Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 276 to 300 of 972 results

Lk 22:14--23:56 · Isa 50:4-7 · Php 2:6-11

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... voice strengthening you - v. 4 B. Willingly accepts the suffering - v. 5 C. Endures suffering patiently - v. 7 D. Trusts in God to deliver from suffering - v. 7 2. The Worst Kind of Suffering. 50:6. Need: During Passion week we are inclined to dwell exclusively on the physical suffering of Jesus: the torture of a crown of thorns, the scourging, the carrying of the cross to Calvary, the nails in hands and feet, the slow physical draining until exhaustion. There is this side to suffering as our text says, "I ...

277. Tears in Raniah

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

... . The rose symbolizes faith, keeping our hearts alive in joy. The blue stands for the joy of heaven as we walk through Christ’s cross to the golden ring of blessedness without end. Luther’s seal has helped me when I have felt exile, loss, or exclusion. It is a prophet’s seal, a constant reminder that God scatters and then gathers again. He is our Father whose loyalty turns our exiles into entrances into his promised land. He is the hope of our future who wipes away every tear from our eyes ...

278. A Protecting Grace

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Glenn L. Borreson

... Gentile and tax collector" when he or she doesn't listen - may not mean "having nothing to do with a person." Rather, it may very well mean "having the attitude of Jesus toward them." That is, never give up on them! The goal is restoration, not punishment or exclusion from the community. So why should I spend all the time for this sermon on the first step of discipline when there are three others, too. Well, the answer is a variation on an old story that goes like this. A congregation had a new pastor. The ...

279. Victory and Protest

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Richard L. Thulin

... in the darkness of that night. Their voices rose louder and louder in praise to God. But those voices rose also, I think, in protest against their condition. They rose in challenge that their condition need not be. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead; exclusion and oppression must end! That night on a Caribbean island I was reminded of the fact that Easter hymns have often celebrated life by laughing at death. They have claimed an open heaven by mocking hell. They have raised the lowly by ridiculing those ...

280. Mi Casa, Su Casa

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... in the investment. The tenants’ real interest is in a place to call home. Unable or unwilling to buy, they rent, and the landlord is part of the package. The interests of the two parties are at once both compatible and conflicting; mutual and mutually exclusive. Our family has rented from a half-dozen different landlords over the years. They’ve ranged from the deft to the daft, from the efficient to the effete. And, as a group, tenants are an even more mixed lot. Given human nature and this sort ...

281. Possession is Nine Tenths of the Fall

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

D. Wayne Burkette

... Jesus. It is no coincidence that most of the conflict Jesus experienced was with persons and institutions who were certain that they were right, that they knew exactly what God willed and what God did not, that the spiritual vineyard of their day belonged exclusively to them. It is no surprise that when a gospel of grace meets head-on with dogmatic religion, the inevitable result is conflict. God’s grace is always a lurking threat to the conviction that people must earn salvation through ownership of the ...

282. Life in The Meantime

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

D. Wayne Burkette

... could have known when the groom would appear. But their own rationalizations would have served only to seal their fate. They missed out on the very thing for which they had hoped. That happens more often than we realize. So many folks live for the future to the exclusion of meaning in the present. One recent retiree confided one afternoon as we sat on his back porch, "All my working life I looked forward to retirement; I dreamed about the day it would come and what I would do; I sacrificed a lot to make it ...

283. Judgment and Justice

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

... should be able to support us in the struggles and trauma of everyday life. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" is still a valid expression of the upbuilding and upholding character of Christian faith. But when worship is primarily, or exclusively, oriented toward one’s personal relationship to God, even if it is connected to one’s salvation in Jesus Christ, one runs the risk of shutting out others, their situations in life, and their needs; the church as a serving and holy community ...

284. Power

2 Corinthians 6:7

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... rush to God's end by using the shortest possible means. For example, a teacher could have a great class if he or she simply excluded all the lazy, tiresome and below average students. If you threw out all the non-A students, you'd have a rather exclusive and wonderful class. I've known some teachers, not here, but elsewhere, who use their power in that manner. The very first class they throw out a mile a minute lecture and a reading list that would terrify all but the best students. It just knocks all the ...

285. The Sermon in the Supper

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... why the cross was placed on the east wall. They did not know that it was an emblem of the future from which "the bright Star of Dawn" (Revelation 22:16, NEB) would appear. Because they had lost this sense of the forward look, they made the cross exclusively a memorial of Christ’s death in the past. The Sacrament of the Holy Communion tells us about the Promise of Christ to return. Though men may forget that the Cross has this future aspect, God made sure that this element of Faith would not be forever ...

286. When God's Mind is Spoken

Judges 1:1-36

Sermon

... was this fellowship - like that between a father and his only son - that although no one has ever seen God, we can read about Jesus' life, ponder his secret, and say, surely God's presence is here. Although God is here in the person of Jesus, he is not exclusively here in the person of Jesus. But, for the Christian, God's Word uniquely became flesh at the Incarnation. So I said to my friend in the hospital, "If you want to hear the Word of God, listen to it drummed out in the life of Jesus, because it ...

287. Responding to Christ's Birth

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

... our own apathy and be seized by the passion for life. To follow as a disciple means to share in both the joy and the suffering of humanity. Christ's people are concerned about the joy and the hurt of life, but neither one to the exclusion of the other. Good news and passion are linked together in this faith. There can be no Gospel without passion. As we travel in "The Way", we gradually understand that the Gospel, as symbolized by myrrh, must have passion as well as success. Matthew wanted to convey ...

288. Easter 7

Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47:1-9, 1 Peter 4:12-19, John 17:1-5, John 17:6-19

Sermon Aid

... of the church and all believers are one in him; that's the nature of Christ and his body - that's the way it really is, despite the efforts that are made, and have been quite successful, in fragmenting the church into small bodies of believers and exclusive sects. Jesus wants the church to recognize its unity and to live and operate within it. A sermon on the First Lesson and the Gospel Most congregations need to hear a sermon emphasizing the unity of the church in its Lord as central to its existence and ...

289. A Princely Passion

2 Samuel 13:1-22

Sermon

... was far from charming. Amnon was more in the mode of a Machiavellian Prince. Machiavelli, who had written that a prince "... must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves."1 Amnon’s problem was Amnon. He worshiped himself and his desires to the exclusion of all else. Like a cat in a canary cage, he was king of the hill. The eldest son of David and heir to the throne. Well-helled and well-fed. Allowed to ride on one of the specially groomed royal donkeys, which today would be comparable to ...

290. Easter 4

Acts 2:42-47

Bulletin Aid

Theme: The Church as community Exegetical note The picture of the earliest Church painted here refers almost exclusively to its life "in house" rather than its mission (e.g., the edifying didache is mentioned rather than the kergyma addressed to the non-believers). The fellowship (koinonia) in verse 42 is elaborated with the subsequent reference to fellowship, prayers, community of property (a primitive communism!), and communal meals - all ...

291. Easter 5

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Bulletin Aid

Theme: The active, ascended Christ Exegetical note Stephen's vision of the ascended Christ in heaven prior to his own martyrdom is curious for two reasons: 1) his use of the phrase "Son of Man," otherwise used in the New Testament almost exclusively only by Jesus (but cf. Rev. 1:13, also in a vision!) and with eschatological if not apocalyptic overtones; and (2) his image of the Christ standing rather than sitting at God s right hand. What both of these suggest is a Christ not resting on his laurels but ...

292. Easter 6

John 14:15-31

Sermon Aid

... really don't know love at all." (Give two minutes of silence.) Begin the act of pardon with these words: "Are you willing to look at love in a new way, the way Christ lived it? One way is a willingness to give up relating exclusively with your closest friends, and to spend some quality time with persons who need to know that someone loves them." Conclude with this litany: Pastor: We remember the good news of our liberation. Ministers: Christ has declared our self-worth. Pastor: Christ has forgiven, accepted ...

293. Proper 22

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: Green Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43 Theme: Those considered as least in the kingdom may be the greatest. Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration One pastor did this: Worship includes two dimensions. The vertical: God to us, not exclusively to us, but to the whole world. The horizontal: Us to others, not just those we like, but to those whom God loves. You may want to use this litany between pastor/ministers: Pastor: We are here to celebrate the Presence and Power of God to the whole world. ...

294. In The Lion's Den

Daniel 6:1-28

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Today we are going to conclude the Daniel series for a while. Later in the year we will return to deal with chapters 7 through 12. Those latter chapters deal almost exclusively with prophecy of future events. Today we deal with chapter 6. The first five verses tell us that King Darius divided the kingdom into 120 counties, each with a mayor or satrap. Then three regional administrators or governors supervised the 120 mayors. One of the big three was Daniel. Daniel ...

295. The Yestermorrow Eclipse

John 10:1-21

Sermon

... there awaiting us $10,000, or $20,000, or maybe $30,000 down the road; and once we get there we can really live. Much of the road to Yestermorrow is paved with blacktop from this "If only" ... the time and effort of today devoted exclusively to reaching the dollar destination we’ve established as our gateway to abundant life. New words get intertwined with familiar ones, and the passage soon reads, "Money comes that you may have life and have it abundantly" - the irony of finding abundant life in a cold ...

296. It Isn’t Fair!

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

... for creation. What if rain fell and crops grew only for those folks who were pure in heart? Suppose forgiveness were meted out only to the perfectly contrite? (Which, as we learned last week, includes forgiving others to a fault)? What if God gave everlasting life exclusively to those who never ever yielded to the Prince of Darkness? Where would we be? In fact, God gave up trying to be "fair" with us a long, long time ago. In fact, God’s sense of "justice" would have totally obliterated everyone he made ...

297. Christians Die Well

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... he declared that Jesus was the Son of man. To the Jews, that meant Jesus was the Savior of the World - the WORLD, not just the Jews! They couldn’t tolerate that! That would mean they were no longer "special," "favored," the "elect," the "privileged," the "exclusive." ALL the nations could now be saved. This news ignited their wrath and fury to violence and they stoned Stephen to death, thus making him the first Christian martyr, or "witness," to die for the faith. They took him to a high place and pushed ...

298. No Sooner Said Than Done!

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... the slavery question. Oral Roberts claimed that God told him to solicit funds to build a hospital which both city and state claimed was not needed, and God would give him the cure for cancer. Throughout the history of the church, the orthodox position was that God spoke exclusively in his Word, and the supposed voice of God beyond the Scriptures was open to question unless it conformed to the written Word of God. That voice you claim to hear may be the Devil’s! To be sure it is God’s voice, check it out ...

299. FOLLOW THE LEADER

Illustration

John H. Krahn

A father was filling out the application form for his daughter who was seeking entrance to a very exclusive college. He came to the question on the form asking whether his daughter was a leader. In honesty he wrote, "No, but she’s a good follower." A few weeks later a letter arrived notifying him that his daughter had been accepted. At the bottom of the letter the dean ...

300. THE ONLY WAY OUT

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... be saved; sufficient in itself, needing absolutely no human works, no false pride, no human righteousness, nothing ... nothing ... nothing at all to be added to it. I died to purchase a place for you in heaven which I offer to you as a gift which you must receive totally and exclusively by faith.

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