Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2151 to 2175 of 4935 results

2151. Anointed Ministry

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Isaiah 61 is a dangerous text! Jesus used this text to launch his ministry in his home town of Nazareth and it caused him to be thrown out of the synagogue and taken to the edge of a cliff. Jesus' life was threatened as a result of his reading, interpretation and application of this text. "Today, this Scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing," Jesus said. But we are getting ahead of our story. Let's go back to the original context of Isaiah 61 before we return to Jesus' use of the text. Isaiah's ...

2152. The Dreamer Within You

Joel 2:18-27, Joel 2:28-32

Sermon

Richard Hasler

The setting for the movie Dead Poet’s Society is a proper New England prep school steeped in tradition and discipline. Into this rather stiff environment comes a new English instructor played by Robin Williams. He has an unorthodox method of teaching. He stands on his desk at times to make a point. He electrifies his students. He has them reading poetry as they practice soccer so that they will see the connection between the two. He prods them to think for themselves, to get in touch with their feelings, ...

2153. The Road To Jericho

Luke 18:35-43

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

What would happen if you lost your sight? In June, 1985 I had surgery for a brain tumor. When the doctor came in my room the first night I was in the hospital, he told me what my prospects were. He said I could lose my sight in one or both eyes, or my speech, or the ability to walk. He said I might not even live through the surgery. So the possibilities were frightening. I remember saying to the doctor, "I only need one good eye. More than that I need to be able to speak." I knew a preacher needed his ...

2154. The Meaning of Life

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Brett Blair

In Act 5 scene 5 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth has heard that the queen is dead and he knows his own death is imminent. At this time he delivers his famous soliloquy: Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, Out, brief candle Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It ...

2155. Give Them Good News...

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

GIVE THEM GOOD NEWS ...It'll totally disarm them! I have always been fascinated by radio preachers: Some are profoundly helpful and extremely gifted in the art of communication. Others are delightfully entertaining. But there are others that I fear do more harm than good. Such was the case when I tuned in a certain radio preacher while driving through the mountains of Western North Carolina. He had obviously been bombarding the air waves with his "hell-fire and damnation" preaching when his broadcasting ...

2156. Take Up Your Cross

Luke 8:1-15

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

It'll make you undefeatable! In Luke 8:4-8, our Lord tells a parable about "the sower and the seed" to illustrate the proclaiming of the Word and human response. It is curious to note the audacious, almost reckless way in which the seed is sown. The sower must have been really throwing wildly, because we are told that some seed fell on the footpath, some on shallow rocky ground, some among thistles, and some in good soil. To many people the sower's haphazard way of sowing would appear wasteful. Couldn't he ...

2157. Epiphany 6

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE By the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, as happens rather quickly in the Pentecost season, the season has pretty much lost its theological "shape" and impact; the lectionary and the lessons take over and seem to indicate that there has been a movement away from the several theological implications (the incarnation and manifestation of Jesus in the Epiphany season) to a concentration of the ethics of those who belong to the kingdom of heaven. Liturgically, the Epiphany theological frame ...

2158. Making a Name for Ourselves

Genesis 11:1-9

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Last week during a vacation trip to South Carolina, Gloria and I stood by my parents’ grave. Their horizontal gravestone offers a brief, but important testimony about these two people. Concerning my father it says, “Pastor, Chaplain, World War II.” Under mother’s name it says, “Devoted wife and teacher.” Then it says, “Loving parents of…” and their four children’ are listed. At the bottom is that great final verse of I Corinthians 13, “Now abide these three – faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these ...

2159. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

One of the decisions every good storyteller has to make is when to tell the story’s secret to people. Every story has a secret, and the spinner of tales has to decide whether to let them know about the secret early in the story or to surprise them with it at the end. Mystery writers often hold back the secret until the last chapter, keeping us eagerly turning the pages to discover who really poisoned the heiress or pushed Colonel Whitington down the elevator shaft. The same is true of soap operas. "Will ...

2160. The Stranger at the Tomb

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

George Bass

You can’t blame the women, can you, for being amazed and afraid when they had that most unusual experience on that first Easter morning at the tomb? Wouldn’t you likely have done the same thing? They simply got out of there as fast as they could and didn’t tell anyone about the encounter with the angel (at least, not right away). Suppose you had buried a loved one, possibly in a mausoleum-type structure, had seen the grave slab sealed into place, and returned a couple days later only to find the entrance ...

2161. That Carpenter Is God

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Ron Lavin

"... A thorn was given me in the flesh ..." 2 Corinthians 12:7, RSV Paul had a problem. We don’t know what the problem was. We only know that Paul called it his "thorn in the flesh." A thorn. Paul spoke of his limited humanity, his suffering, his weakness, his problem in terms of a thorn. How about your problems? A thorn. Perhaps it was a sickness which Paul experienced. Some say it was epilepsy. Do you have a physical adversity which can help you turn in a deeper way to God and find grace to sustain you? ...

2162. A Messenger of Promise

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

A journal titled The Religion and Society Report once editorialized that people are tempted to treat religion and society purely in terms of sociology or in terms of the politics of religion. The fact is that church bodies and ecclesiastical institutions are fair game for the sociologists who like to try to measure the churches as being either to the right or to the left. However, most sociologists are not in a favorable position to make judgments in that regard, because they do not understand that they ...

2163. Excited By Our Faith

John 1:35-42

Sermon

King Duncan

There was a rather poor, elderly lady who sometimes visited a church in her town. The lay elders of the church were always embarrassed when she did, because she loved to get excited in the service. "Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!" she would shout. That was more than the dignified members of this staid congregation could endure. One Sunday morning the church elders greeted her at the door and made an agreement with her. They promised her a new, heavy blanket for the cold, winter months if she would not shout ...

2164. Who Is He?

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Like other great newspapers the Washington Post has a room filled with file folders. These folders contain information on famous people who are no longer alive. Each of these famous people is identified with a single vocational notation ("home run king," "motion picture star," etc.). One of these is marked "Jesus Christ." The notation is simply "martyr." Coming to grips with who Jesus is and what He means to us is the most important task we have. It has often been noted that Jesus' favorite teaching method ...

2165. Soli Deo Gloria

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Mark McGilvey Livonia

"SDG" -- Soli Deo Gloria, "to God alone be the glory." On each manuscript he completed, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote these three letters. When we imprint those three letters on everything we do, we are living as God would have us live. Soli Deo Gloriato -- God alone be the glory. A teacher of the law asked our Lord, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart ...

2166. Why We Give

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

Preparing a message on the subject 'Why We Give' made me think of a story that Dennis Hensley told on himself. Working as a chaplain's assistant at the Fort Knox Reception Station, he says that he got used to countless new recruits coming into his office with complaints on adjustments to Army life. During this initial week the recruits had to "donate" a pint of blood. One afternoon a man came storming into his office yelling, "I can't take it! They cut off all my hair, took away my civilian clothes. I mean ...

2167. A Pentecostal Church

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

In the days of the great California gold rush some prospectors discovered a very rich mine. "We've got it made," they said, "As long as we don't tell anybody else before we stake our claims." And they made a vow of secrecy. But they had to go into town for provisions and tools. When they left the town, a great host of people followed them. Why? Their "secret" was written all over their faces. It was impossible for them to hide what they had found. A gifted speaker was asked what was his most difficult ...

2168. What Are You Sitting On?

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

King Duncan

Robert Fulghum tells about meeting a young American traveler in the airport in Hong Kong. She was tensely occupying a chair next to his. Her backpack bore the scars and dirt of some hard traveling. It bulged with mysterious souvenirs of seeing the world. When the tears began to drip from her chin, he imagined some lost love or the sorrow of giving up adventure for college classes. But then she began to sob ” a veritable flood of tears. She was not quite ready to go home, she said. She had run out of money ...

2169. Never Give Up

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

For many years men dominated the world of humor. But today, as in most fields, women are making their mark. Here are some oneliners from various famous women. The first one is from singer Dolly Parton. "I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes," says Dolly, "because I know I'm not dumb . . . and I also know that I'm not blonde." Here's one from Erma Bombeck.: "Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth." "I'm not going to vacuum until Sears makes one you can ride on." That's from ...

2170. Is Suffering Really Necessary?

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometimes you just can't win. A man had been driving all night and by morning was still far from his destination. He decided to stop at the next city he came to, and park somewhere quiet so he could get an hour or two of sleep. As luck would have it, the quiet place he chose happened to be on one of the city's major jogging routes. No sooner had he settled back to snooze when there came a knocking on his window. He looked out and saw a jogger running in place. "Yes?" he said. "Excuse me, sir," the jogger ...

2171. Full Barns--empty Souls

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Motivational speaker Danny Cox tells an interesting story in his book, Seize the Day. Danny and his wife took a hot air balloon trip early one morning in Africa. As the balloon rose gracefully, they saw a herd of wildebeest running frantically across the vast expanse below. The herd stopped suddenly and began looking around as if they were confused. Danny asked their pilot why the herd had stopped so suddenly and what they were looking for. He told them that the wildebeest, which migrate by the millions ...

2172. Singing The Song Of Christmas

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

A farmer who lived on the Great Plains had never traveled to a city of any size, but one day a church choir trip allowed him to do just that. When he got home, his wife asked him what he saw and what he learned. He told her all about it, including the fact that their group had attended church on Sunday in a large congregation which has a really big choir. "They sang an anthem," he told her. "What is an anthem?" she asked. "Well," he replied, "you know we sing hymns here at home. If I were to say to you, ' ...

2173. A Mother And Her Son (Mother's Day)

Matthew 12:46-50

Sermon

King Duncan

A woman had quit work to stay home and take care of her new baby daughter. Countless hours of peekaboo and other games slowly took their toll. One evening she smacked her bare toes on the corner of a dresser and, grabbing her foot, sank to the floor. Her husband rushed to her side and asked where it hurt. She looked at her husband through her tear-filled eyes and managed to moan, "It's the piggy that ate the roast beef." (1) Another harried mother had three very active boys. One summer evening she was ...

2174. Take Time To Say Thanks

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

It always makes us feel good when people take their time to express appreciation. The late, great cowboy film star and all-round good guy Roy Rogers never forgot the people who made him what he was. According to Zig Ziglar in his book, Something to Smile About, after Roy starred in his first movie, he began receiving huge stacks of fan mail that he wanted to answer. However, his salary of $150 a week did not even cover the required postage. He talked to the head of Republic Pictures in the hope that the ...

2175. Any Friendly Bears Out There?

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

King Duncan

They were on a military training exercise and they were getting bored. Still, it was surprising when the radio operators of the British divisional command heard a voice one quiet night breaking the silence. The voice asked over the air, "Are there any friendly bears listening?" After a moment, another voice replied, "Yes, I'm a friendly bear," and then another voice-- "I'm a friendly bear too!" At this point, the Officer at Divisional Command Headquarters grabbed his microphone and let loose a blistering ...

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