Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3426 to 3450 of 5000 results

Acts 13:13-52

Sermon

Carl Jech

... genius and a moron. (The word "sophomore" comes from the Greek sophos, meaning "wise" and moros which means "fool." A sophomore is halfway between stupid and smart.) Almost every founder of a great world religion has been judged crazy at some point. In the Gospel of Mark we read that at times even Jesus' friends and family thought he was "beside himself," that is, off his rocker, and, of course, many of the sons of Abraham were sure that Yeshua (as they would have called Jesus) was indeed crazy. Those of us ...

3427. Winning Isn't the Only Thing ... It's Irrelevant

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Carl Jech

... was a complex movement and was not based simply on a few direct "claims" made by or about Jesus. To the degree that Jesus or the New Testament writers "claimed" the title of "Christ," they rather consistently did so in a most reluctant manner! In Mark's Gospel, for example, there is the "Messianic Secret" - Jesus is pictured over and over again as cautioning his disciples against noising it abroad that he is the Christ. As we mentioned in the previous sermon, one of the reasons for this is clearly the ...

3428. Jesus, Mary, Gustav Mahler, Brother Martin, and the Magi

Luke 20:9-19

Sermon

Carl Jech

... , in schools and through the mass media, little of this awareness has impacted congregational practices. Any deviation from traditional patterns of behavior, instead of being seen as an opportunity for growth and enrichment of congregational life, is feared as a mark of decay and dissolution." She concludes, "John's vision of the, 'great multitude which no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues' tells us what we are about in a pluralistic society." Marge Wold ...

3429. Will the Real Jesus Christ Arise?

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Carl Jech

... sets the stage for many kinds of resurrection appearances and second comings of Jesus, the Christ. Every Advent and Christmas we celebrate the coming of Christ and we could say that we have already enjoyed almost 2000 of these reappearances! In the Gospel of Mark the coming of Jesus is associated not with his birth but with the beginning of his ministry after his baptism in the river Jordan - already a kind of "second" coming. The story of the Transfiguration could be described as "a pre-Easter resurrection ...

3430. Rejoice! It's Lent

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

Rejoice! It's Lent. Sounds strange doesn't it? Joy and Lent just do not seem to go together. Lent is the somber season. In popular practice Lent possesses all the marks of a six-week funeral. The paraments are the deep purple of a dowager's dress. Hallelujahs are silenced within the service of the liturgy. Social celebrations are cancelled - or at least curtailed. Our attention is focused exclusively on the crucified body of a young man dying in agony on ...

3431. Names, Not Numbers

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... not ask us what our name is; they just mumble, "Let me see your driver's license, please." And the stinging insult, in most cases, is that the cashiers never even look at our pictures. They just automatically copy down the numbers from our driver's license and mark the check, "OK." A census taker went up to a house and knocked on the door. A mother came to the door. "How many children do you have?" the man asked the woman. "Well," she answered, "there is Steven and Kevin, Mary and Lois." At this point the ...

3432. The Power To Defy Evil

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... youth of Moses also fails to testify to his future greatness. One day, when he saw an Egyptian overlord beating a Hebrew slave, the hot temper of Moses exploded, and he killed the taskmaster on the spot. Fearing certain death because of his rash actions, he fled. No mark of a courageous hero here! In the country of Midian, he married a wealthy man's daughter, and he became a successful sheep farmer. He was so content and happy in this new land that he did not even think of his own people, who were groaning ...

3433. The Secret of Survival

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... , the Israelites held firm to the belief that their God had the power to intervene into history and to save them - to save them from their enemies and to save them from themselves. Their belief was based on their cultural experience. That experience was marked by many marvels and miracles - mighty acts of God done for them. That is why, when the Israelites crossed the river Jordan and first set foot on the Promised Land, they called the place Gilgal, which means, "rolled away." In our text, the Lord ...

3434. A Baptism of Blood

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... , each one by having turned his or her own way, were like sheep that had gone astray. Judah was a diseased nation dancing a "dance of death." The people practiced greed and injustice. The rich robbed the poor. Their lives were marked and marred by sensual indulgences and perversities. With scathing denunciation, Isaiah lashed out at their hypocritical religiosity. Yet, despite the perverseness of the people, Isaiah was thoroughly convinced that Judah was the nation that God had chosen to be the Messianic ...

3435. An Easter-Life

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... and in our testimony of his Gospel. As the Word became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, so the Gospel becomes incarnate in our words of witness and testimony. In a very real sense, our lives can be a "fifth gospel." There are four Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - and, there is a "fifth gospel" according to us! As we witness and testify to Christ, the Gospel becomes alive in us, and Christ lives through us. This does not mean that the Gospel is dependent upon us; nor does it mean that the ...

3436. God is About to Strike

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... been raised and exalted by Paul's God, who was speaking to him now. The tremendous truth and the stark reality of this experience, that engulfed Paul like a tidal wave, was that conversion event which would sweep away all of the lies which had marked and motivated his life. Jesus reprimanded and charged Paul with the full force of the Law. Paul was judged found guilty, and executed. For all intents and purposes, Paul was experiencing a spiritual death that very noonday on the road to Damascus. It is often ...

3437. The Flight to Egypt and Return to Nazareth

Matthew 2:13-23

Bulletin Aid

Carl Hoefler

... price you have paid. Sharpen our senses to see what wonderful feats you have performed in order that we might be redeemed from sin. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hymns "Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies” “Fairest Lord Jesus” “Go Tell It on the Mountain” “How Beauteous Were the Marks"

3438. Wisdom Personified as being Pre-existent

Proverbs 8:1-36

Bulletin Aid

Carl Hoefler

... being the first of God's creation, working by his side. People: We praise God for his wisdom, especially for the wisdom he shares with us through his Son. Collect All wise God, our Father, whose first expression was the creation of wisdom, making it your trade mark of all you create: Fill us with your wisdom, that our lives may reflect your creative presence in us, leading us in a life that is a delight to your will. We pray through Christ, our Lord. Amen. Prayer of Confession Evidence of your wisdom is all ...

3439. The Ascension

Acts 1:1-11

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

... and the commission to proclaim it in all the world. Strengthen our faith, Lord, that nothing might impede us as Your messengers. In Christ we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession O God, too often we seem to take for granted some of the awesome events that marked the early years of the Church. We read of saints who died terrible deaths because their commitment was so real they would not deny Your Lordship. Yet so often today our comfort seems more important than our faith in You. Forgive us, Lord, and strengthen ...

3440. After A Lost Election, Field Of Dreams

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

James Angell

... to this violation of the laws of mercy, six-year-old Terry exclaimed, "Boy, Mr. Angell wouldn't do anything like that!" Let's hope he was right. The stained glass windows, extraordinarily appealing from behind the pulpit during the organ prelude, left their mark upon my soul. And when the lower panes were tilted open on hot mornings, a bird would sometimes fly in and soar about, providing considerable competition for people's attention. A youngster perished in a fire only a block from the manse. I remember ...

3441. The Aim Of Preaching: To Bestow The Kiss Of Life

John 20:19-23

Sermon

James Angell

... these words by MacKinley Kantor had been inscribed - and which I copied down in the poor light: Whence rise you, Lights? From this tower built upon Manhattan's native rock. Its roots are deep below forgotten musket balls, the mouldered wooden shoe, the flint, the bone. What mark you, Lights? Our Nation's doorway. Who sleep or toil beneath your good warm gaze? All who love this land: they who are of the Land's stout seed, and they who love the land because they chose to come. Sing you a song, proud lights ...

3442. Welcoming The New Millennium

Sermon

James Angell

... would let out a gasp, that God would speak, and the world would be suddenly different. We know, without waiting to read it here, that in that moment, the sun will rise and set with the same regularity as it did the day before. It will not be marked by the tolling of any Great Clock. Rather, it will be a day to be born, or die, to begin to plan high school graduation, schedule a wedding, or sign up for try-outs on Broadway. In the waning days of the twentieth century, we have found ourselves meditating ...

3443. Confessional Services

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Bulletin Aid

G. William Genszler

... -- give us Barabas." Congregation: O Lord, I do so want to be popular. I seek the approval of the crowd even when I know it is wrong. Forgive me for being such a coward. Leader: Out of the depths do I cry unto thee, O Lord, if you, Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? Minister: But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. I see my face in the face of the Son of Man -- who gave Himself for me that I might be forgiven. Congregation: Behold, Thou desirest Truth in the inner parts ...

3444. Don't Just Stand There! - Get Involved!

Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Dr. John Thompson Peters

... situation bringing everything into question and challenge it is important that the Faith be clearly understood. The object of this message is to help with that understanding. The New Testament does not give the impression that a Christian is like any other man with a plus mark after him. On the contrary, the New Testament says that the Christian is a new man, a unique man, one who is essentially different from the man who is not a Christian. Many of us do not today give this impression to the world. We have ...

3445. Dollar Signs and Life Symbols

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

Rev. Donald R. Shank

Today is Stewardship Sunday. It marks the beginning of our Every Member Canvas campaign for financial support of our church's ministry. It will culminate next week on Loyalty Sunday with our members affirming their loyalty to Christ through their membership vows and their support of His Church. I am well aware that for the pastor ...

3446. Living Passionately

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... in second place. Turgenev replied to his friend: "I suspect that the most difficult and important decision in life is to decide what to put in first place." With the beginning of the ministry of our Lord, there was no question. Immediately after his baptism, which marked the beginning of his active earthly ministry, our Lord stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth and read from the scroll the words of the Prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good ...

3447. Is Christianity Practical?

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... the man asked, "Are you certain that this is an educational toy?" "Oh, yes," replied the clerk, "this toy prepares the child for life in the world. You see, it's a puzzle, and no matter how the child puts it together, it doesn't work." Mark Twain, in his typical, cynical vein, once wrote a story that he intriguingly and descriptively entitled "The Great Catastrophe." Before the story was over, he had worked all of the characters into such a predicament that, no matter what they did, they would be destroyed ...

3448. Jesus and the Women in His Life

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Thomas Blowers

... . Some have assumed her to be Mary Magdalene but they're mistaken. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was behind us. Frankly, those closest to Jesus(and I counted myself as one of them)were glad it was for working against the festive mood which marked the occasion were currents of deep hostility. Outwardly, of course, we exhibited confidence and joybut inwardly we were deeply troubled. Some of us, like the Twelve, were even afraid. Well, when word reached us that Simon the Leper had invited us to his home ...

3449. A Father Looks at His Son - Joseph and Jesus

Luke 2:21-40

Drama

Thomas Blowers

... comes into play, what history has made of my absence at so crucial a point in the story amounts to some pretty fancy speculation. And because it's essential to my own story that I clear up this pointlet me use the words of your own Mark Twain to state emphatically how even at this point in the story "The reports of my deathare greatly exaggerated." Even at this point in the story, Joseph the greatest carpenter in all Galilee at least in Nazareth and surrounding towns was very much alive. Well, perhaps ...

3450. Never Cry Uncle - Malchus

Matthew 26:47-56

Drama

Thomas Blowers

... then it was too late. I saw his arm and the sword come at me but it all happened so quickly. I couldn't even get my arms up to block him. Next thing I knew, pain shot up along the side of my head as the sword found its mark. I reached for my cheek with my hand and when I drew it away, it was covered with blood. My heart pounded in panic and my head throbbed with pain. And I thought to myself how correct I had been about the kind of world we lived in: the harsh ...

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