Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: beginning, start, origination, genesis, birth, dawning, dawn, emergence, inception, launch, creation, birthplace, cradle, early stages, conception, inauguration, foundation, outset, source, derivation, root, roots, provenance, etymology, descent, ancestry, parentage, pedigree, lineage, line, line of descent, heritage, extraction, background, family, stock, blood, bloodline, genealogy, beginnings

Antonyms: end, conclusion, termination

Showing 1 to 25 of 2341 results

1. The New Birth

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , "In a tight game when I looked down the bench for a pinch hitter, some players would avert their gaze and refuse to look in my direction. But Dusty Rhodes would look me right in the eye, smile, and tap on his bat." He was always available. New birth is more likely to happen to persons who make themselves available to God. One rainy Sunday afternoon, a little boy was bored and his father was sleepy. The father decided to create an activity to keep the kid busy. So, he found in the morning newspaper a large ...

2. The Supreme Worth of the Second Birth

John 3:1-9

Sermon

James Merritt

... born again; you don't decide where you are born again; God does. By the way, God's when is always now, and God's where is always here. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (II Cor. 6:2) Neither is the new birth "of the will of man." It is not of human design. It has nothing to do with the rigor of your religion. Men have invented all kinds of creeds, codes, and classes to get into heaven. But no amount of dreaming or skimming can bring you regeneration. Whatever you may ...

3. Responding to Christ's Birth

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

... to kill the child. Therein lies a paradox: Herod, the chief priests, and the scribes - people who have read the Scriptures and could plainly see what the prophets have said - were not willing to worship the newborn king. Thus, we have a two-fold reaction to the birth of Christ. The Wise Men of the Gentiles accepted and paid homage, but the ruler of Jerusalem and all the chief priests and scribes of the people do not believe. Rather, they conspired against the King of the Jews and sought his death. It is not ...

4. The Birth of the Bridegroom

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , and His grace, and His blessings. For when we love God with all of our hearts, and souls, and all of our strength, we become the Bride of the One Most High. The celebration of a child, born to make things whole is so much more than a birth. It’s a birthing of newness, a chance for life to be different and dynamic. This New Year’s Day, may we all come forward to the altar with our own recommitments to Jesus our Lord, Bridegroom of Israel, the Light of the Gentiles. For we are all precious in God’s ...

5. Birthing the Kingdom

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... -first century. Like a woman gasping in anguish hour after hour, struggling to deliver a breech baby into the world, creation and humanity also cry out in fear and anguish. God's new creation certainly is long a-borning! And yet, it is coming to birth. We are coming to birth! Because of Jesus, firstborn of the new creation, we are assured that this will not be a stillbirth. Because Jesus has joined us to himself, we can cry out and know we are heard and answered; we can grieve yet not without hope; we can ...

6. Death Of A Dream - Birth Of A Church

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... of Babel, where the people, under the punishment of God, went away babbling in all directions. There would not be a restoration of genuine speech for the human race until the Holy Spirit was given. Let us look at that event in our text in Acts: The Birth Of The Church - The Upper Room Now we change locations. We move from the plain to the city, from Babylon to Jerusalem, from the Tower of Babel to the upper room. Waiting As you enter the upper room you notice an immediate difference. These folks are not ...

7. Living With The Birth Pangs

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

... S HANDS. As E. Stanley Jones said a generation ago: "I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future." Never does the Christian have to live in trepidation about the future. The turmoil of change that we are now experiencing are but the birth pangs of a better world that God is preparing for us. There is a somewhat gross and yet revealing story that speaks to our concern about the future. A little rabbit was sitting in the field, scribbling on a pad of paper, when a fox came along. "What ...

8. Changed Lives: The Man Born Blind from Birth

John 9:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... treasured, shared and enjoyed. And much of the difference is a matter of choice.” (6) You and I have so many blessings in our lives. What a difference it would make in our attitude if we started each day thanking God for those blessings. The man blind from birth was thankful to Christ for his sight. If this man was thankful to receive his sight after a lifetime of darkness, should we not that much more thank God for a lifetime of seeing? That is, if we do see. How did you do on our spiritual vision exam ...

9. Episode III: Birth of the Church

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Brett Blair

In 1977 teenagers all over America walked into movie theatres to watch a movie that was virtually unknown. The director was unknown, the characters were unknown, the soundtrack was unknown, the robots were unknown. The name of the movie was Star Wars. It was not expected to be the biggest grossing movie of all times. It’s hard to believe that was 28 years ago. But even then some of us could read the handwriting on the wall. It was more grand than anything else we’d had ever see. For the next two months in ...

10. The Miracle of Re-Birth

John 3:1-21

Sermon

In this sermon the text is honored, the problem addressed, the treatment in depth, the structure taut, the words not excessive, the gospel lucid - all for the sake of the hearer. A sermon is something made as well as something said. What gets said is inextricably bound up with the way it is made (said). For a message to be heard as intended, it must be said so that it will not be heard in any other way. This sermon exemplifies that principle. The gift of God’s grace has always been, and continues to be, a ...

11. It Was the Birthday of a King

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... a man became like God, you would expect him to be just like Jesus. That is why the great poet, Lord Byron said, "If ever man was God, or if ever God was man, Jesus Christ was both." There was a man who was preaching on Jesus and his virgin birth. He was preaching the truth of his conception by the Holy Spirit. There was a skeptic who came up to him after the service and said, "I don't believe that story, and I don't believe you believe it either." The pastor said, "Well, you are mistaken, for I ...

12. Could We Start Again, Please? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

John 3:1-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... and me, our hope of glory. It is about the riches of God’s mysteries, the half of which no human mind can explain. May God save us from our self-centered, egotistical, hard-headed, do-it-yourself religion. May God transform us into the image of Christ. A. New birth means new life in community. I know there are times when you would rather do it yourself, but you are not wired that way. We are made to belong, to be a part of the family of God, to become the body of Christ. Certainly the Church is not ...

13. Every Kiss Begins with K

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 1 Kings 19:18; cf. Hosea 13:2). Is Christmas-shopping our form of a bull-kiss? No doubt, gold has become god for our twenty-first century consumer culture. No doubt, at Christmas time especially, when we are supposed to give gifts to celebrate Jesus’ birth and emulate the homage the magi offered to the Christ child, we can quickly find ourselves caught up in “kissing the bull.” Zhu Zhu pets, these $8 robot hamsters that are now going for $100 on eBay because they are the rage of this Christmas season ...

14. God Has No Grandchildren

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... our life, and we make the willful decision that we will accept him as our Savior and we will follow him as our Lord. In all of this, we must remember who Jesus is, what Jesus has come to do for everyone—to save us, to give us the new birth. It helps us sometimes to remember that dramatic work in others. We don’t think much of people perishing, but go to some of the forgotten corners of the world. While on a tour of mission stations around the world, the late Bishop William F. McDowell, of the Methodist ...

15. What We Learn from Love

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... back to a relationship with Him. God’s purpose was to give us unmistakable proof of God’s love for us. And so, God chose to become like us so we could see what love looks like when it walks in our shoes. Our story begins, “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to ...

16. A Baby Changes Everything

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... star . . . we can never go back to Herod, we can never go back to the world we came from, we can never be the same again. The New Year is our annual “epiphany.” A yearly “re-boot” of our vision and our values that bring the transforming birth of one child into our lives. Will you make the trip with the Magi to kneel before the child? Or will you, like the priests and prophets Herod summoned to his office, play possum? “A baby changes everything.” COMMENTARY A lifetime of bathrobe dramas known as ...

17. What Kind of Sheep Are You?

Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20, Ezekiel 34:1-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... lost sheep of a new generation in a new way! Jesus. The Lamb of God, who would be both the perfect Lamb and the Good Shepherd that is God, seeking the lost sheep of Israel, and sorting out the gentle lambs from the stubborn and power-hungry rams. Jesus’ birth is a prophecy in itself, a renewed effort by God to make things right in the pasture of our lives. God called a new Lamb to exemplify the others, to be the One Perfect Sacrifice; God called a new Shepherd to take over God’s flocks, in the ancestral ...

18. God's Gift Of Life

Psalm 139:1-24

Sermon

Erskine White

... childbirth to men. It's true that in most cases, the Bible appears to give the image of a "male" God. But there are also many places where God's image is female and God is shown to understand what women suffer in childbirth. You see, God, too, gave birth. God gave birth to a world, a good and beautiful world, and it pains God to see what we are doing with His world. The rich oppress the poor. There are wars and rumors of war - and fears of peace! The world is flooded by tears of grief when we should be ...

19. Born to Play Second Fiddle

Luke 1:57-66

Sermon

George Bass

... . That’s the way God’s call works for most of us, but in the case of John the Baptist God selected him before his birth as a special kind of servant with a unique role in life; his life was to be dedicated to preparing the way for the coming ... his prophets - and that his God-given task in the world was to preach, baptize, and prepare his way. On this day that we remember his birth, it is fitting to pray to God to increase our faith, to broaden our vision by opening our eyes to the scope of his mission in ...

20. Away with the Stable

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

... 's where Christ is born. If we want Christ to be born in the cradles of our hearts, we might do well to look for him in those experiences which cause emotions to surface in our eyes and in our hearts. If we want a new awareness of Christ's birth, we might give attention to those times when our heart skips, a knot lumps in our throat, and feeling pulses through our veins. Here, right in the middle of it all, is where Christ is born. Why not do away with the stable? Doing away with the stable might shatter ...

21. A Birthday Celebration

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... March 8, 1969. But it was not the first song sung by astronauts. That honor goes to "Jingle Bells" which was sung by the crew of Gemini VI on December 15, 1965. They accompanied themselves on harmonica and bells. It is appropriate that a tune associated with the birth of Jesus would be the first to be sung in outer space--even though it is primarily a secular tune. But even that festive song was not the first to ring out in the heavens. That honor goes to an unknown tune whose lyrics go something like this ...

22. When Is The Baby Coming?

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Erskine White

... a name!" I wonder if that is how some of us prepare for the coming of Jesus each year. Do we get more casual about the birth of this child as the Christmas seasons come and go? Does it all become routine, to the point where we are preparing for Jesus not ... child? On the surface, it appears that the danger of doing this is very real. After all, what do we do to get ready for the birth of Jesus when Advent rolls around? We go into the attic or closet and pull out the same old Christmas boxes we have used for ...

23. The Manger Is Empty

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... that we're thrown into life too fast. We're not really prepared." And Linus asks, "What did you want . . . a chance to warm up first?" The Advent season is supposed to be our chance to warm up. It's that time to prepare our hearts and homes for the birth of the Christ child. It's that time when we put all the decorations in their place, the presents are bought and wrapped, the cards sent out and received, and we get ready for Christmas Day. But if we aren't careful the time of preparation will be over and ...

24. A Small Town Is Blessed

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... ) It is profound, don’t you think, that God would raise the one who would be the “bread of life” from the so-called “house of bread?” As someone has written: “Bread is one of life’s most common things. God wanted His Son available to all. His birth was announced to shepherds, the common man, but not to the religious elite nor to those with political clout. His cradle was a manger, a common animal’s feeding trough in a lowly stable. You don’t have to be rich to know Him. You don’t have to ...

25. Three Wise Women

Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... claiming and proclaiming a prophecy and hatching a resistance movement! In fact, you could say that the real mystery of the birth story is not The Three “Wise” Men (we don’t know how many there were anyway) but “The Three Wise Women”: ... very “pregnant” hope. It’s time to celebrate the “pregnant” hope of living life in Jesus. Something good is coming….. The birth of something big. Proclaimed by Three Wise Women. Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text From Nazareth to Judea: Mary Visits ...

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