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 3874 results

1. Drawing Lines

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... harmless joke, we begin to defend "our space." When the neighbor's dog does something inside our fence, we know exactly where the point of trespass lies: "our yard." When a wave of robberies begins to haunt our end of town, our territorial line suddenly expands to include "our neighborhood." When we resent the intrusion by the federal government into our regional needs and wants, our territory takes on the even larger boundaries of "our state." When threats of war and terrorism start crashing on our shores ...

2. Plumb Line Prophecy

Amos 7:1-9, Amos 7:10-17

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission” (1 Corinthians 9:16-17). III. God’s Ever-present Plumb Line Today God still has a plumb line. His plumb line for us is Jesus, the only unfailingly true and perfect One who ever lived. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones ...

3. What's The Bottom Line?

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

George Johnson

... review with Isreal to see how things are going. Are they still in focus? Do they understand what is expected, what the bottom line is? Isaiah 5 is one of those reviews. The audience listening to Jesus tell this parable was very familiar with the song of ... t know what mishpat and zedekah (justice and righteousness) are. Make sure your children know what God is looking for - what the bottom line is. It is mishpat and zedekah. Did you notice what the text says will happen when these are not present? The owner ...

4. The Bottom Line

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... ? There is a story going the rounds about a self-employed painter who had come on hard times. There was very little work in his area, so when he was asked to bid on the painting of a local church, he figured a little too closely to the bottom line. He got the job, but he soon realized that his bid was so low, he could not even make expenses. Feeling desperate, he decided to water down the paint. As the job was nearly finished, the sky grew dark, and it was not long before a raging thunderstorm washed the ...

5. A Long Line Of Love

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... woman named Ruth? She is there because of her loyalty to her mother-in-law. Do you see now why I say that Jesus came from a long line of love? AND SO DO WE. That is the heart of our message today. So do we. THAT KIND OF LOVE IS WHAT THE CROSS IS ABOUT. ... there no matter what." That, my friend, is God's love. "Forever's in our heart and in our blood; we come from a long line of love." 1. Rodney Jones and Gerald Uelmen, SUPREME FOLLY, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1990), pp. 151-153. 2. James W. Moore ...

6. The Shortest Distance Is Not A Straight Line

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... a place and going out over the airwaves with, "I prophesy in part and I speak in part. I see the truth like a man looking through a foggy windowpane. I just don't know everything." Well, he would not be on the air very long. People want a straight line. That's the shortest distance to God, is it not? What does it take to evoke a response from God? Does it take a gallon of faith? A pound? An ounce? In the account of the healing of the centurion's servant, a huge amount of faith brings a healing ...

7. God Writes Straight with Crooked Lines

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . At last he asked the night office-cleaner if he was responsible for its lopsided position each morning that he came to his office. "Why, yes," he said. "I have to hang it crooked to make the tower hang straight.” “God writes straight with crooked lines,” goes an old Portuguese proverb. My crooked lines, the crooked lines of your life, God can turn into a narrative that leads straight to goodness, beauty and truth. The story of the Bible is the story of God writing straight with some very crooked ...

8. The Dividing Line

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." Okay, they're going in the right direction. But it's time to lay it all on the line. It's time to get right to the heart of the matter. "But what about you?" he asks. "Who do you say I am?" I imagine that ... de Sousa Mendes heard the voice of God and he took up a cross and did what he had to do. There is a dividing line in life. We are recipients of God's amazing, abundant, luxuriant grace. But it is not a cheap grace. Christ laid down his own life to ...

9. Endless Line of Blunder

Exodus 1:8

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... by the pharaoh's own daughter. In the long-term plot of human history, however, the pharaoh's decree to kill the baby Hebrew boys plays a different role, for there is a larger pattern here. This anonymous king of Egypt is the first in a very long line of antagonists who have endeavored to snuff out God's chosen people. In every epoch, it seems, some tyrant has made this his mission. And every one of them has failed. From Haman to Hitler, the Jews have been targeted by those who wanted to eradicate them. As ...

10. Embracing an Endless Line of Servants

1 Corinthians 3:5-23

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... step into this pulpit I am reminded that not all of this is me. When I count my blessings, I am reminded that not all of this is me. When I number my friends, I am reminded that not all of this is me. We are surrounded by an endless line of servants who put our needs ahead of theirs. They are parents who made a way and spouses who decided to stay, mentors who taught us skills and friends who were around for more than a thrill. While some of their haloes were tilted and we might be hesitant to ...

11. "Head" Lines

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

How many of us pick up the newspaper each morning and scan the headlines before we start reading the morning news? Not every story is of equal interest to everyone. For example, a headline about a tax hike or a bomb scare is more likely to catch my attention than is a headline about school marching bands or knitting clubs. You have your own criteria for judging which stories merit your time. But occasionally, a headline will catch our attention because it seems to have more than one meaning. Sometimes the ...

12. "Head" Lines

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

King Duncan

How many of us pick up the newspaper or our digital devices each morning and scan the headlines before we start reading the morning news? Not every story is of equal interest to everyone. For example, a headline about a tax hike or a bomb scare is more likely to catch my attention than is a headline about school marching bands or knitting clubs. You have your own criteria for judging which stories merit your time. But occasionally a headline will catch our attention because it seems to have more than one ...

13. Others

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... if you tried to go too fast, the little gear-teeth that kept the parts moving against each other would skip, get stuck, or break the flow of your hand-movement. Your design would be spoiled. If you give up your dependence on simple straight lines, on the safety of old-standard divisions - rich and poor; black and white; men and women; old and young; first world and third world; high-tech and teched-off; Boomer and Buster - means opening ourselves up to ambiguities and misinterpretations. That is why Paul's ...

14. It’s a New Year: Take 7 Steps Forward

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... heart and whole soul and whole mind. From that most immovable place our faith can take us anywhere. Will you stand firm in 2012? Stand Firm: So that you can . . . Step Ahead, Step It UP, Step Up, Step in It, Step Down, Step Over the Line, COMMENTARY Matthew and Luke begin their gospels with the small — minute details of the birth of the baby Jesus and the gradual, incremental growth of Jesus’ ministry and reputation. John’s gospel, on the other hand, begins big, with a cosmic bang that echoes Genesis ...

15. The Primacy of Human Relationships

Matthew 5:33-37

Sermon

Joe Pennel

... way to become famous." It was tough - tough because Matt happened to have a father who acted upon what he considered to be his bottom line. I do not know if Matt's father goes to church, reads his Bible, or prays on a daily basis. Perhaps he is religious. Perhaps ... that father and his son. What if Matt's father had not acted? What if he had been silent? What if his bottom line had been "win at any price"? What if winning the trophy had been more important than playing the game with decorum? I expect there ...

16. The Surrogate

Matthew 1:1-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... sign for her as well, that she belonged to someone special who cherished her overseas, even when she could get no word to him or from him for months at a time. He had a picture of her. She had a ring on her finger from him. On the front lines, he kept that picture of her with him in the pocket of his uniform, taking it out from time to time to remind him that something beautiful was waiting for him beyond the blood and the smoke, the gunfire and the trenches. She cherished that ring, knowing that it held ...

17. Wiping Away the Tears

Revelation 21:1-6

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

... — and it comes from a man who was granted a vision as he lived in exile on a rocky outcrop of an island in the middle of the Aegean Sea — one line. A few words cast into a sea of words but a line that we simply could not live without. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (v. 4a). Isaiah had spoken similar words much earlier to a people and nation living in the despair of exile. Feeling abandoned by their God, the people of Israel grieved the loss of their ...

18. Looking Back; Moving Forward

Exodus 34:29-35

Sermon

Tony Everett

... spot." The first day went very well. The student covered four miles of lonely highway. The supervisor was pleased. The next day he was only able to extend the white line by one-half mile. Day three ended with merely a quarter mile painted. Day four was even worse. The student was able to add only one hundred feet to his white line. Finally, at the end of the fifth and last day of the work week, the exhausted and disheveled student sadly informed his supervisor that he had barely completed ten additional ...

19. Are All Your Sons Here?

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... up, I suppose. After all, if the boys had been allowed to pick, nothing would ever have happened. As it was, we each ended up with a partner, but the sock-footed girl noticed that her guy wasn't in the lineup. There are lots of ways that we get lined up in this life, aren't there? We begin, not just with a sixth-grade gym class, but with the lineup of Jesse's sons to see which one might be favored for leadership. One after another, the sons are examined and dismissed until the question comes. "Are all your ...

20. Anything to Declare?

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Which is why we take nothing but the bare essentials of a back-pack with us. We travel light. Cargo space gives elbow room for the Great Confuser, “Diabolos,” to work. We travel light with nothing to declare but Jesus Christ. “Well, I declare.” Which line will you take? COMMENTARY Jesus first sent out his twelve disciples on a mission to proclaim the kingdom and heal with the King’s own power and authority (9:1-6). Next Jesus sent out an unspecified number of messengers to prepare the way for his ...

21. Live Spelled Backward

Matthew 26:14-27:66

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... we must ask even of ourselves is, "What motivates us to become involved in the things we do?" There is an interesting line in John's apocalypse about "the synagogue of Satan" (Revelation 3:9 ESV). It makes us wonder if there are some churches ... and energy worrying about people possessed of serpentine spirits. Take them Up! Up! Up! Up in prayer. Up in love. Up above the snake line. Do not live your life in reverse. Do not take up residence where the snakes abide. Always live your life going forward and along ...

22. It Was the Birthday of a King

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... then read in v.2 that Isaac begot Jacob. Now Jacob had two sons: Jacob and Esau. But God said the Messiah would come from the line of Jacob. "I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out ... had at least eight sons. So God now eliminates 7/8's of the family of Jesse to insure that Jesus would come through the line of David. Now if you think that is wonderful, it gets even better. V.11 tells us "Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the ...

23. Salvation in Jesus’ Name

Acts 4:5-12

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... objective standard to guide my daily living. The Ten Commandments have not gone out of style, and Christ's call to be a servant has not changed and Christ's call to be a servant has not changed. Christ himself is our plumb line. -- Anonymous A plumb line is a line with a weight at the end to determine verticality. In other words, by looking at God's revealed truth about himself and his Son, we can asses our vertical relationship with him. That then leads to determining our horizontal actions or our morality ...

24. Can You Be Popular and Serve Jesus?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... are more susceptible than others. Talk show host Larry King tells about a man who gambled on horses. He was with a friend at the track. He went to the window to place a bet. He was convinced that horse number 3 would win the first race. However, in line to place his bet he overhears the man directly in front of him place a bet on number 4. So he bets on 4. Sure enough, number 3 wins. “What happened?” his friend later asks. “I thought you liked number 3?” “I met this fellow . . .” the first guy ...

25. Don’t Be a Trender - Be a Trendsetter

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ignore her plea at first. But the Canaanite woman is not the only one Jesus ignores. As she continues to follow Jesus and his entourage, the disciples complain to Jesus “Send her away for she keep shouting after us” (vs. 23). Jesus offers the “party line,” the “trending truth” about being only sent to the “the house of Israel.” But he does not do what his disciples want him to do either. He does not confront the Canaanite woman and “send her away.” He does not “conform” to the party ...

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