Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 1401 to 1425 of 2815 results

1401. Our Light

Genesis 1:1-5 · Mark 1:9-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... if he be God, is the very source of justice, goodness, love. Even our greatest saints, our highest examples of human virtue, are humanly flawed. They can only hint at divine holiness. Nearly every time Jesus tells a parable, we experience the gap between our definitions of justice and God's definition. Jesus' parables keep shocking and surprising us because these stories do not end predictably because they are stories about God's ways with people and the world which are not our ways. A man had two sons, the ...

1402. The Mighty Mustard Seed

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... impact on our world. I want you to remember this man and his simple philosophy, his simple act of collecting loose change, as you consider our Bible passage for this morning. Again (Jesus) said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” According ...

1403. And That’s All I Need To Know

John 10:11-18

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

... hear them as they ran crying out, “Feet don’t fail me now!” How completely the opposite of this is the shepherd in the Parable of the Lost Sheep that Jesus told in Matthew 18:12-13. “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one ... A good shepherd protects his sheep. The disciples were well acquainted with the role of a shepherd. They also would have remembered the parable of the lost sheep and certainly this story of David was told to them as children. A good shepherd, they would know, ...

1404. The Vine

John 15:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... s no wonder that this symbol of “promise” would be used to describe Jesus himself. In our scripture for today, Jesus asserts himself as the true vine. God, the Father, he says, is the vine grower (or as in Jesus’ parables, the landowner, or vineyard master). While in Jesus’ parables, he often refers to himself (the Messiah) as the Son of the Vineyard Owner, here Jesus is the True Vine itself, the primal vine that cannot be destroyed but will sustain through every harvest. But here is the interesting ...

1405. The Organic Gospel

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... two clues: “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” “He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches so that the birds ...

1406. A Non-anxious Presence

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... well measured distance between paralyzing fear and blind complacency. Interestingly, this is exactly where we find Jesus in this week’s gospel lection. All in the Same Boat This little story which Mark has given to us is not so much a story about Jesus as a parable about the nature of faith and its relationship to fear. Matthew and Luke liked it so much that they lifted it pretty much word for word and placed it in their own gospels. The only change they make is a little softening of the language when the ...

1407. The Secret Man

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... . Jesus continued his healing and teaching ministry. At one point Jesus told those who were healed “…not to make him known (3:12).” Jesus stilled the storm, and yet when he spoke in parables he didn’t explain what they meant. Mark’s gospel says that Jesus, “did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples (4:34).” The fifth chapter is even more puzzling. Jesus healed a man who was a danger to himself, his family, and the villagers, inhabited ...

1408. Exposed and Expunged

Mark 10:17-21 · Hebrews 4:12-16 · Job 23:1-9; 16-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... he said, “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.” The man went away saddened, because he had many possessions. Is this parable merely about money? No. The parable is about the difference between obtaining and receiving. When Jesus sits down with his disciples, after seeing the list impossibly long and high of things they would need to do to be “perfect,” they are shocked, saying, “Then who can be ...

1409. Impetuous Faith

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... be about who would serve everyone else the most, who would show the most humility, who would put themselves last and put others first, who would dedicate their lives to doing things for others, who would sacrifice their own seat of honor to someone else. Parable after parable, Jesus keeps trying to enforce and teach this particular principle to his disciples….even up to the last time he spends with them in an upper room, when he gets down on the floor with a cloth and washes his disciples feet. This is ...

1410. For the Love Of God is Forgiving

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... the consequences would be and yet we did it anyway. And now we're stuck with the stink. We're stuck with it and we don't like it. Those around us don't like it any more than we like theirs. For me slapping the skunk is a parable of sin. Slapping the skunk is disobedience. Slapping the skunk is breaking our relationship with God and with each other. Living life apart from God stinks. When everyone is self-centered and selfish, life stinks. You can't live life like a skunk without someone getting wind of it ...

1411. One More Year

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... which would be explaining this to my mother and father. So, I did a lot less partying and a lot more studying, and by the end of the semester I had pulled my grades up to a respectable level. I went on to graduate with a passable “B” average. This parable we just heard has a measured kind of rhythm to it. It is not unlike the academic dean at my school. She had the capacity to mix grace with accountability. The man had been waiting three years to get some fruit from his fig tree and was understandably a ...

1412. The Green-Eyed Monster

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... around, preferring instead to focus on their past mistakes and their trip-ups, but God instead focuses on their repentance, their humility, their lessons learned, and their plea for forgiveness. Thank God that God is an awesome and forgiving God! As in all of Jesus’ parables, the figures in this story are also metaphorical. God of course is the Father. His estate is the world that belongs to God. And the prodigals are those who have strayed away from the faith, leaving a trail of sins behind them. Who are ...

1413. First World Problems

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... thing? Apparently, there can be. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Especially if the good things we pursue distract us from the life God intends for us. There is something unique in this story in Luke that I can’t find in any other parables in the New Testament. This is the only time in the Gospels when God directly calls someone a fool. In Jesus’ stories, there are lots of people who do foolish things. But this is the only one of Jesus’ stories in which God speaks up and calls someone a ...

1414. I’ve Come To Bring Fire

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... day, Jesus told them they didn’t need to worry — God had their back. He told them to invest in God’s kingdom rather than in treasures here on this earth. Stressing over material things wouldn’t add to their lives in any way, he said. He added other parables that chided them to be wary and ready for service at all times. Then he came out with the fire and brimstone statement. It may have been a shocker for many who were gathered there that day. He not only said he was going to bring flames to bear ...

1415. Spirit Signs

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... be a welcome salve. But deliver it he would. The world was going to change. And barely anyone seemed to notice the signs of all that was coming. This must have vexed Jesus to the core. It certainly brought him great anguish. As he delivered parable after parable, taught lesson after lesson, he begged those around him to notice what was happening right beneath their noses, to pay attention to the issues he needed them to see. And yet, they couldn’t or wouldn’t. They couldn’t see the problems. And they ...

1416. Watch This!

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... fall in line from there. So not only was Jesus being carefully observed he was doing a little observing himself. He decided to impart some truth that would become a theme throughout his public, earthly ministry. As he often did, he used a parable to get his point across. His parable had a similar setting to the one they were in at the time. It was a wedding feast, and some of the guests were assuming places of honor. Jesus admonished them not to do this. His reasoning was that “a person more distinguished ...

1417. Persistence And Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... barrel of water. At the resulting hiss, he said, ‘Well, at least I made a fizzle out of it.’” [1] Our dreams often do not turn out the way we have planned but maybe we can at least make a fizzle out of them. The widow in our parable for today represented the poor people of the land in the time of Jesus. They had little protection against the leaders of society; in particular, this cruel judge would not listen to her pleas at first. The judge represented those in power who had authority to do whatever ...

1418. Two Contrasting Prayers

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... hear a famous Boston preacher. Later he reported in his column about the pastoral prayer. “It was the most eloquent prayer ever offered to a Boston audience,” but is it not true that prayer is to be offered to God, and to God alone? Jesus once told a parable about two men who went to worship to pray. If we had a helicopter in those days, we could have followed these two men as they left their respective homes. From our vantage point in the sky we would observe that the two men started out from different ...

1419. Out On A Sycamore Limb

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... for the ordinary person. The case against Jesus was that he loved everyone — even those the righteous felt he should not love. He loved rich and poor alike. Being rich in itself was not necessarily bad according to Jesus, in fact in the parables of the talents and in the parable of the pounds he spoke rather favorably about the wise use of wealth. We note that Jesus did not command Zacchaeus to divest himself of his fortune, and when Zacchaeus did give in an abundant way, Jesus did not require that he ...

1420. The Grip

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in a crisis, and you know what to do if stones give way or if your mask slips. Whether you climb high or go deep, you are ready. In a sense, this kind of readiness is what Jesus is describing to his disciples in our scripture for today. In his parable, Jesus depicts a sower (God) sowing seeds of grace over the entire terrain (the world’s people). The seeds are all the same. God isn’t bestowing better seeds here than there or more fruitful ones on some than others. The seeds are sown all with good intent ...

1421. Hidden Treasure

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , the pearl of great value, and the net full of fish, describe what it means to be part of God’s unique “kingdom.” At first, when reading the latter parables, one may feel that Jesus is describing “our job” in finding God’s hidden treasure or our responsibility to value God or the scriptures. But if you read those mini-parables carefully again, keeping in mind the context in which they are given, you find that the meaning is actually reversed. You (God’s valued disciple) are God’s treasure ...

1422. One Tough Master?

Matthew 25:14-28

Sermon

Will Willimon

... scatter seed; so I was afraid,...I hid your talent in the ground. " You know with whom we identify in this story of the Parable of the Talents. We are on the side of the little one-talent man. Perhaps because few of us are overburdened with talent, perhaps ... and triumphed. We're on the side of the little guy. Toward the end of his time with us, Jesus told a story. Note that this Parable of the Talents comes toward the end of his life, just before Jesus was to go away. A man is going away on a journey. He ...

1423. Ready!

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... victory. It is a word of hope to a persecuted faithful who, when the end is finally realized, will finally receive a godly reward. The phrase is be ready for it. The Christian church has preached this theme for generations. Thus, we encounter the two mini-parables that Mark quotes. The first involves a fig tree. No curse this time as with other references in the gospels. This time, a simple observation. The disciples had asked for a sign (Mark 13:4), so Jesus offers one. Most of the trees in that part ...

1424. Stay—Tuned

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... we have four different perspectives on Jesus’ life and work. If we only had Mark, we would miss the infancy stories of Matthew and Luke — no wise men or shepherds, no Sermon on the Mount or Lord’s Prayer. We would have missed out on some beautiful parables like the good samaritan and the prodigal son. Without John’s beginning description of the pre-existence of the Trinity, we might have been tempted to think of Jesus as God’s son in the same way that we think of ourselves as God’s children. The ...

1425. The Subject Is Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Steve Molin

... thrown in jail. When the king hears of this disparity, he summons the man back to the palace. “You wicked, wicked man. I forgave you a huge debt, and yet you would not forgive another man’s debt to you? Off to jail you go!” And Jesus concludes the parable with these disturbing words; “So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive from your heart.” So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive from your heart. Jesus actually said that ...

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