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 1601 to 1625 of 3314 results

1601. The Same New Jesus

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... be communicated without the ascension imagery of a movement upward. Christ was moving upward to a higher level of life - a life that was higher than the tangible, material, localized, and limited life that we know. The intent of the Ascension was to reveal to the apostles and to us that Jesus was moving up to a new mode of existence and activity. He was not only raised from death; he was raised up from this space-bound, time-bound life to reign eternally in glory. By failing to understand the intent of ...

1602. Saving A Church

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

... grown tired. We should never say to ourselves——well, I was just tired. When you are tired you are a different person. The way we talk to our children, the way we talk to our spouse can all be gravely affected by weariness. This is why the Apostle Paul encouraged his followers not to grow weary in well doing. Fatigue can be faiths greatest enemy. The road for these Christians was turning out to be longer than they thought. There was a time when they ended up every one of their worship services with that ...

1603. Saving A Church

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

1604. Partners With the Eternal

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

... given Christ gave his life. And so he invites all of us to bring what we have, our loaves and our fish, placing them in his hands, committing them to this same purpose, entering into partnership with him. It is not an empty phrase when the Apostle Paul writes of God's people "as workers together with him." (2 Corinthians 6:1) It is a phrase packed with enormous and specific content. For, you see, the people of God are partners with the Eternal. Historically, God has always worked with people, and through ...

1605. The Importance of Believing

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

... Who do you say that I am?" it was Simon who answered. He said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:16) And Jesus replied, "And I tell you, you are a rock, petros, Peter, and on this rock I will build my church." The Apostle Simon got his new name that day, Peter. By his believing, he had reached out and touched truth, had made connection with an anchor stone. As belief always puts us into relationship with that in which we believe, so Simon Peter was now related in a profound way to ...

1606. A Change of Direction

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

... . Later, his fellow-Christians said of him, "He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." (Galatians 1:23) It's difficult to imagine a change of direction more decisive than this one. Saul of Tarsus - the Apostle Paul - one man, intercepted, turned around. Many a person, traveling some downhill road, or ambling carelessly along some dead-end street, or wandering aimlessly along one of life's deceptive byways - many a person has been hailed by the Great Interceptor. That ...

1607. Lovers Never Ask, 'What's the Least I Can Do?'

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

Alvin Rueter

... s just our duty and we’re not grumbling, not as long as we’re in love with the Lord. — The duty to set a good example; — The duty to be forgiving; — And then also, the duty to have a positive outlook. I take that from these words: The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" (We can understand why that request: to set a good example and to keep forgiving seven times a day - who doesn’t need strength for that?) And the Lord said, "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say ...

1608. Grateful For The Giver

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

... way. Decorate his body with scars all over from rods and whips and stones. Let’s say that in nearly every letter he writes - even when he’s in jail unjustly - he thanks God for the privilege of suffering for him. Unreal? Not if you’re speaking of the Apostle Paul. For gratitude does not depend upon the circumstances. Here’s a man making $500 a week, his wife earning $300 a week more, and together they offer $2 each Lord’s day for the Gospel. Here’s a widow with a pension of $400 a month of which ...

1609. Is The Gospel Only For Women?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

... in the city, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (2 Corinthians 11:24-27) The same hymn also refers to Paul and the other apostles: They met the tyrant’s brandished steel, The lion’s gory mane; They bowed their necks the death to feel: Who follows in their train? If courage attracts men, consider the courage of Christ. People who’ve had little education are sometimes afraid to ...

1610. No Little Bit

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

... gold coin our Master gives us to invest. And I say that, although you may have no more than a bare room on the third floor, although you may be at the bottom of your company’s payroll structure, not even Father Abraham or King David or the Apostle Paul have a greater name than yours: "Child of the King." In this parable, our Lord highlights two other servants, each of them also entrusted with only one gold coin. But when the Master called them to account, one said: "Sir, I have earned ten gold coins with ...

1611. The Footwashing

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

... in the faith and not doing much about it. Kierkegaard imagined: that near the cross of christ a man had stood who beheld the terrible scene, and then became a professor of what he saw. He explained it. Later he witnessed the persecution and imprisonment of the apostles and became a professor of what he had witnessed. He studied the drama of the cross, but he was never crucified with Christ in his own life. He sudied apostolic history, but he did not live apostolically. He was an observer and a talker about ...

1612. Lord, I Believe - Or Do I?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... plan, his purpose, and his end will be accomplished and fulfilled. We have his word for that. Can we believe it? "When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" With confidence born of our Lord’s resurrection, his Apostles went to mission, laid their lives on chopping blocks, and hung them on cruel crosses. Their joy was never artificially designed to make an impact on their television viewing audience. They were simply certain that the promise of their Lord would be fulfilled, regardless ...

1613. The Sermon on the Level

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

... ." All Saints’ Day is the vision of that yet more glorious day, "when saints triumphant rise in bright array, and when the King of glory passes on his way." All Saints’ Day reviews the fellowship we have been given, "the glorious company of the apostles, the noble fellowship of the prophets, the white-robed army of martyrs," and all who fought the good fight to the end, whose company includes all those whose presence we once cherished and whose memory we now honor, who died in faith to live eternally ...

1614. Heaven Can’t Wait

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

... divide the spoils, we will have joined another company, those saints of God who served the Lord this side of heaven and who are numbered now in that great cloud of witnesses to grace who have been transferred to the other side. We mean the company of the apostles, the noble fellowship of the prophets, the white-robed army of martyrs, and all the others, too, from our fellowship of friends and loved ones who have died in faith and live in glory. That’s the future still to be unveiled for us, the future we ...

1615. Are There Any Questions?

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

... cross bore all the guilt of all humanity (no way can we begin to comprehend it), this Lamb brought the peace no fear can smother, the joy that has no equal. We heard it at the Easter tomb where angels first proclaimed it. We watched the Lord’s apostles as they carried it around the world, the only message that they knew: "He was offered up for our sins; he was raised again for our salvation." We saw it spread from continent to continent, as dying men and women reached from helplessness for heaven’s help ...

1616. How to Stay on Top of It

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... will notice in the eastern wall the Golden Gate through which, it is suggested, the Messiah will arrive. The gate was blocked by Sultan Suleiman, as the story goes, to insure that no messiah would ever come through that gate. But Christians, too, with the Apostle Paul have turned their eyes to that decisive day when the kingdom in its fulness will break through and be revealed, and when history ends at the Messiah’s throne. Our fervent prayer, "Thy kingdom come," reflects the hope that has ever been the ...

1617. One Nation, Under Mercy

Sermon

... unfolded to fulfillment down the years in Jesus Christ, for the Holy Spirit and the living faith that he has breathed on us. We give thanks for the bounty of his blessing, for the special care he gives his people, for the fellowship of prophets and apostles and the Holy Catholic Church, and for all the company of heaven. All this is marked by mercy flowing through all aspects of our relationship with God - the forgiveness of sins, the assurance of the kingdom, and the solid hope of everlasting life. But it ...

1618. The Now-ness of Eternity

Zechariah 7:1-14

Sermon

... that leads to eternal life. The bottom line for all of us in this consideration is whether we are willing to accept the gift of eternal life and begin the process of enjoyment, growth, and fulfillment that are the basic dividends of its reality. The Apostle Paul obviously was very here and now conscious when he enjoined the Corinthians, saying: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2) Will you hear him, and begin now to live the life that is eternal ...

1619. The Reins of Power

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

... and run our lives. The only power he seeks over us is the power of persuasive, redeeming love. He wants to see us accept responsibility for our lives, exercise faith, and receive God’s power, as he had received it, to live victoriously. The requirements, as the Apostle Paul put them in the Phillips translation of his letter to the Ephesians (5:1-15), are simply that we live our lives "in love ... as children of the light ... with a due sense of responsibility." So why, then, do we live with so much defeat ...

1620. Arise, O Church of God, Arise!

Sermon

... . We despise the servant's role. That's why the poet here has to reprimand us, "Despise thou not the servant's role." To take this seriously requires a shift of mind for most of us. But again, look to Christ. Let him witness to you in this challenge. The Apostle Paul says it for us: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ... who humbled himself and took on the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men ... and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." Why is Christ so ...

1621. Saving Sinners

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

... . We have calculated our spiritual forces for good and we have surmised that we can handle moral challenges and potentially explosive moral situations quite well. But then we are amazed when the darts and arrows of Satan hit their mark and we are laid low. With the Apostle Paul we shake our heads at our own failure and exclaim, "The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do. O wretched man that I am!" Such awareness of moral and spiritual failure can leave us feeling deflated ...

1622. Who's A Saint?

Revelation 7:9-10

Children's Sermon

... you really are. Can you name for me a saint in the Christian Church? Someone whom you’ve heard called a saint. St. Peter, why he was one of Jesus’ deciples. And St. Mark, why he wrote one of the books in the Bible, and St. Paul was both an apostle of Jesus and a writer. Why, you know lots of famous Christians too. But do you know what? You forgot to tell me the name of an American and a Christian saint that you know better than anyone else. Do you know whom you forgot to mention? You don’t ...

1623. Fasting: Foolish or Fruitful?

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

... granted that people would fast. Jesus twice says, "When you fast," not "if you fast," or "you should fast." When the Disciples could not perform a miracle, Jesus explained that it could be done only by prayer and fasting. Jesus fasted. Paul fasted, The Apostles fasted. Luther fasted. The Wesley brothers fasted. It has been a universal practice to fast until the time of the radical reformers in the 16th century. If fasting has been a universal practice of religious people, there must have been a reason for ...

1624. 1,943 Candles on the Birthday Cake!

Acts 2:1-13

Children's Sermon

... is Pentecost and it was on a day like this that people from all over the world gathered together in Jerusalem and heard for the first time the good news about Jesus Christ. Now a lot of them could hardly believe their ears when they heard the things that the Apostles told them, but before the day was over there were at least 3,000 people who believed and were called followers of Jesus. When the day was over, the church was born and it began a new life that we still have today. Just think, 1,943 years later ...

1625. Serving Hands

Psalm 92:1-15

Sermon

... holy bread together. Jesus is our host. He invites us as his guest in order that he, out of his loving hand, might serve you and me. If there would be any doubt about Jesus' intent to serve, it is dispelled as he performs the most humble of acts. The Apostle John tells us, "Jesus proceeded to wash the feet of his disciples." What a menial task! And yet, it is the Lord's intent to communicate to the twelve and to you and me, as modern disciples, that he comes to serve - to serve our needs, not his own. He ...

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