Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2301 to 2325 of 4935 results

2301. In the Bleak Mid-Winter

Isaiah 55:1-3, Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The emphasis throughout the Advent season is typically about God’s gift to us—“of the Father’s love begotten”—Jesus, the gift of God’s love. Also, the ministry of Jesus—His gifts to us: to us who think we have everything are to us when we think we have nothing. Our theme hymn today forces another focus. The question is not “what is God’s Christmas gift to us?” Instead, what is our gift to God? What does Christ want from us? It isn’t that our Scripture asks the question. The meaning of the word preach is “ ...

2302. Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians’ Faith

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

1:1 · Epistolary Greeting: In the ancient world, people believed that letters brought one into the presence of an absent person. Seneca (Moral Epistles 75.1) said, “I never receive a letter from you without being forthwith in your presence.” First Thessalonians and other apostolic letters fill the gap left by the separation of the founders from the church (2:17–18; 3:6, 10–11). Greek letters began with the name of the author, followed by a greeting and a prayer or thanksgiving. Although the form of 1 ...

2303. Zophar

Job 11:1-20

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

11:1 The last of Job’s three friends makes his debut with rather breathtaking harshness. Zophar rejects Job’s claim to righteousness and even undermines his integrity by classifying Job’s claims as idle mockery which cannot go uncontested. The key to Zophar’s viewpoint is found in 11:6, where he clearly states that Job’s suffering is the result of his sin and is even less severe than deserved. While Zophar does hold out hope for Job, it has little to do with a confrontation with God. Such a collision would ...

2304. The Woman on the Beast

Revelation 17:1-18

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

17:1–2 Within the framework of Revelation, the vision of Babylon’s prostitute and her punishment functions as part of an extended footnote (17:1–19:10) that describes the contents of “the cup filled with the wine of the fury” of God’s wrath (16:19b). Its complexity and even confusion have led some to question John’s sources (cf. Beasley-Murray, Revelation, pp. 249–50). However, this betrays a failure to read the story as a wonderfully crafted “mystery,” in agreement with the clue provided by the angelic ...

2305. Jeroboam Rebels Against Solomon

1 Kings 11:26-40

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

Opposition and Death: A divided heart will lead to a divided kingdom: that was effectively God’s promise to Solomon in 11:9–13. This last section on the great king pursues this theme of division. It tells us of still further seeds of destruction that were planted in the earlier part of his reign and have now grown into plants whose shadow looms darkly over the kingdom. It tells of opposition on the edges of the empire, and it introduces for the first time the man who will be the focal point of that same ...

2306. Solomon's Death

1 Kings 11:41-43

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

2307. The Lord Appears to Elijah

1 Kings 19:9-18

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

Elijah and the LORD: Elijah has been involved in a mighty battle. He seems to think it decisive and so he has left the battlefield for Jezreel. Yet there have been several hints in the narrative thus far that it is the queen, and not the king, who is the real general of the opposing forces. She will not be so easily cowed as her husband, and Elijah is now to see that to win a battle is not necessarily to win the war. That realization will send him into retreat, both physical and mental, as victory becomes ...

2308. The Call of Elisha

1 Kings 19:19-21

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

2309. God's Mercy and Israel's Unfaithfulness

Isaiah 43:14-28

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

The Restoration of a Blind and Deaf Servant, I: After the parallel sequences of prophecies in 41:1–20 and 41:21–42:17 have come to their natural end in praise, a new pair of sequences begins. First Yahweh directly confronts Jacob-Israel about its capacity to fulfill the servant role (42:18–25). Then Jacob-Israel is reassured that nevertheless Yahweh, the one who brought the community into being, is still committed to it (43:1–7). Further, its calling to be Yahweh’s servant still stands, and beyond that, ...

2310. The Lord, Not Idols

Isaiah 44:6-23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

The Restoration of a Blind and Deaf Servant, II: After Job and his “friends” have spent chapter after chapter arguing with God and with each other as to the meaning of the calamities that have come to Job, God appears and puts Job in his place at some length (Job 38:1–40:2). Job submits, and might have expected this was the end of the story. Instead, as one imagines Job’s groan, God starts again (Job 40:6). There is a parallel dynamic in the new beginning here at Isaiah 43:22. It seems that 42:18–43:21 ...

2311. When a Storm Is Raging

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

Benjamin Franklin was one of the cleverest men of his generation. It is said that in the spring of 1772 Franklin attended a party thrown by Lord Shelburne at one of Shelburne’s estates. The other guests watched as Franklin approached a turbulent stream with his gold-headed bamboo cane in hand. He boasted to the other guests that he could calm the water. Franklin walked upstream about 100 yards. Waving his cane over the stream three times in the best abracadabra fashion, he stepped back, his feat ...

2312. Searching for Happiness

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Many people today spend their lives in a desperate search for happiness, for pleasure, for fun. Many people in our society are simply bored. They mope around, fantasizing about some secret joy that lies out there somewhere. “I’m looking for adventure, excitement, and beautiful women,” said the young man to his father as he was leaving home. “And don’t try to stop me!” “Who wants to stop you?” said his father. “I’m going with you!” The ironic thing about seeking such pleasure, however, is how little joy it ...

2313. The Reception was Excellent

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Do you mind if I start today with a terrible joke? Did you hear about the two TV antennas that got married? I understand that the wedding was terrible, but the reception was excellent! I’ll let you think about that for a moment. Our lesson today from the Gospel of John is about a wedding reception that went from a near disaster to a roaring success. And it became a roaring success, of course, because Jesus was there. You know the story well. “On the third day,” says John in his Gospel, a wedding took place ...

2314. Where's the Magic?

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Billy Joe, a good old boy from the Deep South, stopped at a convenience store. There he ran into Ricardo, an old buddy from New York City. Billy Joe was a mischievous sort. When no one was looking he stole 3 candy bars from a store shelf. Walking out of the store he turned to Ricardo and bragged, “Ha! Did you see what this old Southern boy did? I stole three candy bars and got away with it. Man, I’m slick.” Ricardo wasn’t impressed. “That’s nothing. Let’s go back to that store and I’ll show you what slick ...

2315. Broken Yet Sincere

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: Kintsugi pottery (or something similar) –a piece of ceramic broken and repaired with a gold filling. Scar tissue is visible history... Sometimes the joins are so exquisite they say the potter may have broken the cup just so he could mend it[1] The Japanese have a unique kind of artwork called “kintsugi” (to patch in gold) or “kintsukuroi” (to repair with gold). The artist takes a shattered bowl or pitcher and pieces it back together again, sealing the cracks and holes with pure gold. The result is a ...

2316. The Road to the Passover

John 2:13-22

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

It was Samuel’s twelfth birthday and for the first time in his life, he would accompany his Father Lemuel to the Passover in Jerusalem. Every Jewish male from twelve years on was to make the pilgrimage to the Holy City and to the temple to make their Passover sacrifice. It was a long journey so Lemuel traveled it without his family - until this year. Samuel was twelve and had to accompany his father. He and his father traveled with a caravan of pilgrims for safety. The roads were rough and dusty and the ...

2317. Meeting Jesus

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

My friend, Phil, had his vision checked regularly when he was a kid, just like most of us Baby Boomers did. The vision tester would come to the elementary school every year and everyone would go to the nurse’s office and read the eye charts. Then he went to junior high and high school and they didn’t test his vision any more. He went to college and graduated and started his career, got married, had a family and raised them and then, when he was in his mid-fifties he got Type-2 Diabetes and his physician ...

2318. Understanding What God Expects of Us

Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)

Sermon

King Duncan

Can you remember the last major misunderstanding you had with someone? You said one thing, they heard something different, and the result was a mess. It may turn out to be really funny when you look back on it years later. But not in that moment. In that moment, it was frustrating. A man named Norm Williams shared a misunderstanding he had at his local library when he requested copies of two books by author Deborah Tannen. Tannen is a communication researcher. One of her most popular books is titled That’s ...

2319. God Is Like...a Potter

Jeremiah 18:1-11 · 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So begins our morning’s reading from the Old Testament. When you hear those words, you may wonder what the Bible meant when it said, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.“ How did that word come to Jeremiah? Was it written down somewhere? Did Jeremiah hear it audibly? Just who was this Jeremiah anyway and why did the word of the Lord come to him? Lots of questions come to ...

2320. The Fruitful Vine

John 15:1-17, 1 John 4:7-21, Acts 8:26-40, Psalm 22:1-31

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

The Fruitful Vine What is a preacher to make of a parable or extended allegory about a vine in an urban and industrial culture? If you are living in a small town or a rural area, people might know something about growing grapes. They might know about the need to prune back old growth since the grapes only form on the new growth. But how many in a large city would know about cultivating a grape vine so that it produces a good crop? For them grapes are something you buy in the produce section of the ...

2321. Proper 12

Mt 13:31-33, 44-52 · Rom 8:26-39 · Gen 29:15-28 · Ps 105:1-11, 45b

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

TREASURES AND TRASH The parables in Matthew 13:44-52 continue the series of eight that are found in this chapter. The previous parables were told in public to a large crowd (see Matthew 13:1-3). Now Jesus moves into a house where the disciples came to him (Matthew 13:36). He first explains the parable about the weeds among the wheat. He then proceeds to tell the three parables in Matthew 13:44-52. Two of the parables, the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great value, are twins. The third ...

2322. The Politics Of The Saints

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Larry R. Kalajainen

During the last presidential election, you may have seen the comic strip "Frank and Earnest" where Frank is sitting on an airplane with a worried look on his face, and he asks the stewardess, "Are there any air bags on this plane?" She replies, "There are a couple of congressmen up in first class." By the time the presidential election campaign wound down to its final hours, most of us were eagerly looking forward to a little relief from listening to the air bags. All those speeches that said nothing. All ...

2323. Salvaging Our Lives

Genesis 29:15-30

Sermon

If you have ever made an in-depth investigation of your family history, a genealogy, then you probably came across some ancestors who would qualify as so-called "black sheep of the family." Among my own ancestors my father came across a family will dating back to shortly before the Civil War. In that will it speaks of my great-great-great-grandmother selling off slaves. In fact, the will indicates that the slave family she owned was to be divided up at her death. When I first heard about this I was shocked ...

2324. Proper 12

Mt 13:31-33, 44-52 · Rom 8:26-39 · 1 Ki 3:5-12 · Ps 105

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 29:15-28 Jacob the trickster gets tricked. He is smitten with Rachel and agrees with her father, Laban, to work seven years to obtain her hand in marriage. On the wedding night, he gets an unexpected wedding present, Rachel's sister, Leah. Jacob agrees to work another seven years for Rachel because she is the true treasure of his heart. Old Testament: 1 Kings 3:5-12 God appears to Solomon in a dream, telling him to ask for his heart's desire. Solomon recounts a litany of ...

2325. A Habitat For Humanity

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

Shortly after the death of F. Scott Fitzgerald some of his close friends went through his papers and manuscripts. They discovered a number of proposed plots for stories. One such plot dealt with the varied members of a family who had inherited a house. The bequest had one stipulation. To receive possession of the house they had to live in it harmoniously and purposefully. That's quite a stipulation. Living together in harmony is no easy task in any house large or small. The testator in Fitzgerald's ...

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