Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 726 to 750 of 2157 results

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... could not overcome God's love. Death still cannot overcome his love! Then it ended: "When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, 'It is finished'; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:30)." Unlike in the other gospel accounts, John's version of Jesus' crucifixion still portrays Jesus as being in control of things.1 Yet the suffering was real and barbaric. Why? Why did he have to die? If God is all-powerful, and if Jesus truly remained in control of the situation as John seems to portray ...

727. What Happens When We Can't Believe It?

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... said, when he had missed sharing the experience the other disciples had had with the Risen Lord. "Until I feel your love, God, until you give me joy and make life good, until then, God, I do not want too much to do with you." That is our version of Thomas' doubts. However, we do not have Thomas' "guts." We do not usually bring our doubts and questions directly to God and our fellow Christians like Thomas did (John 20:25). (Thomas, you see, was very much the disciple with a questioning faith; he was the kind ...

728. The Majesty Of God's Love

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... make disciples of all nations [Matthew 28:19])" and its relationship to the Trinity. Somehow Jesus' ascension represents an internal divine commitment by God that he will not quit until everyone is wrapped up in his love. Here is the story. According to Matthew's version, on that first Easter the angel instructed the women at the empty tomb to tell the disciples of Jesus that they should go to Galilee to meet the Risen Lord there (Matthew 28:7). Jesus repeated the request when he appeared to the women later ...

729. Competition In The Kingdom?

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... -19; Luke 6:13-16). Along with Peter, James and John were the three disciples whom Jesus wanted with him when he struggled with his anxieties in prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37; Mark 14-33). Some believe, at least according to John's own version of the gospel, that John was the beloved disciple to whom Jesus actually entrusted his mother as he was dying (John 19:25-27). No doubt about it, these two sons of Zebedee were truly devoted to Jesus. It is believed that James met a martyr's death ...

730. The Road To Nazareth

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... Jesus of the hippies, Lord of the yuppies, Master of the elite or Savior of the poor? Is he the Christ of the liberals, the conservatives, the fundamentalists, the charismatics, the right wing or the left or us modern folk in between, or some new version of all of that which has not even been thought up yet? Who is this Jesus? One thing for sure and for certain, he still remains. Even though he has been scandalized, theologized, apologized, scrutinized and theorized, he still remains. Even though there has ...

731. The Road To Capernaum

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... no good. Henry David Thoreau said of the New Testament, "Most people favor it outwardly, defend it with bigotry and hardly ever read it." Even if we read it, that is not enough. We have to live it. I have a Bible collection which contains many different translations, versions and languages, 55 in all. I have 55 Bibles. But the most important thing is to live by just one of them. I once rode past a little church with a big sign out front advertising a singing on Saturday night. But the wind had blown off one ...

732. Christmas Preparations We Often Forget

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... comes and then passes on. And we may well weep for having rejected its hope when Christmas is past, for as Jesus himself once said, "This is the judgment - that light has entered the world and men have preferred darkness to light (John 3:19, Phillips version)." Isaiah foretold the coming glory and majesty of the Lord, but he knew that any such coming brings with it a judgment. If we choose to stay hidden in our preferred darkness, we may well discover to our sorrow what the judgment of Christmas is all ...

733. What Christmas Is About

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... fit the one who entered life in a Bethlehem stable. So let us look afresh at each of those names that we might understand who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us. 1. Wonderful Counselor The first name is Wonderful Counselor. In the King James Version, there is a comma between Wonderful and Counselor. It ought not to be there. It is a phrase, these two words, Wonderful Counselor. Now a counselor is somebody who is supposed to have some kind of expertise - the ability to help. If we ever seek out a ...

734. Death of a Nineteen-year-old

Philippians 4:2-9

Eulogy

Louis M. Pratt

... be found in unexpected ways and places - for example, at Golgotha, the place of the skull, where there is neither comfort nor security, but instead a great agony. But Philippians 4:13, properly translated, tells us this is not the last word. In Today's English Version, it reads: "I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me." I discovered the translation at a time when it was thought that my wife might have cancer. To make matters worse, our daughters were only two and seven ...

735. Peacemaker -- A Liturgy

Drama

Thomas A. Renquist

... his life working for world peace. He kept a diary which was discovered only after his death. Scattered throughout our worship this morning various selections from his diary will be read. He himself called this diary “roadmarkers” or “sign-posts.” The published version is titled Markings. In his own words: Reader 2: “It’s a diary… a sort of ‘white book’ concerning my negotiations with myself -- and with God.” Reader 3: “These notes? They were signposts you began to set up after you had ...

736. Jerusalem: City for All Time

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

Donald Zelle

... ! He knew that by his suffering and death he was being a mediator. He knew that on him were being laid the sins of the world. He knew that he was the answer to humanity's biggest problem: how to be the friends of God. The Today's English Version translates well Paul's words from Romans 5:9, 10: "By his death we are now put right with God ... he made us his friends through the death of his Son." The particular faith and unique message of Christianity is that there in Jerusalem, by the death and resurrection ...

737. Rag Doll #37

Drama

Edward Long

... Oh, oh dear! My time is up. I'm going ... (Voice weaker) going ... be thankful this Yuletide ... (Lights out as RAG DOLL disappears) LAURA: What am I, Scrooge or something? What do I need with this "Christmas Carol" business? I could have any of three different versions - including (Sits and stares thoughtfully into space). Charles Laughton - right here on my videotape player. I don't need this. But I'd give up a car and a horse to have mother and father home on Christmas - to be a family again; to open our ...

738. Magic Prayers

Luke 11:1-13

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

... do what is right and good. That's what real prayer is: we put away our selfish thoughts and we pray that God will help us love one another. That's how Jesus taught us to pray. Let's Pray: [Pray the Lord's Prayer or do this children's version.] I'll pray the right way this time: Father in heaven, we ask for your will to be done in our lives. Please bless us with food today and forgive us when we sin. We forgive those who have hurt us. Help us above all to be good. Amen!

739. A Great Light (Sermon for Candlelight Service)

Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Brett Blair

The Christmas story begins in darkness. There was the darkness of oppression, for God's people were a conquered people. They were a beaten and a defeated people. There was the darkness of persecution. Indeed, it was a despised universal taxation that brought the participants in the story together on that fateful night. There was the darkness of disillusionment. There was an ever-increasing number who felt that violence, not faith, was the most effective path. Yes, on that first Christmas, the mood was one ...

740. Dealing with the Devil

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... describes, in a most dramatic way, the kinds of temptations Jesus was to face throughout his earthly ministry, the testing that you and I, as followers of Jesus, must also endure. Make no mistake about it: both Matthew’s account and Luke’s shorter version of it, state quite clearly that evil is an actual, powerful reality in the world. Both accounts give a detailed description of the way evil works in the hidden corners of our hearts and minds in our day-to-day lives. Now, the temptations mentioned ...

741. The Pop Quiz

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... answer that just wouldn’t come. They had no problem reporting what other people were saying about who Jesus was, but when it came to expressing their own innermost understanding of who he was, they weren’t quite so eager to speak. In the movie version of "The Cotton Patch Gospel," this scene is portrayed in an amusing but thought-provoking manner. Peter – or "Rock Johnson" as he’s known in the movie – mulls the question over in his mind by shifting the emphasis to different words in the question ...

742. Reality Check

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... stay right here and let the rest of the world go by for a while," we say. But to freeze that one moment in time shuts off the possibility of the next moment. In the Gospel reading for today we hear the writer of Matthew give his version of the event which we call "The Transfiguration of Jesus." Mark and Luke also contain an account of this strange occurrence, with some minor variations in the telling. It’s one of those rare moments we were just talking about, one of those mountaintop experiences of life ...

743. New (Testament) Math

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Johnny Dean

A couple of years ago, The Mattel Corporation marketed a new version of their immensely popular (and now somewhat controversial) Barbie Doll. This particular model could "talk." And one of the phrases in her vocabulary was, "Math is hard." I can’t argue with that. Anything beyond simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division has always given me difficulty. I can balance my ...

744. The Scariest Sound in the World

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... their respective local governing bodies but simply requested that the change be made to accommodate those churches which have regularly scheduled Sunday evening activities. I know that Halloween has since degenerated into a "candy hunt," but didn’t Halloween, an abbreviated version of "All Hallow’s Eve," start out as a prelude to All Saint’s Day, a CHURCH festival honoring those who faithfully served the kingdom of God in years past? If these outraged citizens are so devoted to traditionalism, where ...

745. Holy Arithmetic!

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... of our day, Coach God has scruples. If you don’t play by the rules, you’ll find yourself on the bench, or if your violation of the rules is serious enough, you might even get suspended or kicked off the team permanently! There is the modern version of the Clock-maker God, who is God the Computer Programmer. This God really doesn’t care what happens to us. Computer Programmer God set up the world, worked out all the bugs in the program (well, most of them, anyway), booted up the system, typed in ...

746. Lent

Sermon

Betty Lynn Schwab

... ) Would you please stand? All: We, the People of God today, publicly recognize that we do not always hold our Bible in high regard. It gets buried under magazines on the coffee table. It gathers dust on a bookshelf. Some of us may not even own a modern version of it. We recognize, too, that we take for granted the Truth our Bible offers us today. Beginning this week, we resolve to read our Bible more faithfully and to reflect the Bible's Truth better in our daily living. God is our witness! May God help us ...

747. But I Don't Wanna!

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Joann Hary

... ? When I think in terms of being blessed I think of God in Exodus saying, "You will be my people, and I will be your God." When I think in terms of being blessed, I think of God's promise to be with us. Those who have seen the stage version of Fiddler On The Roof surely had tears in their eyes, just as I did, as the Jewish peasants packed up their carts, singing mournfully, "We will find a new Anatevka, a new homeland, because after all, God will lead us. God will still be with us." It is a ...

748. Dancing with the Wind

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... , sound effects, visual effects, music, and drama. They become bored easily unless information is fragmented and packaged according to the TV formula ("and now for a word from our sponsor…") They hate history. If you saw the recent made-for-TV version of the story of Noah’s Ark, you know that television does not deal with historical or biblical facts effectively, and neither does the TV generation. Finally, they don’t like to read. Reading demands concentration and imagination. The reader has to ...

749. In the Beginning, God

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... at the farm where Sid had grown up, Anna was impressed. It was a dairy farm, with a beautiful house and a large, modern barn and rolling meadows of grassland for the cows to graze on. Sid’s parents were equally impressive. His father looked like an older version of Sid, with white hair instead of blonde, but those same, piercing blue eyes. Sid’s mother was about the same height as Anna, and in fact there was even a resemblance between the two women. Not as much as between Sid and his father, but there ...

750. Good News Or Bad News?

Sermon

Rolf E. Aaseng

... a miracle of life - one might say for a second time, or in another, more complete way. Christ at his coming raises us from death. But although the being who is raised can be identified with the person we were, it is not just an improved version of ourselves. That person died. God makes us new. This is the resurrection - a central belief in the Christian faith. This is what Christ accomplishes upon his return, making not only new people, but a whole new universe - a new heaven and earth - freed from its ...

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