Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 35 results

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Character Sometimes Who's Who doesn't know for sure just what's what! Consider the character of this man who comes to Jesus at night. Nicodemus clearly was a well-connected man yet it is clear he lacks some very vital information. He is remembered here as a "Pharisee," the highest sect among the Jews. We often think of the Pharisees as harsh, hypocritical, and uppity (and certainly there were mom...

2. Afraid of Hope

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

As Harry Houdini, the Budapest born American by adoption stunt performer who is best remembered for his sensational escape acts, lay dying in November 1926, he made a deathbed pact with his wife Bess. He told Bess that he would try to reach her from the other world. For ten years, Bess kept a candle burning below Harry's picture in their home. Each year on the anniversary of his death, Bess gather...

3. Are You Sorry Enough to Wash Your Face?

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

For Christians around the world, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It was the practice among early Roman Christians for penitents to begin their period of public penance on the first day of Lent. They were sprinkled with ashes, dressed in sackcloth, and obliged to remain away from fellowship with other people until they reconciled with fellow Christians on Maundy Thursday, the day before Goo...

4. Bad News from a Good Man!

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

There are two facts we all need to remember before we can make any real sense out of life. The first is that God is sovereign and holy, just and loving. The second is that we are not. We are servants, unholy, self-centered, and self-seeking. This Scripture passage is a marvelous illustration of this. You would think that seeing God send fire from heaven would change a corrupt heart every time. Tha...

5. Here's Mud In Your Eye

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

"Just the facts, ma'am!" That phrase, often attributed to Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet fame, even though it did not originate with him, goes straight to the point. Now here is another "just the facts personality": Julius Caesar was admired for his ability to make uncluttered summations of his great achievements. In a few words Caesar could lay bare the story of his accomplishments. Perhaps none ...

6. Jesus or Niccolo?

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

This world's kingdoms have never been presented in a more Machiavellian fashion or more compellingly. And never before and never again have they been nor will they be targeted to one with more reason to succumb. Surely one of the great strengthening comforts of taking Jesus Christ as our Lord is that he, more than anyone else, understands our temptations. Scripture tells us, "He himself was tested...

7. Live Spelled Backward

Matthew 26:14-27:66

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

In a CBS News 60 Minutes interview, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was asked why she had resigned as an Assistant District Attorney for the Bronx. She replied, "Because for the first time in my life I saw evil first hand and I felt that if I stayed that close to it, it just might rub off on me."[1] Come think with me about an age-old human affliction that has impacted the life of every...

8. Make Up Your Mind!

1 Kings 18:16-46

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Why hasn’t Hollywood made this into a major motion picture epic? 1 Kings 18 is surely one of the most dramatic accounts in all literature and one of the most significant historical records in the Bible. Its message and natural application are timeless. William Penn said, “Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” In our Scripture reading for today the people of Israel came to...

9. No Greater Love

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

"When Jesus Christ calls a man, he bids him, 'Come and die!' " Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian wrote that sentence in his cell on April 9, 1945. He was within hours of the hangman's rope being placed around his neck in the Flossenburg concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Son of a leading authority on psychology, neurology, and a university professor, as a young man Dietrich ha...

10. Oh Say, Can You See by the Dawn’s Early Light?

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Across the street from the walls that surround the city of David there is a tomb. It looks like any other ancient tomb in that area. Step inside and you will quickly realize that this tomb is different. Someone of status and wealth once owned this tomb. You can tell that it belonged to a person of means because this is a double tomb with two side-by-side burial spaces. What is more, this tomb once...

11. One-Fired Up Preacher!

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Norval Christy was fifteen years old when he agreed with the Lord that everything he possessed was a gift and that he was willing to use it in God’s service however, whenever, and wherever God chose. After attending Westminster College in Pennsylvania, Norval applied to Harvard Medical School and was accepted in spite of long odds. He was in the process of doing his medical residency when a call c...

12. Planning Your Way Out

John 6:35, 41-51

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

A television news magazine told of a young, adventuresome man, full of life, flown into the desolate north country of Alaska in order that he might find himself among the natural beauty and mysteries there. He prepared for months. He carried sophisticated photographic equipment and more than 1,400 pounds of provisions. He packed boxes of notebooks, in which he intended to record his experiences. R...

13. Plumb Line Prophecy

Amos 7:1-9, Amos 7:10-17

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Not many tourists to Washington, D.C., look for the Federal Bureau of Standards offices. It’s the Capitol and the White House, the Supreme Court Building or the Smithsonian most of us want to see when we go there. Yet, at the Bureau of Standards offices something very important is stored, something that impacts your life and mine every single day. Have you ever bought the materials for a new proje...

14. Right-Handed Sinners!

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

For the above title, I reach back across Matthew's more detailed record of the same message where he recalls that Jesus specified the right hand, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off" (Matthew 5:30). That might be significant because research indicates the somewhere around 85% of humans are right-hand dominant, and it could mean that Jesus is not just saying that a sinning hand should...

15. Secondhand Religion

1 Kings 17:7-24

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

The life of Elijah is filled with fascinating experiences that help us to see God more clearly and live on a higher plane. Today’s Scripture reading is a good example of that. In a nation whose laws required its citizens to provide for the prophets, God used saucy, impudent birds noted for their thievery and dirty lifestyle to feed Elijah. “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and...

16. Son of a Daddy

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

"They shouted...'Not this man, but Barabbas!' " (v. 40). Our scripture reading brings us face-to-face with the most dramatic encounter between two people that earth has ever seen: the encounter between Jesus Christ, God's Son, and Pontius Pilate, a Roman procurator cum procurator. The procurator possessed full civil, military, and criminal jurisdiction and was the personal appointee of the empero...

17. Soul Bread!

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Someone who grew up in Europe immediately after the devastation of World War II writes about the two staples that were not on ration and that could be home produced; one was potatoes and the other was bread. "We could grow our own potatoes and we could make our own bread," he writes. "And sometimes we would even make bread out of the potatoes. So, while we may have lacked many things we always had...

18. The ABC Gospel

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Someone has called it ABC spirituality, meaning, “Anything But Christianity.” In the search for religious meaning, our generation seems to have a limitless imagination. Past-life regressions, out-of-body experiences, channeling, mantras — the list goes on and on. The New Age (which is truly just old Hinduism warmed over), Zen yoga, seances — anything but faith in the resurrected Lord of the cross....

19. The Biggest Prayer Ever Prayed Under Heaven

John 17:1-11

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Come with me to Christ's last night on earth and the greatest prayer ever prayed under heaven! It is also the longest prayer we have from Jesus. As we read the gospel of John, we see Jesus' grace demonstrated in saving sinners. We see his compassionate heart as he brings healing to sick people and food to the hungry. We meet his power revealed in raising the dead. There is no more heartening book ...

20. The Gate to Grace, Goodness, and Glory

John 10:1-10

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

A pastor friend who lived in an apartment complex in San Francisco tells about the time that he and his wife parked their brand new Honda Accord under cover in the secured parking area next to their apartment complex. The next day they decided to celebrate the purchase of that new car by going out to breakfast together. Not only would they enjoy eating out together, it would give them another oppo...

21. The Great Inescapable Question of Eternity

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Jeremy Bowen could not be more wrong and Bono could not be more right! Bowen, the presenter of a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary on Jesus Christ, said, "The important thing is not what Jesus was or what he wasn't — the important thing is what people believe him to have been. A massive world wide religion, numbering more than two billion people follows his memory — that's pretty remark...

22. The Heart of the Matter Is the Heart!

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Traditionalism is the living religion of the dead or the dead religion of the living. Tradition imagines that nothing worthwhile will ever again be done for the first time because everything worth doing has already been done. Therefore, traditionalism repeats what it imagined always was and what it imagines always will be. The problem with tradition for tradition's sake is a terminal case of spiri...

23. The Inconcealable Christ!

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

In this amazing passage of two miracles, we find just one message. The first miracle is the healing of the daughter of a Greek woman, born in Syrian Phoenicia. In many ways, it is among the most significant of Jesus' miracles not just because the child received healing. Syrophoenicia is not a candidate region for the zip code 90210. The "pretty people" do not take up residence there. In fact, they...

24. The Power of the Trust Factor

John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

How can we trust God when life seems to turn on us? You know what I mean, I am sure. You are going through life with ease and smoothness then all of a sudden things begin to unravel. You put your head down and try harder but it does not work. As one old saying puts it, "The harder I try the behinder I get!" No one in all human history personifies those words better than Job. Scripture speaks glowi...

25. The Second Touch for the Out of Touch

1 Kings 19:1-18

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

There’s an old legend that tells how God sent one of his angels to Satan with the message that all the methods the devil uses to defeat Christians would be taken from him. The devil pleaded to be allowed to keep only one. The angel, thinking it an unusual, modest request from the greedy devil, agreed Satan could keep that one. “Which one would you want to keep?” the angel inquired. “Let me keep di...

Showing results