Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2901 to 2925 of 4997 results

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... know. What we do not know will not hurt us. What we cannot comprehend about God or the universe is immaterial, because we know how God feels about us. What is more is that we have been made friends with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are the kind of friends that God can rely on. What is more, we are the only friends that God can rely on. Yours For The Asking Jesus cements together all that he revealed about the love of the Father in the promise "that the Father will give you whatever you ask him ...

2902. Friendship? Yes, Please!

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... chat as they pass on the street, but neither really hears what the other says about himself nor is either moved to any kind of meaningful response to the other. We hurry through our "Hello, how are you?" "I'm not too well." "Take care of ... has not another to lift him up." I like the play on words in this portion of the text. At first it says, "if they fall." But then it kind of corrects itself and says, "when he falls." In life, you see, it is not really a question of if we shall fall but when. All of us sin ...

2903. How To Treat Your Enemies

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... , the Philistines, are on the other side. What David needs is a friend. But as we pick up the story in our text here, what David gets is another enemy. Help! In the text, David asks a Jew named Nabal for aid. You see, David has served as a kind of peace-keeping force in the area where Nabal lived. His military presence served as a wall against invasion or local mischief. And David saw to it personally that his men didn't bully Nabal's workers, steal from his flocks, or rape his women. But now David needs ...

2904. All Mine To Give!

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... I admit I've had to learn much about this in the past four years. You see, I used to see the church as a kind of water bucket from which we handed cups of cool water ministry to others. And since there was only so much water in the bucket ... the word paratheike for giving, saying, "God is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." A paratheike was a kind of deposit one put in the temple bank for safekeeping. It was something given to another to guard for them. And Paul is saying that ...

2905. Do You See What I See?

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... truth and value are ultimately determined by those with the most bucks, the most guns, or the most votes. Whoever is in power controls the truth. Our world is a world in which we live and die by the polls. Who needs God? We've got Gallup! In this kind of world the words of Bartimaeus seem all the more incredible. "Do you see what I see? Do you see that Jesus is the Messiah -- and he can heal me -- and you?" How can Bartimaeus claim to see anything? He has no credibility. First of all, Bartimaeus was just ...

2906. Baptism And Self-Esteem

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... must I do to feel like somebody, to have some self-esteem?" Jesus' answer is a quote from today's First Reading: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." When Jesus talks about this kind of complete love of God, he is describing what it is like to trust in God no matter what, to have faith in God regardless of the circumstances. It is like a child completely believing in his parents no matter what. It is like a wife trusting completely ...

2907. Miracle Five: Healing A Withered Hand

Mark 3:1-6

Sermon Aid

Harold H. Lentz

... an exception, for instance, if one of their cows fell into a pit on the Sabbath; they would rescue the unfortunate animal. So, to do a kind act of any sort on the Sabbath was not to be condemned. The intent of the day was to bless humankind. It was to serve to ... the act itself, but the influence it brings to a participant. The end result is supposed to be a more kind, gracious, sincere, and loving person. How many people think that doing their Christian duty consists of Bible reading, church attendance, and ...

2908. The Waiting Place

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

William L. Self

... what is coming is an unimaginable invasion. The mythology of our age has to do with flying saucers and invasions from outer space, and that is unimaginable enough. But what is upon us now is even more so -- a close encounter, not of the third kind, but of a different kind altogether. An invasion of holiness. That is what Advent is all about. While in the waiting place, get quiet and receptive, like a child waiting to hear a bedtime story and the voice of his father. Hear again the story of the creation of ...

2909. Getting In Tune Again

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

William L. Self

... like it should, and I don't have a tuning fork so there is no way I can get my fiddle back in tune. Would you be so kind as to play the note A? If you will do this, I will tune my fiddle." So the station did, and he did, and they all lived happily ... As we come to the Advent season, we must understand that it is more than a "huggy-touchy-feel good-chestnuts roasting on an open fire" kind of season. Candidly, I like Christmas. I grew up in a home that didn't make much of Christmas. I married into a family that ...

2910. Praying With Bloody Knuckles

Isaiah 62:1-12, Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

William L. Self

... altar of devotion.4 This flies in the face of the cardinal virtue of the secular culture -- license. Any type of commitment seems to restrict our freedom. We want to go, do, and be whatever the moment makes us desire. This coupled with our aversion to commitment of any kind leads to a certain spiritual atrophy. We want a church to be there for us, but we forget that the church is us! We want others to pay the price spiritually and in other ways so that we can reap the harvest of their labors. The need of ...

2911. What It Takes To Be A Winner

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

William L. Self

... It is the clear message of the Bible that human beings cannot make it through life under our own power. Even the youth will grow weary and the young (people) will utterly fall. Isaiah then moves into a rhapsody about waiting hopefully on the Lord. This is the same kind of waiting that occurs while a mother waits on a baby to be born. Or like the farmer who has planted and is now waiting for the harvest. It is the same idea we find in Galatians when Paul says, "In the fullness of time [when time was pregnant ...

2912. Light In The Land Of Shadows

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... related to the Department of Defense. More than half our national budget is related to defending ourselves in a world of war. A kind of spiritual gridlock develops when significant numbers of Christians decide it is easier to blame evil than to make a clear proclamation that ... the Christ has the power to bring light into the shadows of Zebulun and Naphtali unleashes the most radical kind of hope for humankind. This light can bring together the different families of the human race with eventual advantages ...

2913. Our Jealous Husband

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... a favorable verdict from God. Compared to you, Ned, your brother was a saint!" Who is the god of your anger? Jesus said that if you are even angry with your brother, you are guilty of murder. Yes, there is such a thing as righteous anger, but that's the kind that God would have toward the offending party. Are you sure God is mad at what disgusts you or are you being your own god? Who is the god of your sexuality? Is the freedom (actually bondage!) god of the '60s or the "feel good" god of popular society or ...

2914. Just What The Doctor Ordered

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... goodness and could only see the hard side of life. What short memories they had of times when God bailed them out and of how much better life was when they followed him. Were they really starving or dying of thirst? There was food; it was just not the kind they liked and they were tired of the "worthless stuff." They remind me of the grandma who took her grandson to the beach on a windy day. As she lay in the sun getting a tan, her grandson wandered away unnoticed. She only knew of his whereabouts when she ...

2915. To Have And To Hold (Your Tongue)

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... . And what about criticism? Do you have a sharp tongue? Cornelius and his friends were given all of the Holy Spirit. We too have all of the Spirit through faith. But does the Holy Spirit have all of us, including our tongue? If you received a dime for kind words spoken about people and had to pay a nickel for the unkind ones, how rich or poor would you be? You can almost hear the gentle exasperation in James' voice as he mouths these words as the Holy Spirit writes through him: "With the tongue we praise ...

2916. Accepting Responsibility

Lamentations 1:1-22

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

... end up in bankruptcy court. We also need to learn that there are consequences for our spiritual decisions and our behavior that relates to our faith. When we ignore our covenant with God, there are bound to be serious consequences. We may end up in our own kind of Babylonian captivity. We may find ourselves far from our source of strength and joy, wondering what went wrong. I have talked to many people who used to be very active in the life of God's church. For some reason, they have slipped into inactivity ...

2917. Permission To Daydream

Joel 2:28-32, Joel 2:18-27

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

... prophecy of Joel was fulfilled. On that day people prophesied and spoke in foreign languages. People from all around the world heard the word of God proclaimed, and many believed in the name of Jesus that day. Pentecost was a kind of provisional fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. That kind of power has not been repeated in the history of the church, and it certainly has not been our everyday experience. In essence, Pentecost showed us what is going to happen when Joel's prophecy is ultimately fulfilled in the ...

2918. The Burdens Of The Past

Haggai 2:1-9, Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

... back, neck, or shoulder problems because of the heavy burdens they carry in those packs. It can be a special problem if the students carry the load on just one shoulder, but even if balanced equally, it can be quite a load. Burdens that we carry can cause all kinds of problems. They slow us down, they cause pain and discomfort, and they make it difficult to do some things we'd like to do. It will come as no surprise to you that there are spiritual and emotional burdens just as bad as any physical burden we ...

2919. Remembering Who We Are

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

... . Giving our first fruits reminds us that we are people who have experienced the saving power of God in our lives. It reminds us that we are called to be people who live by faith, not by the assurance of a barn filled to overflowing with grain and corn. This kind of faith is what enables the trapeze artist to leave one trapeze bar and reach for another being swung his or her way. It is to leave the security of one place in order to take hold of something else. To give in this way, with our first fruits, is ...

2920. The Demons Within

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Alexander H. Wales

... their appreciative response to the healing? They ask Jesus to hit the road. "Take your boat and go back where you came from! We don't want your kind around here." The man who had been healed begged Jesus to allow him to go with them, but Jesus sent him away, telling him to go back ... when filmgoers discovered that the movie was based on a real situation, their fears were even greater. But that kind of demon possession only serves to make this story more distant, rather than helping us realize how many demons ...

2921. What Is God Doing In Our Bad Times?

Joel 2:18-27, Joel 2:28-32

Sermon

Thomas G. Rogers

... you may be experiencing hurt in your relationships with family members or others whom you care about. Some may have experienced the loss of someone or something that you loved a great deal. Some of you may have something in your life that makes you afraid. Whatever kind of devastation there may be in your life this day, the good news promises of the book of Joel are for you. God says, "I promise not to leave you alone." God's words through this prophet ring true through the centuries. Whatever your need is ...

2922. Too Good To Be True

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Thomas G. Rogers

... covenant differently in order to show God's great love for the people. "The days are surely coming," writes the prophet and, sure enough, the days of this new covenant did come. In Jesus Christ God entered into the world of time and space to cut a new kind of covenant with God's people. In this new covenant, it was not animals that were to be sacrificed and cut. It was the Christ himself who was cut. On the Friday, which we call "Good," it was his blood that flowed. Looking further at our text, it appears ...

2923. Exercise Your Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... solve our knotty problems. Let us not yearn, however, for such a person. What we do have is something better. God has given a variety of gifts to the church. Paul lists only two in his prayer of thanksgiving: "speech and knowledge of every kind." "Speech" might refer to speaking in tongues, a gift that was expressed in the Corinthian church, or more probably might simply refer to preaching the basic proclamation of the gospel. "Knowledge" might be the knowledge of the scriptures or sound teaching about God ...

2924. You Can Be A Livesaver

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... see ourselves in that role. My guess, however, is that most of us do more lifesaving than we think. Educators do it. Sunday school teachers do it. Professional counselors do it. Parents do it. Coaches and good friends do it. Any time we exert any kind of influence that enhances life rather than diminishes it, we have become a lifesaver. How many frightened, abused children have almost given up hope until meeting that one teacher who made them feel loved, safe and worthy? How many lonely adults have been at ...

2925. Choosing Sides

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Sandra Hefter Herrma

... In the same way, Paul says, if we have the Holy Spirit, we are controlled by God. If we are controlled by God, life gets to be lots easier, because some decisions are pre-made. We don't have to think about whether to be faithful, loving, loyal, kind, trustworthy, joyful, patient or truthful. We don't have to think through the temptations that confront us. We have already decided to leave the paper clips at work, to buy our own pens, to avoid washroom gossip, to put in an honest day's work rather than watch ...

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