Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 351 to 375 of 2962 results

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... She said, Dr. Beatty was always what he appeared to be. He had resisted the temptation to conform. So the pressure though is not a respecter of persons. It doesn’t connive just against the minister. Every person is vulnerable. The pressure vice squeezes us to wear designer clothes, to belong to the right clubs, to live in the best section of the city, to go the right and proper school; that used to be restricted just to college and university, now it’s gotten all the way down to the elementary level. To ...

352. Saints In The Light

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ambiguity. Silence as well as speaking marks His communication with us. In prayer we struggle to discern God’s will. We talk. We listen. We ponder scripture. We reflect. We wait. And graciously the response comes. Not according to our timetable, nor in the form and mode of our design, but in God’s timing and in His way. It should be the constant quest of our lives ñ to discern God’s will. And we need to think about that in terms of daily living, not in terms of the big events of our life. I like that ...

353. A Scream And A Laugh

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... New York City painted a black cross against a white background and put it outside of the church building where passersby could see it. That happened when a certain play entitled "Design for Living" was running on Broadway. So, members of that congregation painted that black cross against a stark white background and gave their painting of the cross that same title --"Design for living." No wonder Dale Evans said, "All of my life I've been looking for a pot of gold at the foot of a rainbow, and I found it at ...

354. A Christian Style Of Being And Doing

Colossians 3:18-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... this community through radio and television. This man was complaining about the fact that I did not speak the explicit Christian word -- and did not call people to accept Jesus Christ. He was very concerned about that. I wrote him back and told him that it was our design not to speak the explicit Christian word -- not to make a "hard-sell" for the Gospel. We deliberately try not to use religious language, or God-talk, or scripture. It's our effort to do what Paul is talking about here in our text, to have a ...

355. Loving Close-up

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... cellular arrangements, constructed as though for a purpose. They sit there like terraced mounds of dense, impenetrable horn, impregnable, designed for defense against the world outside." George then made the point that Mr. Thomas might have been describing a trend in society. We ... 're becoming a nation of warts -- "designed for defense against the world outside." As a wart serves no particular purpose to the body it lives off, so we ...

356. The Church Of Our Dreams

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and move toward it. That's what the Church provides -- it accepts us where we are, but it challenges us to be more. Three years ago our church Council on Ministries adopted a "Design for Discipleship." It was a guide for our life together -- accepting all of us where we are, but providing a design that would move us to become reasonably informed, reasonably inspired, reasonably equipped, and hopefully, committed disciples. With building, staff expansion and problems, we sort of got away from that. I want to ...

357. The Rejected Cornerstone

Luke 20:9-19

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... you could do with it as you wished. How patient has God been with you in the use of your talent? -- talent that He has given you, natural gifts with which you have been blessed. You have used those talents and gifts according to your own design, disregarding any consideration that God may have something special in mind. How patient has God been with you as you have taken the material blessings you have received and used it without regard to His call to faithful stewardship. You have spent your money on cars ...

358. Building A House

Luke 6:46-49

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... answer. Sister Corita is a Catholic nun who had an unusual ministry some years ago. I haven't heard of her in a long time. But back in the 60's and 70's, she was known all over the nation. She was an artist who designed and printed serographs – poster-like art that used common goods to grab our attention and communicate the Gospel -- Graphic drawings of loaves of bread, dancing trees, cans of soup combined with powerful words colorfully and dramatically presented witnessed to God's grace. Posters were her ...

359. Getting Our Lives Out Of Hock

Psalm 105:1-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Bible lists Scripture passages to read for meditation with each of the twelve steps. Also the material in the Scripture itself that has to do with a particular step is shaded and the step it is related to is designated in the margin. For instance, our Scripture lesson for today is shaded, and designated "Step 6". That step is " We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character." Now let me remind you what step five is. "Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the ...

360. The Discipleship Question: Do You Wish To Go Away?

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... our church is too identified with the East Memphis mind-set and style. This struggle is focused for some parents in their children and youth. This is brought about by the private/public school tension that is always present in a group. Also, the fixation on designer clothes and shoes. We have some parents who are tempted to leave the church because they feel their children and youth are subjected to a kind of snobbery. I know children and youth can be cruel in what they say, and how they relate. But parents ...

361. Through God's Breathed Word

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... study of God's Word. The plea of the sermon is that we pay attention to the Bible -- God's breathed Word. I. And it is God's breathed Word. That's where we begin. The Bible is God's Word. Does the designation "God breathed" sound strange? Maybe the clumsiness of that designation will jangle your hearing senses enough to etch the point solidly in your mind. When Paul says to Timothy, "All Scripture is inspired by God", that's what he is literally saying: Scripture is God breathed. Now I don't want to get ...

362. A Church Shaped By The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a particular time—usually 11 a.m. on Sunday morning—with the mentality that people are to come to the Church. Even when we are serious, we try to order our life within the Church in such a way that people will come to us. We design vital worship services with good music, we seek a dynamic preacher who communicates well, and we try to provide the kind of experience that meets the “felt needs” of people and thus attracts people who will “feel good about it” and hopefully invite others. Because we ...

363. Compassion Fatigue

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to the least of these And its not just a periodic getting tired now and then – the truth is we get worn out – being Christian and practicing ministry wears us down. We talk about fatigue in all sorts of ways – what I’m talking about could be designated “compassion fatigue.” Boil it down, refine it to its most precious essence and you come out with this: love and compassion is the call of every Christian. Our scripture lesson is more than clear about that. The truth is I could have opened the New ...

364. The Church: An Enclave of Resistance v1

Romans 12:1-8, Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... children who were dropping through the cracks in the public school system. We were inspired by the Marva Collins model in Chicago and more innovative education efforts focused on the poor and the at-risk. But we wanted ours to be explicitly Christian, and we designed it that way. So the groundwork was laid for Shepherd’s School. It’s been a marvelous six-year venture now and children are literally being saved by that effort. It’s a strategy for change and for impacting society that is consistent with ...

365. Why Being A Christian Has Worn You Down v2

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of being good. But it’s not just a periodic getting tired now and then – the truth is we get worn out – being Christian and practicing ministry wears us out. We talk about fatigue in all sorts of ways – what I’m talking about could be designated “compassion fatigue.” Boil it all down, refine it to its most precious essence, and you come out with this: love and compassion is the call of every Christian. Our scripture lesson is more than clear about that. The truth is I could have opened the New ...

366. Playing to the Right Audience

Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... . This is not something defective; it’s how God made us. We were made for the enjoyment of all things in God, and in this fallen world addiction is when we seek to enjoy something apart from God and ask it to deliver satisfactions it was not designed to offer. Our desire gets stuck to the object and can’t get free. Addiction is a sign of idolatry, that I am overloading something in creation and asking of it what it was never intended to supply. All addictions have spiritual roots, which is why 12 ...

367. In the Cross of Christ We Glory

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Michael Milton

... wall and replace it with a stained glass window. But when he presented his idea to the church’s leaders, they said to him, ‘We cannot do what you ask. The architect designed the church to have this cross; it gives strength to the wall. If you take away the cross, you will destroy the church.’” [1] The architect of our salvation designed the church to have the cross. The cross gives strength to the church. Take away the cross and you do not have a church. The cross of Jesus Christ is the place where ...

368. Forgiveness and Reconciliation at Last!

Genesis 45:1-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... the world. Humanly, our eyes are fogged over by sin, and we constantly fail to see the vision and purposes of God, especially in dire circumstances. God is the God of Purpose. The first purpose of God is creation. God created a universe with purpose and design embedded into its very nature. The Psalmist breaks out into singing in Psalm 19:1, "The heavens are telling the glory of God and firmament his handiwork." The second purpose of God is to create human creatures in God's own image. We are created for ...

369. The Reward

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Sermon

James L. Killen

... And of what do we build our world? Do we build it of commitments to justice and well-being for all people? Or do we build it of competitions to see who can most effectively exploit others and prosper from it - or out of balances of military power that are designed to oppress and to destroy? When we get honest, we have to admit that all of us are built of some good stuff and of some stuff that is not good. A song from the '60s described the lives and the houses that people were building as "little boxes made ...

370. This Is a Test

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... ?" And there is no easy answer. Just as there is no easy answers to why God had Abraham sacrifice Isaac. We don't know. And it is best that we not pursue that, not speculate upon it. Because the text that we read this morning is not designed to answer that question. It is designed to make one affirmation only: we are to trust the Giver of the gift of life, and not the gift itself. So if the gift is taken away, the Giver remains. If God gave life to us once, he can do it again. So Abraham called the ...

371. Christ the King

Psalm 100:1-5, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34, Matthew 25:31-46, Ezekiel 34:1-31

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... 34:11-16, 20-24). Need: "The Lord is my shepherd" - is he really? In this passage, God says he is our shepherd. Have we allowed him to be our shepherd? To have God as our shepherd, we commit ourselves to a relationship with him. This sermon is designed to help people examine this relationship. Outline: Is the Lord your shepherd? a. Is there a relationship of dependence? - v. 14. b. Is there a relationship of protection? - v. 15. c. Is there a relationship of trust? - v. 24. 2. What God Can Do For You (34:16 ...

372. An Uncomfortable Comforter

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ask some people to come forward, sit in it, and describe how it feels.] Yes, it is a handsome chair-grandly oversized to stand higher, wider, sturdier, and straighter than any ordinary chair. The back soars up, toweringly tall and heavily carved with intricate designs. Anyone under 5'2" or thereabouts will find themselves swinging their feet above the floor when they perch on this raised throne. But the back and the seat are at rigid right angles to each other. The glorious carvings on the seat and the ...

373. From Black Holes to Red Holes

Luke 18:18-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... them changed our whole perspective on life, our whole understanding of our self, our perception of God and the church. Who are those singularities in your life? Who are those people that magnetized the scattered filaments of your life into some kind of ordered design? Who are the people whose influence changed you forever? (Why not have them stand up at this point and name those singularities, telling a bit about who they were and why they exerted such a singular force on their lives?) In today's gospel ...

374. How High Is Your Faith Quotient?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of human measures – measures of wealth or poverty, measures of power or powerlessness, measures of success or failure, measures of action or stillness, measures of winning or losing. Instead of all these artificial extremes and separations, high FQ people see only the wholeness of God's design, the unity of God's love and law. The highest FQ people have come to see the nature of the ultimate test and who the real test is: Jesus, the Christ. In the New Testament we're presented a testum, a new test, a new ...

375. Making a Clean Sweep

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... was accomplished by the attachment of an old pillowcase as its bag. A few hundred refinements later, the Hoover family popularized and sold door-to-door the motorized sucking machine dubbed the vacuum cleaner. It doesn't take a degree in interior design to notice how the humble vacuum cleaner has ably reflected the styles and dreams of popular culture. In the 1930s Hoover incorporated a round headlight into the front of their cleaning machines causing countless children to turn off the lights, plug in ...

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