Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3751 to 3775 of 4999 results

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... and frequently missed by people of great knowledge. For the cross is folly and a stumbling block, offensive and absurd to the eyes of the intellect alone. So be as smart as you can, and learn all that you can - but recognize that there is more than one kind of learning, that wisdom moves beyond knowledge, and that knowledge is no guarantee of a life full of meaning. It is more realistic to trust a wisdom which faces life as it is, which is able to redeem failure, which sees no source too humble to learn ...

3752. The Courage to Be Me

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... Christian convictions for long without falling prey to some who will deliberately misunderstood. In a world characterized by ulterior motives and insincerity, it is hard for anyone to believe that you might be speaking the truth in love. But if this were the only kind of misunderstanding, many of us could be courageous in the face of it. Some misunderstanding can be handled by shaking the dust from our feet. But we cannot so easily leave behind those who are close to us - those whom we love. Stephen Neill ...

3753. Bringing the Gospel to Marriage

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... , Christian marriage is circumscribed by Christian love. The Christian woman and man come to marriage as an act of faith in which they make vows to believe in one another to the end of life. This faith is grounded in love - a love that is "patient and kind," a love that "is not jealous or boastful, not arrogant or rude, a love that does not insist on its own way, not irritable or resentful." This faith is grounded in a love "that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things ...

3754. Creeds or Deeds

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Brett Blair

... church has them. But our traditions should never stand in the way of God’s command to love our neighbor and honor our parents. Corban, the Pharisees demanded, a gift devoted to God…family members may be suffering but don’t break your promise to God. That kind of strict adherence to tradition is a religion with no heart. Let me also say a word on behalf of creeds. Creeds are good things. They are necessary. Most every Sunday we say the Apostle’s Creed. The Church has been saying that creed for almost ...

3755. The Man Who Couldn't Hear

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Brett Blair

... man in Mark 7 lacked the physical ability to hear. But many of us lack the spiritual ability to hear. We suffer a kind of a spiritual deafness. The affliction of not listening to people, or, to put it another way, the affliction of physically listening ... ignored her and again asked the boy: And what do you want on that hamburger? The boy shouted back: ketchup, lots of ketchup. And what kind of shake? Make it chocolate. The boy then turned to his parents with a big smile on his face and said: Say, ain't she ...

3756. Preconceived Ideas

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Brett Blair

... Jesus to be John the Baptist. But they further said: “Some say you are Elijah.” Now, how did they get that kind of idea? The Jews believed that before the Messiah came there would be a time of terrible tribulation. There would be a ... fear. I think that you would be hurt. In the same way I cannot help but feel that it hurts our heavenly father if we project only that kind of an image of him. I’m not saying that a person can’t be scared into salvation. Maybe he can. But if the primary reason we serve ...

3757. Unnerved?

Matthew 6:25-34

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... food and drink to sustain us? Leader: Do not worry about your life, God will see that you have enough to eat. People: Will we have enough clothing and shoes and coats? Leader: God knows all your needs and will attend to them. Put your energy into living the right kind of life. All: We give thanks to you, O gracious and giving Sustainer. Amen. Collect You have reminded us, O God, that life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. You show us again and again that we are of great value to you and ...

3758. Love Lavished On You

Ephesians 1:1-14

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... go to you who chooses to give us Jesus. You save us with your forgiveness. You open us with your kindness. Blessings to you, O giving and merciful God. Amen. Prayer of Confession We find it easier, O God, to love people in theory than to practice loving. ... We find it less complicated to respect others and to be kind from a distance than when we see them every day. Dear God, let the strength of your love encourage us to decide to greet ...

3759. Advent 1: Won´t You Let Him Into Your Heart?

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

James W. Moore

... were not much better for an expectant mother, but at least there was warmth and quiet and some privacy. If this is what happened on that night long ago, then our whole image of the innkeeper changes dramatically – we view him not with contempt, but with kindness. He may well have made a wise, loving choice. Just a quick footnote here: The real key in whatever we choose and in whatever we do is in our attitude. Jesus talked about that a lot… the importance of attitudes and motivations. He was supremely ...

3760. God With A Human Face

John 1:1-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... on "Let your light shine," she asked her mother what that meant. The mother explained that the light shone when we were sweet, kind and good. The next Sunday in the nursery, the child caused an uproar to the extent that the teacher had to get her ... glorified by our good works. A Face Of Love When we look at the God with the human face, we see love. There is nothing but kindness, tenderness and understanding in that face of Jesus. And this is the way it is with God. In a letter John simply says, "God is love ...

3761. Light of the World

John 1:1-18

Sermon

William G. Carter

... in terms of light. “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people ... The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (1:3-4, 9). Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” This is the kind of thing we might expect to hear in this Christmas season. The prophet Isaiah said, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” We don’t know if old Isaiah had any idea who or what he was talking about, yet we celebrate Christmas as ...

3762. When the Sermon Turns Sour

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

... it to me.” The man and the others did not know what to say; so they slipped out. When they got back to the church, they wrote a letter and said, “Mr. Jordan, you are no longer welcome in our church, because you keep bringing in the wrong kind of people.” As one commentator notes, “Jesus is not acceptable in his own country because his mission extends beyond his own country.”5 Israel was called to be a light to the nations, a beacon of God’s mercy for all people everywhere. When God’s light ...

3763. The Next Step

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... troops invaded Afghanistan. On December 28 back in 1890, the horrible battle of Wounded Knee took place on the American plains. If we are going to put out the Christmas lights, we had better find some practical ways to turn on the lights of everyday kindness, for our world seems to need a witness in the days immediately following the putting away of the theoretical celebration of the nativity. Ringing out the old is but a prelude to a dangerous wrestling with the new. Letting go of the old ways always ...

3764. Old Favorite

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... as it was with the Temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. It was populated with a thousand temple prostitutes. But Corinth was the most important seaport of its day. That stuff was mostly for the out-of-towners who came during the trade seasons, kind of like the tourists who visit the red light districts in a major American city when they are far from home. The Corinthians were affluent, church-going, and intelligent. They were new to Christianity but they were extremely wise in the ways of trade and ...

3765. Exposed!

2 Corinthians 2:12--3:6

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... saw anyone with them except Jesus. They had to come down the mountain and return to the reality of suffering and pain. As they came down the mountain they found a large crowd arguing with the teachers of the law. Next they encountered a boy with some kind of epileptic seizure. What a strange person this Jesus appeared to be. His life was all wrapped up in mystery and holy times. But he told his disciples not to hold on to any of them. Peter, James, and John could not freeze the mountaintop experience. Jesus ...

3766. In, But Not Of, The World

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... opportunity for enriching your spiritual life, for living out the self-denying lifestyle that your baptism lures you to embrace. To this juncture I have been talking more about what being in and not of the world can do for you and me as individuals. But the kind of lifestyle that Jeremiah and I are extolling can do a lot for the world, and for our community, too. The sixteenth-century founder of Lutheranism, Martin Luther, went so far as to say that Christians keep the world afloat. In a sermon in 1537, he ...

3767. Living Free

Haggai 2:1-9

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... has enough love to fill up your cup and my cup, so that his love will spill out of us to others. That is freedom, the kind of freedom that makes us instruments which God uses to give his good things to his people. We began this sermon by asking questions about why ... many of us have been in bondage to satisfying our egos and desires. Too often you and I have been mired in that kind of bondage. Like the people of Judah in Haggai’s day, we have been too “busy” to care about spiritual things, too hung up ...

3768. Do You Know?

Hosea 11:1-11

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... sin. My law was neglected. The poor and the downtrodden were not cared for. The people worshiped me like they were going through the motions, like they had better things to do. They spent much time on the details of animal sacrifices, but little time doing justice and loving kindness. I sent prophets to call them back to me. But they just didn’t listen. They didn’t seem to know me. Do you? “In the fullness of time, I sent my son, my only son, to do for them what they could not do for themselves. Jesus ...

3769. What If What They Say Is True?

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... in his life could have prepared Jeremiah for this word because it is a word from beyond and before his life even began. It is a call unexpected in every sense. Unfamiliar, disorienting, destabilizing. As Jeremiah struggles to put this extraordinary word from God into some kind of framework, he grasps at the language of protest, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how ...” (1:6). That’s the first thing Jeremiah says in the book that bears his name: “I do not know how.” It is something I say all the ...

3770. The Promise of Baptism

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... people was to assure them that God would deliver them from the exile, but in so doing God was preparing and creating them for the future. They were to share in God’s glory. They are the people, God says, “whom I created for my glory.” That is the kind of promise God makes in holy baptism. In baptism God promises to raise us from the dead and allow us to enter glory with God. That is what happened to the Beloved Son, Jesus. As Jesus was baptized God gave assurance that God would be with Jesus. And God ...

3771. The Promise of Sight

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... homelands, and the occupations of the men from the East are not cited in the biblical account. That has allowed for all kinds of speculation as to who and what the Magi may have been. Some of that has been scholarly, some playful, some artful, some ... what happened to the media in general. The growth of the media made them highly competitive, and Mr. Cronkite dubbed their new kind of reporting as “infotainment.” The emphasis is more on winning an audience than on reporting the news as it is. Mr. Cronkite ...

3772. The Fruit of the Word

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... no longer wanted. What had seemed good to him before now appeared to be evil and vice versa. What was on his right before was now on his left. And what was on his left was now on his right. The prophet wanted the exiles to sense that same kind of change in looking at their situation. Instead of living by all the threats of the power structure around them, they could visualize the power as weakness that would soon falter. They could look to the word from God as to where the power and the control really were ...

3773. There Is Hope (A Christmas Communion Meditation)

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Brett Blair

... ourselves in the land of Christmas. The days of Caesar Augustus, Herod the King, angels, Quirernus of Syria, romantic astrologers, idealistic shepherds, all in all a nice noble place to annually visit. In doing so we don’t see much resemblance between that kind of world and the kind of 21st century world that we have to contend with every day. The fact is, however, that with just a little bit of probing you’ll discover that our impressions are not true. The Bible sets the story at the time of the first ...

3774. Worship Worries

Drama

Dave Marsh

... ’s huge actually. You could make a kite out of this thing I bet. It’s huge! What’s it called? A worship folder? What kind of folder is that? Kinda weird sounding. Ok, let’s look inside. HOLY COW! Look at all those songs! There must be a hundred of ... good. Like it. (sways more) Yeah, I like the words being projected on the screen. Nice font as well. I wonder what kind of font that is. Helvetica maybe. Maybe Arial. Good color. Dave: And the background. Nice touch. Like the background. Kinda like my ...

3775. What's Your Line?

Drama

Dave Marsh

... of the concert? (man, he’s dressed pretty weird) Greg: It’s pretty cool (Hope he doesn’t want to hug me) Greg: You? (Did his mom buy him those clothes?) John: Yeah, pretty cool. (I wish they’d play "Freebird") John: I pretty much like any kind of rock. (Backstreet Boys, ‘N sync, Brittney Spears) Greg: Yeah, me too. (Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, Black Sabbath) Greg: Yeah, the music’s pretty good (Where’s the mosh pit?) John: Yeah, I agree (Where’s the drum solo?) John: I didn't know churches did ...

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