Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: evangelist, physician, companion, historical, salvation, virgin mary, jesus' birth, annunciation, boyhood, prodigal son, good samaritan, women

Showing 1 to 25 of 382 results

1. The Other Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Brett Blair

... excitement every now and then too.” Then the father pleads with him to come in, and there the story ends. Now as much as I like the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin, and certainly there is no more beautiful story than that of the Prodigal Son, I feel that the heart of the story is in this last part—the elder brother. Here’s the background. One day Jesus, as was so often the case, was associating with publicans and sinners—the rift raft of the streets. And the religious people of the day ...

2. The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Brett Blair

... talking about a story that is so familiar to you that when I read to you the first line, most of you will immediately recognize it. The first line reads: And there was a father who had two sons. Immediately we recognize it as the parable of the Prodigal Son. Is there anything new that we can squeeze out of this familiar story? You remember the story as Jesus told it. There was a certain landowner who had two sons. As these boys grew up they began to show the difference in their styles. The older brother was ...

3. Memories of Home: The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... need what you need. I have darkness in me too. The cause of it may be different from yours, but it’s the same darkness. I need Jesus to help me find my way home too.” We come to Jesus’ Table and rub elbows with all sorts of prodigal sons and daughters and all sorts of elder sons and daughters; with those who are hurting but who are afraid of letting anyone know; with those whose darkness is so dark, they’ve considered suicide; with the tired and lonely; with those anxious over how the recession will ...

4. A Word to Prodigals

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... the elder brother represents is the prodigal of smug self-righteousness. They are all prodigals, though. There are different ways you can be lost. Each of us has gone astray in our own way. In Jesus’ story we are the prodigal and the Father, of course, is God. The prodigal son comes to himself and says, “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he ...

5. The Prodigal Nation

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Erskine White

... from his "friends." The thing about these friends is that they really hate you, even as they are using you! They know you're a fool for letting them do it and make no mistake about friendship - no one likes a fool. This is just what we see in the prodigal son. His friends used him up and then they left him. At the end, he was alone in the fields feeding pigs. He was so hungry, he envied the swine for the food they ate. Where were his friends? "It's mighty strange, without a doubt; nobody knows you when you ...

6. The Prodigal

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... or wealth driven. But in any sense, a prodigal is in some way a “big spender.” Whether that’s a good or a bad thing depends upon the circumstances of one’s “spending.” We hear that word the most today in terms of Jesus’ parable of a “prodigal son,” a young man who yearns for a different kind of life than the one he has on the farm with his father and brothers. He yearns for excitement, the experience of having a life of fashion, grandeur, feasting, wealth, and all of the spoils that he ...

7. This Fellow Welcomes Sinners

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... already belongs to him. We are not employees of God's kingdom — we're part of the family. That means we may not expect a regular paycheck, but we've got an inheritance that no one can beat. If we try to cash in now, as did the prodigal son, we're only hurting ourselves. There's the old joke about a man who was finally rescued after being stranded on a remote island for ten years. He kept sane, he said, by constructing an entire town out of palm branches. His rescuers were astonished to discover ...

8. When We Feel Lost

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... the soft feminine hand of a woman. Think of the significance of that one figure but with noticeably different hands one masculine, the other feminine. Father Henri Nouwen noticed the difference between these two hands. He wrote a book also titled, Return of the Prodigal Son, in which he comments on Rembrandt’s painting. He writes: “As soon as I recognized the difference between the two hands of the father, a new world of meaning opened up for me. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother ...

9. Coming Home

Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... cloak and the ring and the party. A man had two sons. And so this is about us, everybody, rounders and righteous, men and women, religious people and secular people. It's about all of us. It's the human condition to want this blessing. If you are a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter, and if you've lived in a way that has violated common morality, then you know what it's like to be estranged. You can articulate the feeling. And you also know what it is like to want, more than anything else, to be reconciled ...

10. The Door Is Always Open

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

James Merritt

... that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything." He had all kinds of fair-weather friends who were right by his side as long as the food, the booze, and the drugs were flowing. But when the money ran out, so did his friends. I heard about a prodigal son who left home. He hadn't been gone too long when he sent his dad this telegram: Dear Dad: Here I am in the big city, flat broke, miles away from home, and no friends. What shall I do? The father wired back: "Make some new friends." The only friends ...

11. A Love For All Seasons (i)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... question, quiet as it was, carried with it the accumulated baggage of a long and painful history: "How many times do you take the Prodigal back?" (Dr. William A. Ritter, October 16, 1988, preached at First United Methodist Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan). So the parable of the Prodigal son isn't the complete answer, is it? You know the story -- the young man took all of his part of the family's wealth when he was far too young to take it -- took it in his own selfish headstrong way – and headed off into a ...

12. Are You Part of the Scandal?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the way. The older brother is trying to fit in to the respectable path of social and moral conformity. He’s trying to be well-liked by pleasing his father, his family, his faith. Keller says he’s on a program of self-salvation. The “prodigal son’s” petition for an “early inheritance” wasn’t like a kid begging for a car before going off to college. That youngest son’s request was an offensive, slap-in-the-face, “I-wish-you-were-dead” disregard of all that was accepted, expected, and ...

13. The Lost and Found Son

Luke 15:11-24

Sermon

James W. Moore

... You can go home! There’s a white rag on every limb!” Isn’t that a great story? The truth is: that powerful story is simply a modern re-telling of the greatest short story in history, namely, Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. The story was probably inspired by this Parable. The Prodigal Son Parable is not well-named because actually the parable is about a father and two sons and besides that… the father is the real hero, not the prodigal and in the father we see the central truth Jesus wanted to ...

14. Justification By Grace Through Faith

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... are good, when the only goodness we know is our own pride producing performance that requires the and receives the acclaim of the world. How far from the Father’s house are we? Can we hear the invitation? Come home. Remember the truth of the parable of the prodigal son. When the prodigal returned to his father’s house, the father accepted him as though he had never been away. And remember Janet’s word, I was trying to pry open the window, when all the time the door was open and I had only to walk in ...

15. The Two Prodigals

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... Perhaps we understand ourselves to be above them. Well, look again! Truly, dear friends, the message is quite clear. Both are in need of the salvation of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, let's include ourselves and the rest of humankind. To be prodigal sons and daughters is no disgrace. To continue to be — even when the Holy Spirit pleads with us — is the major problem of every precious human being. Lent is an exceptional time to fall on our knees and unhurriedly seek the riches of the Christian ...

16. Big Spender

1 Kings 10:14-29, 1 Kings 11:1-13, Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... you, complete you, and bring you to a place of still waters to drink, to eat, to feast with him at his heavenly table. Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text The Extravagance of Solomon (1 Kings 10:14-29 and 11:1-6) Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) Minor Text The Story of the Extravagance of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) The Lord Will Show His Glory to the Pursuing Egyptians (Exodus 14) Guidelines for Clean and Unclean Foods (Leviticus 11) Saul is Tormented by an Evil Spirit (1 Samuel 16-18) Elijah ...

17. Homecoming

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... 't know that. Young kid, pocket full of cash, first time away from home, is an easy mark. Still, the father waited, looked down the road in front of the house, straining to see, hoping for sight of the son. We call it the story of the "prodigal son," but just as well we might call it the story of the prodigal (that is, reckless, extravagant) father. When the boy left home, the father recklessly gave him his entire fortune, and when the boy at last returned, the father recklessly threw a huge party, holding ...

18. The Greatest Story Ever Told

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... the story as a four-act drama. See if you can locate yourself in each act. First, in verse 13, we are told concerning the prodigal son, "He took his journey into a far country.” The son in the story wanted to be free of his father's influence, free to ... you'll help me sell over $1 million in insurance this year, I'll give you 10% of my profit." God won't buy that. The prodigal son came to the father saying, "I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am not worthy to be called your son." That's the ...

19. A Lost Boy

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... had never really been church-goers, but the change in Scott was too dramatic to ignore. . . Today, ten years later, our family is a Christian family . . . [Jesus] has given us the same new life he gave to our prodigal son.” (4) Last week we talked about second chances. Obviously the story of the prodigal son is the ultimate second chance story. So, how do you think the story ultimately turns out? Do you think the boy became a better person or a worse one when his father welcomed him home? Jesus doesn’t ...

20. The Waster

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

... 't getting in front of me. It wasn't fair. According to the dictionary, the word "prodigal" is an adjective that means "recklessly wasteful." "Prodigal" is derived from the Latin word prodigere, which is translated as the verb "to squander." Therefore, a prodigal son is literally a wasteful son, one who throws away opportunities recklessly and wastefully. The younger son in this famous parable is a waster. He is one of the most famous rogues in the entire Bible. In our soap opera imaginations we can read ...

21. Radical Love at Home (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to know better. Whatever his age, he reckons with a truth: money won’t buy us love; travel won’t bring us happiness; getting what we want doesn’t mean having what we need. Too many selfish dreams leave us stranded in some pig pen. What draws us to the prodigal son? Are we drawn to his wild spirit? Is there not a rebellious nature in us all? Is that why he’s attractive? We, too, have felt the urge to take the cash and let the credit go. Or do we admire him because he comes to his senses, makes the ...

22. The Lost and Found Elder Brother

Luke 15:25-32

Sermon

James W. Moore

... . God will never desert us. We may run away from Him or turn away from Him, but God will always be there for us… because… (as Mikki put it so well)… God is love! That is what the first part of the Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us… that God is always - Anxious to love - Quick to forgive - And eager to reconcile… because God is like a gracious, patient, merciful, forgiving, loving parent. The first part of the Parable teaches us that God loves unconditionally. The second part of the parable ...

23. The Forgiving Father (Father's Day)

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Brett Blair

... dirty rags with which he fed the pigs with. He did not return with a copy of the book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” No. Without a penny of his father’s great wealth he returns. This picture, this carefully crafted ending to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, then shows the Father with open arms. And therein lies Jesus point. This is the story of how God loves you. Let’s look at five great truths about God’s love. I First, this story tells us that God’s love has no limits. If there was ...

24. In the Mirror

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... go back and take a second look at these three stories, we realize that Jesus had been doing the “twist” all along. Think about these things: • While we like to jump directly to Jesus’ most famous story, the one we often call the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” we need to see that Jesus was deliberately stacking these three stories one on top of the other. They are related: a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost person. We don’t fully understand what Jesus wanted us to learn from the Parable of the ...

25. The Waiting Father

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... in God or soft as in Jesus. Jesus showed us a God who was like a loving Father. But Jesus did not rescind the law of consequences. As one cynic has put it, "Some of us want to sow our wild oats and then pray for a crop failure." The prodigal son abused his freedom. He squandered his wealth and was reduced to feeding swine. For the Jews, pigs were unclean. How could a nice Jewish boy fall much lower than feeding pigs? The Bible says that the young man gladly would have eaten the pods that he fed to the pigs ...

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