Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1101 to 1125 of 3160 results

Psalm 66:1-20, Acts 17:16-34, 1 Peter 3:8-22, John 14:15-31

Sermon Aid

... Peter 3:15-22 In this text, the writer of Peter continues to give instructions to the newly baptized converts, telling them that being a Christian will not be easy; they will probably undergo real persecution, not simply ridicule and laughter of the sort Paul experienced in Athens. Christians should not be defensive, when asked about the reasons for their conversion; they should have ready and honest answers, given in a kindly and considerate manner to those who might be attacking them (and even be seeking ...

1102. The Ascension of Our Lord

Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:36-49, Luke 24:50-53

Sermon Aid

... and "sits at the right hand of God." Second, why did Jesus have to depart from the earth? That might very well be the question of faithful people who believe in the resurrection but still would like to see Jesus for themselves. For one thing, he would become some sort of ghost, or a good witch, who appears to some from time to time and not to others. And for another thing, faith that comes from hearing the Word with the help of the Holy Spirit would not exist, and the freedom of the will would be taken away ...

1103. Proper 7 & Pentecost 5

Jeremiah 20:7-18, Psalm 69:1-36, Psalm 91:1-16, Genesis 28:10-22

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... of Israel. The "woe is me, if I preach not the gospel" is in Jeremiah's lament: "If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones." That sort of evangelical zeal always got the apostles into serious trouble wherever they went; Paul, in particular, experienced the wrath of people who were so hard-hearted that they refused to receive the good news about Jesus Christ. God began to recruit the "noble army of martyrs" in the ...

1104. Proper 8 & Pentecost 6

2 Kings 4:8-37, Genesis 32:22-32, Psalm 89:1-52, Psalm 17:1-15, Isaiah 2:6-22, Jeremiah 28:1-17, Matthew 10:1-42

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... a time when people should "get among the rocks, hide in the dust, at the sight of the terror of Yahweh." It is a day when "human pride will be humbled," and "the arrogance of men will be humbled." A time is coming that human beings should fear; all sorts of phenomena threaten the continued existence of the earth. 2. A glorious day. In contrast to "the terror of Yahweh," there is also "the brilliance of his majesty" that will be in full display at the last day. God alone will be exalted on that day; all the ...

1105. The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Zechariah 9:9-13, Exodus 1:1-22, Exodus 2:1-10, Romans 7:7-25, Romans 8:1-17, Matthew 11:25-30

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... of a donkey, as he entered Jerusalem. His humility reinforced any claim to the kingship that people bestowed upon him; even his birth was lowly. His humility identified him with common humanity, not royalty. He was a different kind of king. 3. A different sort of rule. He came to establish peace - between God and his people, between members of families, between nation and nation. He could only do this by obeying God differently - by becoming obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Jesus' cross is the ...

1106. Proper 15 & Pentecost 13

Isaiah 56:1-8, Psalm 67:1-7, Psalm 78:1-72, Exodus 16:1-36, Romans 11:11-24, Romans 11:25-32, Matthew 15:21-28

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... any more than they can make themselves love God and his Son, Jesus Christ. God never turns his back on those who believe and trust him in good faith; to do so would be to reject the gifts that he has given to his own. He brings healing of one sort or another to those who pray to him in faith. 4. Jesus performed a miracle - but the real miracle of the story is the great faith of the woman, who kept begging Jesus to heal her daughter because she had faith in him as one who had come from God ...

1107. Proper 18 & Pentecost 16

Ezekiel 33:1-20, Psalm 119:1-176, Psalm 95:1-11, Psalm 115:1-18, Exodus 19:1-25, Romans 13:1-7, Romans 13:8-14, Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 18:15-20

Bulletin Aid

... continues to outline the ethical behavior of believers as they respond to the grace of God that they have received in Christ Jesus. Now he is talking about genuine love, about spiritual integrity, and about allowing love to dominate one's relations with all sorts of people, enemies as well as friends. He insists that Christians must not seek revenge on those who offend or hurt them, but should in all things allow love to shine through in their relationships with others. He ends this section with: If your ...

1108. Proper 22 & Pentecost 20

Matthew 21:33-46, Philippians 4:2-9, Philippians 3:12-4:1, Numbers 27:12-23, Psalm 81:1-16, Isaiah 5:1-7

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... ," who think that they have already attained perfection and preach a theology of glory, can do extreme harm, causing all kinds of disharmony, in the congregation. 3. Cruciform reorientation. That's what is required constantly in every congregation that has known internal strife of one sort or another; all must die "in Christ" and rise - daily - to new life in Him, if the church is to be harmonious and profitable to the Lord. 4. The best is yet to be. That's the promise of Christ to the faithful, as Paul ...

1109. The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Isaiah 25:1-12, Psalm 23:1-6, Psalm 135:1-21, Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Philippians 4:2-9, Philippians 4:10-20

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... wants to employ him to oversee his confiscated art collection. Of course, the American escapes, joins up with the underground, and reappears, with his love, at the end of the movie when Paris is liberated in August, 1944. Was the king, in Jesus' parable, that sort of megalomaniac, whose invitation should have been refused, or was he a good and beneficient ruler, who really wanted his people to celebrate his son's wedding with him? 1. In Jesus' life and death, God set the table for the promised banquet in ...

1110. Pentecost 23

Exodus 22:16-31, Leviticus 19:1-37, Ruth 2:1-23, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 22:41-46, Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon Aid

... readings for the last three Sundays, no matter how many Sundays there were in the Trinity/Pentecost season, all dealt with eschatological themes and the last things; they warned the church of the impending conclusion of Pentecost, as well as the Parousia. That sort of warning - that the end of the year and the end time are approaching - is not sounded in the new lectionaries (with the exception of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod's Lutheran Worship), but it probably is not needed. When the numbering of ...

1111. Proper 27 & Pentecost 25

Psalm 50:1-23, Psalm 43:1-5, Psalm 63:1-11, Amos 5:18-27, Hosea 11:1-11, 1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11, Matthew 25:14-30

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... got out, has resulted in the hope of seeing the Virgin Mary, who has promised that he will come to the world once more. But some Christians, in various parts of the world and almost every year, like the pilgrims on the hillsides in Yugoslavia, do gather in all sorts of places to await the return appearance of Jesus Christ. It is one thing - and a proper thing - to expect the Christ to fulfill his word and return to the earth at the end of time, but it will do little or no good to spend our time anticipating ...

1112. The One Who Made His Cross

Drama

... . I am with a small group. We are all followers of a man, Jesus of Nazareth. Perhaps you have heard of him. Anna Rumors, mostly rumors. When your husband is a carpenter and his shop is on the main street as we are, many people come by with all sorts of tales to tell. Mary I understand. There are many stories that have spread about him. Barnabas I have even heard some say that he works miracles of healing. Mary That is true. Barnabas It must be the work of the devil then. Anna Barnabas! Mary That’s okay ...

1113. Christmas, Proper 3

Isaiah 51:17--52:12

Bulletin Aid

... noise to God! People: LET ALL ITS PEOPLE SING SONGS OF JOY! Leader: For our God has not forgotten us! People: OUR GOD HAS DONE A MARVELOUS THING! (Based on Psalm 98) Collect God of majesty, you have always brought good tidings of redemption to people in every sort of captivity. Let your message of hope resound among us and within us: that, in the birth of the Christ, we may see the first light of the dawning of your blessed Reign and hear the marvelous news that will free us indeed. In his holy name we ...

1114. Proper 15

Matthew 15:21-28

Bulletin Aid

... and biases, we may have the kind of faith that will overcome all that would prevent our participation in your coming Reign. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession Eternal God, it is painful for us to admit just how much we let all sorts of considerations of age, gender, nationality, and race stand in the way of our sharing our faith with our fellow humanity, and how far we thus fall short of realizing the universality of your gospel in Christ Jesus. Forgive us, we pray, and overcome our ...

1115. Proper 18

Romans 13:1-7

Bulletin Aid

Theme: The challenge of Christian citizenship Exegetical note The exhortation in the first seven verses of this selection would seem to mitigate against any sort of civil disobedience in the name of Christian conscience. But it must be read in the light of the fact that Christianity itself was an illegal sect (or "cult"!) in Paul's time (or soon after). It also must be balanced (as it has been throughout the history of Christian ...

1116. Ash Wednesday

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon Aid

... important word of this text is "yet" (64:8) ... "yet, thou art our Father" - repeating at the end of the Scripture lesson the same affirmation made at the beginning, an affirmation of faith made in spite of the fact that there is absolutely no external evidence of any sort to support it. An affirmation of faith made in spite of the fact that there is not one single thing left in the life of this captive people to suggest to them that they could possibly be cared for by a loving God, who loved them like a ...

1117. The Devil Quotes Scriputure, Too

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

... It is so easy to be tempted by what "everybody knows;" to be caught by what everybody expects we will be and do in this life. It is a temptation we just find ourselves sliding into bit by bit, until one day we wake up to find we’re feeling sort of cynical and jaded about life and that we have forgotten the promises of God who called us out of the wilderness and promised to make us a new creation altogether. This is the worst temptation of all - to be tempted away from hope. In Jesus Christ, God came into ...

1118. My God, My God, ... Why?

Mark 15:33-41

Drama

... troops was dirt low, because of the riot, you know. And even worse, because that murderer Barabbas had been let go! There were a lot of hot tempers over that. So when this Galilean was brought in on charges of being "King of the Jews," the men sort of took out their frustrations on him. They dressed him up like a pretend Jewish king, robe, scepter, crown and all ... and then proceeded to beat the ... (Stops himself) I’ll admit I joined in on the ‘entertainment.’ Look, I just follow orders. And it’s ...

1119. Security: Deeply Personal

Ezekiel 34:1-31

Sermon

... A’Kempis is the straightforward, simple gem: "When Jesus speaks not inwardly to us, all other comfort is nothing worth; but if Jesus speak but one word, we feel great consolation." This points to the almost unbelievable insecurity in our society. We do all sorts of things, some of them bordering on the miraculous, in search of security, discounting the God who comes to us personally, and learning, in shock and amazement, we have just been spinning our wheels. Yet, let the King say one word, and we sense ...

1120. An NBA Angel

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

... year-old boy named Danny who was battling cancer. They became good friends. Less than a month before Danny died, Malone arranged for him to see Utah beat Seattle in game 6 of the NBA western conference finals. In a post-game press conference, Malone said, ‘It's sort of a bittersweet win. I have a friend here tonight named Danny who is not doing too well right now, so this win is for him.’ A few weeks later, Danny died and was buried, wearing Malone's no. 32 game jersey. Danny referred to Malone as ‘my ...

1121. Kingdoms In Conflict

Daniel 2:24-49

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... trucks, have you noticed how many Chevrolet pickups are on the road these days? Lots of them. But that wasn’t always the case. Back in the early 90’s, Ford and a few of the imports had the lion’s share of the pickup market. Chevrolet had sort of a wimpy image. But then the advertisers went to work. They took three words and three notes from a recording by Bob Segar--- Do you remember those three words? "Like a Rock!" They played this catchy song while they showed us pictures of the truck being abused ...

1122. The Yestermorrow Eclipse

John 10:1-21

Sermon

... . If successful, they can keep us immobilized. And if we buy the entire sales pitch, we subscribe to the notion that a good Christian is someone who spends the majority of his waking hours wallowing in the guilt and sins of mankind. He becomes a sort of "Mankind Muller," obsessed with "If onlies" that go something like this: "If only Cain hadn’t killed Abel ... if only Columbus hadn’t discovered America ... if only my parents hadn’t given me such a rotten start things would be different." The whole ...

1123. The First Council

Acts 15:1-21

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CSS

... to the Gentiles would be destroyed. Either the Gospel was limited to the Jews, or to people who first became Jews, or it was intended for the world. Apparently the group at Jerusalem was willing to accept an occasional Gentile into their midst, as a sort of "token convert." They did not reprimand Peter for having baptized Cornelius and his household, for there had been a direct revelation from God in his case. They had not objected to having Gentiles in the church at Antioch and had even accepted gifts of ...

1124. Jailbreak at Midnight

Acts 16:16-40

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CSS

... about one inch in diameter and were bound into a small bundle to beat the prisoners. These bundles of sticks were called fasces (from which we get the term ‘fascist’) and were carried by magistrates as a symbol of authority. Nobody got killed by this sort of beating, but their backs were torn and bloodied badly as the thin sticks cut gashes and made welts. After this punishment, Paul and Silas were turned over to a jailer who put them into the inner chamber of his prison and fastened their feet in ...

1125. Revival at Corinth

Acts 18:1-17

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CSS

If there was freedom of thought at Athens, there was freedom of a different sort in Corinth. Paul’s later letters testify to the moral and legal problems which existed even in the Christian community. Among the pagans, life must have been truly licentious. Corinth was large, powerful, and wealthy. It had a history of military achievement and because of its strategic location and good ...

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