Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3676 to 3700 of 4681 results

3676. A Lesson from Jay Leno's Mom

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... at girls. But this girl was different. He didn’t want to throw rocks at her. Her name was Sherri and she was as cute as anything young Jimmy had ever seen. She had short little pigtails and wore the sweetest little dress with a great big teddy bear on it. She also had the prettiest smile, especially with that middle tooth missing. And she could jump out of a swing farther than any of them. In short, Sherri was great, in his estimation. He remembers one day this lovely child passed him a note during class ...

3677. About that Salesman

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

King Duncan

... worst part of this wasn’t choosing the juiciest‑looking creatures to take home or turning down the clerk who wanted to sell her vitamins to ensure the mice’s longevity. The hardest part, she said, was carrying the poor things out of the pet store in a box bearing these words, “Thank you for giving me a home.” (3) That is awful, I admit. But it’s important for us to see that Jesus does not want his followers to pretend they are something they are not. He would not approve of that old sales maxim ...

3678. Drowsy Disciples

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... them, still there persists this theme that reveals Paul’s true orientation. One-fifth of all the words in this brief passage are nouns or pronouns referring to God. The apostle, who elsewhere said that for him to live was Christ (Philippians 1:21), bears witness to that fact by the way the Lord saturates his thinking and his language even when talking about other people. Paul’s language presents us, meanwhile, with a kind of fill-in-the-blank opportunity. Take his initial sentence — “I give thanks ...

3679. We Are Not The Light

Sermon

Craig MacCreary

... ... or the courage to leave town. Sociologists and other scholars remind us that there have always been ways of looking for and celebrating divine light. Humankind could not get along without such celebrations. The darkness of the winter night is too great to bear not to have some way of fighting it off. Our most ancient ancestors gathered in hope that the light would shine in the darkness and that the darkness would not overcome it. My father-in-law is an electrical engineer. He understands the might ...

3680. Still Surprised After Christmas

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... Abraham’s descendants would receive the land (Canaan) and the days of Joshua when they finally conquered and settled it. And we know there were 700 years between Isaiah’s promise of a sign to Ahaz — “The young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” — and Mary giving birth to Jesus. It may be, therefore, that Simeon had waited for many years between his special assurance and the day he held and beheld the baby Jesus. Some number of people in our congregations ...

3681. The Two Faces of Thanksgiving

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... while. And then they “come home.” After spending years being salt water creatures they finally and fully feel the pull of home. They MUST go back. They journey through the ocean, go back into the fresh water rivers, navigate through locks and dams and bears and eagles and eager fishermen, and finally — a few of them — make it back to their family table, to the place they were born and nurtured. The simple salmon “embraces” every part of its family heritage, at a huge, indeed at an ultimate, cost ...

3682. The Full Advent: Whoa! No Way? Wow!

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , mystery and majesty of that first arrival of the divine during Advent. Are we also astonished by the dazzling presence of the divine in our lives today? Our first reading about the coming Messiah in this week’s gospel text is all about the divine bearing and power of the one who will bring judgment and justice into this world. Then we remember, what a minute, we are in the Season of Advent. The Messiah, the great and all-powerful one who will determine our life everlasting, is being celebrated this ...

3683. Why Matter Matters

2 Peter 3:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... will be “richer.” Rather, the miracle of incarnation is that everything — heaven and earth, and all that live in heaven and earth will be “renewed,” that is, recreated and reborn. We will be completely liberated from the snaggles and snafus that bind us up and bear down upon us in this Old Adam incarnation. With the coming of the New Adam, the Last Adam, a new heaven and a new earth offer up a new universe of possibilities, if only we will open ourselves to receive them. There is an ancient tale ...

3684. Why Christmas Is So Dangerous

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in. Gabriel’s “good news” is good news...but. That is the kind of “good news” Mary received from Gabriel. The “good news” was that Mary, an unimportant, unempowered young woman, was “favored” by God. She had, in fact, been chosen to “conceive” and “bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” Wow. Good news indeed. Except for the fact that Mary, a young, yet betrothed woman, still living in her father’s home until her marriage, was being told she was to become pregnant BEFORE her ...

3685. Full Immersion

Acts 19:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... must be natal . . .and to be born of the Spirit is to be made native, a “native” Christ follower. There’s something miraculous and powerful about that immersion in the Holy Spirit. Immersion brings the total Christ, not the partial Christ, to bear on our total human lives. And that immersion creates a surprising, overwhelming, overpowering change. You become something you were not before. You can do things you couldn’t do before. The Spirit of Jesus dwells in you. Your Name will be called¼.Jesus ...

3686. Why He Did It

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... own right, hired Bloomfield the minute he saw her scars. Like many committed chefs, Bloomfield’s arms are crisscrossed with scars, healed burns, that she received while reaching into an oven, or stirring a pot, or re-arranging things on a stove. Chefs who bear no scars, says one author, are not passionate about their craft. Those scars represent a person so focused on the food and so committed to excellence that she is willing to suffer for her work. (1) Are there scars on your arm, at least spiritually ...

3687. Dust in the Wind

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Timothy Cargal

... but. How is it that Christ is “made to be sin”? Is it simply by being incarnated in sinful human nature, or is all human sin somehow imputed to Christ on the cross? Does the sinless Christ suffer as an innocent sacrificial victim, bearing God’s judgment in the place of the sinful ones who would otherwise have borne it themselves? As the history of Christian atonement doctrine demonstrates, any of these explanations (and others as well) are possible. But Paul is less interested in unpacking the ...

3688. Building a New Team

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... Royal Grant.” This was essentially a gift bestowed by a person of power and political privilege upon someone down-caste a rung or more. Usually the king noticed an act of bravery in battle, or striking beauty in the ballroom, or uncommon beneficence in bearing, and gave a gift in public recognition (so Persian king, Xerxes, to Mordecai in Esther 3-4). In each case the grant was a one-way act, with no specific reciprocal deed required. The second type of king-subject covenant, the “Suzerain-Vassal treaty ...

3689. Starting Over

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... scrapped and a new pattern with different material brought in. If a career is cut short, we can move to a new city, a new state, or a new country. But the problem for God is that God doesn’t wish to toss us — God’s image-bearing creature — on the cosmic junk heap of the universe. God will not destroy us, since we carry in our very essence the reflection God’s own glory. So the way to start over is the way through suffering, through cleansing, through rebirth, through actual transformation of the ...

3690. Jesus Heals Body and Soul

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... about Lory Jones, the wife of actor Dean Jones. Some of you are old enough to remember Dean Jones. He starred in many Walt Disney films, such as The Love Bug (the original one) and The Shaggy D.A., and in the television show, The Teddy Bears. In February of 1974, Lory and Dean Jones took a vacation to Mexico City. One day when they were sightseeing, they decided to tour a Roman Catholic cathedral. As they followed the tour guide, Dean began making offhand comments like, “This place must be impossible to ...

3691. The Loser

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

James Merritt

... : either Jesus is not good or Jesus is God. That is going to crucial, because of what is about to happen next. Jesus now proceeds to answer the man’s question. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ 20And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’” (Mark 10:19-20, ESV) This man gets exactly the answer he was looking for. To him, the commandments were like a ...

3692. Lost

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... . Something that is lost is found. We really don’t find God. God finds us. I read a story about a little girl who lived at the edge of big forest. One day she wandered off into the woods to explore, but as you can imagine she soon lost her bearings. She became lost and couldn’t find her way back. As darkness descended fear gripped her heart. She began to scream and cry and weep until finally she just lay down and went to sleep. It wasn’t long until her father came looking for her. He looked for a ...

3693. Can Two Become One?

Matthew 19:1-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... men or two women, but from the beginning God’s plan for marriage was duality, heterosexuality, and monogamy. II. Remember God’s Purpose For Marriage This may shock you, but the primary purpose of marriage is not to procreate children. Couples who cannot bear children are just as married as couples who can. You must understand the primary purpose of marriage or you will never understand the place that marriage should have in your life and the position it holds in God’s eyes. “And said, ‘Therefore ...

3694. Paradise Lost

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

James Merritt

... ; God wants what is best for you. Now comes the moment of decision. So far there has been no harm and no foul. Just a conversation. Two seeds have been sewn - the seed of doubt and the seed of distrust. If those seeds are watered and cultivated they will bear the fruit of disobedience. III. Don’t Disobey God’s Command Now we witness the single greatest tragedy that has ever happened in the history of the human race. Just as we have learned how it all began, now we are going to see how it all came apart ...

3695. Surviving the Big One

Matthew 18:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... a dirty diaper. You are not going to clean the mess up until you get messy with it. The things we learn about God is He draws a straight line often with a crooked pencil. One of the things that God uses to demonstrate the love of Christ, to bear witness to the Gospel, and to teach us how to work out our differences is confrontation. There is a passage of scripture we are going to be studying today that I believe may be the most disobeyed passage, at least for Christians, in the entire Bible. [Turn to ...

3696. A Few Remaining Tremors

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

James Merritt

... from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35, ESV) I want you to understand what Jesus was saying and don’t misunderstand what He was not. God’s forgiveness is unconditional, but it is not unproductive. When God sows the seed of forgiveness in us, we will bear the fruit of forgiveness for others. Forgiven people forgive people. God does not forgive me, because I forgive others; I forgive others, because God has forgiven me. You can only say, “Forgive me” to God if you are willing to say, “I forgive you to ...

3697. Shockproof

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

James Merritt

... I choose to forgive others just as God has forgiven me. Here are the two steps. I. Eliminate Bitterness “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” (Ephesians 4:31, ESV) You cannot bear the fruit of forgiveness until you cut out the root of bitterness. Another version translates the verse this way, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”(Ephesians, 4:31, NIV) Now that sounds a ...

3698. It's Not Rocket Science

John 8:31-41

Sermon

James Merritt

... . It is not even just a book of morality. However, when it deals with morality it certainly does so truthfully. Let me tell you why believing this book is so important. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” (John 5:39, ESV) The primary purpose of this book is not to teach you how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven. It is not just to teach you how life began, but how life is to be lived. It is not just to ...

3699. When the Golden Rule Isn't Enough - Mother's Day

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... ,” he said. “You need these more than I do.” Then Doubledee returned to his seat wearing no shoes and continued on his route. A passenger asked him why he’d done that. Doubledee explained that he’d seen the man standing there before and just couldn’t bear the thought that he didn’t have any shoes. (3) Gee, we say, that’s the sort of thing Jesus would do. Yes, and that is the sort of thing a follower of Jesus might do. After two thousand years of Christian history, that shouldn’t be such ...

3700. Waiting Is So Hard to Do

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... first is to wait for the gift of the Spirit and the second is that they are to be his witnesses. These two commands are sequential: wait and then witness. Why do I say they are sequential? It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the power we need to bear witness to our faith. No waiting no witness, at least no effective witness. I suspect this is why many of us are so feeble in our witness to faith. We are not spending enough time waiting. Many of us grew up loving the King James Version translation of Isaiah ...

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