Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4626 to 4650 of 4937 results

4626. To Who Can We Go?

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Back in August of 1969 a Conference on Liturgy and Worship was held in the city of Milwaukee. Several hundred delegates from churches all across the country were in attendance. At a set time in the program the participants were given an unusual assignment. They were asked to go out singly into the streets of the host city, look for signs of hope, and then report back. As far as I know, they are still out! (I imagine that they came back, but the news report I read about the conference failed to say so.) At ...

4627. Is Suffering Punishment for Sin?

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

One of the most helpful books of recent years has been Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In the opening pages he writes, “Like most people, my wife and I had grown up with an image of God as an all-wise, all-powerful parent figure who would treat us as our earthly parents did, or even better. If we were obedient and deserving, he would reward us. If we got out of line, he would discipline us, reluctantly, but firmly. (God) would see that we got what we deserved in life.” (New ...

4628. Life Begins at Thirty-Eight

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be made well?’” (John 5:6) It sounds like a stupid question, doesn’t it? Jesus meets this fellow at the crowded pool, this poor crippled chap who had been coming there for perhaps thirty-eight years waiting to be healed, and asks him point blank, “Do you want to be made well?” We can imagine the look the crippled man must have given Jesus. We can imagine him saying something like, “Do I want to be ...

4629. It Costs to Belong

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

William Barclay says that “James, the brother of John and the Son of Zebedee, is the most tantalizingly vague figure among the twelve.” (THE MASTER’S MEN, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1959, p.100) We know that he occupied a leading place among the twelve apostles. In every list of the Twelve, his name appears in the first three—even ahead of Andrew, Peter’s brother. And yet we know very little about him. (His name is not even mentioned in the Fourth Gospel.) We know little about him, but what we do know is ...

4630. Good Friday

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

A clerk in a gift shop in California was responding to an inquiry from a customer about purchasing a gold cross. The clerk said, “Yes, madam, we do have gold crosses. Do you want a plain one or one with a little man on it?” To an outsider, the cross must seem like a very strange thing to have at the center of our worship. It was a particularly gruesome instrument of torture and death. It is sort of like having an electric chair or a hangman’s noose at the center of our attention. Outsiders may wonder at ...

4631. On the Threshold: From Law to Gospel

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

David Busic

Plato tells the story of a shepherd named Gyges, who was in the service of the king. One day there was a great storm and an earthquake where he was pasturing his flock. A great chasm opened in the earth and Gyges descended into the chasm. There he saw many astonishing things, including what looked like a human corpse. Although there were many amazing treasures in the chasm, he took nothing except a gold ring the corpse had on his finger. He then made his way out. He attended the usual meeting of shepherds ...

4632. The Lord's Prayer: Thine Is the Kingdom

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

We have learned how the Lord''s Prayer truly encompasses and speaks to the totality of the human experience. We have discovered that no believer can ever really exhaust the meaning of this prayer, but only experience anew its purpose and power. It truly leads us into the "Presence of the Almighty." This prayer has a three-fold purpose for the pilgrim in that it helps us to center our lives, provides a corrective for our Christian walk, and provides comfort for the long haul of life''s sacred journey. ...

4633. The World's Still Point

1 John 5:1-12

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

Just this past week I received an e-mail from a gentleman I do not know. He was obviously sending this e-mail out to a long list of people. In essence his message was that I should go to a web site he listed and read the essay there about abortion. At one point in his e-mail he wrote the following: Remember, abortion is not just a political issue. It is very much a religious one. It drives straight to the heart of our beliefs. I am going to do everything possible to tell believers about this essay and I ...

4634. The Christian Life Defined By Prayer

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

My grandmother Dunham came to live with us when I was four or five years old. She was a quiet, gentle woman who spoke very little. But her presence was like a benediction to our entire household. I remember Grandma as she sat on the swing on the front porch. Now you don’t know anything about the South, unless you know that swings on front porches are very important. She would sit in the swing on the front porch, reading the Bible. During our play, we often found her with her hands folded over the open ...

4635. Saints In The Light

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

“Saints in the Light” — does that conjure any images in your mind? Stained Glass? A well-lighted painting in a museum, like El Greco’s Saint Jerome which I saw at the Metropolitan in New York a few years ago? Or, maybe your mind is more playful or impish. Did you think of some of that religious art in luminous paint on black velvet? You can buy them on the roadside in some of your vacation travels, especially if you get near Mexico. Or, perhaps less impish, but also less sophisticated, you thought of a ...

4636. Declaration Of Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

It was in the newspaper back in the mid-1950's, during the height of the civil rights movement. An unforgettable picture, which captured not only the emotion of one man, but the deep sense of freedom and joy and release and affirmation of a whole race. A black man, who must have been over 100 years old, was being carried on the shoulders of a group of young men. They were taking him up the steps of a courthouse in a Southern town to register to vote. The caption beneath the picture said he was born a slave ...

4637. As Real As It Gets

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

An unforgettable comment was made at the New York City Marathon, and was recorded by a newspaper reporter. When the wheelchair participants came into view and people began to applaud, a man alongside the reporter remarked, "Wait until the real runners come along!" Another person nearby said, "This is as real as it gets!" (Donald J. Shelby, "Unless the Race Is Worth Running,") That is where it is today with our scripture lesson. Jesus' call is "as real as it gets": "No one who puts his hand to the plow and ...

4638. Living by a Promise

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The preacher who confronts the three stated texts for this Sunday once again faces the confusing situation of wondering how on earth the three lessons are related. Perhaps several answers are possible, but to my mind, all three of them have to do with living by a promise. In the context of our Genesis text, Abraham and Sarah and their households have obeyed the command of God and left Ur of the Chaldees (v. 7; cf. 11:31), settled temporarily at Haran in Mesopotamia, and then journeyed on to Canaan, the ...

4639. Ascension of Our Lord

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

As we all know, the book of the Acts of the Apostles forms the second volume, as it were, of Luke's writing. In the Gospel, he has told the account of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. Now he begins the account of the growth of the early church by the power of the Holy Spirit. To begin his second volume, however, Luke repeats some of the things he has said at the end of the Gospel story. Once again, the command to the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they receive God's promised "power from ...

4640. Maximizing Your Potential

Isaiah 5:1-7

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Once upon a time two beautiful flowers lived side-by-side in a magnificent garden. One was bright yellow and the other was bright blue. From the first moments of their existence these two flowers received profuse praise from the world for their vigor and beauty. "I love your face," said the sun to the yellow flower. "I love your eyes," said the sky to the blue flower. "I love your overall beauty," said the butterfly. "I love your pollen," said the bee. "And I your nectar," said an ant. "I love the shade ...

4641. Fire Falling from Heaven

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

Jesus spends much of the twelfth chapter of Luke reassuring and encouraging his followers in the face of possible catastrophic circumstance. "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more" (v. 4). "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life" (v. 22). "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (v. 32). The same chapter ends on a far less positive note. Rather than encouraging reassurance, Jesus ...

4642. The Bent-over Woman

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

As was his custom, Jesus went that Sabbath morning to the synagogue for worship. As he was preaching and teaching, he happened to glance toward the fringe of the crowd where he saw a very crippled woman. She was bent over and was unable to stand up straight. When he inquired, Jesus was told the woman had been that way for eighteen years. Can you imagine? For nearly two decades this woman spent every waking moment bent double. When she went to the market she did not see the distant green hillsides. She saw ...

4643. A Peek at the Resurrection

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

As the movie Contact opens, the audience sees a precocious girl named Eleanor learning how to use a ham radio. Nicknamed "Sparks" by her father, she has reached a man in Florida, and is excited that her radio lets her speak with someone so far away. In a later scene she asks her father wistfully if she can call her deceased mother on the radio. He responds sadly that no antenna is big enough. As the movie progresses, the audience learns that Sparks' beloved father died of a heart attack when she was nine ...

4644. Grace Has Appeared

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

A little baby was born nearly 2,000 years ago under very unimpressive circumstances. He was born to poor working people living in an oppressed country. He was born while the parents were on a journey that was required by a tyrant, and they had to stay in a stable instead of in a home. The baby was laid to sleep in a trough from which cattle usually ate. And yet, Christians down through all of those years have believed that there was something very special about that birth. We have believed that, in that ...

4645. Speaking of the Spirit

Romans 8:12-17

Sermon

William G. Carter

There's something you might not know about the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul never tells any stories about Jesus. But he does talk about the meaning of those stories. For instance, Paul never tells the story of Christmas, but he does say, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law" (Galatians 4:4). He doesn't speak of shepherds, angels, or Magi, but he talks about the meaning of Jesus' birth. Paul never tells ...

4646. Dig In

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

There is a story about a businessman who checked into a hotel late at night. He decided that he would stop in the lounge for a nightcap. Pretty soon he called the hotel desk, and asked, "What time will the lounge be opened in the morning?" The night clerk answered, "9:00 a.m." About an hour later he called again. The phone rang. The night clerk answered it. The businessman again asked, "What time will the lounge be opened in the morning?" He said, "9:00 a.m." He called a third time, and every hour ...

4647. The Extended Family

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Mark Trotter

I always wondered what Jesus would do with Mother's Day. There was no such thing in his time, as you know. And contrary to what some people think, Mother's Day is not one of the holy days in the Church's calendar. But I still wonder about Jesus. What would Jesus have done with Mother's Day? Of course, we don't know. But we do know that there was a command, one of the Ten Commandments, to honor your father and your mother. It is a tradition, we are told, that he did observe. The testimony is in two places, ...

4648. Lent 2

Genesis 12:1-8, Romans 4:1-25, 2 Timothy 1:1-2:13, John 3:1-21

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-8 By faith Abraham accepts Yahweh's promise and obeys his command. Around 2000 B.C. a man named Abraham lived in Haran. Yahweh came to him and called him to leave his home and family to go to a strange, unknown land where he would become the father of a great nation. Abraham proved his faith in Yahweh by trusting his Word of promises and obeying. He left all for a great adventure in faith. Yahweh promised to bless him and to make him a blessing to all nations. Abraham ...

4649. Easter

Acts 10:23b-48, Colossians 3:1-17, John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Acts 10:34-43 (C, E); Acts 10:34, 37-43 (RC) Peter tells Cornelius and his friends that God raised Jesus from the dead. A very devout Roman centurion, Cornelius, sends for Peter to preach to him and his friends. In his sermon, Peter reviews the ministry of Jesus including the crucifixion and resurrection. It is to be noted that Peter says God raised Jesus; he did not raise himself. Note also Peter explains that the risen Christ did not appear to people in general, but a few chosen ones ...

4650. How to Beat the Devil

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

(Note: I've chosen to wait until the end of the sermon to introduce the button images - EASY button versus REJECT and RESET buttons. You may choose to introduce them much earlier.) With the Super Bowl finally out of the way, we can now focus on something really important - basketball! In basketball things change so much more quickly than in football. Partly because there are three-point shots; partly because of the trumping effect of last second foul shots; partly because the basketball court is still the ...

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