Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3926 to 3950 of 4884 results

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... a few minutes today about demons or impure spirits. Is there an impure spirit troubling you? Not all impure spirits are supernatural powers that inhabit people’s minds and cause them to foam at the mouth and tear at their clothes. There are some perfectly normal people who have deep and deadly emotional issues. You may be sitting there placidly listening to this message and you’re having thoughts of suicide or even violence toward another person. Or you may be suffering from deep depression. Or you may ...

3927. Jesus Heals Body and Soul

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... are advising couples to develop separate interests, the overwhelming percentage of the couples in marriages that last do everything together. One of the most important factors, however, concerns “give and take.” The authors of the study found very few marriages that were perfectly equal. One woman married for 44 years said she would advise all young couples “to be willing to give 70 percent and expect 30 percent.” In the long run, the study showed the giving and taking should balance out. If either ...

3928. The Broken

John 8:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... to your mess up these are the words you will always hear. Notice something that is very important. He didn’t say, “If you will go and sin no more I will not condemn you.” He didn’t say, “If you will guarantee me from now on to live a perfect life I won’t condemn you.” He didn’t say to her, “You clean your act up. You get yourself together and then I won’t condemn you.” No, He said, “I don’t. Now you don’t” or “I don’t condemn you. Now you don’t sin anymore ...

3929. Welcome Home

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

James Merritt

... But he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.” (Luke 15:29, ESV) He was saying in effect, “I have been a perfect son.” Even if that were true, this son didn’t understand that what made him a son was not his performance, but his position. Performance has nothing to do with your position before God. There are a lot of church-going, religious, Pharisees who don’t ...

3930. Who Is Right

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... God will give mercy to those who do. This man is seeing himself correctly. Do you know why? You will only see yourself correctly when you see God correctly. When you see God correctly you will understand that only God is good and no one else is. Only God is perfect, no one else is. Only God is sinless, no one else is. Only God is Holy, no one else is. Where the Pharisee said, “I thank God I am not like you.” The tax collector said, “I thank God you are not like me either.” There is only one person ...

3931. Just Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... is just grace? Lesson #1 – God doesn’t owe us anything. Deep down some of us think that He does. Sure He owes me. I go on mission trips. I sing on a praise team. I share my faith. I read my Bible. I give offerings. How many of you perfectly obey every law in this state all the time? You always come to a complete stop at a stop sign even when nobody is around? You always drive in the proper lane? You always use your turn signals? You always obey the traffic rules? None of us do that, but ...

3932. Seismic Shift

2 Corinthians 7:2-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... begins with our relationship to God. Every sin is always first against God. Last week, we talked about confession. We said that the first person we must ask forgiveness from whenever we do wrong is God. The good news is we found out last week that God has a perfect record. Every time we sincerely confess our sins to God, God surely forgives us. The problem is too many people stop at confession and they think that all they have to do is just confess and all is well. But, there is a second step that must be ...

3933. It's Not Rocket Science

John 8:31-41

Sermon

James Merritt

... . Not chemistry. If this book is the Word of God and therefore it is truth, then there can be no scientific error in it. True science must always be in harmony with true scripture. Amazingly, there are instances multiplied in the Bible where science and scripture perfectly harmonize and remind us again that they are friends, not foes. Let’s go all the way back to the very first book and the very first verse. We don’t even get out of the gate without finding out that the Bible starts off scientifically ...

3934. Tarzan He Was Not

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... a cup of coffee on the spot. As they sat across the restaurant table from each other, the man began to talk about his life as a grower the long hours spent walking the vineyards, tending the grapes, watching the fruit develop, waiting for the perfect day to begin the harvest. “New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground,” this vineyard owner explained. “But they don’t bear fruit down there. When branches grow along the ground, the leaves get coated in dust. When it ...

3935. Don't Give Up Now!

2 Corinthians 4:16 - 5:2

Sermon

... for spiritual growth. When we have been through a time of testing, it gives us confidence that we can handle the next test. The painter, John Sargent, once painted a panel of roses that was highly praised by critics. It was a small picture, but it approached perfection. Although offered a high price for this painting on many occasions, Sargent refused to sell it. He considered it his best work and was very proud of it. Why did he hold on to it? It was so that whenever he was deeply discouraged and doubtful ...

3936. It Was a Dark and Stormy Evening! Father's Day

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... so suddenly and with so much fury that we are not prepared for them. Storms of sickness, disease and even death; relationship issues; parenting issues; employment woes. These storms come, no matter how faithful we are in our service to God. They come no matter how perfect our attendance in church may be. They come no matter how well we know our Bible. Of course, if you really know your Bible, you already know that. In fact, we read in the first verse of the Epistle of James, “Consider it pure joy, my ...

3937. Hamburgers Don't Grow on Trees

Mark 4:26-29, Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... and bring them into the twenty-first century. Often he doesn’t understand his congregation, and sometimes they don’t understand him.” (6) It is only later that Lischer begins to see what he couldn’t see while he was striving to be the perfect pastor of that conservative congregation. The Kingdom of God was happening in that small parish even though he was blind to it. He asks the question: “Why couldn’t I see the Kingdom of God happening in our little church? . . . People in our congregation ...

3938. Are You a Polar Bear?

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

... don’t go well for me, and I have pain and anger and . . . is that okay for one of your children?’ “And then, though I can’t see it, I can feel it--the warm hug, the reassuring smile, the affirmation of sonship. I don’t have to be perfect, I’m not expected to never feel pain or worry or care. But I’m expected to know whose I am, and that I belong. And that for whatever extravagant, outrageous reason, I’ve been loved and adopted by the One True God.” (1) Our lesson from Ephesians begins ...

3939. Wanna Fight?

Mark 9:38-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... or poor. With his walking stick in hand, he’d make his rounds from house to house no matter what, even if he was sick or it was raining. He truly was the embodiment of the teachings of Jesus Christ. He lived as he preached, which set the perfect example for his parishioners, his flock of sheep.” It’s a rather romantic vision of the priest. But Chaucer sums up his character in these unforgettable words: He lived by the motto, “. . . if gold rust, what then will iron do? For if a priest be foul in ...

3940. "Gotcha" Questions from Mean-Spirited People

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... does it really mean to give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's? Twenty centuries later and Jesus' answer continues to generate lively discussions. The religious leaders thought they had the perfect "gotcha" question, but once again they are foiled. Jesus' answer amazes them. Luke tells us it even left them speechless. The score: Jesus — three; the mean-spirited — still zero. One might have thought the Master's enemies would give up after three failed ...

3941. A Dance in the Desert

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... Zephaniah could not have understood at the time exactly how the divine message through him would be fulfilled. We, on the third Sunday of Advent, know exactly what God had in mind and now wait in expectation for Jesus' culminating return to fully and perfectly realize the grandeur of the messianic kingdom. Someday the prophetic bagpipes will no longer be squeezed, and the music of the angels will shout the "Hallelujah" chorus. One of the great words of Advent is joy. It is a constant theme of the prophets ...

3942. When the New Comes, the Old Passes

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... , writes from his perspective as a physician when he contends our attempts to find a Fountain of Youth will always be futile because the human body is not designed for endless use. Therefore, physical life will always be limited. Even if we created a perfect environment and cured or eliminated every disease, science will never move the average life expectancy much beyond 110 years. To put that in a different way, the human body compares to a Buick. With good care and maintenance, we can get a lot of miles ...

3943. The Wrong Gift

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... you do it? Is this the year you got it right? Tomorrow says, "No." Tomorrow half of those who received gifts will go back to the stores to return them and exchange them or get refunds so that they can buy what they really wanted. Yesterday we bought the perfect gifts. Tomorrow they will all be wrong. But we are in good company. God got it wrong, too, that first Christmas. That's essentially what we read at first glance in Luke's report. We are so familiar with the words that we often skim past the meaning ...

3944. God's Adopted Children

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... . 63. Cited in James Emery White, Life-Defining Moments (WaterBrook Press), 2001, p. 72. 5. John Ortberg, Love Beyond Reason (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), pp. 11-12. Cited by Scott A. Wenig , “Hide and Seek,” Preaching Magazine Jan./ Feb. 2001, p. 25. 6. Cited in Craig Brian Larson, Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2002), pp. 112-113.

3945. An Extraordinary Wedding Gift

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... have no idea how many years this couple had gone assuming that they knew what the other wanted. You don’t have to be married for long, though, to have such misunderstandings. Somebody saw an ad in a newspaper. “Bike For Sale: Suzuki 1000. This bike is perfect! It has 1000 miles and has had its 500 mile dealer service. (Expensive.) It’s been adult ridden and all wheels have always been on the ground. I used it as a cruiser/commuter. I’m selling it because it was purchased without proper consent of my ...

3946. Second Chances

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” The man who cared for the vineyard obviously represents Christ. Someone once called Christ “the forgiving side of God.” That’s not a perfect statement theologically, but for our unsophisticated minds, that is close enough. We read in Hebrews 7:24-25, “But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he ...

3947. Value of Character

Illustration

C. H. Spurgeon

... we were obliged to crawl along with one piston rod at work instead of two. Only a small screw was gone. If that had been right the train would have rushed along its iron road, but the absence of that insignificant piece of iron disarranged the whole. The analogy is perfect; a man in all other respects fitted to be useful may by some small defect be exceedingly hindered, or even rendered utterly useless in the ministry.

3948. Babies Wanted

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... Nile River when Moses was born. The finest of Israel’s youth were led into captivity to serve a pagan and evil empire in Daniel’s day. Herod was murdering male children after God’s own Son was born. The past has been even darker than today. God is still perfectly capable of giving us children who will develop into mature adults.

3949. New Residence

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... a dramatic improvement in the appearance of the house because there was a change in those who lived in that house. In the same way, it is impossible that there not be a change in a person’s life once he or she becomes a Christian—because there is a perfect new resident within: the Holy Spirit.

3950. Death Is Unnatural

Illustration

Michael P. Green

It has become fashionable in our culture to hold the view that death is a perfectly natural occurrence. The Bible teaches that it is not, and even those who deny the afterlife witness that God “has set eternity in the hearts of men.” The following extract from Charlotte and Howard Clinebell’s The Intimate Marriage (N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1970), p. 188, serves as a good ...

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