Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2976 to 3000 of 3099 results

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Nowadays people carry their pet with them for comfort. You see them in department stores, on buses and airplanes. And it seems to work. A psychologist at the University of Buffalo, Karen Allen, did a study on people who were giving speeches. Some subjects performed their speech for Dr. Allen alone, others performed in front of their spouse, and others spoke for only Dr. Allen and their dog. Here’s what Dr. Allen found. The performers’ stress levels were lowest when their dog was underfoot—four times ...

2977. The Angel's Message

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... to go do something else,” says Mitchell, age 7. “My guardian angel helps me with math,” says Henry, age 8, “but he’s not much good for science.” “Angels talk all the way while they’re flying you up to heaven,” says Daniel, age 9. “The main subject is where you went wrong before you got dead.” Sara, age 6, has an interesting take on angels. She says, “Angels have a lot to do and they keep very busy. If you lose a tooth, an angel comes in through your window and leaves money under your ...

2978. Keeping Your Eye on the Ball

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of the Temple with a coin imaged by the head of the Roman “ordained by god” Caesar, he appears to be selling out to an idolatrous invader. Hence, he may lose his followers. Jesus needs to define “whose law” they need to follow. Are the Jewish people subject to Rome’s secular (pseudo-pagan) law? Is he a politician like all the rest willing to sacrifice faith for power and prestige or at least conformity? Will he sell out the people, who feel that Rome’s graven image is an insult and a sin? Which ...

2979. A Coach's Degree

Humor

Our basketball coach is a real winner. He is also a scholar with a Master's Degree. The subject of his thesis was, "What College Done For Me."

2980. The Failing Student's Reasoning

Humor

A student, rushed into the office of his faculty advisor just after mid-terms: "I need help bad." The professor asked, "What's your trouble?" The student replied, "I just made four Fs and a D." "Well, what's your explanation for that?" asked the professor. The student replied, "I think I spent too much time on that one subject."

2981. A Quantum Decision

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... as if he had received a mystical message from outside himself that gave him this insight, and secondly, each person’s life was never the same after receiving this insight. What is striking about this study is that ten years later the authors interviewed their subjects again and found that their lives had been permanently changed by this decisive moment. As Dr. Miller, one of the book’s co-authors, said, “The moment it happened, they knew they had gone through a one-way door—there was no going back ...

2982. You're Never Too Old

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... had gone to that school. “I sure did,” she replied. “When did you graduate?” he asked. She answered, “In 1965. Why do you ask?” “You were in my class!” he exclaimed. She squinted her eyes and looked at him real closely and then asked, “What subject did you teach?” (1) [We laugh to keep from crying, don’t we?] Our lesson for today from the book of Genesis begins like this: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, (that’s pretty old, wouldn’t you agree) the Lord appeared to him and ...

2983. Wisdom to the World, but Foolishness to God

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Students of American history have always been fascinated by the life and career of the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe, as he was known by his Kentucky and Illinois peers, is the subject of history lessons from primary through graduate school education. Lincoln was the stereotypical backwoodsman who felt the call to public service of the state, on local and national levels. He became well known for his anti-slavery political and moral stance and saw his goal as ...

2984. Survival

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

Will Willimon

... And because of our bomb, and Shearon Harris, and Carl Sagan's bleak predictions for the future, it's in us. The nuclear threat has put us in the unique position from which we may be the first generation in a long time to understand Jesus on the subject of the end. And yet, despite Jesus' predictions, the world did not come to an end during his generation. The temple was destroyed, yes, but not the whole world. The world went on. Saint Paul told early Christians not to marry, not to worry about whether they ...

2985. Sin

Romans 7:15--8:13

Sermon

Will Willimon

... Let me count the ways." I think Reinhold Niebuhr understood our situation better than any contemporary theologian. He characterized our self-inflated egotism this way: "One of the hazards of the [Christian life] is that the more successful you are [at it], the more you will be subject to various forms of pride and exhibitionism. I give myself in one moment to a cause of the word of our Lord, and then I discover in the next moment, that I haven't given myself at all, but that the self stands outside of this ...

2986. Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

... act as if I am helping my neighbor while still keeping him a stranger. Justice, as tough as it is, may demand less of us than love...which is not jealous, not arrogant, not rude or resentful. A friend of mine was asked to speak on the subject of "Peacemaking in a Nuclear Age" at his seminary. For his talk on peacemaking, he chose to address the problem of gossip within the seminary, the way we wound one another with words, the way scholars are envious of one another, spread untruth about one another's work ...

2987. Where’s the Authenticity?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Michael L. Sherer

... include what we can read and hear on the internet, on unfiltered television “news” and over-the-top opinion channels, and even in the marketplace, where talk is cheap. What gives authority to the flood of verbiage to which we are now subjected? Simply put, it is the authentic activity that matches the talk. When those two things intersect, the messenger gains credibility and we properly accord him or her the accolade, “This one speaks with authority.” Jesus’ followers, including all of us, face an ...

2988. Homecoming

Hosea 14:1-3a

Sermon

Will Willimon

... lives to knowing everything there is about one species of lemur, one year in the history of Albania. Graduate school is a search for something small enough to write a dissertation upon. Intellect defined as a very long dissertation on a very small subject. Thus we faculty know more and more about less and less. Our modern lives are measured, said Eliot, in teaspoons. In a world committed to cutting free of all commitments, fiercely intolerant of everything but tolerance, open-minded rather than informed, no ...

2989. Overwhelmed

Revelation 1:4b-8

Sermon

Will Willimon

... and feel good. But today, the problems are more subtle. The conflict is deeper. There is no clear picture of what we need to do, no consensus on what comes next. We just feel overwhelmed." A student group had invited me to speak on any subject of my choosing. "Any topic of my choosing? What about if I spoke on, 'Current Problems on Campus'?" There was a long silence. The student then responded, "Dean Willimon, frankly, we are just overwhelmed with problems. We are exhausted from discussion. What we would ...

2990. Holy Extravagance

Mark 14:3-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

... this afternoon, or any afternoon in Spring, that's what you see extravagance. People in love tend toward extravagant behavior. They make a good deal of throwing frisbees. They sing, write poetry, acquire new wardrobes and hairstyles, cry, shout, dance. They are subject to the wildest, most extreme shifts of mood. A careless line in a letter from their beloved throws them into bitter depression. A momentary glance from the object of their affection hurls them into the ionosphere. That's the way love is ...

2991. Good Sex

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Will Willimon

... to live together in marriage anymore?” Added to these observations are those of the Women’s Movement which has thoroughly documented that relationships between men and women have been woefully unjust, that even the sacred institution of marriage has often legitimated the subjection of women, the arrogance of men. When asked about the sorry state of affairs between women and men, Jesus went on record as saying, “From the beginning, this was not so.” (Mark 10:2-16) That is, let no one declare that ...

2992. Bringing Life to a Party

Luke 24:36b-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... and Eternal Youth.” (7) Maybe Jules Verne thought that he could achieve immortality on his own. Maybe he believed his writings would live on after him. But the Bible makes it clear that we cannot save ourselves from death. And no amount of avoiding the subject or worrying about it or fearing it will change that fact. But what if there really is a God who is that intimately concerned with our lives? What does it mean if this life really is but a prelude to everlasting life? And what difference would ...

2993. Loving Through Action

1 John 3:14-24

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... we are indeed living for others. However, this idea is much broader than simply sharing our material resources. When using our talent and expertise to assist another, whether that be helping a fellow student in school who struggles in any particular subject, assisting a neighbor with a household project, or donating our professional expertise to assist individuals or possibly some community project, we are also living for others. When we take the time, that precious commodity which these days we never seem ...

2994. Tales from the Field

John 10:11-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of people from all walks of life, from various cultures and peoples, from those of various preferences and skin colors, languages, and traditions. But they are unified in one thing: they are all followers of Jesus. Their unity is in the Spirit. Jesus’ flock are not subject to specific attributes but dwell in the fields of God’s world together in harmony, all worshiping Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This is Jesus’ Babel story. So Jesus I think would ask all of us today….are you a victim of fold-ism ...

2995. Only Human?

Psalm 8:5-6

Sermon

Will Willimon

... spoke, not of how lovely creation is when seen from a screened in porch of his mountain cottage, but how creation -- groans. "The whole creation has been groaning in travail....not only the creation, but we ourselves," Paul wrote in Romans 8. "The creation was subjected to futility." Groaning. Futility. Those chickens on the trucks on 15/501. Me. You. In the Great Chain of Being which biologists know only as a chain of food, some creature is always giving up its life for another. Those chickens, on the way ...

2996. Love Is a Verb

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

Most of you may not remember Art Linkletter on television but he always had a section on his show titled “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” There is something so very honest and innocent about their views on the world’s toughest subjects. Following Linkletter’s example, a group of professionals gathered and asked a group of four- to eight-year-olds “What does love mean?” Here are some of their answers. “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toe nails anymore. ...

2997. Following God's Plan

1 John 5:1-6

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... loving God and our neighbor by following the Lord’s commands can, as demonstrated by the little story, be lived out day-by-day in many ways; there is no single vocation to finding the path to Christ. Some of us, like Saint Anthony, will be the subject of future history books; some people will be well known in the community for who they are, the position they hold, or the things they have done. Most of us, however, will be, as they say “ordinary Janes and Joes,” like the shoemaker and his family, hard ...

2998. Walking in the Way of Love

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... in the way of love requires an active love. In Jesus’ life, love was a verb, not a noun. It was an action, not an emotion. Almost 100 years ago, there was a Scottish pastor by the name of George Morrison who preached a sermon on the subject of “unconscious ministries.” He said that other people watch what we do more than what we say. Our attitudes and actions have a tremendous influence on those around us, even if we don’t realize it. By remaining faithful in hard times, by choosing our attitude, by ...

2999. Meeting Jesus

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... and pick them up. A couple of weeks later he got a call that his glasses were ready and he went to the optometrist’s office to get them. He tried them on and they fit well enough. The lady at the desk gave him a brief tutorial on the subject of taking care of your glasses. He paid, thanked her, and turned to leave. He opened the door, stepped out onto the porch, looked around, seeing the world through his new glasses and he wept. “I felt like a fool, standing there crying,” he said. “I was afraid ...

3000. A Non-anxious Presence

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... demonstrate the power of Jesus over nature, it might well end right here, but it does not. There is more to come, another rebuke, and this one is for the disciples. “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” The real subjects of this story, it turns out, are faith and fear. Again, Donahue and Harrington inform us that the adjective translated “afraid” holds several meanings, including “timid” or “fearful” and “conveys not simply fear but timidity and lack of courage.” They conclude ...

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