Sermon Resources on Hardship

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Author

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Resilience is the virtue that enables people to move through hardship and become better. No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffe...

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Author

Sebastian Junger

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Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. It’s time for that to end.

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St. Anthony and the Search for God Amidst Crisis

Author

Daniel Grothe

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Scripture

Matthew 19:21, Philippians 3:8, Luke 9:23, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Hebrews 12:11, Isaiah 58:6-7

Given life’s unpredictability and the inevitability of pain and hardship, what do we do when that pain and hardship show up on our doorsteps? In roughly AD 270, there was a man in Lower Egypt named An...

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Sight without Vision

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

2 Kings 6:15-17, Isaiah 42:18-20, Deuteronomy 9:4, Mark 8:22-25, John 9:39-41, Psalm 119:18

Helen Keller, the blind-and-deaf woman who made history by learning to overcome her disabilities, was once asked if there was anything worse than being blind. She answered, “Oh yes! There is something...

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The Road to Hope

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Romans 5:3-5

On May 20, 1990, 42-year-old Georgene Johnson arrived 15 min early for her 10K race (6.2 mi) as part of the Revco-Cleveland Marathon and found runners already heading down the course. So, she jumped i...

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One Mile at a Time

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Exodus 16:4, 1 Kings 17:8-16, Joshua 3:14-17 , Matthew 6:34, Philippians 4:6-7, Psalm 119:105

Journalist Eric Severeid recalls a valuable lesson he learned at seventeen while preparing for an ambitious journey. He and a friend had set out to canoe from Minneapolis to the historic fur-trading p...

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It’d Be Easier Without People

Author

Chuck DeGroat

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 15:1, Exodus 18:13-26, Matthew 18:15-17, 2 Timothy 4:2, Psalm 121:1-2

Statistics show that 80 percent of new pastors leave the ministry within five years. A friend once remarked, “If they were able to pastor churches without people, they might last ten years.” Most past...

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Four Years Later: Reflecting on Pandemic Ministry

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Lessons Learned in Quarantine and Beyond Do you remember that first Sunday when you stayed cloistered in your home with the immediate family, when you exchanged your dapper church clothes for a pair ...

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Hard, Hard Things

Author

Dorothy Day

Keywords

Lent

We suffer these things and they fade from memory. But daily, hourly, to give up our own possessions and especially to subordinate our own impulses and wishes to others—these are hard, hard things; and...

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Gratitude, not Hardship, Makes the Saint

Author

Ronald Rohlheiser

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Ronald Rolheiser recounted an old Jewish folk tale. A young man, aspiring to be holy, approached his rabbi and said, “Rabbi, I think I have achieved sanctity. I fast from sunrise to sundown, work hard...

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What Would You Erase?

Author

Kyle Idleman

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Scripture

John 16:33, Genesis 50:20, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Psalm 119:71, Isaiah 43:2

Recently I read about an experiment done by psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He came up with a fascinating hypothetical exercise, which went something like this: Participants were handed a summary of a p...

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Author

Tony Evans

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God says to give thanks in everything. That doesn’t mean you need to give thanks FOR everything. You don’t need to give thanks FOR that bad day. Or FOR that bad relationship. Or being passed over at w...

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Author

Reinhold Niebuhr

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God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Living one day...

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Author

R. Alan Culpepper,

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The dangers and hardships for the faithful are real indeed. Truth is tested and faith is confirmed not in idle speculation but in the crucible of adversity. Those who wish to find a more vibrant relig...

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, 1 Peter 1:3-9

Author

Bradley Long

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:3-9

Context 1 Peter is traditionally attributed to the apostle Peter. It is addressed to Christian communities in diaspora, scattered across Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), who were experiencing social m...

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And Forget Not All His Benefits: Thanksgiving is a Practice

Author

Alan Fadling

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 103:1-5

When was the last time we had an "easy" year? The past few years seem to have been full of difficulty and uncertainty for so many of us. It’s tempting to look back and see only the loss, str...

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, Luke 21:5-19

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 21:5-19

General Context If you have ever been to visit magnificent architecture – St. Peter’s in Rome, the U. S. Capitol Building, the Hagia Sophia or the Taj Mahal, you can almost hear the chatter of camera...

lectionary

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

A Note of Understanding The Lectionary and the Liturgical Calendar Preaching from the lectionary isn’t always easy. When the assigned texts align with major moments in the liturgical calendar—Christ...

lectionary

Second Sunday of Easter

Author

Bradley Long

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:3-9

Context 1 Peter is traditionally attributed to the apostle Peter. It is addressed to Christian communities in diaspora, scattered across Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) who were experiencing social ma...

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, Luke 12:49-56

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 12:49-56

Textual Overview The Gospel of Luke has a clear narrative path that begins with links to Israel’s past and God’s promises to her. Those promises are now going to be fulfilled in the life, death, resu...

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, Romans 5:1-5

Author

Jacob Traeger

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 5:1-5

Justified…for what? This passage from Romans 5 sits at the heart of the Protestant doctrine of justification: Paul’s statement that “we are justified by faith” is as clear as we could ask for! The fa...

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Identity and Pastors: Struggle, Success, and the Silent Battle

Author

Geoffrey V. Dudley

Keywords

"Not Against Flesh and Blood..." There is an unspoken battle that every pastor faces—a battle not against flesh and blood , nor merely against the seen forces of ministry challenges, but...

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Author

Julian of Norwich

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 42:14, Isaiah 66:13, Hosea 11:4, Isaiah 49:15, Deuteronomy 32:18, Numbers 11:12, Luke 13:34, Psalm 36:7, Psalm 57:1, Psalm 63:7, Psalm 91:4, Matthew 23:37, Ruth 2:12

I saw the blessed Trinity working. I saw that there were three attributes: fatherhood, motherhood, and lordship—all in one God. In the almighty Father we have been sustained and blessed with regard to...

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Defining the Soul is Difficult

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 2:7, 1 Kings 19:4-8 , Ecclesiastes 12:7 , Matthew 11:28-30, 3 John 1:2, Psalm 43:5, Psalm 42:5

The soul can be difficult to define. The great theologian Karl Barth confessed, “We shall search the Old and New Testaments in vain for a theory of the relation between the soul and body.” Your soul i...

scripture guide

Scripture Guide, Isaiah 50:4-9a

Author

Allen Thompson

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Ancient lens What's the historical context? The Servant of the Lord This is the third of Isaiah’s four “Servant Songs,” which display the posture of the true and perfect Servant of the Lord. ...

blog

The Redemptive Landlord

Author

Easton Garcia

Keywords

Not everyone living in a distressed neighborhood is associated with gang members, parole officers, employers, social workers, or pastors. But nearly all of them have a landlord. —Matthew Desmond, E...

liturgy

Living Hope Through Christ's Resurrection

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:1-12, Psalm 61:1-4

Cantor: Hear our prayer, O Lord; hear our prayer, O Lord. Incline Your ear to us, and grant us Your peace. People: Response (Sung response to each petition) Pastor: ...

liturgy

Prayers for Strength and Hope

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

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Scripture

Acts 2:1-4 , Psalm 61:1-4, 1 Peter 1:1-2

Pastor: With the Psalmist we pray: Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for You have be...

liturgy

Heavenly Father – because we are Your creation, You have chosen

Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 12:

Pastor: Heavenly Father – because we are Your creation, You have chosen not to abandon us to sin and death but to rescue us– and it cost the life of Your Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might live wit...

lectionary

23rd Sunday after Pentecost

Author

Eunice McGarrahan

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 21:5-19

General Context If you have ever been to visit magnificent architecture – St. Peter’s in Rome, the U. S. Capitol Building, the Hagia Sophia or the Taj Mahal, you can almost hear the chatter of camera...

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