Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 476 to 500 of 1230 results

476. Francis of Assisi: a Faith for Every Day

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... disciples to leave all (Matthew 10:7-19) and understood them as a personal call to save souls. He soon gathered a band of followers. He drew up a simple rule of life based on sayings from the Gospels for himself and this group. In 1212, his ideals were accepted by St. Clare, who founded a similar society for women. In 1221, he founded the Tertiaries. These people wanted to adopt his lifestyle as far as was compatible with normal life. Francis received the gift of the stigmata (the five wounds of Christ) in ...

477. Happiness Is ... the Kingship of Jesus

John 18:28-40

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... s always something, and as a result I have never had a sleeping pill in my life ... happiness is not a goal dependent on some future event. It is with us every day if we only make a conscious effort to recognize it.3 What an ideal model for a Christian spiritual exercise program at the close of day! Lying in bed, making a deliberate attempt to recall blessings received from the hand of God as rewards for our allegiance to Christ the King. Whispering, "Thank you, Lord," for everyone remembered. Slipping into ...

478. Will Names Never Hurt Us?

Proverbs 10:1-32

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... the age of chivalry, to battle evil, and to right all wrongs. When Don Quixote arrived at a roadside inn, he met a bar maid and prostitute named Aldonza. He never called her by that name. Instead, he "good-mouthed" her. He envisioned her and named her Dulcinea, his ideal of a lady. Aldonza was bewildered by the old man’s behavior. After she has been raped by men at the inn, she shouted at Don Quixote in anger and disillusionment, "Oh, don’t call me a lady. I’m only a kitchen slut reeking with sweat. A ...

479. Proper 16

2 Samuel 23:1-7, Ephesians 5:22-33, John 6:25-59, John 6:60-71

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... be submissive to one another in love. People: MAY GOD HELP US TO ACHIEVE SUCH MUTUALITY, AND TO BUILD STRONG AND HAPPY HOUSEHOLDS AS A RESULT. Collect God of love, who have given us scriptural guidelines for loving human relationships, set before us your ideals for Christian marriage; that we may see in the mutual love between Christ and the church a way for husbands and wives to live sacrificially for one another. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession Compassionate God, we confess that ...

480. Proper 24

Isaiah 52:13--53:12, Hebrews 4:14-5:10, Mark 10:35-45

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... BEING EQUALLY DEPENDENT ON GOD’S GRACE. Collect Gracious God, whose Son taught us a new allegiance to your Kingdom, open our hearts to the novelty of your system of values; that we may transform our goals and expectations in accordance with your ideal of servanthood rather than our idol of success. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession Merciful God, we confess that we are too much influenced by worldly views of what constitutes greatness, and too little devoted to your scriptural teachings ...

481. Proper 28

Daniel 7:1-14, Hebrews 10:1-18, Mark 13:1-31

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... and preparedness for your coming Kingdom the way we should. We have accommodated ourselves to the present dispensation so much, that we are comfortable and complacent with things as they are. Forgive us, we pray. Keep us ever vigilant for signs of your coming reign, and committed to living its ideals of justice, peace, and love until it dawns. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

482. "Why Belong to Church?"

John 14:15-31

Sermon

... God’s kingdom. It was here that I was confirmed and ordained. It was in the church I was comforted as I lay my father to rest. And it was here, that I have often communed with my family. It was here, in the church where I knew dreams and ideals that have a way of being dimmed later on. A. S. M. Hutchinson’s novel reads: "I went to church with my mother as a kid, I shall be buried by the church; in between I am dashed if I scoff at the church." Willard L. Sperry tells us that ...

483. Which Self Are You?

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... , in all of these sentences that we use or hear used so often, the subject and the object are NOT the same person. We recognize that. Which is "I" and which is "MYSELF" that we are talking about? They all show clearly that there is a self that is ideal, the image of God, that keeps struggling upward toward the light. Ancient theologians called it the "imago Dei" - the image of God. Luther said it was "the relic of God that remains within each one of us." It is that "I" that I was created to be. And it ...

484. The Generation Gap

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

William McKee Aber

... these days. Why not 21 or 25? Maybe the answer is in that old journalistic device. "Thirty" is printers’ jargon for the end of a column or the end of an article. Maybe, for too long, thirty has marked the cop-out - the end of our concerns and compassions and idealism and love. If so, we’ve got a lot to learn. But, God helping us, we can. There are some pretty good teachers on the other side of the line! Thirty need not be the end of anything - in fact, any age is still the age for a new beginning ...

485. A Chance Meeting

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... did not even look at my face, but quickly, and with so little feeling, said, "Crucifixion." Once more the Roman prison swallowed me. Crucifixion! Can you imagine - no, you can’t possibly imagine the horror of that word. You, in the 2,000-year future, have idealized the word. It is something religious and distant. But I have seen it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and nothing could take it from my mind. Crucifixion. Death horribly doled out. Death by total pain. Death by small doses. Death ...

486. A New Kind of Teaching

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... of pseudo-books. No wonder his was a new kind of teaching. It was the authority of his whole loving person behind it. As New Testament scholar B. Harvie Branscomb puts it: "Herein was Jesus' contribution -- himself. By virtue of the fact that he embodied his ideal, what he said was living and vital and impelling. For religion is a personal thing. It can never become an abstract principle. It is a way of life" (The Teachings of Jesus, p. 368). Seeing his hearers as sheep without a shepherd, he gave himself ...

487. When Ten Equals Two

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Larry Powell

... proximity. God "loved" his creation into being. We have been made alive, capable of seeking reverence, morality, and loving because "God first loved us." The Ten Commandments were not pressed down upon the shoulders of humanity as burdensome restrictions, ideals beyond our capacity to achieve, but were instead gracefully revealed, lovingly prescribed in order that humanity might know that what may have appeared as a cosmic vacuum is actually a boundless reservoir of love. The fathomless silence eternally ...

488. House-Building Time

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... has established the people in the Promised Land. These honors have already been given to David, but the prophet rehearses them again, because they are only a prelude. All this was just the beginning. By Mary’s time, David had long since become Israel’s ideal King. In spite of David’s later sinfulness and tragedies, the people looked back to King David’s time as the best of times and to David as the greatest of kings. The memory of some of his less glorious successors only made David shine brighter ...

489. How To Be Used By God

1 Samuel 16:14-23

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... as the greatest of Israel’s rulers - "A man after God’s own heart." Through his exploits we can learn something of how to be used by God as we make our pilgrimage through life. His human weaknesses are often pointed out and so he stands, not as an idealized saint in a stained-glass window, but as a flesh-and-blood figure with whom we can identify. Therefore, our narrative today is not just about this man called David, but it is about each of us. It is an authentic account of what it means to be thrust ...

490. The Establishment of An Empire

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... God’s intention was to provide Israel with a period of growth and strength under David’s leadership, a golden age which would set the standard for future systems of living. Golden ages are rare in history but they provide goals for us to aim for, ideals to be pursued. In our present age of confusion and change, we can know that the scriptures and the church have always taught that, ultimately, God is in charge, and that the reign of this Creator will ultimately prevail. Until then we might sing: Nobody ...

491. King of Atlanta

Romans 8:28-39

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

... men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing ... Thank God, Almighty, we are free at last!" Following the speech, Dr. King met with President Kennedy at the White House. ANTAGONIST: The man really was a dreamer. It’s pure idealism to hope for that sort of cooperation. There’s too much hatred in the world for anything like that. PROTAGONIST: I once heard a church leader say that the Christian Church was designed to be a colony of heaven on the earth. If that’s ...

492. Should Christians Always Oppose War?

Romans 13:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... ," you might ask, "aren't Jesus' standards for individual behavior contradictory to the tasks of the national leader in Romans 13?" The two exist in tension, always reminding us that even when the national leader has to use lethal force, this is not God's ideal plan. That brings me to point number three: WAR IS ALWAYS A TRAGEDY. One of the contributions of Stephen Spielberg's classic World War II movie, "Saving Private Ryan," was to remind us of the horrors of war. Our veterans know that truth all too ...

493. Heaven on Earth

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Richard Patt

... to be the explanation we give. And, if so, that becomes an easy way for us to say that we are not expected to lend them a hand. Don’t we also sometimes take certain neighborhoods of our city and judge the book by its cover? What is the "ideal" neighborhood? What are the "best" sections of town? Are they just the areas where homes have a certain financial value or where the "right" kind of people live (usually people who look and act just like me!)? In most of the older sections of our large American urban ...

494. Total Commitment

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Richard Patt

"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?" (v. 50a) The theme "Total Commitment" arouses deep questions within us. How committed a person am I concerning the ideals I hold dear? How much do I really stand up for the truths I have learned? Am I really convinced about my "religious convictions"? What are my commitments in life anyway? A chicken and a pig were having a conversation one day. They were discussing how each of them provided ...

495. Do Children Like You?

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Richard Patt

... , and therefore draws others to himself? In our day we might look to the psychology books for answers. Maybe we would read the latest issues of Cosmopolitan or Redbook. They always seem to be having articles about personality-development and achieving the ideal human skills. But the answers may emerge more quickly and directly as we ask the fairly uncomplicated question, "Do children like you?" Ah yes, the precision that children show when sifting out the people around them who really care for them and ...

496. Going The Wrong Way On A One Way Street

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... . The Inquisitor is the Christian counterpart of the distorted Jewish Pharisee in Jesus’ day. He knows more theology than almost everyone, but knowing is not believing. Knowing in the sense of head knowledge is a good thing, but it is not the same as faith. Ideally, knowing about God and theology should enrich a person’s faith, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Some people who are very knowledgeable about the things of God and the history of Israel and the church, drift away from both God and ...

497. Go ... Be the Church ... Do the Gospel

Sermon

... -centered name "St. Luke’s." 4) Go ... Go settle ... Go tell the Gospel ... And they have. B. Go ... but be the Church! 1) Our Lutheran ancestors in Marietta were not just German pioneers who happened to be religious or who happened to set high ideals for themselves. 2) The founders of our congregation had a vision of Church - the fellowship where faith in Christ is nourished by Word and Sacrament. a) They had read Luther’s German Bible; b) They were trained in the Catechism; and c) They sang their ...

498. When The Cheering Stopped

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

... Wilson, a man who barely a year earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man. It’s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. The ultimate reward for someone who tries to translate ideals into reality is apt to be frustration and defeat. There are some exceptions, of course, but not too many. It happened that way to Jesus. When he emerged on the public scene he was an overnight sensation. He would try to go off to be alone and the ...

499. Not Far From the Kingdom

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... . It was during university days at Carthage, a "hissing cauldron of lust" that seventeen-year-old Augustine took a mistress, fathered a child whom he named Adeodatus ("Gift of God"). Entrapped in Manichaeism, Augustine sought liberation in philosophy, especially the high ideals of Plato. It was all an exhilarating time, and he prayed to God, "Give me chastity and continence, but not yet." Augustine left Africa for bigger plums at Rome and Milan. In his celebrated Confessions - his hymn of thanksgiving - he ...

500. Counting The Cost?

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... exactly what it was - combination scarf, handkerchief - and I certainly had no use for it, but I’ve never forgotten the gift nor the lady! A number of years ago I gave up the idea of completing everything for Christmas. Like you, I thought the ideal Christmas Eve would be the snug feeling, "I’ve done everything for everyone." But would this not mean a carefully restricted list of gifts, cards, messages? If we are loving, caring, we always think of more people we would like to remember with some token ...

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