Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3651 to 3675 of 4999 results

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Erskine White

... . You hear people talking about such things as peace and quiet and privacy and you wonder what foreign language they are speaking and what these strange words mean. If I sound like a stressed-out parent, I should be fair and add that children bring other kinds of changes as well. Houses which once didn’t know what they are missing are now filled with the sounds of child-like laughter and running feet. Words like joy and wonder acquire deeper meaning as we experience them anew through the eyes of children ...

3652. And Now For Something Completely Different

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... me with your iniquities" (Isaiah 43:24). Then comes the surprise. "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25). Is something missing? Is there a step left out? Is this some kind of a trick? Is Isaiah, speaking for the Lord, declaring forgiveness before repentance? Yes! Of course we’ve always assumed it works the other way around, and there are plenty of scriptural precedents for saying it that way, and it is certainly the way we prefer ...

3653. Coming Down The Mountain

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... were out too late the night before is hard work. So is dealing with grief, and counseling people with marital problems, and standing beside the bed of a dying friend, and calling on people who are lonely. We don’t have an abundance of volunteers for these kinds of things. When I hear someone say, "Why isn’t the church more exciting?" I usually conclude that the person who says it may be somewhat out of touch with what the church is doing on an everyday basis. It is true, the church generally doesn’t ...

3654. Sneaky Snakes

Luke 22:1-6

Children's Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

... many of you have a pet at home? How many have a dog? A cat? A parakeet? Fish? Does anyone have a pet snake? No? I didn’t think many of you would have that kind of creature for a pet. Why not? Well, most of us probably just don’t like the idea of having a snake for a pet. Snakes are beautiful creatures, but certain kinds of snakes, like rattle-snakes, can be very dangerous because they have a poisonous bite that could kill a person or make him very sick. The Bible does not tell us about any snakes ...

3655. The Covenant Of Amazing Grace

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... Noah is no guarantee that God somehow is going to limit our power to destroy ourselves if we want to. In the real world hope also has to do battle with the spirit of cynicism. Cynics see little or no hope for our time. On the other hand this kind of hopeless spirit can and does lead to violence and destruction - a what-have-we-got-to-lose attitude. On the other hand the cynical spirit is not far removed from the spirit of eat, drink and be merry. Just leave us alone. Eventually the world will be destroyed ...

3656. Lift High The Cross

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... an obnoxious fashion, but the punishment seems a bit severe. Does God really turn rattlesnakes loose among people? Can one be healed simply by looking at the bronze or copper image of a snake that is mounted on a pole? That sounds like magical hocus-pocus, a voodoo kind of healing that believers in God are supposed to avoid. Well, we can make the technical point that God sent the snakes, but it was the people who stepped on them! It also seems clear that it was God and not the snakes that caused the healing ...

3657. Easter: The Festival Of Joy

Isaiah 25:1-12

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... now, our replacements will have more than doubled the numbers. It is hard to see how we can continue to keep the secret, with such multitudes doing the dying.2 Death is not some kind of flaw which we are ultimately going to repair via heart transplants, or get around via the quick-freeze method. Death is not some kind of puzzle we are ultimately going to solve. Neither is death pretty. I have seen noble deaths, but I could never describe death as being beautiful. Death remains the dreaded enemy. I think it ...

3658. The Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... simply to refrain from coveting what our neighbor has. If we want to be please God we must act well; if we want others to be kind and respectful to us, then we must act so to them. In other words, much of the Ten Commandments call upon us to refrain from doing ... parents are deceased we are still not released from the obligations of this commandment. It means that we are to continue living the kind of lives that they would want us to live; a life that will bring honor to their names and dignity to their memory ...

3659. Nazareth: The Hidden Years

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... , they might have felt uncomfortable about raising Jesus in Nazareth. As we read on in the New Testament, we discover that it was one of those towns that evoked laughter. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" the saying went. It was a hill town, the kind of town easily scorned and made the butt of jokes. And for that reason, perhaps it was a good town in which to hide away and learn. Greatness might come looking for one in Rome or Athens or even Jerusalem, but greatness seemed likely to bypass Nazareth ...

3660. Out of Doors: Nature and Supernatural

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... , and people ask me about Cleveland, I tell them that we are the Forest City, and that I know of no other place where the trees are so strong, so abundant, so grand as in our town. And then there’s always a picayunish soul who will ask, "What kind of trees?" - and I have to mutter, "I don’t really know ... But they’re big. You just can’t imagine how beautiful they are ..." It’s possible that I would enjoy nature even more if I knew more. Nevertheless, I testify that nature blesses me even in my ...

3661. The Garden: All Things New

John 20:1-9

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... about it, but Eve led the way into the trouble. Now it was another woman, Mary Magdalene, who was first to see the full way out. And if ever any woman was the daughter of Eve, it was this Mary! She was surely one of the lost ones, a kind of quintessential example of what sin was all about, and of how lost a human being could be, and how far removed from Eden. How appropriate that Mary Magdalene, full-scale daughter of Eve, should be the first to experience the victory over the tragedy that Eve met first ...

3662. Stewards of Creation

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... of a campfire. We need to care for the earth the way the campers cared for that campground. In Genesis 1 God said to us humans: Your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under control. I am putting you in charge ... I have provided all kinds of grain and fruit for you to eat. (1:28, 29) The Lutheran Church in America produced quite a gem several years ago in a statement called: "The Human Crisis in Ecology." There are three points from it which jump out at me as significant to this sermon ...

3663. Stewards of Life, Death, and Beyond

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... of it even at the time we die. It must be what Jesus was saying in the Sermon on the Mount: "... store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal" (Matthew 6:20). Just think how this kind of planning ahead by some of our members now touches so many through our ministry. Giving to and remembering our church in our wills is a way we can still be present with the alive saints here and be of help. It’s consistent with our belief in the ...

3664. A Man Who Laughed at God

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... Testament asks a question, the question of Isaac to his father: "Where is the lamb?" The New Testament provides the answer, the answer which points to Jesus: "Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Can you demonstrate the kind of faith that Abraham had? What will you do, in the hour of severe trial, when God asks for what you love most - your wealth, your health, your ambition, your child? How much are you willing to give up, to let go, to sacrifice? Will your trust ...

3665. Augustine, Defender of the Faith

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... the light of day - no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires. Augustine went back to Africa and opened a kind of monastery at Tagaste, where he and his Christian friends lived. On a visit to Hippo, the people compelled the bishop to ordain him. At age 42 he became a bishop of the See of Hippo (a region of North Africa), and for 35 years he served ...

3666. Francis of Assisi: a Faith for Every Day

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... and tamed the animal, which was described as lying at his feet like a lamb. When Francis died, legend has it that the birds gathered on the roof of the house and sang all night. The city watchman told the story. There are all kinds of stories about St. Francis and the animals. According to Bonaventure, Francis’ compassion bound him to the creatures of nature. "It was loving compassion ... which led him to devote himself humbly to his neighbor, and enabled him to return to the state of primal innocence ...

3667. William Booth and His Hallelujah Army

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Children's Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... attention to the Christian faith and to praise God. The trumpet can also sound advance for military people. It wakes them up and sends them out against the enemy. William Booth saw that as the role of the church on earth. He shaped his church to do that kind of battle. The trumpet is often mentioned in Scripture to announce the Second Coming of Christ and the day when we are judged. William Booth shaped his church to remind people that day was soon. He taught that we ought to get our lives in order so that ...

3668. William Booth and His Hallelujah Army

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... they said they believed at church and how they lived and treated each other at home. It is easy to give "mixed signals" to those with whom we share our home. And yet, all the attributes we admire in Jesus on Sunday we ought to practice on Monday: kindness, love of enemy, concern for the poor, sharing with others, gentleness and patience with the other person. I was moved to tears when I read these words: "Daughter Evangeline once said of her mom and dad, ‘My parents did not have to say a word to me about ...

3669. When Something is About to Happen

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Thomas Long

... bunting across the store fronts as they ready themselves for the visit of a dignitary. Christmas itself has this kind of power. People brave crowds at the mall and edgy clerks; gifts are carefully chosen, packages wrapped, and ceramic ... recite the old phrase in the creed, "He will come to judge the quick and the dead," we disclose our hope that frail human justice, the kind one can get with a good lawyer and a full checkbook, is not all the justice life holds. Come, Lord Jesus. Every time some congregation ...

3670. What Do You See?

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Thomas Long

... he gave one more try, "Look at the lilies in that field ..." every head in the audience turned toward the side wall. I do not know whether old John the Evangelist was present in the theater that night, but, if not, he should have been. It was his kind of show. Indeed, he spends his entire Gospel trying to get people to look, really to look, at the life of Jesus. Light and darkness, vision and dimness, "once I was blind, but now I see," these are the materials of John’s Gospel. Chapter after chapter, John ...

3671. What’s In It For Me?

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... Jesus began to burst Peter’s bubble. It is as if Jesus said to Peter: "I’m the Messiah all right but I’m not the kind of Messiah you have expected. I’m a Messiah who will suffer many things. I will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests ... . He had connected the Messiah to his own hopes and dreams. Peter had it wrong. And that makes me wonder. I hear all kinds of proclamations of of the Christian faith today that emphasize exactly what Peter emphasized. They tell me what is in it for me. ...

3672. A New Temple Shall Arise

John 2:12-25

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... of sacrifice in order to make God more happy with us. That is why religious people have sacrificed the lives of one of their number. A human sacrifice is the only sacrifice they can imagine that might truly satisfy God’s demand upon our lives. What kind of sacrifices have you made in order to bridge the chasm that stands between you and God? This story from John’s Gospel, the story of the cleansing of the temple, is closely connected to the realities of human religion as we have been discussing them ...

3673. Abide In Me

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... got him. They got him with a simple dare. "We dare you to stay alive through your willpower alone. No food. No nourishment of any kind. Just some water to keep your mouth moist." Well, a dare is a dare and Mr. Will Power could not resist. He would do it ... follower of Jesus, being Jesus’ disciple, is something that we do, that it is a matter of our willpower. If someone would just be so kind as to tell us what a Christian should do, then we will set about doing it. "It is just a case of simple willpower," we ...

3674. Goodness Is Not Good Enough

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... too high; so, sorrowfully, he abandoned his quest for the kingdom of God. Gold, which stands for affluence and abundance of possessions, can interfere with our quest for the kingdom, too. It has the power to make us forget our dependence upon God. It can cause a kind of amnesia that blots out memories of our humble origins, and makes us think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. It can transport us to an ivory tower where we live in unreality, out of touch with most of the human race. From that ...

3675. Inevitabilities and the Last Days

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... . The villagers saw Christ in Francis that day. Finally, at the close of day, the two returned to the monastery. The younger monk turned to Francis with a puzzled look. "Father," he said, "I thought we were going to the village to preach." Saint Francis looked down kindly upon the young man and said, "My child, we have been preaching; we were preaching while we were walking. We have been seen - looked at; our behavior has been observed; and so we have delivered a morning’s sermon. Ah! my son, it is of no ...

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