Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 276 to 300 of 4681 results

276. Not the Seasons for Figs

Mark 11:12-19

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the fig tree is an immoral story. Jesus’ demand that the tree give fruit out of season is an immoral demand. It is absolutely immoral unless - unless the fig tree is the New Israel! If so, that changes matters. The new Israel must always be ready to bear fruit out of season. That is its vocation!” (Healey, op. cit., p. 79) What he means is that we, as Christians, are supposed to do far more than simply “doing what comes naturally.” Jesus tells us to love one another, to forgive one another, and even ...

277. Jesus and the IRS

Mark 12:13-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The saying establishes a priority of loyalty. It does so by making us ask two questions: “What belongs to Caesar, (bears his mark), and what belongs to God, (bears God’s mark?)” The money bears the image of Caesar - but humanity bears the image of God. Therefore, a Christian’s highest priority is humankind. Nothing is sacred in God’s good world except persons. When we are called to “love our neighbor” that does not mean ...

278. A Landmark Event!

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... to come to his house, to sit at his table, to take the blood of his cup, the bread of his body, and remember our sins, remember at what great a price we were bought at Calvary, and to remember whose we now are. At communion we find our bearings by laying down all our guilty past and becoming immersed in the pleasant memories of all Jesus has done for us. Ah, sweet remembrance! The Future The Lord's Supper also points us to the future. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Paul speaks of celebrating communion as a ...

279. The Dangerous Truth

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... God's inmost heart revealed to us in Jesus? Will we live, forever changed, forever alive in God's unsparing yet unspeakably gracious light? What is truth -- for us? The heart of God, revealed by his Son? Or something else? Who is King of our lives? The One who bears witness to the heart and will of God? Or someone who makes us feel good about ourselves and our little world? Here at the end of the church year, as at the end of Jesus' earthly life, those questions confront us. God grant that we listen to our ...

280. The Face that Launched a Thousand Lives

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... : forgiveness for the accumulated guilt of the human race. The old hymn put it well: There was no other good enough, to pay the price of sin, He only could unlock the door of heav'n and let us in. Mark Twain wrote a short story bearing the interesting title, "The Terrible Catastrophe." Before he had finished, he had worked his characters into such a predicament that whatever any one of them did would destroy them all. Reflecting on his creation, he concluded by saying, "I have these characters in such a fix ...

281. In The Kingdom Now

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... catch their scent. What would they do? Immediately, without a word, one hiker took some jogging shoes from his knapsack, almost tore off his hiking boots and put on his jogging shoes. “What good is that going to do?” his friend asked, “You can’t outrun that bear.” “I don’t have to outrun him,” the friend said, “I just need to outrun you.” Now, now that’s the opposite, that’s the opposite of standing fast in the Lord, but it makes the point by coming in the back door. We can stand ...

282. Soul Drain

Psalm 63:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... fruit to increase its yield. Now you have already been pruned by my words. You must go on growing in me and I will grow in you. For just as the branch cannot bear any fruit unless it shares the life of the vine, so you can bear no fruit unless you share my life. For the plain fact is, that apart from me, you can do nothing. Extravagant but real. Simple but not simplistic. The answer, the ultimate answer to soul drain. Now I’m a pretty simple guy. Jeri doesn’t think I’m so simple, ...

283. The Dayspring From On High

Luke 1:5-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... note the basis of his disbelief. He asked the question in verse 18: "How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years." This was his real difficulty -- how could his wife have a child -- they were far beyond child-bearing age. "This was his real difficulty: For him and his wife to have a child would mean a miracle of divine intervention; and Zachariah considered such a miracle to be so extremely unlikely that even if it was an Angel of God who announced it – and Zachariah did ...

284. Repentance: The No That Is A Yes

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." The formula is clear. Repentance which is the no that becomes a yes requires that we accept the forgiveness of Christ, and we demonstrate our acceptance of that forgiveness by following Christ. I close with this. An old ...

285. Constantly Abiding

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . We’re dependent upon individual gifts and income from our endowment. Well, you know what has happened to the stock market. We’ve lost about $3 million a year in income, so we’re struggling. I believe the Lord is testing us: He’s pruning us that we might bear more fruit. Though I recognize this, the past year has been one of the toughest of my life in terms of my ministry. Yet I think I’ve grown as much spiritually during this time as any other. I’ve learned to be dependent on the Lord and to ...

286. Power For Christian Living: Am I On My Own?

Romans 3:3-5

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the first time they were able to put a sign out in front of their church in Prague. On the sign were written four words: “The Lamb Has Won.” What a truth! What a victory! What hope! What a sign of the Kingdom! The Lamb has won! Not the bear, but the Lamb! Not the tiger, but the Lamb! Not the lion, but the Lamb! We can believe it. The Holy Spirit secures the hope that one day “every knee should bend…and every tongue…confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians ...

287. Which Will It Be - the Silvered Cross or the Slivered Cross?

Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the real glory of this story is found in its introduction and its post-script. On either side of the transfiguration Jesus proclaimed his future suffering and rejection. On either side of the transfiguration Jesus declared without decoration the life of cross-bearing and self-sacrifice for which all true disciples must prepare. Today is Transfiguration Sunday. But to see the transfiguration as only a mountaintop mirroring of Jesus' glory, power, and authority is to miss the point. It would be like going to ...

288. It Was for Us

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

James McCormick

... very ones who nailed him to the cross and prayed for them, and for us. He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” There at the cross we see an amazing kind of love. We see a love that absorbs wrong, that bears wrong, and bears it in such a way that it takes it away. The good news is that “As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” “Father, forgive them.” Now I don’t fully understand that kind of forgiving love, but ...

289. www.Salvation.com

Ephesians 2:8-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... said it better than anyone: No one can be good and do good unless God's grace first makes him good; and no one becomes good by works, but good works are done by him who is good. Just so the fruits do not make the tree, but the tree bears the fruit….therefore all works, no matter how good they are and how pretty they look, are in vain if they do not flow from grace.2 When God says you, He is not finished with you, He's just started with you. He's got great things for you ...

290. The Danger of American Express

Exodus 20:17

Sermon

James Merritt

... began to charge. Immediately, one of the men took off his boots and pulled out a pair of track shoes and began putting them on. His friend looked at him and said, "What are you doing? You can't outrun that bear." His friend stood up and smiled, and said, "I don't have to outrun that bear. All I have to do is outrun you." c. It Is Rooted In A Flaw There are two flaws in the thinking of a covetous man. First, THE MATERIAL CAN NEVER FULLY AND FINALLY SATISFY THE PHYSICAL. Listen to these verses: "A faithful ...

291. If You're Not Loving You're Not Living (Fruit of the Spirit: Love)

Galatians 5:22

Sermon

James Merritt

... , it is not plural. These are not the fruits of the Spirit, they are the fruit of the Spirit. You see, it is not like the gifts of the Spirit where different Christians have different gifts, although no one Christian has all the gifts. But every Christian is to bear the full fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is not like an apple on a stem, it is like grapes in a cluster. This fruit is never out of season, it is always ripe and tasty. Now you will notice that the very first character quality ...

292. Do You See the Light?

Romans 1:16-20

Sermon

James Merritt

... also for revelation. If there were no Bible, if there were no book of theology, if there were no seminaries or Bible colleges, even an unlearned heathen can look at this world and know there is a God. Because everything that you and I see bears this stamp “Made by God.” Now I understand that the atheists and the humanists and the evolutionists refuse to believe this. They believe that nobody times nothing equals everything. But you really can’t have it both ways. Either somebody made all of this or ...

293. The Marks Of A Spiritual Counterfeit

Jude 1:12-13

Sermon

James Merritt

... be uprooted from it.” Jesus said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” (Matt. 15:13) The reason why an apostate is fruitless is because he is rootless. Only those who have a spiritual root will ever bear spiritual fruit, and they bear no fruit because they have no root. Never forget this: The difference between the counterfeit apostate and the genuine saint is in faith and fruit. Jeremiah put it this way: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope ...

294. When What’s Holding You Up Lets You Down

2 Samuel 18:33-19:8

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... only big, mean and carried guns, but they considered any Markwood boy fair game for beating or worse. One day the small Brawley twins were walking down the railroad track, and they realized someone was following. They turned and saw a gang of burly Harbor boys bearing down on them. The leader of the gang was at least eighteen, and he had a gun. Panic-stricken, the little boys began to run down the track. The Harbor boys pursued. Suddenly Robert realized his little brother was no longer beside him. He had ...

295. The Bonds of Love

1 John 4:7-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... "love" our favorite soft drink, baseball team, or partner-of-the-moment. Love has become such a nebulous, fuzzy, catch-all term that we resist thinking about what must be present for true love to exist and to flourish - for love to be able to "bear fruit." Dr. Ross Marrs, Senior Minister at the First United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Indiana, relates an all too familiar phone conversation. "The phone rings and the voice on the other end asks, 'Will you marry me?' No, I reply, I am already married and ...

296. A Mother's Love

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die. “I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of ‘Mom!’ will cause her to drop a souffle or her best crystal without a moment’s hesitation. “I feel I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be ...

297. Repentance Is Relationship!

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

... tree looking for fruit but did not find any. He said to the man that tended the vineyard, "For three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and have found none: cut it down." By the third year, fig trees are supposed to bear fruit. That's why you have a fig tree. Bearing fruit is the nature of a fig tree. By the third year, none! He said, "Cut it down!" Cut it down — strong words of judgment. It is not fulfilling its purpose. Chop it! It has been said that W. C. Fields was reading the Bible ...

298. Like a Tree Planted

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... . We reach out to new people and new mission opportunities, and develop ways to be a public witness to the gospel. We are also rooted in the traditions of those faithful ones who have traveled this road before us, planting and nurturing the seeds that bear fruit in our lives. May the seeds of that trust find in each of you rich, moist soil and grow abundantly. God will do the rest. 1. Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999), p ...

299. Jesus: What's in a Name?

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... news: “Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20—23 RSV ... declared by the prophet, Isaiah, centuries before. The angel had announced it to Mary at the time of her Annunciation: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name, Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High…and of his ...

300. Who Touched The Remote Control?

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... , whose trust is the LORD. [8] They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. When our remote control lives suddenly go on the blink and tragedy or disaster strikes, how do we handle it? How do we get through it? Now having read what Jeremiah wrote, I think it all depends on the CROPS we've planted and nurtured. I'm talking about ...

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