Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1 to 25 of 1858 results

1. Wild Thing

Luke 4:31-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... me. I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through belief in the Threeness, Through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation. We pray this prayer, not as an amulet, but as a confession that we know the power of the Wild Holy Spirit, the living, resurrection power of Jesus in our lives. The closer we are to Jesus, the more protected we are in the wider world. We are the people of God. It’s not our job to hide away, to remain inside, to shield ourselves within ...

2. The Wild Within

Luke 4:1-13, Mark 1:9-13, Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to the strong, and the rock of ages to the weak. To prepare, he would need to dive into his imagination, delve into his base emotions and raw fears, deal with anything that could trip him up in the days, months, and years to come. Jesus entered into his “wild place” for a month and a half or more (40 days and 40 nights as it were), and he came out ready with the battle cry of Rak Chazak! In our scripture for today, we find Jesus entering into that wilderness place, the desert beyond the Jordan, but that ...

3. The Call of the Wild Within

Genesis 12:10-20, Genesis 12:1-8, Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the most wonderful and beautiful journey you ever will dare to take. So, what will it be? Will you sit in your pew in the safety of your four walls, wearing the faces you put on for those around you to see? Or will you dare to walk on the wild side? And embrace your “wilder” nature, the authentic human spirit in you that can only be set free by the redemption gift of Jesus? Listen closely. Can you hear Him calling you? He is challenging every one of you to a path of redemption. Each of your paths is ...

4. The Christian's Wild Card

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... bones (although babies are born with 350 bones), but different versions set different bones until the entire body is in place. As each bone is set, the refrain is "Now hear the word of the Lord." So hear the Word of the Lord this Easter morning as the Wild Card of resurrection brings your being back to life. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones Now hear the word of the Lord. (A possible interactive? After every "Now hear the word of the ...

5. Facing the Wild Beasts Within

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... of the primitive brain” – that part of our human nature that, when faced with danger, causes us to resort to one of two reactions: fight or flight. I believe that what Palmer is referring to is that which Jesus came to terms in the desert. The wild beasts are as much inside us, as our animal nature, as outside us. C. “Standing in the tragic gap” Jesus faces the human reflex reaction of fight or flight, of seeking to destroy the threat or to run away from it and hide. Jesus faces our animalistic ...

6. The Wild Goose

Acts 2:1-13; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; Gal. 3:28; Luke 4:18

Illustration

Mickey Anders

... Spirit blowing through a valley of dry bones and bringing them to life. John the Baptist dressed in camel's hair and eating wild locusts proclaimed, "I baptize you with water but he who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire ... slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28). It was this wild Goose that Jesus referred to when he preached his first sermon and quoted Isaiah, saying, "For the Spirit of the Lord is upon me for ...

7. Touchdown in the Wilds

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... –these things somehow thrill us. The thought of being alone on a desert island, out on the open seas, or in a dangerous jungle may set our teeth on edge but it also gives us an adrenaline rush, as we get in touch with our inner “wild thing,” our primal humanity (or perhaps in some cases our primal scream). Each step, whether on the football field or in the survivor’s wilderness, challenges us to think instinctively and creatively in order to make decisions that will not only set us ahead but keep ...

8. The Little Wild Orchard

Illustration

John Killinger

... is why," he said, "though I feel my failure to bring the old orchard to fruitfulness, I feel no real guilt, why in fact I feel a sort of pleasure in watching it turn wild and useless. When I walk in it, it tells me that a man's caring comes to an end. It tells me that life is lived within the boundaries of extremes, of wildness and domestication. It tells me that my order is not the only order. And in its message I feel comfort." His order is not the only order. And that is what he finds comforting ...

9. Wilde Shots

Humor

Oscar Wilde was noted for taking verbal potshots at his literary friends. He said of George Bernard Shaw, "He has no enemies but is thoroughly disliked by his friends." "Do I know George Moore," he once answered somebody. "Why, I know him so well that I haven't spoken to him for ten years." And with Max Beerbohm he scored a happy bull's eye: "The gods," said Wilde, "have bestowed on Max the gift of perpetual old age."

10. Pentecost -- A Wild, Weird, Wonderful Day

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... the day ended over 3,000 people committed themselves to the Christian way. These courageous and committed souls went out and in the words of Luke "turned the world upside down." This is why we call Pentecost the birthday of the church. It is a wild, weird and wonderful day that burst upon Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago. Expansion And Growth This experience was highly contagious. It spread rapidly from Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. As we read the account of Pentecost we cannot ...

11. Born to be Wild

Humor

Mom and Dad were trying to find a birthday gift for their wildly rambunctious little boy. "Do you think that getting him a bike might improve his behavior?" asked Dad. "I doubt it," Mom sighed. "But at least it will spread it over a wider area."

12. Wild Beasts

Genesis 9:8-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

As Lent begins let your congregation reflect not just on the private, individual journey to the cross, but on the cosmic, communal nature of God's redeeming activity. This Sunday marks the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is traditionally thought of as a special period of time, once again forty days, set aside for introspection, self-denial, prayer, and study as the events of Passion week and Easter Sunday approach. As Christians we should find ourselves journeying towards the cross, drawing nearer week by week ...

13. Wild World Warnings

Illustration

Staff

In 1722 Count Nicholaus von Zinzendorf of Saxony founded a colony of pietist believers called "hernhut," later known as Moravians. He also traveled to America and set up communities that began to send out missionaries, first to Greenland, then to the West Indies, then beyond. By the time Zinzendorf died in 1760 some 300 missionaries, all laypersons, had gone out from the various colonies. in 1738 when some of the challenges of missionary life had become clear, Zinzendorf wrote his famous instructions, many ...

14. Breaking News: A World Gone Wild

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

James Merritt

The media called 2010 “The Year The Earth Struck Back.” Take your pick–tsunamis, typhoons, and tornados. What is called “Natural Disasters” killed a quarter of a million people in that 12 month period. More people were killed world-wide by natural disasters in 2010 than were killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.[1] When it comes to Breaking News you can always count every year on some natural disaster interrupting your regularly scheduled programming. Let’s just take four of them and ...

15. Images of War, the Hunt, False Accusation, and Wild Beasts

Psalm 35:1-28

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

Psalm 35 may not be one of our favorites, but we have all felt, at some point, attacked and accused. The “secret” of this psalm is to allow us to vent our frustrations and to commit those feelings of aggression and the need for vindication to God. It rises and falls in three cycles, each containing petition and lament and climaxing in a vow of praise. Linking these sections are images and key terms. 35:1–10 The first cycle is dominated by petitions that heap one image of conflict and hostility upon another ...

16. Dangerous

John 12:12-19, Zechariah 9:9-13, Zechariah 9:14-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... God’s gift of salvation life means immersing oneself in the Living Waters of faith…..means allowing the Living Water that is Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit to wash over you, to fill you, to change you, and reform you. Yes, it feels like a total “wild card.” Faith is letting go of control. Faith is surrendering to the power that is Jesus. Faith is putting one’s very life in the hands of a God you cannot see, touch, hear, but know in your heart is present and powerful. Faith in God means Jesus ...

17. Untamed

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... emerges from the depths of desolation. What is built up in aversion to God’s will must first be destroyed before God can restore the beauty of a garden world. God does not emerge from a cultivated place. But the God of behemoth and leviathan emerges from a wild and untamed place. We are a people who like living in a “tame” world, a world that we love to control, an environment we like to construct, and a civilization we like to impose our will upon, often to the advantage of some and the detriment of ...

18. Poem: In Memoriam

Eulogy

Alfred Lord Tennyson

... my worth since I began; For merit lives from man to man, And not from man, O Lord, to thee. Forgive my grief for one removed, Thy creature, whom I found so fair. I trust he lives in thee, and there I find him worthier to be loved. Forgive these wild and wandering cries, Confusions of a wasted youth; Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise. 1849. I I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves ...

19. The Lord Speaks

Job 38:1--41:34

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... , as the primeval seas in the Mesopotamian mythology. While God is able to rule over chaos, what hope does Job or any human have of doing so? 40:15 The word for behemoth is the plural for the general Hebrew term behemah, beast—either wild or domesticated. This is the only place in the whole OT where the plural indicates a single beast. Some interpreters have identified the “behemoth” as the crocodile, primarily because of the water imagery in the verses. Currently, the term is most often understood to ...

20. The Power of the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... move forward again. A little oil in the leather, and your boots will look like new. A little oil in the lamp keeps it burning. [“Give me oil, in my lamp, keep me burning burning, burning.’] And when you are engaged in conflict, when you are “in the wild,” God comes too with that oil of anointing and allows you to emerge from your conflict and soul-searching and move ahead. “Your word is an [oil]lamp unto my feet….” (Psalm 119) The words of the Lord are like the sweet oil of anointing. In Jesus ...

21. A Piggy Pudding

Matthew 8:28-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... faces, and you wouldn’t want to get too close. While the Jews avoided these nasty, filthy animals, abhorring them like nothing else, the Romans cultivated them for sacrificial rites. In fact, the 10th legion of the Roman Army had as their mascot, guess what? The wild boar. And the Roman Army at that time was stationed, guess where? --in the city of Gerasa. And nearby was Gadara, a commercial center for the Romans. This area east of the Sea of Galilee was the former land of Geshur in the time of Joshua ...

22. Yahweh Speaks as the Master Teacher

Job 38:1--41:34

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... For this reason, it seems better to view Leviathan as a literary allusion to a fantastic creature like a dragon. This creature would be completely beyond Job’s range of experience or control. 41:26–29 it laughs at the rattling of the lance. Just as the wild donkey laughs scornfully at the town (39:7) and the ostrich laughs at the horse and rider that seek to catch it (39:18), so Leviathan laughs at the warrior who tries to attack it. All human efforts to tame or defeat this animal are ineffectual and ...

23. Excited!

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... who need Christ. We need to be shaken from a nominal faith to one that has a real impact in the world. Here is where a wild goose Pentecost can help us most of all. Many of us are in a rut spiritually. Our faith has become routine or, perhaps, even quite anemic. We ... for their generation. And that's what we need as well. Let's pray that the Holy Spirit will come over us like a wild goose. I believe I hear it honking now. 1. Don Martin, Team Think (New York: Penguin Books Ltd: 1993), p. 54. 2. Robert Bly, ...

24. Tangled Up in the Vines

John 15:1-8

Sermon

John Jamison

... that it is our role to judge the value of the vines. Not once. Jesus says, “He removes every branch...” and “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away...” and “such branches are gathered...” (vv. 2, 6). Jesus is saying that while there may be some pruning of wild grapes done at some point, it is not our job. We are to leave that to the hand of the owner of the vineyard, the vine grower, the only one who has the ability to measure the value of any vine. The other definition of the word abide is ...

25. God Knows

Isaiah 5:1-7

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... much, sparing no cost, no effort, no love. God gave them the best of everything. Yet God’s beloved vineyard could only produce wild grapes, not good for much of anything. God’s beloved people could not live up to their lover’s expectations. The vineyard owner ... mistaken course of action. Is that your fault? The vineyard owner did everything he could for his vineyard. The grapes were still wild and unmanageable. Is that his fault? No. No, it’s not. At some point, we have to be responsible for what we ...

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