Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1126 to 1150 of 4963 results

1126. A Poisonous Root

Illustration

Michael Williams

In his book. Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut ...

1127. Meet in the Middle

2 Cor. 5:18-19

Illustration

Tim Kimmel

... flesh mixed with the smoke and dissipated into the air. The bodies that once housed life fused with the charred rubble of a building that once housed a church. But the souls who left singing finished their chorus in the throne room of God. Clearing the incinerated remains was the easy part. Erasing the hate would take decades. For some of the relatives of the victims, this carnage was too much. Evil had stooped to a new low, and there seemed to be no way to curb their bitter loathing of the Japanese. In the ...

1128. The Story of Sarah's Sorrow

2 Corinthians 7:10

Illustration

Max Lucado

... been killed by bullets from the most popular rifle in America the Winchester. What had brought millions of dollars to Sarah Winchester had brought death to them. So she spent her remaining years in a castle of regret, providing a home for the dead. You can see this poltergeist place in San Jose, if you wish. You can tour its halls and see its remains. But to see what unresolved guilt can do to a human being, you don't have to go to the Winchester mansion. Lives imprisoned by yesterday's guilt are in your ...

1129. The Simplex Faith of 3:16

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... creativity (1:4-5). With the incarnation the light now comes fully “into the world” (v.19). Yet while the presence of this incarnated light, this Son of Man/Son of God, is welcomed by some, many choose the darkness over the light. For those who remain in the darkness, the shadows hide their evil deeds from being exposed by the light. But for those who choose “what is true,” that is, those who act faithfully and believe, the light holds no fear of judgment. Those who live their lives, whose actions ...

1130. Mark 16:1-8

Mark 16:1-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... loyally at the cross during Jesus’ crucifixion, who had accompanied his broken body for its hasty burial, and who had returned in daylight to offer their respects, are not told to go and find the eleven remaining disciples who fled, scattered, and hid during Jesus’ trial and execution. All of them together are to join up with Jesus in Galilee. Even Peter, whose three denials of Jesus were especially pathetic, is specifically named and included as one who is to make this first faith journey to find ...

1131. Practicing the Presence

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in human achievements could ring. It is hard to imagine this kind of optimism in human ability and technology. By the early 20th century, we were heady with our own self-importance and human progress. Scottish physicist Lord Kelvin believed that all that remained for scientists to do was to measure physical constants to the next decimal place in accuracy. The Prussian Patent Office closed down in the belief that there were no more inventions to be made. But perhaps Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate and ...

1132. Mortals Only See in Part

Mark 4:26-34

Illustration

Nathan Ausubel Copyright

... ! He's insane! How hard he worked all these months to produce this lovely wheat, and now with his own hands he is cutting it down! I'm disgusted with such an idiot, and I'm going back to the city!" His brother, the patient one, held his peace and remained in the country. He watched the farmer gather the wheat into his granary. He saw him skillfully separate the grain from the chaff. He was filled with wonder when he found that the farmer had harvested a hundred-fold of the seed that he had sowed. Then he ...

1133. John 6:1-21

John 6:1-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... leftovers" melt away. In John's text he emphasizes that the disciples are expressly ordered to gather up all the fragments left over "so that nothing may be lost" (v.12). These small remains ("klasmata") are to be carefully kept and available for future use. Significantly "twelve baskets" full of these fragments remain, echoing the number of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus has fed five thousand, but, but clearly there is enough of this miraculous meal for all of Israel to dine upon. This manna-connection ...

1134. The Tower of Siloam

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... historians to record, and we know nothing beyond the bare references in scripture. But in the parable that followed, Jesus made it clear that regardless of the peaks and valleys in the age we share, the time is so urgent that our shared life of faith in Christ remains most important. Jesus gives some perspective. Perspective is not so easy to get, especially when you live in flatland. I've been a city boy much of my life, so what I see in the country still amazes and amuses me. I think back to the time when ...

1135. You're a Treasure!

Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... actresses struggled to stay in focus but swiftly faded out of the limelight and into obscurity. But Garbo, by her very insistence on alone-time, was hounded by media hangers-on until her death in 1990. To get a picture of Greta Garbo remained a paparazzi “holy grail” throughout her life. We are more alone and less alone these days than ever before. Humans have always lived in communities, in tribes, in families — for protection, for food, for companionship, for love. In the twenty-first century urban ...

1136. Good Gossip

James 3:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of the creatures of this world, as designed by God, and reminds his readers that they were put under human dominion. Yet while this vast cast of creatures were tamed by humankind, the pointed, poisonous tongue of individual men and women has remained untamed. Like the serpent in the garden, the tongue is filled with “deadly poison” (3:8). James offers yet another creation connection by reminding his reader that the tongue that blesses God yet curses others, curses “those who were made in the likeness ...

1137. James 3:1-12

James 3:1-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

1138. Proper 27

Job 19:23-27a, Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21, Haggai 1:15b–2:9, Luke 20:27-40, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... new forms of praise, try a different order for our prayers, learn some new hymns, and experiment with different words to express our faith. The sermon might include looking at today’s liturgy and noting how it is different and what about it remains consistent with the received traditions. Co-mingling the Old and the New might work for a title, using Haggai as the primary scripture with a large dose of the psalm’s “new song.” Contemporary Affirmation Jesus of Nazareth had the courage to challenge ...

1139. From Tragedy to Salvation

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... , but they did. Brumbeloe writes, “Abnormal operations in extreme conditions are what started the chain of events. There is never a good reason to depart from and ignore the flight manual. Pilots are not invincible. At the end of the day, the question remains: What are we doing?"1 Israel is doing incredibly foolish things that are about to bring them into a crash course with God. Jeremiah the prophet urgently warns and pleads with them, as well as giving the Israelites dire announcements of the coming ...

1140. Christ: The Victor over Death

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... have no power; death will be vanquished. God's victory will prevail. The sting of death, namely sin, will be routed by God. Sin and death will no longer have power over us. Paul concludes by saying that people must be steadfast in the Lord. If we remain faithful to God's command, our labor will not be in vain. Rather, to the contrary, we will move forward in our common efforts to build God's kingdom in our world. Transforming hopeless situations into ones that find and generate life is not always easy, but ...

1141. Show Me Your Credentials

2 Corinthians 6:3-13

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... for us on his cross. What we can sport as our credentials is not what we have done but what Christ has done for us! We flock to this place to hear that good news, and we leave this place with our lives changed. Our lives changed? Our lives still remain a mess and the great unchanged mess they have always been. In fact, that is what the critics of our credentials are quick to point out. All this talk about forgiveness and mercy is just another lie to get us off the hook. We have heard this line before. It ...

1142. Passing the Test

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... faith for granted. We had better not be too complacent. We had better stay alert and on our toes, because God is going to test us. God is going to send trials, temptations, and tribulations our way to see how we handle them. If we pass the tests, if we remain faithful, we are okay. If we don't, look out! But what about all this talk about grace and the gospel? We thought we didn't have to do anything to be saved. Is grace conditional after all? It appears that what Paul gives us with one hand, he takes ...

1143. The Final Word

John 11:25-26; Ephesians 1:12, 18-19

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... line, "Do you believe this, Martha?" (John 11:26, NLT). "I am the resurrection and the life." Those are the words that need to be said at a funeral. Those are the words that need to be heard on All Saints because they are the final word. The last remaining question is, "Do you believe this?" There are so many other words and voices vying for our attention at a funeral. The Hallmark™ card wants to summarize our grief in a two-line limerick. The back of the mortuary card tells us the person is not gone but ...

1144. Restarting Joy - Rejoice

Isaiah 55:10-13

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... pieces and restart their own lives. Dr. Swindoll writes that Lucy Mabery chose to do it with joy. Without a moment's hesitation or warning, grief tore into the Mabery family like a tornado. But, determined not to be bound by the cords of perpetual grief, Lucy remained positive, keen thinking, and joyful. How can a person in Lucy's situation recover, pick up the pieces, and go on? How does anyone press on beyond grief? How do you still laugh at life? How do you put your arms around your children as a new ...

1145. The Gospel According To Pronouns

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... the story, and for Peter there was a clear distinction between "us" and "them." On this occasion among the Gentiles, we observe, Peter would shed one of his us/them paradigms. But the distinction between those who followed Jesus and those who crucified Jesus remained. We look back on the cross, and we recognize that it was for the sake and for the sin of all humankind. Yet the event of Christ's crucifixion still reflects a difference between "they" and "we" because it represents two different responses ...

1146. Sold!

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... not where it should be. At a wedding I conducted several years ago, the bride and groom released monarch butterflies as a symbol of life. One of the butterflies, once freed, never left the bride's side. In fact, when all the others had flown away, it remained on her bouquet for nearly the whole reception. She and her mother saw in that butterfly the presence of the bride's father who had died in an accident years before. In Jeremiah's case, the symbol of life comes in the unusual yet quite demonstrative ...

1147. Making Ourselves At Home

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Sermon

R. Kevin Mohr

... killed or carried off, along with all of the wealth of the nation, into exile in Babylon. And now, a letter comes from the prophet Jeremiah. He was among the remnant of those who were out of the Judean power loop before and, therefore, were allowed to remain in Judah and Jerusalem by the occupying power. Jeremiah had been out of favor with the royal court in Judah because he had not toed the party line, but had warned that the salvation of the people would not come through political alliances. More to the ...

1148. So Send I You

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... were still shuttered and shuddering — clamped down and closed off from a threatening world. Then Jesus blasts through their ADT security system, blows out their “LifeLock,” and suddenly stands in their midst. All their human safeguards are gone. All that remains is the Divine Safeguard the risen Lord Jesus, standing before them, baring his scars and blessing them with peace. When Jesus bursts into the locked Upper Room, he first brings “Peace.” He then brings “rejoicing.” Finally he brings his ...

1149. P.S. I Love You

John 21:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... edge of disaster? But this was the world of the first century. It was the world the first disciples of Jesus faced. It is also the world faced by all of Jesus’ twenty-first century disciples. We cannot control or contain such chaos. We can only remain faithful and follow Jesus whatever comes our way. We can only shine our light into the darkness. The twenty-first chapter of John’s gospel was probably not written by the author of the first twenty chapters. But the twenty-first chapter of John’s gospel ...

1150. Belonging to Christ's Flock

John 10:22-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the life of a sheep is based on a lack of understanding. When you really get to know a little bit more about sheep, you begin to realize that being a good sheep that is, a sheep that sticks with its flock and tries to remain close to the shepherd requires some basic qualities that are also essential to being a disciple or true follower of Jesus Christ. And, like the disciple of Christ, the sheep benefits greatly from belonging to the flock, gaining safety, guidance, nourishment, correction and care, as ...

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