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Showing 76 to 100 of 4964 results

76. Despair, Hope, Easter, and Pentecost

John 20:10-18

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... . They assumed that grave robbers had added insult to injury by taking the body that had been crucified and further desecrating it. "Where have you laid his body? If you will only tell us we will go and get it." This was the extent of their concern, the only hope they had, when suddenly he appeared and said "Mary" as only he would say it, and then it began to dawn: Jesus was not dead any longer! The body that had been killed on Friday had been raised back to life! The empty tomb that they were looking at ...

77. A Commitment to Hope

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... that John’s bold and brazen call for repentance is not something we can do on our own — no matter what we do or say, or how much we try we fall short to produce our own salvation. As many good deeds as we do, we still cannot succeed. The hope of salvation is the work that God has provided in the way we humans are to be delivered from our sinful condition, by the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross and the authorization through the resurrection. Death on the cross would only be a martyr’s death if ...

78. A Future Hope Transforms the Present

John 1:1-18

Illustration

... faith can only have its transforming effect on the individual, on society and on the world when it is rooted in a vision of hope. "From first to last, and not merely in the epilogue," wrote Moltmann, "Christianity is hope, forward looking and forward moving, and therefore also revolutionizing and transforming the present." In Moltmann's view, to live in hope does not mean that one lives in a state of disconnectedness from the present because of some expectation of a greater although unrealized future ...

79. The Good News Brings Hope

Colossians 1:1-14

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... Holy Spirit that will enable us to know your presence in our lives, even when the going is difficult. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Offertory Prayer Gracious God, through your Son, Jesus Christ, you have given us hope. We would share this hope with those who still live in darkness and despair without hope, and so we present these tithes and offerings that you may bless their use in carrying this message of faith to those who have never heard. Amen. Hymns "O God, Our Help In Ages Past ...

80. Living without Hope

Luke 2:21-40

Illustration

Tom Marcum

... ’re committing suicide in record numbers because many can’t imagine anything worth living for. He said, and I paraphrase, “Mr. Limbaugh, The Great Depression and WWII created terrible hardships. But I submit to you that the greatest hardship of all is living without hope.” I agree. It's harder to develop character in affluence than it is hardship. All the more reason why young people need to see what Simeon saw: My eyes have seen your salvation, Which you have prepared in the sight of all people, A ...

81. The Hope Of Peace

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Sandra Hefter Herrma

... go back to the relentless self-questioning, the sense of failure, the fear and confusion. We will leave this courtroom by another door, a door that leads to closer fellowship with God and others. It does not make our present life perfect. At this point, we have only "the hope of sharing the glory of God." It is a thing in the future, not a state we live in all the time. Right now, we can see the gleam of that day when we will be freed from all uncertainty and doubt; but we do not have perfect understanding ...

82. Song Of Loss Song Of Hope

2 Samuel 1:1-16

Sermon

Charles Curley

... because it reminds us how important relationships are to us; how they transcend all the petty annoyances, disagreements, jealousies of everyday life. That's a reminder we need to hear. Thank God for David, whose song of loss is a song of hope as well. It is a song of hope for all of us who love and need one another, even though we sometimes fail to show it. But maybe it's a song that, with a little practice, we too can learn to sing. Forgive us, O Lord, when we reduce the complexities of life to black or ...

83. The Blessed Hope of Everlasting Life

Philippians 3:1-11

Eulogy

James G. Cobb

... Testament faithful sounds out for us in no uncertain terms. Because he lives, we shall live. A Living Lord has come to make his home with us. He abides with us and we with him. Death is conquered by our Lord, and in His Resurrection, we see our hope! Why, "now the very vault of heaven can resound, in praise of love that still abounds, Christ has triumphed. Jesus is living. Alleluia!" _________ knew that. For us gathered here, we know that. And we give thanks that we have seen a prayer come true for her as ...

84. Hope in a Dark Spot

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

... Andy barricades himself in the warden's office, flips on the Shawshank prison P.A. system, and plays a portion of a Mozart opera, bringing the entire prison to a standstill as each prisoner listens to the aria. And even Red, the one who resisted all talk of hopes or dreams, could not resist this spot of beauty. And so Red muses, "I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singin' about. I like to think they were singin' about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and it ...

85. What a Deal: Investing in Hope

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... disaster and the collapse of society as he knew it, Jeremiah changed his tune — from "doom and destruction" to "hope and restoration." This was no speculative business venture or a gamble to make money on Jeremiah's part. This ... good deal despite the economic climate of the Great Depression. But God offers us so much more. In Christ, we are given the strength to stand on hope when others are bailing out. In faith, we sign the deed to our lives over to him in full view of a skeptical public just as Jeremiah ...

86. Christian Hope Had Changed His Life

Luke 3:7-18

Illustration

James W. Moore

... and I used to ridicule these same people who were out there with us. Yet they are the only persons who would, or perhaps could, do what we had to do today. It must have been their Christian spirit that could help them see beyond the horror to the hope." That tragic day turned around the life of that young lieutenant. As he had admitted, he had never been religious, had seldom gone to church except for weddings and funerals, but from that time on he was a new man. Christ was born in his heart. From that time ...

87. Yes, There Is Hope

John 20:1-18

Illustration

Bill Self

... in one last rescue attempt. The trapped sailors heard the metal boots of the diver land on the exterior surface, and they moved to where they thought the rescuer would be. In the darkness they tapped in Morse code, "Is there any hope?" The diver on the outside, recognizing the message, signaled by tapping on the exterior of the sub, "Yes, there is hope." This is the picture of our dilemma as we worship this glad Easter Day. Humankind is trapped in a dreadful situation. All around we are running low on ...

88. Hoping For a Hug

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... for her that day was that it was not impossible for Jesus, and by the blood of the cross, she was forgiven. You could see by the joyfully astonished look on her face that the terrible weight had been lifted. I doubt that she had even dared to hope for a hug that day, but she got one. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.... — Luke13:34 Go into a bookstore, listen to the daytime talk shows, read the advice columns ...

89. Wait and Hope

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

... his spectacles of gloom." To his prairie dog companions, Isaiah cried out, I will not anchor my life on the King, nor will I present to the Lord how well I keep the law. "I will wait for the Lord, even when he hides his face, and I will hope in him." (8:17) Paul’s contemporaries once pummeled him with stones until he was half dead. Many years later Paul wrote, "I count everything as loss for the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:8) Both Isaiah and Paul had been raised with ...

90. Jesus the Hope of the World

Drama

Curt M. Joseph

... you preach like him? Can you raise the dead? Can you heal the sick? Can you feed the hungry? That’s what I mean. Everything we hoped for, everything we dreamed of is gone. Let’s face it, Jesus is just one more good man who got caught and crushed in the ... Mary" me. I hate it when you act like that. Look, just because the workman is dead doesn’t mean the work stops. Jesus gave me hope. He showed me what I could be. He gave me something that I didn’t think I could ever have. He gave me love and respect ...

91. Looking Ahead with Hope

John 1:43-51

Sermon

... the worst that could possibly come has occurred, out of the darkness the providence of God is at work, and we find that there is hope. There is a triumph even in the midst of what seems the disaster of that moment. I like to go back to the story ... the population of the entire earth. Out of the humble life of Jesus of Nazareth there came the glory and wonder of man’s greatest hope. We find this when we look at the lives of the disciples. Take twelve men. One of them betrayed Jesus and then hung himself. The ...

92. What is Hope?

Mark 9:14-32

Illustration

Edmund L. Hoener

There is a theologian named Victor Havel who defined hope in this way. "Hope," he said, "Is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out." I believe that part of what that means is that hope looks to the intrinsic value of people and of whatever we do. Hope determines the worthwhile-ness of someone or something at the very beginning, so that outcomes become secondary to that person, or that project's very existence.

93. Christmas Means Hope

Luke 3:7-18

Illustration

King Duncan

... Senator John McCain spent 5 and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in the 1960s. During that time, he was frequently tortured or held in solitary confinement. He reported that his lowest point came on Christmas Eve 1969. McCain was giving up hope of ever getting out of Vietnam alive. To compound his homesickness, the captors played the song "I'll Be Home for Christmas" over the PA system. Just then, McCain heard tapping on his cell wall. This was the communication code the POWs used to communicate ...

94. All Who Share This Hope

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... — just as Christ is pure" (1 John 3:2-3 cf). What we shall be does not yet appear. But we know that we are already God's children, and when Christ appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Keeping that hope alive is what the communion of saints is all about, and it's why we take time each year to reaffirm our connection with the family of faith, because we want to be recognizable as children of God. We want to keep clear before our own eyes what that's ...

95. Hoping To Goodness

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Robert Short

Lucy planned a picnic for the next day. She says to Charlie Brown, "I just hope to goodness that it doesn't rain ..." Walking away, Charlie answers, "Hoping to goodness is not theologically sound." Charlie's right. "Hoping to goodness" is not sound. Fixing our hope upon God is.

96. More Hope than We Can Handle

John 20:1-9

Illustration

Craig Barnes

... hung up the phone they didn't dare look at each other. Earlier this week, a woman was called into her supervisor's office to hear that times are hard for the company and they had to let her go. "So sorry." She cleaned out her desk, packed away her hopes for getting ahead, and wondered what she would tell her kids. Earlier this week, someone received terrible news from a physician. Someone else heard the words, "I don't love you any more." Earlier this week, someone's ...

97. Hope on The Day of Judgment

Hebrews 9:24-28

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

... I am not sure that I want to think about. Although, I suspect that the wife of that deceased member may already have worked out in her own mind the punishment for those unnamed sins of her husband. Living in this moment, all would seem to be in despair, without hope. Yet, all is not lost; all is not hopeless; all is not in despair. The author of Hebrews steps in to remind us that while death is indeed our lot in life, for all that is mortal will pass from the face of this earth, and while death will bring ...

98. The POW's Hope

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... done to him was that he was held in isolation away from the other American P.O.W.s and allowed to see only his guards and interrogators. How could anyone survive seven years of such treatment? As he looked back on that time, Stockdale said that it was his hope that kept him alive. Hope of one day going home, that each day could be the day of his release. Without hope, he knew that he would die in hopelessness, as others had done. Such is the power of ...

99. Hope: Repent and God Will Forgive

Hosea 14:1-9

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... . These man-made attempts to survive in this world provide no lasting answers to the trials and tribulations of life. Their only hope is to trust in God, whose strength is seen when people are weak and unable to save themselves. Only God is truly compassionate to ... the weak, the powerless, and the fatherless. He is able to bring true hope and comfort if only people will turn from their sinful ways and depend on him. God next promises to forgive and restore his ...

100. The Hope of Final Restoration

Amos 9:11-15

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... argue that a later editor added it to Amos’s messages, because it seems so foreign to the rest of his harsh messages, and because it could have provided a false hope for some in his audience. Since most other prophets speak messages of both judgment and hope, since this positive vision applies only to the distant future, and since this hope is not applied to sinful Israel but only to those who are called by God’s name, this section should be viewed as a legitimate attempt to persuade Amos’s audience ...

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