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Preachers and prophets, prophets and...

Illustration
Epiphany 4 | Ordinary Time 4 - B
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Preachers and prophets, prophets and preachers; the Word comes through human agents. (See Deuteronomy 5:24ff) But what happens when two preachers give different messages in the name of God? What happens when prophets disagree? Do we really have the time to wait around to see which prophet's words are validated by history? How can we test the words of prophets and preachers? Jeremiah had much to say about false prophets. In 1965 Dwight Stevenson issued a call for an authentic pulpit ministry in his book, The False Prophet, published by Abingdon Press. It is worth finding and reading.
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Pentecost
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100+ – Illustrations / Stories
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24 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
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Trinity Sunday
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30 – Commentary / Exegesis
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Proper 6 | OT 11
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100+ – Illustrations / Stories
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22 – Worship Resources
23 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
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Proper 7 | OT 12
20 – Sermons
100+ – Illustrations / Stories
30 – Children's Sermons / Resources
18 – Worship Resources
16 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Proper 8 | OT 13
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100+ – Illustrations / Stories
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New & Featured This Week

The Immediate Word

Ron Love
Bethany Peerbolte
Thomas Willadsen
Dean Feldmeyer
Mary Austin
Christopher Keating
George Reed
For May 31, 2020:
  • We Are The 120 by Ron Love — Let us never forget that we are the 120; the unseen members of the Body of Christ.
  • Second Thoughts: Masked Prophets by Bethany Peerbolte — Being a prophet is not about knowing exactly what will happen in the future. Being a prophet is about seeing the present world clearly and knowing God enough to sense a disconnect.

Emphasis Preaching Journal

Frank Ramirez
Acts 2:1-21 is the obvious choice for your Pentecost lectionary text and perhaps you have used it on many occasions. However, the lectionary includes several options and I explore them in this Charting the Course to try to show there is more than one way to experience God’s Spirit.

Bonnie Bates
Bill Thomas
Ron Love
Mark Ellingsen
Frank Ramirez
M Adryael Tong
Acts 2:1-21
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without the wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.” The Day of Pentecost is the day we celebrate the birth of the church and the Holy Spirit coming on the apostles and they began to speak in other languages (Acts 2:4).

StoryShare

C. David Mckirachan
Frank Ramirez
Contents
“You. Yes, You.” by C. David McKirachan
“Dream, Pray, Plan” by Frank Ramirez


You. Yes, You.
by C. David McKirachan
Acts 2:1-21

CSSPlus

Bethany Peerbolte
These verses follow the metaphor of living water flowing from our hearts into the world. The opening activity will work off of that image to show how water works. Water fills in all the empty places it can find. Even when we think there is no room, water can find the emptiness and fill it up.

What you will need:
A transparent jar or bowl
A couple of large rocks (or other large objects that will fit in your container)
Sand
Water

In your lesson say something like:

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
Call to Worship:
Jesus promised his friends that great power would be available to them when he had finally disappeared from this earth. That power came on the Day of Pentecost. In our worship today let us explore what sort of power this was and whether it is still available to us.


Invitation to Confession:
Jesus, sometimes I have difficulty connecting with things that happened 2,000 years ago.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, sometimes I assume that all your power was in the past, belonging to a by-gone age.

SermonStudio

Kristin Borsgard Wee
All of you have heard stories of miracles. Some of you have experienced a miracle. The one which tops my list comes from several years ago. A woman I knew had been doctoring for stomach problems. Nothing seemed to be working. Her local doctor sent her to Rochester. The Mayo doctors ran her through a battery of tests and discovered cancer. They did surgery immediately. They took one look and closed her up. There was cancer everywhere. She came home to die. But she didn't get sick and weaker as we expected. We saw her in church every Sunday. Several months later, she was back at Mayo.

Special Occasion