Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: loss, disadvantage, debt, lack, need, payment, resource, want

Showing 1 to 25 of 4955 results

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... for our enemies is incredibly disarming. It is not enough to avoid them and not do them harm. We must actively love by doing good whenever possible and holding them up in prayer before God. Amazing thing that I have discovered: it is nearly impossible to do someone good, pray for them, and hate them at the same time. Such radical actions are not only for their benefit, but for ours. And when we do this we see in them new things, unexpected beauty and new possibilities. We dare to see them as God does ...

2. Oh That Cookie Jar Goodness!

Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) Prop: If you can find one, a “lie detector” device could also serve as an interesting opening (in reference to the movie, “Meet the Parents”) Has anyone had one of those mothers or grandmothers….or maybe a father or grandfather who just seems to know your next move? You’re going for the cookie jar when you hear a voice clear from the other ...

3. What to Do with Yesterday - A Sermon for a New Year

Psalm 103:1-22

Sermon

James McCormick

One of the first things Patricia and I had to learn when we moved to Big Canoe was how to deal with our garbage. We learned very quickly that if we just let it sit there, it would begin to stink up our lives. It would invite all sorts of pests. It would make our lives unpleasant in a variety of ways. So, as a matter of regular discipline, we had to pack it up, load it in the car, and take it to the dump. We had to get rid of it. Of course, there is more than one kind of garbage. The kind of garbage we put ...

4. Good News! You Are Going To Be Tortured

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

Some of you may be familiar with the two-minute radio program, Ask Dr. Science. Dr. Science, as the initiated know, isn't a real doctor. He has a master's degree . . . in science! This disclaimer always runs at the end of the program, however. In the meantime, the announcer asks Dr. Science a question sent in by a listener like, "Why can I only see the stars at night?" Then Dr. Science answers the question in an annoying know-it-all voice that conveys the unspoken message: "This is a highly complex subject ...

5. Getting Off the Merry-Go-Round

Romans 8:1-11

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

Have you ever been stuck on a playground merry-go-round? You know how it goes. You start slow, pushing with your feet to gain more speed until you are running. Then you finally jump on to the spinning merry-go-round holding on for dear life. That is when you find yourself stuck. On the one hand, the centrifugal force of the spinning merry-go-round threatens to throw you off. On the other hand, you hold on for dear life to the railing because you are afraid of what might happen to you if you fall off. And ...

6. Captive Free!

Romans 7:15-25a

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

Have you ever felt "trapped between a rock and a hard place"? Have you ever experienced what we sometimes call "double jeopardy," where regardless of what you choose to do, you are "damned if you do and damned if you don't"? Perhaps you have seen a classic example of "double jeopardy." Someone is trapped high up in a burning building. They can't go back into the building because of the fire. But they can't jump either, because it will be to their certain death. Have you ever been on a frozen pond in the ...

7. Advertised Goodness

Matthew 6:1-2, Matthew 6:5-6

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Children and adults, listen as I tell you the legend of the proud frog. This frog wanted to visit his cousins in a pond several miles away, but that's a long journey for a slow moving frog. But in the pond where he resided, there were some Canadian geese. The observant frog noted how much they liked corn. This enterprising frog found a flat, strong stick about four feet long. He approached the geese with a proposition: "If two of you will take the two ends of this stick in your mouths, I will clamp my ...

8. Good Works Will Not Save You!

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Jesus was still in the middle of his farewell discourse to his disciples. He was trying to comfort the despair that they were feeling when they had first heard the news (during the last supper) that Jesus would be leaving them (John 13:21, 33; 14:1). He had comforted them with the good news that he was on the way to God the Father, that in associating with Jesus, the disciples had been in fellowship with the Father (John 14:6-11). Whoever believed in him, Jesus said, would be able to do the works that he ...

9. Good Christian Men Rejoice

2 Corinthians 8:9

Sermon

James Merritt

Seven centuries ago a Christmas carol, often sung today, was written in Latin, with a Latin title that meant "With Sweet Shouting." The great composer, Johann Sabastian Bach, liked it so much he arranged it for the organ, and John Mason Neale later standardized the hymn in English. In English the title was changed to "Good Christian Men Rejoice." The first stanza tells us what every Christian understands about the season called Christmas. Good Christian men, rejoice, With heart and soul and voice; Give ye ...

10. Good News Among The Rubble

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

The family heard the tornado warning on the radio. They turned on the television; the radar map showed the storm was headed for their town. The wind picked up and rattled the windows. The sky became dark. They went out on the front porch and looked at the sky. And then they saw it: a funnel cloud swaying along the ground like a hungry elephant's trunk sucking up everything in its path. They made a run for it -- the father, the mother and two small children. They lay flat in a nearby ditch. They heard the ...

11. On Doing Beautiful Things

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

That was a beautiful thing which was done in 1989 by the Boy Scouts from Troop 4, sponsored by First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor, and from Troop 61, sponsored by Domino’s Pizza. They gave money to help the owner of the taxicab which was damaged by rioters celebrating Michigan’s NCAA Basketball championship. (Ann Arbor News, April 19, 1989, p. 1) That was a beautiful thing to do...and I hope that somebody else sees fit to reimburse the poor fellow for the rest of the repair bill for the incident, ...

12. What To Do When Everyone's Doing It

Judges 6:1-40

Sermon

Harold Warlick

I harbor few illusions that people take to heart sermons like I'm about to preach. Yet later on in life we just might look back and remember. W. T. Leitze taught me that very early in life. W. T. Leitze was one of the kindest, most trusting individuals who ever lived. Mr. Leitze, a 60-year-old bachelor who weighed at least 300 pounds, was my ninth grade algebra teacher. Mr. Leitze's whole life was centered around his students. His lectures always interwove basic algebraic principles with basic Christian ...

13. Seek Good, Not Evil (That You May Live)

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

Paul W. F. Harms

Adolph Hitler had a dream of a thousand-year empire. The years may make us forget too soon and too easily the terror that was Adolph Hitler. The terror was that this little man, not in stature alone, but in smallness of mind, had managed to do in an extraordinary degree what others had done before him, and what we are all capable of doing. What he did, says Kenneth Burke, was to make virtue vice, and vice virtue. When, therefore, the Nazis put six million Jews and millions of others into the ovens, they ...

14. The Good Samaritan (Revised Edition)

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

"Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." — Luke 10:36-37 It was a dark, rainy summer night on a remote road. David was driving home to his lake cottage after a movie in the resort village. Going around a corner he thought he saw it. He slowed, wondering if he had seen correctly. He stopped, backed up in the driving rain, then moved his car toward the edge of the road ...

15. Good Guys And Bad Guys Alike

Genesis 37:1-11, 12-36

Sermon

Steve Burt

Love your enemies, Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). Is he serious? Crazy? Love our enemies? We ask, "Why would we do that?" And Jesus says, "So that you may be children of your Father in heaven." Then he gets crazier. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." What a tall order: Be perfect! The key to being perfect, as God is perfect, it would seem, is to understand that Jesus also says in his Sermon on the Mount that God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, ...

16. The Power of Good

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Those who have read the Harry Potter series, the C. S. Lewis series, or the Tolkien series will recognize a pattern: power without goodness corrupts, and goodness always wins in the end. We wish that were truly the case. In best case scenarios, evil is vanquished and the power of love triumphs over all. But only with the help of certain chosen people (or Hobbits as it were for Tolkien) can all of this come about. Without the intervention of those called upon to battle injustice and sin, evil can reign for ...

17. Time and Timing

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

Sermon

Paul W. F. Harms

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" is the way we say it today. "Why art thou silent when the wicked swallow up the man more righteous than he is?" It is not only "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but why does a holy and a righteous God permit the unrighteous to swallow the righteous, the wicked to devour the innocent? It may happen, but why does God permit it, seemingly doing nothing about it? It is bad enough if some outsider is the villain. It is intolerable when the villain is home- ...

18. Why Did I Do That?

Romans 7:7-25

Sermon

King Duncan

Do you ever wonder why people do some of the crazy things they do? People are amazing! Ask Dr. Tucker Montgomery. Dr. Montgomery spent fifteen years as an Emergency Room doctor at the University of Tennessee Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dr. Montgomery has seen a multitude of injuries that resulted from simple stupidity. He tells the story of one man who was brought in to the ER with serious injuries to his face and teeth. Dr. Montgomery was appalled to learn how the man had injured himself. While ...

19. It Doesn't Matter What I Do

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Sermon

King Duncan

"Five Things Christians Should Never Say," #5 A would-be burglar in Pennsauken, N.J. needed to make sure the door to the company he was looting wouldn't fully close while he was burgling the place, so he stuck a piece of paper in the door. The piece of paper was a traffic ticket he'd been issued for driving with a cracked windshield. Police found the ticket, with a name and address on it, still in the door the next day, which proved helpful in their pursuit of the burglar, who was arrested at his home in ...

20. Why Do We Ignore Warning Signs?

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

Recently the New York Times Magazine showed a series of photographs of a rock formation in Yosemite National Park near Bridal Veil Falls. A prominent sign in yellow plastic was attached to the rocks which clearly said: "Danger. Climbing or scrambling on rocks and cliffs is extremely dangerous. They are slippery when dry or wet. Many injuries and even fatalities have occurred." One picture showed a woman walking on the rocks in a tight dress and high heels. Another showed a couple walking on the rocks. The ...

21. What Do You See?

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man. And His form more than the sons of men; So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender ...

22. What Do We Need For Christmas?

Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20

Sermon

King Duncan

The story is told of a female college sophomore who decided it was about time she experienced her first official date. Her roommate, who was a knowledgeable junior, asked whether she preferred Southern boys or Northern boys. Since she was from South Dakota she was unaware of such nuances in the male gender and asked what the difference was. Her worldly-wise roommate answered, "Southern boys are more romantic. They will take you walking in the moonlight and whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Northern boys ...

23. Someone Had Tripped the Switch

Acts 2:1-21

Illustration

James W. Moore

Bishop Bob Morgan in his book Who's Coming To Dinner? tells a powerful story about a Dutch pastor and his family who during the second World War got into big trouble with the Nazis. The Dutch pastor and his family had been hiding Jewish people in their home to keep them safe from Hitler's forces. They were eventually found out. And one night in the darkness, they heard the sound of heavy boots and the loud impatient knocking on the door. They were arrested and loaded into a cattle car to be taken to one of ...

24. So You Want To Go To Bethlehem, Do You?

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Not too long ago, our family made a journey. It was a long journey, and it took the better part of a day to get there and the better part of another day to get back. It was a tiring journey, but it was well worth everything we had to endure to get there. "There" was home, and "there" was a place where we were surrounded by the love of family members, some of whom we had not seen in more years than we care to count. And when we came back, we were not the same people we were before the journey. We felt ...

25. A Strange Authority

Mark 6:1-13

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When I was just barely into my teens, I went through a period of time when I wanted to be someone else. I didn't like the way I looked. I was self-conscious about the spaces in my teeth. I hated that the veins in my hands stuck out. I wanted to be just like my friend, Marilyn. She was perfect — in everything — and, the boys liked her. I used to stand in front of the mirror and practice smiling like Marilyn. For a while, I dressed like she dressed, walked like she walked, and laughed like she laughed. But, ...

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