Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 226 to 250 of 656 results

Matthew 23:1-39

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

Call To Worship Leader: How marvelous is the Kingdom of God that we are all welcome in it. People: May we all come before God just as we are, imperfect and flawed? Leader: In Christ we are welcome before God, made perfect as without sin. People: Then let us celebrate and share God's grace with all the world. Leader: And let us lift our hearts in praise for God's merciful love! All: Blessed be the name of the ...

227. Stewards of Life, Death, and Beyond

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... . There is a difference between an unborn embryo or fetus and a baby born and outside the womb who has the possibility of relationships with other humans and the grand possibility of baptism into God’s family. I do know that, in the lives of us imperfect sinners, we often have to decide between the lesser of wrongs. That may be the choice in having or not having an abortion. So as stewards of life itself, I think that sometimes abortion is the preferred choice over the alternative of bringing a fetus to ...

228. What Makes People Great?

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... the courage as a man to wrestle with himself, to admit that he had been wrong, and to make a fresh start in life. David’s heroism inspired heroism in his soldiers. They seem to fulfill the statement of Thomas Carlyle, "We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without gaining something from him." The scriptures say, "These are the names of David’s heroes" (2 Samuel 23:8, NEB). and then lists more than thirty heroic soldiers. Heroes affect us in four ways. First, a hero captures our attention ...

229. Waiting

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... , they could see that in us which was worth loving, no matter how we may have behaved toward ourselves. Skilled in the depth and seriousness of their lives, they were able to work Christ’s loving order into ours. They were well aware that God does not perfect imperfect natures overnight. Christ gave them wit and will to wait wisely for God’s fullness of time for us so that we, in turn, may do the same for others. So it is that the love of God becomes woven into the fabric of the world, and his love ...

230. THE RECONCILED LIFE

Hebrews 9:11-28

Sermon Aid

John W. Rilling

... the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony I will speak with you." All this was but a shadow of good things to come. For on Good Friday our Lord entered, once for all, into the Holy Place, taking not the imperfect, unwillingly surrendered blood of an animal substitute, but his own precious blood. That perfect, willing sacrifice avails for the purging of the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from IMMANUEL’S VEINS: And sinners ...

231. This Is Water

John 7:25-44

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... are many distortions in the church as it is seen by the world. After all, every congregation of every denomination is made up of sinful people. The Holy Spirit clothes us with righteousness, but we are far from perfect. Sometimes that imperfection becomes the area of temptation for "the principalities and powers" as Saint Paul calls them - those satanic tendencies toward legalism, institutionalism, and insensitivity which chase so many people out of the church. After a recent funeral, I went back to the ...

232. The Healing Community

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... is an extension of Jesus in the world. At their best, Christians too are healers, not in any sense replacing medical science, but adding a dimension which is much needed in healing - compassion. The Church, The Healing Community. With all its imperfections, sins, blemishes, and warts, the Church of Jesus Christ is the intended healer of the world’s wounds. Christians are called to be compassionate, wounded healers. Perhaps, Henri Nouwen, the Roman Catholic theologian, has said this better than anyone else ...

233. The Friends of Jesus

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Brett Blair

... they did offer advise on occasion, Jesus rejected it. On the face of it then, it seems like a one sided friendship. It seems as if they had little to offer. But they did have something to offer. They had themselves. They offered him their love, imperfect as it was. They offered him their loyalty, even though at times it was flawed by self interest. They offered him companionship, even though they were not always around when he needed them. Edgar Guest, an American poet at the turn of the century, tells of ...

234. Confront

2 Samuel 12:1-31, 2 Samuel 11:1-27

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... offers not an eye for an eye but forgiveness. People: No matter who we are, we are accountable for our actions. No matter who we are, when we accept responsibility for our failures, God forgives us and we are free to try again. Collect We gather as imperfect people, O God, asking for the courage to see where we are failing to live as your loving people and for the valor to change our ways. Amen. Prayer of Confession Can you forgive us, God, for living such faulty lives? We recognize and deplore the wrong ...

235. On the Night when He Was Betrayed

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... says beautifully that just as the bread of the sacrament is made of grain grown in various and scattered places, so Christians scattered and divided in many ways here become one. We walk our several ways in solitude, often in loneliness of heart. We know one another imperfectly and we misjudge one another, for we cannot read one another’s hearts. But at the Lord’s table we meet. We meet our Lord and we meet one another. We receive the supreme gift of his love, his body broken for us and his blood poured ...

236. The Communion of Saints

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified." Instead of claiming sinlessness, the more of a saint a man is the more he sees his own imperfections. Paul called himself "the chief of sinners" until the day of his martyrdom when he could say at last, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). Many years ago I gave a lecture at a pastors’ conference ...

237. Thomas Didymus: An Honest Skeptic

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... Thomas needed? Do you suppose there was some lack of love in this encounter of Thomas and the other disciples? (I’m showing my counselor’s bias here it seems.) But I believe these are legitimate questions because we are dealing with the very human persons who, imperfect and faulty as they were, were the foundation on which Jesus would build his kingdom. I am not at all sure I would have had the faith that Jesus had and still has. Now we come to the day a week after Jesus’ appearance to the disciples ...

238. No Fifth Wheels in God’s Economy

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... of experience through which God calls us to be servants. We have spoken previously of the way in which marriage is meant to communicate the relationship of Jesus Christ to his Church. But friends, let us admit that marriage is only an image, an imperfect reflection of the communion we will one day know with God and with each other. Many times it is in relationships other than marriage that we begin to discover the communion, the transparency, the openness, the knowledge of another person, that gives us an ...

239. Bringing the Gospel to Marriage

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... .: Few Christians remain totally faithful in their lives, even though they may do so in marriage. Fidelity holds our lives together: faithfulness to God and to one another. It is highlighted in the marriage relationship and in the marriage failure, this human imperfection is highlighted even more. It is painful for all who suffer separation and divorce. What is the good news? That in all our faithlessness, God is faithful to us. All of us strive and serve, suffer failure, seek forgiveness, then strive and ...

240. The Man Who Couldn't Hear

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Brett Blair

... approached him. Mark says of this man that he was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. No doubt the two went together, for hearing and speaking are one process. As one hears, one speaks. It was this man's inability to hear that made his speech so imperfect. Without a doubt one of the most important senses in Jesus day was the sense of hearing. For Jesus lived in a world of sound. This is difficult for us to comprehend, for we live in a world of vision. We live in a world of skyscrapers, bright lights ...

241. The Second Naiveté: Babies, Angels, Shepherds, And God

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... scientists were less than humble. Confident they were on the verge of discovering the very core of Reality itself, they presumed to be close to explaining everything, at least everything that mattered. "But no longer," asserts Bronowski. "All our information is imperfect. We have to treat it with humility. We have a paradox of knowledge," says the late Salk Institute scientist. At the very time scientists devise instruments more and more precise by which to observe nature, they discover the observations are ...

242. The Kind of People Whom God Chooses

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

William G. Carter

... face and the limitations we know. Yet he says to us, “Don’t be afraid!” It is Christ’s call, Christ’s work, and Christ’s miracle. The invitation doesn’t begin or end with us. The One who calls us is the One who knows that he only has imperfect people to call. For our part, we simply have to decide if we are going to get out of the boat once we land on shore. As Joseph Fitzmyer points out, when Simon says, “Go and leave me,” Simon acknowledges that Jesus is rooted in “a realm or sphere to ...

243. A Secret Is Finally Revealed

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Picture an attractive mother, a handsome husband, and three lucky children. The little children are fortunate because they have been adopted by the mother and father. The mother can not naturally bear children. She had a bodily imperfection when she was born which resulted in her having had a colostomy, the process where you wear a bag with a tube to empty your wastes from your body. It was a most difficult and, obviously, painful condition with which to live. Consequently over the years the parents ...

244. A Vision of Freedom

Isaiah 65:17-25

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... So if I should feel sin, death, and evil and nothing good in my flesh, I must nevertheless believe in the Kingdom of Christ. For the Kingdom of Christ does not have its place in the senses.3 Do not be surprised if you still experience your old imperfections. The new “you” whom God is making is on the way, and so is the new society where oppression and injustice are no more. Strengthened by God’s promise that brand new possibilities are on the horizon, that “the former things shall not be remembered ...

245. With All Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17, Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” God wants a heart that confesses sin because God likes an honest heart, a contrite heart, a heart that is willing to reveal its imperfections and afflictions. Third, we must return to God with a heart of repentance. Repenting means acknowledging, confessing, and turning away from sin. Repentance is the act of contrition carried out to cancel sin’s transgression. To say we have sinned is one thing ...

246. The Promise of a Son

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... son and his seed would continue for eternity. For Christians, the son Jesus and his seed give us eternal life. It is the promise that God makes to give that son that secures our hope, solidifies our faith, and tells us of God’s continuing favor. We sinners are imperfect and flawed, like Abram, but the promise of the son and the gift of God’s son is a sign of redemption and hope. That God would love us so much that he would give his only son is continuation of that covenant promise he made to his people ...

247. A Blood That Passes Over

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... our paschal lamb, our lamb of God, our unblemished savior who sacrificed his life for the salvation of souls and the remission of sins. Christ’s blood is offered for the sins of all people. His blood passes over all of our past wrongs, infirmities, and imperfections. The perfect lamb is offered as a sacrifice for God’s people, and it is his blood that serves as a source of redemption, power, hope, liberation, and love for the faith community. The holy lamb of God is offered as a sacrifice for the sins ...

248. Light to Serve

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... concludes with Esau, Wilmot’s great grandson, who catches a glimmer of redemptive faith in the ill-fated fiery conflagration of a zany community of would-be-believers. The story Updike weaves through three generations of the same family emphasizes how the imperfections and flaws dominate their relationship more than any strengths or beauty they might offer to one another. The story begs for the kind of cleansing experienced by the sacramental action of the holy God revealed to him. Updike’s story is a ...

249. A Tsunami Appeal

Sermon

Eric Hudson

... victim or his or her family and friends. Yet somehow, from beyond that pain and suffering, something good can emerge. “As we bemoan our lot, an attack of flu, a late train, a family quarrel or some material want, we may lose sight of more important things. In our imperfect world we may even lose sight of the human spirit which is fundamentally good. “For some it is here that, by turning to God for the first time, he is found. I hope you will never be brought here as a victim nor sit at the bedside of a ...

250. God's Not Done With Us Yet!

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... citizen, eh? (Better than Strom Thurmond.) Amazing. He finally dies at the age of 175, "old and full of years." I love the story of Abraham because I learn some incredibly important truths from it. First, I learn that God chooses and uses real people, imperfect people. Sell your wife to the Pharaoh? Please! But God was not done with him yet. Second, I see the unconditional nature of God's covenant. The promise of land, descendants and a blessed heritage never changed from Day One back in Haran - it was ...

Showing results