Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3926 to 3950 of 5000 results

3926. Dealing With The Pain of Rejection

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

James W. Moore

... It’s wonderful to laugh with children at the delightful things they sometimes say. It’s fun to laugh at the comical antics of clowns or the hilarious wit of comedians… But the best humor of all is when we laugh at ourselves! It’s a real mark of maturity; it eases our self-pity; it diminishes our pride and saves us from taking ourselves too seriously. Ethel Barrymore said it well… “You grow up when you get your first good laugh at yourself.” When you feel rejected, remember that the feeling is ...

3927. Good Friday: The Three Crosses

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

... could not be taken down, unless such removal had been specially authorized in the sentence of death. The corpse might also be buried if the sentence permitted. It is remarkable that all of this the Bible records with the simple words, "And they crucified Him." (Mark 15:24). It is interesting that Jesus is responsible for the abolishment of the cross as a means of capital punishment. In the early part of the fourth century Constantine continued to inflict the penalty of the cross on slaves guilty of, in the ...

3928. The Peace Of Christ In A Chaotic World

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Brett Blair

... long time. They understood how fleeting peace was. And to make this picture complete, Israel has not known national stability since that time. So for 2500 years they have looked for a place of rest. We too. From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror unrest has marked our nation. “Peace,” Jesus said, “I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” You can then read between the lines of Jesus’ words: This ...

3929. Shaping People's Lives Through Forgiveness

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Brett Blair

... until the conclusion of other contests. There seemed to be no question among the runners about who would win the prize. It is alleged that the stranger was offered money not to run. Someone else attempted to bribe him with property. Refusing the offers, he toed the mark and awaited the signal to run. When the signal was given, he was the first away. At the finish line, he was the first to cross, well ahead of the rest. When it was all done, someone asked the young man if he thought the flowers were worth ...

3930. Liberty And Civility

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Brett Blair

... claimed, were still binding upon the church, especially the act of circumcision. Paul's response to these men, which we shall call Judaizers, is the book of Galatians that you now hold in your hand. Paul's terse warnings to his followers has resounded throughout the years: "Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are ...

3931. Neighbors Who Never Met

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . That is the standard of the world. Did you know that in many places in this country there are potters fields, grave yards where the poor are buried for nothing. It is interesting that one of the rules is that there can be no markers. Only small numbers mark each grave. No names allowed. That is indicative of how we view the poor. Let me tell you friends, in heaven that will all be reversed. God will know the name of every poor suffering person who ever walked this earth. There is a special place in his ...

3932. Three Small Steps in Our Journey of Faith

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

Brett Blair

... her) said he had been one of her guards, and reached out his hand to her, asking for her forgiveness. For a moment, says Corrie, she hesitated, recalling his cruelty to her sister and those around her. Then, knowing God's warning to forgive or we cannot be forgiven (Mark 1 1:26) and yet still not feeling the ability to lift her hand towards him, she prayed silently: "Jesus help me!...I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling" (p. 55). And as she woodenly thrust out her hand the current ...

3933. All I Want for Christmas is a Savior

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

James W. Moore

... on and over the next couple of years, Montgomery Ward distributed over six million coloring books telling the story of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Robert May’s story of Rudolph became so popular that 10 years later in 1949, Mr. May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote a song about it. Gene Autry recorded it and as they say, “the rest is history.” You know why we like the Rudolph story so much, don’t you? Not just because it’s a cute child-friendly story, not just because the song has neat ...

3934. The Imperatives of the Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Rejoice." Challenges to believers everywhere on this Easter morning. We might not like being told what to do, but in the face of such an overpowering event, we need all the help we can get. Christ the Lord is risen today. Alleluia, Alleluia.(4) Amen! 1. Matthew 11:28 2. Mark 10:14 3. Romans 10:17 4. Charles Wesley

3935. Under the Rainbow

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the rainbow, Why, oh why can't I?" We know the feeling. The reality is that, as appealing as that magical ride into the blue might be, we can be comforted in knowing that we live UNDER the rainbow. God's promise of grace hovers over as a divine punctuation mark to every storm. Yes, we are flooded time and time again: o The pain comes in waves...but we are under the rainbow. o The grief threatens to overwhelm us...but we are under the rainbow. o The loneliness is about to drown us...but we are under the ...

3936. The Ten Commandments: One God, Only One

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... /comand1.html 3. Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg, Citizen Turner: The Wild Rise of an American Tycoon, (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995) 4. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer: The Prayer, The Creed, The Commandments, (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 189 5. Matt. 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27 6. Winn, p. 196 7. I Tim. 6:10 8. Matthew 19:16-22 9. Luke 12:16-20 10. Acts 17:23 11. Winn, p. 198

3937. The Ten Commandments #3: God's Name

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... with soap in preparation for our descent into the abyss. Well...that teaching is not exactly correct. The problem is language. We grew up hearing the prohibition against using the Lord's name IN VAIN. But, in modern speech, the phrase IN VAIN implies failure. If Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa did not hit home runs in the games last night, the sportscasts this morning could say their attempts were IN VAIN. No homers. Or if a young man sends flowers and candy and all sorts of indications of affection to the girl ...

3938. Look Up and Live

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." It was a wonderful word of love and grace. One might wish that this encounter in the desert with serious venom would have marked the absolute end of venomous complaining and criticizing among God's people, but we know it did not. It goes on all the time, even to this day, despite the fact that it does no one any good. Some wag has noted Jesus could turn water into wine, but ...

3939. Super Sunday

Deuteronomy 5:1-33

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... bulletins across America today are no doubt a zillion sermon titles similar to the one in our own. On PresbyNet last week was the description of one of last year's services on Super Bowl Sunday. The ushers were dressed in referee-stripe shirts, the pews were marked off as yard lines, and at the beginning of the service the choir director and pastor came down to the front of the chancel fully robed, then pealed off to reveal Chicago Bear and Green Bay Packer sweat shirts. The lay leader flipped a coin to see ...

3940. The Powerful Moments that Change Your Life Forever

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

James W. Moore

... . Kairos is a key word in the New Testament. When Jesus started his ministry he came into Galilee preaching and saying, “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” And the word for “time” there in Mark 1 was not chronos, it was kairos. This was crucial time, decisive time, God’s time. Jesus’ life was packed with kairos moments: Zacchaeus – he saw him in that sycamore tree. They connected and that was a kairos moment. Blind Bartimaeus – nobody else was ...

3941. Does God Care Who Wins the Superbowl?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the field. In the Sports Illustrated article, the reason, according to at least some of the players, that the Broncos are in this afternoon's game is because God decided it should be so. "It was the Lord's will that we win, and we won" - so says Denver guard Mark Schlereth; he said so in the locker room after the Broncos had just defeated Pittsburgh, 24-21. "I'm just thankful. It must have been the Lord's will." In one of the game's crucial plays, with just over a minute left in the first half and the ...

3942. A Wonderful Mother (In-Law)

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... on the second Sunday in May would of course be "Ma" Bell. Restaurants do not do too badly, either. No matter, in coming up with the idea, Anna Jarvis did us a real service. For Mothers' Day this year I want to focus on someone who made her mark in history as a MOTHER-IN-LAW. Strange, perhaps, especially in light of our normal attitude toward in-laws. You have heard the classic definition of mixed emotions: watching your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your new Rolls Royce. I even heard of one preacher ...

3943. A Mother's Gift

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... name would remain alive even after his death. Elkanah had married Peninnah who had proved as fertile as the richest valley. For a devout women like Hannah, this had been an especially difficult trial. To have no child was not only a disappointment, but seemed to mark one as dishonored by God, as unworthy of any part in the promise to Abraham, "In you [and your offspring] all the families of the earth shall be blessed."(1) The laughter and shouts of Peninnah's children at play had wounded Hannah's ears. The ...

3944. A Disaster of Biblical Proportions

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... disaster half a world away help our government get its priorities straight? Please, God, let it be. Night before last, the world welcomed a new year somewhat differently than before. Prayers were substituted for parties. Revelers in New York's Times Square marked a moment of silence as did those in other major cities; Paris draped black cloths along the Champs-Elysees. In Thailand, hundreds of mourners -- many clutching white roses and candles -- gathered in the resort of Phuket to remember lost loved ones ...

3945. There's No Such Thing as Too Much Sugar

Psalm 91:1-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the Feast Day of St. Michael and All Angels. The commemoration apparently began in the fifth century with the dedication a small basilica six miles from Rome in Michael's honor. The day became especially popular in northern Europe and England and, even today "Michaelmas" marks the beginning of the fall term in the law courts and the fall academic terms at Oxford and Cambridge.(2) Next to Gabriel, the Archangel Michael is probably the best known of the heavenly host. He is most often described as being young ...

3946. Angels

Psalm 91:1-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... as they do things or appear in a fashion clearly non-human. The brilliant white appearance common to the New Testament angel is not a feature of the Old Testament image. How about gender? Are there boy angels and girl angels? Some point to Jesus words in Mark 12:25 about there not being marriage as we understand it in heaven; instead we will, to use his words, "be like angels;" many have interpreted that as meaning that angels are sexless. But then there is that passage in Genesis 6 which says "the sons of ...

3947. Thank God, We're Not Alone!

Psalm 133:1-3

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... is when brothers [and sisters] live together in unity." Thank God, we are not alone. Amen! 1. Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, Steven M. Tipton, Habits of the Heart, (Berkley: University of California Press, 1985) 2. Habits, p. 287 3. Matthew 19:30; 20:16; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30

3948. Integrity

Song of Songs 2:1-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... 5) Good point. Were it not for the Song of Songs, we too might miss the fact that healthy desire and healthy discipleship are not mutually exclusive. Sex is a wonderful gift. GOD'S gift, even. Enjoy! OK. Now combine that with the passage we heard from Mark's gospel, this seemingly nit-picky confrontation between Jesus and the disciples on one side and the Scribes and Pharisees on the other over this earth-shaking issue of washing your hands before a meal. Come on!!! Who, other than a five-year-old coming in ...

3949. The Blame Game

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... a threat. So why do the gospels treat the man relatively gently? It has to do with something that occurred, not at the time of Jesus' death, but rather something almost forty years later. In the year 70 A.D. -- just before the three gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke were written, and a decade or two before John -- the Roman general Titus marched his legions through Jerusalem, massacred tens of thousands of Jews, burned most of the city, and pulled down the temple, stone by stone. It was Jerusalem's 9/11, a ...

3950. A Religion that Shows

Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the accomplishment of a monumental task. Here in this church, that kind of challenge is not presented to us right now. All we really need to do is be faithful with the tithe. It is up to us, just as it was up to the people of Haggai's day. Mark Twain once attended a party where he was bored by a paunchy tycoon who was pontificating on the subject of wealth. "Money isn't everything, gentlemen," he said. "It can't buy happiness, nor can it buy a happy home, nor can it lift the spirits of the saddened, nor ...

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