Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 351 to 375 of 4999 results

2 Samuel 9:1-13

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... of Ammiel lived in a disputed area east of the Jordan (v. 4), far enough away from court life for Mephibosheth to be safe. During Absalom’s rebellion Makir helped David (17:27). It is likely that his support for David then was influenced by David’s kindness to his ward at this point. Verses 3 and 13 describe Mephibosheth as crippled in both feet. This could mean only that he limped, but the problem severely hindered his movement. Mephibosheth was invited to eat at the king’s table, that is, to be an ...

352. Simple Faith?

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

John Jamison

... the thought? Or, as he stood there by the river, knowing that once he stepped forward there would be no way to ever go back, did he quietly pray: “My Father, if it is possible, couldn’t I just go back home now?” Have you ever been in that kind of situation? It might not have been quite this dramatic, with the stakes so high, but can you recall a time when you were faced with one of those decisions that was sure to change things in your life? Maybe it was a career change or a relationship change. Maybe ...

353. A Cross-Shaped Life

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... , and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8). Micah's summary connects well with Jesus' reading of the law. Where Micah said "walk humbly with God," Jesus said, "love God." Where Micah said "do justice and love kindness," Jesus said "love your neighbor." As both immersed themselves in studying the law, both reached the same conclusion. Jesus began his teaching with a reference to Deuteronomy 6:4-5: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all ...

354. The Call of the Wild Within

Genesis 12:10-20, Genesis 12:1-8, Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the ground? How frightening would it be for you to drive up a narrow winding mountain road without guardrails? How afraid would you be to follow someone you didn’t know into a dark hiding place to escape someone trying to kill you? This is the kind of journey God asks us to make, a spiritual journey in which the path forward is hidden, the future is enveloped in mystery, the destination is unsure, and the circumstances seem perilous. Armed with only the promise and presence of God, each step we take is ...

355. The Gathering at Cana

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . But how can you recognize Jesus at your party? And how can you recognize when something in your life is the result of some kind of divine intervention? Can you read the signs? How do you “test the wine”? Sherlock Holmes of Wine Maureen Downey says, to be able ... seems to know that Jesus can help! But what she expects from him what he does is another matter. Is she aware he can do the kind of miracle he does? Is she supportive of him as the messiah? Or is she asking her son for help with the wedding, as a ...

356. Apples, Onions, and Cheese

Mark 7:1-23, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... part of the cheese itself. Cheese is in fact “mold.” Did you know that? It’s milk that has been allowed to turn into a kind of cheese. We eat blue cheese like it’s nothing, but can you imagine the bravery, the heroism, of that first person in history to ... of it is going to be soft. There IS no inside or outside. Just cheese through and through. The way we live our lives is kind of like this taste test. Like the onion, in our world, we can have people who look different from us, who may be sick, who ...

357. The Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... be a good Jew? OR to be a good Christian? These are irrelevant to Jesus if we cannot show mercy and love to the ones we hate the most. Jesus wants us to be more than “good people!” Jesus wants us to be compassionate and loving human beings, the kind of human beings that God intended us to be. It’s not easy. But as Jesus asks his contemporaries after telling this story, “Who is the neighbor to this man?” They have to answer, “it was the Samaritan.” It was the man they never wanted to call their ...

358. Translucent Grace

Mark 9:2-13, Luke 9:28-36, Revelation 1:9-20, Revelation 2:12-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of rules, or an attending of church, or being a good leader, or even doing great ministry. To be a Christian involves the transfiguration of heart, mind, and body that make foundation stones beam with the gleaming light of God in a world full of stumbling stones. What kind of stone are you? Jesus wants you for his living stone. As “living stones” we witness to the glory of God through Christ. That is our calling. I invite you now to come forward to the altar and to pick up one of the white stones you ...

359. Surely, Surely

Luke 1:1-4, Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the ...

360. The Thorn of Discontent

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... have spent time trying to figure out exactly what Paul’s “thorn” is –is it a physical ailment? An injury? Arthritis? A cancer? Another kind of disease? Or a broken rib from his many run-ins with the authorities? We don’t know. We don’t need to know. Because ... in our difficulties. We are also most vulnerable, and malleable. This is the time when God can most re-mold us into the kinds of people he meant us to be. “My disability keeps me humble,” says Paul. Aren’t we are all dis-abled by ...

361. You Are Gifted

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in the gift of the Christ child. Jesus is the Emmanuel, God’s gift of unique, one-on-one human relationship between God and God’s creatures and all creation. God came down in the form of a human child to be in a different and new kind of relationship with us. Our God of the scriptures –that all mysterious, untouchable, unfathomable, unreachable God who appeared as a bush of fire or a traveling cloud, who’s voice was heard in the thunder and wind, and whose presence was made known in the story of ...

362. Faith is a River That Flows

Genesis 19:1-29

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... her Edith, so for the sake of giving her a name for the moment, let’s call her Edith)…I think we give Edith here a kind of a bad rap. And I suspect that Edith’s story is a lot more like our stories than we’d like to admit. In fact ... will be swept away!” But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and youe have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is ...

363. Crossing Over

Luke 10:25-37, Genesis 48:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a bit of an unfair rap. Cause road crossers are far from “chicken” about life. They are the hero’s and the martyrs of our world. Those who go the extra mile, cross the hard road, meet someone in their own space and own place in order to be the kind of compassionate, caring, loving people that we were created to be. This is Jesus’ lesson for the lawyer that day. He still teaching it to us in our day. Today, I invite you to imagine that story in your own life. Who is your injured man by the side of ...

364. Holy Goat!

Leviticus 16:1-34, John 20:24-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... us from God. It can be a “wall” we build, a cave we hide in (or a locked room), or the false conceptions that we clothe ourselves in that keep us from seeing Jesus even when He’s right in front of our eyes. A prominent metaphor for this kind of “sin” in scripture is the goatskin, or the goat. In the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob puts the skins of goats upon him as he visits with his blind father, Isaac. He is not being authentic, but he is “hiding” in the skin of deception. This “covering ...

365. Wild Thing

Luke 4:31-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... bad spirit cannot any longer survive in that place anymore. Jesus’ presence in you, and in your life, is more powerful, more potent than any elixir you could mix up. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus, is wild thing! And the Spirit brings that Jesus kind of wild into your life and mine, and restores a right spirit, a “wild” spirit, within us. How do doctors and scientists fight a virus? With a more powerful virus! They’ve discovered how to do this while seeking a treatment for HIV. It’s called ...

366. The Golden Hour

Exodus 19:1-25, Genesis 15:1-18, Ezekiel 24:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the world for miles around, so that when eyes look up, God’s presence beckons. Living in the presence of God bestows upon all of us a kind of golden glow. Like the face of Moses when he came down the mountain, the more we stand in the golden light of God, the more ... us. And if we can’t come face to face with ourselves and with God, God will allow us to dwell under a kind of “blanket” of love and protection, so that we can make our way through intact. I have always been fascinated by the definitions ( ...

367. Caring for the Vineyard We Did Not Plant

Matthew 20:1-16, Joshua 24:1-27

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ”….even if it crumbles to the ground right under our feet. Dust to dust, right? The Church has lost its “mojo!” The church has lost its groove. We have lost our excitement for projects, our taste for mission. For some of us, our little church home has become kind of like an old teddy bear. We come to love it so much and clutch it so hard, that we barely notice how tattered it is, until one day, it starts to disintegrate right from under our eyes. But we still love that bear. We’ll never part with ...

368. We Will Be Changed

Ezekiel 37:1-14, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... look like the walking wounded, or at worst the walking dead. But we still can be resuscitated, restored into a new kind of life. We may have been wounded by life, disconnected from the relationships that nourish us, made toxic by our ways ... I have done it, declares the Lord.’” The Meaning of Resurrection Explained by Paul But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant ...

369. The Unclean Palate

Acts 10:1-8, Acts 10:9-23a, Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Cornelius and Simon Peter together into relationship. First, Cornelius, a non-Jewish God-fearing man, is told to go and seek out Simon Peter who is staying in a house by the sea with friends. In the meantime, Simon Peter has a vision in which he sees all kinds of animals in a blanket with a message from God, saying: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean!” When the two of them meet, Simon Peter will stay with a group of gentiles, get to know them, get to like them. The longer he remains ...

370. Worship is Your Rest Stop

Genesis 1:1-2:3, Psalm 92:1-15, Luke 5:33-39, Luke 6:1-11, Galatians 3:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... stop. We sing, we praise, we pray, we smile, we celebrate holy communion, and we release all of the trouble and tension we’ve been holding in our bodies all week long. We stretch our minds and hearts, breathe in deeply, and allow ourselves a good, deep God kind of “rest.” Sabbath “worship and praise” is what keeps us going from week to week. Most of all it’s what keeps our faith fresh from week to week, so that we can get up and keep on walking that discipleship road again. God’s rest doesn ...

371. By Invitation Only

Luke 14:1-14, Luke 14:15-24, Proverbs 25:1-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the opportunity, knowingly undeserving but delighted to receive this gift of heavenly feast. Our culture is not so different than this. Our churches and our communities are not so different than this, are they? If you are a Christian, you will live according to a different kind of dynamic than our culture does. For God does not value what you can achieve, or your social status, or how high you can climb the ladders of success that you have learned to value in this world. God does not care how many Emmys or ...

372. Marinating in the Spirit

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in order to allow the Spirit to come into your life and to change your life’s course, you need to be open to change, ready for change, willing and able to commit to the discipleship process. Today we don’t talk much about discipleship. It’s a kind of “old fashioned” word for us, and we don’t quite understand what it means. But in today’s scripture, Jesus explains that process in a sermon he gave in Capernaum as a crowd gathered at the river’s edge. Because Jesus was speaking to farmers and ...

373. The Gospel We Preach

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... your daughter,” she wrote, “it was to save her from being corrupted by your heresies.” Barclay couldn’t reply to the letter because the woman hadn’t signed her name. But he once remarked that if he could have answered, he would have said, “If that is the kind of God you believe in, then your God is my devil. The day my daughter was lost at sea, there was sorrow in the heart of God.”2 More recently, I recall reading about a woman who grew up fearing God. It’s one thing to possess a little ...

374. Missional Discontinuity

Mark 6:30-44, Mark 6:45-56

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... who work on days when they should be off are, in fact, paying their employers for the privilege of working on those days.2 For all kinds of reasons, some of which we will talk about in a few minutes, many Americans don’t like to take time off. I am not one ... the vast crowds of anonymous people are very real and very urgent. And there are lots of them. Quite specifically, Mark identifies two kinds of needs that are as real and urgent today as they were at that time. In the first story Jesus sees that the ...

375. Rejecting The Message — Rejecting The Person

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... , call and extend a helping hand for a period of time…an hour, a day, a week. Make calls to local seniors after a major storm to assure they are doing okay or if they are in need. Rabbi Harold Kushner said, “When you carry out acts of kindness, you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, ‘Yes, this is how I ought to feel.’” (Quoted in Jan Karon’s book, Patches of Godlight, see above). When they were rejecting Jesus and his ministry, they were ...

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