Sermon and Worship Resources

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Acts 19:1-22

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

As we grapple with the meaning of our first text for today, Acts chapter 19, how appropriate is the oft-used phrase, "We only get one chance to make a first impression." Unquestionably the disciples of John the Baptist, whom Paul met early in his visit to Ephesus, seemed to lack some evidence of God's Spirit in their lives. Their "first impression" was spiritually deficient! Christian scholars throughout the centuries have sought to determine what Paul sensed in these disciples that caused him to question ...

152. Father, Forgive Them!

Luke 23:33-43

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

Each of the gospel accounts of the crucifixion has its own peculiarity. Luke presents the trial of Jesus in a way that points fingers directly at the Jewish leaders involved. Luke goes out of his way to make sure we understand that the Jewish leaders are the ones who frame the charges against Jesus. It is they who insist he be crucified. Luke also is careful to make sure that we understand that the Roman governmental officials find no reason for Jesus to be prosecuted. It is important to recognize that it ...

153. Grace in the Midst of Hopelessness

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

Submarine accidents are rare. Successful submarine rescues, unfortunately, are rarer still. The complex variables of depth, pressure, temperature, and time conspire to doom most trapped sailors. During one celebrated rescue attempt a message could be heard reverberating through the hull of a downed sub. It was tapped out in code from the inside, metal clanging against metal: Is there any hope? At the beginning of the twenty-first century the world is waiting for an answer to that question. Opinion guru ...

154. Grace in the Midst of Exasperation

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

Spiritual storytelling (a.k.a. "my testimony") is often an inspiring experience for a gathered group of Christians. It is also inherently risky. The risk is that the story will sound wonderful. Whenever the overwhelming number of details of someone's garden-variety life are squeezed down to a significant few, it can seem that that four-minute abridged version of existence is fabulously more exciting or meaningful than anything the rest of us have experienced in the previous forty years. We may say to each ...

155. Shine, Moses, Shine

Exodus 34:29-35

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

Have you ever had a "mountaintop" experience? We use that term to describe various circumstances - a brilliant sunrise, a special time shared with friends or loved ones, a quiet moment of deep reflection. Such events are meaningful and important, but they are human experiences and have their place in the realm of the ordinary. There are also glorious worship experiences, when we feel on top of the world. Momentous mountaintop experiences are exhilarating, causing us to want to preserve them indefinitely. ...

156. To Say Elohim

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

Since we are gathered here in a church, I suspect that there are not many of you present who do not believe in God, at least to some degree. In fact, some of you may not be able to recall a time at all when you didn't believe in God. Others may remember a time — or perhaps several different times — when you questioned or even outright doubted the reality of this whole idea of God (and I'd have to put myself in that group). But now, here we are, gathered in church for another service of worship. That may or ...

157. Welcome to the Center of Life

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

"The thickets, I said, send up their praise at dawn."1 I thought of this line from a poem by Wendell Berry as we sat with one of our church elders who was dying of leukemia. We had driven up to visit her in her rural mountain home in North Carolina where she had moved several years ago. She was in bed, looking out her window, and she said that she appreciated the trees each morning because they praised God every day. Her testimony, as she faced death, was to give thanks to God for all levels of praise in ...

158. Baptism: The Light Shatters the Darkness

Genesis 1:1-5

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Winston Churchill, the famous British statesman who led England as prime minister through the horrors of World War II, was a man who prepared the people for future joy. He was born in 1874 to a British Lord and an American heiress. His heroics during the infamous Boer War in the last days of the nineteenth century made him a national hero and greatly aided his election to Parliament in 1900. In only four years he renounced his aristocratic background and joined the Liberal Party. During World War I and the ...

159. Not What You Expected

Hebrews 2:10-18

Sermon

John N. Brittain

Some years ago, my wife and I took a group of students on a short-term mission trip to Belize, the only English-speaking country in Central America, where our main task was refurbishing a church-run elementary school. At the end of our time there, the congregation held a celebration dinner and program including traditional foods, costumes, songs, and stories: One of them was a traditional children's story. It told of a monster who would periodically come out of the thickets and eat bad little children, ...

160. Maybe Today

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

Amelia Bedelia is a favorite literary children's character. This poor, dim-witted maid is a literalist. You tell her to dust the tables, and she sprinkles talc everywhere. You tell her to dress the turkey, and she gets out a little lime green pantsuit. You tell her to draw the curtains and she gets out her sketch pad. In reading about Amelia Bedelia, you realize that we have many phrases that are confusing — especially if you take them literally. "Happy as a clam." Are they really that happy? Or, "I'm so ...

161. The Second Sunday in Lent

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

There are moments magnified in memory and they give meaning to all that comes after them. They didn't seem too important at the time, or else they were important in a way we never understood until later. It must have been like that for Peter and James and John as they thought back on their experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was a significant moment, all right, no doubt about that. Jesus, radiating with that pulsating glow like something from a Spielberg movie. Moses and Elijah, back from the ...

162. Waiting and Witnessing

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

My message this morning is about two biblical senior citizens and what we can learn from them about the nature of faith. The setting for today's Gospel jumps from the stable in Bethlehem to the temple in Jerusalem where Mary and Joseph had brought Jesus to be "presented to the Lord." It was there that they met Simeon and Anna. Their reactions to Jesus suggest a question that I have for you this morning: "What are you going to do about Jesus now that Christmas is over?" These two biblical members of " ...

163. Recognizing His Disciples

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

Recognition of people, places, and things is a fundamental prerequisite of successful living. We count on signs to guide us. Most of us take it for granted. We move through life in various speeds and count on our powers to recognize who and what is about us. It is so simple and pervasive that we hardly notice. The obvious is with us and yet is it so obvious? Our talents of interpretation and, yes, our prejudices are sometimes awkwardly there for all to see. We can never be quite sure how others will ...

164. Choosing to Love

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Sermon

Stan Purdum

The popular notion in our society is that the best way to choose a marriage partner is to wait until we "fall in love" with someone. By that, we usually mean that we wait for some kind of feeling, some emotional response to a person of the opposite sex that convinces us that we can never be truly happy again unless we can spend the future with that person. And often the feeling we experience is one of ecstatic joy and excitement. But there are a couple of realities about falling in love that aren't quite ...

165. Eternal Life Is Now

1 John 5:9-13

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

Imagine describing what music is like to someone who has never heard a sound. How would you do it? It would be so far from the realm of their experience that you would have nothing to go on really. That's like describing heaven to someone who has only known life here on earth. Now, we know that not one of us has ever been there. But suppose a few of us could pay a visit to heaven just to check it out and come back and tell the rest of us about what it's like. I suspect that it's so foreign to anything that ...

166. A Last Appeal

Luke 23:33-43

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Robert Raines told the story of the day when a daughter was going through the things left over after her mother’s death, and she found this anonymous poem: I dreamed death came the other night. And heaven’s gates swung wide, With kindly grace, an angel asked me inside And there to my astonishment, Stood folks I’d known on earth — Some I judged and labeled as “Unjust” or “Little Worth.” Indignant words rose to my lips but none were set free For every face showed stunned surprise … No one expected me![1] I ...

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