Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 751 to 775 of 2332 results

751. The Risky Business of Faith

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... of Christ, a nomadic family, living on the socio-economic fringe of Mesopotamia and headed by a fellow named Abraham migrated from the fertile crescent of the Tigris-Euphrates River valley south through Palestine, eventually settling in the region of the Negeb desert. From one perspective, it was rather unspectacular. As Christians, however, we consider this one of history's most pivotal events. We believe that through a call issued to Abraham and his family, God fashioned a community to serve as a guide ...

752. An Arranged Wedding, But An Intentional Marriage

Genesis 24:1-67

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... the family, Laban listened carefully to the marriage proposal. Particularly he shows interest when the servant insists God has led him to Rebekah. As might be anticipated, Rebekah consents to the proposal. She gets on a camel and begins the journey. As they cross the Negeb Desert, Rebekah looks off into the distance and sees a man. It is Isaac. "Who is the man over there?" she asks (v. 65). For Rebekah, it is love at first sight. She is "thunderstruck." As soon as they meet, they marry, as per the wishes of ...

753. But You Can't Get Water Out Of A Rock!

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Steve Burt

... join him and his wife for a prayer.' I was annoyed at my father-in-law for telling the man I was becoming a minister. "The couple was from California and simply wanted to give me a copy of a book they liked, an old Christian classic, Streams In The Desert. (I hadn't thought about the significance of the title until now.) The man asked me to pray aloud, something I was uncomfortable doing, but I did it. He thanked me and I left. I never saw them again. "On our way home I opened the book to read what ...

754. Life's Loose Threads and The Tie That Binds

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... To be sure, it is a bittersweet moment: Moses standing there -- his vigor unabated, his sight unimpaired -- slowly surveying the landscape. With the staff firmly grasped in one hand, the other shades his eyes in order to behold the breathtaking view. While in the desert, he had actually dreamt of this scene from time to time. But now, at long last, the frayed scraps of all those fleeting visions are finally pieced together, billowing out before him like a patchwork quilt. Embroidered, here and there, is the ...

755. Sometimes, You Gotta Get Your Feet Wet First

Joshua 3:1-4:24

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... flood -- at some points more than a mile wide. And it is across such a river that these people must venture. It isn't an insurmountable obstacle, to be sure. But keep in mind that for a good many years the Israelites have occupied the desert. A sandstorm they could easily handle; a swarming nest of scorpions wouldn't even make them flinch. Water, though, frightened them. Everyone knew, after all, that back in the very beginning, the entire earth lay submerged beneath the churning chaos of the deep. More ...

756. Two Sons: A Parable

Matthew 21:28-32, Matthew 21:23-27

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... which should be appropriate to the office. The First Lesson. (Exodus 17:1-7) The people quarreled at Rephidim because they had no water to drink. Moses understood this to be a test of the Lord. They objected because they thought Moses had brought them into the desert where they and their livestock would die of thirst. Moses was then advised to go ahead of the people to Horeb where he struck his rod against a rock. He did so in the presence of the elders and the water flowed forth. That was the answer ...

757. Stop Being Afraid

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Marc Kolden

... all cancelled out. He had failed. He was just a dreamer, one more idealistic prophet making promises he couldn't keep. Even his disciples no longer followed. In the accounts in Matthew, Mark, and Luke they are nowhere to be seen at the crucifixion. "All of them deserted him and fled" (Mark 14:50). And Peter denied even knowing Jesus. You can't live on promises alone, this would seem to say. Yet the gospel of salvation is nothingg but promises. The gospel is always a word about what will be the case forever ...

758. Adam And Jesus See Temptation

Genesis 3:1-24, Genesis 2:4-25, Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

David Belgum

... . He differed a great deal from Adam. For one thing, he had a clearer vision, a clear vision of who he was and what his vocation was. Maybe that is why he could see temptation coming. The Tempter was not able to catch him by surprise. And out in the desert there was no one else to blame. He was alone with the Tempter. Sometimes we also realize that we are alone with no one else to blame. We are most vulnerable when in solitude. Yet, Jesus was not totally alone. He was with God and God was with him. In ...

759. Sermons

Sermon

John R. Bodo

... which their dependent, immature faith so easily degenerated. They regarded Thomas' question at the Last Supper as uninspired and ill-timed. Nor were they particularly surprised when Thomas did not join them after the Crucifixion. They could not blame him for having deserted Jesus: that they had all done. Ironically, Judas was the only one who had the courage and the required self-loathing to follow Jesus into death. As for Thomas, he might be somewhere, anywhere, contemplating the same tragic course. He had ...

760. The Season Of Sacred Stories

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Elaine M. Ward

... church Lent was a time to prepare for baptism, which took place on Easter Eve. Lent is the forty day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter (excluding the six Sundays), a symbolic reminder of the forty years of the Exodus of God's people in the desert and the forty days of Jesus in the wilderness before his ministry. Today Lent is known as a time of deepened discipleship, a period of preparation and penitence, the season of the soul and the sacred story. Lent is the time for remembering the stories of ...

761. All-Surrounding Grace

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Elaine M. Ward

... belief, trust that brings believing into being. The dreamer thought that the blue wool could have been nothing more than a coincidence, but he believed, finding that thread that had not been there before the dream. We have the sacred stories of scripture, of the desert fathers, of the Hasidic holy men. The rabbi saw a man in the marketplace so intent upon his business he never looked up. He asked him, "What are you doing?" The man answered hurriedly, "I have no time to talk to you now." The rabbi, however ...

762. Responding In Anger

Job 7:11-21 · Matthew 21:12-13

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... and have learned, I hope, that God does not cause our suffering, nor does God will it. But God does sustain us through it. Job needed help. So did Jesus. They looked to their friends. Job's three friends offered nothing but pious platitudes. Jesus' friends deserted him, betrayed him, and denied him. We've discovered, from our ash heaps, that there are friends who, like Jesus, would trade places with us and sit upon our ash heaps for us, if it were possible. I know I would have willingly changed places with ...

763. Hailing The King Of Chaos

Job 12:13-22· Matthew 27:32-44

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... know how he feels in no uncertain terms. Chapter twelve is a hymn in which Job hails the king of chaos. This God is the Lord of the flood and the famine. He sends rain and floods on the earth. He withholds rain and the earth becomes a desert. This God is the power behind social and political disorder. He makes fools of counselors and judges. He reduces kings to slaves. Priests are defrocked. This God is the master of folly. Those who are expected to be wise are deprived of their discernment and made into ...

764. Advent 1

Lk 21:25-36 · 1 Th 3:9-13 · Jer 33:14-16 · Ps 25:1-10

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... isolation in distance or in inner space, by weakness or illness. We pray for the loveless and the friendless, the lonely and the lost. Especially in this season we pray for those who come to Christmas for the first time in homes shattered by death, desertion, divorce, or disaster. We pray for those whom the ministry of love begun at Bethlehem has not yet touched: the derelict, the addict, the criminal, the conceited, all who are imprisoned by persons or pride. O Lord, who feels the pain of the world, look ...

765. The Backside Of God

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... spouse to another, "Just leave me alone for now. Just leave me alone." And thus saith the Lord. When the people heard this news they were quite distressed. The loss of God's guiding presence on the journey is the equivalent of being stuck in the middle of the desert without a map -- sand as far as the eye can see with no apparent way out. So God is again petitioned by Moses, in today's lesson. There are two parts to this prayer that are of key importance to us as Christians. These two movements display a ...

766. Responsibility And Motivation

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... Americans have focused so much on the rights of the individual, on the need for each of us to "become our own person" and "have our own space," that we tend to overlook inherent family and community responsibilities. Spouses physically desert one another and abandon their children, adults sometimes physically, emotionally, or financially abandon their aging parents. Children are regularly neglected or abused. Clearly we need to be reminded that there are obligations inherent in family and societal life of ...

767. The Assumption Of Discipline

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

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... that our selfish desires are really God's doing. But, as in the case of almsgiving, the abuses do not negate the practice. "In the morning, while it was still very dark," we read in Mark 1, "(Jesus) got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed." When the apostles were tempted to invest their time and energies in other very necessary and important tasks in the exciting days of rapid expansion in the Jerusalem Christian community, they determined to give themselves continually to prayer and ...

768. The Savior Life Diet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... out on her. But, nothing serious. But, Angie Garber is not without her concerns. It is no easy life God has chosen for her ... "When I first came here to serve," she says, "I just thought this was the most desolate place in the world. I called it a desert." Now she calls it an oasis. In such an environment, Angie has learned that personal value and purpose must flow exclusively from a relationship with Jesus Christ. "Your joy has to come from the Lord. If you didn't love the Lord, you couldn't work or serve ...

769. Prayers for Epiphany

Bulletin Aid

Rolland R. Reece

... in glee that we are so easily duped. Behind the masks of sincerity there is a lie. Behind the masks of honesty there is deceit. Then in the midst of it all, we shout out of desperation, "Our family will surely stay by us," only to learn that they have deserted us as well. Lord, we turn to you for you are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You have been faithful to your nation Israel. You have been faithful to your Son's bride, the church. And you were faithful to your Son. You have done what you said ...

770. God Knows!

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... a "gimme" to assure his first birdie. "I've got bad news for you," I said, "Junior still hasn't made his first birdie." I think of President Clinton who claimed to shoot 93 during the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in Palm Desert, California (February 15, 1995). A spectator who followed him for all eighteen holes shook his head and reported, "You could erase the deficit overnight with addition like that." No wonder former California Governor George Deukmejian noted, "The difference between golf and government ...

771. A Cultural Breakthrough

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

... to continuing their journeys. Prior to Paul's departure, he and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement over who should continue on the journey. Barnabas wanted to take John, also known as Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise, because John had deserted them in Pamphylis and had not continued with them in the work. When the dust settled, Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and they traveled through Syria and Cilicia. Upon arriving in Lystra, Paul heard from the other believers of ...

772. Following God's Lead

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

... Israel the act of circumcision served as a reminder of that hope and God's covenant relationship with Abraham. Why did they need to be reminded again of this covenant? Many of this new generation of Israelites knew nothing but the wanderings of the desert. They lived in the wilderness because of the disobedience of their foreparents. The season of Lent is an appropriate time for us to take seriously our responsibility toward a generation of children who are in their own wilderness experiences. Some of us in ...

773. Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:19). What a bold proclamation! Much of the book of Isaiah is devoted to stern warnings and the coming judgment of God. In this 43rd chapter the tone changes from judgment to redemption and restoration of Israel. Was this redemption earned because of the behavior of Israel? No, ...

774. Joy For The Journey

Drama

Karren Boehr

... makes the difference. We can decide to let life's bitter experiences rob us, or we can set those memories free through forgiveness. Each step brings us joy for the journey, a joy we never dreamed could be possible. (Very softly with much feeling) I know. My mother deserted me when I was only four months old. (Notes her guest's surprise) Oh, you didn't know that, did you? Guess it isn't something one normally talks about over a cup of coffee. She claimed she wasn't ready for motherhood. (Long pause as she ...

775. Yes, It Becomes Unclean

Haggai 2:11-17

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... consider the law to be the most tedious section of Scripture. You start with the marvelous stories of Genesis and the Exodus from Egypt, but then, in the barren wastes between Exodus 20 and the death of Moses in Deuteronomy, Bible readers get lost in the desert waste of the Law. Please, tell us about the baby Jesus. Or the baby Moses. Or even Elisha. Anything but this. Some people just skim this stuff. I encourage it, actually. In coaching members of my church in a read through the Bible program, I told ...

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