Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 21 of 21 results

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

A family with young children went on a two-week vacation from Washington, D.C., to Arizona. They were traveling to see parents and grandparents. They faced a long plane ride with three youngsters. Since they had children, they were allowed to pre-board the airplane. As soon as the family had settled into their seats, their three-year-old son asked, "Are we going to take off now, Dad?" His dad sai...

2. The Promise Of Belief

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

There are times in our lives when we are confronted with a challenge so overwhelming that we struggle to believe that even God can bring about a positive outcome. We recite scripture verses, think positive thoughts, ask our friends to pray for us, and look for the signs of God's positive intervention. We want to believe, but we still have lingering thoughts of failure. What is there about human na...

3. Expect Great Things To Happen!

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Clement E. Lewis

Who of us has not, at some time, had the experience of feeling, that in spite of all that we have done, nothing of great importance is going to come of it. When that is the case, we often blame others, God, or ourselves as failures, and become apathetic, disgusted, or depressed. Some even have tantrums because they feel so frustrated. It is no small wonder that Abram was disquieted. Often when a m...

4. The Problem With A Promise

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

You have all made promises; and kept them, but some you have broken. Maybe you didn't intend to break it, but when the time came to fulfill it, it simply wasn't in your power to keep it. Or, upon re-thinking it, you decided it wasn't a good promise, so you reneged upon it.And, you've had promises made to you; and they've been kept - some of them, but who has not been hurt by having a promise made,...

5. A Covenant Sealed By a Sacrifice

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

Our First Lesson today contains a bizarre and even a weird story. It sounds like an eerie tale of the occult rather than an account from Holy Scripture. God asked Abraham to bring him a cow, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abraham obeyed. He brought the animals before the Lord and slaughtered them. He cut each animal in half and laid the pieces in two neat rows. Vultures hovered a...

6. The Promise of a Son

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

A son was a symbol of the strength of the inheritance. A son would carry on the family name and continue the family line. A son represented the promises of a realizable future amid clear and present dangers. A son would be the embodiment of hope and opportunity for future generations. A son would understand the meaning of sacrifice, fortitude, vision, and courage. Abram wanted a son so he could pl...

7. Aged to Perfection - The Third Age

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

What does it mean to become an elder? Our people need to develop a theology of aging, a spiritual perspective on the "third age" of life (55 and older) that addresses the hopes and dreams, fears and limitations, surmises and surprises of later adulthood. How many of us are looking forward to age 100 with expectations of new life and new challenges? Do any of us really believe that the last third ...

8. Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Today's gospel text is a remarkably detailed tour of temptations given Jesus by an articulate, Torah-toting, Scripture-quoting devil. Mark's short form of this confrontation is elongated and elaborated by both Luke and Matthew, suggesting that the shared source of these two gospel writers held this longer version, which each then adopted and adapted to fit his own gospel form. Luke opens by affir...

9. A Resume of Righteousness

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

David J. Kalas

Statues don't perspire. The characters portrayed in stained-glass windows don't blink. And so we are tempted to forget that the people they so nobly represent were human beings, just like us. In the statue's solidness and in the window's beauty, they cannot do justice to the blemishes and the frailties of the men and women they depict. We have seen so many of our biblical heroes portrayed in art...

10. Mud Below, Stars Above

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever heard the little poem that goes something like this? Two prisoners there were who looked through bars, One saw mud, the other saw stars. Two basic attitudes toward life. What do you see when you look at life? Do you see mud? Or do you see stars? Of course, a lot of what we see is relative. A man went to his rabbi and complained, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in...

11. Abraham and God's Promise

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Mickey Anders tells a hilarious story about a man who took his film to a one-hour photo developing service in downtown Chicago. He left his film and returned in an hour to discover that the place was no longer a one-hour photo shop. Now it was a one-hour dry cleaners. The confused man hesitantly entered the store, met the same clerk, and asked about his film. The gentleman behind the counter ...

12. Bound By A Promise

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

The speaker at a woman's club was lecturing on marriage and asked the audience how many of them wanted to "mother" their husbands. One member in the back row raised her hand. "You mean you really want to mother your husband?" the speaker asked. "Mother?" the woman said. "I thought you said smother." A Protestant young man was marrying a Catholic girl. They met with her priest to sign some prewedd...

13. A Terrifying Darkness

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

A man went to a psychiatrist. "I've got trouble," he said. "Every time I get into bed, I think there's somebody under it. I get under the bed, I think there's somebody on top of it. All night long, I'm looking under the bed or I'm on the floor peering at the bottom of the bed. It's awful. You gotta help me, I'm going crazy!" "Just put yourself in my hands for two years," said the psychiatrist. "C...

14. The Golden Hour

Exodus 19:1-25, Genesis 15:1-18, Ezekiel 24:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” --Exodus 34:29 “Only God lives forever! And he lives in light that no one can come near. No human has ever seen God or ever can see him. God will be honored, and his power will last fo...

15. Are You a GOT TO or a GET TO Christian?

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

When I was growing up in the 60's we practiced drive-by littering. The big game was to see if you could get in front of a pick up, throw out the window a Carrolls hamburger wrapping (they were the competitor to McDonalds that went belly-up), and have it land in the lap of the pickup bed. Today kids don't do drive-by littering. They do drive-by shootings. Or in-school shootings. Do you remember th...

16. Abraham Believed God

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

If you've traveled with small children in a car, you've probably heard this conversation more than once. Sooner or later, whether the journey is half an hour or half a day, someone asks, "When do we get there?" "Soon." "How much longer?" "A few minutes." How long do we have to wait? It is an essential question asked in scripture. Job, the psalmist, and God's people wonder over time how long th...

17. Falling Into Faith

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

Woody Allen once quipped, “If there is a God, he is the ultimate under-achiever.” This statement is a stinging indictment, especially for those who have high expectations of God. Some may even find it offensive. It is unthinkable that God would want to do less than the very best for the world. However, these deflating words are not too distant from the attitude of Abraham at the beginning of Genes...

18. The Word According to Superman

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

(Growing Strong in the Season of Lent, Lent 2) There is an absurd story that comes out of World War II. An American soldier in Tunisia lost his bayonet. Rather than face the consequences of admitting he had lost this important weapon, he carved an excellent facsimile out of wood and placed it in the scabbard at his side. For weeks he went about his duties carrying this fake bayonet. He was safe ...

19. Living by a Promise

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The preacher who confronts the three stated texts for this Sunday once again faces the confusing situation of wondering how on earth the three lessons are related. Perhaps several answers are possible, but to my mind, all three of them have to do with living by a promise. In the context of our Genesis text, Abraham and Sarah and their households have obeyed the command of God and left Ur of the C...

20. When We Are Uncertain about The Future

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

King Duncan

A young man tells of visiting a college, which had a series of security call boxes every few hundred feet or so. If you were wandering around the campus at night and felt uneasy about somebody following you, for instance, you could hit the button and have a security officer come investigate immediately. On one of these phones hung a sign that said, “Out of Order.” Underneath it someone had scrawl...

21. Count the Stars

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Three-year-old Ian Hough of Auburn, Washington, loves the story in the Bible of the time God spoke to the boy Samuel. One night after his mother read Ian this story she asked him if God had ever spoken to him. To her surprise, he answered, “Yes.” “What did God say to you?” his mother asked. Ian thought and then said in his deepest voice, “Ian! Go to bed!” (1) Does God speak to people? What do ...

Showing 1 to 21 of 21 results