Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: young, youth, son in the faith, pastor, genuine faith, committed, guidance, practical, sound teaching, pastors, church leaders, instruction, good conduct, reputation

Showing 1 to 25 of 1305 results

1. Lent 1

Sermon

Betty Lynn Schwab

... it and the rain allowed to drip through. Reader 1: The booth reminded the family of the fragility of their life and of their dependence upon God. Reader 2: For Jesus and his disciples, the booth was also a reminder of the tomb in which he would soon be sealed. Youth: Let us pray. All: Holy God of the Booths, may our Lenten booth remind us of our own fragile life, of our dependence upon you and of your loving care of us. With your help may we learn to see our whole life as a temporary booth until we reach ...

2. The Generation Gap

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

William McKee Aber

... is rarely quoted: "Mary and Joseph did not understand!" There was a gap - and it was perhaps not so much a divine-human gap but a youth-age gap, a generation gap, and in it there may be a word for us. I Now, there’s no easy way except by the ... t wait! (The fact that his proposed rules changes may infringe on the NOW of a future student generation he never considers!) A theme song of youth may be that one Sammy Davis sings on the radio these days, "I’ve Got to be Me." Be yourself, do your own thing, live ...

3. Now, It's Personal

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... in the nursery sweltered in Ohio’s summer heat and humidity. He responded that it would cost too much to air condition the nursery. I said that I thought his priorities were messed up. He said that I should do my job, which was teaching and leading children and youth, and let him worry about how the building was used. That battle went on for the whole six years that I was at that church. Somewhere along the way of taking care of the church’s property that poor man lost track of the whole purpose of the ...

4. R.S.V.P.

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

... Dear Susan, It was good to hear from you again. We miss you around here, but it sounds like you’re settling in well in your new home and congregation. God’s blessings to you in your life and work there. Congratulations on being selected to serve as a youth advisor. The young people of that church are fortunate: I know you’ll do a good job with them. Let me know how it goes! Peace in Christ, Mark September 7 Dear Sue, Yes, as you mentioned, the "crush of Autumnal Activity" in the parish is upon us once ...

5. Living By The Calendar Instead Of The Clock (New Year's)

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... one of the best influences on my own children and hundreds of others. That boy on the bench has become a computer expert with such ability that he was the person who went to South Africa and ran the elections that moved Mandela to the presidency. Thank God for a youth minister in Illinois who did not try to heal, convert, or fix my friend Mike Yard, but invited him by the calendar to a new way of life. V. Jesus heals us in ordinary time. The human family has a hidden desire for one special event in life to ...

6. Is This The Season To Seek Salvation

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

James McLemore

... being preteens, and then we are busy being teenagers. It's all right for us to go to shows, and dance at the parties, and dress in style with style. But don't forget what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:1: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them.' " Mature adults, we don't want to seek salvation in our maturity, do we? Young adults think they are too young, and older adults think they are too old ...

7. Liz

Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... of the church, she would do something more meaningful with the gift herself. She would just give it to Liz directly. This is the same situation that the writer of our scripture passage today was addressing at the church in Ephesus. No, it wasn’t about hiring a youth leader, but it was about deciding what it means to be a part of the church. Was there a criterion that defined what it meant to be worthy of salvation, and if so, what was it? Those in the church who converted from Judaism insisted that to be ...

8. Will You Sing With Me?

Romans 15:4-13

Sermon

Heather Sugden

... those around us through word and through deed, our lives become a living song of hope. When the song is shared, others cannot help but listen to the lyrics, and be drawn into learning, repeating, and believing the words of faith. So what songs are we teaching our youth? What songs do we know the words and melody so well that we are not afraid to sing loudly? Which songs bring forth such a chorus of voices that we are bold enough to add harmony and let the music grow and swell? What lyrics do we remember ...

9. Choosing a Master

Matthew 6:16-24

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... are so serious for young people that we even hear of children having been shot for their athletic shoes. Our teenage girls feel the pressure to dress like pop stars, where the rule seems to be that the lower the jeans go the better. One youth minister holds retreats where the girls wear sweatshirts and sweatpants. Here's what she says about the retreats, "The girls breathe more easily, the burden of being cool and sexy having been lifted from their shoulders."5 Did you hear how she talked about clothes ...

10. We Are the Champions

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Larry Lange

... ideas he had developed over the span of his forty years of ministry. Superb ideas that they were, the congregation loved them and quickly came to love their interim pastor who had come up with them. And they loved Jack who carried them out. Jack ran the youth program. Jack's daughter took over the janitor's position, and whenever she found something that needed fixing, Jack came to the rescue and fixed it and paid for the parts out of his own pocket. A sudden onset of a severe illness forced the interim ...

11. People With Shining Faces

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... . It’s all right. We love each other and when we get out of school, we are going to marry. I just thought you might like to have this information.” Well, what do you say at this point? There’s really not much you can say, and the youth pastor didn’t even try. He wanted to maintain a pastoral relationship with these young people, and he knew that any sort of condemnation would close the door. A few weeks later, on a weekend retreat, he noticed that Amy was cooler toward John. And on Saturday evening ...

12. Here I Am, Send Me

Joel 2:28-32, Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... conflict. And it soon became apparent that God wasn't happy with me and I certainly wasn't happy with God or my pastor. I knew, without a doubt, that they were in cahoots together. You see, one night before Administrative Board meeting where I was the Youth Representative, I went to ask Bob something but when I opened my mouth and started talking, what came out was "How do I become a preacher?" That's what started the argument. And for the next several months, I fought with God about it. I told Bob about ...

13. The High Cost of Christian Living

Matthew 16:24-28

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

... ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow the Christ. We each must take our time in making the decision as to how we will respond to that call, for we have one minute. Prayer Creator and Guide of all people, during this Youth Week, we thank You for the homes in which our youth have been reared, for the schools which they have attended, for the churches in which they have worshiped, and for all the other experiences which have brought them to this place in their lives. For the gladness with which some of ...

14. Service

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... ," the sturdy dreamers answered, "To the death we follow thee." Lord, we are able, Our spirits are thine. Remold them, make us, Like thee, divine. Thy guiding radiance Above us shall be A beacon to God, To love, and loyalty.2 Far better to have youthful enthusiasm and over-optimism than never to start at all. John R. Mott wanted to save the world "in his generation." We smile, call it naive. But John R. Mott, a dynamic layperson, was responsible for one of the greatest missionary endeavors of the twentieth ...

15. How To Stay Young Forever

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... to his friends who had forsaken what faith they had in God. When sorrow struck their home ” three of their children died ” Twain said to his wife, "Livy, if it comforts you to lean on the Christian faith do so." Her pet name for Twain was "Youth," and she replied, "I can't, Youth; I haven't any." (4) How sad, how very sad. To have no resources on which to draw in times of sorrow. The whole world may have crowned Twain a success but inwardly he was a failure and that failure became more pronounced in the ...

16. Please, Don't Let me Jabez Anyone Else (Part 5)

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... the mountains and fast and pray. It was a test to see what they had learned from the elders of the tribe. One such youth battled the elements of nature and reached the top of the great mountain. His head and heart swelled with pride with this achievement. ... am freezing. There is no food and I am starving. Put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley." "No," said the youth. "I am forewarned. I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite, and your bite will kill me." " ...

17. Feasting and Fasting for Lent (Part V)

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... I am freezing. There is no food and I am starving. Put me under your shirt and take me down the valley." "No," said the youth. "I am forewarned. I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite, and your bite will kill me ... are some things we must count as refuse (garbage) in order to discover the richer power of faith in Christ. Like the young Indian youth we must never pick the snake that will bite us. We learn to go forward by reading the Bible and discovering countless times the ...

18. Parades and Crosses — The Challenge of Ministry

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... they couldn't achieve in academics or sports. Some of those kids now come to talk with me about their problems and I seem to be able to help them. It really gives me a deep sense of satisfaction." "Well," said his father, "you could do that as a youth sponsor while you were in business with me. You could be a deacon and teacher and all that and still not enter the professional ministry." "That's true," said the son as he shifted his weight and leaned forward in his chair. "But I had a similar feeling when ...

19. A Time for Us

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... most of the time? How shall we understand time? I There is first the adolescent sense of time. It is characteristic of children and youth to be oblivious to time. To a young child, a day can be an eternity, especially if it is the day before Christmas. To ... ! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; Let us live then, young or old, with the confidence that whatever happens, God is for us, that nothing can separate us ...

20. The Widow's Might

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... bagels ... get one more free. "Super-size" your soft drink ... for just 20 cents more. Pay 80 bucks to stay in a cheap motel ... but get a complimentary "continental" breakfast. Spring for the sports car and lose the back seat ... but regain your youth and your sex appeal. Get the designer label instead of the knockoff ... and feel superior and elegant. The standards that calibrate our 21st-century scales weigh out the gift of the poor widow and find it pathetically light, virtually meaningless. We look at ...

21. Guard the Good Treasure

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... or fruit you choose. (Proverbs 18:21 MSG) There may have been no truer words spoken or written. What we say to our children and youth and to each other and about each other has a powerful impact. What we do has and even greater impact. Our words and actions can ... policy and the ministry. But it has been put into place to protect this fragile treasure which is our children and our youth. We're not paranoid. We're not overreacting. We're not trying to restrict any activity or ministry of the church. All ...

22. Salt and Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

... how much the program had meant to them. The most worshipful moment for me was when Gloria, who is autistic and withdrawn, stood for one of the numbers. She had been so moved that she had to dance and clap, which she did. In October, the youth group sponsored a picnic. As always, there was an abundance of food. Likewise, there was a lot of interaction at the table for checkers, chess, and cards, and also during the baseball game. One person expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to go and stated that ...

23. The Snake: A Slick Salesman

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , he saw a snake. Before he could move, the snake spoke: 'I am about to die,' said the snake. 'It is too cold for me up here. There is no food and I am starving. Put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley.' 'No,' said the youth. 'I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite me, and your bit is deadly.' 'No so,' said the snake. 'I will treat you differently. If you do this for me, you will be special. I will not harm you.' "The ...

24. Why Fear Growing Old?

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... creative career until his 88th birthday. Browning can still be trusted to give us the whole picture: Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be. The last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in His Hand Who sayeth, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God; see all, nor be afraid!" And Edwin Markham gives us a vital cue: They who can smile when others hate, Nor bind the heart with frosts of fate, Their feet will go with laughter bold, The green roads of the Never-Old. It’s the ...

25. The Prod of the Past

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... equipment here in the sanctuary similar to what we would need to videotape an event plus the Web site (which we already have). Let us be ready to act as soon as the time is right. We saw another creative method of outreach this summer as our youth sponsored the city-wide Margaret Becker concert. To Chris Freeman and Sonny Bunn, on behalf of this congregation, I say thank you for, first, coming up with the idea, then, putting it together in such yeoman-like fashion, and then actually pulling it off in such a ...

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