Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 576 to 600 of 4943 results

576. One For All

Romans 5:12-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... We retell the story so that we always ‘pentecost,’ being afire with the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. – Paul R. Abernathy, “When Will It End?” The African American Pulpit 1 (Fall 1998), 6. To “always ‘lent’” as Abernathy puts it is to be willing to take up our cross and die to sin and self. So many of us have, not just a chip on our shoulder, but the whole tree (and sometimes an entire forest). The only chip on our shoulder should be chips from the cross, which Lent reminds us to ...

577. The Lord's Devastation of the Earth

Isaiah 24:1-23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... , and newspapers. Here is a city reduced to a ruin of rubble, futile hands scrabbling at debris in a desperate search to reach the source of a moan before the person dies, wailing mothers carrying the children killed in somebody else’s war. The prophet takes up the desolation of such experiences in the life of Israel, but he does so in order to point people toward an even worse devastation. The Bible takes the blessings we enjoy in this life (the joy of our relationships with our family and friends, the ...

578. Are You Troubled by Demons?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... was a psychopath, because if ordinary people can—under the right conditions become monsters—which truly happened in Nazi Germany—then all of us are potentially susceptible. That is why we should be careful about how much passion we allow ourselves in taking up controversial causes. Ordinary people can become swept up into doing awful things by a demagogue with simple but mistaken beliefs. How do we explain how monsters are created? Is it something that comes from within or without? I don’t have an ...

579. Little Start, Big Finish

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... do some internet research and see if there was a “best pizza in New York” but since there are so many pizza joints in that great city and no one had tried them all, the judgment had not been made as to which one was the best. Colin decided to take up the challenge. He couldn’t do all of New York City but he could do the island of Manhattan. He would eat a slice at every single pizza shop in Manhattan and he would write a blog about his experience. He would call the blog “Slice Harvester.” His ...

580. Love One Another (or Strike Up The Band)

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Lee Griess

... people concerned about themselves first, characterized with an impersonal "what's in it for me" attitude, we are called to witness to something more important -- love that gives of itself for others; love that cares about others; love that makes our lives meaningful and significant in giving to others. So take up your instruments and play! Let the band of faithful strike up a tune, for the musical score, the notes, are laid out before us. Jesus says, "As I have loved you, love one another." Amen.

581. A Wilderness Prophet · John The Baptist

Jn 1:6-8 · Mt 3:1-12

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... -- he had John beheaded. (Mark 6:19-29) It was an act to haunt Herod day and night. For try as he may he could not blot the horror of his deed from his mind. So persistently did it pursue him, in fact, that when Jesus swept into Galilee to take up the work John's witness had prepared for him Herod was terrified at the thought John had returned from the dead to wreak vengeance upon him. (Luke 9:7)

582. Born Naked With A Cross

Sermon

... in his sufferings even to the point of death. In our text Paul continues, "... may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." To be a Christian is to be a cross bearer. One time Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." A cross is not one that deals with your own needs, burdens, or problems. Jesus did not bear his own cross in the sense that he was suffering and dying for his sins, for he was sinless. He died not for sin, but for our ...

583. A Thimble Full Of Ocean

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Larry Powell

... sentimental pinings here. An unreserved affirmation of an all-forgiving God is laid down for all who stand in need of forgiveness. And that brings us down to cases, doesn’t it, "For all have sinned and fallen short." Let us now take up some unfinished business. We have been speaking of another dimension - a dimension, as we have said, which transcends our memory fibers and emotional fumblings; a dimension occupied by a self-purifying presence which says, "I will forgive their iniquity and remember their ...

584. Living Free

Haggai 2:1-9

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... , in love that is not constrained.6 The love that Christians show in exercising their freedom by serving others and by assuming socio-political responsibilities is not something that we have to do. God’s grace has transformed you and me into people who want to take up these responsibilities. We do them happily and joyfully, Luther says. That is how you live freely. Freedom may entail a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun. Have we still given God the credit for all the good that happens through our ...

585. A Labor of Love - Labor Day

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the price of life, to follow Jesus. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, himself a martyr to the faith, said, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." On this Labor Day weekend, that is the ultimate labor of love. To be honest, these words of Jesus about self-denial, taking up the cross, and losing life to save it have never been my favorites. If I had my druthers, I would focus on texts like "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..." or "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..." I ...

586. Tevye's Question

Matthew 16:21-28

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... small cross for each child. Good morning, boys and girls. Jesus told his disciples that they must "take up their cross and follow him." This seems like a strange thing to say, but the disciples understood ... for God's will to win out. Jesus did what was right although it was hard. This is what he wants us to do also. That is what he means by taking up our cross. . . . What are some things that you have to do that are hard but it is the right thing to do? (Possibilities: mind parents because it is the right thing ...

587. Stick to the Knitting

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... he came to his disciples, and says to us, "Follow me." To "follow me" means, identifying with the poor and the oppressed, loving the sinner, and living sacrificially for others in this world, taking up your cross. That is the sole qualification for everybody to be his disciple, that you will take up your cross. Martin Luther King understood that, I think, probably better than anybody else in our time. Like all historical figures, he will be interpreted from different perspectives. But the way he would want ...

588. The Day of the Lord

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

Rick Brand

... says, "I cannot write to you about the chronos (time) or the kairos (date) of this event," he is affirming that this Second Coming is an event that is outside categories of time and space. It is God given. This Second Coming of the Lord is an event that takes up and includes and completes both chronos and kairos. But Paul says what we have already received is enough light to keep us awake. What we have already been given by God's mercy and by the preaching of the good news is enough to keep us alert and ...

589. The Best Places to Live

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... own determination. What do you do if you are an avid skier/snowboarder happily living in Denver and suddenly your job or family make a move to the flatlands of Kansas an absolute necessity? You could mope and moan and miss the mountains. Or, you could take up cross-country skiing and start traversing those snowy frozen winter plains and get on with your life. In today's text Jeremiah sounds a bit like Mayor Giuliani has this past month. Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon, his long-distance care and ...

590. Mark 8:31-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... symbolized both a torturous, agonizing means of death, and Rome’s absolute power over all her territories. Jesus might as well have said “pick up your electric chair,” or “pick up your lethal injection” to get his point across today. If following Jesus meant taking up a cross, there was no doubt that Jesus wanted his listeners to realize that their discipleship was a death sentence in the eyes of the world. But then Jesus reveals that what the world perceives as the way to death is, in the divine ...

591. Abraham Believed God

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... of things they took those same building blocks and came to look at the world in different, complementary ways. Remember Paul, who insists that we are saved by faith and not works, nevertheless is constantly promoting good works. At the Jerusalem conference, Paul agrees to take up a collection for the poor in Jerusalem. He speaks of that collection's importance in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. On another trip to Jerusalem one of his good deeds was to pay the fees to release four Christians from a Nazarite vow (Acts ...

592. When It's Time to Wait

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Hope does that for us. Hope sees the invisible. Hope feels the intangible. Hope achieves the impossible. People of hope have discovered the vast difference between waiting and marking time. Have you discovered the difference? Do you know the difference between just taking up space on earth and living for a great spiritual ideal? Simeon waited with purpose and you can, too. II. SIMEON WAITED WITH PATIENCE When Estee Lauder started her perfume business she had to persuade a cosmetic buyer to place her product ...

593. Power Sharing

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

... or talent, have an overwhelming sense of hope. Possibilities string out before them like an endless ticker tape parade. But that's not many of us. For most of us, the parade has ended, the bands have gone home, and the parade's floats take up space in someone's barn — banners fading and tires going flat. Most of us have an abundance neither of talent nor of energy. What possibilities we envision are the ordinary kind. We expect to get older and more feeble, to experience frustration of further limitations ...

594. The Inconcealable Christ!

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... 13:5b). He cannot be hidden, for even "He could not keep his presence secret" (Mark 7:24). He is the omnipresent one who is always there for his people. We Cannot Conceal Christ The Bible says that when we receive Christ for ourselves, his Holy Spirit takes up residence in us and lives the life of Christ through us. That is why Paul declares the following words from 2 Corinthians with confidence. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from ...

595. God Disciplines His Sons

Hebrews 12:1-13, Hebrews 12:14-29

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... , what is a permanent part of the new creation already (cf. 13:20 “the eternal covenant”). The removing translates metathesis, a word that occurs twice earlier in Hebrews (7:12, where it refers to “a change of the law,” and 11:5, where it refers to the taking up of Enoch). 12:28–29 The only other place in Hebrews where kingdom is used positively, in the sense of “God’s kingdom,” is in the quotation of Ps. 45:6 in 1:8. Our author, if he is not dependent upon the Gospel tradition, may have ...

596. Warning Against Refusing God

Hebrews 12:14-29, Hebrews 12:1-13

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

597. Hezekiah’s Illness

Isaiah 38:1-22, Isaiah 39:1-8

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... be a threat to Judah (Hezekiah will have thought) will actually turn out to be a bigger threat than Assyria. One day these treasures of Hezekiah’s (or any that survive the Assyrians) and his very family are themselves to end up in Babylon. Daniel 1 specifically takes up these motifs. In 38:1–3 the prospect of his own demise had led to anguished prayer for a change of mind on God’s part, and in 38:19 Hezekiah had spoken of making known Yahweh’s faithfulness to one’s children. It is difficult not ...

598. It's Not About Me

Luke 6:39-49

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... about me — it is about we. The pastor who started the conversation was encouraged to reach out and listen to the anger and the pain, but not to allow one or two angry voices to absorb all his attention or take up all of his time. Instead, differences about gay marriage, gun control, abortion, divestment, or whatever issue sparks controversy — these differences provide an opportunity, rather than a threat. These difficult moments offer an opportunity for education, an opportunity for conversation, and ...

599. What's In a Name?

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Names define us. Our entire identity is caught up in the names we bear. Think about it. If a child is raised being called sweet, good, beautiful, and kind, that child will think of him or herself as sweet, good, beautiful, and kind. If a child is raised being called worthless, stupid, ugly, or bad, that child will begin to think of him or herself as worthless, stupid, ugly, or bad. The human capacity for language association allows us to perceive ourselves conceptually and emotionally according to the ...

600. Winner And Still Champion

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... ’s day. We think of children as cute, wonderful, darling little things. In the first-century world children were closer to the bottom rung of the food chain. They were only valued as they became useful, working in the family business, on the farm, or taking up serious studies that would determine the future course of their lives. This is important, because in this passage, where Jesus used a child as an example of how to receive Jesus, the comparison he was trying to make was much different than we would ...

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