Sermon and Worship Resources

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Romans 14:1-12

Sermon

Larry Lange

Once upon a time, in a garage in the ancient city of Rome, a man developed a computer operating system that became the digital lingua franca for the ancient world. How his operating system defeated its competitor is one of the great mysteries of all time. There must have been something about its ugly, utilitarian appearance and its proclivity toward redundancy that appealed to the brutal bureaucra...

2. A Vision Vanished

Philippians 3:4-14

Sermon

Larry Lange

Arnold Toivonen was headed to work at 5:06 a.m. Monday morning on a wet highway winding east through the dark pines that came crowding up close to the road from out of the spring fog. Arnold worked at the Caterpillar shop in town, crawling into the iron bellies of enormous Caterpillar tractors, scraping his knuckles on their cold, sharp innards, dropping heavy wrenches on the concrete with that sa...

3. God’s Doing

Philippians 1:21-30

Sermon

Larry Lange

Don had not worked like a dog for nothing. He had struggled up the corporate ladder to one rung below the vice-presidents —who were all brothers. So Don knew he wasn't going any higher on the ladder. That was okay with him. They had treated him like family. He had earned a six-figure salary and eight weeks of vacation and had 10,000 frequent flyer miles to play with. Then leukemia drove his wife...

4. How Beautiful the Feet

Romans 10:5-15

Sermon

Larry Lange

The whole thing is stupid and unnecessary, Judy was thinking as she was driving to the nursing home. There was no reason to get rid of Pastor Kyle except the town congregation wanted him all to themselves. But that was enough for the rural congregation's council. "If that's the way they feel about it, then let them have Pastor Kyle. He's never around here, anyway. We'll go it on our own." So the ...

5. It Was Only Fair

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Larry Lange

The blizzard was kind enough to have shown up on Friday evening, so that when it had finished rattling our windows and dumping about ten inches of perfectly packable snow, we were not in school and had an entire day to enjoy it. By Saturday afternoon, we had shoveled our own driveway and sidewalk. Our neighbor, Mr. Schmidt, had finished hours before, because he apparently made enough money to aff...

6. Just a Crazy Story

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Larry Lange

Zack had seen the movie. You know, the one with Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston — Bruce Almighty. Zack thought it was a pretty cheesy movie ... so predictable ... God helps the guy get the girl. But Zack was thinking, who wants a girl who wants commitment and kids? And who really wants a job? Zack didn't want a job; all he wanted was money. Even oil company executives probably had to do something ...

7. Righting Wrong

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Larry Lange

To Jim it seemed like an opportunity to right decades of wrongs. As Jim learned more and more about the congregation he had joined, he began to discover it languished from a festering tumor lodged deep within it. The previous two pastors, over their fifty-plus-year tenure, had never made much headway trying to move people from merely being members of the big fancy downtown church to being discipl...

8. Seeing God Work for Good

Romans 8:26-39

Sermon

Larry Lange

A wicked wind tore through our coats. Larry looked down from the highway across his neighbor's field squinting and frowning. The black clumps of earth overturned by the last plowing were infested with what appeared to be white mold. It looked like frost, but cold as it felt, it was too warm for frost to have remained on the ground. "It's not frost," Larry was saying. "It's chemicals. And salt. Th...

9. The Armor of Light

Romans 13:8-14

Drama

Larry Lange

Characters Harry Christian Margaret Christian (Harry's wife) Fed-Up Express Man Accompanist (nonspeaking) Props Stuffed chair Newspaper Table Lamp Bible Dressing mirror Large box (containing the following items) Silver shirt Silver gloves Silver sunglasses Silver light saber Silver-wrapped instruction book Small box (containing the following item) Huge, foil-covered binoculars (Harry Christian i...

10. The Heifer that Will Change the World!

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Sermon

Larry Lange

The Reverend Clyde Lott is a national champion cattle judge and livestock showman. He's also a preacher recognized by the National Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ. Reverend Lott is uniquely qualified, therefore, to breed "the heifer that will change the world," the heifer that will fulfill God's apocalyptic promise of purity for his people. We're talking holy cow, here. Reverend Lott is a...

11. We Are the Champions

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Larry Lange

The year I knew Jack, one of the cattle he had raised was awarded the title "State Champion Steer." The big brown-eyed animal, nonchalantly chewing straw, unaware of his celebrity status, was adorned with a blue ribbon, purchased by the highest bidder, slaughtered, sliced up into steaks and roasts, and ground up into burgers. The year I knew Jack, he was a champion among farmers, but he was also ...

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