Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3001 to 3025 of 5000 results

3001. “Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”

Psalm 31:1-24

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C. Hassell Bullock

... with Moses’s admonition to Joshua, the psalm closes: “Be strong and take heart” (31:24). As it was for Joshua, this is a new world and a formidable challenge, and, most important, God’s promise of the new land “flowing with milk and honey.” Illustrating the Text Know the God we trust. Popular Culture: The Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas boasts an extreme ride called “Insanity.” The ride extends 68 feet over the edge of the 1,149-foot Stratosphere Tower, not only providing a great view of the ...

3002. “Your Love, Lord, Reaches to the Heavens, Your Faithfulness to the Skies”

Psalm 36:1-12

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C. Hassell Bullock

... the triumph of good. We may remind ourselves of John’s equivalent message of the triumph of good over evil: “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). It is the victory of God’s love. Illustrating the Text Compared to what? Popular Culture: In the United States today, the majority of people claim to be Christian. The reality is that Christians often compare their lives to the norms of our culture rather than to the standard of biblical truth. An example of this ...

3003. “I Confess My Iniquity; I Am Troubled by My Sin”

Psalm 38:1-22

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C. Hassell Bullock

... only from the intensity of his suffering but also from the desperation in his closing lines (38:21–22). The Lord has not yet come, and the psalmist’s suffering calls for a rapid response. The psalm ends, not with a period, but with a dash— Illustrating the Text The power of God’s discipline Children’s Book: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C. S. Lewis. In this book, which is part of the Chronicles of Narnia series, Lewis has a character named Eustace who becomes a dragon (reflecting his selfish ...

3004. “The Span of My Years Is as Nothing before You”

Psalm 39:1-13

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C. Hassell Bullock

... this is a message for the aged, because a life freed from the tyranny of possession and given a new sense of belonging to our fathers and mothers who have prepared the way for us will enrich the young incalculably along their journey. Illustrating the Text Foreigners and strangers Quote: Jesus Rediscovered, by Malcolm Muggeridge. One of the paradoxical dilemmas believers face is living in an alien world, ever aware that it is not our home. Abraham is the archetypal “stranger” making his abode in the ...

3005. “I Waited Patiently for the Lord; He Turned to Me and Heard My Cry”

Psalm 40:1-17

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C. Hassell Bullock

... ’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When that is written in our hearts, everything else is of secondary importance, even sacrifice (see “The Text in Context” for the way the writer to the Hebrews interprets this psalm). Illustrating the Text The essential commandment Judaism: There is a midrash that says the 613 commandments given to Moses (the traditional Jewish number) were reduced by David to eleven (Ps. 15:1–5), by Isaiah to six (Isa. 33:15), by Micah to three (Mic. 6 ...

3006. “Blessed Are Those Who Have Regard for the Weak; the Lord Delivers Them”

Psalm 41:1-13

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C. Hassell Bullock

... earth and forms a man from it. It is all too easy to lose God’s immanent care in the grandeur of his transcendent reign over the universe. This word picture of God as the “nurse” of the sick reminds us that God always comes near. Illustrating the Text Ministry of comfort Literature: The Diary of a Country Priest, by Georges Bernanos. In Bernanos’s novel, a young priest lies dying and asks for absolution, whereupon his friend sends for a priest. When no priest comes, the friend is obliged to express ...

3007. “For Your Sake We Face Death . . . as Sheep to Be Slaughtered”

Psalm 44:1-26

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C. Hassell Bullock

... not understand God’s actions in our world and cannot figure out God’s work in our own lives, we throw ourselves on the “unfailing love” of God “that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” from which nothing in all creation can separate us (Rom. 8:39). Illustrating the Text The King and kingdom citizens Everyday Life: The image of the Lord as King is one of the most common pictures of God in the Psalms. And the psalmist’s confession “You are my King” (44:4) is an acknowledgment that he is one of the ...

3008. “Ride Forth Victoriously in the Cause of Truth, Humility and Justice”

Psalm 45:1-17

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C. Hassell Bullock

... idea of a world where justice is always done, where human motives are always transparent, so there is no miscarriage of justice. This is the vision of the psalmist, the portrait of the ideal of the king, and the prophetic portrait as well (Isa. 11:3b–4b). Illustrating the Text Lies and deception Film: The Mask. The 1994 movie The Mask presents a man named Stanley (played by Jim Carrey) who is too nice for his own good. Stanley finds a mask, and when he puts it on he becomes his inner self, a cartoony ...

3009. “The Lord Most High Is Awesome, the Great King over All the Earth”

Psalm 47:1-9

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C. Hassell Bullock

... as the people of the God of Abraham” (47:9). The theological implication of God’s sovereignty is that all nations and individuals are his subjects. That is a message written between the lines of the psalm and calls us to obedience and worship. Illustrating the Text A contribution of Psalm 47 Christian Year: Psalm 47 is the psalm for Ascension Day in the Christian church year. Ascension Day is the fortieth day of Easter and is a holiday that commemorates Jesus Christ’s ascension into heaven. It is ...

3010. “No One Can Redeem the Life of Another or Give to God a Ransom for Them”

Psalm 49:1-20

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C. Hassell Bullock

... of redemption is a bit surprising, at least in the context of this psalm. But we are thankfully reminded that God is in control—we are not—and only God can provide the equivalent value of human life, and that transaction is called redemption. Illustrating the Text The reality of death Quote: Artur Weiser. German scholar Artur Weiser comments on the inevitability of death: “For in death man inevitably encounters the power of God, no matter how often he may have tried in other respects to evade that ...

3011. “Why Do You Boast of Evil, You Mighty Hero?”

Psalm 52:1-9

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C. Hassell Bullock

... of Israel—thankfully, we too—live and believe within that frame. As difficult as it is, the psalmist—and we are his spiritual heirs—has to deal with the one who loves “evil rather than good” (52:3) within that context. Amazing grace! Illustrating the Text The danger of the tongue News Story: On March 28, 1979, the nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown. To date, this has been the most serious accident in United States commercial nuclear power plant ...

3012. “I Will Praise Your Name, Lord, for It Is Good”

Psalm 54:1-7

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C. Hassell Bullock

... . Usually they are personal, sometimes political, and rarely theoretical. Only in the context of the sovereign Lord can we bring its many dissonant voices under his conquering control and proclaim with Paul, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). Illustrating the Text Hear my prayer, O God! Personal Testimony: A consistent theme of the psalms is looking to the Lord for help in times of trouble and fear. We see this theme again in Psalm 54:1–2. Here David comes to the Lord ...

3013. “You Laugh at Them, Lord; You Scoff at All Those Nations”

Psalm 59:1-17

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C. Hassell Bullock

... the psalm: “You are my strength, I sing praise to you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely” (59:17; see “Theological Insights”). The psalmist’s morning song is a song of love, and unquestionably we can rely on God. Illustrating the Text The Lord is our shield. Applying the Text: The psalmists often speak of the Lord in metaphors drawn from their everyday world, as in Psalm 59. That is the case, for example, with the terms “fortress” (59:1) and “shield” (59:11), which come ...

3014. “Human Help Is Worthless”

Psalm 60:1-12

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C. Hassell Bullock

... ’s commandments are his enablements.” The following statement in verse 12a puts it in perspective: “With God we will gain the victory.” Without him, we cannot. In the absence of moral infraction, perhaps Israel has been simply overconfident. Illustrating the Text Whose Credit? History: There are many examples in history of inventions that have often been credited to the wrong person. Consider the following: Henry Ford is sometimes given credit for inventing the automobile. Actually, the German Karl ...

3015. “Your Love Is Better Than Life”

Psalm 63:1-11

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C. Hassell Bullock

... right hand upholds” him (63:8). That is another way to express the truth of verse 1. The psalmist’s relationship to God—and ours should imitate this model—is encompassing, and he has come to the recognition that God is everything, his all in all. Illustrating the Text “My whole being longs for you.” Personal Stories: Eugene Peterson tells the story of the beginnings of the church he and his wife, Jan, planted in Maryland in the 1960s in his book The Pastor: A Memoir. After meeting for two and a ...

3016. “When We Were Overwhelmed by Our Sins, You Forgave Our Transgressions”

Psalm 65:1-13

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C. Hassell Bullock

... did not have the advantage of the wide biblical understanding that we gratefully have, he understood that grace and creation belong together. That link helped to set the stage for the New Testament attestation of God’s eternal decree of redemption. Illustrating the Text Overwhelmed by sin Church History: The Reformer Martin Luther struggled greatly with his sins before “discovering” grace in the book of Romans. Luther would sometimes confess his sins for as long as six hours at a time, and still ...

3017. “May All the Peoples Praise You”

Psalm 67:1-7

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C. Hassell Bullock

... manifests his eternal reality of grace in the harvest. Yet we should not claim that the two manifestations of grace are qualitatively equal, but they are God’s grace, and that is the mark of identification that makes all the difference. Illustrating the Text Ministry for the world Christian Organization: There are many organizations that exist to bring the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. One such organization is Wycliffe Bible Translators. The organization was ...

3018. “Zeal for Your House Consumes Me”

Psalm 69:1-36

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C. Hassell Bullock

... in God and more self-critical, less self-centered and more God-centered, less compelled by our own comforts and conveniences and more constrained by the kingdom’s interest: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Illustrating the Text No surrender! History: On July 2, 1863, in the American Civil War, the Union’s Colonel Chamberlain was given instructions during the battle at Gettysburg to hold the ground on Little Round Top at all costs. Outnumbered ten to one, Chamberlain ...

3019. Nebuchadnezzar’s Testimony and Tree Dream

Daniel 4:1-18

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Ronald W. Pierce

... may use loss of privileged status or personal illness as judgments for sin, we should never assume this is the case. Fourth, not all dreams are messages from God, and the work of modern-day “prophets” is different from those in the Bible. Illustrating the Text No amount of human wisdom can address spiritual needs. Quote: Francis Schaeffer. Consider the hopelessness of those who do not know God and consequently live in a world they cannot understand or explain by relying on human wisdom. We were crafted ...

3020. Daniel Interprets the Dream and Confronts Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 4:19-27

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Ronald W. Pierce

... against the temptation of predictingwhat God will do. Yet, in balance, assure them that our actions have consequences with God—whether good or bad. Help them to appreciate the interpersonal dynamic that comes with a living and interactive relationship with the one true God. Illustrating the Text Greatness comes from God, whether used for good or for ill. Film: Star Wars. God is the source of all human greatness, whether we use it for good or evil. In George Lucas’s Star Wars films (1977–2005), two of ...

3021. Nebuchadnezzar’s Judgment and Repentance

Daniel 4:28-37

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Ronald W. Pierce

... not always judge sin in what humans may consider a timely manner, or even in this life. But, in the end, he holds us all accountable for our actions. Fourth, Nebuchadnezzar’s decree does not prove a permanent conversion of him or his people. Illustrating the Text Human pride can prompt the direct intervention of God. Quote: Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis. The book of Proverbs includes many pithy, wise sayings about human pride and its consequences—for example: “To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I ...

3022. Triumph of God’s People and Kingdom

Daniel 7:15-28

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Ronald W. Pierce

... of God’s kingdom, is not clarified in this text. Help your listeners to live with the intentional mystery of apocalyptic visions. Acknowledge that something of kingdom significance began with Jesus’s coming and will be fully realized when he returns. Illustrating the Text Believers are privileged members of God’s heavenly army. Lyrics: “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” by Julia Ward Howe. Howe (1819–1910) was a New York City abolitionist, social activist, and poet during the tumultuous American ...

3023. Gabriel Brings an Answer to Daniel’s Prayer

Daniel 9:20-27

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Ronald W. Pierce

... Jesus’s coming, we should avoid this emphasis in our general preaching and teaching. Further, technical debates over Old Testament typology of the New Testament “antichrist”—especially as these relate to systematic eschatology—should be reserved for more academically focused settings. Illustrating the Text God’s answers to our prayers may not always be what we expect or desire. Bible: David’s cry in Psalm 51 is a useful example of penitence that is genuine, yet does not turn God from his just ...

3024. Daniel’s Final Revelation

Daniel 10:1--11:1

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Ronald W. Pierce

... to join popular trends toward “Daniel fasts” or “Daniel diets” (see 1:8–16). These practices for Daniel involved special circumstances for special occasions and were neither intended by him as enduring models nor practiced by him as a general lifestyle. Illustrating the Text God’s ear is always turned to the earnest prayers of those who love him. Lyrics: “Come, Ye Weary Sinners, Come,” by Charles Wesley. Wesley (1707–88), a central figure in the Methodist movement and author of over six ...

3025. Resurrection and Accountability

Daniel 12:1-13, Daniel 11:36-45

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Ronald W. Pierce

... do not find direct fulfillment in Antiochus IV, this is legitimate. What is not legitimate, however, is to detach this passage from its literary, historical, and theological contexts in order to use it to construct detailed predictions of end-time events. Illustrating the Text The good news: in the end, believers will arise to everlasting life. Personal Testimony: During the last two years, in which I have been writing this commentary, four fellow believers who were dear to me have died: three remarkable ...

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