Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 851 to 875 of 4963 results

851. An Unlikely Witness

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... barely contain his contempt for such foolish ideas. Suddenly the "believer" of the twins is forced through the birth canal leaving behind the only way of life he has known. The remaining unborn twin is saddened, convinced that a great catastrophe has befallen his companion. Outside the womb, however, the parents are rejoicing. For what the remaining brother, left behind, has just witnessed is not death but birth. This, Wolpe reminds us, is a classic view of the life beyond the grave--a birth into a world ...

852. Man, Give Me Some Bread: I Want To See God

John 6:25-59

Sermon

King Duncan

... left half of her body paralyzed. Even more tragically, she had been hospitalized for treatment of a brain tumor, and had recently lost her father and mother. She was being examined in an MRI machine. The imaging sequence at that time required the patient to remain perfectly still for about five minutes--a demanding task for a five-year-old. About two minutes into the first sequence, the doctor and the technician noticed on the video monitor that Mary's mouth was moving. They even heard a muted voice over ...

853. General Hospital

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Frank Lyman

... his sight. He went to bed one night able to see and awoke the next morning blind. Medical experts were not able to explain the cause of his horrific and sudden blindness. There was no reason for it. It just happened. For several years young Fuller remained blind. Then, just as suddenly and as inexplicably as he had lost his sight, he regained it. Without any indication as to what was coming, one morning he woke up able to see again. In retrospect, Fuller explained, that tragic time proved to be a blessing ...

854. Love Is Not Easy

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... overdo it today. Safest: I've always loved you in that robe. (2) Love is not easy--particularly married love. And yet St. Paul tells us that the person who loves his fellow human being has fulfilled the law. He writes, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "˜Do not commit adultery,' "˜Do not murder,' "˜Do not steal,' "˜Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed ...

855. Any Friendly Bears Out There?

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... of our being. Nothing in life is very satisfying if we have to experience it alone. And when, at last, our body is lowered into the ground, our MasterCard will be useless, and our years pumping iron will quickly be wasted. Only one thing will remain. The love of God and the love we share with others. Actor Christopher Reeves had everything--wealth, fame, fabulous health. He was one of the most handsome, physically-fit men in Hollywood. Then he fell from a horse. And suddenly he was a quadriplegic. When ...

856. Clean Hearts And Dirty Hands

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... the stairs, he will be attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in beating the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try to reach the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here. (1) Be careful about worshiping ...

857. A Life Without Apology

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

King Duncan

... faithful--for he cannot deny himself." Isn't that interesting? St. Paul says there is one thing God cannot do. God cannot deny God's own character. God is committed to loving us, remembering us, remaining faithful to us, even if we turn our back on Him. That is how we can know that one day we will live with God in eternity. It is not because of our faithfulness, but God's. Author Amy Tan recalls an old family story from her mother's childhood. ...

858. Good Neighbors

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... least they sounded good at the time. Hey, I'm no hypocrite. I've given the same reasons myself: "He'll just spend it on booze. It might be dangerous to stop. I've got hospital calls to make." But back in the deep recesses of our brains, this story remains. And it troubles us. In the winter of 1990, Michael Peterson was asked to appear on a television talk show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At the end of the first day of taping he was on his way back to his plush, high-rise, cable-TV, 24-hour room service ...

859. Twelve Inches From God

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... and the guard stood. Someone wisely said that the seven last words of any church are: "We never did it that way before." The rose had long since died, but the law remained and the guard stood. God is continuously trying to say something fresh to His people. We cannot afford a faith that elevates form over function. The Pharisees loved their traditions. Change was such a threat that in order to prevent it they crucified God's only son. That is what ...

860. A Word For Christian Fathers

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... as easy as they used to, perhaps. But how important Christian fathers are! A study of church attendance sometime back showed that if both Mom and Dad attended church regularly 72 percent of their children remain faithful to the church. If only Mom attended regularly, only 15 percent remained faithful. So the church is thankful for Christian fathers. And so are Christian mothers, needless to say. The number of young women having to raise children in a single parent household nowadays is startling. Of course ...

861. A Rainbow And A Cross

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... 2) Somehow I believe that God is like that father. Perhaps that is why the story of Noah and the great flood ends with the story of a rainbow set in the clouds as a promise that God would never again destroy the earth with water. Still, God's dilemma remained. What to do about the sinfulness of humanity? That, of course, is the reason behind the cross. If God could not deal with the sin of the world by destroying all the inhabitants except for one, then God would save all the inhabitants of the world by the ...

862. The Coat Of Many Colors

Genesis 37:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... Bible had to face this moment when to follow God's way seemed like foolishness, yet they followed God anyway. And the funny thing is, God is able to bring extraordinary good out of our suffering if we will just turn it over to Him and remain obedient. Jane Pauley, the anchor for Dateline NBC, credits her parents with teaching her to take responsibility for her own life. As she says, "My parents felt blessed--despite the fact that tragedy and bitter disappointment had been a fact of each of their lives. Life ...

863. When The Economy Goes South

1 Kings 17:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... for them. In a recession you are delighted that the dog and cat won't eat the expensive canned food. You hope they remain finicky until things get better. In a depression you begin to look thoughtfully at the dog and cat. For the past decade we ... toe. Many of us are like that in our faith. "I have faith!" we declare, but it is an untested faith. It is a tentative faith. One toe remains on the bottom! It is an enormous step for some of us to abandon our fears and trust God. Such faith may get harder for us the ...

864. Praise the King with a Song of Joy

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... , she broke into a song of praise: “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior . . .” French author Victor Hugo remarked, “Music attempts to express what cannot be said about something on which it is impossible to remain silent.” And it was impossible to remain silent on that magnificent night 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born. What song did the angels sing on the night of Jesus’ birth? They sang a song of hope. First and foremost, the message of Christmas is the message ...

865. God's Witness Security Program

1 John 3:1-3

Sermon

King Duncan

... Service also helps the relocated witness find a new job, find housing, arrange for counseling, and obtain new paperwork (like birth certificates) supporting their new identity. There are two incontrovertible rules that every relocated witness must follow in order to remain safe and remain in the program: they must never contact their old friends and colleagues, and they must never return to the town they came from. (1) Creating a new identity is no laughing matter, is it? And yet in some cases, people ...

866. Forgiveness: Human and Divine

Matthew 6:12-15

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... in others. Or we become depressed, or we may try to legalistically conform our lives to those religious traditions we know in hopes that somehow we''ll escape the weight of that guilt that bears down upon our hearts and our minds. But our guilt remains, and it tells on us, and we must eventually receive the forgiveness of God in order to have a sense of peace and harmony in our souls. So forgiveness is the great restoring power in our relationships, the relationship between us and God and the relationship ...

867. Tomorrow Doesn't Always Come

James 4:1-12

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... tomorrow It''s only a day away. Our hearts are really attracted to that, lifted up by those words. And the song does express the popular and comforting idea that there is always going to be more time, a second chance and that somehow the door of life will always remain open and that things are always going to work out just right. Tomorrow is going to be there, if we can just wait until tomorrow. As beautiful as that is and as much as we want to believe it, it''s a lie. It''s all wrong, because tomorrow may ...

868. Joy In the Midst of Sorrow?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... easy to express joy--at least not for the world to see. But those in Christ have an inward joy just the same. After speaking of the resurrection of believers and the Heavenly home, Jesus says in John 15, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and your joy may be full." He speaks of "my joy." His joy was a joy which poverty, suffering, disappointment, earthly failure and even death could not take away. And that''s the joy he will give to all who trust him. PART OF THAT JOY COMES ...

869. In the Meantime: Between the First and Second Comings

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

David Busic

... , the day the author envisions is coming for the people of Judah. Isaiah assures them. And yet, we look beyond this restoration, to one of a new kind, an even better kind. A new thing happens, and new Day dawns in the incarnation of Jesus, who is the Christ. God remains faithful to his people, but the means of salvation shift from an emulated memory of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to faith in a person, Jesus, who is able to forgive sins, and to transform the heart from within. It is a new type of ...

870. To Hell and Back

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ? I get the impression that some Christians think of heaven as an exclusive club, and their enjoyment of it depends upon how exclusive it remains. They are sort of like Groucho Marx who said that he would never want to belong to a club which allowed people like him ... the faith that God never gives up on anybody. Whether or not all of us will ultimately give up and surrender ourselves to God still remains to be seen. We still have the freedom to say to God, Thanks, but no thanks! For the life of me, I don’t ...

871. Doors Are for Entering

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... popular American notion of America as a vast “melting pot” for all peoples and races. He said, “I don’t want to be melted into anybody’s pot!” Instead, he suggested that we might think of America as a vast salad bowl, where each race and nationality remains unique and add spice and flavor to the whole, without losing its specific identity. Perhaps that is the way we must approach the world’s religions as well. They do not all tell the same story, nor proclaim the same view of God. They must be ...

872. The Saint Who Played Second Fiddle

John 1:35-42

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... CHRIST. At Caesarea Philippi Jesus gave Simon a new name: “From now on you will be called Peter...a rock!” Most of us know how Peter went on to become a great leader among the early Church. But we don’t hear much more about Andrew. He remains in the background. From there on, in the New Testament, Andrew is referred to as “Simon Peter’s brother.” In the New Testament Andrew is mentioned but 13 times, while Peter is mentioned 151 times! Andrew took a back seat while his more famous brother spent ...

873. Son of Thunder, Son of God

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... out of the current best sellers. The poor clerk, trying to maintain his composure, asked her, “Well, what is the title of the book you want to purchase?” She answered, “‘How to Remain Young and Beautiful.’” The clerk, with a sarcastic smile on his face answered, “Very well, I will place your order for ‘How to Remain Young and Beautiful’—and I will mark it URGENT.” He had his revenge. Most of us can appreciate that very basic human emotion. But Jesus does not. And that should be the ...

874. Palm Sunday (Prologue)

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... may be bitter, but it is the part which does us the most good. As with most pills, the helpful part, the medical part, the saving part, is not in the sugar coating but what remains after the sugar is gone. That is the essence of what we really need. In the Church’s Calendar, liturgists have recently combined Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday into what they now call Palm/Passion Sunday. When I first saw that name, I thought, “I didn’t know that palms ...

875. Holy Monday

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... when asked to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Righteous anger has been the source of a great many social reforms. Edmund Burke, you remember, said that “all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good folks to remain silent.” Jesus did not remain silent in the face of evil. Nor should we. In my piles of illustrative materials which I have clipped out and saved over the years I found an empty package which once contained a pair of pantyhose. Inasmuch as we have married clergy in ...

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