Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4501 to 4525 of 4681 results

4501. A Quantum Decision

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... Our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above. Before our Father’s throne, We pour our ardent prayers; Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, Our comforts, and our cares. We share our mutual woes, Our mutual burdens bear; And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain; But we shall still be joined in heart, And hope to meet again. Amen. 1. “How casinos get you to spend more money” by Brad Plumer, Vox Updated ...

4502. Now is the Day of Salvation

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Sermon

King Duncan

... that the group of refugees will not be betrayed, it has a devastating impact on his mind and emotions. Hawkeye becomes emotionally distraught and needs treatment. (4) A mother sacrifices her child that others might live. That is almost more than you and I can bear to think about. I wonder if the cross still has such an impact on the modern Christian? A Father gives the life of His Son for humanity’s salvation. Does that still move us? Sometime back a pastor surveyed a hundred members of various churches ...

4503. You're Never Too Old

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... .” Abraham went. That was the kind of faith Abraham had. And it was that faith that gave birth to the nation of Israel. In today’s lesson, God challenges Abraham’s faith with even more of a fantastic promise. God tells Abraham that Sarah, his aging wife, will bear him a son. Remember he was 99 and Sarah was 89. Abraham laughed at first. Wouldn’t you? He asked God how could it be that a woman of 90 and a man of 100 could become parents? But again, he believed God. Paul tells us that Abraham “hoped ...

4504. What Really Matters

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... who created us and sustains us with His love today. How about you, my friend? Chances are that, before you are through with this life, you will face many hardships and much distress. Have you developed that relationship with God that will give you strength to bear any burden, endure any heartache, be victorious over every evil? One last story. You will recall that in the early days of printing, books printers had to set all the type by hand. It was an arduous task. It is said that whenever printers received ...

4505. Holy Matryoshka!

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , the text reveals Mary, the Madonna, Mother of Mothers. But she is revealed in context of her engagement with Joseph of the House of David (another key and important clue to the child’s identity). The text then tells the story of Mary, who will bear a son, who will be the epiphany of the story and the most important kernel, a kernel of hope, which reflects upon all of the other layers in a kind of symbolic reverberation. Matryoshka. The entire text is revealed in the symbolic storytelling device of ...

4506. It’s Sunday…But Friday’s Comin’

Mark 11:1-11 · John 12:12-16

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

... not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Jesus warned them that this is the way it would be ...

4507. Enduring the Trials of Faith

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... because we have absolutely no control on the Lord’s response. Thus, we look for the easier, more common, and certainly tangible human answer. Although such a response is very common and a natural human reaction, it cannot be the proper response of one who bears the name Christian. No, as Saint Paul so clearly states, faith must be the central core of our relationship with Jesus. Our faith will constantly be tested, but as the trials that beset Abraham and Paul made them stronger and better able to deal ...

4508. Celebrating the Virtue of Humanity

Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... oil can; he carried it with him at all times. In a similar way, we find lives that creak, squeak, and need our oil of compassion. Let us, therefore, be ready with oil can in hand, imitating the compassion, humility and reconciliation of Jesus Christ the one whose name we bear and whose example we seek to follow.

4509. Rising to New Life

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... their foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous. The organization has been a lifeline and source of renewal for so many people throughout the world. Thus, the great celebration of Christ’s resurrection on this Easter day, should be a sign of hope for all who bear the name Christian. May this celebration of renewed life be for us a catalyst to seek new beginnings in every aspect of our life, with family, work, and our local community. Most especially, however, may Jesus’ conquest of death renew our relationship ...

4510. Under the Fig Tree

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and joy to your life and those around you. [1] For more on the metaphor of the fig tree which helps to illuminate this encounter, see Chabad.com on the fig tree as source of redemption; shalomadventure.com for the hypocrisy in a green tree that bears no fruit; and myjewishlearning.com and Talmud Bekhorot 45b for tree as a sign of one’s behavior. Timesofisrael.com and oneforisrael.com for the metaphor of the fig as a barometer of spiritual health. For more on the fig as tree of knowledge see Asaph ...

4511. Survival

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

Will Willimon

... about the end, which the world does not know. We are free to be peaceful because though we may not know what the future holds, we know who holds the future. What can we do? As Jesus says, such frightening times are for us a "time for you to bear testimony." There can be no better work for us than, each in our own way, each in our own place, to testify that God, not nations, rules the world. That history already has come out right when the Lordship of Christ was established. Cling to that. Only one thing ...

4512. Advice

Romans 12:2, 9-20; 13:8-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of the dining hall at the University of Indiana for all the students to meditate upon as they chewed breakfast. People in Indiana ought to know that, as it turns out, Polonius' advice, like a lot of advice fathers give their sons, is mostly hot air and doesn't bear much analysis: "Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar…Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;…Neither a borrower nor a lender be; own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." (Act ...

4513. Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

... Don't sentimentalize or sugar-coat this text! Love is patient,...kind;...not jealous or boastful;...not arrogant or rude,....does not insist on its own way;...is not irritable or resentful;...does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all,...believes all,...hopes all,...endures all,…" We were at the meeting of our church's Commission on Social Action, all of us concerned, committed to work justice for others. I think we were discussing our church's support for the community soup ...

4514. Patience

Matthew 11:2-11 · James 5:7-10

Sermon

Will Willimon

... thing you can do is to be patient. Patience in marriage arises out of the conviction that the other person is a mystery to be enjoyed rather than some problem to be solved, that the unknown future is bearable, even when it is difficult, if we bear it together. Marriage, and the patience it requires, is an everyday witness that we need not have total control over our lives in order to live life well (control which is, after all, probably only an illusion anyway). And if you get good enough at being patient ...

4515. R.S.V.P.

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , all as foretaste for the great, final, most fun party of all, the big Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19). In Jesus, the world is invited to party. The Kingdom of Heaven, he says, is like a party. God, the King, isn't sore at anybody, doesn't bear a grudge, isn't in the business of striking anyone off the list because his Son is here. God wants everyone to party. Because God's happy, God wants everybody to be happy. "And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast." As ...

4516. Here

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... with the church's goals, but our problem is with these stories, so concrete, particular. Like Martha, we are concerned about others in the broadest, most general sort of way, concerned when standing in the voting booth rather than standing on their front door stoop bearing a basket of canned goods and a turkey for Christmas. And yet....if we are to love as God loves, judging from Luke's account of the nativity, then somehow we must learn to love with a particularity and specificity that makes us squirm. The ...

4517. Returning

Isaiah 40:1-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... grope my way back h01ne? The question is, What road is God building toward you today? Christmas is time for homecoming. Look out on any mid-to-late December congregation, one sees familiar faces of kids home from college, wise relatives from the East bearing gifts, and always, I think, "exiles" come back to church. And sometimes preachers make wisecracks about these lost sheep who wander back in from the cold every year about Christmastime. Where have they been all year? we want to know. See you again on ...

4518. Untamed

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the power and might of the God of Israel. Both David and Jesus cut their “wisdom” teeth and grew their faith as men of the wilderness, chosen by God, and fit to survive. The wilderness of Israel were filled with wildlife. Lions, brown bears, panthers, leopards, jackals, cobras, hyenas, vipers, scorpions, porcupines, rats, wolves, and wild dogs roamed the deserts and lived in the same regions as deer, doves, gazelles, and goats.[2] This was a place that longed for restoration, a wild place, a desolate ...

4519. Bringing Life to a Party

Luke 24:36b-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... In trying to deal with the meaning of the cross on which Christ died, the early church came to understand that those nail prints in the hands and feet of the Master should have been ours. But God so loved the world that he sent his own Son to bear the burden brought about by the iniquities of us all. Can you deal with that? Can you believe that God really cares about you that much? A few years ago, the Christian Century magazine carried the story of a young student at Yale Divinity School named Lou Marshall ...

4520. This Verse Says It All

John 3:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... is no other answer apart from the cross.” (5) Our sin is what separated us from God and broke our relationship with the Creator of Life. And that broken relationship is the source of all our sorrow and of death. But God loves the world too much to let us bear the consequences of our sin. Jesus is the answer to our broken relationship with God. Jesus took on the sin that separates us from God. He died on the cross to put our sins to death once and for all. And he rose from the dead to show us that ...

4521. We Wobble, but We Don't Fall Down

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... influential toy of the 1920s. Any of you brave enough to admit you owned one of those? The Etch-A-Sketch and the Slip-N-Slide were popular in the 1960s and beyond. Surely you remember those. The 1970s brought us the Nerf Ball, the Weebles, and Paddington Bear. Cabbage Patch Kids were the craze of the 1980s. The 1990s brought us the Super Soaker water gun. And the 2000s brought us the Bratz Dolls, the Mindflex headset, and Zhu Zhu robotic hamsters. (1) I’m sure it’s hard for toy designers to know which ...

4522. Holy Hydration!

John 12:20-33 · Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... his Greek followers would see and hear. He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Then he reiterated that in order for God’s plan to be complete, he will need to first die. But then he will be lifted up, resurrected. Then Jesus says loudly, “Father, glorify your name.” And a voice answers from the heavens: “I have glorified it ...

4523. Tales from the Field

John 10:11-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... God do? “The Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” God confused their language so that no longer could they be homogenous, and God scattered them throughout the entire world, enforcing inclusivity and diversity, fruit-bearing, and evangelism upon all of them. The word “scattered” in the text is the same word used for sowing seed. In this scripture, God is sower. But we have yet another metaphor for this same phenomenon, and it occurs in our scripture ...

4524. Love Is a Verb

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

... “greatest of these is love?” When difficult times come we sometimes need someone to help us cry. When good times come we need to celebrate with people who actually care about our joy. In his excellent book, The Mark of a Christian, Francis Schaeffer writes, “All men bear the image of God. They have value, not because they are redeemed, but because they are God’s creation in God’s image. Modern man, who has rejected this, has no clue as to who he is, and because of this he can find no real value ...

4525. Mary's Song

Luke 1:46-47, 52

Sermon

Will Willimon

... is pure defiance, stunning faith, clench-fisted revolution, impudent in the face of death's omnivorous presence. Death hates music, as do all tyrants. In her singing, Mary becomes the premier disciple, a model for us all. She is the very first to bear the announcement that God is with us and the very first to believe. As Martin Luther once said in a Christmas sermon, three miracles occurred at Christ's nativity: God became human, a virgin conceived, Mary believed. For Luther, the greatest miracle that ...

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