Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1476 to 1500 of 1967 results

1476. More Than a Popularity Contest

Luke 12:49-53, Luke 12:54-59

Sermon

King Duncan

How do you measure popularity? These days most people measure popularity by social media followers and likes. But that’s not always an authentic measure. There are companies that will sell large blocks of fake followers to those who want to look more popular than they really are. And this isn’t a new thing. Back in 300 B.C., a performer named Philemon hired audience members to laugh loudly at his jokes. The paid laughers were so effective that Philemon routinely beat out his competitors in local comedy ...

1477. Ashes at Starbucks

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Mary Austin

This passage from Matthew is an odd choice from the lectionary, for the day we have the most public display of our Christian faith. “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them,” Jesus says. Good advice. Then we go ahead and mark our foreheads with ashes for everyone to see. If we stop for bread and milk on the way home or go to an early service and wear our ashes to work, if we stop by for some drive-thru ashes, we can’t help but advertise our faith. Most days of the year, no ...

1478. Schadenfreude

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

How many of you grew up watching either the originals or the re-runs of Wile-E-Coyote and the Roadrunner? Throughout the series of cartoons, we laughed, as Wile E Coyote was continually foiled in his attempts to catch the super-fast and super sly roadrunner. Time and again, the coyote’s efforts and plots come back to bite him, so to speak, as he blows himself up, plunges off of cliffs, and gets pounded by boulders. Every trick up his sleeve backfires, and he never does catch the Roadrunner! (Beep, beep). ...

1479. More Than Gimmicks

John 6:24-35

Sermon

David Coffin

A medium-sized congregation with deep northern European roots was located in a college town. The members wanted to attract more college students to their church for weekly worship attendance and other activities. They received a few boxes of donated modern English New Testament books. The intention was to pass them out to the college students on the campus nearby. Besides placing a slip of paper in each New Testament with the church name and address on it, they also placed a coupon for a dollar or even ...

1480. Getters of Things Done

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

There are two kinds of people in the world: Marys and Marthas. Marys are contemplative, cerebral, and serious-minded. They like to think about things. They want to see all of the angles, the different perspectives. They want to listen to both sides of the argument before they make up their mind. They are learners who love learning for its own sake. Marthas are doers, workers, creators. They like to decide and act. They want to get going and get others going as well. They want to try things out and see what ...

1481. God's Power Over Death

Exodus 1:1-22, 2:1-10

Sermon

Steve Burt

Unto a woman is born a child, Moses. But the timing is unfortunate, for this is at a time when Pharaoh has ordered all newborn Hebrew males thrown into the Nile. So Moses' mother hides him for three months until she cannot hide him any longer. She's got her back against the wall, knows she's got to do something, and that's when she and her daughter (Moses' sister) cook up this plan. They waterproof a wicker cradle to transform it into a miniature Noah's Ark. Into it goes baby Moses. They place the wicker ...

1482. Affirming The Ash Heap

Job 2:1-10, Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

Every thinking person knows that he or she lives every minute on the brink of disaster. Life is transitory, perilous, potentially horrible. Every observant person realizes that all too often someone in his or her circle of acquaintances goes through a season of great, sometimes completely overwhelming, distress. There is hardly any one of us who has not had a family member or a friend suffer the destructiveness of cancer. Many of us know families whose lives have been torn apart by an automobile accident. ...

1483. What Do You Say To A Burning Bush?

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Steve Burt

The Moses I always pictured is the Charlton Heston Moses, the one who leads his people out of Egypt, who parts the Red Sea, gives commands. But the Moses we hear and see in today's scripture reading is different, not the heroic, bigger-than-life character. He's tending sheep, but to see how he got there we must look back to Exodus 2:11-15. A nutshell summary goes like this. Moses is standing around, observes a fight, and kills an Egyptian. We can't just write that Egyptian off as somebody who doesn't count ...

1484. Salt And Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Mark Radecke

I was on a bit of a tight schedule one day, so on my way from one hospital to another, I stopped off for lunch at a fast food restaurant, whose name I will not mention. After I got my Chicken McNuggets, I went over to do battle with the paper napkin dispenser. [What mean-minded person invented those things, anyway?] While I was engaged in mortal combat with this stainless steel contraption that parts with napkins as willingly as a mother bear parts with her cubs, and with just about the same amount of ...

1485. The Man From Galilee VI: The Tragedy Of His Victory

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

Some of you experienced the victory of World War II. Others of us have at least seen on television old newsreel footage of the celebration of victory in Europe. Then came victory over Japan and other victory parades. There were no such celebrations after the wars in Korea and Vietnam. But after the Allied victory in the Persian Gulf we attempted to make up for all of that with tremendous celebrations and victory parades. The attention of the entire nation was fixed on General Norman Schwarzkopf, who was ...

1486. Lent 4

Matthew 20:20-28, Matthew 20:17-19, John 9:35-41, John 9:13-34, Romans 8:1-17, Ephesians 4:17--5:21, 1 Samuel 16:1-13, John 9:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: Christ confronts a blind man and heals him. By so doing Christ also confronts the skepticism of the Jewish authorities and each person is confronted with the question: Who is this Jesus? COMMENTARY Old Testament: 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13 (RC) This text presents us with an interesting theological concept that challenges our notions of God's unchangeableness. Here God changes his mind about a choice he had previously made. Saul was no longer worthy to be king and Samuel was to appoint another to take ...

1487. What Really Happened Christmas Day

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

December 26, 1982 Comment: Having focused on doing the story sermons during the summer of 1982, all fall I missed the creativity I had felt. When Christmastime came around, the urge hit me again. Some years earlier, I had done a Christmas story (see the next story sermon) and so I decided to try it again. What really happened Christmas Day? Who took care of the sheep while the shepherds went to town? What happened to Joseph and Mary and the baby? How did they get into a house where the Wisemen were to find ...

1488. The Better Part

Luke 10:38-42

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Visual Aid: A basket suspended by its handle from a strong rubber band; a work glove; a small bag of toys such as marbles, a doll, and a stuffed animal; a mathematics textbook; a music book; a baseball; a can of pet food; a Bible; a box to hold all this stuff. Lesson: Stress; making choices; helping one another. As the children come to the front of the sanctuary, I take the work glove and basket out of the box and ask one of the taller boys if he will help me out this morning. He agrees, so I hand him the ...

1489. A Man with Leprosy

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

We have before us this week another healing story as the One who brings God's reign explodes into ministry with God's life- giving power! This time it is an unclean leper who comes to Jesus. This has been characteristic of the healings and exorcisms in Mark's first chapter: people come to Jesus for help. One wonders at times if this is Mark's story-formed way of telling us what faith is. Faith is people in deep need who come to Jesus in their desperation! In the case of the leper we could add to this ...

1490. Celebrating the Marvel of Growth

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

‘Tis the season to plant seeds, garden seeds, love seeds, fun seeds, study seeds, health seeds, spirit seeds, all kinds of seeds. ‘Tis the season to celebrate the marvel of growth Ñ growth in our gardens, growth in our minds, growth in our bodies, growth in our emotions, growth in our spirits. We are celebrating the invisible system of growth that God has programmed into all creation.1 In this season gardens flourish, students graduate, couples take vows of matrimony, families enjoy vacations, and we ...

1491. Stooping Is a Divine Posture

Isaiah 23:1-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Long ago and far away there was a land that could have been called “the richest little country in the world.” Situated on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, this country had built itself into a maritime power. Its ships of commerce criss-crossed “the Great Sea,” as the Mediterranean was called. Its ships and sailors were the best in the world. They even sailed over two thousand miles to the other end of the Mediterranean Sea, around the coast of Spain, and into the coastal waters of the Atlantic ...

1492. Getting the Mud Out

John 9:1-12

Sermon Aid

Richard F. Bansemer

This whole chapter in John, Chapter 9, is devoted to this one healing miracle. The man born blind has character. He will not wilt under powerful crossfire. He knows what happened to him, and he will not be talked out of it. Jesus could have said, "I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day." He didn't. Instead he said, "We." He said, "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day." It is a significant statement, because Jesus is sharing the ministry now. He is putting work on us, ...

1493. Liquid Hope

John 7:25-44

Sermon

James Weekley

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.' " Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive. John 7:37-39a (RSV) Our bodies contain the following percentages of water: muscles, 75%; blood, 92% ; bones, 22%; the enamel on our teeth, 2%. That liquid with two parts hydrogen and one part ...

1494. The Marked Man

Sermon

George Bass

“Then taking the Twelve aside he said to them, ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man is to come true. For he will be handed over to the pagans and will be mocked, maltreated and spat on, and when they have scourged him they will put him to death; and on the third day he will rise again.’ But they could make nothing of this; what he said was quite obscure to them, they had no idea what it means.” Luke 18:31-34 The beginning of Lent marks the ...

1495. Deaths, Our Teacher

Psalm 90:1-17

Eulogy

Allen Puffenberger

Part 1. Peaceful Death For an Eighty-four-year-old Woman The outline of this meditation has enabled me to address a number of the vital issues that are raised by death. The message is wide enough that it can be comforting to the bereaved, regardless of the circumstances of their loved one's death. The four points are greatly strengthened by references to the deceased's life - here, that of "Eve, " who was one of my parishioners. Even if the pastor has not known the deceased, an interview with his or her ...

1496. For a Mother Who Died in Traffic

John 14:1-4

Eulogy

William Luoma

God Cares This service was for a woman in her mid-forties, a wife and mother of three, killed in a traffic accident on a Sunday afternoon, on her way to the store. She helped her husband on the farm and was a member of the church. Members of the family and friends, in the name of Jesus Christ, our loving Lord and Savior: A few short days ago, you were together as a family, right here in church. No one could have dreamed how your lives would be changed that day. No one could have foreseen that tragic ...

1497. Life From Water: The Ark

Genesis 6:11-22

Sermon

Steve Swanson

Water is the very stuff of life. When God created the heavens and the earth, he put water right at the very heart of his system. More than seventy percent of our amazing world is covered with water and that water is teeming with life. It's true that beef, pork, and poultry are important to our diets as well as to our economy, but whenever some farmer gets a"big" head and begins to think that these are the only sources of non-vegetable protein, he or she should be reminded that ninety percent of this planet ...

1498. Gobble, Gobble, Gone

Luke 12:13-21

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: A lesson of sharing. Props: M&M's. You will need: 1) A small package for you to eat. If you cannot eat the whole bag in a single sitting, then slightly open the bag, empty the bag, and place what you can't eat back in. But it needs to be proportioned to the number of children so that it looks as though you could have shared. If you are preaching afterwards, you'll need some water at the pulpit to wash them down. 2) One package for each child present. Hide these packages. Lesson: Good ...

1499. The Sound of Weeping

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

Have you ever conducted a private survey of the human ear? It is a fascinating experience. It's an interesting way to pass the time while waiting for your appointment in a doctor's office, or for your mate to finish some shopping, or for a plane to arrive at the terminal, or if you are sitting in a meeting that begins to drag. This exercise is more a comparison than a survey. It involves looking carefully at human ears to see their differences in size and shape, and in the ways they are attached to the ...

1500. What Children Owe Their Parents

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

R. E. Lybrand

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the Law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked him, "Why is it that your disciples disobey the teaching handed down by our ancestors? They don't wash their hands in the proper way before they eat!" Jesus answered, "And why do you disobey God's command and follow your own teaching? For God said, 'Respect your father and your mother.' and 'Whoever curses his father or his mother is to be put to death.' But you teach that if a person has something he could use to help his ...

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