Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3626 to 3650 of 5000 results

3626. When You Follow A Star and Find A Stable

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... of all, you look for God and His purpose, then you give your best to God. But the crowning experience comes when you make your way back from that stable, back into the pattern of everyday living. III And so third, because of what happens in the stable, they mark a new direction for their life. The wise men took a different direction home because they were warned that Herod was going to try to learn from them where the new King lay, but we might count it significant that this is always what happens when one ...

3627. Have This Mind

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Craig Erickson

... who enter it will have the mind of Christ, will turn from sin, and will continue to renounce it throughout their lives. That’s why renunciations are used even in the Baptism of infants, who are too little to know what evil is. Baptism marks the beginning of the Christian pilgrimage, which consists of spiritual warfare against the powers of evil. It is entrance into the Covenant and the acceptance of responsibilities therein. Yes, we Earthlings have our own way of looking at things. But so does God. Holy ...

3628. A King Worth Having

Zechariah 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... or status can be given. Though a Christian has this high honor, he/she is humble about it. This humility was demonstrated by Pope John Paul I. At his direction, his installation as Pope was not called a "coronation" or "enthronement" but a "solemn Mass to mark the start of his ministry as supreme pastor." He asked that he not be carried on the usual portable throne but that he walk in procession. Instead of being crowned with the traditional triple-decked bee-hive tiara, he wore a pallium, a white woolen ...

3629. Recovering From the Blahs

1 Kings 19:9-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... have a skull fracture. I was not in the hospital and I am not pregnant. I am not engaged and I am not infected. There is no boyfriend in my life. However, I am getting a D in history and an F in science. I want you to see these marks in perspective." Seeing the whole in divine perspective helps us to see that not all is lost. What is the still small voice of God saying to us with the blahs? It is saying, "Be still and know that I am God." Moreover, "I will never leave you nor forsake ...

3630. Looking For God?

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... watering, fertilizing, and cultivating. But there was no mention of God as the giver of food in terms of soil, rain, and sun. In the American Express and Coca-Cola exhibit, the history of our country was given by tabloids and a dialogue between Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. We saw the advance of our country from the Pilgrim’s landing on Plymouth Rock to the landing on the moon, but God’s hand in our history was never seen. It was not mentioned that the Pilgrims came for freedom of religion, that the ...

3631. Heart To Heart

Ezekiel 18:1-32

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... God said, "I have no pleasure in the death of any one, so turn, and live," we desperately want a new heart that only he can give. The former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, expressed this longing for a new heart in a prayer found in his Markings: Give us A pure heart that we may see Thee, A humble heart that we may hear Thee, A heart of love that we may serve Thee, A heart of faith that we may love Thee.

3632. Your Money and Your Life

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... have wondered: What will happen to me if I stop? Will I have to inconvenience myself? Might I even be in danger? The Samaritan, though, must have thought to himself: What will happen to this poor man if I do not help him? This, I think, is the mark of people who lay up treasure in heaven. They are willing to risk themselves for others, even as God himself became vulnerable by taking human form and going to the cross. An old rabbinical story amplifies this point. Rabbi Wolf was a just man. One day Mrs. Wolf ...

3633. Out of the Darkness

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... sound at first like a prescription for vengeance. But that is only because so many modern readers of the Bible do not understand the ancient historical context. Originally, the "eye for an eye" was not a green light for revenge, but it was a stop light to mark the limits of retaliation. This law of an eye for an eye actually showed great concern for the guilty party by limiting retaliation. You see in ancient times, a man who lost one eye might retaliate by poking out both eyes of the guilty party. Or the ...

3634. Peter’s Net

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

... of a lifestyle to make it work. There is the social activist who wants to do something, and let matters of faith run their course, so long as he is able to minister to someone in need. There is the party Christian who enjoys (quotation marks) "Christian fellowship" and is satisfied with this association as being the sum total of what Jesus Christ has to offer. There are other examples, equally ridiculous, but that is enough to see how possible and likely it is to not want faith, but some poor substitute ...

3635. The Disciples’ Dumb Dream

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

The sermon text is from the Gospel of Mark, the ninth chapter, verses 33-35: "... when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you discussing on the way?’ But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve; and he ...

3636. Doctor Thomas Dooley

Matthew 9:1-8

Sermon

Carroll Gunkel

... of Viet Nam, he once more met the Master, a meeting which led him to the conclusion that he must forsake a financially rewarding career as an orthopedic surgeon in the Unted States in order to return to Southeast Asia. That return was marked by a two-fold frustration brought about first because Dooley did not have access to naval supplies, and secondly, because he saw that whatever he was able to do was comparable to the proverbial "drop in a bucket." Thomas Dooley - resilient, innovative, independent ...

3637. Hiltgunt Margaret Zassenhaus

Deuteronomy 31:1-8

Sermon

Carroll Gunkel

... face death unafraid. But the young Hiltgunt feared for her life. She trembled at the prospect of the Gestapo’s discovery of what would have been considered her treachery. Ever-conscious of her love of life, she lived her days in fear, but one of the marks of a Christian, manifested in her, was that, despite her fears, she continued in her ministry. She met the Master in her growth beyond fear. She was afraid, but she was not paralyzed by that fear. That Hiltgunt Zassenhaus had met the Master was obvious ...

3638. Eternal Echo Of Easter - Part 2

Matthew 28:1-10

Drama

Esther R. Russ

... gold. 8. Glue pieces of styrofoam inside the helmet base and insert bright-colored feathers. Armour: Material needed includes light-weight cardboard, preferably large sheets that are gold on one side and white on the other, paper fasteners, masking tape, ruler, marking pencils. (Gold spray paint and light-weight cardboard, if gold cardboard isn’t used.) All strips for the armour will be two inches wide. To determine the length of the shoulder strips, draw an imaginary line around the chest and back ...

3639. A Tale of Two Cemeteries

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

George Bass

... old and new sections; the new is in the form of high-rise mausoleums which, one discovers on visiting the church and learning the history of this place, are in the motif of the ancient catacombs - above ground. All the graves are above ground, usually marked with pictures and an eternal flame, in both sections of the cemetery. The cemetery tells you - if you are at all perceptive - what the Christians who are buried here and will be buried here, believe about life and death and the Christian Church. It is ...

3640. A Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

George Bass

... , one God and Father of all, and one Church. The oneness of the Church of Christ allowed them to place Peter and Paul side by side, or at least within the same catacomb, and pray confidently in that unity. That catacomb and the church later erected over it to mark St. Sebastian’s grave should remind us all that the Church is one and that we must lift fervent prayers - not simply for one week in January - that God will give it unity again so that the Church will become - to us - what it really is in Christ ...

3641. An Almost Anonymous Apostle

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

George Bass

... buried beneath the main altar of Saint Mary Major Church, one of the seven pilgrimage churches in the Eternal City where contemporary pilgrims may still gain indulgences. That’s about all that is known about Matthias; he has no other history, no further marks of identity, except that the body buried in St. Mary Major Church is headless (his head is buried in Trier), as well as faceless. What more is there to remember? Before nothing behind nothing but, we might add, remember him the zero. Any excavation ...

3642. Gabriel Speaks to Mary

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

George Bass

... the shepherds when Jesus was born, because that song completes Gabriel’s announcement to Mary: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased! And I would like to think that Gabriel was among the angels mentioned by Matthew and Mark who ministered to him after his temptation in the wilderness; he must have been the one of the two angels who said to the women, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, ... that the Son of man must be delivered ...

3643. A Glimpse of God

John 14:5-14

Sermon

George Bass

... " - a day to remind us that we Christians must live entirely by faith in the resurrection of Christ instead of by sight, as did Thomas. Philip had a similar problem to Thomas - "unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe." Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, Thomas had asked Jesus, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and ...

3644. Who Has Everything?

Matthew 5:5

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... arrows from members of the Corinthian church. In reading his letter to that church, we find that he did not assert his authority or position, but wrote to them about love. Of course, the final authority, the living portrait of meekness is CHRIST. It marked his whole life. We see it in his reaction to people; those in authority as well as those of low social caste. It is movingly evident in the way he endured misunderstanding, scorn, sarcasm, derision. His attitude toward his enemies and his submission to ...

3645. What Does It Mean To "Believe"?

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... to risk all, prestige, belongings, property, health, and even life itself to follow him? He says, Whoever is ashamed of me ... in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38) And again he says, Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Only he can bring you across. Will you let him? Amen.

3646. No Condemnation!

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... does Micah single out this? Because this is the highest of all the excellences of God. This is the one thing about God that really counts, namely, that for us poor sinners, "He delighteth in mercy." And if you want to know what that means, mark in your Bible those passages that speak of God’s mercy - his love and forgiveness. It will be an exciting experience because from one biblical author to the next, you will note this emphasis. From Moses, already, you will read: The Lord God, merciful and gracious ...

3647. Overcoming Self

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... later his mother looked at him wonderingly and said, "George, God promises to bless those who honor their parents. I think that God must have a great blessing in store for you." Indeed, from that very time the hand of God was on George Washington in a marked way, because early in his life he had learned how to become great at dying, how to set aside his own interests, his own desires, his own self-centeredness. Out of that death to self, God could bring something of resurrection, something of new life. The ...

3648. An Altered State of Consciousness

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... at the center of my being. Ever since I have been learning what this means in terms of a constantly unfolding life. You cannot exhaust God; there is always another level. Now that I am getting older, I find comfort and reality in some lines from Mark Connely’s play, Green Pastures. Old Moses stands alone on Mt. Nebo. He watches as young Joshua leads his people across the Jordan, far below. The old man sighs: "You’se with me, ain’t you, Lord?" And the answer is whispered from behind a greater boulder ...

3649. The Spiritual Fitness Demands of the New Age

Romans 7:7-25

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... ; no familiar landmarks are visible. You bore on into the night, with the sweat popping out all over you. You have almost given up hope - when suddenly there in the distance you see - yes, you do see it - a narrow parallel line of lights. Are you mad because those lights mark a runway that is narrow and straight? No! You breathe again and thank God. The straight and narrow runway means life. You can fly beyond it and die. You can fly short of it and crash. You can fly to the left of it or to the right of it ...

3650. Shepherding One Another in a Collapsing World

Romans 9:1-29

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... relate, and what I feel Christ calls me to be? "At what point would I say that Christ has less than full priority in my life? What are some of the means by which I could move toward a deeper commitment?" "Do I recognize the fact that joy is the mark of Christ? And if I do not have that joy ... am I coming to grips with whatever there is in my life that is shutting me off from that joy?" Are we growing in these qualities of Christian shepherding? Am I good at shepherding in my family, with my friends ...

Showing results