Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1501 to 1525 of 4999 results

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of the hallmarks of the virus is a fever that persists, spiking off and on sometimes a month or more after the primary illness has passed. Like a ghost, it continues to haunt us, threatening to derail our lives. We are as an entire world locked in a kind of long-term “fight and flight” response, immersed in a perpetual level of stress that we in our generation have never before experienced. And it’s taking its toll on our psyches and our bodies. We are tired. We are burnt out. We want a break from the ...

1502. Chosen and Appointed

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , culture, type, or blood DNA, but everything to do with sisterhood, brotherhood, and the beauty of God’s creation. In the end, it all comes down to love. Love for God. Love for each other. And belief in a mission that upholds and initiates this kind of loving. Who are your brothers and sisters? Who are your neighbors? Everyone. Not just the people in your neighborhoods. Not just the people in your buildings. Not just the people you know. But everyone. You are all sons and daughters of God. The more ...

1503. The Power to Witness

Luke 24:44-53 · Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... tell everyone possible about the truth of the resurrection and God’s act of redemption open to all people. The disciples are given the task of calling for repentance with the gift of redemption, and they will “prove” God’s power to grant this kind of redemption by continuing with Jesus’ miracles, of healing, preaching, teaching, and transforming people’s lives. Today, we continue to ask Lord Jesus to send his Holy Spirit power among us, to empower us, to clothe us with God’s gifts of healing ...

1504. Walking in the Way of Love

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... Could you ride the Agony Ride? In our passage for today, Paul invites us to walk the Agony Walk—the walk Christ made to the cross in our behalf. You can invite people to church, you can study your Bible, you can participate in community ministries, you can do all kinds of things to tell people that you are a follower of Jesus. But if you walk in the way of love, you won’t have to tell them. They will know by your active love, by your steadfast love, by your sacrificial love. You may not realize it, but ...

1505. How to Beat a Stress Test

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... in God. Finally, the secret to dealing with any challenge is to prepare yourself daily by opening yourself daily to the power and the presence of God. That’s what the armor of God is. Verses 18-20 read, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I ...

1506. It's A Wonderment

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... form of a phone call from my little brother, Scott. Over the last few years Scott and I have gotten pretty close. We like the same kinds of music. We're both computer junkies. We both like to play golf but neither one of us are any good. We always consider it ... work for ME?" The really interesting thing is that this guy was at the top of Scott's list of possible employers. Now I know that kind of thing doesn't happen for everyone. I thanked God but I'm not even sure my prayers had anything to do with it. The ...

1507. For The Love of God is Creative

1 Corinthians 2:6-12 · Psalm 8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... in two. And the sparkle in your eye is so bright it threatens to blind everybody else. To my way of thinking, it was that kind of love multiplied by the infinity of God that burst across the endless void creating the universe and everything in it. God was so filled ... image. There may be those who resemble us but there is no one, anywhere, who is just like us. We are each one of a kind, unique, designer originals, created by the very hand of God, in God's own image. We are created in the image of God. And that ...

1508. To Love

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of our immediate circles. To give others what we would love for ourselves. To gift others what we would love to receive. To give others not our waste but our best. To love others in ways we yearn to be loved. This is the kind of love Jesus advocated. This is the kind of love Jesus knew would change the world. Today, go out in love. Do love. Be love. [1] For more on the shema within the Torah, see thetorah.com/article/love_your_neighbor. [2] Paul (trained in the Hillel school by Gamaliel) would do the same ...

1509. It's a Wonderment

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

1510. Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley

Luke 19:28-40 · Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... old story of a young man dying on the battlefield and he asks for a chaplain. “Give me a light, chaplain,” he says. The chaplain finds a cigarette and starts to put it between the boy’s lips and the young man whispers, “No, no chaplain. The other kind of light.” The chaplain reaches into his pocket and brings out a New Testament and begins to read, “I am the light of the world: he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life . . .” (John 8:12). “That’s it. That ...

1511. The Favorite

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... by God. Every time we strategize and ask God to fulfill our strategies and wishes. Every time we insist that our way of seeing things is God’s way of seeing the world or its people. These kinds of expectations underlie every kind of sin in the world, whether racism, elitism, traditionalism, or any other kind of “ism.” The more we build upon our own wants and needs and expect Jesus to fulfill our wishes, the more deeply we will be disappointed. “Get behind me,” Jesus says to us. Not in front of ...

1512. One More Year

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... 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 bit frustrated. He instructed that gardener ...

1513. Spirit Powered Anointing

Luke 4:14-21 · Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , the Redeemed of The LORD; and you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken. Much like Ezra and Nehemiah before him, Jesus is proclaiming a season of joy, a time of release, a great restoration, a time to party! It’s a homecoming celebration! But not the kind you might think. To truly understand what Jesus is doing here, we need to go back in time.And we need a little understanding of the meaning of the Year of Jubilee. Noting that God rested on the 7th day, we celebrate sabbath, a day of rest and ...

1514. Understanding What God Expects of Us

Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)

Sermon

King Duncan

... will of God is to look to Jesus, God in the flesh. In him, we don’t see an angry, condemning, punishing God. We see a man who ate with sinners and welcomed outsiders and loved the least, the last, the lost and the lonely. Does your life reflect that kind of character, actions, priorities, and values? Then you are in tune with the mind of God. There is an old and well-known quote from writer Anne Lamott that I like to turn to now and again. She writes, “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your ...

1515. Acres of Diamonds

1 Timothy 6:10

Sermon

Russell Conwell

... , as she took in washing to support the man while he sat and smoked on the veranda. I don't want to see any more of that kind of God's poor. Now, when a man could have been rich just as well, and he is now weak because he is poor, he has done ... the heart's blood of the honest laboring man." Now, that is a lie, and you know it is a lie; and yet that is the kind of speech that they are hearing all the time, representing the capitalists as wicked and the laboring man so enslaved. Why, how wrong it is! Let ...

1516. Secret Sauce

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ’ own disciples, one would betray him and cause a rift in the 12. No community, not even Jesus’ own community, has ever been perfectly harmonious all the time throughout time. Yet despite this acknowledgement, the goal remains: synchrony and community –alternative community, the kind that bonds and endures. And the bonding agent? Love. Love God. Love each other. It’s the basic tenant of the Jewish shema. It’s the unity of forgiveness we pray for in the Lord’s prayer. It’s what we as Christians ...

1517. Unbound

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... who is more “open minded” acknowledges that one’s current knowledge of “reality” may not be the only one, that our minds may be at least in some way limited, or that what is “real” or “true” lies far beyond our human abilities to fathom. This kind of open minded curiosity allows us to imagine, envision, and allow for truths that lie far beyond what our minds currently can make sense of. It allows us to have faith! This is why metaphors are so important to us. They give us an imaginative ...

1518. Brush It Off

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... take everything personally, and if they reject us, we will feel devastated. We will feel we have failed. But if our primary relationship, attention, and self esteem lies only with Jesus (with God), then no matter who we meet, we will have the strength to be kind in the face of rejection and calm in the face of dispute. Our stability will not depend on their assessment of us. Our stability will depend only upon God’s assessment of us. Here is where the disciples’ strength lies. They may be going into the ...

1519. Ponder This!

Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

Sermon

John Jamison

... I remember the story now and think of that image of all of them gathered around the little baby, I find one line from the scripture kind of sticking in my mind more than the rest. It’s that line I’ve heard over and over, but haven’t really paid much ... of a king, or if she was just trying to think of how to protect her newborn baby boy? I wonder if she was trying to decide what kinds of things she needed to do to raise her son as God intended, or if she was trying to come up with a way to just make all ...

1520. The Accounting

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... all work in the world. We are all part of an economic system and a workplace environment. But as Christians, we only have one Master –the Lord our God. Our behavior, our “halakha,” our “mitzvot” need to reflect that loyalty. We need to act justly, mercifully, and kindly not just once on Sundays, but every day of the week, in every place we are –at home, at work, at the store, or at a restaurant. This is what it means to serve one master. For one day, Jesus will ask you for an accounting of your ...

1521. Truth and Consequences

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... main plot. Scrooge is a very rich but stingy man, whose former partner Marley has died before him. It’s nearly Christmas, and Scrooge is, as is his usual way, giving everyone a hard time about the celebration and refusing to take part in any kind of “brotherly love” or even “human consideration.” That night, he is visited first by his dead friend Marley who comes to warn Scrooge that his current way of living will lead to a terrible doom in the afterlife. Marley sports chains and groans to prove ...

1522. Stay the Course

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , restlessness, or discomfort. This is because somewhere inside, we feel uncomfortable with our own inauthenticity. Most people are terrible liars. A few get better at it as a matter of course. But like any gift, some have a natural gift for lying. These kinds of people often see lying not as deceptive but simply as opportunity or part of their job. In a sense, all writers, actors, and advertisers to some extent “lie.” They create an alternative “truth” that they present to others for the benefit of ...

1523. Fired Up and Fit for the Feast

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... meant “repentance”! Repentance for John signaled a “turning back” toward God, an awakening to the state of one’s soul and a need to seek renewal and healing from God for the brokenness of one’s spirit. Repentance was not a simple religious decision or kind of creedal commitment to the shema in mere words but was a “heart operation” –a transformation of one’s very heart, mind, and spirit and an admittance that all was not well in the body of God’s people. Just as the shofar awakened the ...

1524. The Way of the Lord

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... even Jesus’ conversation with Moses and Elijah on the mountain top, Peter was a rushing-in-where-angels-fear- to-tread kind of guy. But when it came to following Jesus, Peter was all in. His later denial of Jesus would be all that ... from sin and makes us clean, the one who transforms our lives. Peter didn’t get it at first. He wasn’t willing to accept Jesus as that kind of Lord in his life. He protested. He didn’t want Jesus to wash him clean. He wanted to tell Jesus what to do. But Peter had it ...

1525. The Light from the Cliff

Matthew 5:13-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... City of God, descending from the heavens onto a high cliff-like mountain, illuminated entirely not on its own but by the light of God. The entire landscape, city, and those within it are lit by God’s holy, energizing, healing, redeeming Light. This is the kind of Light Jesus wants us to understand. It’s not simply that we go about doing good things, although good things are always good. It’s not merely that we worship Jesus and proclaim his Light to others through our words and sermons. We are called ...

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