Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 876 to 900 of 990 results

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

It is early morning, one sleeper turns to the other, an eye half opened, "Do you know what time it is? We've overslept!" Flying slippers rushing to the kitchen, the exclamation on the end of the sentence is placed by kaleidoscopic confusion at the beginning of the day. Or imagine a dormitory room: a college coed leaping from bed, a rush to the desk, the alarm clock lifted very closely to her eyes...

877. Expectancy

Sermon

James L. Killen

Christmas decorations are beginning to appear everywhere and the children are getting excited. Children love this time before Christmas because it gives them something for which to look forward. We all like to have something exciting and good for which to look forward, don't we? We enjoy expectancy. That is the great thing about the season of Advent. It is a season of expectancy. It is a season of...

878. The Stewardship of Time

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

If you knew you were going to die tonight, would that cause you to change your use of time today? Most of us would have to say, "Yes, it would." John Krahn had a friend, named Art, whose doctor diagnosed him as having a terminal illness that would claim his life within a year. After a month, the doctor discovered he was mistaken and told Art that his condition was not terminal after all. As Art re...

879. Proper 18, Pentecost 16, Ordinary Time 23

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

Confession, Instruction, And Forgiveness Leader: Holy God, in whose name we gather, we ask you to give us life and to free us from the evil that causes us to hurt the ones you love. All: What is evil? What shape does it take in our sins? Leader: For every sinful act there is an outer dimension and an inner one. There is what our families, neighbors, and colleagues feel when we act inappropriately,...

880. Advent 1

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Isaiah 2:1-5 (C, RC, E) In the "latter days" all the nations will come to Yahweh and make peace. This passage is repeated in Micah 4:1-3. Scholars claim that it was a later insertion. It tells us what will happen in the latter days, the end-time of earth. The house of the Lord, or Yahweh, will be the highest mountain and center of the earth. All nations will come to him for i...

881. But Not Yet

Illustration

David Zersen

"O God, give me purity – but not yet." So the young Augustine prayed as he resisted his mother Monica and her Christian witness. One day in his garden, Augustine had one of the most famous self-confrontations in history. "Suddenly I heard a voice from some nearby house, a boy's voice or a girl's voice, I do not know. But it was a sort of sing-song, repeated again and again, " Tolle lege, tolle leg...

882. Wake Me Up!

Sermon

Lori Wagner

In 2013, Swedish DJ Avicii wrote the highest charting dance track of the decade, “Wake Me Up!” You can find the song on youtube along with an accompanying music video. The lyrics about living a dream and waking up to realize a new and better reality were written by Avicii as a result of his success, which thrust him into a life he never imagined. The video took the lyrics further however, suggest...

883. Advent 1

Bulletin Aid

Staff

Theme: Watch in readiness for Christ Call to Worship Pastor: God's future plans for us are unknown: but we do know the future is in his hands. People: We know the future is in God's hands; and that is where we want to be also. Pastor: We do not need to fear. If we are alert to God's will for us; and commit our lives to him, our future will have his blessing. People: We face the future with faith,...

884. Jesus And The Ten Commandments

Children's Sermon

Robert B. Lantz

Object: Bookmarks or cards with Ten Commandments Good morning, boys and girls. In the Old Testament book of Exodus, and repeated in Deuteronomy, there is the story of the tablets of stone that Moses received from God when he went up onto Mount Sinai. Can anyone here tell me what we call the words written on those stone tablets? (Response.) Yes, they have come to be known as the Ten Commandments. ...

885. What Is A Lie?

Children's Sermon

Kenneth Mortonson

Purpose: To help children understand why lying is wrong. Material: No special material is needed. Lesson: What is a lie? ... A lie is something that is stated as being true when it is not true. Why do you think it is wrong to tell a lie? ... Because it can hurt people. Let me show you what I mean. If I invited you to a party and told you that it would be held tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. when I knew i...

886. Advent 1

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The Old Testament lesson and the psalm inaugurate the Advent season with a powerful symbol of salvation: Zion. Isaiah 2:1-5 provides a utopian vision of Zion as an end-time reality, while the pilgrimage hymn in Psalm 122 encourages us to claim this salvation in our present lives through worship. Taken together these Old Testament texts provide a strong commentary on Advent. T...

887. Proper 18

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS Exodus 12:1-14 is one of the central descriptions of how the Passover is to be celebrated and how it functions in the life of Israel. Psalm 149 is a two-sided hymn of praise in which God's ability to destroy and to save is acknowledged. Exodus 12:1-14 - "The Passover" Setting. The confusion of the present form of Exodus 11-13 confronts any reader with immediate obstacles to...

888. Salvation as Hope

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

Salvation is the fundamental concept of Paul’s theology but salvation, even as present experience, can be understood only when it is viewed in an eschotological perspective. Paul’s doctrine of man derives its dimension of depth from his eschatology. To interpret human experience in mere psychological terms is superficial. Man is flesh and spirit but these are cosmic powers. Corresponding to them a...

889. Lose the Cape

Sermon

Charley Reeb

When I was in college, I went to a friend’s house for a pool party. I remember it being pretty tame by college standards. The parents were home! However, the dad of the house had a great personality. We told jokes, laughed and carried on. Later in the evening, we were sitting by the pool and the father asked me what my major was. I told him it was religion. He laughed and said, “Yeah, right.” I s...

890. The Debt of Love

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Let me ask you what for some of us might be a painful question. How genuine is your commitment to Christ? Is it primarily a Sunday morning exercise or does it encompass your whole life? I’m not asking this to make you feel guilty. My goal is to help each of us discover the full joy of our commitment to Christ. Our lesson today from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Rome gets right at the heart ...

891. Redeem the Time

Sermon

Will Willimon

"For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them away, so will be the coming of the Son of man." A man I know, a professor at a nearby university, has decided not to do any reading, writing, or speaking, until we get a total freeze on nuclear wea...

892. Do We REALLY Know What Time It Is?

Sermon

Heather Sugden

Years ago, I was staying in a hotel near the airport in anticipation of an early morning flight the next day. The hotel had an alarm clock in the room, and, being an independent type, I decided to set the alarm myself rather than bother the staff member at the front desk for a wake-up call. This was before the days of wide spread cell phones, when nightstands in hotels often had clock radios with ...

893. Make Scriptural Hope Your Own

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Snoopy of Charlie Brown comic strip fame is typing a novel. He begins his story, "It was a dark and stormy night ..." Snoopy always starts his stories in this manner. Lucy looks at what Snoopy has written. She goes into a tirade, putting down Snoopy for such a silly beginning. Doesn't Snoopy know that any good story starts with the words, "Once upon a time ..." The last frame of the comic strip ha...

894. A High FLOSS Church

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It's one of those dreaded moments. One that exposes all our inadequacies and inconsistencies. The dentist, poking around your molars and bicuspids, simultaneously scrapes plaque and your conscience with the pointed question, "And have you been flossing everyday?" Despite all the flavored, waxed, stringless improvements, despite all the high-tech, low-tech gadgets and gizmos, flossing is still an u...

895. Romans 14:1-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The construction of this week’s epistle text is a literary form called “ring composition.” Paul’s first discussion (vv.1-3) and his final argument (vv.10-12) employ the same language (“weak/strong,” “despise/judge”) to make similar points. The central section of this unit (vv.4-9) provides the theological “meat” between these sandwiching statements. The apostle reminds the church that all disciple...

896. Sacred Pleasures

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There is an old Hasidic tradition. You may have heard of it before. A large drop of honey is placed on the first page of the Torah the first time a Jewish child opens the Bible to read and study it. The child is instructed to lick the honey from the page, forever imprinting the young scholar with the memory-paste of pleasure, the conviction that the study of God’s “Word” is sweet. It is what we a...

897. Romans 14:1-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In ancient Christian burial grounds in Rome, the inscriptions record that people died “in pace” or “in peace.” What this means is that they died as members of the church that is Christ’s peace, even though they fought just as much as we do. To be a member of the church is to share Christ’s peace, however much we annoy one another or disagree with one another. As Paul continues his parenesis in tod...

898. “Weak and Strong” Should Get Along

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

Big Idea: Romans 14:1–15:13 forms a unit unto itself containing Paul’s plea for the Roman Christians to get along—specifically, that the weak and the strong in faith would accept each other in Christ. Romans 14:1–12 begins the discussion with a twofold exhortation (vv. 1–3, 10–12) grounded in a theological explanation (vv. 4–9). Understanding the Text In the past, some scholars have contended th...

899. The Weak and the Strong

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

14:1–15:13 Review · Unity in diversity: The believers in Rome are “holy people” (1:7), but they also have problems. In the final paragraph of his exhortation, Paul addresses the conflict that exists between believers who regard the Christian faith as an essentially Jewish movement and believers who do not pay attention to distinctive Jewish traditions—that is, between Jewish Christians and Gentile...

900. The Weak and the Strong

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

The general exhortation on agapē in chapters 12–13 proceeds now to a specific discussion of the “strong” and “weak” in 14:1–15:13. Paul divides the entire unit into three subsections. In the present section he argues that self-righteous judgments are divisive in the body of Christ; in 14:13–23 he teaches that responsibility for the other takes priority over individual rights; and he concludes in 1...

Showing 876 to 900 of 990 results