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 4968 results

1601. A Non-anxious Presence

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... eight miles across and was notorious for its sudden and unexpected storms. Only the most adroit sailors dared go beyond where they could see the shore, so a direct crossing was always risky. At night, it bordered on foolish. Yet, this is what Jesus asks of his disciples and they comply without question. The question does not come until they are out in the middle of the lake and a storm has appeared, a storm so violent that the boat is filling with water and in danger of sinking. And the question is, as we ...

1602. The Gospel Ship

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ? No, we don’t. But being the church is about taking risks. It’s okay to take risks when Jesus is guiding your boat. Boats or ships represent a journey, a crossing from one place to another, a grand adventure or exploration. When we become disciples of Jesus, followers of God’s mission, we become adventurers and voyagers. We “cross over” from the restrictions of our old lives into a new life of following the Holy Spirit into unknown places and situations. In this, we are freed. No longer will we ...

1603. Feasting on Love

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... they are in relationship with Jesus, with you, and with a community (and that community may look different than the one you are used to). They need to feel love, acceptance, intimacy, and care. When this happens, they too can become part of the growing, discipling, fulfilling, saving community and can begin to help others like them. Jesus knew this. He recognized that people were coming to him from all walks of life and that many of them were stuck in a place of basic needs. What are the first two important ...

1604. Pulling Our Punches

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... Good Teacher,” there is no example before the first century AD of anyone using such an address. Give the rich young man credit. His question is a legitimate one, on human terms. It was not asked to trap Jesus, but assumed Jesus knew the answer. It was the question a disciple would ask of a teacher. Which makes the answer of our Lord a little odd, at first. “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” Ahhh… Jesus is the Son of God, and we’d think he shared in God’s goodness, but the ...

1605. Through the Heart of Jesus

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the book first. Once he has captured the last line of the book, he is ready to begin telling the story. Because he already knows the ending, he is fully in control of the rest of the story. (6) That’s the secret Jesus tried to teach his disciples too. He already knows the ending to the story. He already knows that he will die to reconcile us to God and give us eternal life. He already knows that God has a kingdom prepared for those who love Him. And he already knows that every painful circumstance we ...

1606. Deep Water

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... us to open ourselves up to God in all of our sin and our pain. It requires us to not only look at ourselves in ways that are honest and true, but to show ourselves to God, even the parts of us we’d rather hide. To be a true disciple of Jesus, we need to reveal ourselves completely, and go “all in.” Uncomfortable? You bet! Scary? For sure. But what does Jesus say to them before he tells them what they’d be doing from now on? “Don’t be afraid.” There’s a reason, Jesus starts his sentence with ...

1607. Unbound

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... know it. What God might be like! Throughout our scriptures, Jesus gives us metaphor after metaphor for God, for who he is as Messiah and Son of God, and for the plan He is intent on fulfilling. But more than that, he continually challenges his disciples to reach beyond their current cultural, intellectual, and rational understandings and to embrace the unknown. He needs them to keep their minds open to recognize that what they know is not the only realm of truth. The gospel and the future of the mission and ...

1608. Have You Seen a Buck Flying Past?

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... me ask you the same question Jesus is asking in this passage: whose man or woman are you? Are you a man or woman of God? Or is your life committed to lesser desires? No one can serve two masters. And the final lesson Jesus is trying to teach his disciples in this passage is this: The master you serve will shape the legacy you leave. If God is our Master, then our life will have an eternal impact. We will follow the example of Jesus as his Spirit grows in us. In 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a ...

1609. The Steady March Forward

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... simply become passé, he was a threat to the peaceful order the day. The Jewish leaders were not excited by the Palm Sunday parade, and they did their best to rile up the masses against him. No, the city was definitely not the place to be. It was not the disciples’ idea of a safe space. It was way out of their comfort zone. Yet, Jesus had now arrived at the place to where he had been headed all along. He could not be dissuaded from his appointed task. He was worthy and fit to serve in the God’s kingdom ...

1610. A Pep Talk for the Kingdom

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... for peace. He knows that in his lifetime he may never see the justice and peace that he has worked so hard for, but he refuses to give up. As he says, “It takes courage not to be discouraged.” (6) This is Jesus’ challenge to his disciples. Have the courage not to be discouraged. But there’s a second thing he wanted us to see: persistent prayer is a powerful instrument for advancing the kingdom. Jesus continues the parable: “For some time (the judge) refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even ...

1611. Are We Living In The Last Days?

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... general Titus attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, but parts of it seemed to be of a later time. Whatever the setting, those who follow Jesus should prepare for that time by prayer, patience, witness, and by being alert at all times. Jesus’ disciples can be assured that no matter how severe persecution might be, in the end will be ultimate victory. Chapter 21 in the gospel of Luke is a difficult chapter to interpret; it is usually considered to be an eschatological section. Eschatology is the ...

1612. Time to Listen

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... supposedly in an airplane 30,000 feet off the ground, to continue the scene without him. (2) Now there’s sure one way to ruin the ending to a story! Just walk off the stage. Let someone else finish it. In our Bible story today, Jesus led three of his disciples, Peter, James and John, up on a high mountain. They didn’t know it yet, but Jesus was going to show them the end of the story, the story that God had been telling since the moment of creation, the story of the people of Israel and how God set ...

1613. What About Me?

John 1:29-42

Sermon

John Jamison

... some time with you, get to know you, find out what you’re really like? Jesus said, “Sure. Come on. Let’s go.” John’s disciples went with Jesus and spent the day with him. That bit about “the man who comes after me and would end up going past me because ... conclusion two people would come to if they spent the day following me around? I mean, I can do a pretty good imitation of a disciple when I put my mind to it; when I keep focused and think about what I am doing and saying. But an entire day? What ...

1614. When the Way Is Hard

Matthew 26:14-27:66

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... again and again. Imagine being mocked, beaten, and stripped. Each blow and insult was an indignity and a foretaste of death until Jesus’ final suffering on the cross and his last breath. Jesus knew all of that was coming. Well before his arrest, he told his disciples of the suffering and death that awaited him: after Peter’s declaration of Jesus as the Messiah (16:13-23), as they gathered in Galilee (17:22- 23), and on their way to Jerusalem (20:17-19). Each time Jesus predicted his death — and each ...

1615. Mandatum

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Sermon

Dr. Ronald Love

... as recorded in our Bible. We must keep in mind that Paul wrote about twenty years before the first gospel writer, so Paul does have the earliest historical account of the Lord’s Supper. The gospel writers recount the meal that Jesus had with his disciples; whereas Paul recounts the Lord’s Supper as it was practiced in the first century church. Paul, writing about 25 years after the resurrection, was a celebrant in this liturgy of the first-century church. Thus, his account of the liturgy is accurate and ...

1616. When You’re Out Of Tune

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... of scripture -- or how they worship; or how they read the Bible; or how they pray; or how they baptize; or, Lord have mercy, how they vote! While all this nonsense is going on, Christians are forgetting that Jesus said the world will know we are his by disciples not by how we worship, not by how we read the bible, not by how we pray, and not by the denomination we belong to, but by our love for one another. I believe one of the biggest problems facing the church today is the disparity people experience ...

1617. A Reminder of the Graciousness of God

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... gossiped about him or looked down on him for his profession. He couldn’t sue anyone. He had earned his horrible reputation. In our Bible passage for today from Matthew 9, Matthew writes about the totally unexpected moment when Jesus chose him to be a disciple. And he even included a little detail you’d think he’d want to forget: the judgmental comment from one of the religious leaders questioning Jesus’ choice to eat with no-good sinners like him. First, let’s look at why it was totally unexpected ...

1618. Seeing the Truth of Jesus

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and not be changed by that truth. The minute we acknowledge Jesus as Lord, we are challenged to step across a line, make a decision, die to our self, and live for the rest of our lives as his disciples. An anonymous author once wrote, “There is no such thing as partial commitment. When the pilot of a giant airliner is speeding down the runway, there is a certain point where he cannot decide to remain on the ground. When he crosses that line, he is committed to ...

1619. Easter Is True

Luke 24:13-35 · 1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

Will Willimon

... for what happened on that morning. Here is a story about what God does rather than what we do. Their hearts were wrong. Their eyes were blind. Their minds were too small to understand. Of course, the resurrection did open up a new perspective on life for the disciples, but only as a consequence of the fact of God's intervention in the resurrection. God's fact came before their "new perspective on life". To believe this is to believe that this story is an account of what God did. Sure, it's told, like any ...

1620. Click to Unfriend

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... the group up the road toward the city. Earlier, she had seen him leave the seder room before it was over, but didn’t know why until someone told her when they got to the garden. She followed them toward the city as well, watching for the other disciples to try and find out what had actually happened and where they were going. She followed the crowd to the courtyard outside the meeting place of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court. That’s when she saw Peter. She crept up to speak with him when she saw ...

1621. Many Rooms

John 14:1-14, 18-19, 25-27

Eulogy

George Reed

... is a time of separation and sorrow. It is not unlike our time today. We have gathered to care for and support one another in our time of grieving. We feel the separation that death brings and we are looking for a word of comfort. Jesus had compassion on his disciples that day and he has compassion on us today. The words he spoke to John and Peter and the rest he now speaks to us. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Oh, how our troubled hearts yearn to be comforted. We seek some word of consolation but ...

1622. Gifts You Can’t Return

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Mary Austin

... from us. After traveling around with them, seeing their mistakes, seeing how slow they were to understand, he could have been saying to God, “Here they are. I’ve suffered these fools long enough.” But no, Jesus still saw them as a gift. If Jesus saw these first disciples as a gift, it gives me hope that he sees us a gift. Even though we, too, are at times, clueless, vengeful, self- serving, and silly, mixed in with our love for Jesus. And, if he sees us as a gift, we can see each other that way ...

1623. Dancing in the Wind

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in his heart, body, and soul. Storms are frightening. But our peace does not come from an absence of storms. It comes from the presence of Jesus within us and around us as we sail on through. Discipleship is a risky business. When we sail the open seas as a disciple and apostle of Jesus, we will encounter storms. No one lives a stormless life. But Jesus is our calm in the midst of the storm and our joy in the midst of the wind. Sometimes, in our lives, we can fear that Jesus does not hear us, that somehow ...

1624. Faith on the Fringe

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... s home. Her faith is the kernel, the fringe, and sets the tone for the entire larger story: a faith so deep and wide, a daring move so unconventional and unusual for a woman of her day, a risk so huge yet justified, that it would have shocked Jesus’ disciples to the core. It’s almost as if her great faith emanates and resonates strongly from the fringes to the center that it permeates the story of Jairus, the only one in his story with faith enough to trust Jesus to heal, and to raise, his daughter. A ...

1625. The Case of the Hardened Heart

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . That’s why we need Jesus, who says to us this: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus’ miracle of the loaves, which his own disciples did not understand, assures us that the little can become many, as long as you trust in the miraculous power of Jesus to multiply and feed people in dynamic and spiritual ways. Faith. You only need a little to move your confirmation bias from fear and immobility to ...

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