Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2576 to 2600 of 4997 results

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... this: “I don’t have a problem with drugs or alcohol.” Or this: “If I weren’t so needy or noisy or nosy, the abuse would stop.” These are lies, says Vicki Flippin, “that we live our lives by. Lies that we die little deaths by.” These are the kinds of lies Tilda asked them to write down. And then she had them get into groups and to share some of the lies about themselves they had written. Vickie shared two of her own lies with the group. The two lies that held her in captivity were “I am not ...

2577. It Was a Dark and Stormy Evening! Father's Day

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... read in the first verse of the Epistle of James, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (2-3). Well, I don’t know about you, but whenever I ... on, walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone.” (7) I don’t know what kind of storm you’re going through today, but you are not alone. The One who has power to calm the storm is with you. 1. ...

2578. Are You a Polar Bear?

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

... really my Father? Because sometimes I doubt, and other times, I don’t act much like you. And I’m not sure if I’m the kind of person you would want to call your child. And sometimes things don’t go well for me, and I have pain and anger and . . . is ... healthy. Cigarettes, recreational drugs and excessive alcohol are out of the question. And Ken is somewhat of an exercise fanatic himself. He’s the kind of guy you would hate to have next to you in the gym. (2) But, let me ask you, do you think he’s ...

2579. Moving On Up

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... example. How are you doing while you’re moving on up? Are you learning to serve? Philip Yancey wrote in his book The Jesus I Never Knew, “You can gauge the size of a ship that has passed out of sight by the huge wake it leaves behind.” What kind of wake will you leave behind? Will the water ripple at all because you’ve been here? The word is service--service to your church, service to your community, service to those who need it most. Are you moving on up? 1. Uncle John’s 24-Karat Gold Bathroom ...

2580. Be Careful What You Ask For

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... looking after their own selfish interests. They approach him privately. That tells you something right there. If they were approaching him about something high and noble, they would certainly have done so in front of the other disciples. No-o-o . . . this is a different kind of request. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” There’s another red flag. If one of your children came to you and said “Mommy, we want you to do for us whatever we ask,” what would be your ...

2581. Peace Comes to Our Hearts

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... . The Lord of all the heavens and earth has come into our world as a tiny babe. What a supreme cause for celebration. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” writes St. Paul. Some of us are afraid of giving in to that kind of unadulterated joy. Next Paul says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” That is an interesting thought. Advent and Christmas are a time for gentleness--unless, of course, you’re headed for the mall. I’m kidding, of course--at least I think I am. Some ...

2582. The Good Samaritan (Revised Edition)

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... dripping on the hot motor, the threat of fire and explosion, and the danger to his own life as well as the driver's. David wondered what kind of human being it was who could sue the man who saved his life. Instead of a hero's medal or thank-you letter, it was a ... suits, Good Samaritans have increasingly found themselves in court being sued for an act of mercy. So, the question arises, what kind of society are we anyway when people sue their fellow citizens for attempting to save their lives? Is it too ...

2583. Eyes Fixed Upon the Goal

Philippians 3:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... your spouse fall on that list . . . your children . . . your work . . . your responsibilities to the community . . . etc.? Where does your faith fall on that list? Then realistically, how well does your weekly schedule reflect your priorities? Will your priorities help make you the kind of person you mean to be? A student at Amherst College, soon after entering school, put over the door of his dormitory room the letter V. Because of that V he endured all sorts of ridicule. But he paid no attention to the ...

2584. A Complicated Disciple

John 18:15-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... style, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” And who can deny he meant it? It was the kind of outburst we have come to expect out of Peter. None of the Gospels record the expression that was on Jesus’ face when he answered ... the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace” (Romans 10:15). And then Warren Wiersbe asks this pointed question, “What kind of feet do you have?” (2) Good question. Peter proves that ordinary people, with all their faults, are still candidates to ...

2585. Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin

Acts 4:1-22

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... found already that they could not disprove it. The address rulers and elders of the people (v. 8) again suggests that the apostles especially had to deal with the Sadducees (see disc. on v. 5). Peter began by pointing out that they had done an act of kindness … to a cripple (v. 9). Surely this was no ground for complaint. Twice in these verses the demonstrative pronoun this is used of the man, as though Peter were actually pointing to him as he spoke. Behind the phrase he was healed is the same Greek word ...

2586. Paul Sails for Rome

Acts 27:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... port in Myra, as Luke has done here. Under the Romans, when Lycia was a separate province, Myra was its capital (see disc. on 13:13). 27:6 Here the centurion found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy and had the prisoners transferred to it. Luke does not mention what kind of a ship it was, but the fact that it was on its way from Egypt to Italy and that its cargo included wheat (v. 38, but cf. v. 18) indicates that it was one of the fleet of grain ships in the government service. There is nothing odd in ...

2587. Identification and a Wish for Grace and Peace

Galatians 1:1-10

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... (cf. Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; and, if Pauline authorship is accepted, Eph. 1:1 and Col. 1:1). In Galatians Paul places his name in direct relation to his self-designation as apostle and then immediately goes on to qualify what kind of apostle he is. Often at the beginning of a letter Paul qualifies his apostleship as being by the will of God. In Galatians Paul makes a similar point in a particularly graphic and emphatic way, by describing the means by which he became an apostle and the identity ...

2588. Freedom In Christ

Galatians 5:1-15, Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... from the external circumstances of one’s life but from the God of peace (Rom. 15:33; 16:20; Phil. 4:9). Patience has the sense of forbearance and is a characteristic of God (Rom. 2:4; 9:22) in which believers share (cf. 2 Cor. 6:6). Kindness is another feature of God’s character (Rom. 2:4; 11:22) that should characterize the people of God (2 Cor. 6:6). Goodness has the sense of “generosity” or “uprightness.” Paul uses it as a high compliment (Rom. 15:14) and recognizes that only through God’s ...

2589. Rules for Christian Households

Colossians 3:18-4:1

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... converted to Christianity would bring some of their previous religious practices into their new faith. But the ecstasy, glossolalia, prophecy, enthusiasm, and so forth sanctioned in some of the pagan cults was not welcomed in Christianity; it did not produce the kind of reverence and order that was necessary for building up the body of Christ. This background assists one to place into a proper context other statements by Paul concerning women and worship. Paul’s responses often are drawn from his Jewish ...

2590. Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians' Faith

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... . At the same time it makes us “somebodies” who in the eyes of the world may be “nobodies.” Election gives us a value that otherwise we would not have, for God chose us, not because of what we were, but despite our being sinners and simply because he is the kind of God he is (cf. 1 John 4:8, 16; also Rom. 5:8 and 1 John 4:10). Our election is entirely an expression of God’s love. Notice then, how Paul links these two ideas in this passage by calling the chosen those loved by God (cf. Deut ...

2591. Paul’s Longing to See the Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 2:17--3:5

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... he is prepared “to be abandoned” (the sense of kataleipō, NIV to be left). This word helps us feel something of Paul’s apprehension at being left alone in these foreign cities (cf. 1 Cor. 2:3). One writer describes Paul’s experience as a “kind of widowhood.” But it was not too great a price to pay to find out how his children were faring. His emissary Timothy receives a twofold description. Whatever his probably subordinate role was in the missionary team, he is nevertheless their brother in ...

2592. Thanksgiving and Prayer

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... just with God.” But this is simply a literary form (“a rhetorical understatement,” Morris; cf. Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 8:5), and there is no question that God’s justice is concerned with condemnation and vindication, with the giving of relief, and with retribution in kind to the troublemakers. Some are uncomfortable with this proposition. They can accept that God is love but not that he is just and will condemn. And yet God’s justice as much as his love saves us; only as we refuse his salvation do we see ...

2593. The Man of Lawlessness

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... of loving the one in whom that truth is embodied (see disc. on 2:10), has moral consequences (cf. Rom. 2:8; 1 Cor. 13:6). The verb eudokeō means “to give consent to,” “to delight in.” Those who do not believe, delight in adikia, every kind of evil. Additional Notes 2:2 Saying that the day of the Lord has already come: As explained above, common usage supports NIV’s rendering of enestēken, has already come (cf. RV “is now present,” RSV “has come,” NEB “is already here”), but because ...

2594. Paul's Charge to Timothy

1 Timothy 6:11-21

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... to your care. This is the third such charge in the letter (cf. 1:18–19; 6:13–16; the fourth if one sees 4:6–10 as a charge). The imperative (lit., “keep the deposit”) is a metaphor, drawn from common life, reflecting the highest kind of sacred obligation in ancient society, namely, being entrusted with some treasured possession for safe-keeping while another is away. A person so entrusted was under the most binding sacred duty to keep “the deposit” safe (see, e.g., Lev. 6:2, 4, where this word ...

2595. Paul's Charge to Timothy

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... about to be poured out as a drink offering”), those verses will give us the clue to much of this section. Paul knows he is about to die. This charge, therefore, though made against the backdrop of the situation in Ephesus, looks far beyond that. Here we have a kind of changing of the guard, the word of a dying man to his heir apparent. To use the athletic metaphor of verses 7–8, it is the passing of the baton. The whole paragraph needs to be read with this reality in view. 4:1 The opening words of this ...

2596. The Remaining Promise of Rest

Hebrews 4:1-13

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... By a skillful combination of language drawn from two of the OT passages that have already been quoted (Ps. 95:11 in 3:11, 18; 4:3, 5; and Gen. 2:2 in 4:4), the author indicates that the promised rest and God’s rest are of the same kind. Thus anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work (lit., “works”). In view here is the present experience of rest already available to the readers (the tense of the Greek verb is actually aorist, or past), a point the author intends to stress. The way in ...

2597. Melchizedek the Priest

Hebrews 7:1-10, Hebrews 7:11-28

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... the incomplete work of the levitical priests. Because is added by NIV, being inferred from the participial clause translated he always lives. The priestly work of Christ depends directly on “the power of an indestructible life” (7:16), and it is that same kind of permanence that determines the character of the salvation experienced by its recipients. They are sustained by the continual intercession of Jesus on their behalf. On this point the author is in agreement with Paul (Rom. 8:34; cf. 1 John 2:1 ...

2598. The Legitimacy and Superiority of Christ’s Priesthood

Hebrews 7:11-28, Hebrews 7:1-10

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

2599. The High Priest of a New Covenant

Hebrews 8:1-13

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... the stress on the importance of history, as well as the temporal sequence of promise and fulfillment, is quite alien to Plato. See R. Williamson, “Platonism and Hebrews,” SJT 16 (1963), pp. 415–24. The “dualism” in Hebrews is not of a metaphysical kind but of an eschatological kind, and the author’s background is more Jewish than Hellenistic. 8:3–4 The expression gifts and sacrifices (cf. Lev. 21:6), which occurs also in 5:1 and 9:9, is unique to this epistle in the NT. The phrase is a general ...

2600. Christ's Sacrifice Once for All

Hebrews 10:1-18

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... (cf. v. 1) is a reminder of the continuing problem of their sins. 10:4 The author returns to a fundamental point in his argument and the ground for his assertions in the preceding two verses. The words because it is impossible … are quite emphatic: cleansing of a kind can be accomplished by the blood of animals (9:13, 22), but cleansing that results in the taking away of sins is beyond the power of such blood. Only the blood of Christ is sufficient for this task (9:14, 25–26). Additional Notes 10:1 For ...

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