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 301 to 325 of 1232 results

301. Afraid of Sanity

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... is a dangerous character. He might wish to make some changes in us.” In the British Parliament in the 1930’s it is reported that one member exclaimed, over some measure, “God pity the British Empire if it is to be run on the principles of the Sermon on the Mount!” We might not be quite so open about it these days, but one wonders whether Jesus would receive any more welcome in the corridors of Congress? Or in our cities? Or in our churches, if it should come to that? I find it interesting that the ...

302. The Fountain of Truth

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... if he would read this literature he would truly be enlightened and his life would be better off. This Christian sat down and wrote the following response to this atheist: My Dear Sir: If you have anything better than the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, the story of the prodigal son, the standard of morality superior to the Ten Commandments, something more comforting in death than the Twenty-third Psalm, or anything that will throw more light on the future of this world than the book of the Revelation ...

303. Bitterness: How to Overcome What You Undergo

Hebrews 12:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... get bitter basically for one of three reasons: First, because of what is done to us; second, because of what is said about us; third, because of what is taken from us. It is amazing how Jesus dealt with all three of these problems in the Sermon on the Mount. Concerning what is said about us, Jesus said, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the ...

304. When You Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... U.M.C. in Houston, Texas.) You may have noted that Luke’s account is a far more succinct and compressed version than Matthew’s. Matthew’s version is the one we commonly use. Interestingly, Matthew puts the prayer in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, and follows it with teachings about forgiveness, fasting, laying up treasure in heaven, the eye being a lamp to the body, having only one master and then his big teaching about anxiety. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what ...

305. No Reason to Worry

Matthew 6:25-33

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... she found her thoughts turning to worry, so her Lenten practice became more about stopping worry than being able to give it up altogether. Still it was a good exercise that helped her to examine her life and to turn her thoughts toward Jesus. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed many practical issues of faith and life: How to deal with someone who wrongs you, how to pray, how to understand the law, what to do about temptation, what to do about hypocrisy, and in our text for today what to do about ...

306. More Than We Are

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... used in a significant, sometimes earth-shattering way. Do I hear you say, “I can’t live the Christian life.” You are right! “I can’t meet all the demands of the Gospel.” You are right! “I can’t begin to approach the ethical ideals of the Sermon on the Mount.” You are right! “When I consider Jesus and hear His call to a selfless dedication, I know that it is too much for me. I can’t do it.” You are right! Ah, here is the glory of the gospel: Ordinary persons like you and me can make ...

307. No Retaliation

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... metaphorically. Gandhi replies, "I'm not so sure. I suspect he meant you must show courage--be willing to take a blow, several blows, to show you will not strike back nor will you be turned aside." Later Martin Luther King, Jr. would take this principle from the Sermon on the Mount and use it to revolutionize America. King used to say, "No man can pull me down so low as to make me hate him." The real goal, said King, was not to defeat the white man, but to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and to ...

308. Jesus, Isaiah’s Servant of the Lord, Heals Many

Matthew 8:14-17, Matthew 8:5-13, Matthew 8:1-4

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... of bringing God’s kingdom and salvation. Matthew will stress this connection again at 12:18–21 (citing Isa. 42:1–4). Interpretive Insights 8:1 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. This transition verse from the Sermon on the Mount to chapters 8–9 parallels 5:1, where we hear that “when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside.” This repetition forms an inclusio that frames the sermon and highlights Matthew’s movement from the words of the Messiah ...

309. The Steady March Forward

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... s holy word. We need to surround ourselves with the Body of Christ — the Christian community. We need to evaluate our thoughts, plans, and lives with his will in mind rather than giving in to our own, small whims. As Jesus told us in his Sermon on the Mount, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). It’s not always the easiest thing to do. It most certainly comes with a degree of discomfort. Nevertheless, it’s always the ...

310. Ready for God’s Reign

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... ? I don't think so! When Jesus calls us the light of the world, he's assuming that the world is in darkness. And I don't believe he means just the world outside our national borders, or even only the world outside our church doors. Remember back in the Sermon on the Mount when he spoke of how the eye is the lamp of the body? "If your eye is healthy," he said, "your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness ...

311. Faith's Curious Dynamic

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... no stranger to paradoxes and contradictions, too. There is, for example, Jesus' enigmatic comment, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10:39). There is also that part of his Sermon on the Mount we call the Beatitudes. They are filled with contradictions. Consider just a couple of them: * "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." * "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you ...

312. Bearing Fruit

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... today, "that you bear much fruit." Bearing fruit is what Christian discipleship is all about. We may be saints in terms of ethical and moral purity. We may have the Ten Commandments memorized backwards and forwards, and we may be able to recite the Sermon on the Mount and scarcely miss a syllable. We may pray prayers that make the angels weep and the archangels shout "hallelujah;" but if we are not bearing fruit we have missed the meaning of discipleship. The priest and the Levite who passed by on the other ...

313. Discipline

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... frequently brutalized her. She was a committed Christian person, and tried everything to be the kind of wife a husband would love and cherish. One Sunday, her pastor preached a sermon on forgiveness and emphasized Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount: “If you forgive others their trespasses against you, your heavenly Father will forgive your trespasses. But, if you do not forgive others their trespasses against you . . . neither will your heavenly Father forgive you!” The woman went to talk to ...

314. The Psychiatrist On The Mount

Matthew 5-7

Illustration

James T. Fisher

If you were to take the sum total of all the authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene—if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out the excess verbiage—if you were to … have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summation of the Sermon on the Mount.

315. Caring for Others: The Christian Vocation in the World

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... courage; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Too often the more difficult path is avoided; we seek the path of least resistance. It is true, the easy path might be inviting; we have too many challenges and do not wish to add more. But in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was very clear that only one path leads to life: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads ...

316. The Easter Era

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... to know about it. Some people don't even know who Jesus is. Some people in the world today have never heard the good news about Jesus Christ. They don't know about the manger, about the baptism, the temptation, the Sermon on the Mount, the triumphant entry, the upsetting of the moneychangers, the contentions in the temple, and the breaking of the bread. They know nothing of the plotting, the conniving, the betraying, the arresting, the railroading, the condemning, the torturing, the murdering, the burying ...

317. Building God’s Kingdom: The Christian Challenge

Romans 10:8-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... us to be beacons of light and hope to a world often shrouded in darkness. In short, we are called to build God's kingdom through our united efforts. But we, as Paul suggests to the Romans, and Jesus states directly at the end of his Sermon on the Mount, we must build that kingdom, our spiritual house, on Christ, the foundation of life. With Jesus as the foundation, we are the Lord's coworkers. Saint Teresa of Avila, the great sixteenth-century Carmelite nun and church reformer put it this way in a famous ...

318. Peace

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... for this Christmas season: YOU AND I ARE CALLED TO BE PEACE MAKERS. St. Paul writes that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and giving to us the ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:18). Jesus says to us in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." That is still our task. Peace is God’s dream for the world. Sometimes we encounter that dream in the most unlikely places. Those of you who are computer buffs will appreciate ...

319. Strategic Kindness

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

... and malice into a more serious confrontation. They knew that if you live by an "eye for an eye" credo, it can only produce a downward spiral of revenge and resentment. The best way to defeat an enemy is to make them an ally. So, Jesus would teach in the Sermon on the Mount, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for eye, and a tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your ...

320. Jesus Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... all a matter of perspective. Are we dissecting the idea of “light” into its most basic components (measured nanometers)? Or are we responding to the expression of that light as we experience it in the world (colors)? In Matthew’s account of the “Sermon on the Mount,” immediately after Jesus lays out his “blessed be” Beatitudes, he lifts up two metaphors of how disciples of the kingdom will be known to this world. They will be the “salt of the earth,” they will be the “light of the world ...

321. The Pure In Heart

Sermon

John A. Terry

Psalm 42Matthew 5:1-12 Purity of heart is a common thead throughout scripture. The first of the Ten Commandments says: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Deuteronomy 5:7). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other" (Matthew 6:24). "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that ...

322. Wavering Notes by an Uncertain Trumpet

2 Peter 3:1-18

Sermon

Ron Love

... . Peter wrote that as we wait patiently we are to “strive to be found by Jesus at peace, without spot or blemish.” We are to continue to live in the image of Jesus. We are to be obedient to all the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. We should always keep before us the list of Christian attributes that are recorded by Paul in Galatians. These are: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Paul said Jesus is going to ...

323. No Freudian Slip!

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... of worries exposes something which we all want to avoid. It exposes something of which we may not even be aware. It exposes something which we may be too embarrassed to admit: our lack of faith in God. The lectionary editors who chose this passage from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount decided to leave out verse 24. I think that was a big mistake. Verse 24 sets the context for Jesus' comments on worry. In verse 24 Jesus makes a claim about what is really going on in our hearts and minds when we worry about what we ...

324. Should Christians Always Oppose War?

Romans 13:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... against violence and war. He said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9). Here is my second point: THE NEW TESTAMENT ETHIC FOR INDIVIDUALS DIFFERS FROM THE MANDATE FOR NATIONAL LEADERS. Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5 through 7 is directed primarily at individual Christians. Jesus said, "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." We Christians, acting as individuals, are not supposed to retaliate. Indeed, we ...

325. No Salt in the City?

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... and can't have much of an impact, just remember what it's like going to bed with a mosquito in the room! Actually I told the phone researcher that a city without the church would be like life without salt. Why do I say this? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth." That was quite a compliment in Jesus' day, for salt was very rare, yet highly prized. Greeks called salt "the second soul of meat." A half pound of salt was worth more than a human being. Soldiers ...

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