Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 409 results

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

James W. Moore

... God for the rest. The poet put it like this: It is only a tiny rosebud, A flower of God’s design; But I cannot unfold the petal With these clumsy hands of mine. The secret of unfolding flowers Is not known to such as I. GOD opens this flower so easily, But in my hands they die. If I cannot unfold a rosebud, This flower of God’s design, Then how can I have the wisdom To unfold this life of mine? So I’ll trust in God for leading Each moment of my day. I will look to God for guidance In ...

2. The Constant God in a Changing World

Psalm 48:1, 9-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... this life of mine? So I'll trust in God for leading each moment of my day, I will look to God for guidance, in each step of my way. The path that lies before me, only my Lord knows, I'll trust God to unfold the moments, just as He unfolds the rose. Do you walk with him each step of the way? “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority forever ...

3. The Four Sacred Chords of Home

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... fig does not begin to bud out until all threats from that “blonde assassin” known as frost are gone and springtime is well advanced. New growth on a fig tree means summer itself is nearly at hand. Likewise, when the disciples see “these things” unfold, with “these things” being the tribulations and destructions Jesus foretold in vs. 5-23, they will also know that the time for the return of the Son of Man is near, even “at the very gates.” However much “this generation” may witness the ...

4. Outlook Determines Outcome

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

... to the Father so will we. Many well-meaning Christians have attempted to share their faith without waiting on the power of the Spirit. It's impossible to begin any significant movement for Christ without realizing the relationship of the Trinity to God's unfolding plan of salvation for all humankind. If Jesus had remained on earth his physical presence would have limited the spread of the gospel. The Holy Spirit was sent so that God would be with his followers after Jesus went to heaven. With all these ...

5. Main Features And Coming Attractions

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... that's a mercy. A cause for thanksgiving and not lament. All of which brings us back to those six men on the mountain, and the voice from the cloud. This particular preview of God's coming attraction is in fact related to the main feature that is about to unfold. God's voice from the cloud confirms it. For when that voice declares, "This is my son; listen to him," Jesus' disciples, then and now, do well to obey. Listen to him. What is he saying? He just got finished talking about how he must be rejected and ...

6. Three Days To See

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Helen Keller

... human life and the human spirit. In the afternoon of that first seeing day, I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature, trying desperately to absorb in a few hours the vast splendor which is constantly unfolding itself to those who can see. On the way home from my woodland jaunt my path would lie near a farm so that I might see the patient horses ploughing in the field (perhaps I should see only a tractor!) and the serene content of men living close ...

7. You Can Depend on It

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... remembrance of these mysteries, entering thereby into the life of God himself, through Jesus Christ who is the door. (Ibid., p. 190.) I lift up the sentence, "In him the timeless love of God is disclosed in terms of the created order in which a human life unfolds." A 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 ...

8. Promises, Promises, Promises

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... fulfill a promise to us. I'll go out on a limb: If we can continue to praise and thank God, even in the face of adversity, life will be different. Problems will be different, and we will be more open to being able to see the promises of God unfold in our own lives! Yes, even our Christmas expectations of God will be different! What about you this Christmas? When you will sing "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight," what shape will you be expecting God's promise to take for you this ...

9. Why Me?

Proverbs 16:4, Colossians 1:16

Sermon

James Merritt

... last caption shows Charlie with a big sigh saying, "I can't even get my chair unfolded!" There are a lot of us who can identify with Charlie. When it comes to finding real meaning in life, we just can't seem to get the chair unfolded. Today we are going to begin a forty-day journey that is going to rock ... your world and change your life. We are going to help you get that chair not only unfolded, but placed in such a way that you will be able to see clearly what the purpose of your life is ...

10. Celebrate the Small Stuff

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... celebrates the simple miracle of being able to sleep and rise and to observe the amazing gift of growth that emerges from the earth. We might “scatter” the seed. But the power for germination, the energy for growth, lies within the seed itself and unfolds according to its own internal directive. God’s plan for the planet directs all. Celebrating the significance of small things isn’t always easy. Most of us would rather side with those who have big plans to change the world rather than to accept ...

11. Patterns of Possibility

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... life, so too had John’s children found a home away from home within the world of the church. There really was no mystery. Through the waters of baptism, John had given his children to God, steeping them in the spiritual life — and through unfolding patterns of possibility, God took care of the rest. Our gospel lesson for this morning is framed by two almost identical phrases. Jesus grew in wisdom and in favor — with both God and humanity. Sandwiched in between is this wonderful story about Jesus in ...

12. The Waiting Place

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

William L. Self

... aware of the Holy Spirit and Jesus. It is in this engraced stillness of Advent that we, after the example of Mary, yield to being God-bearers in the world. In this stillness, we commit to being Christ's presence in the world, the flesh of faith, the unfolding of the incarnation. God makes this plain: "They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31). "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son ..." (Galatians 4:4). In other words, we had to wait for God to get the world ...

13. Don't Sell Your Inheritance for Cabbage Soup

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... in guilt over yesterday. It is forgiven. Don't worry about the darkness of what is to come. There will be light enough to get through. Live in the fullness of today and stay hungry for tomorrow. What a difference that attitude can make. Having your life unfold day by day like a beautiful flower is your God-given birthright. Don't sell it for cabbage soup. Because Esau couldn't wait for dinner, the history of Israel is traced to Jacob. In many respects, it is a sad, sad story. Obviously, Esau was no rocket ...

14. The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 51:17--52:12

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

... " is our normal response rather than "how can God be glorified in this event." The Suffering Servant had a mission to fulfill. Good Friday, though expressive with the thoughts of pain, anguish, and loss, is an essential fulfillment of the mystery that continues to unfold in God's sovereign acts. These acts remain unclear and sometimes without the logic of human knowledge, but present us with opportunities to hear the Word of God and in faith take God at God's word. A realization of God's ultimate plan ...

15. Moving At The Speed Of Light: Jerusalem: What Word Would You

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

... beauty of it. In its telling, we never cover, blanket, or obscure the Story. Instead we simply set it free to let it work as it will in our own lives and in the lives of those who hear. So, tell the Story as you see it unfolding in the special people all around us. Unfolding even in ourselves and we will be amazed -- they will hear and understand. 1. Carolyn Davidson, WORD-A-HOLIC QUIZ BOOK, www.intex.net/faxes/awfta.htm Quiz answers: 1: b, 2: c, 3: c, 4: c, 5: b, 6: c. 2. David Sisler, "What Would ...

16. Creative Preaching

Sermon

Michael Rogness

... been exiled to Babylon 500 years before Jesus was born. He had received a letter from a scholarly friend of his, who had seen in the stars a message that a king was born to the Jews in Palestine and who had gone to find him. He then unfolded a scroll and read the letter from one of the wise men, describing the Christmas story and the search to find the baby from his perspective. It was done with creativity and imagination, enabling us listeners to experience the story from a new perspective, with the sense ...

17. God's Way Of Doing Things

Ruth 3:1-18, 4:13-22

Sermon

John P. Rossing

... to include King David was preserved. How lucky can you get? But what appears to be an amazing string of coincidences turns out to be the unfolding of God's plan to take care of Naomi. At the end of the story her friends say, "Blessed be the Lord, who has not ... to hear voices or see visions that point out the path for you to take in life. Your life is more likely to unfold the way Ruth's did: through coincidences, chance encounters, the influence of friends and family, doors that open to you here and close ...

18. Heaven Can’t Wait

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

... from our fellowship of friends and loved ones who have died in faith and live in glory. That’s the future still to be unveiled for us, the future we behold today in faith, but then by sight. That’s the promise toward which all the promises of God unfold, that "As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls." A Distant Future In the eyes of many this good word for All Saints’ Sunday is a strange word, or if not strange, then something from the distance. One day we might be able to ...

19. The Miracle Of an Opened Mind

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... people now even as the announcement of the great deed was spoken to disciples whom St. Luke describes. And the mind opens! It Comes from God’s Side What opens the mind is not a sudden flash of intellectual genius, nor the discovery of some hidden truth that unfolds because of hard thinking from our human side. The miracle of an opened mind is that of God’s initiating. Christ the Savior has come, has suffered, has been raised, and now rules as Lord of all. The Gospel is put upon the lips of human beings ...

20. Our Lord's Abundant Table

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... to see God at work, to see something other than the world they had come to know and understand. He asked for the food, blessed it, broke it, and broke it again, and again. The food went out like a peace of paper folded many times and now being unfolded, a geometric progression of growth. And then the people thought they understood. This is one of the Prophets who has returned. Elisha, the heir to Elijah’s ministry during the time of King David once fed 100 men with twenty loaves of Barley. In that story a ...

21. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

... in the words of one commentator, "a secret epiphany."1 God knows the secret. Now Jesus knows the secret. And, because Mark has let us in on it, we know the secret, too. Jesus is the Son of God. And now we watch with amazement as the story unfolds, because almost no one else seems to be able to discover the secret. The authorities mistake him for a troublemaker; the people confuse him with the prophet Elijah among others; even his disciples are blind to the full truth of who he is. Ironically, in the middle ...

22. The Gospel in Two Words

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

... suggest to you that the command that is at the center of the gospel is embodied in the words that Jesus spoke to the man who was deaf and had a speech impediment: "Be opened." In those two words lies the center of what the gospel brings. The incident unfolds in three stages. Stage one: Mark sets the background in just a few words: "They brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech." We have become more sensitive to how isolating handicaps are. If they are so today, they were even ...

23. Jerusalem, Emmaus and the Meaning of Life

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... at times it is a decision or simply a realization. It can deepen, refresh, and somehow change us. It deserves celebration. The student at whose ordination I preached wrote in one of his evaluations, "My life is a continuous movement of unfolding ... to experience that unfolding is for me an act of grace. Grace ... that continues to be the richest theological word for my daily experience" (Charlie Maloney, Duke University, 1976). This captures so well a sense of journey. "Was it not ordained that the Christ ...

24. Joy in the Journey

119:129-136

Sermon

Michael Milton

... is funny, but do we think of obedience in terms of gaining God’s attention, or another’s attention, with our holiness? Psalm 119:129-136 is intended to give you joy in the journey. Pe Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according ...

25. The Fountain of Truth

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... it appears to mean in English. The word "private" is the Greek word idios which is used 114 times in the New Testament, and always it means "of its own." The word "interpretation" literally means "to untie" or "to unfold." What the verse literally says is "no prophecy of Scripture is of its own unfolding. You see, this is not referring to interpretation, but rather to origination. That is, the men that wrote the Bible did not weave their own spiritual web. This book did not originate in the mind of men, but ...

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