Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2851 to 2875 of 4963 results

2851. Gomer, God's "Yet"

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Sermon

Richard L. Sheffield

... is one of them. The only way to get this done is to preach the lessons in the middle of this summer. So here we are hoping to hear God's word in this story about Hosea and Gomer. Because we live in northwest Ohio, the first thing I need to tell you ... Welsh people (Genesis 10:2). Actually it would've been a better story if it had been named for Hosea's wife and I was hoping, but our church member, Martha Evans, a lifelong resident of Gomer set me straight. Hosea's wife, Gomer, was not nice. I'm trying to ...

2852. Week Two Of Lent

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... that they have transgressed God's law. That is why they have been placed in the hands of the Babylonians. The Hebrews have sinned and done evil in God's sight. The people are ashamed of what they have done. But the people have hope; this they never lose. The people realize that God is full of compassion and forgiveness. Although transgressions have occurred, the forgiveness of God will break through and the people will eventually be returned to their native land of Israel. The confidence that is expressed ...

2853. Week One Of Lent

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... all Jews, then in captivity in Babylon, slaughtered out of the treachery of Haman. Esther, as we hear in today's reading, cries to God about the plot she has discovered. She places all of her trust and confidence in God. God alone is her help and the only hope of her people as well. Esther realizes that God alone can save her. In the Gospel today Jesus speaks of God as a father who gives his children all that they need. God can only give good things. Jesus knows that good parents want to help their children ...

2854. Why A Cross?

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... your government for these young men who took the life of our son. In order to give evidence of our sincere hope contained in this petition, we have decided to send money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social guidance of ... these young men. We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the Gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of us all.4 The cross is ...

2855. Standing On Two Feet

Psalm 14:1

Children's Sermon

Kenneth Mortonson

... need to learn the things that are offered to you on Sunday in the church school program. This is like the second foot that enables you to stand or move about through life. So, I hope you will remember how important it is to get a complete education. Your Sunday education is just as important as your weekday education. I hope you will pay attention both here and at school so that you can learn all the important things you need for life. Possible Times To Use This Illustration In The Home: At the start of ...

2856. Prayer

Ps 19:14 · Mt 6:9

Children's Sermon

Kenneth Mortonson

... when you sit down to have a meal or when you are getting ready to go to sleep. These are special times for prayers, but I hope you know that you can pray anytime, anywhere. Long ago people used altars and smoke and fire to help them when they prayed. Back then, ... to him all you need to do is to think the thoughts that you want to share with him and they shall be shared. I hope you boys and girls will take time, every day, to let your thoughts go to God in prayer. Possible Times To Use This Illustration In ...

2857. Citizenship

Philippians 3:1-11

Drama

Pamela Urfer

... there. CHRIS: I see they're talking to the pastor. I imagine he'll be filling them in on all the activities we offer. TERRY: I hope so. It seems like a nice church. CHRIS: Oh, it is! It is! So, you're from Canada. You must be glad to finally be in ... country, would stop misbehaving and surrender to his rule, we would really have something going here, something that no other nation on Earth could hope to stand against. We would have God on our side. As we already do, of course. But if they don't stop all this ...

2858. Summer Fruit

Amos 8:1-14

Sermon

Richard L. Sheffield

... famine of the spirit. Amos doesn't say that God quits speaking, but that we quit hearing after a while. That "amid all the changing words of our generation," we may not hear God's eternal word that does not change. The only word which speaks of life and of hope. A word spoken most clearly to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The people of Israel didn't like what they heard. They liked how they lived. They wouldn't listen. They ran Amos out of town. He went home and wrote it all down ...

2859. Flowers Follow Showers

Romans 5:3-5

Children's Sermon

Kenneth Mortonson

... a cancellation of a special event. In the spring, when the flowers are blooming in your garden. When a child is faced with any type of personal hardship. Scriptural Background: "More than that, we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:3-5).

2860. How Much Protection Do You Have?

Psalm 119:9-11

Children's Sermon

Teresa L. Major

... help, but if we study the Bible and learn as much as we can, it's like using the sunscreen with a high number (display bottle) and we get lots of help in choosing to do right instead of wrong. I hope you use sunscreen when you're out in the sun so you won't get burned, but I especially hope you are using the Bible to give you help when you're tempted to do wrong, and to learn how to be the person God wants you to be. I'll be praying for you this week. God bless you.

2861. Be Charitable In Your Judgment

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... to a close personal friend whose art was being exhibited at the Royal Academy. He regretted that he could not speak more favorably of his friend's oil painting, but he added, "I hope this will make no difference to our friendship." By return post came the artist's reply: "Dear Ruskin, Next time I meet you, I shall knock you down; but I hope it will make no difference in our friendship."2 Our words have great power to encourage or discourage others, to build up people or tear them down. We tend to forget how ...

2862. Week Three Of Lent

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... are fulfilled. Expectations, however, can be destructive when we will accept nothing other than that which we expect. When an idea does not pan out the way it was planned, when a situation does not bring the hoped for result, when a person does not measure up to the standards we have set -- then we set ourselves up for disappointment. The problem is not with the idea, the situation or the person; the problem is with our level of expectation. Certainly we can expect a certain level of ...

2863. The Ninth Meal

Sermon

Robert F. Scott

... asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body ...

2864. Good Guys And Bad Guys Alike

Genesis 37:1-11, 12-36

Sermon

Steve Burt

... Romana, the peace. They were honoring Rome's commitment to keep things smooth in that tiny satellite country under their protection. Does that make the Romans the bad guys? Loving our enemy means seeing things from his or her side. It means listening to his or her hopes and fears. It means taking the time to learn what's right about what is wrong, and what's wrong about what is right -- because we don't know which is wrong and which is right. We cannot distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. We just ...

2865. Life's Loose Threads and The Tie That Binds

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... s mother -- somewhat wiser, I suppose, in such situations -- drops to her knees, sweeping the boy into her arms and whispering, "Oh, but it does matter. It matters a great deal." And sharing her son's pain, she too starts to weep. The redeeming God in whom we hope, Muehl concludes, is not a parent who dismisses our lives with a pat on the head, and murmured assurances that all of our unattained goals do not really matter in cosmic terms. Rather, it is the One who falls to the earth beside us, picking up the ...

2866. Recalling, Remembering, And Rejoicing

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... Moses is doing? He is encouraging the people to remember Yahweh. To invite into their midst the same God who brought them this far ... to bind them together from here on. To allow the same God who once offered them help ... to provide them now with hope. To call upon the same God who gathered them from Pharaoh's labor ... to guide them into the Promised Land. "Remember the Lord your God," says Moses. It's more active than reminiscing; it's more urgent than recalling. Here, Israel is being asked to remember ...

2867. Emmanuel: An Advent Dayenu

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... us, is far more than an expression. It means far more than that God understands us. It means that God is with us. Physically, truly with us. Not apart from us. Not up in heaven or off in some other world detached from and indifferent to our lives, our hopes and fears, our choices, decisions and indecisions, our thoughts and words and deeds; no: God is with us. Jesus said it this way: "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I" -- where? -- in the midst of them. And if we press the ...

2868. Proper 4

Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... will return. People who gave their lives to these promises were eventually disillusioned, sometimes with disaster for them and the movement. Nazism was a fad that captured the allegiance of a whole nation in the '30s and '40s. Communism was a longer lasting hope for many. Perhaps the New Age philosophy today is an expression of such a fad. People need to be aware of these shifting sands which prove eventually to be false and come tumbling down. Illustrative Materials 1. The Hurricane in Florida. Prior to ...

2869. Getting Down To The Local Issues

Sermon

Thomas Long

... for this meeting, a couple I have been counseling for two years told me that they were giving up and filing for divorce. Five young men in my congregation are in Vietnam fighting a war they do not understand, and one of them is my own son. Now, I hope by the end of this conference I will be celebrating with you, but if you think I am celebrating now, you are wrong." In a church ready to open the hymnbook and sing the alleluias, this man was issuing a warning that Easter is no genuine celebration unless it ...

2870. Knowing The Voice

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Thomas Long

... he has called them anew: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). Even when they have stood at the rim of death's canyon, staring with grief into its violet depths, over and over he has spoken to them of hope: "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live ..." (John 11:25). At every bend in the road, in every predicament along the way, they have felt Jesus' presence and have heard his familiar words; all the days of ...

2871. The Seven Last Words Of Pilate

Sermon

Thomas Long

... stands before him accused can trully help him. Somewhere in his soul, he senses this. Pilate the cowardly bureaucrat believes that his salvation depends upon political finesse; Pilate the human being stares into the face of Jesus Christ and instinctively knows that "his hope is built on nothing less." Psychologist Paul Pruyser once wrote of the awkwardness that is often felt at the end of a 50-minute therapy session. The counselee feels it; the therapist feels it. There is no good way to end; something is ...

2872. A Faith I Could No Longer Count On

Psalm 73:1-7, 13-18

Sermon

Robert G. McCreight

... be! For in that moment, when faith has the opportunity to become the primary voice we hear, something can happen in our lives which is like stepping out of a dark room into a bright, sunny day. We can come in cross and disturbed, and leave feeling hopeful and inspired again. We probably can't explain what happened to us in the sanctuary, but we are living proof that something happened between God and his people that left a profound impact on some. Meaning has come back into their lives. The resolve is there ...

2873. Behold The Man Who Taught By The Sea

Mark 4:1-20

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... which drew other people to him. He looked at people the way no one ever had. He communicated his concern for them. They wanted to be close to him. Another thing was the fact that there was something so appealing in what he said. He spoke words of hope, comfort, rebuke, and encouragement, words of life. They are still words of life for us today. We still need to hear the things he said. He still speaks clearly to us. A farmer went into town one night to hear a political candidate for a state office. When ...

2874. Who Lives In You?

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Lee Griess

... an offering to church, even though it may be less than we spend weekly on entertainment. And we do plan on reading our Bibles and saying our prayers, sometime, don't we? How often we live as strangers to God and try to claim we are citizens of heaven and hope no one notices the difference. But the Season of Lent reminds us that God knows. That we may be able to fool ourselves (and even those around us) but we can never fool God, for God reads the human heart. God knows who lives in our house. There is a ...

2875. The Peace That Jesus Gives

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Lee Griess

... , and as he and his men lifted their faces to heaven and gave thanks to God, he named the new ocean "The Peaceful One -- the Pacific Ocean." In his words this morning, Jesus desires to lead us in the same way to a place of peace. It is his hope to direct our feet and steer our lives from the paths that would lead to hell to his place of peace. "Let not your hearts be troubled," he says, "neither let them be afraid." Those are important words because our world is filled with fearful people. Advice columnist ...

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