Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 651 to 675 of 2844 results

651. For the Love of Children

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

This month, our lectionary readings have detailed Jesus’ leadership lessons for his often “hard-headed” disciples. Why hard-headed? Because they are deeply entrenched in the laws, traditions, cultural assumptions, and mores of their current society –Jewish and Greek/Roman. It’s significant to note that throughout these lessons, Jesus has a child on his lap or by his side. Now in today’s passage, people (most likely especially women), obviously hearing his defense of children and his counter-cultural views ...

652. Don’t Fall Asleep

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Awake you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (Ephesians 5:14) In 1908 Jack London wrote a short story, published in Century Magazine called “To Build a Fire.” In the story a man hikes the Yukon trail along with his dog in subzero temperatures despite urgent warnings about the dangers of the extreme cold by those in Sulphur Creek. Thinking he can light a fire whenever he wants if the cold gets too harsh, the man’s overconfidence and insistence on going it alone leads to a ...

653. Praying With Bloody Knuckles

Isaiah 62:1-12, Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

William L. Self

My wife was conducting a prayer workshop recently and a member of the group told her this true story. She had grown up in London and her pastor walked from his home to the church every day. Along the way he had to pass through some rough sections of town, and as he passed one particular bar there was always the same man loitering outside, very drunk and very loudmouthed. The pastor was really angry at the wasted life and annoyed by the obnoxious taunts of the man. He started praying for the man every time ...

654. Second Thoughts

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Robert Beringer

Sooner or later the spiritual journey we make as followers of Jesus Christ leads us to a Jericho Road. The Jerusalem-Jericho Road of Jesus' day was the scene of one of the most compelling stories our Lord ever told. To this day, the actual road is little more than a strip of rocky terrain which leads us from Jerusalem south to the village of Jericho. What is remarkable is that in just 15 miles, the elevation drops from 2,400 feet above sea level to 1,400 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea. (I will always ...

655. Advent 4

Luke 1:26-38, Romans 16:1-27, 2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon Aid

E. Carver McGriff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-16 If our purpose here were teaching rather than preaching, we could spin a wonderful tale of the rise of King David, and of his transformation of the Israelites. We could relate how David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, which was to become known as the city of David, and how David wished to build a splendid tabernacle to house the ark. But more conservative voices prevailed for the time being, and David seems to have conceded for the time. The prophet ...

656. You Can Be Happy

1 Chronicles 13:1-14

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

Jesus said, "I have come that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Jesus came that we might be, in a word, happy. Paul, history's greatest interpreter of the teachings of Jesus, identified three sure-fire ways to find the joy Christ was talking about, three indispensables for happiness. They are: 1 -- Find someone to believe in. This is the spiritual dimension of happiness. Paul said it this way when writing to his friends in Corinth: "Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual ...

657. Bad Timing

Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

Thomas Long

Some people are masters of bad timing. These are the people who burst into a party wearing a lamp shade and a hula skirt just as the conversation has taken a serious turn, a turn, say, toward a discussion of human rights or world hunger. Masters of bad timing buy high and sell low. They are the folks who try to rouse the hayriding young people to one more chorus of "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain" just as the mood has shifted to the romantic. They telephone with questions about corrections to the ...

658. The Man From Galilee II: The Transformation Of His Call

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

In preparation for our mission trip to Puerto Rico in the summer, several of us went there in the spring to see the camp where we would be working. When we got there we met some people from several churches in Alabama who were working at the camp that week. They shared their food with us that evening, and then after the meal we met for a time of singing and devotion. Between the meal and the devotion time I looked around some and found a bookcase. I looked at several books and found one called Who Is Jesus ...

659. Proper 10

Genesis 25:19-34, Isaiah 55:1-13, Romans 8:18-27, Romans 8:1-17, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 25:19-34 Once again, God seems to linger in fulfilling his promise to make a great nation of Abraham's progeny. Isaac is 40 by the time he married Rebekah. Another 20 years expire before his wife gives birth to the twins, Esau and Jacob. Perhaps the Lord wants to demonstrate that this business of nation building is his doing, not a human accomplishment. Esau, being firstborn, earns the birthright, but foolishly sells it to his scheming brother for a pot of stew. Old ...

660. How To Plant An English Garden

Mark 4:26-29, Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

William G. Carter

A service club gathers for lunch each week in a nearby hotel. After lunch and a little business, someone from the group usually introduces a speaker. Club members rarely know in advance what the program will be. They may hear from a Mexican exchange student, a tax attorney, or a team of skydivers. They discover the topic when they arrive. Anticipation was high when one speaker arrived with a carousel of slides. Much to the chagrin of many, he was introduced as a landscaper with an interest in English ...

661. Peter's Confession, Christ's Prediction

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

We will treat these texts as one. In examining them we have entered what many commentators believe is the central section of Mark's story: 8:22--10:52. The immediate context for this central section of material is the climax of the section that precedes it: Mark 6:35--8:21. We need to say a few words about 8:1-21, as it is omitted from the lectionary. Mark 8:1-9 is the story of the Gentile feeding of the multitude with bread which we have discussed in an earlier chapter. The response to Jesus' feeding of ...

662. Making the Mystery Work for You

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

It’s Trinity Sunday: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Enough said? Don’t leave me. I promise you, I won’t deliver a lecture expounding on what belongs only in the classroom for theologues. I do want to tell you a brief story. A man in a certain parish was only seen in church one Sunday a year. No, it was not Easter. It was Trinity. One leading lay person had restrained his curiosity year after year. He could not contain it any more. He approached the man and said, “I have noticed that ...

663. Runaway Lives

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Robert Noblett

For cowboy lovers, the 1950s were golden. There were more cowboys than you can count on your fingers and toes: Hopalong Cassidy, and Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Lash LaRue and the list goes on. There were probably only a dozen or so basic scenarios played out in all their shows, and one of the classics was the runaway stagecoach. The driver became incapacitated, the horses went mad, the coach was full of terrified passengers, and along came Roy riding Trigger at what seemed like seventy-five ...

664. Stooping Is a Divine Posture

Isaiah 23:1-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Long ago and far away there was a land that could have been called “the richest little country in the world.” Situated on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, this country had built itself into a maritime power. Its ships of commerce criss-crossed “the Great Sea,” as the Mediterranean was called. Its ships and sailors were the best in the world. They even sailed over two thousand miles to the other end of the Mediterranean Sea, around the coast of Spain, and into the coastal waters of the Atlantic ...

665. A Shepherd To Lead Us

John 10:22-42

Sermon

Lee Griess

Numbers. Our lives are filled with numbers. Each year we file our income taxes. Now that's an exercise in numbers to end all numbers games. Pages upon pages of numbers: earned numbers, spent numbers, invested numbers, and saved numbers. When it is finally prepared, we send it off to the Internal Revenue Service with our Social Security number on it. And the IRS takes all those numbers and puts them into a computer, along with the numbers of thousands and thousands of other people. And to them, we become a ...

666. A Monolgue from Peter

Mark 8:27-30

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

Theme: Peter is like many of us who preach. He thinks he must talk, even when he has little to say. Setting: The lectionary reading was Mark 8. It was the Lenten season. What does it mean for Messiah to die? Peter wrestles with that eventuality in a manner that we Monday morning quarterbacks sometimes can't quite comprehend. Dramatic Monologue In the year 1988, the Democratic Convention opened with a bleached blonde, whose time on terra firma was enough to designate her "numerically challenged," speaking ...

667. Lent 2

Luke 13:31-35

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

ORDER OF SERVICE Opening Words L: Let us worship our Creator, the God of Love. P: God continually preserves and sustains us. L: We have been forgiven to embrace new life. P: Through Jesus Christ we have received the full love of God. Hymn "How Firm A Foundation" Prayer Of Confession Unto thee, O Lord do I lift up my soul. I put my trust in thee, O God. Show thy paths, teach thy ways, lead in thy truth; remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies. Do not remember my sin. Take from me my self justification. Center ...

668. Competition In The Kingdom?

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Jesus and his faithful band had begun their final journey to Jerusalem; it was the last trip that they would take together. Along the way Jesus told them again that he would be condemned to death by the authorities, he would die, but would be raised on the third day. It would happen to him on this very trip to Jerusalem, he said. This was the third time that Jesus had made this prophecy in the presence of his followers. Yet this time, according to Matthew, there was no reaction of shock or disbelief by the ...

669. Recollections of Enoch, A Jewish Captive In Babylon

Isaiah 12:1-6

Drama

Robert A. Morgan

I thought I was an old man when we were brought to Babylon, and I am ten years older now. I never expected to live this long under what I assumed would be the acute hardships of being captives, held against our wills in this strange land so far from home. But actually, daily life since we reached here has not been all that difficult. The journey from Jerusalem was very difficult. The Babylonian soldiers who had herded us together saw to that. There were not enough horses or donkeys to carry us all, and ...

670. In Quest of a Treasure

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Larry Powell

The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's obsession with discovering the fountain of eternal youth led him eventually to the land of flowers, or as we know it, Florida. Even now, there are those who claim that the bold adventurer did, in fact, discover such a fountain and that its perpetual waters contain the treasure of agelessness, or the much pursued "ever young" potion. Several years ago, somewhere in Florida, I took a drink from a fountain which was allegedly the genuine source designated by Ponce de Leon ...

671. Preaching Because We Have Something To Say

Sermon

James Angell

The pulpit is less than half of the mystery of preaching. If we attempt to separate it from what is happening on the listening side, it can be an empty gong or a clanging cymbal. Sermons are one-dimensional until a warming current begins to flow along the fragile wiring of the heart. One Sunday at 10:55 a.m. I was stopped in the hallway by a young church member who appeared in great distress. He asked me, as the preacher who would be leading the service, if it would be all right if I asked the congregation ...

672. The Reins of Power

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

In keeping with the directives of our church calendar, we celebrate Christ the King today. As we do so, two great events are in the background of our thinking. One has to do with the occasion when the Israelites came to David at Hebron and petitioned him to take on the additional responsibility of being their king as well as the king of Judah. The other is the remembrance of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem, and being acclaimed a king by the excited multitude that had gathered, because they had heard ...

673. Working and Praying Go Together

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

"When Jesus heard the news, he left that place in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. The people heard about it, left their towns, and followed him by land. Jesus got out of the boat, and when he saw the large crowd his heart was filled with pity for them, and he healed their sick. That evening his disciples came to him and said, 'It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. Send the people away and let them go to the villages and buy food for themselves.' 'They don't have to leave,' ...

674. Managing Our Memories

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Leonard W. Mann

[Paul reports, concerning Jesus] When he had given thanks, he broke [the bread] and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." Once again we approach the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Once again we hear Jesus say, "Do this in remembrance of me." Join me now, if you will, for a few moments as we think together about an aspect of ...

675. Pentecost 24

Mal 1:6-14, Lev 2:1-16, Mic 3:1-12, Am 5:18-27, Ru 4:1-1, 1Th 2:1-16, 4:13-5:11, Mt 23 and 25:1-13

Sermon Aid

CSS

THEOLOGICAL CLUE If a congregation happened to be following the readings listed in Lutheran Worship, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod's revision of the Roman Ordo and the LBW lectionary, the people would have caught the eschatological clue last Sunday; the Lutheran Worship lectionary follows the older Lutheran practice of abandoning the numerical progression of the Sundays in Pentecost and assigning the same three sets of readings - always eschatological - for the last three Sundays of Pentecost. The ...

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