Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 2651 to 2675 of 3314 results

2651. By Humbly Doing Good

1 Peter 5:6-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... in the Upper Room when Jesus stooped to wash Peter's feet. It was almost more than Peter could stand. It was surely something he would never forget, his Master on His knees washing Peter's feet. So should it come as any surprise to us that this old apostle would say to struggling Christians in Asia Minor Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand, that he may exalt you in due time. Humble yourselves. It is how to handle trouble. II. BE CAREFREE Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. We have a ...

2652. Rejoicing in God’s Saints

Philippians 1:1-6

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of circumstances. The faith we have today is delivered to us by the saints, those living among us and those gone before us. Bishop Will Willimon tells the story about a fellow seminary student who challenges an Orthodox priest about particular parts of the Apostles Creed. You know that historic confession of faith which says, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered ...

2653. What Happens When You Are Not Number One?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... tells this story in a different way than Mark. In Matthew the request for the first place is not made by James and John, but by their mother, Salome. Could it have been that Matthew felt that such a request — such blatant ambition — was unworthy of an apostle. So, to save the reputation of James and John, he attributed the request to the natural ambition of their mother. I’m a parent. I am not unaware of mother’s and father’s being ambitious for their children. How often do we see the ambition of ...

2654. Strong in God’s Name

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Lee Griess

... God. For without that will power, without that resolve, there is no hope we can ever overcome temptation. But the key to overcoming temptation is not our willpower but God's power. It is not our resolve, but God's Spirit. One of the greatest Christians who ever lived, the apostle Paul, knew this. Remember what he said, "Woe is me. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But only what I hate, I do ... Wretched man that I am. Who will rescue me from this sinful nature? Thanks be to ...

2655. Hope to Carry On

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Lee Griess

... death itself. As people of God, our faith rests on our relationship with the crucified and living Lord Jesus Christ who says to us, "I am the resurrection and the life; if anyone believes in me, even though he dies yet shall he live." That's why the apostle Peter can say, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Our hope as Christian people comes from God and resides ...

2656. The Way and The Truth and The Life

John 14:1-14

Sermon

Lee Griess

... the way. The safest, most secure, most dependable way through life is by Christ. That's why Jesus says, "I am the way." If we want to find our way to the place God has created for us, we must follow Christ. For Jesus leads us to God. The apostle Philip learned that. After Thomas had questioned Jesus on where he was going, Philip came to Jesus and said, "Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied." Show us God, Philip asked. Help us understand who God is and that will be enough for us to understand ...

2657. Connected to God

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Lee Griess

... , of one accord, devoted to prayer and to one another. That's what the Bible tells us. That's their example for us. They didn't know what awaited them. They didn't know the persecutions and hardships that lay ahead. They didn't know that of them, only the apostle John would live to old age. All the rest of them would meet a martyr's death. As they returned to Jerusalem, there was much they did not know. What they did know, however, was that they would need each other. And the picture that we get of those ...

2658. One in Faith and One in Service

John 17:1-11

Sermon

Lee Griess

... — sent forth to serve our loving God. We are called to share the love of God with others and to care for those near us in need. In his prayer to his heavenly Father, Jesus prayed that God would protect us. He prayed that we would serve and love. The apostle John says it well in his first letter, "We love because he first loved us." Therefore, let us be one in faith and one in service. In Jesus' name. Amen.

2659. Why We Need the Pledge of Allegiance

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... to Jesus and asked him about the kingdom of God, Jesus told them, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,' or ‘There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-2 NIV). Even the apostle Paul seemed to echo that when he wrote about the rule of God as being "in your heart" (Romans 10:8). Another thought we sometimes have about the kingdom of God is that it is really the same thing as the church. One of the great hymns puts it ...

2660. Masks

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... , a face for the invisible God to present visibly to the world. Paul's life became a way of showing not only the truth of what was in Paul, but the deeper truth of what was beyond Paul, beneath and sustaining Paul, the reality of Paul's God. The apostle says, "I was like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you [into the life of God's realm]" (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 cf). God's own fatherly care of him shone through into Paul's fatherly care of this new congregation, enabling them, as he says ...

2661. Are All Your Sons Here?

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... assured that these young ones will find other things to do. In an evermore diverse world, let us look around to see who is missing. Do we allow our own secular, cultural roots to define the community of faith? If that's so, let us hear the words of the apostle Paul telling us, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Are all our sons and daughters here? Look at the neighborhood in which ...

2662. Whosoever Will

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Stan Purdum

Pentecost is considered the birth date of the church universal. There was also planted that day, in the preaching of the apostle Peter, an important seed — the fruit of which was almost lost at one point in the church's history. That seed was in this statement by Peter: "Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). Actually, Peter wasn't being original with ...

2663. God, What Are You Up To?

Genesis 12:1-9

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... , the question we might pose is the one that I've used to title this sermon today: God, what are you up to? While often we cannot answer that, the New Testament gives us an important affirmation about God's purposes. Writing to the Roman Christians, the apostle Paul said, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). We need to look at that verse carefully, for it is often misunderstood. It is not saying that everything works ...

2664. Breakdowns and Breakthroughs

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... Judaism as well was an unnecessary obstacle on the road to Christ. What we read in Acts 15 is part of the debate over this matter that took place in the mother church in Jerusalem, where not only Paul and Barnabas, but also the apostle Peter, all spoke in favor of welcoming Gentiles into Christianity without requiring conversion to Judaism. Acts 15 also includes the ruling of this church council, issued by the church elder, James, who decided the question in favor of freely welcoming the Gentiles. This is ...

2665. The Ladder from Our House

Genesis 28:10-19a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... for us, too. Even if we have never done anything as dastardly as Jacob did, none of us have been deserving of the grace of God, and yet God gives it to us anyway. In John 1:43-51, which tells of Nathanael's call to be an apostle, Jesus tells Nathanael that he knew Nathanael had been sitting under the fig tree when he first heard about Jesus. That Jesus knew this astonished Nathanael, but Jesus then startled him even more. Jesus referred to the Old Testament story of Jacob's dream and then said to Nathanael ...

2666. Eat and Run

Exodus 12:1-14

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, and within two months came the Day of Pentecost. Jesus also told his followers that he would return. It did not happen as quickly as they expected. Soon the apostles needed to begin answering the churches' questions about the believers who had died, about Christ's delay, and about life in the meantime. After so long a wait, it would be an easy thing — natural, really — for us to live with diminished expectations. To ...

2667. Appointment with Thunder

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... and there was lightning. The top of the mountain was enveloped in a thick cloud, and a loud trumpet blast was heard. There is no indication in the text, incidentally, that any human being was given the assignment to blow a trumpet. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that when Christ comes again in glory, His return will be accompanied by two things: the archangel's cry of command and the sound of God's trumpet. Perhaps it was the sound of God's trumpet that Israel heard that ...

2668. Dare to Be Different

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... the first Christians, as it is still obvious to many Christians today, that differences within the Christian community — different beliefs, different lifestyles, different worship, and devotional practices — were bad. What was needed, they were saying, was unity and uniformity. The apostle Paul responded, "Well ... yes and no." In Romans 13 and 14, Paul was sounding a clarion call for these early Christians to "Dare to be different" based on a central teaching of Jesus: "Love your neighbor." In Paul's ...

2669. A Little Theology at Christmas

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... from the truth. In fact, if you Google Titus 2:11-13, you will find thousands of references because these verses so often show up in statements of faith or purpose statements of local churches and Christian organizations. They are a succinct summary of some of the apostle Paul's most basic teaching. (The issue of whether or not this letter, along with 1 and 2 Timothy, is in fact from Paul's pen or from a later redactor is irrelevant for the purposes of this message.) It is fascinating that the text refers ...

2670. Showing Up

Ephesians 3:1-12

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... your God my God"? (Ruth 1:16b). One commentator has put it this way: "The Old Testament saints had an understanding of the mercy of God, but they had no insight into the extent of God's grace in and through the person and work of Christ. Only the apostles and New Testament prophets possessed this insight."1 I would go him one further by reminding us that in many cases, readers of the Old Testament didn't even have the insight to see the wide-ranging grace and mercy of God that is there. This brings us back ...

2671. For Example

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Sermon

David O. Bales

... and through hardships and tragedies, yet he trusted God's promise. David Livingstone is a modern version of Abraham, living 4,000 years ago, whom Paul, writing a mere 2,000 years ago, holds up as the supreme example of faith. In our text, the apostle Paul instructs a congregation in Rome that he's never visited. He's explaining faith as the basis of our relationship with God. An example always helps; so, Paul turns to Abraham, father of the Jewish faith, who lived around 2000 BC. Abraham is so important ...

2672. Lighting up Lent

Ephesians 5:8-14

Sermon

David O. Bales

... . In 1971, the psychologist, Sidney Jourard, wrote an influential book: The Transparent Self. He described the renewed mental health that follows from telling the truth about ourselves. He also recorded the energy it takes to conceal our true selves. Certainly the apostle Paul instructs the Ephesians likewise: be what you are. "You are light. Live as children of light." He's not talking about spiritual exhibitionism where some Christians get into a bragging contest, "I was a worse sinner than you were." We ...

2673. The Ordinary in God’s Hands

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Sermon

David O. Bales

The apostle Paul writes to a church where he was the founding pastor. He speaks to a jumble of their moral and spiritual problems. To this diverse group of Christians in this cosmopolitan city, he first reminds them of the state in which Christ's good news came to them: "Consider your ...

2674. Life in the Resurrection Zone

Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon

David O. Bales

... ov 'im comes from 'eaven, And part ov 'im from earth.1 And part ov 'im from earth.1Part of our being originates in heaven and part from earth. But which will dominate? Because we live at the intersection of two worlds, between two zones, Paul the apostle urges us to choose the heavenly world to take our directions from. Paul is like a trainer, a coach, encouraging us as Christians, "This is how you do it." He reorients our lives because of Jesus. You were making life choices by looking that direction. Now ...

2675. A Big Enough Reason

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

David O. Bales

... and wives, of their duties. His instruction is different than the contemporary secular instruction in that Peter also tells slaves how to conduct themselves. That's unique. Philosophers and moralists didn't bother writing to slaves, even if the slaves could read. Paul the apostle took another step. He wrote instructions to masters as well. Knowing the giant institution of slavery in the Roman Empire and how long it had operated, it shouldn't shock us that no one in the New Testament says it's wrong. Paul ...

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