Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. Keep Your Head Right

Illustration

Stephen Brown

Pastor Stephen Brown taught swimming and diving for a number of years. He tells about a young boy named Billy. Billy had watched so many professional divers and wanted so much to dive like them that he refused to take time to learn the basics. Time after time Brown tried to help Billy see that the most important thing about diving was to keep his head in the proper position. If his head entered th...

2. No Judgment

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Illustration

Stephen Brown

It was F.B. Meyer, I believe, who once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are two things we do not know: First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin. And second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.

3. Prayer

Luke 2:1-7

Bulletin Aid

Stephen Brown

On this night, we wait for the light. Cowering in shadowy corners we wait for the light. Hovering under stark underpasses we wait for the light. Retreating into hidden closets we wait for the light. We are a people who dwell in darkness. We live We breathe We arise We sleep in darkness. We have grown accustomed and comfortable in the darkness. Amidst unimaginable and unwarranted wealth… we liv...

4. Prayer

Luke 2:8-20

Bulletin Aid

Stephen Brown

Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people Good News is coming. Strange how you bring it. Good News comes to poor shepherds out on the hills. Bottom dwellers on the social ladder. Smelly and poor… lonely and forgotten. Not sitting in the pew or standing at the communion rail. Good News is coming. Strange how you bring it. Good News is announced by Ang...

5. Prayer

Matthew 3:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Stephen Brown

O God who shoots forth in our gardens… grows as winter’s wheat… God who breaks through thistles and thorns… blossoms in field and forest. In the winter of our soul we long for your coming To warm our hearts and cheer our spirits. In the cold of our frozen lives we await your arrival To thaw our relationships and fire our visions. Your Spirit comes upon him: The one who bears your likeness The on...

6. Prayer

Matthew 1:18-25

Bulletin Aid

Stephen Brown

Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’ which means, ‘God is with us.’ You are coming to be with us. We have talked about your coming. We have dreamed about your coming. We have told stories and prophesied about your coming. We whisper your name in our prayers sing anthems in our congregations listen to the sacred stories about you. We wondered if you ...

7. Prayer

Matthew 24:36-51

Bulletin Aid

Stephen Brown

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. We do not know when you are coming. We gaze into our sky with anticipation with fear...with trepidation. We do not know when you are coming. We wonder if you will. The skies appear clear, but our vision is blurred. The air is choked with smoke and flame a poison in the air. Would we see you coming, Lord? Could we se...

8. Prayer

Matthew 11:1-19

Bulletin Aid

Stephen Brown

We wander in the wilderness… O God. We are blinded and lost… unable to see the pain, hindered from envisioning healing, unwilling to see wholeness. We are deaf and lost… we cannot hear the cries, we ignore the pleading, we will not listen for hope. We are lame and lost… afraid to walk among the darkness in the streets, refusing to pass by the battlefields, given up marching for peace. We are s...

9. Thanks for All Things

Illustration

Stephen Brown

David O’Dowd was teaching in a church when he said that the admonishment to give thanks for all things meant that we are to thank God for the apparent good and the apparent bad: both are from the hand of God. When Dave had finished teaching, he asked for questions. A man raised his hand and asked, “Do you mean that we are to thank God for tragedy and death?” “Well,” Dave said, “I don’t like givi...

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