Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 1 to 25 of 1728 results

1. A Puzzling Parable with a Sharp Point

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... of relationships with God and people will be clear, will there be someone who will come forward and say for you, "He (She) is very fond of you Lord. Out of gratefulness for grace, he (she) used the resources of this world to glorify your name and help people." The parable of the bad man's good example is about a steward who is a rascal in many respects, but does one thing right. He is a servant who is left in charge of the estate of the absentee landlord. Guilty of embezzlement, he is hardly a hero. Yet, he ...

2. Parable Power

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a one-time-only atmosphere for the words you speak. A story may bring a tear or a smile at one telling, and yet, the very next audience experiences the same words in a completely different way. Mark's gospel tells us that Jesus chose to speak in parables. Some people find that very annoying, even a bit dishonest. Why didn't Jesus come right out and say what he meant? Why did he leave behind all these cryptic sayings, loaded with innuendo, instead of a crisp code of laws or a stack of essays with titles ...

3. Jesus' Most Perplexing Parable

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... Sam and Ruben think that you convinced me to give them the discounts. If I tell Sam and Ruben that you were not authorized to do that, I look bad, not you. Rather than angry, I am just amazed at how clever you have been." Jesus follows the parable with some curious comments. He says to his audience, "I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes" (v. 9). Jesus concludes this discussion with the familiar "No slave can ...

4. The Last Parable

Mark 12:1-12

Sermon

James McCormick

... people understood, and no eye was dry. God loves us like that – a love that loves enough to suffer for us – God’s last best effort to get through to us. I don’t know of any clearer picture of God’s love than that. And, not only love. This parable is also a story of God’s patience. I might have sent a messenger or two, reminding the people of what they owe. But, after that, I would have become angry. I would have called the police, taken them to court. I would have showed them that I wasn’t ...

5. The Parables About Response

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... in Mark 4, Jesus describes positive response in terms of a good farmer patiently planting and nurturing the seeds he plants. Jesus changes metaphors from the Christian as good soil to the Christian as a good farmer with patience. The consistent factors in all three parables of response in Mark 4 are: the word of God is like a seed; God alone can give the growth; and great growth is possible in God's kingdom. The word had to take root in us in a slow-moving process, so it will be a slow-moving process ...

6. The Parable of the Soil

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... with great triumphs, the temptations that come with extreme comfortability — escaping all those “temptations” is the goal of the seed of God’s kingdom that seeks to produce fruit for the future. Here is the most basic — and least acknowledged — truth in the “parable of the soil.” It is not that so many kinds of “soil” will result in no yield whatsoever for the kingdom. Rather it is that Jesus’ disciples, those who offer the very best “soil” for God’s word, will produce results at ...

7. A Parable in a Miracle

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... leper looked at him, listened to him, touched him, felt the sob of that soul the red, raw crucible of emotional agony.” And that’s the way He responds to us. But let’s press for meaning as we see this act of Jesus as a parable — a parable which we as persons and as a church are to enact. Christ’s compassion will go lacking without you. There’s no way for modern lepers to be cleansed without you. No way for Christ’s healing, forgiving, redeeming love to be communicated without you. Imagine that ...

8. John the Baptist: Parable and Prophet

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... : “One is coming after me those sandals thongs. I’m not worthy to until.” Remember this – If we are clear about our place in relation to Jesus, the chances are we will stay clear about our place in relation to others. II. That’s John the Baptist as a parable. Let’s look at him now as a prophet. Look at verses 2 and 3: As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the ...

9. Nathan's Wise Parable

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Sue Anne Steffey Morrow

... of us all, and most especially to uphold the cause of those most vulnerable, the poor, the powerless, the little lambs. God is compassionate and God's judgment is upon us when we are not. David actually pronounces God's judgment first. After Nathan recites the parable, David's anger is greatly kindled and David says, "As the Lord lives, this one deserves to die. Because he has done this thing, because he had no pity." David knows the law. Then Nathan points out, "You are the one. Thus says the Lord, the ...

10. The Parable of the Choices

Matthew 21:28-31

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... 've never gotten back the baby, much less the hat. So despair seems an easy and logical choice to make. The first son in Jesus' parable could have been paralyzed by despair. He soon saw he had made a grave error in talking back to his father and failing to go ... up. Others feel the past was so bad, our mistakes so ruinous, we limp shackled into the present. The repentant son in the Parable of the Choices had a blight on his past. He had been disobedient, rebellious. But this man refused to let his bad choice ...

11. The Parable Of The Kindly Innkeeper

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... beaten up man to the local Holiday Inn and saying to the manager, "This poor fellow is going to need some looking after. You take care of it and I'll reimburse you when I return"? In fact, maybe we should call this parable "the parable of the kindly innkeeper" rather than the parable of the Good Samaritan. I read of a woman named Marjorie who resents jokes about the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side. They remind her of the times, because of under-staffing at the hospital where she worked ...

12. The Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Brett Blair

... “slothful” and “wicked.” Angrily he took the talent back and gave it to the servant who now had ten. It is interesting to note that in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel there are three parables told in a row: The Parable of the Bridesmaid, The Parable of the Sheep and Goats, and the Parable of the Talents. Essentially the same phrase is used in each: after a long time. The bridegroom comes after a long time. The landowner returns after a long time. The judgment comes after a long time. Perhaps ...

13. The Parable of the Careless Farmer

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... things in this world, including the kingdom of God, grow from tiny seeds. Of course, this story which we normally refer to as the parable of the sower is not about farming at all. And it’s not about a careless farmer, but a generous God a generous God who ... a song of hope and promise. As long as there is a seed, no matter how tiny or unpromising, there is hope. Of course, in Jesus’ parable, God is the Sower of the seed. We are the soil. This day Jesus would have us look within and ask what kind of soil is ...

14. Parabola

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... .” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my ...

15. The Mustard and the Cedar

Ezekiel 17:1-24, Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... lofty or regal, but that’s not the true nature of God’s kingdom, Jesus teaches. It’s not about the Temple or the nation state. It’s about the state of our hearts, and the energy of our proclamation, the depth and breadth of our faith. In both parables, Ezekiel’s words hold true: “The Lord brings down the tall tree and makes the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.” But the tree is reimaged. For Jesus tells us, “the smallest of seeds grows to the largest ...

16. Grounds for Blessing

Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:1-15, Mark 4:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of Seed and Harvest As Told By His Disciples (Mark 4, Luke 8, Matthew 13) Paul Warns That You Reap What You Sow (Galatians 5 and 6) The Restoration of Eden and the Tree of Life Bearing 12 Crops of Fruit for Healing (Revelation 22) Mark’s Version of Jesus’ Parables of Seed and Harvest Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught ...

17. For the Hearing Impaired

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... is scattered. Why? Because it is not the expertise of the sower, but it is the quality of the soil that determines the harvest. Our part is to just go and sow. Our part is sowing the seed. II. Others’ Part Is Receiving The Message Remember the focus of the parable is not on the sower of the seed, but on the soil. Even the best sower with the best seed will not have a harvest if he has bad soil. Jesus identifies the soil as the heart of the missing people we are trying to reach. “When anyone hears the ...

18. What Will He Find ... When He Comes?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... a long while. "I'm just tired," he mumbled over and over, shaking his head. A saint of many more years watched for a while and then said, "Young man, if you're tired already, you are not going to make it." That's the question Jesus addresses in this parable and its conclusion. Are we going to make it? Do we pray constantly, keeping our eyes fixed on him whose will is our guide and whose faithfulness is the root of our hope? Do we live in the faith, expecting great things to happen in our lives, in our ...

19. Things to Come!

Matthew 13:47-52, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... the gentiles. As in the book of Jonah, God was extending his love beyond Israel to the Ninevite, yet Jews were slow to understand. God was intent on a relationship with the gentiles and he was willing to give everything on the cross for it. Dragnet The final parable is in verses 47-50 where Christ says his kingdom is like a dragnet pulled beneath a fishing vessel and catching all sorts of creatures. The day is coming when the net is hauled in and the catch is sorted, good and bad. One sees here men dragging ...

20. What Are We Protecting?

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Roy Howard

... has occurred from generation to generation. Yet there may come a time when the Son — the living word of God — comes to us, confronts us, and calls us to a new understanding. That moment — and how we respond to it — will be the moment when this parable is fulfilled. If we have ears to hear, our rage and our conviction will be the moment the gospel comes alive for us. Amen. 1. Amy-Jill Levine, Short Stories by Jesus (San Francisco: Harper/One, 2014). 2. Ibid., p. 4. 3. Cynthia Jarvis, Feasting on ...

21. Work Like the Who?

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... the light.” Jesus was not praising his dishonesty, but his ingenuity and his initiative. That’s the plain meaning of this parable. This man took hold of his life and got himself out of a tight situation. He didn’t sit around flogging himself ... to righteousness and justice and love and peace. He needs us to be sold out to changing the world. It’s a strange little parable. Maybe it is a call to radical forgiveness. Maybe it is one more of Jesus warnings about the corruptive power of money. Or maybe, ...

22. Lazarus

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of the dignity that God would afford them. They must be part of our communities and part of our worship. They must have a place at the table. And most of the all, they must be shown the salvation of Jesus. As Jesus told the Pharisees in his first few parables that day, the lost are not to be banned. But the lost are to be brought home and their homecoming celebrated. We are not to avoid those who are troubled, lost, sick, or alone. We are to introduce them to Jesus, so that they too can be part of God ...

23. A Good Thing To Know

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 40:5)." Seldom were the gifts more obviously hoarded, bound in handkerchiefs and buried in the ground, than in the Old Testament's story of Jonah. For most, the story never moves beyond a curious parable about a whale with indigestion. Instead, it has to do with Israel's need to do God's business with the gifts of its priesthood. It was a difficult lesson for a reluctant Jonah who had no will whatsoever to share the God of Israel with Israel ...

24. Imagine a World

Matthew 18:10-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... They weren't interested in making people pay. They learn that from adults. But Jesus reverses that. He puts a child in their midst. Can you imagine a child not forgiving? "Unless you become like a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." Then he tells the parable, "A man has a hundred sheep. One goes astray. Does he not leave the ninety-nine and seek the one who is lost?" Matthew offers practical advice on how to deal with the sinner in that local church. The most important part of the advice is that he ...

25. Just Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... don’t work in the way of God. Years ago I was taking Joshua one morning to high school. I asked him to read this parable and after he read it I said to him, “What stands out more to you than anything else about this story?” He looked at me ... . We ought to be glad that God is generous, not just to us, but to everybody else. Do you see the lessons that come out of this parable? Do you understand why when it comes to God and the way He relates to us it is just grace? Lesson #1 – God doesn’t owe us ...

Showing results