Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4801 to 4825 of 4977 results

4801. The Sound of Silence

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... of money from his grandfather’s estate. Arthur Vanderbilt, a descendant of Cornelius who also wrote a biography of the family, described Reggie in this way: “Self-indulgent, lazy . . . (he) had absolutely no sense of responsibility or purpose other than to keep himself from being bored . . . The only way Reggie could distinguish himself was to live the life of a rich playboy.” Sadly, Reggie Vanderbilt died at age 45 of cirrhosis of the liver brought on by excessive drinking. He left behind numerous ...

4802. Out of the Darkness

Matthew 5:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... her hope that all the good and the bad of the past three years had a meaning, even at times when that was hard to see . . .We pray #Beccatoldmeto will live on. Keep her dream alive, and our beloved Becca will live forever. Be kind.” (7) Jesus knew that he wouldn’t be with his followers for long. And so he’s telling them in this passage, “Keep my dream alive. I am the light of the world. And now it’s your turn to be the light too. Take my presence with you wherever you go. Make a conscious choice ...

4803. Secret Swerve

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... didn’t want to see her or her family submitted to scandal, disgrace, shunning, poverty, mistreatment, or death. He felt conflicted. But after a dream in which the Holy Spirit touched his heart and vouched for Mary’s story, he came to her with a plan. They would keep her pregnancy under wraps. While the custom of marriage meant a betrothal in the town of the woman’s family and a wedding in the town of the groom’s family, they would sooner or later need to set a date and make their way to Bethlehem ...

4804. Beloved

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... with God. We know God always hears us. And we can tell God everything in prayer. God loves us just the way we are. We keep communication with God open every day. God wants us to live into our full potential, to be everything we can be, because God created us ... around us, we will see the signs. We can show God our signs of love each day too in the way we love and the way we keep our mind focused on Jesus. We know God wants the best for us. Through loving God, we grow in who we are. We learn to love ourselves, ...

4805. In the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... the trial was over. He was alone in rebuking the Pharisees and Sadducees, and he was alone in the garden as he struggled in prayer, while his disciples gave into temptation and fell asleep (Mark 14:32-42). At least Much- Afraid had Sorrow and Suffering to keep her company and help her on the way. At least we, as fellow travelers, can encourage one another and share the load. As Much-Afraid continues her journey to the High Places, she has faith in the Shepherd and in his promise to protect and guide her ...

4806. Transformed

John 4:5-42

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... between Jesus and the woman at the well has much to teach us about how to reach out to people who are different from us, how to talk with strangers from other faith backgrounds, from other cultures, across gender. Instead of allowing such differences to keep us apart, this text opens up new possibilities for how we might relate to one another. That both Jesus and the woman came to the well in need of water demonstrated their common humanity. Instead of beginning with a sermon, Jesus asked the woman for ...

4807. Dealing With Difficult People

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... for us, and sending power to us. How? Through prayer! God is attentive to our prayers. Now, there is a concept! Have you prayed for a person who is difficult? Have you ever prayed for God to help you with a person who is difficult? It works! Let’s keep reading. 1 Peter 3:14b-15 says: Do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord (NRSV). 1 Peter reinforces the fact that we do not act on our own power. We should not be afraid or intimidated by difficult people. When we allow our hearts ...

4808. Brace Yourself!

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

John Jamison

... other, and that oath of marriage that binds them together is broken as a result. Divorce is a simple recognition that the marriage tie has been severed. The point isn’t adultery or divorce itself, but the fact that when we make a vow of marriage we are to keep that vow. And if we go back on our promise, by adultery, by abusing the other person or being cruel to them, by abandoning them, or by doing anything else that does not honor the promise of love and loyalty that we made, the marriage oath itself is ...

4809. Singing the Lord's Song

1 John 3:16-24

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... God and not yourself. That's the attitude of love, John talks about. VI. Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you ... "finch" called the "chaf finch" in Europe, that is about the size and color of a robin. It has a beautiful song and people keep these finches in their homes to hear them sing. But the chaf finch has a peculiar characteristic, sometimes it can forget how to sing ...

4810. The Mud Room

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... muddy our need for control of what we demand as our truth. We need to blur the boundaries that divide us from our perceptions of ourselves, Jesus, and others around us. Our sense of order, divisions, judgments, and imposition of boundaries and rules is literally keeping us entrapped in sin and preventing us from seeing the truth of who Jesus is in our lives, who we are in relationship to God and others, and who others truly are apart from our imposed categorizations and biases. Left to our own devices, we ...

4811. The Way For Troubled Hearts

John 14:1-14

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... an intellectual exercise. We believe with our minds. But at a deeper level, belief is not only about what we think. Belief resides not only in our heads, but in our hearts. In the Bible, the heart isn’t simply the physical heart muscle that keeps beating and keeps us alive. The heart stands for the entire person - our mind, emotions, and total being. To convey this larger sense of believing with our whole selves, we might say, “Trust in God, trust also in me.” Trust is not a one-time action. It’s ...

4812. The Way

John 14:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... destination, and that we can reach it with no hassle or fret. We barely need to think about it. Our navigation systems don’t require us to tap into our emotions, to commit to anything much, or to invest a whole lot on our journey, except to keep our eyes on the road and to follow directions. We want directional indicators for our cars. We would also like to have directional indicators for our lives. How easy it would be if we could just follow directions (as though we are putting together a bookshelf with ...

4813. The Cost of Commitment

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... We may never see how God works through our sacrifices to bring about His kingdom. But we can trust, as Abraham did, that the Lord who Provides will provide what we need to remain faithful to Him until the day we see God face-to-face. Until then, we will keep our eyes fixed on the cross as our guarantee that God so loved us that He gave His Son, His only Son, that whoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life. 1. “Helen and Bill Thayer begin a 1,600-mile walk across the Gobi Desert on ...

4814. When You Are Weary

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” There are three primary ways in which animals that are yoked together work more effectively than either animal could do alone. The yoke keeps the animals facing in the same direction—forward. The yoke helps them to share the weight of the load. And the yoke keeps them walking in step with each other. I want us to examine how being yoked to Jesus gives us rest for our souls. First of all, when we are yoked to Christ, we have the assurance that ...

4815. The Gift of Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... most strongly linked to happiness. You can never be truly happy if part of your heart harbors resentment toward someone else. Kent Crockett, in the The 911 Handbook, puts it this way, “Unforgiveness will keep us chained to whomever we don’t forgive. When we go to bed at night, the unforgiven person is there to keep us awake. When we go on vacation, the unforgiven person travels with us to our destination. The only way to get unchained is to forgive and release the person who has offended us.” (4 ...

4816. How Much Should We Pack?

Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Sermon

William G. Carter

... . They have no budget, no leadership hierarchy, and no facility to call their own. The agenda is to tell their own stories, acknowledge where they made mistakes, share how they try to straighten out their lives, and to talk about how they pursue the courage to keep going. “Isn’t that what church was meant to be?” Buechner asks: “Sinners Anonymous.”11 “I send you without a bag or sandals or purse,” said Jesus, for God’s work is best done with words. At the bottom of it all, we need no steeple ...

4817. Let's Get Together

Acts 2:1-21 · Genesis 11:1-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... sure that your church is homogeneous, full of people like us. Didn't Jesus say, ''Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations...,'' translated as, ''You guys scatter''? Well, yes. But we better put down stakes here, get our building paid for by keeping the church middle-class, middle-age, middle of the road. God wants us to scatter. We want unity, community on our terms. Let's all join hands and we can create a community so secure, so unified, so strong that we won't need God. Alas, even our ...

4818. God's Little Acre

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Will Willimon

... . The fantasy is this: That someday, somewhere, there will be this church where there will be no inactive members, nobody who slams the door in your face when you go soliciting pledges in the fall pledge campaign. Nobody in this church ever says "No" when they're asked to keep the nursery or teach Sunday school, in fact, in this church you don't even have to ask, people just step right up when there's a job to be done and they do it. In this church, attendance runs 90%, and those 10% who stay home would be ...

4819. Catholic

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sermon

William G. Carter

... the Lord” church. Perhaps they’ve been shaped to still fight the Reformation, as some of us were instructed long ago to keep the battles blazing. If you talk to some of our denomination who live in a town with a strong ethnic identity and ... the mysteries from the field and the kitchen, and wonder at the quiet, mysterious, life-giving work of God. It is important to keep this clear. Often, we Americans latch onto stories of explosive growth and enormous size, as if bigger is always better. Have you ever ...

4820. Hidden Treasure

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of his precious people. He will go to any lengths to net every fish, even rotten ones or dead ones, because he knows you are among them and that some of you are his.God will sacrifice his own son, for the sake of you. He will do anything to keep you, his beautiful, valuable pearl. Jesus so values you, that he will do anything, even give his own life, to save you and restore you. For you are that valuable to God. Jesus came to seek lost sheep, those hidden among the tares, those who no longer know God but ...

4821. If There Isn’t Enough To Go Around

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

William G. Carter

... me that Jesus took whatever his disciples gave him, in this case, two fish and five loaves. After he thanked God, he broke what they had given him, and said, “Now, give it away.” He broke their gifts of bread. They could no longer hold them, hoard them, keep them, preserve them, or protect them. Instead they were broken, so that everybody could have a piece. Oh, if we could only dare to let that happen! We’re so afraid there isn’t going to be enough food or money or whatever else to go around. So ...

4822. Glimpses of Eternity

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of his best moments. He was aware, even in his few years of life, that the best moments never last. Time sweeps it all away. ''I knew," he recalls, "that such a night could not be repeated; that the strongest desire I had in the world, namely, to keep my mother in my room through the sad hours of darkness, ran too much counter to the general requirements and to wishes of others...." (p. 46). Here, as a child, Proust is not so much remembering what is past, but recognizing what is to come, the future. The ...

4823. Love And Boundaries

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

William G. Carter

... knew right doctrine and knelt in right worship. So why didn’t Jesus heal her daughter? Did his love have boundaries? Was it because she was a native of a foreign country? I hate to bring this up, but the gospel of Matthew seems inclined to keep her nationality before us. Matthew calls her a “Canaanite woman.” When Mark told the story, he merely called her “a woman.” But Matthew insisted, “She was a Canaanite.” That word Canaanite is an old word. An angry word. A bitter word. When the Jews came ...

4824. Master Teacher

Matthew 15:10-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... their hands. Jesus replies with a question: “Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” Or in our language: You Pharisees and Scribes are so caught up with your human-made rules (9) and the legalistic traditions that you keep demanding of people that you have forgotten how to be loving and kind toward others. You “include” people by means of their heritage/pedigree and how well they obey your human-made rules rather than the state of their hearts and the strength of their ...

4825. Hark, The Herald... What?

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Bible, God uses angels to guide people to begin new ventures, to protect themselves, to wait, to trust. Certainly, God used John to introduce us to Jesus. There is no reason to think that God has stopped guiding people that way. My advice is to keep your eyes open for angels of all kinds. Do not confine yourself to wings and halos. Just remember that, biblically, the word we translate as angel is just as correctly translated messenger. One messenger might be your conscience. “Ah, ah, ah.” “Watch it ...

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