Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3051 to 3075 of 3099 results

John 10:1-10

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... the context of the gospel of John, this parable also functions as Jesus’ commentary on his healing of a man who had been blind from birth. These ten verses appear at the start of chapter ten, and the chapter break might suggest that this is the start of a new subject. But at the end of chapter nine, Jesus was still speaking with the man who was now able to see. “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind,” says Jesus (John 9:39 ...

3052. Praying All the Way

John 17:1-11

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... news, and the impact of their combined ministry has endured over the centuries. Today in my area, two churches of different denominations share the same building and partner together on community outreach. Two members in my congregation left a church meeting on a controversial subject, and one member put her arm around the other’s shoulders and said, “We don’t agree, but I love you.” As a church and as individuals and households, we’re still on the way with Jesus. His prayer hasn’t been fully ...

3053. Seeing the Truth of Jesus

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... of Caesarea Philippi. It’s a primarily Gentile region. In Jesus’ day, this area was known for its shrine to Pan, the Greek god of fertility and flocks. It also housed a prominent temple in honor of Caesar, who was treated as a god by his subjects. There was also a cave in the region out of which flowed an underground spring whose water was so deep that it was rumored to come from the underworld. Everywhere Jesus and his disciples looked, they saw evidence of idolatry, of competing gods. (3) Was that ...

3054. Good News/Bad News

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... excitement of it all. Jesus asked them, “Who do you say I am?” and Simon Peter answered enthusiastically, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” It was one of the most dramatic moments in the disciples’ pilgrimage with Jesus. Then Jesus changed the subject. Up until now it had been mainly good news, but then Jesus started to give them a different kind of news. He began to tell them that the crowds would soon turn against him, He would be crucified, but on the third day he would be raised ...

3055. Overcoming Envy

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... Wa-wa-wa—the green-eyed monster—envy, jealousy. “I want the same that you have and I will never be happy until I have received it.” Pamela Pettler in a little book called The Joy of Stress, wrote a satirical essay on just this subject. In a section titled, “They’re Getting Ahead of You,” she tells about a young man who went berserk one day in late 1969 in the research library of the University of California in Berkeley. He ran through the library, shouting hysterically at his fellow students ...

3056. Willingness to Risk

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Carl Jung, the great psychotherapist, said of Christopher Columbus, “By using subjective assumptions, a false hypothesis, and a route abandoned by modern navigation, he discovered America.” Isn’t that marvelous? We can take courage in that. Columbus didn’t know what he was doing -- as is often the case with us. All the smart people in Europe were saying that it was ...

3057. The Gracious Dream

Genesis 28:10-17

Sermon

Will Willimon

... tainted of us--to our own devices. The old song doesn't tell it all. "We are climbing Jacob's ladder. We are climbing..." No. That ladder is a two-way thoroughfare. Our dreams, even the best of them that prod us to study so hard at Duke, are subject to divine intrusion so that our lives become disrupted, reoriented to God's dreams. We're out nowhere in some dingy dorm room, dark, late at night, only a stone for our pillow and, to the unlikeliest of persons (it's a story about Jacob, remember) in the most ...

3058. Revising The Agenda

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

William G. Carter

... should deprive ourselves to the glory of God, even to the point of denying our God-given dignity. In my experience, the people who get most upset about this point of view are smart, capable women, and with good reason. Historically, a lot of women have been subject to a systematic put-down. They have been told they are second-class citizens, that they are expected to serve everybody else. A friend went to pay a call on a wealthy rancher in another state. He went on behalf of the college where he worked. The ...

3059. The Fearful Meeting

Genesis 32:1-20; 33:1-4, 12-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of town with his brother threatening to cut his throat for ruining his life. "What about your younger brother?" friends of Esau ask. "You never mention him." "My brother is a conniving little scoundrel," says Esau, "I hate his guts." And friends promptly changed the subject. In just about every family I know, there is always someone who is not discussed, at least one person missing from the annual Christmas card photo. "You never go home to see your family," they said to Jacob. Jacob never replied. It's now ...

3060. Trouble in the Vineyard

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... on their length of service, amount of education, or level of experience in the job. Seldom in most companies today do we receive our salary based simply on our investment in our work or loyalty to our company. Those who dole out raises based on subjective decision are often resented or called out for favoritism. Yet, the story that Jesus tells about payment of vineyard workers is based on just that––God’s favor. God favors all people willing to invest in God’s vineyard, and no matter how long they ...

3061. Fearless

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in order to adapt to changing workplace needs. No longer was long-term wisdom valued but short-term adaptability became the desired hire. The internet also changed our ideas about authority. No longer do we value one trusted authority on a subject, but we take our learning into our own hands, mining Google and other search engines for information on every available topic. We can access everything not only fully but instantly. We have become our own authorities. The technological revolution has caused ...

3062. A Meditation for Ash Wednesday

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... , but so real. Sometime back the newspapers told of a man who walked into the police station to confess a crime he had committed fifteen years before. The reason for his confession?: "I have not been able to get it off my mind." Here was a man willing to subject himself to punishment in order to restore his peace of mind. (2) Some of us are troubled and we don't even know why we are troubled. The issue is unresolved guilt. Lent is a time of repentance. It is a time for confession of our sins and the ...

3063. The Glory of God

Romans 11:33-36, Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... to ask along with them. When I was getting ready to go to college, I participated in a scholarship competition. First they made you take a long exam, one hundred questions to show what you knew. Then, they had various professors interview you. ''Well, Willimon, which subjects interested you most in High School?' I didn't want to say ''Chorus,'' so I answered, ''History, sir.'' I don't know why I said “History,” it just seemed the thing to say. ''History? Is it? Well, let's see now, what was the date of ...

3064. Praying the Lectionary: Lent 1

Mark 1:9-15 · 1 Peter 3:18-22 · Genesis 9:8-17 · Psalm 25:1-10

Bulletin Aid

Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

... , in order to bring the human race to God. We thank you, that through baptism we are united with your death and resurrection and we are able to worship and serve you as the Holy One at God’s right hand with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to you. God of mercy: C: Hear our prayer. P: Christ our perfect example: As you were thrown out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted and tested by the powers of evil for forty days, you succeeded in resisting all temptations. So may ...

3065. Divine Things

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... that drives us to go our own way. To be a disciple of Jesus however requires us to be not a good leader but a great follower. Now this doesn’t mean that we should never act within a leadership role. It does mean that our leadership is always subject to our followership of Jesus, that our plans, our behavior, our mission is always a subtext to Jesus’ mission, God’s mission for the world. In our scripture for today, Peter, the “rock” of the future church is acting not as a follower of Jesus but as a ...

3066. You're In the Army Now

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

“Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” What did you do this summer? I don't know if they still ask school children to write essays on that subject at this time of the year. I'm sure that George Williams never asked for an essay on, “My Most Memorable Summer” in his English classes here. However, if they did, I would be happy to tell you about my worst summer. It was after my Junior Year of college ...

3067. Marketplace Christianity

John 2:13-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... run our places of worship as exclusionary businesses, but as places of worship and sacred prayer, places of openness and grace for all without exclusion. We must not treat people like objects to be discarded, negotiated, or as commerce (options or expendables) but as subjects, as valued people of God. God’s economy is different than our economy. God’s economy is one of love, openness, inclusion, and grace. This was Jesus’ mission the entire time on earth, and it was the same passion that drove Paul in ...

3068. Prophets and the Powerful

1 Kings 21:1-3, 17-21

Sermon

Will Willimon

... are not done. Everything h re is done according to law and with propriety. This isn't some “Banana Republic” where kings can do anything they want. This is a government of laws where the king is a decent sort of fellow who treats his subjects well. “You'll be happier in the new government housing we'll build for you -- after we cut this expressway through your neighborhood.” “The government in Praetoria is only too willing to hold negotiations with you people -- as long as you agree to some basic ...

3069. Taking the Long Way Home

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Will Willimon

... . Mark hasn't made a geographical mistake; he has made a theological statement. Mark knew where Tyre and Sidon were. He also knew where Jesus was: A new world where geography is not closed but open where the future is not clearly mapped out but is subject to detours demanded by the unpredictable geography of God's grace. This Gentile woman with Jewish chutzpah, this Galilean blind man out here typify the way God's unexpected geography get us somewhere we would never have gone if had simply stuck to the map ...

3070.

Psalm 101:1-8

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... prime interest (72:1). A priestly leader, however, could also be appropriate (the Levites “minister to” the Aaronic priests in Num. 18:2, where the NIV renders the same verb as “assist”). In this light, what is striking about this psalm is that the leader is subject to the same “torah” (or “instruction”) that is applied to every worshiper of Yahweh, as expressed in the liturgies of temple entry, which use the same terminology (5:3–6; 15:2–4; 24:4; 26:1, 3, 5, 11; 28:3–4; 36:1–4, 11 ...

3071.

Psalm 103:1-22

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... . 33:13). It is cited frequently in the OT, several times in liturgical contexts (Pss. 86:15; 145:8; Neh. 9:17). This confession forms the basis for the use of the key word pair—love and compassion—in our psalm, but it also introduces the subject of God’s anger toward sins, iniquities (v. 10), and transgressions (v. 12), the same three terms used in Exodus 34:7. While celebrating God’s mercy, the psalm does not ignore the reality of his wrath, though it does focus on its delay (v. 8), temporality ...

3072.

Psalm 110:1-7

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... 3 In the phrase the LORD says to my Lord, “the LORD” (Hb. Yhwh) is obviously Yahweh, the second “Lord” (Hb. ʾadōnî not ʾadōnāy, which denotes God) is the king, and the “my” points to the prophetic speaker as one of the king’s subjects. The divine oracle contains both promise and limitations. It does promise the most exalted position imaginable, at my right hand, and victory over your enemies. But it also makes clear that the king’s authority is a grant derived from God and that it is ...

3073.

Psalm 112:1-10

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... be quantified like material possessions. This same word pair appears twice in Proverbs, where each time “wealth” and “riches” are qualified in a non-material sense (8:18–19; 13:7). We should also note that righteousness does not point merely to a subjective, moral attribute, but also to an objective, state of being—namely “a right order.” The inclusion of forever does not promise eternal life within the horizons of the OT, rather it points to his family line. The words even in darkness admit ...

3074.

Psalm 127:1-5

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... life-threatening militants.) To us moderns the claim that children are a reward from God might seem particularly offensive to parents struggling with infertility. But we must recognize that many biblical verses do not pretend to be the first and the last word on any subject. In several biblical passages, Yahweh exhibits his love and concern for “the barren woman” by promising her joy and a family, that is, a home—whether literal or not (113:9; 1 Sam. 2:5; Isa. 54:1). Additional Note 127:1 Builds the ...

3075.

Psalm 128:1-6

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... too easily dismiss. The Psalms do not conceive of a state of blessedness that is merely personal and private. It is received and enjoyed as part of corporate, ritual worship. In this psalm’s second half, two areas of life are singled out as subjects for visual enjoyment: may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem and . . . your children’s children. Again, in the Psalms God’s blessing is enjoyed in the context of one’s immediate and larger social groups. For Christians, this points to family and church ...

Showing results