Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 876 to 900 of 4999 results

James 3:1-12, James 3:13-18, 2 Timothy 2:14-26, Psalm 34:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:4) “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen… Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:29, 32) This is July Fourth weekend, the one time of year when all the pyromaniacs come out of the closet. This morning I want us to talk about ...

877. The Sign of the Servant

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... joined. [Show a photo of a yoke and oxen.] Within the yoke, an experienced ox is always paired with a young inexperienced ox, so that the stronger, older ox can lead, showing the weaker how to do it, where to go, how hard to pull. The older ox is a kind of "shepherd" to the younger, and the yoke is the "staff" that guides the younger along with him. This is how farming is done in the fields. So, "There you go!" as Gus Portokalos would say in "A Big Fat Greek Wedding." A shepherd’s staff that guides plus ...

878. Are You a Lemming or a Lassie?

Luke 12:13-21, Luke 12:22-34, Luke 12:35-48, Luke 12:49-53, Luke 12:54-59

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.” Image Exegesis: What Kind of Yeast Are You? The scripture for today follows Jesus’ dinner at the home of a Pharisee in which he gets into heated debates with his colleagues on their teaching of the law vs God’s will. He tells his famous parable of the Great Dinner, and he knows ...

879. Liminal Space

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... anymore. But you’re not quite awake either. You’re somewhere in between, standing at the threshold of reality, but not quite stepping through. That’s the art of the story, isn’t it? It’s the reason we love to read stories –reading can be a kind of Alice in Wonderland experience that takes you into a land of liminal space, in which you meet people not from your time or place, interact with them, journey with them, take them into your heart and mind, and then emerge from the process having found ...

880. The Order of the Magi

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a story that proclaims in no uncertain terms that Jesus’ birth is not just a Jewish phenomenon, but an event of magnitude for the entire ancient world –one that was expected to change the face of the nations. And other nations were very interested in this kind of change within the Roman world. Yes, the atmosphere at the beginning of this new year was filled with suspense, and a bit of wonder! It was the most newsworthy story of the year! The Jewish Messiah had been born! This child would become the high ...

881. The Funeral Crasher

John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14, John 14:15-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... still with you. However, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything that I have ever told you. “I’m leaving you peace. I’m giving you my peace. I don’t give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So, don’t be troubled or cowardly. You heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, but I’m coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m going to the Father, because the Father is greater than ...

882. Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Ezekiel 37:15-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... around. Here! - Very many on the face of the valley, and here! - utterly dry. Wow! Notice the first experience of this vision--in a kind of whirlwind teleportation, God brings Ezekiel and sets him down in the center of a valley. A valley full of bones! He led ... it will dry out, become brittle, and it will finally break. If you drop it, it will shatter. This is in a sense the kind of metaphor that Ezekiel is describing in his vision of the valley of dry bones. These are not bones who have recently lived. They ...

883. Identity Crisis

Genesis 32:1-21, Genesis 32:22-32, Genesis 33:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... one group, the group that is left may escape.” Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with ...

884. Who is That Crouching at Your Door?

Genesis 4:1-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... We all do. Of course. Who doesn’t love a compliment? We love to be looked upon with favor. We love to be told we are kind and beautiful and loving. We love it when people like the gifts we give them, and the things we do for them. And the more compliments ... do want something back. Whether we recognize it or not, it’s rare that we truly give something to others for free. No? There’s a kind of hidden agenda we all have at the back of our minds. We deserve at the very least a thank you. If not a return ...

885. The Writing on the Wall

2 Samuel 11:1-27, 2 Samuel 12:1-31, John 7:25-44, John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... he do? He has Uriah killed. Now his dalliance has blossomed into a bigger, fatter SIN! So, God does what God usually does in this kind of situation. God sends in a prophet! When things get rough, we send in the clowns. God sends in the prophets. In David’s ... a parable. Do you remember what it is? Who can remember? [Allow someone to repeat the story.] Well, this parable acts like of kind a mirror. You’re fumbling around in the dark. You bump into some furniture….get all battered up. All of a sudden the ...

886. Tale of the Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... or your plump tomato plant. You’ll wait until the plants mature. Then you’ll know for sure! This is exactly the kind of advice Jesus is giving his disciples –except he’s not just talking about agriculture! Jesus seldom is! At this point in ... instead of looking to our own garden and our own growth. To tare is to be human. To love is divine. Jesus invites us to be the kind of disciples who love. It’s in our DNA. We can no sooner sabotage our community by cutting parts out of it than we could cut parts ...

887. Big Spender

1 Kings 10:14-29, 1 Kings 11:1-13, Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... This is why he continuously tells his disciples, to be first, they must be last, that it is not about the position or the power. God’s “prosperity” is a prosperity of the spirit. “I will give you rest,” says Jesus –rest for the soul. Jesus brings us the kind of rest that means, we feel satisfied in our lives, that we feel happy in our relationships, that we don’t constantly feel the need to crave for more and more and more, that we don’t feel lost in our identity, but we know exactly who and ...

888. Deliverance (Angel on Your Shoulder)

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... we can have, and it affirms our intimacy with the divine and transcendent. In our scripture for today, Joseph receives one of those angelic visitations in the form of a dream. Like Mary, Joseph is at first taken aback by the news that his betrothed is pregnant. Being a kind man, Joseph does not wish harm upon Mary and comes up with a plan to divorce her quietly, so that no one is the wiser. But an angel of the Lord, one of those Human Whisperers, comes to Joseph in a dream and urges him to take Mary as ...

889. The Field House

Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 4:23-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... could include large vehicles, such as tractors, ploughs, and other farming devices. In some cases, hunters would use the space to flay deer, fish, or other game and prepare the meat for preserving or for the kitchen. The field house might be a rustic kind of place where tools were kept for cultivating the lawns of large manors or for keeping the equipment for horses and horse riding. But they would also be places where folks would gather to shell peas, clean fresh vegetables, fit horseshoes, or meet for ...

890. Dangerous

John 12:12-19, Zechariah 9:9-13, Zechariah 9:14-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... question. Status quo mandates control. The Holy Spirit mandates we let go of control, and let Jesus resurrect us into a new kind of life we have never before experienced and know nothing about. To let the Holy Spirit take control means we give ... of control. Isn’t it? But the Holy Spirit is not something we can control. We all know this. Everyone here who has been in any kind of intimate relationship knows you have to let go a little bit in order to truly love and feel the joy of that relationship. Did you fall ...

891. The Healing Tree

Revelation 22:1-6, Luke 8:1-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... we are “clothed” in that healing balm, clothed in the leaves of the Tree of Life. You might call it God’s robes of righteousness –our holy God-skin. It’s a protection. It’s a binder. It’s a connector. It’s a purifier. It’s a kind of medicine for our sin. A balm of Gilead. God is watching you. Moving you. Feeding you. Healing you. Until you are whole and redeemed by Jesus’ divine power and glory. Let’s sing that verse again: There is a balm in Gilead To make the wounded whole. There ...

892. God Has Not Forgotten You

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... entire vineyard of God. Sometimes, we can get so caught up waiting for the future that we miss the beauty of today. Sometimes, we can get so caught up in lamenting the past that we can miss the mission God is calling us to do and the kind of disciples Jesus is calling us to become. It’s time, church, to stop fearing our neighbors or perceiving them merely through their difference from us. God calls the church to “put down roots” right where we are. God calls us to spend time prospering our communities ...

893. The Tempest

Jonah 4:1-11, Jonah 3:1-10, Jonah 2:1-10, Jonah 1:1-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... matter how stubborn we are or how much we try to escape our role as God’s child. God continues to gently teach us, abide by us, and love us, and to offer us hope that a new reality will come that will bring us peace. The hope of that kind of peace is the message of Jesus. In the gospel of John, we see Jesus re-writing the story of Jonah. Jesus’ disciples are worried and stressed about life and what’s going on in Jesus’ ministry. They are afraid of the authorities and worried about how they are going ...

894. Breath of God · COVID-19 and the Resurrection

John 20:10-18, John 20:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... yet, not as before. In that moment she knew that everything would change. All her hopes, affirmed. All her fears, relieved. Today, as we celebrate Easter morning, resurrection means so much more to us than it did before. For we have been living in darkness, confined to a kind of tomblike existence. Life as we have known it has stopped. We don’t go out to work. We don’t go out to play. We hide our faces; we guard our lungs. We walk zombie-like through our homes and streets, frightened, and covered in our ...

895. Second Sight

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... herself. Many of us Christians go through life just that way. We continue to see only an outline or a form of Jesus instead of seeing him and encountering him in a way that allows him to change us and move our discipleship forward into a new kind of place. This week I challenge you to read the scriptures, read them as you never have before. Make reading the scriptures a regular part of your day. I will be willing to bet that it will change your vision about Jesus, about yourself, about your relationships ...

896. A Sure Path to the NFL

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

King Duncan

... . After a Roman baby was born, the father examined the child for signs of health and robustness. And if the father decided that the child was worthwhile, then he would keep it. If not, he could leave the child out in the street to die. (3) That is not the kind of relationship that God wants with us. God offers each of us love without limits. But the idea of God as a loving Father who gives us our identity as His children was life-changing to new converts in the early Christian church. I hope it’s just as ...

897. Jesus' Advance Man

John 1:6-8; 19-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... not worthy to untie the true One’s sandals. He is not the one to baptize with the Holy Spirit. “John the Baptist had a kind of reverse résumé,” says Juel. “Typically on a résumé you list all the things that you are, all the things you have done ... would not be about!” (4) In spite of his own popularity, John sought to direct attention not to himself but to Jesus. That kind of humility is a rare commodity even today. It was not his intent to draw attention to himself. His greatest desire was to ...

898. The Angel's Message

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... day when many are self-absorbed and care more about what they can get rather than what they can give, we need a renewal of sacrificial love. It was God’s love for us that sent Jesus into the world to die for our sins, and it is that kind of giving love that our world needs so greatly today. When we love God as we should, our interests fade as we magnify Him.” (3) That was true of Hudson and Maria Taylor. Without obedient servants like the Taylors we would not have the Gospel today. Certainly without the ...

899. All Are Invited, but…

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... t just talk the talk. You also have to walk the walk. In light of all of this, here’s what I am going to do. Tonight before I go to bed, I’m going to write out a list of the Christlike garments that Paul mentions in Colossians — compassion, kindness, meekness, patience, and above all else love. I’ll put it in a visible place in my closet. Then tomorrow morning when I open the closet door and say to myself, “What shall I wear today?” I will come face-to-face with this little list and then try, if ...

900. Are you a G.O.A.T.?

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... independent, self-serving goat will be the ones who refuse, instead going their own way, serving their own needs. Jesus makes clear that in God’s love for all people, community care, the nature and personality of the flock, is vital to a kingdom of heaven kind of world. We live in a world today in which we often advocate for a philosophy that says, “the ends justify the means.” We believe often today that behavior doesn’t matter, that personality doesn’t matter, as long as the desired end goal is ...

Showing results