Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4151 to 4175 of 4946 results

4151. Obsession

Philippians 4:4-7

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: pictures of a pyramid, a vulture and a cobra Boys and girls: If you were to go to Egypt, one of the things you would definitely want to see is the pyramids of Egypt. These are great monuments to the pharaohs where some of them are buried. You remember the pharaohs from the story of Moses. Remember Moses told the Pharaoh that God wanted him to "let my people go." In the old tomb of the kings there are sketches of the pharaohs. These sketches always depict the pharaoh with a bird and a snake around ...

4152. The Ultimate Mountaintop Experience

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

It was a rough year for the small coal mining community. Coal mining is difficult, dirty work under the best of conditions, but with the country moving to cleaner and cheaper sources of energy like natural gas and solar energy, the coal miners were beginning to see the handwriting on the wall. One miner expressed his frustration like this: “My life is filled with mountaintop experiences. One day, I’m on top of the mountain. The next day the mountain is on top of me.” We understand his pain. The Bible ...

4153. Have You Been Pruned?

John 15:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Writer Henry Mitchell visited a region in California that is home to some of the world’s finest vineyards. His eye was caught by rows of vines that had just been pruned. It was depressing. All that was left of the once beautiful grapevines were rows of ugly-looking stumps and a few “runners” stretching from each of those stumps. “It looks disastrous,” Mitchell remarked to his guide. “Don’t worry, the guide replied. “We do that for three years to every vine [we cut it back] before it’s allowed to [yield] ...

4154. Called to Love, Not Like

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

The humorist Will Rogers told us that he never met a man he didn't like. In the musical that celebrated Rogers' life, there is a song by that title and in that song Rogers admits that one man "put him to the test," but never pushed him finally to the point where his ability to like evaporated. I don't know what your response is to Rogers' disclosure, but I am led to think he was to utilize an overworked phrase "in denial." Come now, can any of us stand and say that we have, without exception, always liked ...

4155. A Difficult but Joyous Journey

Luke 1:39-55

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor Melvin Newland tells about a man in Salt Lake City who decided to send out 600 Christmas cards to total strangers. He got telephone directories from several cities, addressed 600 cards to people he had never met, put his return address on the envelopes and mailed them. Amazingly, he received 117 responses from these total strangers. One lady wrote, “It was so good to hear from you. Your card arrived the day I got home from the hospital, and I can’t tell you what an encouragement it was to hear from ...

4156. Thy Will Be Done

Luke 20:27-38

Sermon

Molly F. James

Recently, I was in a bit of a hurry to get something done (which I am slowly discovering is rarely a good idea). I was moving things around at home, and I broke the lamp in my husband’s study. I felt very badly about what I had done, and I wanted to remedy the situation. I offered to go right out and buy him a new lamp. He said not to worry; it wasn’t his favorite lamp anyway, and we could go and get a lamp later in the week. There was no rush. This is where we do not see eye to eye. My husband is very ...

4157. Loving Made Real

John 13:1-17, John 13:31-38

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

The lectionary gives us two types of traditional texts for our Maundy Thursday services over the span of the three cycles. One type is before us tonight: the text of the foot washing, the text of Jesus clearly demonstrating the importance of his love for us and our call to love others. The other is what you and I call the “last supper”: how the ritual, the practice, of our meal together, whether the celebration of a Seder reordered and meaning changed, the gift of the sacrament, or remembrance proclaimed ...

4158. The Curse of the Tongue

James 3:1-12, James 3:13-18, 2 Timothy 2:14-26, Psalm 34:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them." (Jesus --Mark 7:15) “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:4) “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen… Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” ...

4159. Sealed and Sanctified

Matthew 2:1-12, Genesis 14:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) “When you believed in Christ, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 1:13) You’ve heard it said: “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” You’ve also probably heard it said “the ears are the portals to the soul.” Or maybe “if the eyes are the windows to the soul, your feet are the doorway to your body.” Or is that toes? Today we’re going to go with the eyes. If your ...

4160. What is Your Golden Calf?

Exodus 32:1-33:6, Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Everyone loves the comic strip “Peanuts.” At least everyone over 30. (Charles M. Schulz died in 2000). But the really poignant thing about Schultz’s beloved characters is that he brought to life the struggles and doubts from his own childhood and allowed his characters to act out those difficulties of life through comedy and laughter. One wonders if doing this wasn’t a healing endeavor for him as well. The traumas of our past stay alive within us until we can vanquish them somehow by coming to terms with ...

4161. The Field House

Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 4:23-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

The Allen Fieldhouse on the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas is home to the Kansas Jayhawks men’s and women’s basketball teams. Dedicated in 1955, the Allen Fieldhouse is noted as a historical and rave-worthy building, hosting NCAA regional tournaments, NBA exhibition games, famous concerts, and high-profile speakers. But its notoriety comes not from the building itself but from what happens within the building. Shouts, whoops, cheers, roars! Yes roars! In fact, on February 13, 2017, the Allen ...

4162. The Overtaxed Soul (Even Me)

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Parable: Phyllis worked as a secretary/bookkeeper in a large company. No one noticed her. She didn’t have a flashy job like the group surrounding the CEO. She was just a shy, retiring clerk. But she had a significant responsibility taking care of the books and depositing the money for the thriving business. When trouble hit at home and she found herself in financial straits, she “borrowed” from the corporate kitty. Soon, this became rather a habit. One day, when news spread that the President of the ...

4163. Look At Your Fixations!

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Carl Jech

The Shadow: Fixation Introduction In one of his classic comedy routines Victor Borge sits down at the piano and says to the audience: "Pardon my back. Pardon my front ... But that's the way I'm built!" Every coin has two sides. Our body has a front and a back. And every body casts a shadow. These facts are neither good nor bad in themselves. They are just facts of life. To say, with psychologist Carl Jung, that every person has a shadow side, a "not-so-nice" side to their personality, is not necessarily to ...

4164. Hold Me When I'm Angry

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Carl Jech

The Shadow: Anger Introduction Why was All In the Family such a popular television program? I suspect it was because the "love-hate" relationships between Archie, Mike, Gloria and Edith helped us better to understand the ways in which our love is mixed with anger, our joys are mixed with pain, and our laughter is tinged with sadness and pathos. Even longsuffering Edith with her good-natured naivete could get angry. Who can forget the time when she tells Archie to "stiffle!"? Or the episode where Archie ...

4165. Standing in the Forecastle

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Ron Love

Bob Keeshan entertained children for years as the jovial Captain Kangaroo. The television show Captain Kangaroo ran on CBS for nearly thirty years, from October 1955 until December 1984, making it one of the longest-running nationally broadcasted children’s television programs. In Keeshan’s autobiography Growing Up Happy, he shared the moment when he realized life would be marvelous. Shortly after the Second World War, Keeshan, an eighteen-year-old Marine, was on board the troopship USS Rockbridge Ranger ...

4166. Seeking Joy

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

Some technical writers who provide product descriptions and instructions on labels for us to follow, obviously get bored with their jobs. Why else would they add catchy little instructions on the labels that have no practicality except to add a little pizzazz to their work? For example, there is an anonymous manufacturer of cotton T-shirts who added these wash instructions to the inside tag: “For Best Results: Machine wash cold. Tumble dry low. Never iron [the design on the shirt].” He could have stopped ...

4167. Our Light

Genesis 1:1-5 · Mark 1:9-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

Carl Michaelson knew a philosophy professor at Colgate who, whenever a student used the word "God" in his classroom, would stop and beckon the student to come forward and stand with him at an open window. "Show him to me," the professor asked. What a disadvantage believers have when it comes to empirical evidence for God! At first glance, this seems to be a uniquely modern problem. In the old days, Biblical people are always chatting with God, strolling arm in arm with God in the garden. God is everywhere ...

4168. Now That's Rich

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Kids think that money just grows on trees, don’t they? That’s part of their overall innocence, and their trust in the abundance of life. When they’re hungry, someone feeds them. Clean clothes magically show up in their dresser drawers. Toilet paper and soap magically appear in the bathroom. And so it’s pretty normal for kids to assume that Mommy and Daddy or Grandma or some loving adult can also buy them whatever they want. Why can’t we order pizza every night? Why can’t we have a new car like the ...

4169. A Stand-in for Royalty

John 18:33-37; Revelation 1:4b-8

Sermon

King Duncan

I don’t know what you plan on doing when you turn 95 years old. Have you given it much thought? I think I’ll be glad to get out of bed and eat a nice meal and spend some time with people I love. I don’t think I’ll need an alarm clock or a daily schedule to keep up with all my activities. I’m pretty sure I won’t be as busy as Queen Elizabeth II. Her Royal Highness attends over 400 events each year, including meetings, ceremonies, presentations, receptions and charity events. That’s more than one official ...

4170. Seeking Jesus

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

King Duncan

If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to get lost in a strange city, then you can appreciate the great sense of relief you feel when you finally make it back to someplace familiar. There are few experiences more satisfying than finding your way back to the place you want to be. A few years back, an Asian woman was on a sightseeing tour in Iceland. After spending an afternoon exploring a volcanic canyon, the woman changed into fresh clothes and rejoined the rest of her tour group. Sadly, a member of their ...

4171. For Men Only?

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

In the year 311 BC a marriage contract in Egypt was drawn up for Heraclides and Demetria, both from the town of Koan. The contract specified that the bride was bringing into the marriage clothing and bling worth a thousand drachmas. Heraclides, meanwhile, agreed to support Demetria according to what was fitting for a freeborn woman. As to where the two of them would live, that would be whatever they both agreed to after consulting with each other. This marriage, like some that we read about, also had ...

4172. Devour And Conquer

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

In recent decades, archaeologists have turned their attention to ancient cooking pits and trash heaps because these reveal what ordinary people were doing a long, long time ago. Instead of assuming history is what the rich and powerful rulers were doing in ancient empires, the trash heaps and cooking pits of so-called ordinary people tell us what real life was like. They tell us about what matters to people. They give us insight into value, which may have very little with price. Trash heaps often include ...

4173. The Hiddenness Of Life’s Truths: Christian Life As Surprise

2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

The ashes of Ash Wednesday are icons proclaiming the hiddenness of God’s ways. And God’s ways are hidden. Paul tells us that in our lesson: We are treated as imposters, and yet are true; as unknown, yet are well known; as dying, and see — we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything (6:8b-6:10). It does not make sense, does it? How can we be imposters and yet the real thing, sorrowful but ...

4174. A Sympathetic High Priest

Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Whoever wrote this sermon (it is not likely that it was Paul, since its style is different from other books written by Paul) was addressing a group of Jewish Christians. But what he has to say is for us, especially at this time when we remember Christ’s death: Since then we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect ...

4175. Summertime Praise

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

We Americans put much emphasis on self-help. ''Self Reliance'' was one of Emerson's most popular essays. Please Mother, I would rather do it myself. We like thinking of ourselves as ''self-made'' men and women. Browse awhile at the ''Do It Yourself” section of your local bookstore or in the ''Self-Help'' therapeutic section and you will see that we like to do things for ourselves. Yet Paul, in his words to the Ephesians, speaks of something which we have not done for ourselves, have not achieved by hard ...

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