Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4351 to 4375 of 4964 results

4351. Get Up and Go

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... whippings for no reason. It was a long way to Nazareth by way of Egypt. Wayne Oates writes “Life's fixed organizations, dreams, hopes, and fantasies have a way of slamming into walls and being smashed. A new way through, over, around, or out has to be found ... , “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." About 100 years ago, a lawyer by the name of Max Ehrmann wrote a creed for life entitled Desiderata. In part it ...

4352. Come and See

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... son is given. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The peace of God comes from peace with God. Meet the Prince of Peace tonight. He will give you a self you can live with, a love you can relate with, a hope you can dream with. Come and see the Prince of Peace. II. COME AND SEE THE LIGHT OF LIFE. “Get a life!" Exactly how do we accomplish that imperative? Mack Wayne Metcalf thought money would give him a life. He won 65.4 million dollars in a Powerball ...

4353. Valuing Life Without Playing God

John 10:10-15

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... hands, as any other minister has, as they took their last breath. And it was not in some dark, secluded place separated from people, but in a home or hospital or hospice surrounded by family, friends, the church, and clergy. Love was so thick you could feel it, and hope was so real you could see it, and heaven was so close that you could touch it until at last the loved one finally closed their eyes and passed away. My friends, in my opinion that is dying with dignity. C. Life is difficult when it comes to ...

4354. The Joyful Provider

John 2:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... ever got down to our toes it would set our feet to dancing. Peace that Endures — Peace that the world doesn’t understand. I hope you read the Gospel of John during this Lenten season and if you read far enough over in the 14th chapter you'll run ... offer. He keeps on giving. He turns water into wine, sinners into saints, fear into courage, sorrow into joy, defeat into victory, despair into hope, death into life. John 10:10 says, I am come that you may have life, and have it abundantly. That's the Jesus I ...

4355. The Gentle Healer

John 9:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... in his day to try to make a blind man well. So I understand why people travel to Lourdes to drink the spring water hoping to be healed, or attend a Benny Hinn Crusade seeking a special touch, or take alternative medicines praying that vitamins might be the ... t that a beautiful wedding? Yes, but it's a shame the bride didn't lose a few pounds. - Congratulations on your new promotion. I hope you get along with your new boss better than I did. - Have you seen Jane's new baby? Too bad the little thing looks just ...

4356. The Resurrection and Life

John 11:32-44

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... confirmation her mother became ill, seriously ill. We prayed for her in class. We even held a healing service for her in the Chapel of the hospital. Linda especially prayed earnestly for her mother to get well. Instead, her mother died. While we tried to say words of hope at the funeral, the loss was just too much for that junior high girl. I never saw her again in church. I don't know if she ever recovered her faith in God or not. Sometimes the silence of God is deafening. The most troubling part of this ...

4357. Neighborly Prayer

Luke 10:25-37

Illustration

King Duncan

... people are valuable and worthy of love. His calming demeanor and accepting message touched the boy's heart and gave him hope. One day a children's foundation set up a meeting between the boy and his hero, Mr. Rogers. Upon meeting Mr. ... object of someone else's prayers. But from that day forward, the boy began praying for Fred Rogers, and he experienced a new sense of hope and self-esteem through this act of praying for a man he so admired. When Tom Junod complimented Fred Rogers on this idea, Rogers reacted ...

4358. Holy Waste

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... someone how much we love them and how grateful we are to them; the impulse to give some special gift or speak some special word. And the tragedy is that the impulse is so often strangled at birth. I want to share something very personal with you. I hope by now — during my five years of being your preacher – that you know the spirit in which I do this sort of sharing. What is more authentic than the personal? Is anything real until it becomes personal? I have a beautiful sheep here. I wish you folks in ...

4359. A Kingdom that Cannot Be Shaken

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... can do. God promises us an unshakeable kingdom. What that means is this: in the midst of unimaginable chaos, God can give us a place of unassailable calm and assurance. While the world around us is frantic with doubt and despair, we can have an inner spring of hope and tranquility because our trust is in God who is beyond this world of shakable things. One author compares it to a bird perched on the branch of a high tree. He asks, “Have you ever watched a bird sleeping on its perch and never falling off ...

4360. A Crippling Spirit - Sermon Starter

Luke 13:10-17

Illustration

Brett Blair

... in the story. The reader is allowed to see the basic decency and humanity of Quasimodo, the hunchback, while the crowd sees him only as a monstrous freak. The story, in its essence, is part tragedy, and part hope. Our text this morning, not surprisingly, comes from Luke's Gospel. This story also, is part tragedy and part hope. Luke is the only Gospel writer who records this event in the life of Christ. But Luke, being a physician, would have been drawn to a story like this. He does not go into a lot of ...

4361. Ruining the Christmas Spirit

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... outside of it. These vignettes are not quite as harsh as the first one. They do not threaten destruction, and they offer more hope, at least for the one person in each pair who is received. Still, the vignette is heartbreaking. When God acts, when God reaches ... of the bridesmaids. Everybody falls asleep because the bridegroom is taking his time. After the word of judgment comes the word of hope, the word of forbearance, the word of grace. God holds the rushing waters back. The thief takes the night off. We ...

4362. Center Stage

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... sentence, we don't want to skip over it so quickly. To us, this looks like a drama that Days of Our Lives couldn't hope to match! What might have been behind Matthew's short phrase, "she was found to be with child"? What did Mary think when she discovered ... theologian puts it, "According to the witness of the New Testament, the very basis of our salvation, the very ground of our hope consists in the fact that we are permitted to believe, know, and confess the authoritative presence of God in the human life ...

4363. The Horror before the Blessing

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... spares us any scenes in which children actually die, but Pharaoh's brutality is real. Pharaoh feels threatened by all of the Hebrews in his land. Moses' mother saves him in a bold act. You know the story. She places him in a basket on the river and hopes for the best. In sweet irony, Pharaoh's own daughter finds Moses and defies her father's order, much like the Magi defy Herod's orders. Jesus' parents saved him when Joseph encountered an angel in a dream. Off they go to Egypt, where the people of Israel ...

4364. God’s Weather Report

Matthew 5:38-48

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... is still a human being. Nevertheless, even though we in the church can affirm the mercy that our courts showed to Moussaoui, a situation like this always feels unfinished. Often when we show mercy, the person we show mercy to doesn't respond the way we hope they will. We like situations in which, when we show mercy, the other person has pangs of conscience, feels sorry, and becomes changed by our mercy. That doesn't always happen. Moussaoui is a good example. After the verdict, in which his life was spared ...

4365. Streams of Living Water

John 4:5-42

Sermon

Lee Griess

... ourselves with the drinks of power, possessions, and popularity. We think that personal pleasure can give us lasting satisfaction. We hope that power and prestige will fill us up. But if power could produce peace of mind, then there ought to be ... of living water — that's what Jesus offers us today — streams of living water. There is a source of blessing in our world today. There is hope for every living thing, and it is faith in Christ Jesus. It is the living water he offers us. But we must send out our ...

4366. Always with Us

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Lee Griess

... whose child has rebelled and left home. Or any of the countless others in the world around us who feel alone and without hope, rejected and lonely, like that rookie facing Bob Gibson. To them and to us, there is good news this morning. For there is ... . I will not abandon you. I will send you a counselor, an advocate, a comforter, a friend who will care for you, who will offer you hope when there is none to be found, help when you are helpless, comfort when you can find none, and life in the face of death. The ...

4367. Hunger and Politics

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... . But the more they pushed the certainty of their beliefs on him, the more he chafed and backed away. He could no longer live in the simplicity of their dogma, even if it gave them shelter and safety. So now he wandered in the wilderness of academia, hoping in each class to find a glorious utopia or a grand dream or at least a tiny map that might point toward some secularized Holy Grail. Every term, he called me to describe his latest faculty mentor, a true savior, finally, who was worthy of his devotion ...

4368. A Career in The Kingdom

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... in seven places and her neck was broken. Joni also suffered several fractures to her head. At first, doctors held little hope for Joni's survival. She would later remember lying on her hospital bed catching whispers of concerned professional conversation through a ... another hangover. "Woe is me!" they cry, in the first note of repentance. It is then, and then alone, that a ray of hope dawns. The journey begins in that moment, just as Bill W. testified in The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. It starts at ...

4369. From “Uh-oh” To “Ah-hah!” — An Axe, A Stump, And A Shoot

Isaiah 11:1-10

Sermon

Tony Everett

... hallway of Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, was a large poster proclaiming "Katrina was an act of nature. What we do here is an act of God." "Ah-hah!" Destruction of the gulf region was immeasurable. Nevertheless, a "stump" of hope remained strong in this God-given vision of promise and encouragement. Today, this second Sunday of Advent, God gives us "discouraged stumps" a vision of God's promised love as we view the cross, the altar, and see God's gathered people surrounding ...

4370. Restoration Frustration

Isaiah 63:7-9

Sermon

Tony Everett

... stores are in a frenzy of activity on December 26, perhaps their busiest day of the entire year. Finding a shopping mall parking space on December 26 is almost as frustrating as experiencing yet one more unmet Christmas expectation. For many of us, our hopes for restored family and renewed energy have been extinguished with the Christmas candles ... again. For many of us, the presents we purchased with money we don't really have, were received with the same feeling we will have when the credit card bills ...

4371. What Did The Turkey Say? (Or Contentious Communities)

Isaiah 58:3-9a (9b-12)

Sermon

Tony Everett

... birth of Christ. The religious and political leaders of Judah had been living in exile in Babylon, taken as captives by the conquering army of King Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem was a defeated city. Its temple destroyed; its walls crumbled. The exiles had lost all hope of returning. Perhaps many of them remembered that Isaiah also declared God's promise of deliverance, a new exodus. "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that she has served her term, that her ...

4372. Converting to Christianity

Acts 2:14, 36-41

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... nontransformed Christian invite others into lives of thorough change. Indeed, could Peter have issued the call so powerfully if he himself were unchanged? Could Paul, after pursuing the new church to persecute it, have become the apostle without having a new mind? If we hope to bring others to Christ, it must be through our own authentic faith journey of repentance and conversion. It's really that simple — not easy, it's true, but it is simple. Can we step into this kind of repentance together? This move ...

4373. The Three Dimensions of Life

Genesis 6:1-22

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... on a secluded island. He asked the monk, "Father Makarios, do you still wrestle with the devil?" "Not any longer. I have grown old and [the devil] has grown old with me. He does not have the strength. Now I wrestle with God." "With God? And do you hope to win?" "No. I hope to lose." Is that not what it means to develop the height dimension of life? To surrender to God and let him direct us. Methuselah lived 969 years. Did he fulfill the promise of his life? We have no way of knowing. But we know what we ...

4374. A Change of Mind

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... authority and motivation. Did he lead them into the wilderness so they could die from starvation? Some suggested returning to Egypt, where life might not have been great living as slaves, but at least they had a warm bed and enough food. God gave the Ten Commandments, hoping to reform and remold the people. Let's just say that they were not too open to changing their ways. Idle minds are the playthings of the devil. Without a clear sense of who they were and what they were trying to accomplish they were in ...

4375. Show Me What’s Real

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... we have solved the problem of hunger," because we have not. Eleanor, the housewife who got off the couch, built an organization from a basement operation run by a handful of friends into a sprawling forty-acre campus in downtown Detroit. Today, Focus: HOPE employs over 500 people, boasts of more than 50,000 volunteers, and has helped over 4,000 people become gainfully employed through job-training programs, and teaching skills for the twenty-first century. "You will not change a thing," Eleanor claims, "by ...

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