Sermon Resources from John 4

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Author

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:12, Acts 1:8, Romans 8:11, Acts 4:31, 1 John 4:4, Luke 10:19

...There is no junior Holy Spirit. We have the very same Holy Spirit that Christ received for ministry and empowerment. We have a great empowerment at our disposal through the Holy Spirit, and Jesus p...

Quote

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:44, Romans 12:20-21, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 John 4:7-8, John 13:34-35

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

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We Cannot be Closed to Others and Open to God

Author

Mia Levetan

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:20-21, John 13:34-35, 1 John 3:17, Matthew 5:23-24, Hebrews 10:24-25

We cannot be closed off to one another and be open to God. That’s not how this works. Do you remember the commercial when the woman says “that’s not how this works, that's not how any of this work...

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Love Motivates More Than Fear

Author

Paul Tillich

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:18, Romans 2:4, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Hosea 3:, Titus 3:4-5

One saint used to say that she was the type of woman who advances more rapidly when she is drawn by love than when driven by fear. She was perceptive enough to know that we are all that type of person...

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Author

Eugene O’Neill

Scripture

John 10:10, 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 4:18, Romans 8:15, Isaiah 55:12

Why am I afraid to dance, I who love music and rhythm and grace and song and laughter? Why am I afraid to live, I who love life and the beauty of flesh and the living colors of the earth and sky and s...

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Author

Richard J. Foster

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 51:, John 3:16-17, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10, 2 Peter 3:9, Micah 7:18, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21

At the heart of God is the desire to give and to forgive… Love, not anger, brought Jesus to the cross. Golgotha came as a result of God’s great desire to forgive, not his reluctance. Jesus knew that b...

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A Trinitarian Deficit Disorder

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

John 14:9, Colossians 1:15, John 10:30, 1 John 4:8-16, Romans 8:32

A student of mine, Josiah Brown, oversees the student outreach team. He and some of our students go to youth groups to teach the youth about Christian spiritual formation. They talk about what formati...

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Author

Richard Lovelace

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:5, 1 John 4:15, Isaiah 61:10, Hebrews 10:14

Much that we have interpreted as a defect of sanctification in church people is really an outgrowth of their loss of bearing with respect to justification. Christians who are no longer sure that God l...

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C. S. Lewis' Second Conversion at 53

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 1:17-18, Romans 10:9-10, Psalm 34:8, 1 John 4:16, Romans 5:5, 1 Thessalonians 1:5, Colossians 2:2

There are few Christian authors more respected than C. S. Lewis. After his conversion to Christ at age 33, he would spend the rest of his life writing iconic Christian works. However, his relationship...

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Benediction (inspired by Luke 19: 1-10)

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 4:40, 1 John 4:19, Colossians 1:27-29

You can heal, Christ has touched you. You can love, Christ has sought you. You can give yourself away. Christ has come walking and called you. You can break the barriers from which others suffer. Chri...

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Author

Mark Buchanan

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:23-24, Colossians 3:23-24, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Psalm 100:2-3, Isaiah 42:1-4, Luke 4:18, Matthew 12:18-21

The opposite of a slave is not a free man. It’s a worshiper. The one who is most free is the one who turns the work of his hands into sacrament, into offering. All he makes and all he does are gifts f...

Quote

Author

Wendell Berry

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:4–5, Genesis 28:16–17, Ezekiel 8:6, John 4:20–24, Matthew 21:12–13, Psalm 24:1

There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.

Quote

Author

Gerald G. May

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 28:10–17, Deuteronomy 4:29, Ecclesiastes 3:11, John 4:13–14, Acts 17:26–27, Psalm 42:1–2

After twenty years of listening to the yearnings of people’s hearts [as a counselor], I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God.

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Joy’s Trick

Author

Richard Wilbur

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 2:13, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Isaiah 55:1-2, John 4:13-14, Psalm 16:11, Revelation 7:16-17

Joy’s trick is to supply Dry lips with what can cool and slake, Leaving them dumbstruck also with an ache Nothing can satisfy.

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This Blasted Smartphone!

Author

Tony Reinke

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 63:1, Romans 12:2, John 4:13-14, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Exodus 32:1-6, Jeremiah 2:13

Tony Reinke does a great job capturing the deep ambivalence many of us feel about our smartphones in this short excerpt: This blasted smartphone! Pesk of productivity. Tenfold plague of beeps and ...

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Drinking from Cups that Hold No Water

Author

Lisa Sharon Harper

Keywords

Scripture

John 4:13–14, Jeremiah 2:13, Exodus 17:1–6, Isaiah 55:1–2, Revelation 22:17, Psalm 63:1

Humanity is thirsty for God, but we drink from cups that can hold no water. We draw well water and find that we are thirstier after we drink our fill. It is the water of self-hatred and rejection. It ...

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Use what the World Gives You

Author

Shauna Niequist

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2 , Leviticus 23:39–41 , Ruth 2:2–3 , Galatians 6:9 , John 4:35–36, Psalm 126:5–6

Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter's deadness; harvest; orange, gold, amber; cool nights and the smell of fire. Our tree-lined s...

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Autumn: The Conclusion of our Ordinary Time in the Land

Author

Sylvie Vanhoozer

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1–2, Leviticus 23:39–41, Ruth 2:2–3, Galatians 6:9, John 4:35–36, Psalm 126:5–6

And so we arrive at autumn, the conclusion of our ordinary time in the land. The seeds planted at the start of our pilgrimage have produced a harvest in fields, homes, and towns. Farms display God’s a...

Quote

Author

Marilynne Robinson

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 25:29-34 , Exodus 16:2-4, Song of Solomon 3:1-4, Luke 15:11-24, John 4:13-14 , Psalm 63:1

To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and ...

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The World in which Jesus Lived

Author

William H. Marty

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 12:1–3, Exodus 3:1–12, Isaiah 53:, Matthew 22:15–22 , John 4:1–42 , Acts 17:16–34

The world of Jesus was not the Old Testament Hebrew world. Like the United States now, Israel was multicultural, including a combination of Aramaic, Greek, and Roman influences. The people looked Jewi...

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Discernment: Distinguishing the Real from the Phony

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:1, 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Kings 19:11-13 , Genesis 41:15-40 , Isaiah 30:20-21, Matthew 4:1-11, 1 John 4:1-3, Psalm 42:5-11

Scripture also speaks of “discernment of spirits” and encourages us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” This aspect of discernment helps us to distinguish the real from the phony, ...

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Unsurprisingly, whenever we bring the topic of desire

Author

Curt Thompson

Keywords

Scripture

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 , Genesis 29:16-30, Hosea 2:14-20, Psalm 42:1-2, John 4:7-26 , Ephesians 5:25-32

Unsurprisingly, whenever we bring the topic of desire into view, our imaginations easily wander in the direction of sex, which can be as discomforting as it is arousing—but it is certainly not irrelev...

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We are people of desire. We want things

Author

Curt Thompson

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 32:22-32, Exodus 33:18-23 , 1 Samuel 1:9-20, Psalm 42:1-2, Mark 10:46-52, John 4:7-26

We are people of desire. We want things. We long for things. It is primal to our nature to yearn. As Saint Augustine reflected, “The whole life of the good Christian is a holy longing. . . . That is o...

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O God, you are my God. I seek you

Author

Steve Garnaas Holmes

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 63:, Isaiah 55:1-2, Exodus 33:18-19, Jeremiah 31:3, Matthew 5:6 , John 4:13-14 , Romans 8:38-39

Leader: O God, you are my God. I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. All: My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land without water. So I gaze at your glory, your presence in every mome...

liturgy

God, we are thirsty for life, though we seek

Author

Steve Garnaas Holmes

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:1-2, Exodus 17:3-6, Isaiah 41:17-18, John 4:13-14, John 6:35, Psalm 63:1-5

God, we are thirsty for life, though we seek it in dry and barren places. We are hungry for grace, yet we work for that which does not satisfy our hearts. So we turn to you now, for you alone give us ...

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Praying with your Feet

Author

Ian Cron

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 84:5-7, John 4:5-26, Luke 2:41-50, 1 Kings 19:3-13, Exodus 3:1-12, Genesis 12:1-4

A pilgrimage is a way of praying with your feet. You go on a pilgrimage because you know there’s something missing inside your soul, and the only way you can find it is to go to sacred places, places ...

liturgy

Let us pray to the Father who has given us

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 17:1-7, Isaiah 55:1-3, Micah 6:6-8 , John 4:5-26, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Psalm 103:2-5

Pastor: Let us pray to the Father who has given us the water of eternal life in His Son. Father of glory, only the gift of Your Spirit quenches the thirst of mankind. Look in mercy on all the way...

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By grace, through Jesus, God calls us

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:9-10, John 21:15-17, 1 John 4:21, Matthew 22:36-40, Luke 10:25-37

Leader: By grace, through Jesus, God calls us His children so that we might become more like Him, living as holy people who fear the Lord and serve one another in humility and love. When we honestly...

liturgy

I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:7-8, Exodus 34:6-7, Deuteronomy 7:9, Ruth 1:16-17 , John 4:7-8, 19, John 13:34-35 , Psalm 89:1-2

Pastor: I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; People: I will make His faithfulness known through all generations. Pastor: Dear friends, we should love each other, People...

liturgy

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 55:1, Exodus 17:1-7, Jeremiah 2:13, John 4:7-14 , Revelation 22:17, Psalm 42:1, Psalm 63:1

Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. People: Amen. Pastor: We praise the One who extends the invitation: People: Come, all you who are thi...

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