Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4651 to 4675 of 4977 results

4651. Redemption

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me ...

4652. Lord of the Harvest

Matthew 9:35-38, Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... their beloved mountains. When God called His people together from the mountain of Sinai those many years ago, God too gave his flock instructions on how to live a life in God’s different kind of kingdom. And God established shepherds along the way to make sure to keep His people on track, to rescue those who wandered away, and to call to those who got lost. Many of those shepherds failed along the way. Jesus would need new shepherds, who knew the way as He did. He knew the time was ripe. It was time for ...

4653. The Prophet of Locusts and Honey

Luke 3:1-20, Luke 3:21-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.’” John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does ...

4654. The Curse of the Tongue

James 3:1-12, James 3:13-18, 2 Timothy 2:14-26, Psalm 34:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and 14) Miriam and Aaron Speak Against Moses (Numbers 12) Naaman is Cured of Leprosy by Elisha and the Deceit of Gehazi Brings Leprosy Upon Him (2 Kings 5) Psalm 12: The Perils of the Tongue Psalm 15: Those Who Utter Truth and Not Slander Psalm 39: I Will Keep My Tongue from Sin Psalm 52: Those Who Speak Evil as Opposed to Those Who Speak of the Lord Psalm 73: The Wicked Speak with Malice Psalm 109: The Wicked and Deceitful Speak Evil The Evil Tongue of Haman (The Book of Esther) God’s People Deceiver and ...

4655. Lady of the House / The Practice of Joy

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... officials. Jesus’ message, which he sent his disciples out among the towns to deliver, is that God’s kingdom has come! Jesus is here! And God’s salvation (or judgment) is coming NOW! It’s in the here and now that you have to be concerned Jesus says. Don’t keep waiting around for God’s promise to be fulfilled and miss what’s happening all around you here and now in this moment. God is here. God’s kingdom is here. I am here. Have JOY in the presence of the Lord! Don’t wait to be joyful in ...

4656. Unstoppable Joy!

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... that stimulates resonance. It’s a kind of tuning fork that brings peoples’ souls in tune with the Song of God! It’s a “healing” of the heartstrings. The result is rambunctious and tumultuous! Let’s look at the scripture. Even when Jesus asks people to keep quiet, they can’t! They can’t do it! Their voices have been opened! Their tongues have been loosed! They can’t stop praising God! They are amazed! Stunned! And they are singing along to the tune of the Creator God whose Voice and Song ...

4657. Masks Off!

John 7:25-45 and 8:11-59

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... is MY good news! Jesus isn’t just some guy on a mission in the first century. Jesus isn’t some dead guy whose memory we keep alive. Jesus isn’t someone we read about in a history book. Jesus isn’t just some rabbi or prophet who came to save the ... sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?” Jesus said ...

4658. The Birth of the Bridegroom

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... come forward to the altar, to receive one of the golden rings in the plate, and receive the blessing of your own “rededication” and commitment to Jesus. Take this ring with you. Put it on your finger, or around your neck, or in your pocket, or somewhere on your person. Keep it with you as YOUR sign that YOU are blessed by the NAME of JESUS, that you commit yourself to Him each and every day, that HE is your going out and coming in, your day and your night, your savior and your king. For the baby is born ...

4659. Don't Stop Praying!

Luke 18:1-8, Luke 18:35-43

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time, he refused. But finally, he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day ...

4660. Peter the Petulant

Mark 14:1-11, Mark 14:12-26, Mark 14:27-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... cloth! That bloodsoaked linen cloth! We are all “people of the cloth.” Bound in service, soaked in humility, cleansed in the blood of Jesus. And as we come forward for communion today, I invite you all to take a strip of cloth with you as you leave today, keep in close, hold it near. For one day, you too will be called to be “that follower,” and to “don” that mantle, to be a follower of and an artisan of the faith. May the cloth of righteousness be always upon you; may the mantle of grace be ...

4661. Identity Crisis

Genesis 32:1-21, Genesis 32:22-32, Genesis 33:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... bowed down. Afterward Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed down. Then Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?” And he said, “These are to find favor in the sight of my lord.” But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me. Please ...

4662. The Apothecary

Isaiah 40:1-31, Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... celebration!! For their king would treat them with dignity, give them an abundant life, gift them with the “spoils” of war, keep them well as a Shepherd cares for his sheep, protect their homes, encourage their families, and life would be good. So important ... But he is also metaphorical Bridegroom, Oil, Light, much as in the parable he tells of those waiting for the Bridegroom to come ---keeping their lamps lit. The idea of the oil lamp is a great one for the “Anointed One” who is also the “Light of ...

4663. House of Prayer

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... s Prayer (Nehemiah 1) Psalm 51: David’s Prayer Psalm 103: Praise the Lord My Soul Who is Like a Father to Me Psalm 121: The Lord Will Keep You from Harm Psalm 143: Lord Rescue Me and Bring Me Out of Trouble Psalm 145: Blessed Be the Lord and His Kingdom Daniel’s Prayer (Daniel 9 ... it’s all about, not personal petition, but community and the coming of the kingdom through covenant keeping –with a challenge to both personal and communal responsibility while respecting the sovereignty and salvation of God ...

4664. Dorcas, Dinah, or Delilah (Who are You?)

Genesis 34:1-31, Judges 16:1-22, Acts 9:32-43

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... is a wolf is sheep’s clothing, a jagged rock to cut the feet of those who would walk with God. Delilah is Distraction. Like the many metaphors of Israel as a wandering eyed whore, Delilah represents the glittery fake love that dupes Samson and distracts him from keeping his eyes on God and the power of that love to heal or overcome the Philistine community. Samson thought he could do it himself. Like the brothers of Dinah, we can get so used to feeling the power of God within us, we can mistake it for our ...

4665. Crossing Over

Luke 10:25-37, Genesis 48:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , to claim, or to be in relationship with. There’s something across that road beckoning to us to follow, something powerful that allows us to bypass all of our fears of cars and highway and danger and peril. And we take that first step toward it, keeping our eyes on that goal. Some call that courage. Others stupidity. And the difference usually is in the reason for crossing the road in the first place! We all have crossing over stories in our lives –times when we have put aside our fears and inhibitions ...

4666. Sealed and Sanctified

Matthew 2:1-12, Genesis 14:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... -time God. God’s greatest desire is to shine God’s glory upon us! Listen to what we call the Aaronic blessing: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and radiate upon you His peace. ... the Holy Spirit, being sealed by the blood of Jesus. Paul knew the sealing power of our advocate, the Holy Spirit, to keep us face to face with Jesus, even until our day of glory. John Wesley called it “living in holiness.” To live in ...

4667. Scroll Bread and Honey

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to Him (Deuteronomy 28) Psalm 19: The Lord’s Words are Sweeter Than Honey Psalm 78: Israel’s Disobedience Until David Comes to the Throne Psalm 81: The Lord Fills His Faithful with Honey from the Rock Psalm 103: The Lord’s Compassion on Those Who Keep His Covenant Psalm 105: God’s Covenant Promise to Those Who Worship Him God’s Punishment of Locusts and His Abundant Restoration (Joel 2) God Laments That Israel Will Not Return No Matter What He Does (Amos 4) God Bids Ezekiel to Eat a Scroll and ...

4668. Lion of Judah

Gen 49:1-28, Judges 13-15, Matt 4:12-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . And what we must most learn is not to allow our misdeeds and defects to detour us from our destiny as members of the Lion’s pride. Do not allow your mistakes to become your identity. Do not hide your foibles and failures under a bandage. Often we just keep piling on bandages until we no longer can see who we truly are. All we see is our woundedness and our shame. We are our worst critics! We need Jesus this morning to remove those bandages and show us that our wounds have already been healed. We need ...

4669. Wild Thing

Luke 4:31-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ’ Healing Power and Ministry in Galilee (12-17 {18-22} 23-25) The Perils of Turning Away from God (James 1) Image Exegesis: Whose Spirit? Whose Spirit will you allow to inhabit yours? This is a question for our culture. The spirits that torment us …keep us up at night. They haunt our memories and infuse themselves into our daily interactions. To have a bad spirit about things can change you. To be in a bad mood can change your behaviors. Depression can turn people into someone else. So can addictions ...

4670. Tale of the Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... say his disciples should forgive? We all are good people living in a world filled with obstacles, temptations, and entanglements that can trip us up and make us fall. Our job is not to scan the field to see who is “bad” and who is “good,” but to keep ourselves rooted in Jesus, focused in his love, and kingdom bound. Part of living in community means that we learn to live in an entangled world. That we live “in” but not “of” the world. We are not made of it but also not living outside of it ...

4671. Big Spender

1 Kings 10:14-29, 1 Kings 11:1-13, Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... This is a famine of the spirit. The idea of going into the field….is important to scripture. In the case of the “foreign land,” the field is desolate and has not sheep but pigs (this is obviously a gentile “land” since Jews would not keep pigs and consider them unclean….an allusion to idol worshipping land). Here is where the story sounds similar to Solomon’s. He “hired himself out” or prostituted himself to that religion or addiction in that desolate place of the soul. When he came to his ...

4672. What is Your Golden Calf?

Exodus 32:1-33:6, Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... foregone trust and have created instead a “substitute” for God, because they couldn’t trust in God’s love, which they deemed not enough without a golden idol. The “way” of God is trust. The kind of trust that means to commit in the dark, to keep trusting even when you can’t feel God there and doubt whether God IS there. The “scandal” of the wilderness is that it is the wilderness of a soul apart from God, a soul that has learned to be satisfied with the materiality of the world instead ...

4673. The Field House

Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 4:23-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... cases, hunters would use the space to flay deer, fish, or other game and prepare the meat for preserving or for the kitchen. The field house might be a rustic kind of place where tools were kept for cultivating the lawns of large manors or for keeping the equipment for horses and horse riding. But they would also be places where folks would gather to shell peas, clean fresh vegetables, fit horseshoes, or meet for breaks from the hot summer sun on the fields. They were in a sense the early “granges” of ...

4674. Seeing with Eyes Closed

Exodus 34:1-28, Exodus 34:29-35, John 1:1-18, Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of the Holy Spirit. Paul will never be the same person again. He has been inexplicably and undeniably changed. His mission to the gentiles will be both his drive and his penance, his joy and his thorn. Jesus has given him a life-altering charge, “a charge to keep, a God to glorify.” Paul will go on to become the greatest evangelist of the early church. Saul is gone. Paul is born. But it wasn’t an easy birthing. Saul’s ego and his agenda had to be disrupted before he could be healed and refocused ...

4675. Job and the Mind Storm

Job 42:7-17, Job 42:1-6, Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... s world. As Job stood up to challenge the Great Creator, one has to wonder if that mighty appearance might have already set Job in his place. Kind of like, “oh man, what was I thinking?!” But you know, Job is so sure of himself and his righteousness, he just keeps right on going. One track mind that guy. And he marches right up to God, right and demands his due. Then comes the showdown. The story of is a great Pentecost story, because what Job experiences, just as Jonah and Jacob had before them, is the ...

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