Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4051 to 4075 of 4977 results

4051. Heavenly Bread and Earthly Bread

John 6:51-58

Illustration

Alex Gondola

... , Cooking for Dummies, Dad's Own Cookbook: Everything Your Mother Never Taught You, to name only a few. (It was interesting to me that Cooking for Dummies and Dad's Own Cookbook were really near each other on the bookshelves!) The bookstore didn't have quite as many diet books. But, there was a fair number of titles, including The Weigh Down Diet, Controlling Your Fat Tooth, The Suzanne Sommers Eat Great Lose Weight diet book, and The Ten Habits of Naturally Slim People. (Not being among the "naturally slim ...

4052. Where Does God Start?

1 Chronicles 29:1-9

Sermon

James Merritt

... the walls of the houses; the gold for things of gold and the silver for things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be done by the hands of craftsmen. Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord?" (1 Chron. 29: 3-5) Quite frankly, it is hard to really picture what David did in this offering. There was 300 tons of gold involved, 110 tons given from David's own personal treasury. Using the present value of gold, David's gift would have been in the neighborhood of $1½ billion! Any good ...

4053. A Certain Word in an Uncertain World

1 Chronicles 29:1-9

Sermon

James Merritt

... to look past the problem and find God's purpose. The Chinese language uses not only letters, but it uses symbols. Entire words or phrases can often be written out as one symbol, but amazingly when two symbols are put together, the meaning may be quite different from what each symbol means individually. For example, when you take the symbol for trouble and you take the symbol for crisis and you put them together the meaning is - opportunity. When you take the problems of life and you put them together with ...

4054. The Spirit of Cross Pointe

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... very shakily got off the horse and began to stagger back to his room, I was interested in what he was going to say. He simply looked at me with that expressionless face and said, "That was interesting, but I will never do it again." Now, here at Cross Pointe quite frankly we are riding a horse that in many ways has never been ridden. Most of us have not ridden this type of horse before, but with God's help the horse will head in the right direction and it will get us where we need to go with one ...

4055. The Message That WILL Save Your Life

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Sermon

James Merritt

... the church is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is certainly not the only message and it is certainly not the only message we should preach. The book that we are reading right now, I Corinthians, is one of the most fascinating books in all of the New Testament. Quite frankly, it reads like a Christian soap-opera. The Corinthian church was something else. What happened was somebody went to a fight and a church broke out. I mean this church wasn't just in the middle of a fight. It was in the middle of a bunch ...

4056. Did You Know...You Can Be Forgiven For Anything?

1 John 1:8-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... you are testifying against yourself. I am convinced that if the Supreme Court could, they would outlaw the confession of sin as being unconstitutional for the 5th Amendment says this – "No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." Quite frankly that is exactly what you must do if you are going to confess your sin before God and get it right. You've got to testify against yourself. You've got to refuse to take the 5th Amendment. How many of you recognize these words ...

4057. I’M with the I AM

1 John 5:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... in his father. There are three men in my life named James, Jonathan, and Joshua and there is one thing they have complete confidence in and that is if they ever need me I'll be there. If they have a need I can meet, I will meet that need. Quite frankly, that is not really true of any other three men on this earth, but it is true about them because they are my sons. When you pray, you must have the same confidence that a child has in his father that he will hear and answer your prayer. That ...

4058. Put Me In Coach!

1 Peter 4:10

Sermon

James Merritt

... men tell about their own loving and good ways, but who can find a faithful man?" (Proverbs 20:6, NLV) That is what God is looking for in His church - faithful servants. Do you know what faithful means? It means you don't give up. It means you don't quit. It means you finish the job. Jesus could say to his heavenly father, "I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do." (John 17:4, MSG) Jesus didn't give up. He didn't give in. He didn't give out ...

4059. Backsliding - Sermon Starter

John 6:56-69

Illustration

Brett Blair

... die. It sounded too cannibalistic. You can then understand why in verse 66 of chapter 6 (please don't read anything into that) we read that many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Notice what is said, they turned back! They quit following. They became Temporary. I don't think a single reason can be identified as to why so many stopped following, a combination of issues probably, as we have already noted: His teaching confused some. His images offended others. But primarily, I think it ...

4060. I Put My Money on Jesus

John 6:56-69

Illustration

John Ortberg

... poor or marginalized because I don't want to feel guilty or bother to help. I too am one of the ones who wish to go away. Do you also wish to go away? Peter's response is striking. He doesn't say yes, of course, but he doesn't quite say no either. Instead, in good Jesus-style, he answers back with another question: To whom else can we go? It is not, perhaps, the most flattering answer in the world, but it is honest. It's a little reminiscent of Winston Churchill's famous description of democracy as the ...

4061. When the Bills Come Due

1 Timothy 6:6-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... pay than bills to pay them. This problem prevents more extreme home makeovers than almost any other problem you could imagine. Gallup reports that 64% of all couples worry about money. It is also now the number one cause of divorce - 51% of all spouses that call it quits had something to do with their finances. [[1]] What makes all of this even more amazing to me is that compared to the world, most of us are filthy rich. Do you realize if you own your home, have two cars and any kind of retirement plan, you ...

4062. What Do I Do - When I Don't Know What To Do?

2 Kings 4:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... thought that I wanted to go to seminary, but I began to have doubts about whether or not that really was what I should do. Even if it was what I wanted to do, I had been going to school non-stop for sixteen years and I was burned out. Quite frankly, I was at a crossroads in my life where I didn't know what to do. Should I go on to seminary or not? Was I really called into the ministry or not? If I didn't go to the seminary, in the meantime, what was I going to ...

4063. I Don’t Like My Options

2 Kings 5:1-17

Sermon

James Merritt

... 'm the father? I don't like my options. I'm unhappy in my marriage. I can leave my spouse and get out of a bad marriage, or stay together for the sake of the children. I don't like my options. I'm unhappy in my job. Do I quit and take a lower paying job, or keep the better paycheck? I don't like my options. I'm unhappy with my life, and I feel trapped in the existence I'm in. Do I commit suicide or keep enduring a miserable existence? I don't like my options. In ...

4064. No One Left Behind

2 Kings 7:3-20

Sermon

James Merritt

... said, "How long have you been caddying out here at Pebble Beach?" He said, "Fifteen years." I said, "In fifteen years, have you ever had anyone bring up spiritual issues with you or share the Gospel with you at all?" He said, "None." I said, "None?" He said, "None." Quite frankly, he didn't seemed to be very open, so I just simply said, "You mean you have never had anyone share with you that we are all sinners, who need to be saved?" He said, "No." I said, "You mean you've never had anyone share with you ...

4065. How to Preach a God-Sized Message to a Media Filled World

2 Timothy 4:1-5

Sermon

James Merritt

... people today have the "itchy-ear" syndrome. They are move concerned about the length of the sermon than they are depth of the sermon. They are move concerned with the message telling them what God can do for them than they are for what they can do for God. Quite frankly, they will look for preachers and teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear. There was a lady who was taking care of a little six year old girl while her mother was away and she wanted to really ...

4066. All By Myself: The Fear of Loneliness

2 Timothy 4:9-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... has walked out. In a home that is quiet because all the kids have moved out and your spouse has recently died. In a mailbox that is empty because no one writes anymore. In a phone that never rings because no one calls anymore. There is no feeling quite like it, because we all want somebody to know we are here and to care that we are here. Sigmund Freud once told the story of a school boy, who was expelled from school for misbehaving. He stood outside the class room and threw pebbles against the windows ...

4067. When I’m In Trouble

2 Timothy 4:16-18

Sermon

James Merritt

... sand mound that had been his creation just a moment before, with that forlorn look, Charlie Brown says, "There must be a lesson here, but I don't know what it is." If you haven't learned this already, you will. One of the greatest teachers in life is trouble. Quite honestly, you will learn far more in the hard times than you ever will in the good times. Today, I want to ask a very simple question and for many of you, I already know the answer. You don't need to raise your hands, but the question is - does ...

4068. Explore the Evidence

Acts 1:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... in that joke does beg a question. Was there a man two-thousand years ago that really came back from the dead? That is the question that does indeed beg for an answer. For most of my early life, I always wanted to be a lawyer and quite frankly law to this day still fascinates me. I was always intrigued by gathering facts, marshalling arguments, presenting a case, or defending a client. I really thought it was a very glamorous life until I came across some actual questions from lawyers that were taken from ...

4069. Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... and said, “You need to go check on your baby.” She said, “I’ve been getting up with him all through the night, it’s time you went and checked on him.” So, I dragged myself out of bed, staggered into his room and when I picked him up, he quit crying. Well, I checked to make sure he was dry and he was, so I hugged him and kissed him and I put him back into his bed. I had no sooner than laid him back down in his bed until he started crying again, so this time I turned ...

4070. Am I a Real Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

4071. The Big Picture

Romans 11:36, Ephesians 1:5, Colossians 3:18-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart." (Colossians 3:18-21, NASB) Now if you were expecting an encyclopedia of truth, you are going to be greatly disappointed. When we learn how God sees the family and what God wants from the family, quite frankly, to many of us it will be a great relief. We all have many expectations for our family. We want our kids to make straight A's, marry good looking people and have beautiful children. We want our husbands and dads to be successful, admired ...

4072. Close Up: Husbands - Be a Dream Lover

Colossians 3:19

Sermon

James Merritt

... it is in my dual role as a husband and as a father. I see so many expectations that Teresa has for me and the boys have for me and that my churches have had for me and I have even had for myself that I didn't always meet. Quite frankly, for good reason, because I couldn't meet all of their expectations and the truth is - neither can you. Men, many of you can too closely relate to the man in that video. Most of us at one time or another, maybe even now, feel like you are working ...

4073. Close Up - Wives: Sweet Surrender

Colossians 3:18

Sermon

James Merritt

... to submit to it. If it is in your best interest and the family's best interest to do so, then the other thing I have to say follows logically... II. Wives Are To Encourage Their Husband's Leadership Paul adds one other thing to this verse that, quite frankly, makes the whole point kind of a slam-dunk. "As is fitting in the Lord." (Colossians 3:18, NASB) That word "fitting" literally means "what is proper" or "what is right." Ladies, if you want to know how to maximize your relationship with your husband, if ...

4074. Member Means Minister

Ephesians 4:11-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... and he said," Pastor, is it a sin to play golf on Sunday?" I said, "I've seen you play and I think it is a sin for you to play any day of the week!" Do you have the attitude of a servant? The reason I asked that is quite frankly, it is against our nature to want to serve others. When the average person looks for a church, do you know the question they are usually asking? "How can this church meet my needs?" When you begin to really mature as a Christian, you will begin to ask instead ...

4075. Parenting 101

Ephesians 6:1-4

Sermon

James Merritt

... go." The reason is simple. If you don't train up a child in the way he should go, he will naturally go in the way he shouldn't go. Children must understand from the time that they are born that obedience is not an option, it is an obligation. Quite frankly, if you will teach your child to obey you, he may not always like you, but I learned a long time ago that although I desire my kids to like me, I demand that my kids respect me. But notice it is not just for the sake of the ...

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