Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 526 to 550 of 1354 results

526. The Gifts of the Left Hand

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... so right-handed in our technology and prosperity and our control of the world that our left hand has withered. Our left hand that used to know how to live simply on the frontier, that used to value the accomplishment of the little guy and used to fiercely defend his Bill of Rights, has atrophied. We, who until now, were "Uncle Simon," in terms of the parable, find ourselves to be more like the woman - driven by our need to find a more lasting kind of acceptance in this world. Yet, if we trust the story, it ...

527. Thomas Didymus: An Honest Skeptic

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... face-to-face, toe-to-toe with the Word of God made flesh, God Incarnate, Son of God the Father, risen from the tomb. He couldn’t lift a finger even if he had wanted to, I am sure. "My Lord and my God," he said simply. No apology, no defending, no chip-on-the-shoulder for being put on the spot; simply that spontaneous statement of faith, "My Lord and my God." Thomas knew the theophanies of old, when God appeared to Adam and Eve, to Cain, to Abraham and the occasions on which the angel of the Lord spoke ...

528. When You Reach Wit’s End

Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... murder. One of Seattle’s most famous attorneys, George Vanderveer, a former District Attorney, believing that an innocent man was accused, agreed to serve as defense counsel. By proving from the trajectory of the bullet that the alleged shooting by the defendant was a physical impossibility, he secured an acquittal. But World War I was on, feelings were running close to the point of hysteria, the "Wobblies" - as the union members were known - were widely suspected of being dangerous subversives. In the ...

529. What Must I DO to Receive Life?

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Brett Blair

... come skulking in the night. He came to Christ in broad noonday. Let me suggest that he saw something in Jesus and his teachings that convinced him that Jesus was the real thing. But how many of us have lowered our head and bit our lip when opportunity arose to defend the church or make Christ known among our peers? I dare say most everyone here. We lose courage and don’t want to be seen as one of his disciples. So, I say this young man had courage. The second positive thing is: he was humble. When he came ...

530. Good News for Bad Times

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... said, "I've had you up here for speeding, drunken driving, reckless driving, parking alongside fire hydrants, driving a car without a license plate, and the last time you were here I ordered your driver's license suspended. What's the charge this time?" The defendant mumbled, "Jaywalking, your Honor." The way to get straight with God as preparation for God's coming is to repent. It means to stop sinning and start walking on the straight path of righteousness. When are we going to do this? For my birthday a ...

531. Out of Prision

Philippians 1:1-11

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... . Come to this place certain that God’s hope for us overflows. Know that God’s presence also comes as knowledge and insight that equip us for determining what is best. Come, let us worship our hopeful God. Collect Grace-filled God, who is our strongest defender, we trust in you. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Under the burden of what imprisons us, we forget that you, O God, began a good work in your creation of us. We overlook your intention to carry that good work to completion. Remind us of the fullness ...

532. When the Word Comes to the Wilderness

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

William G. Carter

... he was voted out of office. Only then he was able to accomplish anything of lasting humanitarian value. “In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar,” the Word of God didn’t go to Tiberius Caesar. Perhaps an emperor is too involved in running the empire, defending borders, increasing taxes, or voting himself a raise. Those who believe they are in charge of the world are usually too busy to hear the Lord. No doubt about it, we are experiencing an absence of God in our public life. We speak the Name, but ...

533. When Life Gets Hard, Christian, Rebel!

Lamentations 1:1-22

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... revulsion at the infringement of his rights and a complete and spontaneous loyalty to certain aspects of himself. Thus he implicitly brings into play a standard of values....2 Therefore the individual is not, in himself alone, the embodiment of values he wishes to defend. It needs all humanity, at least, to comprise them.3 Camus himself was not a Christian, but he is clearly in touch with what is involved in Christian rebelliousness. Christians are people who say, “No,” to the laws in life, to life’s ...

534. Make Up Your Mind!

1 Kings 18:16-46

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Deuteronomy 30:19). In the Amazon there is a slave-making ant that illustrates our predicament. Hundreds of these little creatures periodically swarm out of their nest to capture neighboring colonies of weaker ants. They attack with no warning and kill off any defenders before carrying off cocoons containing the larvae of worker ants. When these slave children hatch, they assume they are part of the family around them and launch into the work they were captured to do. They never realize that they are, in ...

535. The Promise of Baptism

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... I am Still a Catholic.” Buckley flinched at that, because that suggests there is something wrong with being a Catholic. Likewise, he balked at the title, “Why I am a Catholic.” He wanted to express his faith as he understood it. While he does defend the authoritarian approach of the papacy, he also leaves room for critical observations of the practices of his denomination. When one reads the kind of personal confession we get from Mr. Buckley, we are reminded that all of us should be ready to give an ...

536. Light for Beauty

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... their innocence for not having erred or sinned. Rather the vindication was to be a holy absolution for the manner in which they had dishonored God, but at the same time their God had not given up on them. In that sense their faith was vindicated or defended. Scott Turow’s novel The Laws of our Fathers is a helpful account of how we perceive ourselves as a nation. The characters of this story were initially drawn together by the events of the chaotic ’60s. They were caught up in the protests of that era ...

537. Keeping the Glow On

Exodus 34:29-35

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... ritual had to end. The Apostle Paul writes of that issue in what we now know as the Second Letter to the Corinthians. In that letter, Paul writes a considerable amount about the nature and authority of ministry. He had been forced to defend his ministry in the congregation at Corinth, because some had challenged his right to exercise any authority over them. Paul made the argument that the members of the congregation themselves were living proofs of the validity of his work. Then he employed the experience ...

538. The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

... of it all in another way. Dream with me for a moment. If we in this world could somehow learn how to get along, just think what we could do. If we didn’t have to spend so much time, effort, energy, creativity, and money on defending ourselves from one another, just think what we could do. If all the nations of this world could learn to live together in peace without the threat of war, we could take those incredible resources and wage war on hunger, homelessness, disease, illiteracy, and drug abuse ...

539. The Healing Power of the Cross

Luke 23:26-43, Mark 15:33-41, Luke 23:44-49

Sermon

James W. Moore

... m blind. My husband deserted me. And I’m trying to raise eight children alone. I didn’t have $8.00 for a yearbook. Please forgive.” (Signed) Tim’s mother.” Tim was arrested. When he went to court, his mother could not afford a lawyer to defend her child. And do you know what happened? Joe’s parents hired an attorney to represent Tim. When Tim was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sent to the youth detention center, it was the Smiths who visited him; it was the Smiths who took Tim’s ...

540. His Resurrection

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Sermon

Brett Blair

... Galilean is God in human form. Our judge has nail prints in his hands. An Almighty God experiencing an all too human suffering. He is none other than: your shepherd fighting for you survival in the valley, your bread sustaining you during the famine, your counselor who defends you on judgment day. He is the door, the vine, the gate, the light of the world. He is your sacrifice before God for the sins you have committed. No other can plead your case before God. No other is qualified to stand before God and ...

541. The Devil Made Me Do It

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... burdened down [with that responsibility that you might rather not have]. Come...and I will give you rest. Amen! 1. Martin Thielen, Getting Ready for Sunday's Sermon, (Nashville:Broadman Press, 1990) 2. Greensboro News & Record, 8/24/94, D6 3. "DA to Defend Child Molester's Victims in Damage Suit Filed by Their Attacker," Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 5, 1989, A6 4. Haddon W. Robinson, "Call Us Irresponsible," Christianity Today, 4/4/94, p. 15 5. Romans 3:23 6. Romans 3:10 7. Pastors' Professional Research ...

542. The Bush Is Still Burning

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... charge. As might be expected, Moses demurs. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Good question. I think we can all agree that God's choices are not always easily explained, are they? Note something here - God never defends the decision, never explains why the choice. In answer to Moses' "who am I" objection, the response is simply, "I will be with you." Moses was right - who WAS he? Nobody. No matter. "I will be with you." And that is what ultimately counts. I love ...

543. Remembering 9/11

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... we heard Lee Greenwood or a Lee Greenwood wannabe sing, I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land; God bless the USA.(3) Yes, we live in a wonderful country. Patriotism is a good thing...within limits. After all, we remember Samuel Johnson's wisdom that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." We ...

544. The Ten Commandments #2: No Idols!

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... -plating one of those? But we have done it with the cross. Hmm. Or even the Bible. We say it is the Word of God. As the bumper stickers have it, "The Bible Says It; I Believe It; That Settles it." Simple. TOO simple. Because it is too easy to defend almost any position one wishes to take by quoting the words of scripture. "Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him" - Genesis 4:8. "You shall do the same" - Deuteronomy 22:3. "Do quickly what you are going to do" - John 13:27. THE BIBLE SAYS! Of ...

545. The Ten Commandments #6: No Murder

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... .(6) For the Christian, the word to love our neighbor puts us in a quandary here - we do not want people to suffer, and frankly, our faith tells us that death of the body is not the ultimate evil. But, painful though it may be, it is difficult to defend our own intervening where God has not chosen to do so. Further problems arise in situations in which a patient is near the end of life, but is lingering...and might linger in some sort of limbo between life and death for who knows how long. Existing, not ...

546. The Ten Commandments #7: No Adultery

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... ), the man would have to marry the girl with no divorce ever allowed, a "life sentence" for both.(1) It would not matter that the fellow might be already married and have a Hillary at home; polygamy was OK. Double standard? Absolutely. I am not defending that view; I am simply stating the facts as they existed. Basically, the Jews looked upon adultery as a crime against property. A wife was the property of the husband; chances are he had paid her father for the privilege of marrying her (remember the ...

547. A New Look at an Old Treasure

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... to make my way through them, but I was never alone; the shepherd was my companion. I was able to be confident in the face of adversity. Why? "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." The rod was a gnarled club the shepherd used as a weapon to defend against desert marauders, both animal and human. The staff was the crook that could be used to rescue one who had fallen from the path. Yes, it IS a comfort to know that your protector has the tools at his disposal to do the protecting. My shepherd has done ...

548. The Shepherd Psalm

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... was my companion. "I fear no evil; for you are with me." Once I remembered that, I was able to be confident in the face of adversity. Why? "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." The rod was a gnarled club the shepherd used as a weapon to defend against desert marauders, both animal and human. The staff was the crook that could be used to rescue one who had fallen from the path. Yes, it IS a comfort to know that your protector has the tools at his disposal to do the protecting. My shepherd has done ...

549. Who's The Boss?

Psalm 50:1-23

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , help our families and friends. Money is an instrument of social expression - we give money to those individuals and entities that are in our good graces; we withhold money as a sign of our disapproval. Money can be a weapon that we use to defend ourselves from attack or to bring down our enemies. In our society, the list of things money can buy is endless. As the Wall Street Journal says, money is "a universal passport to everywhere except heaven, and a universal provider of everything except happiness ...

550. When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough

Ecc 2:1-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... simply through his care and concern for them. I remember a song we sang in our high school chorus: No man is an island; No man stands alone; Each man's joy is joy to me; Each man's grief is my own. We need one another; So I will defend Each man as my brother, Each man as my friend. We NEED one another. If you recall the story of creation from the first chapter of Genesis, you will remember the litany of "and God created this, and it was good...and God created that, and it was good," and ...

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