Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3651 to 3675 of 4508 results

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

The religious people of Jesus’ day got together to try to trap Jesus with their questions. They asked him about paying taxes. They asked him about rising from death. We read today that they asked him what was the greatest commandment. The Jewish rabbis liked to distill the meaning of religion into little phrases like the ones we put on our Burma Shave signs. They had 632 laws and rules for the pra...

3652. The Two Most Important Questions A Christian Can Answer

Sermon

Brett Blair

Isidor Isaac Rabi, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics, and one of the developers of the atomic bomb, was once asked how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn't so much interested in what he had learned that day, but how he conducted himself in his studies. She always inquired, "Did you ask a good question today?""As...

3653. Redundant Love

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

You're redundant. Did you receive those words as a compliment or an insult? We've been trained to hear this word "redundant" as a negative. But in saying "You're redundant," I've just paid you a compliment that's based on one of the most essential features of life. We hear redundancy as meaning repetitive, uninspired, not creatively useful. But for engineers and technicians, redundancy is a goal a...

3654. Matthew 22:34-46

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Today’s reading portrays Jesus’ third confrontation in a row. Matthew consistently provides his readers with both a new focus within the Law and a new focus on the identity of the Messiah. In both cases, Jesus redefines the familiar and emphasizes the personal over principle. When the Pharisees’ theological rivals, the Sadducees, fail to trip up Jesus with a second question, the Pharisees re-group...

3655. Envision: A Church After God’s Heart

Sermon

James Merritt

It doesn’t happen very often. When it does happen it is so different from everything else that can happen that you realize that it has “this is a God thing” written all over it. At least, for me, on very rare occasions, an opportunity comes along that you realize only God could have put before you. You know it because only God could have engineered all of the circumstances that were necessary...

3656. Envision: The Great Commandment

Sermon

James Merritt

Envision. Envision a church after God’s own heart. Envision a follower of Christ hitting on all eight-cylinders, being everything that God wants him to be, doing everything that God wants him to do, living a life of such passion, such power and such purpose that the people that he or she meets, where they live, where they work, and where they play are eternally impacted. We are convinced tha...

3657. The Greatest Commandment

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The final question asked of Jesus again comes from the Pharisees, who send one of their torah experts to ask Jesus about the greatest commandment (22:34–36). Matthew has already emphasized Jesus’s torah interpretation through the lens of love and mercy (cf. 5:43–48; 9:13; 12:7), and Jesus’s answer at 22:40 fits that theme: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on” the commands to love God (Deut. 6:5)...

3658. A Love Triangle

Sermon

David G. Rogne

Some people have a talent for getting to the core of things. Julius Caesar wrote a good-sized book titled On the Gallic War. It is still used as a textbook by students of Latin. However, Caesar was also able to cut through all the details and get to the nub of a matter. He wrote a sentence that has become a classic in condensation: "Veni, Vidi, Vici" — "I came, I saw, I conquered." That sums it al...

3659. The Greatest Commandment

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

The Great Commandment: The parable of the wedding feast (vv. 1–14) is regularly considered to be an allegorical revision of an earlier more straightforward parable told by Jesus. Fenton lists as allegorical elements that strike the reader as strange and unnatural the killing of those who brought the invitation (v. 6), the destruction of the guests (v. 7), and the burning of a city while a meal is ...

3660. Learning to Love Ourselves

Sermon

James McCormick

She was a beautiful Scandinavian girl. She had come to the hotel room of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Trobisch for counseling, just one day after they had given a lecture at one of the universities of northern Europe. As they talked about her problems, one basic issue kept coming up – one that seemed to be at the root at all her problems. She could not love herself! In fact, she hated herself so much that ...

3661. Honoring God in a Pluralistic Society

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

My all time favorite story and one you have heard before, is the story about a little girl sitting in the family room one night drawing a picture. Noticing the intensity of his daughter's activity, her Dad asked, “What are you doing?" “I'm drawing a picture of God," replied the girl. “How can you do that?" inquired the Dad. “Nobody knows what God looks like?" Then with a smile on her face the girl...

3662. True North

Sermon

Charley Reeb

Sha Jahan was the emperor of India during the 1600s. When he lost his wife he was devastated. In fact, his grief was so great that he decided to build a grand temple that would serve as her tomb. Her coffin was placed in the center of a large piece of land and a big temple was built around it. The emperor was determined to build a magnificent resting place for his wife. However, as the weeks turn...

3663. A Tribute to a Woman's Love

Sermon

King Duncan

A true, but delightful story appeared years ago in a publication named The Pathfinder. It was about a woman who had an enormous impact on her community. If you look at a map of Alaska you will see a thin, wavy line about midway between Nome and Teller, Alaska. This line is known as Mary’s River. It was named for an Eskimo woman many years ago who lived along the shores of the river with her husba...

3664. Jesus And The Ayatollah

Sermon

King Duncan

You may not know it, but years ago Nikita Kruschev, John F. Kennedy and Golda Meir had a summit meeting with God. Each of them was allowed to ask one question. "God," asked Nikita Kruschev, "do you think the U.S. and Russia will ever have peace?" "Yes," answered God, "but not in your lifetime." Then Kennedy spoke. "God, do you think there will be peace between blacks and whites in our land and a...

3665. Surprised By Love

Sermon

King Duncan

The large family had gathered at the old farm house for a reunion. Long after supper, the celebration moved indoors. Only the father of the clan ventured out to wander the vast acres in the dark. On his walk the old man fell into a ditch and found himself sitting waist-deep in slimy mud--very uncomfortable, but in no immediate danger. Without moving, he shouted, “Fire! Fire!” Since fire is one of...

3666. Tasting the Gruel of Love

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the most remarkable Christian witnesses in the world today is a man named Charles Colson. Many of you remember him as the political hatchet man for President Richard Nixon. While he was serving as special counsel to the President, Colson seemed to be a dispicable man, seemingly without a conscience. Then, quite remarkably, Chuck Colson had a thorough and complete conversion experience. It w...

3667. Taking Time To Love

Sermon

King Duncan

Billy Rose once told a story about a young man and his father who had a small farm. Several times a year they would make a trip to market with their oxcart loaded with vegetables. The son was an impatient sort. He would always prod the ox with a stick to hurry it along. His father, however, believed in following a more leisurely gait. The son wanted to get to market first thing the next morning i...

3668. Do It For the Joy of It!

Sermon

In the text for last week we saw how impossible it becomes to try to limit a description of appropriate Christian behavior to a rigid, inflexible code. There is a danger on the other extreme as well: The Christian can come to the (erroneous) conclusion that everything is relative, in constant flux, and totally dependent on the situation, one’s own feelings, and the individual’s point of view. Not...

3669. The Love God Wants

Sermon

Judging from current fads in vocabulary, it seems that most of us think that life is too complicated, or at least, more complicated than it needs to be. One clue is the frequency of the words, "basic" and "basically" in our speech. "The basic idea of the proposal is...." "Basically, how do you see the situation?" And most all of us have given in to the fashion of creating nouns out of adjective...

3670. The Commandments of Love

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

Call To Worship Leader: Let us worship God with our hearts and our souls and our minds! People: Let us know love for one another, for Christ, and for all the world. Leader: Let us proclaim God's glory as we take Christ's love to the world. People: Let us share the love of Christ in all that we do wherever we go. Leader: Let us lift our hearts in praise and song for God's mercy and grace. All: Bles...

3671. The Great Commandment

Bulletin Aid

Call to Worship Pastor: God is a great God who has made all people in his own image. People: We are the children of God, brothers and sisters to the people of all nations. Pastor: The fatherhood of God and brotherhood of nations require us to love God above all else, and love each person as ourselves. People: May God's grace enable us to be loving children toward God, and toward each other. Colle...

3672. Pentecost 23

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE In older Lutheran Lectionaries, the readings for the last three Sundays, no matter how many Sundays there were in the Trinity/Pentecost season, all dealt with eschatological themes and the last things; they warned the church of the impending conclusion of Pentecost, as well as the Parousia. That sort of warning - that the end of the year and the end time are approaching - is not ...

3673. Christian Love as Bifocal

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes In a sense, Jesus refuses here to play along with the Pharisee's question, which called for a singular answer. Jesus' answer, advocating a "bifocal" love, was not original in the rabbinic tradition. Others had emphasized these two Old Testament injunctions before. Jesus does, however, appear to raise the second commandment to a nearly co-equal status with the first with the word "like...

3674. Proper 25

Bulletin Aid

Theme: Christian love as bifocal Exegetical note In a sense, Jesus refuses here to play along with the Pharisee's question, which called for a singular answer. Jesus' answer, advocating a "bifocal" love, was not original in the rabbinic tradition. Others had emphasized these two Old Testament injunctions before. Jesus does, however, appear to raise the second commandment to a nearly co-equal stat...

3675. Proper 25

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: Green Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46 Theme: Loving God and others as we love ourselves. Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration Try this: Dick Avery and Don Marsh suggest having a small group of people lying in the chancel as people enter the sanctuary. As the music for preparation concludes, the people awaken slowly, get in touch with each other, and then move out and welcome others...

Showing 3651 to 3675 of 4508 results