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 201 to 225 of 2815 results

201. The Weakest Link

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... by the way, you don't have a Porsche—it's a Ferrari." Let me show you one other thing before we leave this parable that should impress you. In the Greek language this man literally said, "Be merciful to me the sinner." The word "merciful" is a Greek ... a sinner, and that is being a sinner but not admitting that you are a sinner. Allow me to give you a practical application of this parable; several things we can take home with us: It is not how you see you, but how God sees you that matters. When you see God ...

202. Proper 12

Psalm 85:1-13, Colossians 2:6-23, Hosea 1:1-2:1, Luke 11:1-13

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... God's will. It brings our desires and wants to accord with God's will for us. Even though it may appear to us that God's will does not serve our welfare, ultimately, only God's will meets our real needs. 3. Is God a Reluctant Giver? The parable would seem to indicate on first reading that God is reluctant to respond to prayer. The host who had the unexpected midnight guest had to persist and raise a ruckus before the neighbor responded. Is that the kind of God Jesus prayed to? We should not allegorize the ...

203. Proper 24

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40, 2 Timothy 3:10--4:8, Luke 18:1-8, Psalm 119:1-176

Bulletin Aid

William E. Keeney

... leading to resurrection and a powerful movement that swept around the world? 5. Faith in the Future. (v. 8) A. Evil Persists for a Time B. God's Patience. No evil has enduring existence C. Faith Eventually Triumphs 6. How to Pray. (vv. 3-8) What does the parable tell us about the nature of our praying? A. Describe Need. Explore what is our real need from God's perspective. B. Imbibe the Spirit's Strength. Let the Holy Spirit direct our will and enable us to be patient in waiting to understand God's response ...

204. True and False Discipleship

Luke 6:46-49, Luke 6:43-45, Luke 6:37-42

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... do what I say” (not “do what God says”). Discipleship is a matter of following Jesus, and he claims authority equal to that of God. 6:47 hears my words and puts them into practice. Note that both men in the parable represent people who heard Jesus’s words. This parable is not left unexplained: it divides even those who are listening to Jesus (not the people who have never bothered to come and listen) into two groups. There are people in the audience whose supposed discipleship may yet end in ruin ...

205. Our Most Common Sin

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... it was a bull’s-eye—but those who know that they’ve missed the mark, those who know that they’re sinners and are willing to confess and seek mercy. For them the gates are opened, and they go away from God’s presence justified. So that’s the parable—revealing our most common sin. It’s a tough story, but if we deal with it honestly, if we face the lessons it teaches us, it will drive us to our knees. That’s the necessary position for us—on our knees—if we expect to enter the Kingdom of ...

206. Proper 20

Psalm 79:1-13, 1 Timothy 2:1-15, Jeremiah 8:4--9:26, Luke 16:1-15

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... speaking to his disciples. In the previous chapter Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and scribes. It seems from Luke 16:14 that the setting was still the same since it reports that the Pharisees heard the message directed to the disciples. Jesus first tells the parable of the shrewd steward. He then turns to the use of what is described as dishonest wealth. The disciples are to be as wise in their use of it for eternal life as the steward used his management of wealth to ensure his future welfare. From ...

207. Proper 25

Psalm 65:1-13, Luke 18:9-14, Joel 2:28-32, 2 Timothy 4:9-18, 2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... as accepted by God. How could the people wrap their minds around this story? The story is so familiar to us that we need to be careful that we do not adopt reverse stereotypes. It is doubtful that all Pharisees would make the prayer of the one in the parable. It is even more doubtful that every publican would bemoan his activities as this one did. We need to be careful that we would not be shocked if our stereotypes were shattered by persons who don't fit the image we have of them. CONTEXT Context of Luke ...

208. The Kingdom And The Seed

Mark 4:4-20; 30-32

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... four different kinds of soil, Jesus said, hard soil (a path); rocky ground; thorny ground; and good soil. People, Jesus said, are like those four kinds of soil. The Word of God is the seed which falls into four different kinds of soil. The second parable in the fourth chapter of Mark is the parable of the harvest (4:26-29). The seed grows as the farmer goes about his work day by day. The day comes when the grain is ripe. Then comes the harvest. We must live with a knowledge that for each of us there will be ...

209. Easter 4

Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23:1-6, 1 Peter 2:13-25, John 10:1-21

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... which any leader/shepherd must approach the sheep. Any other method of approaching the sheep is robbery. Second, in vv. 9-10 Jesus expands on the first conclusion. Jesus is the only way to approach the sheep because he is the sole door of salvation. This parable shows us the road to leadership in the Church, but it does not provide the content of Christian leadership. It leaves us with the question of how the one who passes through the gate is transformed so that the sheep instinctively know him or her. The ...

210. Luke 16:1-13

Luke 16:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... It is in this light of newly recovered order that verse 8a can be understood as true praise. Through his quick-thinking and shrewd actions, the steward has managed to re-establish both himself and his former employer within the social hierarchy. So far is this parable away from being about issues of money that the master thinks nothing about swallowing the fiscal losses incurred by this episode. The praise he lavishes on the steward is also a poke in the ribs of his own pocketbook. Like the rich man in the ...

211. Luke 16:1-13

Luke 16:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

212. Be Shrewd

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... can’t we be shrewd about taking the future into account for God’s interests? Or as Jesus put it elsewhere, why can’t we “be as shrewd as a serpent, but as innocent as a dove?” You might even call this story the “It Takes One to Know One” parable. Just as it took a wily servant to appreciate and apply the wily ways of his master, so can followers of Jesus recognize and realize the signs of goodness of our Master and take them on as our own. No matter what we do in "this age," we are still ...

213. Eschatological Discourse: Being Faithful and Merciful

Matthew 25:14-30, Matthew 25:31-46

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... longer in coming than expected (25:5). 25:21, 23 Well done, good and faithful servant! The man returns and commends his two faithful servants. Their faithfulness adheres in “putting to work” what they had been given. This will prove to be the thrust of the parable in its metaphor—a call to faithfulness to use what has been given for the work of the kingdom while awaiting the final day. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. This saying of the householder ...

214. Use It or Lose It

Luke 19:11-27

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... been entrusted to him, and so he played it safe. 19:22 I am a hard man. As we have seen in 18:1–8, a parable character who represents God need not be like God in every respect. God is not “hard” and exploitative, but he does expect his people to make ... stewardship during his absence (19:13–27). I have noted above the need to interpret each of the two Synoptic versions of this parable on its own terms. But in your teaching it may be helpful to read both side by side, and to identify the differences ...

215. The Old, Old Story

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... many will do it to the degree they are able. To those who refuse to engage however, refuse to invest in spreading and multiplying the gospel of the kingdom of God, Jesus’ words are harsh. And as much as we hate harsh, we need to pay attention to this parable. For doing nothing in Jesus’ eyes is not fulfilling God’s command to bear the fruit of the covenant in your current time and place. Today, we are in a time and place, that challenges us and irritates us. We want things the way they used to be. We ...

216. Wicked Tenants

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... in Matthew and v. 18 in Luke which are not in Mark (who probably wrote the gospel prior to 70) were added by the writers in light of the events that happened about the time that they wrote their Gospel account. Context: Context of the Gospel The parable is another that draws upon a parallel between the image of a vineyard and the kingdom of God. It continues the response of Jesus to the question about his authority and his rejection by the Chief Priests and scribes. It was increasingly evident to Jesus that ...

217. A Lesson From Prayers Overheard

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... man into paradise. The Pharisee's eyes had been on his neighbor and himself, not on God. The publican's eyes had looked into himself and then cried out to God. The truth was that measured against God, neither of them "had a prayer." The point of today's parable is not whether one man's prayer outweighed another's good works sincerely offered. It is not intended as an example of the preferred postures of prayer. Neither is offered by Jesus as a style for sainthood. The story is about the mercy of God and our ...

218. Lord, I Believe - Or Do I?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... cannot be mastered. They cannot be heard or read like Aesop’s fables with the casual concern that says, "I’ve heard that one before. What’s new?" They refuse to be defused, for unlike a land mine that is detonated only once, the parables are detonated every time we step on them. The parable may be the same, but in kaleidoscopic fashion the design is changed with every turn of time. The word it brings us in the here-and-now will be quite different from the word it brought us in the there-and-then. So ...

219. Lateral Thinking

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... of the Jews, including the moral law. A Levite was a member of the most religious family in Israel. If anyone would know what to do morally in that situation, if anyone had a reputation for righteousness, it would be a Levite. The expectation, you see, of anyone hearing the parable was that if anyone would stop to help the poor guy in the ditch, it would be either a priest or a Levite. But they didn't. Jesus said, they pass by the man in the ditch. You would expect the audience at that point to get a little ...

220. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... wise farmer knows that not all the seeds will fall on fertile ground, that not all the sprouted seeds will grow to fruition. The farmer also knows, however, if he sows abundantly, he can overcome expected losses. The ear-catching part of Jesus' original parable is not that some seeds flourish while others wither and die. The stunner in this story is the overabundance of yield that this farmer enjoys from those seeds that do prosper. Jeremias has commented that an average first-century farmer might expect a ...

221. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Matthew 13:1-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... good soil guarantees a done deal for the seeds’ success. As every agri-business manager and backyard gardener knows, nutrient rich soil nurtures weeds just as well as it does the plants one is trying to grow. In the third case of Jesus’ parable the “competition” wins out — the sowed seed loses out to the “thorns” and is “choked” out before any harvestable grain crop can be produced. “Good soil” is the reason for the success of the fourth example. This soil is free of competing weeds ...

222. Celebrate the Small Stuff

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of one word: “Daddy.” Every day there are small moments, small gestures, small experiences, small windows that enable us to catch a glimpse of the kingdom. Those small “kingdom moments” are the small things that transform and energize us for the world to come. Every parable Jesus told was based on one message: the Father is in charge. Will you slip your hand into the hands of the one who holds the future in his hands? The future is not in our hands. The future is already secured . . . in the cross ...

223. Who Wants to Be Your Brother?

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... any of himself to Lazarus. There was no human connection between Lazarus and “Dives.” There was no real reaching out. There was no real relationship. It is easy to write a check. It is hard to check up on people you do not really know. Jesus’ parable condemns “Dives” — the archetypical “rich man” not for the sin of greed but for the sin of not giving any part of himself. Remember what torments the rich man when in Hades? He is tormented by the pending fate of his five brothers. That’s why ...

224. Affluence and the Afterlife

Luke 16:19-31

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... on wealth has been the assumption that this world is not the end, and that how we use our wealth here with respect to other people has consequences for our life after death (12:20–21, 32–34; 14:14, 15–24; 16:8–9). This parable focuses in on that theme, fills out the meaning of the “eternal dwellings” of 16:9, and offers the fullest portrayal of life after death in this Gospel. Indeed, this passage, together with Matthew 25:31–46, provides the essential data for understanding Jesus’s teaching ...

225. The Power of Persistence

Luke 11:1-13, Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... —he’s teaching us about the nature of our praying. Sincerity, persistence, the voicing of our deepest need in keeping with God’s will. That’s what prayer is all about. Many of us would be embarrassed to knock on a neighbor’s door at midnight. But the parable of the friend at midnight tells us that we can call on God at any time. Many of us would be reluctant to admit that we hadn’t been prepared for the very small emergency posed by the arrival of just one unexpected guest. Many of us hesitate ...

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