Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2226 to 2250 of 3926 results

2226. Warning To The Clueless Enthusiasts

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... , but not literally. In this fourteenth chapter of Luke, our Lord tells us something very important, but we might miss the truth if we take his words literally. Let me explain. Luke says that Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem. A large crowd of supporters accompanies him. The Master knows trouble waits at the end of the journey. His popularity is limited to the north around the Sea of Galilee. The joyous attitude demonstrated by his companions does not extend to Jerusalem. In that great urban center, the Lord ...

2227. Can You Hear Me Now?

Exodus 3:1-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... Zusya, when he was an old man, said, "In the coming world, they will not ask me: ˜Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me: ˜Why were you not Zusya?' "6 Moses the excuse-maker becomes Moses the liberator as God's call and support comes clear. Our liberator is Jesus Christ who liberates and frees so we may be exactly what God intends. 1. Arley K. Fadness, Holy Moses (Custer, South Dakota: Onesimus Press, 2004). 2. Terence Y. Mullins, "Some Words About ..." Lutheran Partners magazine, July/August, 1991. 3 ...

2228. Grace for a Complaining People

Exodus 16:2-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... . The wilderness smells of death, for here the necessities for survival are lacking, and when the necessities for life are found wanting, there erupts a crisis of faith. Then, as the Children of Israel become acutely aware of inadequate food, water, and life support, this in turn brings on not only a crisis of faith, but also a crisis of leadership. The Israelites attack the leadership of Moses and Aaron, the deliverers out of bondage. The anxiety of the Israelites distorts the memory of the recent past ...

2229. Writing the Law on Our Hearts

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... the immaturity, and look at the issues, we realize we don't know exactly what God thinks. Both sides in any theological debate are positive God is on their side, but who knows for sure? The fact that honest and sincere church people can claim God's support for opposite sides of a debate only highlights that God's true will can be confusing. If we don't know what God wants, God seems even further away. Sometimes God seems far away because somewhere in our past our understanding of God got all twisted up ...

2230. Healing the Pain from the Past

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... , is a part of who we are, and maybe even has robbed our lives of joy. Overcoming such pain is not easy or quick. Ezekiel assures us, though, that God knows our pain, cares about our pain, and is seeking us out to bring us wholeness. Sometimes, God works through support groups, pastoral counseling, or therapy. We do not have to give in to the pain; we do not have to let it win. God is working for us and in us. Let us open ourselves to God's grace. Let us allow ourselves to trust God. Let us embrace hope ...

2231. Passing and Failing

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... meanest, worst teacher on earth would not administer such a test, so surely God would not do so. No one, even those with the very best minds, knows why certain things happen. We don't know why a young single mother gets sick and can no longer work to support her children. We don't know why violent storms brew up, snuffing out lives that have barely begun. We can't answer the why question, but surely these things do not happen just simply so God can mark our papers "pass" or "fail." We also want to affirm ...

2232. The Model of Success

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... in it, you'll be taking a risk. But wouldn't it be exciting. I have just returned from a mission in Mexico, sponsored by MercyHospital, here in San Diego, and by Rotary International. Thirteen doctors from this city, and twice that number of nurses and other support staff, total of about fifty-five persons, paid their own way to go down as a surgical team to minister to poor children in Tehuacan, in the southern part of Mexico. The call went out through the Rotary Club in that city for all those who do ...

2233. Jesus' Most Perplexing Parable

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... a loving father welcomes back a wayward child who has just frittered away his inheritance on fast living. Luke 16 opens by indicating Jesus turned his attention away from those who were trying to undermine his ministry, the scribes and Pharisees, toward those who support him, his disciples. Remember that these folks have just overheard the story about the kid welcomed home after having wasted the family's money. His father gave him a party and did not even tell him, "I told you so." Let me extrapolate on ...

2234. Expectancy

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

... lives in faithful expectancy. A Texas pastor was talking with an older member of his church when the conversation shifted to a certain family whose young daughter had been injured in an accident and was apparently brain-dead. They had felt compelled to terminate her life support. The situation had been a burden on the hearts of all who knew them. When the subject came up, the older man looked off into the distance and said, "You know, preacher, I used to work in the oil fields." At first the pastor thought ...

2235. The Incarnation: What and Why?

Hebrews 2:10-18

Sermon

James L. Killen

... halfheartedly until they could find another job where they could coach a winning team. If they didn't quit before the year was over, the college administrators fired them at the end of their losing season because the alumni who contributed to the support of the athletic program believed that they should be able to buy a coach who could produce a winning team. The news media sports reporters finally began to make their own sport of composing derogatory jokes about the losingest team in the league. Then ...

2236. The Reward

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Sermon

James L. Killen

... will be rewarded on the basis of how well we build. Paul said that he had laid the foundation by preaching to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. If a person or a community builds on any other foundation, they are building something that cannot last. No other foundation can support the structure. So what are we to build on? We are to build on a knowledge that God is, and that God loves us all, and that God is at work in our lives and in our world to save. As individuals and as churches - and as a universal ...

2237. Dealing with Criticism

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Sermon

James L. Killen

... party or from people of equally high principles who have a different idea about how to solve the world's problems. They will know that, in order to be effective, they will have to make some political compromises and that they will have to support some proposals that are part good and part bad. Almost every decisive political action has a "down side" to it. They will have to endure criticism for this, even from their friends and from themselves. But, there are some political groups that have intentionally ...

2238. A Christian's Resumé

2 Corinthians 6:3-13

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... for the mistake! And Paul recognizes this fact when he says: "We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry" (2 Corinthians 6:3). A small boy was closely watching a neighboring pastor build a wooden trellis to support a climbing vine in his garden. The boy did not say a word the entire time that he watched. Pleased at the thought that his work was being admired, the pastor finally said to the boy, "Well, son, trying to pick up some pointers on gardening?" "No ...

2239. Access Denied

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... wings above the beautiful gardens, it was condemned to spend its brief life crawling in the dust. Suffering produces endurance; endurance produces character. When he was seven years old, his family was forced out of their home on a legal technicality, and he had to work to help support them. At age nine, his mother died. At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school, but his education wasn't good enough. At 23, he went into debt to become a partner in a small store. At 26, his ...

2240. Temptation of the Palms

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... want to get something for our efforts. Those people standing along the roadside on Palm Sunday were willing to give it up for Jesus, only if they got something in return. They would cheer Jesus on as long as he took them where they wanted to go. They would support Jesus as long as he fulfilled the role they had picked out for him. But let Jesus waver from the path they wanted him to walk down, and suddenly he was walking alone. We human beings are a fickle lot. We listen to speakers to hear what they have ...

2241. Sheep that Count

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... during a time when being a follower of Jesus was not a very pleasant nor always positive experience. Throw in the fact that Peter's audience for this particular text included slaves, and you can understand why the writer felt especially compelled to offer words of support and encouragement. Peter doesn't tell them to find a way out of their rut. He doesn't instruct them on how to rebel against slavery and fight for freedom. Instead, he tells them that Jesus is to be their example in all things. That, even ...

2242. The Eyes of Your Heart

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... in the stock market or have insured by Lloyd's of London. They are riches that can only be seen through the eyes of your heart. They come in the form of blessings. They are blessings seen in the love of another person. Blessings that flow from the support of a circle of friends called the church. Blessings that will come to pass in an eternal life with a loving and compassionate God who will take care of all our needs forever and ever. We are wealthy people. 3. The immeasurable greatness of his power. We ...

2243. A Holy-wood Ending

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... 'll still be poor, but you'll be used to it after that." Peter tells us that we will be exalted "in due time." He describes our time of suffering with Christ as "a little while." Following that "little while" he says that the God of all grace will "restore, support, strengthen, and establish" us. Are you one of those people who has to skip to the end of a novel shortly after starting it just to see how it ends? Do you rent movies and fast-forward to the end before you've watched the whole movie just to ...

2244. Beautiful Feet

Romans 10:5-15

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... . This odd sentence is: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." It is strange enough to call feet beautiful. Most often we think of feet in a much more utilitarian context, as something we stand on and walk on, our basic support for standing upright. People who spend substantial amounts of time focusing on the beauty of feet are generally known as "fetishists." More often we are about as familiar with our feet as the peasant in a story told by the nineteenth-century theologian Soren ...

2245. Struggles, Death, and Christ

Philippians 1:21-30

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... missionary who spoke to a congregation about the work being accomplished in remote mission fields. After the worship a gentleman approached the missionary and said he was sorry he couldn't go proclaim the gospel in a remote field, but he had a family to support. The missionary allowed the man to explain his situation, and finally it came out that the man was the engineer of a train. The missionary smiled and asked, "And what about your fireman? Is he a Christian?" What about your fireman? Tell him the good ...

2246. Always?

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

Rick Brand

... faith produces in the heart and mind of the believer. Faith is that which links our facts to meaning. Faith is that which leaps into the unknown by trusting the unseen. Emily Dickinson, the gentle recluse of a poet, describes the work of faith: "Faith - is the Pierless Bridge Supporting what we see Unto the scene that we do not - Too slender for the eye." The work of faith is to seek understanding; its job is to take us from the facts and carry us toward meaning. It is the work of faith to provide us a way ...

2247. Have You Got a Prayer?

Luke 3:21-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... this parental image. It is tempting to think of it in terms of dependency, the way that small children are dependent upon their parents. But it is not like that. It is like the relationship of a parent to an adult child, not intervening, but loving and supporting, being there. Not the love that protects, but the love that empowers. It was that way with Jesus. God did not protect Jesus from all of the vicissitudes, the pains and problems of this human life. In fact, that was one of the temptations that the ...

2248. Let Us Pray

James 5:13-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... who has sinned, and they confess their sin, then pray for them. If you take James seriously, prayer is what the Church ought to be spending its time doing. But for some of us, especially us Methodists, that is such a radical idea it needs an argument in order to support it. So I want to offer two reasons for making prayer the primary agenda for the life of the Church. The first reason is because we know what prayer will do. The second reason is, we don't know what prayer will do. Which might lead you to say ...

2249. Now Stand Up Straight!

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... every eight minutes in this country. According to the FBI, one out of every two women is beaten at some point during her marriage. To bring the point even closer to home, she wrote about a group of women in the Sojourners Community who got together for support. They were all middle class, educated women. So it is not just a phenomenon of the poor, or a certain class of people. Every woman in the group confirmed that she had at some time been the object of unwanted advances by professors in college, or by ...

2250. Stirring Things Up

Mark 13:1-8, Hebrews 10:11-25

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... 20th century could understand what the text was about. Then one day it occurred to me that when I was describing the first century, I was also describing the end of the 20th century. It's not that much different. We live in a world that does not support Christian values, "so let us not neglect to come together...to encourage one another." You notice that when they came together, they were supposed to "stir things up." I love that. It says, "Let us stir up one another in love and good works." It assumes that ...

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