Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3626 to 3650 of 4681 results

3626. Surprise in a Graveyard

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... received a very sad message from the Pentagon. It stated that her son, Clayton Carpenter, Private 1st Class, had stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was dead. Ruth Dillow later wrote, “I can’t begin to describe my grief and shock. It was almost more than I could bear. For 3 days I wept. For 3 days I expressed anger and loss. For 3 days people tried to comfort me, to no avail because the loss was too great.” Every parent here can relate to her grief. But 3 days after Ruth Dillow received that message, the ...

3627. Kintsugi Vessels

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... stress that any discussion of “who is best” has no standing, no importance, in the new body of Christ. Paul was urging the Corinthians, was urging all Christians, to notice that the most broken within their community were the ones who could most beautifully bear the marks of healing they had experienced at God’s hands. The more damaged and repaired, the greater the width of the golden gleams of salve and sealant the lives of those who had been transformed could reflect to the world. The healing life ...

3628. Philippians 3:17-4:1

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and Jews, lived as “politeuma,” people who were “in but not of” the power of authoritative rulers of their world. Finally, Paul reveals that the outcome of this life as an imitator, as a friend, not an enemy, of the cross, bears eschatological fruit. The base and basic human body, the body of our humiliation,” will be “transformed” into “the body of his glory.” The gift and power of Christ is one of transformation. The “cross of Christ” — sacrifice, death, resurrection — represents ...

3629. Luke 13:1-9

Luke 13:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the vineyard and all the plants growing within it offers an alternative to this immediate destruction. The gardener suggests he extended special care, special nutrients, and a year’s reprieve — giving the fig tree one more season to prove its fruit-bearing ability. In the context of Jesus’ message to “repent,” this is the fig tree’s opportunity to “repent” of its barrenness. It now has an opportunity to fulfill its true nature as a fructifying, life-producing creation. Instead of being ...

3630. The 5 Worst Things Christians Say After A Tragedy

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

3631. Belonging to Christ's Flock

John 10:22-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... . There is an amazing story that comes from the Wycliffe Bible Translators. This story concerns a tribal people in Cameroon called the Hdi. [Nowhere could I find the proper pronunciation of this tribe’s name or the other key words in this story, so bear with me.] Translator Lee Bramlett, working with the Hdi people, discovered that verbs in the Hdi language consistently end in one of three vowels: i, a, or u. Even more interesting, the ending vowel determines the true meaning of the word. This appears to ...

3632. John 13:31-35

John 13:31-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... by all pious Jews, insists that Hebrews “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Leviticus 19:18 added to this love by commanding that God’s people “shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus’ declaration, however, explicitly insists that attitude become action: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are ...

3633. See Something, Say Something, Do Something, Be Something

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

3634. Can you Hear “The Voice?”

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... General Hospital. God’s Voice is spoken most definitively, most decisively, in Jesus the Christ, “God with us” (Emmanuel). But God’s Voice is also heard in the Scriptures, in history, in nature, and in our conscience, or as Paul puts it, “conscience also bearing witness” (Romans 2:15). Can you still hear The Voice this morning. Is your heart still open to hearing The Voice so clearly that you could say, as Cameron Lyle did, that to sacrifice for another was “kind of a no-brainer?” Can you ...

3635. What the Ascension Tells Us

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

King Duncan

... with them. However, a small group of women came over to him, and one woman said, ‘So you want to die. But that’s senseless. Your death won’t give us back our lives. That’s no way. You must get out of here alive, you must bear witness to our suffering and to the injustice done to us.’ “In his review of this movie . . . [film critic] Roger Ebert writes, ‘And that is the final message of this extraordinary film. It is not a documentary, not journalism, not propaganda, not political. It is an act ...

3636. Filling the Hole in Our Hearts

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... our lives. Scripture tells us that we were created in God’s image. When we went astray, he sent His Son to save us from our sin-distorted lives. After Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, God sent us the gift of the Holy Spirit to work in us, bearing witness with our Spirit, to help us be restored to a right relationship with God. When that work is accomplished, God will be able to see His reflection in our lives. All of this is what we mean when we say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” It is ...

3637. Keys That Unlock Miracles

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... that she had forgotten to turn off the radio in the next room. For some reason it seemed important to her. She got up to do so. Someone on the radio was singing an old gospel hymn: “Oh what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” In that instant she realized the mistake she was making. She had forgotten the resources of her own faith. She rushed back into the bedroom, turned off the gas, and opened the windows wide. Then she picked ...

3638. Real Heros

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... ’t surprised. When black clouds of mosquitoes descended, they didn’t quit because they weren’t surprised. “They knew that the key was simply putting one foot in front of the other. You take a step and hit the mud. You take another step and see a bear. You take another step and your legs begin to cramp. You take another step and the crazy people come out of the woods. Doesn’t matter. You aren’t surprised because you knew the crazy people would show up sooner or later. So you just keep putting ...

3639. Cure for an Aching Back

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... at least part of the fact that he is bowed down to his own guilt. He writes, “Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear” (38:3-4). Of course David had a lot to feel guilty about. I would not be at all surprised if there were someone in this room today who has spent time in bed because of an aching back. And the cause of that aching back the doctor told you ...

3640. The Total Gift

Romans 1:1-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... was the long-awaited messiah. The Old Testament prophets foretold of the coming of God’s messiah hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. Isaiah told of God giving a sign for all the people, “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). For centuries the people held certain expectations of what the messiah would be like and what he would accomplish. In truth, Jesus did not exactly fit many of these preconceived notions, but was nonetheless ...

3641. Discerning In Love

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... we think is important might not be so in God’s eyes. We relate to God not through wisdom but rather by love. We must strive to be more like Jesus and act and react as Jesus would. As spiritual people Paul claims that we have the mind of Christ. Bearing the mind of Christ should be evident in all that we do both as individuals and as the church. Susan felt no real sense of direction in her life. She claims that this is due to always trying to please others. Other people were always making requests of her ...

3642. Refresh Your Heart

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you free someone from the castles of deceit and delusion that we all construct and occupy, you “refresh your heart.” When you help someone see that what matters in life is not what image we air, or what brand we wear, but whose image we bear, you “refresh your heart.” When you infuse hope into the moments of happiness and harm that define a life, you “refresh your heart.” When you nudge someone in the only “open sesame” that can break down every barrier, even the gates of hell, and throw ...

3643. The ME and the WE

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . He didn’t think he had done anything special as a Salvation Army officer. Sometimes the greatest blessings of your life you will never know about. Sometimes the greatest impact of your life will not be revealed in your lifetime. Sometimes your faithfulness will bear fruit long after you and I are gone. It’s not about recognition and reward. It’s only about serving Jesus as an individual ME in the context of a communal WE. COMMENTARY It’s not just a cultural coincidence that throughout the ages ...

3644. Who's the Real Leader?

Joshua 3:1-4:24

Sermon

Argile Smith

... have an influence on the people around us. In our churches, all of us would do well to learn some lessons in leadership as we carry out kingdom tasks together. In Joshua, we find an excellent model for effective leadership. Reading through the Bible book that bears his name, you can pick up on some of the traits that made him a good leader. Joshua faced a number of challenges as a young leader who walked in the shadow of Moses. The way Joshua faced them made him an excellent example for leadership. Joshua ...

3645. Powerless People

Judges 4:1-24

Sermon

Argile Smith

... something incredible. Apparently, her walk with God rendered credibility for her among her neighbors. They trusted her to give them wise counsel, so apparently they sought her out to help them find their way. In fact, the place where people met her eventually came to bear her name. Deborah’s palm tree stood out as the place where people could find her if they wanted to draw from the deep well of her wisdom. Over time, her wisdom produced for her a fair amount of credibility, but her walk with God nurtured ...

3646. Work Like the Who?

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... her.” To which the man replies, “But she doesn’t know that God forgives her. That’s the only power you have, pastor to tell her that. Not just that God forgives her for her poor adultery, but that God forgives her for all the faces she can’t bear to look at now all the eyes whose glances she cannot meet. Tell her that God forgives her for being lonely and bored, for not being full of joy with a household full of children. Tell her that her sins are forgiven whether she knows it or not. Tell her ...

3647. A Faith to Move Mountains

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... back to the city and he was hungry. There was no fast food place where he could run through a drive-through. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but he found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig ...

3648. A Man of God

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... called according to his purposes” (Romans 8:28). (6) That’s it, to a great extent, isn’t it? It’s a matter of getting your ego out of the way. It has often been noted that a cross is no more than a capital “I” crossed-out. Bearing a cross sometimes means no more than eliminating ego from the equation. Some of you will remember in the mid-eighties when Harry Belafonte teamed up with fundraiser Ken Kragen to assemble some of the top names in the recording industry in order to create a hit record ...

3649. A Faith that Leaves a Legacy

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

King Duncan

... given Timothy the awesome charge of preaching the Word of God to a lost and dying world. Note how Paul encourages Timothy even in discussing his own coming death. He wants Timothy to look ahead to the end of his own life and to be able to bear the same testimony. Paul begins by expressing his view of death. “For I am . . . being poured out like a drink offering,” he writes, “and the time for my departure is near.” Paul saw his death as an offering and sacrifice which he was presenting to God. The ...

3650. Jesus’ Prayer: The Pause in the Battle

John 17:1-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... God provides those who entrust themselves to Jesus. We’ll never get all we want from God in this life. Jesus, however, makes sure we get all we need. He protects us in God’s name, the name Jesus prays in verse 11 that God has given to him. Jesus bears God’s name. We realize that God’s name, God’s personality, God’s character and deepest nature are most clearly seen in the one who prays for us and in whose name we pray: Jesus. Let us pray, Lord Jesus, thank you that you’ve reached into our ...

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