Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3276 to 3300 of 4957 results

3276. Living with the End in Mind

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

... to be each week. On February 1, 2003, the U.S. lost seven astronauts when space shuttle Columbia shattered while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Among those astronauts who lost their lives was Commander Rick Husband. In an interview, Husband’s widow, Evelyn Husband claims that worshiping God provides her with some measure of peace. As she says, “This grieving journey is the hardest thing I have ever been through in my whole life . . . I haven’t found anything to be a relief except for when I am ...

3277. The Stewardship of Time

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... knew you were going to die tonight, would that cause you to change your use of time today? Most of us would have to say, "Yes, it would." John Krahn had a friend, named Art, whose doctor diagnosed him as having a terminal illness that would claim his life within a year. After a month, the doctor discovered he was mistaken and told Art that his condition was not terminal after all. As Art reflected on the month he had spent under this mistaken death sentence, he acknowledged the negative, painful emotions he ...

3278. Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hell!

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... think about either. But it''s real, nevertheless, just as hell is real. We know that Jesus believed in hell because he spoke about it many times. Jesus believed in hell and he taught about it, and we do not have a higher authority to go to refute his claims. He''s the highest authority there is. Now, some people will sidle up to you and sweetly say, "Surely if God loves everybody, he won''t send anybody to hell." And on the surface they''re right. They are telling the truth. God does not send people to hell ...

3279. AN UNLIKELY KING

Drama

Angela Akers

... strewn on the floor (This is spoken to the congregation) "Look at this! Honest men can''t even get through to do their business with all this mess in the road. Clothes everywhere, palm branches everywhere! A colossal mess, and for what? A bunch of crazies claim they''ve found their king. Bah! Some king He is! He looks like my cousin, Jerome, who pilfers fruits from the marketplace. Kings don''t dress like this man. He was a commoner, no different from you and me. But don''t try to tell ...

3280. Believing Isn’t Easy

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ! Take a big breath and you can believe anything. I frequently believe six impossible things before breakfast.” That sounds like folks today who will believe in anything from astrology to channelling, Satanism..etc. Lutheran theologian George Forell says People who claim to be atheists are usually people who don’t want to tell you who their god is. (UNDERSTANDING THE NICENE CREED, Phila. Fortress Press, 1965 p. 6) He has a point. Theologian Paul Tillich defined faith as ultimate concern, and said ...

3281. Grace Is Not a Blue-eyed Blond

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... debt, then it becomes almost impossible for a relationship to be restored. A criminal can properly speak of having paid his debt to society when he has finished his prison term, but in the delicacy of interpersonal relationships, at what point can the guilty party claim that the debt has been paid in full? How many mink coats does an unfaithful husband owe his wife before he can be said to have paid his debt to her for his infidelity? How many candlelight dinners must an unfaithful wife give to her husband ...

3282. How Free Are We?

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Erich Fromm wrote a book some years back titled “Escape From Freedom.” Perhaps Jesus’ listeners had lived under oppression for so long that they had gotten used to it; but their words were not literally true. Even though they were, as they claimed, “descendants of Abraham,” they had often been slaves. But the Jews of Jesus’ day (and of ours, as well) put a tremendous premium on freedom. In the so-called “Holiness Code” of Leviticus, Chapter 25, it was laid down that no Jew, however ...

3283. It’s Hard to Eat While Lying

John 13:18-30

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... universe which works at cross purposes to God’s purposes. I believe that there is such a power. I agree with Luther who once said that the devil’s most devious trick was getting folks to believe that he doesn’t exist. On the other hand, I do not claim to know much about that power. Some people seem to know a lot more about Satan than I do, and they seem to delight in talking about him. Sometimes it seems that they enjoy talking more about Satan than about the Savior. One of my theology professors in ...

3284. The Autobiography of God

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . We can never really discover the truth about God by ourselves—sneak up on God when He isn’t looking, as it were. If we are to know the truth about God, then God must reveal that truth to us. That is what makes Christianity Good News: the claim that in Jesus Christ God did just exactly that! That is what separates Christianity from all of the rest of the world’s religions: the unique and shocking affirmation that in the man Jesus of Nazareth God has visited and redeemed His people. We have heard this ...

3285. Aren’t All Religions Basically Alike?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

College students have an innate sense of fairness. They may not always practice it, but they usually have it lurking around somewhere. And so they often ask ministers questions like, “Why should Christianity claim to be the one true religion? What is God going to do with all those millions of people who are not Christians, and who never heard of Jesus Christ? Aren’t they as sincere as we are? Aren’t all religions, after all, basically alike?” Those questions usually arise after ...

3286. No Longer Orphans

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... subject. In Matthew 24:36 He said very plainly, "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Now, if Jesus Himself confessed that He did not know, it seems a bit presumptuous for any of us to claim that we do! I recall having a member of a church which professes to be "adventist" in that they are always looking for Christ's imminent return once say to me, "Do you believe that Jesus is coming soon?" I replied, half in jest, "He never left!" In a ...

3287. The Shy Member of the Trinity

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . The Parakletos. The Helper. The Strengthener. The One who continues to teach us, to lead us, to guide us. Right here we have to be very careful, lest we start shingling off into the fog once again. A lot of people have done a lot of weird things, claiming to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That is why the author of the First letter of John says in chapter 4, verse: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone ...

3288. Who Counted the Fish?

John 21:1-14, John 21:15-25

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... these tremendous words: “...in the end of the day what other plea has any one of us? We, too, have failed and faltered and deserted Christ too often. And yet we can also protest that in spite of much which we do not deny seems to make the claim ridiculous, we do love Christ, and He knows it.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, New York & Nashville, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1952, p.807) There is an old Gospel hymn which goes like this: Lord Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine; For thee all the follies of ...

3289. It Costs to Belong

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... i.e., the means by which Christ gets His work done in the world. The early Christians believed that when Jesus came into the world, “The Word became flesh.” But the Word made flesh was put to death upon a cross. Yet, even though death could claim Him, it could not hold Him. He rose from the dead and continued His mighty work...through the Church, His body. Down through the ages, Christ continues to speak through the lips, minister through the hands, walk on errands of mercy upon the feet of those who ...

3290. Good Old What’s-His-Name

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Church. It is preserved by both Eusebius and Jerome. This legend tells of a correspondence between Jesus and a man named Abgarus, King of Edessa, which was a city in Northern Mesopotamia near the Euphrates, perhaps now a part of southern Russia. Eusebius claims to have seen this correspondence in the archives and public registers of Edessa and to have translated it himself from the Syriac language. It begins with a letter from Abgarus to Jesus. The letter says: “Abgarus, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the ...

3291. Knight of the Woeful Countenance

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . Some of them are, no doubt; but many more of them are simply caught up in a system in which the rich get richer, the middle class get squeezed and the poor get homeless. Over the years there have been many eager to bless the privileged, claiming that prosperity is a reliable indicator of divine approval. It was just such thinking that helped to “justify” slavery in our own country, even as it helps to sanction apartheid in South Africa today. We probably develop this way of thinking in order to quiet ...

3292. On the Singing of Hymns

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the line “Thy saints have dwelt secure” in the hymn “Our God, our help in ages past,” thinking that was too Calvinistic, and so he re-wrote the line to read: “Still may we dwell secure.” And he resented the phrase “Our God.” Who are we to claim God as our own exclusive property? So he changed it to “O God, our help in ages past.” And now that’s the way millions of Methodists today believe that Moses handed it down from Mount Sinai! And then there is that grand old hymn “Faith of our ...

3293. On Being in the Wrong Place

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... , “they are open to the public.” And so he joined the crowd on its way to Calvary. And he begins to question them further. “Who are these men?” “The only one I know is the radical rabbi from Galilee.” “What is he charged with?” “Blasphemy. He claims to be the Messiah; he calls Himself the Son of God. We’ll see what kind of Messiah He turns out to be!” Now, Simon is really curious. He elbows his way through the seething, surging crowd. He wants a ringside seat at this spectacular event ...

3294. Palm Sunday (Prologue)

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... palms there was the passion. The passion of the people, expecting a military messiah, only to be disappointed; the passion of the Christ, suffering for His enemies rather than making His enemies suffer. But above all, the passion and sorrow of Christ knowing that those who claimed to be His friends never really understood what he stood for. He wanted to be a very different kind of King, (a Lover), reigning in a very different kind of kingdom: a kingdom of love. And He still wants to ride into our hearts and ...

3295. Blessings Beyond Our Dreams (Part 2 )

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... only" is the loser’s creed. Jabez had no desire to play that game. So notice in verse 10, "Jabez cried out to the God of Israel." The one great privilege Jabez had was that, as a Jew, he was a Son of the Covenant. He had been named and claimed by God. Jabez cries out to God and declares in essence, "I have been Jabez long enough. Please help me turn my life around." Something had been awakened in Jabez’ memory. It had to do with his birthright as a Jew. That is where he found his identity. If you ...

3296. Whose Hand Is On Your Shoulder? (Part 4)

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... into the mainstream of God’s plan for this world, which is beyond our ability to accomplish, and plead with God, "Lord use me--give me more ministry for you," that miracles are released. (3) Last week we invoked the example of John Wesley who claimed the world as his parish. Wesley, with humble resources, sent missionaries to America with the words, "Offer them Christ." John Wesley always had God’s agenda as the Number 1 priority in his life and God granted him great influence. He was able to "Live ...

3297. Bread for Everyone (I am the bread of life)

John 6:1-15, John 6:25-59

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... gave to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." (Mat 26:26) This is the first of seven messages on the great "I am" statements from the gospel of John, plus one more on Christ as the source of living water. Our text today is the bold claim that Christ made when he said, "I am the bread of life." He said it four times in chapter six--verses 35, 41, 48, and 51. Bread is a good word. Bread is a word we use a lot around the church house. Bread is important to life. It is ...

3298. Called by Life ( I Am the Resurrection and the Life)

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... university?" He said, "Emptiness! There is no meaning or passion for life. Everybody is bored--no fulfillment." Fancy titles and good credentials do not guarantee even a bright mind a good testimony unless they are connected to the living God. When Jesus made this bold claim, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," he was connecting us to the living God--for he is God the Son. Our existence is not filled with some run-of-the-mill expectation--but by resurrection power. We are called to life. Because Jesus is ...

3299. The Lord's Prayer: Our Father

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... , I know that when Jesus called God "Father" he was describing a father who loves male and female equally. It was a Father who loved the Jew, Gentile, and Samaritan equally. Jesus reflected the love of this Father. His ministry is proof of these claims. Women are not the only ones who have had some difficulty praying and understanding God as Father. One of the Christian faith''s most noteworthy figures, Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, had such conflicts with his earthly father that he also had ...

3300. The Lord's Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... in Luke 9:62, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." To pray this petition in the model prayer is in the finest sense of the word "a rebellion" against all the other small kingdoms that seek to claim us and destroy us. THE KINGDOM OF GOD COMES DESPITE ALL THE EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY AND ALL THE HUMAN EFFORTS TO PREVENT IT. Will Campbell, a voice of great insight and conscience from the South for the church, tells the story of a woman named Millie who was dying ...

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