Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 41 results

Luke 10:1-20

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." When we use the method of Jesus our success is certain. A difference is made in the lives of other people, in our lives, in the life of the church, in the life of our community ... 3. David H. C. Read, "When We Say: 'No One Is Perfect,' " Pulpit Digest, January/February 1992, p. 33. 4. Richard A. Hasler, Emphasis, CSS Publishing Co., Lima, Ohio, September-October, 1992, p. 44. 5. William H. Willimon, Clergy and Laity Burnout, Abingdon ...

2. Down in the Dungeon

Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... name was Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel. At first, he did what the Lord told him to do and he was a most successful king. However, something happened in Saul’s life. Samuel puts it this way, “Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, ... Sperling, “A World View on the Baby Boomer Blues,” USA Today, April 21, 1989. 2. Pat Williams, The Paradox of Power (New York: Warner Faith, 2002). 3. Cited by Nevitt Smith, http://www.ashlandmethodist.org/04-01-04.html. 4. Richard A. Hasler, Emphasis, ...

3. The Best Offense Is A Good Defense

Zephaniah 3:1-20

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Reading the title you may jump to the conclusion that I do not know football. To be sure, the saying usually goes: “The best defense is a good offense.” But consider the plight of Joe Paterno when he became head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions in 1967. He realized that he did not have a squad of outstanding athletes, particularly defensive players. To Paterno, defense was the key to winning football games. What was he to do? In his own words: “I had to find a way of playing great defense without ...

4. How To Hear A Sermon

Micah 1:1-7

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Walter Cronkite, the former highly-regarded CBS Evening News anchor, is an avid lover of boats. Some years ago, he steered his boat into Central Harbor, Maine. As he approached land he was amazed at the greeting he received. People lined the shore waving their hands at him. He could barely make out what they were saying but their shouts sounded like: “Hello Walter, Hello Walter.” The boat sailed closer and closer to the shore and the crowd, still sending out their greeting to him, grew larger and larger. ...

5. Say Goodbye -- Say Hello

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Roy Oswald, a leader at the Alban Institute, relates the following incident from his boyhood in rural Canada. As a young boy, Roy and his two older brothers often took a shortcut to school through an enormous thistle patch. In some places the prickly patches were 50 to 100 feet wide. The boys rarely wore shoes to school in the summertime, hence their dilemma: how to cross the thistle patch in bare feet. The option of taking the long way around and avoiding the thistles was quickly overruled. The only other ...

6. Robert Paul, You Were Right!

Daniel 7:1-14, Daniel 7:15-28

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Professor Robert Paul and his family had just returned to Hartford Seminary from a trip to the Rocky Mountains. As a doctoral student in church history studying with him I had always been stimulated by his lectures and seminars. Now, I was anxious to talk with him and with his gracious and perceptive wife, Eunice, to get their impressions of the trip. Paul, a native of England, was ecstatic about the natural beauty of America, but he also was appalled by the lack of appreciation for what he called “a sense ...

7. Boast In The Lord

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Richard Hasler

A young man went for a walk to meditate. He soon found himself in a field of ripe pumpkins. Also in the field happened to be a great acorn tree. The young man observed the tiny acorns hanging down from gigantic branches of the tree. Then he glanced at the enormous pumpkins on the tiny vines. He meditated for a while, and then said to himself, "God made a mistake. He should have put the tiny acorns on tiny vines and the great pumpkins on the great branches." Pondering God's apparent mistake the young man ...

8. The Dreamer Within You

Joel 2:18-27, Joel 2:28-32

Sermon

Richard Hasler

The setting for the movie Dead Poet’s Society is a proper New England prep school steeped in tradition and discipline. Into this rather stiff environment comes a new English instructor played by Robin Williams. He has an unorthodox method of teaching. He stands on his desk at times to make a point. He electrifies his students. He has them reading poetry as they practice soccer so that they will see the connection between the two. He prods them to think for themselves, to get in touch with their feelings, ...

9. No One Enters The Kingdom… Save With Empty Hands

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

Richard Hasler

The black man standing in the arena was an affront to Der Fuehrer’s authority. The scene was the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. The black man was Jesse Owens of The Ohio State University representing the U.S.A. He was aptly called “the fastest human alive.” Der Fuehrer was Chancellor Adolph Hitler who had recently risen to power championing an arrogant theory that his “Aryan race” of “supermen” would conquer the world. In implementing his theory he began systematically to stamp out the Jews in ...

10. Everything Except God

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist who taught at Harvard University, decided to travel to the South in the early days of the civil rights struggle to see for himself what effect the tension was having upon little children. He soon developed a special interest in Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old black girl in New Orleans. She walked bravely to class each morning accompanied by federal marshals who protected her from the ever-present abuse of an angry mob. How was she able to stand such tension? Where did a ...

11. Learn To Wait Creatively

James 5:7-12

Sermon

Richard Hasler

The man did not look like a salesman. He was short, pudgy, a rather sleepy-looking individual. He did not sound like a salesman. He had a lisp, talked almost in a whisper, often he said nothing. He did not act like a salesman; he was not flamboyant, not the life of the party; in fact, he was so shy that once he insisted on staying behind a screen in making a presentation to other salespersons. Nonetheless, when Ben Feldman died in 1993 at the age of 81 he was acknowledged as the world's greatest life ...

12. When God’s “No” Means “Yes”

Habakkuk 1:1-4, Habakkuk 2:2-20

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Augustine in his autobiographical work Confessions tells the story of his mother Monica’s constant prayers for him. She wished that one day her vagabond son would become a committed Christian. When Augustine decided to leave North Africa and sail for Rome she was horrified. She believed that in Rome’s cosmopolitan environment he would go further astray. She pleaded with him not to sail and prayed with tears that God would intervene, but to no avail. Later, Augustine inscribed these words in the Confessions ...

13. Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Zechariah 7:1-14

Sermon

Richard Hasler

An article titled Widespread Spiritual Hunger Should Be Major News Story caught my eye on the editorial page of the Sunday paper. The author, Bill Tammeus, a columnist for the Kansas City Star, speculated about some journalists and some scientists who refused to see truths that are not physical. The case in point was Pope John Paul II’s visit to Mexico. Huge crowds appeared wherever he spoke. In San Juan los Lagos an estimated one million people gathered in a meadow to listen to him. Why did these enormous ...

14. Share Your Unique Story

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Richard Hasler

The ageless comedian George Burns once told how a church amateur contest started him in show business more than 90 years ago. When he was only seven years old he and three other Jewish kids from the neighborhood organized a singing group and called themselves "The PeeWee Quartet." In those days growing up in New York City a large department store, Siegel and Cooper, used to hold an annual picnic. The highlight of the festivity was an amateur contest involving churches throughout the city. Near where George ...

15. Make Scriptural Hope Your Own

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Snoopy of Charlie Brown comic strip fame is typing a novel. He begins his story, "It was a dark and stormy night ..." Snoopy always starts his stories in this manner. Lucy looks at what Snoopy has written. She goes into a tirade, putting down Snoopy for such a silly beginning. Doesn't Snoopy know that any good story starts with the words, "Once upon a time ..." The last frame of the comic strip has Snoopy starting his story again. Now he is ready. He types, "Once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night ...

16. Leaping For Joy

Malachi 4:1-6

Sermon

Richard Hasler

The scene was the Connecticut House of Representatives in Hartford. The date was May 19, 1780. About noon the skies began to darken and by midafternoon the sky was pitch black. Many people were struck with fear believing Judgment Day had come. Some of the representatives fell to their knees begging God to avert this catastrophe; others called for an immediate adjournment. Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the House, rose to his feet and stated: “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it ...

17. Follow The Man With The Plan

Sermon

Richard Hasler

In the July 25, 1993, issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer a fascinating article appeared about secret agent Varian Fry. He was an eccentric, bookish and shy man, one who hardly fits the picture of a secret agent. Nonetheless, this Harvard-educated writer left New York City in 1940 to begin a life of intrigue in France worthy of a Le Carre novel. His mission was to rescue artists, writers and musicians whose lives were in jeopardy because of Hitler's hatred of the Jews. Fry was successful in liberating 2, ...

18. Play The Fool

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Richard Hasler

We all know that freshmen are first-year students in high school or in college. Juniors are in their next to last year, and seniors are in the last year of their course work. But what about sophomores? This term is not as self-evident as the other three. As Edward Hays reminds us, "The name is a combination of two Greek words meaning 'wise fools.' "1 Parents and teachers may identify with such a definition. In this Epiphany season when we are stretching our imagination to fathom the universality of the ...

19. Enlarge Your Horizons

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Theodore Hesburgh who served for 35 years as President of the University of Notre Dame has always lived in a big world. In his fascinating autobiography titled God, Country, Notre Dame he tells of his desire to enlarge his horizons. In all that he does he reflects a broad vision and a compassionate heart that continually reaches out beyond academic considerations and even beyond his own church loyalties to fight for human rights and justice throughout the world. One story about how the University came to ...

20. Awake, Christ Is Coming

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Erma Bombeck, in her book titled When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time To Go Home, observes: "You can always tell when vacationers are going or coming. Travelers who are at the beginning of a trip laugh and tell jokes. Their clothes match ... Those returning are impatient. Every plane they board is like the last one out of Baghdad and they are going to be on it." Erma's scintillating wit reminds us that there is a right time for action in all walks of life. Farmers know a right time exists for ...

21. Discern How Things Grow

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Does the nuthatch know what it is doing? Probably not. The nuthatch's tiny brain is not much larger than an average-size kidney bean, but the perky bird has a strong hunger awareness which propels it from one place to another seeking insect food. It finds bark beetles and pulls them from their lairs and eats the eggs of gypsy moths. We might not think that a few nuthatches could control the insect population of the forest, but what this bird and others like it do is a positive good in preserving the ...

22. Be Wise In The Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Sermon

Richard Hasler

In Michael Lindvall's delightful book, The Good News From North Haven, he tells the story of a young pastor named David accepting a call to a small congregation in rural Minnesota. After four years had passed, the pastor and his family began to feel at home. They had the conviction that God had led them to the right place to serve. Then one day the pastor received a phone call from Minnie MacDowell's husband saying that she was dying. The pastor had been to her home not a few times before only to find that ...

23. The Whole World

Illustration

Richard A. Hasler

Bruce Larson, in Believe and Belong, tells how he helped people struggling to surrender their lives to Christ: "For many years I worked in New York City and counseled at my office any number of people who were wrestling with this yes-or-no decision. Often I would suggest they walk with me from my office down to the RCA Building on Fifth Avenue. In the entrance of that building is a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all his muscles straining, is holding the world upon his ...

24. A Young Man's Vow

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

Richard Hasler

A young man awakens in the morning and hears the birds singing. He realizes how fortunate he is. It is summer time and he is back home in his father’s parsonage in Gunsbach, Germany. Recently, he has been reading about Jesus’ call in the gospels: “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” “From everyone to whom much is given, much will be required.” Whoever would save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel shall save it.” What do ...

25. Out On A Sycamore Limb

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Why do children love this story so much? Tom Wright offered one explanation: “Sunday schools love Zacchaeus. At least they love to act out his story and sing about him. The little man who climbs up a tree to see Jesus provides one of the most vivid short stories in the Bible. Children can identify with Zacchaeus; they often find themselves at the back of a crowd and can’t see what’s going on. Many adults too, can identify with, they like to get closer to Jesus, but find it embarrassing to do so, and ...

Showing results