Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3501 to 3525 of 4977 results

3501. Loving Like God Loves

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... Bible? Surely not fellow Jews who are lax about the law and my school’s interpretation of the law? Surely not.... surely not... surely not... and you can fill in your own prejudices.9 Soon the circle is small enough to be manageable, and you feel quite good about your ability to maintain at least civility, if not love, in the smaller circle. So when Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said...” he knew full well that most of his audience thought that to love the neighbor and hate your enemy were ...

3502. A Kingdom Investment Policy

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... ’ expense and have nothing more to do with him. Getting a ticket to heaven with a quick sinner’s prayer and then going back to your old life is not a viable option. He writes: “This ‘heresy’ (i.e. a false idea) has created the impression that it is quite reasonable to be a ‘vampire Christian’ (I love his imagery!). One in effect says to Jesus: ‘I'd like a little of your blood, please. But I don't care to be your student or have your character. In fact, won't you just excuse me while I get ...

3503. Get off the Throne and Learn Wisdom

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... not interfere with Christ's Lordship over other Christians.”4 If we give up our searchlights and stand under God’s spotlight, if we become more self-critical than others-critical, if we go to God before we go to others, if we turn in our policeman’s badge and quit issuing verbal citations, and if we learn, as Jesus counseled, to watch over one another in love, then we may have a chance in the church to enter a new world in the midst of the current one, a place where it is safe not to be perfect or to ...

3504. Obedience Really Matters

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... treasures in heaven, hunger and thirst for righteousness, become pure in heart and a peacemakers, be the salt and light he intended, seek reconciliation, avoid the lustful look, praying and fasting and giving for God alone, forgiving others as we wish to be forgiven, quit serving wealth or the hope of it, give up fruitless anxiety, trust God for your needs, learn wisdom, avoid false prophets and stay on the narrow way. You make your own list from the Sermon on the Mount and the rest of his teaching. Jesus ...

3505. An Extraterrestrial Celebration

John 13:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.” Then, when he journeyed out of the space module onto the moon’s surface, he did something quite significant. He took out a small home Communion kit and became the first person to celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion on the surface of the moon. This is to say that the event we celebrate this night is the only religious rite in all the world that ...

3506. Joy in the Journey

119:129-136

Sermon

Michael Milton

... at Christ. No wonder you have little peace and joy in believing. No wonder you live so inconsistent and unholy a life. Change your plan. Consider the greatness and glory of Christ, who has undertaken all in the stead of sinners, and you would find it quite impossible to walk in darkness, or to walk in sin. Oh, what low, despicable thoughts you have of the glorious Immanuel! Lift your eyes from your own bosom, downcast believer - look upon Jesus. It is good to consider your ways, but it is far better to ...

3507. What We Want for Our Children

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... give them inner peace when we help them develop a sense of responsibility. There is an old short story titled “Beth Martin’s Pretty Mother” that has a surprisingly modern theme: a daughter decides that her mother needs a makeover. Beth Martin’s mother used to be quite a beauty. But that was before Beth’s father died, and Mrs. Martin was left to run the farm and care for Beth all by herself. Mrs. Martin was determined to give Beth every opportunity. She let her own clothes wear out and turn gray so ...

3508. Spirit Power

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... concerning the woman who produced the most children over a ten-year period. The country was entering the Great Depression. As people struggled to meet even their most basic economic responsibilities, the prospect of an enormous windfall was naturally quite alluring. Newspaper reporters scoured the public records to find likely contenders for what became known as The Great Stork Derby. Nationwide excitement over the Stork Derby built quickly. In 1936, four mothers--proud producers of nine children apiece in ...

3509. Achieving Peak Performance

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , God's work, was done someplace else. Just by definition, the Great Commission that ministering to all nations, making disciples of all nations, meant other nations someplace else. Christians went faithfully over there to carry out a mission. That isn't quite accurate. Christians sent somebody else over there to carry out that mission. Those other people are called "missionaries." They did a marvelous work. One of the great chapters in the history of the Church is the missionary movement. But there is ...

3510. Lighten Up

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... about a ship that was trying to find Cleveland harbor in the midst of a storm, in the darkness of night. The captain could see the lighthouse. He drew near, shouted to the lighthouse keeper, "Is this Cleveland?" The lighthouse keeper shouted back, "Quite true, sir." The captain asked, "Where are the lower lights?" The lighthouse keeper said, "They have gone out. Can you make the harbor?" The captain replied, "We must, or we will perish!" With that he sailed his ship into the harbor, passed the lighthouse ...

3511. Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... around that track day after day, seven days a week, with others chasing that rabbit. Well, one day, I got up close; I got a good look at that rabbit. It was a fake! I had spent my whole life chasing a fake rabbit! Hey, I didn’t retire; I quit!” (5) Is that how you feel about your life, that you’ve been chasing a fake rabbit? Isn’t it time you gave yourself to something more? There are millions of people in our land who will tell you they are bored to tears with their life. That poor guy ...

3512. What Do You Call Success?

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

... do nowadays. We’re sorry to let you down, but it doesn’t seem to be a good use of our time to go door to door. Maybe we ought to try something else.” I suspect Jesus’ reaction to this kind of report would have been quite different. Christ still calls us to make disciples. Let’s not confuse apathy about spreading the Gospel with being faithful. If the disciples had gone about their task half-heartedly, Jesus would not have praised them. But success should not be confused with being faithful either ...

3513. By Faith

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... , the good bishop was wondering what to say. How do you give the gospel to doomed men who are probably seething with rage? The bishop and his fellow pastors approached the condemned men from behind. As the condemned men turned to look at them, something quite remarkable took place. The men’s faces lighted up with an unmistakable radiance. Before the pastors could say anything, one of them burst out: “Bishop, thank you for coming! I wanted to tell you. The day I was arrested, in my prison cell, I asked ...

3514. Fire Falling from Heaven

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... It means our faith promises contentment and personal security in the here and now and entry to heaven at the moment of death. We refer to nice, kind, gentle people as "Christians." We seem to have forgotten that the kingdom of God Jesus introduced was quite radical. If you remember, Jesus was crucified. The Romans did not give him an award for keeping Jewish citizens quiet and content. Most of his apostles met violent deaths at the hands of those who were outraged at the revolutionary changes they wanted to ...

3515. A Cloud of Witness

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... back. It was a collection of sound effects gathered by Abinadi Meza, an artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Meza had been in a bar in Dublin, Ireland. A man at the bar contended that Ireland was the home of “the world’s loudest bat.” Quite a boast. Meza was fascinated. The world’s loudest bat. Here was the problem, according to his Irish bar mate. The bat screeches at a decibel level which the human ear cannot detect. Dogs and some other animals can hear it. Special scientific devices can ...

3516. The Restaurant in Downtown Jericho

Matt 3:1-17

Illustration

John Jamison

... 't count for one blasted thing in God's book. Your ancestral tree might take you all the way back to Abraham himself, but as far as God is concerned, that won't pay for that cup of coffee you got sitting in front of you." He went on for quite some time, made his way from one table to the next, even the big round one in the back where the Pharisees sat at their weekly noon-time alliance meeting. People couldn't help but smile when he walked around that big round table and called them all a bunch ...

3517. The Seeing Eye

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... attention to the affairs of the congregation and its members. God sees potential in each of us and in our congregation that we don't know exists. There is a movie based on E. M. Forster's novel, Room With A View. The elderly Miss Bartlett is quite upset that on her first trip to Florence, Italy, her young charge, Miss Lucy Honeychurch, has not been given a room with a view as they had been promised. Miss Bartlett complains about this at dinner -- loudly enough to be overheard by an old Englishman and his ...

3518. Letting Go

Acts 7:55-60

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... of what was to come. It was also freeing. He reminisces about medicine and being a student, but rejoices in the new things he gets to do as he finds new places to explore, new things to write about, new issues to grapple with. He says, "Quitting medicine assured me that I would be forced into all sorts of changes I might not otherwise have made."1 Besides lots of books and movies such as Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, Crichton is probably best known as the creator of the television series, ER. One ...

3519. Experiencing the Reality of God

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

James L. Killen

... Day of Pentecost tells of a pivotal event in the history of God's work in the world. It tells of the emerging of a very important aspect of the Christian faith and of the birth of the church. It is a story that is exciting to some people. But, quite frankly, it is a story that scares some other people and makes them want to back away. All of this talk about wind and fire and speaking in foreign tongues excites some people but it turns some off. It may be that we have focused our attention on the wrong ...

3520. Discovering that It’s Not about You

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

... an entirely new set of relationships. You will need to discover that there is indeed a story that keeps going on and that it is the story of God and of what God is doing to work out God's great purpose for the whole creation. It really is not quite true to say that the story is not about you. It is very much about you. It is about you in the same way that it is about everyone else in the world. But it doesn't center in you. It centers in God and in what God is doing ...

3521. Surprised by God

Genesis 28:10-19a

Sermon

James L. Killen

... were still paying off the loans they had taken to send him to college. When he realized that he had been the beneficiary of costly love, he realized that he had experienced God's grace. After a person has been surprised by God, life will never be quite the same again. Jacob experienced God renewing the covenant that had been made with his ancestors and promising to make a great nation of his descendants and to give the land where his family dwelt. And God made an even more personal promise to be with Jacob ...

3522. Can You Hear Me Now?

Exodus 3:1-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... Gershom, and settles down as a shepherd keeping Jethro's flocks. It has been said by a desert mystic, "He will never be a prophet who was not first a herdsman." Here Moses has time for the incubation of his soul in solitude and quietness. Shepherding sheep is quite a contrast to our modern mad rush in a country whose national monument is Rushmore. It is in the wilderness near Horeb, the mountain of God, that Moses is confronted with fire, a bush that is not consumed, and the mighty call of God. We, too, are ...

3523. Free Living Water for All

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... we thirst for God and for that which is eternal. Sinclair Lewis, in one of his books, draws a picture of a respectable businessman who decides to "live it up." He is talking to his old girlfriend. She says to him, "On the surface we seem quite different; but deep down we are fundamentally the same. We are both desperately unhappy about something -- and we don't know what it is." In every one of us, there is this nameless, unsatisfied longing, this vague discontent, this something lacking, and we don't know ...

3524. Preaching to a Stone

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... and some singing, the leader of the service stood up and began firmly but caringly rebuking members of the church for public indiscretions, such as cursing in the coal mines, or skipping a service, or arguing before choir practice.2 We might not go for accountability in quite that fashion, but maybe we in the church can remind each other of the pledge we have made. Maybe we can help each other be the church. Maybe we can be stones of witness for each other. Maybe together we can be who God has called us ...

3525. Someone Is Trying to Get Through

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

James L. Killen

... of Peter and Cornelius. Cornelius was an interesting person. He was a high officer in the Roman army of occupation sent to govern the troublesome people of Palestine. But Cornelius had actually adopted the religion of the people he was sent to govern and he practiced it quite devoutly. He had probably been raised in the Roman version of the Greek religion that had many gods, all of whom had some very human failings, and all of whom could be managed by people who knew how to do it. He was a participant in a ...

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