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 56 results

1. The Birthplace Of Humanity

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Susan Hedahl

In the Hebrew, Bethlehem means the house of bread. What a wonderful poetic description of a dwelling place. I remember frequently coming home from school and smelling the aroma of baking bread, creating for our entire family a house of bread. It awakens memories of good food, a warm kitchen, conversation, fulfillment. Everyone who entered the house gravitated towards the kitchen for a piece of bread with melting butter and to enjoy that delicacy in the company of others. At Bethlehem, at this house of ...

2. The Oneness of Twoness

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -ring? If you are not hearing opposites being brought together, you aren’t hearing the “good news” of the gospel. The Christian always rings twice. Or let’s look at those who are recorded as being in attendance at Jesus’ lofty yet lowly birthplace. Here is the Jewish messiah whose birth was not marked by Jewish rabbis and authorities but by a multi-cultural mix, a “motley crew” if there ever were one. We think first of those dirty, barnyard beasts that shared their stalls with the interlopers ...

3. Christmas Gifts That Always Fit

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

... Jesus. Behind the high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps. You can enter the main edifice and stand there and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave where a star is embedded in the floor to recognize the birthplace of the King of Kings. However, there is one stipulation for going into the cave. You have to stoop to go in. The door is so low you can’t go in standing up. The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall but to ...

4. Fleshing Out The Word

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Larry Powell

... friend, originally from Scotland. Enjoyment of the meal was exceeded only by our fascination with the good brother's spell-binding dialect. We all asked questions just to hear him speak. Following the meal, he referred to a world map, pointing out his birthplace, the birthplace of Robert Burns and other famous Scots, commented about St. Giles Cathedral, the Edinburg Castle, Waverly Station, and "Just here," he said, "not many miles from Scotland, is the Isle of Man where ye will soon be and I have been many ...

5. The African Foundations Of Christianity

Exodus 4:1-17

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... the Garden of Eden is mentioned as being near a river that runs through or near the area of Cush, which is another name for Ethiopia. As S.B. and Louis Leakey and other anthropologists have discovered, all evidence points to Africa as the birthplace of humankind. A description of the Egyptian god Amen even mirrors characteristics of the Hebrew and Christian God: ... The priests of Amen were never tired of proclaiming the greatness and majesty of Amen ... they appealed to Him, as to a loving fathei in their ...

6. Bethlehem: Capitol of the Universe

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... during some period of conflict, but another church was erected in the sixth century, and it has been restored through the years. We call it the Church of the Nativity. Probably many of us are uncomfortable with this church, perhaps even repelled by it. We wish the birthplace were still preserved in its original form, as a crude, rugged cave. But if a church had not been built at this spot, I doubt that it would still be available to us as pilgrims. And if it were, no doubt it would be owned and operated ...

7. A Word of Hope for a Hard World

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... had gone back to the east, Mary and Joseph had to flee for their lives and the life of their newborn son. After following the star into the region of Judea, the magi were uncertain of their ultimate destination, so they had consulted with King Herod, seeking the birthplace of the newborn king. Herod was immediately alarmed that a child had been born who would one day be king. Herod was not going to give up his throne without a fight. You need to know that Herod was a thoroughly evil and violent man. He was ...

8. Hope in a Plain Brown Wrapper

Luke 1:47-55

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... there's Bethlehem. A town of not much repute. It's not for from Jerusalem, half days journey on foot. It's now like a suburb of Jerusalem. Only mentioned briefly in Scripture. It's where Ruth and Naomi settled. It's where Jacob had Rachel buried. It was the birthplace if David, who later used it as his home. That's why it's called the city of David. It's the birth place of the prophet Micah. But by the birth of Christ, it was of little consequence. The Temple had been built and it outshone everything. The ...

9. The Inconcealable Christ!

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... a Hallmark® card but by an angelic host. From that time forward, people of every religion and race would know the name of a seemingly insignificant little hamlet that before was known primarily by the Jews because it was the birthplace of their favorite king. Now, the world knows it as the birthplace of the King of kings. The desire to know more about him brings hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world to Bethlehem each year. In his birth, he is the inconcealable Christ. Nor was it just to ...

10. Prophesy Your Way Forward

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... any generic awareness of these events. Those who do respond to Herod’s inquiry provide him with the answer he seeks. “In Bethlehem of Judea” (as opposed to the lesser known Bethlehem located in Galilee, see Joshua 19:15), is the scripturally prophesied birthplace of the messianic king. The text cited by the priests and scribes is a combination of Micah 5:2 and 2 Samuel 5:2, although Matthew further “adapts” the Micah text by substituting “Bethlehem” for the other well recognized name for that ...

11. A Small Town Is Blessed

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... to the ends of the earth. And he will be our peace . . .” The place where this ruler would be born, said Micah, is Bethlehem. Bethlehem means house of bread. “Sounds more like a home for the Pillsbury Dough Boy,” says one author, “than it does the birthplace of a king.” (2) 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 ...

12. How It All Began

Luke 2:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... by Caesar Augustus, emperor of Rome. The writers of Scripture want us to know, however, that Rome was but an unwitting instrument of God’s plan for the salvation of humanity. In Micah 5:2, there is a prophecy that reveals that Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the Messiah and so, thanks to this census, it was. Bethlehem was a small town only 6 miles from Jerusalem. You could walk that distance if you needed to. Bethlehem had nothing to recommend it except that this is where the Messiah would be born ...

13. A Tale Of Two Cities

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... " (v. 2). Like David, the one who is to be ruler in Judah will be born not in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem, among the insignificant clans of Judah. This backwater town, where nothing ever happens, where history is never made, is going to be the birthplace of the new king. God had promised David, "Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:16). Now the contemporary Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem is to be destroyed. But God will make ...

14. Tiny Town: Promised Power

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Tony Everett

... tunnel's end was not in the powerful fortress of Jerusalem. It was not under the tower of the citadel of David. At tunnel's end the light would shine from that tiny, insignificant little town, Bethlehem, of the tiny, most insignificant clan of Ephrathah -- the birthplace of Jesus the Christ. "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah," states Micah, "from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days." What ...

15. Reach For The Light

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Tony Everett

... the true Light overcome our midnight anxiety. But, we have to look up for the Light. We can't discover the Light by hiding beneath the covers of self-protection and fear. The Magi looked up, saw the light, and followed it to a manger, the birthplace of a king. It wasn't an easy journey. They faced all the hazards of a long journey across the wilderness. They faced the evil of treacherous King Herod. Yet they persisted, in faith, proceeding onward, following wherever the light might lead them. Following a ...

16. Who's In Charge Here, Anyway?

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Tony Everett

... continues, "So it was not you who sent me here, but God" (v. 8). God used this reunited family to continue the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 12:2-5) that from his children would come a great nation. God used this nation to be the birthplace of a King who promised to reconcile the world, even you and me, unto Himself. God did not allow the sin of the brothers or the spoiled behavior of the young Joseph to divert this divine plan. Families fight. Christians quarrel. In some congregations conflicts become ...

17. The More I Understand, The Less I Know

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... today? I remember growing up in the South, in cotton country, in the summer, before air conditioning became something almost every home had. Several of those summers I spent working on my uncle’s cotton farm, down in the Mississippi delta, just outside of my birthplace, Cleveland, Mississippi. It was hot work, hard work, bringing in a cotton crop. It still is, but technology has made it a lot easier than it was back then. When the crop had been tended for another day, the weeds chopped from between the ...

18. Light From And For The East

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... between Christianity and the world religions. The Magi, without any apparent recourse to the Hebrew scriptures but relying only on the traditions of antiquity and the tenets of their own religion, follow a star in the belief that it will lead them to the birthplace of an important ruler. They follow that star all the way from their homeland -- possibly Persia, modern-day Iran -- to Jerusalem. That is, their native faith and instinct bring them a long way in the right direction. But then they must do that ...

19. Lust - To Discipline The Eye And The Heart

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

R. Curtis Fussell

Jesus and his disciples were in a foreign land, the land of Samaria. It had once been recognized as the birthplace and capital of the Jewish faith. It was in Samaria and at Shechem that God told Abraham that the land would belong to his descendants. But later the Israelites were defeated by the Assyrians, who then settled in the land and mixed with the population. So in Jesus' day the ...

20. Rocky

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

William J. Carl

... on turning everything upside down. It was an enormous risk to proclaim Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, especially at Caesarea Philippi which was full of religious symbolism. Not only was this the place of former Syrian Baal worship, and supposedly the birthplace of the Greek god Pan, the god of nature, but here also stood a temple built by Herod the Great for the worship of Caesar. In short, Rocky, I mean Peter, was risking the accusation of blasphemy and treason which would have meant certain ...

21. God's Way Of Doing Things

Ruth 3:1-18, 4:13-22

Sermon

John P. Rossing

... purity, a story like this - reminding them that their greatest national hero was a descendant of a foreigner - would have shocked them. God shocks us with his choices, too: Israel, his chosen people; Mary, the mother of his Son; a barn in Bethlehem, his Son's birthplace. God doesn't respect race or status or nationality. God doesn't obey rules or pay attention to qualifications, which is good news, because that's what allows God to choose you and me as his children. But it also cautions us to be tolerant ...

22. After A Lost Election, Field Of Dreams

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

James Angell

... weather. The only "gang" we heard about worked on the railroad. In summer, the sky was robin-egg blue. Christmases were most often cold and white, just like the song. Kevin Costner's Field Of Dreams is in the eastern part of the state. My birthplace was in western Iowa, a town called Atlantic, located just 40 miles from the border-defining Missouri River. But dreams were abundant for my generation - at bargain prices. I grew up in the presence of good books, Grace Barnard's smile at the bank, football ...

23. Proper 4

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

What Abram was told, literally, was to "Go from your land and your birthplace to a land that I will show you." At this time, Abram was seventy-five years old, a successful man, established, respected, with a wife, many kinspeople, and much wealth. Yet, according to Scripture, he was asked to turn his back on all of his affluence and influence, and to ...

24. What God Sees

Isaiah 58:1-14

Sermon

... to offer its praise to the Lord. I lived in Salzburg a few weeks one summer, studying German at the University. I loved to walk through the town, its narrow streets leading me up secret alleys to hidden surprises. Up one street stood Mozart’s birthplace, down another a rosy-cheeked Austrian girl sold milk from a street cart. I was one of her most frequent and steady customers. In the afternoons our professors guided us through the villages and palaces in the countryside. In the evening I learned German by ...

25. Communion Is Repentance

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

... Nativity in Bethlehem. One of the unique features of that massive sanctuary is the very small entrance way. The main door into the church is only about three feet high. It is almost necessary to crawl in. Our guide explained, "Like the wisemen of old, when we approach the birthplace of Christ, our Lord, we do so on bended knee." It is quite fitting and proper that we kneel in the presence of our God. But the posture of the body should only be indicative of the position of the heart. Don't come to the Lord's ...

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