Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 701 to 725 of 2332 results

701. The Lonely Prophet

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a

Sermon

King Duncan

... School of Theology at Emory University, points out that God sent Elijah from Mt. Horeb in the extreme south to Damascus in the extreme north. A long journey back through the land where Jezebel is plotting his murder. (3) And that long journey through a perilous desert to an uncertain end is exactly the life God has laid out for those who love Him. God calls us to faithfulness in our journey, not success in our endeavors. Your journey will be filled with joy and pain, hope and sorrow, strength and struggle ...

702. Moksha

Romans 8:6-11

Sermon

Dr. Ronald Love

... mind, was God-centered. We must always remember that first and foremost the Bible is a book of theology. And Luke in his gospel makes a significant theological observation. At the beginning of the gospel story, after the three temptations of Jesus in the desert Luke records, “After the devil had tempted Jesus in every way, he left him to wait until a better time.” Satan, unable to tempt Jesus into disobedience, into living by the flesh, into having a worldly attitude, does not reappear again until the ...

703. Mandatum

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Sermon

Dr. Ronald Love

... you also should love one another.” To love one another is truly the hallmark of the church. Life is difficult and people come to church to find an oasis in the desert of life. Will they find that the well is dry because those who have arrived early have consumed all the water until they are drunk? Or, will those who arrive late from the desert of life, arriving tired and exhausted, hot and sweaty, from the burdens and anxieties and woes of life and find a well that is full of clean and fresh water. Will ...

704. Faith or Folly

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , and joy as we’ve never before imagined. But the illusion that we can find all of this by our own means or by turning away from God will always threaten to dance in front of us, especially in times of preparation or stress, like a mirage in the desert or a Disney fantasy. This is the case as Jesus is preparing for his three-year mission, a mission he knows will be hard and will require all of the emotional and spiritual strength and endurance he has inside of him. In a sense, he has been driven into ...

705. Failure

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Will Willimon

... to freedom, saved by the resourcefulness of a God who won't be stumped by defeat. In the wilderness, Moses fails again. The people turn against Moses and God. They rebel against Moses and threaten to kill him. When they grow hungry and thirsty in the desert, they say they were better off as slaves in Egypt and want to go back. God sends miraculous food in the wilderness. While Moses is up on the Mountain receiving the Commandments from God, the people are down in the valley, bowing before a golden calf ...

706. Knowing, and Known

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... bread, all to make the visitors feel welcomed. Then they began to speak. I don’t know what all they talked about, but the old man did his best to make the visitors feel welcome. He offered them the hospitality that a bedouin (nomad of the desert) was taught to offer. The desert could be a dangerous place. There were no fast-food stops, no gas stations, no discount stores to run in and buy water at. A bedouin knew very well that if they were ever caught out on their own, away from their tent and supplies ...

707. Who The Heck Is Melchizedek?

Hebrews 5:5-10

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... and set his nephew free. Abraham knew that Chedorlaomer would be heading home to Elam, which was to the west in what is now Iran. He also knew that, instead of traveling west across miles of desert wilderness, the army would first go north along the Great Sea and then turn east to go around the desert. So Abraham and his 318 men began walking north. One hundred and twenty miles later, near the city called Dan, Abraham’s trained men found the five joined armies of King Chedorlaomer. Rather than make the ...

708. Refreshing Drink

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Children's Sermon

Various Authors

Object: An empty tin cup A traveler walked across the desert and ran out of water. He got thirstier as time went on. Before long, all he could think about was getting a ... the Corinthians he said, “We urge you not to accept the grace of God in vain.” The word “vain” means empty— like the tin cup of the desert traveler. Our prayer this Lenten season is that God would refresh our souls with the water of life ― Jesus. Let Us Pray: Dearest Lord God, give us the water of life. Help us to accept it ...

709. The Serpent's Tongue

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to mold a serpent of bronze and to put it upon a pole. Whenever a serpent would bite someone, if they looked upon the bronze serpent, they would live. From then on, Moses lifted up the serpent on a shepherd’s pole, and led the people onward through the desert. John tells us that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes ...

710. Judgment on Israel

Amos 2:6-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... . As a mark of separation, they vowed not to cut their hair; as a mark of self-denial, they abstained from wine; and as a mark of purity, they did not go near the dead (Num. 6:1–21). They thus bore witness to Israel’s early life in the desert when it swore sole allegiance to the person and ways of its God at Sinai (cf. Hos. 2:15). Along the same line, the early, nonwriting prophets like Elijah and Elisha were called out by God to preserve for Israel the covenant faith and to demand that it live in ...

711. The Lord's Answer

Habakkuk 1:5-11

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... ,” and in parallelism with mishpat it is likely that seʾet has a similar meaning. Lit., “from it, its authority and its leadership goes forth” (the Babylonian army is spoken of as “it” through vv. 7–11, but English translations use pl. “they”). 1:9 Their hordes advance like a desert wind: The NIV margin notes that the meaning of megammat (“hordes”) is uncertain. The NIV apparently interprets it on the basis of the meaning of a related word in Arabic meaning “abundance.” “Like a ...

712. Haunted

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... past that just won’t let us go. That’s when we tend to push God out and take to imposing punishments on ourselves. Unlike God, sometimes, we can be unrelentingly punitive. Unrepenting, obsessive, unredeemable guilt is a kind of sin, a self-imposed spiritual desert that keeps us isolated, in bondage, and in a vice grip, and refuses to allow us to be redeemed. As humans, in fact, we can become so obsessed with punishing ourselves, so entrenched in fear, that we forbid ourselves God’s grace. We push away ...

713. What He Said!

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

George W. Hoyer

... gasoline. "I think it stinks. It may cause cancer. One spark and it might explode all over me." What to do? You could abandon it. You could try to reason with it. Beat on it, perhaps. Now see this Jesus crossing the lake in a boat and coming to a deserted place with his disciples. And whom does he meet? Us. Us without a clue about what turns us over. Us with an aversion to the one thing which gives us life, liberty, and happiness. What is Jesus to do? In him dwells all wisdom and knowledge. By him all ...

714. Redefining “Blessed”

Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... . Then they learned that Herod was determined to kill her baby, and she and Joseph had to sneak out of town in the dark of night and travel hundreds of miles through the desert to find temporary safety in Egypt. Are you feeling blessed yet? A few months or years later, sometime after Herod was dead, the small family returned through the desert and made their way back to small town Nazareth, where it had all begun. I wonder how that went? Small towns tend to have long memories about some things. We don’t ...

715. "No Contest"

1 Kings 18:16-46

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... works for you." We would all do well to heed the words of Saint Augustine who said, "Before God can deliver us from ourselves we must first undeceive ourselves." God's word warns that all such choices, other than the true God, are apostasy. Apostasy is deserting the Lord God, becoming faithless to him, and abandoning the faith of our fathers. That is exactly what the nation of Israel had done, and now God is calling them back to making a definite choice. God clearly punishes apostasy. He will be God of all ...

716. Unusual, To Say The Least!

Amos 7:1-9, Amos 7:10-17

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... nation. But still -- even so -- unbelievable as it seemed -- if they would repent, God would still have mercy on the remnant. He would not wipe them out as a nation completely. It is as if God had a love affair with his people and even when they deserted him, and were unfaithful, and disobedient, he found 88it hard to let them go. The great magician, Harry Houdini, had a lifelong love affair with his wife. He was always writing her little notes. They always began, "Dear Bess, You'll never know how much I ...

717. Let Us Make A Name For Ourselves

Acts 2:1-13, Acts 2:14-41

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

... for falling from his No. 1 ranking. Being god, he discovered, was very hard on his body. "I was tired, depressed, hyperventilating, fainting all the time," he said in the interview. There were rumors at the time that he was dying from AIDS. His friends quickly deserted him! "When you're dropped by everyone the way I was," Reynolds said, "you need an enormous faith in God or Zen or Buddha or whatever. If you don't have something, you're going to go directly to whatever puts you out of this world, whatever ...

718. The Rebirth

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... of rebirth includes a reorientation. We are reoriented to God's kingdom. Rebirth is also a matter of refocusing. We are called to refocus our lives on the cross of Christ. Refocused On Christ's Cross Jesus said, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14). Jesus was talking about refocusing our lives around the cross. Only what Christ does on the cross will last. When we die, only the cross ...

719. The Parables About Response

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

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... rocky ground. There are people who, like rocky ground, at first seem to receive the seeds of the kingdom, but soon the plants wither because the upper layer of soil is shallow. Hidden from sight there is the layer of rock which prohibits growth. In a desert area like Israel, this layer of rock was a real problem for farmers. When I lived in Arizona, we faced the same kind of problem. We planted trees, plants, and shrubs which initially started to grow but died off quickly because of the concrete-like soil ...

720. The Sign For Home

John 6:1-15

Sermon

George W. Hoyer

... (Acts 3:22f). What Jesus was doing here for these thousands was being done on purpose, for this purpose: to alert them to what God was doing to bring them to the eternal promised land. What would come to people's minds when a large crowd in a desert place was miraculously given all the food they could eat and then some? Moses, of course! Moses gave Israel God's gifts of manna and quail in the wilderness. In the strength of that miraculous food they followed Moses to the promised land. And who was doing it ...

721. How to Rise above Discouragement

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... most terrifying wilderness I ever traveled through. I dreadfully wanted to commit suicide but instead made some of the most vital discoveries of my life. My little book, The Meaning of Prayer, would never have been written without that breakdown. I found God in a desert." Like Huxley, Fosdick could feel and say, "I believe." We are forever learning that God is for us, not against us. It is we who are against ourselves in our myopia, our rigidity, our fear, our arrogance and stubbornness. Many of us are slow ...

722. Living By The Calendar Instead Of The Clock (New Year's)

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... ways. I. Jesus invites us to leisure. How many times did Jesus say to his disciples, "Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and can rest awhile?" How many times do we read, "So they went away in a boat to a deserted place by themselves?" Have we ever entertained the notion that perhaps Jesus set the best example for our lives when he went away often to be alone and contemplate on that which was most important? When I was in seminary in the late 1960s, a question was posed to ...

723. Echoes

Luke 3:21-38

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... baptism to mountaintop reverberates long enough to teach this lesson: every moment of glorious inspiration is followed by gut-wrenching perspiration. When the echo dies down, we must read ahead. After baptismal waters we read that "right away, Jesus was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil." Right after the glorious moment when Jesus stood on the pinnacle of brightness, he announced to the disciples that he must suffer and die at the hands of religious people, and Peter took him aside and "rebuked ...

724. Love Your Enemies--It Will Drive Them Crazy

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... not mental gymnastics. This is simply what the heart that loves God chooses to see." Fred Craddock tells an imaginary story of Jesus after his death and resurrection. He has this window of opportunity to be with the persons who have loved him and also deserted him. There are times they are eating together. There are informal moments. There is no big plan for the future. There is simple sharing. Craddock has Jesus poking around the fire after breakfast one morning. One of the women who saw the cross and saw ...

725. Gifts: Rejected And Exchanged, Accepted And Shared

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Tony Everett

... Cat In The Hat is up to tonight." A gift given. A relationship offered. A relationship accepted. What relationships have been offered to you this Christmas season? What relationships have you accepted? There is a Middle Eastern legend that tells the story of a desert wanderer who happened upon a spring of clear, sweet water. It was so refreshing that he decided to bring his king a sample. Filling his leather canteen, the traveler began a lengthy journey in the hot sun to the palace. Unknown to the traveler ...

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