Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 351 to 375 of 1185 results

351. Loving Unconditionally

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... expressing his love for the Christians gathered in Rome who are reading his words. "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you," he writes. "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers." Only then does Paul begin to make his case. He sets it in the context of Christian love which is the essential, enduring bond among Christian people. Where that bond is established, people have nothing to fear from their ...

352. Peter’s Net

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

... ’s boat, for Peter was through fishing for the day and his luck had been bad. Each of us knows what that kind of day, or period, is like. We work as hard as ever, but there is no return, no catch, no reward. Scripture reads: "And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ " Peter didn’t like that. You wouldn’t like it if I came to you at your job and told you how to do it. Hopefully you would be polite as you ...

353. Eternal Echo Of Easter - Part 1

Matthew 28:1-10

Drama

Esther R. Russ

... journey, and I spat in their faces. Nothing of my usual demonish behavior would stop their insistance. They tied my hands and pulled me through the streets of Magdala, so anxious were they to take me to Jesus. Long ago my strange conduct ceased to draw crowds, so accustomed were the people to my demented outbursts. However, on this particular day, the rumor passed quickly through Magdala: Salome is taking Mary, the one possessed with seven demons, to Jesus! The whole town turned out to witness the results ...

354. A Tale to be Told

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

George Bass

... something to get in the good graces of the Palestinian Jews who worshiped in the Temple and obeyed the Law. They knew that the Jews who lived in the environs of Jerusalem loved tradition as much as they loved the Temple, hence the charge: "This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us." They might have given up some of their traditions, but it had ...

355. How’s Your Appetite?

Matthew 5:6 · Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... artists, exploit friendship, use flattery, open his house, even let a customer talk about himself, if it will make a sale. We Christians, in contrast, are just plain lazy about our pursuit of the faith. The golfer will take lessons, hit a ball without ceasing, while we forget our prayers. Religiously we will keep next month’s bridge dates, obligate ourselves for this fall’s football games, plan a whole year in advance for a class reunion, promise to attend civic clubs once a week, but we cannot say ...

356. Christ My Light

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... darkness. This we must always remember. For God never said that he would do away with the darkness while this world stands. But he did say that he would shine into it - giving people the possibility of a choice between the two. He never promised that darkness would cease; that sin, sickness, disease and despondency would come to an end in this mortal life, but he did assure a way out. He never changed the fact that "the wages of sin is death," that we will all die. But he did say, with all the authority of ...

357. Amazing Grace

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... grace. God had given me almost everything ... Tired of being on the heights I deliberately went to the depths in search of a new sensation ... I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on ... I ceased to be lord over myself ... I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace.1 A denial of grace is "disgrace." Listen to Sir Kenneth Clark speaking in his autobiography, recently published: I had a religious experience. It took place in the church ...

358. Whatever Became of Sin?

Romans 5:12-21

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... sin is death" - death in high places, and in low places, in individual life, and in corporate life. There is no real death but separation from God; only sin can really kill the person. But "In owning our faults, we disown them; and in confessing our sins, they cease to be ours." Repentance is seeing and hating the wrong that is in us, it is turning from the wrong back toward the love and the goodness of God. Paul describes it in Corinthians: "It is deep sorrow, the deep sorrow that creates a clean heart; it ...

359. Will My Ship Sink or Float?

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... life and thought pollute our emotions, erode our thinking, and change the course of our actions. The temptations of Rome were similar to the temptations our families have to face today. In his intense moral struggle the young St. Augustine cried out, "Will I never cease setting my heart on shadows and following a lie?" When we are giving in to destructive influences, things do not work together for good. The conversion of St. Augustine came in a strange way. He felt compelled to rush into his room where he ...

360. The Impartiality of God

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... the fall may lead us to think, for even the yawning separation between humanity and God that came about because of sin was bridged by him in order to return his creation to its original intention. It is certainly not a matter that God would cease to exist when and where his creation permanently estranged itself. He had existed before the creation and could again live unto himself. But there is something in his heart that yearns for his creation, a parental constraint to beget unto himself a family that will ...

361. FROM SOAP TO CERTAINTY

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... presence in my life and in the lives of others. I know that my Redeemer lives. I even know your Redeemer lives. If you know it too, praise God with your lives. Without the resurrection, death and taxes are the sum of life’s certainties. With Jesus Christ, our lives cease being daily soap operas and become divine certainties to be lived to the fullest with the final chapter to be played before the throne of Almighty God.

362. !!!

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... Power was present. Unbelief vanished. Fear fled. God, full throttle, was busy putting punch into preaching - cracking walls of unbelief, and giving the apostles a spiritual trip that they had never imagined possible. At Pentecost the church is born. It had ceased to be an expectant enclave and now becomes a witnessing community. What emerged that day was a congregation filled with the power, excited over the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, alive at worship, consumed with love for one another, and ...

363. A Liturgical Drama For Advent

Drama

Tom Eberle

... for nations of peoples as well. [elevates candle] Look how my light shines out in all directions. Come, make it the center of your world. Congregation sings: O come, Desire of Nations, bind In one the hearts of all mankind. Bid thou our sad divisions cease And be Thyself our King of Peace. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. Minister: [speaking from the pulpit] And Moses spoke the words of the Lord from Mt. Sinai and said ... Light: [interrupting] Excuse me, who are you? Minister: I am ...

364. How Fares Your Christian Sight?

Is 6:8-10

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... closely on the heels of the fact that our seeing needs often to be corrected is the fact that the Christian faith provides lenses that do just that. Paul gives expression to these lenses in the fifth chapter of second Corinthians: With us therefore worldly standards have ceased to count in our estimate of any man; even if once they counted in our understanding of Christ, they do so now no longer. When anyone is united to Christ, there is a new world; the old order has gone, and a new order has already begun ...

365. The Un-Parade

Matthew 16:21-28, Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... crucial events which Christian orthodoxy has focused upon. I find more grace in conversation than in The Word, more in my familial history than in the history of Israel, more in the cool blue of the sea and warmth of flesh than in worship. When I cease searching and striving, I am always surprised to discover the density and meaningfulness, almost radiance, that ordinary things and actions have. When the quest for salvation is laid aside, a cup of tea with my wife as the sun goes down is as graceful as ...

366. Mary of Nazareth

Isaiah 7:1-25

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... look at ourselves, asking if we are growing in love, in understanding. We remember vividly those scenes when our devotional habits were strong, fresh, and clear - as though Gabriel were speaking to us, calling us to commitment. What has happened in intervening years? Have we ceased to grow? Has the world so caught up with us that spiritual reality has all but gone? Mary reminds us that we must continue to move, become. If we fall - and we do, almost daily - God will pick us up. If we misunderstand - and ...

367. Herod Antipas

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... by his shrewish wife Xanthippe. Yet that little man set a new standard in human conduct when he uttered, "Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy." Socrates drank the hemlock and died in regal dignity. Herod Antipas represents much of the modern world: sham and pretense. "The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible," sniffed Oscar Wilde. "What the second ...

368. Claudia Procula, Peter, and Centurion

Drama

Jon Joyce

... loud crowing of a cock. PETER alone hears this and turns abruptly, violently in the direction of the sound, at the same time clapping his hands over his ears. CENTURION simply looks directly at PETER, unruffled, for he heard nothing. When the crowing ceases, PETER removes his hands from his ears and is now visibly shaken and nervous, as he will remain, despite attempts to calm himself, throughout the drama.] He said it would be only three times. CENTURION: Three what? PETER: Didn’t you hear it? CENTURION ...

369. Annas, Caiaphas, and Judas

Drama

Jon Joyce

... Looks around, shrugs] I am not sure, not so sure at all. I wonder what my son-in-law may have gotten himself into. [Sighs, exits slowly] JUDAS: [After a few seconds of silence, raises his head, puts his hands out noting that the rain and storm have ceased] It ... it’s over. VOICE: It is finished. JUDAS: [Sobs] What have I done! Oh, Master, forgive me. I heard you ... I heard you tell that thief on the cross that he would be with you. Forgive me, forgive me. [Looks heavenward, pleading, but there is only ...

370. Only the Wounded Can Serve

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... . Yet, it is one of the inexorable laws of life. When Helen Keller said about her blindness and deafness, "I thank God for my handicaps for through them I have found myself, my work and my God," she knew what it meant. When self-pity ceased, she found a fuller meaning and discovered that great truth: In Love’s service, only the wounded soldiers can serve. Her whole life was devoted to helping the handicapped. She spoke their language, understood their fears, and had walked in the same valleys of despair ...

371. Running With Patience

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... cannot be changed. It is an art to be practiced, a skill to be sharpened, a faith to be kept, a philosophy to maintain and a hope to keep bright. It is not blind surrender to inevitable fate, euphoric capitulation without effort, nor stuporous cowardice that ceases to care. Into every life come those moments, days, weeks, and even years when all the pieces of the puzzle do not seem to be present, when the clear course of action appears blurred, when the directional arrow is hazy, the distant drum beat too ...

372. Learning to Be Graceful

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... world to him was forever gone. God help me, I hope I would be a little more graceful than that. Yes, the young man in this story grabs me. He grabs me because I see him living today in the lives of countless men and women. I never cease to be amazed at how crude and insensitive human beings can be to other human beings. The New Testament, of course, constantly emphasizes that we are to do things with gentleness and reverence. And, many great scholars of the New Testament have embodied this in their lives ...

373. Love of God and Love of Country

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... agitation was evident on college campuses. This was good. Righteousness is always preferred over blind love of country. I can remember 1969 when over 2,000 people packed Memorial Church in Cambridge to hear denouncements of our foreign policy. Following the cease-fire in Vietnam in 1973, a service of prayer of thanksgiving and penitence was held in the same church. An Episcopal chaplain, Theodore H. Evans, Jr., offered a litany for the death, suffering, and destruction caused by the war. He also addressed ...

374. Being Set Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... and to be free of those sins. We can be freed to be the person that God intended us to be. Put this up on your billboard of life: "We can break the slavery of sin." "Oh, that a man may arise in me, that the man I am may cease to be" (Anonymous). That’s the kind of prayer we disciples can have answered: freedom from self, sin, fear, and others. Jesus goes on to say in our Gospel, "... I tell you the truth; everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave does not belong to the family ...

375. Mighty Faith

Matthew 17:14-23

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... , disillusionment, pessimism to remain in their places in the presence of faith like that! And yet one cannot expect that every mountain will be removed from his or her life or from the world. Some will remain regardless of faith’s might. But even these may cease to be obstacles to abundant living if one has the kind of faith Jesus commended. Sandra Smith of Greensboro, North Carolina, tells of a retired neighbor of hers who spent much time in his yard. His flowers and lawn were a great source of pride to ...

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