Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4576 to 4600 of 4914 results

4576. Cross Connections

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Good Friday is not an easy day on which to preach, nor is what happened on Good Friday easy to explain. Many thoughtful Christians have a difficult time understanding how this very bad day in the life of Christ has become for Christians a good day. What's more, many find it perplexing to say that Jesus died for their sins because he died some 2,000 years before they were born. Then perhaps most perplexing of all are those theories of atonement that come to us in the New Testament, theories steeped in a ...

4577. What Are You Going to Do with My World?

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

A friend tells of his son who asked for a globe of the world as one of his Christmas gifts last year. Of course his parents were pleased to purchase something so useful for their child. So many Christmas lists leave much to be desired! The boy thoroughly enjoyed his gift and kept it on a small table in his bedroom. One evening his parents were discussing the fact that so many of our clothing items are imported from foreign countries. The wife recalled that a recently purchased scarf had come from Sri Lanka ...

4578. Lord of All

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

A question that is often asked by parents of small children is: "How big are you?" Children are so cute, and generally they give the same answer as they stand on tiptoe and spread their little arms to illustrate how big they are. With arms outstretched and spread wide, they inform their inquiring parent that they are "soooo big!" What children are saying is: "I'm huge. Can't you see how large I am?" When parents ask their children this question, they do so because they want them to realize they are growing ...

4579. What Really Matters The Price Of The High Calling

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The price of a vital faith, and there is a price, the price of a vital faith is continuous struggle. The quest is perennial. We were created God to grow. We were recreated by Christ to grow spiritually. So Paul sets out in this word about pressing toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The pattern is clear. So let me lay it out in the fashion of that old black preacher who said of his preaching, first, I tell them what I’m going to tell them. Then I tell them. And then I ...

4580. Draw Nigh To God

James 4:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

An older couple was driving down the road on Sunday afternoon. She was leaning against the door on her side -- some would say polishing the chrome -- and he was driving. They were eager to get where they were going, but were slowed down dramatically by a young couple, who were cuddling in the car before them -- the young woman was almost sitting in his lap, rubbing his face, and now and then kissing him on the cheek, and ever now and then -- though it was dangerous -- he would turn around and kiss her. ...

4581. Dead Man Walking

Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Dead man walking. As we all learned from the Sean Penn/Susan Sarandon movie of that same name a few years back, "Dead man walking" is the phrase uttered by guards and inmates as a death-row inmate takes his final walk down the prison hallway to the execution chamber. Moving under the black weight of the imminent fulfillment of society's death sentence, the convict literally is a dead man walking. As gruesome as that image is, an equally grim reality comes from the testimony of all four of our Scripture ...

4582. Deal with It, Get over it, and Get Help

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In 1973 a gang of bank robbers held up the Kreditbanken (Credit Bank) in Stockholm, Sweden. The police interrupted their heist, but the bank robbers proceeded to hold a number of bank employees hostage for six long days. When at last they were rescued these kidnap victims, who had been terrorized and abused by their captors, stunned the authorities by demonstrating considerable emotional attachment to their victimizers. Some of the victims even publically defended the very ones who had held them at gun ...

4583. Caring for the “Little Ones”

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

George Reed

This Gospel Reading from Mark is two stories entwined together. Separately, they are powerful stories but when they are combined their force is greatly increased. Here, in one episode, we have Jesus, the healer, raising a little girl from the dead and curing a woman who has suffered for twelve years from her affliction. While these two healings are wondrous in their power it is the status of the ones who are healed that gives the story its power. It is difficult for us today to understand the social ...

4584. Isaiah 43:16-21

Isaiah 43:16-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

For the desert tribes of Israel, the life-giving presence of Yahweh was intimately tied up in the image of the life-sustaining presence of water. Deliverance and water are found side by side throughout Scripture, beginning with creation's deluvian dunking from human wickedness in Genesis 6 to the New Testament's emphasis on baptism’s power to start life over again. Water cleanses, restores and refreshes, all at the Lord's command. Isaiah 43 is part of the writings of Deutero or Second Isaiah. The enemy of ...

4585. Tested, for God’s Sake

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Mike Ripski

You had those teachers, who were so susceptible to their students’ feigned interest that they could be enticed to use up the whole class period on some esoteric topic and run out of time for the intended the pop quiz. There’s something about a test that makes us anxious. We may fail. Our weakness, inadequacy, ignorance will be exposed. We know that every one of us can be given a test that we will fail. It all depends on the test. Whether it be naming all the state capitals or the books of the Bible or ...

4586. In God We Trust – Or Do We?

John 4:46-54

Sermon

James Merritt

[Have everyone take out either a dollar bill or a coin] This is the most recognizable currency and the most universally accepted currency in all of the world. On this currency are four words that is the official motto of the most powerful nation in history. The words of course are - In God We Trust. It is interesting to know where this motto came from and how it came to be put on our currency. During the Civil War, Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase received a letter from a pastor in Pennsylvania ...

4587. Who Will Cast the First Stone?

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There is a down home story about a small town veterinarian who had invented an instrument with which, he boasted, even a child could administer a capsule to a horse, no matter how unruly or reluctant the horse might be. One summer the vet went to county fair to demonstrate his new invention. They couldn’t find anyone who would permit his horse to be a part of the experiment, but they did find a mule, and soon a crowd had gathered to watch. Undaunted, the veterinarian inserted a long glass tube into the ...

4588. The Road of Peace

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

The word on our Advent Wreath today is PEACE. About 2,700 years ago, the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah caught a vision of a child to be born who would be called the Prince of Peace. This leader from the lineage of David would rule the world and there would be no limits to the peace he would bring. Cynics among us are saying why cry peace, when there has been no peace in the history of human kind? The militants remind us that even Jesus said, “I came not to bring peace but a sword." Meanwhile, American soldiers and ...

4589. Luke 23:33-43

Luke 23:26-43

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Christianity’s liturgical calendar has some unusual qualities. It celebrates or commemorates things that now are often unfamiliar to the twenty-first century church. So it is that the lectionary readings for this Sunday, especially the gospel text, may seem strangely out of place at this point in the calendar year. Pop culture is already revved-up for the extravagance and expense of the Christmas holiday. Yet even if consumer culture barely admits that there is a Christian component behind Christmas, there ...

4590. Salvation Has A Name!

Acts 4:5-12

Sermon

Ken Lentz

There's a story going around about a college student who stayed up all night preparing for his zoology test. He entered the classroom and saw ten stands each with a bird on it, each bird covered with a sack with only the legs showing. The professor instructed the students to use the legs to identify each bird by name, habitat, genus, and species. The perplexed student, sitting in the first row, was consumed by despair. All legs looked alike. Enraged, he approached the desk of the professor and exclaimed, " ...

4591. John 6:1-21

John 6:1-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The miracle of the "sign" (John's preferred term) of feeding the five thousand in today's gospel text is the only wondrous work of Jesus recorded in all four of the gospels. John's version, however, contains its own unique details and nuances, along with a startling ending. Throughout this unit the subtle and not-so-subtle parallels that John draws between Moses, who was Israel's first "redeemer," and Jesus, whose ultimate act of redemption is yet to come, is evident. The Sea of Galilee, so prominently ...

4592. When We Are Tempted

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor John Jewell tells about a 20/20 episode sometime back in which some children of about four years of age were forced to deal with the ancient scourge of temptation. They were left alone in a room. Sitting in front of them was two or three M&Ms. They were told they could have a whole package of M&Ms if they would wait five minutes for a bell to ring before devouring the two or three M&Ms in front of them. The struggle of temptation was recorded through a two way mirror. The result was hilarious, says ...

4593. The ME and the WE

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The gospel is not a tablet of ink, but a table of food around which everyone is invited to sit down together and eat, drink and dream for tomorrow we act. A few weeks ago we marked the fiftieth anniversary (1963-2013) of Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech. The power of that proclamation, the timely words of one man spoken at the one right moment before the enormous crowd gathered before the Lincoln Memorial, provided the “tipping point” for the civil rights movement and for decades of ...

4594. Stargazing, Naval Gazing, and Other Waiting Games

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Tony Everett

Hurry up and wait! Hurry up and wait! Anyone who has spent time in the military has heard this and lived this as a part of their daily routine. Rapid flurries of activity are followed by long periods of waiting in line. Waiting seems to be part of life in every context. We wait in lines at grocery stores, department stores, banks, athletic events, concerts, motor vehicle offices, and government agencies. It seems like time passes with the speed of light on our way there and at the pace of a slug after we ...

4595. Lesson from a Chipmunk

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Tony Everett

In today’s first lesson the apostles are gathered with their families in an upstairs room somewhere in Jerusalem. So much had happened during the past few months that it was hard to put it all together. They had accompanied Jesus into the city, receiving a royal welcome fit for a king. Then there was their last supper together, followed by Judas’ betrayal and the arrest in Gethsemane, their own narrow escape from the soldiers, and that most horrible crucifixion. They had just about given up all hope when ...

4596. The Full Advent: Whoa! No Way? Wow!

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

This Sunday marks a new “season” in the church calendar. After a series of twenty-four Sundays defined simply as “After Pentecost,” the church community around the world is now called to focus on a new turn in our journey. Advent is a season of anticipation and preparation for the “coming” (adventus) of Jesus. But mostly during Advent we do strange and ridiculous things. We put up a tree in our living room. Not too long ago our ancestors even used to light the tree with burning candles, which burned many ...

4597. The Three Shower Gifts

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

What’s in a name? Well, in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare thought that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But in San Quentin Live, Johnny Cash sang a ballad that showed how one guy’s life was completely skewed because he was a “Boy Named Sue.” Sometimes names really do matter. “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” In the Western Church we call this Sunday the “Second Sunday After Christmas.” The day after tomorrow, January 6, will be “Epiphany,” the official ...

4598. Waiting Is So Hard to Do

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

(Ascension of the Lord) It is said that Americans are the most time-conscious people in the world. We are always in a hurry. We invented fast food, instant coffee, instant messenger, express mail, express oil changes and expressways. We are people constantly on the move. As one man put it, we’re people who shout at our microwave ovens to hurry up. I’m not going to ask you to hold up your hand if you enjoy waiting . . . for anything. That would hold up my sermon too much. And that would be a cardinal sin. ...

4599. Naomi and Ruth

Ruth 1:1-22

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

Judah’s Famine and Elimelech’s Death: The story of Ruth has a specific historical context, the days when the judges ruled (lit. when the judges judged). The act of repeating a seminal Hebrew root twice (shepot hashopetim), however, immediately implies that Ruth’s opening line attempts to do more than just situate the book historically. Hebrew, like English, repeats words for emphasis (GKC 117p). Ruth, in other words, is very much a story about mishpat (“justice,” from shapat, “to judge, rule”). 1:1 The ...

4600. The Path of Discipleship

Mark 8:31--9:1

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: Jesus’s role as the suffering Messiah (8:27–33) provides a model for his disciples. The path of true discipleship is one of self-denying and cross-bearing. Understanding the Text The previous section developed the necessity and meaning of Jesus’s suffering (8:27–33). Jesus then uses his messianic suffering as the model for discipleship. The sayings in 8:34–9:1 define the implications for true followers, with the thesis statement telling how to follow (v. 34) followed by two clarifications telling ...

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