Sermon and Worship Resources

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Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... is central. Listen to Ezekiel bringing the word from beyond to the living dead. "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." What a beautiful way to speak of the Divine Spirit that animates the whole creation! Mark the configuration of wind, breath, and word also in Luke's account. Wind, spirit, and speech are woven into the artistry of Luke. How else do you express a reality that grabs us in a way we cannot define but can affirm? And what is the bottom line in ...

2. Call to Oneness

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... Some of us yearn in nearly perpetual pain for the great day of days. We know it is to be but we do not know the final configuration. We must be patient. The Father and Son are perfectly related in love. This is such a lofty idea and what are we to do with ... are never defeated in our mandate, as long as we refuse to surrender. Love shall continue to abide, as we are open to configurations the Holy Spirit makes available. The leap from who and what we are to Christ's yearning victory remains in our midst but ...

3. Step into Your 'Adjacent Possibility'

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the traffic flow is going to be like, where there are going to be “traffic jams,” where the favorite spot to hang out always is. Kauffmann’s law of the “adjacent possible” says real change takes place when you re-arrange the current configuration of things, opening up a new possibility for movement and matter. Rearrange your living room furniture, and see what happens. Without even adding one new chair or table, the whole feeling of the room is changed. People move about in the room differently ...

4. Allowing God To Do A New Thing

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... not uncommon to see her outside with her class of children. Often she would lie on her back with the children. If it was winter, she might teach them how to make angels in the snow. If it was summer, she might show them the various configurations being formed by the clouds above. Another favorite activity of hers was to have a picnic under the table. She would gather the children together with their lunches and they would sit under the table for their picnic lunch. People who went by her room often would ...

5. Pentecost

1 Corinthians 12:1-11, Joel 2:28-32, John 7:25-44, Acts 2:14-41, Acts 2:1-13, John 20:19-23

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... that humans experience God. No two people worship and serve God exactly the same way. Faith is as unique as each of us. This results not only from our unique genetic makeup but also from the fact that the Spirit has gifted us with a special configuration of spiritual gifts. Paul says that there is only one Spirit but various gifts that flow from the same Spirit. God is not in the business of turning out carbon copies, only first edition masterpieces. Gospel: John 7:37-39 Well within. Living in a semiarid ...

6. Proper 11

Romans 8:18-27, Isaiah 44:6-23, Genesis 28:10-22, Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... our hearts and when we get to the end of ourselves, the Spirit takes over. Gospel: Matthew 13:24-43 The Church is not an English garden. Have you ever seen an English garden? They are so beautiful. The flowers are carefully arranged in rows, fanciful configurations and geometrical designs. You won't see a weed or an unclipped shrub. The garden is striking because it fits the design of its creator and all the parts fit together as one body. The garden is also notable because there are no weeds to detract ...

7. Acquaintances Or Friends?

2 Samuel 16:15--17:29

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... first reading, the bonding of Jonathan and David. You are certainly familiar with David. You may not be as knowledgeable about Jonathan, the eldest son of the tormented first king of Israel, Saul. He is worth knowing. Reflect on his story and a configuration of adjectives will come to mind: generous, gallant, loyal, sympathetic, valiant, magnanimous. Jonathan can be described in all those ways and more. Jonathan enters the biblical narrative in 1 Samuel 14 and there you will meet him serving on the field of ...

8. God’s Flowing and Our Ebbing

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... darkness. But if we are persistent, and perhaps turn the photograph around and look at it from different perspectives, eventually we spot what has been there all along. Until that time, however, we find ourselves distracted by seemingly meaningless configurations. This happens religiously, too. In fact, with great regularity the church becomes sidetracked by what is peripheral and inconsequential, and dupes itself right out of that fundamental encounter that is the prime motivating factor of all that we do ...

9. Climbing Up a Mountain

Luke 24:50-53

Children's Sermon

... Nebo. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives outside of Jerusalem for peace and quiet. Zion is another name for Jerusalem because Jerusalem is built on Mount Zion. An interesting way to use this information for children who can't read yet, but can recognize letter configuration is, to construct a game with double sets of three- by five-inch cards of the names of the mountains and turn them face down in rows on a table and play a memory matching game with them. Older children could match the identifying fact with ...

10. Small Church Communion

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Steven Burt

... something of great import to the world. Just as the chalice got halfway around this large circle of forty people, the sanctuary doors opened and Ruthie stepped through. Her entrance placed her right opposite me. She was caught off-guard by this unfamiliar configuration. I could see the confusion in her eyes. What made it harder was that the woman right beside her had the chalice, and, without thinking, she handed it to Ruthie first thing. Ruthie had no model to follow, so she cradled the silver chalice ...

11. Let It Shine!

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... the light of God in them. In the second creation, with the coming of Jesus, we find that God is trying to re-establish the supremacy of that light in the souls of humankind. God is not trying to re-create physical creation, but re-create and configure the souls and spirits of humankind, because there is so much darkness that the light threatens to be snuffed out, overcome. So God sent another light to the world, the light which was also present in the first creation, but now is a light shining in the ...

12. He Who Has Ears to Hear, Let Him Hear

Luke 8:1-15

Sermon

Larry Powell

... superb feature about porpoises. Among the many fascinating characteristics of these remarkable creatures is their highly developed faculty for sending and receiving sound signals. Long before a porpoise can see an object, the distance, direction, speed, size, and configuration have already been computerized via sound passages through its large, complex brain - yet another example of how each inhabitant of the universe is provided with its own unique tools and equipment. Everything has its purpose, and every ...

13. Away with the Stable

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

... with the homeowner and his family. Thus, it may be that Jesus was not born in the inn or guest room, but right out in the middle of the main room of the house. We cannot fully appreciate the message of Luke unless we first understand the configuration of a Palestinian house. In those days a peasant's house was a simple, one-room affair. A man, his wife, their family, and all of their belongings were concentrated in one main room. If the owner of the house had sufficient resources, he would build a small ...

14. Just A Whisper

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... After Voyager had been launched and was already six or seven years into its voyage a new receiver was devised by scientists at General Electric. That receiver was hooked up to a dozen or so giant antennae near Socorro, New Mexico, linked together in a configuration that constituted an enormous signal-receiving dish, with a capability of receiving a signal from space as weak as 12-billionths of a billionth of a billionth of one watt! Now for you mathematicians, the way to write that would be 10 to the minus ...

15. Job - A Probe Into the Shadow World of Despair

Job 6:1-7:21

Sermon

... most pertinent message from Job for us at Wittenberg is centered in the realization that Job emerges from a time and a place similar to our own background. The audience and the society that first read the Job story was an upper-middle-class configuration during a relatively stable point of time when the accumulation of personal wealth and power was possible and in the process for many. Those that heard the poems first were sophisticated, talented, and well-educated. They were the equivalent to most of you ...

16. Who Are You Waiting For?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... neighbors over mid-block lighting, and the sewer backed up from the septic tank one day after the guarantee expired.’ If you told it like it was this morning, what would you tell? What is the real situation in your personal life, in your family, in that configuration that makes up your daily living? If God could do for you exactly what you need, if he could come to you at the precise point of your despair or disappointment or grief or sin or failure or loneliness, where would that point be? In The Courier ...

17. So You Want to Be in the Lead?

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... them than did all the rockets and space capsules that took the first astronauts into space and to the moon. When the ill-fated Apollo 13 crew was forced to reboot their entire mission because of a crippled ship, they literally had to re-configure--using the pencils and paper on hand in their space capsule--to calculate the correct trajectory needed to fire their engines and point them homeward. There were no computers sophisticated enough to calculate the odds of them getting home safely. Only a lot of ...

18. What's the Value of Your Life?

Genesis 28:10-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... even the fact that it's one of only 150 or so del Gesu violins officially authenticated. The value of McDuffie's violin, and of some of the other great del Gesu and Stradivarius instruments, is determined by an ephemeral and ever-changing configuration of factors. Any one of those factors may change at any time and radically alter one of these great instrument's value. Investment researcher Jon Gertner, writing for collectors on the investment value of rare violins, warns about Five Violin Lessons that work ...

19. What Ever Happened to Norman Rockwell?

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... Certainly not perfect homes—there is no such thing—but homes where the peace of Christ has a chance to thrive and the word of Christ can richly dwell, where love binds everything together. Here's a model for family and home—regardless of its configuration—that even Norman Rockwell would like. Well, I started with the image of Norman Rockwell's Thanksgiving table. And let me say, I firmly believe in the importance of the family dinner table, but that's another sermon for another Mother's Day. Here's ...

20. Precious and Privileged Children

Galatians 4:4-7

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... cared for today by their children and to a lesser extent other relatives or friends. As our population grows older and older, there will be greater need for this. It may take the form of a nursing home and/or assisted living quarters. Regardless of the health care configuration, it is coming and with question marks all up and down the line. Attempt, if you will, to relate this to our heavenly Father who is our parent. We will never have to be responsible for his care, or will we? The heart of God yearns for ...

21. 1 Kings 19:9-14

1 Kings 19:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Israel for its despicable behavior. Note that, while in the Carmel stories it was only the king and his household that participated in illicit treachery, now it is the whole people who are indicted for the betrayal of their God. Thanks to the strange configuration of this text, there is no divine response immediately following Elijah's indictment. Instead vv.11-12 begin with God directing Elijah to "stand on the mountain before the Lord." Having brought Elijah to the holy site of Mt.Horeb, the redactor now ...

22. Romans 8:26-39

Romans 8:26-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Divine/human communication is only a Spirit's breath away is not all the good news Paul wants believers to hear. In verse 28, he begins offering some of the most reassuring words in the Bible. The text of verse 28 can be configured in two different ways. Some translations declare: "All things work together for good . . ." (NRSV). The NIV translation, on the other hand, more clearly makes God the active party "for good" here (instead of "things"). Both translations, however, declare unequivocally that God is ...

23. Never Too Old For God: Abraham And Sarah

Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... our relationship with God. One of the things I want to make clear is that the term Family and the make up of families has changed considerably over the years. Today we see all kinds and sizes of families. I'm not going to try and name every configuration of family, we'd be here all day, but through TV we've had lots of different styles of families portrayed. Who can forget the Waltons. This was the typical multi-generational family all living and working together under one roof. They weren't the first TV ...

24. Whatever Happened to Respect?

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the family and there’s only a single parent. I’m saying by all this that the task is to carve out in your particular situation what it means to be a Christian family, and the task of the church is to minister to all the configurations of family life that are present in our membership. With that understanding of family-life, let me raise the question now which is our overarching theme: Whatever happened to respect? Rodney Daingerfield, the comedian keeps the question alive with his one-liner, “I get no ...

25. Nations on Trial

Matthew 25:31-46

Drama

Chris Ewing

... ; and when it speaks of separating them, "burst" them apart from each other slightly. (Do not separate them into two groups — that's God's job, not ours! Just spread them out a little from each other in their usual configuration.) This image can be brought back to the screen at appropriate intervals throughout the message, and at the conclusion. Additionally, projecting images, particularly from current news, of human need and/or headline collages illustrating the topics under discussion (immigration ...

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