Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4901 to 4925 of 4940 results

4901. Passion Sunday

Mt 26:14–27:66 · Phil 2:5-11 · Is 45:21-25; 50:4-9 · Ps 31

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

THIS WEEK'S TEXT Revised Common: Isaiah 50:4-9a · Philippians 2:5-11 · Matthew 26:14--27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54 Roman Catholic: Isaiah 50:4-7 · Philippians 2:6-11 · Matthew 26:14--27:66 Episcopal: Isaiah 45:21-25 or Philippians 2:5-11 · Matthew (26:36-75) 27:1-54 (55-66) · Isaiah 52:13--53:12 Lutheran: Isaiah 50:4-9a · Philippians 2:5-11 · Matthew 26:1--27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54 Theme For Lenten Series: Christ Confronts His Enemies. On one level, his enemies are the priests, scribes and Pharisees. On a ...

4902. Proper 12

Mt 13:31-33, 44-52 · Rom 8:26-39 · 1 Ki 3:5-12 · Ps 105

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 29:15-28 Jacob the trickster gets tricked. He is smitten with Rachel and agrees with her father, Laban, to work seven years to obtain her hand in marriage. On the wedding night, he gets an unexpected wedding present, Rachel's sister, Leah. Jacob agrees to work another seven years for Rachel because she is the true treasure of his heart. Old Testament: 1 Kings 3:5-12 God appears to Solomon in a dream, telling him to ask for his heart's desire. Solomon recounts a litany of ...

4903. I Want To Go South, Lord

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

August 8, 1982 Comment: One of the great figures of Genesis, Abraham,amazed me the first time I read the story of his argumentwith God over His plan to destroy Sodom. With that in mind,I got to wondering how Abraham might have handled hisanxiety over how his obedience to God was paying off. Ichose a time early in his career when that anxiety wouldhave been high. The first time I did this story sermon, a friend let meuse a classic old black telephone that dated from the early'40s. With it, I conducted a one ...

4904. Turning A Minus Into A Plus

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Harold Warlick

One of the finest minds in our country belongs to a man named Charles Merrill. Charles' father founded a company called Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, a rather successful stock brokerage firm. With part of that vast wealth, Charles Merrill founded the Commonwealth School in Boston. The Commonwealth School has enjoyed a tremendous academic reputation. It has excelled in educating students from diverse backgrounds. On a cold, windy day Charles Merrill and a minister friend were walking to lunch, and he told the ...

4905. Cows In Church

Luke 2:7

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Object: A wooden manger with hay in it. Lesson: Advent; love; laughter. "We have some competition for our space on the chancel steps this morning. What is that thing?" "A manger," one of the older boys announces eagerly. "A manger?" I question. "I wonder if there is anything in it. Would one of you up there on the top step stand up and see?" One of the older children complies. "There's hay inside," she reports. "Well, that's about what I expected. You see, mangers were used in barns and stables to hold the ...

4906. Jesus, The Mad Man

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

Erskine White

... they went out to seize Him, for they said, "He is beside Himself." (Mark 3:21) I'm not a big movie-goer and I hardly ever watch the same movie more than once, but there is one film I have seen five or six times, and I'd see it again if I could find it. Evidently, a lot of other people felt the same way about this film, because it ran in one big city movie theater every day for twelve years. The film is called "The King of Hearts," and it has to do with an insane asylum caught up in the middle of World ...

4907. The Strength of the Master

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Sunday • Laity Sunday • Laity Sunday • Laity Some people think of Jesus as a soft, weak person. Many artists have had this idea. Those who painted the pictures of Jesus in “Christ Weeping Over Jerusalem” and “The Shepherd and the Sheep” portrayed Christ this way. Even Da Vinci, when he painted “The Last Supper,” gave his own mother’s eyes to the Master. Sallman has painted the Master with soft, wavy hair and tender features. Some song writers also have portrayed Jesus as soft. They present a saccharin ...

4908. Safe With The Shepherd

John 10:22-42

Sermon

John M. Braaten

Listening to a television talk-show one night I heard the cartoonist Jules Pfeiffer discussing a comic strip he once drew. In it, a little boy was afraid to go to school because he thought his parents might move away while he was gone. He didn't want to go to bed at night becuse he feared that his parents might die while he slept. "Coping with fears is a terrific battle for a child," said Pfeiffer. "It's like being on 24-hour guard duty." He went on to say that he had received many letters about the ...

4909. What Happens When We Can't Believe It?

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

All three of our Bible lessons for today touch on themes that cannot help but direct our attention to last Sunday's celebration of the festival of Easter. (The Roman Catholic lectionary's first lesson [Acts 2:42-47] reminds us of the Easter festival, as its reference to the community shared among the early Christians is reminiscent of an active church member's joy in seeing a packed church on Easter Sunday.) I do not know about your feelings with certainty, but I suspect that last Sunday's worship service ...

4910. Good Works Will Not Save You!

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Jesus was still in the middle of his farewell discourse to his disciples. He was trying to comfort the despair that they were feeling when they had first heard the news (during the last supper) that Jesus would be leaving them (John 13:21, 33; 14:1). He had comforted them with the good news that he was on the way to God the Father, that in associating with Jesus, the disciples had been in fellowship with the Father (John 14:6-11). Whoever believed in him, Jesus said, would be able to do the works that he ...

4911. We Must Be Blind!

John 9:35-41

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

What is the matter with you? Why do you never seem to understand what I say? You have ears: Why do you not hear me? Or are you blind? Can you not see what I am doing? You have eyes: Why can't you see? Our Bible lessons for today speak directly to us. It is as if they were written with us in mind. They all make at least some reference to problems of sight and blindness - to the problem that plagues us. "Wait a minute, Pastor! You must be kidding. These lessons cannot have much to do with our parish. To be ...

4912. How To Hear A Sermon

Micah 1:1-7

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Walter Cronkite, the former highly-regarded CBS Evening News anchor, is an avid lover of boats. Some years ago, he steered his boat into Central Harbor, Maine. As he approached land he was amazed at the greeting he received. People lined the shore waving their hands at him. He could barely make out what they were saying but their shouts sounded like: “Hello Walter, Hello Walter.” The boat sailed closer and closer to the shore and the crowd, still sending out their greeting to him, grew larger and larger. ...

4913. Chosen For Good News

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Jesus had just told the disciples that “he is the vine and they are the branches.” To disciples Jesus is speaking. The very people he chose to be with him those three years of his ministry are the ones who hear these words. While they are wondering how they got into this mess, our Lord assures them they didn’t choose him, he chose them! “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete (v. 11).” So the disciples have the assurance that they have not chosen God ...

4914. The Inaugural Address

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Brett Blair

Yesterday our great country swore in the 43rd president of these United States and George Walker Bush delivered the 54th Inaugural Address to the nation. You may not know this but every single Inaugural Address from George Washington to George Bush has been preserved. In these speeches presidents have laid out for the country their dreams, goals, and aspirations. I would like you to listen to some excerpts from a few and as I read them I would like you to guess the president that delivered it [When you ...

4915. Vacillation - Pontius Pilate

Sermon

Ron Lavin

"... Suffered under Pontius Pilate ..." you say in your creed each Sunday. Millions of Christians speak my name every Sabbath and connect it with the suffering of Jesus Christ. They point their finger at me and speak my name along with Judas and Herod. Let me tell you my side of the story. Let me tell you about my suffering at the hands of Jesus of Nazareth. We Romans were the conquerors of Judea, but she refused to be conquered. I was the governor, but she refused to be governed. My appointment as ...

4916. The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Brett Blair

This morning we are going to be talking about a story that is so familiar to you that when I read to you the first line, most of you will immediately recognize it. The first line reads: And there was a father who had two sons. Immediately we recognize it as the parable of the Prodigal Son. Is there anything new that we can squeeze out of this familiar story? You remember the story as Jesus told it. There was a certain landowner who had two sons. As these boys grew up they began to show the difference in ...

4917. "He Who Commands Is He Who Fulfills"

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Some years ago, a parishioner gently offered his pastor a piece of criticism. It had to do with the way one of the rubrics in the weekly bulletin had for decades been phrased: an asterisk in the margin indicated those times when "the congregation reverently kneels." "You can command people to kneel," said this lay theologian, "but you can’t command that they be reverent about it." Interesting observation. On the one hand he had a point: some people kneel humbly and reverently; others kneel haughtily ( ...

4918. Proper 4

Deuteronomy 11:1-32, Genesis 12:1-8, Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29, Romans 3:21-31, Psalm 31:1-24, Psalm 33:1-22

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE From this point until late in the Pentecost season, on Sundays there is only the general theological framework of the church year to provide biblical/theological clues for worship and preaching themes. Pentecost, as "the time of the church," is eschatological; the church worships and waits, learns and grows, and witnesses and works for the coming of the fullness of the kingdom in Jesus' promised return. On the Sundays of Pentecost, the church is counting time, not marking time, until the ...

4919. For He Shall Save His People

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Staff

I have a Christmas dilemma. When I was a kid there was no Christmas dilemma. You filled out your wish list and you waited for Santa to fulfill it on the 25th. That was pretty awesome. The rest of the year didn’t work like that so it made Christmas a strange and wonderful time. But you know what happens… Slowly the tables get turned on you until one day you’re being handed the wish list. Such is life! This is when the dilemma enters in too. Not for everyone. There are still some sad sacks out there who are ...

4920. When You Follow A Star and Find A Stable

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Think of the disappointment these men must have experienced who through the night had traveled many miles by camel to discover that the star had come to rest over a stable. They had followed a star and found a stable. Surely they were expecting a palace. Or perhaps a stately mansion. Think how they must have felt. Their vast disappointment as they look down from some nearby Judean hill and came to the realization that their destination was a stable. Following stars and finding stables is a common ...

4921. An Altered State of Consciousness

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

Now we move to the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, and from the reading we select the text: "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." We shall come into new life by his life. That means a different life, a new way of seeing things, "an altered state of consciousness." Let me give it to you in the terms of one man’s experience. He was an exceptionally fine plumber - so good that he was employed in a nuclear ...

4922. Discerning the Way of God

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Sermon

Hubert Beck

How do we know what God wants us to do? It must be assumed that anybody claiming in any way to be godly must ask oneself that question regularly. One need not be Christian to ask the question, for it is a larger question than what kind of activity can be called Christian. It has to do with what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, and many people outside Christendom are concerned about the same kinds of questions. It is a bigger question than the everyday kinds of questions about ...

4923. Journey To The Cross II: Jesus And The Hemorrhaging Woman

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

James W. Moore

One of my favorite authors today is a professor at Loyola University in Chicago. His name is Father John Powell. In addition to being a best-selling writer, he is also a highly popular lecturer, teacher, and counselor. In his book entitled Through The Eyes of Faith, he tells about his prison ministry. About once a month, he visits a prisoner in the state penitentiary. He describes how difficult that is for him personally… the atmosphere is dismal, dark, depressing… and charged with suspicion. However, on ...

4924. EPISODE 5: THE FIFTH WEEK IN LENT

Drama

Robert Clausen

EPISODE 5: THE FIFTH WEEK IN LENT BISHOP GOVERNOR CAPTAIN JUDAS THOMAS MARY MAGDALENE JESUS JOHN PETER [The BISHOP and the GOVERNOR are together.] BISHOP: I thank you, Governor, for taking time to see me. GOVERNOR: My pleasure, Bishop. What’s on your mind? BISHOP: I bring you some information. GOVERNOR: Indeed. What kind? BISHOP: It pertains to the peace and welfare of the state. I’m sure you will be interested. GOVERNOR: It’s very possible. What’s it all about? BISHOP: It has to do with a religious ...

4925. Is Someone Knocking?

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Have you ever been blamed for something that was not your fault? It's not pleasant. I heard about a retired Admiral who had such an experience. He was taking his six-year-old grandson on a tour of the great Plaza Hotel in Detroit. They were riding the elevator to the top when suddenly a young woman turned and slapped the Admiral sharply across the face. The Admiral, with great restraint, kept his dignity. As a true gentleman he said nothing. Up a few floors the young lady got off the elevator. Then the boy ...

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