Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2276 to 2300 of 4937 results

2276. Forgiving the Bully

Matthew 5:38-42, Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

John Jamison

I like the first part of this story about Jesus. All those blessings, and that neat parable about the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. It makes me feel good inside. But now it gets difficult. Let me put this in terms that I can understand. The first time I ever remember hating anyone was in the third grade. The kid's name was Les. Les moved into town part way through the year and from the beginning we had trouble. On the first day, I received a note during spelling. The note read, "After ...

2277. Thanksgiving Means Giving

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

When Billy Walsh was a youngster, his family lived near Mrs. Smithson. A widow eighty years of age, Mrs. Smithson was in constant pain and crippled by rheumatoid arthritis that ravaged her body. Living alone she could only walk a few steps at a time with the help of her cane. Every week when Billy’s mom went to the market, she took her son, who would always deliver groceries to the old widow. The family car would pull up into Mrs. Smithson’s driveway and the command would be heard, “Billy, here are Mrs. ...

2278. Give Yourself

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Some time ago I came across a letter which expressed an idea with which I want to begin the sermon today. The letter was from a college student to her parents. She said: Dear Mom and Dad: I’m sorry that it has been such a long time since my last letter, but I didn’t want to bother you with the fire in the dormitory and the concussion I received falling out the window trying to escape. I want you to know how nice the young service station attendant around the corner was. He provided me comfort all the time ...

2279. Next Man Up

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

In May 2001 journalist Giles Brandeth interviewed South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. As you know, Desmond Tutu has dedicated his life to bringing justice, peace and equality to the people of South Africa. There were a million questions Brandeth wanted to ask Tutu. But the Archbishop had been diagnosed recently with prostate cancer, and Brandeth realized that this interview might be the last one Desmond Tutu would ever give. So he asked the Archbishop to choose the topic of conversation. What ...

2280. Giving to the Needy

Matthew 6:1-4

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

6:1 The three most prominent religious obligations of Jewish piety were almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. The first eighteen verses of chapter 6 deal with these acts of religious devotion. In each case there is a wrong way and a right way. The followers of Jesus are to avoid all ostentatious display and to quietly fulfill the obligations in an unobtrusive manner. In carrying out religious duties they are not to make a public display in order to attract attention to themselves. That approach would deprive ...

2281. Binding Up the Fractured World

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Hubert Beck

The universe is held together in a most remarkable unity. When one reads scientific descriptions of how everything works, whether it be in the cosmic dimensions of the heavenly bodies or whether it be in the mini-dimensions of the atom, one is overwhelmed with wonder. What keeps everything together and holds it in its place? Why doesn’t it fly off into every direction and dissolve into absolute chaos? We know, of course, for it is part of our confession of faith, that somehow we tie all this to the work of ...

2282. Using our Special Talents

Romans 12:6-8

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: Cup, scissors, picture. Good morning, boys and girls. How are you on this beautiful winter morning? Winter must be a very special season for God, because He decorates His earth with snow and beautiful cloud formations in the heavens. It is wonderful how the various seasons do different things and make us feel differently. It makes me think of some good friends around my house that have special jobs. Let me show you what I mean. First of all there is my friend, Charley Cup. [Hold up cup, admiring it ...

2283. Close Up: Husbands - Be a Dream Lover

Colossians 3:19

Sermon

James Merritt

If there is one area in my life where I see so many failures and feel so many frustrations it is in my dual role as a husband and as a father. I see so many expectations that Teresa has for me and the boys have for me and that my churches have had for me and I have even had for myself that I didn't always meet. Quite frankly, for good reason, because I couldn't meet all of their expectations and the truth is - neither can you. Men, many of you can too closely relate to the man in that video. Most of us at ...

2284. Giving Thanks Empowers

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Phyllis Faaborg Wolk

The lepers Jesus heals in our gospel lesson weren't always lepers. One of them might have been a carpenter, building homes and workplaces in his community. One of them may have been a fisherman, working hard day after day to provide food for his neighbors. In a better time, one of them could have been a teacher, another a farmer, another a priest. At one time, the leper from Samaria might have been a physician, with people coming to him every day for healing and health. But now, no one even cared to learn ...

2285. Wash Up First For The Meal Before You Eat!

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

"People just do not take the Lord's supper as seriously as they should. Perhaps it is the frequency with which we celebrate it. Too often we are merely going through the motions and not really getting out of it what we should. The problem is that we are not adequately prepared!" Oftentimes I run across Christians who think this way and even explain their feelings. I am not advocating these sentiments if they are taken as an argument against frequent celebration of the sacrament. We can never receive too ...

2286. What Gives You Away?

Judges 12:1-7

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Not everyone can frame a word the same way - some words are harder to pronounce than others; almost everybody has at least one word which gives him trouble to say. Little children, just learning to speak, often have trouble making an "l" or an "r." A small boy, in a church I served as pastor, had this problem. It was a delight to ask him to say: "I really like to see little rabbits run", for when he said it, it came out: "I weally wike wo see wittle wabbits wun." This Old Testament text has a similar ...

2287. OUR LORD DELIVERED UP

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

He walked rapidly, his long robes flowing behind him to be whipped by the brisk, dry east wind. His two servants occasionally quick-stepped to keep pace, their sandals padding softly on the dust of the deserted streets. As they turned eastward from the upper city, the declining, full moon flung their shadows ahead like long moving fingers pointing toward the white limestone buildings of the temple compound. Nicodemus’ mind was thoughtless, yet filled with many thoughts. He had no plan, no course of action ...

2288. Will the Real Blind Beggar Please Stand Up?

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

It's easy to slap some people down. Little kids, poor people, beggars, the handicapped, foreigners, old people, minorities ... the list goes on. Sit down and shut up and be grateful for what you have. What do you know? Who asked you? You should be seen and not heard. Those are things we say -- or maybe have had said to us. That's assuming the person in question isn't being ignored into oblivion. We sinful human beings sometimes waver between abusing and ignoring someone who offends, disturbs, or makes us ...

2289. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Jesus was tempted. We know the story is there, but it isn’t our favorite, is it? Somehow it tarnishes our ideas about Jesus. Was he as wimpy as we are, almost ready to step over the edge of whatever morality we might have left, at the first offer? Ray Stedman, great twentieth-century preacher, remembered a morning at a restaurant. He was the featured speaker at a large church conference out east and was finishing his presentation notes as he ate breakfast. The eatery had unique décor, including good ...

2290. Messiah’s Community

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

In his widely-read testimony, Man’s Search for Meaning, famed psychiatrist Viktor Frankl remembered a terrible day during World War II. He was on a work gang, just outside the fences that hid the horrors of Hitler’s infamous Dachau death camp. “We were at work in a trench,” wrote Frankl. “The dawn was gray around us; gray was the sky above; gray the snow in the pale light of dawn; gray rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and gray their faces.” Frankl told how he was ready to die. It was as if the ...

2291. The Peace That Christ Gives

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

A couple was traveling out West. They stopped at a sign that said, "Echo Point." "Try it," the wife suggested. "I think it's silly," her husband said. Finally he agreed to try it. He shouted at the top of his voice, "Baloney!" After a moment, he said, "See, nothing happened." "Try it again," his wife said. This time he shouted, "I'm the best looking man in the world!" Then the echo came back ” "Baloney!" Is there anyone here this morning who is absolutely satisfied with everything you are and everything ...

2292. Stand Up and Raise Your Voice

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Why is it that the first directive every teacher learns how to give is “Okay, everybody, sit down and be quiet?” Or less politely, “Sit down and shut up!” When did learning become yoked to being sedentary and silent? When did learning have more to do with anesthetics (that slow down your senses) than with aesthetics (that wake up your senses)? Sure. Sometimes we have to “listen up” in order to learn. But how can we get answers if we cannot first voice our questions? The best teachers and the most gifted ...

2293. If You Get Too Close to the Cross, You Will End Up Carrying It

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Listen: “If you get too close to the cross you will end up carrying it.” Let me say that again. “If you get too close to the cross you will end up carrying it.” This liturgical season of Lent is the occasion when we Christians rehearse the passion, suffering and death of our Lord Jesus. We who follow Jesus ought always to live in the shadow of the cross. Yet also there are specific times when we walk the Via Dolorosa as we deliberately choose a cross – or we have thrust upon us a cross not of our choosing ...

2294. Get Ready

Sermon

Rolf E. Aaseng

Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But know this: If the owner of ...

2295. The Power to Look Up

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

He lived in a shack on the edge of town. He wore overalls to church before casual dress was cool. He didn't own a car; he didn't have job. As a sixteen-year-old kid, fresh from the courthouse with my driver's license, it became my privilege to drive Porter home from church on Sunday. I would pull into Porter's driveway. He would get out of the car and then as if it were an afterthought, although he never failed to do it, Porter would peek back into the car and say, “Keep looking up, Bubby, keep looking up ...

2296. God Stood Up

Sermon

James Bjorge

As you sit before your television set, the program, "To Tell the Truth," flashes on the tube. The host, Gary Moore, introduces the panel members and the game is soon underway. Three persons come onto the stage and all claim to be the same person. Two are pretenders; one is the real person. The object of the game is for the panelists to discover the right one so they ask questions and then attempt an educated guess. As they toss out their questions, the audience both in the studio and at home is also ...

2297. Uncovering Cover-Ups

John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

For some it is ancient history. For others it is as fresh as yesterday. I speak of 1972 when the word "cover-up" came into our consciousness in a big way -- the cover-up by then President Richard Nixon regarding the Watergate scandal. Assured of a landslide victory in his election for a second term, Richard Nixon, overborne with anxiety, apparently felt that was not enough. So he authorized the so-called "Watergate Plumbers," headed by G. Gordon Liddy, to break into the Democratic Headquarters in the posh ...

2298. Uncovering Cover-Ups

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. — John 16:13 For some it is ancient history. But for others it is as fresh as yesterday. I speak of 1972 when the word "cover-up" came into our consciousness in a big way — the cover-up by then-President Richard Nixon regarding the Watergate scandal. Assured of a landslide victory in his election for a second term, Richard Nixon, overborne with anxiety, apparently felt that was not enough. So he authorized the so-called "Watergate ...

2299. All Dressed Up And Somewhere To Go!

Isaiah 62:1-12, Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Harold Warlick

In Tennessee Williams' play Sweet Bird of Youth, the heckler says to Miss Lucy, "I believe that the silence of God, the absolute speechlessness of God, is a long, long and awful thing...." The late Carlyle Marney retired from his church in Charlotte and went to Wolf Pen Mountain. There he waited for God to say something. He confessed that he had figured if he could get some time completely free from his preaching, his church work, and his worldly obligations that God would really jabber. After five years ...

2300. All Filled Up

Ephesians 5:18

Children's Sermon

Tim Carpenter

Exegetical Aim: To demonstrate that Christians should focus on spiritual things to add life and not material things. Props: Some balloons not blown up, a piece of pizza (or any food item), some coins, and a shoe. Lesson: This morning I have brought something that I think all of you will like. Hold up the package of balloons. Who likes balloons? (Response) I do, too! Let's do something fun. Let's make them big so that we can play with them. Pull one balloon from the package Here goes, I'm going to fill this ...

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