Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2201 to 2225 of 4943 results

2201. Do You Have Any Leftovers?

John 6:1-15

Sermon

James Merritt

Without question, I can tell you what my absolute, all time, favorite meal is. It is so special that I only get to eat it once a year. It is so special, and so good, and so tasty that it is worth the wait. It is not just what I get to eat that makes it the most special meal of the year, but who I get to eat it with. It is the time of year I get to eat it and it is the occasion that brings me to the table. Can you guess what meal this is? It is Thanksgiving. The reason why Thanksgiving is my favorite meal ...

2202. Leave Your Calculator Home

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

King Duncan

Only two things are inevitable, said a wise person long ago, death and taxes. The Eiffel Tower, someone has said, is the Empire State Building after taxes. Another wit asks if we have heard about the new tax payer’s wrist watch? It doesn’t actually tell the time. It just wrings its hands! A burglar, needing money to pay his income taxes, decided to burgle the safe in a store. On the safe door he was very pleased to find a note reading: “Please don’t use dynamite. The safe is not locked. Just turn the knob ...

2203. The Good Life

John 10:11-18

Sermon

James Merritt

I read a story the other day id never heard before about Abraham Lincoln. He was surprised one day when a rough looking man drew a revolver and put it right in his face. Trying to remain as calm as he could Lincoln simply asked the man, “What seems to be the matter?” The stranger replied, “Well some years ago I swore an oath that if I ever came across an uglier man than I am I’d shoot him right on the spot.” Lincoln smiled and said, “Well then please shoot me for if I’m an uglier man than you are I don't ...

2204. I am the Man Who Has Seen Affliction

Lamentations 3:1-66

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

Man of Affliction: Chapter 3 constitutes a new and complete poem. Like the two chapters that precede it, it is marked by a complete acrostic. Unlike the previous chapters where each verse started with a successive letter of the alphabet, in chapter 3 each letter repeats at the start of three verses before going on to the next letter. Thus, there are sixty-six verses, not twenty-two verses. However, since the verses are shorter in chapter 3, the overall length of the chapters is approximately the same. The ...

2205. Mary: The Handmaiden of the Lord

Luke 1:38-45

Sermon

Charley Reeb

This morning I want to tell you how to get blessed by God. We all want God to bless us. This morning I am going to tell how to get that done. How many of you want to be blessed by God? Me too! Now when I say blessed I am not talking about the prosperity, name and claim it gospel that’s popular. I am not talking about saying a prayer and having a million dollars in cash show up in a briefcase at your doorstep. When I say bless I am talking about God showing up in your life in a way that transforms you. I am ...

2206. The Great Dinner

Luke 14:1-14, Luke 14:15-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Animation: sweet rolls or some other food to feast on / juice It’s dinnertime! So everyone scrambles to the table to get the best seat, claim the biggest pork chop, peek at the choicest rolls… It’s the story of almost every large family, buffet, or large gathering. Who gets the last piece of cake? How does it work out in your family? Is it first-come, first serve. Or does it go to the eldest? Or the littlest? The saddest—the one who can beg the best? The quickest? The one with the best or most convincing ...

2207. Masks Off!

John 7:25-45 and 8:11-59

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Soul, soul, an apple or two, If you haven't an apple, a pear will do, One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for the Man Who made us all. (Ancient English Begging Song for All Hallow Tide) In the early church holidays like Pentecost and Christmas and the Triduum of Maunday Thursday through Easter Sunday were not one-day events but three-day festivals. So was All Hallow Tide, three days of honoring those whose lives were lost in time of trial. All Hallow Eve was the start of this time of worship and prayer for ...

2208. Tale of the Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Summer and fall are the times when we love to bond with the land. Even if we are not farmers, in the summer, we get a little closer to our agricultural forbears –we pick strawberries at our favorite nearby orchard, we garden and grow vegetables or flowers, we gather apples or other fruits, we go on excursions to find wild berries or wild mushrooms. The problem of course with venturing out of our neighborhood market and into the wilds of the woods is that identification of tasty food versus poisonous food ...

2209. Hiding in Plain Sight

Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23, Exodus 2:1-10, Exodus 2:11-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Things are not as they appear. We will not know ourselves or our beauty until we see God.” C.S. Lewis (“Till We Have Faces”) C.S. Lewis loved secrets, symbols, layers of meaning, and mystery. In 2008, Michael Ward, currently Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, announced his discovery of a possible new connection between Lewis’s 7 fiction books, The Chronicles of Narnia. Based on Lewis’s love of the stars, cosmology, and time spent in the Oxford observatory, Ward believes that ...

2210. A Sure Path to the NFL

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

King Duncan

If I were to ask you to name someone whose character inspires you to be a better person, who would you name? Did a name pop into your head right away? I hope so. I hope we all know someone--a parent, a teacher, a colleague, a neighbor, a church member—whose example inspires us to live better lives. Here’s a little trickier question: How many of you thought of a Disney character as an influence on your life?? Last year, a British couple put an advertisement on a childcare website asking for a nanny. They ...

2211. Consuming Fire

Hebrews 12:18-29

Sermon

Will Willimon

Some of you are new here. If you are...welcome! If you are a new student, a particular welcome to you. After all, this is your Chapel. I want you to feel...what is it I want you to feel? I almost said, "This is your Chapel and I want you all to feel right at home." That's what I almost said. "I want you to make yourself at home, comfortable." But it's hard to feel that way in Duke Chapel. The place is big, real big, and dark, real dark, and the organ plays loud, real loud, and the preacher is up, way up. ...

2212. For The Love of God Is Contagious

Mark 7:31-36 · Luke 5:12-15 · 2 Corinthians 5:16-20

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A number of years ago, the computer magazine, PC World did a review of a book entitled The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed, (Warner Books, New York, 1984). It is a book that was written by a computer program called Racter (short for Raconteur) from Mindscape. The software was developed to help people do brainstorming. The book is filled with essays, poems, limericks, stories and conversations, all of which were written by the computer using this software. Here's a couple of examples which Racter came ...

2213. Daniel's Prayer

Daniel 9:1-19

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

Jeremiah’s “Seventy Years” (9:1-6): Big Idea: Yahweh faithfully fulfills his prophetic word and keeps his covenant with his people, whether for blessing or for judgment. Understanding the Text Daniel 9 is woven into the book’s overall literary structure in several ways. First, it advances the chronology of chapters 8–12. Second, it forms the middle of Daniel’s final concentric Hebrew section, which is framed by the parallel units of chapter 8 and chapters 10–12. Third, it covers the same long-range time ...

2214. How To Treat Your Enemies

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Did you hear about the man who went into the preaching ministry, worked for seven years, then resigned to go back to medical school and become a doctor? "People," he explained, "don't want spiritual health. They just want to feel good." But after working as a physician for seven years, he again resigned, this time to go back to school. "I'm going to become a lawyer," he explained, "because, in the end, people don't want spiritual health. They don't even want physical health. They just want to get even." I ...

2215. Advent 3

John 1:1-18, John 1:19-28, Isaiah 61:1-11, Isaiah 65:17-25, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon Aid

E. Carver McGriff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 61:1-11 How dear this passage is to Christian hearts, echoed as it was from the lips of Jesus (Luke 4:17-19). These words are, in many ways, as timely today as they were to those disappointed people returning to Israel from their long exile. Excited, they were filled with high expectations when they began to arrive. But social and political disappointments quickly followed. Bone-weary, discouraged, deprived of hope, they trudged in thousands to their fields, probably ...

2216. Jacob And The Night Wrestler

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

August 22, 1982 Comment: A good story can be done a number of ways. Astory about Jacob lent itself as a short story when I didit. Since then, I have come to see it as a radio drama, notunlike those frequently heard in the '40s and '50s in whichthe hero narrates and has some dialogue with a limitednumber of other characters. Sound effects would be nice andcould be handled by a creative team working on this story. Those who study the biblical story closely will realizeI have taken some liberties, as most ...

2217. Jacob And The Night Wrestler

Genesis 32:22-32

Drama

Jerry Eckert

Comment: A good story can be done a number of ways. A story about Jacob lent itself as a short story when I did it. Since then, I have come to see it as a radio drama, not unlike those frequently heard in the '40s and '50s in which the hero narrates and has some dialogue with a limited number of other characters. Sound effects would be nice and could be handled by a creative team working on this story. Those who study the biblical story closely will realize I have taken some liberties, as most storytellers ...

2218. Lent 2

Luke 13:31-35

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

ORDER OF SERVICE Opening Words L: Let us worship our Creator, the God of Love. P: God continually preserves and sustains us. L: We have been forgiven to embrace new life. P: Through Jesus Christ we have received the full love of God. Hymn "How Firm A Foundation" Prayer Of Confession Unto thee, O Lord do I lift up my soul. I put my trust in thee, O God. Show thy paths, teach thy ways, lead in thy truth; remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies. Do not remember my sin. Take from me my self justification. Center ...

2219. Remain On The Vine

John 15:1-17

Children's Sermon

Object: find a child ahead of time to dress up like a raisin - brown clothes, brown garbage bag with holes cut in bottom of bag for legs and in sides for arms, stuff with wadded up newspaper and tie gently at neck and shoulders. Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you like grapes to eat? (Wait for show of hands.) Grapes are sweet and juicy. I brought a grape with me today to show what one looks like. Oh, you don't think this looks like a grape? (Let them respond.) You're right, it isn't. But it used ...

2220. Parable of the Crabgrass

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: Discernment of who is a good person and who is a bad person is sometimes difficult and should be left to God. Props: A tray, a strand or clump of good grass, and a patch of crabgrass (or weed). Try and pull up one whole system of each. Place the grass side by side in the tray so that they initially look like one system of grass. Lesson: I have something in this tray this morning. Can anybody tell me what it is? (grass) Is there anything strange about the grass? (response) Look at it closely ...

2221. Come From Anywhere

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

"... Great is your faith!" - Matthew 15:28 When Jesus walked with his disciples among the hills and valleys and towns of Palestine, he often led them in directions they had not expected to go. Traveling from Judea to Galilee, he chose to take his disciples through Samaria, although the Jewish people, who had no dealings with the Samaritans, normally went around another way. Although there was grave danger to them in Jerusalem at the time of that final Passover, and although his disciples objected ...

2222. Booby Trap

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" ...

2223. God's Push

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Most of us, when we are pushed, will push back. When we are pushed harder, we will resist even more. A mother says to her teen-age daughter, "I'd like you to clean your room before you go away for the weekend." "Do I have to?" she groans. "Yes, you must." "I don't want to." "Do it," said the mother, "and that's final!" "No, I won't." And Slam! Bang! go the doors. Very few of us like to be pushed - and that's true of adults, not only youths. Sometimes, however, God pushes us. God nudges us toward something ...

2224. Which Way?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

There is something contradictory and unexpected - inexplicable, in fact - about the way that leads to life. Given the two choices Jesus offers in this text, we on our own would not, not in a million years, make the right choice. Given the options of redemptive suffering on the one hand and, on the other, strongarming the enemy for Jesus’ sake, we’d choose the latter every time. Simon Peter chose plan B even after Jesus gave him all the clues he needed to reject it. It should not surprise us that humanity, ...

2225. The Surprise of Absolute Victory

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

In this day of overwhelming defeatism, we look longingly for the absolute victory. Paul declares it in today's Scripture: "Nay, (even) in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Do you believe that? If you do, you are more steady in the midst of the collapse all around you. A great pessimism has to be conquered by a great faith. Edith Lovejoy Pierce uncovers a challenging insight: Even though we escape now We shall not escape Turning a key in a lock, Dropping a well-placed ...

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