Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 176 to 200 of 769 results

176. The Reality of Fear--The Power of Faith

Sermon

Eric Ritz

My friend, Donald Shelby, told his congregation of a captivating ad he found in a magazine for Nike Athletic shoes. "Fear of failure, Fear of success, Fear of losing your health, Fear of losing your mind, Fear of being taken too seriously, Fear of not being taken seriously enough, Fear that you worry too much, Fear that you don''t worry enough, Your Mother''s fear you''ll never marry, Your Father'...

177. Adam And Eve,The First People

Sermon Aid

Peter C. Garrison

Eve envies God's wisdom. Adam doesn't take God's word of warning as real. Basically, these people's problem is that they always want to be first, even before God. If you don't think this is a problem, then that's a problem. It's called "Original Sin." (Please read Genesis, Chapter 3) Adam And Eve Adam was first. There is a certain comfort in being second or third, next or last, in the middle or...

178. Temptation Island

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. David Jeremiah tells about a suburban neighborhood in which several residents were extremely upset at the reckless and fast driving that was occurring in their quiet subdivision. They organized a petition drive and demanded that the police patrol the area with greater frequency and penalize drivers who ignored the speed limits. The police obliged and immediately ticketed five drivers who igno...

179. Hissing in the Garden

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Today, I want to pick up and continue the series of sermons I have been sharing from the Book of James. I have preached on the Tongue from James 3:1-12, on Troubles as a part of our faith journey from James 1:3-11, and now I want to share another sermon that begins with the letter "T"--Temptation. One of my colleagues tells the story about a church in Kentucky that demonstrates the ancient but ev...

180. Don't Eat the Forbidden Fruit

Illustration

Morgan Murray

Whenever your kids are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence didn't extend to God's kids. After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was: "Don't." "Don't what?" Adam replied "Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said. "Forbidden fruit? We got forbidden fruit? Hey Eve! We got forbidden fruit!" "No way!" "Y...

181. A Verse for All Occasions

Humor Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

A young pastor had rung the doorbell at the home of one of his parishioners and was waiting to be received but no one came to the door. He sensed that someone was at home, but repeated ringing of the bell brought no response. As a final departing act he wrote Revelation 3:20 on the back of one of his calling cards and stuck it under the door: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hear...

182. The Necessity of Moral Commitment

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

The way things are going today we would almost think that we have been let loose in the universe in the midst of a strange experience called life, with no maps, no roads, no guideposts, nothing that is directive, no compass, not even a north and south or an east and west. How can we know the truth about life? What did the creator have in mind? What does he now have in mind for us? What is God’s s...

183. Knowledge

Sermon

Will Willimon

It's a story, primitive story, primordial, which means basic, deep; a true story. It's from Genesis, the beginning book of the Bible, beginning of humanity. Genesis means "in the beginning." In the beginning, God made man and woman and put them in the garden. God will keep the good garden. All man and woman must do is to enjoy, to "be fruitful and multiply" -- which sounds enjoyable. It's a story...

184. Passing The Test!

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Back in the 1920s, residents of Cades Cove, Tennessee, lived in fear of the legendary Wampus Cat, a creature known to be vicious, supernaturally strong, and sly. The Wampus Cat was so sly that no one had actually seen one, but there were those who swore that it existed. One loud shotgun blast echoing through the Cove would warn the men of the town that the Wampus Cat had been sighted, and they'd a...

185. Wedding: They Became One Flesh

Sermon Aid

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him ... Therefore a man leaves father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Reading: Genesis 3:18, 24 Dear ____ and ____ : I am sure that the wish of all this afternoon, not only yourselves, but also your parents and certainly our Lord, is that you together might begi...

186. The Bridge

Drama

H. J. Hizer

Narrator: Opening: Genesis 3:8-15 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him "Where are you?" And he said "I heard the sound of thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself...

187. God Is Like...a Face

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

God is like …a face. What a strange idea. Of all the understandings of God we’ve explored thus far in this series, this is surely the most farfetched. What can it possibly mean to think of God as a face? To answer this question we must consider the breadth and the limitation of human imagination. You and I have minds that can take us beyond the time and place where we are. We can imagine what it m...

188. Cain and Abel

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Cain and Abel, Adam’s sons, are born after the fall (4:1–16). Eve connects Cain’s birth with the verb “to bring forth.” In Hebrew this verb (qanah) sounds like “Cain” (qayin). Eve has been allowed to share in the creative work of God. Unlike Cain’s, Eve does not explain Abel’s name. “Abel” is the word “vanity” appearing in Ecclesiastes 1:2—“Abel of Abels, all is Abel”—unless “Abel” is to be connec...

189. Cain and Abel

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

Cain Slays Abel and Lamech Boasts: The first siblings are unable to live in harmony. Hatred propels Cain to murder his own brother. The tragic, brute power of sin also finds expression in Lamech’s boasting song, in which he brazenly gloats over a wanton killing while pronouncing threats against others. These incidents illustrate how Adam and Eve’s disobedience unleashed sin as a destructive power ...

190. Cain's Sentence

Drama

Jerry Eckert

Comment: The story of Cain and Abel tapped into experiences I had had with the criminal justice system in years past, and I set it into a rural Wisconsin county. I told it as a short story, but as I look at it now, I see it as something that could be readily dramatized with the help of individuals and with the help of the whole congregation at one point. The narrator can be an older person. Cain a...

191. Envy - Where Is The Grass Greener?

Sermon

R. Curtis Fussell

I have a friend by the name of Robert who has always enjoyed playing jokes, especially at the expense of others. One day Robert was expecting a visit from his childhood friend Larry, whom he hadn't seen in over ten years. In their teens Robert and Larry had a friendly rivalry going between them. So Robert came up with this idea of trying to impress Larry that he had become extremely wealthy. There...

192. Who is That Crouching at Your Door?

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“If thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” — Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Envy is perhaps the deepest root of all evils. Envy is the desire to have what someone else has, to be like someone else, to be given what someone else has received, to obtain what one perceives one deserves. Envy is the opposite of satisfaction in and surrender to God. And it’s at the core o...

193. The Seeds of Social Conflict

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

One day a little boy just got out of bed on the wrong side. He was having a very bad day. He disobeyed his mother several times, and then had a violent argument with his playmate. So, his mother told him he would have to have some time alone. She turned on the light in her large clothes closest, put a little chair in it, and told her son to sit there for thirty minutes. Thirty minutes later, she r...

194. East Of Eden And The City Of Beginning

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Persons are always asking impossible questions of the Bible. Questions like "Where did God come from?" "Did God create the Devil?" "Where did Cain get his wife?" Well you know how the question derives. Adam and Eve were the first persons in the world. They had two sons, Cain and Abel. And when you get to the 17th verse of Chapter 4 of the Genesis story, you have this word:"Cain knew his wife, and...

195. My Brother's Keeper

Illustration

"Did you ever notice how you can line up six balls in a row," said Joe. "You hit the first one and the sixth one jumps away at almost the same speed?" "So what," said Dick, "you rack them up and then hit the first ball and they all start to move." "Well, it is curious to me," said Joe, "how the first one in line and the last one in line are the ones that move, while the rest stand still." Joe w...

196. From Adam to Noah

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

A genealogy stretching over ten generations traces the lineage from Adam to Noah. Only in the last section does this vertical genealogy become a horizontal one (5:32). In the description of each generation, the same literary structure is followed: (1) the age of the father at the birth of the firstborn, (2) the name of the firstborn, (3) how many years the father lived after the birth of this son,...

197. From Adam to Noah

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

The Descendants of Seth to Noah: In contrast to the increasing wickedness recounted in Cain’s genealogy, the line of those who worshiped God is presented in Seth’s genealogy. Ten generations from Adam to Noah span 1, 656 years. After the deluge another epoch is identified by the ten generations from Shem, Noah’s son, to Abram (11:10–26; also note the ten generations from Perez to David: Ruth 4:18–...

198. Deep Faith

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“If we were logical, the future would be bleak, indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope.” (Jacques Cousteau) “Deep waters call out to what is deeper still; at the roar of your waterfalls all your breakers and your waves swirl over me.” (Psalm 42:7) "For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. A...

199. Here Today Gone Tomorrow

Sermon

James Merritt

Someone has called the fifth chapter of Genesis "a desert of death". You could almost see the caskets and the graves. You can almost hear the widows weeping in the background. You can almost smell the stench of death that arises from this chapter, because over and over we read these words, "and he died." The last words of verse 5 read, "and he died." Verse 8 says, "and he died." Verse 11 says, "an...

200. I’m sorry

Drama

Brett Blair

I’m sorry. f

Showing 176 to 200 of 769 results