Sermon and Worship Resources

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

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Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... more we seem to need. So we have to increase the financial goals we once set for ourselves. We want the kind of life “so worldly, so welcome” as the MasterCard commercials used to say. That means that it is not enough to make a living. We need to make a killing. Someday when the children are grown, and the mortgage is paid, and all of our goals have been reached, we will think about making a life. But what if it is too late when we finally get around to making a life? Wouldn’t that be sad? Wouldn’t ...

2. No Green Without Red

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . "Do you need a mink coat?" She replied: "I want a mink coat, therefore I need a mink coat." This confusion of needs and wants has created a culture of needs, a culture least interested in making a life, less interested in making a living than in making a killing. We are living in a state of "hand-to-mouth luxury," novelist Peter DeVries calls it. Little wonder, then, the prevailing "if-you-can't-make-it, take-it" mentality. There is no such thing as one cookie. A person went into an airport shop, bought a ...

3. Leading a Friend to Jesus

Luke 5:27-32, Luke 5:17-26

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... route running from the Mediterranean coast to Damascus, Syria. Just suppose you had a tollbooth on both the I-55 and the I-40 bridges over the Mississippi. You would clean up. In fact, you could even pay for a new NBA arena! Levi was making a killing, but there was a big price to pay. He was considered a traitor for helping funnel taxes to the hated Romans. All tax collectors were considered crooks, and most were. Jesus approached Levi at his tollbooth and said, "Follow me." Levi got up, left everything ...

4. When Too Much Can Be Too Little

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... single bone. Nothing (Stephen Mills, "The Rhyming Whale," Review of Roger Payne's Among Whales [1996], Times Literary Supplement, September 6, 1996, 36). What are you missing in life because of the blubber? What part of God's kingdom are you not experiencing because of the rush to kill or make a killing? What good is "stuff" without the staff of life? Will you give up the chaff for the staff ... of life?

5. The Upside-down Kingdom of God

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... situation and get on with my life. I’m too strong to be acting this way." But Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn…" "I want my share of the American dream like everybody else. I want real estate, I want to invest in the stock market and make a killing, I need a bigger house, I want a fancier car. I want, I need, I need, I want…" And the distinction between the two becomes more blurred all the time. But Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek…" "I am so tired of all these bleeding-heart Liberals who ...

6. Jesus Makes All the Difference

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Cynthia Cowen

Our gospel reading for this Epiphany Sunday is a marvelous story about confrontation. The wise men — more commonly known as the three kings today — were teachers of science and truth. They had been watching the heavens, searching for a sign of God's activity in the world, when they were confronted by a star. The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was confronted while reading their story in the gospel of Matthew. The result was his poem, The Three Kings. And the Three Kings rode through the gate and the ...

7. How Do We Make Sense of This?

Romans 8:35-39, Hebrews 10:1-39

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

Good Friday is a hard day. It's depressing and it's confusing. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? How do we make sense of this? Christians have struggled with understanding the meaning of the cross ever since the very beginning and the struggle has continued through the centuries. We can see that from reading today's passage from Hebrews if we stop to consider the passage in its larger context. The book of Hebrews tells us that the atonement day ritual, as it has been practiced by the Jews for ...

8. Killing What Is Already Dead

Colossians 3:1-11

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Every pastor has had this experience. It doesn't have to be the husband in a marriage, but let's just say that it's the husband. The man comes to the pastor's study clutching the report from the physician's office: high blood pressure, overweight, danger of heart disease. The physician has ordered the man to lose weight and to stop smoking. Sitting in the pastor's office, the man swears he is going to take better care of himself. He's said it before, but this time he really means it. He wants to be around ...

9. Kill Them with Kindness

Proverbs 3:3, 19:22

Sermon

James Merritt

One of the advantages of growing older and getting a few more years under your belt is the opportunity to learn. In fact, I really believe if you're not learning, you are really not living. The day you quit learning or the day you lose your desire to continue learning, your life basically is over. The longer you live, the more you can learn. One of my goals in life is to try and learn something new every day. I do it either by reading a book or a magazine or perusing the internet or asking questions of ...

10. My Stress Is Killing Me! -- Is It?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

If you have memorized much scripture, our text is probably in your repertoire: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." This is one of those favorite texts that I've quoted a lot, referred to often, but never preached a sermon on it. So, as I close this series of sermons on the random texts that I have been tucking aside, I come to this favorite one. Newell Dwight Hillis, one of the ...

11. On Your Mark, Get Set, Hope!

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Remember when? Remember when: Visions of sugar plums danced in your head, Silent night was an exciting night, Away in a manger didn’t seem so far away, Remember when you couldn’t wait for Christmas? Life has a way of turning our hopes and dreams into obligations and responsibilities. The child within us gives way to the adult that is out daily earning a living, fulfilling roles, meeting the deadlines of life. Maybe here in December it’s time to visit that child again, the child that lives within. The ...

12. Killing A King

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

"I was treated like a king!" is a common saying when one received the best possible treatment. This is to say that a king deserves and gets the very best. A red carpet is laid out for the king to walk on, lest he dirty his feet. Only the best food is served. His clothes are made of the finest material with top class and style. A king wears genuine jewels, no artificial diamonds or costume jewelry, for a king deserves only the best. A king is given honor, respect, loyalty, obedience, and love. All of this ...

13. Saul Tries To Kill David

1 Samuel 19:1-24

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

Saul Tries To Kill David: 19:1–7 In Saul’s next attempt to destroy David he unrealistically tried to involve those around him who loved David. Jonathan’s fondness for David is expressed by the same word as is used for the pleasure Saul had previously taken in David (18:22). It may be that Jonathan’s calm good sense in removing David from the scene and then facing his father with the realities of David’s support, through which the LORD won a great victory for all Israel, brought Saul back to one of his ...

14. The Things That Make for Peace

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Each gospel has a different version of what happened during this Holy Week. This year we look at Luke's version. We will stay with Luke as we move through the services of Holy Week. The calendar is printed before you in the bulletin. We start this morning with Luke's version of what happened on this Sunday, the Sunday he entered the city. Our vision of Palm Sunday has been shaped by the Church's celebration of Palm Sunday, which always involves children in procession, waving palm branches, which we ...

15. What a Difference a Day Makes

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Eric Ritz

One of the moving and insightful stories that came out of the Nazi concentration camps in Europe concerned a musician by the name of Gustaf Moeller and his niece. When the young Jewish girl arrived at the camp it was decided she was too valuable to be killed like the others. Instead, she was ordered to gather together an orchestra to play for the Nazi officers and top brass. She was able to gather together many talented Jewish musicians who were ready to be killed. Some of the performers were the most ...

16. Help Me Make It Through The Night

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Sue Monk Kidd was pregnant with her second child. Her three-year-old son, Bob, was afraid of the dark. Sue tried everything. She tried leaving a light on in the hall and a night-light on in Bob's room. Nothing she did helped; he was still scared of the dark and would cry out in the middle of the night. One night as she held him against her to comfort him, he touched her round abdomen. Little Bob asked, "Mama, is it dark inside there where my little brother is?" He was convinced that his yet unborn sister ...

17. Radical Love is Truthful (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Every time I preach a sermon on “Loving Your Enemies” it seems to conjure up more questions than answers. Such was the case with the sermon last week. I was hardly out of the pulpit when people wanted to know: What about truth and justice? How could Jesus teach non-violence and then announce that he came not to bring peace but a sword? Did not the same Jesus who said turn the other cheek also turn the tables in the temple and drive out the moneychangers in a moment of, at best, righteous anger if not ...

18. Does It Make A Difference Who Jesus Is?

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Newsweek magazine carried an interesting article sometime back about a controversy that has been brewing down in Louisiana. Let me share it with you: "Even if it did double as a bug zapper (it doesn't), the big blue neon JESUS sign outside the Church of Abundant Life in Harvey, Louisiana, would have to go. So say Jefferson Parish officials, who claim they inadvertently approved installation of the five-foot-high, 21-foot-wide sign last November. Now they're fighting to unplug the $5,000 Savior, saying it ...

19. Ahab's Family Killed

2 Kings 10:1-17

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

The Destruction Continues: Elijah had prophesied that the LORD would consume Ahab’s descendants and cut off from him every last male in Israel (1 Kgs. 21:21; cf. the previous prophecies against Jeroboam and Baasha in 1 Kgs. 14:10; 16:3). It comes as little surprise, in view of the literal fulfillment of such prophecy in 1 Kings 15:29 and 16:11–12, to find that Jehu is not content with the deaths of Jehoram and Jezebel but now looks to wipe out Ahab’s family in toto (2 Kgs. 10:1–17). Nor is it any surprise ...

20. Ministers of Baal Killed

2 Kings 10:18-36

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

21. Valley of Suffering (Series: Peace in the Valley)

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

At the tender age of 18, I was appointed to my first church. On Saturday following my first Sunday there, the main man in that congregation, a husband, a father, a grand-father, a leader in the community was killed in a tragic farming accident. Without a single course in theology or pastoral care, I was confronted with the question, “Why do people suffer?” My simple answer as a teenager was “I don’t know.” The number one question people would ask God if they could be assured of an answer is “Why do people ...

22. Make It Right!

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

There is a church in Columbia, SC near the seminary I attended which has one of those bulletin boards out front to list service times, special events, sermon subjects, and so on. For several years there was one other thing on that bulletin board, one of those little "sentence sermons" that we see so often. It said, "The same Bible that says BELIEVE also says BEHAVE." I do not know if there were any significance to the fact that it was located so near to all us seminary students; perhaps someone figured we ...

23. What Makes People Great?

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Edward Chinn

In a book titled Irrepressible Churchill, Kay Halle told the story of a little boy who lived near Chartwell, England. It was at Chartwell Manor that Winston Churchill lived after his retirement as prime minister in 1955. This little boy was taken to Chartwell by the woman who cared for him each day. She told the little boy that he was going to see "the greatest man in the whole, wide world." When this woman and the boy in her charge arrived at Chartwell Manor, they learned that Sir Winston had retired for ...

24. Making a Successful Future

Numbers 34:1-29

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: Success requires obeying God and trusting in his promises. Understanding the Text Numbers 33:1–49 reviews the past: the places where Israel has gone from Egypt to the plains of Moab over the course of forty years. Now the focus moves to the future. In the immediate future Israel must carry out the conquest of Canaan, eradicating the Canaanites (Num. 33:50–55). Two and a half tribes have been assigned the Transjordan as their settlement. The text goes on to describe the coming division of the land ...

25. Making a Name for Ourselves

Genesis 11:1-9

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Last week during a vacation trip to South Carolina, Gloria and I stood by my parents’ grave. Their horizontal gravestone offers a brief, but important testimony about these two people. Concerning my father it says, “Pastor, Chaplain, World War II.” Under mother’s name it says, “Devoted wife and teacher.” Then it says, “Loving parents of…” and their four children’ are listed. At the bottom is that great final verse of I Corinthians 13, “Now abide these three – faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these ...

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