Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3226 to 3250 of 4972 results

3226. The New Birth

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . "It was easy, Dad. There was a picture of a man on the other side. When I got him together right, the world was right." A person's world can never be right until the person is right, and that requires the miracle of new birth. Don't you dare stop asking God for the experience of new birth until you can shout from the housetops, "Through Jesus Christ, God has fundamentally changed my life!"

3227. Aiming at Perfection

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... reduce the filth in that medium. Perhaps you will refuse to listen to or tell demeaning jokes, or will join the battle against pornography. Perhaps you will fix your tax form so you would be pleased to show it to Jesus, or maybe you will decide to stop stealing from God that 10 percent of your income that belongs to him. Perhaps you will decide to tutor some disadvantaged child in Memphis. What are your goals for going on to perfection in personal and social holiness? St. Paul and John Wesley would dare us ...

3228. Overcoming Fear

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... of quiet desperation." When Jesus was awakened in the middle of that stormy sea he asked, "Why are you afraid?" That might have seemed a foolish question to the disciples. "Isn't it obvious why we're afraid? We're about to drown." But Jesus knew he could stop that storm and he thought the disciples knew that. They didn't. Therefore, they panicked. Now that we know the cause of excessive fear, let's look at the cure for it. The cure is simply this: a growing confidence that God is with us and is sufficient ...

3229. Marriage: God's Idea

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... female joy giving birth to life. She graces this paradise like a priestess making ritual of the common life of marriage. She is love; she is the mother of our children. She is home. Thank you, God, for the miracle of my wife." Author and business leader Fred Smith stopped one day at a doughnut shop in Texas. Seated at a table near him were a young farm couple. He was wearing overalls and she a gingham dress. After finishing their doughnuts, he got up to pay the bill. Then he came back to the table and stood ...

3230. Called Into Covenant

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... the Bible tells me so. There are others who do not know; help me Lord to tell them so. Though I’m small I can be heard; I’ll tell everyone the good word. For each person I will pray; they’ll find Jesus this very day. I won’t stop till it’s so, cause Jesus wants everyone to know!” Now, I invited you to prayerfully consider and respond to the invitation on your bulletin insert. In a few minutes, I will invite you to fold those forms and pass them to the center aisle. The ushers will collect them ...

3231. God of Wrath and Grace

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... think so. I remember my father, dear old Papa. Goodness knows, he was loving and would sacrifice endlessly for us. But I’m here to tell you that I have seen and felt his wrath. I recall a time as a teenager when I was driving too fast. I was stopped by one of Lee County’s finest lawmen. In that little town, the police knew all the teenagers. He lectured me a bit and then said, “Well, Billy, I’m not going to fine you, but first thing tomorrow morning, I’m going to talk to your father about this ...

3232. Running a Marathon

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... perseverance. I love an old story about a businessman who was in a strange city. He had an appointment late in the day, but in the meantime he had some time to kill. Driving around town in his rental car, he passed a little-league baseball game. He decided to stop and watch it for a while. He was standing just outside the third-base line. When there was a lull in the action, he asked the boy playing third base, "What's the score." The boy replied, "We're behind 18 to nothing." "That's strange," said the man ...

3233. The Healing Power of Touch

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

... heard the stories of Jesus' power, she declared: If I but touch the hem of his garment I will be healed." We smile at that and say: How innocent, how naive. She reached out from the crowd and touched the garment of Jesus. Immediately he stopped, bolted upright, and asked: "Who touched me?" The disciples were taken aback. Was this some kind of rhetorical question? Who touched you? Why master, look around, everyone is touching you. The New English version quotes their words as being: "What is the purpose in ...

3234. The Forgiving Father (Father's Day)

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Brett Blair

... us a time frame. If there had been a time limit on how far the father was willing to go before he cut his son off completely, certainly this young man would have reached it. He did everything wrong. Yet, we get the strong impression that the father never stopped looking down the road for his return. When the son finally returns we are told that the father sees him from a long distance. That’s because he was watching and hoping. His love was a patient love. The point is clear. A person cannot stay away so ...

3235. How Could A Love So Right Go Wrong?

Genesis 24:1-67, Genesis 27:41--28:9

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... he fell in love and got married. After the arrival of his first baby, he changed the title of his talk to “Ten Suggestions for Parents.” When the second baby came, his talk was called “Ten Helpful Hints for Parents.” When the third child came, he stopped giving the talk altogether. In the final analysis, we parents throw ourselves on the grace of God and ask Him to forgive our shortcomings and fill in the gaps. God did that even for Rebekah and Isaac. Despite all the feelings of that household, God ...

3236. Never Underestimate The Power of a Cup of Cold Water

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Brett Blair

Now I would like to stop the world for just one minute and ask you to think back. Think back with me to the first century. Think about those 50 years after Jesus’ death and what it must been like for Jesus’ disciples. Before the last one died their efforts had brought 500,000 men women, ...

3237. My Colors Will Be Clear

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... maze of mediocrity. "I won't give up, shut up, or slow up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, preach till all know, and work till he stops. "And when he comes to get his own, he'll have no problem recognizing me...my colors will be clear."

3238. Making a Name for Ourselves

Genesis 11:1-9

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... the irresistible surge of the ocean’s tides. All our creativity pales in comparison to the greatness of God. Then in verses 7 to 9 God scattered the people by giving them diverse languages, thereby causing confusion among them. They stopped building the tower. It took on the name “Babel” which is Hebrew for “a place of confusion.” Selfishness and pride always produce confusion and chaos. Selfishness wrecks far more marriages than adultery. Selfishness and pride break up business partnerships and ...

3239. Anguish

Matthew 27:45-56

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

... ultimately God - and God alone - can be trusted. Listen again to Psalm 22:1: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? These words surely echo a sense of abandonment. But, before we simply stop at this point, the whole of the Psalm must be heard. This Psalm, to be sure, begins with despairing words, but it ends in praises of a God who does not turn from those who suffer. The Psalmist continues, For he did not despise or abhor the affliction ...

3240. The Passover and the Passion

Drama

Denny C. Wise

... said, "Now, there’s a man who has no faults." And before I knew it, I blundered into his trap and blurted out, "How did you know?" Friends, I warn you. Beware of the temptations of arrogance and pride lest you, too, betray him. (Jesus stops washing feet.) Choir: "Were You There When They Mocked Him Face to Face?" (Mary extinguishes two candles.) Narrator: (Jesus pantomimes lecture.) Then Jesus began to warn them about his impending suffering and death. He told them that they would all deny him. Peter: No ...

3241. The Temple

John 2:12-25

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... told him to leave, for before they knew what happened Jesus went into action. He took off a cord that he wore around his waist when he prayed, and he swung it in the air like a whip. With a loud voice he commanded them to leave the temple and stop acting like thieves in a house that was meant for prayer. The people ran from the temple and from the angry words of Jesus. They knew that he meant what he said. The priests were angry too, because they thought that they needed that money more than they needed to ...

3242. Putting Lent into Focus

Joel 2:12-17

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... liberation at the Empty Tomb. First of all, then, we can put Lent properly into focus by facing up to the reality of the human struggle. We are today the unconscious victims of moral and spiritual relativism. Our lifestyles reflect a philosophy of "anything goes." Ash Wednesday stops us "up short" and urges us to look and listen: look at ourselves, at our "is-ness," and listen to a call to "ought-ness," to a voice inside and beyond ourselves. This is what the prophet Joel has to say to us today. His imagery ...

3243. Reconciling Palms and Thorns

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Donald Macleod

Great days are a typical event in the life story of any people. Every nation has a calendar date when they stop, look and listen, accompanied by a backward glance momentarily upon the way by which they have come. We Americans have our Fourth of July; the French, their Bastille Day; and the English - they have so many Victoria, Waterloo, Trafalgar, and so on. Earlier than any of those were the ancient ...

3244. The Outcome of Easter Faith

Isaiah 25:1-12

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... daily lives. Isaiah talks about a God who has defeated death, who saves his people, and in whom all should rejoice and be glad. And our crowded churches on this Easter Day prove that at least we acknowledged what God has done. But here is where many of us stop short. The writer of the First Epistle of Peter refers to something more. He says: "As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls" (1:9 RSV). This is Christ realized! And unless we face up to this challenge and its claim upon our ...

3245. Passing the Easter Miracle On

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... his birth, who had been carried there by his friends and laid at the gate where he might beg for coins from passersby. Hundreds had passed him through the years, but no one had ever cured him; indeed many did not give him as much as a glance. But Peter stopped and, looking at him, said: "Look on us! Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give to you" (v. 6). What did he have? Something unique: inner power, a blessing from a deep spiritual experience, the result of an encounter with the reality of a ...

3246. A Perspective on the Ascension

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... of Jesus’ Resurrection expressed so memorably by John Masefield in his poem, Trial of Jesus, when the centurion answers the questioner at Calvary, "Where is he now?" in words unusual for him, "Let loose into the world, where neither Jew nor Greek can stop him." The Ascension lays its claims upon our interest and devotion and mind, because in it Jesus took finally our humanity which he assumed at the Incarnation, and having redeemed it through his death and Resurrection, he presented it to God as love ...

3247. Hymns at Midnight

Acts 16:16-40

Illustration

Larry Powell

... for a physical examination without the knowledge of the minister or anyone else in the church. When her tests confirmed that she was in excellent health, she was dismissed to go home. A few days later, when the minister learned she had been in the hospital, he stopped by to see her. She proceeded to scold him because neither he nor anyone at the church had been to see her in the hospital (one and one-half days). She was sadly unable to enjoy the good news about her health because she had a bitterness ...

3248. Man Up A Tree

Luke 19:1-10

Illustration

Larry Powell

... lives have been touched and embraced by one whose perception and discerning compassion penetrates beneath life’s surface and addresses a lingering need. Had our Lord considered the tax collector as others saw him ... niggardly, self-motivated, crooked, irritatingly ambitious ... had our Lord stopped there, considering only the topical evidence, Zacchaeus would have been left up in the tree. But Jesus did not take his meal in the home of a reprobate that day; he supped with a man who had a need, and as the ...

3249. One’s Proper Service

Isaiah 58:1-14

Illustration

Larry Powell

... County, N.C., by fellow Methodists who charged that Linkhaw’s singing repeatedly created havoc during worship services. Not only was his voice offensive to the ear, but he was given to singing long after the rest of the congregation had stopped. Things had become so disconcerting that even the minister refused to sing. Consequently, Linkhaw was found guilty of a misdemeanor and ordered to remain silent in church. However, the state supreme court overturned the conviction, sympathetic to Linkhaw’s claim ...

3250. L’envoi

Psalm 150:1-6

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... of all. Earth, he declares, is as much the Lord’s sanctuary as heaven. Thus, he sees those gathered in the Temple and the angels surrounding the celestial throne as "a great antiphonal chorus" lifting their praises to the Most High. Nor does the poet stop there. Instead, he envisions the entire world as taking part in the jubilee. No voice is so shrill, no station in life so lofty or so lowly, no instrument so mean but that individuals everywhere may join hearts to rejoice before the Almighty. It is ...

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