Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 901 to 925 of 4977 results

901. Advent 3

Isaiah 35:1-10, Psalm 146:1-10, James 5:7-12, Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon Aid

... ?" - and is a fitting response to the First Lesson, Isaiah 35:1-10. It asserts that people who know and trust the Lord are happy and hopeful because they depend on the Lord God, "who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them," and keeps his promise forever. He is a God who gives justice to the hungry and oppressed, sets the prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down, cares for the stranger, sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked ...

902. Proper 5 & Pentecost 3

Matthew 9:9-13, Romans 4:1-25, Hosea 6:1--7:16, Genesis 22:1-19, Psalm 13:1-6, Psalm 50:1-23, Hosea 5:1-15

Sermon Aid

... . God heals every wound. Ours is to believe it, love him, turn to him, and trust him. 2. Love for God tends to dry up. Hosea says it is like a "morning cloud" or the "dew that goes away early." Fickle faith is a deterrent to love and obedience. 3. Keep our love steadfast, our faith strong. We cannot love God as we should, nor can we live out his commandments by ourselves. Help us to believe, to love, to obey, and to live as your servants, O Lord! Romans 4:18-25 - "The Patriarch's Lesson." 1. Believe in God ...

903. Reformation Sunday

Jeremiah 32:1-44, Romans 3:21-31, John 8:31-41

Sermon Aid

... with "A Mighty Fortress," it is often used as a preaching text for Reformation Sunday. The Psalm Prayer (LBW) Lord God, our refuge and strength, when the restless powers of this world and the waters of hell rise up against your holy city, watch over it and keep it safe. By the river that flows from the throne of the Lamb, purify this new Jerusalem as your chosen dwelling, for you are with us, our stronghold now and forever. THE READINGS Jeremiah 31:31-34 Older lectionaries assigned 1 Samuel 3:19--4:1a to ...

904. The Girl Who Was Too Smart to Learn

Luke 2:25

Children's Sermon

... began teaching her how to play tennis. He took her out on the court every chance he got and she got better quickly. She won a tournament for children aged twelve and under, and everyone thought she had a great future in the sport. Her father wanted her to keep playing in order to reach the next level of ability, but the girl said, "No, Daddy, I already know how to play tennis. Let me do something else." The little girl was too smart to learn ... or, I should say, she thought she was too smart to learn. As ...

905. What Will He Find… When He Comes? - Shorter Version

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... shaking his head. A saint of many more years watched for a while and then said, "Young man, if you're tired already, you are not going to make it." That's the question Jesus addresses in this parable. Are we going to make it? Do we pray constantly, keeping our eyes fixed on him whose will is our guide and whose faithfulness is the root of our hope? Do we live in the faith, expecting great things to happen in our lives, in our congregation, and even in our world? It was a Scottish preacher who once observed ...

906. Sole Brother

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

... his visits seemed to mean a lot, and he wanted to be there to do what he could. She worried about him holding down the bartending job in the evening and the bakery job at night, but with the heavy medical bills it seemed the only way to keep financial ends somewhere close to meeting. She knew he was doing it for her and really wanted to. Quite a son ... even though he had been adopted. Seemed closer, more devoted to her than her own children. They often joked about German immigrant mom and Mexican-American ...

907. It’s How It Ends That Matters

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

... calls us all to high adventure on the way. It’s much like a crusade, which gathers pilgrims as it goes along and, as the ranks begin to swell, picks up enthusiasm in the march toward the final destination. On the way, they give encouragement to one another, keeping spirits up and pointing to the future. But not everybody wants to be a pilgrim. Some think setting out on such a pilgrimage is totally ridiculous. The Great King gives each one of us the freedom to say "no" to the adventure, at our peril. It is ...

908. A King Worth Having

Zechariah 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... already have favor for Christ’s sake. What a load that takes off our shoulders! We are free from having to do the impossible of keeping the Law in every detail. Now we can live according to our consciences and by the leadership of the Spirit. We are free from having ... God. We did not make it; he made it for us. Now we can live and laugh, dance and sing. This is in keeping with Zechariah’s admonition: "Rejoice greatly ... shout aloud!" It is time to celebrate our freedom from sin and self, from death and ...

909. No Sooner Said Than Done!

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... to Esau. But Jacob could not take back his words. What he had said stood for all time. It was a shame and an injustice, but what was spoken was spoken. Likewise, God does not and cannot change his promises to us. To be true to God, we, too, must keep our promises and be as good as our words. Pro-golfer Lee Trevino was asked to play in a New Orleans tournament. It would pay him $163,000. He turned it down because he had promised to play in a fund-raising event in Tucson for the American Heart Association ...

910. Recovering From the Blahs

1 Kings 19:9-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... in that position. The sparrow explained, "I heard that the heavens are going to fall today." "Oh," said the horseman, "And I suppose your puny little legs can hold up the heavens?" "One does what one can," answered the sparrow. "One does what one can." We may not keep the world from falling apart, but each must do something. We just can’t sit there and watch it fall apart. As God commanded Elijah to do something for him, he commands us to love one another, to witness to his truth, and to preach the gospel ...

911. Count Me In!

Isaiah 56:1-8

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... replied that she wasn’t, he withheld the elements and passed her by. She was excluded from the Holy Supper on the basis of church doctrine and membership. The sex of a person can close doors to serving God in some churches. Women are to keep silence in the church. This precludes them from preaching the Word. In a recent revision of canon law, the Roman Church excluded women from the priesthood. Some Protestant churches also exclude women solely on the basis of sexuality. This says that women are inferior ...

912. A Person Approved by Christ

John 1:43-51

Sermon

George Bass

... and the south, and all the tribes of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants. Be sure that I am with you; I will keep you safe wherever you go, and bring you back to this land, for I will not desert you before I have done all that I have ... before him had made such a vow to God after he awakened from his dream and realized what had happened: "If God goes with me and keeps me safe on this journey I am making, if he gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and if I return home safely to ...

913. The Need for Transfiguration

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... wanted to stay. But Jesus told them that it was not to be so. They who had seen the glory of the Lord in this extraordinary moment must now learn to see the extraordinary in every moment. They must go with him again to the plain where they would keep their eyes fixed on him, remembering the glory that had enveloped and affirmed him. But in remembering the glory of the mountaintop they were now to see it in the everyday man of Nazareth who was to be crucified, dead and buried. In him and in the ordinariness ...

914. The Call to Obedience

Luke 22:42 · Romans 1:17 · John 15:10

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... we can manage life perfectly well on our own - or with just a little help from God." Then, we miss it. We take just as little help from God as possible, and we never realize what life under God really is. But throughout the whole process, God in his mercy keeps "nudging" us. God grant that we begin to recognize and respond to that nudging. When we seek in love to obey him, even though we are stumbling, he is patient and he does not fail us. Not those who say, "Lord, Lord," but those who obey in faith and in ...

915. "I Don’t Want to Be Perfect - Or Do I?"

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... it is dark and straight and on the right side it is blond and wavy. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of his time with older folk. He smiles all the time with a straight gaze because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously at his work. He makes fifteen calls a day on church members, spends all of his time evangelizing the unchurched, and is never out of his office. What foolishness. This kind of foolishness is what ruins the concept of perfection for us. But still, I am ...

916. THE WITCH OF ENDOR

Drama

Marcia Miller

... though it is illegal? SAUL: Even though it is illegal. ENDORA: Who is it you wish to have called up? SAUL: The prophet Samuel. ENDORA: You tricked me! You are King Saul! [DARCY, MUIDEM and RECOS come from behind the screen.] SAUL: Don’t be afraid. I will keep my vow for I am a man of my word. You will not be punished. Tell me what you can see. [The Girl Witches begin dancing, chanting, "Deos vidi, Deos vidi, accendentes de terra." As they do this SAMUEL appears on the risen platform. SAUL does not see ...

917. Miracle On Main Street by Dr. George A. Buttrick

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... and other burdens which we only dimly guess. We may not know, we cannot guess What pains He had to bear. We only know it was for us He hung and suffered there. That word "dwell" refers to the Ark of the Covenant, leading the journey of Israel by day, keeping watch among their huddled tents by night. Therefore the tremendous words of the Creed: "Light of light, God of God, very God of very God, Who for us men and our salvation came down and was made man." So God in Christ lives on Main Street. He goes where ...

918. Embalmed Alive

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... , we end up only with the nagging fear that there isn’t going to be enough. Look again at our aged people. Every day is the fear they won’t have enough to last them, the more they have, the greater the fear. And all of the events of life keep tapping us on the shoulder and saying: "Thou fool, this night thy soul." Thou fool! But the Word of God presents to us the truth that life need not be that way. How is something else accomplished? A story in Newsweek magazine some time ago tells of a middle-aged ...

919. What Are Christian Liberals? - 1951

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... knowledge and the new awareness that it has. That is why Jesus said, "Many things I would say to you, but you can’t stand them. You haven’t developed enough. Therefore my Spirit, the Spirit of truth, will come to you and guide you into all truth." Keep your minds open therefore and never shut them and say, "I’m all done, I won’t listen to anybody else. This is what I’ve been told and I won’t listen to anyone else." This is the most horrible way of destroying Christian vitality. Then you become ...

920. The Old and the New

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

... a conservative book. We cannot stop with the old. That is what makes revolutions. Custom! How many rivers grow stagnant in that swamp? How many garments have been torn on that old nail? Custom! The way we have always done it, the things we keep on doing, the words we keep on saying after the light has gone out of them or leaped ahead of them. For instance, examine the sleeve of a man’s coat. There are two buttons there, or three buttons, or maybe four buttons. There is absolutely no need for those buttons ...

921. Laying Hold On God's Willingness

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . Someone commented, "God wants to know what channel it's on." Obviously, we don't need to inform God of anything. Prayer is not persuading God. When I as a boy asked my father for a pony, I didn't get very far. Papa understood some of the complications of keeping a pony that I did not. But later when I asked his help with the high costs of college, his answer was immediate, positive, and enthusiastic. God is better than the best parent. We don't have to persuade him to do what is best for us. He wants that ...

922. Like Buoys In The River

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... by day with a great cloud and by night with a pillar of fire. In their third month out of Egypt, they draw near to Mount Sinai. There God invites Israel to enter into a covenant relationship with him. If Israel will be faithful to God and keep his commandments, she will become the national mediator of God's blessings to the entire world. The Ten Commandments, actually etched by God into stone, are the by-laws for this people of faith. In today's scripture we find two truths about the Ten Commandments. First ...

923. Straight Talk With A Young Adult

Matthew 19:16-30

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... else on earth. Long ago Jesus met a well educated, capable, attractive young man who had everything going for him. Jesus appreciated his brightness and potential. They shared some straight talk about the big issues of life. Jesus gave him two guidelines to remember: keep the commandments; and give God the undisputed first-place in your life. Two thousand years later, that is still the recipe for the good life. A story is told about a young African man who in the early Nineteenth Century was kidnapped from ...

924. The Words We Speak

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... "never." You always do this or that; you never say this or that. Such exaggerations usually raise the level of anger. When anger comes between partners, they should sit down together privately, as soon as practical, and talk about feelings, their own feelings, avoiding accusations, and keeping voices under control. The Bible reminds us that "a soft answer turns away wrath." My dad used to say, "In every good marriage a man has to know when to get his hat and go take a walk." That's good advice. There is a ...

925. It’s About Time!

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

... you? Threatening me with TIME! Well, you can’s scare me with time. I have a good time all the time! READER: Listen! Watch! For you don’t know when the time will come! NON-CHRISTIAN: You’re wasting YOUR time on me! Keep your warnings for weaklings. I can get along just fine. TIME PAST: A time to keep silence TIME PRESENT: And a time to speak. CHRISTIAN-WITH-EXCUSES: Oh, I heard it the first time. You mean I should talk to him (her). READER: It is the time to seek out the Lord. He only may come and give ...

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