Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 26 results

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... of the matters with which he deals. For instance, he cut to the very root of murder in the only place that it can be cut - anger. That's where murder begins, with anger. But nobody ever faced this. He made all of our stupid moralisms look just as ineffectual as they are. He cut to the root of adultery where nobody else had ever cut. He pointed out the fact that adultery wasn't the matter of breaking some kind of legal law. Adultery began with the lustful glance or the lustful attitude. He cut to the root ...

2. Welcome Home, Joseph

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... faithfulness have been shunted to the side, it is Joseph. Joseph is usually remembered for almost dumping Mary when she became pregnant before their formal marriage. Other than that, he is seen as little more than that guy leading the donkey on Christmas cards, or the rather ineffectual fellow who couldn't even find a fit place for his wife to give birth, or the tall kid wearing his father's bathrobe who doesn't have to do or say anything in the children's Christmas pageants. Is there any worse role in a ...

3. Prepare The Way

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... no more than their due and soldiers not to extort (3:13-14). John made the message clear. We live in a similar situation. We give lip service to God, but we are practical atheists. We live as though God did not exist, as if God were irrelevant and ineffectual. After all, God can't give as much security as paid up life insurance, annuities, and stoc_esermonsks and bonds! Life with God can't possibly be as much fun as vacationing in the Bahamas or driving a hot, new car! Life with God can't possibly be as ...

4. The Advent Of Our Lord

Zephaniah 3:1-20

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... haughty and proud ones that God will judge? They are people of power and substance who are comfortable and complacent. They say in their hearts, "The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm" (1:12c). In other words, theysee God as uninvolved and ineffectual. They no longer seek the Lord (1:6), but instead they look for help from other gods, the stars, the planets, the fates (1:5). When called to account, the people get defensive. They will not learn. Ah, soiled, defiled, oppressing city! It has listened ...

5. A Tree Well Watered

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... perceive as the present judgment of the community on the present status of people: who is in and who is out, who has a future and who does not, what is stylish or socially acceptable, and what is not, who has the clout and who is ineffectual. The Bible also has wisdom, which is concentrated in the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and Psalms. To some extent, the wisdom is that of everyday experience and observation, such as: "Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife ...

6. The Tale Of Three Women

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... says another word to her about returning to Moab, but the two women travel to Judah together. Naomi The story takes place during the time of the judges in Israel. According to the last verse of the book of Judges, it was a time of ineffectual political leadership: "All the people did what was right in their own eyes." Not only was there political instability, but there was economic disaster as well, "there was famine in the land." Famine in the ancient near East meant bloated bellies of little children, old ...

7. Growing In The Lord

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... presented as a basically honorable individual, but he is quick to judge Hannah when she weepingly implores God for a child. He thinks she must be drunk (1:12-16). When he recognizes his error, he grants her petition (1:17). While Eli is honorable, he is ineffectual in controlling his sons. "Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord or for the duties of the priests to the people" (2:12-13a). When sacrifices were made, the priests took not only their share, but also the share that ...

8. A Sleeping Bag God

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... is real danger. For instance, a public school teacher we once knew appeared to be the very embodiment of boredom and uselessness. That proved to be a hasty conclusion. For over the months and years that followed our introduction to this person, this seemingly ineffectual teacher came to distinguish himself in a variety of ways. Our initial impression, informed though it was by an episode or two, proved to be an inaccurate one. It would have been unfair for us to hold to that notion when evidence to the ...

9. Expect Great Things To Happen!

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Clement E. Lewis

... been done before! What a challenge, for which we should do no less than our best in faith and our personal part in fulfillment! Being old or needing care in a retirement center or a nursing home doesn't mean that we are useless or ineffectual. It may mean that we are charged with serious responsibility for inspiring those who come after us in ways that we could not otherwise accomplish. We must expect great things to happen! The Closing Prayer: Gracious Lord, grant that we shall not be like the impatient ...

10. Beasts, Saints and Chaos

Daniel 7:15-28, Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

Paul W. F. Harms

... be; Rahab, one of Christ's ancestors, was a prostitute; and of David and Samson I need not tell you. Whatever else the word "saint" may mean to us, in the Scriptures it does not mean perfect, without flaw. Nor does it carry the image of soft but ineffectual; pleasant but unrealistic; good humored but not tough in the clinches. The book of Daniel is not hesitant to use the term saint because it knows what saint means. "Saints" mean the holy ones of God. Holiness is not an achievement. It is the gift of God ...

11. Praying With Tears in Your Eyes

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... our prayers, not "cry" them. We associate prayer with peace, calm, and strength. We may feel weepy when we begin our prayers, but we expect to be comforted by the end of them. Because there are very seldom tears in our eyes when we pray, our prayers are ineffectual. There are no tears if we mechanically say a childhood prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep." If we doubt the power of prayer, we are not moved enough to have tears. A young woman confessed, "I pray, but I don't think it does much good." Emergency ...

12. Beasts, Saints and Chaos

Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

... be; Rahab, one of Christ’s ancestors, was a prostitute; and of David and Samson I need not tell you. Whatever else the word "saint" may mean to us, in the Scriptures it does not mean perfect, without flaw. Nor does it carry the image of soft but ineffectual; pleasant but unrealistic; good humored but not tough in the clinches. The book of Daniel is not hesitant to use the term saint because it knows what saint means. "Saints" mean the holy ones of God. Holiness is not an achievement. It is the gift of God ...

13. Shepherding One Another in a Collapsing World

Romans 9:1-29

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... and our sense of urgency? Sadly for us, The Christian Century recently saw fit to carry this cartoon on its cover. One pastor was bragging to another: "We’ve brainstormed our problems, prioritized our goals, formalized our strategies and maximized our ineffectuality." At times we throw the whole business into the lap of organization and the computer, and forget people. Where is the spirit of Paul? How can people, in today’s collapsing world, reject Christ and the fullness of life that God offers ...

14. The Post Launch Slump

2 Cor 8:10-11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... said, "... when you pray, go into the room and shut your door." What Thomas Carlyle said about Coleridge is also descriptive of those whose zeal vanishes after the pomp of a beginning. Wrote Carlyle of Coleridge, A weak, diffusive, weltering, ineffectual man ... Never did I see such apparatus got ready for thinking, and so little thought. He mounts scaffolding, pulleys and tackle, gathers all the tools in the neighbourhood with labour, with noise, demonstration, precept, abuse, and sets three bricks.4 "You ...

15. Wheel Within The Wheel

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... another business." On the cover of one of our religious journals there is the cartoon of two clergy shaking hands, one saying to the other, "Welcome to our parish where we’ve brainstormed our problems, prioritized our goals, formalized our strategies and maximized our ineffectuality."1 Their sarcasm expresses what many feel today about the science of management taking over the church. Remember this old spiritual? Ezekiel saw a wheel Way up in the middle of the air; A wheel in a wheel, Way up in the middle ...

16. A Visit To Millennium Manor

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... is a good reminder to us that prayer is not a way of manipulating God. That's the way many people think about prayer. They give God His orders. "Here God, this is what I expect for you to do for me today." No wonder our prayer life is so ineffectual. We forget who is the master and who is the servant. Prayer is communion with God in which we surrender our will to His. We offer Him the burdens of our hearts, then we trust God to do with them what He will, knowing that His way is always the ...

17. Portrayal of Holiness

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... taught for many months, pouring himself out for God's purpose, and the only reward he seemed to get was an agonizing death on a cross. Christians who dedicate themselves to the service of God can often seem to meet the same fate, their work and words seemingly ineffectual in a world like ours full of wrong. But was God's purpose defeated on the cross of Calvary? Was Christ's work a failure in the on-going activity of God? The Epistle lesson tells us otherwise. Christ was raised from the dead and appeared to ...

18. Spirit Power

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams . . .’” Pentecost is the birthday of the church. Before Pentecost, the disciples had been a rag-tag crew of well-meaning but ineffectual followers. After Pentecost these same disciples became such powerful witnesses that it was said of one of the disciples, Simon Peter, that his mere shadow passing over a physically distressed person could bring healing. Before Pentecost, the disciples were fearful ...

19. The 4 LAWS of a Whole Personality

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Break these LAWS and you get sick. Your self gets out of whack. When you get stuck on one or more points of the compass, your being starts to shimmer and veer off into wrong directions. Too much Love, and you become as ineffectual as limp jello. Too much Assertion, and you become argumentative, cruel, unforgiving, angry. Too much Weakness and you become wallflowerish, fearful, whinny. Too much Strength and you become overbearing, superior. I want you to do a compass alignment this morning. What parts of ...

20. Unchained Melody

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... indifferent) wasn't the concern of a gospel messenger. Getting out the word about the Word, delivering the message of the Messenger Jesus Christ - that's the straight-path we all must take. More words aren't always better. Indeed, sometimes "more" simply demonstrates how ineffectual those words were in the first place. I like how Mark Feldmier puts it, though I know I'm going to get into trouble quoting him: "Did you hear about this recent study that suggests that women use twice as many words as men do ...

21. Thunder in the Mountains, Silence in the Soul

1 Kings 19:9-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... tend to smile and shrug at the suggestion that we might each enjoy the gift of angels guiding us along. Demons are portrayed colloquially as powerful, immense, shrewd and cunning. Angels, when we consider them at all, are believed to be rather harmless, ineffectual, sometimes even bumbling and bungling. They are helpful to the same degree that a five-year-old child "helps" his parents get dinner made or the car washed. Angels are amusing and nice companions, but not very useful when it comes to getting ...

22. No Time for a Sermon

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... man would be “at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69). That the Son is “seated” is a significant detail. In Hebrews 10:11-13 the author notes that the Levitical priests continued to stand and serve the Lord with their ineffectual sacrifices, day after day. But since their sacrifices could never “take away sins” they were trapped in a circle of failure, serving without end or results. Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice accomplished the destruction of the hold of sin and death and ...

23. Celebrate the Small Stuff

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... or the loss of natural resources. A slight elevation in CO2, a degree of added warmth, a dip in oil output — none of those are dramatic. In fact, most are glacial in their gradualness. But infinitesimal doesn’t mean ineffectual, or fantastical, or chimerical. Infinitesimal change often means radical change, even life-altering, revolutionary change. Remember the “tipping point,” that moment when gradual and almost imperceptible “tips” over to major and unavoidable? When the “tipping point” is ...

24. Mugwumpers

1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39

Sermon

Stephen P. McCutchan

... fire fell and consumed the sacrifice. It is then that the power of God's presence absorbs our fears, insecurities, and empowers us to face life in the power of God's Spirit. To be born again is to suddenly recognize how our mugwumping has been ineffectual in enabling us to experience the depth of life. To be born again is to realize that our attempt to secure ourselves against the insecurities of life and to satisfy our desires through indulgence is hopeless. When each of us reviews the journey of our life ...

25. The Full Advent: Whoa! No Way? Wow!

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... this world. Then we remember, what a minute, we are in the Season of Advent. The Messiah, the great and all-powerful one who will determine our life everlasting, is being celebrated this season as a tiny, helpless baby. This absolutely ineffectual infant being is first announced to and observed by those who have no social sauce or political pull whatsoever. They are “shepherds.” They are “nobodies.” These shepherds receive what we might call “The Full Advent.” The Full Advent is comprised of ...

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