Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2726 to 2750 of 4977 results

2726. God’s Great Promise To Sarah!

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... for housekeeping and hospitality but had to fill in wherever help was needed. And most of us assumed that was the way it was and was meant to be. I didn’t know it then, but a morning prayer in the Hebrew tradition described my attitude and feelings quite accurately, "I thank God that I was not born a woman." My mother handled this "second class" business very well. I suspect she too believed this was the way it was supposed to be. After all what are mothers for? But it was a most unfair and unjust ...

2727. Courageous Preaching

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... up his newspaper and began to read. (Don’t you get any ideas!) One thing could be said for the preacher in our text. He obviously didn’t bore people or put them to sleep with the sermon. We are told that the listeners, at least at times, became quite violent and volatile; "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." Such was the severe reaction this servant of God experienced as he demonstrated that he was not afraid to be ...

2728. All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... so how can they be one and the same? And all along we have been hearing about Israel’s lack of faith which doesn’t fit with the faith of the servant in our song. Though the identity of the servant is not clear, his purpose is quite clear. It was for the sickness and wrongdoing of others that he suffered and through his suffering others received peace and wholeness. We also know that this great text, with all its problems and questions, has exerted a strong influence on our Christian faith. Later on in ...

2729. Easter: The Festival Of Joy

Isaiah 25:1-12

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... Gospel of Matthew this very clear reminder by our Lord: "Do not look dismal, like the hypocrites." Webster tells us that "laugh" is the general word for the sounds made in expressing mirth and amusement. But it seems that religious people in particular are quite suspicious of mirth and amusement. H. L. Menchen once defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." There seems to be in many Christians a strong feeling that God is more pleased with sorrow than with joy. Too many ...

2730. Peter’s Second Sermon

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... his great suffering. We had many conversations. We talked a lot about healing. He wanted my opinion about going to Lourdes, France, a place made famous for its healing miracles. He got around to asking me if I would conduct a healing service for him. I was quite reluctant. I didn’t want to be a promoter of false hopes. But he persisted and I gave in. With several deacons from the congregation and other close friends we held a healing service in his hospital room. I did not give orders to God that my ...

2731. Christian Courage

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... for him, to break the law for the sake of his conscience. John Bunyan was poor. He had a wife and four children who were dependent upon him. He had little political clout and virtually no status. All he had to do to avoid prison was to quit preaching because the law said that preaching could only be done in the established church. Martin Luther told the government, "Here I stand! I can do no other!" John Bunyan refused to give any promise that would bind his conscience, and because of it, remained a ...

2732. The Church Reaches Out!

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... ’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ ... (Ephesians 4:13-16) So in God’s power to change our lives, we are going to quit offering excuses for not participating in our congregation’s learning program. Rather we are going to get on our own soap boxes and open our mouths to the need of adult education, and by our examples become visible in the opportunities that are offered. We may even ...

2733. When God Was Nothing

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

... today but I know that when words fail us we often turn to music and poetry to describe the indescribable. It was no different with Paul in the first century. Look how Chapter 2 begins. He is trying to connect with his readers and he doesn't quite know how to do it. He wants them to have love, one for another, the way that Christ loved them. He starts out by asking, "What have you received from Christ?" Have you received encouragement? Did you find comfort? Perhaps you have enjoyed the fellowship of the ...

2734. The BIG Rules

Exodus 20:1-21

Children's Sermon

Mary O

... God’s gift to us and guide the way we should live our lives. Lesson: Good morning! Some of you have been in school or preschool for a while now. I have a question. How many rules did your teacher set for your class? (Response. Hopefully this will range quite a bit.) When I was your age, I had a few teachers who had lots of rules. I think my second grade teacher had a separate rule for every occasion. Sometimes it felt like I couldn’t turn around without breaking a rule! But other teachers only had one ...

2735. The Ten Commandments - Part 3

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... the fact that when Moses originally read this commandment to the Hebrews, he was not addressing the children, he was addressing the adults. Therefore, it was not the intent of this commandment to get the young people to fetch water, or clean out their tent, or quite asking for use of the camel on Saturday night. Rather, this was originally meant to be a way of honoring those who were aging in society. In other words, we are to view this commandment as children looking up, not as parents looking down. Now, I ...

2736. The Path of Quality

Drama

William Grimbol

... , or my own effort to pass this eternal faith test, has really evolved out of my own experience and observation of Life. For me ... well ... I believe that Christ entered Jerusalem, at the peak Passover tourist season, on the back of an ass, because there was, quite simply, NO WAY TO AVOID THE CROSS. Too stark ... too simple ... too sentimental an answer? Sorry, but if, as I believe, that Christ’s entire Life is a testimony to the Truth, then the Truth revealed here is this ... Life is at times brutal and ...

2737. The Jericho Road: Where the Action Is

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... But Jesus never saw human need as an intrusion. He talked with the man, heard his appeal, and healed his blindness, so that the man went on his way whole and rejoicing. Jesus then entered Jericho, and as he was passing through it, he encountered a quite different situation. At least, it was different on the surface, though it seems that a common chord runs through all our human need. At any rate, in this instance Jesus met what may well have been the richest man in Jericho, the tax collector, Zacchaeus. As ...

2738. Stewards of Our Money

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... , "I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had." (Mark 12:43-44) Jesus, in this story, is quite clear. It’s not the size of the gift, but the proportion of what we have had given to us that we turn back to the Almighty. Others, much more wealthy than this widow, did a lot more good for the temple treasury that day. They gave out of their ...

2739. Resurrection: From Sin to a Second Chance

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... incensed. He demanded to know the rich man’s name so that he could be punished. Nathan said simply, "That man is you." It was here that the staff of God shot out and turned David around. The truth hit him and he saw himself for what he was. He quit saying, "At least I’m not ..." and started saying, "My God, I am ..." Jesus reaches out with the staff of truth when he says, "Judge not lest ye be judged ..." "Don’t try to take the speck out of your brother’s eye, when you have a two-by-four ...

2740. Resurrection: From Burn-Out to New Vision

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... of attention of an entire nation, felt miserably lonely. The man who had communicated with God on the mountain top, felt far away from God in the valley. The man who had called down fire from heaven, was totally burned-out himself. Elijah burned-out when he quit running on faith and began running on fear. Whether you think of yourself as a person of faith or not, there have been times in your life when you have run on faith, just as Elijah did in his contest with the prophets of Baal. Like Elijah, you ...

2741. Resurrection: From Brokenness to Wholeness

Matthew 15:29-39

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... was always the last. And here he was again, following the people out of the town, last in line as the procession came to an open area of high grass. Jahmai knew that his leg would always limit him. He knew that forever he would be not quite right, hindered from the sort of completeness that other children knew. His mother had simply raised her eyes heavenward when asked about it. There was no answer. The hard delivery that she had known with Jahmai was long-since forgotten as other children were born. The ...

2742. A Man Who Wanted to Burn a City

Luke 9:46-50

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... , "Look, Lord, I rebuked the man. I told him he must stop his work." I can picture Jesus as he replied, "Hold on, John. Take it easy. He’s a good man; he’s doing what he can. Don’t disturb him. Simmer down." The Bible doesn’t put it quite that way, but basically, that’s what Jesus had in mind (Mark 9:38-40). A while later, Jesus sent some disciples ahead to a Samaritan village, that they might find a place to spend the night. When the Samaritans learned that a group of Jews was planning to stay ...

2743. A Man With a Scalpel and a Pen

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... and a pen:" with a scalpel, because he was a doctor. ... with a pen, because he was an author. Probably the first place we meet Luke (although his name is not used) is when Paul was on his second missionary journey (Acts 16). Paul wasn’t quite able to make up his mind which direction to carry the Gospel. He started in one direction, then said, "I was forbidden to go that way." He turned in another direction, and then repeated, "The Holy Spirit interfered and wouldn’t permit me." Finally, he ended up ...

2744. William Booth and His Hallelujah Army

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... God" (The General Next to God, by Richard Collier). About the time Amelia Jenks Bloomer of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was calling for women’s suffrage, Catherine Booth of London was calling for women to occupy the pulpits of our churches. The Booths had quite an influence on the use of music as part of evangelistic services. In 1878, William hired three people to play brass just to accompany hymns, and thus the first Salvation Army band was born. Interesting it is that, like Martin Luther, Booth took popular ...

2745. Shepherds and Bathrobes

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Thomas Long

... of neighborhood boys, the very ones we have seen kicking a soccer ball across the front yard, will stand on a hillside of indoor-outdoor carpet, guarding cardboard and cotton-ball sheep with makeshift staffs, their terry-cloth bathrobes almost, but not quite, hiding their worn Adidas sneakers. Suddenly a gauzily angelic version of the little girl from next door will burst onto the scene, lisping the good news through the gap where her next tooth will eventually grow. Other angels will soon join her, their ...

2746. Party in Room 210 ... Everyone Invited

John 1:35-42

Sermon

Thomas Long

... call, so he approached another faculty member, the ethicist H. Richard Niebuhr, with his concern. Niebuhr puffed on his pipe, laughed gently, and responded, "What does it take to make up a ‘call’ for you, Muehl? What you had planned to do with your life was quite literally eating you up inside, driving you ... to consider alternatives. I can’t imagine a better call outside the Bible."2 What does it take to make up a "call" for you? That’s an intriguing question, and one which lies at the heart of ...

2747. What Do You See?

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Thomas Long

... own reliance upon the grace of Christ reinforced by the experience. Several months after the shelter was opened, one of the pastors of the church was being interviewed on a radio talk program. The interviewer was an opinionated fundamentalist whose biases were quite strong. It became clear during the interview that he felt that the church ought to stick to the business of preaching the old-time gospel and stay away from meddlesome activities like shelters for homeless people. "Now just tell me," he jeered ...

2748. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

... suffering and who chooses not to bear this in silence. He loudly laments, crying angrily to God that his fate is unjust, indeed, that God is unjust. It would seem that he had fallen into the snare of temptation, but he confesses: I want to blaspheme, and I can’t quite manage it. I go up against [God], I shake my fist, I froth with rage, but it’s still a way of telling Him that He’s there ... that denial itself is an offering to His grandeur. The shout becomes a prayer in spite of me.2 Sometimes, when ...

2749. Practicing Righteousness

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... walking towards the altar playing the trumpet with one hand and holding his offering high with the other. Jesus says NO to that practice of almsgiving, that kind of offering, that kind of public righteousness. But let us not judge the trumpet playing man too quickly. Quite often we have our own ways, don’t we, of publicly practicing our offerings? I certainly always liked it when the list of figures was posted of the number of people (no names were given), who gave $1 weekly, $5 weekly, $10 weekly, and so ...

2750. We Wish To See Jesus

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... wish to see Jesus. I can direct them to the portraits of Jesus the Answer Man. People who live in bondage to the structures of life may wish to see Jesus. I can direct them to the portraits of Jesus as the Victor over all oppression. This list, quite obviously, could go on and on. You are undoubtedly familiar with the many different ways there are to speak about Jesus. But let us do something else. Let us look back at our story. What did Jesus himself do or say when Philip and Andrew brought the question ...

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