Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2726 to 2750 of 3926 results

2726. Personal Politics

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... norm. Significantly to the contrary, the scriptures raise high the importance of the individual and the responsibility of the person. In fact, much of economic capitalism, psychological personhood, and political democracy are rooted in and supported by serious reflections on theologies and philosophies drawing on orthodox Christian perspectives. Yet, our strong obsession with personal rights and self-absorbed experientialism turns our attention too much toward myopic self-interest and away from group ...

2727. Political Pardon

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... to start a new life on the farm, and Mom became his partner in the enterprise. There was only one problem — Dad had an older brother who was destined to take over the family agricultural enterprise, and there was not enough work or income to support two families. So Dad began to look for other opportunities. For a while he drove a cattle truck, bringing fattened animals to the sales stockyards in south Saint Paul. But then a farming assistant job became available in the neighborhood. There was an older ...

2728. Masks

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... function in their daily work. Most of us do not have to hide in such an extreme way, but all of us hide at least occasionally. Sometimes that is a positive thing. Counselors and pastors must set aside, or mask off, their own problems while they are supporting someone else through a crisis. Sometimes masks are not so benign. The wolf in sheep's clothing is a menace to all who fail to see through the disguise, and we have all had our fill of corrupt business and political leaders who hide behind a filibuster ...

2729. What About the Baby?

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

Tony Everett

... if you look a leprechaun right in the eyes he will steal your bag of gold?" Good try, Dad. Adam will be fine. So will your baby daughter, Caroline, and your wife, Christy. Indeed, they were and they are. Their love for each other, the support of friends and family, and especially the love of God carried them through a challenging, anxiety-filled Christmas-time journey. We might not get everything just right. We might not always understand everything. We might not even want to face the life challenges ahead ...

2730. Restoration Frustration

Isaiah 63:7-9

Sermon

Tony Everett

... when folks begin to "recount the gracious deeds and praiseworthy acts of the Lord" (Isaiah 63:7). Times of transition and tragedy, anxiety and sorrow will be the very times when folks describe how God's mercy and steadfast love has restored and supported them. Listen for powerful stories of renewal, particularly now during the Christmas season. Listen for what new power the baby, God's Word made flesh, brings to the dark spaces of living. Listen for how God's presence transforms even the most "pooped ...

2731. The Porch Light's On

Isaiah 60:1-6

Sermon

Tony Everett

... experience of God's children in our text. The hope of a glorious return from captivity had diminished into a dimly burning wick. Even that tiny spark of hope was nearly extinguished when they observed the enormous construction tasks and the lack of enthusiastic support from the people who had remained. It would be easy to simply give up and get used to it. Maybe this happens to us as well. In difficult, dark, disappointing situations that assail us, we first follow any sort of light — gimmick — promise ...

2732. Backseat Drivers: Named, Claimed, Commissioned

Isaiah 49:1-7

Sermon

Tony Everett

... Come on, Kathy," urged Pastor Michael, "we have one more stop on our memory walk. Let's go into the sanctuary." Together they stopped at the baptismal font. "Here is where your mother and father promised to introduce you to an enormous family who would support you always. Here is where God named and claimed you and chose you as a child in God's forever family," said Pastor Michael. Kathy remained silent still clutching the towel around her arm. Yet she allowed the pastor to lead her down the center aisle ...

2733. Sleeping through the Alarm

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... falters while there is plenty of money for weapons and destruction, what do we hear from the voice of the holy? We are the wealthiest people on the planet. As starvation and disease stalk the earth, are we called to offer solutions? As the very environment that supports life is unraveling because of us, how are we called to behave? Though the sound is unpleasant, and the waking is no fun, I want to suggest that both our nation and our church have need of an alarm clock, or maybe as Joel suggests, a trumpet ...

2734. Can These Bones Live?

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... eye was shocked by a vista of death. Everywhere there were bones. Everywhere. As we read Ezekiel, this type of photo comes to mind. It’s one thing to witness piles of bones everywhere. It’s quite another to call to mind the life that those bones once supported. In our biblical passage today, the Lord brings Ezekiel out to view the wasteland. And it is not some distant glance, but an intimate tour of the valley. "He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley; and they were very dry ...

2735. This Is In the Bible?

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... early church did indeed try to live this way. In fact, there are still Christian communities across the globe striving to reach for this ideal. And it's not just me. We, as a community committed to authenticity, really must confront the depth of this passage and all that supports it as we seek to be faithful. Do we trust one another? Do we trust God? Forgive me, but I assume that no one sitting here today is about to turn everything they own over to the church. Is that right? That being the case, I think it ...

2736. Whosoever Will

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... to be saved and others not to be. This idea was called "predestination," but it was not a totally new idea. Saint Augustine spoke of it as early as the fourth century, and there are a few verses in the New Testament that seem to support the idea. But it waited for John Calvin to develop it fully. Here's how Calvin actually stated predestination: That, God, by an absolute decree, hath selected to salvation a very little number of men without regard to their faith or obedience whatsoever; and hath secluded ...

2737. To Say Elohim

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... is whatever actually happened. In other words, there is the reality of how the child died, and any opinion of the death that doesn't match that reality is wrong, regardless of how strongly held the opinion is or of how much circumstantial evidence there is to support it. By the same logic, regardless of our personal opinions about what God is, to say Elohim reminds us that there is an objective reality of what God actually is. But there is more: If you can say Elohim it doesn't matter much how you interpret ...

2738. The Land Where Our Fathers Had Lived

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... child of God's promise and the heir of God's covenant with Abraham. He, too, lived out his days as an alien, a sojourner, there in the land of Canaan. We do not see much of Isaac in his own right. His character, it seems, is always as a supporting actor, never the star. First, he plays the part of Abraham's son: the fulfillment of God's promise, the object of Ishmael's antagonism, and the symbol of God's great test of Abraham's faith and obedience. Isaac's next major role is almost entirely offstage. Like ...

2739. The Victory Is Ours

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... now and then, perhaps we were not living out our faith in the way Jesus instructed us. As we discovered, in Jesus' ministry there were times when those in positions of power took exception to his teachings. The religious leaders who should have been supportive of Jesus and his ministry were the very ones who plotted against him. The apostles experienced personal hardship as they told others about Jesus, as did many early Christians. It is not easy following Jesus, whose teachings and way of life seem to run ...

2740. Dare to Be Different

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... variety of persons into the household of faith. Now the challenge to "dare to be different" is not just to be different from the surrounding pagan world, but to be different from one another in matters of belief and lifestyle, while still accepting and supporting each other as sisters and brothers in Christ. That is part of what it means to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh," with its selfish and contentious nature. Paul continues his argument in chapter 14 with two examples ...

2741. Set Apart at Christmas

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... (see Isaiah 44). And it is not useful because the Pharisees of Jesus' day were set apart by their religious devotion (somewhat misdirected as it may have been) but not by non-participation in society. In fact, as a relatively small lay movement, most Pharisees supported themselves by normal jobs and pursued their extraordinary devotion to the law on their own time, as it were. Paul, we know, was a tentmaker or leather worker; Nicodemus may well have come to Jesus by night in John 3 because of his day job ...

2742. Showing Up

Ephesians 3:1-12

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... -5 While it is not clear how much Saul knew about the life and ministry of Jesus (remember that his writings preceded that of the gospels), he may well have known the tradition that Jesus even presumed to quote this law in a context that supported his ministry. As far as he was concerned, Jesus was more out of place in his religious community than that wedding crasher at the chapel. And he certainly was not as harmless. But something dramatic happened: "For surely you have already heard of the commission of ...

2743. Caught in the Middle

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... have found themselves similarly stretched. They were trying to be good Roman citizens in a context in which some of their faithful behavior, let alone their religious commitment, would have been suspect. Furthermore, they would not have enjoyed the kind of social support we, as American Christians, take for granted. They were a small group in a big place. Somebody has suggested that locating a Christian house church in Corinth would have been akin to trying to find the Swedenborgians in Kansas City. I haven ...

2744. The Way Things Are

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... , powerful, or of noble birth. Obviously "not many" implies that some were. And this is in accord with what we know of the very early Christian community from scripture and other early accounts. Luke speaks of the women of means who followed Jesus and supported him. Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Crete (Acts 13:6-12), Erastus, the city treasurer mentioned in Romans 16, although he may well have been from Corinth, and various women of means mentioned at Thessalonica and Berea, all remind us that the first ...

2745. Hidden in Plain Sight

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... by people who have dropped out of church, especially youth and young adults. Many people assume that Christianity is dull, boring, and for the mindless. Unfortunately, like portions of 1 Corinthians we have already examined, today's chapter has been used to support an uneducated, unthinking approach to Christianity that Paul clearly did not intend. One of my colleagues has that poster distributed by the Episcopal church that shows the head of Christ with the caption, "He came to save your soul, not your ...

2746. Will It Last?

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... -century ago, the little college at which I worked offered a scholarship for one year of study to a church official from Liberia who needed updating in business and accounting practices. Since this was a mature individual with a wife and children to support, leaving them for a whole year was a big deal, particularly since the scholarship covered his expenses at school but little else. Nonetheless, this was an important opportunity, and he prepared diligently so that when he set off for America it looked as ...

2747. Yes, You

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sermon

David O. Bales

... visiting the sick and people in hospitals, expressing care for them, offering prayer, and sharing their faith. Ministry doesn't have to be hoarded by pastors. In that congregation, a man came to my office one day and talked about a youth home that our congregation supported. He said they needed a new dormitory and suggested our congregation could raise $50,000. I said I liked the idea and told him to take his proposal to the mission committee. I told the committee I'd help in any way they wanted. Twice they ...

2748. Surprises

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... death in us. God's working in our lives isn't obvious every minute. Sometimes you have to do a little research to perceive what God accomplishes in quiet ways in ordinary people to bring life out of death. We trust that God will restore us, support us, strengthen us, and establish us. Because the Christian faith isn't centered on the pastor or on the devil or any individual but on God's surprising, recurring grace in Jesus. We'll trust that Jesus' death and resurrection are the pattern of God's continuing ...

2749. Seeing God Work for Good

Romans 8:26-39

Sermon

Larry Lange

... agriculture has blossomed in the hearts of thousands of farmers around the world in ways we could have never imagined back in 1991. Organic farm products of all kinds are becoming available in stores. Christians have worked together to support sustainable farming efforts among coffee, tea, sugar, and cocoa growers around the world by purchasing their crops at prices that actually reflect the costs of production. These family farmers are, in turn, providing education and health care for their communities ...

2750. The Armor of Light

Romans 13:8-14

Drama

Larry Lange

... it seems to me that you've got this armor of light thing all wrong. Harry: How's that Margaret? (begins coming out from behind the box) Margaret: First of all, you just can't go around quoting one line of scripture here and another line there to support your own sick and twisted point of view, Harry. Harry: You insulted me, Margaret! You're liable to the hell of fire! Margaret: Someone will need to keep you company there, Harry. You have to understand every line of scripture in its context, Harry; how it's ...

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