Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1276 to 1300 of 3852 results

1276. Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Zechariah 7:1-14

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... ? Had they any idea how God had been offended by their lack of devotion, their blindness to poor, hurting and neglected people in their midst? Zechariah, like Amos and Micah, called for ethical righteousness. More important than a ritual fast that had lost its original intent was the charge to render true judgments, to show kindness and mercy, to refrain from oppressing weaker persons and not to devise evil in their hearts (7:8-10). What about our own day? Are we asking the right questions? Are we really ...

1277. Wedding: Love and Fear

1 John 4:1-6

Sermon Aid

Charles E. Wolfe

... sisters in Christ. Fear breeds suspicion and isolation and therefore hinders the growth of love. Either the fear or the love must win. The “fear” of this verse is related to what is variously translated as “torment” or “punishment” or “judgment.” The word originally means to cut back the growth of a tree or a bush by pruning. From this, it comes to mean cutting back bad behavior by corrective discipline. Parents and children train each other in this way, as do husband and wife, and so God ...

1278. God's Christmas Greeting

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... For many years it has moved people to tears who stand before this figure of the Christ that seems to beckon us to come to him. What is strange about the sculpture is that its creator, Bertel Thorwaldsen, intended to create a very different kind of figure. His original model was a massive clay figure of Jesus as a hero king. The head was thrown back imperiously, and the hands of Jesus were raised as if in a gesture of command. The great Danish sculptor finished his work and then left the statue to dry in his ...

1279. Christmas Questions

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

John Jamison

... Sea. That might make a person ask some questions. Is this any way for a Messiah to behave? At least I hope that's what happened with John. If John the Baptist, as high up as he ranked, still had some questions, maybe there is room for me and mine. (Original title of this sermon: Why Do You Ask?)

1280. To Be Sure

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... hostility among Jews and Samaritans in Jesus' day. Enmity had been brewing for centuries, and especially since the return of the exiles from Babylon in the sixth century B.C.E.4 Though it may be that by Jesus' day few remembered the stories of its origin, the hostility was mutually shared. Believed by tradition to be the remnant of the lost tribes of Israel which disappeared after the fall of Samaria to Sargon II of Assyria in 722 B.C.E., the Samaritans had retained many of the traditions of their Hebrew ...

1281. A Good Thing To Know

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... must first understand the reference to "these things." Events previously reported are the important antecedents to today's reading. "As they heard these things, he [Jesus] proceeded to tell a parable." Luke assumes that his readers know what "things" they (and Jesus' original audience) have been hearing. As we hear the lesson read, we have little chance of knowing. Few are likely to remember that "these things" refers to the story of the conversion of Zacchaeus, a text that we studied five weeks ago!' Just ...

1282. Crown Him Lord!

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... presents the destiny of Christ as a part of the crucifixion narrative. Here Christ will transcend life and the death with which this life ends. Beyond this, the details are not clear. This is not to say that paradise is without meaning. It is a word of Persian origin, and it refers to a garden. The late Dr. William Barclay writes that it was a walled garden.3 When a Persian king wanted to do a favor for a subject, he invited that person to walk with him in the garden. Jesus was promising the penitent thief ...

1283. What Will He Find ... When He Comes?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... have to learn here about our heavenly father or about prayer? Why has Luke chosen to include this parable, even following it with another that suggests models of prayer, the parable of two men who went up to the temple to pray? Joachin Jeremias believes that Jesus' original focus in this parable was not prayer at all, but rather the vindication of the gospel of God's inclusive love,[4] just as the parable of the two men in prayer was addressed to those who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous and ...

1284. Captive To The Word Of God

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... slavery by which Jesus sees the Jews of his generation have been entrapped. What does it mean to be descendants of Abraham? Is it a matter of birthright, a theological pedigree? Do we gain the papers of salvation because we can prove the pure ethnic origin of our birth ... or even because we revere and hallow the sacred traditions of our people? Or is a true descendant of Abraham one who shares with Abraham the steady and unshakable faith in God that develops a life of faithfulness, fullness, and a genuine ...

1285. The Glorious Company

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... mask, and we drop an apple in the extended bag. Except for a few roaming older teens and perhaps a few soaped windows at their hands, no one worries about the "tricks" that are threatened. Halloween takes its name from All Hallows Eve, though its origins are pre-Christian and probably go back to the ancient Druids who, with ceremonial fires and legendary visits of ghosts and gremlins, marked the first day of winter on November 1. Others hold that people in the Middle Ages believed that the souls came back ...

1286. Saints Alive!

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... saints" were an inspiration to all the living. This "remembering" is at once an act of gratitude and of edification. This the church ought to do. And it does! Saints Alive! But hold on just a minute. Not all of the saints are dead. Though the original festivals called to mind the martyrs, the known and the unknown, the unnamed and never canonized, there are others to be remembered this day, too. According to the New Testament, the title of "saint" is not reserved solely for the perfect. Saints are not alone ...

1287. Jerusalem: City for All Time

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

Donald Zelle

... settled Palestine under Joshua, they did not succeed in taking the city from the Jebusites. It was a rock fortress, surrounded by valleys. David's capturing of the city is described in our reading. However, the key verse, verse eight, is not clear in the original language. In part it cannot be translated. The controversy over whether the attack should be directed against the water shaft of the city or the windpipe of the defenders is not yet settled. The reference to the blind and lame in verse eight seems ...

1288. Stairways Of Heaven

Genesis 28:10-22

Sermon

Justin Tull

... like to rename those steps the “Staircase of Heaven.” I did not name it the staircase to heaven because we are not giants who unassisted can make our way to heaven. It is God on high who brings a touch of heaven to us. The stairs originate not on earth but in heaven. It is the God who promises to be with us who connects forever heaven and earth. The good news is that there are staircases of heaven all around us. There are spiritual escalators everywhere. These escalators have the “up” and “down ...

1289. The Banquet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

... , the Hebrews believed they had to coax God with sacrificial offerings in order to get what they wanted from him. For the Jews, God was distant, hidden, not readily accessible. God did not associate intimately, so they thought. But this was actually an aberration of the original covenant as we see in today's lesson. So the people had a strong need to lure God, to manipulate him, to appease and pacify him with exclusive sacrifice and ritual. God could never be close if it took this much work and currency to ...

1290. Serving With Water: The Washing

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Steve Swanson

... often achieved because clothing can classify people according to occupation. People do what they wear. In the largest and broadest way, we divide occupations into two groups - the "white collar" and the "blue collar." Even the rather negative term "red-neck" must originally have had something to do with where one worked and what he wore. White collar workers don't get red necks under banks of eight-foot fluorescent tubes. They don't get farmers' tans either. These divisions and distinctions have an impact ...

1291. Beasts, Saints and Chaos

Daniel 7:15-28, Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

Paul W. F. Harms

... with you." He will be with us here and now in our time. For it is here that his name is to be hallowed; it is here that his kingdom is to come; it is here that his will is to be done on earth, the same earth where he originated that prayer. Christ gives us himself through the common, ordinary bread and wine, through the common, ordinary means of eating and drinking. We eat and drink together to experience his presence not only in the meal but in each other. If he makes his presence felt in the gift of ...

1292. Step One - Honesty

Luke 8:26-39 · Proverbs 23:29-35

Sermon

John A. Terry

... , or any other appropriate 12-step group. These sermons are not primarily focusing on substance abuse. What I will do in these 12 sermons is look at the scriptural basis for the 12 steps. What do you need to know is these 12 steps, which were originated by Alcoholics Anonymous, are now used by close to 200 other 12-step groups. The same basic principles apply to whatever it is that makes your life unmanageable. A.A. literature includes a disclaimer that says the material is not the property of any one ...

1293. Step Nine - Discipline

Mt 5:21-26 · Eph 4:25-32 · Num 5:5-10

Sermon

John A. Terry

... s passage is a law of restitution, a special case law, supplemental to Leviticus 6:1-7. It deals with restitution in the situation in which there is no kinsman, that is, no living relative. Sometimes, even back then, litigation could go on for decades and the original plaintiff might be dead, along with all of the plaintiff's family. The advice is: give it to the temple. It is just like church trustees today who urge folks to leave it to the church. There is nothing mentioned here about going to court. This ...

1294. Jesus Is Made Known in the Breaking of the Bread

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Steven Burt

Luke’s narrative here is one of those narratives that we can easily picture. It was late afternoon on the very first Easter day, and two disciples -- apparently not of the original twelve -- but nevertheless, two disciples, were walking along the dry dusty road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They were pretty down-in-the-mouth for they had just lost their messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the one they had thought would be the Savior of Israel. So they were walking along this ...

1295. Altered Expectations

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

... life of the baby who was destined to be something Joseph could not begin to imagine. It meant setting aside his own human desires, living with Mary in celibacy until the birth of the child. It meant accepting, caring for, providing for, and loving a child whose origins he wasn’t sure he understood. "Piece of cake?" I don’t think so! And all because an angel had appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "This is what God wants you to do…." Joseph listened, trusted, and obeyed. Do you still think we don ...

1296. Strangers at the Manger

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

... . Isn’t it great that God lets us do that? And there’s no "three strikes and you’re out" policy with God, either! I was greatly relieved, however, to discover that there was still a sermon in the text, and it pretty much followed my original line of thought. The passage does reflect two different responses to the birth of Jesus. And these two responses are indications of the coming conflict the grown-up Jesus would have to face. Any time a child enters the scene, you can count on one thing – there ...

1297. Dealing with the Devil

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Johnny Dean

I used to believe that children were born pure and innocent. Then I became a parent. Now I believe in original sin. When my oldest son was about three years old, I was outside doing some yard work one afternoon. I took Kevin outside to play while I trimmed the hedges. Holding his hand, I knelt down beside him so that we could look at each other face to face. Slowly ...

1298. It Just Doesn't Work That Way

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... tangled with the roots of the wheat, and you would pull up too many stalks of wheat to get rid of a few weeds. Let’s just wait until harvest time to separate them.’" You see, these weren’t just any old weeds growing with the wheat. The original Greek manuscripts identified them as darnel, a weed that looks very much like a stalk of wheat as it’s growing. The only difference is the darnel doesn’t produce anything. So the only safe time to separate the weeds from the wheat would be at the harvest ...

1299. Oh Me of Little Faith

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Johnny Dean

A couple of years ago, the scientific community announced yet another earth-shattering, history-making discovery. It seems that a group of scientists were studying a meteor that supposedly originated on the planet Mars and had crash-landed on Earth some 13,000 years ago. In a small fragment of the meteor, the scientists found organic compounds that appeared to be bacteriological life forms. Perhaps the most famous scientist of our era, Carl Sagan, said, "If the results are verified, ...

1300. The Seven Last Words of the Church

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... what a concept! What do you think of when you hear the word tradition? Exactly what is tradition? Mr. Webster’s dictionary defines the word tradition as "the transmission of knowledge, opinions, customs, doctrines, and practices from generation to generation, originally by word of mouth and personal example." We have all inherited traditions from our ancestors, which we will in turn pass on to future generations. And traditions are important. Even now we’re looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas ...

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