Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 376 to 400 of 656 results

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... better be an atheist.” (Daily Readings by William Temple, p. 85, compiled by Hugh C. Warner, edited by William Wand, Abingdon Press, 1965). How commonly we conceive of God as a being who possesses what we lack. We see the divine majesty an answer to our imperfections and limitations. We are weak, so God must be almighty. We are foolish, so God must be all-wise. We are sinful, so God must be all-holy. How often we conceive of God in monarchical terms. We see him as one “pavilioned in splendor.” One ...

377. Led by the Spirit, Tempted by the Devil

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... .”(Hebrews 4:14-16). He’s the one - our great high priest who can give us a tomorrow. III. That leads to the last action phrase: “And the angels ministered to him.” This is the note of our text: “And angels ministered him.” The verb is imperfect in its tense and it means that the angels kept on ministering to him - they kept on ministering just as long as he needed their services. What a heartening affirmation. God’s mercy does not spend itself in one act - that mercy continues. God keeps on ...

378. Sons of God

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

King Duncan

... he met Jesus. Jesus, however, wouldn’t let the little guy criticize John. “Remember,” Jesus said, “if it hadn’t been for John the Baptist, you wouldn’t have come to me.” Paul is saying the same thing about the Law of Moses. The Law was imperfect. But it was the Law that prepared people’s hearts for Christ. Paul had been one of the Law’s most ardent adherents. When he met Christ, though, and substituted faith in Christ for strict adherence to the Law, a terrible weight was lifted off of his ...

379. We Hold These Truths To Be Essential

1 Peter 3:8-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... theology. One more thing. We are United Methodist in our connection. Let me make a confession. They say it is good for the soul. For over thirty years, I have carried on a love-hate relationship with this denomination of ours. I get so impatient with its imperfections that it is often hard for me to affirm its strengths. It is much, much, too set in its systems to suit me. Yet, I recognize that those very systems have given me opportunities of ministry far exceeding my wildest dreams. I have carried on for ...

380. When It's Time to Reconcile

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... build a bridge of love. In John 13:35 Jesus said, By this shall all people know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Love is an action verb. Reconciliation is love in action. Bill was a college student. He had wild hair, torn clothing, and imperfect personal hygiene. He was a brilliant, but off-beat kid who found the Lord in a college dorm one night. Bill had no church background. He knew nothing about the customs of Christianity. He did not know how to be proper in church. So, when he saw a ...

381. Finding the Courage to Believe

John 20:24-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... at the North Pole. You go where roses will grow. If you want to believe, associate with believers. Watch their actions. Observe their attitudes. Notice how they handle the difficulties of life. They won't be perfect. In fact the devil will point out their imperfections to you. But notice how their beliefs form the foundations of their being. Then go and do likewise. II. THE COURAGE TO BELIEVE COMES FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. John 20:26-28 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was ...

382. What is the Future of Marriage?

Mark 12:18-27

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... a dog, you need a goldfish—the pretty kind with the long tail that floats around, looks great and doesn’t need a thing in return. In real marriage, wives are not trophies. Husbands are not gold mines. Marriage is the work of two imperfect craftsmen shaping their dream together. They hammer their conflicts into harmony. They mend their breaks with mercy. They laugh and they suffer and they argue and they work. They work hard to overcome selfishness, to care honestly, to share freely. Jesus put it best ...

383. The Power of a Single Life

2 Corinthians 6:3-13

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... was practical and appropriate for the person he was with. There weren’t two kinds of people in the world for Joe, not three, not ten, just people. He was a prophet of the possible. He soothed the damaged, nurtured and tortured, and reassured the imperfect. He was the living, breathing proof that love will teach you everything you really need to know, if you will only listen. The power of a single life. Ganga Stone, founder of “In God’s Love, We Deliver” provides about three thousand AIDS victims in ...

384. The Power to Begin Again

Acts 3:12-19

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... , the fisherman stood up and said, “Turn around. Go back to that bridge you crossed, take the first road to the right and then every time the road forks, keep turning right. You'll eventually get to Pigeon Forge." Guess what? He was right. God invented repentance for imperfect people. If you always make the right choices, do the right thing, never waiver, never fail, then you have no need for repentance. It's the rest of us that need to repent and turn to God. If we miss the mark of God's high calling and ...

385. In Prayer’s Way

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... didn’t feel like an answer to any prayer. She felt like an impatient kid, still sweaty from playing ball in the yard, and wanting to get back to it as soon as possible. But for her shut-in, ninety year old Auntie, Elizabeth was, in all her imperfection, an answer to prayer. “I now know that her prayer was not for cookies. Her prayer was for family, for fellowship, for the touch of love and compassion to come into her life.” All of us in attendance here today are an answer to an ancient prayer. That ...

386. By Enduring

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... with this passage of Scripture?" With the wisdom of a senior pastor I replied, “Deal with it!" Then I got sick. Sometimes I find God's sense of humor unamusing. Nevertheless, here I am and I will try to deal with it. How do Christians handle suffering in an imperfect and often hostile world? Well, you deal with it; sometimes the way you deal with it is endure it! I. TO ENDURE IS TO HOLD FAST. “If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God" (I Peter 2:20). The context of ...

387. Luke 11:1-13

Luke 11:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... God and pray for their own share in divine forgiveness. Finally Jesus encourages his followers to pray for deliverance from a “time of trial.” The malleable, untempered faith of the disciples prior to Pentecost is well documented in the gospels. An imperfect understanding of Jesus and his mission, personal agendas, and the very real threats facing Jesus and his followers “on the way,” made prayer for avoiding trials or tests a faith-promoting request. Jesus repeats this warning, to avoid “the time ...

388. A Faith That Transforms, Not Just Adorns

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The beauty business is big business. Adorning ourselves, perfecting every perceived imperfection, curling what is straight, straightening what is curly, bleaching this/highlighting that, products that promise to make youngsters look older and oldsters look younger never lose their appeal. “Stuff” made out of low-tech squished fruit or high-tech spliced genes all promise to adorn and ultimately to transform our ...

389. God’s Weather Report

Matthew 5:38-48

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... saved her life. "It's a new life, almost like a resurrection."1 Our passage ends with Jesus calling us to be prefect as God is perfect. That is not perfection as in not making mistakes. It is perfect as in being whole. We live in a broken, imperfect world. We will not all face the situation that Immaculee Ilibagiza faced. We will face challenges in showing love and offering forgiveness. We bear witness to the character of God, who causes the sun to shine on the good and the bad. We are the salt of the ...

390. Righteous!

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... "omni's" to describe it. We are weak, God is strong, omnipotent. We are of limited intelligence. God knows everything, omniscient. We are stuck in one place. God is everywhere, omnipresent. We are mortal. God never dies, immortal. We are temporal. God is eternal. We are imperfect. God is perfect. We are sinful. God is holy. And the list goes on and on. They are all part of what makes God so "righteous!" We human beings long to have the same sort of righteousness. Ever since that tragic fall into sin in the ...

391. Step By Step

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Please, Lord?) Where there's a teenager who thinks he knows everything, there will one day be an adult who knows you did your best. For we know we fail our children, and we pray they don't end up in therapy, but when we get to heaven, our imperfect parenting will disappear. (Thank you, God!) When we were children, we needed a parent to love and protect us. Now that we're parents ourselves, we have a heavenly Father who adores, shelters us, and holds us when we need to cry. And now these three remain: faith ...

392. You Bring Me Great Pleasure

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... something, it took a parent, one of your grands or that “special someone,” watching and cheering, applauding and effusing “great job,” “well done,” “bravo,” “I’m so proud and pleased.” Or even just an “I love you.” If the praise of our imperfect human parents could bring such a sense of satisfaction to our childish hearts, think how much more the affirmation of our perfect, all powerful, heavenly parent would mean to our life. The absolute best thing we can ever know in life is ...

393. Carbon Pure and Perfect

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... v.18). Salvation is a lifelong process, a lifetime of growing in prevenient grace, a lifetime of living through saving grace, a lifetime of slip sliding on sanctifying grace. Jesus didn’t call one perfect disciples. Jesus called twelve impressively imperfect disciples. Twelve different inclusions of following Jesus. Jesus is our diamond, whatever his clarity. Fourth, Cut: Every diamond is made beautiful by the shade it takes and the number of light reflecting facets that are carefully incised across its ...

394. “Your Honor:” Jesus’ Honor Code of Turning the Other Cheek

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . A shared sense of honor creates a common culture. But when the wrong things become “honored,” honor itself can turn ugly. Consider how in ancient Japanese culture the importance of maintaining one’s “honor” sometimes led those who felt shamed by imperfect behavior to commit ritual suicide or hari-kiri. Death became the only way to “save face” and restore honor. But there is an even worse dishonoring of honor that curdles in the air of its occurrence: “Honor Killing.” In October 2009 ...

395. Your Honor: Jesus' Honor Code of Turning the Other Cheek

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

396. John 4:5-42

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... leaves Jesus at the well, the woman takes the possibility of a new reality with her. Considering all Jesus has said to her, she wonders if he truly may be the Messiah. Her definition of messiah, one who knows all about her, still reflects her old understanding. It is her imperfect testimony, however, that motivates the movement of those who hear her to go and seek out Jesus.

397. Merry Xmas

John 1:1-9, 10-18

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... human beings? The latter, I fear, because after all, institutions are merely our creations to better organize society. Mark Twain said it best — "Man is the only animal that blushes ... or needs to." No one would deny that we still live in a terribly imperfect world. We continue to be plagued with horrible examples of what people do to each other — the holocaust of the Nazis, the ethnic cleansing in Darfur, the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In the third world today we see governments more concerned about ...

398. Becoming Like Jesus

1 John 3:1-7

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... with the Christian church. There is a perception that we believe we're better than other people, we're "holier than thou." The fact is, just because we're children of God, that doesn't make us any better than anyone else in the world. We're still broken, imperfect people, sinners. What sets us apart from the rest the world is that we're in the process of becoming more than we are. We're on the way toward becoming like Jesus. How is that possible for us? Through Christ Jesus, God has forgiven us and freed us ...

399. Interceding for Us Now

Hebrews 7:23-28

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

... we are worthy, not because we are perfect, and not because we are free of sin. We come precisely because there is one who, having offered himself for us, now intercedes for us before the throne of God so that in our unworthiness, in our imperfection, and in our sin, we might receive the gift of forgiveness and the promise of new life. In our Lutheran Book of Worship the conclusion to one of our eucharistic prayers gives voice to this understanding of Christ's intercession and to the breaking of those ...

400. The Moral Character of God

Illustration

James Packer

... between right and wrong be a good and admirable being? Would a God who put no distinction between the beasts of history, the Hitlers and Stalins (if we dare use names), and his own saints be morally praiseworthy and perfect? Moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection. And not to judge the world would be to show moral indifference. The final proof that God is a perfect moral being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that he has committed himself to judge ...

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