Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2926 to 2950 of 4957 results

2926. Resurrection: Temporal to Eternal

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... Risen Lord on the road to Emmaus. It is an account found in the 24th chapter of Luke’s Gospel. In this imagining no names were used because I want the runner’s name to be your name. Indeed, you are the runner - you who claim Christ as Lord and Saviour. The Easter affirmation discovered long ago is the same affirmation known today: The temporal things of earth turn to dust, they fade with time and disappear. Yet, through God the power of Jesus Christ overcame death and opened Eternal dimensions. Easter ...

2927. Resurrection: From Lesser to Higher Morality

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... the Law and the prophets; I have come to fulfill them!" Sarah remembered that so very well for it was the keystone of decisions that she was making within her own mind and heart that day. In talking of the laws the people loved, Jesus had claimed a way that would lead to completing them. Sarah remembered. In talking with some of Jesus’ close followers it was noted that they, too, lived by a code of conduct that was most honorable and respected. Their hearts were as their deeds. Now we hurry on with ...

2928. A Man Who Lost His Head

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... ; realize the throngs who were attracted from the nearby countryside to listen to this strange hermit in the wilderness. Consider what he might have done: he could have gathered a following ... stirred up a rebellion ... established a new government ... founded a religion claimed various titles for himself. But one day a committee from the priests in Jerusalem came to him. They said, "Look, John, tell us who you really are. Are you the Messiah?" His quick response was, "No, I am not the Messiah." "Well ...

2929. Martin Luther: the Shape of Grace

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... " the church into its earlier form. He called for the more original shape of Christianity in three areas: Bible, priesthood, and salvation. Luther asked that the Scriptures be placed in the hands of the people and in their language so that their lives could be shaped by it. He claimed everyone was a priest in God’s sight and had a ministry to carry on in the world. He held up before the people of his day the fact that we are saved by God’s gift of grace, not by living the life of perfection that would ...

2930. Party in Room 210 ... Everyone Invited

John 1:35-42

Sermon

Thomas Long

... Muehl is well acquainted with ministers, and he has a complaint. What bothers Professor Muehl is what he sees as a widespread tendency among ministers to do some romantic editorial work on the nature of Christian calling. To hear most ministers talk, claims Muehl, God calls people only in moments of theatrical intensity. Someone, for example, is reading a theological book when, suddenly, a shaft of light falls upon a penetrating passage and scales fall from the reader’s eyes. Or a hillside communion ...

2931. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

... spent the previous day, they say, in a fever pitch of ministry, preaching in the synagogue, healing the sick and demon-possessed, and now, in a moment of needed retreat, he rises early in the morning to go to a lonely place to pray. Just so, they go on to claim, we, too, need times of quiet reflection and serene prayer lest the busy world crowd out the voice of God. As the old hymn goes, "There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God." These sermons, like most sermons, say at least as much about ...

2932. The Kingdom of God Is At Hand

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... Johnson had lived in Bible times, for example, he might have attributed his farm problems to Satan. Elmer Johnson felt victimized. That is what the power of Satan was all about. It was about alien powers working against human life. Satan claimed many victims. Many human lives could not flourish and grow. The powers of Satan were simply too strong for people. Jesus Christ began his ministry by confronting a powerful force that oppressed and victimized many human lives. Jesus Christ encountered Satan and ...

2933. Jesus, the Suffering Messiah

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... priest spotted him there. "You were also with the Nazarene, Jesus," she said to him. "But Peter denied it, saying, ‘I neither know nor understand what you mean’ " (Mark 14:68a). But the maid would not be stilled. Again she identified him. Again Peter denied her claim. By now many of the bystanders had caught on. " ‘Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean.’ But (Peter) began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, ‘I do not know this man of whom you speak.’ And immediately the ...

2934. The Crucified Ruler

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... me mention just three. First of all, with the enthronement of Jesus as the world’s Crucified Ruler, all earthly rulers are relativized. Earthly rulers in every age have a limited role to play. At one point in Jesus’ confrontation with Pilate, Pilate claimed to have power over Jesus. Jesus quickly set Pilate straight. "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above ..." (John 19:11), Jesus told Pilate. All earthly power and authority is subservient to the Crucified Ruler. Most ...

2935. Blind Bartimaeus - Model For Healing

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... anyone away. Rich and poor were alike to him, it was said. He had restored hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, health to lepers and the lame, and - to Bartamaeus - most wonderful of all, sight to the blind. Some of Bartimaeus’ most generous givers claimed to have been cured by the man. It all had the ring of truth. Would Bartimaeus have made more than a feeble effort to reach the Master if he had not been certain that his sources of information were trustworthy? They added substance to his hope ...

2936. In Control

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... is a religious aspect to this. Had those responsible for crucial decisions looked at human life through the eyes of God, it is at least possible that the disaster would not have occurred. We are guilty of "hubris," the downfall of humans who, in the Greek epics, claimed for themselves the wisdom, will, might, and powers of the gods. We may pay lip service to God, but in actuality we treat him as if he were living above the garage by the fence in the backyard, essential only to the incidentals of life. II ...

2937. What Makes People Great?

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... person or the institution which serves most, is most helpful, is most useful, is the one that will survive and be counted great! Bruce Barton, the American advertising executive, reminded people that the basis on which the executives of an automobile agency will claim the financial support of its customers is that they will crawl under your car oftener and get themselves dirtier than any of their competitors. That company is willing to give more service. If it does, people will patronize it and it will be ...

2938. God’s Dwelling Place

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... David!" (Matthew 21:9). And Jesus himself made clear that God no longer required a formal dwelling place. He was accused of saying that he could destroy the temple of God and build it up in three days. When brought before the Sanhedrin, he did not deny this claim (Matthew 26:61). By his death and resurrection he would effect a union between God and humankind that would be free from time and space limitations. To be in Christ was to be part of a continuously new form of dwelling place for God. Paul picks up ...

2939. What Do We Do Now That We’re Happy?

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... it more compelling that the radiant joyousness of the moment must be invested in day-to-day faithfulness to the righteousness which the law sets before them and which they know how to do. The happy news they had received from the Lord they must now claim as their own by the way they give themselves to the works of God. The very Gospel of God, the good news that God favors and will redeem his people shines through in Isaiah’s words. And, hundreds of years later, it bursts anew, with heightened meaning ...

2940. All Dressed Up and No Place To Go

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... he clothes us in the life of Jesus Christ, opening to us the mystery of the incarnation so that we can live in Christ and Christ in us - our garment of salvation. All dressed up in his royal self, where do we go? We go forth in Christ and lay claim to the mountains and the valleys. The dusty roads lead us on until we come to our Jerusalems. The high courts try us and bring us crosses in return for our faithfulness. Then it is that the brilliance of God’s meaning buried in the humdrum of everyday life is ...

2941. You Can Depend on It

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... spoken over the water whereby a new form of dependability came into the world in the form of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. Of all persons I know, none represents to me the heart and soul of dependability more than Jesus, and on that dependable life I claim to build my own as on a rock. This reading of baptism as a second creation is age-old. Prudentius, a Christian living between AD 348 and c. 410, wrote: Good captain, maker of the light Who dost divide the day and night, The sun is drowned beneath ...

2942. Noise Is Anything That Corrupts the Integrity of a Message

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... your heart and know the noises that corrupt the integrity of Christ’s call. I do know the long line of variations of noises that interfered with his call to me. I know my "Yes - No’s," and I have searched my head and heart over and over again to claim the message. I call each of you to enter deep into your mind and heart, to examine Christ’s call to you. Does he invite you to a better way than you have suspected possible? Then, if you feel so, I urge you to distinguish between those noises that ...

2943. Movin’ Around Room

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... most interior self to this man. Certainly Jesus is an uncertainty, for he has no way to know anything would come of it. But, he does know that 38 gives way to 39 and on and on till death. Jesus at the least gives him an option, the freedom to claim a possibility in face of the experience of a lifetime. It is like turning a key in the lock. Being in the place of a new thing, he decides, "Yes, Lord, I do want to be healed." Then Jesus calls him to movin’ around room. "Take up your bed and ...

2944. Everybody a Cinderella

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... sees and begins to build upon it. As Cinderella heeded the call of love and left the prison of her attic, so we receive the love of Christ and step forth from situations that would enslave us. As she turned loose of the spirit of slavery which had begun to claim her, so we, in Christ’s love, look deep into the deadends that prevent our forward motion. We find them to be illusions brought about by the slavery of self that had begun to imprison us. When the slavery of the soul is gone we are free from all ...

2945. January 1

Numbers 6:22-27

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... , as people with neither hope nor peace, as people of darkness upon whom the divine countenance has never shone. Forgive us, we pray. Let us feel once more the brightness of your face and the benefits of your faith. That we may worthily bear the name to which we lay claim. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, we pray. Amen.

2946. Epiphany

Isaiah 60:1-22, Ephesians 3:1-13, Matthew 2:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... light shine anew into the darkness of our souls in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Light and our Life. Amen Second Lesson: Ephesians 3:1-12 Theme: God’s mystery lifted: earth’s people loved Exegetical Note The Pauline author here claims that God’s eternal purpose realized in the mystery of Christ, as revealed by the Spirit to the apostles and prophets, has a new twist unknown in previous generations: that Gentiles are also heirs, partakers of the promise and members of the same body ...

2947. Tuesday in Holy Week

Isaiah 49:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, John 12:20-36

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... and thus to convince them of human helplessness) by asserting that true redemption and righteousness reside in the "foolishness of God," which is none other than the weak, lowly, despised crucified Christ. Call to Worship Leader: I share with you a very foolish claim: our salvation lies in an event that is the epitome of human failure - a death upon a cross. People: OUR REDEMPTION AND RIGHTEOUSNESS RESIDE IN A CRUCIFIED MESSIAH. Leader: God’s power is manifest in weakness; God’s wisdom is made known in ...

2948. The Resurrection of Our Lord

Isaiah 25:1-12, John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18, Mark 16:1-20, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... bespeak amazement. Call to Worship Leader: Listen, people! For I bring you amazing news: Jesus who was dead and buried is risen from the dead! People: HE IS RISEN INDEED! HALLELUJAH! Leader: The notion is ridiculous, the event unprecedented, and our claim utterly amazing: Christ has been resurrected from the dead! People: THOUGH WORDS NOW FAIL US, LET US CELEBRATE THIS GLAD EVENT AND GIVE THANKS TO GOD FOR IT. Collect God of surprises, who have confounded our neat categories, exceeded our expectations ...

2949. Easter 3

Acts 3:11-26, 1 John 2:28--3:10, Luke 24:36-49

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... wickedness, and our utter failure to live as worthy family members of yours. Forgive us, we pray, and enable us through the example of Christ and the power of your Holy Spirit to live as though Christ really were the model and inspiration we claim him to be. In his name we pray. Amen Gospel: Luke 24:35-48 Theme: Reading the Scriptures with open minds Exegetical note Luke uses here a post-resurrection appearance story that, in light of its emphasis on Christ’s physical aspect, was probably originally ...

2950. Proper 9

2 Samuel 7:1-17, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, Mark 6:1-6

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... responding to other "apostles" (perhaps spirit-filled Gnostics) who have been aggrandizing themselves among the Corinthians, Paul issues an ironic kind of boast of his own, concerning his weaknesses. In particular, he mentions an unspecified "thorn in the flesh," which he claims keeps him from exalting himself (as his rivals do) and, along with all his hardships, reminds him of the true sufficiency of grace and the real source of power: Christ. Call to Worship Leader: We meet as a people blessed by ...

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