Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2826 to 2850 of 4977 results

2826. Behold! Chariots of Fire!

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... fall in love, and the relationship deepens with all the time spent together ... and apart. The "call" soon becomes, "Will you marry me?" And the answers have a way of evolving, from, "Oh, be serious!" to "Yes! I will!" There are times when a way out seems quite attractive, and some take it. As a matter of fact, it does take a kind of disciple-like stubbornness for covenant love to grow into a faithful marriage. There is a call in that journey, like the call to ministry; like Elisha’s call to follow Elijah ...

2827. A Royal Lament

2 Samuel 1:1-16

Sermon

Roger Prescott

Introduction A bearer of news can be treated especially well, or, as in the case of the Amalekite who brought David the news of the death of Saul and Jonathan, quite badly. One of David’s greatest accomplishments was breaking the Philistines’ control over Canaan once and for all and shutting them up in the coastal plain (2 Samuel 5:17-25; 21:15-22). But at the time described in today’s text they were raising havoc with the Israelites - ...

2828. Celebration As Worship

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... writers saw God’s hand in things which we might attribute to natural causes. God’s presence generally means blessing and well-being, but God’s power can hurt when we are not careful. The Ark was just a box, physically speaking, and could be carried around quite easily. But it symbolized a God who could not be manipulated or carted around at will. Israel needed to be aware of God’s power and anger, just as much as did the Philistines. Good intentions are not enough. We need to keep the vision clear ...

2829. A Prayer of Wonder

2 Samuel 7:18-29

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... God. A young boy who had done something bad was told by his mother that he could not go to a picnic that had been planned for the next weekend. But when the day came she was sorry for him and told him that he could go. He seemed quite indifferent. She asked him, "Don’t you want to go?" He replied, "I’m sorry, but I have already prayed for rain." Such simple faith makes us smile a little, but perhaps this kind of acknowledgment is closer to the truth than our vapid utterings. In this prayer of ...

2830. Feet Of Clay

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... effect on him and many other people. Uriah would die, as would his first child. Perhaps a modern ditty could sum it up for us. Going against tried and true guidelines can turn things sour: The glances over cocktails that seemed to be so sweet do not seem quite so amorous over breakfast shredded wheat. - Benny Fields Our narrative began like this: In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle ... - 2 Samuel 11:1 It was also the time when romance was in the air. 2. Getting in deeper To ...

2831. A Grief Observed

2 Samuel 18:19--19:8

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... - authentic and universal. I’m sure we can extrapolate their spirit to the thoughts of King David when his son Absalom died. More important, perhaps they will speak for someone who grieves today at the loss of a loved one: It isn’t as if grief ever quite lets go. But now, except for some swift, unexpected moments, when the loss surges in upon me again, the wrenching pain is gone. Some of life’s mirth and merriment may be gone too. But sorrow becomes more like a minor chord in a symphony which, with ...

2832. An Unusual Legacy

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Roger Prescott

Introduction There are all kinds of documents that tell about a person’s life. Resumes, autobiographies and biographies, obituaries. Generally, they are quite flattering and they skim the cream from a person’s experiences. Failures, broken promises, crushed dreams, and major faults are not stirred to the surface for the public to see. Our real lives, on the other hand, are a blend of good and evil, strength and weakness, hope and despair. ...

2833. Bonhoeffer of Berlin

Acts 5:17-42

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

... help some other Christian pastors organize a Lutheran seminary to train pastors to serve congregations opposed to Nazism. I know that what we’re doing is illegal. But I believe we must. Pray for us. Your friend, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. ANTAGONIST: Some people never quit. It almost sounds as though Bonhoeffer had a death wish or something. PROTAGONIST: I’ve heard some people say that about the way Jesus did his ministry. It almost seemed as though he provoked his own death at Jerusalem. But looking back on ...

2834. She Forgave Me

Ephesians 4:32

Children's Sermon

Shirley Jennings

Object: A child around three years of age. Lesson: Sometimes children are frightened by their relatives and need to say so. The other day I was playing with my granddaughter at her house. She was sitting on my lap, facing me. She’s not quite as old as you are, [Susie,] but she’s about the same size you are. [Susie,] would you please sit on my lap for a minute like my granddaughter, [Angela,] was sitting on my lap that day? (Ask [Susie] before Sunday if she will do that. Practice with her to ...

2835. The Day the Lights Went Off

Psalm 139:1-24, Matthew 5:13-16

Children's Sermon

Shirley Jennings

Object: A warm sweater. Lesson: When the electricity goes off, we need to do things differently. That was quite a surprise we had the other day when all the lights blinked off and on a few times and then went off and stayed off for a long time. Because the electricity was off, our furnaces didn’t work, so we felt cold. What did you do to stay warm? ...

2836. Fighting and Loving

Romans 13:8-14

Children's Sermon

Shirley Jennings

... , so you try to take it away and that starts a fight. Maybe you just want something to do, so you start hitting and then you have a fight. When the fighting is over, do you forget about it and play together again? I hope you do. Fighting happens quite often, but even though it does, you can still love your sister or your brother or your best friend. As it says on this homemade valentine, "Because God loves us, we can love one another." God can help us forget about the fighting and remember to be loving.

2837. A Mountain Of Meaning

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . They demand that we be silent and listen. These moments have something to say to us, to teach us. But too often our response is like that of Peter, babbling absurdities because we cannot understand the significant, the meaningful moment. When Peter does finally quit talking nonsense a cloud appears, envelopes them, and the voice of God gives this instruction to Peter, James, and John: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!” That’s it. Very short. To the point. What Peter said made no sense ...

2838. What God Wants Us To Do

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Richard Patt

... the assumption in any of them that God might have something to say about our consuming habits? Or watch the human situations portrayed in the soap operas, as I know many of you do. These soaps deal with many of life’s heaviest questions. Yet (quite unrealistically, I believe) the soap characters are rarely portrayed as having a religious faith, and usually they settle their questions with no reference to God and his will at all. Are many of us as Christians much different? You would agree with me that we ...

2839. The Mystery of His Presence

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Richard Patt

... shape their thinking, to mold their motives, and to guide their words and actions. That would be "real religion," and they did not seem ready to give up that much of themselves! They would rather have God around when they needed him, and, after all, it is quite harmless to "attribute" our narrow escapes in life to a powerful and benevolent Father. So I further suspect that the real bottom-line question that all our previous questions press us toward is this one: Do I want Jesus Christ in my life as a living ...

2840. Religion in Focus

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon

Richard Patt

... organized Christianity! They also gave typically unfocused answers about Jesus. Our Lord was mostly perceived as a great religious figure of the past. An unfocused lens on the camera will not produce very good results. So are not Jesus and much of our religious activity quite meaningless because we don’t have them in focus? I suspect that’s the reason Jesus presses us with these questions, as he did his own disciples in the Bible reading. II Well, thank God, the whole purpose of the Bible is to bring ...

2841. Worthwhile Arguments

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Richard Patt

... the list - need to be on our guard about hurting other people’s feelings with our words. You see, in worthless arguments we become so centered on our ego, so intent upon winning a battle of words, that we can end up wounding another person’s feelings, often quite deeply. How many words would not most of us do anything to be able to take back - in the heat of an argument! Oh, friends, if you’re going to argue with your wife about whether to paint the bedroom blue or yellow, realize the limits built in ...

2842. Do Children Like You?

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Richard Patt

... ’s one of those questions that gets to the root of the matter. It quickly suggests most of the human qualities we ought to have as a loving and caring person. The presupposition, of course, is that if children like us and are drawn to us, we are probably quite close to the Kingdom of God in the sense of living out our Christian call to care and concern for others. In these sermon minutes, let’s look more closely at Jesus as the divine Son of God who had a heart for children and as that beautiful Savior ...

2843. What Do You Mean 'Born Again?'

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... fact, I experienced what is normally called religious experience when I was eighteen years old. In 1953, on Christmas Day, I went through what we call a religious experience. At best, I had been a humanist for the first eighteen years of my life. At worst, I was quite selfish and self-centered. God’s call to be a part of his Church and a minister for his mission is the most important change in my life. I wanted to tell everyone about it. I wanted to shout from the mountain tops, "Jesus Christ is alive and ...

2844. Then He Went Home

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... , having taken over his father’s business when Joseph died. He was the oldest son of Mary. In Jewish tradition everything fell to the oldest son when the father died. Jesus was responsible for his younger brothers and sisters. It must have caused quite a stir and some sharp criticism when one day it was discovered that the carpenter had turned itinerate preacher. The criticism grew sharper when Jesus returned home. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus had met and conferred with his cousin John the ...

2845. The Healing Community

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... drug problem? An emotional problem? A health problem? Jesus will start with you wherever you are willing to start. "Who touched me?" Jesus asked. She didn’t answer. She froze. Something had happened in her body. She felt it. Now something happened in her mind. Quite simply, she was afraid. She knew the Mosaic law which said that a woman with a flow of blood was considered unclean, like a leper. She was barred from worship services. She was shunned by her family and friends. Whatever we may think of these ...

2846. The Miracle of Re-Birth

John 3:1-21

Sermon

... ’s something much more amazing about all of this than at first meets the eye. It is this: God did not set up any requirements! The people are delivered simply by looking at the bronze snake! He didn’t say "when you prove yourself again," "if you quit your complaining," "if you show me you’re really sorry first," "when you begin to show some sincere thanks, then I will heal you and give you new life." No, this was an act of pure, unadulterated grace on God’s part. This rebirthing was completely his ...

2847. My Soul Is Glad - Because of God

Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

... get a picture of the human pain, or anguish, or disadvantage. Who is this person, this girl called Mary, the Mother of our Lord? She was a young girl, some think even as young as sixteen. In that day men were older when they married and women were quite young. She was also very poor, of a poverty which had no redeeming features. She referred to herself in this hymn of praise as "a handmaiden of low estate," which translates to deep, material poverty. That poverty can be indexed by the fact that in the land ...

2848. God's Verdict Upon The World (Looking At The World Through The Eyes of God)

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... the abbot and spoke his two words, "bad food." At the end of the second year the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke two more words, "hard bed". At the end of year three he came to the abbot and spoke his last two words, "I quit." The abbot responded, "Well its about time, because complain, complain, complain is all you’ve done since you came here." We humans are people of darkness. We complain, rebel, work against the Kingdom of God. Death is all we know. Lives filled with the patterns of sin ...

2849. The Orphan

John 14:15-31

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... older child. WYN: And you can't remember feeling loved? DALE: No. Never. WYN: Did you ever have a good friend? DALE: A good friend -- no. WYN: How about Jesus? DALE: I know what you're thinking -- Jesus is my friend; he died for me. Right? WYN: Well, that was quite friendly, wasn't it? DALE: Now that you mention it, it was. WYN: Well? DALE: I told you this need that I have because I thought you wouldn't give me a bunch of spiritual mumbo-jumbo. WYN: I didn't mean it to sound like spiritual mumbo-jumbo. I ...

2850. Memories

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... Mary felt, she believed that Jesus was her Savior. She believed in his Resurrection. She watched him die and then hurried back home again, we hear in the song, to get things ready for "when Jesus got back home." All these memories Saint Luke recorded for us quite a while after the Lord died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. One gets the distinct impression reading them that Mary looked back over our Lord’s whole life and saw how, from the very beginning, he came to be the Savior, to give joy to an ...

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