Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2551 to 2575 of 4943 results

2551. The Dayspring From On High

Luke 1:5-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A little boy was preparing for the Annual Christmas pageant in his church, and the beginning of white gifts to the King. As his mom was helping him with his part, he interrupted the rehearsal of his lines, saying, "Mom, can't we change the story this year. It's the same story every year." Well it is! But what a story. We have to guard against our familiarity with the story blinding us to the richness of it. There was a young missionary couple who were going out on their first assignment to take over a pair ...

2552. The Danger Of Straying From Home (Father's Day)

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Dr. Nels Ferre was one of the imminent theologians a generation ago -- a professor at Vanderbilt. As an old man, he stood before his students and talked about his coming to America. He was one of eight children living in Sweden. With the war coming ever closer, his mother chose him to leave the country. She took the family down to the great cathedral in the middle of the city and, having the children stand in a circle, encouraged them to pray together for each other, but especially for Nels. He still ...

2553. The Medicine Of A Cheerful Heart

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The Bible is a serious book, but it is not deadly serious. Did I say that too quickly for you to get it? The Bible is a serious book, but it is not deadly serious. Have you ever thought that we might have been better off if we had never put the printed word of God -- the Bible -- between black covers? Dostoevski, in his novel The Brothers Karamazov, characterize the artificial life of the monastery as "25 men trying to be saints, who sit around looking blankly at each other and eat cabbage." It's that kind ...

2554. Financial Freedom

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may have read a remarkable short story sometime during your school years by D. H. Lawrence titled, “The Rocking‑Horse Winner.” I wonder if you remember how the story begins? It is a haunting tale about a family living above its means. The mother is considered by friends and neighbors to be the perfect mother, in spite of the fact that deep down she knows she has difficulty loving her three children. It’s important to the husband to keep up the pretense of success--the large house, staffed with ...

2555. This Is the Day

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Because this is Thanksgiving Sunday, the Sunday before the national holiday, I thought it would be appropriate that we examine that familiar phrase, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it," from the 118th psalm, which we recited this morning. Let me begin by suggesting a thesis. And that is, that we have something to do with determining the quality of the day. Now I have some reluctance to say that because I know that there are things that happen to us, forces outside of us ...

2556. Believe in Jesus

Acts 16:25-34

Sermon

James W. Moore

Some years ago on a ranch in South Texas, an elderly woman was critically ill. She was in her 90’s and was at the point of death. All of the family, the ranch hands and the neighbors had gathered around her bed. Quietly, respectfully, they waited and watched and prayed. The doctors had told them that the end was near and there was nothing else that could be done medically… and that it wouldn’t be long now. Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door. It was a traveling, revival preacher. He had arrived ...

2557. Getting Rid of Grudges

Luke 23:34

Sermon

James Merritt

On the day that Karl Marx died in 1883, his housekeeper came to him and said: "Tell me your last words and I'll write them down." Marx replied: "Go on and get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!" Well, that is another thing that I disagree with Marx on. Last words are very important and can be very revealing. Here are just a few famous last words: Max Baer, the one time heavyweight champion of the world, said, as he was having a heart attack: "Oh God, here I go!" P. T. Barnham said: "How ...

2558. It Was the Birthday of a King

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

James Merritt

Ironically, the time of year called Christmas is a time of both celebration and separation. Because at no other time of the year is the Christian more separated from the world than at Christmastime. The world celebrates a season, but the Christian celebrates a Savior. Whether this world likes it or not, and increasingly the world doesn't like it, Christmas is the celebration of the birthday of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are some people who will be so drunk they will not know whose birthday it is. ...

2559. Tastes Great, Less Filling - Sounds Good, Not True

Proverbs 23:29-35

Sermon

James Merritt

As I approach this topic, I am reminded of a story of a Sunday School teacher who was trying to explain the dangers of alcohol to a class of little boys. She took a glass of clear water and placed it on a desk; then took a glass of alcohol and placed it next to the glass of water. She dropped some worms into the water and they just swam around. She then dropped some worms into the alcohol and they immediately curled up and died. Holding the glass of alcohol in one hand and the glass of water in the other, ...

2560. Why You Should Study the Bible

Psalm 119:105

Sermon

James Merritt

The Bible is the book that is owned by more people in America than any other single book. But what do Bible owners really know about the Bible? 82% say the idea that “God helps those who help themselves” is taken directly from the pages of the Bible. 66% say there is no absolute truth. 63% cannot name the four gospels. 58% cannot name half or more of the Ten Commandments. 58% do not know Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. 52% do not know the book of Jonah is in the Bible. 48% do not know the book of ...

2561. A Clock or a Compass?

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

David T. Ball

Do you all have your compasses with you? What? You don’t have compasses? Well, I guess neither do I. How about your watch? Okay! A much better response that time. I have my watch, too — but don’t get your hopes up that I’m planning to keep a closer eye on how long my sermons are taking! I really just wanted to make a point about how much we rely on our watches in comparison to our compasses. And I doubt that very many of us have a compass that we can carry around — we may have one on our car. We know our ...

2562. When I’m In Trouble

2 Timothy 4:16-18

Sermon

James Merritt

Everybody at one time or another has read the comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles Schulz. If you have, you can't help but love Charlie Brown. In one of the classic cartoons, Charlie Brown is at the beach building a beautiful sandcastle. He has worked on it all day long and as he stands back to admire his finished work, it is suddenly consumed by a huge wave. Looking at the smooth sand mound that had been his creation just a moment before, with that forlorn look, Charlie Brown says, "There must be a lesson ...

2563. What Child Is This?

Isaiah 9:6-7

Sermon

James Merritt

The melody to the Christmas carol "What Child Is This?" goes all the way back to the 1500's. It was known at one time as "Greensleeves." But most of the world would never have known the melody of this song, much less the words as we know it today, if it had not been for an insurance salesman named William Chatterton Dix. In 1865 as Christmas was approaching, this insurance salesman sat down and wrote a poem in one afternoon that he entitled "The Manger Throne." Dix imagined visitors walking by a manger 2, ...

2564. Heaven: One Way And One Way Only

John 14:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

There are so many songs about heaven; so many thoughts about heaven. One song just asked the question, "How far is heaven?" The answer is that heaven can be as close as your heart or it can be an eternity away. Contrary to one world view that says that the only heaven there is, is the happiness that we experience here on earth, Jesus Christ definitely believed in a place called heaven. In the very passage that we are looking at today, He told his disciples - "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; ...

2565. This Is the Day!

Psalm 118:1-29

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to begin with a suggestion. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, I want you to stand up tall in front of your bathroom mirror, give yourself a big smile and declare with great gusto that wonderful verse from Psalms, “This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!” Bio-feedback experts suggest that this single act can do wonders for our mental state. The relation between our body and our mind is an interesting one. We don’t smile because we feel great, these experts tell us; ...

2566. Soaring with Christ

Matthew 28:1-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

What an absolute joy to worship here, to be your pastor, to celebrate this Easter Sunday. Thank you for giving me the privilege to do that. What does Easter mean to you? I posed that with a preschooler yesterday and he said, “The Easter bunny is coming to bring me some candy." I asked a teenager, “What does Easter mean to you?" With a twinkle in her eye she said, “Fun in the sun. I'm on my way to spring break." If you happen to be employed with the church, Easter week is the busiest week of the entire ...

2567. Marketing or Disciplemaking?

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

I don't remember my first experience at worship. I was carried there as an infant in my mother's arms. I can almost count on one hand the number of weeks in my 59 years of life that I have not been somewhere in a worship service to praise and thank God. Worship is a part of my DNA. It's just deep within my soul. It was the Westminster Catechism that stated years ago, the chief purpose of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We were not created to please ourselves. We were made to please God. I ...

2568. No ... On

Luke 22:66--23:25

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

Today is a strange and peculiar day. It reminds me of a film clip that I am sure many of you have seen. It was November 22, 1963, in DeelePlaza, Dallas, Texas, just outside the Texas Book Depository. There was a parade. In that parade was the limousine with Jackie wearing her famous pink dress and pink pillbox hat. And there was her husband, JFK, waving to the cheering crowds. As we watch them go down the street we shudder, because we know that a disaster is about to happen. Today we remember another ...

2569. Passing the Test

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

"Students, it is time to get out your pencils, close your books and remove any notes from your desks. The test is about to begin." Those are words that make us shudder, our hearts start to pound and the palms of our hands begin to sweat. From our earliest days in school, we all have had to learn to deal with tests. It may begin with a simple first grade spelling test. But it doesn't take too long before it morphs into ISTEP, the SAT, the Bar, the Boards, or a doctoral qualifying exam. Or it might be as ...

2570. A Bloody Cheer!

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

2571. See Something, Say Something, Do Something, Be Something

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It is the key you click before you can do anything. It is the box you check before you can go anywhere. You know what it is. It’s a “Terms of Service.” You are online and you sign on to some website that has the information or product you’ve been searching for. But before you are granted access to that portal you must endure the “Terms of Service” claimer/disclaimer. The “term of service” barrier is the twenty-first century version of the cherubim with flailing; flaming swords set up to guard the Garden of ...

2572. Follow the Directions

Psalm 119:9, 18, 89

Sermon

James Merritt

There is one thing in common with every single person on this planet who has ever been born and who ever will be. It has never been more illustrated than it has in the 21st century. We have an unquenchable thirst and an insatiable appetite for information and communication. We want to know who is doing what and we want to know what people are doing. We’ve never been more saturated with information and more soaked with communication than we are today. From cell phones, to television, to email, to radios, to ...

2573. Peacemaker

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

James Merritt

Every Christmas I ask myself a question that I bet you ask too. “What will I get this year that I can’t use, don’t need, or would love to pass on next year to someone else?” Most of us if we’re honest have “regifted something to someone else that we didn’t want. I confessed last week I have and most of you have too. We are in a series we are calling “regifted.” One of the things we are learning as we look at the Christmas story is that some things are worth regifting—the gift is just too good to keep to ...

2574. Isaac and Abimelech

Genesis 26:1-35

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

Isaac Settles in the Negev: Genesis preserves only a few of the traditions about Isaac. The episodes in which Isaac is the main actor cluster primarily in this chapter, which opens by identifying him as the true heir of the promises to Abraham (vv. 3–5). These accounts picture Isaac as following in the footsteps of Abraham. Both face famine in the land (26:1–6 // 12:10); during the famine both go to live in a foreign setting and identify their wives as sisters for self-protection (26:7–11 // 12:10–20); ...

2575. “Blessed Are Those Who Have Regard for the Weak; the Lord Delivers Them”

Psalm 41:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Irrespective of the cause of our illnesses, the Lord cares for us in our vulnerability. Understanding the Text The literary type of Psalm 41 has been the topic of much discussion, since the poem does not seem to fall easily into any single type. Perhaps Kraus’s “prayer song of the sick”1 is appropriate for this psalm, although we might simply designate it as an individual lament. The psalm, in fact, begins with a benediction on those who “have regard for” the sick (see the comments on 41:1). ...

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