Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1201 to 1225 of 1230 results

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... go away? We simply cannot live the fantasy that indeed Christianity, if lived well, will not be a challenge. We must remember the words of the British writer, G.K. Chesterton, who once famously stated in What’s Wrong with the World, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried.” The great challenge presented to us by Saint Paul in his famous Philippians hymn, and the opportunity to reflect upon the great events of the week we commence today ...

1202. Sacrifice Leads to Life

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... of self-sacrifice is not easy, yet it is the one and only life that will lead us back to God. Therefore, as we continue to walk this special road of the Paschal Mystery, let us see in some small way the sacrifices we make, whether they be for people, ideals or institutions, as a minor example of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Jesus poured out his life so that we could find salvation; let us be willing to sacrifice ourselves in a similar way so that we can be true disciples of Christ and find the gift ...

1203. Patience

Matthew 11:2-11 · James 5:7-10

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of modern mentality. The main project of the modern age is to take control of our lives, to shape and build, to solve and achieve. We don't know much about patience because patience is a virtue that we learn by waiting on someone else, whereas the modem ideal is to fashion life in such a way that we are freed from the necessity to wait on anyone. One of the main charms of affluence is that it frees us from having to wait on most things in life. We have transportation, meals, clean clothes, entertainment ...

1204. Mutual Submission

Ephesians 5:22-33

Sermon

Will Willimon

... say that, while they have many acquaintances, they have fewer close friends. Well, what do we expect? We got liberation but also loneliness. We got what we asked for. In the early 1970's 96 percent of all Americans declared themselves dedicated to the ideal of two people sharing a life and a home together. By 1980, exactly the same percentage of people felt the same way. Yet in this same decade, from 1970 to 1980, the number of single households doubled, expanding so fast that many observers predicted ...

1205. Not Gullible; But Skeptical

John 20:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... that there’s a correlation between high intelligence and gullibility? This is no joke. Ricky Jay was a famous magician. He was considered by many magicians to be the best sleight-of-hand artist in the world. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Jay said, “the ideal audience would be [a group of] Nobel Prize winners . . . They often have an ego with them that says, ‘I am really smart so I can’t be fooled.’ No one,” says Ricky Jay, “is easier to fool.” (2) That’s interesting. No one is easier to ...

1206. Hope Rises

Mark 9:30-37, 42

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and admirable human being, the kind of person who astounds you with their kindness and grace. Just one-word descriptions. I’ll give you a hint, “loving” is probably one of them. See how many you can come up with. [Give people time to write while you ponder the “ideal” disciple.] Do you have your list? Call them out! One at a time. Let’s list them. If you’re at home, share them with each other! If you hear some you like and you hadn’t had them down, add them to your list! [The list will most ...

1207. Rejecting The Message — Rejecting The Person

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... form of a man who would walk the dusty streets rather than ride a white horse? He would tell his followers to be peacemakers and love others above themselves and to render unto Caesar those things that he required. These things just didn’t fit the ideal Messiah and yet that is exactly the kind of Messiah they received! Today much of the world has a false expectation and understanding of Jesus…of the Messiah…of God. Where is this God who allows war, terrorism, divorce, illness, hatred, and more? If I ...

1208. Ordinary Tragedy

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , Hamlet's angst must seem comic. Our tragedies are more the scale of Willie Loman (The Death of a Salesman) whose death occasions not the howling of heaven, but rather a job opening in the Sales Department. Most of us shall end, not attached to some noble ideal, but rather hooked up to a machine. The reason for our demise will not be due to our too fervent commitment to a cause, but rather due to some tiny microbe eating at our gut. Aristotle says that the chief requirement for tragedy is nobility. But our ...

1209. Family Reunion

Genesis 29:15-28

Sermon

Will Willimon

... a little help from his own daughters. It's a family, a family in a mess. Do you know any families like that? I do. There is so much talk by politicians about "Family Values" these days because our families seem a long way away from the ideal family. No wonder politicians are always talking about "family values." Most of them are on the road campaigning so much, no wonder they love their families! They're never home! Most of the serious damage that gets done to us in life is done in our family. (Plutarch ...

1210. Not As the World Gives

John 14:23-29 · John 5:1-9

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... selflessness which opens the heart to the experience of the other. This empathy, this engagement has to do with the ability to literally feel what people around you are feeling, to stand in someone else’s shoes and become part of their experience. This is our ideal. This is our clear and stated vision. This is the place where hope takes shape. However, the voice of the cynic is loud in the land and it gets expressed in seemingly endless lines of queries that go something like this: “How am I supposed to ...

1211. For Us

Luke 22:7-38

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of wine and promise you that God is here. What's going on here? Because we could not, knew not how, had not the means to come to God, God came to us. This is not how we climb up to God—through our good works, our projects, our noble ideals, our beautiful services of worship—tomorrow, between noon and three, we're going to see where all that leads. All of our ladders up to God always end in a climb up Calvary and the erection, not of a monument to our basic goodness, but a cross. Tomorrow, see on ...

1212. With Gratitude and Humility

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... effect of all our carefully curated photos may not be as fun as we compare them with the humdrum of our daily lives. After all, the ordinary, uncurated reality we live every day can never measure up. Some studies suggest that endlessly scrolling through the idealized versions we see on Facebook and Instagram can even lead to depression. The technology to curate our lives online may be relatively new, but the impulse to re-arrange our lives and show them in the best possible light is an ancient one, dating ...

1213. The Mountain

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

John Jamison

... and rocky trail for about a mile and a half to get to the top of the mountain. Even with the trail, it is a tough trek. As Jesus, Peter, James, and John walked up the mountain that day there was no parking lot and no trail. It was an ideal place to go if you wanted to just get away. More and more, Jesus was looking for opportunities to get away. A lot has happened since that day we met with the group on that hillside near the Sea of Galilee. The pressure was on. He had spent the past ...

1214. The Way

John 14:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... into a spiritual/emotional/out of this world kind of relationship with Jesus through the invisible presence of the Holy Spirit. It means that Christianity is a “relational” religion. We don’t merely follow Jesus’ teachings or his wisdom, his “to-do lists” or his “ideals for good living”…although he wants us to pay attention to those. We don’t just get a book of stuff to memorize or a list of good deeds to do that will insure our heavenly destination. No, the “way” to walk the “Way ...

1215. Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

William G. Carter

... and pain. We should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard. We cannot swing from naïve idealism to bitter realism.”21 I was thinking about all of this while I was mowing my heavily weed-filled lawn. It gave me a lot to think about. It was a hot day, so when I was finished, I asked the Lord if he wanted to join me for a ...

1216. You've Got Spirit

Luke 3:15-22 · Acts 8:14-17 · Psalm 29 · Isaiah 61:1-4

Sermon

Will Willimon

... then leaves us to our own devices; the great, deistic, deus absconditus. You may hear of God the Son. God is the young and fearless prophet of ancient Galilee, the teacher, the rabbinic ethical example, Jesus the Man for Others who exists mainly to set unattainable ethical ideals for the rest of us. God the Holy Spirit? Ed says he doesn't hear much of that aspect of godness. We honor the Creator because we can see nature, can pick apart and dissect its wonders. We pay homage to the Son because, even people ...

1217. The Unfettered Word

2 Timothy 2:8-15

Sermon

Will Willimon

... resist, lost the means even to know there was something worth resisting. Jesus was not really, literally a Jew, they had said. The important thing about him was that he was an example of the brightest and the best of all humanity, the teacher of noble ideals. It was a short step from the liberal Christ the-highest-in-humanity to the Nazi Superman. But there were some in the German Church who remembered. In 1934 Karl Barth wrote The Barmen Declaration which began, "Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in ...

1218. Fearless

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... social milieu. Whereas 50 years ago, a solid resume meant that you loyally stayed with one employer for most of your working life, gaining wisdom and experience that proved valuable to business, the technological revolution shifted the image of the ideal employee to one with adaptable learning, multiple work experiences and environments, and the ability to shift jobs frequently in order to adapt to changing workplace needs. No longer was long-term wisdom valued but short-term adaptability became the desired ...

1219. Click to Unfriend

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... rock in the middle of the quarry, made of stone that was not good enough to be worth digging out. The column had a strange shape, almost like a skull, and it was close enough to the road for everyone passing by could see it, so it was the ideal place for crucifixions. That is where the soldiers were heading. When they reached the top, they placed the heavy board across the large pole lying on the ground and tied them together. Then they forced Jesus to lay down and stretch his arms on the board. They drove ...

1220. Is This All There Is?

Revelation 21:1-6

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , “The whole creation groans in futility and death.” There has never been a person who honestly ponders the human condition who has not pined for a radically new world. Whether it be Marx sitting at his desk in the British Museum sketching the ideal economic state, or Lennon, John Lennon, urging us to “imagine all the people living for today,” with no war, no hunger, and no tears, there is no hope unless it's hope for something different--and better. Every visionary social theorist, every scientist ...

1221. The Shepherd Knows

John 10:11-18

Sermon

Mary Austin

... shepherd. The Greek word translated as “good” is the strongest possible word for good — not the ordinary everyday word. It really means noble, beautiful, worthy, and exemplary. Jesus was telling his flock that he was the best possible shepherd — the ideal shepherd, one willing to lay down his life for the sheep. The shepherd beyond all others — the great shepherd. In all of these “I am” sayings from John’s gospel, Jesus compared himself with the most ordinary things — light, bread, water ...

1222. “Lord, Our Lord, How Majestic Is Your Name in All the Earth!”

Psalm 8:1-9

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... them somewhere in the history of interpretation.3 While that is certainly a valid way to view the messianism of the Psalms, it seems to me that the strong prophetic hope, also reflected in the Psalter, took shape in those years when the people began to idealize David, perhaps as early as the eighth century prophetic movement (see Isa. 9:6–7; Amos 9:11–12) and long before the exile. Thus some of the psalms may have been written with a messianic baseline. So I believe the position lies somewhere between ...

1223. The Kings of the South and the North

Daniel 11:2-35

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... 306–37. Tragically, and more violently, the papacy used Crusaders in the eleventh to thirteenth century to conduct holy wars in Palestine for wealth and power. Even today, the temptation to use faith as an evangelical banner for national idealism persists. In contrast, our commitment to God’s kingdom—first and foremost—must take priority over all allegiances to the kingdoms of this world. The pulpit should not become a platform for political persuasions or inappropriate patriotism for any transient ...

1224. The Seventy “Sevens”

Daniel 9:20-27

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... Daniel (8:16, 17; 9:23; 10:11, 12, 14; 11:33), as do hiphil forms of the root sakal, “to give insight” (9:22, 25; 11:33, 35; 12:3, 10). Both roots also occur at the beginning of the book, in the description of the ideal qualities of Daniel and his friends (1:4, 17). The repetition of the roots underscores that the significance of the visions is not obvious to the average person; rather, their content is so mysterious and hidden that only highly skilled and divinely aided interpreters can understand them ...

1225. David's Mighty Men

2 Samuel 23:8-39

Teach the Text

... bring horrific suffering to those who are innocent. One of the great tragedies that attended Saul’s failure and demise was the death of his son Jonathan, who exhibited so many admirable qualities and swore his allegiance to David. Jonathan would have made an ideal king or a superb second-in-command for David. But this was not to be: he ended up dying with his father at Mount Gilboa. Yet the consequences of Saul’s sins follow him even beyond the grave. His crimes against the Gibeonites demand vengeance ...

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