Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2126 to 2150 of 4508 results

Bulletin Aid

Call to Worship Pastor: Our Lord's church is flesh and blood - people who are working to bring his Kingdom on earth. People: Some people in the church do not seem to be much concerned about being Christians. Pastor: Some may not be Christians. But God will deal with them in his own way, in his own time. People: May God help us be true Christians; so we can help, rather than hinder, the ministry of...

2127. Bringing in the Harvest

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

Call To Worship Leader: Let all who would labor for the Lord gather together this day! People: For the harvest is ripe and the workers are few. Leader: And the wheat must be separated from the weeds in the fields. People: Then let us proclaim the Word of the Lord that all might hear. Leader: And let our hearts sing out the praises of our Almighty God! All: Blessed be the name of the Lord! Collect...

2128. Proper 11

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 28:10-19a Jacob dreams of a ladder extending to heaven and has an experience with Yahweh. Jacob steals his father's blessing from Esau. When their mother hears of Esau's plan to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac dies, she advises Jacob to flee to her brother, Laban. Jacob flees and on his way to Laban, when night comes, he lies down to sleep, using a stone for a pillow...

2129. Proper 11

Bulletin Aid

Theme: God's discrimination Exegetical note One of the most disturbing slogans to come out of America's recent war experiences was "Kill them all, and let God sort them out!" The parable of the tares (or "weeds") offers a much more positive angle on divine discrimination, both in its original form (vv. 24-30) and in its (almost certainly later) allegorical interpretation (vv. 36-43). The suggesti...

2130. Proper 11

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: Green Gospel: Matthew 13:24-43 Theme: Parables of the Kingdom - wheat and weeds, mustard seed, and the leaven. Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration One pastor began this way: "In the name of the Holy, Loving God, good morning. How has God acted in your life this past week? How did you decide to participate in this celebration today?" Ask people to respond spontaneously, or ...

2131. God's Discrimination

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes One of the most disturbing slogans to come out of America's recent war experiences was "Kill them all, and let God sort them out!" The parable of the tares (or "weeds") offers a much more positive angle on divine discrimination, both in its original form (vv. 24-30) and in its (almost certainly later) allegorical interpretation (vv. 36-43). The suggestion is that in God's Reign (and i...

2132. Proper 11

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: The mystery of good and evil. In Genesis, Jacob tricks his brother and flees from his wrath. In Romans, Paul bemoans human moral weakness. The Gospel parable deals with the mystery of the weeds growing together with the wheat COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Genesis 28:10-19a (C) Upon hearing of Esau's plan to kill Jacob after Isaac's death, Rebekah spirits Jacob back to her relatives in her native l...

2133. Proper 11 & Pentecost 11

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The eschatological framework of the church year is strengthened on this Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, not by the character or content of the church year, but by the Gospel for the Day. With its parable of the wheat and the weeds, plus exegetically subtle support in the first reading (Isaiah 44 - "Let them tell us what is yet to be" and the second reading, Romans 8:27 - "... the S...

2134. Showdown

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

Theme: The Kingdom of God is under constant attack from the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil but is precious enough to fight for. It may look small but it is mighty with the power of the Lord God. Summary: The Badlanders are coming to town! That means trouble. Chris, the deputy, is responsible for protecting the town while the Sheriff is away. A Parable in the guise of an old fashion...

2135. Right Choices

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: a kitchen strainer Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you help your mommies and daddies in the kitchen? Well, then maybe you know what this thing is. It's a strainer (also called a colander). Pretty funny looking, isn't it? Is this used to hold food, like flour or sugar? No, because it's got all these holes in the bottom. The flour or sugar would flow right through these holes and ...

2136. Bad Mixed with Good

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: Some wheat seeds and some seeds of weeds. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to look at something that troubles all of us. Have you ever wondered why there are mean people in the world and why God lets them live with the good people? That is a hard question. We read in the paper or watch on television about some of the worst things that happen to people, and we are always su...

2137. The Weeds

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: weeds Is there anyone here who has a garden? What do you grow in your garden? Do you have any corn, peas, potatoes, pickles, tomatoes, strawberries? Sounds like a wonderful garden. Maybe you have flowers in a garden. Does anyone grow roses, petunias, daffodils or flowers like that? I think that people who have flowers around their houses have some of the luckiest houses in the world. A ho...

2138. Bad Candy Wrappers

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: Some candy wrapped in paper. Good morning, boys and girls. Have any of you ever thought of yourselves as being candy? How many of you would like to be candy? What kind of candy would you be if you had a choice? Would you be a little chocolate drop or munchy candy bar? Take your choice. I think that I would like to be a piece of fudge. What would you like to be? [Let them answer.] I think ...

2139. Pulling Weeds

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A dandelion, if possible. Boys and girls, at this very special time of the year, you can go out on the lawn and pick dandelions everywhere. They seem to come up in spite of all the people who hate them and try to destroy them every year. People try to pick them, dig them up and even poison them every spring, but to little avail. Even though dandelions are attractive in their own way, they...

2140. Time to Pull the Weeds

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: Optional: Find some weed seeds—sandburs or other obnoxious sticky weed seed – and glue one onto a note card . . . one for each child present. Say: Jesus told a story about a man who planted good seeds in his field. That night the enemy came and sowed weed seeds in the same field. When the seeds sprouted and came up, both plants and weeds grew. That isn't what the man wanted, was it? What ...

2141. Two Harvests

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

All of the Bible is inspired. But just as some parts of a turkey have more meat on them, so some parts of the Bible are meatier than others. For example, the genealogies of Leviticus versus the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 13 is one of the meatier portions of the scriptures. It is unique as an identifiable sermon of Christ Jesus, a series of seven, maybe eight parables that seem to be prophetic, ...

2142. Holy Tares!

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Another parable he put before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said, to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How...

2143. When All Is Said And Done

Sermon

William G. Carter

The Jehovah's Witnesses have changed their minds. After warning for decades that the world would end within this present generation, the leaders of the sect announced in December 1995 that they have softened their position. As a spokesman explained, "Jesus said that 'this generation will not pass away' until a number of signs have taken place (Mark 13:30). When we reflected on the scriptures, we d...

2144. Men in Black

Sermon

James Merritt

Have you ever wondered why Lie Detectors are not allowed as evidence in a Court of Law? Well according to one of the top criminal hunters in America, they are too easy to manipulate. First of all, they don't detect lies; they detect stress through pulse, blood pressure and perspiration. But if the subject is not particularly stressed out by fear of punishment, he can beat the machine. He goes on ...

2145. Life’s Purpose Is Often Hidden!

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Life is a messy affair. Our purpose is often hidden. We have a parable today that originally may have tried to explore these mysteries — the parable of the weeds in the field. But once again the explanation that Mathew provided of this parable is probably not original, not something Jesus himself taught. No, it is more likely, New Testament scholars increasingly agree, that Jesus' original point ...

2146. Weed-Pulling

Sermon

Richard Patt

"Jesus told them another parable: 'The Kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up. The man's servants came to him and said, "Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds co...

2147. Pulling Weeds

Sermon

King Duncan

Last week we talked about planting seeds. This week we’re talking about pulling weeds. The two go together. Every gardener knows that planting seeds is the easy part of having a successful garden. It is much more time consuming to weed that same garden. And it’s hard work. As someone has said: “When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on i...

2148. Time to Pull the Weeds

Sermon

King Duncan

In Saint Louis a few years ago a woman noticed a few bees buzzing around the attic of her home. Since there were only a few, she made no effort to deal with them. Over the summer the bees continued to fly in and out the attic vent while the woman remained unconcerned, unaware of the growing city of bees that was taking up residence just above her ceiling. The whole attic became a hive, and the ce...

2149. No Weedless Garden

Sermon

Richard L. Thulin

Not long ago a student of mine wrote a descriptive essay on the Church. It was one of the most celebrative and exuberant pieces that I had read in quite a while. He used the body imagery of St. Paul to draw his picture of the Church, but he could just as easily have used the positive agricultural figures of today's parable. It would be true to the spirit of his paper to call the Church a weedless ...

2150. Counterfeit Christians and the Rest of Us

Sermon

Gary W. Houston

Years ago at Park Rapids, Minnesota a tramp walked into a restaurant and asked the proprietor for a free meal. The hobo looked so hungry and bedraggled that the sympathetic restaurant man said, "O.K., what’ll yuh have?" The tramp sat down at a table and had a good meal, a first class handout. As he was leaving, the hobo walked up to the proprietor and bummed a cigarette. He fished in a pocket for ...

Showing 2126 to 2150 of 4508 results