Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3401 to 3425 of 4957 results

3401. On Defeating the Devil

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

... of the Bible give us the gumption to resist a devil who usually dresses in drag. It will be difficult for us to resist such temptations on our own. Martin Luther, in his classic hymn, "A Mighty Fortress," makes the same fantastic claim that this temptation story makes today: "One little word subdues him." Jesus would be lost without this Word, without these scriptures. Will Willimon, chaplain at Duke University, was reflecting on a "Men's Soul-Making Weekend" offered near campus. The publicity poster ...

3402. Jesus, Desirous

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

... is that he is a man who can do anything. Walk on water. Turn a couple fish and a few loaves into a feast for thousands. Even raise the dead. "That's our Jesus, he can do anything." Today's Gospel lesson is a rather loud refutation to that popular claim. Jesus can do many impressive things. I'll not argue that. But one thing he cannot do is make us love him. He cannot legislate love nor control human will. "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings ...

3403. Promises, Promises

Jeremiah 33:1-26

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... more than a puppet of the Babylonian empire. Thus, through the ages before that and even after, when it seemed that the throne would never be occupied again, Israel looked for a righteous and just ruler. Of every king who ascended the Davidic throne or who claimed it, the question was asked, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" Are you the long-awaited Branch of the Davidic house, whom God promised us so long ago? God is a promise-keeper, whose word is good forever. Therefore ...

3404. Evaluating Our Names

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... and salvation for God's covenant people (v. 1), for Judah and for the church, and our lives will be shaped to be a thing of beauty in the hand of our God (v. 3), which is a beautiful metaphor for the loving care with which God our King will claim us, God will so transform his church that it will be a delight to him (v. 4), a "bride" over which the divine "bridegroom" can rejoice (vv. 4-5). We in our sin cannot transform our own life as a church, but God can and will. The language of God ...

3405. Return and Be Forgiven

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... of our social programs is identical with the will of God. All of our theologies and philosophies, all of our programs and projects, both in and outside of the church, are tainted by our sinfulness. There is no thought or action of ours for which we can claim absolute truth and authority. Those lie in God alone, whose ways and thoughts are always higher and purer than ours. Thus, we always need the revelation of God's thoughts and ways that are illumined for us by the Holy Spirit and spoken to us through the ...

3406. God Shows No Partiality

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... about all of Palestine doing good, says our text. He healed the sick and overcame evil spirits and taught about the will of God, preaching justice and the love of God and forgiveness for all who believed in him. But because the Jews were shocked when he claimed that he was from God, and because the Roman authorities were afraid when they saw so many following him, they crucified Jesus between two thieves on the hill of Golgotha. But on the third day at dawn, when some women went to the tomb where Jesus had ...

3407. The Conversion of Saul

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... Jerusalem and to a cross. So it is too with us. God has not transformed our lives by his active Spirit and made us his disciples just so we can enjoy his fellowship all by ourselves. And surely he has not made us Christians so we, in our pride, can claim some sort of spiritual superiority to those around us. Heaven help us if we exchange our discipleship for self-glorification, For then we do not belong to Christ, and he is not our Lord. No, we are called to accomplish tasks for our Lord. Each one of us has ...

3408. Peter's Vision

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... socially acceptable. He singles out that long-haired youth in the rock group or that confessed criminal in jail; he touches the life of a struggling single mother or the heart of a timid, middle-aged spinster. And he pours out his Holy Spirit upon them and claims them for his purpose. They show up at our church door, wanting to sit at the Lord's table with us, and we, unless we belong to that circumcision party, receive them as God has already done. For who are we that we can withstand God? The membership ...

3409. Tasks For The Living God

Acts 16:11-15

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... 14). Christian disciples and missionaries never go it alone. They are accompanied and led and strengthened by Christ's continuing work through his Spirit. And you and I can be sure that Christ is with us in his Spirit, if we are faithful. Some persons have claimed in our time that they have received new revelations from the Spirit. But always we must remember that the Spirit never speaks contrary to Christ. Thus, if a revelation is given, we must always ask, does it accord with Christ? Is it his Spirit that ...

3410. Purpose-Driven

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... for his breakfast. She asked him again if she could go and meet her daughter. He told her she could. When the police arrived Brian Nichols held up a white towel in surrender and went peacefully. This man, who had burst into Ashley’s apartment claiming to be a soldier on a mission, now walked out gentle as a lamb, thanks to Ashley Smith’s humble courage. Smith, who herself has struggled with methamphetamine addiction later commented to reporters that she wanted his mother to be able to say “Thank you ...

3411. Escape from the Island of Spiritual Sloth

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

... Where are you?" It's the old question God asks of a wayward Adam and Eve in the garden. "Where are you? Where have you been? Where are you going?" It's hard to answer God's questions without a few spiritual habits that allow God to claim more and more of our interior lives until we are wholly and completely the Lord's. And when that happens it really will not rattle us if death occurs thirty years from now or tomorrow. Without disciplined spiritual habits, we face death with only our intellects and emotions ...

3412. A Church Shaped By The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... communicates well, and we try to provide the kind of experience that meets the “felt needs” of people and thus attracts people who will “feel good about it” and hopefully invite others. Because we are “come-to” churches, one credible observer of Christian evangelism claims evidence suggests that 95% of all Christians in North America will not lead a single person to Christ in their entire lifetime. Even the churches that want to be the kind of churches that people can get to, and would go to, do ...

3413. A Longer Stride and a Larger Embrace

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... place with the understanding of the apostolate—that is, committed and equipped for the practice of ministry. Let me fill in some of the blanks suggested by these metaphors as they overlay my vision for a transforming theological seminary that self-consciously claims ministry belongs to the whole people of God, and the seminary is to be a catalytic agent helping move the church out of its institutional boundedness to recover a movemental quality. As a seedbed, the notion of academy and abbey are brought ...

3414. Compassion Fatigue

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... – nothing closer to the heart of Jesus. But let’s be honest. It carries with it a price tag, and with it the possibility of fatigue – compassion fatigue. Now, I know in coming here tonight that you would not be folks who needed to be convinced of the gospel claim of love and compassion on your life. So I decided to address a need that I believe characterize folks like us. You can count on it. If it has not happened yet, it will. You will grow weary and there will be occasions when there is no end in ...

3415. Being A Man of God

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... There are all sorts of lessons in this exchange. There are the personal ones that have to do with ourselves. Most of us need more discipline and organization in our personal lives. How do we withstand the tyranny of the urgent, not allowing the immediate claims on our energy to distort our priorities and sidetrack us from our mission? But there is a lesson that goes against this lesson. Too many of us think that the secret of effectiveness is simply to get organized. This is a purely secular notion that ...

3416. Equipping the Whole People of God: Penultimate Questions

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... are all sorts of lessons in this exchange. There are the personal ones that have to do with ourselves. Most of us need more discipline and organization in our personal lives. How do we withstand the tyranny of the urgent, not allowing the immediate claims on our energy to distort our priorities and sidetrack us from our mission? The ministries we lead and the congregations we serve probably need organizational attention as well. To be sure, most of our churches and ministries are organized, but too many are ...

3417. In the Wrong Place At the Right Time

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... how and where we are forced to grow up is not a choice we make. Think of the implications of that for our understanding and practice of the Christian life. Think what you will about welfare and we all know it needs to be reformed – but, if you claim to be Christian, don’t become so cynical that you would ignore poor people in this city who are bearing a burden they did not choose. How many crack babies are born in Memphis this year? How many children are born into poverty-stricken homes and compelled to ...

3418. Oh Taste and See

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... night, but joy comes with the morning. (Psalm 30:5) “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” That says it all – no commentary is needed, only this exhortation: open your life to the Holy Spirit that he may give you the faith and confidence to claim this promise.

3419. Let Me Say That Again

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the world had never given much thought to that little country, and probably did not even know the name of the capital city - Tallinn. But on September 28 and 29, television around the world carried the story: the worst non-military sea tragedy since the Titanic, claiming over 900 lives. On Monday afternoon, I had taken a long walk with a friend down to the harbor. There were small boats and large sea-going vessels. Among them was a ferry with its name prominently painted on the bow: Estonia. It was a huge ...

3420. Last Words Are Important

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Christian is an understanding of and conformity to the clear teachings of Jesus. The results of this lack of seriousness, this lack of any effortful conformity to the teachings of Christ have resulted in disaster. Over 150 million people in America claim to be “born-again Christians.” We have to question what that means. And we wonder if people are not interpreting the Christian faith as mere mental assent to correct doctrine, accepting forgiveness and professing Christ as an insurance policy – a way ...

3421. Samaria and Our Spiritual Journey

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Jerusalem -- in neither place, nor in any other special place -- but God is Spirit. He is here and there, and there and here -- and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” Then there is still another huge lesson. Jesus makes the radical claim that He is the source of meaning in life. “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, the water that I shall give him shall become in him a spring of water ...

3422. The Authority of Scripture: God's Breathed Word

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... We serve the god of power, prestige, worldly influence, but the Bible says, “But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first” (Mark 10:31). Listen, friends, if you read this book, you will meet the living God who will lay His claims upon your life. And that leads me to my next point. More than a book, the Bible is an invitation – an invitation to life. The great events of the Old Testament – creation, covenant and exodus – all reflect the Gospel. The movement of God is a movement ...

3423. The Work of An Evangelist

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... -class university. Between the two, the reasons for holding them back were three-fold. 1) Too strong an emphasis on the transcendence and holiness of God. 2) An unwillingness to surrender a “Father image” of God. 3) What the committee called “too exclusive claims for the person and work of Jesus Christ in our salvation.” Now to be sure those students may have been too brittle in their unwillingness to nuance language and metaphor – the language of God. But on the other two issues the committee ...

3424. With Jesus In The Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... wrote a book of meditations about her experiences. In her book she explains that for a long time she saw M.S. as an obstacle that prevented her from truly loving God. She blamed all her spiritual defeats and defects on her disease. Today that is not the case. She claims that she is grateful for the invasion of multiple sclerosis into her life. She says she can hardly believe that it is so, but it is so. She uses this analogy: She says their home is nestled on an acre of land back a short way from a main ...

3425. In the Wilderness With Moses

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... . It is based on extensive research on college and university campuses looking at all aspects of college life as it is being lived today. Those who have read it say there is a lot of profanity in the book and a range of activities that Tom Wolfe claims are common on college campuses today. Some of the reports on the book’s contents sound like descriptions of the sexual excesses of the old Roman empire. The story is about a poor mountain girl from a small town in remote western North Carolina. She is quite ...

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