Sermon and Worship Resources

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Haggai 2:10-19

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... cannot be sure which of these Haggai had in mind, and he need not have had particular problems in mind. It would be an uncontroversial view that, for a variety of reasons, the community had a problem with its defilement. The temple was designed to have a key role in resolving questions about defilement; hence the link between Haggai’ s stress on the significance of the building project and his questions about defilement. When you are defiled, resolving your status often involves making an offering. Now it ...

702. Zerubbabel the Lord’s Signet Ring

Haggai 2:20-23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... and it fits to reckon that Haggai is here affirming Zerubbabel’s position as not only governor of Judah (v. 21) but also son of Shealtiel (v. 23) and therefore a descendant of David who could sit on David’s throne (there is no specific reason to link the designation of Zerubbabel with “my servant” in Isa. 52:13–53:12). The declaration I have chosen you also fits with this (e.g., 1 Kgs. 11:34; Ps. 78:70—where David is also “his servant”). The promise I will make you like my signet ring is a ...

703. From Haunted to Healed

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the exact circumstances of the man Jesus encountered that day in the region of the Gerasenes, but we do know he was in some kind of way “haunted!”[1] He is living outside of the civilized village by himself among the tombs –carved out caves designated for the dead. He has left the social environment of the living and has chosen instead to isolate among the dead. We know from the text that he is violent, and that he has been repeatedly driven into the “wilds.” The “wilds” are an interesting ...

704. Suffering And Service

Isaiah 51:17--52:12

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... to me. I want you to know that." Some time later, the young woman was still feeling the pain of a childless home. A member of the church gave her a magazine article titled "A Different Kind of Mother's Day." The article depicted a worship service designed to offer encouragement and healing for women incapable of having children. She received a much needed message that day. It was as if Christ was saying to her, "I know your needs and desires. I even anticipate your need and I am with you." In every ...

705. Holy Wisdom From On High!

Proverbs 8:1-36

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... factory that performs about 10,000 chemical functions. With its 206 bones, 639 muscles, 4 million pain sensors in the skin, 750 million air sacs in the lungs, 16 million nerve cells and 30 trillion cells in total, the human body is remarkably designed for life. And the brain! The human brain and nervous system is the most complex arrangement of matter anywhere in the universe. One scientist estimated that our brain, on the average, processes over 10,000 thoughts and concepts each day. One could spend ...

706. Beware Of Your Piety

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... , were most demonstrative in their worship and prayerful activity. Jesus found such piety highly offensive in spite of the fact that it appeared so attractive and ordinary people felt the pressure to emulate it. Jesus opposed worship that was designed to impress others and encouraged his followers to make their worship a personal relationship with God. Lenten Piety Reaches Upward Lenten piety reaches upward to the Heavenly Father. Each of the prescriptions Jesus gave for wholesome worship were rounded ...

707. Easter Understanding

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... . It is very safe to say that the disciples must have had endless talks, debates, and dialogues among themselves about what Jesus meant to them. This we can safely surmise from the kind of discussions Jesus had with them. Over and over again we know that his teaching was designed to point them to the future. He was very careful to try to prepare them for the time when he would no longer be with them as just one of them. In this past Lenten season we reviewed how Jesus tried to create in them an awareness of ...

708. The Sign For Home

John 6:1-15

Sermon

George W. Hoyer

... up a sign that would publicize the fact that God was behind all that he did. God was being revealed in the person and the performances of Jesus. He -- Jesus -- was an in-the-flesh revelation of God, his divine Father. And this feeding of the multitude was designed as a sign to show the people of Israel that if they liked Moses, they really ought to love Jesus, the Messiah. This sign was a proclamation that one greater than Moses had appeared. Our greatest danger would be to glance at this sign as if it were ...

709. The Perisitent Noise Of Solemn Assemblies

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... ministry of social justice and love in its community. Many churches float around like pious blimps with the appearance of being full of the spirit, when they may be only full of hot air! But a jet plane church for the jet age can fool no one. Because it is designed for work and service it must have huge intake and exhaust or it will fall. We are, I believe, being challenged by God to be a jet church for a jet age, a people concerned not only for the intake of the spirit, but for its outflow to others as ...

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

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... carries. Seldom if ever is there a word or event that heals our pain. In time we learn that pain is healed at a moment when we are not looking. In the last century there was a man named Louie who was an expert at creweling leather. His designs were famous. One day while sharpening his tools, both eyes were blinded by flying pieces of steel from his disintegrated tools. Many weeks later he entered his workshop, newly blind, and angry. He felt the tools he would never use again and the leather with images he ...

711. Why Did Pastor Hypnotize Jenny?

Jeremiah 33:1-26

Sermon

Tony Everett

... righteousness, our right relationship with God, does not depend on our own action. Our right relationship with God does not depend on planning a wonderful Christmas program, preparing a magnificent meal, singing a super anthem, giving the "perfect" gift, or even on designing a prize-winning outdoor lighting system. Our relationship with God depends solely on the truly perfect gift of love that God has already given, God's only begotten son, Jesus Christ. We are well aware that our own efforts all too often ...

712. Seeing With New Eyes

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Tony Everett

... Here is where we hear the good news: Christ has died on the cross for you. Your sins are forgiven. Go and bear fruit. Go forth in mission. Have you ever seen those three-dimensional pictures that appear to be a random pattern of colorful geometric designs? Within this pattern is a clear, computer-generated image. In order to see it, you must relax your eyes and cease your effort to focus on a specific pattern. Your must "look through" the picture. Soon the image, a building, a landscape, or even a picture ...

713. Fear and the Farmer

Colossians 3:1-17, Colossians 3:18-4:1

Illustration

John R. Steward

... is a destructive force with little redeeming value. In this scripture reading, the Apostle Paul encourages us to "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...." He even goes on to say that we have been called to this experience of peace in Jesus Christ. We were built and designed by God to be a people of faith, not fear. Faith in the one who redeems us will lead to peace. Source: Parables, Etc. (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), October 1991. Used by permission.

714. The Organ

Luke 13:31-35

Illustration

John R. Steward

In a small Swiss town there was a cathedral. It was called the Mountain Valley Cathedral. There has been a great deal of money spent on the wonderful stained-glass windows and tall arched ceiling. The cathedral also boasted of an outstanding pipe organ. The organ was designed in such a way that when it was played, people could hear it from all over the valley. As the people would work on their farms, they could often hear the organ as it was played. It gave great joy to the people of the valley for many ...

715. The Blind Guiding The Blind

Psalm 92:1-15, Luke 6:46-49, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, Isaiah 55:1-13, Luke 6:37-42

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... for you might get there. Even worse, you may lead others there as well! 6. Building on the Rock. The Kauffmann family had a series of department stores in southwestern Pennsylvania. They wanted to build a summer home near Ohiopyle. They engaged Frank Lloyd Wright to design a house that would look over a stream. He helped them build a house that was anchored in a rock and cantilevered over the stream so that it seemed that they were hanging over the water. The house stands firmly and has become a tourist ...

716. No Shortcut To Glory

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

William L. Self

... ask the question: How does one encounter authentic spiritual experience? This is not easy to answer, but there are some clues in the Old Testament lecton for this day. We find it in the relationship of the old prophet Elijah and Elisha, his designated successor. Elijah was the greatest prophet of the northern kingdom from the ninth century B.C.E. and was from Tishbe in Gilead. He was direct, rough, abrupt, and perhaps the most romantic character that Israel produced. He performed miracles, struggled against ...

717. To Be Continued

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... we just want Jesus back. It's not easy to see him go and trust in God's higher purpose. We're like the fly crawling on one of the great pillars of Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. What does the fly know of the magnificent design of the church? All it sees is the little space of stone upon which it clings. The beautiful carvings and ornamental beauty are only like massive mountains impeding the fly's progress and obscuring his view. We see only today and perhaps a glimpse of tomorrow. God sees the ...

718. Accepting Responsibility

Lamentations 1:1-22

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

... disaster. They had to accept responsibility for their sins before they could move on spiritually. Lamentations is not a very happy book. It consists of five poems written during the exile. Each poem is an interpretation of the national tragedy of 586 B.C., designed to deepen the sense of personal responsibility. The writing and inclusion of this book in the Bible was one way for God's people to accept responsibility and continue the process of recovery from their tragedy. There are bad things that happen to ...

719. The Star - Conversations

Matthew 2:1-12

Drama

Dallas A. Brauninger

... it stopped over the place of Jesus' birth. Then you undertook the dubious mission for Herod. Thus unfolded the drama of the star whose light encompassed you. Wise Person: After I left Herod's place, the star still led me as if its presence were by design, not by chance. The star strengthened my courage. Interviewer: In the fourth mention of the star, the wise ones, seeing that it had stopped, were "overwhelmed with joy." Wise Person: We were not on a wild camel chase. Our journey was as great a reality as ...

720. Our Defense In A Stone-littered World

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

... in Jesus as the Messiah still comprised the earliest Christian community as Luke describes it in Acts. But among them were Greek-speaking Jews, and there were complaints that their needs were being neglected. So the disciples chose seven from that group to serve as their designated assistants. One of those seven was a man named Stephen. All we know of Stephen is Luke's description that he was a man "full of grace and power" and that he did "great wonders and signs among the people." And we know the incident ...

721. Crackpots

Jeremiah 2:1-3:5

Sermon

Richard L. Sheffield

... part of the world where your backyard is never going to be ankle deep in mud the way it is in an Ohio spring, that's a vivid image. Because in Jeremiah's part of the world, water is clearly life itself; without it you die. Any vessel that is designed to capture water and hold it for use but is cracked is less than useless, and perhaps a danger to the owner who is depending on it to collect the water he needs to live, to hold this water of life. It's a danger because the water drains away ...

722. A Most Important Dawning

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... that why you don't want me to go into the road?" Think for a moment. Have you recognized the glory of God? And has it dawned on you the importance of Jesus' revelation of who God is and what our relationship to God and to one another is designed to be? You know the "new Christian" temperament? It describes how someone acts who has just learned about God's love in Jesus Christ. The person is excited, and glowing with relief and joy. The burden of years of trying to get right with God and with everyone else ...

723. Her Children Bless Her

Proverbs 31:28

Children's Sermon

Robert B. Lantz

... arranged for sons and daughters to pay tribute to their mothers. She arranged a special service in her church and asked everyone to wear white carnations. The plan was so appealing that by 1911 it had spread all over the country and in 1914 was officially designated as "Mother's Day" by Congress. The custom then became the wearing of a white carnation by those whose mothers had passed on and a red carnation by those whose mothers were still living. That's the beautiful custom that I grew up with and which ...

724. False Advertising

Matthew 23:1-39

Children's Sermon

Teresa L. Major

... : Just as television and commercials can mislead us, our behavior can mislead others concerning our relationship with the Lord Preparation: Watch Saturday morning television geared toward children and familiarize yourself with some of the commercials with outlandish claims designed to entice youngsters. What is a commercial? (Children respond.) It's an advertisement about something that someone or some company is trying to sell. We see commercials on television and we find them in magazines and on the ...

725. Look, The Morning Star

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... wars, lack of food supply and an increasing secularization of society make many people brood over the prospect for humankind as the twenty-first century is fast approaching. Some prognosticators have even begun to doubt that history has direction in terms of purpose and design. Perhaps the biblical promises of shalom, a new heaven and a new earth, are only fairy tales. The writer of the Second Letter of Peter had to contend with the dark mood of despair and hopelessness in his own day. He knew that at ...

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