Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3226 to 3250 of 4944 results

3226. Something Different

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

James L. Killen

Jesus came preaching "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 4:17). Then Jesus went up a hillside and gathered around him the people who were interested in what he was saying and tried to explain to them what he meant. That was the Sermon on the Mount, and our scripture reading for today is the first part of it. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are the same thing. This concept is one of the biggest ideas that you will find in the Bible. It is very important. It has many ...

3227. In the Event of Power Failure

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Charley Reeb

A friend of mine once shared a story about his first visit to Niagara Falls. He said it was magnificent — the rush and roar of the water — the display of raw power. But as he looked upon the water gushing forth, he remembered a picture in a textbook. It showed Niagara Falls in the middle of winter, and much of the water was frozen. Big lightning-shaped forms of water were at a standstill. There was no movement, no action, no power. As my friend reflected on the picture, he thought how disappointing it ...

3228. “I Am from Him and He Sent Me”

John 7:25-44

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

The temple discourse begins anew with a notice that Jesus cried out. This second announcement (vv. 28–29), like the first (vv. 16–19), initiates an encounter with the crowd, yet itself comes as a response to something already expressed. As verses 16–19 addressed the question that perplexed the religious authorities in verse 15, so verses 28–29 address the debate among the people of Jerusalem in verses 25–27. Specifically, they address the objection that Jesus cannot be the Messiah because everyone knows ...

3229. Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

John 14:15-31, John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

The single theme of the first block of teaching material is developed in dialogue form, with a series of questions and answers (13:36–14:24) ending with a postscript in the form of a monologue (14:25–31). Each question is occasioned by a previous statement of Jesus, so that each interchange has three parts: Jesus’ initial statement, the question that it occasions, and Jesus’ answer to the question. In all, four disciples take their turn as inquirers: Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Judas (not “the son of Simon ...

3230. Faces of Failure: Pontius Pilate

Matthew 27:1-2, 11-26

Sermon

Don Tuttle

We all make choices. Sometimes they are binary. The optometrist asks: “Which is better, A or B?” Other times we choose from a plethora of options. Think Starbucks. Will that be a Mocha, Latte, Cappuccino, Macchiato? Tall, grande, venti? Decaf, half-caf, regular? Skinny or regular? Straight or flavor shots? Such is life. Our text today is about choices. The most obvious one is the one made by the chief priests, elders, and people. They choose between Jesus, the King of the Jews, or Barabbas, a notorious ...

3231. Loving Made Real

John 13:1-17, John 13:31-38

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

The lectionary gives us two types of traditional texts for our Maundy Thursday services over the span of the three cycles. One type is before us tonight: the text of the foot washing, the text of Jesus clearly demonstrating the importance of his love for us and our call to love others. The other is what you and I call the “last supper”: how the ritual, the practice, of our meal together, whether the celebration of a Seder reordered and meaning changed, the gift of the sacrament, or remembrance proclaimed ...

3232. Big Spender

1 Kings 10:14-29, 1 Kings 11:1-13, Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Shopping addiction is right up there with drug and alcohol addiction. In fact, addicts shop for the same reasons that other addicts do what they do –the “high” of escaping negative feelings, the inability to cope with problems emotionally or spiritually, the need to fill an inner void, or a way to deal with anxiety caused often by approval seeking. The more the inner need to feel good or salve depression or anxiety, the more extravagant and flagrant the spending. The truth is, the lavish spender may be ...

3233. What is Your Golden Calf?

Exodus 32:1-33:6, Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Everyone loves the comic strip “Peanuts.” At least everyone over 30. (Charles M. Schulz died in 2000). But the really poignant thing about Schultz’s beloved characters is that he brought to life the struggles and doubts from his own childhood and allowed his characters to act out those difficulties of life through comedy and laughter. One wonders if doing this wasn’t a healing endeavor for him as well. The traumas of our past stay alive within us until we can vanquish them somehow by coming to terms with ...

3234. Job and the Mind Storm

Job 42:7-17, Job 42:1-6, Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Overthinking is one of the worst stress inducers in our lives. We all know the overthinker –the one who, no matter what the situation is, will make mountains out of molehills and declare tragedy the moment something doesn’t go as planned. Or that person who, when contemplating a change or an event, will worry about every detail so much that he or she derives no enjoyment whatsoever from the event itself. There are “go-with-the-flow” people. And the upright and the uptight. They overthink everything. And ...

3235. A Spooky Kind of Love

1 Samuel 28:1-25, Matthew 28:11-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Last week we remembered that Jesus walks beside us even when we don’t notice He is there. This week we are reminded that God is in charge, even when we try to take matters into our own hands! There’s an old saying, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” The phrase was coined by Allen Saunders in a Reader’s Digest article in 1957, later appropriated by John Lennon in his song, “Beautiful Boy.” I think all of us can resonate with that line, as well as its companion wisdom, “Want to make ...

3236. The Jesus Straightway

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

If you are a builder, or if you simply have built something at some time in your life, you know that “smoothness” matters. If you’ve ever gotten one of those pesky splinters from sitting on a wooden chair or sliding your hand across an antique table, you might be silently muttering against whoever it was who didn’t sand all of those ragged edges out, because now your hand has been neatly skewered by a slivery (and often elusively hard to remove) fine bit of wood that will silently torture you under your ...

3237. Our Light

Genesis 1:1-5 · Mark 1:9-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

Carl Michaelson knew a philosophy professor at Colgate who, whenever a student used the word "God" in his classroom, would stop and beckon the student to come forward and stand with him at an open window. "Show him to me," the professor asked. What a disadvantage believers have when it comes to empirical evidence for God! At first glance, this seems to be a uniquely modern problem. In the old days, Biblical people are always chatting with God, strolling arm in arm with God in the garden. God is everywhere ...

3238. Loving Through Action

1 John 3:14-24

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Vincent Capodanno was born on February 13, 1929 on Staten Island in New York. His early life was characterized by service to his family and the community where he lived. Always trying to help out, especially when difficult economic times stretched the family’s budget, Vincent was the one to whom people went for many needs, for they knew that he would be present to them in every way possible. He completed his initial education and then entered Fordham University, but God was calling him to a higher form of ...

3239. Walking with God

Acts 2:1-21 · John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

How is your “Spirit Awareness Meter”? Do you know when the Spirit is beside you? You cannot see the Spirit. But you know when the Spirit of Christ surrounds you. Maybe you had a significant experience in your life, in which you could feel Christ walking with you. Maybe in times like these, at Pentecost, you become aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence more than you do when you are going shopping or mowing grass or walking the dog. Or maybe you are one of those people who can feel the Spirit with you no ...

3240. Living Bread

John 6:51-58

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

In my thirty years of ordained ministry and 50 years of church membership, I have discovered that there are five kinds of Christian: Free Riders, Fans, Friends, Followers and Fanatics. FREE RIDERS are Christians in name only. If you ask them, they will tell you that they believe in God and Jesus. They know how to answer the questions correctly. God is the creator of the universe. Jesus is the son of God, blah, blah, blah. They aren’t sure what any of that means. They don’t really think about it. Most of ...

3241. Holding On

Job 1:1; Job 2:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

High above a small village in the French Alps towers a famous mountain named Mont Blanc. Mont Blanc serves as a permanent challenge to mountain climbers. Nearby is an even more difficult and dangerous crag, called in English, “Fool's Needle.” That mountain sounds appropriately named to me. “Fool's Needle.” Why do mountain climbers tie themselves to one another? asks the old joke—to keep the sensible ones from going home. That’s Fool’s Needle. Standing 11,487 ft. high—only the more experienced mountaineers ...

3242. Divine Divestment

Mark 10:17-27

Sermon

Will Willimon

The Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, came home after church one Sunday and wrote of his disgust at what happened there. ''In the magnificent cathedral the Honourable and Right Reverend Gehei111e-General Ober-Hof Pradikant, the elect favourite of the fashionable world, appears before an elect company and preaches with emotion upon the text he himself elected: 'God hath elected the base things of the world, and the things that are despised' and nobody laughs."(1) Today I am to preach on Mark 10:17-27. ...

3243. Which King Do We Worship?

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Think about the last trip you took to a new place. Maybe you went on vacation or maybe you just went across town. Did you notice that it seemed to take more time to reach your destination than it did to return home? This sensation of seeming to take longer to make a trip than it is to return home is universal and even has an official scientific name. It is referred to as the “return trip effect” by those who research it. There are plenty of theories behind what causes the “return trip effect.” Researchers ...

3244. Provoked

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

It’s hard to impart joy to those who dwell gladly and gainfully in sorrow. Ever notice that? I’m not talking about the truly sad or those who are grieving, and I’m not talking about those suffering from depression or anxiety. These are truly debilitating conditions. Some people however neither respond to joy nor comfort because they are gaining too much power, attention, satisfaction, or compassion in remaining unhappy, angry, miserable, or spiteful.Especially when they feel they are justified. Especially ...

3245. Amazing Grace

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

''My son is a good kid. He's quite a remarkable, wonderful young man," the mother said to me on your first day here. ''I'll be the judge of that," I thought to myself. Yet she is probably right. After all, he got in Duke. And our Office of Admissions makes certain that no slouch gets in Southgate. 1300 on your SAT, 198 of you were number one in your high school class. God I thank thee that I don't have to teach at a school where the students are only average! And of course, one reason why your above ...

3246. Transformed

John 4:5-42

Sermon

April Yamasaki

In the Orthodox Christian Church, the woman at the well in John’s gospel is remembered as Saint Photini, which means “the enlightened one.” Apparently her passion for sharing Jesus as the Messiah sent from God did not end with the people of her own town. Instead, church tradition recounts her travels as an evangelist to the city of Carthage in northern Africa and then to the city of Rome where she sought an audience with the emperor Nero. While the emperor agreed to see her, he rebuffed her attempts to ...

3247. Love And Boundaries

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

William G. Carter

Let’s face it. This story is difficult to understand. I have been struggling with it all week. But then I heard a short phrase that offered some help. I am not sure if the phrase came to me in a dream or a conversation. I cannot recall if I heard in a Top 40 tune or a country and western song. Nevertheless the phrase has given me an angle to understand this text. The phrase is “love with boundaries.” Have you ever heard those words? Have you ever used them yourself? Before I read this story, it never ...

3248. I Have Been Gifted!

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Sermon

Ronald Love

In December 2019, Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church voted to leave its affiliation with the United Methodist Church and partner with the Free Methodist Church. For several years the controversy surrounding the religious issues dealing with the status of homosexuals in the congregation has severely damaged the denomination. A number of individuals have become outspoken activists, promoting varying positions on this dispute. This has consumed a considerable amount of time, energy, and money of the UMC ...

3249. Teach Us to Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

“Teach us to pray” was one of the few things the disciples” asked of Jesus. He gave them a model prayer; “Our Father who art in heaven...” Tertullian calls the Lord's Prayer “an epitome of the whole gospel.” On Sundays, we, like those disciples before us, come to Jesus asking, “Teach us to pray.” The Prayer of Intercession comes right after the sermon and scripture because the word helps us to discern between true and false prayer, between praying as a pagan and praying as a Christian.” It tell us what it ...

3250. Haunted

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Ok…How many of you have had the experience of looking back at your life and lamenting (perhaps over and over) a mistake you wish you wouldn’t have made? I think we’ve all done that at one time or another. How many of you have had it keep you up at night? That nagging, awful feeling of blame and guilt that just won’t let you go. The nightmares, the sleepless nights! We can be awfully hard on ourselves sometimes. Wrestling in itself is not bad. It helps us discern right from wrong. It helps us learn and grow ...

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