Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 126 to 150 of 538 results

126. A Faith that Works

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... cushions on the pews.” But there are more: “Spend less time worrying who’s right, and more time deciding what is right . . . Keep secrets . . . Remember that all news is biased . . . Just to see how it feels, for the next 24 hours refrain from criticizing anybody for anything . . . Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved . . . Don’t gossip.” (4) That’s good advice for all of us, but especially for anyone tempted to be a busybody. Of course, the strongest argument against ...

127. Widows and Their Worries: Back to Bethlehem

Ruth 1:1-22

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... relatives to a list with foreigners illustrates the severity of the separation. Essentially, the Israelites were to treat the Moabites like nonfamily members and have nothing to do with them because of conflicting religious practices. Although the narrator refrains from passing specific judgment on Elimelek’s sons, their marriages to Ruth and Orpah should be interpreted as anything but neutral. After about ten years, the situation moves from bad to worse for Naomi. Another tragedy strikes: both of ...

128. The Art of Critique

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Today, as our world continues to become ravaged by COVID-19, people are feeling anxious, impatient, frustrated, and critical. We are less busy with the things that normally hold our attention. We are bored with staying inside, refraining from seeing the people we love and doing the activities that animate us. We are sick and tired of being “sick and tired!” The more cooped up we feel, the angrier we get. And our often kind and calm demeanor is turning testier and more critical. As humans, when our ...

129. Proper 25

Luke 18:9-14, Joel 2:18-27, Joel 2:28-32, 2 Timothy 3:10--4:8, 2 Timothy 4:9-18

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... our death be an acceptable gift to God? 2. Award (v. 8). Paul looks forward to receiving an award from God in terms of a victor's crown of righteousness or of acceptance by God. Is it right to expect a reward in heaven? For some years now some have refrained from giving awards to children for perfect attendance or for memory work in the church school. The argument is that we ought to do good for God's sake and not for an award. Maybe we ought to re-think this. Today we award a trophy to those who win ...

130. Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Zechariah 7:1-14

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... to poor, hurting and neglected people in their midst? Zechariah, like Amos and Micah, called for ethical righteousness. More important than a ritual fast that had lost its original intent was the charge to render true judgments, to show kindness and mercy, to refrain from oppressing weaker persons and not to devise evil in their hearts (7:8-10). What about our own day? Are we asking the right questions? Are we really absorbed in the nature and function of our religious devotion and worship, or are we ...

131. Pentecost 23

Exodus 22:16-31, Leviticus 19:1-37, Ruth 2:1-23, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 22:41-46, Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon Aid

... he took the place of a condemned man in the concentration camp, a man who had a wife and two sons in the camp. When Father Kolbe had been the leader of a one-thousand person Franciscan religious community outside of Warsaw, the Nazis refrained from arresting him, despite his open opposition to them, for a considerable period of time; they obviously didn't want him to become a martyr, a symbol of innocent suffering for the Poles. But after they finally arrested him and put him in Auschwitz, they insulted ...

132. Proper 19

Exodus 13:17--14:31, Romans 14:1--15:13, Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... Lord and must give an account of his life to God. No one lives to himself; no person is an island. A Christian belongs to God to whom she must give an account. We live and die to the Lord. If a person observes a special day or eats or refrains from eating certain foods, she does it in the name of Christ and gives thanks to God for it. Therefore we are not to judge each other, for only God can be our judge. Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35 The parable of the unforgiving servant. Jesus just finished teaching how a ...

133. Taking a Necessary Step

Acts 19:1-7

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... both ways and this is a means to instruct us in honesty and humility. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below! Our ministries are so multifaceted and fascinating. Who can say what we will be asked to do or refrain from doing tomorrow? It has been my philosophy since a college student to try to make the good better. This was partly ambition, pure and simple. It was also the sincere recognition that God still had changes to make in me and I had better listen ... carefully ...

134. Triumphing over Obstacles

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... progress, and stop making excuses for our failures to grow. The basic necessity of prayer is followed by the related ideas of fasting and almsgiving. Members of many Christian traditions choose to give up something, such as a food or drink item, or refrain from some pleasurable activity during Lent. However, fasting is much more than not eating or choosing not to engage in some activity that brings joy; it is at its root an attitude. Here again, many obstacles stand in the way of our progress. Simplicity ...

135. Can you Hear “The Voice?”

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... for a series of events and hostile encounters that will continue throughout Jesus’ ministry. It also underscores his increasingly prickly relationship with the religious establishment. John now ominously notes, “That day was a Sabbath” (v.9). Sabbath observances included refraining from one’s usual work. But by the time John’s gospel was written, Pharisaic Judaism had begun to delineate a much more extensive notion of what constituted “work” and thus what must be avoided during the Sabbath. In ...

136. You Are What You Wear

Luke 24:1-12, Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... is our protective and proactive clothing. Our mission digs. Being clothed in the “power” of God assumes that we have a job to do, a mission to complete, places to go, people to see, and a calling to fulfill, as Charles Wesley might say. We don’t refrain from going out and doing what we are called to do and be. But we also don’t go out unprepared, unprotected, in appropriately dressed in clothing unsuited for the mission. You don’t run naked into a fire. But if there are people to be saved, you ...

137. Brush It Off

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... us off balance or activates our defenses, it means that we’ve allowed that word or deed to affect us emotionally and personally. We’ve taken it to heart. So let’s think about this for a moment. If someone insults you, how do you remain vulnerable,refrain from putting your defenses up like a fighting lobster, while still letting it “roll off your back”? It’s easy to let something roll off of your back if you don’t care about the issue, or don’t care about the people insulting you. In fact, if ...

138. When In Our Music God Is Glorified

Isaiah 58:1-9a

Sermon

Will Willimon

... what you can’t understand,.., for the times, they are a changing’.” It was like one world began and another ended for me. And one of you was telling me about being at an Indigo Girls concert, as they sang, and the audience picked up the refrain from “Prince of Darkness," “My place is of the sun, and this place “dark and light, good and evil struggling to sing the world. There's a reason that no army goes to battle without a band. When we get to music, we have peeled away the superficial ...

139. Sabotaging The Sabath

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Richard Patt

... homework that they never quite have time also to learn how to relate pleasingly to their peers; after all, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." There are so many occasions in life when we want things "to turn out well." The trick is to refrain from forcing the issue to the extent that we end up with negative results. There once was a loving couple who had the wife's elderly mother living with them. Their concern was for her security while both of them went away to work each day. They finally seemed ...

140. A Name To Be Remembered

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Walter Kimbrough

... jubilee. Now, that’s good news. Jesus, very God and very man was bold enough to declare that I have come so that the rejected society might know that they are somebody. The downtrodden can receive a new lease on life. The hopeless of the world can refrain from singing the words of James Weldon Johnson, “When hope unborn had died.” Abortions will never again be performed in order to kill the hope of the least of these. God has a mission in place for the persecuted of society. God’s mission is for us ...

141. Being Different

Daniel 3:1-30

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... . Or is it? The remaining question, of course, is this: "Where do I get this courage, this moral momentum, to be different?" The apostle Paul hit the nail on the head - "The good I want to do, I don't seem to do. The evil which I want to refrain from doing, I seem to be doing more and more." If being different were easy, we'd all do it all the time and we certainly would not need preachers. Where do we get the momentum to be different? Basically, we are all creatures of habit. Moral momentum and courage ...

142. The Healing Power of Touch

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . You recall the familiar verses that read: There is a time to live and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which has been planted, a time for peace and a time for war, a time to touch and a time to refrain from touching. A sage person will appreciate the difference. I lament the politically correct world that we have created where no one is allowed to touch in a professional setting. I can tell you no minister, no teacher, no boss, will ever get close to a person who he is unwilling ...

143. Song of a Philosopher

Psalm 139:1-24

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... layest thy hand upon me. (Psalm 139:1-5) The very thought of such intimate concern on God’s part regarding the daily happenings in the life of one person among many is too wonderful to hold; and, in a burst of gratitude, the psalmist cannot refrain from saying so. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. (Psalm 139:6) But attain that knowledge or not, the singer nonetheless realizes that the Lord’s watchfulness over him is not only protective. It is strengthening as well ...

144. The Next Step

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... switch from his excessively negative language, Paul proceeds to talk about specific and down-to-earth ethical principles. Love is the Pauline badge of the new Christian profession. Everyday love is the next step. It isn’t enough to stop worshiping idols and refrain from evil. Throwing away an old and unclean garment is, indeed, necessary. The real kicker is putting on the virtue of love which Christ gave to us. And this love is something which must bind together every virtue, for it is not just in theory ...

145. Why We Give

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... of a minister in a small town who was having trouble with his collections. So one Sunday he announced from the pulpit: "Before we pass the collection plate, I would like to request that the person who stole the chickens from Brother Smith's henhouse please refrain from giving any money to the Lord. The Lord doesn't want money from a thief." The collection plate was passed around, and for the first time in many months, everybody put something in. This morning we want to talk about Why We Give. This is not ...

146. Getting It Straight

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... because it influences every area of society. Where can we begin with such a gargantuan problem? Good people who practice the Christian faith say they don't have the slightest idea! It is so complicated, and what is chastity anyway? Is it a simple refraining from actual intercourse between a man and a woman? May God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit mercifully aid us as we attempt to work our way through this labyrinth of definitions. How can we teach our children and youth that sex is sacred? Two becoming ...

147. “Bad Form” and Bad Jesus

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in order that all men might be free. 5. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free. 6. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy. 7. Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world. 8. Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart. 9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health. 10.Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain on a demonstration. I sign this pledge, having seriously considered what I do and with the determination ...

148. Bad Form and Bad Jesus

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

149. Spiritual Warfare and Jewish Suffering

Daniel 8:1-14

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... God’s all-sufficient grace will not allow them to suffer beyond what the faithful can endure. Assure them that suffering will end when God’s kingdom is fully established here on earth as it is in heaven. What not to teach. First, refrain from seeking to identify the meaning of every detail of the symbolism in this vision. The text simply does not provide this information. Second, one need not decide whether the “2,300 evenings and mornings” approximate seven years or three and a half years. Either ...

150. Struggling With Sin

Romans 7:7-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... and sinister conflict, since “I” understand what “I” want, but “I” do not understand that “I” do what “I” hate (7:15). As God’s creature made in God’s image, “I” want to do the good that God reveals (and the law demands) and refrain from the evil that the law prohibits. Human beings, created by God, who is good and holy, feel aversion when they do the evil and impure things that the law prohibits. The voice of their guilty conscience confirms that the law is good (7:16). In ...

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