Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3551 to 3575 of 5000 results

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

... to have faith like Abraham that could move mountains. Faith in Christ is not the same as faith in dogma. Jesus taught that he did not want faithful dogma, or correctness of view - whatever that is - but rather faithful people. It is not too far from the mark to say that today some people want peace at any cost. We run from conflict. We want unanimous agreement in our committees even if it means letting an ego maniac run things. We seem, at times, to be more afraid of what people think than concerned with ...

3552. Advent 2

Isaiah 11:1-16, Psalm 72:1-20, Romans 14:1--15:13, Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon Aid

... keeps his promises to his people. 4. Living by the book assures genuine quality of life to the children of God. Psalm-series Sermon - Psalm 72:1-14 (15-17) - "Long Live the King's Son!" 1. His reign shall be determined by God's righteousness and shall be marked by justice for the poor and prosperity for the people. 2. He will be an advocate and a deliverer of the poor and oppressed people of the earth, a blessing to the whole world. 3. He will rule as redeemer over the humble and all of the exalted rulers ...

3553. Epiphany 4

Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, Matthew 5:1-12, Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon Aid

... all that the Lord God has done for his people; God has been just and gracious in all of his dealing with Israel, but Israel has separated itself from him. The life-style - of nations or individuals - that is acceptable to God is one that is marked by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. Sacrifices, even the sacrifice of one's first-born, cannot affect reconciliation between human beings and their God, except in the case of God's Son, who is obedient in doing justly, loving mercy, and ...

3554. Epiphany 6

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Sermon Aid

... for South America, where his assignment takes him into a remote part of the continent; there he makes contact with a band of primitive natives. Despite his zeal and his genuine concern for these people, he is killed by a native with one of the cross-marked machetes he had given to them. The reason they turned on him was a theological one; he forgot about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and taught them that Jesus was actually their god, Kisu, not knowing that their god was an evil deity who was responsible ...

3555. Easter 5

Acts 17:1-9, Psalm 33:1-22, Acts 17:10-15, 1 Peter 2:4-12, John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Sermon Aid

... for Jesus. 4. Christ has given his assurance to his witnesses that he will be with them, regardless of what they may encounter, to the end of time. A sermon on the Second Lesson, Acts 2:4-10 - "The Priestly People of God." 1. Christians who are "marked with the cross of Christ forever" in baptism wear the mantle of priesthood, the priesthood of all believers. Every Christian is a priest, according to the text and is to offer sacrifices to God. 2. Christians are called by Christ to live the life of priests ...

3556. The Ascension of Our Lord

Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:36-49, Luke 24:50-53

Sermon Aid

... week of the "six apparitions" of Jesus, the week from Easter Sunday to its octave; second, the time of preparation for Jesus' departure in the Ascension, from the second Sunday to Rogate, the Fifth Sunday after Easter (the last three weeks of this period were marked by readings from John 16 in preparation for the Ascension of Our Lord); and, third, the time between the Ascension and Pentecost, which is the time of waiting for the coming of the Spirit (in Acts) and the conclusion of the Great Fifty Days, as ...

3557. Proper 4

Deuteronomy 11:1-32, Genesis 12:1-8, Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29, Romans 3:21-31, Psalm 31:1-24, Psalm 33:1-22

Sermon Aid

... . Pentecost, as "the time of the church," is eschatological; the church worships and waits, learns and grows, and witnesses and works for the coming of the fullness of the kingdom in Jesus' promised return. On the Sundays of Pentecost, the church is counting time, not marking time, until the Lord returns. Pentecost is the annual countdown of the church, not merely to the end of the church year, but in anticipation of the Parousia, which will occur at the end of the age as determined by God the Father. The ...

3558. Pentecost 4

Psalm 100:1-5, Genesis 25:19-34, Exodus 19:1-25, Romans 5:1-11, Matthew 9:35-38, Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon Aid

... stronger than the call to the business of proclaiming the good news to the world? (Jim Fuller, Staff Writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, wrote an article, "Will retirement be a dream come true?" [September 18, 1988] about today's baby boomers. He quotes Mark Jares, a Minneapolis investment advisor, who says, "Baby boomers have the attitude that they should have the cars, the $300,000 houses, the clothes every day, that it's not something they should wait for, or have to give up when they retire." They ...

3559. Proper 8 & Pentecost 6

2 Kings 4:8-37, Genesis 32:22-32, Psalm 89:1-52, Psalm 17:1-15, Isaiah 2:6-22, Jeremiah 28:1-17, Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon Aid

... are to live the new life of obedience, given them as a gift of Christ in baptism, and this means that they must die daily to sin and rise to that new life every morning. Christ's claim upon us has been made permanent for "we have been marked with the cross of Christ forever." Matthew 10:34-42 (E, L, C); 10:37-42 (R) These verses, which contain two blocks of material with several themes running through them, conclude Jesus' charge to the disciples as they are about to embark on their first mission. Jesus ...

3560. Proper 10 & Pentecost 8

Isaiah 55:1-13, Psalm 65:1-13, Romans 8:1-17, Romans 8:18-27, Exodus 2:11-25, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon Aid

... Lutheran usage includes the first part of the Psalm, which emphasizes that it is always proper for sinful creatures to give thanks to God for the salvation he gives to his creatures - in Christ, from the perspective of the church. The Psalm Prayer (LBW) Lord God, joy marks your presence; beauty, abundance, and peace are the tokens of your work in all creation. Work also in our lives, that by these signs we may see the splendor of your love and may praise you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Psalm 69:6-15 (C ...

3561. Proper 17 & Pentecost 15

Matthew 16:21-28, Romans 12:1-8, Exodus 19:1-25, Jeremiah 14:1--15:21, Jeremiah 20:7-18, Psalm 114:1-8, Psalm 63:1-11

Sermon Aid

... , complete the mystery. He also had to put down Peter - rebuke him severely - if he were to do God's will. 3. Living with death. That's the fate of each disciple, who, Jesus said, is "to take up his (her) cross and follow me." The cross makes its mark upon the manner in which we live in the world as we attempt to follow Jesus; it calls for total surrender of one's life to Christ and ready sacrifice - even literally - of one's life for the Lord. The sacrifice of one's ambitions, dreams, and intentions, along ...

3562. Pentecost 7

Matthew 18:21-35, Romans 14:1--15:13, Exodus 20:1-21, Psalm 19:1-14, Psalm 103:1-22, Genesis 50:15-21

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE September 29th marks the celebration of another minor festival, St. Michael and All Angels. The last line of the second reading, Revelation 12: 12, supports the eschatological perspective of Pentecost, because it announces that he (Satan) "knows that his time is short." Without the theological input of the readings for St. Michael and ...

3563. Proper 27 & Pentecost 25

Psalm 50:1-23, Psalm 43:1-5, Psalm 63:1-11, Amos 5:18-27, Hosea 11:1-11, 1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11, Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon Aid

... up on his people. What he says also applies to Christians who, in baptism have entered into an everlasting covenant with God; they are saints but also sinners and need to die and rise daily with Christ. Because they are "sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever," they live in the blessed assurance of God's faithfulness and abiding love for them, and this gives them everlasting hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (R, E, C) See the Lutheran reading for Pentecost 24. I Thessalonians 5 ...

3564. Christ The King

Ezekiel 34:1-31, Matthew 25:31-46, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34, Psalm 95:1-11, Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon Aid

... with Roman Catholic churches. This congregation not only dared to have a crucifix in front of the people, but it was a different kind of a crucifix from those usually seen; it was a fully vested figure of the risen Lord superimposed on the cross, and with the marks of the nails visible in hands and feet. It was an announcement that Jesus had conquered death and risen from the grave. There was one thing more of importance; the Christ had a crown upon his head. He was not only the risen Lord, but also the ...

3565. Reformation Sunday

Jeremiah 32:1-44, Romans 3:21-31, John 8:31-41

Sermon Aid

... continue to observe Reformation Sunday, despite the good and growing relations with the Roman Catholic Church, which have developed with the onset of the ecumenical movement following Vatican II. But the tone of Reformation worship services has changed markedly, speaking to the need for a continuing reformation in the whole Catholic Church; ecumenical concerns, which confess the scandal of the denominational divisions in the church, are among the highest priorities of a "Reformation Today." The common ...

3566. Thanksgiving Day

Deuteronomy 8:1-20, Philippians 4:2-9, Philippians 4:10-20, 1 Timothy 2:1-15, Luke 17:11-19

Sermon Aid

... your paths overflow with plenty." Although it reverses the natural order of God's benefits and puts salvation before creation, the content is so rich that no harm is done to the thanksgiving theme; rather, it is enriched. The Psalm Prayer (LBW) Lord God, joy marks your presence; beauty, abundance, and peace are the tokens ofyour work in all creation. Work also in our lives, that by these signs we may see the splendor of your love and may praise you through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE READINGS Deuteronomy 8:1 ...

3567. Giving Thanks Before Thanksgiving

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Brett Blair

... and we say: “Now what do you say?” And the child learns from an early age the answer “Thank you.” And certainly we all know as adults that we appreciate being thanked. Yet, when it comes to giving thanks to our heavenly father, we so often miss the mark. And when it comes to giving our thanks to God, I don’t suppose there is any story in the Bible that is so endearing to us, so timelessly appropriate, as the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We have all heard the story many times, but like ...

3568. Three Arrows

1 Samuel 20:1-42

Sermon

... best. Aristotle said that a friend can be defined as a single soul dwelling in two bodies. No wonder then that we read that Jonathan loved David as his own soul. Even as the Son of David would love a disciple named John, did David love Jonathan. Mark Twain once told a reporter, "I don’t say much about heaven and hell because I have friends in both places." David’s heavenly friendship with Jonathan took place in the crucible of Saul’s hellish jealousy. Saul hated David because of his popularity and his ...

3569. April Showers

1 Samuel 20:1-42

Sermon

... historian who wrote our story knew that one of the most basic human emotions in a crisis is fear. Yet, like a leitmotiv in a Wagnerian opera, the words FEAR NOT conquer the minor key of despair, and rise to a crescendo of victory throughout the holy text. Mark Twain remarked, "I am an old man and have known many troubles - most of them never happened." Our age of anxiety crafts worry warts and plants them in the gardens of our souls. Unlike Mad’s Alfred E. Newman, few of us can blithely say, "What, me ...

3570. The Farmer and the Fugitive

1 Samuel 25:1-44

Sermon

... that Easter is popular but Lent is not. Lent is the agony, while Easter is the ecstacy. Perhaps one reason Lent is not popular is because it is a mirror. Perhaps, when we gaze into it, we do not discover the face of a risen Christ, but our own faces. Mark Twain wrote that we are all moons because we have a dark side we do not want anyone to see. Nabal was so foolish that all of us can see his rude and insulting nature with the clearness of a highpowered microscope. In this story most of us side with ...

3571. Green, The Color of Life

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

H. Michael Nehls

... , omni-present God. He, and he alone is the source of all life, both in this world and the next. Green is the color of life. That fact most assuredly pervades our thinking when we consider the "Colors of Christmas"! In our Ohio outdoors today, there is a marked lack of the color green. The leaves are gone. Most plants have died from frost and exposure. We are in the season of late autumn, early winter. This is a time of dormancy in the life of most of Ohio’s growing things. They hibernate, they go to ...

3572. Violet, The Color of Royalty

Luke 1:31-35, Luke 23:33-38

Sermon

... political situation and their longings for a king, how can we blame them? Did Jesus look like a king? Did he act like a king? How was this Jesus dressed? Did he wear the purple robe of a king? Actually, he did wear a purple robe once in his life. Mark’s Gospel reports that as Jesus was taken as a prisoner to the palace, the soldiers clothed Jesus in a purple cloak and plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck him with a ...

3573. Red, the Color of Sacrifice

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

... die. He came to Bethlehem as a baby, but the road would lead to Calvary and his own death. "Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free!" It’s interesting to note that in reality we know precious little about the birth of Christ. John and Mark mention it not at all. Matthew has a scant seven verses dealing with Jesus’ birth. The rest we learn from St. Luke and that is only some twenty verses. No, the birth of Jesus has its importance only as a prelude to the death and resurrection of our ...

3574. Dedication

Drama

... . But, we must obey the law. We couldn’t afford a lamb for the sacrifice I was required to make for the purification rite after childbirth, but we had saved our coins and would buy a pigeon or a turtledove. They were acceptable sacrifices even though they marked us as poor people. But, there’s no shame in being poor. As we took Jesus in for the dedication an old man came running toward us. His hair and beard streamed wildly as he rushed toward us. I was frightened at first. Then, he came and smiled ...

3575. The Daniel Diet

Daniel 1:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... of absolute authority; therefore, it cannot identify anything as absolute truth. One of you handed me this dollar bill recently. You received it as change at a local business establishment. The motto "In God We Trust" had been changed. The word "God" had been marked through and printed above it is the word "reason." So, it reads, "In Reason We Trust." Just below the motto are these words printed in red...."Atheist Money." Evidently, many $1 bills were changed in this way and put into circulation to send a ...

Showing results