Tag: sermon
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Amos: A Kingdom Spinning Its Wheels
Amos 5:21-27 21 I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; I […]
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Sermon of April 6, 2014–“Roll Them Bones”
Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Mortal, can […]
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Weekly Update–August 17, 2012
Good afternoon friends and members of Emmanuel Church, This Sunday is worship with a meditation on 1 Kings 3–Solomon’s prayer to God. The sermon title is: “The Best Kind of Prayer.” Immediately following worship will be our very first meeting of the Stewardship Committee–anyone is invited to be part of the stewardship committee and to […]
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Sermon of November 13, 2011–“God’s Investment Banker”
Matthew 25:14-30:The Parable of the Talents I’ve always had trouble with this parable. Verse 29 seems especially harsh to me: “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” As a child, this verse […]
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Sermon of October 23th–Hanging Out the Wash
Matthew 22:34-40: 34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with […]
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Sermon of Sunday, October 9, 2011–“Regrets Only”
This is a challenging parable of judgment. As with any parable, there’s probably more on the page than could ever be mined and it doesn’t always have to be internally consistent. Jesus often spoke in very broad terms–camels passing through the eye of the needle, people harvesting enormous amounts of grain, and so on. What […]
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Sermon of October 2, 2011–“What Have You Lost?”
Paul starts sharing a few personal stories, and then moves into a great theological statement of praise. Unintentionally, I followed the first half of Paul’s formula (autobiography) pretty closely. How well I managed to finish with a great theme of praising God, well, you’ll have to judge for yourself. The sermon is here: What Have […]
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Sermon of September 18–“Recipe for Your Life”
“Recipe for Your Life”: A sermon based on Exodus 16:2-15 This Sunday’s sermon was a little bit like a recipe. All the ingredients were there–the Word of God, a personal story or two, a reading of where the congregation is going. It was challenging, to say the least, to try and figure out how Quails […]
Emmanuel Reformed Church of the United Church of Christ 