Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3476 to 3500 of 4972 results

3476. Remembering the Good Old Days

Numbers 14:1-10a

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... been in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. Now, suddenly, miraculously, they had escaped. To be sure, they were still unsettled - they were in transit in the wilderness. Life was not easy by any means, but at least the beatings and back-breaking labor and even murders had stopped. "Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty, Free at last!" Now, they had come near to their new home in Canaan. A dozen spies had been sent in to check things out. But they had come back with mixed reports. "Yes, the land is as ...

3477. Look Up and Live

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... eyes toward the snake. Strange. Why not just get rid of the snakes? Was this God's way of saying that healing will not come until we recognize the disease? Perhaps. So, the prescription was given - Look and Live - and they did. And the grumbling finally stopped. At least for these folks. Jesus recalled the story one night in a Jerusalem garden in a conversation with Nicodemus. "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have ...

3478. A Theology of Work - Labor Day

Deuteronomy 5:1-33

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... regulations had grown up around it. Thirty-nine basic actions were forbidden on the sabbath - sowing, plowing, reaping, threshing, grinding, baking, shearing, washing, weaving, tying and untying, trapping, slaughtering, bearing a burden, building or tearing a building down, starting a fire, stopping a fire, hitting with a hammer, and so on and so on. Wearing shoes with nails in them on the sabbath was prohibited, because in the view of the religious authorities, the nails in the shoes were a "burden" and ...

3479. Blessed Be The Title That Binds

Deuteronomy 14:22-29

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... not then; it is not now either. Then there is that famous encounter Jesus had with folks who were trying to do him in. In a very public place they asked, "Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" This falls into the category of WHEN DID YOU STOP BEATING YOUR WIFE - trick question. If he said that it was unlawful to pay the tax, Rome could arrest him on a sedition charge; if he said that it was lawful, he would be discredited in the eyes of faithful Jews who believed only God was sovereign and to pay ...

3480. The God of the Unlikely

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... first reaction had been to throw down the tablets of the Law in rage, smashing them to smithereens, precisely what he would have liked to do with his suddenly pagan people. But when the anger and frustration subsided, underneath was a love that would not stop. Up the mountain Moses wearily climbed once more to intercede for his foolish friends. He even offered for God to blot HIM out if necessary rather than give up on these children. For forty years the wilderness wandering had continued. Now it was done ...

3481. Year-Round Christmas

1 Kings 17:1-24

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... . As he approached the volunteer ringing the bell, he felt an unaccustomed spirit of generosity wash over him. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out all his change. He dropped every last coin into the kettle with a smile. The man turned to leave, but then he stopped. He reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and emptied every last bill into the kettle as well. Grinning like an idiot, he walked away with a bounce to his step. But about two blocks later, the bounce wore out. Suddenly it hit him ...

3482. Our Magnificent, Mysterious, Mischievous God

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... '?" They urge him not to reject help because the helper's style appears simple. The prophet had asked for obedience and humility, not some mighty act of valor or a hocus-pocus performance. The truth of his servants' words slaps Naaman back to reality. He stops being the military commander, the friend of kings, the wealthy courtier, and instead acknowledges what he is: a leper who needs to be cleansed. I wonder if he felt foolish as he took those steps into the river. Some probably. One more bit of irony ...

3483. Do I Matter?

Psalm 8:1-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... you did it."(4) As that divine baby became a man, he tried to explain how incredibly important each one of us is. He said God is like a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep inside the fold to hunt frantically for one stray, like a father who cannot stop thinking about his rebellious, ungrateful prodigal of a son even though he has another who is respectful and obedient, like a rich host who opens the doors of the banquet hall to a menagerie of bag ladies and bums. God loves people not merely as a race or species ...

3484. From Mountain to Mission

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Elijah, the prophet par excellence - the Law and the Prophets - paying respect to Jesus, in whom both are brought together. This is both literally and figuratively a "mountaintop experience." No wonder Peter, James, and John are terrified. Of course, a little terror never stopped Peter from speaking up; for lack of any other ideas, he suggests erecting three shrines to commemorate the event! A big enough deal so far, but now, a cloud overshadows the mountain. The damp air closes in and all the world slips ...

3485. Life Between Verses 4 and 5

Psalm 13:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... when our heart's cry is "How long, O Lord," and life is going to hell in a handbasket. Not good. The other night I heard a colleague talk of former parishioners, a husband and wife, both college professors, very active in the church, who suddenly stopped coming. Some time passed and one day, while shopping at the mall, she ran into this couple. "I have missed seeing you at church," she said. They explained that their teenage son had gotten into some terrible trouble with drugs and alcohol and he was taking ...

3486. Beyond Despair

Psalm 43:1-5, Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... to obtain their Master of Divinity degree - behind the walls of the prison. They graduated when their sentences were up. Here's what that young man at Sing Sing told Jim Wallis he would do upon his graduation: "When I get out, I'm going to go back and stop that train." Good for him. When the psalmist's question rises within him (and behind bars you KNOW that it does from time to time) - "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" - his response is "Put your hope in God" because he knows ...

3487. Of Rubble and Trouble

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... sun; the rest of it gleaming white, so that one seeing it from a distance might think it a mountain of snow. (1) When a captivated pilgrim oohs and ahs out loud at the splendor of it all and starts up a chorus of "How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings," Jesus stops short. "There won't be one stone left standing on another; all will be thrown down." The holiest ground you know, he says, will tumble down around you. Where you stand in awe today will one day be ruins.(2) Jesus did not have to be a prophet to say ...

3488. The Best Birthday Ever

Psalm 90:1-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... without glasses. • You answer a question with, "Because I said so!" Enough already. Will Willimon, the Dean of the Chapel over at Duke, says, "I took Gingko capsules for a time last year, after my 50th birthday. Gingko is alleged to help retard memory loss due to aging. I stopped when I realized I had forgotten to take the capsules for nearly a week."(2) A few years ago, when I turned 50, my mother called to say Happy Birthday. I asked her how it felt to be the mother of a 50-year-old. She said, "Shut up ...

3489. Now That School's Out...

Proverbs 8:1-36

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , wisdom is not something for which we study or go to school. Knowledge, yes; wisdom, no. Wisdom, according to scripture, is one more good gift of a gracious God. Wisdom is like grits. Yes, grits. A Pennsylvania fellow traveling in our part of the country stopped by a mom & pop restaurant for breakfast. He ordered eggs, bacon and toast only to be surprised by an amorphous white mass on his plate when the food was served. "What's this?" he asked. "Grits," replied the waitress. "I didn't order grits," said ...

3490. When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough

Ecc 2:1-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... had a surprise in 40 years, now finding himself wrestling with a water bed, and joined in a hot tub by the topless and incredibly available mother of the groom. Schmidt grows swiftly convinced that his new purpose in life is to stop his daughter's marriage. As this strange journey of discovery unfolds, Warren details his adventures and shares his observations in long, rambling letters to an unexpected new friend and confessor -- Ndugu Umbo, a six-year-old Tanzanian orphan who cannot possibly read, whom ...

3491. Religion and Politics

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... six days, then come in on the seventh and pray for a crop failure. Your walk should match your talk. Fortunately, those harsh words are not the last words. God continues, "Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." These are more than general instructions - the admonitions about seeking justice mean to care for the powerless members of the ...

3492. The Preacher Was A Bigot

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... that comes through is that you cannot run away from God, no matter how hard you try. Jonah comes across as a sympathetic character...a little misguided to start out, but one who eventually sees the light. A nice story. Not altogether true...but nice. Unfortunately, to stop the story with the landing on the beach is a problem. The book of the Bible that bears Jonah's name contains only four chapters, but the part of it that refers to his adventures at sea is found only in the first two. Chapters three and ...

3493. It's Time to Get Up

John 11:1-45

Sermon

Brett Blair

... how important it is to have our family and our friends helping us, surrounding us with love, supporting us, encouraging us, setting us free in every moment, but especially in those dramatic moments when we are trying to make a new start with our lives. Recently a man stopped by to see me. A little over a year ago, he went through a great personal tragedy, but he is coming through it with the help of God and with the help of the church, especially his Sunday School class. He said, “I was devastated. I was ...

3494. The Lord's Prayer: Please Forgive Us as We Forgive

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... at our own pretensions, and we make a stab at bursting the bubble of our own self-righteousness. In other words, we begin to be more of what God wants us to be. A little boy passed a Pet Shop on his way home from school. Each day he would stop and play with the dozen or so puppies that were kept in a pen in the display window. Finally he got up enough courage to ask the owner of the store how much one of the puppies would cost. The owner told him the price, and the boy went home ...

3495. Are You the One?

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... up on all this Messiah stuff. You might be pinning your hopes on someone dropping on to the scene like some deus ex machina in a Greek play here to magically fix things and make everything all right. POOF. Well, if that is what you are counting on, stop counting. It does not work that way. You are in this too. You have a part to play in making these hopes real. Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourners and one of the true prophets of hope in today's world, has a wonderful way of illustrating this. Politicians ...

3496. Good News for Tenant Farmers

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... about this enterprise and will never be convinced that we are worth bothering with. The well-trodden path. Keep sowing the seed. There are those who respond quickly, join with us in our work and worship, but who just as quickly, and for no apparent reason, stop coming. Stony ground. Keep sowing the seed. There are those who are active for a time, but slowly participate less and less (and especially if something occurred that was in the least bit upsetting); church used to be a priority but now there are so ...

3497. The Apostle's Creed: Jesus Christ...Our Lord

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... LORD. What does the name mean? To the ancients it meant master or owner and was always a title of consummate respect. In the modern world, to call Jesus "Lord" is to say he is the chief, the boss, the main man, the head honcho. The buck stops with him; his decisions are final. Hear the "Declaration of Faith" written by the Southern Presbyterians a few years ago:(2) We declare that Jesus is Lord. His resurrection is a decisive victory over the powers that deform and destroy human life. His Lordship is hidden ...

3498. Hang in There!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... faith, but sometimes they come down to the same thing. When you have endured long hopelessness, hang in there. When every attempt to find help has ended in disappointment, hang in there. When it seems that your prayers get only as high as the ceiling and then stop, hang in there. When things get so bad that you just want to curl up and die, hang in there. You see, once upon a time there was this woman...a mother... who came to Jesus... Amen! 1.Hillyer H. Stratton, Preaching the Miracles of Jesus, (Nashville ...

3499. Following Orders

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... down the street than there once was. Evangelism is something that a few revival preachers do, not the task of everyone of us. Is it because our orders have been changed? Hardly! To put it into the military terms we have been using, we have stopped following orders. And anyone who knows anything about troops in combat knows that refusing to follow orders is a capital offense. It is a good thing that Christians have a merciful Commander. The next thing Jesus said was to "make disciples of all nations." In ...

3500. "If I But Touch..."

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... but touch his clothes, I will be made well...If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." I wonder where she learned that...the healing power of a simple touch? We know what happens next. Her chutzpah is rewarded. As the lesson says, "Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease." WAIT A MINUTE! "Who touched my clothes?" Uh-oh. If this lady had taken a great leap of faith before, now the desire must have been to find a great leap of escape. Is there a ...

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