Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3476 to 3500 of 4957 results

3476. Uncle Abraham

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

William G. Carter

... here, after all. Before the church got to be big business, this is what all the excitement was about. God loves us, and for that reason alone, God has sent Jesus Christ into the world. Sometimes a preacher needs to stand up and say it. Essentially, that is the claim Paul is making in this section of the letter. It is so large, so heavy, that it is tough to let it sink in. We find some help at this point from an Episcopalian priest named Robert Capon. He writes theology books and cookbooks. One of his books ...

3477. Still Sinners, Still Forgiven

Romans 5:1-8

Sermon

William G. Carter

... the things we have done or the things we ought to have done. All of that is over. God lets go of it. It's done. It is accomplished. In the final words of Jesus, "It is finished." Perhaps you heard about the woman in a large city who claimed she was having visions of Jesus. She was a Roman Catholic, and the word spread all over the diocese. The reports reached the archbishop, who decided to check her out. "Is it true, ma'am, that you have visions of Jesus?" he asked. "Yes," she replied. The archbishop said ...

3478. Thank God, We're Already Dead

Romans 6:1b-11

Sermon

William G. Carter

... trouble now and then. Everybody does. Most of the time we merely recalibrate the carburetor, without ever getting a whole new engine. We don't allow any interruptions to affect our schedule, our pocketbook, or what we do after dark. Paul sounds rather blunt when he claims that we cannot live unless the old life has died. But then again, some people are lifted right out of the dust, because they were willing to let go of the wreckage they once suffered. I was talking with a woman in the hospital. She was ...

3479. Families in Christ

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... all Christians, all around the world. We are all members of the family of Christ. The story is even more inclusive than that. We stand in the line of all those who have borne the name of Christian. All those folks, who, for the last twenty centuries, have claimed to be followers of Christ, are part of the family. Many people know some details about the history of their family. The grandparent who took part in World War II, the ancestor who was part of the Civil War, the first member of the family to come to ...

3480. Irrevocable Gifts

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... that he was quite glad to hear the president was a self-made man, as that relieved the Almighty of a tremendous responsibility. It seems obvious that any gifts we have are gifts from God. Without God and the gifts all people have been given, we have no claim to be or do anything. Even so, it can be uncomfortable to make the effort to utilize our gifts. Most often, the gifts do not merely happen, but require us to exert ourselves. Most often it is not a matter of simply applying our gifts with no further ...

3481. Life, Death, and Judgment

Romans 14:1-12

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... who has a different idea. This particular idea leads people to cause all sorts of problems, both in the church and in the world. An example of the mischief this attitude can cause is the history of the Crusades, when some Christians claimed that God must want various sites in the Holy Land freed from control by non-Christians. As the struggle to free locations proceeded, various actions, including attacks on Christian cities, massacres of prisoners, both Christians and non-Christians, and the destruction of ...

3482. Worthy of God

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Sermon

Rick Brand

... been given in a way that is appropriate for the gifts?" It is terrifying and demanding. To decide to evaluate and to live your life by the standard, "Is this a worthy use of the gifts given to me by God?" is to reject all the other claims upon your gifts. One day when Wil Willimon was feeling low because of the small attendance and poor results he was getting at Chapel at Duke, he complained to Stanley Hauerwas, who was named by Time magazine as the nation's most outstanding theologian. Stanley replied to ...

3483. A More Perfect Union

Habakkuk 2:1-5

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... that power rests with the people, for God has endowed the individual, not the state, with inalienable rights. Which leads to the one flaw in the Constitution. The framers of the Constitution hesitated, and then compromised, on including everybody in the vision. They claimed that all people had inalienable rights. But they compromised the vision by not including everyone from the very beginning in the vision. But it is a testimony to what a vision means and the power it has, that "it waited its time. It ...

3484. Coming Home

Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... conversion. You notice that in a lot of mainline church people. It is manifested as a kind of elitism. We don't do that. It's not our style. But along with it, I suspect there is a kind of longing. And often a resentment that what they lay claim to, I have never experienced. I wonder if you've noticed than John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, was like that. He was raised in the Church. He was a good Anglican, he became an Anglican priest. He was an Oxford don (a professor at Oxford University ...

3485. Family Matters

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... conflict in the church, but also in your home, or between any two people or more who have differing views, but who have a desire to be reconciled. And here they are. The first rule is to have humility about what you know. Beware of anyone who claims to have absolute truth: From what I can ascertain, there are only two absolute truths. The first is that God knows everything. And the second is, you don't. Having been converted doesn't change that. Conversion enlarges your heart, not your mind. If your were ...

3486. Get a Charge

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... something that shouldn't go beyond the walls of the Temple. Just as clearly he had himself in mind as the first son, who refuses to do what the religious establishment thinks he must do if he is going to be a religious man, especially if he is going to claim to be Messiah. He refuses to do it. Yet when God calls him to make a sacrifice, to do something in the world, he does it. This insight is made even more poignant in the knowledge that this scene is set in Jerusalem, just a few days before his ...

3487. Here We Go Again

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... Jesus, I could see. It was handwritten, which I want to point out to all of you who have been trying to get me to get a computer. I just follow Jesus. When he gets one, I'll get one. I read on. "I am not pleased with those who claim to be members of my body. You have turned away from me." The letter continues with an indictment of Christians, how we have all gone astray. It concludes by warning, "The end comes quickly. You will see many signs, but they will not be by me." The last sentence of ...

3488. Hope Is Medicinal

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... of me," which caused some anxiety on the part of the patient. I wanted to share those anecdotes, because they are worth sharing, but have nothing to do with the sermon. Siegel's point is that you have a part in your healing. He is cautious, however, in claiming too much for this. A proper mental attitude will affect the process of healing, but it will not completely control the healing. He warns us that someday all of us will get a disease from which we will not be cured. So far there are no exceptions to ...

3489. How's the Old Complaint?

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... to follow him around the Mediterranean world. As soon as he leaves some place, they come in and tell everybody there, "You know, Paul really isn't an apostle. He is an imposter." An "apostle," by definition, was somebody who had seen the resurrected Lord. Paul claimed that he heard Jesus's voice on the Road to Damascus. That was sufficient. But he tells the Corinthians, "You want to see my credentials? Look at my wounds. Look at my suffering." Because the real test of an apostle is not that he has seen ...

3490. If You Look Like Your Passport Photo

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... kind of thing. That is the difference between us and the first century Church. We don't expect to see these things. We've been trained that seeing is a psychological phenomenon only, a function of light impacting sensory organs. We are also suspicious of anybody who claims to have seen something that is not easily visible to everyone else. We say, "That person's been seeing things." By which we mean, they are seeing things that aren't real. It is illusion and fantasy. That's our way of seeing. But the Bible ...

3491. Laugh It Off

I Corinthians 1:18-20, 26-31

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , it was just a placebo. That may be. But at least one medical school at UCLA was impressed with what happened and the implications from it. They invited Cousins to be an adjunct professor on the medical school at UCLA. Cousins himself was modest in making claims. He said that laughter may not have cured the disease, but he knew that it had a salutary effect on his recovery. For instance, he said, laughter relaxed him. As a result he was able, for the first time since the onset of the illness, to sleep ...

3492. No Fear

John 15:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . God didn't treat us that way. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us. Then John makes it personal. Some might feel that he makes it too personal, because if you have received this amazing love of God in your life, as you claim, then it will show. He says, No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. Carlyle Marney told about an old man who was asked once, "Have you ever seen God?" He said, "No, but I have ...

3493. Now What?

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Mark Trotter

3494. Stay in the City

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the most powerful city in the world. The first thing the Christians did was establish a church in Rome. It would be like a little fly on the elephant's hide; an outrageous thing to do. This little community of Christians going immediately to Rome to claim Jesus is resurrected, sits at the right hand of God the Father, so "the kingdoms of this world," they said, "have become the Kingdoms of our Christ," including Rome. It was audacious. "Stay in the city, until you receive power." The power came at Pentecost ...

3495. Stirring Things Up

Mark 13:1-8, Hebrews 10:11-25

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , very exotic in their beliefs, bordering on what has been called a "cult." When that word is used today, it refers to a community of people who have given up the world and their possessions, and follow some charismatic leader who demands absolute obedience, and often claims infallibility. According to the newspaper, there are a lot of cults coming out for the big millennium. To those of us who are a part of mainstream religion in America, that word "cult" is not a pretty word. It conjures up what we don't ...

3496. The Things That Make for Peace

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... find our identity in what divides us, rather than in what unites us. The same thing is happening in religion, especially in religion. Increasingly religion is now used to divide us as a people, rather than unite us. The fastest growing religions today are those that claim to have absolute truth, and therefore will allow for no middle ground. They won't allow for any compromise. They won't allow for any dialogue. Why dialogue, why talk to somebody, if you've got all the truth? The only reason for talking to ...

3497. Where Do You Abide?

John 15:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... will do at the end of this service. We baptize babies to emphasize this child is a child of God. This child is known by God by name. This child is loved by God. Even before you can speak God's name, God loves you, knows your name, and has claimed you as his child. Someone will say, "Well I didn't choose to be baptized. What's more, I don't understand it." I will say to them, "Isn't that wonderful." I don't understand it either. I don't know anybody who understands the sacraments of grace. That ...

3498. Where's Your Spirit?

Acts 19:1-7

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... a wheel chair, he has had a renewal of life. He concluded the article in Time Magazine with his own personal testimony of the Spirit. He went through a spiritual experience during this illness. At the conclusion of the article he wrote that the Christians claim that the resurrected Christ is with us. Which is another way of talking about the Spirit. The Spirit is the resurrected Christ with us. The Spirit is the same Spirit that was in Jesus. He says that he experienced the resurrected Christ. It happened ...

3499. Advent 4

Isaiah 7:1-25, Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... is his understanding of the Gospel? He sums it up in one person, Jesus Christ. He is the Good News. Why? Because of who Jesus is. Paul sees the humanity of Jesus, a real human being, totally human in every respect, as a descendant of a human David. But, Paul claims Jesus is more than human. He is at the same time the Son of God who was so designated by his victory over sin and death. Through the ministry of this Jesus, the world has been freed from the bondage of sin. 3. To be (v. 7). Paul tells who ...

3500. Christmas 1

Isaiah 63:7--64:12, Colossians 3:1-17, Colossians 3:18-4:1, Galatians 3:15-25, Hebrews 2:5-18, Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... love you." This is often said by a religious person to one who barely knows the greeter. He secretly asks, "How can you say you love me when we are practically strangers?" If there is any doubt about your loving me, how could I accept the greater claim that God loves me? Christmas is the answer; it is God's nonverbal message to the world, "I love you, people." Lesson 1 recounts God's love, goodness, and mercy to his people. This was demonstrated and personified in the coming of Christ. Can we not see Jesus ...

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