Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 326 to 350 of 972 results

Proverbs 10:1-32

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... California wanted a good name for their oranges. There was a word which was being used by people who grew raisins, prunes, and other dried fruit, as well as by some of the orange growers. These California orange growers saw the advantage of having exclusive use of this name for their product. They approached the growers of the other fruits and bargained for that name. When the deal was completed, the orange growers paid $1,250,000 for the name "Sunkist." When they turned over that large sum of money ...

327. The Forgotten Virtue

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... court of the Gentiles and the court of the Jews, and no matter how much a proselyte Gentile became devoted to the faith of Judaism, he could never step over that stumbling block into the court of the Jews, because he hadn’t been born a Jew. That was an exclusive distinction, a mark of pride. Pride is like the light that we have on the inside of our cars. When you turn on that light at night, it turns the windows into mirrors. The only thing you see is your own reflection - you can’t see where you’re ...

328. THE MARRIAGE GAP

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

William McKee Aber

... for the separateness that exists within so many of our homes - for the brokenness in relationships that all too often exists between husbands and wives. The same word, to a lesser degree, is appropriate to all relationships, so this sermon is not addressed exclusively to marriage gaps. Let’s consider the marriage gap this morning and see if there is, in fact, a healing word. I suppose we have to begin with the premise that GAPS WITHIN MARRIAGE (AND ALL OTHER RELATIONSHIPS) CAN BE CLOSED EFFECTIVELY ONLY ...

329. John the Baptist

Drama

Charles L. Koester

... leaving home one day, I did not return. I fell in love with the solitude as I sought out my mission. What would God have me to do among His people, among my people, to prepare His way? For my people were stiff necked, unbending, exclusive, and they hated each other! The Judeans hated the Samaritans, the Galileans the Romans, and visa-versa. Everyone hated the other; the poor, the rich, even our priests the Sadducees and the Pharisees hated one another, and the Zealots killed anyone who accepted Roman rule ...

330. The Ordinary

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Theodore L. Yewey

... down. To a life where some were faithful and others made no pretense of any virtue. Surely shepherds who had been so honored did not have to go back to such a life as this. A world tour to tell of the incident? Perhaps! An exclusive interview with a publisher? Maybe! But back to their ordinary life? Unbelievable! Yet this is exactly what the story says. And moreover they returned glorifying and praising God. There is that within me that really wants to conclude this sermon with an urging to display this ...

331. Identifying Light

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... absorbed, enveloped, by our Christ that we all, clergy and laity alike, simply glow again in ministry? With God all things are possible. Slowly, sometimes painfully so, Christians have been learning that their identification with others is not exclusively individualistic. Identity with the needs of the world involves Christians with great social issues. Spiritual impetus is necessary to social reform. Wilberforce apart from Wesley could never have led the abolition of the slave trade from British Commerce ...

332. A Prayer for the Faithful

John 17:6-19

Sermon

George Bass

... our lives for Christ. Don’t we even resist mightily when, annually, we are called upon to make financial pledges for the work of the church of Christ in our time and world? Don’t we limit the use of the term "sacrifice" almost exclusively to our giving, as in "sacrificial giving"? And a quick check of the financial records of many a congregation, when put up against the average incomes of the people, reveals precious little sacrificing being done. Maybe our problem is that we don’t understand what ...

333. Blow The Trumpet In Zion

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Larry Powell

... , too familiar. It is not as though the word no longer exists; it is just that it has become a sentence-filler, like "you know" or "I mean." It is no longer "special," and has lost its attention-grabbing, spirit-lifting power for referring to something exclusive or genuinely outstanding. Similarly, the word "repent," like an old metal file, has lost its bite, for we have smoothed the edges ourselves. Besides, even if we were so inclined to come to terms with the word, we do not really have the time. We have ...

334. In Quest of Fire

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Larry Powell

... us something which we did not wish to hear." Aye, the watchmen of the fire proclaim a message that is not their own; it transcends them. Consequently, the message is not always pleasant. This is not to imply that all "true" prophets are exclusively purveyors of bad news, but it is to suggest that they frequently tell us something we do not wish to hear. For example, "Repent!" Concise, yes, but it is nonetheless a demand to radically transform one’s life. It is an unembellished, straightforward warning ...

335. All Together

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... moving in the hearts of love. It is a fundamental characteristic of the Spirit that she falls on outsiders as well as insiders. A sign of the future, of tomorrow’s will of God, is to be seen wherever outsiders are being welcomed and boundaries of exclusion crossed. Robert Frost, the poet, puts it well in the first four lines of his beautiful piece called "Mending Wall," written over seventy years ago: Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it And spills the ...

336. God Dwells With People

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... of a church as a building, and think of it as a community, we all know of some pretty small churches. In that respect, the smallest church in the world would be one that shuts out any of God’s children. For all are one, and an exclusive church or temple is not large enough to admit the Spirit of God. God dwells with his people, and large or small structures can hinder our worship. But, conversely, they can also help. 2. Temples and buildings can help our worship Buildings provide a solidarity to our ...

337. Human Nature Revisited

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... staying back. But he was afraid for his son. While Absalom had cast away every shred of loyalty to his father and was prepared to bring about his father’s death in order to expand his own ambitious ends, David thought only of his son, to the exclusion of his own - and his country’s - interests. So the King said to his commanders: Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom. - 2 Samuel 18:5 Such tender and difficult words! Hasn’t every parent been torn between helping their children and letting ...

338. Heal the Sick; Cast Out the Demons

Matthew 10:5-8

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... , mental, and spiritual dimensions, and disease is the disruption of that unity, then healing is the act of reuniting these trends after the disruption of their unity. While the Christian may be thinking of faith in spiritual areas most of the time, to work exclusively there is not to follow Jesus’ command to heal. Jesus was a Jew. Hebrew thinking says that man is a whole - body, mind, and spirit. You cannot heal one part without factoring in the dimensions of the other parts. Dr. Lou Kettel, Dean of ...

339. Enduring

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... is incapable of picturing what the world will be like should those missiles of death ever be released. Fortunate will be those who perish instantly in that blast. Unnerving, is it not? Is this passage in Mark to be looked upon as a first century document, relating exclusively to that remote period of history? It would be cheering to think so. Don’t we usually attempt to push distastefulness aside: go to a movie, watch TV, turn to the bottle? Yes, drugs have become a way out. It is all in a futile attempt ...

340. The Flow of Life

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... gives it meaning is the fact that we are all in it together, whether we like it or not - you and I, our families and friends, our neighbors, even God, by choice. We are in it together. Much of the time we find ourselves concerned exclusively with the flow of our individual lives, and that’s understandable. But sometimes we are thrown close to others and their struggles. At those times we find ourselves seriously challenged - challenged to open up our pain and joy, and risk allowing ourselves to be touched ...

341. No Fifth Wheels in God’s Economy

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... few Christians enjoy, a companionship that has met as many or more needs than even a good marriage. They have discovered, in their freedom to come and go, a tremendous opportunity to love people and to be loved in a special way that marriage, with its exclusive demands, can never achieve. I have a strange feeling that the single person who is always wishing he or she were married would probably get married, discover all that is involved and not involved, and wish to be single again. So I encourage those of ...

342. Backsliding

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . While on the journey they begin to discuss an individual by the name of Temporary. He had started the pilgrimage, but along the way he fell by the wayside, or, as Bunyan worded it, backslid. That term was picked up, particularly, but not exclusively by the Methodists in early America and became a stock phrase. It referred to those once faithful individuals who had lost interest in their Christian pilgrimage. There are some denominations who do not affirm the concept. They say once saved always saved ...

343. When the Sermon Turns Sour

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

... he healed the Gentile; he didn’t heal any of the Jews.” When the Jewish people heard this, they were absolutely furious. It suddenly struck them what Jesus was really saying. He was declaring the disturbing news that God loves everybody, particularly those beyond their tight, exclusive circle. It was, and is, a scandalous thing to say. The only thing more disturbing is to remember how that is the sort of thing that is written down in our Bibles. 1. As reported in Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24, and ...

344. Role Reversal: Baby and Priest

Hebrews 10:1-18

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... to show humanity the kingdom of love and forgiveness lying crushed and lost within our social institutions. Hebrews is a wonderful Scripture to move us beyond our infatuation with Jesus’ stage of infancy and keep us from emphasizing the manger to the exclusion of the marketplace. It moves us from decorative concentration on the meekness of the baby into the marketplaces of life. It forces us away from buying gifts to celebrate a birthday and into a relationship with a priest who cannot be bought ...

345. True or False?

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... right down to earth to suffer and rejoice with us, to hear our cries and heal our hurts and help us in our weakness. Do you know a God like that? An awesome God, a powerful God, a God who will not let go. Not a narrow god, not an exclusive god, not a god of tight boundaries, and silly rules. Not a god who can be tricked by pretensions or duped by appearances. Not a god of pettiness nor of politics nor of politeness. A God who will peek around the corners, who can see around the facades, who can ...

346. At The Potter's House

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... a big concern to God. What does being faithful to your spouse really have to do with religion? Then there’s that bit about worshiping other gods. That’s a big one for Jeremiah. He claims it’s a big one for God, too. In fact, he claims that our exclusive loyalty to God matters more than anything (e.g., 2:6-8, 7:23, 11:9-13, 16:10-13). I think it is just unrealistic. I mean sure we’re grateful that God brought us out of Egypt and led us into this land. But that was 600 years ...

347. Light from the Word

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... in the fraternity of a meal. A Call For Faith It is very important for us to catch the flavor of what Ezra was doing for the people on this important occasion. There are many interpreters who fault Ezra for the creation of Judaism as a provincial, exclusive, and legalistic version of the Hebrew faith. They point to his ruling that the Jews should not marry outside the faith as typical of this narrow view of the faith. That would be unfair to the larger task which Ezra performed, which was to get the people ...

348. The Healing Power of the Cross

Luke 23:26-43, Mark 15:33-41, Luke 23:44-49

Sermon

James W. Moore

... , “When you get out - if you get out – you can come and be on my show.” A religious fanatic happened along and said, “You must have sinned a great sin because only bad people fall into pits.” A news reporter rushed up to him and said, “Could I have an exclusive story on your experience in the pit?” A lawyer came out from town and wanted to represent the man in a law suit. An IRS agent came to see if he had paid his taxes on the pit. A neurotic came along and said, “You think your pit is bad ...

349. His Triumphal Entry

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Brett Blair

... what we now call his Passion. There are two expectations being played out. Two storylines are occurring: the hopes of the people is one and the Passion of the Christ is the other. Jesus could not match his hopes and dreams with theirs. The two goals were mutually exclusive. To pursue a king’s crown would defeat the purpose of the cross. To pursue the a sacrificial cross would preclude any chance at a crown. The Passion. What does it mean? Why do we call it the Passion? Well you have to go back a number of ...

350. His Trial

Luke 22:66--23:25

Sermon

Brett Blair

... who will crucify Christ for its own self-interest. Any time we choose position over purpose we are committing the sin of Caiaphas. Any time we choose safety over salvation we are committing the sin of Caiaphas. Any time we concentrate on what we are doing to the exclusion of what we are being, we are committing the sin of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the high priest in name only. A priest is a mediator. He is one who represents God to man and man to God. Caiaphas was never that except in name only. It is Caiaphas ...

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