Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4301 to 4325 of 4914 results

4301. John Calvin, God’s Man

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Picture a police officer, like Dan Dusenbery* of our congregation, arriving on the porch of Dr. Ralph Dorner* one evening, putting him under arrest, and taking him to the new Polk County jail. Can you imagine his then being taken to the courthouse by prosecutor Dan Johnston* and tried before our church council for heresy because he did not believe as we did? Can you further envision his being found guilty by Judge Leo Oxburger* in spite of attorney Phil Miller’s* pleas, brought to Nollen Plaza mid-morning ...

4302. Christmas 2

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40, Ephesians 1:1-14, Ephesians 1:15-23, John 1:1-18

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: Jeremiah 31:7-14 Theme: Hope of the helpless Exegetical Note This passage celebrates the return of the children of Israel from their Babylonian exile and, in looking toward eventual restoration by virtue of God’s activity, anticipates prosperity, joy, abundance, and fulfillment for all, but especially for those who have hitherto suffered the most. Call to Worship Leader: Rejoice, people! For ours is a God who saves and comforts! People: OURS IS A GOD WHO REDEEMS AND PROTECTS! Leader: Our God ...

4303. THE NEIGHBORHOOD GAP

Sermon

William McKee Aber

In this pre-Lenten period we are thinking about the gaps in life - gaps between generations, between sexes, between races - in short, all of the separations that exist in our world, pulling us apart and rupturing relationships that were meant to be vital. Our thesis has been that there is in fact a God who is cncerned about gaps - who meets us in the midst of our separation, and who may enable us to bridge the gaps that exist. Today we come to one of the most difficult of all - the neighborhood gap. When, ...

4304. OUR LORD DENIED

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

In the depths of the night, pilgrims still moved along the streets of the Holy City, streets which normally at this late hour would have been deserted to a lonely Roman guard. But now, for the religious festival of Passover, Jews had come from all the world, more than the city could absorb, and the large, tall man, his robe hooded about his head, attracted no more attention than any other. Peter drifted without direction, a shadow moving among shadows on the dark streets. A few short hours before his life ...

4305. Marduk? or Yahweh?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

The prophets had been right. All along, they had proclaimed that it would end up this way. If Israel would not turn to the Lord, would not repent and live justly, an awful judgment would come. The smashing fist would be Nebuchadnezzar, King of the conquering Babylonians. But within the blow of this withering attack was the wrath of Israel’s own God. And now the prophesied judgment was upon them. Resistance had been futile, the Holy City was overcome, and the people taken off into exile. Signs of that holy ...

4306. Human Nature Revisited

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Roger Prescott

Introduction In this moving narrative we have several very effective character studies: King David, torn between losing a battle and losing his son; Absalom, the ambitious young man, caught by the "chances" of life; and "a certain man," a soldier of Joab’s, caught between loyalty to his King and loyalty to his commander. As parents, as leaders, as citizens of our country, we can all identify with the age-old dilemmas played out so powerfully in this account. When we look at the human situations described ...

4307. Go ... Be the Church ... Do the Gospel

Sermon

The hearers’ level of expectation is especially high on given occasions, such as a congregational anniversary. The dangers for the sermon are many; the victories few. Through the skillful interweaving of congregational history, the Church’s history, biblical history, the history of persons, and a knowledge and sensitivity of worship - always with the hearers in mind - this sermon forges a victory for the hearers. The sermon focuses the hearers where the focus is to be - on the Lord of the Church and the ...

4308. Questions Without Answers

Job 42:1-6

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

The Word today is the bottom line in the book of Job, the story of the man from the land of Uz who was blameless and upright and who feared God and turned away from evil. The man had prospered. He had seven sons and three daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses and very many servants. We could say that he belonged to the affluent society, a rather rare type in his day because the record makes it clear that he was the greatest man of all the people in the East. We will take the ...

4309. Clear and Clean and Good

Titus 2:1-15

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

A television commercial advertising a soft drink says, "Sprite is what you want the world to be - clear and clean and good." Whether or not Sprite deserves such praise, certainly that is what we want the world - and our own lives - to be, clear and clean and good. And it is precisely in these terms that the apostle describes what the coming of Christ means to us. The apostle uses the word epiphaneia, the original for our word epiphany, to describe both the first and the second coming of Christ. He tells us ...

4310. As We Remember - Memorial Day

1 Chronicles 11:10-25

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

Memorial Day is primarily a national holiday on which we remember and honor the men and women who have given their lives for our country. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, "it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this." It is fitting and proper for us to observe Memorial Day not only as Americans but also as Christians. There should be no conflict between our loyalty to our God and our loyalty to our country. These loyalties reinforce each other. For God has not set us to live our lives in ...

4311. Paul's Thorn In The Flesh

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Around the turn of the century a young man named Ole took his girlfriend on a summer outing. They took a picnic lunch out to a picturesque island in the middle of a small lake. She wore a long dress with about a dozen petticoats. He was dressed in a suit with a high collar. Ole rowed them out to the island, dragged the boat into shore, and spread their picnic supplies beneath a shade tree. So hypnotized was he by her beauty that he hardly noticed the hot sun and perspiration on his brow. Softly she ...

4312. From Crumbs to Half a Loaf

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Harold Warlick

On a Boy Scout camping trip, the little group of scouts hiked up a mountainside and made camp for supper. They discovered that they were low on water. They had barely enough water to make a little stew. Two boys were sent to find water and fill the canteens while the others stayed and cooked supper. Unfortunately the two seekers were over three miles from camp when they finally located some water. The other boys gave up on them and ate all the stew. When the two returned to camp they were extremely hungry ...

4313. The Scattering of Lesser Figures

Acts 8:9-25

Sermon

Harold Warlick

A certain physician started to practice medicine in a large city. His ambitions were strong and opportunities seemed plentiful there. Success was his right from the start. His practice became almost too large for him to handle. Fame and praise were heaped on him to overflowing. But he forgot that a doctor should do more than heal sick bodies. For this physician, a patient was only interesting if the sickness was interesting and then only as a stimulus to further his fame. One day the prominent doctor got a ...

4314. A Vision of Freedom

Isaiah 65:17-25

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Freedom is such a lovely word, a compelling image. What is freedom? How would you define it? What does it mean to you? Webster’s New World Dictionary defines freedom as being exempt from control or from arbitrary restrictions. Freedom is said to be the ability to choose or determine one’s own actions. That was the sort of freedom, escape from foreign intrusion, which the Hebrews sought when our First Lesson was written. There is a lot of debate among Old Testament scholars about the circumstances of its ...

4315. A Messenger of Promise

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

A journal titled The Religion and Society Report once editorialized that people are tempted to treat religion and society purely in terms of sociology or in terms of the politics of religion. The fact is that church bodies and ecclesiastical institutions are fair game for the sociologists who like to try to measure the churches as being either to the right or to the left. However, most sociologists are not in a favorable position to make judgments in that regard, because they do not understand that they ...

4316. The Promise of Sight

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

The Epiphany of our Lord never fails to arouse fascination for the story of the Visit of the Magi. The number, the identification, the homelands, and the occupations of the men from the East are not cited in the biblical account. That has allowed for all kinds of speculation as to who and what the Magi may have been. Some of that has been scholarly, some playful, some artful, some of it educational, and some worshipful. Carlos Menotti relates how fortunate it was for him that he could fall back on the ...

4317. Dealing with Depression

1 Kings 19:9-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

One of the reasons I love the Bible is that it is not afraid of the truth, even the sometimes sordid truth about its heroes. Abraham was a liar. Jacob was a thief. Moses had a murderous temper. King David was an adulterer. Heroes of the faith, everyone of them, but the Bible refuses to gloss over their shortcomings. It shows them "warts and all." We find another "wart" in our lesson from I Kings - one of the greatest of the prophets - Elijah. To briefly recount the background of the story, three years ...

4318. The Preacher Was A Bigot

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Jonah. Terrific story. One of Sunday School's most memorable hours - it is great drama. As you recall Jonah was a prophet in Israel. God came to him and said that he should leave his nation and go over to the capital of one of his country's fiercest foes...Ninevah in Assyria. Jonah did not want to go. So he went down to the seaport of Joppa and got on a boat headed for Tarshish in Spain. The direction was exactly opposite the one God wanted him to take. Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevites. After ...

4319. Stay in the Boat!

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Familiar story. Mark Twain refers to it in one of his books. He recalls a visit to the Holy Land and a stay in Capernaum. It was a moonlit night, so he decided to take his wife on a romantic boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Twain asked a man in a rowboat how much he would charge to take them out on the water. The man saw Twain's white suit, white shoes and white hat and supposed he was a rich Texan. So he said the cost would be twenty-five dollars. Twain walked away as he said, "Now I know why Jesus walked ...

4320. Now Is The Day Of Salvation

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

King Duncan

Nobody's at fault any more. Everyone's a victim. Isn't that the way you sometimes feel? The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently rejected the petition of William Jefferson Walker, sentenced in 1983 to serve 10 years in an Arizona prison for aggravated assault and leaving the scene of an accident. Walker had argued, as he has in four other petitions filed with state and federal courts, that he was deprived of a fair trial because no one in his jury pool had a last name that began with W,X,Y, or Z. ...

4321. Finding Glory

Galatians 6:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may remember a program years ago on television called "Topper." It was one of the better comedies in the early days of television. Jim Burns, in his book, RADICALLY COMMITTED, tells about one of the zanier episodes in this series. Mrs. Topper wanted to train her husband to be nicer to her. She found a book titled HOW TO TRAIN PUPPIES and followed it exactly by substituting her husband~s name for the puppy. So any time her husband Topper would do something nice for her, she would praise him and ...

4322. Casting Out An Evil Spirit

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: Casting Out An Evil Spirit New Title: Good Religion The idea of casting out an evil spirit sounds too much like superstition to many of us. We prefer to relegate such things to the ...

4323. Marriage: Agony Or Ecstasy

Matthew 5:31-32

Sermon

King Duncan

In a newspaper cartoon recently a woman with folded arms and a superior expression on her face says to her husband, "A good husband needs to be strong, caring and sensitive. You have all but three of those qualities." Then there is that classic story of the woman who hired a medium to bring back the spirit of her dead husband. When he appeared in a ghostly form, she asked, "Honey, is it really better up there?" Without hesitation he answered, "Oh, yes, it is much better. But I'm not up there!" Some of us ...

4324. Walking On The Water

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

We may wonder why such a whimsical story as that of Jesus walking on the water should even appear in the Scriptures in the first place. The story has certainly provided humorists with plenty of material. You know the kind of story I have in mind. "The wife of football coaching legend Bear Bryant once held a telephone receiver in her hand as she gazed out the window of a lakeside cottage, "Oh, no," she says, "It will be no trouble to get him. He is simply having his morning stroll across the lake." The ...

4325. The Fourth Person In The Trinity

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

King Duncan

A man named Kenneth Gibble tells of spending his after-school hours as a child in the feed mill where his dad worked. He enjoyed playing in the section of the warehouse where the bags of feed were stacked in deep rows. "I loved playing games of pretend," he says, "with the feed bags becoming in my imagination hills and valleys, boulders to hide behind, dark caves to hide inside." Sometimes one of the workers would come into the warehouse where Kenneth was playing. He would delight in spying on the worker ...

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