Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 376 to 400 of 3160 results

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... Lewis, a professor at both Oxford and CambridgeUniversities, ably summed up the situation for us here: A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he ... as Savior from sin, from death and eternal punishment, but leave off with the Lord of life and master part. This is sort of like buying into Christ for the "fire insurance" he offers, but rejecting him as boss of our earthly lives. Yet, if ...

377. The Impossible Option

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... -good project, but as the necessary paring away of everything that was non-essential to following the Son of Man ... it was a sort of death. It meant losing control of his image, his plans, his destiny. It meant the death of one identity, and who knew ... church. Small things? Maybe. But they may be the first fruits of a new life that our Lord raises up when the old dies. Who knows what sort of new life God will shape in us as we begin to take him at his word? Who knows what things that we "give up" in order ...

378. In the Hot Seat

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... power cuts deeper than this preliminary answer probes, and there's the problem. It's one thing to think of suffering as a sort of necessary dues paying. "Okay, let's just get it over with and get on to the good stuff," we might exclaim. "Get ... it for us. We'll never "get" the nature of the Kingdom except that divine forgiveness has defined it and shaped it for us. The only sort of power Jesus' followers have to rule or judge others is the power to serve them, in his name and according to his model. We have ...

379. The Dangerous Truth

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... is, my kingdom is not from this world ... You say that I am a king; for this I was born ... to testify to the truth" (John 18:37). But Jesus gives no details about "the truth." Is it any wonder that Pilate responds, "What is truth?" We might add, "What sort of kingship is this? What's truth got to do with it?" Truth and a kingdom not from this world aren't easy to visualize. They don't reduce to sound bites or Kodak moments. There's nothing to grab hold of. For concrete thinkers, such words are frustrating ...

380. Too Good to Miss

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... it in the midst of arguments among various denominations or points of view over abortion or homosexuality or baptism or communion or ordination policy. The basic truth of our faith is that Jesus Christ was sent to us to bring us to God. What we need in any sort of suffering is to know "Emmanuel," God is with us. If we know that, we can even stand before death, as Jesus did and as countless martyrs have done over the centuries. The fact that we have not known such sacrifice very much in our country does not ...

381. Easy to Say, Hard to Do

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... cities and poor rural areas and plush suburbs in our own nation, where meaninglessness is a daily companion to millions, and violence of all sorts is commonplace? Indeed, it is surely true, that "what the world needs now, is love, sweet love...." Why could it be, 2,000 ... , you have to go searching for the original installation disks or CD to install it properly. My friends, Christian love, the sort that moves mountains, the kind Jesus died to reveal, is not just a nice feeling or set of good intentions. Real ...

382. Who Needs a Doctor?

Mark 2:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... them to experience what he had experienced. Now out of that fact, I ask you two questions: One, have you ever had any sort of religious experience that was worth celebrating?...that caused you to want to throw a party? Maybe you can deal with it better ... midst of the controversy that swirled around her during the summer of 1986 for "crossing over" from Gospel music into the secular market. All sorts of people had laid into Amy Grant for the outrage of people being able to tune in any radio rock station in the ...

383. Building a House (Mother's Day)

Luke 6:46-49

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... 1989). How beautiful! Dick had taught his grandson to make-believe. Faith had been transmitted from one person to another. That's the sort of thing that is to take place in the family, as we build our family house. III. Make love, make faith, and ... Jew, what are you selling?" Standing there in the smoldering ruins, he said, "I am selling hope." Millions of people are selling all sorts of things, spending millions of dollars to get us to buy what they offer. Where are those who will sell hope? The market ...

384. What If God Is Dependent Upon Our Praying?

2 Chronicles 7:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... act in history is often connected with a condition that we are to meet. Read the scripture. Throughout the scripture, you get that sort of thing going on. Conditions are laid down that we are to meet in order for God to act effectively in our lives ... a part of Jeri’s life. Though over 1,000 miles away, Kay became a part of our household in Nashville. Jeri went through all sorts of faith contortions, praying but not really knowing how to pray. Would God heal Kay? If God would not heal her, why would he let ...

385. Such As I Have

Acts 3:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... significant religious movement in the last half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century. Jimmy Seabrook, in two speeches I’ve heard him make in the past couple of months, keeps referring to ChristChurch as a five-talent church. And that’s the sort of thing Gene Williams was saying, if Christ Church is a five-talent church in Methodism, and you put that up against how Methodism started, you can see how tremendous is the opportunity that is ours as a part of this congregation to be what God is ...

386. Proclaimers Of The Gospel

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... doing to communicate that, but we did, and the three of us were soon on our way. As I settled down into the backseat, John driving, and our German guest beside him in the front, I was almost instantly confronted with the thought that I ought to share some sort of Christian witness, especially to the German who was so depressed. How would I do it? I didn’t want to come off as a preacher, I wanted to be natural and I wanted to communicate authentic caring. While I was mulling it over in my mind, trying to ...

387. The Fourth Day Comes

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... confusion and grief and despair. They wanted to get out of town, to get away from it all in order to try to forget. To sort out their feelings and somehow find a way to start again, with chins dragging and hope at low ebb, they head west together, talking again ... all been there in one way or another, at some time in our lives. Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to salvage and sort out our feelings, to summon the courage and the desire to keep going on or to try and forget. Emmaus is whatever we do and ...

388. Even Marriages Made In Heaven Require Earthly Care

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... on the submission of wives to their husbands is an extreme expression of institutional commitment, not the valuing and loving of persons, and the commitment that flows out of that. The whole of Ephesians 5:22-6:9 is the great teaching of Paul about all sorts of relationships in Christ. In our lesson today, chapter 5 verses 21-33, there is the model of Christian marriage. Two verses must be held together. Verse 22 – wives be subject to your husbands as to the Lord. And verse 25 – husbands love your wives ...

389. All This And Heaven Too

Revelation 21:1-27

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... In fact, many of the crises that men and women face come at particular times in their age movement, when they make some sort of dramatic passage from one direction to another, or from one phase of living to another. Now I would not diminish the ... like his brothers, fittin’ to live and work and do. But in a way of speaking Lord, you done made it up to him, you give him a sort of wisdom, made him knowing and gentle. The birds come to him and the varmints move free about him, and like his __, he’d a taken to ...

390. The Power Of Purpose

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... on it. Your face is in front of your head, where you eat. Your neck is what keeps your head off your shoulders, which are sort of shelves where you hook your overall suspenders. Your arms you’ve got to have to pitch with, and so you can reach the biscuits. ... personal involvement. Don’t let the drag of your job carry over into your leisure hours. Because you may be performing a routine sort of task, doesn’t mean that your free hours can’t be full of meaning. When I think of the financial resources of ...

391. The Eternal Question

Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... an idea, I have an idea that the lamp burned late in that home for many nights, as the father and son talked of the son’s feelings and desires, as the father sought to assist the son in putting his thoughts into perspective and getting his longings all sorted out. But the son had made his decision – he took his part of the family wealth and hit the road. It was a freeway that he traveled, a road with no restrictive bounds, no confining limitations – he was his own man. How often have we heard that? He ...

392. Leave Your Stuff Behind

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours. I like the way the King James’ version translates that – regard not your stuff, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours. Regard not your stuff. There’s all sorts of meaning in that. One translation has it - leave your stuff behind. Now some of us who have moved a good bit, like Methodist preachers do, know what that means. I remember when we moved from Mississippi to California, over 20 years ago. Moving across the continent ...

393. Living Deliberately

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... get the classis story of a person giving attention. We read this as our first scripture lesson today. Moses’ encounter with the burning bush and thus with God, is a perfect example of a person paying attention and coming alive. He was doing his job in an ordinary sort of way, tending the flock of his father in law. In the midst of that mundane task, he suddenly observed something that he had never seen before - a bush aflame in an unusual way. I will turn aside and see this sight. While the bush is not ...

394. A Scream And A Laugh

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... long,stills on the ear the distant triumph song,and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.Alleluia. Alleluia. It's a great image, the saints, being in the stands as it were, while we are on the field in the stadium playing the game. It's sort of like the alumni returning for homecoming. And any team plays better when a great crowd of alumni are there to root them on. Back to my story of being in Zurich. I remember vividly even now -- I had probably impolitely edged my way through the worshipping crowd ...

395. The Cross: God's Answer To Our Deepest Needs

Colossians 2:8-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to live and die. Other descriptions of our needs -- acceptance, affirmation, security and freedom, purposefulness and self-esteem -- are rooted in these four. The Cross meets us at the point of these deepest needs. Let's explore these. I. First, our need for forgiveness. There are all sorts of ways to talk about us humans, what and who we are. G. K. Chesterton was right, "whatever else man is, he is not what he was meant to be." Omar Chaym said "Pish! He's a good fellow and twill all be well." Deep down we ...

396. Declaration Of Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... by our circumstances. III. And now a third and final truth -- the nature of the liberty in which we are to stand as Christians is a freedom to be me -- a freedom to be you -- a freedom to be real. Now that's not as easy as it sounds. All sorts of powers and persons would have it otherwise. The pressures are constant for us to be something we aren't. That's the reason Paul warned the Romans in Philipps translations, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold." There are powers and persons who ...

397. Walk In Newness Of Life

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... depression. He refused to eat dinner, and stared vacantly at the living room wall. His wife tried to console him, "You still have me, Darling", she said."Maybe so," he brooded, "but there was a time this afternoon when I would have traded you for a first down." All sorts of things happen to the very married. But I want to make it public now. I wouldn't trade Jerry for anything, though there may have been times when an offer of a good sermon would have been tempting. Back to Lois Wyse and Love Poems for the ...

398. At Home In The Daylight

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... grow in you. He didn't say that. He said, "Walk as children of the light." In so doing he binds two things together: the divine working of the Holy Spirit within us, and the human effort at reception, retention, and application of that divine work. It is the sort of thing he was talking about when he said, "Work out your salvation, for it is God that worketh in you." You see, God's light is within us -- the living Christ indwells us -- but, we have a responsibility. We must walk as children of the light. So ...

399. What Is Your Life?

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... getting to be, has made the wonder of aliveness the astonishing gracious gift that it really is." (John Claypool, "Life is a Gift", sermon preached at Calvary Episcopal, February 29, 1990).) Do you see your life as gift? -- or, like so many, do you see it as some sort of entitlement -- something you deserve? It makes all the difference in the world how you view life. If you see life as an entitlement -- or as something you deserve -- or as something that you must accomplish -- then there are going to be all ...

400. Prepare The Way Of The Lord

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... she is a great champion of the inner life, and the development of our spirituality, she followed the prophet's command to live righteously and to love justice, and she sought to identify with the poor. She was a frail, Christ-like Jew, a mystic of sorts but she prepared her life, not only with spiritual discipline, but with deeds of love. "She called that 'waiting on God', and she found different ways to do it. One of them was to read poetry. Particularly, she liked the religious poetry of George Herbert, a ...

Showing results