Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 401 to 425 of 4943 results

401. Baptized in Water

Mark 10:35-45, Psalm 104:1-35

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

... disciples were looking ahead to a future where they expected to be rewarded. Even though they repeatedly misunderstood what Jesus told them plainly, they still were looking ahead to power and status. Christ surprised them - again. Before, he had told them they had to take up their cross and follow him and that they had to become like little children. But in this morning’s lesson from Mark, he told them plainly that they were not like the Gentile leaders who lorded over their people as tyrants. He said: If ...

402. Epiphany 8

Hosea 2:2-23, Mark 2:18-22, 2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... fact that God alone initiates the relationship. Actually, the Lord had already covenanted with his people before that, beginning with Abraham. What we have here is kind of a renewal of the covenant, the marriage of God and his people. In the Gospel Lesson, Jesus takes up the marriage metaphor and refers to himself as the bridegroom (Mark 2:19). The church then becomes the bride and is referred to as such in the book of Revelation. It might be more accurate to refer to the relationship of God and his people ...

403. Two Doors; One Choice

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... interpreted the narrow door to be that of living a good life. For some it means living by the creed, "I don't smoke and I don't chew, and I don't go with girls that do!" Thus Jesus is heard to say, "Strive to behave yourselves. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me through the narrow door into the kingdom of God." The crowd, it is assumed, are the sinners who have been indulging themselves with this world's pleasures, and who at the last minute, try to barge in at the main entrance only to find it ...

404. It Takes Time

Ephesians 5:15-16

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... ? [Wait for answer.] What does lying mean? [Wait for answer.] What does hate mean? [Etc.] Those kinds of things take up a lot of time and make us very unhappy. They make our days evil. We all have these sins, but they are still wrong. The Bible teaches us that all ... of these sins are time stealers. They take up a lot of time and make us all unhappy. That means that we have a lot of unhappy time. Did you ever think about ...

405. Great Reasons for Great Giving

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... Schweitzer to give up his career in theology to go to medical school and eventually to open his hospital for the poor in Lambarene, French Equatorial Africa. His experience of the grace of God caused him to lay down everything that was familiar to him and to take up the work of Christ in a strange and far-off land. This brings us to the second reason for giving. A SECOND REASON FOR GREAT GIVING IS THE TRAGIC NEED OF PEOPLE ABOUT US. Paul says in II Corinthians 11:8-14, "Your abundance in the present ...

406. Suffering Servant Song

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... . Israel would become the living testimony to the God of judgment and of salvation, and by that testimony, all peoples would be led to worship the Lord. That is the dialogue that is carried out in this song. The Lord speaks in 52:13-15. Then the foreign nations take up the speech in 53:1-10, and finally God ends the speech in 53:11-12. The foreigners are utterly amazed that the people whom they thought had been rejected by God were instead delivered by that God and raised on high. Israel was as good as dead ...

407. Get Lost

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... important policy statement. You know that this is going to be important. So listen real good. The speech that he gives in this passage consists of three short sayings, all familiar, all similar, and all disturbing. You know them. If any one would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel's will find it. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? There they are ...

408. Advent 1

Matthew 24:36-51, Romans 13:8-14, Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122:1-9

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... relates his own conversion to this very passage: I was . . . weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo, I heard the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighboring house, chanting, and oft repeating, "Take up and read; take up and read." . . . I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes first fell, "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not ...

409. I Am the Good Shepherd

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... as Rome was, as firmly in control of the religious establishment as Israel was, these powers did not thrust the cross upon Jesus – he took the cross, voluntarily, for us. Please hear this. Let the truth burrow its way into your soul. The good shepherd had the power to take up his life or to lay it down. He laid it down on the cross, poured out every last drop of blood, sweated in pain until there was no more water of life left in him – and all of that, for you and me. No wonder the gospel songwriter ...

410. Challenge and Counterchallenge

Luke 20:9-19, Luke 20:1-8

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... the Text After the long journey southward (9:51–19:44) Jesus has deliberately entered Jerusalem as the Messiah, and his actions and teaching in the temple have thrown down the gauntlet to the religious authorities of Jerusalem (19:45–48). Now they take up the challenge, and the rest of chapter 20 will continue the public confrontation. While the authorities remain hostile, the larger crowd in the court of the Gentiles remains at least potentially open to Jesus’s appeal. It is only when they are able ...

411. Eliphaz

Job 4:1-5:27

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... in Eliphaz’s tone. Eliphaz indicates that it is futile for Job to call out for an intercessor in heaven to intervene and help him, because his sin has disqualified him from assistance. None of the holy angels (see 4:18; cf. 1:6; 2:1) will take up Job’s cause. Later, Job expresses his desire for such a mediator to present his case before God (9:33; 16:19–21). 5:2–3 Resentment kills a fool. Eliphaz uses two familiar categories from traditional wisdom (fool, simple) to imply that Job is not wise ...

412. Jesus or Niccolo?

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... applied the shield of trust, so must we. Paul calls this taking, "The shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (Ephesians 6:16). As Jesus appealed to God's word, so must we. Paul calls us to take up "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17). Furthermore, we remember the words of Jesus when he said, "Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew ...

413. By Invitation Only

Luke 14:1-14, Luke 14:15-24, Proverbs 25:1-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... just your friends, and your family, and your neighbors, and your familiar pew mates, but to reach out and invite those who will most appreciate an invitation to the kind of “feast” of love that only God can provide. Today, I invite you to take up the Jesus challenge. Do differently. Live differently. Be a different kind of disciple, a grateful and loving and serving and sacrificing disciple. In doing this, you will find yourself without even realizing it at the Lord’s right hand. For you will be the ...

414. The Law of the Serpent

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in God’s image. If anything, this needs to be our focus in this time of Lent. For as Jesus in God’s own self-sacrificial act moves closer and closer to the cross, to embrace death so that he can re-create life, we too are asked to take up a cross and follow him there. Lent is time when we think of ourselves in darkness but commit ourselves to moving into the Light. It’s a time of ultimate repentance. It’s a time of supreme commitment, trust, faith, and hope in an unseen future, an eternal tomorrow ...

415. For the Love of Children

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... protect their faith not only in Jesus but in humankind. For Jesus has harsh words indeed for those who do not. We are not simply called to compassion, a loving nature, and a caring spirit. But we are called as disciples to take up the cross! To bear responsibility and accountability for our congregations, our community members, and our neighbors and to defend the weak, protect the innocent, give voice to the voiceless. We are called to a responsibility, to accountability, to take discipleship seriously. To ...

416. Time to Pull the Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... the attic of her home. Since there were only a few, she made no effort to deal with them. Over the summer the bees continued to fly in and out the attic vent while the woman remained unconcerned, unaware of the growing city of bees that was taking up residence just above her ceiling. The whole attic became a hive, and the ceiling of the second-floor bedroom finally caved in under the weight of hundreds of pounds of honey and thousands of angry bees. While the woman escaped serious injury, she was unable to ...

417. Jesus Gets a Business Card

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Mary Austin

... he is — and who we should be, too. He’s talking about the core of his work — and the core of our life as disciples. We live our faith in the answer to his questions. Who do you say that I am, Jesus asks? Can you follow me? Can you take up your cross: face the burdens of your life, and carry the cares of the world? He has these questions for us. We have questions, too. Faith demands that we ask ourselves these things. Does my work use the talents God gave me? By work, I mean however we spend our ...

418. Persevering In The Faith

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

... you an example, so that you should follow." Paul made a powerful point of this in his letter to the Romans when he wrote: "...suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character...." And, of course Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross...." Clearly, whatever else may be said about the purpose of human life, it must surely be true that growth and the development of character is part of our mission, and sad to say, suffering and privation are an indispensible part of ...

419. Taking Life Seriously

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... . Finally, during the last meal with his disciples, Jesus uttered the words that must have popped their eyes open, "The hour has come (John 17:1)." The words burst forth, not as a death knell, but the glorious climax to a life intentionally lived. When Jesus invites us to take up our cross and follow him he invites us to live for a cause and die for a reason. We only go around once, and Martin Luther King Jr. put it well when he said, "Until we are willing to die for something, we're not fit to live for ...

420. Blow The Trumpet In Zion

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Larry Powell

... which comes to every individual who approaches the moment of repentance. Repentance is (1) an admittance. It is saying "I have been wrong. Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." To admit personal folly is not a gesture which pride allows one to take up eagerly. Repentance is (2) a risk. It risks previous friendships and all manner of relationships because a changed person is thrust back into unchanged situations. An elderly woman who had lived a wretched, godless life, came under the influence of a good pastor ...

421. A Ministry of Encouragement

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... as a Christmas present. Bringing a couple of reels of black and white cartoons, his grandfather taught Richard how to thread the projector. He patiently demonstrated how to bend the film around the sprockets and thread it into the take-up reel. After one demonstration, his grandfather said, “Now you try it.” Richard threaded the projector correctly. His grandfather said, “I have the smartest grandson in the world!” Years later, Richard asked his grandfather if he remembered that incident. He ...

422. The Extended Family

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... means to take care of the old and the dependent, to a social policy and assumed that it was a mission of the Church. So Jesus was faithful to the commandment to honor your father and your mother, and called his followers, the Church, to do the same, to take up a mission of maintenance of the decent, moral, human order in society that sees to it that those who are old, frail, and dependent on others, will have a dignified ending to their life. But there is something more here. We can see it in the story of ...

423. Proper 17

Matthew 16:21-28, Romans 12:1-8, Romans 12:9-21, Jeremiah 14:1--15:21, Jeremiah 20:7-18, Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... buy this style of deprivation and discipline? One thing Americans must learn in this time of energy crisis is that we can no longer live a life of affluence and ease. Outline: The cross way of life. a. The way of discipline - "deny himself." b. The way of sacrifice - "take up his cross." c. The way of obedience - "follow me." 3. The Devil Made You Say It! (16:21-23). Need: "The devil made me do it!" This is often an excuse for wrongdoing, said in jest. We can also say, "The devil made me say it!" Jesus said ...

424. Proper 9

Psalm 45:1-17, Romans 7:7-25, Matthew 11:25-30, Matthew 11:1-19, Genesis 24:1-67

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... from the mark. The "I" of our lesson is a representative figure of all humankind, the typical "fleshly sinner" who speaks not merely for Paul but for the universal human experience in bondage to sin and death. Structure. In the lesson, vv. 15-20 take up the universal experience of humanity in being grasped by sin and rendered incapable of doing even what one knows is right. The experience is one of utter frustration, and as humanity is caught in this dilemma there is no perception of hope, rather there ...

425. Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... imprecise, leaving the door ajar for debate about this hymn's "true" meaning for the past 20 centuries. On the one hand, exegetes argue that this is an "incarnational" hymn describing a divine being, a pre-existing Christ, who sets aside divinity to take up human form. This Christ, who was "in the form of God" (v.6), empties himself (v.7) in order to take on a human existence. Indeed, the hymn-text itself appears in most translations to straight- forwardly uphold this route of interpretation. It ...

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