Sermon and Worship Resources

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John 17:1-11

Sermon

Lee Griess

... or four years old, would file off the trains with nothing except a large tag around their necks stating their name, age, and hometown. Most of them had already seen and experienced more than anyone should see or experience in a lifetime. Swedish families were taking the children in for the duration of the war. One of the Swedes who opened his home to them was a man by the name of Johann Erickson, a middle-aged man who had no children of his own. When he learned that a frightened nine-year-old named Rolf ...

2. Soli Deo Gloria

Romans 16:1-27

Sermon

Ron Love

... of praise and adoration. It is a hymn that expresses our devotion and submission to God. “A Song of the Church” is most certainly a hymn we could sing in our worship service today. Tomorrow we will be celebrating Christmas Day. The doxology Gloria ... morning. We should be sure that we have prepared ourselves to come to worship on Christmas Day with contrite and penitent hearts. Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in Germany in 1685, was a great composer and church organist. He considered church music to be ...

3. He Stands Alone

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

King Duncan

... people whose names are universally recognized. There are fewer still whose names are known for generations after their death. Johann Sebastian Bach, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Pablo Picasso names such as these hold a unique place in human history ... the ant died.’ “And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses.” (6) This is the Gospel at its most profound. We are the people of the cross. Christ died for us. We live for him and for one another. When you understand that, ...

4. Treasure Hidden In a Clay Jar

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... you on the greatest treasure hunt of all. It is a hunt for the treasure that surpasses all others. People don’t recognize that it is the most desirable treasure of all because it is hidden in an innocuous and somewhat fragile clay jar. Why is it hidden in a clay jar and not ... 116488-siblings-find-vase-worth-millions-while-cleaning-parents'-home. 2. Johann Neethling, https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/gods-goodies-in-cracked-pots-johann-neethling-sermon-on-grace-61561. 3. Randall Bergsma. Cited in Edward ...

5. When You Know How It Ends

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... abandon him when his prediction didn’t come true. Instead, they lived in the woods and continued to study the stars. After Johannes Kelpius’ death, his followers disbanded and went on with their lives. By the way, Kelpius was the subject of the first ... concern is that the Bible tells us that we are all supposed to be missionaries. Jesus left us behind to do his work. Yet most of us miss the point of life completely by living only for ourselves. Jackie said, “. . . this is a very short life. And eternal ...

6. The Word Above All Earthly Powers

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. — John 8:31-32 Recently, I came across a list of the 100 most influential people of the last 1,000 years. First on the list is Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press with moveable type. Following right on his heels and coming in at number three, is one of my all-time faith heroes, a Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther.1 According to tradition, exactly 500 years ago ...

7. Where Would We Be Without...?

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , and who taught him that God's saving grace in Jesus Christ is never cheap. As a member of a noble Saxon family, Johann studied at Cologne and Leipzig before becoming an Augustinian monk. He received his doctorate in 1500 and soon accepted an invitation from the ... me around by various events that he has never let me rest anywhere, but has thrust me into the limelight." The most dramatic turnaround in Calvin's career came through William Farel. Farel had enlisted in the reform movement in his native France. ...

8. A Death on a Long Friday

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Ken Lentz

... this fellow described by Isaiah says nothing about Jesus. This is Good Friday. We have to talk about death. Death is not regarded by most of us as "good." Good Friday is good because it was a Friday that led to salvation for many. The Swedes call it "Long ... already achieved by the servant, the Sunday that waits to greet us as well. Amen. 1. "Ah, Holy Jesus," words by Johann Heermann, Lutheran Book Of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1979), #123. 2. Gerald Kennedy, The Preacher and the New English Bible (New ...

9. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... a similar Ugaritic word to be a reference first to powerful living persons and later to prominent persons among the dead. See Johannes C. de Moor, “Rapiʾuma—Rephaim.” ZAW 88 (1976), 323–45. 26:7 Hartley, Job, p. 365, reads tohu as referring to ... social evil exists—it certainly did exist, and it still does. Nor is the book concerned with whether the powerful elite like Job (and most of us) are complicit with that evil in ways they are naïvely unaware—Job was, and so are we. Other books in the OT ...

10. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Luke 2:8-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... from Luke 2:13 which doesn't speak of angels, but "a heavenly host." What is even more intriguing is that a man named Williams Cummings took a song that was dedicated to Johann Gutenberg, who printed the first Bible and his arrangement was printed in a Methodist hymnal for the first time in 1857 and this new song became one of the most recognized carols in the world. That song, in a way that only music can do, repackages the message that we read about in Luke Chapter 2 that tells us exactly what we have ...

11. Soli Deo Gloria

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Mark McGilvey Livonia

"SDG" -- Soli Deo Gloria, "to God alone be the glory." On each manuscript he completed, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote these three letters. When we imprint those three letters on everything we do, we are living as God would have us live. Soli Deo Gloriato -- God alone be the glory. A teacher of the law asked our Lord, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart ...

12. Pilgrimage of Faith John M. Cobb

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... 1817 a group of 1,400 families, consisting of about 9,000 souls, set out under the leadership of [one] Johann Koch, a miller of [the town of] Schluchter in Wuerttemberg"3 (i.e., in Southwest Germany) to emigrate to the Caucasus ... around with you for this week; and then, let me also add the following: How, specifically, can my life be oriented (or reoriented) to concern itself mostly with the needs of others and the praise and worship of God? Think about that this week. Carry that thought with you when you go ...

13. Come Home For New Year's

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

... you know? These supposedly hardened and experienced sailors were homesick. Home is where the heart is, someone has said. Johannes Hofer proved that was true. In 1678 Hofer, a Swiss medical student, coined a word to describe an illness ... at our best? ONLY ONE CAN SET US FREE, AND THAT IS GOD. Come home, God says. Come home. "Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back." Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, is a ...

14. If Christ Had Not Come

John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (I Corinthians 15:15-19) Noticing that the sad-faced gentleman is about to break under his load of grief and sorrow, I ... last two thousand years, ranging from basilicas and cathedrals in architecture, to Leonardo and Michelangelo in art, to Johann Sebastian Bach in music. The Church has fostered some of the greatest minds ever to enlighten our ...

15. A Radical Faith

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... said, "God became like us so that we could become like God." The Church preached that you become like God by doing that thing that is most characteristic of God, and that is love. In fact, that is what Jesus commanded us to do if we would live a full life. It is ... on a hill above the town, as he was fleeing from arrest. We will look at that next week. Eisenach is also where Johann Sebastian Bach was born two hundred years later. It is a wonderful, beautiful city, and a center of music. Luther, himself, was a ...

16. Keep on Praying

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... most influential people or leaders of the past 1000 years yielded the following list: 10) Galileo 9) Copernicus 8) Albert Einstein 7) Karl Marx 6) Christopher Columbus 5) William Shakespeare 4) Charles Darwin 3) Martin Luther 2) Isaac Newton 1) Johann ... 15, 2004 takes place in the republic of Vanuatu, 83 islands located between Papua New Guinea and Fiji. What these South Pacific islands were most noted for in recent years, however, wasn't the filming of a TV special. It was the riots that broke out on the ...

17. Seeking Joy

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... was attacked by a tiger shark while on her surfboard. She survived the attack but lost her left arm just below the shoulder. Most of us would be devastated if we suffered a disabling injury—one that could end our life’s dream. But Bethany did not ... our thoughts on those things that are noble, pure, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. And the result is joy. A Catholic priest named Johannes Tauler tells of meeting a poor man along the road one day. “God give you a good day, my friend,” said Tauler ...

18. The Language of the Heart

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... man could not be obtained, a mediocre one would have to be accepted." This third choice they hired, the "mediocre" candidate, was Johann Sebastian Bach.(10) Bach, whose music has come to be called "the Fifth Gospel," would later say, "All music should have ... to God for the gift of music, the language of the heart. Not many years ago, Fred Pratt Green, one of the church's most prolific composers, was commissioned to write a new hymn for a Festival of Praise. We find it today in our Presbyterian hymnal: When in ...

19. Facing Fears, Kingdom Style

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... him when we trust him. Nothing about us surprises or makes him love us any less. That he repeatedly referred with gusto to his most loyal associates as “O men of little faith” is a great encouragement to all us beginners.4 It was little faith, but on the ... more frightening place to be. TURNING TO THE TEXT a) vv.25-30 Worry Over Basics Mocks God’s Care. One day the German mystic Johann Tauler met a beggar. "God give you a good day, my friend," he said. The beggar answered, "I thank God I never had a bad ...

20. Do You Know Your Place?

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to occupy until he comes. Do you know your place? Then Get Behind Him. You will be guided by grace. You will be fueled by fearlessness. You will be emblazoned with beauty . . . . the beauty of Jesus. Johann Sebastian Bach, who himself sired twenty beautiful children, celebrated in his Christmas Oratorio the birth of “the most beautiful of all human beings.” Why would we not want to share and show that beauty to everyone? Why would we want to hide that beauty under a basket, or mute the music of such ...

21. Daniel in the Den of Lions

Daniel 6:1-28

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... Illustrating the Text God’s gifts may distinguish us before people, but they ultimately give glory to God alone. Biography: Johann Sebastian Bach. A German organist and prolific composer, Bach (1685–1750) is widely revered as one of the greatest ... Darius’s mind. Yet, in this context the repetition of the verb “to rescue” (shezib) from 6:14 contrasts the inabilities of the most powerful king in the world with the abilities of Daniel’s God (3:17, 28–29). The reference to “whom you serve ...

22. Jesus' Guide to Wise Investing

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... then he told a story about a rich man whose land brought forth so bountifully that he didn’t know what to do with the surplus. Most of us would like to have a problem like that, wouldn’t we? The man resolved his problem this way, “I will pull down my barns,” ... possibly be making the same mistakes? Perhaps it is not so much a matter of being sinful. Perhaps we are just being foolish. Johannes Tauler was a German preacher of the 14th Century. One day Tauler met a beggar. “God give you a good day, my ...

23. A Taste Of Life

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

William G. Carter

... . You can't celebrate the resurrection if nobody died. Jesus died; and his death holds great significance. No, what I want to know is why most churches have a worship service on Maundy Thursday. It is such a dark and gloomy night, with all of that talk about thirty pieces of ... did give him a taste of Christ's presence. And that taste was sufficient to sustain his appetite. 1. Johann Heerman, "Ah, Holy Jesus," The Presbyterian Hymnal (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 93. 2. B. A. Gerrish ...

24. Pretenders

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... for her answer. Just before her death, Cassie and her youth group had been reading and discussing the book Seeking Peace by Johann Christoph Arnold. Cassie had underlined a particular quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "The minute you conquer the fear of death, ... are free. I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." (6) Most of us will never be asked to die for Christ. But we are asked to live for him. That is really what Ash Wednesday is about ...

25. The First Commandment: Who's on First?

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... man. Only a God who was not created but who created us is a God who could appeal to our higher nature and could show us a most excellent way. It was not enough for the Israelites to declare "I believe in God" or "I believe there is a god." Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, ... their laws and whole outlook . . . on mythology. Religion is an internal, spiritual world. And I have my own with my god, Johann Sebastian Bach. Why not? You invent gods . . . At least he''s not invented." Dr. Death needs to meet the One who ...

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