Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 58 results

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

It's amazing how fast things change. I can remember when I was a teenager how excited I was to purchase a used 8-track tape player to play my favorite music. No sooner had I reveled in that than I needed a cassette recorder to enjoy the newest artists because everything was changing to that format. Today tapes seem so noisy and cumbersome compared to the compact discs that are available. And I...

2. The Heart Of The Matter

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

A number of years ago a man owned a red Ford Pinto station wagon. He bought it when he was going to college, and kept it for quite some time. In its last few years of service, the car had several thousand dollars put into it. The owner had to replace the engine; he had to put in a new transmission; and he had the whole body repainted. It looked good on the outside, but it had some serious prob...

3. Too Good To Be True

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Thomas G. Rogers

Jim was 16 years old. He'd only been driving for six months, but already his parents had paid the fines for two tickets that Jim had received for speeding. On the day that Jim's parents received a notice from their insurance company telling them that the cost of their automobile policy had been increased, they told Jim that they needed to talk. After supper, Jim and his parents sat at the kitchen ...

4. Written On The Heart

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

A place to start with this passage is the use of the word "husband" by Jeremiah to describe the message God has given him. But let's jump, for a moment, to the Old Testament book of Hosea. It's a metaphorical story about a man, Hosea, whose wife was unfaithful. Ancient law would have permitted all sorts of dire punishment for that, but Hosea loved his wife too much to think in terms of punishment....

5. Here They Come, Singing

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

When six nations of eastern Europe were freed from the domination of totalitarian Communism in 1989, there was wild celebration by the people in the streets. They sang, they shouted, they marched, they danced in the streets, they laughed, they hugged each other. This was the happiest time of their lives. They were freed from decades of living under uncompromising dictatorships. Now they could spea...

6. Renewal of the New

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

“What’s new?” is the question we often ask of a person whom we haven’t seen for some time. We seem to have an obsession with the new. We’ll try anything new. We want to be the first to wear new fashions. To sell their wares, merchants advertize the new: a new book, a new look, a new model, a new taste. If it is “new,” we reason, it must also be “improved.” The preacher of Ecclesiastes does not agr...

7. Right When the World is Wrong

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

George Paul Mocko

Jeremiah, the Crazy Old Coot Who Was Right When the World Was Wrong; How God Delivers and How Great it Is; and How to Say "Thanks.""Well, I don't like to say, 'I told you so', but ..." You've heard the line, maybe used it. You issue your warnings or give your advice. It is not taken. The events that follow fulfill all those warnings you issued, and then you say it or at least feel it. "Well, I don...

8. Reformation Sunday

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

George Paul Mocko

That Reformation Theme of How You Can't Find God in Head, Heart, or Hands: Something Jeremiah, Paul and Luther Agree on; Our Arrogance; How God Has to Find Us and WhatFaith is All About. How do you find out what God is like? What he is supposed to be doing in this world? What he wants from it and us? How do you find out what God is like? Reason, said the ancient Greeks. Apply logic and the only po...

9. Fresh Bread And New Wine

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Stories of holy communion events abound. Someone has said that the difference between a Lutheran and a United Methodist is that a Lutheran uses real wine and a United Methodist uses real bread. It is true that Lutherans use real wine and United Methodists seem to feel that Jesus turned the water at Cana into Welch's grape juice; that Lutherans use the small, round pressed wafer and the United Meth...

10. Mourning Turned To Joy

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Ron Lavin

The 14th canticle from the Lutheran Book of Worship poetically summarizes Jeremiah 31:6-14: Listen! you nations of the world:listen to the Word of the Lord.Announce it from coast to coast;declare it to distant islands. The Lord who scattered Israel willgather his people again;and he will keep watch over them as ashepherd watches his flock. With shouts of joy they will come,their faces radiantly ha...

11. A Holy Hunger

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

Tonight we come to the altar-table to celebrate Holy Communion. Why do we say, "Holy Communion"? Is there such a thing as "unholy communion"? Yes, there is. When one comes to the Lord's table with a hardened heart and with a life that is turned in upon itself; when one comes with a proud and an arrogant attitude; and when one comes thinking that he or she is worthy of what is about to be received;...

12. The Children of Promise

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

A serial killer is the object of a serious psychological study in the novel The Alienist by Caleb Carr. The alienist in the nineteenth century was an expert in mental pathology. In this story, set in 1896, the alienist is Llazo Kreizler, hired by Theodore Roosevelt, then Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. Mr. Roosevelt was intent upon apprehending the serial killer of the young b...

13. God's Resolutions

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Sociological bean-counters report that now barely one in three of us continue to make the traditional New Year's Resolution. Is it any wonder??? Almost without exception all the usual resolutions are so macho; so austere; so instantly depressing. Resolutions only succeed in casting a grey pall over the brand new year. Midnight strikes and we vow to lose twenty pounds; midnight strikes and we vow t...

14. Heresies of the Heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Un-Christ-like attitudes, not doctrinal creativity, make up the heresies gnawing at the heart of the Church today. In order to avoid complete cardiac collapse, we must address this heart disease and work to eradicate it. In this complex, open-ended, multiple-choice age we rarely dwell on the established doctrinal foundations of our faith. Even less do we seriously entertain the notion of gen...

15. When You Think You're Finished, That's When God Starts

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

"What hands are too strong for you?" In this past/coming year, what hands have been/will be too strong for you? Are you in God's hands? If so, no hands are stronger than God's hands. The texts this week talk about God's enduring strength and give us reasons for believing in God's absolute ability to take care of us - come what may. If the exponential explosion of self-help groups is any indi...

16. What’s New?

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Ron Lavin

"What's new?" is a common greeting. There are many answers people give: "A new car." "A new house." "A new boat." "A new suit ... a new dress ... a new coat." Others focusing more on relationships than things answer: "A new boyfriend or girlfriend." "A new husband or wife." "A new friend." Jeremiah, the prophet, focuses not so much on things of the earth or human relations but on a personal rela...

17. Time to Come Home

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

Family reunions are amazing things. I don't know if you've ever had the experience, but in these days with families flung far and wide, they are at once, increasingly rare and increasingly important. Some may remember that in the not too distant past, families lived relatively close to one another. But today, for a host of socio-economic reasons that we won't explore, families are often spread out...

18. Come Home For New Year's

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

"Phil, I heard you flew to California on vacation," said Irlene. "I'll bet that was great!" "No, Irlene," Phil replied, "that was bad. When I got there, I missed the bus from the airport to my hotel." "Oh," said Irlene, "that's bad." "No," Phil replied, "that wasn't bad. I got a taxi, and the driver was very friendly." Irlene: "That's good." "No," said Phil, "that's bad. The transmission in t...

19. Destined For Greatness

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

Whatever happened to the grand old doctrine of predestination--the view that all of life has been predetermined, preordained, fixed in place with no possibility of alteration? Some of our younger folks may not even have heard of this time-honored view of life, but there was a time when it was a hot topic. It even produced humor. Two pastors were good friends but had radically different theologies...

20. Pardon Me, But Do You Know God?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

One summer night a young man in Scotland decided to take a shortcut across the moors on his way to the town where he had a job. The countryside was noted for its limestone quarries. That night he knew he would be passing near one of these quarries, but the young man thought he could avoid it. Though the night was starless and inky-black, he set out through the rock and heather. Suddenly he heard a...

21. How Do You Get To Heaven?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

The school bus was filled with children discussing various topics as children often do. Suddenly waxing serious, A.J. asked the group, "Where is heaven? I don't know." The group gave it some serious thought, but none of them seemed willing to answer. However, as it always works with kids of any age, one young man rose to his feet, turned to A.J. and began to address the group in response to the q...

22. The Time Is Coming

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

This prophecy does not have the sound and fury of many another. Here is a sweet, gentle breeze, refreshing, invigorating. Jeremiah in his own person is much like the tone of this prophecy. If you’ve read much of Jeremiah, it may surprise you to learn that he was of a shy, gentle disposition. He wanted people about him. He was affectionate. In this prophecy he is talking about a new law God will wr...

23. The Promise of Homecoming

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Cate Strickland Galitsky is almost forty years old. She is twice married and divorced. She has been teaching English at Melanchthon College, in Iowa but her job has been cut out in an economic squeeze. An affair with an older man has led to pregnancy and her aborting the child. Cate's life is falling down around her head. She picks up the phone and calls her mother, just widowed, in Mountain City,...

24. Tears in Raniah

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

In my first year in seminary in Washington, D.C., I visited the Embassy of the Lithuanian Government in Exile. This government has not existed in Lithuania since 1940, when the Soviets invaded ostensibly to save that land from German invasion. In fact, however, Stalin had something else in mind. It was called degentrification, transporting masses of people from their homeland to another section of...

25. How High Is Your Faith Quotient?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

No matter how much we pretend it isn't so, school is about testing and measuring what you've learned, what you know. How many of you attended schools that ranked performance with number grades like "80," "90," "100?" Anyone here ever get a 100 grade for a class? How many of you attended schools that ranked performance with every gradation from an A+ to an F-? Anyone here ever get an F-? How man...

Showing 1 to 25 of 58 results