Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3001 to 3025 of 4957 results

3001. The Flow of Life

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... him or her as well. We are not just this quality or that quality. Probably we know something of all human emotions and experience them somewhere within the flow of our lives. Not that I fully understand this other person’s situation. That can be a presumptuous claim to make, for there is no way that I can really understand what another is going through, short of being in his shoes. But I can identify with something of what he is going through. I can begin to understand, for I have known something of that ...

3002. The Three Poison Pills of Position, Prestige, and Power

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Brett Blair

... that hard climb up the treacherous path to Jerusalem. The disciples know that whatever messianic plans Jesus has are about to be put into effect. With this in mind James and John, two brothers born to a man named Zebedee, sense their opportunity to claim leadership positions. Perhaps, they said to one another, Jesus is partial to Peter and we must act now to gain his affections. Perhaps they felt they were better leaders and Jesus would come around to their view if they could but argue their case. Whatever ...

3003. God With A Human Face

John 1:1-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... things were made through him..." This life of God's as seen in Christ is permanent. It is not a matter of threescore years and ten and that is the end. God's life is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. That is why eternal life, which we Christians claim, is a gift, never a human attainment. The life God gives is God's own life, and as God is eternal, the life God gives is eternal. Because of this, Christians have life in the very midst of physical death. When Norman Vincent Peale was a young minister ...

3004. Wrinkled Wrappings

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... come. You begin to lose hair and some teeth. Eyesight dims and glasses become necessary. Hearing gets more difficult. Fat accumulates in your midsection. Muscles shrink and joints stiffen. The heart gets less efficient and the flow of hormones declines. It is claimed that after age 45, you lose 100,000 brain cells per day. How could people in this kind of physical condition have such insight? In spite of their physical ailments and limitations, these two old people had an insight into Jesus that many ...

3005. Happy New Year?

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... with her jewels." Probably most of you would say that the happiest day of your life was your wedding day. That was the case at the time of the wedding even though it may not be the case later. Gerald Griffin, in his book The Silent Misery, claims that 80 percent of our marriages are unhappy. Nevertheless, we are happy when we are in love. A magazine headline once quoted Phyllis Diller, "It's wonderful to be in love again!" A Christian is in love with Jesus. We are married to God through Jesus. Marriage ...

3006. How to Profit from Prophets

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

Many would claim the profit motive to be one of the stronger motives of our humanity. Though purists may snub their noses at it, and socialists may sneer at it, capitalists say profit and the profit motive are the driving force of any successful economy. Welfare recipients might criticize the high profits of ...

3007. Why Prophets Get Under Our Skin

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... superpower. Many would say the only reason we survived is due to superior military strength. World Wars I and II are testimonies of that. So is the Korean conflict, more or less. And of course, Vietnam is still up for grabs. Nonetheless, many militarists would claim the defense buildup under Reagan helped topple the Soviet Union and bring to an end the Cold War. Could be. But look outside our borders to a nation like Iraq and a brutal madman like Saddam Hussein. He expends huge proportions of his gross ...

3008. A Stronger Hand

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... has a mighty hand with which to guide us. God cares not about the particulars of who we are — where we live, the work we do, infirmities, age — but only that we are found. God leads all people with a sure hand. Collect To you, O God, who claims and reclaims us with a hand stronger than any other, we sing aloud with gladness. To you, who steadies us whenever we falter and who brings our hearts to thanksgiving, we praise your holy name. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Sometimes, God, we feel as if we were a ...

3009. All Is Calm, All Is Bright

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

William G. Carter

... choirs have spent weeks tuning up for this one night. The ushers have handed out candles and rounded up a few extra fire extinguishers. We tell familiar stories to our children and sing favorite songs. At the center of all we sing and pray, we dare to claim that “all is calm, all is bright.” We do it, of course, because that is the proclamation of the angels. “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” At the center of the Christmas story is the announcement ...

3010. Home for the Holidays

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

William G. Carter

... Christian church, circa 200 A.D. Whose voice speaks louder? Your family’s voice or God’s voice? That is the issue for today, and it is not easily settled. As much as we prepare our children for independence, it is painful when they begin to claim it. As seriously as we nurture our children’s faith, it can be unsettling when they begin to take faith seriously. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus did not ease any such difficulty through his words or actions. One day he was busy teaching and healing ...

3011. The Kind of People Whom God Chooses

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

William G. Carter

... hand, and in the other hand, confidence in the gospel which redeems us. The invitation to serve and follow Christ is greater than any one of us can fulfill. When the invitation comes, we are called beyond our feelings of inadequacy to grow into the role, to claim the purpose, and to invest ourselves in Christ’s future. It is a future when we will be presented, not in our own power, but in Christ’s power, fully mature, fully humble, and full of love. A number of years ago, Dr. John Hubbard, the former ...

3012. When Life Gets Hard, Christian, Rebel!

Lamentations 1:1-22

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... 22 For the Lord will not reject forever. Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone. — 3:31-33 In our Second Lesson (2 Timothy 1:8-10), Paul likewise claims that he could only endure his imprisonment for the Gospel because he could rely on the power of God’s grace by which God called us before the foundation of the world. Faith in a loving God, even in small quantities, is a great, grand embolding ...

3013. In, But Not Of, The World

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... society. We do it through our prayers. We have been talking about that. As we try to bring the Good News of Jesus to the world so that the world may be saved, we also make a contribution to the world. Our Second Lesson makes this point, claiming that this concern is what kept Saint Paul going (2 Timothy 2:10). The Christian contribution to the world also surfaces in less clearly spiritual, more worldly ways. When you get to work tomorrow, you have a great opportunity to contribute to society. You do that by ...

3014. Life's Not Always Fair, But God Will Straighten It Out

Habakkuk 2:2-20, Habakkuk 1:12--2:1, Habakkuk 1:1-4

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... Martin Luther. If Jesus’ words that the Kingdom of God has come near (Mark 1:15) are true, you and I have seen that Kingdom. Where? What does it look like? Martin Luther can tell you. Writing in one of his most famous works for a general audience, Luther claimed that the Kingdom of God, that the End, is realized whenever we receive the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit is manifest in faith and in living godly lives.5 Did you get Luther’s point? The mountaintop, the vision of the End Times, is not hard to ...

3015. God's Gifts Are Free: Enjoy

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... do not have to do. These are works of which you take no ownership and in which you take no pride, because they are not your own. This is how you really say, “Thank You,” to God and give him thanks. We heard Martin Luther say this earlier. He claimed that the offering up of the first fruits to which our First Lesson from Deuteronomy refers (v. 2a) are the good things of love given to us by grace. The first fruits you give to God in thanksgiving are the service you and I render to God and our neighbors ...

3016. Salvation Includes Social Justice

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... not concerned about the body if you are not also concerned about its welfare. Are the bodies around us receiving adequate sustenance? Are our resources distributed fairly to all, so that none are unfairly deprived? This brings us back to Jeremiah’s claim that the Messiah will establish justice. Obviously, justice is the Christian’s business. Ultimately it is God’s business, Christ’s business. After all, our Second Lesson (Colossians 1:15-16, 20) makes it clear that Christ created the physical world ...

3017. What If What They Say Is True?

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... worlds. God’s call is not going to fit easily into what we are already doing; it’s not going to slide neatly into the patterns and codes that we already have learned. Just ask Jeremiah. God makes a strong opening bid in this passage, pronouncing a divine claim on Jeremiah’s life before he had even been born. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” God says to Jeremiah, “... I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations” (1:5). How’s that for a word from outside the comfort zone ...

3018. "...Yet"

Jeremiah 4:5-31

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... was nothing: no form, no light, no life — just tohu wabohu. Until God intervened. And the rest, as they say, is history. However you want to read the first few pages of Genesis as science, as literature, as history, as myth, as metaphor — the unmistakable claim of this text is that God created out of nothing, out of darkness, out of chaos. There was just tohu wabohu, there was just a formless void, until God created something. Out of this original nothingness, God brought forth a world; and, from that ...

3019. Changing Seasons, Constant Love

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... I hear in this passage from Jeremiah. “Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” he asks (8:22). The prophet has no answers. Why hasn’t it gotten better? I don’t know. I am aware that there are people who claim to know why these things happen. People who are convinced that God is behind it all, teaching lessons, granting rewards, exacting retribution, meting out punishment according to some inscrutable plan. I don’t know about all that. I think presuming to know what God is up ...

3020. With All Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17, Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... and governance of sin in our lives. Confessing our sin is a declaration of war against sin’s providence and devastations. Confessing our sin seeks the eviction of sin from permanent habitation in our hearts, minds, and souls. 1 John 1:8-9, reminds us, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” God wants a heart that confesses sin because God likes an ...

3021. Deformed, Disfigured, and Despised: A Marred but Magnificent Messiah

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... don’t want to see him, but we want to touch him. We don’t want to suffer with him but want him to be our suffering servant. We don’t want his physical looks but want his spiritual power. We don’t want his association but want to claim his authority. He was marred for our sins, iniquities, afflictions, and addictions. He was magnificent in the way that he bore our sorrows and took on our condition and freed us from enslavement to that condition. He was marred by our scars. We killed him! But by his ...

3022. A Town of Promise

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... . It was not an accident that the Second David was born at Bethlehem. Clearly, God did want to give the evidence that God was starting over with a descendant of David who would carry on what God had begun through God’s faithful servant. Bethlehem’s claim to fame was renewed. Not only had that rural village produced the likes of King David, but the town had given to the world the King of kings and Lord of lords. Our Bethlehem There was nothing provincial about the prophetic word from Micah. The Second ...

3023. The Child of Promise

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... . What makes it so precious to us is the fact that so much is attributed to the person of that kingly Davidic figure who is our Lord Jesus Christ who comes to us as a Child. What is more important is that he is ours. We come this day to claim him again as our very own, and to have him as our own is to know and to have God in our hearts. One Christmas carol which captures that truth so poignantly is “Once In Royal David’s City,” sung with purity in the Service of Lessons and Carols each ...

3024. The Promising Child

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... as he lives, he is given to the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:27-28). The Law of Moses (Exodus 13:1-2) did require that every firstborn male be designated as holy to the Lord. The understanding of this requirement was that Israel might trust that God claimed all of Israel as God’s people. The dedication of the firstborn was a significant way of remembering that, especially since all the firstborn of the Egyptians were lost at the time of the Exodus. Hannah and Elkanah went well beyond that in offering their very ...

3025. Light for Beauty

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... poor and destitute lady to make her his bride. In doing so he confers upon the poor darling all of his wealth and all the assets of his holdings. In doing so he becomes not only her lover but her shield and protection. She is blessed in that she can claim all the holdings and blessings of her husband as her own. Just so in this Epiphanytide we are reminded that our dear Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal that love for us whereby we are married to him and by faith to be advantaged in that he ...

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