Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2601 to 2625 of 4972 results

2601. Job Considers a Legal Dispute with God

Job 9:1–10:22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... law student arguing a case before the Supreme Court, Job is not up to the challenge of that high level of judicial proceedings. 9:15 I could only plead with my Judge for mercy. Job’s insistence on his integrity and his recognition of God’s supremacy leave him with few alternatives. He could not consider admitting to sin, because that would mean abandoning what he knows to be the truth. He could not compel God to declare him righteous. All he could do would be to plead to God against God, knowing that ...

2602. Job Hears the Whispers of God’s Works

Job 26:1--31:40

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... . Job lists the various accusations that have been raised against him, and then he denies them all. Several times, Job uses the form, “If I have done this crime, then let God punish me with this horrible consequence.” Other times, Job states the condition, but he leaves the consequence undefined. By this means, Job as the defendant calls on God as judge either to condemn him to the full extent of the law or else to clear him of the erroneous charge. If Job is guilty, then he has invited God to strike ...

2603. “The King Rejoices in Your Strength, Lord”

Psalm 21:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... not satisfy the ethical urgency of most readers, it is nevertheless his underlying rationale. Perhaps we have to leave the issue somewhat unresolved, but as we do, we must examine our own ethical persuasions and determine what ... he reinforced the vacuous nature of his life in several ways in the psalm (see “Teaching the Text”). While our remotest thoughts may leave some place for the idea that God can, and even would, forsake his servants, the recesses of our rational beings, by the very contradiction ...

2604. “Taste and See That the Lord Is Good”

Psalm 34:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... faith in human beings has taken a downward plunge. Fifth, at times the suppliants were very confident in the support of their community that hoped for their vindication (35:27). Sixth, the psalmists, whether stated or unstated, do not take vengeance into their own hands but leave it to God (e.g., 109:26–29; see Deut. 32:35; Rom. 12:19). Thus this theological context gives us a perspective, even though it still cannot countermand such harsh rhetoric as we find in Psalm 137:9, “Happy is the one who seizes ...

2605. “May the Net They Hid Entangle Them”

Psalm 35:1-28

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... of how God should deal with the unjust portrait that their rejection has cultivated. Among the prophets Jeremiah sometimes assumes a vengeful spirit toward his many and violent enemies, but, like the psalmists, he does not take vengeance into his own hands but leaves it to God. Jeremiah 18:18–23 is such a caustic prayer in which he petitions God to bring personal tragedy on his persecutors (the spirit of Jer. 21–22 especially runs in that vein). Jeremiah’s prayer is introduced with information about ...

2606. “I Confess My Iniquity; I Am Troubled by My Sin”

Psalm 38:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... , with an invocation on either side. The first invocation bears the weight of the illness, while the closing prayer leaves that aside and prays simply for God’s deliverance. 1. Opening invocation, describing the psalmist’s sickness (38:1– ... “only to do what is good” (38:20). We may assume that the overreaction stems from the intensity of the psalmist’s suffering, leaving the impression that his sin is of such gravity that they can ignore the kindness he has paid them. The psalmist’s sickness ...

2607. “Ride Forth Victoriously in the Cause of Truth, Humility and Justice”

Psalm 45:1-17

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... of events falls outside the pale of understanding, because Israel has been faithful to the covenant (44:17–21). With this conundrum unresolved, the king throws himself on the mystery of God’s actions in history, which God sometimes does for his own name’s sake, leaving his people to trust him in the midst of the mystery. The mystery has disappeared when we come to Psalm 45, and the scene is an event that grips the heart of a nation, the marriage of its king to a foreign bride, whose beauty complements ...

2608. “In God I Trust and Am Not Afraid. What Can Mere Mortals Do to Me?”

Psalm 56:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... . We may compare Jesus’s words that our heavenly Father is aware of every sparrow that falls to the ground and that “the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:29–30). The impression that the refrain and other details leave with the reader is that the opposition is relentless (“all day long,” 56:1c, 5a), and while the psalmist’s faith is generally firm and strong, it sometimes relapses into a need for confirmation. The repeated confession of trust (see “Outline/Structure”) is ...

2609. “Endow the King with Your Justice, O God”

Psalm 72:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... kings were crowned. It is one of only two psalms associated with Solomon (the other is Ps. 127), and it certainly resonates with Solomon’s prayer for a “discerning heart” to govern Israel in 1 Kings 3:6–14. The content of the psalm, however, leaves the matter indecisive as to whether the psalm was written by Solomon or by David for Solomon. Calvin posits that it was originally a psalm by David, later adapted by Solomon.1Our interpretation assumes the position that David wrote the psalm as a prayer ...

2610. Spiritual Warfare and Jewish Suffering

Daniel 8:1-14

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... it, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (Gibson) pledges to his men: “This I swear, before you and before Almighty God, that when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind.” He keeps this promise by always standing beside his men while leading them in crisis and staying in the fight until all are off the battlefield. God not only has entered into our spiritual battles against sin and death—and won the ultimate victory ...

2611. What To Do While Waiting for the Judgment?

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... late at the office. Traffic on the freeway was tied up by an accident. The super market was crowded and we ended up in the slowest check-out line. The oven won’t heat. The cat has walked down the middle of the table we set this morning, leaving unmistakable, sooty footprints. And our six-year-old knocks over a cup of milk. Then time runs out. The guest is at the door. We have lost the opportunity for a leisurely visit; we must struggle instead with dinner preparations. For all of us, in large matters and ...

2612. Serendipity

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . All glittering in the sunlight is a heap of gold, silver, and precious jewels. He is bewildered as well as excited. What is he to do? He quickly covers the treasure over again, goes to the side of the field and gets a rock to make the place, and leaves immediately. He gathers everything he has that is of any value, and begins to go from place to place to sell it all. And when he has done so, sold everything he has, he takes the money and purchases the field that he has been tending laboriously through the ...

2613. Without Christmas, Life Would Be Impossible

Luke 2:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... in us? I share the story of a fellow preacher who visited Cuba over a decade ago. He was driven from the airport by a young Cuban minister who had just graduated from the seminary. Most of the clergy in that country fled during the oppressive persecution of Castro, leaving only a handful behind to do the Lord’s work. During the two hour drive from Havana to Matansas, the young clergy told the fellow preacher about the joy of having been reared in a church family and the pain of watching his entire family ...

2614. When Someone Else Gets the Honor

Matthew 20:1-16

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: Some workshop tools Good morning, boys and girls. There is a legend that one day all the tools in a carpenter's shop were arguing among themselves. They wanted to make the hammer leave, because he made too much noise. The hammer protested: "If I must leave the shop, then so must the plane because all his work is only superficial. It has no depth." The plane protested,, "If I go, the sandpaper should go also because she is always rubbing the wrong way." The sandpaper said, "If I am to go, then the ...

2615. Jerry's Story...and Ours

Jeremiah 1:4-5

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... behind a fingerprint, and no two fingerprints are alike. Did you know that the police could use your tongue print just as easily. No two tongues are alike in just the same way that no two fingers are exactly alike. Usually criminals don't leave tongue prints behind unless they were stealing ice cream, I guess, so we don't hear about tongue prints like we hear about fingerprints. Wow! You are special. In all the universe nobody has a tongue like yours! In our Bibles, God tells the prophet Jeremiah that even ...

2616. How Do You Get Rid of Evil without Destroying Good?

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... lust of the flesh.” [6] Life has its end-time, its climax, its judgment. As James Russell Lowell wrote about it: “Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, parts the goats upon the left and the sheep upon the right.” [7] Leave it alone until the harvest. God will judge and will give instructions for the harvest: “Gather up first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into the barn.” We don’t have to rush the judgment, nor do we take ...

2617. Adam and Eve

Genesis 2:4-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... of the meanings of the verb behind the Hebrew noun “bone” is “to be strong.” Flesh, on the other hand, represents weakness in a person. The man is to leave his father and mother (neither of which Adam has!) and cleave to his wife. Elsewhere in the Old Testament these are covenant terms. When Israel forsakes God’s covenant she “leaves” him. And when Israel is obedient to God’s covenant she “cleaves” to him. Already Genesis 2:24 is saying that marriage is a covenant simply through the use ...

2618. The Shemites

Genesis 11:10-32

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the Chaldeans (11:28), which is in southern Mesopotamia. There is a great deal of evidence to support a movement of Terahites from Ur north to Harran, which provides support for linking Abraham with lower Mesopotamia and the patriarchs with northern Mesopotamia. There is no indication that Abraham ever regretted leaving Ur or Harran. This is different from his offspring, who frequently regretted leaving Egypt and wanted to return there (Exod. 16:3; 17:3; Num. 14:3).

2619. The Call of Abram

Genesis 12:1-8

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

This next major section of Genesis (12:1–25:18) covers the life of Abraham. Here in chapter 12 God’s first word to Abram is an imperative: leave! The three things he is to leave behind are arranged in ascending order: country, people, father’s household. The imperative is followed by a series of promises relating to progeny, reputation, and blessing. There is quite a contrast between 11:4 (“we may make a name for ourselves”) and 12:2 (“I will make your name great”). ...

2620. Joseph and the Famine

Genesis 47:13-31

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... me” directed long ago to Esau (25:33). But there is a world of difference between the conniving Jacob of chapter 25 and the dying Jacob of chapter 47. Jacob wants no burial plot in Egypt. This is not, he knows, God’s destiny for his people. He wants to leave when they ...

2621. Joseph’s Death

Genesis 50:22-26

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... in Egyptian literature is the ideal length of human life. Moreover Joseph lives long enough to see his great-grandchildren (50:23), a privilege shared by no other patriarchal figure. There is no question that one day Joseph’s family will leave Egypt. “Take my bones with you when you leave,” he says (50:25, author’s translation). Joseph, of course, is not aware of the titanic struggle that awaits God’s people as they seek release from bondage. But having seen the reality and power of God in his own ...

2622. The Plagues of Hail, Locust, and Darkness

Ex 9:13–10:29

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... invasion of locusts (10:1–20). Pharaoh’s entire system is eroding; in spite of his divine stature his officials challenge his authority, appealing to the potential utter ruin of Egypt. He recalls Moses and Aaron, but when he learns that they will all be leaving to worship, Pharaoh declares his intent to keep women and children as hostages. The ninth plague (10:21–29) attacks the sun god, Amun-Re. It is a darkness “that can be felt” (10:21), possibly the sharav, a dry heat wave in which winds from ...

2623. Hebrew Servants

Exodus 21:2-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... mistreatment of slaves. The Hebrew word ebed means both “slave” and “servant.” Because there is provision for selling oneself into bondage in order to deal with unmanageable debt (22:3), hope for freedom is essential. A male servant does not have to buy his freedom but can leave at the end of six years if he chooses to do so (21:2). If, however, he loves his master, or his master has given to him a wife whom he loves, he can continue to serve his master (21:5–6). Because it was common practice in ...

2624. Various Laws

Leviticus 19:1-37

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Worship Verses 5-8: No profaning well-being offering by eating it on third day (see Lev. 7:16-18) The Poor Verses 9-10: Leave some of harvest for gleaning by poor and alien Social Justice in the 10 Commandments Verse 11: No stealing (see Exod. 20:15) Verse 11: No ... or profaning a well-being offering (19:5–8). Another restriction on food that shows respect for God is to leave some of the harvest for disadvantaged people to glean (19:9–10). Such concern for others, especially the underprivileged, calls ...

2625. Samuel Anoints Saul

1 Sam 9:1–10:8

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... message from God” privately (9:27). Then, taking a flask of olive oil, Samuel pours it on Saul’s head and anoints him king. So begins Samuel’s key role as a king maker, and Israel’s monarchy is launched. A new era has begun. Before Saul leaves, Samuel gives him some signs as further proof that God has indeed chosen him to be king (10:2–8). Samuel predicts the location at which Saul will meet various individuals and what they will do, demonstrating again that he is a legitimate prophet of the Lord ...

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