Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 326 to 350 of 2962 results

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... college employs is prayer. In scientific studies prayer has been shown to lower blood pressure. Even more impressively, religious folks have been found to live longer than agnostics and atheists. One recent study has shown that heart patients are less likely to die when designated family members pray for them, even when these heart patients do not realize they are being prayed for. (3) We are glad that medical science is finally catching on to what you and I have known all our lives. Jesus heals people. He ...

327. When The Fish Won't Bite

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Frank Lyman

... had not caught any fish and Luke uses the Greek word Kopos, to describe his feeling. Kopos means toil and weariness, as if one had been beaten. It was not for lack of effort that Simon had failed. He'd fished all night long. He'd used the trammel net, designed to catch fish in the deepest part of the sea, but all he had to show for his efforts were empty nets which needed drying. IT IS IN FAILURE THAT JESUS MEETS SIMON. He lives with a sick mother-in-law. He works for somebody else. And he had experienced ...

328. Balancing Act

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... working all day long with clients. A person can only perform these emotionally and spiritually draining tasks for so long until it's time to say enough! Jesus says, Get away from the crowd for a while, find a quiet spot and rest. Our lives were designed for balance. This is a concept that many people are just now discovering--balance. Workshops are being given in major corporations on how to balance one's life--work and family, income and spiritual well-being. And it's time we were paying attention to what ...

329. Building A Home

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... YORK TIMES magazine. It is a video tape produced by Quality Video of Minneapolis titled, "Video Baby." It is designed for consumers who are devoted to family values but can't seem to find the time to start a ... realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you" (19-21). In these verses Christ is saying to us that this world was designed for love, for family, for relationships, for intimacy. It is good that we should have this day to celebrate the home and all it means to us. AFTER ALL, IT IS ...

330. Excited, Motivated, Changed!

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... his dream was impossible. Ford said, "Produce it anyway." They replied, "But it's impossible." "Go ahead," Ford commanded, "and stay on the job until you succeed, no matter how much time is required." For six months they struggled with drawing after drawing, design after design. Nothing. Another six months. Nothing. At the end of the year Ford checked with his engineers and they once again told him that what he wanted was impossible. Ford told them to keep going. They did. And they discovered how to build a ...

331. Clearing Back The Jungle

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... heart of God and our own hearts as well? How can we live victorious lives in spite of that inner flaw the Bible calls sin? We can begin by remembering that God created us for paradise. It is easy to become obsessed with our defects and forget God's design. I am sure that you have seen that slogan--perhaps on a T-shirt: "I must be somebody, "˜cause God don't make no junk." There is something important in that little phrase. Remember the purpose for which you were created. I like what Charles M. Crowe has ...

332. What Kind Of God Is That?

John 9:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... this tragedy about. God is a God of love, compassion and infinite patience. And God's desire is for God's children's good. The Hoover Dam, built in 1935 on the Colorado River, is an engineering wonder. Hoover is what is called an arch-gravity dam. It is designed so the greater the pressure applied to the dam, the more it is wedged into the solid rock. The greater the forces against the dam, the stronger it becomes. So let it be with us. When heartaches come, as they will, let us not cry out, "Why has this ...

333. Drinking From His Cup

Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... destructive to the truly important values in our lives. Obviously some people do abuse the drive for greatness. On New Year's Day in 1967, a military officer, Colonel Jean-Bekel Bokassa, seized power in the Central African Republic. He claimed his act was designed to keep the Communists from power. His country was small, landlocked, and underdeveloped. It had the dubious distinction of being one of the poorest nations on earth. Its 2.2 million inhabitants had a per capita income of only $110 a year, and the ...

334. A Way Made Ready

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... , seizing every valley and raising it up. Wherever the road is rough—like Oklahoma roads with all their pot holes—God makes level ground, smooth and plain. The Lord makes a way for His salvation. John the Baptist is a part of that way. He is a prophesied, designed-by-God means of getting the way ready. So here stands John the Baptist, a voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” John is calling out to all who will hear, “The Lord is coming. Let ...

335. The Autobiography of God

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... said, “Well, he didn’t say much!” But the customer forked over thirty dollars for the Bible, anyway! Popular piety mistakenly equates Jesus with God, simply and without remainder. But that is not what the Bible itself says. “Son of God” is a more proper designation. It seems that Jesus pointed people beyond Himself, saying things like: “The Father is greater than I.” (Jn. 14:28) Still, when we look at Jesus, we catch a glimpse of God. We see what the Creeds call “true God and true Man”; we ...

336. A Terrorist among the Twelve

Luke 6:12-16

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... case of the one we are considering this morning, we only know one word. But that one word speaks volumes. The Gospel says that he was a “Zealot.” Luke refers to him as “Simon who was called the Zealot.” (Luke 6:15) The designation is important, because there are at least nine individuals named Simon in the New Testament. It can get confusing. Luke calls him “zelotes,” which means “the Zealot.” Matthew and Mark complicate things by calling him “Simon the Cananaean.” (Matthew 10:4, Mark 3 ...

337. Little Jimmy

Mark 3:13-19

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... whole thing gets rather confusing. I have no idea what they do at family reunions. Their family is sort of like that group of Twelve apostles. I. THERE ARE AT LEAST FIVE MEN NAMED “JAMES” IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. It would help if the Bible gave them designations, as does my “Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible:” James I, II, III, IV, V, sort of like Kings of England! In all four lists of the Twelve in the New Testament, James, the son of Alphaeus, always holds the ninth place. Wouldn’t you like ...

338. Living the Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... , for they contain the necessary ingredients for a good life. On the campus of Ohio State University there is a building called the Wexner Art Center. It is a unique building designed to represent the Post-Modernist view of reality. The building has no pattern to it. Staircases go nowhere. Pillars support nothing. The architect designed the building to showcase our modern values in life. To this architect modern values go nowhere and are senseless. As H. G. Wells puts it, "Until a man has found God ...

339. The Fourth Commandment: The Rhythm of Rest or the Rat Race

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... does belong to God. "You see the holiness of God is like a tent pole holding up everything else," says John Killinger. "True reverence is hierarchical not democratic. It descends from above." The Sabbath day is holy because it comes from above. It reflects God's design for life and creation. The Sabbath, like the tent metaphor, covers the rest of our days with its perspective and vision for life. Our Lord was always in the Temple on the Sabbath day. The purpose of the Sabbath was for the adoration of God ...

340. The Seventh Commandment: Indecent Proposal

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... in Romans 12:1-2 that we can present our bodies as part of our spiritual worship. Now we do not need to run to a monastery and become a monk-- unless that is part of our calling from God. Long before Hollywood gave us safe sex and designated drivers, God gave us the gifts of modesty and moderation. The biblical fact that God our creator created us with a sexual dimension means there is a spiritual dimension to sex. If you cancel out this spiritual dimension, it means you have lowered it to a level that ...

341. The Greatest Table in the World

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... Lynchburg, Virginia, shares this thought: "Lord, we thank you for this table, which is more important than any other table in the world, even the table of kings and emperors where lands have been divided and the tables of soldiers and generals where peace has been designed. For here, O Lord, you gather your family in remembrance of a meal centuries ago and visit your people as you did then. We are grateful for daily bread, for the food of our tables, for biscuits and hams and chickens and beans and potatoes ...

342. Secrets Shared for the Journey of Life

Philippians 4:10-20

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... in Jesus Christ from his Damascus Road encounter. Paul used his faith. This letter is positive proof he did not lose it. Instead of a closed door, Paul walked right into the midst of the Roman Empire''s administrative and military enterprise. Paul would not have designed this experience and trip, but what at first seemed to be a limitation was used by God in a great way to spread the greatest story ever told. Yes, our faith enables us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death--not to stay camped ...

343. Trusting the Truth

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... was lost. "Only when the wreckage of the Persona'' was washed ashore did the drowned man''s boat-club friends discover all of this. Look,'' they said, this boat lacks an adequate keel, and there is far more weight above the waterline than below. Only a fool would design and build a boat like this, much less sail in it. A man who builds only above the waterline does not realize that he has built less than half a boat.''" (2) James urged the Christian church not to be foolish and build only half a church and ...

344. Cross Connections

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... can explain the seemingly inexplicable shifts that occur in the wake of Jesus' death? What is heinous becomes hopeful; what is deadly becomes salvific; what is seemingly an ending becomes instead a beginning; what is raised in hate issues in health; what is designed to be ignominious becomes something in which the community of faith glories; humankind's worst is met with God's best. We remember this gruesome, ugly event and it so dramatizes God's deadly determination to get our attention and win our hearts ...

345. Only Sex? (New)

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... commitment. But understand that, if you place these words in their proper context, Paul was writing these words for adults. Many married people need to be reminded that while sex is for intimacy and playfulness and joy within the marriage relationship, it was designed to be entirely exclusive. There is no room for more than two people in a sexual relationship. In her book Common Sense Christian Living, Edith Schaeffer tells of her husband’s intervention in saving a friend’s marriage. A man in their ...

346. Keeping Sunday

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... ourselves to, for that smacks of pride, and we do better humbly to recognize our limitations. A third Sabbath principle is worship. Ralph Sockman once wrote, "Six days a week we sit at the loom. On the seventh day God calls us to come look at the design." Difficult as it is for me to say it, not all worship takes place in a church, and not all that takes place in a church contributes to worship. A young boy, coming reluctantly into the sanctuary of his church, noticed a plaque on the church wall. "What ...

347. Grace in the Midst of Guilt and Shame

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... demonstrated). Unhealthy shame declares that we are unacceptable as human beings. We are not worthy of being loved. Such a feeling can only be described as a life-wearying heaviness. We must fear for teenage girls who read the magazines that are specially designed for them -- specially designed to make them feel as if their skin and their bodies and their boyfriends will never look like those of the models who are on every page of those magazines. We must fear for the boys who read muscle magazines and take ...

348. Sweet-Smelling Fragrance

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... God's grand presentation. As such, belonging to God's church is not a mere walking down to become a member of an institution; not placing a signature on a commitment card.1 It is becoming part of a special arrangement which bears the mark of its designer. Like many today, the members of the early church had a genuine desire to be part of an institution that would help them be recognized by their neighbors as good people. Yet morals are difficult to learn and adopt. As Robin Lovin, Dean of Perkins School of ...

349. Building a House (Mother's Day)

Luke 6:46-49

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... answer. Sister Corita is a Catholic nun who had an unusual ministry some years ago. I haven't heard of her in a long time. But back in the 60's and 70's, she was known all over the nation. She was an artist who designed and printed serographs – poster-like art that used common goods to grab our attention and communicate the Gospel -- Graphic drawings of loaves of bread, dancing trees, cans of soup combined with powerful words colorfully and dramatically presented witnessed to God's grace. Posters were her ...

350. The Church: Identity And Function

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Let me illustrate. Last summer, I preached at the Ocean Grove Count meeting. That’s one of the most notable count meeting centers in America. It’s located on the beautiful New Jersey Atlantic coast, and it has been designated as God’s square mile. Now I don’t know whether that’s a facetious designation or not, but all over the place up there in that section of New Jersey you find these bumper stickers on cars which say, Ocean Grove God’s Square Mile. Between 8 and 10 thousand people live in that ...

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