Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4901 to 4925 of 4964 results

4901. Sycamore Blues

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... me by my father, who lived on a farm when he was a young boy. Whenever he found he had done something he shouldn’t have, he would crawl underneath the tomato vines or behind the corn rows, so that he could see his parents coming, but they (hopefully) couldn’t see him. Well, maybe Zacchaeus was hiding, and maybe he wasn’t. But he surely wanted to be the one in control. So, he climbed “out on a limb” so he could see just what was coming. What happened next surprised him. Jesus looked up, and looked ...

4902. She Waits

Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:50-53, Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of the Spirit, to wear the cloak of God’s Pentecostal grace in and throughout one’s life and world, to be always in a mode of preparation and learning, mission and love. Years ago, when one prepared to be a wife, one prepared what was called a “hope chest.” In it would go all of the things she would need to start a household in her new home. She would accumulate pots and pans, tablecloths and dishes, bedding, nightgowns, and all she could think of to make her new life with her husband. She committed ...

4903. Lazarus Rising

John 11:1-16, John 11:17-37, John 11:38-44, John 11:45-57, John 12:1-11, John 12:12-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... sin and death, against complacency and corruption. Jesus’ answer was not to take over the Sanhedrin, nor level the physical Temple, nor try to conquer Rome, nor replace the priests and Pharisees. Jesus’ answer was to call for repentance, to offer himself as a sacrifice of hope, so that hearts could come home to God. And perhaps this is the greatest miracle of all when we look at the story of Lazarus. Jesus doesn’t raise Lazarus in order to boast of his own power. He doesn’t raise Lazarus so he can ...

4904. The Tragedy of Caiaphas

John 18:1-27 · John 11:45-47 · Matthew 26:36-75

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... think of yourself, or what mistakes you’ve made, Jesus believes in you. And Jesus died….for you. For all of you. For out of every tragedy in life, God brings from it Truth, and Life. May the spirit of Lent be for you a gift of hope amidst a sea of sorrow, a beacon of God’s true light that emerges from all masks of tragedy. *Slideshare.net “The Elements of Greek Tragedy” **http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/high-priests-of-the-jews/ ***See Caiaphas: Friend of Rome and Judge of Jesus by Helen Katharine ...

4905. Beautiful

John 20:19-23, Song of Songs 4:1-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... hunger in doubt and dejection –Jesus will find you! As Kind David said, “I foresaw that the Lord was always with me; because he is at my right hand I won’t be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover, my body will live in hope, because you won’t abandon me to the grave, nor permit your holy one to experience decay. You have shown me the paths of life; your presence will fill me with happiness.” (Acts 2:25-28 and Psalm 16:2, 8-11) No matter where you are, even sealed ...

4906. The Catch

John 21:1-14, John 21:15-25, Acts 10:1-8, Acts 10:9-23a, Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... challenge our ways today of seeing scripture, seeing our neighbors, seeing the world, our families, and the church. Some of us come into this community with scars that are difficult to heal. Some have lost trust in pastors or church ministers. Many have lost touch, or lost hope, or lost respect for the church due to experiences they had when they were young, or even quite recently. Some of us were raised with a lot of “do’s” and “don’ts” that make it hard for us to break from living out of a ...

4907. Dressed for Success?

Luke 24:36-49, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... dressed to confess and profess the powerful presence of Jesus in our lives and in the lives of others. They are children of the Light who exude the light of God to everyone they meet in love, in grace, in kindness, and in hope. You are the face of Jesus to the world. You are the light of hope, the beacon to others to follow, as you lead the way to Jesus. As we prepare next week for Pentecost, as we prepare to allow the Light of the Holy Spirit to come upon us in powerful and changing ways, may we humble ...

4908. Elisha's Bones

2 Kings 13:10-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... lameness, “eyes” to our blindness, “ears” to our deafness,” and “bones” to our limpness. Not Elisha, but God’s power was the source of Elisha’s healing miracle in our scripture for today. God’s presence and God’s power is still the source for our hope, our healing, our life, and our joy. Even in death, God’s presence still resided with Elisha. The power of life by the Lord of Life cannot be disputed. For God rules over life and death. And God has the power to stand death on its feet ...

4909. Over the River and Through the Woods

Luke 2:1-7, Psalm 121:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... into a place of promise that would signal God’s new covenant come to fruition! The scriptures are filled with “crossing over” stories. Noah must cross over the deep to get to a new covenant place, where God promises new life, a safe resting place, and new hope. Moses must lead the people of Israel across desert and sea in a 40-year pilgrimage –40 years people! And you think it takes you long to come to Jesus! –in order to bring them to God’s promised land. Joshua crosses with Israel over the ...

4910. Faith is a River That Flows

Genesis 19:1-29

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... go wherever life may lead you, wherever your heart may guide, wherever God may call. Where you go…I will be with you. Ruth echoes the promise of God in her story, in which she and Naomi set out from where they are to go to where there may be hope of new beginnings, or at least lack of famine. In a sense, “famine” as a metaphor (likewise wilderness and desert) is the past we leave behind, one that no longer nourishes us in some way or another. Something dead and that needs to be left in the past. While ...

4911. Stop the PANIC!

Luke 15:1-32 · Exodux 15:1-27--16:36 · Psalm 23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Jesus’ presence, of that Shepherd’s rod and staff that serves as both map and compass, that allows us to make sense again of where we are and where we need to go. Jesus, who can calm our fears, restore our faith, still our stubbornness, lift us into hope. Jesus is the one we look to in order to stop our minds from fighting and re-turn us to a place of following. Jesus is the Sign and Signifier of our lives, the only Signified, the only compass for the Church. This is the essence of repentance. Stopping ...

4912. Clear to Enter

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18, John 20:19-23, Matthew 28:1-10, Luke 24:1-12, Hebrews 10:1-18, Hebrews 10:19-39, Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... not realized was right there, Jesus appears before us inviting us to commune with Him. For He has come among us. When God sent His Son into the world, God in human form, God tabernacling with us, a “secret door” was opened, and we could see the hope of the Garden before us! We were permitted a glimpse to a world beyond so fantastic and wonderful, that it could barely be believed. Jesus invites us in with His resurrection promise! When we commune with Him in this world, He promises us entry to God’s ...

4913. Lion of Judah

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

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... both the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Lion of Judah ramps us up with a unique and dignified identity, even when we are disdained and dispersed. The promise of God, the forgiveness of God, the hope of God’s salvation lies in knowing who we are. We are members of the Lion’s pride. That is our identity, tattooed upon our hearts. “Behold, the people rise like a lioness…” (Numbers 23:24) The promise of God is that the power of God will always ...

4914. Living a Jesus Powered Life

Genesis 9:1-17, Genesis 6:1-8:22, Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a mode of holy “rest.” A place in our hearts that is peaceful. A place of wholeness in our minds and hearts that defies reason but fulfills us in a way unimaginable. A place of completeness in our minds that calms our fears and quells our anxiety. The hope of Noah is that humankind once again can try to “walk” with God in relationship, to exist in a “place” of wholeness, rest, promise, and peace. For this is the promise of God –a time will come when toil ends, and we come into a time of union ...

4915. God Has Not Forgotten You

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... life. Put down roots and grow strong in faith within their new environment. They are to integrate with their neighbors. They are to forge a new home. They are to sing the “Lord’s song” in a “foreign land.” They are neither simply to wait around hoping for something better nor mourn for what was lost. They are not to rise up in revolution against their neighbors and countrymen, nor hide away refusing to engage. They are not to wait until God swoops in and brings them back to the land they had once ...

4916. Holy House

Eph 2:11-22, Rev 3:1-22, Heb 9:1-28, Jn 14:15-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... with us always –no matter where we are, no matter what we’re doing, no matter how far we travel, no matter what country we live in, Jesus tabernacles with us in every moment of every day. He nourishes us, quenches us, feeds us, strengthens us, infuses us with hope, protects us from harm, saves us from ourselves, and makes us whole! Each of us is a tabernacle of the Lord, a dwelling place for God. We live in a world today in which we have many choices of how to live. We have many choices of what kind ...

4917. Lamb Parade

John 12:12-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... enough to change his mind. Neither the disciples nor the many people who followed Jesus, looked up to him, and put their hope in him really understood that he would allow himself to be arrested and put to death. Despite what Jesus was telling them, ... depart quietly into the night. After Jesus’ sentence, many of his followers would go “quietly into the night,” their hope diminished, their excitement fading fast. The joy of “Palm Sunday” would descend quickly into the blackness of Holy Week. Until ...

4918. A Spooky Kind of Love

1 Samuel 28:1-25, Matthew 28:11-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , God, and Jesus too, speaks the words: “Do not be afraid.” For God always brings us the offer of rest, and the promise of life and an abundant future. All we need is a little bit of faith. Jesus surprises us every day with his continual resurrections of hope, love, forgiveness, and rest. No matter how hard we try, how convinced we are, we can take matters into our own hands, no matter how much effort we put into trying to change our lives, there’s one thing God needs us to know, and it’s the same ...

4919. Serpentine Soul

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... God’s triumph over death. Only God has the power over death and life! And God is leading them to life. They may not have luxury food, but they have what they need. They may not have the conveniences of home, but their new home will be filled with hope and possibility. God is providing. But most of all, God is saving. Sometimes we need a reminder of that. But I think it’s more than that. For that snake hoisted up on that leading shepherd’s staff represents not just the reminder that God is in control ...

4920. The Olfactory Sense of Prayer

Exodus 30:34-38, Exodus 30:22-33, John 12:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and grief.^^ We too need reminders of God’s presence in our lives that last beyond the time we spend in weekly worship. We too need to know that Jesus’ presence is with us, that it goes beyond skin-deep but sinks deep into our souls and exudes hope and love and grace from our own spirits, wherever we go and in whatever we do. In Lebanon today, for the fourth year now, a growing prayer gathering will take place. It’s an “incense and prayer gathering” called “Cry Out,” a 74 hour event “for ...

4921. Dark Waters

Exodus 13:17--14:31, Joshua 3:1-4:24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and better place. “Wade in The Water,” an old spiritual from the south is said to have secret codes embedded into it, to reassure those slaves crossing the Ohio River that once over the border, they would be free. For those fleeing on the Underground Railroad, they hoped to wade into the water as soon as they could and to travel through water as much as possible, so that the bloodhounds sent to track them would lose the scent, and they would be able to escape and be assured safe passage. You can see how ...

4922. Jacob's Sheep

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . Like Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swans” or Malcolm Gladwell’s “outliers,” “Jacob’s Sheep” represented a kind of anachronistic return to the past, even while signaling a maverick kind of hope for the future.** In “Jacob’s Sheep,” past and future are brought together in the brief bleat of a legendary sheep that couldn’t, shouldn’t exist, but in fact does and will build a “community of memory and origin” even while forging new paths and breaking old molds. This ...

4923. The Art of Keeping Quiet

Luke 1:5-25, Ezekiel 3:16-27

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... can give. This advent, let us wish each other the gift of peace, the gift of quietness, the gift of faith and trust in Jesus, Prince of Peace and Lord of Rest. For Jesus is the artisan of quietness. Only He can quiet our restless hearts and instill hope in a world that can’t stop lamenting and can’t stop yammering. Take time to listen this week. Take time to revel in the revelations of God’s presence, the mystery of God’s beauty. And may you find renewed strength in the Lord’s gift of quietness ...

4924. The Tempest

Jonah 4:1-11, Jonah 3:1-10, Jonah 2:1-10, Jonah 1:1-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... much we grieve. God never gives up on us no matter how stubborn we are or how much we try to escape our role as God’s child. God continues to gently teach us, abide by us, and love us, and to offer us hope that a new reality will come that will bring us peace. The hope of that kind of peace is the message of Jesus. In the gospel of John, we see Jesus re-writing the story of Jonah. Jesus’ disciples are worried and stressed about life and what’s going on in Jesus’ ministry. They are afraid of ...

4925. The Power of the Unseen

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... usual. Anyone know what I mean? Your spirit is contagious! So what does it mean to be “born of the Spirit?” It means that we infuse ourselves with Holy Spirit protection, Holy Spirit strength, Holy Spirit blood and body, Holy Spirit faith, love, and hope. The more infusions of the Holy Spirit we allow into our minds and hearts, and into our faith community, the stronger we become, the more protected and inoculated we become from those spiritual forces that would threaten to bring us down, or make us ...

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