Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2776 to 2800 of 4972 results

2776. God Gives the Pharisees the Finger!

John 7:25-44, John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... who forsake you shall be ashamed. Those who depart from me….their names shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water! Listen to these words in Hebrew: O YHVH, the baptizer/immerse of Israel, all those who leave your way shall be put to shame, those who turn aside from my ways will have their names written in the dust and blotted out, for they have departed from YHVH, the fountain of the waters of Life. Before our story begins, Jesus has just announced ...

2777. Revised and Revisioned

John 8:48-59, John 9:1-12, John 9:13-34, John 9:35-41, John 10:1-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care ... adulteress woman. After a confrontation with them concerning his identity as Son of God, they want to stone him, so he leaves the Temple and moves on, encountering the man blind from birth. This is never a coincidence really! Just after Jesus had ...

2778. The Light That Dwells Among Us

Matthew 16:13-20, Matthew 16:21-28, Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of life, the Light of the world. Even with Jesus light, the best we can see is “through a glass darkly;” but Jesus doesn’t leave us alone in the dark. Let us all now come forward to the altar, and be bathed in the Light of Christ. As more and more ... arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You ...

2779. Redeemed

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... handsome baby spruce tree. For many days, he nurtured the spruce inside the living room of the Master’s drawing room. But as he told the tree, someday, he would need to leave the comfort of his home, and go outdoors into the woods. The little tree sobbed. He wanted to be in the Greenhouse with the other plants. He didn’t want to leave his friends. Why did he have to go outdoors into the cold, when all of his friends were nurtured and watered and fed daily by the Master himself inside of the comfortable ...

2780. Grounds for Blessing

Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:1-15, Mark 4:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to the altar and ask Jesus to come into your heart, to take root, to grow with you. Tell Him you are ready for Him to change you and love you. Tell Him you love Him too. No matter what place your life is in, I guarantee you, you will leave differently than when you came in today. Litany: Prayer of those coming forward: “Jesus, come into my heart and take root in me. I ask you to change my life.” Response of pastor: [laying on of hands]: “May Jesus dwell within you, may He bless your life, by the power ...

2781. Lazarus

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to keep them alive. We treat our dogs better than that. Now let me tell you a story that Jesus told. There was a man who through no fault of his own was struck with leprosy, a severe form of skin disease that eats away at the flesh leaving open oozing sores. Once a prominent and upright member of his Jewish Temple society, upon learning of his disease, he was cast out of his community by the High Priest and forced to be dependent upon others for his basic needs. Having lost his job and reduced to begging ...

2782. Wicked

Luke 20:9-19, Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... lives are a living metaphor for the glory and wonder of the Lord. All our fruit belongs to the Lord. All of our lives, our ministry, our church, our souls –they belong to the Lord Our God, they exist “to serve at the Lord’s pleasure.” Today, as you leave this place, know that you carry that garden with you. God’s estate is not just this church, but everywhere that you are as one of God’s people. When you live as a soul of praise to the Lord, you seed God’s gardens everywhere in the world, so ...

2783. Higher Ground

Luke 24:36-49, Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in all of them. The time of ascension is the time when God’s Son has completed his physical time on earth and will now sit at the right hand of the Father, with wounded hands and feet. He is our High Priest, bestowing his final blessing before leaving God’s mission in the hands of his disciples. “The glory of the LORD went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it.” (Ezekiel’s Vision of God’s Restoration) And in a sense, this place too is Jesus’ favorite place. Here, on ...

2784. Lord of the Harvest

Matthew 9:35-38, Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the Coming Harvest and Sending into the Field (10:1-24) Minor Text The Story of God’s Gift of the Torah on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19 and 34) The Lord’s Command to Celebrate the Feast of Weeks (Deuteronomy 16 and Exodus 23:14-19 and Leviticus 23) Leave Some Grain in the Field for Foreigners and Others (Deuteronomy 24:19-22) David and the Threshing Floor and the Judgment of the Lord (2 Samuel 24) The Crossing of the Jordan with the Ark on Dry Ground During God’s Harvest (Joshua 3) Psalm 23: The Shepherd of ...

2785. Vetted

Luke 3:21-38, Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... shows the contractor a blueprint. But the owner won’t see the finished house until many months or years later. The owner leaves the contractor to it, trusting that the contractor will follow the plan or, if the plan changes, there is a conversation. Then ... to be up, and when it was, I was in full-on search mode for my cell phone amid all of my unpacked stuff. I remembered leaving it on the stack of boxes for the guest room, but I also mumbled, rather cynically, that the “damn dog probably hid it on me.” ...

2786. Secret Savior

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... originally written in Hebrew, particularly Matthew’s. This is attested to also by Jerome, Irenaeus, and Papias in documents they left for us. The gospel was said to have been kept in the Library at Caesarea but subsequently burnt by Athanasius I in 367 CE, leaving only the later Greek versions. The Hebrew version follows: At that time Yeshuwa said to his disciples: “When you pray do not raise your voice and do not be like the profane idol worshippers who love to pray in the synagogues and in the corners ...

2787. A Piggy Pudding

Matthew 8:28-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... done. One miracle. Thousands evangelized. I don’t know what the disciples were doing or thinking through all of this. Perhaps they were hiding in the boat. Perhaps they were huddled behind Jesus. Perhaps they were the first to flee when he was asked to leave. But what they came back with was a renewed respect for their master, and a renewed realization of the awesome and comprehensive and universal power of God! Jesus went from the land of figs to the land of pigs and entirely stunned an entire country ...

2788. Are You a Lemming or a Lassie?

Luke 12:13-21, Luke 12:22-34, Luke 12:35-48, Luke 12:49-53, Luke 12:54-59

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... will be expected. Of you much will be asked. Come now to the altar. Receive a scrap of material. You can keep it somewhere safe. You can tie it around your neck. You can do with it whatever you wish. But this scarf is to remind you that when you leave this place, you are on a mission for Jesus in the world, to gather, to proclaim, to serve, to save. Of you much will be expected. Of you much will be asked. But the reward will be oh so great! Amen. Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text Jesus’ Parable ...

2789. Liminal Space

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... having found that you yourself have traveled somewhere new, whether in mind or heart. It’s the same with movies. How many of you love to go to the movies? And what happens? For a little bit of time, usually an hour and a half or so, you leave your own reality, and you enter into a different place, a different time, another reality, in which something is happening --or not happening, if you’ve seen the recent “Manchester by the Sea” (2016). But like a good book, a good movie too will lead you into a ...

2790. The Bramble King

John 15:1-17, John 15:18--16:4, John 16:5-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... distracted by all that glitters and gleams in the world out there? You can’t lie to yourself forever. And you can’t lie to God. Where is your heart? Jesus already knows. This morning, I invite all of you along with me to come forward to the altar. Just leave your pews, and make a commitment today right now to let Jesus abide in you. It doesn’t matter about your past. It doesn’t matter how exhausted you feel, or how much you feel you’ve failed in life. Jesus makes it all new. Have you ever seen a ...

2791. Deep Faith

Genesis 6:1-8:22, Genesis 5:1-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... your mind is no longer in control, and your heart knows Jesus. Deep prayer is that whale’s belly of longing for God, the place in us that remembers…. God …… the spirit in us that needs….God. And yet deep prayer requires deep faith, that driving courage to leave the known behind, to open your eyes to know those deep, deep places of the heart, to enter into an unknown place of no return. For The Deep will change you. Once you enter The Deep, you can no longer be content to live in the shallows. From ...

2792. Identity Crisis

Genesis 32:1-21, Genesis 32:22-32, Genesis 33:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... scars tell our stories. Stories of the struggles we’ve survived. Stories of the wounds we’ve suffered. They leave a visible trace upon our person, a reminder of endurance, and often lessons learned, relationships broken, relationships healed. They ... livestock that go before me, and the children, are able to endure, until I come to my lord in Seir.” And Esau said, “Now let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my ...

2793. God's GPS

Genesis 28:10-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He ... whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.' טז וַיִּיקַץ י� ...

2794. The Apothecary

Isaiah 40:1-31, Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"” (Isaiah 52:7) [Optional opening: Jesus spent his ministry doing three things: Preaching, Teaching, Healing. Those who go to seminary to be pastors and priests arrive with the expectation that they’ll leave as a great preacher. Some arrive hoping they’ll leave as a great teacher. But how many go to seminary to learn how to be a great healer? But if we were to rank the three for the 21st century, maybe we ought to reverse the three and start with healing ...

2795. Song of the Sabbath

Genesis 1:1-2:3, Luke 5:33-39, Luke 6:1-11, Luke 7:18-35, Mark 2:18-22, Mark 2:23-3:6, Mark 3:7-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... time out from time, in which we are scheduled, and busy, and focused on doing, and to take time to enter into God-time, that fullness of time, in which we just can “be,” in which the Eternal presence of God interrupts time for a brief time, and we can leave all that interrupts us, bothers us, worries us, harms us behind us, and revel in the joy of God’s presence and power. We can take time out of time to recognize the hand and the outstretched arm of God in our lives, and to feel God’s smiling face ...

2796. You Are Gifted

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... heart and in your community. Today, I invite you to come forward to receive one of the ribbons tied today to the manger. As we leave our time of Christmastide, I challenge you to take with you a reminder of God’s great gift, the gift of Jesus in your ... you will open your heart to release your giftedness into the world, so that you can be a gift in someone else’s life. Then as you leave today, gift that ribbon to someone else. Tie it in a bow on their finger, or on a package, or on a bit of money, or on ...

2797. Emergency!

Genesis 11:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... our times when we’ve been caught in fires of destruction and despair. God’s presence appears to us like that saving ladder of hope…..leaving us only to say, “God was here with me all the time….and I did not know it!” God is our Bethel. And we ... offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place ...

2798. Stop the PANIC!

Luke 15:1-32 · Exodux 15:1-27--16:36 · Psalm 23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... past. Shadows can be reflections of what we have been or glimpses of a darkness that follows us and threatens to envelope us. They can be former guilt or shame, those feelings that distort. For shadows are often larger than truth. We don’t need to leave our shadows behind. They follow us, because they are our past…and they remind us of where we’ve been. But meanwhile, we need to keep traveling toward the Light. In this way, dark valleys, dark times, times of confusion or times of circling the forest ...

2799. Holy Goat!

Leviticus 16:1-34, John 20:24-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... with faith, but renews his faith. Faith he already has. But it has been cloaked in fear, covered in doubt. Jesus removes from Thomas his anxiety, his mistrust, his confusion, and his hesitation. He relieves Thomas of his never-ending vicious circle of uncertainty and leaves him at peace. For peace is what Jesus offers us. Jesus releases us from the captivity of our doubt, frees us from our places of anxiety, and restores us to shalom. We all get locked into vicious cycles of uncertainty. I like to call it ...

2800. Scroll Bread and Honey

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... you’ll gain status and be admired! Wear this and you’ll be classy! Buy this car, and your relationships with your friends will improve! I could go on and on. These messages that we are consuming may be tasty and even fun. But they still leave us hungry, especially the costly ones. In fact, after a while, they grow real stale. We get tired quickly from this style, or that vacation, or even that car. When the intrigue wears off, there is no real sustenance remaining, and we are left wanting .... wanting ...

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