Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1376 to 1400 of 2332 results

1376. A More Perfect Union

Habakkuk 2:1-5

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... however, was revised from time to time. The first Covenant was with Noah, after the Flood. The second Covenant was with Abraham. The third was with Moses, creating the Nation of Israel. Those first Covenants with Israel were all when Israel was a desert, nomadic people, wandering around the wilderness. But once it became an urban people, when Israel became a nation among other nations with a king, then the Covenant had to be revised. The prompting incident for the revision was the prophets, who challenged a ...

1377. A Tale of Two Dancers

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the Ark of the Covenant was. The Ark of the Covenant was the most precious, holy relic of Israel. It was a chest believed to hold the two tablets of stone that Moses brought down from Mt.Sinai. In other words, The Ten Commandments, carried across the desert during the Exodus, a time of their most difficult period, a time of struggle and hardship. But in retrospect, the Jews believed that was the best time of their lives, because in those days it was clear, God was with them. There are not so certain about ...

1378. Beware of Crowds

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... us to be a miracle worker. He didn't come to win us over with dazzling supernatural powers, so that we would have no alternative but to bow before him and worship him. In fact, that was the temptation that was offered to him in the desert. You remember, the devil said, "Do something spectacular, and the whole world will be yours. Turn stones into bread. Jump off the tower, land on your feet." We believe he became Messiah, and God used him as Messiah, because he resisted that temptation. Phil Donahue tells ...

1379. Even God Can Change His Mind

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... on Mt.Sinai. Moses is up there on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments. He must have been up there a long time because the people down below are getting nervous. They wonder where he is. Moses is their leader on this perilous trek across the desert. Moses has already demonstrated that he has a special relationship with God, that he has supernatural powers. They feel confident as long as Moses is with them. But where is he? Where did he go? When's he coming back? So they talk to Aaron, Moses' brother ...

1380. Eye Exercises

Matthew 6:25-33

Sermon

Mark Trotter

1381. He's Here Somewhere

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... !" They rush to tell the disciples, "He is with us!" Could it be that he is among us as one unknown, until we practice hospitality to a stranger? Remember Abraham and Sarah, back in the Old Testament, extending hospitality to three strangers on the desert. They arrive at their tent. Abraham invites them in. Sarah prepares a meal for them. And while they are eating, they discover that the three men are angels. The Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament reminds us of that incident, and counsels Christians ...

1382. Honoring the Fathers

Hebrews 11:17-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

1383. Hosea's Marriage Troubles

Hosea 2:14-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... a geographically small area we know as Palestine. There were prophets in Israel because there was a covenant in Israel. The covenant was the belief that God had rescued the Jews from slavery in Egypt, had led them safely across the desert, established them in the Promised Land, and demanded of them that they live righteously. Righteousness meant obeying the commandments of God. The contribution of the prophets in interpreting the covenant has been enormous. Because of the prophets, our relationship with God ...

1384. If You Look Like Your Passport Photo

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... human spirit. He said, that is what we are born for. Our spirits should fly, be free, soar, take risks, and achieve great heights. That is what we are born for. He said he experienced that kind of spiritual exhilaration as he flew, especially at night, over the deserts of Africa. When he came back to France, he took a train up to Paris, and sat opposite an old peasant couple in one of the compartments. He said he was shocked at what he saw. Their appearance: old, defeated and tired. As he watched them, he ...

1385. Is There Anything I Can Do?

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked made straight, and the rough places a plain. And all flesh shall see it together. That was Isaiah, writing four hundred years before Jesus, saying that one day a prophet is going to come out of the desert whose vocation it is to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. We stopped reading this passage at the sixth chapter. It goes on. Next week we are supposed to read the verses that follow. We aren't going to do that, so I will tell ...

1386. Like None Other

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the stories of our life. You can read the human story in the stories in the Bible. Like the story of the Exodus, which is perhaps the most universal story ever told. It is the story of the Jews leaving bondage in Egypt and journeying for forty years through the desert to a promised land. That is the story of every human life. Every human life wants to move from where we are to where we want to be, or to a promised land. The way to get there is through an exodus, through a time of discipline, and perhaps ...

1387. Plant It and Stand Back!

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... of what they had forgotten, and to remind us of what we have forgotten, that they had done great things, miraculous things, by trusting God alone. They were freed from bondage, trusting God. They passed through deep waters, trusting God. They went through a desert wilderness not knowing where the next day's food was coming from, trusting God. They entered a promised land, trusting God. They became a great nation under King David, trusting God. But now they want to live like other nations. They want to put ...

1388. Serpents and Other Signs

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

The Old Testament lesson this morning is about a serpent on a stick, whatever that is. In fact, it is called a "fiery serpent." This strange passage from the Book of Numbers records an incident in the Exodus, that trek of the Hebrews across the Sinai Desert, out of slavery in Egypt to freedom and a new life in the Promised Land. This passage is known as a "murmuring" passage. There are several of them in the books that describe the Exodus. Murmuring, as in grumbling and complaining, which was constant on ...

1389. The Big Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... can expect to see and how to prepare for it. That is what I want to do as we begin the Lenten journey this morning. The story of Jesus' temptations is to be read on this Sunday, because it provides for us the pattern for Lent. Jesus went to the desert for forty days and forty nights, to be tempted by the devil. The forty days and nights Jesus spent in the wilderness is the pattern for Lent. Lent lasts for forty days and nights, with the exception of Sundays. That is a fact worth noting. It is instructive to ...

1390. The Messiah

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... bondage and take them back to Jerusalem. So, "comfort my people." Tell them that their warfare is over, and their iniquity, their sin, is pardoned. And a highway is being prepared for them to return them to their home. So, "make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Then come the highway specifications. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain. So, come home. That is the message of Isaiah. Come home. Your past is forgiven ...

1391. This Is Not Rocket Science

Acts 2:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . Someday you will discover that your life is like an Exodus. You will discover that life is a journey from where you are to where you want to be, or to where God wants you to be. Often to get there you will have to go through a desert, through a wilderness, or a time of suffering. That is when you learn what life is all about. That is when you learn that you are dependent on the God who guides you through difficult times. Someday you will discover what Paul discovered--then Augustine after Paul, and Luther ...

1392. This Nation, Under God

2 Samuel 7:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... Israel had come to the Promised Land, 3000 years before. Benjamin Franklin proposed that the seal of the United States show Moses with his rod raised to part the Red Sea. Thomas Jefferson suggested that the seal of America should show the children of Israel walking across the desert with a cloud leading them by day, and a pillar of fire by night. All of this directly out of the imagery used in telling the story of Israel. But the parallel that I want us to look at this morning is the phrase in our Pledge of ...

1393. Until It Dawns on You

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . So when anyone goes up a mountain in the Bible, especially in a stressful time, you immediately think of the first mountain climber in the Bible, Moses, who went up a mountain at that time when the Jews were complaining about having to wander around the desert, without any food, apparently lost, not knowing where they were going, complaining to Moses all the time. So Moses, wondering why he had ever said "Yes" when God chose him to do this job, went up into the mountain, and there God appeared to him in ...

1394. When to Hold On

II Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... traveled across that tundra they will get some rocks and make a tower, about the height of a man. They will walk until they can no longer see that tower, then gather more rocks and make another tower. That is the way they make their way across that white desert. They do this so that if they should ever get lost in their journey, they will be able to find their way home. That is what a tradition is for. A tradition is there to prevent us from getting lost. "So remember what you have learned and where you ...

1395. You Will Never Walk Alone

Luke 24:13-20, 25-26, 28-35

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... instructions to Abraham and Sarah to leave your country and go on a journey, and I will show you where to go. For the rest of their lives they travel. The central story in the Old Testament is the story of the Exodus, the Jewish people traveling across the desert wilderness for forty years. They said they didn't walk alone. God accompanied them all the way. They said they could see him. He was a "pillar of fire by night, and a cloud by day." No sooner did they get settled down in the Promised Land, they had ...

1396. Lessons for Year A Epiphany 4

Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... . This scene is a cosmic law court. Yahweh takes his people to court for he has something against them. The elements of nature are the witnesses to the trial. Yahweh has been offended and asks his people, "What have I done to you?" that you have deserted me. Since there is no answer, he reminds them of past blessings: freedom from slavery and entrance into the Promised Land. Then, the question is raised what is acceptable to God? Animal or human sacrifices? "No," the court replies. It is a life of justice ...

1397. Proper 17

Matthew 16:21-28, Romans 12:1-8, Romans 12:9-21, Jeremiah 14:1--15:21, Jeremiah 20:7-18, Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... if they suffer innocently, they ask God, "Why?" Jeremiah asked why he must continually experience reproach, hatred, and rejection. Jeremiah gets angry with God and accuses God of being "deceitful." It seemed to him that God called him to be a prophet, and now he felt deserted and abandoned into the hands of evil men. When misfortune strikes and we feel we have done nothing to deserve it, we, too, get angry with God. Like Job, we have a case against God. 3. Return (v. 19). Now God responds to Jeremiah's ...

1398. Road Rage

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, Ed Murphy and Elizabeth St. John! Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it well - the promises and the predictions of Advent are frightening for anyone who has a conscience. We need to know that when John shows up in that barren desert outside first century Bethlehem, what the people see is a spitting image of Elijah - the wild hair and the wild robe and the wild words of the greatest prophet who ever lived. Elijah was the first big voice to name the failures of God's ...

1399. The Rest of the Story

Matthew 2:19-23, Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... to Egypt - fleeing from the infamy of Herod's sword. And it was in a dream that Joseph was told that it was time to return - to return to the familiarity of his hometown of Nazareth. Which leaves us with some questions. Today, in the dangers, the deserts, the dreary places of your life, where are your dreams? What are your dreams? And who are you in those dreams? Not just the dreams of deep sleep, but the daydreams that dance around the edges of your daily life? Learn this day from Joseph. Learn to listen ...

1400. Worry and Wonder

Matthew 6:24-34

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... risks of ministry and motherhood, because I trusted that God was with me in the risk taking. Soon we will go with Jesus into the wilderness of Lent. With the waters of baptism still dripping from his brow, Jesus is immediately driven by the Spirit into the desert. And there he is tempted by Satan. Both beasts and angels are with him. It is perfectly clear that God wanted Jesus to struggle - to struggle intensely, with both the inner and the outer beasts of his life. God wanted Jesus to face his fears, to ...

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