Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 51 to 75 of 95 results

51. Jesus at the Center of the Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Will Willimon

... . But this story of Jesus and his disciples in a boat renders another world, a world where storms rise up out of nowhere and nature puts us in peril. If you have ever suffered from say, cancer, you know that world. In cancer, the normal reproductive processes, the "natural" workings of cells, somehow go out of control, reproduce with astonishing speed, oblivious to the checks and balances of the body. The once placid lake which has been our body on most days becomes an angry, raging sea. And this story is ...

52. Proper 27

Ruth 3:1-18, Psalm 127:1-5, Mark 12:38-44, Hebrews 9:11-28

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... full use of all that we are and have in the saving name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING Creator, Redeemer, Renewer, we give thanks for the fruitfulness of our vineyards and orchards, the productivity of our fields, and the reproduction of our cattle and poultry. We praise your name for sunshine and rain. We will give thanks also by our work, reclaiming overused lands, irrigating dry land, purifying polluted streams and lakes. We will be faithful managers of your lands and seas to ...

53. Israel: The World’s Invincible Nation

Jeremiah 23:2, 7-8

Sermon

James Merritt

... that married a 25 year old woman. When they got home from the wedding, the young bride looked at her old husband and said, "Would you like to go upstairs and spend some time with me?" He looked at her and said, "I can't do both." All of the reproductive powers of Abraham and Sarah were dead. In fact, Rom. 4:19 says, speaking of Abraham, "he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb." But they did believe God and God honored their ...

54. Broken Pieces

Matthew 1:3, 5, 6

Sermon

James Merritt

... what a family tree really tells us? No one is an accident - everyone is important. We have already seen how the hand of God was evident in the birth of Jesus Christ. His family tree shows how century after century God was guiding the process of marriage and reproduction, so that Jesus Christ could be both the Messiah of the Jews and the Savior of the world. Just like Jesus, we are not the result of human chance, but divine choice. God has sovereignly chosen our identity to fit us into His plan for the world ...

55. Minority Report

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... a soil that is responsive to the word of God because it not only hears it, it understands it. The word "understands" means to understand with comprehension and to be willing to do what you understand you're being told to do. That's why Jesus said this soil is reproductive of the word of God because it bears fruit. That is the real key—fruit. Everything else is just talk. Let me tell you what all of this means. If the word of God is not bearing fruit in your life, you're not studying the word of God; you ...

56. Good News about Christ

Revelation 1:4-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... beat environment. Pastor Markquart makes this observation, “What the Bible is saying is that Jesus is identical to the Father. Christ is the same substance of the Father, the same nature. If you want to know what the Father is like, look at the genetic reproduction of the Son. There is only one.” (4) What a perfect analogy. What is God like? Look at Jesus. On one occasion the disciple Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me ...

57. Fish or Cut Bait

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit...” (John 15: 1,2,5). Fruitfulness is not a luxury; it is a requirement. The qualification is not just believing in Christ, but it is in being reproductive. How do we do it? We do it by loving people selflessly enough, long enough to earn the right to speak to them. We do it by cultivating our relationships with Christ intentionally enough that when we have earned the right to speak, we will have something to say ...

58. On Being Faithful and Focused

Hebrews 11:1, 32 – 12:2

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... from Church Street to this place on Franklin Road find us faithful in our watch? Will the gifts of Walter Nipper bear dividends for the future? Will the seeds of Henry Bixler, planted by Bob Spain and watered by Joe Pennel, come to full fruit and reproduction in our time? In God's plan, “only together with us will they be made perfect," says the writer of Hebrews. Will those who went before us find us faithful? The year was 1995. Professional golfer, Ben Crenshaw, was in Augusta preparing to play the ...

59. The Road Home

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... simple? When everything was believable? When you couldn't wait for Christmas? When life was full of mystery? Then we grew up. Parents fell from perfection. Life became difficult. Questions flooded our minds. Exactly how did the sperm of the Holy Spirit impregnate the reproductive egg of Mary? Exactly how many angels were there in the Heavenly Hosts? How come only the shepherds could hear them? If God came to save the world, how come it isn't saved yet? Why is there illness, poverty, suffering, death? We ...

60. More than a Casual Follower

John 14:1-14

Illustration

Eric Ritz

The author Bill Bryson, tells of going to Hannibal, Missouri, to visit the boyhood home of Mark Twain. Mark Twain was one of his heroes. As he visited the home, he was disappointed. The home was supposed to be a faithful reproduction of the original, but it was easy to see that it was not. Far too many items from the 20th century were included in the home. In a sense it was false advertising. Mr. Bryson was further disappointed that he was not able to actually go inside the house. "You ...

61. Joy Is for Leaping

Song of Songs 2:8-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... year-old girl showed up at church because we were finally talking about something that interested her. I wish I had shown her Solomon before. I wish I had shown her how deeply human sexuality fits into the cycles, the seasons, the great and awesome reproductivity of earth and spring, of fig tree and gazelles, of dinner dates and gazing at each other through lattice. The church is always talking about something important: life and death, birth and fecundity. We have a lot to say about the subject. Most of it ...

62. Wash Your Hands

John 13:8

Illustration

Boyce Mouton

... 1818 people lived in a world of dying women, the vast majority of which were completely healthy. The finest hospitals lost one out of six young mothers to the scourge of "childbed fever." That diagnosis was actually bacterial infections of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. A doctor's daily routine in the early 1800s began in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash ...

63. Recall Notice

Humor Illustration

... is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units, code-named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been identified as "Subsequential Internal Non-morality," more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed. Some of the symptoms include: Loss of direction Foul vocal emissions Amnesia ...

64. Epiphany 4

Psalm 71:1-6, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Luke 4:21-30, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... project the light of Christ through us so all who come near us recognize your Spirit. Work through the Body of Christ to restore sanity and wholesomeness to manufacturing, to chemicals used in foods, to nuclear research, and to human exploitation of reproduction. Engineer of Humanity — we live and die, feeling connected to your energy and grace. Fill our cracks with curiosity, soothe our aches, inspire our thinking, heal our dis-eases, and make us whole. Holy One — thank you for Jesus and his teachings ...

65. Proper 16

Psalm 71:1-6, Isaiah 58:9b-14, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Luke 13:10-17, Hebrews 12:18-29

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... honest and to do what we know to be life-giving. Amen. Sermon Idea The gospel lesson provides an opportunity to explore what causes twenty-first-century Christians to bend over. The list probably includes: our food supply, sexism, debate about reproduction and human sexuality, extended work hours, pay that is inadequate to put a roof over head and nutritious food on the table, building a Supreme Court, international terrorism, immigration, torturing enemies, and other social issues. If we are like the woman ...

66. The iPod Vs. The Larynx

Revelation 5:11-14

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... should I say the ear? The world has changed dramatically during my lifetime. It always seems that when it comes to technology, I am the last one to figure out the changes. I still buy CDs for my music. But my children tell me that mode of sound reproduction is slowly dying. Now it is time to welcome the age of the iPod and the digital download. I am sure you have seen many people, not just necessarily teenagers, walking around with plugs in their ears attached with skinny long wires to a little box in their ...

67. From Slave to Brother

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... other way in which we might read this letter about the importance of using the terms "brother" and "sister" in the church. In every mainline denomination, the arguments continue to rage over social and theological issues. These arguments over doctrine, human sexuality, reproductive policy, and other issues, cause much bitterness. How can we hear this call to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ? Being a brother to Onesimus pushed Philemon to places he didn't want to go. For us, listening to ...

68. Soiled Faith and Watered-Down Churches

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Jesus doesn’t fix churches, I do.” This consultant believed that human actions, strategic plans, and winning formulas could “fix” God’s Holy House. Human engineering and ingenuity could “fix” plummeting membership rolls, “fix” falling reproduction rates, “fix” unmet budgets, even “fix” broken trusts, “fix” Saharas of the soul, “fix” the hurts and horrors that haunt every human community. Surprise. That church consulting firm went bankrupt this past year. There are things ...

69. Outpouring and Indwelling

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to germinate for a new generation, for a new springtime of harvest, for a spring of salvation. But remember: the seed is in the fruit. When the outpouring leads to an indwelling, there will be a fruit-bearing, and the fruit will contain the seeds for reproduction: if you seed love, love comes back at you; if you seed hate, hate comes back at you. But the form of that love will sometimes be unpredictable. Blake Harrison and Richard W. Judd have put together A Landscape History of New England (2013). What ...

70. For the Hearing Impaired

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.’” (Matthew 13:23-24, ESV) This is the heart that is receptive to the Word of God and hears it. It is responsive to the Word of God and understands it and is reproductive of the Word of God, because it bears fruit. This is what keeps bringing the farmer back to the field and the fisherman back to the water. There are missing persons that want to be found. Not everyone is hearing impaired. There are people who will say, “Yes” and ...

71. Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin

Acts 7:1-53

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... and that in doing so would use Moses as his agent (cf. Exod. 3:7–10). The sequence of events in Exodus 3:5–10 is reversed by Stephen for no apparent reason. The quotation of Exodus 3:6 in verse 32 is not an accurate reproduction of the LXX. It has affinities with the Samaritan recension (but see note on v. 46). 7:35–38 And now Stephen leaves the narrative style of his discourse to make instead four statements concerning Moses, each marked in the Greek by the repeated demonstrative “this (man ...

72. The Council at Jerusalem

Acts 15:1-21

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... prophets (v. 15)—plural, though he cites only one prophet, either as including others who spoke along the same lines, or as referring to the Book of the Twelve Prophets. The quotation is from Amos 9:11f. in what appears to be a rather free reproduction of the Greek version, including perhaps a phrase from Isaiah 45:21, “who foretold this long ago” (cf. 3:21). The passage speaks of two things: first, the restoration of the nation, both as God’s people and as an undivided people, with the north and ...

73. The Israelites Oppressed

Exodus 1:1-22

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... adverb pair, a hendiadys, translated into English as “multiplied greatly.” “Crawl” or “swarm” is a word used in Genesis (1:21; 8:17) to describe the action of reptiles upon the ground. Here it has the meaning of “fecund” or “prolific reproduction” (see Greenberg, Understanding Exodus, p. 19). The word translated “numerous” can mean “strong” or “strong-boned.” 1:8 See Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7:18. 1:11 Pithom and Rameses were situated at the entrance to Egypt from the Sinai ...

74. How the Gold Has Lost Its Luster

Lamentations 4:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

... guilty of sin, but not ritually unclean. However, the poet is using the language of ritual purity in order to describe the perversity of their actions. Blood from wounds did not make a person unclean. It was only blood connected to a woman’s reproductive cycle, menses and the blood associated with childbirth that made a person unclean (Lev. 15). The priests are described as if they were people who have been defiled by contact with menstrual blood. Thus, as they wander about the streets, people greet them ...

75. Government and Marriage

Mark 12:18-27, Mark 12:13-17

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... why the Sadducees fail to understand God’s power to raise the dead. Their mistake is in thinking that there will be marriage in the afterlife. Thus their analogy of the woman widowed seven times is irrelevant, as there will be neither marriage nor reproduction (the purpose of marriage [Gen. 1:28]) in heaven. Marriage is an earthly relationship, and God’s power is such that the afterlife will lift God’s people above earthly things, even marriage and family. like the angels in heaven. The risen dead ...

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