Sermon and Worship Resources

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Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

Following the creation of man and woman, it is not surprising in Genesis 1:28 to find guidelines as to how we are to use our time in the caring of creation. We are reminded that our Judeo-Christian tradition and heritage participate in and include time. We are reminded that salvation is bound to a continuous time process which embraces the past, the present and the future, as well as people and ea...

2. Changing The Rules

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

When I was a camp director the rules of long established and understood games were constantly being changed in order to incorporate a larger sphere of players. For the same reason Jesus said, "You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching." Jesus had a knack for constantly changing the rules of the game of life in order to incorporate a larger sphere of people i...

3. Changing The Rules

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

4. Charlie Used To Do That

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The people said, "Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as the scripture says, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " Jesus answered, "What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven." Jesus is referring to the fact that even when God gave the whole Israelite community manna the people still complained; they were not satisfied....

5. Charlie Used To Do That

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

6. God's Math:Lose Life = Save It

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

When self-preservation is our central aim, we are never safe. However, when we are committed to surrender to the disturbances that Godly compassion produces we are never in danger.So Jesus said, "For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." We can be dumped into the most precarious situations but if God is with us we are ...

7. Gunda

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

In the movie, Days of Thunder, Cole Thunder (Tom Cruise) when asked by his girlfriend why he races 200 miles per hour NASCAR stock cars, haughtily answers, "I want to be able to control that which is out of control." Our text for today raises the question: Are we unable to control anything? "What gives life is God's Spirit; man's power is of no use at all." A little while later in the film, while...

8. King By Force

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

"A large crowd followed (Jesus), because they had seen his miracles of healing the sick." Notice the crowd's condition for following Jesus. There is an angel. He was able to heal sick people, therefore they followed. There was one more reason why Jesus would have been somewhat reticent about openly sharing miracles, signs and wonders. He did not wish people to follow him simply because he was able...

9. Learning The Basics

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The Pharisees came up "to trap Jesus" and they asked him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" Jesus in response asked them what Moses had taught, and they replied correctly that Moses had said a man could simply give his wife a certificate of divorce and that was all there was to it. (Deuteronomy 24:1-4, was designed originally to protect the wife and guarantee her a certain amount of fr...

10. Stop Following Your Shadow

Mark 8:27-38

Illustration

Robert Salzgeber

There is a fable about a man who lived in the desert. He would wake up every morning and follow his shadow. So as the sun moved across the sky from east to west the man essentially walked in a large oval. At sundown he ended up where he had started. This continued for years. The man walked in circles day after day, following his shadow. One night the man heard the voice of God in a dream while he ...

11. The Banquet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The people argued, "How can this man give us flesh to eat?" To eat and drink the Lord's portion of an offered sacrifice was considered (later on in the Jewish tradition) a desecration or offensive because it was believed that the sacrifice belonged to God. To consume the life force, to consume God, was believed to be a sacrilege. But despite the religious calcification of the covenant tradition, t...

12. The Banquet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

13. The Banquet Bowl

Mark 9:38-41

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

Jesus is suggesting the utter disproportionate nature of God's grace in the Mark text when he says, "I assure you that anyone who gives you a drink of water because you belong to me will certainly receive his reward."In other words, Jesus is saying that we do not even have to be conscious of our discipleship in order to receive his redemptive blessing. Simply giving a disciple a drink is just caus...

14. The Crashing Brick

Mark 7:31-37

Illustration

Robert Salzgeber

A friend who lives in an area of the country where there are many Native American Indian reservations, attended a church conference years ago. One of the workshops that he attended at the conference concerned the plight of the Native American Indian population as a minority group and how they have been completely forgotten. My friend decided to attend this particular workshop because he happened t...

15. The End of the Gladiator Games

Mark 7:24-37

Illustration

Robert Salzgeber

Telemachus was a monk who lived in Asia Minor about the year AD 400. During his life the gladiatorial games were very popular. The gladiators were usually slaves or political prisoners who were condemned to fight each other unto death for the amusement of the crowd. People were fascinated by the sight of spurting blood. Telemachus was very much disturbed that the Christian Emperor Honorius sponso...

16. The Robe

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The people's question concerning "How Jesus said that he came down from heaven" was preconditioned by a particular Jewish mind-set of that day. The majority of the Hebrews, during the time of Jesus, believed that the spiritual world emanated from the physical world. Flesh, blood and race projected one's spiritual aura. So it is natural and normal for the people to grumble when Jesus says that he i...

17. The Robe

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

18. The Spiritual Organ Of Corti

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

Jonah went in the opposite direction of that in which God wanted him to go. Jonah was jealous of God's unbounded desire to include even the evil city of Nineveh in his kingdom. Like the older brother in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, Jonah wouldn't hear or speak of God's gracious redemptive sweep, which included even prodigals and foreigners. So, through a great fish, God opened up Jonah's ea...

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