Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 101 to 125 of 769 results

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Crime scene investigators (which we now know as “CSI”) acknowledge that if all the witnesses to an event report exactly the same information there is only one conclusion to draw: They are lying. Human individuality, the uniqueness of individual perceptions and eye-witness, the unrepeatability of each person’s own experience, makes it impossible for any group of individuals to see and report an eve...

102. Down A Garden Path

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Imagine being set in a lush garden with all kinds of flowers, plants and trees. There are lemon trees, fig trees, olive trees, date palms, oranges and apples. Thhe Lord says, "You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat." How hard could it be? All those trees, boughs lush with so many succulent and delicious choices. How could...

103. The Blessing Of Bondage

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

The Bible’s story of Creation and the Fall gives rise to all sorts of stories, like this one: Adam and Eve were walking near the Garden of Eden, showing it to their son, Abel. Abel saw that it was a very beautiful place, and asked, "Daddy, why don’t we live there?" "Well, son, we once did," Adam replied, "but your mother ate us out of house and home!" It is an old story, a story of trees, a man an...

104. Adam and Eve

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Genesis 1 says little about how God created humankind. It simply notes that God created male and female, adding a few remarks about their relationship to the rest of creation. Genesis 1 emphasizes humankind as created with authority; Genesis 2 emphasizes humankind as under authority. This section (2:4–7) is introduced as “the account of the heavens and the earth”; this is the first of ten units in...

105. Adam and Eve

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

The Adventures in the Garden of Eden of the First Humans: This narrative addresses the most troubling question faced by every human: “Why must I die?” In addition it gives a reason for several fundamental features of human experience—wearing clothes, pain in childbirth, toil and sweat in work, growth of thorns and thistles, and the enmity between humans and snakes. Much more importantly, this simp...

106. Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle…

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

When our twins were quite young — infants really — I remember a scene that played out on our living room floor. My son, ever the gregarious and energetic one had managed one afternoon to yank the leg off our old studio piano. He was sitting there gleefully pounding it on the carpet while his twin sister egged him on, shouting, "Go, Aaron, go!" In defense of my daughter, it needs to be said that th...

107. Adam And Jesus See Temptation

Sermon

David Belgum

Adam and Jesus were both good and created in the Image of God. It was not inherent evil or original sin that blinded Adam. We read that "God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good"; that included fish, birds, cattle, creeping things, and Adam. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." Nothing was lacking. Everything was going along just fine. ...

108. Affirmation and Alienation

Sermon

"Has the human situation really changed?" To be sure, the context in which we live has changed radically since the beginning. As we age and mature as individuals, changes also occur in us. Perhaps the question should be phrased differently. Yet, there is a sense in which the human situation, as described in Genesis, in some ways, is still the same. Let’s examine it and see if we agree. Regardless...

109. The Year of the Woman

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor Billy D. Strayhorn tells about a certain church which held a Sunday service patterned after those in colonial America. The pastor dressed in long coat and knickers, and the congregation was divided by gender: men on the left side of the aisle and women on the right. At collection time, the pastor announced that this, too, would be done in the old way. He asked the “head of the household” to...

110. Temptation

Sermon

King Duncan

A member of Weight Watchers was determined to make it through a full week without cheating. She dropped into a cafeteria one day for a cup of coffee. A man with two doughnuts and a cup of coffee sat down on the other side of the table. The pastries smelled truly delicious ” but the woman remained firm in her decision not to indulge. Lo and behold after a while the man got up, leaving behind one w...

111. Divorce-Proofing Your Marriage

Sermon

R. E. Lybrand

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him." So he took some soil from the ground and formed all the animals and all the birds. Then he brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and that is how they all got their names. So the man named all the birds and all the animals; but not one of them was a suitable companion ...

112. Gradually Slipping Away

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship We call it The Fall, as if the sin of our first parents was the only, and the greatest sin, but the first eleven chapters of Genesis reveal a series of falls. There is an ever widening gap as a brother kills a brother, and some breach the wall of protection from the eternal. While a flood follows the disintegration of society, and the proper gap between parent and child is ignored....

113. Trusting in the Goodness of God

Sermon

King Duncan

Welcome to the first Sunday in the season of Lent, the forty-six days from Ash Wednesday to silent Saturday, the day before Easter, the day before our celebration of the Resurrection. All around the world, people celebrate Lent as a time of reflection and preparation. We reflect on the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, and we prepare ourselves to celebrate the awesome, life-changing joy of ...

114. First Sunday in Lent

Bulletin Aid

First Lesson: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17, 25--3:7 Theme: We are sinners by our own choice Call to Worship Pastor: We have each been to the garden, and have eaten freely of the forbidden tree in spite of God's commands. People: We seem unable to help ourselves when it comes to resisting temptation. Pastor: That is because we share the human nature of Adam. We know God's laws, but we choose sin. People...

115. Proper 22

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: Genesis 2:18-24 Theme: The complementariness of man and woman Exegetical note: In comparison to the first (Priestly) creation account in Genesis, in which human male and female are created in a single act (1:27), this second (Jahwist) account might seem to imply subordination of woman, as it was subsequently used to do in Christian literature (e.g., 1 Corinthians 11:8-9; 1 Timothy ...

116. Lent 1

Bulletin Aid

Theme: Self-awareness as sin-awareness Exegetical note: These excerpts from the Jahwist's version of creation and account of humanity's so-called "fall" should be read in light of recent revisionist interpretation, which treats the story, not as a literal-historical or Pauline-Augustinian account of the cause of sinfulness, which ruined a primordial state of human perfection, but as a mythical re...

117. Creation's Fallen Nature

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

Call To Worship Leader: Let all who would worship the Lord gather this day for worship! People: For just as Adam and Eve, we too have sinned and disobeyed the Lord. Leader: Yet in Christ we have been washed clean; in Christ we are forgiven. People: Let us come now and sing praise for God's mercy, grace and love! Leader: For in the Garden we first sinned and through the Cross we are saved. All: Ble...

118. Lent 1

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 (C); Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7 (RC); Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-17, 25-3:7 (E) The account of humanity's fall into sin. Today's Lesson is taken from the second Genesis account of creation by the Yahwist (J) school of authors. The first part of the pericope gives the setting for the Fall: creation of Adam from dust and spirit, the garden with the tree of life and the...

119. Lent 1

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The structure of the church year determines, in all three years of the lectionary, that this Sunday is, in part, a "pattern" Sunday; it shows that Lent is a forty-day retreat by the faithful, "patterned" after Jesus' solitary sojourn in the wilderness immediately after he had been baptized in the Jordan. As a spiritual journey, Lent is observed in public and in private, in corpor...

120. Number One Mother

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

THEME: Adam and Eve speak of our origins. Not only have we all eaten of the "fruit of the tree of good and evil," but we are usually drawn to members of the opposite sex. Yet, while drawn to our opposites, we are also confused by them. They act and communicate differently. SETTING FOR THE SERMON MONOLOGUE: This was a mother's day sermon. However, it celebrates God's gift of all women. While we ma...

121. A Woman's Place

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A Pink Ribbon and a Blue Ribbon Boys and girls, If I were to show you a picture of a baby and hold up a pink ribbon, what kind of baby would you think of? A baby girl? Suppose I held up a blue ribbon? A boy? Suppose I had a picture of the baby with a football what would you say? A boy? How about if the baby was playing with a doll? Well, some boys enjoy dolls, don't they? One of the most...

122. Ready For A Change

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A stuffed animal or a picture of an animal. Good morning, boys and girls. Sometime back I read about a zoo that was asking people to adopt a zoo animal for Christmas. You don't get to take the animal home with you, but you do receive a certificate of adoption, a color photo of the animal and a special day to visit the animal. For example, you can adopt an African elephant for $3,000. I do...

123. The Pinwheel Spins

Children's Sermon

Shirley Jennings

Object: A pinwheel and a candle. Lesson: Children can learn about their God-given lungs as they play with a pinwheel and blow out a candle. The other day when the wind was blowing, I bought a pinwheel and I took it outside to watch it spin around. I brought it along today to show it to you, but it’s not spinning around now because it’s not windy in here. How can we make this pinwheel go around w...

124. What’s Your Name?

Children's Sermon

Shirley Jennings

Object: Name tags and a felt pen. Lesson: A person’s own name is very important. Every thing has a name. What’s the name of this thing on my foot? Right. A shoe. What’s the name of that thing on your foot? A shoe. Now what’s the name of this thing (the nose) on my face? Your nose. And what’s the name of this thing on your face? My nose. The names of things are important to people. If I didn’t k...

125. Never Say What You Won't Do!

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The well-known pastor, teacher, and writer, Chuck Swindoll, has observed that dating couples are often less than honest with each other. This is even true when they are engaged. For example, a man may tell his wife-to-be how much he loves the symphony. He eagerly escorts her to these performances, grinning like a mule eating briars, trying to impress his fiancée with how much he loves the arts. Sh...

Showing 101 to 125 of 769 results