Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2901 to 2925 of 4963 results

2901. What Love Looks Like

John 13:31-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... us. He experienced weakness and exhaustion and hunger and pain. He humbled himself continually to show others the incredible extent of God's love. And as final proof, he gave his life in the most painful and humiliating way possible, all to bear a burden that remains rightfully ours. What does your love for others cost you? Love should never cost you your health, or safety, or self-respect. Those things are abuse, not love. But what does your love for others cost you? Perhaps you give up some of your self ...

2902. No Plastic Easter

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... body fluids, and infused with an "antifreeze solution to help preserve the body tissues." Then it was packed with dry ice in preparation for placement in "Cryonics suspension" in a "Crypt-Capsule," a giant bottle filled with liquid nitrogen. In that state, Steven will remain indefinitely, maintained at a cost of $200 per year, an expense paid for out of a Cryonics Trust Fund set up by Steven before his death. One magazine titled the story, "Soul On Ice." His mother said that shortly before his death, Steven ...

2903. Finding Peace

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... uses a wonderful analogy in his book, Everyday Miracles. He tells of living in New Orleans for several years. Situated near the mouth of the mighty Mississippi river, New Orleans was carved out of swamp land. Much of the city lies under sea level and remains dry only because of a complex network of canals and pumps that keep the ever-encroaching swamp at bay. Just outside the city limits there are several wonderful parks that allow hiking and canoeing through the marsh. One of Spangler's favorite spots is a ...

2904. It's Not About Us

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... Purpose-Driven Life with these words, "It's not about you." That's a good sentence to remember as we come to this last in our series of messages from the book of the Revelation that we have titled "Touching God." It's not about us. As long as we remain focused on ourselves and our needs and desires, we won't touch God. Touching God requires us to focus on God. "See, I am coming soon," Christ tells us in the last chapter of Revelation. "My reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work. I am the ...

2905. What Do You Really Know?

John 16:5-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... agree with. The Jefferson Bible contains the four Gospels, but deletes every reference to Christ's deity. Each Gospel ends at the crucifixion. The reader is left with a Jesus who was a very nice but sadly misunderstood man who died at the hands of his enemies and remained a corpse. There is no forgiveness, no hope, and no living Savior. According to Jefferson, humanity doesn't need God. We can make it on our own. (3) It doesn't take a degree from Harvard to see that this kind of faith will not produce souls ...

2906. Maturity In Christ

Colossians 1:27-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... that was given to me . . ." That is how Paul saw himself, as a servant of the church. You and I look back and see him as a leader of the church. After all, he was the great apostle to the Gentiles. Without St. Paul, Christianity might have remained primarily a Jewish sect. He was one of the great religious leaders of all time, but he viewed himself as a servant. The best leaders are always of that mind-set, whether it is in church or business or politics. To paraphrase Jesus' words, we are not here ...

2907. You Can't Please Everybody

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... we can be proud of. You are obviously a man of authority, a man with command presence, a strong leader." Yoho tried to push down on the colonel's arm as he said this, but it would not budge. The colonel was pleased that his arm remained firm. Then, in a serious tone, Yoho told the colonel something that was completely untrue: "But, there's a problem here," said Dave Yoho. "Did you know that scientific research has proven that on the average, career military people are less intelligent that the general ...

2908. Winners And Losers

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... -filled prayer life. (3) We don't do anyone any favors when we water down the truth about God. Real love requires real sacrifice. Love that makes no demands on the lovers is not truly love--it is co-dependence. We cannot choose our own path in life and remain in a right relationship with God. "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." But we cannot talk about God's judgment without also talking about God's love. In Ephesians 3 ...

2909. Who Am I Supposed To Hate?

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... support the family. She urged her children to believe in God, to pray for their father, and to not be bitter. Years passed, and nothing changed in Nick's life. Finally, when Nick was in his seventies, he gave up drinking for good. He remained completely sober for the last fifteen years of his life. After decades of heartfelt prayer, Estelle's precious husband was restored to her. She never turned bitter and never lost her faith. Pastor Cymbala is justly proud of this story of faith and restoration, because ...

2910. Who Did He Praise?

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... man gave this rascal his pink slip. The soon-to-be jobless manager was mortified. He said to himself, "What'll I do? . . . I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg." And then this unscrupulous manager hatched a plan. He decided to use his remaining time to make a few friends. Summoning the people one by one who owed the rich man money, he asked the first, "How much do you owe my boss?" "A hundred jugs of olive oil," was the answer. "Make it fifty," said the manager. I can see him rubbing his ...

2911. Who Did He Praise?

Luke 16:1-15

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... in their lives or putting their money first in their lives. He told them they couldn't love God properly if they loved their money most of all. The people he was talking to really loved their money and weren't happy to hear Jesus say this. However, the fact remains, they couldn't "have their cake and eat it too." The same thing is still true today. Jesus wants us to love him more than our money and our things. He loves us so much that if we put him first in our lives, he will take care of us ...

2912. Hungry For God

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... and soon noted that the top of the lump of clay began to quiver and swell as soon as little bumps formed on its surface. "Now you can see the need for the pounding," said the potter. "I could never shape the clay into a worthwhile vessel if these bubbles remained in it, so I must gradually work them out." (5) Have you ever experienced God working out the bubbles in your life? It's not pretty, but it is necessary. The hand of God is at work seeking to save that which was lost. AND THAT IS THE MEANING OF ...

2913. That Believing Ye Might Have Life

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... this unknown force into a new theory, which he called the Unified Field Theory. But he was never successful. Then Stephen Hawking entered the picture. Through a long and complicated series of equations, he suggested that black holes, which are burned out remains of dead and collapsed stars, were the force that Einstein searched for. Hawking was only 32 years old when he gave his presentation at Oxford. It was a slide presentation, because Hawking's speech was not understandable. An assistant had to stand ...

2914. Playing Church Or Playing Jesus

Leviticus 19:1-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... God's command that we were to love our neighbor, but the boundaries of love's demands are expanded throughout the Old Testament and the New. In these words from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus counsels us that the life of love must also include our enemies. But it remained for St. John, the last of the Gospel writers, to instruct us that "God so loved the world . . ." It is not enough for the body of Christ to love God or one another. Somehow we must learn to love the world. A man came out of church one day ...

2915. Grieve Not The Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... ways to respond to difficult circumstances. Somewhere I read a story about a medical student who was seriously disabled and was forced to walk with crutches. It was painful even to watch his awkward and hesitating progress. Yet through it all he remained optimistic, friendly, and amazingly cheerful. One day a friend asked him about his affliction. "I was stricken with infantile paralysis as a small child," came the matter of fact reply. "Then tell me," said the admiring friend, "with such misfortune, how ...

2916. Being Alone

Genesis 2:18

Sermon

King Duncan

... good for people to be alone, and yet many today are alone for one reason or another, and the realization of that aloneness is often a hurt that never ceases. And we do not need to think only of divorced people or those who, for one reason or another, remain single all their lives. Three out of four married women in this country become widows, and the average American wife will spend 18 years of her life as a widow. Only seven out of 100 widows remarry, even though one out of every four is under 45. It is ...

2917. Living Between D-day And V-day

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... Christ has come, and therefore the decisive victory over sin, the devil and the flesh has been won. However, the victory is not yet complete. We live, as Cullmann puts it, between D-day and V-day: though the enemy has been decisively defeated, there remain pockets of resistance; there are still guerrilla troops to be defeated; there are still battles to be fought. In one sense, we already possess salvation; in another sense, we still look forward to our salvation. We already have the new life; we do not yet ...

2918. An Empty Cup

Job 23:1--24:25

Sermon

King Duncan

... --I shrug it off . . . It's not as if I don't care. I'm sure I do care, or I wouldn't be here. But I'm not sure what caring really feels like . . . nothing exists for me as an emotion anymore . . . The only emotion that seems to have remained a friend is anger . . . I can no longer feel things, I think, because I couldn't survive if I did." (1) Is that where Job is now? Is that what broken-ness feels like? What is the prayer of a broken man or woman? Can they even pray? Job may ...

2919. I Will Not Leave You Comfortless

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... pigeon circling in the sky above. Immediately, she knew that this was her husband's way of communicating his love all the way from the North Pole. The symbol of the Holy Spirit is not a homing pigeon, but a dove. Still, the story fits. Christ could not remain with us in person, so he sent a dove into our hearts to bear witness to his love. Under such circumstances, who could be comfortless? "I will not leave you desolate," he says, "I will come to you." How? In love, truth, and the indwelling presence of ...

2920. Free At Last!

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... not let him into the country, but they could not deport him either. So they forced him to live in the airport until they figured out his situation. Nasseri seems to like living in the airport. For more than fifteen years, he has been allowed to remain there. He eats at the food court, reads the newspaper, speaks to the airport employees. Even when offered the chance to leave and start life over in a new country, Nasseri chooses to stay. The airport's doctor believes that Nasseri has become paranoid and ...

2921. The Three R's Of A Spiritual Life

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... lovely apricot-colored rosebuds. Over the next few days, one of the rosebuds opened up and began to bloom. It was beautiful. The other rosebud stayed tightly closed. By the end of the week, the first rose opened into a full, gorgeous flower, while the second rose remained a small bud. By the second week, both roses began to wilt and shed their petals. As Patsy contemplated her flowers, she felt sad that one rose had never opened up. It had never revealed its greatest beauty. It had died in the same form it ...

2922. Son of Man; Son of God

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... God desires to make a change in our hearts. This is the heart of Christmas. It was all for the purpose of making us into a new creation. Dr. John Rosen, a psychiatrist in New York City, is well known for his work with catatonic schizophrenics. Normally doctors remain separate and aloof from their patients. But Dr. Rosen moves into the ward with them. He places his bed among their beds. He lives the life they must live. Day to day, he shares their world. He loves them. If they don’t talk, he doesn’t talk ...

2923. Like Parent, Like Child

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... had ordered, the pastor brought up the subject. “You know, your question was a good one.” The pastor said the question forced him to do some thinking. “The Bible is full of references to pledging,” he told the reluctant church member. But the member remained unconvinced. “Come on now, Pastor,” he said. He knew that sometimes pastors have a way of exaggerating. The pastor told him that he looked up the word, “pledge,” in a Bible dictionary. He had written down some of the words he found there ...

2924. After Katrina

Song of Songs 8:1-14

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... or safe as others - a huff and a puff and the house blows down. Poor folks do not live on the mountainside, they are down in the valley where the floods come. Then, once the floods finally recede, the destroyed dwellings remain destroyed because the poor cannot afford insurance. New Orleans was particularly vulnerable because the poverty rate there - 28% - is double the national average. Unfortunately, because of the tepid response by our government, this disaster has some ugly elements of racism stirred ...

2925. To Care for the Earth

Leviticus 25:1-7

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... you have been living on a desert isle the past few years, you are aware of the scope of the problem. One study shows that the United States alone generates 150,000,000 metric tons of hazardous waste each year. That includes nuclear wastes that can remain deadly for 250,000 years. We are producing 1300 pounds of garbage per person per year. Some of that garbage is in the form of plastics which will take hundreds of years to disintegrate. Cities are putting garbage on barges or trains or trucks and trying ...

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