car and traveled to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where I was born, and then to Erie, Pennsylvania, where I lived from the age of five until the age of twelve. Together the four of us explored what Sim fondly called the Seven Sacred Susie Sightings: the house where I was born, the two elementary schools I attended, the park by the zoo where I flew up from Brownie Scouts to Girl Scouts, and the beach on Lake Erie where I spent ...

2142. Light Living

John 1:(1-9) 10-18

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

The best way to respond to today’s scripture reading is to say nothing — to let it stand in all its elegance, its mystery, its power. But being a preacher, I am genetically unable to say nothing. So I will try to share with you my deep need and my deep affection for this particular passage of God’s holy word. This is what John says to me, and so to you, this first Sunday in the new year. In the beginning — back before our imaginations can imagine in the beginning — there was darkness — deep dazzling ...

2143. It's Not About Me

Luke 6:39-49

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

In forty years of ordained ministry, I have never preached on this morning’s gospel text, which is a pretty good indication that I have been avoiding it. I have discovered over the years that the texts I ignore are the very ones that most describe me. And when it comes to specks and logs, I am an expert. But then most of us are. These three parables at the end of Luke 6 are the very end of Jesus’ sermon on the plain — Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. As you may remember in Matthew, Jesus’ most ...

2144. A Dove Descended

Luke 3:21-22

Sermon

King Duncan

Perhaps you have seen the e-mail that has been widely distributed that begins like this: “We are all familiar with a herd of cows, a flock of chickens, a school of fish and a gaggle of geese. However, less widely known is a pride of lions, a murder of crows . . . an exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a parliament of owls. “Now consider a group of baboons,” the e-mail continues. “They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent ...

2145. When God's Dream Captures Your Heart

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Writer Dan Miller in his book Wisdom Meets Passion tells of growing up in a conservative, rural family in Ohio. With no radio or TV in the house, Dan found his information in books. Consequently, he became an avid reader. However, when he was about twelve years old, something happened that would change his life dramatically. He was introduced to a phonograph recording [some of you will remember those] by a noted motivational speaker of the time named Earl Nightingale. The record was titled The Strangest ...

2146. Speaking from the Heart

Luke 6:43-45

Sermon

King Duncan

It’s confession time. “Uh-oh,” you’re thinking. “What am I suppose to confess?” By a show of hands, how many of you have a junk drawer at home--a place that has become a repository for things you can’t find somewhere else to keep? What’s in your junk drawer? When you open it up, are you surprised by what ends up in there? The average American home has too much stuff in it, and we don’t know what to do with all of it. We cram things in closets. Under beds. In our junk drawer. We may even rent a warehouse to ...

2147. Witness to Angels

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Six Soviet cosmonauts said they witnessed the most awe-inspiring spectacle ever encountered in space—a band of glowing angels with wings as big as jumbo jets. Cosmonauts Vladimir Solovev, Oleg Ackov, and Leonid Kizim said they first saw the celestial beings during their 155th day aboard the orbiting Salyat 7 space station. "What we saw," they said, "were seven giant figures in the shape of humans, but with wings and mist-like halos, as in the classic depiction of angels. Their faces were round with ...

2148. So Much Time to Read

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

How much time does it take to read from Genesis to Revelation? If you would read the Bible at standard pulpit speed (slow enough to be heard and understood) the reading time would be seventy-one hours. If you would break that down into minutes and divide it into 365 days you could read the entire Bible, cover to cover, in only twelve minutes a day. Is this really too much time to spend reading about God?

2149. How God Brings Change

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Charles Colson told the following story in an address at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi: I love the illustration about a man named Jack Eckerd. A few years ago I was on the Bill Buckley television program, talking about restitution (one of my favorite subjects) and criminal justice. Bill Buckley agreed with me. A few days later I got a call from Jack Eckerd, a businessman from Florida, the founder of the Eckerd Drug chain, the second largest drug chain in America. He saw me on ...

2150. The Meaning of Christmas

Illustration

Delphia Cline Freeman

When the hustle and bustle is over And the last of the gifts has been wrapped, And the cookies and cakes are all ready For the big Christmas plans you have mapped; When the children are quiet and dreaming Of the presents Saint Nick will bestow, And the fire on the hearth burns less brightly, And the clock has struck twelve long ago; You relax by the embers and ponder On this happiest evening of all ... On the meaning of Christmas to mankind By Christ' s birth in the low cattle stall. In the giving of gifts ...

Showing results