Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 110 results

1. Black Preaching: A Four-Cornered Universe

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... their lives presently. If critics say the essential idea of the text is not captured because of the lack of structural exegesis, the essential mood or backdrop of the text which informs the extant or secondary truths of the texts themselves may be disclosed in ways that still help hearers grasp the fundamental truths and milieu of the scriptural passage.1 In other words, is there some other way that I might grasp the central ideas, moods, colors, nuances or truths of the text without fundamentally following ...

2. The Courage to Be Me

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... our Lord Jesus Christ knows me in all my frailty and yet loves me. To believe that God forgives me and accepts me as I am is the knowledge which frees me from bondage to the anxiety which I have known so well. The courage to doubt, the courage to disclose myself, and the courage to fail derive from the knowledge that I am known fully by the God whom I cannot yet fully know. But he has offered me a relationship through Jesus Christ, so that I do not cringe in my fear, nor run from my responsibilities. It is ...

3. A Sleeping Bag God

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... to live in a house; that God makes clear to David through Nathan. “From the time I rescued the people of Israel from Egypt until now, I have never lived in a temple; I have traveled around living in a tent.” (2 Samuel 7:6 TEV) God is disclosed not as a domesticated, but instead as a dynamic God. God cannot be cabined and caught; harnessed and held; isolated and studied. No. God is too busy for that. God is constantly on the move with his people, seen now in this event and later in quite another guise ...

4. You Can Depend on It

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... whole theology of Christ is distilled in this sentence. And, as God brought order over the chaos of the waters at the original creation, so he brought order over the chaos of human life-together when the Light of the World rose from the depths. He continues to disclose the dependable order by means of which your and my life are redeemed and fulfilled. How do we know this order? We know it in many ways. We see it in the dependability of nature where we learn its subtleties and wonders. We recognize it in its ...

5. On His Way

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Larry Powell

... to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went to meet him crying, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.’" (John 12:12, 13). Upon entering Jerusalem, the messianic secret was disclosed. The unceasing prayers of heartbroken, brow-beaten, teary-eyed faith were now answered. The ancient promise of the prophets was dramatically fulfilled in the flesh. The Daystar from on high shone brightly among them. The Rose of Sharon had come to full flower. The ...

6. The Seven Last Words Of Pilate

Sermon

Thomas Long

... shifting moods, seven occasions for Pilate to speak his mind and to reveal his soul before he shuffles off the canvas of history into infamy -- in sum, we find here the seven last words of Pilate. But what does this seven-fold shuttling mean? What is disclosed as we track this turmoil and overhear the seven last words of Pilate? To begin with, we discover that the roles have been reversed. It is Jesus who is calm, Pilate who is frenzied. It is Jesus, the accused, who resolutely presides as judge; it is ...

7. Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go for Us?

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... . "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Here is the wondrous thing! God wills to disclose himself to us! God wills to reach out and touch the life of Isaiah. God wills to disclose himself to us! That is the meaning behind the powerful imagery of the seraph who touches the prophet's lips with a burning coal. H. G. Wells is reported to have said, "I cannot believe that whoever is up there would ...

8. The Temple Of Wisdom

1 Kings 8:22-61

Sermon

Sue Anne Steffey Morrow

... song set against the harshness of experience, that suspended me. The song helped me to hold together the goodness and all that which is wrong. We are promised God's presence as we seek to worship God. Next the ark of the covenant is brought into the Temple disclosing, as someone has said, "that God's moral claim is at the heart of God's being, and is the essence of God's presence." This is the truth which is threaded throughout the whole of 2 Samuel and 1 Kings: that, in a manner that remains mysterious ...

9. When Something Is About To Happen

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Thomas Long

... 's life is formed by the expectation that something is about to happen, and this something has to do with God's coming in power to the world. Every time Christians recite the old phrase in the creed, "He will come to judge the quick and the dead," we disclose our hope that frail human justice, the kind one can get with a good lawyer and a full checkbook, is not all the justice life holds. Come, Lord Jesus. Every time some congregation creates a clothing closet or a food pantry for those in need, they do so ...

10. Trumpets on the Other Side

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

... the heavens and laughs at their weakness. Is that the kind of God to whom one can commit a life? A second view of death is that it is a means to life. Christians believe that God has invaded the world and disclosed something about himself and his plans. The Christ, more than any other, disclosed the nature of God. This Christ said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”(John 11:25-26) For those ...

11. No Sooner Said Than Done!

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... . We do not even seek God, for he is not lost. Through the ages by words, acts, and the person of his only Son, God has disclosed himself. For this reason, Christ is called the Word. A word or words are the means of self-disclosure and communication. Is it not true that ... Thus, the church sends missionaries to nonChristian lands to give people the truth as revealed in the Word. The Word not only discloses the nature of God but also reveals to us what God expects of humanity. What does God expect of us? Is it ...

12. Forever His

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... today consider him to be a "Super Christian," someone who ranks with St. Paul and St. Francis, Martin Luther and John Wesley. But Bonhoeffer did not see himself that way. He understood himself simply to be a man who belonged to Jesus first of all. This was disclosed in a poem he wrote shortly before his execution, entitled, "Who Am I?" Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my cell’s confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country-house. Who am I? They often tell me I would ...

13. When Something is About to Happen

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Thomas Long

... s life is formed by the expectation that something is about to happen, and this something has to do with God’s coming in power to the world. Every time Christians recite the old phrase in the creed, "He will come to judge the quick and the dead," we disclose our hope that frail human justice, the kind one can get with a good lawyer and a full checkbook, is not all the justice life holds. Come, Lord Jesus. Every time some congregation creates a clothing closet or a food pantry for those in need. They do so ...

14. Milli Vanilli Religion

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... the root of the tree. If you want to know whether or not a tree is an apple tree, all you have to do is find out one thing. Does it grow apples? That's all you have to know; the fruit discloses the root every single time. Jesus said, "Therefore by their fruits you will know them." (v.20) II. Detect False Profession "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven...." (v.21) Now the Lord Jesus moves to people both behind the pulpit and in ...

15. Restarting Joy - Rejoice

Isaiah 55:10-13

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... of Christian sacred writings.[2] Evangelicals believe it to be the final and sufficient authority in all matters pertaining to salvation and Christian living. The Bible is filled with exhortation, inspiration, promises, both personal and community, relates salvation history, discloses God throughout its pages, and shares how to receive salvation and sanctification for anyone asking and receiving. Many years ago lecturer and authoress, Ann Keimel, summed up the joy of receiving God's word. I think the thing ...

16. What Money Can't Buy

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... did not pay for such knowledge, Naaman could not buy it with all his money and worldly wisdom. The prophet had come into a full awareness of the healing powers of the Jordan River. He could have only known this by the Spirit of God. The Spirit discloses knowledge of truth rarely possessed by human minds. Naaman never could have conceived of such a mundane cure because it was revealed only to the prophet and man of God. It was a unique method of healing that could easily have been taken for granted. The ...

17. When God Steps Out Of Shadows

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

William L. Self

... dimension, and how it all blends with the writer and director to bring the audience to a special point. After seeing one production of a deeply moving play, the writer and director came from the wings to interact with the audience. Their purpose was to disclose to us what they had in mind, how they went about achieving it, and to reveal the behind-the-scenes thinking of director, writer, and set designer. What was hidden was revealed. What was implicit became explicit. That is not unlike God in this portion ...

18. Enlarge Your Horizons

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... term. Paul uses the word "mystery" in quite a different way; in fact, his meaning is diametrically opposite to our current usage. To the apostle, "mystery" was something that had been hidden for the ages, but now was revealed to him. God had graciously disclosed the secret for all to know. And what was the "mystery" that Paul was bursting to tell the world? In his words, "the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Paul ...

19. Knowing The Voice

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Thomas Long

... who they were." "But how?" someone asked. "The voice," he replied. "The voice. Something in their voices would give them away." The voice. The words may have been smooth and well-chosen, but there was something in the texture of the voice that disclosed the agent of deception, the wolf in sheep's clothing. There was something in the voice that revealed the distinction between the true and the false, between the dependable and the treacherous. "Something in their voices," he said, "would give them away." In ...

20. Yes, But How?

Sermon

Lee Griess

... the corner, "To err is human, but to admit it is just plain stupid!" How ironic it is then, that Jesus would tell us to repent. Instead of offering a word of support and understanding for our all-too-human tendency to cover up our wrongdoings, Jesus tells us to disclose the evil within us, to admit that we have failed. The apostle John tells us the same thing very clearly when he writes, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." Whoever we are, whatever we do, we all share ...

21. How Not To Throw A Party

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... and shocked and moved when he pulled out a twenty-dollar bill, and gave it to me to give to the church! Was last Sunday's party a party Emily Post would have approved of? Maybe not. Loud, rowdy, disorganized, the police almost called, stretch marks disclosed, a mixture of people, plastic-ware and styrofoam cups instead of silver and crystal. No one of any particular prominence. Just 22 children of God. Emily Post might have said that was how not to throw a party. But, I think it was a wonderful glimpse ...

22. Take Some Lessons

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... I was doing wrong. "If I knew that, Dad," I replied sarcastically, "I wouldn't be asking you." At that moment, my dad could have responded in kind like Sam Snead once told a student, "Lay off three weeks and then quit for good." Or as Phyllis Diller disclosed for struggling hackers, "The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing." Instead, he repeated the question. My dad has always been patient with his son. He reminds me of another Father and His children. After I ...

23. Apocalyptic Moments

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... end up in some church's rummage sale. Only love will last: love for God -- love for each other -- love for others. Read the great commandment again (see Matthew 22:34-40). And along the way, there will be many apocalyptic moments through which our Lord discloses the truth about living in and for Him. While I know many Presbyterians are really obsessive about our Scottish heritage to the detriment of ethnic inclusion, I really had a woman in my first church ask me to baptize her Scottish terrier. No, I didn ...

24. Need Help Removing That Roadblock?

Exodus 13:17--14:31

Sermon

Steve Burt

... the true person he suspected was inside him. One day a lawyer called from a nearby city and said the man was to receive an inheritance from a distant relative who had died overseas. The lawyer said it wouldn't make the man instantly rich; he couldn't even disclose whether the inheritance was money, but it might be. According to the terms of the will, it could only be revealed when he signed the papers. The lawyer said it would probably be worth the drive. That's all he would have to do, drive to the city ...

25. Whispering The Lyrics

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Thomas Long

... . We know that we are created to serve and love one another, but the pressure builds and the temptation to seek revenge is strong and we simply forget who we are and what we are purposed to do and be in life. The doctrine of sin discloses that our loss of memory is not a momentary lapse. Having lost our memory, we now choose forgetfulness again and again, preferring the oblivion of amnesia to the sharp accountability of remembering the commandments. In his book Lost In The Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book ...

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