Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1276 to 1300 of 1679 results

1276. Not Blind but Seeing

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Dean Lueking

A memorable line from Robert Burns offers a good beginning in hearing the word of Christ to us today: "O what power the Giftie gie’ us that we see ourselves as others see us ..." The ninth chapter of John’s Gospel is about seeing, not only as others see us but seeing as God sees us. It is one of the most dramatic chapters in the New Testament, as the Savior calls out to us not to be blind, but seeing. Trying To See What Can’t Be Seen It all begins with a question to Jesus from the disciples as they saw a ...

1277. Easter 5

Jn 13:31-35 · Acts 13:44-52; 14:8-18; 21-27 · Rev 21:1-5

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

COMMENTARY Acts 14:8-18 After a miracle of healing, the people consider Paul and Barnabas to be gods. In this pericope we have Paul's first miracle and his first sermon to pagans. It is very unlike Paul because no mention is made of Jesus and the resurrection, nor the name of Jesus as the power of healing. The account does not say that the faith of the cripple was faith in Jesus, the Healer. Moreover, a miracle usually ends in the people's glorifying God, but here the people give the credit to Paul and ...

1278. Training Session

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

The recruiting of the twelve disciples is now complete. Jesus has chosen a group of unlikely candidates - fishermen, tax collectors, unsophisticated Galileans, and others - to communicate the good news to the world that he is the Messiah. Training these people for their task is the second phase of this operation. Jesus takes the disciples away from the crowds for an educational retreat on the side of a nearby mountain. Their three-year training session begins with a lecture by their teacher and master, ...

1279. Expectations of a Vital Faith James K. Cobb

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

The lessons appointed for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost reflect on the issue of the power and presence of God in the context of suffering. This narrative gives us no easy answers. If anything they exclude some cherished complacencies such as belief that God protects his people from suffering and pain and anguish and hopelessness. But in the text, suffering is undeserved and prolonged and bitter. The fact is that ordinary people lose control of their lives and see their children abused and murdered; but ...

1280. The Call for Justice

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Declan Walsh was a Marine officer in World War II in the Pacific. He began the practice of law, but stayed in the reserves. During the Korean police action he was re-called to active duty with the rank of colonel. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving his command when the Chinese army pushed into the conflict. He returned to his legal life and was named Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. His wife, Kate, was killed in an automobile accident in Washington, D.C., and Declan ...

1281. So Soon We Forget!

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

So soon we forget! The next time you complain of having to do the laundry - at home or at the local laundromat - where you have plenty of hot and cold water, a spin-dry machine, and a dryer to do the whole job remarkably easily, before you complain about how tough it is (like breaking a fingernail opening the package of new, blue, all-temperature Cheer or having to fold the clothes as they come out of the dryer), stop and remember it was not always so simple. Here is a "receipt" of an old grandmother in ...

1282. The Abiding Presence

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

The young woman preacher found herself in something of the same situation that Moses was in when he was the intermediary between God and the Israelites. A woman, whose husband had recently died, asked her, "Will our loved ones remember us after they die and are with Jesus?" She answered, "I don’t know." She had not faced that question, that part of the Easter mystery before. But she could - and did - say, "I don’t know if the dead will remember us, but I do know that our Lord remembers us." And she added, ...

1283. Advent 1

Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122:1-9, Romans 13:8-14, Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The risen, ascended Lord, Jesus Christ, whose reign has begun, will return at the end of this age, to bring in the fullness of God's Kingdom and reign over all of the affairs of the earth. Be prepared! Wait! Watch! Wonder! Work! Walk! The First Sunday in Advent is the theological/thematic key to the entire year's preaching from the lectionary; it sets the stage, as it were, by directing the attention of preacher and people upon the completion of God's business with the world in Jesus ...

1284. Proper 24 & Pentecost 22

Matthew 22:15-22, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Ruth 1:1-22, Psalm 96:1-13, Isaiah 44:24--45:25

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Since this Sunday will fall on the first Sunday in November in 1990 - and it doesn't really matter whether it is celebrated as the Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost or All Saints Sunday, or even as one of the Sundays in the annual stewardship campaign in many congregations - the eschatological framework of the church year will be obvious for those who are liturgically informed. The climax of the church year - Christ the King Sunday - is only three weeks away; on that Sunday and on into ...

1285. The Devil Quotes Scriputure, Too

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

I will always remember the immortal words of Flip Wilson’s "Geraldine:" "The devil made me do it!" She said those words with a gleam in her eye which let you know just how enjoyable yielding to temptation really was. Temptation has come on hard times in our day. It has come to mean little more than resistance to a hot-fudge sundae when you are on a diet, or turning down a piece of chocolate cake. At most, resisting temptation seems to mean no more than the self-discipline it takes to stay away from ...

1286. No Sooner Said Than Done!

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"For the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it." Words! Words! Words! Today we are bombarded on every side and saturated throughout with words coming to us through press, radio, and TV. There are 490,000 ...

1287. Recovering From the Blahs

1 Kings 19:9-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

There he came to a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." And he said, "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great ...

1288. Is Your Sin My Business?

Ezekiel 33:1-20

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them a warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life." Is ...

1289. The Danger of Being Religious

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord'; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Two young boys were close friends ...

1290. Two Bodies for Two Worlds

Isaiah 26:1-21

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise, O dwellers of the dust, awake and sing for joy! But some one will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" (1 Corinthians 15:35) "Body Shop," "Body Control," "Body Power," "Body Wisdom," "Body Glow" - so say the newspaper ads urging us to do something about our bodies. Today we are a body-conscious people. We believe in body building through exercise. In America, there are 10,000,000 joggers, 15,000,000 serious swimmers, 25,000,000 ...

1291. Victim or Visionary

John 19:28-37

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

And again another scripture says, "They shall look upon him whom they have pierced." - John 19:37 On the cross, our Lord must have looked at the faces of his executioners and experienced the sharp frustration which comes from being subject to principalities and powers beyond one’s capacity to shape or control. For a time, he must have felt like a helpless victim of cruel, cosmic circumstance. You and I, then, should not have too much trouble empathizing with the crucified Jesus. We, too, are beset by ...

1292. Why Are We So Split Apart?

Matthew 5:9

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

What does the word "peace" mean to you? When Jesus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers," what did he have in mind? It was top news when the President decided to stop production on the supersonic bomber, the B-1. He gave budgetary, as well as strategic, reasons for his decision: the B-52 can infiltrate Soviet air defense if it is fitted with more efficient engines and other equipment; the B-52 can carry twenty of the new cruise missles, guided by computers; these can follow the lay of the land just above ...

1293. Pardon for Sin

Romans 5:12-21

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

Human nature will go to great lengths to cover up wrong doings and to excuse its mistakes. In Newark, New Jersey, a lady lost a purse containing twenty-five dollars. A week later it came back in the mail with only fifteen dollars, plus a note from the anonymous finder explaining she had once lost a purse with ten dollars in it. The fact that she once was robbed gave justification to rob a portion from the twenty-five dollars. This justification and rationalization of wrongdoing affects us down the line. It ...

1294. On Being Lifted Beyond Ourselves

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

The Scripture for this ninth Sunday after Pentecost is very strange. I quote from the NEB: "In the same way the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us, and God who searches our inmost beings knows what the Spirit means, because he pleads for God’s own people in God’s own way." Let’s face it, our hope lies in a dimension beyond the human. If we do not acknowledge the supernatural, we are ...

1295. Will My Ship Sink or Float?

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

For the key verse in this Scripture reading, like best the King James Version: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." No! Not everything that happens in life is good (much of it is very bad). But when you add all the happenings of life together and look at the whole of life, for the person who has faith in God, for the person who loves God and shares the love of God, that life is good. The whole of life, its ups and downs, are good when we see them interrelated in a ...

1296. Called to Be Saints

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Hubert Beck

Have you ever considered the power of Jesus’ simple statement, "You are the salt of the earth"? (Matthew 5:13) No matter how you say it, that statement shakes you to your boots. Try it on for size. "You are the salt of the earth." Me? Isn’t it astounding to hear Jesus say that you and I are the salt of the earth? Surely he must have meant a special group of people. He couldn’t have been talking to us, could he? The words are from the Sermon on the Mount, spoken in some ways peculiarly to his disciples ...

1297. Journey to the Cross I: Jesus And The Demon-Possessed Man

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

The noted author, John Killinger, tells a powerful story about a man who is all-alone in a hotel room in Canada. The man is in a state of deep depression. He is so depressed that he can’t even bring himself to go downstairs to the restaurant to eat. He is a powerful man usually the chairman of a large shipping company… but at this moment, he is absolutely overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of life… and he lies there on a lonely hotel bed far from home wallowing in self-pity. All of his life, he has ...

1298. IN THE BEGINNING ... THERE WAS LOVE ...

Drama

Marcia Millerf

This is a fantasy of one person becoming aware of another. It is considered biblical because at one time there was that first encounter. At the same time it must be remembered that each one of us has had that same first encounter; a time when we must admit there are other needs in the world beside our own personal needs, desires, and wants. The costuming for this play must be at the simplest level - black leotards and tights. The stage setting is also simple. On stage there are two tower-like structures ...

1299. Five Grains of Corn

Psalm 111:1-10

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

In the early days of New England, it came to be the custom to put five grains of corn beside each plate on Thanksgiving Day. Those five grains of corn were to recall the fast days of the Plymouth settlement when the early colonists were in such drastic and difficult circumstances. In the midst of starvation, food supplies had been so low that only five grains of corn were rationed to an individual at a time, from the common storehouse. But, with five grains of corn, there had been an heroic survival. This ...

1300. Paul: The Man and His Message

Romans 9:1-29

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

Hans Lietzmann, noted New Testament scholar, once remarked that no one has correctly understood Jesus except Paul and no one has correctly understood Paul. The attempts to understand Paul are legion. The literature on him is immense and the interpretations of his thought are varied. To Bultmann he is "the founder of Christian theology," while to Morton Enslin he is not a theologian at all but simply a "practical and forthright man" who taught new life in Christ but had little regard for logical consistency ...

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