Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2376 to 2400 of 4934 results

2376. The Transformative Power of God

1 John 1:1--2:2

Sermon

Richard Gribble

The resident bishop at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, who was known to be a great evangelist, reaching out to cynics, unbelievers and scoffers, told the following story. It seems that years ago there was a young man who would daily stand outside the cathedral and shout terrible words and derogatory slogans against God, the church, and anyone who entered the cathedral. He would call these people fools and all sorts of other names. People tried to ignore the man, but it was rather difficult. One day ...

2377. When You Know How It Ends

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

If you are a big sports fan then you know how frustrating it is when your favorite team is playing in a different time zone. You can’t watch the game on live TV because it either takes place during your workday, or way past your bedtime. A pastor in Hawaii shares how he deals with this issue. Depending on where you live in the continental U.S., Hawaii is three to six hours behind. If it’s 10 p.m. in New York, the time is 5 p.m. in Hawaii. Because of this time difference, the Monday Night Football game is ...

2378. 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 ...

2379. Making the Mystery Work for You

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

It’s Trinity Sunday: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Enough said? Don’t leave me. I promise you, I won’t deliver a lecture expounding on what belongs only in the classroom for theologues. I do want to tell you a brief story. A man in a certain parish was only seen in church one Sunday a year. No, it was not Easter. It was Trinity. One leading lay person had restrained his curiosity year after year. He could not contain it any more. He approached the man and said, “I have noticed that ...

2380. Nothing Is Impossible

Exodus 13:17--14:31

Sermon

Walter Kimbrough

A marvelous story is told by the synoptic gospel writers about a boy who was possessed by an evil spirit. His father was concerned sufficiently enough to seek help for the boy in a time when all help had failed. The boy was brought to the disciples of Jesus with the request for healing, but they were powerless and confused. The father did not give up hope in the quest of healing for his son. So, with an insistent spirit he saw Jesus and reported on the condition of his son with the declaration of the ...

2381. Monday Morning Faith

Matthew 21:23-27, Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Johnny Dean

If we’re honest about it, we have to admit that just about the only place where we feel comfortable making bold statements about our religion and our allegiance to God is in church on Sunday mornings. In our hymns we sing, "All to Jesus I surrender All to Him I freely give." In our confession of faith, we say, "I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and I accept him as Lord of my life." And when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it ...

2382. What Children Owe Their Parents

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

R. E. Lybrand

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked him, "Why is it that your disciples disobey the teaching handed down by our ancestors? They don't wash their hands in the proper way before they eat!" Jesus answered, "And why do you disobey God's command and follow your own teaching? For God said, 'Respect your father and your mother.' and 'Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.' But you teach that if a person has something he could use to help his ...

2383. Faith isn’t Easy - But it Works!

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And ...

2384. Born to Play Second Fiddle

Luke 1:57-66

Sermon

George Bass

Sunday is the day when the people who call themselves Christians remember and celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every Sunday is a "little Easter" - that is what Sunday means and why those who believe in Christ worship on the first day of the week instead of following the Old Testament practice of setting aside the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath or day of rest. But Christians also remember the birth of Christ whenever the Eucharist is celebrated as they sing the song the ...

2385. Life's Not Always Fair, But God Will Straighten It Out

Habakkuk 2:2-20, Habakkuk 1:12--2:1, Habakkuk 1:1-4

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Those of us who are old enough and socially concerned enough recall the 1960s with fondness. Troubled as the times were, it was a hopeful decade, a period when many of us dreamed that better days were on the horizon. We sang and dreamed of love and peace. We thought that the Civil Rights movement would put an end to racism, that the war on poverty might be won. Today, nearly half a century later, those battles have not been won. The rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer; money from special ...

2386. The Danger of Discipleship

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Why you are here today? I would like to believe that you are here for the preaching. Connie and Debbie and the choir would like to believe that you are here for the music. But we all have been around long enough to know that may not be the case. There is one man here who is in attendance because his wife made him come - she went with him to a ball game last week, so it was only fair. There is a young man here hoping against hope that he will meet a special young lady. Lots of reasons. But of all the ...

2387. Growing In Self-esteem

Psalm 81:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Listen! Don't miss even the first sentence of this sermon, because it sets the stage for everything I'll be saying today. One of the greatest tragedies is to die without knowing who you are. Or, you can put it this way: One of the greatest tragedies is to live denying who you are. Let me say that again. One of the greatest tragedies is to die without knowing who you are. Or, you can put it this way: One of the greatest tragedies is to live denying who you are. This is our third sermon in the series ...

2388. Are You Trying to Prove Something?

Genesis 12:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Theodore Parker Ferris had a great impact on my life, at a time when that impact made a difference. I was a seminary student in Boston. Ferris was the rector of the famous Trinity Church in Boston, in Copley Square, one of the great churches in America. Ferris was one of the great preachers in his day. He had a marvelous ability to present profound, sometimes difficult, ideas in very simple language that everybody could understand. And he was disarmingly honest. That was another characteristic of his style ...

2389. Epiphany 5

Psalm 112:1-10, Isaiah 58:1-14, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon Aid

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

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS Both Old Testament texts underscore the importance of integrating faith into all aspects of our lives. Isaiah 58:1-12 explores the inherent interrelationship between worship and ethics, while Psalm 112:1-9 (10) functions in praise of godliness. Isaiah 58:1-9 a (9 b-12) - "Worship and Ethics" Setting. Isaiah 58:1-12 is a critique of worship. The opening line is a question by the worshiper, asking why God is absent from worship or at the very least why God is not responding to acts of ...

2390. Training for a Purpose

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

Some years ago, many of us, like others before and after, went through basic training or boot camp. It was a time to get thoroughly acquainted, usually with either the army or navy. It was also a time of endurance. The hardened and veteran men of years' experience sought to teach us the elementary principles of living in the military. The "old salts" in the navy used to delight in bringing us down several notches. This was their method of clearing away obstructions to the teaching they were providing. Was ...

2391. Call to Oneness

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

When, dear God, shall Christians all be one? It is a first-century inquiry. It is a here-and-now recurring question. Countless programs have been launched. Numerous proposals have been given. Only God knows how many problems have risen in our quest for Christian unity. We live and minister in the twenty-first century in ways not that different from what our spiritual ancestors experienced. Have some things and relationships improved, especially since Vatican II? The answer without doubt is a resounding, " ...

2392. The Church: The Dwelling Place of Wonder

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Somewhere along the way, I think I got it from one of my heroes, Bishop Gerald Kennedy, I connected a drama critic’s definition of the theater with an understanding of the church. “The theater,” said the critic, “is the dwelling place of wonder.” Isn’t that marvelous? “The theater is the dwelling place of wonder.” But it’s really a better definition of the church than it is the theater. Think about it: THE CHURCH IS THE DWELLING PLACE OF WONDER. How well that resonates with Paul’s word. Listen to it in our ...

2393. The Burning Bush

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

One of my favorite plays is “Harvey” by Mary Chase. I’ve seen it stage, on TV and in movie. It is a delight in any medium, more than a delight; it is a challenge, a challenge to our unimaginative, prosaic, living ruts. You may recall that this play is about Elwood P. Dowd, an eccentric, drinking man whose closest friend was an enormous rabbit called Harvey (who was unseen for the most part by anyone but Elwood.) In fact, because Harvey was unseen, yet so real to Elwood, his family hired Dr. Chumley, a ...

2394. Follow the Directions

Psalm 119:9, 18, 89

Sermon

James Merritt

There is one thing in common with every single person on this planet who has ever been born and who ever will be. It has never been more illustrated than it has in the 21st century. We have an unquenchable thirst and an insatiable appetite for information and communication. We want to know who is doing what and we want to know what people are doing. We’ve never been more saturated with information and more soaked with communication than we are today. From cell phones, to television, to email, to radios, to ...

2395. True and False Discipleship

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

Teach the Text

R.T. France

Big Idea: It is not enough to hear and approve Jesus’s teaching; it must also be lived out. Understanding the Text The sermon that began at 6:20 concludes with a series of parables and pithy sayings that together challenge those who heard the sermon to model their lives on what they have heard. The following chapters will contain several shorter sections of Jesus’s teaching as well as many examples of his dealings with other people, and so a fuller picture will be built up of what it means to be a disciple ...

2396. God Is Trying to Tell You Something

John 1:(1-9) 10-18

Sermon

James L. Killen

God is trying to tell you something. God must be. Why else would John call Jesus the Word? That is what you use words for, isn't it? Actually, John borrowed some of the most sophisticated concepts from the Greek and Hebrew philosophy of his day to write an introduction to his telling of the story of the life and work of Jesus. He used those concepts to relate that story to the eternal reality of God. When all is said and done, John is telling us that God uses the life and work of Jesus to tell us something ...

2397. The End Times

Daniel 12:1-13

Understanding Series

William Nelson

The Final Revelation--The Body: We enter now into the body of the last main revelation of the book of Daniel. There has been some progression in the visions of the book from a more general scope, encompassing larger blocks of history, to a more narrow focus on shorter periods of time. So, for example, Daniel 2 spans four and a half centuries by outlining the four human empires of Babylonia, Media, Persia, and Greece, which are swept away by the fifth—the eternal kingdom of God. Aside from the fact that the ...

2398. It's Okay to Cry

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:4-5) [Optional Prop: crystal teardrops] Tears. Frustration. Grief. Sadness. It’s the name of the milieu pervading the atmosphere of many churches today. Dwindling attendance. Lack of enthusiasm. Fear of the surrounding culture, not to ...

2399. Thanks Be to God

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Sermon

Rick Brand

It is at this point that so many of us feel the temptation to tune out. "Now concerning the offering for the saints at Jerusalem" is another request for money. That is supposed to be one of the problems with the church. It is always asking for money. If it is not the saints in Jerusalem, it is the hungry in Africa, the earthquake victims in Turkey, or the refugees in Bosnia. Paul is writing asking for money. Jesus talked more about money in his stories than he did about the kingdom of God. The church is ...

2400. The Three Kings--And The King Of Kings

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

A wealthy couple went on a trip to Hawaii. One afternoon the wife went down to the beach. After a while her husband walked down to the beach. He saw a group of people there trying to help someone. He realized it was his wife. He ran up to them and said, "What are you doing?" They replied, "We're giving her artificial respiration." He said, "Artificial nothing. Give her the real thing. We can afford it!"1 When we read about those three mysterious men from the East we need not be concerned about their long ...

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