Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2776 to 2800 of 4490 results

2776. Balaam’s First Oracle

Numbers 23:1-12

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

Balaam’s Oracles: Balaam’s oracles comprise much of the rest of the Balaam cycle. Olson’s treatment of the first three oracles has shown clearly how the material is organized as a narrative. Olson has further noted that the account of the three oracles mirrors the account of the three encounters with Balaam’s donkey in chapter 22 (Numbers, pp. 145–47). Balaam is caught between God’s intention to bless and Balak’s desire for a curse, as the donkey was caught between Balaam and the angel. As Balaam’s ...

2777. Job Speaks

Job 3:1-26

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Job’s Protest out of Pain: Opening Curse: At last, Job himself breaks the protracted silence with an explosive speech. This passionate monologue, which stretches from 3:3–26, is divided into two sections: an opening curse (3:3–10); and a questioning lament (3:11–26). 3:1–2 An introduction that summarizes the coming monologue prefaces Job’s speech: After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. These words connect the prose prologue of the first two chapters (“after this”), with the ...

2778. A Hymn of Yahweh’s Kingship, an Oracle of David’s Kingship, and a Lament over David’s Defeat

Psalm 89:1-52

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

A Hymn of Yahweh’s Kingship, an Oracle of David’s Kingship, and a Lament over David’s Defeat Psalm 89, in its final form, is a royal prayer psalm. It has three distinct sections: a hymn celebrating Yahweh’s right to cosmic kingship (vv. 1–18); a prophetic oracle outlining the Davidic covenant (vv. 19–37); and a lament over the king’s battle defeat (vv. 38–51). The last verse is a doxology for Book III of the Psalter (note that each Book closes with a doxology) and not, therefore, a constituent part. The ...

2779. Mary's Song

Luke 1:46-56

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

The Births of John the Baptist and Jesus Foretold: One of the problems in comparing the Synoptic Gospels is accounting for the distinctive features of the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke. On the one hand, Matthew mentions an angelic announcement to Joseph (1:20), the Magi (2:1), a star (2:2), the flight to Egypt (2:13–14), and the slaughter of the infants (2:16). Luke’s account contains none of these items. Moreover, only Matthew cites Isa. 7:14 (see 1:23), Mic. 5:2 (see 2:6), Hos. 11:1 (see 2:15), ...

2780. Quail from the Lord

Numbers 11:4-35

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

The Beginnings of Rebellion: The journey has begun after the long and careful preparations. Now suddenly the reader is thrown into the rebellions that punctuate this journey. We have seen that the first ten chapters of the book prefigure this turn of events, but the overall positive tone and constant obedience of the people in those chapters are shattered by a sudden dominance of disobedience beginning immediately with chapter 11. From the theme of the right ordering of life as God’s people, we move to ...

2781. The Disciples' Grief Will Turn to Joy

John 16:17-33, John 16:5-16

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

The second farewell discourse runs most closely parallel to the first precisely where it is most properly a “farewell” (i.e., where it addresses directly the question of Jesus’ impending departure; cf. 13:33). Here, inevitably, is also where the differences between the two discourses become most noticeable. Whereas the first discourse was largely structured around a series of questions by various disciples, here the question-and-answer method seems to be consciously abandoned. The earlier discourse began ...

2782. The Servant of the Lord

Isaiah 42:1-9

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Servant and Covenant: Again Yahweh challenges opponents to come to court to argue out who is God (41:21–29). Again a passage about Yahweh’s servant (42:1–9) follows this court case. Again this leads into praise and a vision of Yahweh transforming nature (42:10–17). While the three sections parallel the preceding set of three, they take matters much further. 42:1a Following the description of the commitments Yahweh makes to servant Israel (41:3–16) is a description of the commitment that Yahweh’s servant ...

2783. The Reception was Excellent

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Do you mind if I start today with a terrible joke? Did you hear about the two TV antennas that got married? I understand that the wedding was terrible, but the reception was excellent! I’ll let you think about that for a moment. Our lesson today from the Gospel of John is about a wedding reception that went from a near disaster to a roaring success. And it became a roaring success, of course, because Jesus was there. You know the story well. “On the third day,” says John in his Gospel, a wedding took place ...

2784. Half To The Church

Humor Illustration

A man had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. He could receive little company and was not to be excited. While in the hospital a rich uncle died and left him a million dollars. His family wondered how to break the news to him with the least amount of excitement. It was decided to ask the preacher if he would go and break the news quietly to the man. The preacher went, and gradually led up to the question. The preacher asked the patient what he would do if he inherited a million dollars. He said ...

2785. Holy Matryoshka!

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

One of the most beautiful examples of Christmas cultural craftmanship are “matryoshkas.” Also known as Russian nesting dolls or Russian tea dolls, matryoshka are a set of wooden, beautifully hand-painted dolls in forms of cups that nest inside of each other. Originally made in 1890 by a wood carver named Vasily Zvyozdochkin of Russia from a design by Sergey Malyutin, a folk crafts painter, the outer layer originally depicted a traditional Russian peasant woman. Inside, each hand-painted doll cup figure ...

2786. Holy Hydration!

John 12:20-33 · Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Spirit soaked. That’s the state we are in when we are immersed in the Holy Spirit, marinated in God’s grace.It’s the only thing that got Jesus through his ordeal. And it’s the only thing that will get us through when difficulties come our way. The Holy Spirit is Healing. The Holy Spirit is Life. The Holy Spirit is Soul Sustenance, that spring of life that hydrates us, revives us, refreshes us, and renews us, even when we are in the worst of times and hardest of places. At the time of our scripture today, ...

2787. When the Way Is Hard

Matthew 26:14-27:66

Sermon

April Yamasaki

In the gospel of Matthew, the sweep of events from Judas’ decision to betray Jesus, through his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and burial takes less than fifteen minutes to read aloud. Yet the emotional intensity of these events makes for an exhausting read. Alone in my room, I could hardly make it through. If I were to read this as part of worship in my church, I’d want to skip the regular sermon and plan some silence to reflect and recover before we’d sing a song of response. Just imagine living and dying ...

2788. With Burning Hearts

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

April Yamasaki

My father-in-law loved to do jigsaw puzzles, and would always begin by separating the pieces according to color. He worked on a large surface, so he had room to spread out, with all of the blue pieces in one pile, all of the red pieces in another pile, all of the dark pieces together, and so on. For this initial sorting, he wasn’t concerned whether a blue piece was part of the sky or part of the water, or if a dark piece was part of a tree trunk or the side of a barn. Those finer distinctions would come ...

2789. Fear of Flying

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Jerry Angstrom had a fierce fear of flying. It’s not as though he had flown in a plane before. He hadn’t. Nothing bad had happened to him in the air or on the ground to make him fear the 747 that could take him on his vacation trip to Key West. He simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. Every time he thought about stepping onto the plane, his mind would race with thoughts of doom and gloom. “What if the plane crashed?” “What if the engine failed?” “What if it ran out of gas.” “What if I die?” The very ...

2790. Is This All There Is?

Revelation 21:1-6

Sermon

Will Willimon

“Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.” Last week I came to the office early, disposed of some correspondence, returned a few telephone calls, and had time on my hands by ten thirty. The students were in exams so it was unusually quiet around here. I decided to escape, to take the rest of the afternoon off. The warm April sun shone through the sun roof of my little Japanese bubble as I soared down 751, wind tousling my hair, sailing toward freedom, ...

2791. Against All Odds

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

Lori Wagner

In 2009, Simon Sinek came out with both a TED talk and book that changed the way business leaders looked at how to motivate their employees to support the company’s vision and work together toward company goals. They wanted to encourage company loyalty in a world in which job change had become common and wanted to ensure that their employees had the company’s best interests in mind. They also wanted to cultivate a loyal customer base, encourage others to try their brand, and cultivate new groups of buyers ...

2792. The Power Of Proximity

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Jill J. Duffield

Imagine being ostracized and isolated, forced to cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” wherever you went, commanded to make visible through your clothing and hair your already physically evident and painful condition. The writer of Luke said they should keep their distance. Those ten with leprosy didn’t dare get close to Jesus, they called out for mercy from a distance. And Jesus, traveling to Jerusalem, between Samaria, that place with those people who refused to welcome him and Galilee, the region where so much of ...

2793. Return To God

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

One Sunday morning, a teenage boy was awakened by his father. He followed his dad through the living room to look out the front window. His dad showed him that their trees were covered with toilet paper. In those days teenagers liked to "tee-pee" each other's houses. That meant wrapping toilet paper around trees and bushes as well as the house. The boy's parents never cared if they got "tee-peed." They just had a standing rule that whichever of their children's friends did it, that would be the one that ...

2794. An Extremely Odd Couple

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

There are only two characters in this short parable which Jesus told to his disciples. One is a man; the other, a woman. But what an odd pair they are. It is difficult to imagine a more striking contrast between two people than that between the judge and the widow. Neither is named, but their very titles suggest the contrast. "Judge" calls to mind authority, power, representative of the law, dispenser of justice. "Widow" in the culture of Jesus' time suggests helplessness, humility, poverty, vulnerability ...

2795. Plain Talk

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

Two men were traveling by light airplane to a business meeting in Alaska. Somewhere over the tundra the plane's motor failed and they were forced down. When they returned home each wrote an article for his favorite magazine about the resulting crisis. One was an avid outdoorsman and his article was titled, "Survival In The Frozen North." The other was very religious and his article was titled, "How Prayer Saved Me From The Wild Wolf Pack." The stories were about the same incident. The authors were ...

2796. The Hands And Arms Of Grace

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Glenn E. Ludwig

There is a wonderful story out of the Middle Ages that goes something like this. It seems people were putting pressure on the Pope, saying to him, "Your Holiness, this is the capital of Christendom. There ought to be only Christians in Rome. Let's get rid of the Jews." The Pope however, replied, "I don't know. Before I do anything, I will have a theological discussion with the chief rabbi of Rome. If the rabbi says the right things, the Jews will be allowed to stay. If he says the wrong things, they will ...

2797. Forsaking All Others

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

Can you see the young boys running through the city of Jerusalem yelling, "Blow the trumpets!" and the people of that city yelling back, "What?" "Blow the trumpets! Grab the shofar! We need to let everyone know!" And the people still scream back, "Why? What's going on?" The adults know that the blowing of the trumpets in Jewish tradition can only mean one of three things: 1) It's time to move camp (but wait, we haven't lived in tents for decades!); 2) We need to get ready for war (but I didn't know there ...

2798. No Apology

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

Sometimes it just takes boldness!\n "Tell me what my dreams means," bellowed the king. "And I want to know what the dream was, too! It was so terrifying that I can't remember it! Tell me now! If you don't, O wise men of Babylon, I will have all of you killed." That's the report Daniel heard in his prison cell as henchmen came to fulfill the king's earnest decree. "Wait, there's a God in heaven who reveals mysteries," delays Daniel, and with boldness in God and with confidence that God gives dream meanings ...

2799. Permission To Daydream

Joel 2:28-32, Joel 2:18-27

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

Manny pictured it in his mind. He would go to Harvard Law School and graduate with highest honors. He would come back home and run for office: mayor, state representative, governor, and finally, president of the United States. He could see himself doing important things in politics, helping people in significant ways. He would fight poverty, repair bridges and highways, clamp down on crime, and negotiate peace in different parts of the world. When he saw these things happen in his mind, a great big smile ...

2800. There's More To Thanksgiving

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Thomas G. Rogers

As Christian people we have come together to observe a time-honored American tradition. We have gathered for worship on Thanksgiving Day. Consequently, it may surprise you a little to learn that I plan to begin this sermon by telling you a story that could be labeled as downright un-American and blatantly non-Christian. Interestingly enough, it is possible that, if I had not said anything about it, you might have listened to this story and not have noticed anything unusual. In fact, even though I've now ...

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