Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1776 to 1800 of 4997 results

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Carl Jech

... open channel of God's grace, flowing out freely, helping people to blossom and grow. Charlie Liteky won a Congressional Medal of Honor during his service as a Roman Catholic chaplain in the Vietnam War. Eventually, however, he left the priesthood and in a first-of-its-kind ceremony, gave back his Medal. He has given up many of the comforts of life in order to become a crusader for peace. He almost starved himself to death in a 1986 protest against U. S. policy in Central America. On one occasion he said: "I ...

1777. Jesus, Mary, Gustav Mahler, Brother Martin, and the Magi

Luke 20:9-19

Sermon

Carl Jech

... in a series of lectures in 1985 titled "Clowns, prophets, chaos: hope for the city." Listen to these samples of her way of looking anew at the Cross: "Ministry in the city requires the qualities of a clown and the plot of a comedy. We need the kind of humor that winks at our audacity in entering such a complex sociological system at all with a 2000-year-old rural paradigm about shepherds and lost sheep." Speaking of what it means to be a prophet, she emphasized how difficult it is for a clergyperson/pastor ...

1778. Some Women's Stories

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Carl Jech

... unconditional love and to try to understand their child. We can create a lot uf unnecessary stress for ourselves by harboring overly-restrictive notions of what constitutes a fulfilling lifestyle. It seems that a disproportionate number of women are attracted to the kind of metaphysical teachings that have recently found a spokesperson in Shirley MacLaine. She was even asked on the Phil Donahue Show why so few men seem to follow her guidance. Could it be that the world of psychics, palm readers, "past lives ...

1779. The Ambiguity of Life, Deciding for Christ

John 10:22-42

Sermon

Carl Jech

... murder. The attitude is that we shouldn't even think about such things. Similarly, we can become upset at the notion of teaching drug users to use clean needles, as if to do so is to encourage drug abuse, when, in fact, the real purpose of this kind of educational effort is to prevent the problems of drug abuse from being compounded and made worse than they already are. The point of all these observations is that we cannot hide from the complexity and ambiguity of life. We are in the process of considering ...

1780. Becoming What You Are

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Carl Jech

... utopian visions help us to move in the right direction, but if we take them too seriously and too literally they can do more harm than good. Our goal is not some static and abstract notion of perfection or peace. That is the kind of peace that the world may give, but it is not the kind of peace offered by Jesus. Our goal is to continue the process of living. The peace offered by Jesus has to do with life, with the never-ending process of becoming. In a sermon titled "A New Vision," Dr. E. Howard Satterwhite ...

1781. The Real Jesus is Channeling Grace

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Carl Jech

... to the less glamorous but more real community to be found in local congregations. Be that as it may, there can be little doubt that infighting among those who claim to be Christians is offensive to the world, and that this is not the kind of positive offensiveness Dr. Jenson has in mind - the offense of challenging all people to review their priorities and commitments. No. The world is legitimately horrified and repulsed when it sees Christians failing to live up to their own message of unity, love and ...

1782. Rejoice! It's Lent

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... land and the distress of the people. But, Joel was, at the same time, a man of vision. He saw beyond the tragic circumstances of his times to the day when God would fulfill his promises, restore the land, and bless the people. Repent. Come back to God. God is kind and full of mercy. God is patient with his people and he keeps his promises. God is always willing to forgive and not to punish his people. God gives and God takes away; but God in the end, returns all things to his people. This is the joy of Lent ...

1783. A Baptism of Blood

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... future to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, identifying him as the Messiah; rather, Isaiah presents in poetic prophecy a job description of the kind of person that the Messiah will be and what tasks he will have to accomplish. He will be a suffering-servant savior. ... insult or betrayal; therefore, our reaction is to hate rather than to love. We know that it is more practical and more efficient to be kind than it is to be nasty and hot-tempered. But, when we have a splitting headache or we are in a bad mood, we do ...

1784. Windows Of Wonder

Sermon

James Angell

... and I've been obedient to you and Mom, and you never even had me and my friends in for hamburgers. But when this daughter of yours - who took half your money, and lived with all those beach bums - when she comes crawling back, you throw a party. What kind of justice is that?" The father, knowing there was a good bit of truth in what his son said, answered, "Son, you are upset; you forget. We have always been together. You, and your mother and I have lived together in comfort. We've eaten well. Your friends ...

1785. The Aim Of Preaching: To Bestow The Kiss Of Life

John 20:19-23

Sermon

James Angell

... the stars. What offer you to God, O Lights? Amenca's devotion. There's a saving optimism wrapped up within those words and phrases we may have lost. But it's not too late. Only too late if we give up on our ability to accommodate the kinds of changes that have brought us a new world of women, new worlds of opportunity for disabled persons, and for those who are sexually oriented in ways different from ourselves - perhaps even the faint beginnings of the end of racisms that have poisoned thinking for almost ...

1786. Whatever He Says - Do It!

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... are good souls, sensitive, but they look at the things in the world about them and say, "How can you square these with that kind of an idea - the birth of deformed children, the inexpressible horrors of war, the tragic injustices that surround us, the blind suffering that often ... has us in its grips? Either God is not in control, or, if he is, then he is certainly not the kind of God that Jesus taught us that he is." Must we conclude, then, that there is no God, or, if there is, he has ...

1787. The Drag Net

Matthew 13:47-52

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... catches a few fish with a pole. But suppose your job was to catch all of the fish in the lake. How would you do it? (See what kinds of answers you get.) Jesus knew how to catch all of the fish. Jesus said if it was your job to catch all of the fish you would ... misses one of us. I want to give you a piece of net this morning and you can keep it so that you will always remember what kind of love God has for us. God loves us so much and wants us to be with Him so much that He makes sure that He won't miss ...

1788. The Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Brett Blair

... law. The stage is set by Luke with these words: “Behold a lawyer stood up to put him to the test.” Well, it's not the first time and probably won’t be the last time that a lawyer phrased a trick question. It was the kind of question in which any kind of an answer would pose still further problems. It was a test question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life.” Now right away we know that this man was a Pharisee, because the Pharisees believed in eternal life and the Sadducees did not ...

1789. The Quality of Mercy

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

... . And, indeed, to keep ourselves in condition is important to us. Physical fitness is a great boon for wholesome living, and we are wise to do our walking or cycling or running or whatever exercise is necessary to keep ourselves physically fit. Well, here is another kind of conditioning, a conditioning of soul, of spirit, of the inner person. And we are well advised to see to it. If we want to be in condition to receive God's forgiveness, we need the exercise of forgiving others. And, believe me, really to ...

1790. A Change of Direction

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

... saying that "practice makes perfect." Of course it doesn't, but it does tend to do so, assuming that the practice is of the right kind. Some other kinds of practice can also tend to make imperfect. Most of us put on virtues or take them off like we put on fat or ... for me than against me," meaning: I'd rather start out doing the good thing and go from there, than start out doing any other kind of thing and get into that rut. Well, the way the world is, the way life is, most of us somewhere along the way need ...

1791. Is Christianity An Escape?

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... Easter: Theudas, Judas the Galilean, someone they called "The Egyptian," and Simon the magician. We could probably identify a host of false messiahs throughout history and in the present age. Surely Adolph Hitler was a depraved, self-advertised savior of the world. Another kind of false messiah keeps arising, to deceive us regarding a fundamental doctrine. In the fight for our souls I’m convinced the devil doesn’t want us to understand grace - undeserved love. I’ve been amazed at how hard it is for ...

1792. Christ the King A King Worth Having

John 12:12-19

Sermon

... then, he’d shied away from it. When he cleansed the lepers or gave the blind their sight or the lame full use of their limbs, he sternly told them not to tell anyone. He shrank from being called their Messiah, because to them this meant the wrong kind of king, the type not worth having. But now the time had come to take off the wrappings; the Messianic secret needed to come out. He’d do as several prophets before him had done, express himself in symbolic action. An example is when Ezekiel once took a ...

1793. Tomb for Sale

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

George Bass

... . It is almost a parallel to the story Jesus told about a father and two sons, "My son was dead but is alive again." Tobias had started searching for members of his long-separated family when he discovered that he had terminal cancer: "Until you get the kind of sickness like I got, you don’t appreciate a lot of things ... You get a new perspective, start appreciating stuff more. This thing is draining me little by little." John seems to have gained a new lease on life when he was reunited with his brother ...

1794. The Call of the Cross

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

... the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald and points out that he went from early success to a second phase where he sold himself out to Hollywood, drank too much and spent too much, and died at forty-three. But after death, he received more acclaim - a kind of third phase for his career - than he did while have. Epstein writes: "F. Scott Fitzgerald was quite wrong about there being no second acts in American lives, as his own life proves. Fitzgerald’s first act was that of the booming American success; his second ...

1795. Let God Be God

Zephaniah 3:1-20

Sermon

... may be desecrated. Regardless of whether we make them exclusive occupants of that sacred place, or merely ask God to share it with them, we put our souls in jeopardy. As many of the Old Testament writers were keenly aware, God is a jealous God. He does not take kindly to the idea of being asked to fit into a pantheon of deities. We cannot expect to find the blessings of peace, happiness, and fulfillment that God wants us to have so long as we deny him full sovereignty in our lives. In his description of the ...

1796. Everybody Pray!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

... Gospel is for everyone. Christ Jesus came into this world to be savior of all the world. The message of the cross, the glories and satisfaction of Christian prayer, are meant to be experienced and shared by all people everywhere. All tribal barriers and any other kind of human barriers are on the way out wherever Jesus Christ reigns. As the famous Protestant hymn puts it: In Christ there is no East or West In Him no South or North, But one great fellowship of love, Throughout the whole wide earth. With this ...

1797. Bringing Back the Shine

Romans 6:6

Children's Sermon

... the metal is starting to shine and if I wanted to repaint it I think it would be as good as new and maybe even better. That is kind of like the way we are, God says. When he made us originally he made us perfect, bright and shiny. But as we grow up we sin ... we look to God. But then we think that we had better take a better look and begin to ask how Jesus wants us to be. It’s kind of hard to work or play or do anything when you’re rusty or fulled with sin. You just get slower and slower and feel worse and ...

1798. The Most Important Prize

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Children's Sermon

... won? Terrific! What do you get when you finish a race and everyone is behind you? [Again let them answer.] A prize. What kind of a prize do you receive? [Ribbons, candy, etc.] Did you know that in the big races where men from different schools or countries ... the fastest runner in the world has ever won. How many of you know what the prize is for the Christian with great faith? [See what kind of answers you get.] Life, eternal life is the prize. It is a gift from God for all the people who use the faith that ...

1799. A Clanging Cymbal

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Children's Sermon

... of fun to do it once or even twice, but can you imagine doing it every few minutes? Instead of saying, "Good morning, and how are you?" you would only hear six bangs from these cymbals. That is kind of frightening, but that is what St. Paul says some people sound like when they talk. Now you might say, "What kind of person talks like that? I have never heard anyone make noises like a cymbal." Well, people who talk like that are people who speak without love. They have no love and so they simply rattle and ...

1800. Patterned After Jesus

1 Peter 2:21

Children's Sermon

... , but look what happens when we are the same way. [Take another piece of paper and begin to punch holes in that sheet using the Jesus paper as a pattern.] If we use Jesus as an example and his life as a pattern, then we also will pray and do kind things for people and never try to hurt others, and we will keep our promises. Now, look at what happens when we follow Jesus. Even though we may be a different shape and have a different color, we can be a lot like him. When we follow Jesus like this ...

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