Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2851 to 2875 of 3099 results

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... otherwise. Although there are many metaphors in this story, for the purposes of this exegesis, we’ll concentrate on one or two that, as you’ll see, already have multiple interconnections. To find them, we must experience the story firsthand and allow ourselves to be “subject” to the livingness of what is happening not in this time but in “story time.” Get ready to pay attention to what you see and what you hear. Are you ready? Let’s enter into the story in “reel time.” The story begins on ...

2852. Syrophoenician Lives Matter!

Mark 7:24-30, Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... It is not the manmade laws that matter, but a relationship with God. It is not laws for their own sake that matter. But kindness, love, mercy, loyalty to God and walking in God’s ordinances. Loyalty in fact –faith—and reliance on God and only God is the subject not only of this part of the story but the next parts, as well as several of the Hebrew testament stories that Jesus intimates or suggests by his words or actions. And what will come across in the next passages in both Matthew’s and Mark’s ...

2853. God Gives the Pharisees the Finger!

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

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... we trust God, but don’t really trust God. We have a plan of how we want things to go, and we want God to implement our plan so we can control the outcome. We have our own agendas for our lives –and for the lives of others, which we subject people to each and every day. Some of them may be tame and tepid. Others can hurt –badly. But whatever your agenda, if it’s not God’s agenda, you are barking up the wrong tree of life, so to speak! And when personal agendas become your passion instead of ...

2854. Praise God! Selah!

Luke 1:67-80, Luke 1:57-66, Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:26-38, Luke 1:5-25, Luke 1:1-4

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... gifts that overcome all adversity! To praise and worship God no matter what is coming our way! A person of faith is someone who hopes against all odds that God makes all things turn out good in the end! Glorify God….with appreciation, adoration, affection, and subjection, says Watson. We are to be thankful for God and esteem God’s power and being, praise and worship God always, love God before all else, and serve God with gladness even in difficult times. We glorify God, because all of our hope hangs on ...

2855. Trust in Me

Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... this prompt leading me in the way of love? Joseph’s upbringing would have told him to break it off with Mary, to cancel the betrothal. She had dishonored him and her family with her pregnancy. She had broken covenant, according to the law, and was subject to punishment. But like another story we looked at recently, when Jesus faced another woman accused of suspicious morals, the answer was not stoning. The answer was love. We are told that Joseph is a kind and compassionate man. He didn’t want to bring ...

2856. Sparkle

Luke 4:31-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:21-25) “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” (The Widow of Zarapheth –1 Kings 17:18) The story ...

2857. Secret Savior

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

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in secret” to God, God “saves” your life in secret through that prayer. Our Secret Savior is both our secret sanctification (holiness) and secret succor (aid). To be a savior in secret to others as an emissary of God’s holy kingdom, you must first be a subject in secret to and with God. Let us pray now, each of you in your inward self, with your secret faults, and your secret needs, your secret weaknesses, and your secret hopes, to your Secret Savior. And as you pray, may your life be surprised by ...

2858. A Piggy Pudding

Matthew 8:28-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . The cities all glistened with the arts of the Greeks and the power of the Romans. (Josephus confirms that Gadara was a Greek city). Jesus probably landed at the harbor of Gadara near Gerasa. Nearbby were the rocky cavern tombs of the Wadi Semakh. Demons, the subject of this scripture, were disgusting as were pigs to Jews (and violent as Romans). Pork was a meat staple for the Romans…as well as sacrificial animal (for Zeus). A herd of swine could be 2,000 or so. But these swine were likely relatives of ...

2859. The Sign of the Servant

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Lord. In being yoked with Jesus, you become one of God’s disciples too –cut from the same cloth, so to speak.# To receive the yoke of the kingdom of heaven is to become a living witness to God’s glory, mercy, and love, to forego a life of being subject to human rules and rigidity and to instead devote one’s self to walking with God. The yoke as Jesus uses it not only symbolizes His identity as Son of God/God incarnate but also as a Master Rabbi, who teaches on his own authority. He has his own ...

2860. The Infiltrator

John 10:1-21, John 10:22-42

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... God is the Gate of the Sheep, the True Shepherd, the Savior of the People, the Judge of the Temple. For the Pharisees, Jesus’ claim is blasphemy. For Jesus, the Pharisees are the true Blasphemers. God’s people were never meant to be “subjects” of an institution or “objects” of usefulness, but the flock of a loving Shepherd. What’s the difference? --Solomon’s Porch vs Herod’s Imperial Palace (or perhaps the Temple of the Herodians!). Michel Foucault is one of the most influential scholars ...

2861. The Order of the Magi

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... as mathematics and astronomy/astrology were all one course of study. The division of disciplines wouldn’t happen until the Renaissance, when the “sciences” would officially become separate and specialized areas of study, and “objectified” as opposed to the “subjectivity” of philosophy and religion. A joined course of study meant that mathematics could point to the design of God’s creation, such as in the music of the spheres, or that philosophy and religion could mix to form many “sects ...

2862. All In

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . In turn, humankind promises to be loyal only to God. It was the kind of contract you might see between a “King” and a people. And it was this way that our ancestors understood their relationship with God. God was “King,” and God’s people were God’s subjects. They were both bound by an agreement. That said, there’s a bit of an imbalance of power, no? It’s not really an equal contract. The King has a lot more power than the people. Similarly, God has a lot more power and glory than we do! So ...

2863. Mercy Me!

Romans 14:1--15:13, Luke 6:27-36, Luke 6:37-42, Luke 6:43-45

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of control and need. What would happen if we could use our sense of wonder and curiosity about the world and about others instead of our razor sharp critical skills? What would happen if we were to treat others not as objects of our disdain but as subjects and neighbors in God’s world who are beloved as much as we? What if we could let go of rules, regulations, need for order, toxic need for control, and allow the “disorder” that love creates? For mercy supercedes all of the rules. Love transcends all ...

2864. Garden of Love

John 20:10-18, Song of Songs 4:1-16, Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Exegesis: Abundant Fruit, Covenant Love “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but cannot tell from where it comes, and where it goes: so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” --John 3:8 The Lover of Heaven –this is the subject of the Song of Songs, a beautiful set of scriptures beloved in the Jewish faith but avoided like the plague in the Christian tradition. And yet it contains the very core of what it means to be in relationship with God –in the kind of covenant described ...

2865. The Art of Keeping Quiet

Luke 1:5-25, Ezekiel 3:16-27

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . We are incited to engage, to step up, and to critique in our world on an almost constant trajectory. Cain is right. Our culture can’t stop talking. In fact, we talk so much, put forth our opinions, and analyses, and contribute our two cents to every subject under earth, that we barely have energy or time to listen to our neighbors and companions, let alone God. We could learn some things from our friend Solomon in Ecclesiastes. There is a time for talking, but there is also a time for listening. In our ...

2866. Now, It's Personal

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... air conditioning every night just for VBS. I pointed out that we turned it on for wedding rehearsals and weddings and for other events when adults were going to use the sanctuary. He said that was completely different. I said that while we were on the subject of air conditioning I wanted us to buy a window air conditioner for the nursery. It wasn’t fair for the parents to worship in cool comfort while their children in the nursery sweltered in Ohio’s summer heat and humidity. He responded that it would ...

2867. Hold Me When I'm Angry

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Carl Jech

... who has hurt us, or being angry at God, we should direct our anger at the situation, at the disease, at the personality characteristic that annoys us. The cross of Jesus reflects God's anger toward sin but his love toward people! When the subject of the disease called AIDS is discussed, some people become angry at the heterosexual Africans with whom the virus appears to have originated. Others become angry with homosexuals or drug users. But the real focus of our anger should be on the virus itself, the ...

2868. The Scariest Job Interview

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... it or not. You are either a compelling witness for Jesus Christ, or you are a confounding witness against Jesus Christ. If the world is going to be healed and transformed, it will happen through our witness. I like what Pastor Joe McKeever wrote on this subject. I just pulled out a few quotes to share with you. “Your assignment is to find out what the Lord is saying to your world–your family, your circle of friends and acquaintances, your co-workers–through living inside you. You are God’s answer to ...

2869. Daddy's Love

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... I cannot quite comprehend. We can only give God thanks for it. Then Christ adds those beautiful words, “So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Wow! What reassurance. “Don’t be afraid . . .” The Master was dealing with the subject of fear, as he often did. His disciples would be facing situations in which genuine fear was certainly appropriate. They would suffer much in the coming days. But his words were also meant for us. In fact, it is really quite extraordinary how often ...

2870. Why I Believe In The Resurrection

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Brett Blair

... by the way means truth), and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. There is a story told about a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it. An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of men's faith. "Are there any questions?" Bukharin ...

2871. Let’s Really Know Jesus

John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... to preach a different sermon every Sunday? Did the church you were raised in not have a preacher who preached on a different topic each Sunday? What gives? And her answer was priceless... “Well, when I get any indications that someone is acting on it I will change subjects!” How Jesus-like — do you not know me? After all this time? Ask, and I will explain it again. Ask, because the mansion I have prepared is for all who do as I did for them, such as heal, pray, love, raise up the poor, bring down the ...

2872. Faking It or Making It?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... Philippi Jesus asks them a serious question, “Who do you say I am?” It is one of the most dramatic moments in all the scriptures. It is Simon Peter who answers enthusiastically, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Then Jesus changes the subject. He begins to tell them that the crowds will soon turn against him, he will be crucified, on the third day he will be raised from the dead. The disciples don’t know what to make of all this. Simon Peter takes Jesus aside: “Never, Lord!” he ...

Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.

Aldous Huxley

Everything in food is science. The only subjective part is when you eat it.

Alton Brown

Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.

Alvin Toffler

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