Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1626 to 1650 of 4963 results

1626. The Promise of Prayer

Luke 1:5-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a tomb, silence is temporary. It’s merely the gestation of God’s promise that something new and special will emerge, new life, new hope, fresh realizations of God’s promise to lift us out of our pits and into new places of joy and love. In the ... Jesus to come into your life for real. This advent season….let your faith guide you into a new place….new hope….new life . . . new fillings and fulfillings. Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text Priest Zechariah’s Prayer and Elizabeth’s Pregnancy ...

1627. House of Prayer

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... we pray that prayer out loud. I like to think of the Lord’s Prayer in terms of the four “P’s. Jesus’ prayer for His disciples includes four Ps, and they get progressively harder as we go along: Praise (recognition of God’s kingdom and hope for God’s way to prevail among all –this is the declaration part of what rabbis in Jesus’ called The Kaddish, a prayer for disciples) Provision (we put our spiritual and emotional and physical needs into your hands God –give us the strength to live this ...

1628. All the Pretty Horses

Luke 12:13-21, Luke 12:1-12, 1 Kings 3:16-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and earth would be coming where everyone would eat and drink for free! What a vision! What a dream! A dream where silos and resentments end and love reigns. Where anger and resentment, evil and envy are defeated, God’s people will live in beauty and hope in unity with God and feasting at His heavenly table. We all need a lullaby like that, don’t we? What is our dream today in the Church? Today, our world feels to many as if it has splintered into a thousand fragments. Relationships have been broken ...

1629. Deliverance (Angel on Your Shoulder)

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... we remember that God is always whispering to us. God is always sending us love songs, sweet messages of hope, loving words of encouragement, wisdom and guidance. God is sending us messages and messengers in various garbs and guises ... Are you ready to become a dreamer? Are you ready to put aside some time to relax your mind, open your heart, to receive those whispers of hope and love that can move us, change us, and give us direction? There is an old saying, “When you pray, move your feet.” But before we ...

1630. House of Stone

Psalm 118:1-29, Isaiah 18:1-7, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23, 1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... both faith and prayer, we engage in relationship with Jesus, and open ourselves up to God’s artisan hand. When God’s hand touches our hearts and our lives, we become covenant markers, signs of God’s presence in the world, altars of remembering and skyscrapers of hope to all who need to know, He is alive, and so are we! Altar call: Come forward today and take a stone from the altar. Know that you are a living stone, that God has formed you as part of this community, as part of a global community ...

1631. The Pit of the Soul

Luke 9:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the pit as the place where one is forsaken by the living, forgotten by God. Psalm 38:1-8 describes it as a place of no hope. The New Testament describes the pit as a place of blindness, a dungeon or abyss. But perhaps the best description of the pit comes from ... we get to leave the terror and darkness of All Hallows Eve and enter into the glory of All Saints. God’s promise through Jesus is hope. For no matter what we do, no matter how awful we are, how much we even try to squash Jesus out of our lives or ...

1632. Dream Weaver

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... fear, help us to envision a future of promise, encourage us to move ahead into unknown places. God weaves for us a “dream” and a hope of a new kind of world. And God calls us into action to follow that dream no matter where it takes us. So, the question ... This advent, as we prepare more and more for the savior’s birth, we all need to listen to our dreams, to allow ourselves to dream, to hope, and to pray that God may speak to us in a way that will inspire us to act, to move, and to follow in new and ...

1633. Raison d’Etre

Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... , or will we grow toward the darkness? It’s up to us. In Jesus Christ, God has shown us the direction God wants us to evolve. God has shown us how to live if we want to orient the universe toward light and love, toward compassion and generosity and hope. God has shown us, in other words, the path to God’s kingdom, to authentic human living. In fact, Jesus tells us, in today’s gospel lesson that his way is not just the preferred way of living and evolving, it is not just God’s preferential mode of ...

1634. Be Like Dad

John 17:1-5

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... a responsibility to limit ourselves to one or two. In the beginning for all of us, there was a perception of a plan, even if the plan was only about having a moment of passion. Let’s assume the plan was purposeful; the plan was, for whatever its reason, a hope for something of meaning and of a life well-lived. I don’t know of any parent-to-be who thinks the plan is to have a child who will be full of problems and challenges. Mostly, parents wish for two arms, two legs, all internal organs where they are ...

1635. Beyond Fairness

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Roy Howard

... or bought. They are given from the bounty of a generous God. The perspective of privilege can actually blind us from seeing such generosity. When a labor pool operated not that far from here, men would stand for hours all day in the open air, waiting in hope for someone to select them for job. A truck would drive up and the men would scramble with hands raised, pleading to be selected. Each time a man climbed into the truck, there was joy spread across his face, along with relief. On the opposite side of ...

1636. A Quantum Decision

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... for the ability to make better decisions and to follow through with those decisions. Myers’ growing faith in God gave him hope, and he began to use his time in prison to gain new work skills and further his education. After serving a ... true repentance—being set free from your old self. Realizing that your old self is sinful, separated from God, separated from true life and purpose and hope. You can try and try and try to change yourself. Or you can die to your old self and place your new life in God’ ...

1637. Abba! Father!

Galatians 4:4-7

Sermon

Ron Love

... , and devotion we have for our children cannot be measured. We are happy when our children are happy. We are sad when our children are sad. When our children are sick, we feel their pain. When our children are disappointed, we do what we can to give them hope. And there are those times when an illness or a sorrow overcomes our child, and we have that terrible, awful feeling of helplessness that we cannot make things better. God’s love for us is far greater than any love we can express as a parent to our ...

1638. Survival

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

Will Willimon

... Jesus over to die because he wanted peace. After the failure of the Reyjhavuc Summit, a person wrote me to say how deeply depressed she was, how filled with despair that Ronald Reagan had not won peace, had not enabled us to sleep secure. It's come to that. The hopes and fear of all the years have met in two men like Reagan and Gorbachev. "My peace I give to you," said Jesus elsewhere, "not as the world gives peace." The peace we should desire is that peace, his peace. The peace we desire is only God's to ...

1639. Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

... is stumbled into or we talk of "being in love" as if love is a permanent condition (Eric Fromm, The Art of Loving, pp. 4-5). Both phrases imply that nothing is easier or more natural than love. Yet there is hardly any human enterprise which begins with such hope and expectation, which fails so regularly, as love. So, Fromm says, we must be clear that love takes time, effort, even training. It is not for novices. "Love is an art. just as living is an art; if we want to learn how to love we must proceed in ...

1640. We Wobble, but We Don't Fall Down

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... each Weeble had a small weight on the bottom so that when knocked down the weight would help them bounce right back up.” (2) If only we humans were more like these egg-shaped toys says Pastor Hunter. “Weebles wobble, but they won’t fall down!” I hope that can be said each of us. I thought about Weebles as I read our Bible passage for this morning. St. Paul writes, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and ...

1641. Walking in the Way of Love

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... your actions and your attitudes will serve as physical, indisputable evidence that there is a God whose love for them is unconditional, consistent and sacrificial. This is the kind of love that’s been changing lives for over 2,000 years. You can offer hope and healing to a world that is broken and struggling. And it all starts with your commitment to walk in the way of love. 1. “Seriously Slow: 6 Travelers Who Walked Around the World” by Matt Scott Matador Network, March 5, 2010 https://matadornetwork ...

1642. The Invitation

Matthew 20:1-15

Sermon

Will Willimon

... finishing touches on your paper and the solution to the problem. Some in the class tell you that, if they work hard over the next few days, staying up for 48 hours straight, they may get it finished. There are others who haven't even begun; there is no hope no matter what. But, that's their problem. Then comes the last day of the semester. You proudly band in your work to the professor. To your shock, everyone else has their work. How did they do it? You are about to learn how. "Professor Smith, thanks for ...

1643. Mary's Witness

Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Sermon

King Duncan

... in their collection and donation programs. (4) Truly, “a little child will lead them . . .” (Isaiah 11:6) God came as a poor baby to bring us life at Christmas. God used six-year-old Ray Mohler to spread joy and hope at Christmas. And God can use you and me to share His joy and hope and love to others. The message of Christmas is that God is working in even the small things of the universe. I think the second lesson Mary would share with us is God is working in difficult circumstances. Read through the ...

1644. Down by the Riverside

Mark 1:4-11 · Genesis 1:1-5

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . It will help you to know that you are accepted and loved by God even in the midst of those problems. It will give you a new name, Christian. It will say "YES" even to your yesterdays. It will give you healing for the past, help for the present and hope for the future. It will make you a steward. But most importantly, baptism is a statement to yourself, to your family and to the world about where and for whom you stand. This is the Word of the Lord for this Day. 1. Ron Lee Davis, MISTREATED, (Portland, Ore ...

1645. More Certain Than a Tom Brady Pass

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... prepared in advance for you to do. The only obstacle standing between you and God’s sacred purpose is your willingness. Will you give every part of your life to God? Will you refuse to let fear shrink your vision? If so, God can use you to bring hope and salvation to people who might never meet Him any other way. Decide today to trust everything to God’s purposes, and God will use you to make an eternal impact in others’ lives. 1. Boss, Jobs and Leadership Jokes provided by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA ...

1646. A Fruitful Life

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... from the poem: I had to love today, because you couldn’t promise me tomorrow. . . I had to hold tightly to purpose, because you might not give me time for carelessness, and lifeblood is too precious to spill on selfish whim; I had to cherish hope, because you couldn’t guarantee light amid despair, and I was tired of hurting . . . Because I was forced to live life boldly, thankfully, lovingly and joyfully, death is tender, and life was a triumph.” (4) What a painful and beautiful truth to live by! “I ...

1647. Winning the Grand Prize

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Gilberto spoke for them all when he said to Michelangelo, ‘‘We’ve had it. We’ve tried. It’s enough. We can’t do it. We’re quitting.” Michelangelo looked Gilberto steadily in the eye and said, “I can understand if you must quit, but I hope you will understand when I say that I cannot quit. I will find another crew. I will find another foreman. And then I will come back and complete the task, because I am under the assignment of the Holy Father.” (6) And with renewed determination ...

1648. The Voice

John 10:22-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to prayer, God’s voice sends shivers down our spines and seeps into our bones, because God’s “voice” is that hope-evoking and life-giving force that we recognize as both our source and sustenance. God’s voice is comforting. God’s voice ... the Lord’s prayer, we ask that God’s will and not our own be done. Today instead, let us listen. For our future lies in the hope of God’s mission coming true, in God’s voice winning over the tumult of the world. Listen to the sound of God’s voice in the ...

1649. Life Between the Times

Revelation 22:7-21

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... : “Christianity” has its essence and is good not in itself and not in its own existence, but lives from something and exists for something that reaches far beyond itself... If we would fathom its essence then we must enquire into that future on which it sets its hopes and expectations.[5] A lot like Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black church in America, Moltmann goes on to say that when you have a mission for the future, when you have the dream inspired by God and his kingdom, it gives you the kind of ...

1650. First World Problems

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... ! Our Scripture Lesson today is about a man who suffered from First World problems. And though we may not have the same problem as the man in this story, we may have the same mindset he did. And according to God, that is the biggest problem of all. So I hope you’ll open your mind as you hear our story from Luke 12:13-21. Jesus is surrounded by a crowd of people, and someone in the crowd says to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus is so wise here. He could have made ...

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