Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1776 to 1800 of 2332 results

1776. Holy Trinity

Psalm 8:1-9, Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, John 16:12-15, Romans 5:1-5

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... prayers and names, with rules and ceremonies we have tried to be sure you love us and we try to please you. Guide us in our questing; open us to perceiving you in ways beyond those of today. Make us whole as you are whole. God of Deserts and Rain Forests — as in Bible times, lands are dry and food crops are insufficient to feed the hungry, especially in Africa. We know that human behaviors cause detrimental changes to the earth’s ecosystems. Give us courage to do things differently so food and energy ...

1777. Acts of God?

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Brett Blair

... warning, his family and business is wiped out. Two rogue groups from Arabia and Mesopotamia conduct a raid taking away Job's livestock and putting his servants to the sword. Then his family is lost in a freak accident when a mighty wind sweeps in from the desert, striking the four corners of the house, collapsing it and all are lost. It was swift. It was unwarranted. It was unconscionable. In many ways the events of this past week seem eerily echoed in the story of Job. A very large part of our family have ...

1778. Obedience: Our Gift to Jesus

Hebrews 10:5-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... exhortation to refrain from stealing. But the boy learned the lesson more profoundly by how his action hurt his father. Similarly, the author of Hebrews tells us that outward actions of sacrifice and cereal offerings, which were so common to the Israelites in the desert and offerings of priests in the temple, are not what God seeks. Surely to perform such acts in a prayerful spirit was good and well-intentioned, and they were not to be condemned or rejected. However, Jesus, the new Adam, desires a new sign ...

1779. Don’t Compromise Your Beliefs

Galatians 1:1-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... , he immediately launches into a defense of his work and more importantly his message, namely to never compromise the faith in Christ that he instilled in the Galatians when he formed the community a few years earlier. Paul chastises the Galatians for deserting the gospel he preached for one preached by false apostles. Paul presumably is speaking of the Judaizers, a sect of the "new way" that demanded full adherence to the Mosaic law. It seems the Judaizers had accused Paul of preaching a false message ...

1780. Transformed to Christ

2 Corinthians 3:7-18

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... who have infiltrated the Corinthian Christian community preaching a theology different than that of Paul. Paul tells the Corinthians that they should not become deluded with these false teachings but rather must stay on the true path. He uses the story of Moses in the desert and his conversations with God to illustrate his point. He says that Moses used a veil to cover himself after he spoke with God so the Israelites would not behold the radiance of God that was imprinted on his face. He suggests that the ...

1781. Passing the Test

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... incessant sales pitches of our consumer driven, immediate gratification culture, every one must eventually suffer. Everyone must deal with those stretches of life where we are in the wilderness, utterly alone, where no one seems to care. In those dark and dreary expanses of the desert it seems that even God has forsaken us. The sad story of human history is that more often than not in such times of darkness we will turn to anything but God. Instead of trusting God, we will make just about anything else we ...

1782. But When God ...

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... change because the other apostles told him to change his way of life. Some scholars speculate that Paul's three years in Arabia were part of the reason for his dramatic change — that he spent those three years on an extended retreat, out in the desert, spending time with God in prayer. Others argue that Paul had already radically changed by that time, that he was already involved in mission, preaching, and making converts in Arabia. But all of that is speculation, because Paul doesn't say what he did in ...

1783. The Assurance of Things Hoped For

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

In the movie, Cast Away, Tom Hanks' character, Chuck, is stranded on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean. To keep himself company, he finds a volleyball that has washed up from the wreckage of the plane he had been flying in before becoming stranded. Chuck paints a face on the volleyball with his own blood and names him "Wilson." Wilson becomes Chuck's ...

1784. Endurance

2 Corinthians 11:24-27, 2 Timothy 4:6-8

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough ...

1785. It Was a Dark and Stormy Night....

Humor Illustration

Bob Hill and his new wife Betty were vacationing in Europe....as it happens, near Transylvania. They were driving in a rental car along a rather deserted highway. It was late and raining very hard. Bob could barely see the road in front of the car. Suddenly, the car skids out of control! Bob attempts to control the car, but to no avail! The car swerves and smashes into a tree. Moments later, Bob shakes his head ...

1786. Rally or Rail?

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... flag rather than the one that only flies to wave the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Or to put it differently, is someone or something else enthroned in that King’s Chair? Matt Ragland tells the story of a community of wise monks who lived in the desert. A man one day arrived at the monastery, asking if he could stay and learn wisdom from the monks. The old abbot came out and greeted the traveler, then asked why he had come. The man answered, “I want to be wise, but I only have the weekend.” The ...

1787. A New Name

Isaiah 62:1-5

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... concerning the Jews. Techow wanted to start life over and atone for his murderous act. He changed his name to Ernst Tessier and joined the French Foreign Legion, becoming a highly decorated officer. He became the officer in charge of Fort Flatters, a Legion desert outpost. He met another legionnaire whose name was Rathenau. He asked if he was related to the late Walter Rathenau. The legionnaire stated that he was his nephew. Carefully choosing his words he told the young man his story and pulled the letter ...

1788. From Death To Life To…

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... the bombs detonated and in their aftermath. A burning hot wind ignited fire upon anything that remained standing after the massive blast. Entire neighborhoods were laid waste, all structures destroyed. The cities lay in ruins and the fruitful foothills looked like a desert. As I walked through the halls of the memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was nothing to be said. There was only a deep, deep silence as we viewed the black and white photographs completely absent of human or any other visible ...

1789. When There’s Nothing Left To Do But Mourn

Jeremiah 8:18—9:1

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... go to the rich and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the law of their God." But they all alike had broken the yoke, they had burst the bonds. Therefore a lion from the forest shall kill them, a wolf from the desert shall destroy them. A leopard is watching against their cities; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces — because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great. — Jeremiah 5:1-6 God looks for every opportunity possible to offer Judah healing, but ...

1790. The Bride of Jesus

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... and his church. In our lesson for today from the Old Testament, Isaiah the prophet uses this same imagery. Israel is in a bad way. Time after time, they had been defeated by their enemies. They were recovering from exile in Babylonia. The land is deserted and desolate. Jerusalem has been torn down and the temple has been destroyed. There is a phrase that is often used about the prophets that they afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Isaiah is in his comforting mode in this passage and here is ...

1791. When We Are Uncertain about The Future

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... David Miln Smith spent a night alone in St. Michael’s Cave on the island of Gibraltar as a test of his courage. In his book Hug the Monster he tells of hearing strange sounds all around him as he lay there in the pitch‑black, damp, deserted cave. Most frightening was the fear that he was not alone! His fear turned to panic. He was afraid he was losing his mind. Then suddenly, as he was approaching his psychological breaking point, Smith thought to himself, “Whatever the monster looks like, I will hug ...

1792. Surprise in a Graveyard

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

On February, 27, 1991, at the height of Desert Storm, Ruth Dillow received a very sad message from the Pentagon. It stated that her son, Clayton Carpenter, Private 1st Class, had stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was dead. Ruth Dillow later wrote, “I can’t begin to describe my grief and shock. It was almost more than ...

1793. Prayer-Conditioning Your Life

Luke 2:29-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... least time, energy, or freedom, to do so (Luke 5:15-16). Whenever Jesus became hemmed in, pressed down, and jostled most by the crowds, that is exactly when Jesus withdrew to take a breath. He escaped into the “wilderness” or the “mountains” or the “desert” to pray. When the scrabble and rabble of the crowds’ demands reached a certain decibel point, Jesus would withdraw. He did not abandon them. He did not reject them. But he did take the time to re-immerse himself in his connection with the ...

1794. P.S. I Love You

John 21:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to Peter exactly what Jesus was doing and he was “hurt” by his own conscience, by his own memory of his previous threefold failure to assert his relationship with Jesus his “Lord.” Peter confesses, “You know everything,” Jesus knows his denials and desertion, and he knows his yearning to confess his love. But here, with each assertion of his love, Jesus empowers Peter with a distinctive ongoing mission to “feed my lambs,” “tend my sheep,” and “feed my sheep.” Despite his failure of ...

1795. John 21:1-19

John 21:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

1796. Go Hard or Go Home!

Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... incident. By the time L’Amour started a novel, he was armed with copies of every topographical map, relief map, and mine chart that existed on the area covered in his story. “My descriptions must be right,” he insists. “When I tell my reader about a well in the desert, he knows it’s there, and that the water is good to drink.” Once, for $3 a day, he agreed to help an 80‑year‑old trapper who had been hired to skin all the dead cattle on a rancher’s spread. “There were 925 of them, and ...

1797. Real Heros

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground . . .” Can you sense what it means to be a hero in these words? Talk about an Xtreme lifestyle. These were men and women who looked into the face of torture and death and did ...

1798. The Light Has Come

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... would serve us well to take a breath and remember that we are members of God’s own family. We are strengthened by the knowledge that God loves us so much that God sent Jesus, the Light of the world, to guide us. God in Christ will never desert us. The Ephesians to whom Paul was writing might have viewed themselves as insignificant and unimportant in God’s grand scheme of things, but now they could make an amazing claim — they were a part of God’s own family. They could now stand on the promises made ...

1799. Refresh Your Heart

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... equal, everyone of the same rank, everyone needy, incomplete, imperfect, but everyone beloved. When Paul wrote this letter, to be “refreshed” was a physical thing. Refreshment meant food and water, rest and restoration. An oasis from the hard slough through the deserts of life. In the twenty-first century, to “refresh” has a more specific technological definition. When you hit the “refresh” button on your computer screen, you are updating all the data you have been looking at. You don’t lose ...

1800. Everyone Is Invited

Romans 1:1-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... salvation by following the letter of the law as some might have mistakenly thought. We are not saved by our good works either although Jesus demands much from us. We are saved only by God’s grace! We can trust in Jesus knowing that he will never desert us. By trusting in Jesus we allow him to reshape our lives. The power of the gospel not only changes our lives but alters all of our relationships. The way we view ourselves and others is changed once we surrender everything to Jesus. Paul experienced that ...

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