Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 901 to 925 of 2332 results

901. Light For Our Darkness

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... bringing of generous gifts to the Christ. Isaiah pictures camels bringing costly gifts of gold and frankincense in celebration of Israel's return to the glory of Jerusalem. At Epiphany I almost always recall the cartoon which showed the three wise men riding across the desert. One turns to the others and says, "Why didn't you guys tell me you were getting such expensive gifts?" They were expensive gifts as were the ones described by Isaiah, and they symbolize a response of the heart to God's wondrous gift ...

902. Questions

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

John Jamison

... the people to rebellion, the real charge was airing Herod's family laundry without a license. For Herod it was a pleasure. For John, it was a nightmare. He was placed in the prison of Machaerus in the mountains east of the Dead Sea. The man who had wandered the deserts and open spaces preaching, was now thrown in a sealed dungeon cell. How would he handle that? But Mary was more worried about how her Jesus would handle the news. She didn't have any idea of how to break it to him, but just like you and I ...

903. Chosen For Good News

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... that those who saw Jesus in the flesh were struck almost first by a certain sunny-heartedness about him which prim minds did not easily associate with religion. “The thing indeed became a scandal! ‘Now John,’ they said, ‘with his lean, austere life in the desert, is patently a saint of God. But this other mingling in people’s happiness, going to weddings and the like, is he a religious man at all?’ And Jesus admitted he was happy. ‘What else can we be?’ he asked, ‘Knowing that we know ...

904. The Vine And The Branches

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... disciples were on their way to Gethsemane. It was one of the nastiest moments of their life together. Judas had left the group in disgust; all the dreams they had dreamed about Christ’s glorious future were beginning to crumble. They were nervous, edgy, and about to desert him. He affirmed them! We all need that kind of affirmation from God and from each other. Through the vine we are related to one another, and we need to support and affirm each other. Now then, “Just how are we like the vine and the ...

905. Athanasius Faithful Teacher

Drama

Thomas A. Renquist

... further incident! Reader 1: Certainly Athanasius’ influence was felt in other aspects of the church’s life as well. During an exile in Rome, Athanasius became close to Pope Julius and convinced him of the value of the monastic life of the Egyptian desert monks. Thus Athanasius, an eastern church leader, came to be regarded as the father of western monasticism. Nor is it difficult for us to see the influence of Athanasius even in our time. The Nicene Creed, with its forceful statements about the full ...

906. Life Always Springs New!

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Donald Zelle

... or as we view the photographs of the early arrivals of the allied forces to Dachau and Auschwitz. There are artists who have expressed this despair in other ways. Rock musicians belt out the hopelessness of life. Christians sing about earth being a "desert drear." Picasso expressed it in his famous painting, "Guernica," showing grotesque bits and pieces of human beings torn apart by warfare. Jose Posada, a Mexican artist, has done many pieces showing people doing normal activities, but all only as skeletons ...

907. The Burning Bush Within Us

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Justin Tull

... you remember feeling God’s presence when things were chaotic, when tragedy struck, when failure came your way, when disappointment shook your self-esteem, when the beauty of the natural world caressed you and whispered its lullaby? Do we have to have a burning bush in the desert to hear from God? Or can we settle instead for the burning bush within, the presence of the living God, the comfort and guidance of his Spirit? The story of the people of God is the story of God’s presence, of God’s being with ...

908. Charlie Used To Do That

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The people said, "Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as the scripture says, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " Jesus answered, "What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven." Jesus is referring to the fact that even when God gave the whole ...

909. Life From Water: The Ark

Genesis 6:11-22

Sermon

Steve Swanson

... is. Water has always been this world's thermostat. We use water in radiators and solar panels because water can contain heat and release it slowly. Without water our days would be deathly hot and our nights deathly cold - something like the weather on a desert. This world could not exist without water, and neither could we. Water has some other interesting qualities. Like other liquids, when it gets cold, water gets denser. That's why cold water stays on the bottom of your hot water heater, and that's why ...

910. Beyond the Ordinary

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Eulogy

Richard F. Bansemer

... privilege of asking us a few questions on this occasion? God might want to ask us: "Why do you think I've been so good to you?" He might want to ask us: "Why are you worried now? I've taken care of you all along, and I'm not deserting you. I'm as close as your heart beat, your mind, your memory of my grace; as close as your tear to your eye." But more than these questions, I think he might ask this one:"If you can see the last twenty years of '5 life as a gift ...

911. Repent Your Way To A Merry Christmas

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . I would not be concerned about economics, politics, the weather, the size of house or the type of car. At such a time I would want to dwell on the profundities, on what life was all about and what things were absolutely essential. John in the desert was in the great tradition of the Hebrew prophets. He was aware that time was running out. In his burning message he had no time for peripheral matters. He was not playing Trivial Pursuit nor was he prepared to splash about in the shallows. Soon the sword ...

912. It Just Doesn't Work That Way

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... t work that way, does it? And Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is sort of like that? There is so much messiness in the church! Jesus told us to make disciples of all nations, and look who showed up asking Philip for baptism in the middle of the desert! The invitation to the table was issued and look who came to the party! When God goes sowing, or sending out party invitations, or blessing, or calling, it looks like God doesn’t know where to stop! But separation of the weeds from the wheat is God’s job ...

913. Lent

Sermon

Betty Lynn Schwab

... the gift of the Torah, the Law revealed in great glory to Moses on Mount Sinai. Reader 1: So Shavuot celebrates the most important event in Jewish history: the giving of God's Law on Mount Sinai. This Law was freely given in an ownerless place, the desert. This Law was accepted by the people. It bound the people to God and God to the people. Reader 2: Shavuot is therefore also called the Festival of the Covenant of Redemption. Through the Law, the people entered into partnership with God to help bring about ...

914. Hard Times May Drop In For A Visit

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Joann Hary

... out to Ezekiel, "Behold, our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are clean cut off ..." and, "How can we sing the Lord's songs in a foreign land?" Now, get the picture: They weren't physically dead! They weren't bodies of bones scattered in the desert, but they felt like they would have been better off if they were dead! You see, Jerusalem had always been the place where Yahweh had caused his name to dwell, the place where they had always gone to give thanks to the Lord. Now their temple, their priests ...

915. There's Blindness, and There's Blindness

John 9:13-34, John 9:1-12

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... is loving, do children die on school playgrounds at the hands of other children? These questions are as old as the Bible itself, even older than that. The psalmist asked, "How long, O Lord, how long must your people suffer?" As they wandered in the desert after their release from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites cried out, "Where are you, God?" Job, in one of the most ancient of all biblical writings, screamed his "WHY?" to God through clenched teeth in the midst of personal disaster. No matter who asks the ...

916. A Visit With An Old Friend

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... memorized in nursery school, and for the end of life, as a comforting old friend. It’s a rare funeral where Psalm 23 has not been asked to speak a word of comfort to the grieving loved ones. In this life, whenever we have found ourselves in some dry, desert place, whenever events like the ones we’ve witnessed this past week have shaken us to the very core of our being, it has been this old friend who reminded us of the green pastures and still waters. And in that reminder, we have taken comfort and felt ...

917. The Crowing of a Rooster

Matthew 26:31-35, Matthew 26:69-75

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... of this sound originated on Thursday evening of Holy Week, just as Jesus and his disciples left the upper room where they had had supper together. As they entered the city park called Gethsemane, Jesus told the disciples that they would lose their faith in him, desert him. Peter resented that statement and challenged Jesus. "These others may run, but not I!" he declared. "They may be a bunch of cowards, but you can count on me to stick with you to the bitter end." That's when Jesus told Peter to listen ...

918. Does Love Make You Sorry?

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... truth is that a Christian has times when tears are in order. In Ecciesiastes, we are told that there is "a time to weep and a time to laugh." No one, even a Christian, can be happy all the time. All sunshine and no dark days of rain make a desert. Lent is a time for tears. Lent is going with Jesus to Jerusalem where he suffers and dies. Isaiah describes him as "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." It was a time of tears for him - weeping at the grave of Lazarus, tears for Jerusalem, and tears in ...

919. In Quest of a Treasure

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Larry Powell

... June 1, 1812, President James Madison asked Congress to declare war against Great Britain. Among other reasons for the President's request were (1) British blockading of American ships as decreed by "Orders in Council," and (2) the removing of British deserters, as well as American sailors, from American ships to be forced into service for the British navy. On June 18, or seventeen days following Madison's appeal, Congress issued a Declaration of War. However, unknown to Congress, Britain had repealed the ...

920. Encounters With Christ IV: Jesus and the Woman at the Well

Sermon

James W. Moore

... thing is clear. She was an outcast and she had a bad reputation. · And still Jesus reached out to her with love and compassion. Remember the story with me. The Bible tells us that it was about noon. This means it must have been incredibly hot out there at that desert at mid-day. (Even today if you take a tour to the Holy Land, guides will warn you, in the morning in some places it can be 110 degrees in the shade and 120 degrees in the direct sunlight.) It was hot and Jesus had been walking in the heat ...

921. Encounters With Christ V: Jesus and James and John

Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

James W. Moore

... how moms are about their boys… but you can’t really cover it. James and John were great men, great disciples to whom we owe much, but in that moment their ambition blinded them. Remember Oscar Wilde’s famous story, which depicts the devil crossing the Libyan Desert. He comes upon a group of people who are tormenting a holy man. They are trying to tempt him and break his spirit, but to no avail. They can’t touch him. They can’t upset him. They can’t ruffle him. He resists every temptation with ...

922. Melchior Reminisces

Matthew 2:1-12

Drama

Edward G. Hunter

... be. We were quite convinced it was the Messiah, the King of Israel, but we wanted to be certain. We discussed this with the King of Persia and he agreed that we should make the trip. It would be long and arduous, many, many miles across the Syrian Desert, but we were determined to go. The king suggested we take with us gifts suitable for a king: gold, frankincense and myrrh. He told us also to visit King Herod and offer him our congratulations on the birth of the new monarch. We prepared ourselves for the ...

923. A Tree Planted By Waters

Jeremiah 17:8

Children's Sermon

Tim Carpenter

... tell me what roots do? (support the tree, provide the food) What else do they do? (drink the water in the ground). Prompt the children until they provide these answers and especially the answer: water. Application: What would happen to a tree if was planted in the desert? (die) Why? (the roots wouldn’t have any water to drink) What would happen to a tree if was planted by a river or a stream? (live) Why? (they would have water) What about your roots? Did you know that you have roots? (response) Let me ...

924. Will the Real Jesus Christ Arise?

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Carl Jech

... Christ. Some think of him as a pietistic fundamentalist, or superpatriot, or the ultimate "positive thinker." Others have painted him as a revolutionary or anti-establishment hippie - possibly a Zealot or a counterculture Essene who had sought purity in a desert monastery like the one at which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Still others have tried to make him into an ecclesiastical bureaucrat, a member of the temple priesthood. Greeley himself concludes that Jesus was most probably associated with a ...

925. Becoming What You Are

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Carl Jech

... we already are. To be a saint in the Christian sense is to be humble and human "to the max," but at the same time it is to have the wonderfully reassuring confidence that God does much more than simply reward or punish us according to our deserts. God makes it possible for us, as we have often repeated, to combine a sense of urgency about being all that we can be, with a sense of humor that doesn't take our efforts at perfection too seriously. The mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal expressed this ...

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