Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 276 to 300 of 4884 results

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... power is not just about his identity as the messiah, but as having the power of God. The kingdom had come! And nothing can hinder the power of faith. Several metaphors are outstanding and serve the major themes. The number twelve (12) is in Hebrew the perfect number. It’s symbolic for God’s power and authority, and symbolic of the wholeness God bestows when one is healed and resurrected. God’s power is indisputable. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand; And meted out heaven with a ...

277. Job and the Mind Storm

Job 42:7-17, Job 42:1-6, Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... mercy. For God’s grace is a gift for free. Through Jesus, we are offered that gift in a free pass, for all of eternity. We all have mind-storms once in a while. But remember: God’s love and mercy can overcome any storm, even a perfect storm. And God’s unexpected forgiveness and grace can turn any storm-tossed life into a rainbow of beauty, truth, and goodness. You can’t plan it, achieve it, order it, make it happen. Just repent, relax, and trust the giver. Today, put your impulse to “fix” your ...

278. Ordering Up A Set Of False Gods On Amazon

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Sermon

Mary Austin

... do more, buy more, go faster, and instead turn toward to voice of Jesus. Advent invites us into a time when we determine to get ready for Jesus’ coming into the world again. To get ready, we have to do the same thing — turn away from the idols of perfection, busyness, and consumerism. Advent calls us back to our faith, back to the core of who we are, and back from the false gods and idols that speak to us so alluringly. Ron Levin tells about his own turn toward Christ in a moving memoir. His father was ...

279. If It Had Been a Snake

John 1:29-42

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... front of that dog for his sister, little Bridger said, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.” (6) Before the foundation of the world, before the beginning of time, God made a plan for saving humanity. And that plan required someone to die as a perfect sacrifice to cover our sins. In Jesus, God is saying, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.” When you love someone, you make plans with them. You make plans for them. You want to give them the best of you, and that means long ...

280. More Than Just Image

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... , appearance wins out over substance. If something looks good on the outside, we don’t question its authenticity or integrity. Author Mark D. Roberts tells of meeting a man who worked as a food stylist for an ad agency. Food stylists create those perfect food pictures we see in advertisements. The man explained that one photo of the perfect hamburger might take days of intensive work. The food stylist would sort through hundreds of hamburger buns, tomato slices and lettuce leaves to find ones with the ...

281. Letting God

Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20, Matthew 2:1-12

Drama

Pamela Urfer

... begin to think of you as our source of comfort instead of God. When we needed something, we would turn to you rather than turning to him. JOSEPH: (Eagerly) Really! You think that might be the reason? MARY: Possibly. JOSEPH: So you could almost say that by doing everything perfectly, all by myself, I was getting in God's way. MARY: That sounds about right. JOSEPH: So even if I could be in complete control, I shouldn't want to. MARY: That's right. I think we're all meant to recognize how much we fall short of ...

282. Affirming The Ash Heap

Job 2:1-10, Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... before it gets more painful. But wait! We don't have to use our imaginations because such a situation has already been described in one of the books of the Old Testament. It is the Book of Job. It's the story about a man who was a portrait of perfection and to whom the worst did happen. We are told, right at the beginning of the story, that Job had all the qualities of a noble man who "feared God." He was a hero of justice who was blameless. He was a wise man. And Job was a man whose ...

283. How Not To Throw A Party

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... want more. Last Sunday I think I caught a glimpse of The Kingdom of God. Once again we hosted a Day of Hospitality for guests from the NOAH Shelter in Hyannis. Twenty-two people, equally divided between churchmembers and guests, had a picnic on our lawn. It was a perfect afternoon: blue sky, lots of sun, but not too warm. The hot dogs and hamburgers were just the way I remembered them as a child, when my goal was to wolf down as many as I could (before I got sick). The Ice Cream Smuggler sent over ice cream ...

284. Christmas 1

Hebrews 2:5-18, Colossians 3:1-17, 1 Samuel 2:12-26, Luke 2:41-52

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... . You live in Christ "Rule in your hearts" v. 15. b. You live like Christ "as the Lord" v. 13. c. You live for Christ "do everything in the name ..." v. 17. 2. Love is glue! (3:14) "And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Need: To demonstrate the power of a certain brand of glue, a commercial shows how one drop of glue is strong enough to lift the weight of a car. In this text Paul speaks of love as glue. Since at Christmas love came down to us, we should be ...

285. Proper 22

Philippians 4:2-9, Philippians 3:1-11, Philippians 3:12-4:1, Isaiah 5:1-7, Exodus 20:1-21, Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... world. God threatens to let his vineyard go wild. Without cultivation, nature reclaims everything; it goes wild. Wild means survival of the fittest. Wild means lack of fruitfulness, which is achieved through cultivation, work and discipline. Epistle: Philippians 3:4b-21 Straining toward perfection. Paul uses the image of the runner straining toward the finish line as an analogy of the Christian life. God has already laid claim to him but he was pushing ahead with all due effort to attain all that God had in ...

286. Christmas 1

Galatians 3:26--4:7, Galatians 3:15-25, Colossians 3:1-17, Hebrews 2:5-18, Isaiah 61:1-11, Isaiah 63:7--64:12, Matthew 2:19-23, Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... be complete" or "mature" (telios). By implication, it could be argued that it is God's will to make us complete through suffering also. After all, didn't Jesus charge that we must take up our cross and follow him? God can also make us perfect (complete) through suffering for the sake of righteousness, though not all suffering is redemptive. Yet, through the blood, sweat and tears of shared suffering we become one family in God. Lesson 2: Colossians 3:12-21 Dressing for Holiness. This lesson informs us how ...

287. Proper 10

Mark 6:14-29, 2 Samuel 6:1-23, Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... Blameless (v. 5). Holiness is bad enough but blameless? The word for blameless refers to the animals offered up to God as a sacrifice. They were to be perfect, whole and without blemish. This means that our whole lives are to be offered up as a perfect sacrifice to God. We are not perfect but, by the grace of God, we are called to permit the Holy Spirit to perfect us. We are talking about a process of becoming. God's guarantee (v. 14). Paul alludes here to a legal contract. To this day, when a person wants ...

288. Easter 5

John 15:1-17, Acts 8:26-40, Acts 9:19b-31, 1 John 4:7-21

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... very form by which he addressed the church reminded them that they were the objects of God's love, that they were precious in God's sight. The circle of love. John states that if we love one another, "God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us" (v. 12). The word perfect connotes a sense of completion. If God is the source of love, and Jesus is the conveyor of that love and we are the recipients of that love, then to complete the circle of God's love we must share God's love with one another. As ...

289. Proper 25

Hebrews 7:11-28, Job 42:7-17, Job 42:1-6, Mark 10:46-52

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... eternally available, so that we might reach him with our needs. 2. Sermon Title: It Is Finished! Sermon Angle: "It is finished," Jesus cried as he completed his work of salvation on the cross. The author of Hebrews is fond of using the word telios, meaning perfect or complete. Jesus completed the work of redemption once for all, when he offered himself on the cross (v. 28). There's nothing we can add to it. It is indeed finished! All we need to do is accept the sacrifice of our heavenly high priest. Gospel ...

290. Structure And Clarity

Sermon

Michael Rogness

... weren't three points at all. It was too often a predictable, artificial and unsuitable pattern. A three-point sermon is also artificial where the sermon takes on a narrative form, as a plot unfolding. Yet there are times where a three-point sermon is perfectly suited to convey the message. After deciding on your main point, if you find yourself wanting to say two, three or four things about it, let the sermon fall into that pattern. Tell the congregation you have "three things to say about this text/message ...

291. For Goodness Sake

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon Aid

Clement E. Lewis

... , hardened into a mold, but life that is ever growing and reshaping itself to higher ends." Students of the English language know that there are four degrees of goodness: good, better, best, and perfect. Jesus taught, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) In this situation Jesus was upholding the perfectness of God. Jesus seemed to understand himself as being both human and divine, since he knew that he was the Son of God, but he did not feel that his humanness before ...

292. How God's World Got Bugged

Romans 5:12

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... I have in there because of that one little hole. But that hole in the screen reminds me of something else that I want to share with you. I guess you know that God made a perfect world. He made it so perfect that there was no sin. There were a sun and moon, stars, water and earth, fish and birds, and animals and plants. It was perfect and there was no sin. But then, one day, one man sinned. There were not a bunch of sinners. Just one sinner. The sinner was like the hole in the screen. Once he got into ...

293. A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-8

Eulogy

Lawrence Ruegg

... of God: and it begins with the word "therefore." "THEREFORE" - because of all that God has done for you - "Therefore I appeal to you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice ... that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." You may think that the initials of ____________ are [A, B, C]. If that were the only truth, then there is little that we could celebrate today: "God gave; God took away; and somehow we must bless the name of God." I am here to testify to those ...

294. Prissy Plant

John 9:39

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... and she has me in a fit. She won't get along with any of the other plants that I have in my house. Let me tell you a little bit about her. This morning she was making all kinds of noise telling the other plants in my house how perfect she was. Prissy can never keep her mouth shut, and she has a large one. She told my one little plant over in the corner what a shrimp he was and how big and beautiful she was by comparison. That wasn't a nice thing to say. The little plant ...

295. What Happens To You When You Die?

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... just like Jesus, we shall not be "locked in" by anything, not even by our old hang-ups. At the resurrection, I shall be a perfect me - able to do everything I always liked to do and could do, only I shall be able to do them better. Paul has a ... planting. Someday a beautiful plant will grow from that seed. That beautiful plant which will stem from you is your resurrection body, the perfect you - the way God originally intended you to be. Of course, for all that to happen, in order for your resurrection body to ...

296. Transformed For The Great Awakening

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... Let me say it again, this time using Paul's words in Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Transformed people - that's what is needed for our day - transformed people who let their lights shine until the second coming of Christ. Radiant smiles and glowing reports of what God has done in Christ and continues to do in the Holy Spirit - that's what transformed Christian ...

297. How Soon Is "Soon"?

Sermon

Rolf E. Aaseng

... of years before the event) but to give encouragement to the early Christians who were facing severe persecution - to tell them no matter how many troubles they may have to endure, God will eventually put an end to all evil and take them into a perfect and eternal kingdom. A major problem in relating this millennium to the end of the world or Christ's return is that Satan is said to be given destructive power afterward. This conflicts with other references to the Second Coming which say Christ will come ...

298. What Children Owe Their Parents

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

R. E. Lybrand

... the lingerie department of a store to purchase a slip for his mother. But he did not know what size she wore. The sales lady explained it would help if he could describe her - was she thin, fat, short, tall, or what? "Well," said the youngster, "she's just about perfect." So the lady sent him home with a size 34. A few days later the mother came in to exchange it for a size 52. Despite her size, the little boy had seen her through the eyes of love. His love made her look "just about ...

299. Love Over Logic

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Carl Jech

... God. Knowing in advance that even our best efforts are seldom if ever "good enough," we also know that God will not punish us for our failures because God is more interested in having us keep on trying than in having us reach some abstract goal of perfection. The "genius" of Christianity, if you will, is that it teaches us how to struggle and relax at the same time, how to continue hoping for the best even when it doesn't seem to be happening. (2) One especially good way of describing the New Testament ...

300. Real Security

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

... will remember the old story of the king who was dying of melancholy, The doctors tried every cure; and then it was suggested that the king’s melancholy could be cured if he managed to procure and wear the shirt of a perfectly happy man. So a search was made throughout his realm for a perfectly happy man. At last they found such a man. He was a tramp on the road, bronzed, carefree, utterly happy. They offered him any price he cared to name for his shirt - only to find that the happy tramp did not possess ...

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