Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3651 to 3675 of 4943 results

3651. When Jiggling Wires Is Not Good Enough

John 4:1-26

Sermon

King Duncan

David McCasland tells about a woman whose car was stalled at an intersection. The hood was up, and she flagged McCasland down to help. "I can't get it started," she said. "but if you jiggle the wire on the battery, I think it will work." McCasland grabbed the positive battery cable and it came off in his hand. Definitely the cable was too loose. "The terminal needs to be tightened up," he told her. "I can fix it if you have some tools." "My husband says to just jiggle the wire," she replied. "It always ...

3652. Excited, Motivated, Changed!

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

King Duncan

"You must be brave to come down in a one hundredmile per hour gale like this in a parachute," the farmer said to the young soldier. "I didn't come down like this in a chute," said the soldier. "I went up in a tent." A one hundred mile per hour gale hit the disciples of Jesus on that first Pentecost. They didn't come down in a parachute. They went up in a tent. The events of that day were dramatic. The disciples were together to celebrate the Jewish Harvest Festival known as Pentecost. Suddenly, there was a ...

3653. Grace Is Not a Blue-eyed Blond

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

I often wonder what goes through people’s minds when they hear certain words which we use in church. Words like “incarnation,” “redemption,” and “grace.” I have a hunch that a lot of people confuse incarnation with reincarnation, which is something totally different; and redemption is something one used to do with “green stamps.” As for “grace,” well, that is, indeed, a strange word. Some years ago a minister by the name of R. Lofton Hudson wrote of an experience he had during a conversation with a friend ...

3654. The Servant Who Delivered the Mail

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Today I want to share the story and testimony about one of God''s most faithful servants. His name is Epaphroditus. According to some scholars who share his name, it was common in the era and culture he lived in. It is certainly not a common name today. As Max Lucado shares: "`Epaphro-what-us?'' you say. Just ask the apostle Paul. He''ll give you the correct pronunciation. He''ll also give quite a character reference. To describe this fellow with the five-syllable name, Paul used more succinct words, like ...

3655. Resurrection

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

King Duncan

A priest found a branch of a thorn tree twisted around so that it resembled a crown of thorns. Thinking it a symbol of the crucifixion, he placed it on the altar in his chapel on Good Friday. Early on Easter morning he remembered what he had done. Feeling it was not appropriate for Easter Sunday, he hurried into the church to clear it away before the congregation came. But when he went into the church, he found the thorn branches blossoming with beautiful roses. Welcome to this celebration of Easter Day. ...

3656. The Problem with Promises

Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7

Sermon

James L. Killen

The problem with promises is that you have to trust them. You have to believe that they will be fulfilled, and live as if you believe that they will be fulfilled, before they can do you any good. We don't like to do that. We are cautious people. We want something to be thoroughly proven before we will believe that it is true. We want to investigate an enterprise thoroughly before we will invest in it. But that doesn't really work with believing in God. There is a limit to what we can know about God without ...

3657. Seeing Just Enough of God

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Life never stands still. It can crawl along too slowly, zip past us before we know it, torture us with opportunities we can never get again, or bewilder us with which path to take. But it never stands still. A woman who learned about life's twists and turns shared her story with a pastor friend of mine. Shortly after her marriage, in full flush of love, she went out for a jog. Bursting with a feeling of how delicious her life was, she offered up a prayer of gratitude to God for her marriage, her health, ...

3658. Living Hope

1 Peter 1:3-9

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

A middle-aged man was on a Caribbean cruise enjoying his first real vacation in years. On the first day out to sea he noticed an attractive woman about his age who smiled at him in a friendly way as he passed her on the deck. This pleased the man greatly. That night he managed to get seated at the same table with her for dinner. As the conversation developed, he commented that he had seen her on the deck that day and he had appreciated her friendly smile. When she heard this, she smiled and commented, " ...

3659. Because

1 Peter 1:1—2:3

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

3660. The FUD Club: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Theme: In a world of doomsayers, where Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt reign supreme, disciples of Jesus are doom-slayers. EXEGESIS of the Text: Part 1: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 The 2 Thessalonians Epistle text for this week skips about in chapter two, cherry-picking verses first from the opening lines of the letter (vv.1-5), then landing on the concluding remarks of this first section (vv.13-17). This edited reading of 2:1-17, however, does succeed in focusing on the author’s primary concern throughout this ...

3661. Four Cornerstones

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Both Elizabeth and I hail from paper-mill towns. A few years ago the blue collar-redneck-good-old-boy logging town Elizabeth grew up in (Springfield, Oregon) found itself very interested all of a sudden in building sushi bars and trendy, high-tech fitness centers. Why? Sony Corporation seriously considered the town as a new factory headquarters site. Like every other economically struggling small town, the prospect of a large employer coming to town with deep pockets and wide wants encouraged the community ...

3662. Inward, Upward, Outward

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Stuck in an endless traffic snarl the other day I punched on the radio just to hear another voice. The news channel was just finishing up a long in-depth report on the nasty mad-cow threat. Mad cow meat. Cancer causing farm fish. Avian flu chicken. What's left to eat any more? Pretty soon they'll find deadly bacteria on broccoli. The radio news channel, staying on the theme of American eating habits, moved on to a special segment on obese kids. Because of obesity, "This may be the first generation of ...

3663. The Lost and Found Celebration

Luke 15:15-24

Sermon

James W. Moore

There is a fascinating story that comes out of World War II. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, Great Britain’s Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Soviet Union Premier, Joseph Stalin, met together in The Teheran Conference to shape a common policy to work together to win the war. The discussion went well and the three great nations for the most part reached cordial agreement on their strategy to end the war and to create a lasting peace. However, there was one point that Roosevelt and Churchill could ...

3664. The Thrill of Victory

2 Corinthians 2:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

The three astronauts, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, were having a wonderful time watching planet earth become a sun-drenched white dot against the canopy of outer space, while the bright white moon was larger than they had ever seen it. Then, without warning, it happened. Lovell heard a small, but distinct, bang. Swigert felt an almost imperceptible shudder; then the master alarm began sounding in their ear phones. The pulse rate of all three astronauts shot up from 70 to 130. What they did not ...

3665. The Church Is Alive and Well

Matthew 16:13-18

Sermon

James Merritt

Lewis Berry Shafer was one of the great theologians of this century, and the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Shafer once said, "Next to salvation truth, it is vitally important for the believer to know the Bible doctrine of the church."1 One of the all time best selling authors in history, Warren Wiersbe, said, "The greatest wonder that God has on earth is the wonder of His church."2 One holy church of God appears Through every age and race, Unwasted by the lapse of years Unchanged by changing ...

3666. The Power of Partnership

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Sermon

James Merritt

In 1948 two brothers, by the names of Richard and Maurice McDonald, converted their barbeque drive-in with carhops, into the world's first McDonald's limited-menu self-service drive-in in San Bernardino, California. One restaurant serving one community. In 1954 a man by the name of Ray Kroc mortgaged his home and invested his entire life's savings to become the exclusive distributor of a five-spindled milkshake maker called the Multimixer. He heard about this McDonald's hamburger stand in California that ...

3667. Final Destination

Psalm 23:6

Sermon

James Merritt

I have been preaching through the 23rd Psalm, and I have entitled this series of messages “Good Vibrations.” Good vibrations are important. Dr. Michael Jacobson cited a recent study in which patients were asked to recall various types of emotional experiences, while doctors monitored their physiological reactions. They were first asked to recall an argument in which they became very angry or frustrated. The patient was to relive that experience in their mind for five minutes. The doctors noted that these ...

3668. Pulling Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

King Duncan

Last week we talked about planting seeds. This week we’re talking about pulling weeds. The two go together. Every gardener knows that planting seeds is the easy part of having a successful garden. It is much more time consuming to weed that same garden. And it’s hard work. As someone has said: “When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.” There is a corollary to that truth: “To ...

3669. Tremendous Trifles

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Moral failure comes not from enormous misdeeds, but through lapses in "tremendous trifles." Have you ever tried quickly to pull a dangling thread from the hem of a pant-leg or skirt or jacket, only to find you've got hold of one of those dreaded running stitches? Instead of breaking off, the thread continues to unstitch itself until the entire hem falls out. Instead of freeing yourself from one annoying little thread, you now have a major clothing catastrophe. It is always the little things that end up ...

3670. A Mother's Love

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Welcome on this Mother’s Day. For Mother’s Day I ran across a list of suggestions for improving communication in the family that I thought you might enjoy: 1. If you have tiny children who won’t give you their attention, simply place a long‑distance telephone call to somebody important, preferably their grandmother. Your toddlers will immediately climb up on your lap and become all ears. 2. If you have older children who avoid you like the plague, buy yourself some expensive bath salts, run a hot tub and ...

3671. John the Baptist, Sanctified Indifference, & the King of Pop

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Who wants your head on a platter? What truth is worth your head? What truth is worth your life? There are two types of people in the world we despise. The first are people who can never be trusted to tell the truth. The second are people who can only be trusted to tell the truth. We all know people who have trouble telling the truth. Is there anyone here who doesn’t know someone for whom a lie is just a more convenient interpretation of reality? The great psychoanalyst Carl Jung once noted that there were ...

3672. Navigating the Stages of Life

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

James W. Moore

Our children and grandchildren came in last weekend to celebrate Easter with us. Last Saturday evening we took the entire family (all 10 of us) over to Goode Company Taqueria on Kirby Drive for a casual child-friendly meal. As we walked in, we began to look at the large menu printed on the wall just above the serving line. I was pointing out to everybody that we could order hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks or Mexican food. Just then, four-year-old Daniel asked (what was for him) the ultimate question. In a ...

3673. The Ministry of Unbinding

John 11:38-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Listen! We cannot raise people from the dead as Jesus did, but we share in the deliverance of those he has raised! Death and what is done about that — is in Jesus’ hand. It is He who can say with power: “Come forth! Come forth from your tomb.” But deliverance — that’s in our hands. “Unbind him” Jesus said, “unbind him that he might live.” So, we talk today about the ministry of unbinding. I Rehearse the story, so that our focus will be clear and we will not be questioning something that we think has been ...

3674. Mistaken Identity

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Appearances can be deceiving. John Wayne, for instance, acted the part of a genuine cowboy in dozens of motion pictures and fired make-believe rifles and revolvers hundreds of times. Even his last starring role in The Shootist had him portray an aging western gunslinger. Yet, here is what Wayne had to say about his skills with a firearm: "I couldn't hit a wall with a six-gun, but I can twirl one. It looks good!" Appearances can be deceiving. Still, we often trust what we see more than what we read or hear ...

3675. Jesus Would Do What?

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

A woman named Naomi Magdanz in Lodi, California tells about her 6-year-old grandson, Joshua. Joshua attended a Vacation Bible School with the theme, “What Would Jesus Do?” To remind the children of the theme, they made little armbands with WWJD on the band. One evening Joshua’s mother asked him to change his clothes. Joshua looked at his armband and said, “WWJD - What would Jesus do?” His mother replied that she thought Jesus would do what his mother asked him to do and change his clothes. Joshua thought ...

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