Sermon and Worship Resources

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4076. Where the Bread Loaf Is Not a Stone

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... out to be a stone. The bread you are eating should not be something that you are consuming. It should be consuming you and leading you to everlasting life. My colleague and dear friend, Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, shared this with his congregation: "There are two kinds of hunger. There is physical hunger which can be satisfied with food, and there is a spiritual hunger which physical food and drink can never satisfy. A person can be as rich as Midas, capable of buying any exquisite luxury that money can buy; and ...

4077. The Ninth Commandment: Liar, Liar

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... whom Moses delivered were hardly saints or Sunday school students. They had been influenced by the degrading system of slavery. God had to be sure they would not pull each other down, but build a caring, compassionate people. To build a different kind of nation required a different kind of people. There was to be a different building code. In this building code everybody was a son and daughter of Abraham. Everybody was a child of the covenant. Even the sojourner in the land--like they had been once--was to ...

4078. The Triumph of the Cross

Galatians 6:11-18, Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... could God judge them? Then there were HOMELESS PEOPLE who had no place to lay their heads. How could God know how they felt? Then there were POOR FOLKS, toiler workers who had never been able to make ends meet. There were SICK ONES AND SUFFERERS, all kinds, each with a complaint against God! How could God judge them? they thought. How lucky God is to live in heaven where all is goodness and light--no tears, no worries, no fears, no hunger, no inhumanities. So a commission was appointed to draw up the case ...

4079. Someday - Today

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... if you believe in me and my cause, then you join the army. You put on a uniform. You get yourself a rifle and you fight." Jesus issues the same challenge to us today. He''s not interested in sympathizers, but in soldiers. For this is the kind of commitment that leads to a worthwhile and satisfying life. The civilian wanted to be an admirer. The civilian wanted to join SOMEDAY. George Washington said: TODAY! However, my brothers and sisters in Christ, anybody can say someday. In fact most of us say, SOMEDAY ...

4080. The Importance of the Second Violin

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... well in place of Jim Kelly to return to the understudy role for the AFC championship game. I believe the key lies in the fact that Frank Reich knows he plays for the Buffalo-Bills--not for Frank Reich. Well, the servant of God, Timothy, possessed that same kind of teamwork and cooperation for the team that God had called to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a needy world. He was willing to be used by God in whatever form was strategic to the missionary enterprise of the church. His life was lived to the ...

4081. The Taming of the Tongue

James 3:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... it is the major organ of communication that enables us to articulate distinct sounds so we can understand each other. How essential!" (2) However, the following words that come from another woman of the Christian faith are closer to what God designed for the tongue, "Kind words can be short and easy to speak--but their echoes are truly endless." You know her as Mother Theresa. Yes, James writes in the third chapter, tenth verse, "Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be ...

4082. The Telling Trademarks of Truth

James 3:13-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... at night like so many others do. I don''t overeat like so many others do. I don''t . . . " The doctor interrupted at this point. "Tell me," he said, "this pain in the head you complain of, is it a sharp, shooting kind of pain?" "Yes," the patient replied, "that describes it perfectly. A sharp, shooting kind of pain!" The doctor then made his diagnosis: "Simple," he said, "your problem is that you have your halo on too tight. All you need to do is loosen it a bit." God''s Wisdom helps to provide a sense of ...

4083. The Lord Is My Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... sheep. I am no sheep, so you will be the minister--Reverend Ritz to me." She further informed me that she really didn't like ministers at all--and that the only reasons she came to church was to see people and criticize the sermons. The people were very kind to give me advance warning of this encounter. I was deeply surprised when five years later, while I was serving in another church, I received a phone call from one of her daughters. She said her mother had written in her will that I was to preach her ...

4084. A Glimpse of Eternity

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... Streisand, that always stirred my imagination and yearnings. It was titled, "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever." I believe there is a yearning in all our hearts for that kind of perspective. The thought of finding some circumstance or place from which you can see forever is a basic human dream. There is a longing in all of us for that kind of perspective and vision. I believe the transfiguration to be that type of event in the life of Jesus and the inner circle of disciples who experienced it first-hand ...

4085. The Marvelous Message of Easter

Mark 16:1-20, Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... adequately celebrate how I felt graduating Magna Cum Laude with a Master''s of Divinity Degree. That''s the way it is with 50th wedding anniversaries. There is no way to really celebrate the love, the commitment, and the history that is wrapped up in that kind of marriage. It''s that way with the birth of our children. We celebrate their birthdays every year, but somehow the celebration always falls short of our love for them, because we are called to love and discipline them 365 days a year--not just one ...

4086. When Life Seems to Be Going in the Wrong Direction

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... for the cause of the helpless, hopeless, and homeless persons in the world. Mother Teresa is a dreamer. Her dreams propelled her into the world to be salt and light and leaven for the Kingdom of God. Her dreams are what fuel the flames of her witness. What kind of ideas and dreams do you entertain in your very being today? How do these ideas and dreams move and inspire your activities today and in the future? How do these dreams and ideas measure up to God''s dreams and visions for our world and for our ...

4087. The Noteworthy Witness of a Widow

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... the cold without; they died from the cold within." (2) I am sure that the widow could have come up with all kinds of reasonable excuses why she could have withheld her gift from the temple treasury. After all, others surely had more to ... in contrast to his mom's bill. Our budget for this year is [insert your budget amount], and we make no apologies for it. All kinds of ministries to all types of people are represented in that figure. Through your money and mine, this congregation will be able to touch more ...

4088. Waiting

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . John waited for one whose sandal he was not worthy to untie: A Messiah. We wait. We wait for that which we cannot see. What are you waiting for? II Secondly, there is the waiting of John the Baptist. The people of John’s day experienced a special kind of waiting. When Jesus was a young man in his late 20s, John the Baptist was a desert prophet warning everyone of the wrath of God and the judgment to come. His message was harsh. It was a sharp rebuke especially of the religious leadership. The people had ...

4089. Reverse Direction

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... Holy One, whether we want to or not. I am not saying that to scare you. It simply is. Secondly, if your life today is in any kind of disarray, an encounter with the Holy One will make a big difference. Let me go back to the illustration I began with this morning. It ... no wonder that people get turned off by this matter of "repentance." That's heavy stuff. If I had to live under that kind of a cloud, I wouldn't be too crazy about repentance. No, repentance simply means to change -- to turn around and walk in ...

4090. Waiting and Witnessing

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... for a lifetime, in fact -- for the coming of the promised Messiah. Waiting is a familiar experience which we talked about before Christmas as we waited for Christmas to arrive. However, this morning I am talking about a different kind of waiting. It's not like waiting in line at the supermarket. This kind of waiting is waiting to reach a goal or waiting for a "dream" to happen. Children wait to be grown-up. Teenagers wait to meet the "right" boy or girl in their lives. Young adults wait to graduate from ...

4091. The Adventure of Discipleship

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... The second key word is believe. That doesn't mean listing your denomination as Lutheran on some application blank. It means trust and reliance and placing one's whole life in God's hands, regardless of what happens in life. It's called "the leap of faith." That's the kind of change which the gospel produces. That's what makes us different. There's no turning back, because it's a difference that won't go away. To be sure, we will always experience the power of sin in our daily lives. We may even go as far as ...

4092. Missing the Point

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... the Jewish faith. It was like having a ring-side seat on heaven. To help you visualize the drama, imagine that your third grade school teacher took you to the top of a mountain where he or she was joined by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. That's the kind of drama it was for those disciples. But Peter missed the point. "Lord, this is really great stuff! This is quite a show. Let's build three tents -- one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." Jesus was giving them a once in a lifetime revelation ...

4093. Holy Vexation

John 2:12-25

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... trucker pulled over to the side of the road, ran back the quarter of a mile to that gas station, and -- as the 85-year-old was filling his gas tank -- pummeled him to the ground. Such behavior is categorically inexcusable. Jesus' anger was light years from the kind of vexation that often grabs us. It was vexation directed at grave miscarriages of what was just, civil, and pleasing to God. It is the counsel of the Psalter that we "be angry, but sin not" (Psalm 4:4). Jesus knew how to be angry without sinning ...

4094. Cross Connections

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... people who are rough around the edges. Their touch is the touch of coarse sandpaper; their behavior is chafing. When they irritate us, it is natural for us to consider responding in kind. But there are occasions when maturity bids us think twice about doing that. Very likely, responses in kind will simply perpetuate more of the same. So we make a conscious decision to absorb the vexation. Sometimes we absorb and forget; perhaps other times we absorb and respond appropriately later. Absorption -- not ...

4095. What Gets Into People?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... Mantle’s body. He died a few months later of liver cancer. His friends remember him for the dignity and faith he demonstrated in his last days. (1) It’s a sad story. We see good people addicted to alcohol, addicted to drugs, addicted to all kinds of inappropriate, often destructive behavior, and with good reason we ask, “What got into them? Surely they knew better. Why did they let this happen?” In Jesus’ time they might have answered it this way, “They were possessed by a demon.” In that pre ...

4096. Keeping Sunday

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... had the possibility of excess within it. The sincere dread of profaning a day called "holy" began to haunt the Israelites. All kinds of petty regulations were set up to safeguard the Sabbath. Ultimately, the day became the important thing, not the people for whom ... healthy child from religion. Moreover, the implication was that being a Christian was equated with keeping the rules. It was that kind of legalism that Jesus was challenging in this passage. The second thing this passage says to me is that human ...

4097. The Healing Touch

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... officer who had been at sea for a year, surprised his young son by stepping out of a closet. The boy flew across the room and embraced his father with arms and legs. That was the kind of hug that heals a lot of things. It was a therapeutic touch. There are, however, other kinds of touching. My unabridged dictionary listed 25 uses of the word touch that go beyond the tactile experience. These include such words as affect, impress, move, inspire, contaminate, stir to pity, and so forth. Jesus asked, "Who ...

4098. Maximum Marriage

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... rather like climbing aboard a jet airliner. They hand you no parachute. If you fly with them, you commit your whole life. If the plane makes it, so do you. If the plane crashes, so do you. Don't the wedding vows we take before God emphasize this kind of lifelong commitment? "I take thee to be my wedded mate, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part...." Many older people understand this ...

4099. The True Story of the Magi

Matthew 1:1-17

Sermon

John Jamison

... wise men to the baby, it fell from the sky and dropped down into the city well of Bethlehem. According to some legend, that star is there to this day, and can sometimes still be seen by those whose hearts are pure and clean. It's a pretty story. It kind of makes you feel warm inside. There are other legends about this story of the wise men from the east. For instance, how many wise men were there? In the old days in the east, they believed that there were 12 men who made the journey, but now most everyone ...

4100. Who Can Ask for Anything More?

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... , Well deserves the name of Friend; His is love beyond a brother's, Faultless, free and knows no end; They who once his kindness prove, Find it ever-lasting love. Which of all our friends to save us, Could or would have shed his blood? But this ... both Friend and Brother of us all provide both inspiration and strength for us to demonstrate to all who observe us the same kind of compassion and brotherly affection that once prompted a pagan leader to say of the early Christians, "Behold how they love one another ...

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