Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2601 to 2625 of 4943 results

2601. Envision: The Great Commandment

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

James Merritt

Envision. Envision a church after God’s own heart. Envision a follower of Christ hitting on all eight-cylinders, being everything that God wants him to be, doing everything that God wants him to do, living a life of such passion, such power and such purpose that the people that he or she meets, where they live, where they work, and where they play are eternally impacted. We are convinced that such a church and such a Christ follower do three simple things: Love God, Serve Others, and Share Jesus. That is ...

2602. The Joy of a Thankful Heart

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

On his way to Jerusalem, our Lord passed through the region between Samaria and Galilee. This was never a pleasant place for a Jew to travel. There was just too much animosity with the Samaritans. The Jews preferred to avoid them. Travel in the region of the Samaritans was simply distasteful. As Jesus walked, a group of ten lepers approached him. The group contains a curious mixture. For one thing, both leprous Jews and leprous Samaritans were traveling together.[1] The illness permitted them to rise above ...

2603. Eyes Fixed Upon the Goal

Philippians 3:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Paul W. Powell in his book, The Complete Disciple, describes a picture painted by a famous artist. It is a picture of a wagon train in the old West. Nighttime has fallen. The wagons have been circled for protection. In the center of the circle of wagons is a campfire and a group of rugged men are gathered around it. The wagon master, a muscular man with an uncut beard, has a map spread before him. On the map is a heavy black line which zigzags across the map showing the course they have taken to this point ...

2604. Doing What is Good

Titus 3:1-11

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

Instructions for Living in State and Society: After a brief exhortation to Titus (2:15) to “teach these things” (at least 2:1–14), Paul returns in this section to the major concern of the letter—“good works” (i.e., genuinely Christian behavior) for the sake of the outsider (3:1–8) and in contrast to the false teachers (3:9–11). This section, however, makes a decided turn in the argument. In 2:1–14 the concern for “good works” had to do largely with relationships between believers, which when seen by ...

2605. The Book of Law Found

2 Kings 22:1-20

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

Josiah: Judgment has been announced. It is now simply a matter of timing. At this juncture in Judean history, strangely enough, Judah finds herself with yet another righteous king—a second Moses to match her second David (Hezekiah). Josiah is a king long-awaited (1 Kgs. 13:2). He is the best of all kings, but he is a king come too late. 22:1–2 The verses that introduce Josiah alert us to the kind of king he is going to be. There is reference to David—as we would expect. More significantly, however, there ...

2606. Salvation for Others

Isaiah 56:1-8

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Back in Palestine: Yahweh’s Vision for an Open Community: We have come to another transition point in Isaiah, and to the opening of its last major section, traditionally known as Third Isaiah. The work of the Ambassador and the Poet give way to the work of the Preacher, whose account of being anointed for this task comes in the central chapter in 61:1. So far chapters 1–33 have focused on Yahweh’s dealings with Judah during the latter part of the monarchy. They have challenged Judah about the religious and ...

2607. Three Parables about the Unfaithfulness of the Jewish Leaders

Matthew 22:1-14, Matthew 21:33-46, Matthew 21:28-32, Matthew 21:23-27

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: When his authority is questioned by the Jerusalem leaders, Jesus, the faithful Son of God, tells three parables contrasting those who are faithful and do God’s will (even supposed sinners) and those who disbelieve and disobey (the Jerusalem leaders). Understanding the Text Two symbolic actions of Jesus—his entry as king into Jerusalem and his temple critique (21:1–22)—provoke a contest of authority with the chief priests and Jewish elders (21:23–27). Jesus refuses to answer their question about ...

2608. Jesus Inaugurates the Disciple Band and Conquers the Unclean Spirits

Mark 1:14-20, Mark 1:21-28

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: Jesus reacts to two types of people: (1) those who are willing to commit to him, like the first four disciples, and who are re-created by Jesus to “fish for people”; (2) those who remain outside him and thus will experience his authority to vanquish the powers of darkness. Understanding the Text Jesus’s Galilean ministry (1:16–10:52) begins here. Mark will start with two cycles of Jesus’s ministry to the three major Jewish groups of Galilee: his disciples (1:16–20; 3:13–19), the crowds (1:21–45; ...

2609. Gentiles Exemplify True Discipleship

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: Salvation and the kingdom blessings, heretofore experienced primarily by the Jews, are now extended to the Gentiles. A Gentile woman of Tyre shows remarkable faith and humility, and a deaf mute in the Decapolis experiences messianic healing. Understanding the Text Mark now turns to examples of faith, as the Syrophoenician woman is one of the “little people” in Mark, characters who appear only once but carry the theme of what a true disciple should be. As such, she gives a lesson to the disciples ...

2610. Lessons on Devotion and Prayer

Luke 11:1-13, Luke 10:38-42

Teach the Text

R.T. France

Big Idea: It is our personal relationship with God that should take priority in our lives; those who know God as Father can pray to him with full confidence. Understanding the Text Prayer, and especially Jesus’s practice of prayer, is a prominent theme for Luke. He has portrayed Jesus at prayer already in 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28–29, indicating that this was an important part of his way of life. Those passages record the fact of Jesus’s frequent prayer rather than its content. But in 10:21–22 we have ...

2611. The Reversal of the Deuteronomic Curses and Blessings: Replacing Law with Faith

Romans 9:30--10:21

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

Big Idea: The key issue in this controversial text is the role of the law in light of the work of Christ. Paul reverses the Deuteronomic curses and blessings: non-Christian Jews experience the Deuteronomic curses because they attempt to be justified by the law, while believing Gentiles are justified because their faith is in Christ, so to them belong the Deuteronomic blessings. Understanding the Text Romans 9:30–10:21 forms the second unit in Romans 9–11 (9:1–29 is the first, and 11:1–32 is the third). The ...

2612. The New-Covenant Ethic of Love

Romans 12:9-21

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

Big Idea: Paul, like Jesus, says that the new-covenant ethic is love. The thesis here is simple: love sincerely. Love should be shown toward God, fellow believers, and even nonbelievers who persecute Christians. Thus, Paul’s ethic continues the radical call by Jesus to his disciples to love one another. To love others is to sacrificially accept the new-covenant stipulation to love. Understanding the Text Romans 12:9–21 continues the theme of being a living sacrifice (12:1–2) by loving others. Romans 12:9 ...

2613. Living by God’s Sexual Standards

Leviticus 18:1-30

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: God’s moral and sexual standards bring life. Understanding the Text Leviticus 18 within the laws of holiness (Lev. 17–27) teaches holiness to laypersons in the areas of incest and sexuality. It exhorts the Israelites to live differently than do the Egyptians or the Canaanites (vv. 1–5) in those areas (vv. 6–23) or else be expelled from the land (vv. 24–30). The present chapter overlaps in content with Leviticus 20. In terms of sacred space, Leviticus 18–20 arguably describes things that ...

2614. The Census of the Twelve Tribes

Num 1:1–2:54

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: God fulfills his promises. Understanding the Text Numbers begins with Israel still “in the Desert of Sinai,” where it has received the Ten Commandments (Num. 1:1; cf. Exod. 19:1–2). Numbers continues the story of Exodus and Leviticus. At the end of the book of Exodus, Israel constructs the tabernacle, or “tent of meeting.” The book of Leviticus gives rules for how Israel is to use the tabernacle. Now from that tent at Mount Sinai God gives further instructions. Centuries earlier God had promised ...

2615. Nabuchadnezzar’s Dream and Daniel's Interpretation

Daniel 2:1-23, Daniel 2:24-49

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

Nebuchadnezzar Is Troubled by a Dream (2:1-16): Big Idea: God sometimes allows mere mortals, however powerful, to discover the bankruptcy of their belief systems before revealing himself through his messenger. Understanding the Text Daniel 2:1–49 is woven into the book’s overall literary structure in two ways. First, it advances the narrative of chapters 1–6, in which the first four focus on Nebuchadnezzar (chaps. 1–2 with historical markers and 3–4 without) and the last two show the transition from ...

2616. Widows and Their Worries: Back to Bethlehem

Ruth 1:1-22

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Setting: Famine and Family Tragedy (1:1–5) · The grim opening of this story grips the reader on three counts. First, it is neither a prosperous nor a fruitful time in the nation’s life (1:1). Second, and not unrelated, the people of Israel face famine (1:1). The fact that a famine prevails in Bethlehem, in Judah’s “house of bread,” together with the religious crisis dominating the landscape indicates an unpleasant visitation by the Lord on the land. The Lord promised famine as one among many of his acts of ...

2617. The Fall of Man

Genesis 3:1-24

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

The Fall: The interchange among the man, the woman, and the serpent provides dramatic movement, and captures how motivation to disobey God rises from an inversion of the order of responsibility that God had established. 3:1–5 Act 2 of the drama begins with the introduction of a new actor, the serpent, one of the wild animals the LORD God had made (2:19). The serpent is described as more crafty (’arum) than the other animals. ’Arum makes a wordplay on “naked” (’arummim), which occurs in 2:25, and thus ...

2618. The Awesome Power of FUD

John 21:1-19

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

It happened many years ago, but I remember the experience as if it was yesterday. It was late September and I was in the first grade. The teacher assigned an art project. “Draw a picture of a boat. Do your very best,” she instructed. I was excited. I specialized in drawing boats, particularly the ships of the United States Navy. My mother always praised my boat pictures. With the precision ordinarily reserved for the drafting tables of the shipyard at Norfolk, Virginia, I crafted what I believed was a ...

2619. Liminal Space

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!” (Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss) Was it a dream? Or wasn’t it? Ever wake with that strange feeling? You wake and wonder if your dream is still going on? A discomfort gnaws and nags at you---maybe it wasn’t a dream after all? It seemed so real! Sometimes those dreams are hard to shake off. A kind of “dream dust” settles on your reality and your sense of time. You find yourself in a kind of “liminal space,” unsure whether a part of your ...

2620. Joey and Nicky at Skull Mountain

Mark 15:42-47

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: Anointing oil (preferably frankincense or myrrh) Joey and Nicky at Skull Mountain -- It sounds like a mystery like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, doesn’t it? Or for those with a slightly more sinister flair, a story by E. L. Stine. Intrigue, Mystery, Mayhem, and a good dose of the gruesome. And slightly Spooky. The events surrounding Jesus’ death were certainly strange and unusual. The High Priest and his family of former and future high priests had been pushing to get something done about Jesus ...

2621. Rule of Love

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? — Matthew 22:36 In one of her books, the eloquent Episcopal priest, Barbara Brown Taylor, wrote these words about the Bible: “My relationship with the Bible is a marriage, not a romance, and one I am willing to work on in all the usual ways.”1 What she meant, of course, was that her relationship with the Bible was like any other serious relationship; it included good days as well as challenging days, days of clarity and days of confusion, days of joy ...

2622. Doorkeepers for Disruption

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

On April 7, 1789, the US Senate created a position called “doorkeeper.” They appointed James T. Mathers to the position. Mathers’ job was to ensure that all senators showed up and stayed in the Senate Chamber ready to do the business of the government at hand. Because the United States Constitution required “a Quorum to do business,” all members needed to be present and ready when needed. At first, the Senate had difficulty establishing its first quorum. Their goal was reached the day before they elected ...

2623. The Heart's Deceit

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Rules. We need them. They are like guardrails for our safety, our well-being, and our peace of mind. What feels like a risky journey is made secure and free of worry by the guidelines, laws, and rules of our societies. When rules function as our boundaries, our structure to our otherwise aimless endeavors, they comfort us. But when our rules become our journey, our primary focus, the purpose for the trip itself, we have become prisoners of our own safety nets. How does this happen? It usually has to do ...

2624. Uncontainable Faith

Mark 7:24-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Curiosity killed the cat,” goes the old folk saying. We’ve all heard it. We all know it. Except that’s not what the proverb originally was. The true proverb read, “Care killed the cat.” So where did this new phrase come from? Why the revision? And what did the original phrase mean? On 23 December 1912, a printed reference to the new variation of the proverb was printed in The Titusville Herald newspaper in a grocery store ad: You will find greater values here. We are told: "Curiosity killed the cat, But ...

2625. Secret Sauce

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Everyone knows that the secret to great dishes is in the sauce. A great chef can spend years perfecting a single sauce. Although a few secret ingredients can distinguish a sauce and therefore a dish, the base usually starts with a simple roux or base (flour and butter or oil heated together as a thickening agent). Once the roux is established, the rest depends on whatever additional ingredients the chef decides to add. The French in particular have perfected this process. French cooking begins by learning ...

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