Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2701 to 2725 of 4934 results

2701. Playing By A Different Set Of Rules

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Sermon

Larry Goodpaster

Obscenity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. With words to that effect more than two decades ago the Supreme Court of the United States of America left the decisions regarding pornography in the hands of local communities. During the intervening years states and cities have struggled with the issue, desiring to uphold the basic rights of freedom of speech and expression, and at the same time attempting to establish and maintain what is decent and acceptable to the majority. The latest entry to ...

2702. Wash Up First For The Meal Before You Eat!

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

"People just do not take the Lord's supper as seriously as they should. Perhaps it is the frequency with which we celebrate it. Too often we are merely going through the motions and not really getting out of it what we should. The problem is that we are not adequately prepared!" Oftentimes I run across Christians who think this way and even explain their feelings. I am not advocating these sentiments if they are taken as an argument against frequent celebration of the sacrament. We can never receive too ...

2703. We Must Be Blind!

John 9:35-41

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

What is the matter with you? Why do you never seem to understand what I say? You have ears: Why do you not hear me? Or are you blind? Can you not see what I am doing? You have eyes: Why can't you see? Our Bible lessons for today speak directly to us. It is as if they were written with us in mind. They all make at least some reference to problems of sight and blindness - to the problem that plagues us. "Wait a minute, Pastor! You must be kidding. These lessons cannot have much to do with our parish. To be ...

2704. What's A Savior Worth?

Matthew 6:19-24, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:1-4

Drama

Joe Barone

Narrator: We don't often talk about money in the church, but the scripture talks about it all the time. Now don't panic! This is not going to be a sermon about money. It's going to be about just what the sermon topic says -- "What's A Savior Worth?" If you listened to the scripture, you heard two different stories, one story of a young woman who poured a flask of expensive oil on Jesus' head, and another story about Judas who sought out the authorities and negotiated with them to betray Jesus for 30 pieces ...

2705. Whatever He Says - Do It!

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

Text: John 2:5 - His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.' Talk about hang-ups! All you have to do is read this Gospel narrative that was read today, the narrative of the first miracle that Jesus performed, the changing of the water into wine, and you immediately produce two groups that have hang-ups. The first is, of course, made up of pietistic teetotalers. We're confronted by the fact - the undeniable fact - that Jesus provided alcoholic beverage for a party where the supply was ...

2706. Time to Get Ready

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Jesus said: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they’ may open to ...

2707. Breath for Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

One of my favorite spirituals for as long as I can remember is "Dem Dry Bones." I enjoy the rhythm and the beat of it. It makes even my dry bones want to move and to get into the action of the music. I also like the imagery of the song in its lesson of anatomy, "the toe bone connected to the foot bone, the foot bone connected to the ankle bone, ..." and so on until "the neck bone connected to the head bone and we hear the Word of the Lord." God said he could do it and he did, so we sing the Word of the ...

2708. Epiphany 8

Lk 6:39-49 · 1 Cor 15:51-58 · Jer 7:1-7 · Isa 55:10-13

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Isaiah 55:10-13 God's Word will effect its promise of bringing back the Exiles to Jerusalem. Deutero-Isaiah brings his book to a close with chapter 55. It is an appeal for God's people to come to Yahweh, to seek him and find forgiveness. Yahweh promises that his Word will not be void nor fruitless but will accomplish his purpose which is to bring his people out of bondage in Babylon and restore them with great joy to their homeland. Jeremiah 7:1-7 The futility of clinging to ritual as a ...

2709. A Glory Revealed in the King

John 12:12-19

Sermon

Charles M. Mountain

Jesus is the King. This affirmation is really the united testimony of the entire New Testament, culminating in Revelation 17 and 19 where Jesus is called the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Several times in the Gospel of John, Jesus is worshiped or honored as King. Nathanael responded to Jesus, "You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"1 At another point, people wanted to physically seize him and make him their king by force!2 Jesus resisted their plebiscite at that time, but on the first ...

2710. I Knew You’d Come

John 6:16-24

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

When the unsinkable Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, one reporter wrote, "The tragedy of man is that he cannot build a boat to match his boasts." In many ways we have been able to conquer the sea. When it loomed up as a barrier to our progress across the earth we built boats to sail on it, created atomic submarines to travel through it, and designed jets to fly over it. What’s more, we can even swim in it. But we cannot become master of it. The story which forms the miracle we consider now is about a ...

2711. Are You Still Frightened of the Dark?

Genesis 1:1-5 · John 1:4-5 · Psalm 139:11-12

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Children go through a period when they are frightened of the dark. They are convinced that there is a robber inside their clothes closet. They are sure there is some kind of ethereal character lurking about in the basement. Beyond a doubt, they are of the conviction that there is a ghost-like essence biding time beneath their bed. Children usually outgrow that stage, but occasionally you find those who don’t, and they carry this fear of the darkness into their adult lives. In one of my former congregations ...

2712. Love of God, Self, and Neighbor

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

The religious people of Jesus’ day got together to try to trap Jesus with their questions. They asked him about paying taxes. They asked him about rising from death. We read today that they asked him what was the greatest commandment. The Jewish rabbis liked to distill the meaning of religion into little phrases like the ones we put on our Burma Shave signs. They had 632 laws and rules for the practice of their religion. They tried to break it down into a couple of inclusive commandments. "Teacher," he ...

2713. SALLY JANE

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

Dusk; JAREL is sitting on the front steps of an old farmhouse, a building once almost elegant, now genteelly collapsing, its midwestern rococo gingerbread hanging in many places by a single, disinterested, rusty nail. The porch behind JAREL is small; its only piece of furniture is an ancient, unravelling wicker table, also seedy, with several wine bottles on it. JAREL is wearing funeral black - but she has not at all muted her makeup, and she wears plenteous beads and bracelets. JAREL (Calling into the ...

2714. Servant Worship

Psalm 116:1-19

Sermon

Donald Macleod

The season of Lent is drawing now to a close. On Ash Wednesday we said that Lent is not primarily a period when we "don’t do this" or "don’t do that;" rather it is intended to be a time of self-denial and self-discipline during which we tone up the moral fiber of our inner being and when we place greater emphasis upon the spiritual and less upon the material. As someone has said, "It is a matter of adding as well as subtracting." If we have been serious at all, our aim during the past few weeks should have ...

2715. And Now For Something Completely Different

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

At the end of a week-long retreat in a mountain camp setting a somewhat different kind of worship service was taking place. It was at the end of a day that had been set aside for introspection and talking about feelings of self-worth. There had been some discussion about how to deal with feelings of guilt and the need to feel forgiven, and how it is often easier to forgive someone else than to forgive oneself. Since this was a retreat of church people there was frequent reference to the forgiving nature of ...

2716. Goodness Is Not Good Enough

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

There is something rather appealing in the way the rich young man intercepted Jesus as he journeyed to Jerusalem. He greeted the Master with the enthusiasm of a child throwing himself into the outstretched arms of a father returning home after a long day at work. And, like a child, the words came tumbling out of his mouth. "Good Teacher," he exclaimed, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" In his sincerity, the young man knelt when he asked the question. Jesus was greatly impressed by the young man’s ...

2717. Mission Accomplished!

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Charles L. Koester

"Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them." Possibly the most awesome and fantastic picture I have ever seen is the earth-moon shot taken by the Apollo astronauts. Emerging from behind the moon for the first time after entering lunar orbit, there in the foreground is the moon landscape. In the background, emerging from the blackness of space is the earth, 230,000 miles away. How insignificant we as individuals appear from ...

2718. A Dreadful Declaration

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

George Bass

When a person makes a radical statement about his or her purpose in life, most people react with equally radical answers and actions. They may express incredulity, even shock, by vocal opposition or, perhaps, even by laughter. Years ago a college friend, after two years of "just getting by in a business course," announced that he was changing to a pre-medical course of study. When he said, "I’m going to be a doctor," his friends almost laughed in his face. He had never been a good student; in high school, ...

2719. Strong Faith For Tough Times

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

It is always sad when nations go to war. In recent years the sadness has been magnified because just a little more than a decade ago, we seemed so close to a lasting peace. The wall had gone down in Berlin. Eastern Europe had opened up. The cold war with Russia had thawed… and at that time in the early 1990s, we thought, “Finally! At long last, we can have a peaceful world. But then suddenly on August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait launching a crescendo of tension-packed events that led to the Persian Gulf ...

2720. The Promise of Baptism

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

William F. Buckley, Jr., has earned the respect of some of his harshest critics with the publication of Nearer, My God. Many of his critics have been among the theologians who have had great difficulty with his rightist opinions. It is not that conservative viewpoints are not welcome, but Mr. Buckley has a penchant for delivering his thoughts in a cavalier style that betrays a snide manner of talking down to people. However, his book Nearer, My God is not offensive in its approach to Mr. Buckley’s ...

2721. The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

2722. The Jump to Judgment

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I heard a story once. A Mr. Jones picked up the wrong umbrella in a hotel, and the umbrella's rightful owner called his attention to it. Embarrassed, Mr. Jones offered his apologies, picked up the right one, and went on his way. But the incident served to remind Mr. Jones that he had promised to buy umbrellas for his wife and daughter, so he went across the street to a store and purchased one for each of them. As he came out from the store and began to get in his car - THREE umbrellas on his arm now - the ...

2723. "A Friend Indeed"

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"A friend in need is a friend indeed." Familiar old aphorism. Do you believe it? Do you UNDERSTAND IT? For a long time, I did not - it is not the clearest. I wondered why in the world someone who is in need should be considered a genuine friend. Instead I rather agreed with whichever wag adjusted the saying to "A friend in need is a PEST!" Finally I realized that the original version meant that a friend to YOU when YOU are in need is a friend indeed. AHA! THAT I believe. Of course, the gospel expects ...

2724. About Kissing

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Lord Halifax, a former foreign secretary of Great Britain, once shared a railway compartment with two prim-looking older single women. A few moments before reaching his destination the train passed through a tunnel. In the utter darkness Halifax kissed the back of his hand noisily several times. When the train drew into the station, he rose, lifted his hat, and in a gentlemanly way said: "May I thank whichever one of you two ladies I am indebted to for the charming incident in the tunnel." He then beat a ...

2725. How Do You Know?

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

King Duncan

People are kind of funny, aren't they? I was just thinking of how many businesses in Utah have joined with the tourist bureau to urge residents of that magnificent state to spend their vacation dollars at home. One such promotion, sponsored by a food-store chain, was a photo contest. The theme was "Travel Utah First." The grand prize was a trip to Hawaii. (1) Preaching is so much easier than practicing, isn't it? That's why the little word "if" is so important in our lesson for today. "If" anyone is in ...

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