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 2726 to 2750 of 3314 results

2726. When Words Are Not Enough

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , too — all them cows — the co-o-o-w-s — is in — is in—the cow-ow-ows is in — is in—the corn, the corn, the co-oo-rr-n, ah-men, men, men,' that would be an anthem."[1] No doubt those anthems are part of what the apostle Paul has in mind when he instructs about public worship: "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (vv. 19-20 ...

2727. Being a Christian “Survivor”

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... at the episodes concluding with the barely disguised metaphor for human sacrifice. But, CBS has not missed my non-participation for lo these many years — millions of viewers love the shows. With that as background, think again of the text from Ephesians. The apostle Paul says we are also in a contest, in mortal combat even, "against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil ..." (v. 12). And we have to admit he is right. Our ...

2728. Winning Over Worry

Matthew 6:25-33

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... be given to you as well" (v. 33). Near the end of his life, Mark Twain said, "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened." Worry? Who needs it? Not God's people. That is why the apostle Paul could write to the Philippians, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus ...

2729. Can Anything Good Come out of Our Town?

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... caused them to scuttle the ship. This was the resurrected Jesus, the Jesus who appeared after his crucifixion and gave hope to those who had abandoned hope. Here's what Frederick Buechner says about Nathaniel: Nathaniel doesn't appear on any lists of apostles. But he probably considered it honor enough just to have been on hand that morning on the beach — especially considering that unfortunate remark he'd made long ago about Nazareth.1 So that's about all we know about Nathaniel. The most remarkable ...

2730. The Final Exam

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Steven Molin

... for all the prizes we can. But if the ultimate prize is already ours, I wonder why the things of this world are so important. And please, don't think I am boasting about the selfless life I am living, because I am not! However, I do believe, with the apostle Paul, that whatever I miss out on or give up or lose in this life is dung compared to the riches of knowing Jesus Christ. In 1956, a young missionary named Jim Elliot went with four others to the bush of Ecuador to bring the gospel to the Auca people ...

2731. The Thing about Laws

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Steven Molin

... past: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. It's all about love ... not laws. There is a wonderful legend of John the apostle, the last living disciple of Jesus. There was a gathering of the church, and out of respect, the convener asked if John had anything to bring to the gathering. Slowly, painfully, John made his way to the podium and said, "Love one another" and then he sat ...

2732. King Me!

John 18:33-37

Sermon

... , "Get" and Jesus says, "Give." In terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is a crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy, too, is laboring less under the cross than under delusion. "We are fools for Christ's sake," the Apostle Paul says. "Ultimately the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, the lunacy of Jesus is saner than the grim sanity of the world."1 I am about to ask you to do a very insane thing. Flying in the face of the "king me" mentality of ...

2733. The Width and Depth of God’s Grace

Romans 6:3-5, 1 Peter 3:18-22

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... he rose from the tomb, here's an answer. He was spending time with all the other dead people, not just to visit, but to share the good news with them. This doctrine is one that the church has taught for a long time. The wording of the Apostles' Creed says, "He descended to the dead." If you've ever wondered where that idea originated, it came from 1 Peter. Peter's letter was written in a time when Christians were convinced the end was rapidly approaching. Soon Jesus would be returning and it would all be ...

2734. It’s about Grace

Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... about grace. There is nothing you do to earn it. You don't have to confess your sins. You don't have to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. You don't have to come forward for an altar call. You don't have to believe every word of the Apostles' Creed. You don't have to join a church. And here's the big one, you don't even have to be a good person! You don't have to do anything! It's about grace. It doesn't even mean that God does his part and we have to ...

2735. Nocturnal Christians?

1 John 1:1—2:2

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... time, when John introduces his theme of light and darkness, he's also applying it to those who are professing to be followers of Jesus. When John wrote his letters near the end of the first century, he might well have been the last breathing apostle. He lived through a time when this new religion that came to be called Christianity was being formed. People were sorting it out as they went. Much of what we take for granted as basic Christianity 101 was still emerging: how to worship God, appropriate ways ...

2736. Bothered and Bewildered

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

Whatever one wants to say about the apostle Paul, we must at least say this: He took Christianity out of the rural roads and countryside and spread it into the urban experiences in places like Rome, Ephesus, Antioch, and Corinth. We have two of his letters to the church at Corinth, and it was a church that bothered ...

2737. The Vision of God

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... audience here, or whether he is sincerely wrestling with his chronic thorn, but we can hear the Corinthians relishing this developing drama. They will be anticipating the powerful ending of this story: "God will remove the thorn. It is a miracle — Paul is a super apostle after all!" But, the answer that Paul receives from his pleading with God is stunning — God says, "No." God answers Paul's prayer but not in the way that Paul wanted. I believe that all of us can recognize this story in our own journeys ...

2738. Admitting the Real Truth

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

... the level of their crimes against humanity. It is unfair to say that my sins can in any way be compared to theirs. They are evil and I am just a simple, frail human being, hardly worthy of being lumped with them into the same category. Yet, it is the apostle Paul, a man who knew a few things about sins and failings, about murder and mayhem, who states the obvious to us when he says "For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (vv. 22b-23). All have sinned. Can you ...

2739. Reconciliation: The Heart of Love

Hosea 2:14-20

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... granted this great privilege because the Jews did not deem God's plan acceptable. Saint Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Ephesians: "In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it is now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Ephesians 3:5-6). As inheritors of God's great gifts, we must be open to the invitation ...

2740. Three O’Clock at the Temple

Acts 3:12-19

Sermon

Ken Lentz

... -bound beggar) has moved him to compassion. He has left his life of crime and the hatred for his father behind. He goes to jail but he goes as a free man, a man who has been liberated by love. There are many accounts of Paul, Peter, and other apostles recorded in the book of Acts that demonstrate the power of the risen Christ in the lives of his first-century followers. The Easter season is not only the time to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but it is also the time to remember how the power of the ...

2741. Finding Our Roots in God and Country

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 6-10

Sermon

William J. Carl, III

... enthusiasm. Keats, in one of his letters uses a vivid expression to describe the literature of Shakespearean England. He speaks of the "indescribable gusto of the Elizabethan voice." Think of the indescribable gusto with which David took on his new responsibilities, just as the earliest apostles took on the work of sharing the gospel and helping the poor. Why? Because they knew God was with them. That's what David knew as he moved into the future God had planned for him. He knew God was with him; and so do ...

2742. Living to Please God

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... will be applauding. Want to live a life pleasing to God? Here’s the first ingredient: live with integrity. Here is the second: live a life of love. St. Paul writes, “We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. Even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel ...

2743. The Science of Happiness

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... heart. Paul’s path was never easy. This first letter to the Thessalonians is judged by most scholars to be the earliest of Paul’s correspondence. It was written before any of the gospels. Yet already it is telling the tale of an apostle who is being beaten, imprisoned, booted out of town, derided by enemies, bad mouthed by gossip mongers. Paul is proclaiming his allegiance to something far greater, and far less measurable, than any human standards of happiness and joy. St. Augustine described happiness ...

2744. With a Repentant Heart

1 Cor 11:9

Illustration

Charles W. Colson,

... come to the Lord's Table except with a repentant heart. "Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner," as Paul puts it, "drinks judgment to himself." That should be a sobering warning, especially when the apostle adds that because of this offense many have fallen ill or died. Any pastor who takes the Word of God seriously should never administer Communion without adequately warning partakers. Those who are unrepentant should flee the table rather than trivialize the sacred ...

2745. Take Up and Read

Illustration

Augustine

... like, so checking the torrent of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book and read the first chapter I should find. Eagerly then I returned to the place where I had laid the volume of the apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: "Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts ...

2746. The Nicene Creed

Illustration

Staff

... council of the church, similar to Vatican II held in the 1960s, met in the city of Nicaea in Asia Minor. The Council was called to deal with the heresy of Arianism, which was a denial of the Trinity. The Nicene Creed goes into more detail than the Apostles' Creed on the Trinity and the person of Jesus. A final version of the creed was formulated by another Council which met in Constantinople in 381 A.D. The creed is and has been from the start a topic of contention. In 598 a provincial church council ...

2747. Athanasian Creed

Illustration

Brett Blair

... Jesus was not fully human or divine and that the Holy Spirit was not God but only a divine influence. The Athanasian Creed denounced these false teachings and upheld the doctrine of the Trinity. Luther's high regard for this creed was expressed: "I doubt, since the days of the Apostles, anything more important and more glorious has ever been written in the church of the New Testament."

2748. No Imitations

Illustration

Martin Luther

The question is asked: how can justification take place without the works of the law, even though James says: "Faith without works is dead"? In answer, the apostle distinguishes between the law and faith, the letter and grace. The 'works of the law' are works done without faith and grace, by the law, which forces them to be done through fear or the enticing promise of temporal advantages. But 'works of faith' are those done in the spirit ...

2749. A Father To Many

Illustration

Brett Blair

... as of 2019. As many as 25-percent of children in the U.S. live in households with a mother alone. That is over 18 million children who do not live with a father figure. Perhaps the most relevant missionary challenge for our society was penned by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians: Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father. (I Cor. 4:15 NIV) Paul knew that these people didn't need another teacher, their needs ...

2750. Give and Take

Illustration

James Packer

What is meant by fellowship in this verse? Gossip? Cups of tea? Tours? No. What is being referred to is something of a quite different order and on a quite different level. "They met constantly to hear the apostles teach, and to share the common life, and break bread and to pray. A sense of awe was everywhere. All whose faith had drawn them together held everything in common. With one mind they kept up their daily attendance at the temple, and, breaking bread in private houses, shared their ...

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