Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 126 to 150 of 340 results

126. Let Not Thy Will Roar, When Thy Power Can But Whisper

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... we do the same thing --we cast ourselves as losers. Now if you who know me then you know this would be a good time to call on a Peanuts cartoon. Because you are an intelligent congregation and you know that in Peanuts Charlie Brown is the consummate perennial loser. But to let you know that I read more theology than Charles Schultz, I call on another cartoonist, Gary Larson. He retired from giving us those Farside cartoons, cartoons that were so far to one side that I really couldn’t understand many of ...

127. Playing to the Right Audience

Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... A man who marries for the reward of money is a mercenary; a man who marries for the reward of love is a true lover. One scholar wrote, “The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but the activity itself in consummation.”15 The reward for years of practicing violin is the joy of playing a Beethoven sonata or a bluegrass tune in which you enter what is called the zone, a place of purity and ecstasy where you merge with the music. God will meet our needs, but our ...

128. Advent 2

Isaiah 11:1-16, Matthew 3:1-12, Romans 14:1--15:13

Bulletin Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... ? Hope deals with the future and the Old Testament contains thousands of promises by God for the future. The greatest of these promises is the coming of the Messiah. In Jesus he has come. Hope has been realized. Yet, he is coming again for the consummation of history. We hope for his return. 3. Welcome (v. 7). On many an outdoor church bulletin board, a church says to the world, "welcome." Lay greeters stand (usually in the narthex) on Sundays to welcome worshipers, especially visitors. It is good to be ...

129. Advent 3

Romans 14:1--15:13, Matthew 11:1-19, James 5:7-12, Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

130. Proper 26

Matthew 23:1-39, Joshua 3:1-4:24, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Malachi 2:1-9

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... Lord" (v. 1); Psalm 13 - "I trusted in your steadfast love" (v. 5); Psalm 480 - "Hope in God" (v. 5). Prayer of the Day: "Lord, when the day of wrath comes, we have no hope except in your grace. Make us so to watch for the last days that the consummation of our hope may be the joy of marriage feast of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Hymn of the Day: "Wake, Awake, For Night Is Flying"

131. A Guide to Christmas

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... wedding director. The Shoshben sent out invitations, he made arrangements for the wedding feast and presided at it. Then, on the wedding night he brought the bride and groom together in the bedchambers and quickly left, his job done, the couple together, the marriage consummated. John was this kind of wedding director, too. He was God's Shoshben, God's man chosen to bring Israel and Jesus together in the marriage of faith. He was sent to give the invitation, to call Israel to their covenant with God. His ...

132. Predictable Surprises

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... community. These were first-century Christians struggling to establish their identity and learning about faithfulness as the years since Jesus' crucifixion continued to slip by. Apocalypticism can be defined as the learning and lore of sages and scholars concerning the consummation of time, the coming Day of the Lord, the return of the Son of Man. Apocalypticism wasn't new to first-century religious communities. But expecting the eschaton had also become a pitfall and a pratfall for some of the most ...

133. So You Want to Be in the Lead?

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the self portrait Armstrong made of his own feet hitting the lunar surface, the only other photo of Armstrong on the moon is a reflection of him seen in Aldrin's helmet glass--a picture of him taking Aldrin's picture. At this consummate moment of technological achievement, it was still human mistakes and squabbling that set the most memorable words and pictures into the history book. Today's Old Testament text describes the Israelites' third, and most vicious, round of grumbling and grousing against Moses ...

134. The World's Best Hearing Aid

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... rock music is an early onset of hearing problems for the Boomer generation. As Boomers move into their fifties, more and more of them are going to be sporting hearing aid devices of some sort to help them hear the world. As the consummate consumer generation of all time, Boomers' buying trends will spike new R&D in hearing aids. Our parents' and grandparents' clunky squealers that amplify all noise will be replaced by some sophisticated, electronic gadgetry probably with designer logos. But it's not just ...

135. Advent 1

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

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... this salvation in our present lives through worship. Taken together these Old Testament texts provide a strong commentary on Advent. They underscore how Advent points us to a future reality that reaches backwards and embraces us in worship, even while we journey toward its consummation. Isaiah 2:1-5 - "Zion as God's Goal for Creation" Setting. The imagery of a mountain is central to Isaiah 2:1-5. The word mountain is specifically mentioned three times (vv. 2-3), and once it is contrasted to hills (v. 2 ...

136. Christmas 1

Mt 2:13-23 · Heb 2:10-18 · Isa 63:7-9 · Ps 148

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... in Egypt. Any reader of Hosea would grasp this point. The line in Hosea is a historically descriptive one; it is not a prophetic prediction. What does Matthew mean? Nothing more and nothing less than that all of God's dealings with Israel are summarized, consummated, embodied, and realized in Jesus Christ. In Jesus all of God's work and all of God's words are made perfect. Israel's past becomes truly real, as Jesus relives and perfects Israel's story. Matthew makes a profound christological claim with these ...

137. Easter 7

Jn 17:1-11 · 1 Pet 4:12-14; 5:6-11 · Ps 68 · Acts 1:6-14

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... , "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" comes on the heels of Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5) . And Jesus' answer denies the validity of their (seemingly reasonable) curiosity about when God's work will be consummated. The Spirit that Jesus promises does not come to empower the disciples to privilege but to service as witnesses of Jesus Christ. Christians are not called to futile speculation about the timing of God's work, rather they are called to do the work to ...

138. Lent 3

Jn 4:5-42 · Rom 5:1-11 · Ex 17:1-7 · Ps 95

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... story is skillfully constructed along the lines of Greek drama, wherein no more than two speaking characters appear at once though multitudes stand in the background as a chorus. Such construction says nothing about historicity, but it shows John's consummate artistry as a story-teller/writer. Significance. This passage is about the gradual self-revelation of the identity of Jesus Christ. Through the long, enigmatic, even twisted conversation, the woman, and in turn her fellow Samaritans, perceive who Jesus ...

139. Regret & Comfort

John 14:1-14; 1 Cor 15:8-9

Illustration

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... momentarily, of the person they almost married, the investment they almost made, the position they nearly won. But for every person who is filled with regret for an opportunity lost, there is another who regrets a deed done, a word spoken, a relationship consummated. These are the stories of decisions made, of tempers lost, of conversations that cannot be re-called. Here are deeds-sometimes sinful ones, but often only erratic or misguided ones - that have changed the course of a life and have left a person ...

140. Sermon Opener - Winning over Worry

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... out some years ago called How to Win over Worry. It quoted some statistics that are probably just as valid today as when they were published in the mid-sixties. The book pointed out that more people die in America as a result of suicide (the consummation of stress, duress, anxiety and worry) than who die from the five most common contagious diseases combined. Twice as many people die by suicide as die by homicide. Fifty percent more people die because of ulcers than die because of murder. Another book by a ...

141. Isaiah 58:1-10

Isaiah 58:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... to God’s mandate of compassionate justice and God’s dream of a Jubilee world IS what brings about God’s righteousness and transforms this world. Here (vv.8,10) and in many later passages Isaiah uses “light” as a symbol of final consummation, of the fulfillment of all God’s promises for the Earth. This “light” will grow brighter, and this “light” will illumine the “gloom” in which people have been living, as they continue to perform these true acts of “worship” and praise.

142. The Right Connection

John 15:1-8

Sermon

James Merritt

... communion. To abide in Christ is a twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week, fifty-two week a year intimate fellowship with Him, so that you become a fruit-bearing branch. You see, salvation commences with a union, it continues with a communion, and it consummates in a reunion. But until that reunion takes place, we are to be a branch in the vine, bearing fruit from the vine. That is the right connection. Therefore we learn three lessons: I. The Fruitfulness That God Demands 1. "I am the true vine, and My ...

143. It Ain't Over Til It's Over

Matthew 5:31-32

Sermon

James Merritt

... like it, and it may make you angry, or at best uncomfortable, but Jesus said that wrong divorces lead to adultery. When re-marriage occurs, after a faulty divorce; that is, when people have no biblical grounds and then enter into another union, they consummate an adulterous relationship. In addition, the man who marries the former wife is guilty of adultery, and the woman who marries the former husband is guilty of adultery, and the husband who divorces his wife for an unbiblical reason caused all of the ...

144. Sacred Pleasures

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... spent celebrating the entrance of the Christ child into this world, with the Spirit of Christ breathing through every activity, every gathering, and filling friends and family. Hosting big parties, with lavish spreads, flowing fountains of champagne, and being proclaimed the “consummate host,” that is a pleasantry some of us crave. But the greatest “hosting” that we are called to offer is the sacred pleasure of “a cup of cold water” — that is reaching out to the ones who are in the greatest ...

145. O Holy Nightmare

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to the point of extravagance. But from the Magi's precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, Christmas gift-giving has mutated into a deformed parody of itself. Gift-giving, in fact, is no longer the appropriate term. People now practice gift exchange, consummating our consumer-crazy fixations with a carefully calculated "tit-for-tat" transfer of goods. We rarely buy gifts for people too poor to return the gesture. We conscientiously determine just how much is appropriate to spend on each person on our ...

146. Mazing Grace or Amazing Grace

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to bring this graced creation into its fruition and fulfillment and out of its maze-like living, God extends the infinite capacity for divine mercy toward us. A God of mercy and justice is brought together in the actions of a Creator-God who is working toward the consummation of all creation and the blessedness of our being. It is the amazing grace of God that leads us through every maze of life. It is out of divine mercy that the spirit of God is placed upon the "suffering servant" in Isaiah 42. It is out ...

147. Self-Fulfillment Through Self-Sacrifice

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... talked about sacrifice, denial, abnegation and servanthood it is also true that these concepts bring considerable cargo with them that isn't authentic to who Jesus really was. Jesus was called by God and destined for a unique sacrificial role. But consummating this plan did not mean embracing a doormat destiny. On John Denver's early album, Poems, Prayers and Promises, the song "Gospel Changes" contains the line: "Jesus did not doubt his gifts." Jesus expressed himself he fulfilled himself. Jesus could act ...

148. Acts 10:44-48

Acts 10:44-48

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the Ethiopian eunuch, progressing through the conversion of a Gentile soldier, Paul's conversion, and Cornelius' and Peter's dreams, Luke's recitation of events has gradually widened the circle of believers. In this week's installment the circle is completed with the consummation of the mission to the Gentiles. As usual the Holy Spirit's timing is impeccable. In Acts 10:43 Peter reaches the climax of his speech before the crowd of Gentile believers by proclaiming that with Jesus everyone who believes in him ...

149. Mark 4:26-34

Mark 4:26-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... implications. The translation we deem best - "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new Creation" - brings out most clearly the cosmic scale of spiritual transformation. The redemption Christ offers is radical. It gets down to the roots of God's first purposes in creation and works toward the consummation of that creation. To be "in Christ" promises not just a new person, or new community, but a new heaven and earth, a refashioned cosmos.

150. Luke 21:25-36

Luke 21:25-36

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... as the rightful heir to the Kingdom of God. As the Son of Man, Jesus bridges the gap between the present and the future - the realms of the now and not yet. In verses 27-28 Jesus describes the final fulfillment of the Kingdom. While awaiting its consummation, the Kingdom of God cuts across time - it is present in part without being fully arrived, kingdom come and kingdom coming. The Son of Man is therefore the perfect title for Jesus, since he is the one who participates in the Kingdom as it is present now ...

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