Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2151 to 2175 of 4884 results

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... ." (Mark 5:39) Paul said to the Corinthian Christians, "We shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed ..." (1 Corinthians 15:51) Now that’s not scary, is it? The Christian can face death with confidence, trust, fearlessness, calm, and perfect peace. Because it is facing the unknown, many people are afraid of death. A minister came to me recently and requested prayer because he was literally terrified when he thought about his own death. I know another pastor who is very insecure when he ...

2152. "Hold Your Horses!"

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... butterfly out of its cocoon before it is time, it will die. If you rush a chick from the shell, it will die. Joseph was in prison for two years before God freed him. Two years is a long time to be unjustly incarcerated, but his freedom worked out perfectly in the program of God, so that he could be the one who saved Egypt and his own people from starvation when the famine came. So, "Hold your horses!" Wait with patience. God is never off schedule, never ahead of time, never behind time, but always ON time!

2153. Power to Forgive

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... revenge for the wrong he had received, he painted his companion’s portrait as Judas in his great picture. After he had done this, his work was complete except for the face of our blessed Lord. It was da Vinci’s ambition to paint the noblest and most perfect portrait of Christ that had ever been put on canvas; but try as he did, he could not succeed. In the meantime, his conscience was working, and at last he took his brush and painted out his companion’s portrait and forgave him his wrong. That night ...

2154. Sinners Anonymous

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... a fundamentally wrong concept of Salvation. Where did that concept come from? It must have come from the Christian community.) (2) "When you goof, your husband will also do something else. And, believe me, you will goof sooner or later. You may go just perfectly for weeks. Then the kids might get you down, the pressures will be very great, you will suddenly explode, and there may be shrapnel all over. You are going to feel miserable, because with that explosion your understanding of Christ is going to be ...

2155. Echoes of Eternity

Matthew 10:24-32

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... which moths and rust do not consume and where thieves cannot break into and steal. He desires for us the treasure of eternal life in heaven, a treasure with blessings already in this life from him who has promised, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is fixed on Thee." (Isaiah 26:3) This encouragement should impel us to draw daily upon God’s word by diligently studying it’s gospel promises, to pray regularly in the name of Jesus in thankfulness for all blessings, to faithfully confess ...

2156. The Stiller of Storms

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... says: "... In thy presence there is fulness of joy, in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalm 16:11) However, Scripture does promise Christians internal peace even though they are surrounded by the storms of life. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace ..." (Isaiah 26:3) The Scriptures reveal the ONE who speaks a sure word of peace to the tempest-tossed soul. Whether it be Nicodemus, troubled with important questions, or a dying thief haunted by his past sins, or the Apostle Peter strangely ...

2157. No Other Way To Be Happy

Deuteronomy 11:1-32

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... happy and blessed, we are in God’s Obedience School to learn how to obey. The second session of the course is teaching us that obedience brings rewards. Is there anything wrong in giving rewards or accepting rewards? Years ago we gave pins as a reward for perfect Sunday School attendance. If we did our homework and memorized golden texts, the teacher gave us a reward of a Bible picture or even a whole Bible. Some parents give their children a dollar as a reward for every A on their report cards. Then, we ...

2158. What’s God Going to Do With You?

Hosea 5:1-15, Hosea 6:1--7:16

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... promises to heal our brokenness if and when we return to him. How can God do this? Remember that God is by nature love, and love is the greatest healing power in the universe. Love restores a broken relationship by forgiveness. The cross is the perfect expression of God’s love, and by this cross God and sinners are reconciled. It applies also to human relations. When McGruder was released from prison where he spent seven months for his part in the Watergate scandal, his wife, Gail, tied a yellow ribbon ...

2159. Who Are God’s People?

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... scattered among all nations. The emphasis is not to be placed upon "nation" but upon "holy." What does it mean to be a holy people? To be holy is to be different from the world. God is holy and the world is sinful. The world is imperfect, but God is perfect. To be holy is to be different from the world by being like God. "Be holy, for I am holy." "Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful." The problem is that we, the people of God, are not what we ought to be - holy. This is the lament ...

2160. We Are Driven!

Jeremiah 20:7-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... At the risk of her life, she appeared uninvited in the king’s presence to accuse Haman of his plans to kill the Jews of the land. Take another model for us. King David committed adultery and murder in order to add Bathsheba to his harem. It was the almost perfect crime until God sent the prophet, Nathan, to condemn David for his sin - "You are the man!" In a day when wickedness is in high places and cases of injustice are common, people who have the fire of love in their bones need to speak up and cry out ...

2161. A King Worth Having

Zechariah 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... captive to Satan and to sin as well as to ourselves. Christ frees us from the necessity of keeping the law of God to be acceptable to God. Christ has fulfilled the law for us. Thus, our obedience does not put us in right relations with the Father. By his perfect obedience, Christ satisfied the demands of the Law. We are accepted out of pure grace. Oh yes, we still have the law and we live by the law, but not to gain favor with God but because we already have favor for Christ’s sake. What a load that takes ...

2162. The Danger of Being Religious

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... ? The answer is in Christ. The truth of God is incarnated, impersonated, and personified in Jesus who said, "I am the truth." Christ is the whole and ultimate truth of God. We need look no farther for greater truth. God’s last word is Christ, the perfect revelation of the Father. Again, you may protest that the truth as Christ is too broad for us to know. The church comes to our rescue with the ecumenical creeds: Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian. Since the first century, the church has summed up the whole ...

2163. Two Bodies for Two Worlds

Isaiah 26:1-21

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... one time, we could climb steps two at a time; now we find it hard to go one step at a time. There used to be days when we could work for twelve hours, but now we are tired at the end of an eight-hour day. This decline is perfectly normal and natural, It is according to divine plan. Death, like all the rest of nature, is a normal and natural experience. God created humanity out of dust and to dust we shall return. Our text refers to the dead as dust: "O dwellers of the dust." For us, all ...

2164. A Book Which Reads Us

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... and minds? Some thirty years ago, Carl Jung, the great psychoanalyst, tried to explain why so many people were fascinated by UFO phenomena. He wrote: "We are all born to believe. The eyes may be wrong, but the psyche is right. We are all looking for a perfect model of ourselves." C. S. Lewis made the same point when he observed: Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all ...

2165. Out of the Darkness

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... all the have-nots who continue to suffer from bigotry in an economy which has no place for them. I do not mean to say this relieves them of moral responsibility for their deeds. It does not. But really, what do we expect? We know perfectly well that cruel poverty breeds desperation, and that desperation in turn breeds crime. The real issue is that this country has failed to address the causes of poverty. Which brings me at last to the nuclear freeze. President Eisenhower made this connection between poverty ...

2166. Loving Unconditionally

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... religions and of Christians who hold to different doctrines - not because they are all the same anyway, but because the primary claim God makes on us is not to get our theologies right, but to love each other, unconditionally. St. Paul understood this perfectly. No one was more argumentative than he. He seems to have enjoyed a good theological row. No one had more definite ideas about what theological formulations were true to God’s work in Christ, and what theology was misleading. His letter to Rome ...

2167. Jesus' Consecration

Matthew 3:13-17

Illustration

Brett Blair

... pertinent, though often overlooked, point: great and prominent positions indicate skill and capacity, but small services suggest the depth of one's consecration. And so it is with Jesus' Baptism. He submits to John's baptism of repentance even though he himself was perfect and had no need to repent. Jesus identified with our sins by being baptized. He joined in the popular movement of his day. It was a grass roots movement started by a desert monk named John the Baptist. John was calling for the repentance ...

2168. Messages From God

Matthew 3:13-17

Illustration

Brett Blair

... rules to go by and we want to be told how to behave and what we should do. The Ten Commandments do this for us but we slowly found out --through centuries and centuries of countless sins and human atrocities--that we were not able to abide by them, not perfectly. So what is God to do? Take out an add campaign on our city buses and billboards? No, I don't think so. Instead he does something very different. He says, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." What a difference! Instead of rules ...

2169. Jeopardy, by Jeremiah

Jeremiah 23:9-32

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

... you helps you. He is generous, tender, and understanding. He affirms you and me - says "yes" to our feeble attempts at living and loving. He gives us hope, teaches us to trust, and fills us with courage. And then - Then like "a whirling tempest" from out of a perfectly mellow and pretty life style comes a growl of anger from God Almighty. Notice, it’s from God all mighty, and that "might" that power is what makes that anger so terrifying. What can we do with an angry God? We could, and we do, direct the ...

2170. The Church’s Fear and Comfort

Acts 9:19b-31

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

... no union. Once you accept the job, you are his for eight, ten, twelve hours a day. To make matters worse, he doesn’t often make himself visible to his employees, and rumors shared at the lunch room tell of his ruthlessness, his demands for perfection from all employees, and some terrible displays of temper. Once, it is said, he flooded out a whole valley by building a big dam. He needed electricity for his operation, but he never bothered to consult the inhabitants of the region. Another time he destroyed ...

2171. Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Carroll Gunkel

... Williams took seriously the injunction of the contemporary hymn: Let there be peace on earth, And let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, The peace that was meant to be. With God as our Father, Brothers all are we. Let me walk with my brother In perfect harmony. Let peace begin with me; Let this be the moment now. With every step I take, Let this be my solemn vow; To take each moment, and live each moment in peace eternally! Let there be peace on earth, And let it begin with me.6 1. Richard ...

2172. Eternal Echo Of Easter - Part 1

Matthew 28:1-10

Drama

Esther R. Russ

... and under the protection of a simple stable roof, the King of the World was born. Joseph wrapped him in swaddling clothes I had brought from home. When Joseph laid the baby in my arms, my heart leaped with the greatest joy I had ever known. This perfect child, born of God through me, was to become the Savior of the World! 4. JESUS’ MINISTRY - Narration Narrator: Thirty years later, Jesus began to carry the message of his Father far and wide. The news of his love and miracles spread quickly over the Judean ...

2173. "At Beneficial You’re Good for More"

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

Peter Rudowski

... to Christmas, we too need to hear those words from our heavenly father; in God’s kingdom we are good for more. We too have our hopes and our dreams. We too look forward to the day when we will have all our needs met. We too hope for the perfect system in government, at work, in our homes, where no tension, pain, frustration, or strife exist. We too want to be able to give so much even though we are not able. Often when the dreams that we have are not met, we feel full of despair. We feel hopeless ...

2174. Gabriel Speaks to Mary

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

George Bass

... have written the lines in the script if he wished; he knew her well - and loved and trusted her completely. Why else would he have chosen her to become the Mother of his Messiah? It is in Mary - from our perspective as well as God’s - that the perfect submission of believers in God first surfaces in conjunction with Christ and his continuing mission in the world. Mary is a model for all of the saints of God. Someone once said: "A saint is simply a person to whom God has given strength to take his basic ...

2175. The Joy of Sorrow?

Matthew 5:4

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... world." When we look for some secret way to accept and overcome our trouble, we find that in the New Testament trouble is not punishment, but opportunity. Trouble gives us a chance to build our lives after the pattern of Jesus Christ who was "made perfect through suffering." Pick up the New Testament and read the letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to those first century churches. He writes about how he has personally suffered because of some "thorn in his flesh." He says he prayed three times that it might ...

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