Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2951 to 2975 of 5000 results

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... ’s Ash Wednesday service. She was upset that her mother was not taking her to the altar with the rest of the family. She was overheard exclaiming: “But I want to get a tattoo just like Daddy’s!” You can see a young child making that kind of mistake. The mark we will make on our forehead this evening is not exactly a tattoo like we may wear on our body. It is rather a symbol of a tattoo that is to exist on our heart. C.S. Lewis once noted that there are two central truths about human nature. “First ...

2952. Faith or Folly

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , saying, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Despite his hunger, doubt, and fear of what he knows is to come, Jesus stands his ground. He will not be distracted. At last, the devil departs. Jesus is prepared and ready. Jesus’ ministry will be marked by the covenant love that he affirms that day: Love is not power or selfishness. Love is not control or mistrust and does not test God’s or another’s devotion. Love is not a deal made for self-promotion,but a covenant entered into in a ...

2953. Praying All the Way

John 17:1-11

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... Jesus knew with his Father. The disciples had already been arguing among themselves about which one of them was the greatest (Mark 9:33-34). James and John had already asked Jesus if they could sit next to him “in glory,” at his immediate right and left in ... what they thought would be the best seats (Mark 10:35-41). Their mother had joined in their request, and the other disciples had been angry that they would ask Jesus for special ...

2954. Get Ready

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... sitting around worrying about it, let’s focus on how Christ wants us to live here and now. That’s the purpose of today’s lesson from Mark. It is to remind us of two essential truths: One, the future is in God’s hands, not ours. And two, we can trust the God who ... The century in which Jesus spoke these words was just as turbulent as our century. In 70 A. D.—about the time Mark was writing his Gospel, the Roman army did the unthinkable—it destroyed the great Temple in Jerusalem to punish Israel for ...

2955. John the Baptist and Mrs. Nolan

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... member was such a killjoy. Some of the deacons would slip over to the high school the night of the Saturday dance and mark down all the young people of the church who were dancing. The deacons would give their names to the pastor who then called them ... he had a blender, he could have made some fine locust and wild honey smoothies. Maybe. Maybe not. It would be easy for us to mark off John the Baptist as a mad eccentric on the basis of his diet and wardrobe, but we would be wrong. John the Baptist was one ...

2956. How a Baby Changed the World

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... scary. The woman’s answer was not reported, but she did hang a poster on her garage that said, “THANK YOU, GOD.” Mark DeHaan shares this woman’s story in the devotional book Bless the Lord, O My Soul. He writes, “Putting up that sign ... want to cry out with the centurion standing at the foot of the cross as Jesus breathed his last: “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (Mark 15:39). The coming of Christ ushered in a whole new world. God’s vision for the world is yet to be realized, of course, but it ...

2957. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... to us, and to remind us not to waste our lives. And anyway, you never know when you’re going to die. Unless you’re Mark Twain. Did you know that one of our nation’s most famous writers predicted his own death? According to a biography of Twain, in 1909 ... together, they must go out together.’” On April 21, 1910, 24 hours after Halley’s Comet was visible in the night sky, Mark Twain died of a heart attack. (2) Did Twain do anything differently in his final year of life? Did he write something ...

2958. When God Leads

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... through the town’s main intersection. After discussing the issue with local officials, they settled on an interesting solution. They had road workers paint “a series of crisscrossed white road lines at the main intersection.” No more clear lane markings. No more lines to mark where cars should stop. Just a series of wavy lines that resemble an abstract drawing of the ocean. According to the mayor, the purpose of the crisscrossed lines is “to make it difficult to read the landscape.” In other ...

2959. Remember...

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... forget the One who gave us all out bounty. In Rudyard Kipling’s words, “Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget!” There is an ancient fable of an Indian healer who cured a man of leprosy. He took away all the disfiguring marks of the disease but left the man with one small scar. What was the scar for? The healer answered, “So he will always remember.” (2) Maybe we need a scar like that—to remind us of all the wonderful things God has done for us. We are a prosperous ...

2960. More Than Just Image

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... and will establish peace, righteousness and justice on the earth. It is God’s unfailing promise to us: “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” And every promise God has made to us will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 1. Mark D. Roberts, Dare to Be True Living in the Freedom of Complete Honesty (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2003), pp. 164-165. 2. WL/D 3. https://www.rd.com/joke/church-bulletin/. 4. “Kenya closes churches over ‘Starvation Massacre’ that has killed 427 ...

2961. Ready for Change

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... world, and all who stay the course in faith and loyalty to God will prevail along with him. Just as Jesus recently told a story of bridesmaids who need to keep their lamps filled, because they don’t know the hour that the bridegroom will come, in Mark Jesus delivers a similar message but without the parabolic intervention. His comforting warning is the same: Don’t despair. Don’t give up. Don’t lose faith. Know that a time is coming when God’s plan will come to fruition and Jesus will return in the ...

2962. The Great Reveal

Luke 2:22-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... doing so, Marywill also grieve as only a mother can. Beauty and tragedy. Life and death. Joy and sorrow. Hope and judgment. These dichotomies will mark the ministry and life of Jesus. And no matter which side of the sword will define a man’s or woman’s heart, the presence ... Simeon’s prophecy is a blessing and a warning –that these parents’ lives will never be the same, that Jesus’ birth will mark a “great reveal,” a new era in which God will make a bold statement and will change the world as we ...

2963. Jesus Gets a Business Card

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Mary Austin

... for who Jesus is. He shows us and tells us by his healings, his meals, his teaching, in everything he says and does. Now, the story shifts, and Jesus begins to make his way toward Jerusalem. As he goes, he asks his friends “what are people saying about me?” (Mark 8:29) They offer up various answers, no doubt leaving out the negative ones. And then he asks who they think he is. You can imagine the looks that passed between them — the nod of a head, the quirk of an eyebrow as if to say: you tell him ...

2964. More Than a Bad Day?

John 2:13-22

Sermon

Mary Austin

... about the financial burden of making the sacrifices, or they plan carefully so they can afford them, putting money away a little at a time. Of our four gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are strongly similar, but John always has a different take on things. Only a few stories make it into all four gospels, and this is one of them. Matthew, Mark, and Luke remember it happening near the end of Jesus’ life, during his last week in Jerusalem, just before his death. They place it between Palm Sunday and Easter ...

2965. Text Message From Jesus

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Mary Austin

... s telling us. The story is so intriguing that each of the four gospel writers remembered it and wrote it down. Our mental image of the day is a combination of all four but each one remembered different details. Mark’s version doesn’t have a single palm branch in sight, but we mentally add them in from other versions of the story. Mark’s story, the one we hear today, is much simpler, but we also add in the crowds to our image of the day. So what does Jesus want us to know? Should we see Jesus as a king ...

2966. Nothing Special Friday

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Mary Austin

... The gospel writers spent as much time on Jesus’ last few days as they did on everything else put together. Out of Mark’s sixteen chapters, six are about the last week of Jesus’ life. These memories must have stayed with Jesus’ friends in ... so explosive, so clear that this was the breath of God, that the soldier looked up and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39) That same breath that went out of Jesus now fills up all of human life. It enters into every place of pain, sorrow, and ...

2967. We Need Another Miracle

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Do you believe in miracles?” The gospel writers all do. In fact, they all present the story of Jesus in terms of miracles. Mark has this story, Matthew and Luke begin with the miracle of Jesus’ birth, John starts Jesus off with the changing of the water into ... documents/jefferson/01-09-02-0301 8. Greta Thurnberg, Speech at United Nations, USA Today (September 24, 2019). 9. Mark Kaufman, “NASA Scientist Kate Marvel Lays Out the Unpleasant Realities of Rising Seas,” Mashable (September 22, 2019).. 10 ...

2968. Fear of Flying

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... that the emphasis in this story is not on Jesus’ teaching. We note that people are impressed that he teaches with authority (in the Greek, with authoritative power). But we don’t even know what he taught that day. That’s not the focus of Mark’s message. Mark focuses on Jesus’ engagement with a man in whom he detects a fearful spirit –an event that would keep people’s tongues wagging for a good long time! I want you to notice something else. While the members of the synagogue are wondering at ...

2969. Marketplace Christianity

John 2:13-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... include a slightly different version, adding: “It is written,” he said to them, “’My house will be a house of prayer’ but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Luke 19:46; Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17), referencing Jeremiah 7:11. If you read the entirety of that passage in Jeremiah, you see that this is no solitary phrase but part of a long defense and protection by God of foreigners who wish to worship YHWH and a firm rebuke to those who would prevent ...

2970. On Rendering to God and to Caesar

Mark 12:13-17, Isaiah 42:1-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

... the coin. “There,” Jesus said. “See it belongs to Caesar. It has his picture on it. Let him have it if he wants it. Let Caesar have what Caesar owns. But you take heed. You're stamped with God's image. Don't let CAESAR have what God owns.” Mark says, the disciples “marveled” at Jesus' words -- which may be a polite way of saying that they had not the foggiest notion of what to do with them. Giving God the glory that is only God's was no easier then than it is today. They marveled at the demand ...

2971.

Psalm 82:1-8

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... this is evident in the NIV’s rendering of this psalm. In verse 1 the literal phrase “the assembly of El/God” is translated as “the great assembly,” and “gods” is placed in quotation marks (likewise v. 6), though not indicated in the Hebrew text (Classical Hebrew does not have such punctuation marks). In verse 7 the words “mere” and “other” are not present in the Hebrew text. The most obvious reading of this psalm, especially from the Hebrew, is to understand the ʾelohîm and “sons ...

2972. Body

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... all likelihood, this means that, through seeing the apostle and his sufferings, the Galatians saw in human form a revelation of the death of Jesus. This seems to be confirmed in Galatians 6:17, where Paul states that he bears on his body “the marks of Jesus,” referring to the wounds and scars that he received in the service of Christ. Paradoxically, however, Paul’s suffering shows the resurrection life of Jesus in his body. Sharing in Christ’s sufferings here and now is a prerequisite for sharing in ...

2973. The Kings of the South and the North

Daniel 11:2-35

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... efforts—like his father once did (cf. 11:8). 11:13 the king of the North will muster another army. This verse marks the turning point for Judea from Ptolemaic domination (11:5–12) to that of the Seleucids (11:13–20). Antiochus III reestablished ... of history, God both foresees and oversees all human events, allotting to each its appointed time. This important theme pointedly marks the opening verses of Daniel (1:1–2) and sustains its theology through this last climactic vision. It cannot be ...

2974. Schadenfreude

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... And we live in relationship with God. The more you cultivate your heart, the more you will see the good in others, and you will laugh and celebrate with them in their joy rather than in their sorrow. Blessed will be those…… [1] See Mark Twain, “The Awful German Language,” in A Tramp Abroad. [2] The English have a similar concept they call “epicaricacy,” but the German word is much more explicit …not to mention more “fun” to behold and pronounce. [3] Summarizing quote from the Encyclopedia ...

2975. A Basket of Ripe Fruit

Amos 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... 8; John 14:9) and abides with them (John 15:10). Nothing more clearly signals the end of Israel than the fact stated in this oracle that it will no longer be given the word of God. The phrase at the beginning of verse 13, in that day, normally marks the beginning of a new oracle, but as they now stand, verses 13–14 must be interpreted in continuity with verses 11–12. Thus, the thirst referred to in verse 13 is the same thirst mentioned in verse 11—thirst for hearing the words of the Lord. And because ...

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