Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1326 to 1350 of 3160 results

Acts 5:17-42

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

... , he must have felt driven to do the things that caused the lesser harm of the two. When you live under the cross of Christ, you are sometimes plunged into terrible struggles. I sometimes think nobody should be baptized until they’re ready to understand what sort of suffering it could lead to. We let our Christianity become too cheap sometimes. God loves us without charge, but it becomes a costly thing when we begin to take it seriously. As I sit in this prison cell, I think about that more and more ...

1327. Divine Alka-Seltzer

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

... , fizz, oh, what a relief it is." I call this response the divine Alka-Seltzer response. We pray to God for relief to help us escape our human ills and troubles. We beseech God to keep us from the horrors and suffering of life. We look to God as a sort of universal pain pill who eliminates or, at the least, protects us from all trouble. No one wants to suffer. To realize that, all you have to do is to view our television advertisements. Whatever ache or pain we have, some company will try to solve it for us ...

1328. Just Follow The Signs

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... out cute little hospital cards with a picture of a wrinkled-prune-looking baby on it. God put a brilliant Star in the sky to announce the birth of his Son. Nobody knows what star this was. Many have speculated about it, some thinking it was a constellation of some sort. It would have been great to be able to see it. It was a special Star that God created to announce the most wonderful news ever: the birth of his only Son, the Savior of the world. It was a Star that God brought into being for the specific ...

1329. Life After Life

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... ; otherwise, there is no meaning. J. B. Phillips, the well-known British New Testament scholar and friend of C. S. Lewis, shares an experience in his book, For This Day. He was near death in the hospital. Apparently he was in a coma. He could make no response of any sort. Not an eyelash could he move to indicate that he was conscious. Yet he was totally alert and was aware of all that went on around him. He asked himself how he could be alive, and yet be able to make no response to life. That night at ten p ...

1330. Counting The Cost?

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... elderly gentleman was with us, climbing in silence, eyes on the ground. When I interrupted him with a question, he brushed me aside, demanding silence. "I’m counting the steps." Ah yes, counting the steps. Perchance he wanted to establish a record of some sort, maybe a report, but the hike on that wonderful occasion seemingly held scant interest. What of the view of mountain ranges? What of birds and mountain laurel and rhododendron? Did he see them? No! He was counting the steps. Tell me: Did the widow ...

1331. And It Came To Pass

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... give up! This is the motivating factor in our Christian faith. Americans rejoiced in the Winter Olympics of 1980 at Lake Placid, New York, when our hockey team won a Gold Medal. It was thrilling! The Winter Olympics of 1984 at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, brought another sort of story for our hockey team. But, were Americans less proud? The spirit was: Just wait until 1988, at Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Do we have a contradiction here in Mark 13:24-31? If it will all pass away, why try? Ah, but what passes away ...

1332. The Marriage of Adam and Eve

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

... We express it in our jargon: "I gotta do my thing!" (From this, dear Lord, deliver us.) Or in Sinatra’s song: "I did it my way." (What a way to go!) Or in another wistful melody that rebels against conformity: "I gotta be me!" (What sort of goal in life is that?) But experience becomes conviction that no one ever finds fulfillment, happiness, or satisfaction when the self becomes the goal. No one can love another certainly without a healthy self-respect and measure of self-love. Did Archie Bunker really ...

1333. The Good News of Easter

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Brett Blair

... for fear of the Jewish authorities, to courageous apostles who stood before the thousands in the presence of the Jewish authorities proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. Some years ago a college student came by one afternoon to discuss theological issues. That sort of thing does not happen often, I must confess. I hope it will not disappoint you to hear that most of my days are spent in meetings and with budgets, and staff issues and reports and not discussing theology. Eventually the conversation came ...

1334. The Friends of Jesus

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Brett Blair

... Pollsters, political pundits, and newscasters are already trying to figure out the candidate for the party out of power, which means dividing the population up according to gender, race, age, sociological standing, religion and a half dozen other categories. While this sort of information may have some strategic significance in terms of strategizing a political campaign, to many of us it perhaps seems like an exercise in trivia. There were no public polls in Jesus’ day. There were no computers to analyze ...

1335. Success

Mark 10:17-31

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... and putting them into practice Jesus (JESUS ENTERS CARRYING A COFFEE CUP) BRYAN: (ENTERS, CARRYING A COFFEE CUP AND HURRYING TO CATCH JESUS) Oh, Jesus, your speech was really impressive. I can learn a lot from guys like you, like eternal life and how to get it, and that sort of thing. You're a good teacher. JESUS: Why do you call me good? Only God is good. BRYAN: Now wait a minute. You are a good teacher. JESUS: Thank you. Are you a good student? BRYAN: You bet I am. I'm a vice president of a Fortune ...

1336. Paul's Thorn In The Flesh

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... who along with his wife returned to his high school for his 10th year reunion? There he encountered his old high school flame. Right away he noticed that her current appearance did not compare well with his memories of her. The years had been tough on her. He sort of clutched his wife's hand a little tighter, so happy that he had ended up with her instead of the old flame. But he remembered many occasions ten years earlier when he had prayed fervently, "Lord, I ask only one thing of you...help me win the ...

1337. How Life’s Pressures Affect Good Judgment

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Brett Blair

... young man said, "My parents have fantastic goals for me to take over the family business. It's not what I want to do, but their pressure is unbearable." A college woman said, "I'm being pressured by my boyfriend to live with him before we are married. You know...sort of try it out...to see if we are right for each other." A husband said, "My wife is never satisfied. Whatever I do, however much I make, it's never enough. Life with her is like living in a pressure cooker with the lid fastened down and the ...

1338. Like Trees Walking

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... infer that it was of importance to Mark that he tell it. He must have thought about the meaning of it as he relates in detail what the man said when he first saw the light of day at Jesus’ side. He was then half cured, a sort of arrested optical development. We often settle for this throughout life because with a dim view we suffer less as we look at the world about us with its tragedies, its disasters, its inhumanities to our fellow man, its social injustices, and even the unhappiness which challenges ...

1339. Conflict and Hope: One in the Spirit

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... is destructive. How often we find ourselves engaged in ecclesiastical dispute which is indicative of special interests, and not that which points toward the furtherance of the gospel. Such conflict which sets brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers against each other is not the sort that enhances the glory and power of the Word. Rather, it brings shame upon the church, and upon the Lord of the church. The conflict of which Paul speaks is the conflict which he describes as "that which you saw and now hear ...

1340. Jerusalem, Emmaus and the Meaning of Life

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... . I’ll soon be 100, 100 years old ... So I sit now and enjoy nature (again he motions to the picture). There is nothing artificial about it. It’s just natural. (Long silence) (He moves his foot and winces some) Oh. My foot gets in the way these days. I sort of stumble over it. Once it never bothered me. That is what happens when you get old like me. It’s just natural that way. (Silence) How old are you, young man? L-5 Thirty. D-5 Thirty, eh - oh, you have a lot to learn yet. I’m over ...

1341. Creeds or Deeds

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Brett Blair

... a youngster learning to play the piano. "The child holds her hands just as she's been told...she has memorized the piece perfectly. She has hit all the proper notes with deadly accuracy. But her heart's not in it, only her fingers. What she's playing is a sort of music, but nothing that will start voices singing or feet tapping." When it comes to faith and life, let me ask you a question: Are our hearts in it or only your fingers? Are you allowing God's renewing grace to work in you from deep within? For ...

1342. A Sad Heart

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

Call to Worship A sad heart needs to pray, to speak honestly to God, to sort out and clarify what is the trouble. A sad heart requires attending to, understanding, kindness, and time. Collect When we are sad-hearted, we need to receive compassion so we can recognize the love that is all around us. When we find others who carry a sad heart, help us ...

1343. The Star Thrower

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... . Father of us all, speak in fatherly tones to the recalcitrant and wayward. Grant your tender compassion to those who mourn and your healing power to those ill in hospitals struggling with the powers of disease. And we pray for those in all sorts and conditions -- for all children lost and alone, for families fractured by divorce or alienated by present offense or remembered grudge, for immigrants and strangers in the land, for the homeless and unemployed, for the soldiers far from home soon to be in ...

1344. When the Sermon Turns Sour

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

... . It suddenly struck them what Jesus was really saying. He was declaring the disturbing news that God loves everybody, particularly those beyond their tight, exclusive circle. It was, and is, a scandalous thing to say. The only thing more disturbing is to remember how that is the sort of thing that is written down in our Bibles. 1. As reported in Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24, and John 4:44. 2. Thomas G. Long, The Senses of Preaching (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988), p. 31. 3. I am grateful to Dr ...

1345. The Kind of People Whom God Chooses

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

William G. Carter

... to give up fish to go fishing.” Ever since the time of Jeremiah,1 whenever anybody talked about “going fishing,” it was a metaphor for doing God’s work. When Jesus said, “Go fish,” he meant to gather in as many fish as we could, so that God alone can sort out the good and the bad, and ultimately God alone can decide what to keep and what to throw back. For our part, we are called upon to throw out the net as far as we can, and then see what happens. So the first word he speaks is: “Don ...

1346. Even Our Business Belongs to God!

Jeremiah 32:1-44

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... . The book of Ecclesiastes, probably composed at another time in Jewish history when the Hebrew people were enduring foreign domination, laments about the meaninglessness of life (1:1-11; 2:12ff.). Yet in the midst of this sense of chaos and meaninglessness, the sort of meaninglessness you may feel sometimes with your work, the Preacher who authored Ecclesiastes writes: “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God ...

1347. Living Free

Haggai 2:1-9

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... s “thing”? Why is American society so flawed as we enter the new millennium? We have not lived as free as God has made us. Enjoy your freedom, friends; use it! Use it responsibly; use it to set others free. God is pouring his love into you, giving you all sorts of opportunities to serve him and to work to set others free of all that still binds them. God is pouring his love and all those good things into you. They are spilling out of you now. Let them flow. God’s gifts are free for others, and so are ...

1348. A Vision of Freedom

Isaiah 65:17-25

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... would you define it? What does it mean to you? Webster’s New World Dictionary defines freedom as being exempt from control or from arbitrary restrictions. Freedom is said to be the ability to choose or determine one’s own actions. That was the sort of freedom, escape from foreign intrusion, which the Hebrews sought when our First Lesson was written. There is a lot of debate among Old Testament scholars about the circumstances of its composition. Most scholars agree that the book of Isaiah was written by ...

1349. God's Gifts Are Free: Enjoy

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... ; the acts of kindness and love that we have done.1 You might say, then, that the first fruits are works of Law, the righteousness that we think we have earned by keeping the Commandments of God. The first fruits are our very best deeds; they are the sort of things you do because you believe that God, society, and common decency require you to do them. We are proud of these good deeds. I am. Are you? Luther makes a penetrating observation about all these good works that we have done and feel so good about ...

1350. Why Earthly Powers Need No Longer Enslave

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

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... free from those powers, because the gospel puts you on the winning team. The gospel makes you a “lord of all, subject to none,” as Martin Luther would say — one who receives the Kingdom and possesses it forever (Daniel 7:18).11 This sort of confidence that though earthly powers do their worst they will not ultimately prevail has been a great source of comfort to Christians over the centuries. It helped the early Christian martyrs endure. It empowered African-American slaves to “keep on keepin’ on ...

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