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 2326 to 2350 of 2815 results

2326. Let Us Pray

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Thomas Long

... , I don't know. What I say, I don't feel What I feel, I don't show What I show, isn't real What is real, Lord? I don't know. No, no, no, I don't know. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told his disciples a parable because they were having problems with prayer. Now Leonard Bernstein may have assumed that only contemporary, and non-religious people would have problems with prayer, but Jesus knew better. We all have problems with prayer.

2327. Dead Letter Department

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Stephen M. Crotts

... up in the dead prayers department? Do you feel like your prayers never reach God? If you do, then this text is for you! Here in Jesus Christ's own words we are told how to address our prayers to God so that they will be received and answered. The parable of a cold-hearted judge and a pesky widow tells how.

2328. Changed from the Inside Out

2 Tim 3:14-4:5

Illustration

King Duncan

... young Timothy, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." How does the Bible rebuke, correct and train in righteousness? An old parable says it best. An elderly man lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Tennessee with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early reading from his old worn‑out Bible. His grandson, who wanted to be just like him, tried to ...

2329. A Child Will Be Born

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... ), p. 127. Cited by Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr., http://www.rlhymersjr.com/Online_Sermons/2007/122307PM_PresentForJesus.html. 4. Contributed. Source: Whirlwind Resources/Help 4 Sunday. 5. New York Daily News, 12/23/95, p. 19, “As a Hit-Maker, Rudolph Reigns.” Contributed by Dr. John Bardsley. 6. Martin R. Bartel, Parables, etc.

2330. Totally Poured Out

2 Timothy 4:9-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... found a hut, and spent the night in warmth and conversation. Bell had, of course, rescued the man and the woman. But they had also rescued him. For, if he had not heard their distress, he would have yielded to exhaustion and lost his own grasp. (5) What a marvelous parable of our place in this world. God has placed us here to serve one another and to serve Him. It is in giving away our lives that we receive new life. It is in serving that we find greatness. It is in losing our lives that we find them. Whose ...

2331. Worth a Thousand Points

Luke 18:9-14

Illustration

John P. Jewell

... at a grand total of 431 points and cries out... "I am sunk! There is no hope for me! What more could I have done? O Lord, all I can do is beg for your mercy!" "THAT," exclaims Peter, "Is a thousand points!" So also, the tax collector in Jesus' parable finds his hope in the grace and mercy of God.

2332. The Worship Wars

Luke 18:9-14

Illustration

Stephen M. Crotts

... Choruses are 7-11 worship. Seven words repeated eleven times!" Any pastor, any active church member alive today is in the trenches of this warfare. Thankfully, the scriptures can be our guide through the mine-fields of this battleground. And today's text, a parable of Jesus, is a good place to begin. [read Luke 18:9-14] Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Two men. The same church service. Two totally different approaches to worship. Mr. Pharisee about whom Jesus said "... trusted in himself that ...

2333. Forgetting Your Own Fatigue

2 Tim 3:10--4:8

Illustration

C. E. Montague

... ridge, found a hut, and spent the night in warmth and conversation. Bell had, of course, rescued the man and the woman. But they had also rescued him. For, if he had not heard their distress, he would have yielded to exhaustion and lost his own grasp. What a marvelous parable of our place in this world. God has placed us here to serve one another and to serve Him. It is in giving away our lives that we receive new life. It is in serving that we find greatness. It is in losing our lives that we find them ...

2334. We Don’t Play the Full Scale

Luke 19:1-10

Illustration

James W. Moore

... to relax because the scale was not finished. Finally, not able to stand it any longer, the father would crawl out of bed, stumble down the stairs and strike that final note of the scale. Only then could he relax and be at peace. Now, that's an interesting parable because it reminds me of the way we so often treat God. We play around with some of the notes of faith, but we don't play the full scale… We forgive, but not completely. We love, but not completely. We serve, but not completely. We accept Christ ...

2335. Adopted! Thank God!

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... what God has done for you? Do you understand how much God loves you? Are you ready to go beyond resolutions this New Year to a revolution a new life, a new purpose, a new identity as one who belongs to God? 1. Parables, Etc., January, 1987, p. 4. Cited in Robert J. Morgan, Preacher’s Sourcebook Creative Sermon Illustrations (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2007), pp. 127-128. 2. http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/christmas_the_liberator.htm. 3. Bruce Larson, Living Out the Book of Acts (Dallas: Word ...

2336. You Can’t Make It “By The Book”

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Gary Roth

A small parable: Once upon a time, there was a company who had two junior executives. One did everything by the book, was diligent and trustworthy, always made sure he was covered and, since he always went by the book, rarely made mistakes. The other also was a hard and diligent worker, but ...

2337. Rock Solid

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” The point of this parable is clear: Wise people build their lives on a solid foundation. Every architect knows that. However, it happens from time to time. The principle of a solid foundation is ignored . . . with disastrous consequences. Joe Emerson in his book I Wanted the Elevator, But I Got the ...

2338. Are We Brave enough to Bet It All?

John 20:1-18

Illustration

Thomas Long

In John Updike's A Month of Sundays, there is a parable about how the Christian faith is, indeed, an improbable wager on the impossible possibility. In one episode, a group of men are playing a variation of poker. In this game, each person is dealt several cards, some of them on the table face up and the others concealed in the ...

2339. Control

Acts 2:1-13

Illustration

Randy Hyde

... her big toe submerged. Then she repeated the act with the other foot. Then, having satisfied her minimal urge for a swim, she would retreat to her chair and umbrella and spend the remainder of the vacation curled around a book. I'm afraid that may be a parable of our Christian commitment. Are we afraid to give in to the Pentecost experience, fearful that we might lose control? That's what it is really all about, isn't it? Control. We want to be in control. Well, if Pentecost is to do nothing else, it should ...

2340. Romans 8:12-25

Romans 8:1-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Just as Jesus used familiar images, activities, and relationships in a new way in his unique parables of the kingdom, in today’s epistle text Paul uses the familiar practice of adoption to describe a wholly new possibility that is now available to those who are “in Christ Jesus” (8:1). We focus our exegesis on the first part of this week’s text in order to ...

2341. No One Knows What They Will Be Tomorrow

Matt 13:24-30, 36-43

Illustration

Charles Hoffacker

Sometimes we are wheat and sometimes we are weeds. St. Augustine, in commenting on this parable, makes this point when he says: "There is this difference between people and real grain and real weeds, for what was grain in the field is grain and what were weeds are weeds. But in the Lord's field, which is the church, at times what was grain turns into ...

2342. Trash Into Treasure

Matthew 13:24-46

Illustration

James Merritt

... violins that now everybody wants. Just as this poor violin maker transformed trash into treasure, only God can transform a sinner into a saint. Only God can take us from being worthless to make us worthy of heaven itself. You see, God can do what even the farmer in the parable could not do. The farmer cannot turn a weed into wheat, but God can turn a sinner into a saint.

2343. God's Day Off

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... you and me — then the tide might be turned. It will take creativity, discipline, commitment, planning, and setting priorities — the best holidays (holy days) and vacations always do. There are even some reasonable things not to do included in all that planning. A contemporary parable comes from the pen of Dr. Leslie Weatherhead who for years was the minister of London's City Temple. He wrote: Near my home in a London suburb there is a little park. Formerly it was the grounds of a gentleman's house but ...

2344. Being a Christian “Survivor”

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... here we should read "faithfulness" — the Greek word is the same — and remember that we are talking about God's armor, so to speak of God's faith would not make sense. The Bible is full of stories of God's faithfulness. There is that wonderful parable in the Old Testament in the book of Hosea. The prophet was instructed to take himself a wife — not some sweet, young thing, but a prostitute named Gomer. She ran off after the wedding. He went after her. He gave her presents. She ran off again. He ...

2345. Ephphatha...Be Opened

Mark 7:24-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... harbored feelings of his Jewish followers. By finally acceding to the woman's cry for help, Jesus was demonstrating the inclusiveness of God's love and thereby taught his disciples that racism had no place in the kingdom. This encounter was simply one more of Jesus' parables, this time, come to life. That is possible, but it is still a stretch, though. How about the language of the encounter? At first glance, Jesus sounds awfully rough. "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs ...

2346. The View From Jesus’ Pew

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... as feathering my own nest. I do not want people to think that; and the easiest way to avoid it is to avoid the subject as much as possible. Of course, faithful preaching will not allow avoiding the subject of money. Fully one-third of Jesus' parables had to do with money and possessions — that would be one sermon in three — and that was in a society that was much less money-oriented than ours. If Jesus' emphasis was that strong, what should a faithful preacher's be? And whether he or she likes ...

2347. Time’s A-Wasting

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... any control you might have previously thought you had over events? I have a vision about that sort of urgency in scripture, especially in the readings for today. Sometimes we may tend to think of Jesus as one who sauntered around offering teachings, aphorisms, parables to those who would listen, and the disciples as those who were more willing to listen than most, and so hung around him more. Mark paints a very different picture. Simon and Andrew were standing, pitching those same nets into the same old ...

2348. The Unsilenced Voice

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... mind wants to preach on a text like that? The answer is: no one. The people who put together the lectionary know this and tend to leave them out. We preachers calmly progress through a summer of Mark texts on the calling of the disciples, a handful of parables, a few miracles, and then boom — out of the blue, there it is — Mark's own text of terror. The story of the beheading of John is gruesome. The events leading up to it are hard to believe. Herod, the king, definitely was a mixed bag. He divorced ...

2349. Tough Talk for Tentative Disciples

John 6:56-69

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... believed at first that he had been the beneficiary of some kind of welfare program. There was nothing spiritual about his understanding of his healing until Jesus told him, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:14). We see this all revealed in Jesus' parable of the sower: A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because ...

2350. Be Careful How You Live

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

... critical. Seek out the friendship of those who look on the bright side, those who have a positive attitude, those who look for opportunities to do good works, not to gossip. If you spend your time thinking about money, you will become selfish and grasping. A wise parable is that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least. Do not give your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart. The desire for money and possessions is dangerous and terrible, knowing no satiety. It ...

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Showing 2326 to 2350 of 2815 results

2326. Let Us Pray

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Thomas Long

2327. Dead Letter Department

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Stephen M. Crotts

2328. Changed from the Inside Out

2 Tim 3:14-4:5

Illustration

King Duncan

2329. A Child Will Be Born

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

2330. Totally Poured Out

2 Timothy 4:9-18

Sermon

King Duncan

2331. Worth a Thousand Points

Luke 18:9-14

Illustration

John P. Jewell

2332. The Worship Wars

Luke 18:9-14

Illustration

Stephen M. Crotts

2333. Forgetting Your Own Fatigue

2 Tim 3:10--4:8

Illustration

C. E. Montague

2334. We Don’t Play the Full Scale

Luke 19:1-10

Illustration

James W. Moore

2335. Adopted! Thank God!

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

2336. You Can’t Make It “By The Book”

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Gary Roth

2337. Rock Solid

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

King Duncan

2338. Are We Brave enough to Bet It All?

John 20:1-18

Illustration

Thomas Long

2339. Control

Acts 2:1-13

Illustration

Randy Hyde

2340. Romans 8:12-25

Romans 8:1-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

2341. No One Knows What They Will Be Tomorrow

Matt 13:24-30, 36-43

Illustration

Charles Hoffacker

2342. Trash Into Treasure

Matthew 13:24-46

Illustration

James Merritt

2343. God's Day Off

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

2344. Being a Christian “Survivor”

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

2345. Ephphatha...Be Opened

Mark 7:24-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

2346. The View From Jesus’ Pew

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

David E. Leininger

2347. Time’s A-Wasting

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

2348. The Unsilenced Voice

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

2349. Tough Talk for Tentative Disciples

John 6:56-69

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

2350. Be Careful How You Live

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

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