Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2726 to 2750 of 2962 results

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... adds, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Isn’t it interesting that God should call him a fool—not a sinner, not a reprobate—but a fool? We have to be very careful here. Scholars assure us that parables are designed to make only one point. But the term “fool” suggests all sorts of things to me. Probably not all of them relate to this rich man, but they do relate to some men and women I have known. Let’s think of some reasons God may have called him a ...

2727. On Taking Candy from a Stranger

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... the Gospel message. Some of those songs are still sung in churches today. (4) Can you imagine being so desperate to keep another person in slavery that you would decimate God’s word? Can you imagine being so evil that you would turn His truth into propaganda designed to keep people in bondage? God created us in His image, and His plan from the beginning of creation was to free us from the suffering of this world and restore us to His image. God’s promise of freedom helps us to overcome any burdens we ...

2728. Use Your Head as Well as Your Heart

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

King Duncan

... wish they hadn’t sent. The app, which she calls On Second Thought, has two main features: A recall function that gives the user up to 60 seconds to reclaim a text before it’s sent. And a “curfew” setting which holds all text messages until a designated time. Say you’re out late one night and don’t trust the condition you’re in. You might want to review your text the following morning and check to make sure your text message is something you really want to send before it actually goes out ...

2729. A Mystery

John 16:12-15

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

... the Father’s voice were all present at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, it wasn’t until the writings of the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed 300 years later that the concept of the Trinity really got fleshed out. The Trinity is a human invention designed to help us understand what cannot be fully understood: the true nature of God. Yes, there is God the Creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but there is only one God. Winston Churchill once famously said that Russia is a riddle, wrapped in ...

2730. Free From What? For What?

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

Today’s readings give us a chance to talk about freedom quietly a week before advertisers and politicians can fill the airwaves with patriotic rhetoric designed to sell us everything from washers to “wisdom” from Washington. We call the Fourth of July “Independence Day” and have good reason to celebrate. We say this is the day we gained our freedom from British rule. But are the words “freedom” and “independence” really synonyms? I would maintain that, ...

2731. Beyond a Friendly, Cuddly Christmas

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... Platt’s church while they were in Birmingham, and he just happened to be preaching a sermon series on suffering. The mother wrote to Pastor Platt, “I told the Lord when we began this transplant journey that I was not looking forward to it and if this was His design for my son’s life then He would have to take me every step of the way . . . I have learned that God gives me a lantern to carry that provides just enough light for the step I am on; however, my flesh desires a floodlight that will allow me ...

2732. Are You a Super-Fan?

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... and Lord of Lords, MUST hang out with. Why is that? Jesus says right there in verse 10, “. . . for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” An Episcopal priest with a sense of humor had a special tee shirt designed. In three of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—someone in some crowd raises a stink because Jesus eats and drinks with sinners. So this priest had a tee shirt made with the verse in Greek, “He eats and drinks with sinners.” The priest would wear the ...

2733. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... one I’d ever have to buy, is absolutely worthless. As a salesman told me, recently, “Yeah, it’s a smart phone, I guess. But it won’t qualify for the gifted program, you know?” Every time we eradicate one drug from our neighborhoods another, new, designer drug takes its place. The vicissitudes of modern life crash in upon and wash over us unbidden and uninvited. Some we enjoy, others not so much. Psychologists tell us that change and surprise can add spice to our lives but we tend to thrive when we ...

2734. Less Fear; More Fruit

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... all of this is there are some fears that are appropriate, even wholesome. If fear causes you to wear your seatbelt, good. If your fear of cancer makes you quit smoking or, even better, not start, excellent. If fear makes you name a designated driver, then good for you. Healthy, appropriate fear informs our decisions and helps to shape our choices. The difference between appropriate and inappropriate fear is what this morning’s scripture lesson is all about. As Christians we are called to reject fears that ...

2735. Preparing the Way

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... worked for centuries to convince the Hebrew people that this was not the case and that the poor should be treated with compassion and respect and given the opportunity to lift themselves up and out of their poverty. In fact, laws were created in Israel that were designed to give the poor a break and help them live better lives — but those laws were often ignored and most often not enforced. The good news Matthew speaks of here is the news that your poverty is not caused by sin. It doesn’t mean that God ...

2736. Final Exam

Illustration

King Duncan

... . Instead of a question about Paul’s missionary journeys, there was this question: “Critique the Sermon on the Mount that was preached by Jesus.” The shock was felt across the room. And a young man got up, took his blue book - a little book that was designed to hold his essay - and threw it down on the professor’s desk. It was empty. He didn’t know how to answer the question. And one by one, all of the students left, none of them able to answer the question . . . except for Meathead. Meathead ...

2737. Cruise Ship or Life Boat?

Illustration

Simon Bickersteth

Did you know that the design of many wooden church roofs, was similar to that of the hull of a ship. And that the nave, the central part of the church, derives its name from the Latin word for boat. Using this imagery of the church as a boat, we can have two pictures of what ...

2738. Jesus Destroys the Power of Sin

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light ‑‑ truth, understanding, knowledge ‑‑ is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it. "I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world ‑‑ into the black places in the hearts of men ‑‑ and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is ...

2739. The Source of the Power

Luke 17:5-10

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

When you drive east on I-40 through the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, you pass through two tunnels. Each is about ½ mile long, right through the side of mountains. I’m always awed by the brilliance of the engineers who designed those tunnels. How were they carved out of the solid rock? I’m sure that dynamite was the key. Sticks of dynamite were well placed and then ignited by some sort of fuse. The fuse was necessary but it was not the source of power. The power came from the ...

2740. The Problem with "Fawneys"

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... of intense bitterness that plagued him throughout his life. This same young man eventually left Germany and went to England to study. He sat daily at the British Museum formulating his ideas and composing a book. In that book he conceived of a movement that was designed to change the world. In the book he dismissed religion as an “opiate for the masses” which the world is better off without. The man’s name was Karl Marx and the system was, of course, Communism. (4) Who could blame him for his anger ...

2741. Christ's Monarchy

Luke 23:33-43

Sermon

Molly F. James

... govern ourselves perfectly. Even our American democracy works because it isn’t pure democracy. Power is not equally shared among all the people. We choose to invest the majority of power in three branches of government with checks and balances. We have a system designed to safe-guard against individual temptations or tendencies to sin. We spread the power out so that no one can monopolize it. This balanced form of government, with all the rights and freedoms it provides, can make us a bit skeptical of all ...

2742. Clearing the Eyes

John 9:1-12, John 9:13-34, John 9:35-41

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... things that happen to our eyes with UV ray exposure. So too, we see people wearing sunglasses at night, not to blot out the sun, but to take the glare out of headlights or streetlights. In doctor offices now, you have a variety of colored glasses designed for use with lasers, to detect bruising after an accident, or see a blood clot that is disrupting flow through the veins. All sorts of sunglasses, or color-specific glasses if you will, enable us to be healthier or have more fun. Now, think of the ancient ...

2743. Lost in Plain Sight

John 1:29-34, John 1:35-42

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... soldier of fortune. He had served as an officer in the artillery during World War I and as a spy for her majesty’s government in the court of the Sultan of Morocco. He was, by training, a nautical engineer who patented a ship’s hull design, a gifted artist whose pen and ink drawings continue to be on display at the Royal Academy, an accomplished archeologist, a religious non-conformist, and an enthusiastic and skilled cricketer. By 1925 he had made eight expeditions into Brazil in search of that ancient ...

2744. Blessed

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... cannot fully live within it until God as completed the new creation which is promised in scripture. However, in the words of biblical scholar, M. Eugene Boring: The future tense of the beatitudes resists all notions that Christianity is a “philosophy of life” designed to make people successful and calm today, in the present moment. Christianity is not a scheme to reduce stress, lose weight, advance in one’s career, or preserve one from illness. Christian faith, instead, is a way of living based on the ...

2745. Sitting Shiva Behind Closed Doors

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... with walls and doors, but a “church” made up of a body indwelt by the Spirit of God and with the power to forgive, heal, bless, change the world. And with a courage that breaks free of the tomb of doubt. Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances are designed to break us free from our “tombs” and to unbolt us from our “walls,” our “locked doors,” and the limits of our belief, and to transport us into a new place, out of our comfort zones and into the realm of “anything is possible” in Christ ...

2746. The True Story Wins

Matthew 28:11-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... communities. Mark’s gospel was most likely written before the rumor took hold between the Jewish and Christian communities. John’s and Luke’s would have been directed more toward Gentile and Greek communities. This story, this “sleeping lie,” was designed to make sure that the people would let “sleeping dogs lie.” Despite this “lie”, the “true” story of Jesus’ resurrection spread and grew. The truth was hard even to accept by Jesus’ disciples. But one by one, one after another ...

2747. The Power of the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to Moses, and verse 3 says, “Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler” –“satan”! This “twist” makes the struggle Jesus undergoes in the wilderness almost humorous, as the voice of temptation quotes a “lie” from a “magical psalm” designed to protect one from exactly that lie! It’s a superb example of the kind of idolatry Jesus uses the words from Deuteronomy to set straight. Let no one among you practice charms ….(Deuteronomy 18:10) Jewish folk, like others in the ...

2748. A Man Under Authority / A Centurion's Faith, An Elder's Love

Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... life know that the wisest of leaders have around them a circle of advisors whom they trust implicitly to check them in areas in which they are unfamiliar or weak. A “leader” is made by a group of people, not by self-designation. And the best leaders are those who know how to follow and to trust. The military (represented in Jesus’ time by the Centurion) is an organization in which followership, not leadership, is most important. Following directions, orders, suggestions, is of utmost importance, not ...

2749. Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 5:33-39, Luke 6:1-11, Luke 7:18-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... eternity.” Jesus IS the Sabbath rest. In his responses, he emphasizes and reveals the loving and seeking character of God. Jesus tells us, the Sabbath was never meant to put humankind of bondage, but the opposite –to relieve humankind of “work,” and to designate alone time with God, celebration time and a recognition of belonging to the One True God. God made all things in relationship, and the Sabbath was a reminder of how important relationships are to God. In fact, the plucking of the grain is a ...

2750. Parabola

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... gospels. They may be interlaced with healing moments or explanations. But Jesus’ spent a large part of his time “teaching,” discussing, proclaiming, telling stories that let people know who he was and why he was with them. The parables were designed to increase faith, correct misunderstandings and misinterpretations about God, and to challenge preconceptions of the law. If Jesus’ stories don’t shock you, you haven’t put them into your own context. They were always lightning bolts when he told ...

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