Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 32 results

1. 400 Advisers

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

A preacher in the Midwest tells of a woman who called him to speak of her dissatisfaction with the program of the Church. He invited her to come to his office and talk the problem over with him. She accepted the invitation and brought to his attention some of the things that were needed and could be done. He gratefully acknowledged the wisdom of her ideas. He then said, "This is wonderful that yo...

2. A Bored Devil

Mark 1:9-13

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

The Evil Spirit once came dejected before God and wailed, "Almighty God I want you to know that I am bored bored to tears! I go around doing nothing all day long. There isn't a stitch of work for me to do!" "I can't understand you," replied God. "There's plenty of work to be done only you've got to have more initiative. Why don't you try to lead people into sin? That's your job!" "Lead people in...

3. A People of Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

I know of a pastor who regularly uses his church directory to pray for the members by name. Although he didn't say it, my guess is that his prayers do much to change him and his relationship to those members. Within the gospel of Luke, there is abundant encouragement to pray. There are examples of Jesus' praying - if he needed to pray, how much more do we? If nothing else, during the period when ...

4. Accepting a Human Messiah

Luke 23:26-43, Luke 24:1-12

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

In contrast to the theology of the cross and our suffering/dying king. Robert Capon in Hunting the Divine Fox presents a wonderful picture of our typical American Messiah and it doesn't look much like Jesus on the cross. Almost nobody resists the temptation to jazz up the humanity of Christ. The true paradigm of the ordinary American view of Jesus is Superman: "Faster than a speeding bullet, more...

5. Beagles Can’t Climb Trees

Luke 13:31-35

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

There's a Peanuts cartoon that I've kept for years that I think speaks to this text. In the first frame, Lucy is standing next to a tree. Looking up, she shouts to Linus, "What are you doing in that tree?" Linus answers from the branches of the tree, "Looking for something." Then he adds, "Can you see Snoopy? We climbed up here together, but now I don't see him." Lucy unsympathetically shouts b...

6. Celebrating the New

John 2:1-11

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Someone once criticized the Lutheran Church by saying,"We have all the right words to a party, but we haven't learned how to pull it off, yet." Seldom do our worship services feel like wedding celebrations where 180 gallons of wine would be served during a week-long celebration. Maybe all this talk about 180 gallons of wine can encourage us to be more celebrative and joyful in our receiving and sh...

7. Confirming the Testimony

John 10:22-30

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Some time ago I came across this short story called, "Whom Should You Ask?" An Amish man was once asked by an enthusiastic young evangelist whether he had been saved, and whether he had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior? The gentleman replied, "Why do you ask me such a thing? I could tell you anything. Here are the names of my banker, my grocer, and my farm hands. Ask them if I've bee...

8. Don’t Look Back

Luke 9:57-62

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Frankly, none of us are going to make the cut to follow Jesus. Our desires for soft pillows and comfortable beds, for fulfilling family and social obligations, will frequently have higher priorities than following Jesus especially following Jesus all the way to the cross. We might be willing to give up some evils in our lives to follow Jesus, but to give up all these good things to put them as a l...

9. God Is Like a...

John 6:35, 41-51

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

To illustrate the idea of being drawn to God, I've thought of the image of bugs being drawn to a light. However, there are some problems with that picture. That instinct can lead to the bug's death when they are drawn to a "zapper" or get too close to a candle. In addition, the light does no work to draw the bug. The bug puts forth all the effort in being drawn. In the image of "hauling" fish, the...

10. Historical Information about the Sadducees

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

It is generally thought that their name came from Zadok, who was the high priest under David, or possibly a later Zadok. The group by this name first appeared in the 2nd century BC and disappeared in the 1st century AD after the destruction of the temple in 70. There would be no need for temple priests if there were no temple. According to Josephus as reported by the Harper's Dictionary of the Bi...

11. It Takes Work

Luke 5:1-11

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

When talking about evangelism in one church I served, a member answered, "They know where we are. We advertise our worship times in the yellow pages and when the doors are unlocked." He expected God to make any new members jump through those open doors. That does happen at times. It is much more likely that a large catch of fish – or of new members – will take a lot of work by those who are alread...

12. John’s Question

Matthew 11:1-19

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Jesus' failure was also personal for John. He's sitting in prison. He will soon be executed by the political powers. Is Jesus really the Coming One the more powerful one? Mary Donovan Turner, in a Christian Century (December 6, 1995, p. 1173) article on this text begins with: John sat in his prison cell staring at the four walls that kept him from freedom. He could no longer look upon the familia...

13. John’s Understanding of Self

John 1:19-28

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Peter Steinke in Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach, has a chapter called "The Immune Congregation." In this chapter he states: "The immune system is a network of cells that recognize and attack foreign invaders. The system asks one profound question: What is self, and what is not self?" [p. 91] A little later he applies this insight: The community needs an immune response, to determine w...

14. Keeping It Fresh

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 9:14-17

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Usually the orthodox rabbis of Europe boasted distinguished rabbinical genealogies, but Rabbi Yechiel of Ostrowce was an exception. He was the son of a simple baker and he inherited some of the forthright qualities of a man of the people. Once, when a number of rabbis had gathered at some festivity, each began to boast of his eminent rabbinical ancestors. When Rabbi Yechiel's turn came, he replie...

15. Maintenance or Mission

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Churches need to be mission oriented but often fall into maintenance behavior and many times they don't know they've slipped from mission into maintenance. Let's look at the following to gauge how much mission vs. maintenance exist in our congregation: 1. In measuring the effectiveness, the maintenance congregation asks, "How many pastoral visits are being made? The mission congregation asks, "Ho...

16. Prayer Is a Relationship

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

I remember being a part of an impromptu discussion among some high school kids. One of the boys had recently lost a sister in a car accident. Some in this group confessed that they had thought about going over to visit after the accident, but they didn't know what to do or what they should say. However, one of the friends didn't let his fears keep him away. He had spent most of that day with his f...

17. Rejoicing for the Found

Luke 15:1-32

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

In Dr. R. Alan Culpepper's commentary on Luke, he ends the first two parables in Luke 15 with the following observation: In both parables, rejoicing calls for celebration, and the note of celebration may be exaggerated to emphasize the point. Neither sheep nor coins can repent, but the parable aims not at calling the "sinners" to repentance but at calling the "righteous" to join the celebration. ...

18. Religion Changes the Way We See the Facts

Luke 17:11-19

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Rabbi Harold Kushner writes in his book, Who Needs God: "Religion is not primarily a set of beliefs, a collection of prayers or a series of rituals. Religion is first and foremost a way of seeing. It can't change the facts about the world we live in, but it can change the way we see those facts, and that in itself can often make a differences."

19. The Babysitter

John 14:23-29

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

James Somerville presents a unique illustration of the Paraclete: When my wife puts her hand on the doorknob, her coat over her arm, my children look up from what they are doing to ask: "Who will take care of us?" and she gives them the name of one of their regular babysitters. All of them are capable, and my children enjoy the attention, but if my wife gives them one name "Brittain" my children l...

20. The Breakdown of Worries

Matthew 6:25-34

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

I read the following in a business magazine: Stress management experts say that only two percent of our "worrying time" is spent on things that might actually be helped by worrying. The figures below illustrate how the other 98 percent of this time is spent: 40% on things that never happen 35% on things that can't be changed 15% on things that turn out better than expected 8% on useless, petty wo...

21. The Forgiveness Business

Luke 24:36b-48

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

I have frequently quoted Robert Capon's comments that the church is not in the morals business. The world does a pretty good job of that. What the world can't get right is the forgiveness business which is the church's proper job. From a slightly different angle, he writes in Between Noon and Three: Morality, by its very nature, must be concerned with norms, with standards; whereas grace, by defi...

22. The Road to Holiness

Mark 1:9-13

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

A seeker after truth came to a saint for guidance. "Tell me, wise one, how did you become holy?" "Two words." "And what are they, please?" "Right choices." The seeker was fascinated. "How does one learn to choose rightly?" "One word." "One word! May I have it, please?" the seeker asked. "Growth." The seeker was thrilled. "How does one grow?" "Two words." "What are they, pray tell?" "Wr...

23. The Word Love

Matthew 22:34-40

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

In his commentary on Matthew Professor Douglas Hare writes: In an age when the word 'love' is greatly abused, it is important to remember that the primary component of biblical love is not affection but commitment. Warm feelings of gratitude may fill our consciousness as we consider all that God has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Deut. 6:5 demands of us but rather stubborn, unwaveri...

24. Three Gods, yet One God

Matthew 28:16-20

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Frederick Houk Borsch, since 1988, has been Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. I don't remember where I first read this quote on the Trinity, but my notes indicate that when he wrote it, he was a religion Professor of Religion at Princeton University and Dean of the Princeton University Chapel. There are probably a number of people who imagine that the idea of the Trinity was thought...

25. Tied to the Shore

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Often, the alternative to risking the dangerous, stormy crossing, is to stay tied up on the shore. Unfortunately, that is the picture of many churches--a peaceful, restful club house on the shore rather than a boat following Jesus' command to take the fearful risk to cross the lake. We are often more willing to be safe than to answer Jesus' call to go to the other side. A quote that is in my note...

Showing results

Showing 1 to 25 of 32 results

1. 400 Advisers

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

2. A Bored Devil

Mark 1:9-13

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

3. A People of Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

4. Accepting a Human Messiah

Luke 23:26-43, Luke 24:1-12

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

5. Beagles Can’t Climb Trees

Luke 13:31-35

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

6. Celebrating the New

John 2:1-11

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

7. Confirming the Testimony

John 10:22-30

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

8. Don’t Look Back

Luke 9:57-62

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

9. God Is Like a...

John 6:35, 41-51

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

10. Historical Information about the Sadducees

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

11. It Takes Work

Luke 5:1-11

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

12. John’s Question

Matthew 11:1-19

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

13. John’s Understanding of Self

John 1:19-28

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

14. Keeping It Fresh

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 9:14-17

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

15. Maintenance or Mission

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

16. Prayer Is a Relationship

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

17. Rejoicing for the Found

Luke 15:1-32

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

18. Religion Changes the Way We See the Facts

Luke 17:11-19

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

19. The Babysitter

John 14:23-29

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

20. The Breakdown of Worries

Matthew 6:25-34

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

21. The Forgiveness Business

Luke 24:36b-48

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

22. The Road to Holiness

Mark 1:9-13

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

23. The Word Love

Matthew 22:34-40

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

24. Three Gods, yet One God

Matthew 28:16-20

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

25. Tied to the Shore

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Showing results