Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2401 to 2425 of 4963 results

2401. Christianity Can Be Fun

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... hall watching everyone inside having a party - laughing, dancing, and singing. The pathetic creature looking through the glass contends "I can’t let my hair down and enter the party because I am a Christian and I’ve got to put up a front to remain one." I am not certain this retreat from life would please our Lord. When Jesus anticipated his impending death, he had a wealth of religious symbols to choose from in perpetuatinghis memory. He could have left us a book of quotations, like Confucius and ...

2402. A Higher Form of Love: The Good Neighbor

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... to affirm people was to make them feel that they were worth his time and his care. Jesus knew that you do not affirm anyone or anything by merely giving some money. No, the higher form of love is to give people and things your time and care. What remains tragic about the illustration of my mother and me handing out the Christmas baskets is the fact that we never again went back to that little wooden shack. Oh, several times when I was driving around town I would drive past it and wonder if the little old ...

2403. Learning to Be Graceful

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... The graceful people will respect that and allow room for our behavior. The obnoxious, insensitive people will simply barge in with their rudeness. Most Christian scholars agree that Christianity would never have survived without the Apostle Paul. Without Paul, Christianity would have remained the property of a small group of people. Put simply, Paul was a very graceful person. He lifted Christianity from a "do it our way or it’s wrong" approach to a religion of sensitivity and compassion. We can see this ...

2404. God Made Me Do It!

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... in God: - "Don’t be angry with yourselves"; "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good"; "You didn’t send me here, God did!" IT WORKED FOR JESUS TOO We will not always know why our lives turn as they do, the paths they take, why questions remain unanswered. But we will know that God will always come to us and that he is enough for any situation. Even Christ in Gethsemane had to drink the bitter cup, though he prayed till the blood came, the cross did not go away. In fact, the cross killed him ...

2405. Hooray for Humility!

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... box, listening to Handel’s inspired music, the Messiah. One of her attendants came to her, advising her that when the great chorus was sung, the audience would rise, but since she was a queen it would be perfectly proper etiquette for her majesty to remain seated. However, as the choir reached that glorious climax with the words; "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords," the young queen suddenly stood with her head bowed, indicating to all present that she knew the real sovereign of England, the true ruler of ...

2406. When Christians Quarrel: Resolving Conflict in the Church

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... and tax collectors, he always did so with sympathy and gentleness with an appreciation of their good qualities. "It may be that Jesus was saying something like this: ‘When you have done all this, when you have given the sinner every chance, and when he remains stubborn, you may think he is no better than a tax collector and Gentile. Well, you may be right. But I have not found tax collectors and Gentiles hopeless. My experience of them is that they, too, have a heart that can be touched, and there ...

2407. When Yes Means No and No Means Yes

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... said no to the appeal for good stewardship, for the appeal to do the committee work of the church, the appeal to pledge, to tithe, to witness, to worship, to serve. How many times our answer, too, has been "No." But our heavenly father allows us to remain sons and daughters and continues to love us, and we can repent and do the deed. During the war, brave people of the Danish underground had a motto: "Do it well, and do it now." What better motto could we have as Christians? Christian happiness lies not ...

2408. Love of God, Self, and Neighbor

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... pilot. But the fact is, he has to keep them in line; as long as he keeps them in line, his ship is safe. It is the same with these commands of Jesus: love of self, the love of God, and love others. When we keep them in line, we remain safe and well in the channel of the Christian life. Jesus answered, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind ... you must love your fellow man as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 39).

2409. Being Set Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... a real disciple is to accept what he says about how great God is and how terrible sin is, and what the real meaning of life is. When we do this, we are starting to take the role of discipleship. In order to be a disciple, we are told to remain in the word. The Scripture puts it: ... "If you obey my teaching ..." In order for us to obey his teaching, we study his Scripture, we listen for his voice before we make our decisions. To be a disciple means to completely immerse ourselves in the word, so when we ...

2410. Life: Sacred or Stupid?

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... that didn’t change the congregation nor the joy of the service. And don’t tell me that it’s commercialization, just like any of the other of our holidays. Oh, yes, the merchant may put up his sign: "Christ has risen, but our prices have remained the same." You know, it’s a strange thing that nobody, no matter how hard they have tried, has ever been able to commercialize Easter. It just doesn’t lend itself to commercialization - never has, never will. One of Ernest Poole’s characters in one of ...

2411. Grace, Salvation, and Redemption

Romans 8:18-27, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Romans 5:1-11

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

... God. It disregards the context of Paul’s reference to the obedient Christ, that he is sovereign Lord, co-equal with God, who assumed the form of a servant to carry out God’s iedeeming purpose for mankind. His death was not merely that of a man who remained goad even though it cost him his life but that of a Mediator who was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Because of the superficial view of sin on which this view rests, it transforms the Mediator into a ...

2412. Drastic Surgery

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... owner. Then one day his friend, Andigones, brings him some scrolls, apparently copies of what we know as the Gospels. He tells him that they tell of Jesus of Nazareth, what he said and did and what happened to him. Judas is disturbed, but remains silent for a time. Later in reflecting upon this experience, he says, "On a brilliant day flooded with sunlight, everything which I sought to flee had suddenly overtaken me."3 Jesus was thinking of this eventual consequence of sin when he talked about sacrificing ...

2413. Hindering Riches

Matthew 19:16-30

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... , and with scarcely any weapons save our youth and what time was to reveal as our character - by which I mean our real preoccupations. Time was to tell us what we really cared about. Then, we really did not know."3 One’s preoccupations do not always remain the same; they may change. One can come to care about different things. And it makes a difference what one cares about, what one is interested in. The focus of one’s attention is upon one’s interests. One’s time revolves around one’s interests ...

2414. Unlimited Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... entirely different matter. But the obligation to forgive is not limited to the wrongs which it is easy to forgive. It includes those that really hurt, too. Jesus never said that forgiveness was easy; the cross shows us how much it costs. But still the obligation remains. We are to forgive regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the number of times we have experienced it. Difficult though it is, we still are to forgive. Its Dynamic The doctor who told about Laura and Steve said, "It’s really a pity ...

2415. Ghosts - 1951

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... forms under which the idea of world government presents itself: one, the dead notion of Empire, the thing for which Caesar stood, the very name of the man still clinging on in the words Czar and Kaiser, and the name of his idea remaining in the word Emperor; the other, the living idea of Federation. When once we have come to understand the nature of ghost-rule we will no longer wonder at some political phenomena otherwise absolutely incomprehensible. Why, for instance, with millions of human beings starving ...

2416. Preaching Unpopular Truth - 1943

John 18:38

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... the sea. From that safe hill, they saw the swirl of waters over fields just forsaken - and knew the cost of their salvation. Then they realized the worth of him who risked their wrath to gain their lasting gratitude. Contrast this with the willingness to remain silent of those who claim the right to live on the lofty hills of God, and who see the sea of sane human relationships withdraw from its accustomed shores in the menacing crouch of war. Yet they give no realistic word of warning lest they jeopardize ...

2417. The Light that Shines Within

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... in the light of this. And know that you and I are incomplete until we have become what we are meant to be. We are created as creatures of God, and the creative work is not finished until we have become "new creatures in Christ Jesus." Our life remains unfulfilled while we have the capacity to become and are not becoming. Tragic and pathetic is the waste of powers not used, of resources untapped. Do you remember the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus seeking light for his way? Do you remember ...

2418. Pilgrim Living in a Vagabond World

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... conscience by working it so hard that it becomes weak and weary and impotent from the discouragement of having spoken on one subject so many times and having been ignored so much. But no matter how well we preserve the integrity of conscience, it remains essentially only a guard against wrong. We still need an incentive for right, an inspiration for going forward, for choosing the highest. Essentially conscience has a one-word vocabulary, and that word is "No." But the mere rejection of wrong does not make ...

2419. Illustrations for Lent Easter Old Testament Texts

Isaiah 42:10-17, Isaiah 42:18-25

Illustration

Jon L. Joyce

... . The captain then took a nap and upon awakening found that the ship was not on course. When he questioned the young sailor what had gone wrong, he was told, "I have sailed past that star, show me another one." No one can sail past the ten commandments. They remain as up-to-date as the day’s news announcements. God has chosen to give honor to his eternal rules, whether they be revealed in the Ten Commandments or in Jesus Christ. The wise will realize the worth of God’s laws and strive to obey and honor ...

2420. Something That Will Last Forever

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... up in poverty, working in sugar cane fields for $1 per day. Over the last 35 years on the golf tour he has earned over $6 million. He has given most of it away. Some people call him a soft touch. Others say that he is one of the few remaining role models in the world of sport. The Rodriguez Foundation, a $2.2 million-a-year venture, offers hope and guidance to thousands of troubled children. Listen to the following truth from Chi Chi: "In life, a person can have all the money in the world, and if he doesn ...

2421. A Reason For All To Be Thankful

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... along our pathways will be transformed by a loving God to serve useful purposes. The toughest challenge I have ever had as a pastor was in ministering to a beautiful young wife and mother who was slowly dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. Jill's mind remained sharp and perceptive even as her body wasted away with excruciating slowness. She confessed to me at times that what she really wanted was a gun with which to end it all. She noticed painfully when her five- year-old son began distancing from her which ...

2422. Breaking News: Thomas Doubts Jesus Alive

John 20:24-31

Sermon

CSS

... on water. And no resurrection. Here is how his bible ends: "There laid they Jesus and rolled a great stone at the mouth of the sepulcher and departed." It is very easy to rewrite history. To say, "that did not happen." But the story remains that the disciples were witnesses to these events. Thomas Jefferson is in essence calling the disciples liars and that they continued throughout the first century, for 70 years, to propagate those lies. Furthermore, Jefferson's Bible has been robbed of its power. I am ...

2423. Rosie Lives!

John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

... , to church. They had a long and happy marriage; their love for each other was monumental. They did everything together; everything, that is, except one thing. When George drove Rosie to church each Sunday, she went in but he did not. He remained in the car, reading the newspaper. After 45 years of marriage, Rosie died. George was distraught with grief. On Sunday mornings George no longer made that drive to church, transporting Rosie. But several months after her death Easter Sunday rolled around. George ...

2424. The Secret of the Power

John 20:19-31

Illustration

Brett Blair

... water. And, no resurrection. Here is how the his bible ends: "There laid they Jesus and rolled a great stone at the mouth of the sepulcher and departed." It is very easy to rewrite history. To say, "that did not happen." But the story remains that the disciples were witnesses to these events. Thomas Jefferson is in essence calling the disciples liars and that they continued throughout the first century, for 70 years, to propagate those lies. Furthermore, Jefferson's Bible has been robbed of its power. I am ...

2425. Straight Talk With A Young Adult

Matthew 19:16-30

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... had not yet begun to face the price-tag of years of racism; nor had we taken on the challenge of living in an integrated society. From generation to generation the scene changes; issues and crises shift. But the central questions of life remain remarkably constant. Therefore, Jesus' conversation with a young man long ago almost sounds like something from last weekend’s youth retreat. The three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, give us a composite picture of this young man. Matthew describes him as young ...

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