Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 277 results

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... named Nicodemus sought him out, it was in the shadows of night in order that he could risk his weakness and his need. What is a left-handed gift? (or if you are left-handed already, what are the gifts of your right hand?) The left is the more awkward. Try eating your breakfast left-handed sometime - it’s quite an experience. We rub left-ness in by saying a guy like me has "two left feet" on the dance floor. The left hand is the slower, the less powerful. The left hand is the supportive rather than the ...

2. Shepherds And Bathrobes

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Thomas Long

... once a Christmas pageant at a small church in which the part of the innkeeper at Bethlehem was played by a high school student. He was a quiet and polite boy, but the kind of boy for whom the word "awkward" was an apt description -- awkward in manner, awkward in social relationships, even awkward in size, his growing frame always pushing at the limits of his clothing. His peers liked him well enough, but he was the sort of person who was easy to overlook, to exclude from the center of things. When Joseph ...

3. Shepherds and Bathrobes

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Thomas Long

... was once a Christmas pageant at a small church in which the part of the innkeeper at Bethlehem was played by a high school student. He was a quiet and polite boy, but the kind of boy for whom the word "awkward" was an apt description - awkward in manner, awkward in social relationships, even awkward in size, his growing frame always pushing at the limits of his clothing. His peers liked him well enough, but he was the sort of person who was easy to overlook, to exclude from the center of things. When Joseph ...

4. Do You Love Me?

John 21:15-25

Sermon

Robert Allen

... up. He stood there and said: "The band will now play the theme song of the people we have called our enemy. They are not our enemies any more! We are one people again. I want the band to play 'Dixie.' " Historians say there was a long, awkward pause. The band didn't have the music to "Dixie," but they finally got together and played, "Dixie." Lincoln knew that the South was not only hurting because of the horrors of the war, but also because of the shame which accompanies defeat. Lincoln was sending a clear ...

5. Wheels Instead Of Walls

Ezekiel 1:1-28

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Rachel Dunn, the director of the Central High School Show Choir is a distant cousin of mine. Cousin Rachel is also in charge of the Warlick family reunion each summer. Reunions are a lot of fun. They can also be quite awkward. One feels especially awkward attending the reunion of a family to which one did not belong but simply married into. The same holds true for high school and college reunions. Most of you will marry someone who did not attend your high school Many of you will marry someone who did not ...

6. The Final Word

John 11:25-26; Ephesians 1:12, 18-19

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... 't know the person, I usually gather the family together and ask them about their most vivid memories of the person. Most of the time, the next hour is filled with laughter and tears and fond memories. When I asked Jason's family about their memories, there was this awkward pause. It was as if they knew what they were supposed to say, but they couldn't say it. They knew they were supposed to say that Jason would have given the shirt off his back to a stranger. They knew they were supposed to say that Jason ...

7. How Would You Introduce Jesus?

John 1:(1-9), 10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... you or someone you know? Some people don’t have this problem. They are at their finest when they are in a new social situation. But some of us are a little awkward around people we don’t know, and we don’t look forward to that initial moment when we have to go up to strangers and introduce ourselves. A young woman shared such a socially awkward moment on the Internet. She was hanging out with her friends when she saw a young guy nearby reading a book. It was a book that she liked. And he looked like ...

8. It's Worth the Wait

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... ready.” (1) Is that what Jesus’ friends, the disciples, were thinking on the day of Pentecost when they gathered to pray and wait for the Holy Spirit? Will it be long? I read an interesting study this week that took place in Holland about awkward pauses in conversations. Have you ever been in a conversation, and then the person you’re chatting with suddenly goes silent? It’s disconcerting, isn’t it? Researchers in Holland ran a study to measure how long a conversational gap has to last before it ...

9. Don't Give Up Too Soon!

Acts 15:36-41

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... 4:11)." It is really unbelievable. The rift was healed. The fledgling young disciple filled out. The baby fat turned to muscle and the awkwardness came under control. What a mistake, what a tragic mistake, Paul would have made, giving up on John Mark too soon! As his life ... his mother got out of their car that day over on Country Club Drive. The boy was 13 years old. He was tall and gangly. Awkward looking. He wore tennis shoes and an old felt jacket. He didn't own a suit. And was he shy. But he could play the ...

10. On Being a Beautiful Christian

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... to his wife, Nellie. She had died young, partly due to his thoughtlessness. Essex was heard to mutter to himself as he left the grave: "I might have been a worse man, and a better husband."3 And so might we all. We are so unaware of that awkward thoughtlessness that can destroy our loved ones. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Even we can be a healing force in the midst of life. We are always inescapably radiating something - either light or darkness. We are lifting up or weighting others down. I may ...

11. A Misguided Game of Hide-and-Seek

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... that he didn't really get. And it probably would have helped if he'd done something with the way he walked, which had a clumsy, awkward tempo all its own, as if he were struggling to remove a piece of gum from the bottom of his shoe. Still, Jonathan might have ... other neighborhood children. It took a great deal of patience to play with him, however, because, in a word, Jonathan was awkward. He swung a baseball bat, for example, like he was chopping wood; and on those rare occasions when he actually managed ...

12. Are You Convinced?

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Larry Powell

... effort to stay as far removed from it as possible. There are so many terminations and finalities about which we seem to do so very little. And then, there is the final termination - death. Even with the best of intentions, we tend to fumble awkwardly in the presence of death, wanting to say the proper thing, do the proper thing, allow the proper thing. Endings are handled differently than beginnings, aren't they? Beginnings seem to be so much easier. Endings, should we allow ourselves to become involved in ...

13. Alone

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

George Paul Mocko

... offers the New English Bible, later, simply "partner." Nothing sexist in that latter one, is there? Is that one group that perhaps acquiesced to feminist pressures? Actually the phrase is something of an awkward one in the Hebrew, which has led one Hebrew scholar to suggest the equally awkward, but he is convinced, quite literally accurate translation, "counterpart for his strength." Nothing demeaning, nothing denoting or suggesting a secondary status. The fact of the matter is that the precise Hebrew word ...

14. When Is Justification By Faith A Heresy?

John 8:31-41

Sermon

George Johnson

... down the street. So we have leaned over backward to avoid the word of judgment. We don't talk about the weeping and gnashing of teeth like Jesus did. Is not the cross about God's judgment, as well as God's grace? Frankly, the passage in Matthew 25 is awkward for us because of our strong emphasis on justification by faith. "Depart from me - for I was hungry and you did not feed me." Where is grace in that text? Did you notice last week how I skipped over verses 5 and 6 in Isaiah 5 where God removes the ...

15. The Majesty Of God's Love

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... point. Evangelism. It is a word on every pair of American Christian lips these days. Everyone is speaking of church growth. Yes, we all talk about it, but it does not come easy in action. All of us, your priest included, know the difficulties and the awkwardness that come when you try to talk about the Catholic faith. The going gets even tougher when we try to excite faith in others or endeavor to encourage them to practice the faith. Evangelism is a real choice; it just seems so unnatural and imposing a ...

16. Been Fishin' Lately?

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... Christ. We acknowledge that we have received help and leadership from people such as Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, and Walter Scott. But we’re not THEIR disciples. We are Disciples of Christ. But the name is somewhat awkward, because people who align themselves with other denominations are also Christians, and are also disciples of Christ. It seems a little conceited, and maybe others consider it a bit arrogant, to call ourselves Christians or Disciples but to call others “Methodists ...

17. WHAT IS MAN?

Sermon

Larry Powell

... for its roots to chew and twist its leaves into a time honored tea. Gingseng was, and is, the healing potion. Years ago, I was cutting right-of-way for the R.E.A. on a plantation in Mississippi County. A large sycamore tree had grown at an awkward angle across the power lines and needed to be topped. Because of the tree's precarious position, the foreman felt constrained to see the job personally. Midway up the tree, he encountered a swarm of bees which put upon him in such a manner that he literally "ran ...

18. Why Look To Heaven?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

... teaching, the confronting of enemies. The disciples had only to live meekly in a corner of that dynamic man's life. But no longer. Now God was telling them to go out into the world, go out to be the new healers and preachers and confronters. Like that awkward boy that I was, the disciples wanted to escape the world and live in the one they admired and loved. But they were turned away so they could mature as individuals. Our faith speaks often of Christ as our comforter and shield. That image is good and it ...

19. We Know Jonah

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... they must do something. The next evening they went to visit one of the Vietnamese homes nearby, and took their small child with them. The Vietnamese fisherman - a man about his own age - met them at the doorway, at first wary and afraid. After an awkward pause he invited them in. Uncomfortable with one another at first they sat around a kitchen table and began to talk - two young couples learning something of each other and the hopes that each had for themselves and their children for the future. Bit by ...

20. Why Won't They Listen?

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... with all the enthusiasm, all the energy, all the intensity with which he had preached that morning. This time, however, the sermon fell absolutely flat. Talmadge's message was an utter failure as far as he could tell. Driving back with his elders, there was an awkward silence in the car. What do you say to the preacher when the sermon has fizzed? Finally one of his elders asked, "Pastor, how do you explain it? Your sermon got such a great response at our church this morning." Talmadge thought for a moment ...

21. Who Is Your Hero?

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... 10 Downing Street. Ward, struck dumb with awe in Churchill's presence, was unable to answer the prime minister's questions. Churchill surveyed the unhappy hero with some compassion. "You must feel very humble and awkward in my presence," he said, "Yes, Sir," managed Ward. "Then you can imagine how humble and awkward I feel in yours," returned Churchill. (8) Churchill knew he was in the presence of a real hero. So did the disciples. In fact, they knew they were in the presence of someone whose significance ...

22. Jesus Out of Character

Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... and you takes your choice.” I WISH I COULD NOW GIVE YOU THE “TRUE VIEW.” I have read commentary after commentary, and none of them satisfies me fully. You’d be amazed at some of the theological raindances which Biblical commentators do around this awkward event in the life of our Lord. Perhaps we will have to suspend judgment until we know more. John Wesley gave us this rule for interpreting Scripture: First we compare Scripture with Scripture. Then we apply reason. If all else fails, put it on the ...

23. The Making of a Saint

John 11:38-44

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... . We enter just in time to witness Jesus' tears and anguish, some graphic words about how the body would smell, an odd little prayer, and -- almost as an afterthought -- the calling forth of four-day-dead Lazarus, still bound in his shroud, shuffling awkwardly from his tomb before the astonished mourners. No ringing words about Jesus as the resurrection and the life; just a, shall we say, former corpse blinking newly-restored eyes against the light of an ordinary earthly day. Because that was what the still ...

24. The God Who Must Be Pursued

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... like a good father and more! There is no more important issue than the character of God. Is the God of whom we speak approachable? Is God generous and kind and just and wise and forgiving? Will God listen as I fumble and mumble my way through an awkward prayer? The most basic and radical Christian affirmation is that God the Father is like Jesus the Son, or in simpler terms, that Jesus is the spittin’ image of his Father. Jesus comes to represent the interests of his Father on the earth, and that he does ...

25. Said the Night Wind….

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... successful art dealer and very wealthy. The two become friends due to “Miss Debbie,” who hears the cries of the homeless and responds by loving them at the Union Gospel Mission. Ron accompanies his wife, reluctantly. Slowly and awkwardly, he finds himself drawn to Denver. Slowly and awkwardly, Denver begins to move out of his isolation and distrust of this rich white couple. Denver and Ron become friends. They accompany each other through the experience of Debbie’s cancer and death. I work out at the ...

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