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Showing 3651 to 3675 of 4490 results

3651. Wedding: Making a Commitment

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon Aid

Paul N. Frank

We have gathered here this day to witness a marriage. We will hear the promises that this man and woman will make to one another. They will be making a commitment. They will promise to love one another; to be faithful to one another; to be true to one another during good times as well as during bad times. The only thing that can break this commitment is death. Does this sound frightening? Why in the world would anyone want to make such a commitment? No one knows what the future may hold. How can anyone ...

3652. The Bottom Line

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Robert Beringer

One of the most common phrases heard in the marketplace today is "the bottom line." It makes no difference if you are buying a car, or a new house, a new wardrobe or planning a vacation. Whatever it is, we want to know how much will it cost. What's the bottom line? There is a story going the rounds about a self-employed painter who had come on hard times. There was very little work in his area, so when he was asked to bid on the painting of a local church, he figured a little too closely to the bottom line ...

3653. Chosen By God

Ruth 4:1-12

Sermon

Sims Robert

All of us love to be chosen. It is a wonderful thing to be chosen. A teen-age boy tried out for the basketball team. When the coach posted the list of those who had made the team, he was thrilled to discover that the coach had chosen him. A young woman was one of 75 applicants for a high-paying job. She exclaimed with great excitement in her voice, “Of all the applicants, they chose me.” A young friend who had made application to the Naval Academy announced with great pride that out of the hundreds who had ...

3654. Death by Suicide For Active Church Member

Psalm 139:1-24

Eulogy

Phil Barnhart

The God of infinite Reach This sermon was preached at the funeral of a warm and compassionate man who frequently taught object lessons to our church's children by utilizing the skills he developed as a professional magician. Suffering from a brain tumor, Ivan killed himself. We all have burdens. Some of us overcome them and some of us are overcome by them. Life is full of questions. Some of us find the answers and some of us have questions that forever go unanswered. But we all experience the common ...

3655. The Banquet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The people argued, "How can this man give us flesh to eat?" To eat and drink the Lord's portion of an offered sacrifice was considered (later on in the Jewish tradition) a desecration or offensive because it was believed that the sacrifice belonged to God. To consume the life force, to consume God, was believed to be a sacrilege. But despite the religious calcification of the covenant tradition, the heart and spirit of the covenant tradition did break through at various times. One such time was when David ...

3656. Bold Talk Of Faith

Job 23:1--24:25

Sermon

John P. Rossing

One of Gary Larson's The Far Side cartoons is called "God at his computer." It shows God with long white hair and beard watching a computer screen where an unlucky-looking fellow is walking down a sidewalk with a piano suspended by a cable over his head. God's hand is on the computer keyboard, and his finger is hovering over a key labeled "SMITE."3 The cartoon suggests two things about God's way of determining a person's fate: first, that God is impersonal and inaccessible. God with his finger on the smite ...

3657. Step Four - Courage

Mt 26:69-75 · Acts 9:1-9 · Ps 139:1-6

Sermon

John A. Terry

Step four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. The psalmist talks of the God before whom such a searching and fearless moral inventory is both possible and necessary. Ours is a God who, in traditional language, is omniscience and omnipresent, a God who knows all and is everywhere. This Psalm is sometimes called the Psalm of the unavoidable God. We believe that before our God there are no secret thoughts or actions. All is known by our God. I remember hearing a lecture one time where ...

3658. The Crown Of Thorns

Matthew 27:26b-30

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A crown of thorns Good morning, boys and girls. Perhaps you will remember where we left off last week with our story, but let me tell you a little bit about what has happened to Jesus since we left Him being taken out of Annas' house and over to the house of Caiaphas, another Jewish leader. Jesus had been shoved and pushed around from one place to another. He even spent a little time in the palace of Herod, a kind of Jewish king who worked for the Romans. All of these people were afraid to do ...

3659. Encounters With Christ I: Jesus & the Man Born Blind

John 9:1-12

Sermon

James W. Moore

Recently, I ran across a “fascinating list” that carried this intriguing title: “Great Truths About Life That Little Children Have Learned.” Let me share a few of these “great truths” with you. (1) “ No matter how hard you try you cannot baptize a cat.” (2) “When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair.” (3) “Never ask your 3-year-old brother to hold a tomato… or an egg.” (4) “You can’t trust dogs to watch your food for you.” (5) “Don’t sneeze when somebody is cutting your hair.” (6) “ ...

3660. Monologue: The Other Shepherd Speaks

Luke 2:8-20

Drama

Robert F. Scott

The shepherds came to the manger, actors who play one brief scene and then vanish. Luke tells us they returned, "glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard, as it had been told them." Beyond that, we know nothing of their later lives. Yet does any person meet the living Christ and remain unchanged? Aye, they said we missed it. "Vie missed it," they said, and they were right. We were out in the fields, five of us, with the sheep, and it was a chilly night. I had the early watch; the sheep ...

3661. Monologue: A Slave, A Jailer, A Child Of God

Acts 16:16-40

Drama

Robert F. Scott

We have only a bare-bones mention of the Philippian jailer. He received Paul and Silas, beaten and bleeding; he fastened them in the painful stocks; after his conversion, he personally dressed their wounds and then fed them at his own table. What other changes grew from the jailer's new Christian faith? Let us attempt to stretch some living flesh over those bare bones. Call me Quintus, but my name doesn't matter. Most people just see me as a slave, a piece of the house furniture, nothing more. My master is ...

3662. The Real Jesus is Channeling Grace

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Carl Jech

I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26) Over the last couple decades we have heard critics decry what has been variously described as "civil religion," "religion in general," or "the religion of the American way of life." Recently, Dr. Robert Jenson, a professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, restated the criticism this way: "The God proclaimed in American Protestantism is ...

3663. The Lion Who Learned About God

Dan 6:21-23

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Who are you supposed to listen to? Isn't that a question that we all ask ourselves at one time or another? Everyone seems to know what is good for you or me. So many want to help us that it's hard sometimes to know who to listen to. Just think of all of the rules and people that you and I must pay attention to and then decide which is right, and which is wrong. There are laws that we must obey that have been written by men for our protection. There are rules that are made by mothers and fathers that we had ...

3664. Museum or Mission?

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

An inner city church, located in an area of the downtown where there were few residents, was forced to a decision. A large corporation was offering them a great deal of money for their site, on which the corporation wanted to put a parking lot. The money would enable the church to move to another part of the inner city where they would find many more people to serve. Even though this was exciting to some of the congregation, other members were resistant to the idea. They pointed out that the church was the ...

3665. One Nation, Under Mercy

Sermon

Days of gratitude have been a long tradition on this continent. A group of settlers who arrived in Maine in 1607 held a service of thanksgiving for a safe journey to these shores. William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony proclaimed a special day of gratitude to the Almighty God when the settlers gathered in a bounteous harvest. The Battle of Saratoga was commemorated, at the orders of the Continental Congress, with a day of thanksgiving, the first time all the colonies observed the day together. Washington ...

3666. Snapping Back

2 Corinthians 11:30

Children's Sermon

Object: A broken rubber band. (Have enough to pass out, but they should all be broken). Good morning, boys and girls. How are you today? Do you know what we call this that I have in my hand? A rubber band, that’s right - almost. It’s a broken rubber band. (Up to now you have held the rubber band so that the children coud not see that it was broken - but now show them). I have a whole bunch of broken rubber bands and I’m going to give each of you one of them. I’ll bet you never thought that you’d get a ...

3667. How Was Jesus' Death Different?

John 19:28-37, John 19:17-27

Sermon

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. (John 19:17-18) Death is a common experience of life. All who lived in the past died. Every one of us now living will die sooner or later. Approximately five thousand Americans die every twenty-four hours. Almost two million deaths occur in our country every year. There are ...

3668. Religion - One Way to Get in God’s Way

Zechariah 7:1-14

Sermon

Another clash between religion and the worship of God. To put it another way, "The Bible is anti-religious because it is pro-God." That statement strikes at some of our most cherished traditions. Isn’t religion automatically pro-God? Both the Old and New Testaments say, "Not automatically so." The Bible takes issue not only with the pagan religions, it takes issue with the religion of God’s people when their religion puts God in second place. Christ said of some of the religious leaders who worshiped ...

3669. Not Blind but Seeing

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Dean Lueking

A memorable line from Robert Burns offers a good beginning in hearing the word of Christ to us today: "O what power the Giftie gie’ us that we see ourselves as others see us ..." The ninth chapter of John’s Gospel is about seeing, not only as others see us but seeing as God sees us. It is one of the most dramatic chapters in the New Testament, as the Savior calls out to us not to be blind, but seeing. Trying To See What Can’t Be Seen It all begins with a question to Jesus from the disciples as they saw a ...

3670. The Emmaus Stranger

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Dean Lueking

This beautiful text from Luke 24 has inspired poets, musicians, artists, and above all - those who preach and hear the story of the risen Lord appearing to the two disciples as they walked from Jerusalem to the nearby town of Emmaus. The evening hymn, "Abide with Me," is based upon this story. Rembrandt painted the picture of the two disciples with their guest at Emmaus. I have in mind another well-known painting that I have seen in many homes with the memorable scene of Jesus walking along side of the ...

3671. Taking Risks

Mt 4:1-11 · Lk 4:1-13 · Mk 1:12-13

Children's Sermon

Object: A quarantine sign and/or a highway sign such as "Reduce Speed." Good morning to you, boys and girls. Sunday really is a beautiful day no matter what the weather is outside. Even when it is cold, the church is warm, not just because the furnace is on but because you are so welcome and everybody wants you to be here. It takes a long time to get acquainted in some places but not in the church. Here everybody is your friend and you are a friend to everybody. That is the way Jesus teaches us to be. He ...

3672. Reformation Sunday

Jn 8:31-36 · Rom 3:19-28 · Jer 31:31-34

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

Jeremiah 31:31-34 The promise of a new covenant. Romans 3:19-28 Justification by grace through faith, not works. John 8:31-36 Jesus' disciples know the truth which frees. THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION Gospel: John 8:31-36 1. Truth (v. 32). When Pilate asked Jesus what truth was, he gave no answer. In this passage Jesus defines the truth. It is in his word, for he spoke God's Word. As long as we hold to the word of Jesus, we will be his disciples and will know the truth. It is not a truth of science, politics, nor ...

3673. Given as Light

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sermon

A young man sat near a small river, his feet cooling in the gently rippling water. He had walked many miles that day through the desert dust. The river soothed him and calmed the restless longing in his soul. He was almost thirty years old. As he grew up in his father’s carpenter shop, his kinsfolk thought he would be a carpenter, too. But he left one day, never to return, to become a teacher, a wandering rabbi calling men and women to follow him. As he sat there on the banks of the shallow river, another ...

3674. Forgiveness Forever

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Peter's question touches life where we live it, too: "How much forgiving can we be expected to do?" Peter wondered if there was not some cap, which could be imposed in advance, a limit beyond which no reasonable person could be expected to go. In his liberal human generosity, he suggested seven times. Now, if you have been hurt once and again and yet again by another, I think you will understand that forgiving that person seven times is genuinely generous. Even impossibly generous, you might add under your ...

3675. And Then The End

Matthew 24:1-35

Sermon

"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." True only of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities? Or true of innumerable eras? Consider this day, these times. Technological developments set millions free from the drudgery of repetitive labor. Billions of dollars are donated annually to various charities and trillions of hours are similarly given - many of them to ease the burden of the poor and unfortunate. A rebirth of interest in the things of faith at last includes the so-called "horizontal dimension" ...

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