Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2651 to 2675 of 4963 results

2651. The Unexpected Universe

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... Israelites were in Egypt. Nor is there proof of an Exodus across the Sinai Peninsula behind a mythological Moses, say other archeologists. And there is no evidence of the military conquest of Jericho by Joshua and Caleb, say other diggers into the remains of the past. However, the absence of archeological evidence does not mean the evidence is absent, say many. Besides, one archeological discovery, such as that of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, can suddenly corroborate and verify a whole period of Biblical ...

2652. Light of the World

John 1:1-18

Sermon

William G. Carter

... and I hated the ugliness, so I wanted to burn it down.” Shine some light in a dark place and there’s no telling what will happen. When all you have ever seen is darkness, that is all you know. And when light comes, it makes for a contrast. Darkness remains a choice. In fact, it is possible for light to come into the world, and for somebody to say, “Turn out the lights!” It is possible for the Light of the world to shine on people, and those very people may not accept it. As someone once put it: What ...

2653. Today

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

... up and speak of God in the present tense. When the prophet Jesus said, “Today the scripture is fulfilled,” he turned memory into a mission statement. He transformed hope into an assignment. He claimed the beautiful poetry of Isaiah as his job description. But the question remains: Is today the day? Is this day really the day? Jesus said, “I have come to preach good news to the poor.” Well, that is a noble thought, but what about us? The poor don’t live on our streets. They don’t move in our ...

2654. Beyond Our Sight, Within Our Hearing

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

William G. Carter

... . All a preacher like me can do is to tell the story, and point in the same direction where it is pointing. Jesus climbs a high mountain with Peter, James, and John. When they get to the top, something happened to him, and they saw it. He remains the same Lord whom they know and love; yet they realize how radically different he is from them. The same Jesus who became like us in every way is revealed as someone far beyond our comprehension. There’s nothing about this moment that you could ever call ...

2655. Role Reversal: Baby and Priest

Hebrews 10:1-18

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... face of crippling sorrow and a sense of loss. Some hope to survive the unbending rules of social structures that have disintegrated their courage. Some have been the butt of crude jokes. Having been “flashed down” on the highway of life, yet trying to remain serene and controlled in the face of it all, we thumb through our briefcases full of excuses, offerings, cantatas, lists of good deeds and scraps of Scriptures, hoping our hearing will go well. The great High Priest takes a seat as all rise. Papers ...

2656. Having to Stay When You Want Out

Titus 2:1-15

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... the sail is adjusted, so does the boat travel. If the wind is caught, the skillful sailor can even guide a vessel in the very teeth of the storm. How do we draw from this Christmas season the strength to set our sail and remain upright in situations which threaten to capsize our spirits? It is precisely at this point that today’s epistle proves instructive. The nativity of our Lord is forever linked to our baptism. Many interpreters view this lesson from Titus as reminiscent of ancient baptismal liturgies ...

2657. Old Favorite

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... Corinthians. They did not need a parable on evil or racism or knowledge. He was dealing with the age-old problem of the well-to-do: Charity tends to decrease as incomes increase. That has always been a strange fact of life. Even today it remains a truth. A Gallup Poll produced profiles of the most and least generous Americans according to income, family status, and region. It concluded that, “contrary to popular opinion, the well-to-do in America cannot be described as generous.” The most likely to make ...

2658. The Power of Uninformed Decisions

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... concept of the resurrection of the body as a plan of God. Christ was first but Christ was a prototype for all in the final victory of God.5 You and I do not know all there is to know about life and death. We are uninformed. Paul’s method remains applicable to us. Jesus is gone and we are here. But take heart: where Christ is, we shall also be. Our job in the interim is to keep from opening the door to strange New Age beliefs and avoid falling down the steps into worshiping any earthly person or group ...

2659. Exposed!

2 Corinthians 2:12--3:6

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... mysticism shines through. He sees the love of Christ as a power pulling all things together toward their fulfillment. As others see the radiance in the loving lives of Christians, true freedom is experienced for those who see Christ in us. Can you and I remain Christian in an affluent society if all we do is sit behind tinted windows and closed blinds, wondering about our own health and personal salvation? This sermon probably doesn’t feel very comfortable, for you or for me. But, in the final analysis, I ...

2660. A Vision of Freedom

Isaiah 65:17-25

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... . Martin Luther, Lectures on Isaiah (1529), in Luther’s Works, Vol. 17, p. 388. 4. Ibid., p. 389. 5. Ibid., p. 392. 6. Ibid., pp. 393-394. 7. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream,” Negro History Bulletin 21 (May 1968), pp. 16-17. 8. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” (1968), in A Testament of Hope, pp. 277-278.

2661. Changing Seasons, Constant Love

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... haven’t yielded any tangible results. Dreams have not come true. High hopes have proven to be only wishful thinking. Nothing has really changed; nothing has really improved. The time keeps moving along, but we seem stuck in the same ruts. Old routines remain, prejudices persist, dullness and anxiety continue to be constant companions. Lingering in the air is that nagging sense that things aren’t quite right, not as they could be, not as they should be. As Jeremiah says, “The harvest is past, the ...

2662. Bad News from a Good Man!

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... of a preacher. When we preachers fail to declare the full counsel of God, there is a price to be paid. Elijah must deliver the message faithfully, as must I. Some years ago in Logan County, West Virginia, a mountain cabin burned to the ground. All that remained was the large stone fireplace and its smoke-blackened chimney. Since the owner wanted to keep people out of the ruins, he painted a sign as a warning and posted it at the edge of what used to be his cabin. It was intended to read, “WARNING — NO ...

2663. Reproached Rolled Away

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... and were unnerved by the hardships of wilderness life. God could have wiped them out entirely and canceled the trip because of their disobedience and rebellion. But God spared some of them while most of them perished because they wanted to remain wayward. They provoked the anger and wrath of God on more than one occasion and were rebuked and blamed for their disorderly, impetuous, and rowdy unruliness. They once wandered waywardly and aimlessly in the wilderness. Now they would become serious sojourners ...

2664. Out of the Box

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... his ministry a comfort zone? Were the cross and crucifixion comfort zones? Were his death and resurrection places of safety and comfort? Or are you preaching a message that everybody can hear where entire households can be saved and redeemed? Peter and the apostles refused to remain in the box that others wanted them to stay in. Peter came out of the box to bring a message of love, power, and justice to people who didn’t share his views which included Jews and Gentiles. That’s what the church needs to ...

2665. Twelve O'Clock Rock: When the Jailhouse is Rocked

Acts 16:16-40

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... girl for the accuracy of her predictions. Others feared her for the same reason. Paul and Silas saw this woman when they first entered the city several days earlier and tried to avoid her. She followed them around and said nothing. Everywhere they went she went, yet she remained silent. Now as they were again going to the place of prayer, she follows them and shouts that they are men of the most high God and that they know the way to be saved. Annoyed by her presence and the spirit inside of her, Paul turns ...

2666. The Promise of Sight

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... infotainment.” The emphasis is more on winning an audience than on reporting the news as it is. Mr. Cronkite’s concern was, and ours should be, that we be an informed people who know how it really is. That is very important to people who are free and want to remain free. As Christians who live in the light of the gospel which God has shined in our hearts that should be even more so. It is not simply in the hearing of the news accurately that we come to understand “the way it is.” It is in the light ...

2667. Light for Beauty

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... the Church has included readings from the Prophet Isaiah to illustrate how profusely the prophet wrote about God’s revelation of the divine will as an epiphany of light. At first, before the Babylonian exile, the Prophet Isaiah could reveal how God would remain faithful to the people in redeeming them in spite of apostasy that precipitated the exile. However, at the close of the exile a Second Prophet Isaiah could herald the good news to these people that God was going to restore this people and return ...

2668. Light from the Word

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... of the population through four different returning groups, the people of Jerusalem had to regroup and decide about their future. The Word The people gathered in the city square early in the morning to hear the priest Ezra read the word to them. They remained until noon, which means that the reading took about six hours. The situation was reminiscent of when Moses read the Law to the people before they entered into the Promised Land. That we know as Deuteronomy, which means the Second Giving of the Law ...

2669. The Lightest Touch

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... house.” He found that preferable to a federhouse, that is the “feather house.” By that he meant that the word is to be shared more by speaking than by writing. The Hebrew rabbis also have said that it would be far more preferable that the word remain in an oral tradition than in a written tradition. The reason for these preferences for the oral word is that the word is to be personally applied and personally witnessed. We all know that to be true. We feel much more efficient in a learning situation ...

2670. Light to Serve

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... Isaiah was never at a loss for words to instruct the people in how to read the signs of the times, how to repent, and what to expect of the judgment, the providence, and the redemption of God. We know how effective the prophet was in delivering his message. He remains the foremost of the prophets not only in the place he occupies in the Scriptures, but in the manner in which we today are able to find his work applicable to our day. Now it could be that God would once again raise a prophet from among us as ...

2671. The Fruit of One's Doing

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... Ongo character, whose name meant he “would go on and on.” It dawned on Geebus that all it would take is “one.” “One guy that doesn’t croak,” he explained, can inspire optimism. The Depression funnies faded as America became more affluent. Yet they remain as historic reminders how people have to create their own fantasies, dreams, and mythical heroes in order to cope with the pain and hardship that come their way. The prophet would remind us that we do not have to place our hope and trust in ...

2672. The Fruit of Forgiveness

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... advise him. No one sent him a Bible or some devotional literature to consult or study. All that Joseph had to fall back on was the tradition and spiritual guidance his parents had shared with him. What they had shared with Joseph enabled him to remain strong and confident in the face of hardship, temptation, and trial. A Turning Point As he made his assigned rounds in the prison on one occasion Joseph noted that two of his prisoners were especially downcast. One had been Pharaoh’s cupbearer and the other ...

2673. The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

James W. Moore

... dancing around their heads. Finally, she freed him. She picked him up and quickly took him outside and revived him just as the roof of the house caved in. By this time, firemen were on the scene and the neighbors had gathered outside the smoldering remains of the house. The neighbors had been too frightened to go inside or to do anything to help, and they were tremendously impressed with the courage of the twelve-year old girl. They congratulated her for her heroic efforts and said, “Terri, you are so ...

2674. His Cleansing Of The Temple

Luke 19:45-48

Sermon

Brett Blair

... From the descent of the Mount of Olives there is a magnificent view of Jerusalem, in which the whole city lay in full view in the valley below. As Jesus got to that point he stopped to view this breathtaking, panoramic scene. Even to this day it remains the most sacred city in the world. Sacred first to the Jews, then later to the Christians, and then still later to the Muslims. It has been said that no one can enter the confines of that ancient city and come away unchanged. Surprisingly, however, as Jesus ...

2675. His Teachings

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

Brett Blair

... laws and your religious lawyers will be out of a job, too. IV Having routed the opposition, Jesus now, in essence, says, “It is my turn! Now I want to ask you a question. What do you think of the Christ?” That question that Jesus posed remains to this day the most relevant, the most urgent, and most theological, the most important issue confronting us. Wherever we turn in life we are faced with he implications of this question. What do you think of the Christ? You see, all of their questions dealt with ...

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