Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2301 to 2325 of 3160 results

John 6:24-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... it, he realized that there would not be very much to say beyond place of birth, job, family, and so on. He began to compose the kind of obituary for himself that he would like to have written. In it he included all sorts of church activities and community service, involvement with young people, his community, support for the various educational institutions, help with the United Way — one worthwhile activity after another. When the obituary was finished, he was most impressed, but at the same time, most ...

2302. Being a Christian “Survivor”

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Survivor — after all these years on television, you are familiar with the concept — castaway contestants on an isolated beach in search of adventure and a $1-million grand prize — sort of Gilligan's Island meets Regis Philbin. They compete in twisted survival games, jungle obstacles, swimming relays, and larva eating. Even more harrowing, they gather for a "tribal council" at the end of every episode, and after, "the tribe has spoken," one more contestant is booted off the island. The ...

2303. Sex, Sex, and More Sex

Song of Songs 2:8-13

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... was the author - granted he was a lusty fellow with 700 wives and 300 concubines, but that in itself, in my view, would mitigate against his authorship (when would he have had time?). More likely, Solomon's name became attached to the book in some sort of dedication. The original-language title of this book (Song of Solomon) is a Hebrew way of talking about the finest song just as "king of kings" means the greatest king. Somebody, somewhere, way back, thought these love poems were the best of the bunch ...

2304. The Living Advent Wreath (Hope: Purple Candle of the Moon)

Isaiah 40:1-31

Drama

Frank Ramirez

... don’t go on their own errands. They send others for them. Guide: (laughs) I am forgetting. We are speaking about the kings of the world again. It is very hard for them to come and to go, to fetch and to carry, and to bear for many ... Pilgrim: What sort of king comes on his own? What would people think of such a king? Guide: What would they think, indeed. Pilgrim: You know, I have looked for your king. I have asked after your king. But everyone in the castle seems to know the king, yet has not seen him ...

2305. The Living Advent Wreath (Trust: Purple Candle of the Magi)

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7, Isaiah 61:1-11

Drama

Frank Ramirez

... ills cannot be changed. Guide: So you are content to return, even without the fulfillment of your mission? Pilgrim: Surely faith, hope, and love are enough. Guide: Perhaps they are. Yet, there is persistence. Even against the sneer of a skeptical world. Pilgrim: So what sort of answers can we give to those who are not believers? Guide: First we must not give up on such people. “God does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” (Isaiah 40:28). “So let us not grow weary in doing what ...

2306. When Did This Start? — Part 1

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... what Jesus would make of that scene? Why, he might have wondered, were those shoppers shoving each other around? To make a way for the Lord, to make his paths straight, or to be first in line to honor Jesus' birth? A friend of mine reflected that the sort of holiday that brings about department-store riots has long since lost any resemblance whatsoever to the celebration of the Messiah's birth. How easy it is to get caught up in the rush, and end up "doing the very thing we hate" (see Romans 7:15). How ...

2307. Just Say the Word

John 1:1-9, 10-18

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... word brought by runners are represented in the image of the word of God in Psalm 147: "He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly." We are meant not to think of one-way communication from God to people, but rather the two-way sort in which runners earned their keep carrying messages back and forth — the swifter the runner, the better the communication. God's word comes to us as if by the swiftest runner, as if by the miracle of a heavenly internet, God desires to touch us with his word ...

2308. Can Anything Good Come out of Our Town?

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... the people of the church may give to one another. Thanks to God and to congregations of believers, pastors are called to work in Christ's church with useful work to do for the sake of something greater than themselves. Christians can give each other gifts of this sort, because of the gift of the calling that God has given each of us to share. And in the process of being the church, I suspect that we have often discovered that there is more in us than we had ever suspected was there. Nathaniel said of Jesus ...

2309. Skin Game

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... , there is no misery' to accept a new perspective — ‘where there is misery, there is the Messiah.' "1 Naturally, we have our own modern versions of the skin game that was practiced in Jesus' day. Of course, we can be subtle about it. Yet we have our own sorts of lepers that we put away from the comfort of human community in order not to have to see them face-to-face. We have in Africa and elsewhere the increasing and tragic roll call of victims of the AIDS virus; we have prisons full to overflowing with ...

2310. Jesus at Home

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... calling to be open to the word and to minister to human need. For whatever reason people may have needed to get in, this congregation was committed to finding a way. As long as forgiveness is the way of our faith, it's a little like maintaining a sort of hole in our otherwise self-satisfied spiritual roof, a reminder that we need to let more into our understanding of what it means to be in the presence of Jesus than what we already know about our faith, an essential reminder that Jesus not only has the ...

2311. Curiosity and Questions

John 3:1-7

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When I was sorting through household items in Minnesota, preparing for a move to Florida, I came across my old Nancy Drew mysteries. The pages were worn, some had my childhood scribbles on them, the pictures on the covers had started to fade. The question was, "Should I keep them or not?" Reluctantly, I ...

2312. God’s Anthills

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... heatstroke. There was no Quik-Trip in sight, not even a village. Where were they to get food for such a large hungry crowd? But Jesus just says, "Go and see what you have to share." Back to the anthills. Ants of different varieties build very different sorts of houses. Carpenter ants make their homes in the trunks of trees. Weaver ants weave nests out of tree leaves. Some ants build homes under ground and some on top like the African ants. Some anthills are so large they would cover a tennis court. Almost ...

2313. The Final Exam

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Steven Molin

... Jimmy Carter presented the commencement address to the graduating class at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He shared the story of a young college freshman who overslept for the final exam in geometry and pleaded for mercy from his professor. The professor granted it — sort of. "If you provide an accurate answer for one question, I will submit a passing grade for you." Without much choice, the student agreed. Here is the question: "If I give you a barometer, how can you use it to determine the height of ...

2314. Ollie, Ollie, All In Free!

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Steven Molin

... try to conceal that from one another." In human terms, what he was saying is that cows are honest with one another about who they are and what they do. They don't try to hide it. They don't try to pretend that good cows don't do that sort of thing. It's cow nature! And yet, our prideful human nature is to conceal our sins and our shortcoming so that people will think more highly of us. That is dishonest. Of course, the best example of hiding in human history is the story of Adam and Eve. They ...

2315. They Call It Grace

2 Peter 3:8-15

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... book, What's So Amazing About Grace, tells the story of a pastor who was battling with his fifteen-year-old daughter. He knew she was using birth control and on several nights would not bother to come home at all. The parents tried all sorts of punishments but nothing changed — in fact, the more they pushed, the more rebellious she became. The daughter even turned the tables on them and blamed them saying, "It's your fault for being so strict." The pastor basically said, "I remember standing before the ...

2316. It’s God’s Will?

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... will to take the life of a young boy's mom? Now that I'm getting older, I plan on seeing her again, soon. Before I do, I'd like to hear what you think about God's will." That question and Paul's words in Ephesians 1 raise all sorts of questions. I bet before his mother died, the doctors worked hard on her for some time, using their very best medical knowledge. Were they working against God's will? I don't know the circumstances surrounding her death, but if it was a car accident — was God at the ...

2317. Integrity: Words with Meaning

2 Corinthians 1:18-22

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

Integrity means that your words have meaning. Paul writes, "... am I like people of the world who say yes when they really mean no? As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes" (2 Corinthians 1:17-18b NLT). That is extremely important today because more and more we are surrounded by meaningless words. You can't turn on the radio without an announcer yelling at you that there has never been a better time to buy ...

2318. Who Will Vouch for Me?

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... , and sexism. But the winning essay describing the problem with the world was actually the shortest. Just two words. "I am." It's true, you know. From the first chapters of Genesis, God reveals the problem with this world. It would be easy to point the finger at all sorts of problems from society to greed to being bottle-fed as a child. But the Bible clearly points the finger where it is due. What's the problem with the world? I am. And if this is true, then who will vouch for me? Years ago, Notre Dame ...

2319. The Season of Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... Ash Wednesday is the day when we enter into an annual pilgrimage that takes us from the grave that none of us can escape to the surprising gift of an empty tomb that changes everything. No doubt some of you may have already entered into some sort of Lenten discipline, like increasing your Bible reading or, God forbid ... giving up chocolate. Before we travel too far on our Lenten journey, let's look for some guidance from the scriptures. The Lenten verse from Joel that we sing in our Lutheran liturgy serves ...

2320. Genuine Hope

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... t bear to accept the truth ... that death really does have the last word for us. In other words, the fact that eternal life is so appealing often makes me question whether it might not be a foolish hope on my part. The theologian, Paul Tillich, has helped me sort through that. He makes a distinction between a genuine hope and a foolish hope. Tillich says that where there is genuine hope, that which we hope for is already present for us in some form. What we hope for is at the same time here and not here. It ...

2321. Nocturnal Christians?

1 John 1:1—2:2

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... be followers of Jesus. When John wrote his letters near the end of the first century, he might well have been the last breathing apostle. He lived through a time when this new religion that came to be called Christianity was being formed. People were sorting it out as they went. Much of what we take for granted as basic Christianity 101 was still emerging: how to worship God, appropriate ways to support one another in community, the doctrine of the Trinity, the mystery of the incarnation, what, if anything ...

2322. Love in Action

1 John 3:16-24

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... there is a part of us that believes they are poor because of something they did. Their poverty is a consequence of the way they have lived their lives. When we give to the poor, we often give the stuff that we don't want. If you've ever sorted through clothing that people have given to the poor, it's amazing how many pieces of clothing have little price stickers on them. By that I don't mean price stickers from clothing stores, I mean the kind of homemade price stickers you use for garage sales. People try ...

2323. The Vision of God

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... so that we can also seek to change some of our spiritual orientation and some of our behavior in order to lessen the pain of our thorns. Ultimately, though, much of our suffering and pain comes from our mortality and our finitude. We are in decay of some sort all of our lives, and living with the knowledge of our own mortality can itself be a thorn in the flesh. Whatever the source of our thorns, we should approach them as Paul does in these verses: seeking God's healing power. This is the second level of ...

2324. Interceding for Us Now

Hebrews 7:23-28

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

... up to God. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord because he has said that whatever we ask in his name will be given to us. "In Jesus name we pray." This is not a cheap phrase, one to be used lightly, as though it were some sort of magical formula which will guarantee God's receptivity to our prayers. Rather as we pray in the name of Jesus we recall his unceasing work on our behalf interceding for us before the throne of God. Having been called to serve as the great high priest by God, Jesus ...

2325. Hope on The Day of Judgment

Hebrews 9:24-28

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

... priest in that eternal holy place, Jesus will return, not as a child but rather "coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30). His return will usher in judgment, and judgment will usher in punishment, and punishment could usher in all sorts of things I am not sure that I want to think about. Although, I suspect that the wife of that deceased member may already have worked out in her own mind the punishment for those unnamed sins of her husband. Living in this moment, all would ...

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