Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1051 to 1075 of 1533 results

1051. Faithful People in a Fiery Furnace

Daniel 3:1-30

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Can you remember where you were and what was going on ten years ago? America was at war in the Persian Gulf. One of the young men in my congregation was an F-16 pilot in the first squadron to strike Baghdad on the opening night of that war. I remember so well the prayers we offered in his home. Millions of people across America were praying desperately for the men and women in harm’s way. Saddam Hussein of Iraq was convinced that he was so powerful that he could snatch up tiny Kuwait and no one would dare ...

1052. "Gone Fishing!"

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

If fishing is one of your passions, you will love our scripture lesson for today. Though I prefer hunting to fishing, I have a soft spot in my heart for fishing because of a childhood experience. I was about 10 or 11 years old. One Wednesday afternoon Papa took me with him to a nearby pond to do a little fishing. I was just learning to use a rod and reel. Papa caught a little bass weighing about half a pound. Then he had to leave for prayer meeting. He asked me if I wanted to stay a bit longer and make a ...

1053. Striking Silversmiths Start Riot

Acts 19:23-41

Sermon Aid

CSS

Paul was too restless to remain long in any place. As he completed the second year of his ministry at Ephesus, he began planning his next move. To pave the way, he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, ahead of him into Macedonia. Shortly after they left, a major shift in the situation at Ephesus took place. Paul’s teaching had been tolerated and even welcomed by the Ephesians so long as it remained in a purely religious context. When it began to swell in influence so that it affected the city’s ...

1054. For He Shall Save His People

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Staff

I have a Christmas dilemma. When I was a kid there was no Christmas dilemma. You filled out your wish list and you waited for Santa to fulfill it on the 25th. That was pretty awesome. The rest of the year didn’t work like that so it made Christmas a strange and wonderful time. But you know what happens… Slowly the tables get turned on you until one day you’re being handed the wish list. Such is life! This is when the dilemma enters in too. Not for everyone. There are still some sad sacks out there who are ...

1055. Christians Die Well

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ...

1056. "Hold Your Horses!"

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

"... wait for the Promise of the Father." When you were a child, did your parents ever say to you, as mine said to me, "Hold your horses!" I must have heard that phrase literally hundreds of times as I was growing up: when I wanted school to be out for the summer, when I fretted because a meal was not ready, when I wanted to do something exciting "now," when I spoke too hastily, when I demanded something be done immediately, when I couldn’t stand still while mother measured a hem in a skirt - I can hear it ...

1057. Gabriel Speaks to Mary

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

George Bass

Some of the Burma Shave-like signs still stand alongside roads that are not main highways any more and, subsequently, they aren’t seen as often as they used to be. The signs separated what had become a familiar act of devotion and piety in Roman Catholicism into a series of spread-out phrases: Hail, Mary, Mother of God, Blessed are you among women, And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus ... Holy Mary, pray for us sinners Now and at the hour of our death. But I have never seen a road sign that ...

1058. The Need for Transfiguration

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Hubert Beck

Who has not felt the need for transfiguration? Who has not felt the Cinderella in them needing to be transformed from a deprived stepsister to a beautiful princess? Who has not felt so drab, so hum-drum, so dull, so boring even to one’s own self that one could hardly stand it? In moments like that - and for some people a good part of their life seems to be spent like that! - we feel that we simply must get beyond ourselves. We want to feel transfigured at least, to feel bright and cheery and extraordinary ...

1059. Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise

Romans 11:33-36

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

What happens when an irresistable force meets an immovable object? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? How far is up? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Impossible questions. Questions that have no answers. Questions about which philosophers philosophize and theologians theologize and simple folk wonder, all to no avail. Questions that boggle the mind and strain the brain and lead to endless argument. Useless questions - maybe. Why maybe? Why should there be any doubt? Why concern ...

1060. Holy Handicap?

2 Cor 12:9

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Reserved parking in shopping malls, newly constructed ramps into public buildings, motorized wheelchairs, special hardware in restroom facilities, experts seen translating the spoken word into sign language for those in the television audience with hearing deficiencies, even monkeys trained to meet the everyday needs of paraplegics and quadriplegics - all are signs that we are, as a nation, becoming more sensitive to the special needs of the handicapped. Everywhere we go we are faced with reminders of ...

1061. Manasseh

2 Kings 21:1-18

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem ... And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Here is a small hinge of truth upon which a tremendous door swings open to a profound question. Why is it that a merciful God one who is perfect goodness, absolute love, incarnate justice permits an evil man to live a long, successful life? At the same time, why do righteous individuals sometimes survive a few wretched years amid poverty and misery ...

1062. Sinner to Saint

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. [Matthew 9:9] "You’ve come a long way, Baby" is an expression used by a popular cigarette commercial. You are shown a 19th century girl who is hiding her smoking with embarrassment. In contrast there is a 20th century girl openly, proudly smoking a cigarette. Indeed, women smokers have come a long way from public displeasure to acceptance. To become a saint, a ...

1063. Not For Sale at Any Price

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." [Matthew 13:45-46] Before you answer this question, think deeply for a minute. What is your most valuable possession? What is so valuable to you that if someone would want to buy it, you would say, "It’s not for sale at any price"? The person who answers like that is saying to the prospective buyer that the article is considered so valuable that ...

1064. Little Things Affect Little Minds

Sermon

Harold Warlick

A prominent executive entered his secretary’s office for a confrontation. He was there to raise an unpleasant issue. For several days his discomfort and anger had built up like an internal volcano. It bothered him when he ate and prohibited restful sleep. Like an unfriendly ghost, the problem haunted him. He had talked about it with his wife and his friends. Finally he could take it no more. So there he stood, at his secretary’s desk, ready for the attack. He jerked himself up on his toes and, pointing his ...

1065. Defended By the Divine

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Women have sometimes had the reputation for doing some pretty dumb things. My preacher-husband, John, and I drove to a preaching mission in Mississippi recently. Three different times, the same day, we found ourselves behind a woman (a different one each time) who signaled to make a turn, then turned the opposite direction from her signal. It reminded me of the person who said "When a woman sticks out her arm, and indicates a left turn, the only thing you can be absolutely sure of is that the window is ...

1066. Embalmed With Cardiac Arrest

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

I always wonder what an agnostic or an unbeliever or a skeptic does on Easter Day. Have you ever wondered that? Out of curiosity, let’s join two of them on the first Easter day. For them, the story was all over, the last curtain was rung down. Their hopes lay shattered. Their dreams lay twisted and ruined. Easter Day found them on the way back home to Emmaus, back to the old home town, about seven miles from Jerusalem, back to the workaday world, back to the dull, monotonous business of eking out an ...

1067. Embalmed Alive

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

The words are probably the most plain, the most authoritarian, the most all-inclusive of the great "I am" statements made by Jesus Christ. In Chapter 14 of the Gospel According to St. John, verse 6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." In unmistakable, explicit words, our Lord is saying that the human being cannot have life without him. I suppose that our culture can be divided into two types of persons - those who say in whatever comfortable and luxurious situations they find themselves in: "This is ...

1068. The Embalmed Come Alive

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

I was amused, if a bit sadly amused, at the cartoon that I saw in an issue of The Lutheran magazine. It shows a man leaping up from his pew in the middle of a worshiping congregation. He is waving his arms in the air. His mouth is open with a shout of joy and glee. And beside him, his wife is frantically trying to pull him back into his seat, and she is saying: "Okay, so you feel the Spirit, but not here in this Worship Service." That’s about the way it is with us, isn’t it, the main line denominations ...

1069. Justification and Reconciliation

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

Two fundamental and interrelated concepts in Paul’s message of salvation are justification and reconciliation. When the apostle speaks of salvation in terms of vicarious sacrifice and redemption, he is describing salvation as a purely objective salvation-occurrence. The saving sacrifice has already been made. The redemptive deed has already been done. The victory over the forces of evil has already been won. Justification and reconciliation, on the other hand, show how what Christ has done can become for ...

1070. Paul Today

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

The task that remains is to summarize our study of Paul’s theology and to make a specific application of it to the present day. Our point of view has been to regard Paul as the foremost theologian of the early church, the supreme interpreter of Jesus and his gospel to the world of his day. He was not, as liberals at the beginning of the present century thought, the second founder of Christianity who introduced dogma and mysticism to transform Jesus’ simple message of the fatherhood of God and the ...

1071. Christians In A Warring World - 1941

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

In such a crucial hour as this when the hysteria of war threatens to blot out our reason and paralyze our faith in all spiritual forces, it is imperative that the church should again declare its abiding conviction that the Christian way is the only way out. "But just what is the Christian way?" Ah, there’s the rub. With such obviously contradictory statements coming from so many so-called orthodox pulpits and self-styled authentic sources, it is small wonder that the public mind is so desperately confused ...

1072. Our Exclusive God (The First Commandment)

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Two men in a truck, neither one very bright, were passing through a small town. They came to an overpass with a sign which read: "Clearance. 11'3". They got out and measured their rig. It was 12'4" tall. As they climbed back into the cab, one of them asked, "What do you think we should do?" The driver looked around, then shifted into gear, saying, "Not a cop in sight. Let's take a chance." Some people have the same attitude toward God and his Ten Commandments. They visualize God as the great cop in the sky ...

1073. Derailed Dreams

Genesis 37:12-36, 50:15-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

In the pre-dawn hours of Monday, October 9th, Amtrak's Sunset Limited train tumbled off a trestle in a remote section of Arizona. One crewman was killed and dozens of passengers were injured. A note found near the wreck took responsibility for the sabotage in the name of "Sons of Gestapo." Trains are not the only things that get derailed. D r e a m s sometimes get derailed too. Some dreams are sabotaged by enemies. Others are wrecked by one's own mistakes or negligence. For example, if you give your child ...

1074. Well, What's for Sure?

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

One of the favorite books in my library is a little book published recently titled Children’s Letters to God. There is in that book a letter by a fourth or fifth grader, but it might have been written by an adult. He writes: "Dear God, Our minister says that you are everywhere, but I don’t see you anywhere. How come? Your friend, Harold." I thought the closing was a nice touch: "I don’t see you anywhere. Your friend." Typical of the kind of ambiguity from which all of us suffer. Occasionally, someone will ...

1075. Perhaps Next Summer...

Acts 24:1-27

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

The poet said it: "The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year." And suddenly, it came to us this past week that summer was over. Unbelievably, it was the first day of autumn. Actually, we don’t regret the passing of any other season, but, somehow, it is different with the summer. We all look sadly at each other and ask: "Where did it go to?" We all have the frightening feeling that something precious has slipped through our fingers. Somehow, the days went by and we didn’t savor them like we ...

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