Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 76 to 100 of 747 results

76. Proper 7

Matthew 10:1-42

Bulletin Aid

... on three (rather loosely related) grounds: (1) that what has been hidden (probably the Reign of God proclaimed, often obliquely, by Jesus) will be revealed; (2) that, compared with God's power and providence, nothing is fearsome; and (3) that the faithful will have an advocate in heaven before this God in the person of the Christ. Call to Worship Leader: Let us worship the God who delivers us from every peril! People: LET US PRAISE THE GOD WHO PROTECTS US FROM EVERY PLAGUE! Leader: For God covers us with ...

77. You Figure It Out

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

... with which to put him away. On the surface, the question which the Pharisees put to Jesus was about allegiance to God and/or the government, a most unpopular government to be sure, yet one which had the power to put away someone who might appear to advocate a taxpayer’s revolt. It was a cleverly-crafted question they laid on Jesus. The verse which follows the close of the text indicates that Jesus’ answer - a response we know from memory: "Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and to God the ...

78. A SUNDAY OF THE PASSION [PALM SUNDAY] SERMON-DRAMA

Drama

Tom Eberle

... the Messiah? Judas: I believe so, yes. Commentator: Mr. Toga. Toga: Is it not true that Jesus has been called "King of the Jews," and an opponent of Roman Rule? Judas: I only need to remind you, Mr. Toga, that Jesus has in no way advocated the political overthrow of the Roman rule of this area. Toga: But from what I understand of your religious beliefs, the Messiah is expected to deliver your people from all foreign rule. Is that not correct? Judas: We believe the Messiah will bring about better conditions ...

79. Must We Have All the Answers?

Gn 2:9 · Deut 30:19-20 · Job 52:5

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... tell you what makes me answer the question in that way. First, it would be impossible for any one of us to come even close to a state of omniscience and to even attempt that is an exercise in rank arrogance. I am not advocating ignorance; I am, though, advocating a sense of limits with respect to what we can understand and comprehend and with respect to our management of what we can understand and comprehend; and particularly am I thinking of those limits with respect to religious truth. Most of us probably ...

80. Our Three-Faced God

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... dares to look at God? Who has the right words to say to God? It is utterly impossible for sinful man to get close to God. That is why man needs a mediator, a go-between God in Jesus. Jesus takes our petitions to the Father. Jesus stands as our Advocate when we appear for judgment. Jesus makes all things right between God and man. Jesus serves as our redeemer. He makes sinners acceptable to God the Father. God is not only love but also justice. When God’s laws and will are defied, there is a price to be ...

81. Name Above Every Name

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... in Hebrews 7:25 that "he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." We are told in 1 John 2:1 that "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." Mediator, Intercessor, Advocate - this means that he fulfills the role of attorney pleading our case before the throne of the heavenly King. Some may argue that this is oversimplified drama. Perhaps. But I do believe it is a good way to make a point which needs ...

82. Waiting With Anticipation

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

David M. Oliver

... Pastor and people ring their bells.) May God help us to wait with anticipation as we seek to be honest about our lives and our need for God's intervention on our behalf. May the Lord give us courage to wait with hope and confidence, knowing that God is our Advocate, not our adversary; God is for us, not against us; God's name is Emmanuel, which means "God is with us" (Matthew 1:23). Let us pray. Great and Gracious God, thank you for being with us. We praise you for the promise that you will never leave nor ...

83. Man Of Sorrows

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Larry Powell

... that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7) Herod and his soldiers mocked him, dressed him in an elegant robe, and sent him back to Pilate. There had been four highly irregular trials. Contrary to the law, no advocate had been appointed in Jesus’ behalf. False witnesses had been hired to testify against him. A "court" had convened (illegally) at night to hear a capital offense and another had taken place (illegally) on a feast day. No one bothered to challenge the irregular ...

84. The Gifts of the Left Hand

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... one who is tolerant and encouraging of us in our awkwardness while we learn to use the underdeveloped dimensions of our personality and grow to wholeness. I am sure that this, as every sermon I preach, has some roots in my own concerns and needs. I am sure that I advocate the gifts of the left hand because I want the gifts of my left hand to be accepted and valued. I don’t want only to be thanked for the things that I am obviously good at; I want some other possibilities to be noticed, too. My interest in ...

85. Why Prophets Get Under Our Skin

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... at recent sales. Both were suggesting something far more sweeping than a few Thanksgiving turkeys and Easter hams for the hungry. Standing as both did in the rich and powerful prophetic tradition of Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, they were advocating basic economic reforms. They were advocating economic systems where the rich don't just get richer and richer and the poor get poorer and poorer and the middle classes get sucked toward the bottom again. The grinding, wrenching poverty of the huge mass of humanity ...

86. Blood Sprinkled On A Modern Altar

Exodus 24:3-8, Mark 14:12-16, 22-26, Hebrews 9:11-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... be as white as snow”--not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done. The writers of the New Testament use many images to express this idea. One of the images that connects with our modern understanding is that Christ is our advocate before the Father--in other words, we have done wrong but we have a good lawyer arguing in our behalf. (I John 2:1) I use that image with some trepidation. There has developed in our society such cynicism over the past several years about the role ...

87. Casting Out An Evil Spirit

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... clearly than ever before that there is a remarkable interrelationship between the mind, the soul and the body. Our thoughts and our attitudes can literally make us sick. We know that. Of course we have to approach this subject with care. We are not advocating replacing medicine with so-called "faith healing." This is a field where so much damage has been done by spiritual quacks that most responsible religious people are even afraid to approach the subject. Even as great a man as Mahatma Gandhi was guilty ...

88. Balancing Act

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... , "If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it." Aesop was talking about balance. As followers of Christ it is important for us to realize that Jesus advocated balance in life too. Christianity has always been an activist faith in which the emphasis has been on taking up the cross, laying down your life, sacrificing yourself for the cause of Christ. And certainly, that is a major part of our faith. But it is possible ...

89. How Many Times?

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... wives and husbands who ought to walk away from an abusive spouse. There are children who ought to walk away from abusive parents--and parents who ought to cut the cord with children who hurt them time and time again. Jesus is not advocating a destructive co-dependency. But he is advocating a pro-active policy of forgiving and forgetting that can take a lot of the hurt out of human relationships. SOMETIMES WE FORGIVE BECAUSE IT IS HEALTHY FOR OUR OWN MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT TO FORGIVE. It's hard to keep hating ...

90. Is Anything Unforgivable?

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... the person did in his or her lifetime. There is another person who is appointed to be the devil's advocate. It is this person's job to call into question everything which the person under consideration has done, especially to discredit his or her motives. It is ... a poor occupation to be a devil's advocate. And yet, we are too often just that when we seek to protect our advantages or to defend our security. We are tempted to ...

91. An Extraterrestrial Celebration

John 13:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... you should do as I have done for you.” Does that mean that we should have a celebration of foot-washing? Some groups do, and that might be very helpful as a demonstration of humility. But I doubt that Jesus was advocating another religious ceremony. What he was advocating was none other than a new heart for those who follow him, a heart of love and compassion and service. All this is bound up in this celebration of the Maundy Thursday Lord’s Supper. Truths of staggering proportion. Understandings of ...

92. Good Neighbors

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... , will wipe out evil. This insight throws new light on Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan (or the Good Palestinian, to bring it into today’s world). The Palestinian could have looked on the Jew with the eyes of the accuser and not the eyes of the Advocate. He could have looked on him with hatred and disgust. But he looked on him as a neighbor, as someone for whom he himself was responsible, and that made all the difference. How can that happen in today’s world? How can we replace hatred and bigotry ...

93. Hope Is Medicinal

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... this position, you would say that their numbers are great, and growing. These are the people who feel that in large part the healing is up to you. As if they had said, "If you will, you can do it yourself." One of the better advocates of this position, Bernie Siegel, wrote that runaway best seller some years ago, Love, Medicine and Miracles. In that book he discovered the link between mind and body. He explores the possibility of living healthier lives by holding to healthier attitudes. He also gives good ...

94. Plain Talk

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... easily sung, "Tis a blessing to be poor," and mean the same thing. So Christians, some of them, have always taken on voluntary poverty in order to achieve a spiritual blessing. But there is a third way Christians have responded to this Beatitude. They have become advocates for the poor. They use the wealth and power and influence that God has given them in this life to make sure that the poor are not forgotten. They see to it that the poor who are motivated to improve their lives, who want to be independent ...

95. The Paraclete Is Not a Bird

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... words as well. In the text that was read to us this morning the word used is "counselor." "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all these things." In other translations of that passage the word is, "advocate." And in the 15th verse, earlier on, before the text we read begins, Jesus says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and he will send you another counselor." If you are familiar with the King James Version, you ...

96. Easter 6

Acts 17:16-34, 1 Peter 3:8-22, John 14:15-31

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... his loved ones know." 2. Jesus and the Spirit. Upon Jesus' prayer, the Spirit is sent by the Father. He comes as Jesus' surrogate. Who is the Spirit? He is the spirit of Christ and of truth. The Spirit comes in place of Christ to be the believer's advocate. Where is the Spirit to be found? He is with and in the believer. When the Spirit is received, God is in the believer. Thus, God is in us only when we are possessed by the Spirit. 3. Desolation. Jesus prepared his disciples for his departure by assuring ...

97. Disappointed in Jesus

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... of an alternative social vision. Their dream is God's dream."1 According to this definition, John the Baptist was a true-blue prophet - a God-intoxicated dreamer who passionately advocated for God's alternative social vision of shalom. But passionate as he was, in the long run, John wasn't very persuasive. Walter Brueggemann has made a very helpful distinction between prophetic criticizing and prophetic energizing - both of which appear in abundance in the Hebrew Scriptures. Prophetic criticizing takes ...

98. I've Got Your Back Covered

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Jesus responded to their self-centered worries. Notice how Jesus assigns two functions to the Paraclete. He promises to leave with them two great gifts after he has returned to the Father. First, there's the gift of the hard-to-define Paraclete, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. I love the story of Karen. While visiting her sister and family, Karen presented a hundred dollar bill to her teenage niece. The teenager expressed a certain amount of reluctance to accept the gift, saying, "Oh, that's very nice of ...

99. A New Calling

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... ’s already blessed.” Get involved in what God is doing. What a radical idea. Don’t spend so much time asking God to bless what you are doing. Rather, ask God to show you what God is doing, and join in. Bono believes God is calling him to be an advocate for the poor. He said to the National Prayer Breakfast, “Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what He’s calling us to do.” All Christians should be committed to helping the poor, but it may not ...

100. Epiphany 6

Mt 5:21-37 · 1 Cor 3:1-9 · Ps 119 · Dt 30:15-20

Sermon Aid

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

... salvation. The law is a road map of what to do once we are swept into this journey of God's. The psalmist tells us that those who stay with the map, who walk in God's way will be blessed. In praising the law, however, the psalmist is not advocating "righteousness by works." The second and third sections of Psalm 119:1-8 make this very clear. Verses 4-6 are a conditional statement: God demands full obedience to the law (v. 4). If only the psalmist could do this (v. 5), then there would never be shame (v. 5 ...

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