Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2526 to 2550 of 2962 results

Isaiah 55:1-9

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... are not your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts” (v. 9). “I know you better than you know yourself. I created you and know every hair on your head and every intricate line on your fingers. I designed you for the purpose of being in relationship with me. If you only knew, if you only recognized what you are capable of accomplishing if you would allow me to empower you.” Some of us still won’t listen. So in desperation, God says, “What must I ...

2527. Can You Hear It?

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... ] How funny we must look to God, hanging on to what we believe will save us, searching for help outside of God. But there is no one else. There is only God — who knows us better than we know ourselves — who has made us for himself — who has designed us to communicate with him — who has called us to be in relationship with him. Anything else leaves us empty. As Billy Graham has said, “There is a God-shaped void in all of us that only God can fill.” Isaiah understood the God-shaped void completely ...

2528. The Life You've Always Wanted

Acts 5:27-32

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... of human history by the time he was 33.”[7] Some believe they are too old to serve Jesus Christ. But that’s not a good excuse, either. “Moses was eighty when God called him to lead Israel out of Egypt. Michelangelo was writing poetry and designing architecture until the time he died at 89. Goethe wrote a part of Faust at age sixty and finished it at 82. Daniel Webster wrote his monumental dictionary when he was seventy. Verdi produced the famous piece, ‘Ave Maria,’ at 85. John Wesley preached for ...

2529. When All Is Said and Done

Acts 16:9-15

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... left the hospital room, I thought how tragic it would be to come to the end of your life and realize you have wasted it. Would you do an exercise for me? Don’t worry, it is a mental exercise and won’t tax you physically. However, the exercise is designed to give your mind and soul a workout! Imagine for a moment that your life is over, and you are led into a small room. In this room there are two chairs; one for you and one for God (guess who gets the larger chair?). In front of these two ...

2530. I Wonder about The End of the World

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... events and God’s ultimate purposes for us and the world. You could also say that eschatology is the study of the destiny and conclusion of all the things that God has created, according to the purposes of God. Put simply, eschatology is about how God has designed the world as we know it to be transformed. God Is Going Somewhere The study of eschatology is very important to our faith. Christians believe that God is working towards an end. We have a linear faith. God is working his purposes out so that the ...

2531. Elephants in the Room: Sexploitation

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... the bottom line of today’s message? Sex outside the bounds of marriage can be terribly destructive. Growing in a sexual relationship is something learned over time with one person in the context of marriage, not with many partners. Sex is a holy mystery designed by God as a profound expression of love and affection. Lust is the opposite. Lust is the enemy to love and intimacy. I have seen too many people wounded because they did not understand or respect the spiritual power of sex. I have known teenagers ...

2532. The Temptation of Jesus

Matthew 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... –72. 4:3 If introduces a conditional sentence that assumes the assertion to be true and leads on to a logical conclusion based on that assumption. See Robertson, Grammar, pp. 1004–22, for a discussion of various conditional sentences. 4:5 The holy city: Used as a designation for Jerusalem in Dan. 9:24; Tob. 13:9; Rev. 11:2; 21:2, 10; 22:19; Matt. 27:53. Highest point: The pterygion (lit., “wing”) of the temple could refer to Herod’s portico, high above the Kidron Valley (Josephus, Ant. 15.11.5).

2533. Giving to the Needy

Matthew 6:1-4

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... conjure up some image of how such a transaction might take place in a literal sense. (Gundry makes the interesting suggestion that it may mean to slip in the gift unobtrusively with the right hand alone rather than to use both hands in a manner designed to catch the attention of others, p. 102.) God will see the kindness and provide the proper reward at the proper time. Additional Notes 6:1 Reward: God’s rewards express his character. They are an integral part of his covenantal relationship and therefore ...

2534. The Triumphal Entry

Matthew 21:1-11

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... on a donkey would indicate a mission of goodwill (an aggressor would have ridden a war-horse; cf. Pss. Sol. 17:23–27). 21:6–11 The disciples followed Jesus’ orders and brought the donkey. When they had laid their outer garments (himation normally designates the cloak or outer covering) on them (the animals) Jesus sat on them (the garments). Gundry pictures the garments draped over both animals and Jesus sitting on the colt, which gives the impression of a kind of wide throne (p. 410). The large crowd ...

2535. As You Go, Remember…

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... we may endure, the goal of making us full-grown and complete is assured. This is a process that has already begun and is in motion now, but is not yet complete. Yet I must warn that we have a crucial role to play in whether or not the grand design of God finally comes true in our own lives. God wants to make us full-grown and complete, but God cannot without our consent and collaboration. The journey is never over. We move ever so slowly at times but are always reminded in the most powerful way of the great ...

2536. A Love Triangle

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... individuals, mind and heart working together must lead us to a common goal. Sir James Jeans, the English astronomer and physicist, found that his studies of the universe led him more and more toward God. "We are discovering," he said, "that the universe gives evidence of being designed by a great mathematician." God is mind. Mind as well as heart beckons us to love God. "And love God with all your soul," says Jesus. The soul is our most basic expression of who we are, and who we are is revealed by what we ...

2537. Being a True Disciple

John 8:31-36

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... golf balls! That's what it takes to hit a golf ball like me. (Jerry D. Butcher, "Just Do It!" Clergy Journal, February 1993, p. 11) Becoming a disciple will also cost us something. A few years ago someone promoted one of those fast-track evangelism programs designed to win the world to Christ quickly and easily. It involved putting a bumper sticker on your car that read "I Found It." Supposedly a person's interest would be piqued by that, and when they asked you what you found, it would open the door for ...

2538. Hallelujah! Come On, Get Happy

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

David G. Rogne

At the entrance to Disneyland is a sign that reads: "Disneyland — the happiest place on earth." Millions of people have come from all over the world to visit and partake of the happiness it was designed to create. Happiness is something that humans seek naturally. We are all on a pleasure hunt. We Americans even wrote the pursuit of happiness into our constitutional rights. Yet the more earnestly we pursue happiness, the more elusive it becomes. June Callwood, in her article "One Sure Way to Happiness" ( ...

2539. Paying What's Due

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... a week like an Oriental weaver behind his loom busily fingering the threads of an intricate pattern. Every seventh day the Church, in her worship, calls us around in front of the loom to look at the pattern on which we have been working. She bids us compare the design of our days with the pattern shown us on Mount of Sinai and the Mount of the Beatitudes.” Worship is God's due, but those who do the worshiping are the beneficiaries. Another thing we owe to God is service. "Just as you did it to one of the ...

2540. John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Mark 1:1-8

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... repentance and to preparation for the coming day of God’s manifestation of salvation (for those prepared) and judgment (see Matt. 3:1–12). Part of his ministry involved immersing repentant Jews in the river Jordan, and from this practice we derive his designation as John the Baptist (or Baptizer). This ritual seems to have been a somewhat new practice in Jewish religion. It appears that the Jewish sect at Qumran (site of the Dead Sea Scrolls) may have practiced ritual immersions daily to symbolize (and ...

2541. Jesus Heals a Paralytic

Mark 2:1-12

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... to grant forgiveness as if he were God. The forgiveness here mentioned is not the forgiving of an offense against one’s own person but the granting of full pardon from divine judgment against sins. Jesus, sensing their thoughts, engages them in an argument designed to justify his action. The starting point of Jesus’ argument is the implication in the thought of the teachers that, though Jesus may talk as if he can forgive sins, in fact only God can actually confer forgiveness (v. 7: Why does this fellow ...

2542. Jesus Questioned About Fasting

Mark 2:18-22

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... moment means that he saw the kingdom of God already approaching and that the time was ripe for joy and celebration. But if the kingdom of God is approaching a sinful, unworthy Israel, it means that the kingdom of God is based on God’s gracious design to save even the unworthy. This in turn explains both why Jesus’ disciples are not fasting to bring the kingdom and why Jesus welcomes the unworthy, the “sinners,” along with the rest, as in the preceding passage (2:13–17). The imagery of 2:21–22 ...

2543. Crowds Follow Jesus

Mark 3:7-12

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... Philippi). The section 3:7–6:6 shows Jesus teaching (e.g., 4:1–34) and working miracles in both gentile (5:1–20) and Jewish (5:21–43) settings and concludes with his rejection by the people of Nazareth (6:1–6). This section seems designed to give further samples of Jesus’ ministry and more indication of the polarizing effects it had upon the people who witnessed it. Earlier (1:45), we have been told of Jesus’ increasing fame, but now Mark paints a scene of people from various areas (see notes ...

2544. The Parable of the Sower

Mark 4:1-20

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... the disciples in a more critical fashion than the other Gospels. Still, it is a mistake to conclude (as even some scholars have) that Mark simply attacks the Twelve. Everything written about them to this point in Mark has been favorable and is designed to encourage Christian readers to identify themselves with the Twelve, seeing them as the first Christians, so to speak. If Mark shows the failures of these disciples, then it is because he wishes to emphasize that Jesus’ message is a great challenge to ...

2545. A Dead Girl and A Sick Woman

Mark 5:21-43

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... prophet. His presentation of Jesus’ wondrous power is tied to his emphasis on the person of Jesus and does not promote an interest in magical powers and practices. As a matter of fact, Mark’s description of the raising of the dead girl seems designed to reject any hint of magical technique. He creates a note of mystery by saying that only the parents and three of the disciples were allowed into the room where the miracle was performed. He appears to compound this impression by giving the actual Aramaic ...

2546. The Faith of a Syrophoenician Woman

Mark 7:24-30

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... of these blessings. Particularly important are the two feeding miracles, the prior one in 6:30–44, which portrays Jesus bringing the promised blessings of salvation to Israel, and the other feeding miracle in 8:1–10, which, we shall see, may be designed to complement the first feeding by hinting that Jesus’ “bread” was to be given to Gentiles as well in the future. If this suggested relationship between the two feeding miracles in Mark is entertained for the moment, then all the material in Mark ...

2547. The Greatest Commandment

Mark 12:28-34

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... for God and neighbor (see references in Lane, p. 422, n. 49). 12:33 All burnt offerings and sacrifices: In Greek, the reference is to “whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices,” the two basic categories of sacrificial acts in the OT. The former term designates sacrifices in which the entire victim was burned upon the altar (after ritual slaughter). The second term (“sacrifices”) refers to offerings in which part of the gift was burned upon the altar, part given to the priest, and part consumed by the ...

2548. Jesus Anointed at Bethany

Mark 14:1-11

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... tells of Judas’ agreement to betray Jesus immediately after the description of the plot of the authorities (cf. Luke 22:1–6). The “interruption” of the plotting of Judas with the priests by this story in Mark and Matthew (26:6–13) seems designed to present a powerful contrast between this woman’s loving generosity and the wicked treachery of Judas. Indeed, the woman is a contrast with all the Twelve, who are probably those present in verse 4 who criticize the woman for her extravagance. She ...

2549. Jesus Before Pilate

Mark 15:1-15

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... merchants from the temple (who had been licensed to operate their stalls by the high priest) was perhaps the final straw, requiring them to move against one who threatened their hold on the people. 15:15 He had Jesus flogged: The Greek word used here designates the Roman scourging, which involved the use of a whip made of leather thongs connecting pieces of bone and metal like a chain. This instrument was capable of flaying the flesh so that the victim’s bones and entrails were made bare, and some died ...

2550. Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit

Luke 4:31-37

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... 14; 4.9; 14.10–11 cited by Fitzmyer, pp. 545–46). The cry of the demon provides further confirmation that Jesus is truly God’s Son, the long-awaited Deliverer. the Holy One of God: Taken over from Mark 1:24, this is an apparent messianic designation found only in the NT. 4:36 “What is this teaching?”: The NIV’s translation misses the point (lit. “What word [or thing] is this?”). The question has nothing to do with Jesus’ teaching but with what Jesus has just done. A more accurate rendering ...

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