Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1126 to 1150 of 4957 results

1126. Blessed To Be A Blessing

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Justin Tull

... order to be a blessing. Their primary task in life was not to act as if they were No. 1 but to ensure that even the least of all peoples would feel the showers of God’s blessings. Abram’s mission was more than to father an heir or to claim a territory. His mission was to set into motion God’s plan of creation, the blessing of every last creature who lives and moves and has being! Now, that is a task worthy of leaving retirement plans behind! That is a task worth the risk! That is a purpose worthy ...

1127. Spirit Full Or Foul?

Deuteronomy 4:32-40

Sermon

Justin Tull

... and maintain the ongoingness of time. Only God can provide the proper direction for our lives. Only God works as the center, keeping things out of chaos, offering us new freedoms as we revolve around him. Only God is God! That was the Deuteronomist’s claim, and that is our claim as Christians. Some can see that God is God from the mighty hand. Others see the scarred hands of Christ and know of God’s love and saving power. But no matter how we come to believe in the God above all gods, there is but ...

1128. The Robe

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

... does not matter in the least having been from Nazareth and born in Bethlehem, if only you come out of the matrix and womb of God. So Jesus proclaims that "Everyone will be taught by God." Because we have come out of the matrix of God we can claim our inheritance. We can claim the bread that comes down from heaven. The bread of such a kind that whoever eats it will not die. The bread that if anyone eats it, he/she will live forever. The bread is Jesus himself, which he gives so that the world may live. Thus ...

1129. Bold Talk Of Faith

Job 23:1--24:25

Sermon

John P. Rossing

... or standards of justice but his own. And Job's reliance on his own judgment caused him another problem. His claim to righteousness was based completely on his good works. He had done right, he hadn't done wrong, therefore God owed him a judgment in his favor. But ... as Paul wrote in Romans (3:20, 23), no one can make that claim. By virtue of being members of a sinful humanity we are all guilty before God, whether we've broken any rules or not. If God ...

1130. God's Way Of Doing Things

Ruth 3:1-18, 4:13-22

Sermon

John P. Rossing

... any sort of divine intention? God doesn't appear to us in visions and tell us who to marry. I've never known a pastor who claimed to have heard a voice from heaven calling him or her into the ministry. God never serves as a voting member of a church board. Yet ... Boaz's field, and Boaz takes a fancy to her. Ruth makes a play for Boaz's affection; the only other man with a legal claim to her property renounces it and Ruth and Boaz are married. Nowhere in the story does the narrator says that God has been at work ...

1131. No Room In The Inn

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Brett Blair

... us just as he came to the Bethlehem innkeeper. Not in the form of a King with his entire splendor, but in the form of people in need--like Mary and Joseph. And whether or not we receive Christ in depends on how we respond to these people. The innkeeper claimed that he had no room. Isn't the crowded inn a rather appropriate symbol of our lives? So cluttered (not with important things but with things that don't amount to a hill of beans) that there is just no time, no energy, no money, no room left over ...

1132. See the Light, Be the Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... many good things to say about the church might at least find us more believable. There are lots of people who find the pretensions, the air of assumed authority, and the easy answers of those who claim to represent the church laughable. Maybe they might take us more seriously if we were more willing to be what we claim to be and more honest about what we have to offer – namely, that sometimes we have little to offer, and can only stand, in fear and trembling, before the deep human questions with the hope ...

1133. Epiphanies and Training Wheels

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... . And I don’t need them any more. I’m all grown up now. I can handle it by myself." I have since discovered that the point of view as stated by a stranger in the church parking lot is much more popular than you might think. Despite the claims of the Religious Right, that America is "more religious" now than it ever has been, I find this new interest in religion, for the most part, to be about a mile wide and six inches deep, all form and no substance. All over the world, wherever the English language ...

1134. Conversation or Monologue?

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... supposed to be a conversation with God? And in a conversation, don’t BOTH parties talk?" Many people do have problems with that today. And, to be fair about it, I have to admit that there is some justification for concern or skepticism. Far too many folks make false claims about hearing the voice of God. "God spoke to me through my dog and told me to go kill every woman with a certain color hair that I could." "God told me to take my AK47 assault rifle, load it, and go down to McDonald’s and open fire ...

1135. Is He Really Coming?

Sermon

Rolf E. Aaseng

... them and that he would send his Spirit to take his place in the interim. One of the most direct statements on the subject came when Jesus was being questioned by the Sanhedrin after his arrest. The high priest put Jesus under oath and asked what he claimed about himself: "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus took seriously the authority of the religious leader to demand a truthful answer, for it is one of the few times he responded to questioning ...

1136. Vacillation - Pontius Pilate

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... laughed at me and the screaming mob and either struck us all down or simply walked away from the tribunal. None of us could have done a thing about it. But the fact that he couldn't prevent his punishment proves that he was not, in fact, what he claimed to be. A true 'son of God,' if such exists, wouldn't allow himself to be beaten, mocked, insulted. Therefore, when the scourging took place successfully, when the first drop of blood reddened his back, I knew we had a mere mortal on our hands, and that, if ...

1137. Six Nails of the Cross VI: The Nail of Cruelty

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... and laughed at. A suffering servant, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Certainly this is a fitting climax for one who claims to submit to ultimate suffering, that he should be rejected by the very ones for whom he suffered. What we see in this man Jesus is a paradigm of what it means for us to be fully human. It sets before us a human life of concern and love ...

1138. Jesus, Mary, Gustav Mahler, Brother Martin, and the Magi

Luke 20:9-19

Sermon

Carl Jech

... . Perhaps a modern parallel is to be found in an open letter written to Pope John Paul II by a group of gay church people before his visit to San Franaisco: "Your predecessors condemned Galileo when he said the earth revolved around the sun. Your clergy claimed Galileo was sinful in stating this scientific fact. You have the right to your own beliefs, however incorrect they may be, but you do not have the right to interfere with our lives on the basis of those beliefs." The signatories of this letter were ...

1139. Reconciled with God by Christ's Death

Romans 5:1-11

Bulletin Aid

Carl Hoefler

... though we deserve to be cast aside. For his sake, we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession We are far from being righteous, Lord, but at the same time we do not want to be outside of your love. We confess we can come to you only as sinners, claiming the reconciliation that Christ has made possible for us by his death on the cross. Forgive us for our sinful nature that separates us from you. Accept us, sinful as we are, and save us to a renewed fellowship with you. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. Hymns ...

1140. Take Up Your Cross

Luke 8:1-15

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... seed is that he seemed confident of the outcome of his efforts, he didn't allow the fear of losing some seed in hardened places, to the wild birds, and in briars and thistles keep him from his appointed task. Why? Because the harvest is sure. William Barclay claims that this is the whole point of the parable: the certainty of the harvest. Some people will harden their hearts and fail to really hear and understand the Good News. Others will accept it eagerly, but only as long as it is the popular thing to do ...

1141. Watching Jesus

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... of God," seeming not to care that such words might provoke the wrath of Rome. An arrangement with Caesar had been put together and, if it was not all that the devout of Israel might hope for, at least it allowed some freedom for the peculiar faith that claimed the Jew. Half a loaf is always better than none. This was understood by almost everyone, from High Priest down to the poorest of the poor. But Jesus didn’t seem to understand the peril of such talk. He didn’t seem to sense what his people could ...

1142. Faith Bridges the Gap

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

... to be a modern version of Job on the basis of what he was going through but didn’t deserve. Three years ago, he had begun contributing to Oral Roberts’ fund-raising drives on television and, says Davies, "Rhoads felt he was guaranteed a blessed life ..." He claimed he had given $7,000 to $10,000 to Roberts in that period of time; actually, it turned out he had given considerably less than that, and the money that was given belonged to his wife. In a letter to Roberts, demanding the return of his money ...

1143. The Day You Were Healed

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

... . It was a good day - not because our self-esteem had been destroyed, but because it was restored; nor because the props beneath us had collapsed, but because our feet were planted on the solid rock again; not because we had a claim on him, but because in mercy he had laid his claim on us. Life as High Doxology When we are healed and cleansed, made whole, restored, then life becomes a high doxology of praise, not only as a hymn of thankfulness to sing, but as the motif of our days. From that day forward ...

1144. Lord, I Believe - Or Do I?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... morality or vice or virtue. Their concern is not so much with our behavior and what we are up to as they are with God’s behavior and what he is up to. They bring the promise of the Gospel of the kingdom and impel response. They lay the kingdom claim upon our hearts and lives and impel us to submit. They have a way of pricking like a needle at those tender places where our weakness and our need for healing is most obvious. They speak assurance when the going is most rough. They stamp the guarantee of love ...

1145. The Sermon on the Level

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

... wholly lived for God in all of our relationships including self, would never be achieved by small adjustments on the screws of life’s machine. In his Sermon on the Level, our Lord describes the life he gives and molds in us as he lays royal claim on us. That life is not achieved. It is a gift. It is not attained by sensitizing people to humanitarian concerns, however noble, or by legislating with another code of laws, or by turning up the pressure with sanctions against the nonconformist. The old creation ...

1146. Advancers Over Decliners

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

... guilt on his own hands and feet and let them bind him to the cross. He wore the crown of thorns and suffered scorn from those who had refused and still refuse to have him as their king. With such love he has drawn us to himself and laid his claim on us as his redeemed. We are his children now. We are his servants. From aimless wandering without a goal beyond the grave, from our selfcentered ways that know no business but our own, and from the poverty of nothingness he has delivered us and given us a place ...

1147. Christ Is King

John 12:12-19

Sermon

... were those who tried to interview him - Caiaphas, King Herod, Pontius Pilate - but none of them would get a quarter hour. There is another lens through which to view the cross. We see it through the lens of Easter’s resurrection. He lives! Christ lives! The king has claimed the throne. I cannot offer you a set of scientific facts to prove it, or a history book to demonstrate it, or a formula with which to test it. I can only give you Christ himself. The only proof that you will have, the only history that ...

1148. One Nation, Under Mercy

Sermon

... it is for those who have abundance to enter the kingdom of heaven. Remember the camel squeezing through the needle’s eye? No, the word is mercy. So this lone stranger, the Samaritan, returned with thanks. He knew the key word, mercy. He knew he had no claim on God, no claim on Christ. Nor did he have the right as a Samaritan to show himself to the priests, for they would have ordered him begone and they would have no truck with him. So he returned to Jesus, falling on his face before him, and praising God ...

1149. Let God Be God

Zephaniah 3:1-20

Sermon

... Sherlock Holmes to find a host of others. Several studies have shown, for instance, that persons who identify themselves as Christians and church members are more harshly judgmental and punitive in their attitudes toward social offenders than are persons who make no claims to such identity. The parallel to Jesus’ description of the self-righteous Pharisee is so close as to be truly shocking. We should be grateful to Harvard’s Professor Gordon Allport, however, for having done a study that shows that the ...

1150. Working and Praying Go Together

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

... . Some folks say they have been praying for a long time, and quite in earnest, but nothing happens. Prayer doesn't work, they claim. It is not effective. That always reminds me of the passage in Mark Twain's unforgettable story of Huckleberry Finn. At one point in ... and grace, the Lord Jesus has been working all along. At the cross he really worked as he suffered and died. And in all this he claimed you and me again for God and his table. He has set us on a new path! Why so, and for what purpose? So that we ...

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