Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4201 to 4225 of 4999 results

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... being rude and arrogant. Which was a shock to Americans, because we had always thought of ourselves as being generous, kind and thoughtful. Hall said the problem was that Americans don't understand silent language. There is body language. There is ... and noticed a couple sitting in the man's place. The man who always sat in the back was a few rows up, sitting there with the kind of body language that let everybody know how he felt about it. The next Sunday, the couple was still there in the man's pew again. ...

4202. Even God Can Change His Mind

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... a point that we ought to take such passages seriously as revelation, and not just vestiges of an outgrown phase of religion, or unimportant details in the story, but the very heart of the story. It says this is the kind of God that we have. We have a God who changes his mind. But that is not the kind of God that I was raised to believe in. I was raised in the Church, raised by the piety of the Church, the hymns that we sing. Nothing about it there. The hymns that we sang in the MethodistChurch came out ...

4203. Eye Exercises

Matthew 6:25-33

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... makes a point that we ought to take such passages seriously as revelation, and not just vestiges of an outgrown phase of religion, or unimportant details in the story, but the very heart of the story. It says this is the kind of God that we have. We have a God who changes his mind. But that is not the kind of God that I was raised to believe in. I was raised in the Church, raised by the piety of the Church, the hymns that we sing. Nothing about it there. The hymns that we sang in the Methodist Church came ...

4204. Get a Charge

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... act on behalf of others, even on the behalf of those who will come after us, future generations, to make the decisions in this age that will make it possible for those who come after to know the good life. It is said that a people get the kind of leaders they deserve. That may be true. People who want only to have their desires satisfied, are going to elect leaders who will promise to satisfy their desires. People who want only to be concerned with life in the present, with no concern for what comes after ...

4205. Get Lost

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... over to the lady, said hello. She look at him suspiciously. She asked, "Are you a relative?" Joel said, "No." She said, "Good. Sit down." So he sat down. They started to talk. Buscaglia wrote, "My goodness, the things that she told him. She told him all kinds of things about love, about pain, about suffering, and even about approaching death and dying, with which she had made her own peace. She knew all these things, but nobody cared to listen to her." Well Joel started going once a week. It was so regular ...

4206. Have You Heard?

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the train. "All I can see in these faces is the silent misery of wasted lives." He described a man on the train he called, "The Bourgeois of Toulouse." "Why didn't somebody shake this man early in his life before this clay hardened and get him to live the kind of life that he is capable of. And now that musician, that poet, that artist, that craftsman under this man is gone, and it will never happen. Why didn't somebody shake him to get him to live all the life he is capable of." I thought of that passage ...

4207. Landing Instructions

Isaiah 40:25-31

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , they shall walk and not faint. Those are landing instructions. Isaiah is saying to those who have crashed, who are wounded, who are tired, or disillusioned and in despair, God will renew your strength, so once again you can "mount up with wings like eagles," and be the kind of persons that God created you to be. So the effect of biblical faith upon our life should be that we never give up. But if we crash, if we experience defeat, or sorrow, we get back up again, and prepare for life to take us back up ...

4208. Look Ma, No Hands

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... there as something you use to prepare for the journey. So it's not so much like a hospital, it's more like a traveler's aid office, or it's like a wayfarers chapel. You go there to get directions. You go there to get food, the kind that doesn't perish, the kind that you can take with you on your journey. You go to church to meet travelers, pilgrims we call them here in church. And you go to church to hear about the great pilgrims, beginning with Abraham and Sarah, who made of their whole life a journey ...

4209. Poor Mary

Luke 1:39-45

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... banquet with the Messiah, the poor are going to have the privileged places. We look upon the poor in terms of what they can become. They can become like us. God looked upon the poor the way they are, as his children. We even look upon them as having some kind of curse. That is the way it was in the old days of Protestantism. They were seen as examples of the doctrine of human depravity. It was believed in those days that your outward life was going to reflect the state of your inward life. So if you were a ...

4210. Pre-Game Analysis

I Corinthians 9:19-27

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. He is talking about living the Christian life with a kind of discipline that characterized the athlete and the hero. If heroes are supposed to live an exemplary life, if that is what it means to be a hero, then, Paul says, that's what we are supposed to be. That is what we are here for. This is in ...

4211. Reflections on a Bumper Sticker

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , in this secular age, who know nothing about guilt, and who ought to feel guilty. It would do them some good. And it would do society good as well. We would raise the level of quality of life in this society by a great deal if there were the kind of healthy guilt that motivates us to live better lives. But there are those who have not done anything wrong, and who still feel guilty. Their problem is not a problem of conscience. Their problem is a problem of the spirit. You can make the distinction between a ...

4212. The Cathedral Within

II Corinthians 9:6-15

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... small. They start big, with a master plan that is so grand that they will never see the completion of it, and so vast that they will only have one small part in it. Cathedral builders are those who use their gifts, their talent, their money, to make that kind of a vision come true. It was no accident that cathedrals were created by Christians. The heart of Christian faith is the dream of a Kingdom of God. A life that is faithful to that kingdom is a life that invests itself in something that it will never ...

4213. The Source of Self Esteem

Romans 8:14-25

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... that it talks about is still with us. It has always been with us, and it is very real. There is no doubt that the kind of life that you live, the success that you have in life, is in large part dependent on how you feel about yourself. And it ... school. Jean told me this story. One day many years ago a boy was disruptive in class. She sent him to the counseling center, which is kind of like going to the penalty box in a hockey game. He returned, was disruptive again. This time she sent him to the principal's ...

4214. The Wedding Guest

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... time of preparation is over. This is it. The celebration, the party, has begun. What does that look like? On this Sunday when we hold our annual Charge Conference, I thought it appropriate for us to ask, "What does it look like in the Church?" There are several kinds of parties, but the one that seems appropriate to what this text is talking about is the Election Night Party. I've never been to one, but I understand some of you have. I have seen them on television. I watch the returns on election night. The ...

4215. Until It Dawns on You

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... close to God. He came down with Ten Commandments, and the Jews rallied, their spirits renewed, and they went on in their journey. Jesus went up a mountain, with Peter, James, and John, and there he prayed. And as he prayed, the disciples saw a great light, the kind that will give you a sunburn. It surrounded Jesus. That can mean only one thing: the presence of "glory." Glory is manifested as light. Glory is the signature of God. Glory is all that you can see of God. Looking at God is like looking at the sun ...

4216. What Time Is It?

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... telephone numbers. I loved those. "KImball 4714," that was my boyhood telephone number. Now you've got to use numbers, numbers. I perform weddings. That means that I have to fill out marriage certificates. Recently the order came down from the County Recorder to all of us who do this kind of work that when we put dates on licenses now, we cannot write the word, we have to use the number. We can't say, "April 14, 1999." We have to say, "04-14-99." And get this. If you don't do it, you get fined. It costs you ...

4217. While You Are Waiting

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... end of suffering. I can be patient as long as I know that I am going to get what I want. So we are used to waiting for that. We are used to waiting to get what we want. But that is not the kind of waiting that we are talking about here. That is not the kind of waiting that the parable is talking about. It is talking about waiting on God. Waiting on God is not waiting to get what we want. Waiting on God is waiting to see what God is going to do. And we don't know ...

4218. Who Gives You Your Grade?

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... was a good idea, but it didn't work. In the New Testament they use the same metaphor, the Law is a yoke. Only it was a different kind of yoke. It is not the one that you put on animals in order to lead them, it's the one that you put on prisoners in order ... do not discover who we are by reason. We are told who we are, and we accept it by faith. We are told who we are by all kinds of people. But we are also told who we are by the gospel that says, God loves you as a child and accepts you as you are. Maybe ...

4219. Million Dollar Christmas

Matthew 19:21

Drama

Matthew Powell

... Essay Reader 1: Pieces of jewelry, Essay Reader 2: Silk dresses, Essay Reader 3: New hats, Essay Reader 1: Pictures of all kinds, Essay Reader 2: Chiefly enlarged family photos, Essay Reader 3: And rocking chairs for the parlor. Essay Reader 1: My mother ... the moths ate them, but in the meantime, every morning she woke she would feel the beatitude of the possession of those furs as a kind of "glory in a box" before she slipped out into the dark to wash floors until it grew dark again. It was great fun going ...

4220. In the Darkness of Anxiety, There Is the Light of Peace

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... goes God. God is here in the touch of that nurse.” You need to look for signs of God’s peace in the kindness of others, in the generosity of friends, in the lives of fellow Christians, and in the mission of the church. Then, second, move on ... you willing to go to the place where this child is, the place where you find God’s peace? We have put ourselves in all kinds of other places, sometimes at great expense, and we did not find it there. Having tried everything else in an attempt to alleviate our ...

4221. Epiphany 5

Matthew 5:17-20, Matthew 5:13-16, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, 1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, Isaiah 58:1-14

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... used to express great sorrow or supplication. This encourages many fasts, but God seemingly did nothing! Why not? What kind of fasting is acceptable to God? One type of fasting produces no divine results: ceremonial fasting without regard for ... it our fault that we are not blessed? Isaiah has something to say about this in the text. Outline: How we can be blessed. a. Get the right kind of religion - vv. 5, 6. b. Put your faith to work - v. 7. 2. Release The Light! (58:9). Need: The light of God is bottled up ...

4222. Lent 3

Exodus 17:1-7, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:1-26, John 4:27-38, John 4:39-42

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... We have more life and less Life. According to the National Center for Health Statistics between 1970 and 2000, the life expectancy for men climbed from 67.1 to 74.4 and from 74.7 to 79.8 for women. In today's Gospel, Jesus offers a woman a new kind of life through water, the living water of life. Jesus is this water of life. Outline: As the water of life, Jesus offers – a. Water that is essential to true life - 4:14. b. Water that cleanses - the water of baptism. c. Water that is productive - Psalm 1:3. d ...

4223. Easter 2

Acts 2:14-41, 1 Peter 1:1-12, John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... in terms of trust, commitment, and obedience. A corollary of faith is doubt which may be useful in attaining faith. Doubt is not unbelief or skepticism, but is questioning, seeking, searching. This kind of doubt can lead to faith which becomes an enlightened and intelligent faith. Epistle: Acts 2:14a, 22-32 1. Death. There are two kinds of death. There is physical death - David dies and was buried (v. 29). The son of David was raised from the dead (v. 24). There is a natural, physical death which every ...

4224. Easter 3

John 20:19-23, Acts 2:14-41, 1 Peter 1:1-12, John 20:24-31

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

4225. Proper 20

Exodus 16:1-36, Isaiah 55:1-13, Jonah 3:1-10, Jonah 4:1-11, Philippians 1:12-30, Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... be equally emphasized. They should not be separated. Believe and accept God and equally practice that faith in everyday living. What kind of life is worthy of the gospel? Paul says it is in having one spirit and one mind as the people work ... faced with disaster and death. We are helpless to help ourselves. We do not know where to turn for deliverance. The Israelites were in this kind of a jam - in the wilderness without food. When we get in a jam, we can learn from their experience. Outline: What to do when ...

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