Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 25 results

Luke 9:51-56, Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Larry Powell

"I know you've been sworn in and I've read your complaint." So begins Judge Wapner as another case unfolds on the popular television series, "People's Court." Repeating the phrase before each case, the implication is that the litigants have already placed their hands on the Bible and sworn to tell nothing "but the truth." However, courtroom cases do not progress far until it becomes apparent that ...

2. How To Handle Criticism? Keep Moving

Luke 9:51-56

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How do you like it when people criticize you? The person who first said “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” either lived as a hermit or was an out-and-out liar. Words can hurt. Words do hurt. Words can hurt a lot. Words can hurt a lot more and do a lot more long-term damage than any puny stick or stone. Studies have shown how lasting an impression, how lifetime an...

3. Setting His Face Toward Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

King Duncan

I’ve got a question for you this morning, a quick opinion poll. How many of you believe that current technology makes certain tasks easier? For example, how many of you prefer a washing machine to a washboard when doing laundry? How many of you like keeping in touch with family and friends on Facebook or Instagram? But how many of you also believe that we can misuse technology in ways that the inv...

4. Reactions to Rejection

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

Jesus knew what rejection felt like. When he preached his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, things went well in the beginning. But after he was finished, the people ran him out of town. They even tried to run him off a cliff, but he managed to escape. That was the first time Jesus experienced rejection for what he was trying to do for God, but it was not to be the last. Many of us know ho...

5. Ya Can't Make Me

Luke 9:57-62, Luke 9:51-56

Sermon

Alexander H. Wales

One Sunday morning, a college student volunteered to help in worship by doing the children's sermon. She wanted to talk about how to be a friendly church, so after getting the children up front, she began by asking the question, "What would you do if a stranger came to our church?" Immediately, one of the kindergartners raised his hand and said, "I'd run away and find my mom." Another chimed in,...

6. Jesus’ Four Surprising Road Rules for the Missional Highway

Luke 9:57-62, Luke 9:51-56

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Road Trip! It’s more than a bad coming-of-age movie comedy (2000). For late teens and twenty-somethings, it is a coming of age rite of passage, even an initiatory pilgrimage into adulthood. Whether it is a short trip from a small town to a big city for the weekend, a coast-to-coast marathon to see the USA in a small over-packed car, or a backpacking Euro-rail adventure, a road trip is a first ste...

7. Journey To Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-56

Sermon

Brett Blair

In 1536 Reformer William Farel recruited John Calvin to come to Geneva, Switzerland to pastor St. Peter's Church. Calvin, a sickly man all his life, was on his way to Strasbourg to be a quiet scholar, but he relented under this need, this request, to become a pastor. Two years later, the city fathers publicly banished Calvin from Geneva. Actually, Calvin felt relieved. The moral chaos of the city...

8. Selling the Cross

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that people love to make jokes about certain professions? Lawyers—there are a million jokes about them. Doctors. Pastors—for some reason, the clergy are popular targets for jokes. Don’t ask me why. I think we’re nice people. And salespeople. I think the reason these professions inspire so many jokes is that a small minority of people in these jobs are lazy or unprofessional o...

9. The Steady March Forward

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

Some people get distracted by almost anything. As focused as I can often be, I’m also one of those guys who can walk from one room to another and forget why I went in there. I remember once, when I was about twelve years old, my Dad gave me some money to go pick up a loaf of bread. I hopped on my trusty bike with the basket on the handlebars and set out for the convenience store a mile or two down...

10. Unconditional Commitment

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Anyone ever visit a water park? It’s that time of year when people flock to parks and stand in hour-long lines to go down the biggest, best water slide in the entire region. You wait and you wait until finally you get to the top of that slide, look down, and….panic! It looks like a long, long way down. You look back. The line is thick and there’s no way you can turn back. You’ve got to go ahead, c...

11. Discipleship: Backward or Forward to God

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. — Luke 9:60 It was Thomas Wolfe who made the saying famous: "You can't go home again." He said these words that have been repeated and quoted thousands of times since. It has some affinity with another saying, "You cannot step into the same river twice." Life, like a river, is an ever-flowing and ever-chang...

12. Free From What? For What?

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

Today’s readings give us a chance to talk about freedom quietly a week before advertisers and politicians can fill the airwaves with patriotic rhetoric designed to sell us everything from washers to “wisdom” from Washington. We call the Fourth of July “Independence Day” and have good reason to celebrate. We say this is the day we gained our freedom from British rule. But are the words “freedom” an...

13. No Excuses

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Christianity is not an exercise of, nor does it produce experts in, excuse-making, blame-placing behavior. The life of discipleship thrusts one into the midst of all life's turmoils and triumphs, without excuses. During the 1984 presidential primaries the discrepancy between the career hopes and personal life of one candidate collided all over the network news. Gary Hart, young, bright, promising...

14. People Who Procrastinate

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

King Duncan

Most of you are familiar with that time-honored story about a board meeting that Satan once called in hell. At this meeting Satan put this question to his senior advisors: “We need to develop a new strategy for causing havoc upon earth. Do you have any suggestions for a new means of reaching human beings for our side?” One advisor suggested, “Tell them there is no heaven.” Another said, “Tell th...

15. As Real As It Gets

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

An unforgettable comment was made at the New York City Marathon, and was recorded by a newspaper reporter. When the wheelchair participants came into view and people began to applaud, a man alongside the reporter remarked, "Wait until the real runners come along!" Another person nearby said, "This is as real as it gets!" (Donald J. Shelby, "Unless the Race Is Worth Running,") That is where it is ...

16. The Forward Look

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

King Duncan

One secret to being successful in the world is to learn how to motivate yourself as well as others. A tough old cowboy counseled his grandson that if he wanted to live a long life, the secret was to sprinkle a little gunpowder on his oatmeal every morning. The grandson did this and lived to be 93. When he died, he left 14 children, 28 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren, and a 15-foot hole in th...

17. A New Kingdom Coming

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

A lot of people don't believe it -- but there's a new kingdom coming. Often, like a phoenix bird, it arises out of the ashes of the old. As a young sapling is germinated by forest fire, so the new kingdom is sprouted in the desolation of despair. Like tundra flowers and crab grass the new kingdom has irresistible life impulses and grows anywhere. There is a new kingdom coming. You may wonder wher...

18. No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The Reverend Sam Jones was a great Methodist preacher over in Georgia. His style was unusual. Often he would engage the congregation in dialogue. One Sunday morning he said to his people, "Let's pretend that the church is a locomotive. What part of that locomotive would you like to be?" One man held up his hand and said, "I'd like to be a wheel that just helps rolls that train down the track." Som...

19. Ban the "Buts"

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

David E. Leininger

It was a church women's conference. In a workshop which focused on conflict resolution, the leader asked participants to take part in an exercise. Her purpose was to demonstrate that many times people do not present what is really concerning them, they rather come forth with a blanket statement that is so broad it cannot be dealt with. Conferees were to break into "twos"; then, one would present s...

20. On the Road with Some Would-Be Diciples

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

James W. Moore

Last year I was invited to give the Invocation at the rodeo. As I waited to be called to the microphone on the Bandstand Stage, I noticed two rough, tough-looking cowboys sitting backstage waiting to ride angry bulls and bucking broncos as rodeo competitors. They were sitting together, sipping coffee and talking about life on the rodeo circuit. They were also telling each other about their rodeo-r...

21. Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

They were 5,000 feet in the air in a two-seat Cessna when suddenly the pilot slumped over. It happened not so long ago near Mount Hope, Indiana, to an 81-year-old passenger who was flying to Indianapolis for lunch. When his 52-year-old friend and pilot unexpectedly died, the elder passenger realized he knew nothing about flying and a lot less about landing! In the next twenty minutes you can bet...

22. But First...

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

King Duncan

A lady was taking her time browsing through everything at a yard sale. In a conversation with the homeowner she said, “My husband is going to be very angry when he finds out I stopped at a yard sale.” “I’m sure he’ll understand when you tell him about all the bargains,” the homeowner replied. “Normally, yes,” the lady said. “But he just broke his leg, and he’s waiting for me to take him to the h...

23. No Excuses

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

James Merritt

If there is anything that is true about our society it is this: We have become an excuse-filled society. It used to be that to say, "Excuse me," was a gesture of courtesy. It is now a method of getting around personal responsibility. One of the most respected authors in America made this observation: Our culture has declared war on guilt…Perhaps the most prevalent means of escaping blame is by c...

24. The Beginning of the End

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

As they were going along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But he said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the...

25. Dogsleds And Dogged Determination

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

King Duncan

Beverly Masek is a Native American living in Alaska. Beverly was born and raised in Anvik, a very small village in the interior of Alaska with a population of about seventy people. Anvik is one of the sites on the legendary Iditarod. The Iditarod is a dog sled race where one person runs through blizzards, ice and wilderness for 1,029 miles! The racer is all alone with help from no other human bein...

Showing 1 to 25 of 25 results