Sermon and Worship Resources

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4976. The Spilled Milk Experiment

Lk 2:41-52

Illustration

King Duncan

... that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment doesn't work, we usually learn something valuable from it. Note: We were unable to find any scientist's name associated with this story, so we have marked it an Urban Legend.

4977. Every Day God Equips

John 14:15-27

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... hammer. If they couldn't fix it with one of those, then the military motto came into play. "If it doesn't work, hit it with a hammer. If it still doesn't work, hit it with a bigger hammer. And if it still doesn't work, paint it gray, mark it 'Out Of Commission' and order a new one." Tools are important. Every occupation has it's bag of tools. You wouldn't go to a surgeon who used auto mechanics tools, a chainsaw and a pocket knife for surgery. And you wouldn't want the computer technician working on ...

4978. Living in The Spirit of Generosity

2 Corinthians 9:6-12, Galatians 5:22-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... , P.O. Box 336517, Greeley, CO 80633 2. Source Unknown 3. Parables, Etc. (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651, Dec 1987 4. The Pastor's Story File (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651, FEB 2000 5. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, pp. 32-33. Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, Fl., 1995. 6. From The Book of Positive Quotations, by Samuel Johnson 7. The Pastor's Story File (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO ...

4979. Come, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come!

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Mark Radecke

The same thing has, I'm sure, happened to you: you live your whole life without seeing or hearing a certain word or phrase or expression, and then you see or hear it two or three times within a relatively short period. The first time I saw this particular phrase was a few years back at a synod assembly. I attended a small group session led by a pastor who had just returned from Nicaragua and El Salvador. He was showing some of his slides to help us understand the political and economic situation in those ...

4980. Emmanuel: An Advent Dayenu

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Mark Radecke

In the Jewish tradition there is a liturgy and accompanying song called "Dayenu." Dayenu is a Hebrew word which can be translated several ways. It can mean: "It would have been enough," or "we would have been grateful and content," or "our need would have been satisfied." Part of the Dayenu is a responsive reading that goes like this: O God, if thy only act of kindness was to deliver us from the bondage of Egypt, Dayenu! It would have been enough. If thy only act of deliverance was to divide the Red Sea ...

4981. The Intersection Of The Cross

Matthew 5:31-32

Sermon

Mark Radecke

The pastor finishes reading the Gospel text and the people squirm more than usual. What will he say? What can he say? The passage he has just read proclaims a chain of hard sayings, some of them impossibly harsh, condemning sin and strengthening the commandments. Anger, insulting speech, adultery, lust and swearing oaths are all roundly condemned. But it is the stark prohibition against divorce that has the people wondering what he will say. In the text, Jesus clearly says, "No divorce." The pastor must be ...

4982. Don't Sweat The Numbers

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Radecke

Once upon a time in a land not far from here, there lived a nation of people. By and large, they were good people, decent people, industrious and hardworking people. They lived commendable and often praiseworthy lives, dedicating themselves to such endeavors as caring for home and family, building better communities and schools, and helping one another in a variety of ways. These were people you and I would be delighted to have as neighbors. They had only one quirk, one idiosyncrasy: They were obsessed ...

4983. For All The People

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Mark Radecke

Year after year, we are drawn to this night: This night with its carols, its candlelight, its communion, and the combined fragrance of pine, poinsettia and perfume. (Is that Passion or Poison you're wearing? Or maybe it's Polo!) The gentle poetry of Luke's story draws us, too. Why is it that we are so drawn to this night, I wonder? There are, I suppose, as many answers as there are people in this room. Some are here because they are believers, faithful followers of the Christ. You are here to celebrate the ...

4984. Holy Love and Herod's Love

Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23

Sermon

Mark Radecke

You must understand something about Herod the Great before you can understand what caused him to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. In the thousand years that lay between King David in Old Testament times and King Herod, no king of Israel wanted to be loved by his people more than Herod the Great. It was a consuming passion for him. He played the political game withh consummate skill. Althougha member of the royal family by birth, Herod ruled at the pleasure of the Roman emperor ...

4985. Light In Darkness, Speech From Silence

Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23

Sermon

Mark Radecke

This season, the boundaries of darkness are pushed back. A light shines in the darkness and the darkness is powerless to extinguish it. Darkness has always been a potent metaphor for those things in life that oppress and enthrall us, frighten and intimidate us, cause us worry and anxiety and leech the joy from our lives. We know darkness in our physical lives when illness is close at hand, when we lack the basic necessities of life -- food, shelter and clothing. We know darkness in our emotional lives when ...

4986. Light In Darkness, Speech From Silence

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Mark Radecke

4987. Would We Rather Be Comfortable Or Comforted?

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Mark Radecke

"What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?" Jesus asks the crowd. "Someone dressed in soft robes? Those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet." The crowds went out to see one arrayed not in comfortable soft raiment but in the rugged prophet's garb of camel hair and leather. The old saw has it that the preacher's task is to comfort the afflicted... and afflict the comfortable. As we approach our Advent ...

4988. Spirit-anointed Son Of God The Father

John 1:29-34

Sermon

Mark Radecke

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." "I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." "Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost." In more ways than we might at first imagine, our liturgy ...

4989. Followership

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Mark Radecke

In today's Gospel text, Jesus calls for repentance, expects Peter and Andrew to drop their nets and follow him, and calls James and John to leave their Father Zebedee in the boat without so much as a "So long, see you later." My task today is to issue that same call to repentance, that same call to radical obedience and decisive discipleship. For that call is urgent and cries out to be issued in all of its majesty and might. But as preacher of the gospel -- the good news of God in Jesus Christ -- I cannot ...

4990. Salt And Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Mark Radecke

I was on a bit of a tight schedule one day, so on my way from one hospital to another, I stopped off for lunch at a fast food restaurant, whose name I will not mention. After I got my Chicken McNuggets, I went over to do battle with the paper napkin dispenser. [What mean-minded person invented those things, anyway?] While I was engaged in mortal combat with this stainless steel contraption that parts with napkins as willingly as a mother bear parts with her cubs, and with just about the same amount of ...

4991. Jesus' Countercultural Sermon

Matthew 5:38-42, Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

Mark Radecke

Sometimes age and experience force us to reevaluate long held beliefs about the world and the way life works. As idealistic youths in Sunday school and Luther League, for instance, my friends and I vexed and perplexed our ultra-orthodox pastor by arguing against the doctrine of original sin. We were convinced that people were innately and instinctively good. And then we grew up and were "mugged by reality": stung by the selfishness that lies hard by the heart of each and every mortal being, including ...

4992. Main Features And Coming Attractions

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Mark Radecke

You go into the movie theatre, find a seat that's suitable, clamber over some poor innocent slumbering in the aisle seat, taking pains not to step on toes or lose your balance. You find a place for your coat, sit down, and get ready to watch the movie. The house lights dim; the speakers crackle as the dust and scratches on the soundtrack are translated into static, and an image appears on the screen. It is not the film you came to see. It is the preview of coming attractions, a brief glimpse of the ...

4993. For All The People

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Mark Radecke

4994. New Life From Old

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

Easter is in springtime for a reason. Springtime is that time of year when new life emerges from the old. Easter is that time of history when New Life emerged from the old. You might well imagine the surprise of the first disciples when they discovered the empty tomb, and later when they had a close encounter with the risen Christ. Peter, in a journal-like comment, rehearses the events in his conversation with Cornelius and his family and friends: "We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in ...

4995. Love In Action

1 John 3:11-24

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

One of the enduring images of both the Old Testament and New Testament scriptures is that of the good shepherd. The Psalmist, the prophet Ezekiel, and Jesus himself used this human picture to convey a divine reality. The picture is that of the shepherd who cares well for his sheep, even to the point of laying down his life for the sheep; the divine reality is that the Son of God cares for us so much that he was willing to lay down his life for us. This love creates new life in us, so that we desire to be ...

4996. The Victory Of Faith

1 John 5:1-12

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

Planes drop out of the sky, killing all passengers. Mini-dictators initiate programs of genocide against neighbors. Forces of nature storm across the landscape, leaving devastation in their path. Bizarre individual behavior leaves heads shaking, "How can anyone do such things?" Accidents at home and on the highway steal loved ones away. All this gives credence to the sardonic line of a poem, which begins, "It's a wonderful world to be born into, if you don't mind a touch of hell now and then." How do we ...

4997. Life In His Name

1 John 5:1-12, 1 John 5:13-21

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

In 1922, a marvelous treasure was unearthed in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The tomb of King Tut, a nineteen-year-old pharaoh, was discovered. He lived 1,300 years before Jesus. One of the valued artifacts that was brought out of this ancient tomb was the figure of "The King upon a Leopard." The leopard was black, the shade of death. The pharaoh was clothed in bright, gilded color, riding regally upon the leopard's back. This figure of "The King upon a Leopard" symbolized the belief that King Tut ...

4998. Adoption Into God's Family

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

Any parent who has adopted a child knows the joy of bringing a new member into the family. There is joy in the heart of our Heavenly Father when someone is baptized into his family. Baptism is like adoption. There are many children orphaned from the love of a family. Teenage pregnancies, unwanted children, unfit parents who abuse or desert their children, even unexpected death: These tragedies leave many children orphaned from the love of a family. Thank God there are people who want to be parents and for ...

4999. The Gospel Of Our Calling

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

A friend related to me how, when he was a youngster, he spent a lot of time on the other side of the block all wrapped up in touch football and whiffle ball and hide-and-go-seek. But there were other important events going on for which his folks knew he needed to be present, like going to church, mealtime, bedtime. So, they blew a whistle to call him home from the other side of the block. God also calls, not with a whistle, but with his Word. Martin Luther in his Small Catechism explains the Third Article ...

5000. The Word Of The Cross Is The Power of God

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

When Neil Armstrong was on the moon, an American flag was planted to signify the accomplishment of his journey. The goal had been established in 1960 to set a man on the moon before the end of the decade. In 1969, that goal was achieved in a most dramatic way. When Jesus was on the earth, he planted a cross to signify the accomplishment of his journey. The goal had been established from the foundation of the world that God would love the world, no matter what it took. On a place called The Skull during the ...

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