Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2876 to 2900 of 4884 results

Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... where everything rushes by and we take no account of anything permanent or lasting. But like our ancestors in the faith, we too stand on the edge of freedom, freedom from the snares of this world. As we contemplate the majesty of your Word and the perfect sacrifice of the cross that lies just ahead, let us gird ourselves for flight from the slavery of sin, prepared to leave at a moment's notice when you call us home. Amen. Hymns "Go To Dark Gethsemane" "Before The Cock Crew Twice" "Tis Midnight, And ...

2877. Playing the Game

Romans 6:1b-11

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... call all into your community of faith. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Lord, our sins prove the abundance of your mercy, as you forgive us again and again. Still, we pray that we might no longer try the limits of your patience. Mold us in your image that we might more perfectly serve you. Amen. Hymns "Crown Him With Many Crowns" "Come Ye Faithful People Come" "Come Holy Spirit, Dove Divine"

2878. Prayer Beyond Words

Romans 8:26-39

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... your Spirit. We do not know how to pray as we ought. We count upon you to stand in our place, so that our Spirit might intercede for us. We raise up our sighs, our hopes, and our fears too deep for words, and beg you today to demonstrate your perfection in our brokenness, your power in our weakness, and your glory in our profession of weakness. These things we pray in your name. Amen. (based on Romans 8) Prayer Of Confession Lord, what then are we to say about our trials? If you are for us, who can stand ...

2879. The One and Only

Matthew 16:13-20

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... your majesty and power, yet reluctant to demonstrate your saving gospel in our lives. We cling to our salvation by faith, floating in the stormy seas of life, and refuse to risk what it would take to rescue others as well. Challenge us today so that in our brokenness your perfect grace is clearly demonstrated to the world. Let the glory and honor be yours, Lord Jesus. Amen. Hymns "Jesus Shall Reign" "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" (Mennonite Old 606) "I Have Decided To Follow Jesus"

2880. Rubbish or Worse

Philippians 3:1-11, Psalm 19:1-14

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... Earth and sky, sun and sea, all the world praises you in fulfilling the course you have set. We join that chorus of praise as your faithful people, grateful for the course you set for us as well. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Thank you Lord for your perfect sacrifice. Thank you for this opportunity to gain through loss. It is marvelous beyond our comprehension. When we add up all we have achieved in the eyes of the world it comes to nothing. When we measure the cost of our salvation which you freely give to ...

2881. The Greatest Gift

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Let us resolve because of the love we have for each other to share not only the precious gospel of God but also our own selves, that we might through the revelation of God's good gift in us come to know God more perfectly in our worship today. Collect Sisters and brothers, let us gather together in God's name, sharing the gifts that are present among us. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Steadfast God, the world is opposed to you. We should not be surprised to discover that the world is opposed to ...

2882. I Love to Tell the Story

Luke 2:1-20

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... and his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, to be revered above all our aspirations. Come, Lord, and dwell with us in the fullness of your glory. Come, King, and order our lives so that we may perfectly magnify your holy name. Come, Savior, and rescue us, and our world enmeshed in sin and war. You will judge the world with righteousness and truth, and the whole of creation, the heavens, the earth, the sea, the fields, the trees of the forest, and the ...

2883. A Gift for You

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

James L. Killen

... to be another name for a Christian. When most of us think of saints, we think of people who are represented in statues in some churches. It also conjures up some images that are totally unattractive and also totally inaccurate. A saint is not someone who is perfect. Read the stories of the biblical saints. They were very human. Even Paul himself was headstrong, impulsive, and inclined to be a little arrogant - and he had a temper. But God accepted them as they were and worked with them and used them in the ...

2884. Remembering Jesus

2 Peter 1:16-21

Sermon

James L. Killen

... church back to the faith that was taught by Peter and Paul and the other apostles. He wrote a letter to the churches in the name of Peter to say to the churches the things that he knew Peter would want them to hear. That was a widely used and perfectly accepted thing to do in those days. The book from which we read our scripture lesson was the result. The writer of 2 Peter was going to have some important things to say to everyone and some harsh things to say to a few. But first, he called them to ...

2885. No Shame

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28 (29-31)

Sermon

William G. Carter

... those behaviors that we try to hide from other church people. God brings our dark secrets right out into the light where they can be seen, and then God cancels every one of them, and says, "No more damage!" As it is written, "We look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross and disregarded its shame" (Hebrews 12:2). The old law was clear: It is a shame to be sentenced to death and hung on a tree. But that is the shame Jesus ...

2886. Families in Christ

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... he produces for the truth of what he is saying. As required by the Jewish law, Paul provides the names of two witnesses - the Holy Spirit and Christ. Even at the beginning, it would seem that life in the family of Christ was not quite as perfect as we might expect. The situation is worse than that, for the difficulties are not limited to simply our congregation. They extend past our local boundaries to include the national church. More than that, we are related to all Christians, all around the world. We ...

2887. Complete Joy

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... up the wall of shields. However, the structure of the formation required that each man hold up his shield to protect the next man in the wall. No one protected himself. An extreme example, certainly. But every soldier who ever served in a phalanx understood perfectly what this advice meant. "Look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others." Once again, Paul's advice works itself out precisely within the church, because when we each look out for others, then the interests of all are taken care ...

2888. Say What?

1 John 3:5-6

Sermon

Rick Brand

... to the way it should be. Sin is the missing of the mark. Jesus Christ is the standard and where we fail to live up to that standard of faith and obedience we are participating in sin. This dimension of sin is never left behind completely until we are made perfect in glory. Sometimes sin is manifested by a kind of deceitfulness. Scott Peck, in a book called The People of a Lie, suggests that one of the marks of evil is that it will not recognize the truth. We have been told all our lives to honor our fathers ...

2889. A Radical Faith

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... him to stop it. He prayed and prayed incessantly, and only felt more distant from God. You may feel that this life is foreign to us, but it is not. Ages and cultures change, but human nature doesn't change. The human dimension is the drive to perfection, to become somebody, to fulfill our lives. In religious culture that takes one form. In secular culture it takes another. In Luther's time it was a religious culture, and the goal of life was being one with God. We live in a secular culture where for many ...

2890. Are You Trying to Prove Something?

Genesis 12:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... to people he didn't like. That caused him to be fired. They sent him back to England. That is a terrible experience for a perfectionist to go through, to fail. Somebody who believed that they could make their way through life by following the rules, by being perfect. It didn't work. He failed. Wesley's failure, and resultant depression, opened his heart to listen, for the first time, to what he had heard over and over again, the words that Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, that "we are saved not by ...

2891. Called to Freedom

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... of Fuggers, the other half would go to Rome for the construction of the new Cathedral of St. Peter. The archbishop hired the best indulgence seller he could find, a man named Tetzel, who planned to come to Wittenberg on All Saints Day in 1517, a perfect day for selling indulgences. It would be like selling ties on Father's Day. Indulgence sales were held in front of the cathedral, or the church. There would be rides for the children, clowns, acrobats, food. It would be a carnival. On October 31, the night ...

2892. How to Be a Blessing

I Peter 3:8-12

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... at all, terrible things that happen in our lives we don't understand. That's what it's like to live in the penultimate time, in the time before the Kingdom comes. And that's the world that Jesus came into. He didn't give us some passport into a perfect life. He came to be here with us in this life, humbled himself to be with us, left the ultimate behind, became like us, lived the kind of life that we must live under the very conditions that we must live it. Jesus did not come to give us answers ...

2893. If I Were a Rich Man

Mark 10:17-27

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... with preaching this text is that it may not apply to you. "If I Were A Rich Man," is the title of this sermon. If you were a rich man, addicted to your possessions, searching for meaning in your life, then this text would obviously fit you perfectly. If that is not your situation, if you are not necessarily rich...although wealth and poverty, as you know, are relative terms. I know people with lots of money who are sure they are on the precipice of poverty, and I know people with little resources who ...

2894. Is There Anything I Can Do?

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... you fill up the interior of your life. He said the same thing to the Romans. "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may know what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." That is the standard for Christians. That's why he says, use discernment. That is what is expected of Christians living in this world, that they will make choices for the good, for the true, for the beautiful, and the gracious, and the pure and the lovely. "Is there ...

2895. Joy to the World

Mark 16:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... that mythology that there is a better life for us someplace else in this universe in a most attractive and compelling way. If we could only free ourselves of the bonds of this earth, this temporal life, we would be able to experience that perfect life. Apparently the members of the Heaven's Gate cult believed that their end would be like the conclusion of the movie, transported by spaceship, piloted by these wonderful, innocent and childlike creatures, to a better life on another planet. If you had lived ...

2896. Landing Instructions

Isaiah 40:25-31

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... lowest, into despair, thou art there to comfort and strengthen me. God wants us to keep trying, not give up, and to soar as high as we can. I remember reading about the Rolls Royce Company, the maker, probably, of the world's best car. They strive for perfection in making cars. In that article someone asked the president if a Rolls Royce car ever breaks down. He said, "A Rolls Royce car never breaks down, although it may fail temporarily to proceed." I like that. That's the spirit of those who know that God ...

2897. Leave No Child Behind

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... a child and sat that child in the midst of the disciples. He said, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me, receives not me but Him who sent me." That doesn't get any clearer. And the early Church understood perfectly what Jesus meant. The early Church also recognized that those words were reminiscent of what Jesus said in the judgment scene in Matthew, at the end of his teaching, where he pointed to the poor and the outcast, to the naked, the hungry, and said, "If ...

2898. Look Ma, No Hands

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... says, "But I'm going to keep on going anyway. I'm going to go right up to the end. And I'm not afraid." I stand there, and I watch her ride through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, sitting there, straight and tall, perfect balance in her life, no hands. She is at that point in her journey when she is traveling on faith alone. She is taking nothing with her now, but faith. I stand there in awe, and I give thanks. And then there's that family that lives according to the ...

2899. Plant It and Stand Back!

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... to do the right thing even when your knees are trembling. Faith doesn't remove disappointments, or guarantee victory. Faith is the courage to keep on going even when you want to give up, but you keep on going. That is what faith looks like. Madeleine LEngel put it perfectly. "I don't have to have some special qualification to do what I have to do. All I have to do is have the courage to go on and do it." So keep on going. Keep on doing your duty. Keep on courageously being faithful. You will be amazed ...

2900. This Nation, Under God

2 Samuel 7:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the Bible. This morning we will hold up the story of our nation's beginning to the story of David. You will be impressed with the parallels. On this holiday we celebrate the birth of the nation, the thirteen colonies coming together to form a "more perfect union." And our text for this morning marks that time when David brought together the twelve tribes of Israel to form one nation, with the capital at Jerusalem. So David was to Israel what George Washington was to America. Both of them, incidentally, were ...

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