Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 401 to 425 of 2332 results

401. Exodus Crossings

Exodus 13:17--14:31

Sermon

James G. Cobb

... going through the same thing. God sure keeps us close even in death." God keeps us close and God opens a new future: a future not of our own making but one of his own gracious provision. God has a future for his people! Second, God does not abandon or desert his people, rather we travel with him on our way. An anonymous writer has told a telling story in the popular account called "Footprints." A man dreams a dream in which he looks back at the path of his life. For most of his life, he sees two sets of ...

402. The Promise of Wholeness

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

... free. God is about to deliver you from Babylon. And the thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah is a hymn of joy, sung in the midst of defeat, death, and despair. It is a hymn of joy that celebrates God as Israel's Creator and Deliverer. The prophet sees the desert bursting forth into lush greenery. A new exodus will take place. God will act to create a new path of escape for his people, to restore them to the land of promise and make them whole. God will make the earth whole, working his creative power in the midst ...

403. Light Shines

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

... of Isaiah to Judah and a Davidic King. It is spoken to a people who walked in darkness, a people who dwelt in a land of deep darkness. They were people defeated by a superior military power. The land of promise was decimated by the Assyrian army. Had God deserted, forsaken them? They were crying out in darkness. Darkness, despair and death are not new things on the human scene. The struggle and pain we undergo are real, but not new. My own pain at five o'clock this morning is known by many of you. But that ...

404. Communion Is Refreshment

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

... for Jesus when that whip lacerated his back. The Lord suffered that pain for us! Have you ever been thirsty? Can you imagine what it would be like to go for hours without drinking anything and then hang on a cross in the blazing sun with the desert wind parching your skin? Jesus endured that for us. We must never forget all that the Lord went through to redeem us from Satan's power and offer us forgiveness and salvation. We must never forget. To help us remember, our Lord instituted a special meal on this ...

405. Lent 2

Genesis 12:1-8, Psalm 105:1-45, Matthew 17:1-13, John 3:1-21; 4:5-42, Romans 4:1-25

Sermon Aid

George Bass

... that Arab children of North Africa, where water was in extremely short supply when he wrote Wind, Sand and Stars, begged for a drink of water rather than pennies. After he was rescued from certain death after five days under the blazing sun of the desert, he wrote about water: Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses. By thy might ...

406. Good Friday

Matthew 27:45-56

Sermon Aid

... , my God, why have you forsaken me?" He must have cried out soon after they nailed him to the cross, or he would not have been able to speak an entire sentence as he quoted from the scriptures (Psalm 22:1), "My God, my God, why have you deserted me?" (Jerusalem Bible) Death by crucifixion was not for the faint-hearted, nor was it for the strong, who might have suffered the most; they might have been able to hold their bodies upright for a longer time, so that they could breathe. As executions went in those ...

407. Sticks and Stones

1 Samuel 17:1-58

Sermon

... in Israel’s camp to single combat. This is a concept foreign to us, but quite common in the works of Homer and other ancient historians. An idea that George Patton revived when he suggested that he and the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel, duel to the death in tanks under the broiling sun of the North Africa Desert. Word reached Saul of the young shepherd lad’s appearance in the camp. He was the same boy who made trips to Gibeah to serenade Saul when the king was depressed. He summoned David, and in a last ...

408. A Princely Passion

2 Samuel 13:1-22

Sermon

... begins in fairy tale enchantment and ends in nightmarish tragedy. She walked like an angel and talked like an angel. Her name was Tamar, meaning in Hebrew "a Palm." She was a gentle breeze blowing across a hot desert. Her eyes were deep pools of refreshment. Her loveliness was an oasis in a desert landscape. She was a princess without a prince charming. He was a prince, but he was far from charming. Amnon was more in the mode of a Machiavellian Prince. Machiavelli, who had written that a prince "... must be ...

409. Sunrise Surprise

Drama

... with the winos in the gutter. And, there were more bad days than good! Then Jesus came ... he forgave me ... he believed in me ... he gave me another chance. He changed me! I can’t go back to that! (Very urgently) Peter, you’re the leader! If you desert his philosophies, then everything he lived and taught will be lost. You’re the leader, and if you forsake his cause, all the rest of us will also fail! Peter (Taking Mary’s face in his hands) Mary, you’re dead wrong! I’m not the leader! I’m ...

410. Advance into Europe

Acts 15:36-41

Sermon Aid

CSS

... enough to ask Timothy to bring Mark to him. Mutual reconciliation and forgiveness took place at this time, even if it had not done so earlier. Mark’s place as a gospel writer and as a faithful disciple of Jesus is unsullied. Whatever the cause of his "desertion" at Perga, it may well have been justified. Mark’s long career is believed to have included a final period as bishop of the church at Ephesus. Paul watched Barnabas and Mark sail off for Cyprus and realized that it would be needless for him to ...

411. Power to the Faint

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... adrenalin, and you were ready to go! It’s a great cure for virus B - a little something different. If you were out on the desert and saw the same sand spread in the same way or the same mounds everywhere you looked, you would have a feeling of being lost ... forest, where all the trees have come to look alike, you wouldn’t even know which way to go. But some oasis in the desert or some buoy or some different tree can remove that feeling. Something different in your life can help. God didn’t build a rut ...

412. Victim or Visionary

John 19:28-37

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... own cross. No longer are we victims. Now we are agents of God’s redemptive mission. As Auden reminds us in "Memorial": Our grief is not Greek: As we bury our dead We know without knowing there is reason for what we bear, That our hurt is not a desertion, that we are to pity Neither ourselves nor our city;’ ... We are not to despair. No, we are not to despair because life is ever lord over death. This is the ultimate reality of our world. Not wishful thinking, mind you, but fact. One of the most eloquent ...

413. Gabriel Speaks to Mary

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

George Bass

... live on dewdrops, roots and an occasional antelope." He was the stuff of which novels are made. But all of that changed in a matter of fourteen years from the time archeologist John Yellen and Alison Brooks, his American wife, first visited the Kalahari desert to the present day. Except for metal cooking pots, awls and knives that they possessed when Yellen and Brooks first visited one of their villages in western Botswana, "this could have been the stone age." By 1980, "the circle of huts (which they had ...

414. The Joy of Sorrow?

Matthew 5:4

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... he prayed three times that it might be taken away, and after that he lost count. We find in those letters qualities of sympathy and understanding that would otherwise be missing. An old Arab proverb says that, "All sunshine makes a desert." Because the ground in a desert is dry and parched, nothing will grow in it. When we accept the fact that the rainfall of sorrow and trouble is inevitable, we can grow certain things that sunshine by itself will never produce. Something is missing in life until sorrow ...

415. Journey To The Cross VII (Easter): Jesus And The Women At The Tomb

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

... parade and hid, trying hard not to giggle out loud. They were so proud because their trick was working perfectly. Jeter just kept on marching all alone. When Jeter reached the end of the street he looked back. He turned around and saw that he had been deserted by all of them. Then he did something that Rosemary had not counted on. At the age of eight years old, she was not prepared for what happened next. Jeter’s little arms dropped to his sides and in a voice Rosemary would never forget, Jeter whimpered ...

416. DIPS IN DISCIPLESHIP

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... are still there. There are even times when it seems that the harder we try to do the will of the Lord, the more life gangs up on us and brings disappointment our way. As a result, we sometimes dip into pits of spiritual depression. Now listen carefully, God deserts no one. God isn’t a problem provider. There is evil in the world that causes dips in discipleship, but there is no evil in God. Remember the children’s prayer, "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food"? That prayer is true ...

417. Only Love Can See the Star

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... noble experience. Initial travel conversation soon changed from trivialities and social amenities to the call which kept calling them on, the vision which kept renewing itself, the mysterious star which beckoned them forth with its silent invitation. Riding over the desert sands they began to speculate on what would happen when they arrived. Obviously, being men of considerable prominence, they began to take pride in the fact that they would be the first to discover and recognize the new king. Soon, however ...

418. Forgiving Is Forgetting

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... and forgive is for me an adequate explanation of the most puzzling event in the Bible. I can more easily comprehend the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ than I can the wanderings in the desert of the Children of Israel. Why was it necessary for the Israelites to stumble around in the desert for forty years following their release from slavery? God delivered them from the power of the Egyptians. Why did he not immediately give them entrance into Canaan? As we review the situation, a possible answer ...

419. A Faith for the Uncharted Way

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... count on that. We have reached the end of the well-trodden trail, the end of the well-marked road, the place where the road abuts the wilderness, and beyond which it does not go on. And this is not a wilderness of trees and mountains and swamps and deserts and animals running wild. This is a wilderness of ideas and attitudes. This is where we are - at the edge of the unknown, on the new frontier; and here we must live, and from here, road or flo road, we must go on. Those other pioneers who wrestled with ...

420. Crossing Over

Joshua 3:1-4:24

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... the Jordan River and prepared to cross over into the Promised Land. God's mighty power had liberated this people from Egyptian slavery. For forty years God has guided this headstrong, rebellious people across a perilous desert. An entire generation had died in transit and had been buried in that desert sand. Now they stood on the edge of that rich land, flowing with milk and honey, but a land which also contained fearsome enemies. With excitement and anxiety, they crossed over. Our congregation has taken a ...

421. A Time to Dance

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... that happen to me. I thought I was your pet, or at least in the top 20 percent!" The climax of Psalm 30 comes when King David realized this glorious fact: Even when God seems absent, He is powerfully present. Even when I desert God in foolish self-sufficiency, God does not desert me. No situation is ever so bleak that God cannot redeem it. When the psalmist realized the width and depth and height of God's grace, he exclaimed in verses eleven and twelve: "Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing; thou hast ...

422. Never Underestimate The Power of a Cup of Cold Water

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Brett Blair

... kindness is the large act of receiving the Gospel of Christ. I like the legend about the famous monastery which had fallen on very hard times. Its many buildings were once filled with young monks, and chapel resounded with the singing of the choir. But now it was deserted. People no longer came there to be nourished by prayer. Only a handful of old monks remained. On the edge of the monastery woods, an old rabbi had built a tiny hut. He came there from time to time to fast and pray. No one ever spoke with ...

423. Song of a Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... his sheep out to search for greener pastures. To the unpracticed eye Palestine’s barren wasteland offered little hope for grazing. But the shepherd knew where to find herbage on which the flock might feed. So, too, he knew where oases lay in the desert, cradling the cool waters of mountain streams collected in quiet pools at the base of the hills. Here, drinking their fill, the sheep could lie down in peace. Above all, in the maze of dead-end trails decoying unwitting victims to precipices and pitfalls ...

424. I Love A Parade

Matthew 21:1-11, John 12:12-19

Sermon

Robert Allen

... were people from Judea and Galilee and Egypt and Greece. There were people who had walked across the hills and through the desert so that they might come and spend Passover in the Holy City. The merchants were also in the crowd hawking their wares. ... to stone him once before. Common sense should have warned Jesus to stay away from Jerusalem - to stay in Galilee or in the desert. If he absolutely felt that he must go to Jerusalem for the Passover, caution demanded that he enter the city secretly. But Jesus ...

425. The Richest Hill On Earth

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Robert Allen

... back ... crucify him, he doesn’t crucify you ... curse him, he doesn’t curse you ... kill him, he doesn’t kill you. Almost 2,000 years have come and gone, but the rains of the centuries have not washed away his blood from the rotting wood of a deserted cross, nor have the winds of time swept away his footprints from along the shore of Galilee. The Cross still stands at Calvary as the truth which reveals to us the real nature of God. The Good News is that God is like Jesus. II. Calvary is the richest ...

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