Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 326 to 350 of 1533 results

Romans 8:26-39

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

Many people have heard a part of this lesson before. Most particularly, the last two verses, the part about "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." These verses are often a part of funeral services. In the context of a funeral service, these verses are a source of comfort for those in attendance, a consolation for ...

327. Why Join the Church?

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Mark Trotter

My wife and I were driving down the freeway one day, and she saw the title of the sermon on the marquee, "Why Join The Church?" She said, "That's the dullest title I've ever seen!" I asked her if she had ever heard Tammy Wynette sing, "Stand By Your Man"? Actually I believe it is a good title because it reflects the opinion of many people, that it is not necessary to join the Church in order to be a Christian. I suppose most of your neighbors feel that way. They probably wonder what you are doing getting ...

328. Proper 26

Matthew 23:1-39, Joshua 3:1-4:24, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Malachi 2:1-9

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Joshua 3:7-17 Under Joshua the Israelites cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. Moses died and Joshua succeeded him. The people are assembled east of the Jordan River and are ready to cross over to the Promised Land. Forty years of wandering are now at an end, the destination reached. As the Red Sea was parted, the Jordan also is divided to allow the people to enter a new land with dry feet. Old Testament: Malachi 1:14-2:2, 8-10 The wider ministry. Old Testament: Micah 3:5-12 ...

329. A Life Well Lived

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you noticed that grandmothers have changed? For one thing they seem so much younger than they used to. Some anonymous bard celebrated this truth in a little poem you may have encountered on the Internet. It’s titled, “Where Have All the Grandmas Gone?” In the dim and distant past; When life’s tempo wasn’t so fast Grandma used to rock and knit, Crochet, tat, and baby sit. When the kids were in a jam, They could always call on Gram. But today she’s in the gym Exercising to keep slim. She’s checking the ...

330. A Clock or a Compass?

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

David T. Ball

Do you all have your compasses with you? What? You don’t have compasses? Well, I guess neither do I. How about your watch? Okay! A much better response that time. I have my watch, too — but don’t get your hopes up that I’m planning to keep a closer eye on how long my sermons are taking! I really just wanted to make a point about how much we rely on our watches in comparison to our compasses. And I doubt that very many of us have a compass that we can carry around — we may have one on our car. We know our ...

331. Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The epistle to the Hebrews was almost certainly not written by Paul. But it almost certainly was authored by someone who was a very close associate of Paul, someone who knew his theology and thinking, his style and syntax. This author also speaks with a Jewish voice, one comfortably familiar with Jewish theology, tradition and soul. Some favorite candidates for authorship offered by scholars have included Barnabas, Silas, Luke and Apollos. Among these four, Apollos appears to hold the best qualifications ...

332. What Do I Do When My Prayers Go Unanswered?

Deuteronomy 3:1-11, 23-26

Sermon

James Merritt

I have been a follower of Christ ever since I was nine years old. For over four decades, I have followed Jesus Christ and I have spent most of those years studying the Word of God and learning more about the God of the Word. I have literally been on mountaintops and I have been in valleys. There have been times in my life that God was so real it was as if I could literally reach out and touch His face. There have been other times I've felt like God was so far away that I could not see Him with the Hubble ...

333. Mrs. Proverbs

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

Stan Purdum

It's a question you've probably not thought much about, but were any parts of the Bible written by women? We count about forty different writers in scripture, and according to the usual assumption, all of them were men. Among the reasons for that conclusion is the fact that the dominant culture of the ancient Middle East was patriarchal. Men were in charge, and women had few rights of their own, not unlike in some of the stricter Muslim countries today. Also, in those times, literacy rates for women were ...

334. Can't We All Just Get Along?

Mark 9:38-41

Sermon

King Duncan

Gordon Melton scours the country trying to count the number of major denominations in the United States. It has been estimated that there are more than 33,000 denominations of Christianity in the entire world. There are not nearly that many in the U.S., but some of the groups that Melton discovered are kind of interesting. For example, he discovered one group called, “The Church of the Kennedy Worshippers.” That’s a church which actually believes that it can pray to the late President John F. Kennedy, and ...

335. Minding the Store of Our Lives

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

A man lived in an old stone cottage that was badly in need of repair. He made do, day-by-day, and got on with his life, struggling to wrench a living from the meager land. Eventually the rain that leaked in on him got too heavy and the wind around his ears was too cold. He had to do something about the gap in his wall. Up on the hillside there was an ancient Celtic cross. It had stood there since time immemorial. It was silent and uncomplaining in the Atlantic gales that swept over it, but its very silence ...

336. All Who Share This Hope

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

There's nothing like a week with two funerals, a wedding, Halloween celebrations, a community farewell party, a church tea, and several pastoral crises to make a body realize that none of us is an island. Mind you, just now, I'd kind of like to be an island for about three days! But only for three days. For the truth is, we are profoundly connected with and dependent upon each other ... and on the whole, that is good. Did you ever think about the implications of the fact that as human beings the God in ...

337. The Garden of Temptation

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

A woman tells of joining a weight-loss organization. At one meeting the instructor held up an apple and a candy bar. “What are the attributes of this apple,” she asked, “and how do they relate to our diet?” Among the answers that came from the group: “Low in calories” and “lots of fiber.” She then detailed what was wrong with eating candy, and concluded, “Apples are not only more healthful but also less expensive. Do you know I paid seventy-five cents for this candy bar?” The group stared as she held aloft ...

338. For All the Saints

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

April Yamasaki

What picture comes into your mind when you think of a saint? Is it a portrait of a medieval saint with a golden halo? Or a cartoon character wearing a white robe and carrying a harp standing on a cloud? Is it a solemn picture of someone dressed all in black with a pinched look of long-suffering on his or her face? Do you automatically think to yourself, "It's hard to be a saint — but it's even harder to live with one"? In the New Testament, the word "saint" is used to describe the early Christians. It ...

339. Real Heros

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

Those who are into Xtreme sports know that there are cameras that will allow you to film your exploits. You have probably seen ads for these cameras. It is specially designed for bikers, surfers, snowboarders, scuba divers, dirt track drivers, skiers, auto racers or participants in any other action sport. The name for one of these cameras is the HD GoPro HERO camera. You can mount the HERO camera to your helmet, handlebar, windshield, car bumper or any other place you can think of where you might capture ...

340. An Announcement for a New Year

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

King Duncan

This is the last Sunday of 2014. Next Sunday is the year of our Lord 2015. My guess is that for some of us that hardly seems possible. Wasn’t it just yesterday when we were in a tizzy over Y2K and the beginning of a new millennium? On the other hand, it seems like a life-time ago. Besides, according to the ballyhooed Mayan calendar, the world should have ended December 21, 2012. [And according to Hal Lindsay and The Late, Great Planet Earth and numerous Left Behind books by Tim LaHaye, we should all have ...

341. I Don't Get No Respect

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you will remember the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield who made a handsome living with the phrase — “I don’t get no respect.” “I don’t get no respect,” Rodney would say, adjusting his tie. “I tell ya when I was a kid, all I knew was rejection. My yo-yo, it never came back . . . With my dog I don’t get no respect. He keeps barking at the front door. He don’t want to go out. He wants me to leave . . .” Said Dangerfield, “I asked my old man if I could go ice-skating on the lake. He told me, ‘Wait till ...

342. A Call to Persevere

Jude 1:17-25

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

Peril Foretold by Apostles 17 Jude now turns from his series of illustrations provided by OT types and prophecies (vv. 5–16) to remind his readers of a much more contemporary voice. They are urged not only to recall what the inspired writers of earlier centuries have foretold, but to remember that in their own day the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ have warned of the rise of false teachers. The constantly needed admonition to remember is frequently repeated in the Scriptures. Forgetfulness of divine ...

343. Thanksgiving and Prayer

Philippians 1:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

Prescript The prescript, or introductory salutation, of an ancient letter regularly contained three elements: (a) the name of the sender or senders; (b) the name of the recipient or recipients, and (c) a word of greeting or good wishes. Examples abound from letters of the New Testament period, in Greek and in Latin, both literary and nonliterary; earlier examples are the extracts from the official correspondence of the Persian court quoted in the book of Ezra; compare Ezra 7:12, “Artaxerxes, king of kings ...

344. Children of God

1 John 2:28--3:10

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

This section of 1 John is unified by the idea of the children of God: who they are and how one can identify them by their lives. It is a passage dominated by ethics, particularly an ethical concern for righteousness and sin. It compares two “families”: the children of God and the children of the devil. In the background, as always, are the Elder’s opponents, the secessionists, whom he strongly contrasts to his own “dear children.” The unit is built on a structure of four antitheses, four pairs of opposing ...

345. God’s Miraculous Provision: Caring for the Needy

Mark 6:30-44

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: The message of the feeding miracle is simple: God will provide. This is the primary miracle in which Jesus involved his disciples, and the question is whether they will put their trust in the God who provides for them in every situation. Understanding the Text Many think of this passage as another round of miracles by the lake. It is far more than that. Here Jesus’s authority is seen in its effect on discipleship. The primary group involved is not the crowds or the leaders but the disciples. This ...

346. Rejecting or Responding to Jesus

Luke 10:1-24

Teach the Text

R.T. France

Big Idea: How people respond to Jesus and his ministry (and to his disciples’ message) determines their spiritual destiny. Understanding the Text The mission of the seventy-two leads to reflections on the significance of Jesus’s ministry and of the mission that he now shares with his followers. As in the earlier account of Jesus’s transfiguration, we see again here that the drama being played out on the earthly level also has a supernatural dimension, both in the conflict with and the defeat of Satan (a ...

347. Marriage, Sexual Intimacy, and Spiritual Devotion

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

Big Idea: Husbands and wives must protect each other from sexual temptation and recognize their obligation to take care of each other’s sexual needs. They are co-owners of each other’s bodies. Understanding the Text Although Paul’s discussion on sexual immorality in chapter 6 makes the transition to his discussion on sexual obligations in marriage smooth, chapter 7 introduces a new section that continues through 11:1. After his extended discussion of the Corinthian Christ followers’ troublesome allegiance ...

348. Message to Philadelphia

Revelation 3:7-13

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

Big Idea: Jesus commends his church for persevering in obedience under trying circumstances and reassures them with the promise of his eternal presence. Understanding the Text The message to the church in Philadelphia is the sixth in the series of messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2–3. To the churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia, Jesus offers no rebuke but only praise as they endure rejection for his sake. Although this Philadelphian congregation has “little strength,” it has endured opposition, ...

349. Bildad’s Final Attempt to Answer Job

Job 25:1-6

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

Big Idea: Bildad concludes that humans have no hope before God. Understanding the Text Job 25 contains Bildad’s third and final speech, but he has little to say to Job. Clearly running out of steam, Bildad speaks only briefly before he and the friends tail off into silence. For all practical purposes, the dialogue is over, with Job and his friends not a bit closer to each other in their positions. Bildad’s firm commitment to retribution theology leads him to conclude that before the transcendent God humans ...

350. “May the Net They Hid Entangle Them”

Psalm 35:1-28

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Rather than taking vengeance for injustice into our own hands, we can pray that its perpetrators will become victims of their own contrivances. Understanding the Text Psalm 35, the first of the imprecatory psalms, deals with the issue of divine justice in a bare-bones way. In one sense, it is an individual lament (Craigie), but in its total effect, it is more a prayer for deliverance (Wilson). The form critics, seeking the cultural context for such prayers, are inclined to view the psalm as a ...

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