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Showing 4451 to 4475 of 4937 results

4451. Gluttony - Living By Bread And The Word Of God

Mark 6:30-44, 1 Timothy 4:1-16

Sermon

R. Curtis Fussell

Every day at about 10:30 in the morning and then about 3:30 in the afternoon, I need a little snack to keep me going. A cookie or some pretzels, some quick and easy snack to get rid of a growling stomach; something to give me a boost so I can get my work done. If I go too long without some snack food, I get to feeling run down. I even become grumpy and irritable. Then I can't do my work because I'm thinking about food. Eating food is, of course, a necessity of life. We need food to live, to do our work; we ...

4452. Proper 18

Romans 13:8-14, Romans 13:1-7, Ezekiel 33:1-20, Exodus 12:1-30, Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: A word of warning. The Ezekiel 33 text is a word of admonition by God to Ezekiel that he must warn the people of their sins or else he will be held accountable. The Gospel Lesson contains the procedure for dealing with sin in the church. A three-step procedure is outlined for warning the wrongdoer and bringing him back in communion with the church. In the Second Lesson, Paul warns Christians to obey the government officials because they are agents of God. COMMENTARY Old Testament: Exodus 12:1-14 The ...

4453. Jesus And The Disciples

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

Comment: I have always wondered how Jesus gathered his Disciples. The way the biblical stories go, it seems like he knew most of them one way or another. So I hypothesized that they may have known each other as children. How, since they were from a number of different towns not that close together, could they have had contact? Having taught a few lab schools, I decided that maybe something like that might have occurred! Since the Sunday for which I was preparing was Rally Day, I wondered what a teacher ...

4454. Jesus And The Disciples

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

4455. Can We Love Too Much?

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Can we love each other too much? How much is too much? In a southern city newspaper there was an ad inviting people to a seminar entitled, “Women who love too much.” Some time ago a young widow told her pastor how deeply she had loved her husband and that she sometimes felt guilty because maybe she loved him too much. She added, “Sometimes I wonder if I loved my husband too much. Could that be the reason God took him away from me?” Can we love God too much? In a recent church magazine a retired pastor ...

4456. What Do You Mean, "Repent"?

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Thomas Long

Bright Lights, Big City is Jay McInerney's searingly-witty, emotion-ripping novel of one man's perilous drift down an alcohol and white-powder-polluted stream of delayed adolescence. The young man is bright, creative, and desperately lonely. His language is marked by the kind of sarcasm which forms at the intersection of keen intelligence, comic conceit, and human desolation. (He describes a woman he meets as having a voice "like the New Jersey state anthem played through an electric razor.") Barely ...

4457. A Mother · A Canaanite Woman

Mt 15:21-28 · Mk 7:24-30

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

Like the woman of Samaria the mother from Canaan whose story Matthew and Mark have preserved for us was a foreigner. Tradition calls her Justa and names her daughter Bernice. One scholar describes her as "by language a Greek, by nationality a Canaanite, and by residence a Syro-Phoenician." So, too, she was probably Greek by religion. Coming from the Phoenician coast as she did she was very likely a member of a seafaring family. I More to the point, however, the woman belonged to a race the Jews held ...

4458. Lent 4

Luke 13:18-22 · Joel 2:12-19

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

ORDER OF SERVICE Opening Words L: Let us worship our Creator, the God of Love. P: God continually preserves and sustains us. L: We have been loved with an everlasting love. P: Through Jesus Christ we have been given complete knowledge of God's glory. Hymn "Are Ye Able" Prayer Of Confession (Unison) Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. According unto thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my ...

4459. Our Own Mountaintop Walk

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

Matthias was the 13th of the 12 disciples! He had been chosen by lot to fill the 12th spot when Judas had removed himself from the close circle of Jesus' followers. Matthias had followed the crowds down from the Galilee and had been close to all the disciples through much of the teaching years. And so, with the casting of the lots that picked him, Matthias joined the inner circle of disciples. He was a serious man, trained in the religious law, and certain that Jesus was the expected Messiah. So certain ...

4460. A Whale Of A Tale

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Erskine White

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Arise and go to Nineveh." (Jonah 3:12) I'd be willing to bet a nickel (maybe even a dime) that if ten people were asked what they know about the Jonah story, most of them would say, "the whale." (Of course, the Bible never says that Jonah was swallowed by a whale - all the Bible says is "a great fish" - but everyone calls it a whale, anyway). Everyone remembers the whale, but in point of fact, the whale is the least important part of this ...

4461. The Prodigal Nation

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Erskine White

Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. (Luke 15:21) I once knew a young couple, a husband and wife, who won the grand prize on a TV show called "The One Hundred Thousand Dollar Pyramid." One night, they showed me a videotape of the show and I saw them there on television, jumping up and down and screaming like people do on game shows. They won more money than they had ever imagined, an American dream come true. But winning all that money really ...

4462. Easter 2

John 20:19-23, Acts 5:12-16, Acts 5:17-42, Job 42:1-6, Revelation 1:4-8, Revelation 1:9-20, John 20:24-31, Psalm 149:1-9

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The method of counting the Sundays between Easter Sunday and Pentecost provides the theological clue to worship and preaching during the Easter season. Easter, as a unitive event, which combines the death and resurrection of Jesus in its celebration, is the pivotal Sunday of the church year; the resurrection is imperative in the gospels and in the life of the church and the lives of its members. The resurrection assures believers of something that is entirely new, something beyond the ...

4463. The High Cost of Christian Living

Matthew 16:24-28

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Youth Sunday • Youth Sunday • Youth On a cliff overlooking a river in India stood a woman with two children. As the missionary doctor canoed down the river to the trading post, he noticed that the child who stood by her side was strong and healthy, while in her arms she held a tiny lad with twisted limbs that he would never use. When the missionary returned from the trading post again he saw the woman, but this time she had only one child. He knew immediately what had happened. He left his boat at the edge ...

4464. God's Everlasting Love

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Stephen Youngdahl

A General Funeral Sermon Each one of us must face the realities of life everyday. Today, however, in a special way, we face the reality of death. Death is truly a strong power. It can separate us from loved ones, it can bring moments of loneliness for those who survive, it can make us call into question all that we believe. Today we are faced with the death of one whom we loved. I'm sure many of you have already thought ahead to moments of loneliness you will face. Yes, death is real, death is powerful. ...

4465. Dispelling Ministry Illusions

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Jeremiah is often regarded as a Christ-figure, a prophet like Jesus, who suffered at the hands of his own people because he loved them enough to tell them the truth. A God-inspired man, fearlessly denouncing the religious laxity and social ills of his day, Jeremiah paid the price for his words. Tradition says that in 587 B.C., when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem as Jeremiah had predicted, his own people murdered him. The text we have before us is the call to ministry of the prophet Jeremiah in about ...

4466. Ka-Chang

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

John Jamison

It was a strange sound. Some said it was a kind of "clanging" sound, while others said it was more of a "ka-ching," or more accurately, a "ka-chang!" It sounded like the result of metal hitting metal, which is exactly what it was. In the valley off to the west from the hillside is a steep cliff rising up the face of Mount Arbel. The face of the cliff is covered with hundreds of caves, with no good way to get to them without climbing straight up the cliff. That's why the Zealots liked them. They were safe. ...

4467. What Will He Find ... When He Comes?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

Every pastor has been touched and troubled when there have been those in the congregation who suddenly have faced unemployment. Like an ambush from two sides, unemployment attacks us with the fear of financial insecurity on the one side and the loss of self-esteem on the other. Job searching can deepen both. In just such a moment I encountered Brian. He is a competent and creative person whose skills and personality cannot be long overlooked. "It will work out, Brian," I said. "God does provide." "I hope ...

4468. Reality Check

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Many of us have had them, those times when we felt like we were on top of the world, really happy, confident that we knew all the answers, could solve any problem that came up. Or we felt that we were really close to God, really in tune with God’s plan for us. In those moments we were excited and alive, and everything seemed new. The moment might have come at some exciting event in your life: graduation, baptism, your first kiss, your first day on your first job, your wedding, the birth of a child, even ...

4469. And Who is my Neighbor?

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Johnny Dean

The final Episode of the Seinfeld show which aired at the end of the 1998 TV season received a lot of flack for being disappointing. Perhaps the reason so many were disappointed in the show is because it moralized. It wasn’t very funny; in fact, it was self deprecating. All of the characters receive a one year sentence for failing to help someone who was robbed. What happens is this: Jerry plays a comedian on the show and he has just received a contract from NBC to do a sitcom and the network is flying ...

4470. Conversation or Monologue?

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Professional athletes, as a group, are not noted for their oratory skills – off the playing field, that is. From what I understand, several of them are highly efficient when it comes to getting under the skin of their opponents by the use of verbal punches. I think it’s called "trash-talking" – or at least, it used to be called that. But the ability to stand in front of a group of people and talk about something other than the sport they play is uncommon. Maybe that’s the reason why one interview, ...

4471. Counsel for Discouraged Disciples

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Sermon

John Bunyan had a remarkable ability to represent everyday truth in impressive allegory. One of the most vivid representations in his story, Pilgrim ‘s Progress, has to do with what happened in the Valley of Humiliation. No sooner had Pilgrim entered this valley than he saw the foul fiend Apollyon bearing down upon him, breathing fire and smoke. Pilgrim’s first impulse was to turn and flee for his life. As he was about to do so, however, he remembered that the only armor he wore was on his front side. ...

4472. Angry Hands

Psalm 26:1-12

Sermon

When we review the images of Lent, our theme of "Angry Hands" is not hard to visualize. One can well imagine that fists were clenched and raised as on Good Friday the crowd shouted "Crucify him, crucify him!" The angry hands of Roman soldiers struck Jesus' face, mocking and ridiculing him. Their anger was directed against the one who came to show them all God's love. What a mistake! Too frequently such misdirected anger is still evident in the way we deal with one another and in the manner in which we deal ...

4473. The Preposterous Prescription

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

"Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored." (v. 10) Prayer: Dear Lord, when we call on you for help, we have our own idea of the kind of help we want, when it should come, and how it should come. Help us to realize that your answer may be different from ours, and will always be more effective. Amen. While waiting in line at the bank, Earl, a friend I hadn’t seen for some time, told me of a visit he recently had made to a doctor. He said, "I was having some skin problems, and ...

4474. Pilgrimage of Faith John M. Cobb

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

To begin, let me just note that some of what follows is quoted.2 "In 1817 a group of 1,400 families, consisting of about 9,000 souls, set out under the leadership of [one] Johann Koch, a miller of [the town of] Schluchter in Wuerttemberg"3 (i.e., in Southwest Germany) to emigrate to the Caucasus region of Central Russia. From studies in the Book of Daniel and the Revelation, they were convinced that somewhere there in the east, " ‘near the original cradle of the human race’ ... the Savior would [return and ...

4475. Judgment and Justice

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

Israel was always getting into trouble with God, especially when it came to their worship of him. One would think the nation would have learned its lesson for all time when it made and worshiped the golden calf during its trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. Not so, for over and over again, they allowed their religious rites to become corrupt, especially by developing all sorts of ceremonies meant to please God while, outside the Temple, they lived rather secularly oriented lives. Apparently, their ...

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