Sermon and Worship Resources

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Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

When I was growing up my mother often pleaded with me to use common sense. She was evidently convinced I did not have it or else, for some obstinate reason, refused to use it. Perhaps she was right. I was a wool-gatherer, a day-dreamer, off someplace that she did not know or understand. On the other hand, my older brother was evidently a paragon of common sense. I figured this out because she neve...

2. A Way Back In

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

A wise man once said to me that he tried never to let people get so far out on a limb that they could not get back in. He was the head-master of a preparatory school. As an administrator he did everything he could to enable the staff to make meaningful contributions to the school. He positively reinforced good performance; and, when a staff member got out on a limb, he not only initiated efforts t...

3. All Dressed Up and No Place To Go

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

It was in the sixties that a dynamic music teacher came to the local Junior High School. You will remember that was the decade in which youth began dressing in the sloppiest possible way. Hundreds of young people were attracted to the charm of this man and joined his many projects. We were present at the program featuring the chorus. I was so impressed with the number of youth who filed onto the r...

4. "But, Lord, I Didn’t Want To Be Saved in That Way"

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

The encounter between Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria and a leper, and the prophet Elisha is quite a treat. The story opens with Naaman bringing a fortune in gifts which the king had provided him to buy the healing powers of Elisha. It concludes with Naaman asking for "two mules’ burdens of earth" so that he may sacrifice to the true God when he returns home. Two stories from my...

5. Christmas Gift

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

My Father worked long hours six days a week, so there was not much time for father-son things. Those few times when we touched at a deep level are very precious to me. One of them was Christmas, especially Christmas morning. We four children had hung our stockings and left fruit cake and wine for Santa Claus on the hearth. It was always consumed. Early Christmas morning Daddy went into the rooms,...

6. Everybody a Cinderella

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

Cinderella was a very misused young girl. Her father had died and she lived with a stepmother and two half sisters. The stepmother proved to be extremely mean and the half sisters demanding as well as vain and haughty. Very quickly Cinderella became their maid, and in due time their slave. Cinderella became a slave for two reasons. For one she was a prisoner of the household. She had no other plac...

7. God’s Dwelling Place

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

The Israelites were nomads. They lived in tents and when the time came to seek new grazing land they moved herds and houses at the same time. What they did for a living and how they lived were beautifully adapted to each other. After receiving the covenant of the Ten Commandments, Moses set aside one tent where the tribes would meet with God and remember and renew the covenant relationship. This w...

8. It’s as Simple as That

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

Elijah was the leader of the Sons of the prophets, bands of prophets located throughout Israel. Elisha was his protege. Naturally the other prophets were jealous of him. Our scripture opens when there is general knowledge among the prophets that the Lord was soon to take Elijah. Elijah was told by God to go on a journey from Gilgal to Bethel. He told Elisha to remain behind. Elisha refused, saying...

9. Movin’ Around Room

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

We know that if an arm is tied down to the body for a long period of time, when the binding is removed, the arm is unusable. The muscles have begun to waste away until the arm is in a state of atrophy. A recent event in our community attracted wide news coverage. Someone had tied a young dog to a tree by a ten-inch leash. The act outraged people. With ten inches for movin’ around, the dog was doo...

10. Noise Is Anything That Corrupts the Integrity of a Message

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

Noise is anything that corrupts the integrity of a message. A message comes over the radio. Atmospheric conditions produce noise or faulty equipment causes interference, resulting in static. The message is corrupted. A message comes to us from the printed page. Mistakes, errors, typos, poor printing - all make it difficult for a reader to obtain the message as it was intended. It is corrupted. A m...

11. The Remnant Year

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

With this Sunday we leave the Christmas Season and enter into a New Year. We all go through a peculiar sadness as we put up the ornaments, eat up the leftovers, and silence the sounds. Perhaps we have already put away the openness and ready affection that marked us during these weeks. If the house looks bleak and sterile, maybe we do a bit ourselves. We are in the process of shaking our heads and ...

12. The Woman at the Well

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

Jesus [said to the Samaritan woman], "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." (v. 10) When Jesus met the woman at the well the encounter was a communion event. The element - the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace - was not what Jesus gave to the woman but what the...

13. Waiting

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

We modern people hate to wait. In our busy-busy, get-ahead, world waiting is a waste of time. After all, he who hesitates is lost. We must be "firstest with the mostest"; and, if the situation is not ready for us to be firstest, then we manipulate things to make it ready. Yet, before we go farther with these attitudes we all share, let us stop to consider that there are many good reasons for waiti...

14. What Do We Do Now That We’re Happy?

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

There are a few times in our lives when long periods of planning and expectation are fulfilled. We cram months upon months with preparation. At last the coveted day arrives and our cup runs over. Weddings are such days. Long periods of activity go into getting ready. Each activity and emotion is carefully choreographed. When the day finally comes, the anticipation is so intense and the emotions so...

15. Who Knows?

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

Who knows what lies ahead? A widely used saying has it that if we all put our troubles on a pile and then picked out the ones we choose, we would pick out our own. Why? Because we can deal with them. If we actually had an opportunity to do something new, what would we do? Who knows? Most people, most of the time take their troubles with them or else find them waiting when they arrive. We tend to p...

16. You Can Depend on It

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

I was standing on a street corner. A man, slightly under the weather, came up and started talking, "Hey, buddy, you know that an alligator lays 10,000 eggs. And, you can depend on it." I didn’t reply, hoping he’d go away. But, "And, out of that, 9,000 float away. The fish eat ‘em." "So ..." I started. "And you can depend on it." He continued, "Out of the 1,000 left, other alligators eat up 900."...

17. You Don’t Really Feel That Way

Job 6:1-7:21

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

As a young soldier I was on my way to the Pacific Theater. The trip was at the height of World War II, with troop ships easy targets. To avoid the enemy our ship wove an irregular pattern across the ocean. The trip to Manila took 36 days. I was not a good sailor. Between sea sickness and infections, I was on sick call more than half the days. At one period I knew I had naso-pharyngitis, a conditio...

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