Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4076 to 4100 of 4977 results

4076. What Do I Do When The Load Is Too Heavy?

Exodus 18:13-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... me, we are all in this together. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, psychologist Richard Blackmon, says that pastors are the single most occupationally frustrated group in America. About 75% of pastors go through a period of stress so great that they consider quitting the ministry, and 35 to 40% actually do. Twelve hundred ministers leave the ministry every month. [[3]] Do you know one of the things that stresses me It seems like you can't go anywhere today and get away from stress, because we have ...

4077. American Idol

Exodus 20:4-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... Ten Commandments are arbitrary anyway; they were for a different time and a different culture and they really don't make any sense today. I realize there are laws on the books today that are irrelevant. These are actual laws on the books today that quite frankly are unbelievable. - In Massachusetts, it is illegal to wear stilts while working on a construction site. - In Detroit, it is illegal to tie an alligator to a fire-hydrant. - In Maui County, Hawaii, children must be twelve years old to play on a busy ...

4078. Honor Graduate

Exodus 20:12

Sermon

James Merritt

To be an honor graduate is considered quite an accomplishment. These honors, as you know, are in Latin and they are used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree is earned. There are typically three types of Latin honors in order of increasing level of honor. They are: Cum Laude (with honor), Magna ...

4079. Sex and the City

Exodus 20:14

Sermon

James Merritt

... the relationship between husbands and wives. One teaches that children should honor their parents. The other teaches that husbands and wives should honor their vows. God doesn't mince any words. He says, "You shall not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:14, NASB) Quite frankly, we are living in a generation that not only commits adultery, but refuses to admit adultery. Proverbs 30:20 says, "Equally amazing is how an adulterous woman can satisfy her sexual appetite, shrug her shoulders, and then say, "What's wrong ...

4080. Can't Get No Satisfaction

Exodus 20:17

Sermon

James Merritt

... for your family, with wanting to be your very best. The problem with coveting, however, is when you become dissatisfied with what you have and you become jealous of what others have and you want what they have whether God wants you to have it or not. Quite frankly, it is a disease that affects not only our finances, but it affects our families. I want to share with you today three cures to covetousness. I. Be Glad For What Others Have Before I really expand on this, let me make an observation. Covetousness ...

4081. A New Beginning for Everyone

Exodus 35:4-29

Sermon

James Merritt

... to participate. Everyone should give. Let me remind you—you don't give to this church; you don't even give to a vision, you really give to the Lord. That's why the Bible says if you don't tithe you don't rob the church you rob God. Quite frankly, there is no excuse for robbing God. So let those who say they love this church and believe this church should stay here and not only survive but thrive—give; give to support the daily expenses of the church, give to retire to the debt of the church. Let ...

4082. The Clone Zone: The Bible and Cloning

Genesis 1:26-28

Sermon

James Merritt

... Now most everyone is against reproductive cloning, or at least they say they are. Most everyone goes on record as saying they do not believe we should ever indulge in cloning to reproduce human beings. The debate is raging over research cloning. Although, quite frankly, it is a slippery slope, because if you advocate research cloning, you ultimately will have to defend reproductive cloning. Now this is how research cloning works. You take a donor egg from a woman, remove its nucleus, and inject the nucleus ...

4083. A Cure for the Workaholic

Genesis 2:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... plain that there was to be something special about this one day of rest. We know a lot about this concept of rest from the very Hebrew word it comes from, because the Hebrew word gives us the English word, "Sabbath" and it literally means to "cease activity" or "to quit working." Whatever else the Sabbath day was meant to be - it was meant to be a day of rest. I don't like to tell this very much, because it was one of the first failures of my life. When I was a young boy, I talked my mother into ...

4084. Here Today Gone Tomorrow

Genesis 5:21-24, Hebrews 11:5

Sermon

James Merritt

... ? Will there be beyond death a chance to continue living, continue growing or continue loving? Can you give me any comfort?" Here is the letter her minister nephew, John Todd wrote: Dear Aunt, It is now thirty-five years since I, a little boy of six was left quite alone in the world. You sent me word that you would give me a home and be a kind mother to me. I have never forgotten the day when I made the long journey of ten miles to your house in North Killingsworth. I can still recall my disappointment ...

4085. Every Member Matters

Hebrews 10:24-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... not only fail to fulfill its purpose, but it will die. The same thing is true for Christians who refuse to become a member of a church. Sometimes when I have tried to witness to people they have very bluntly said, "That is a personal matter." Well, quite frankly, they were only half right. While your relationship to Jesus Christ is personal, God never intended it to be private. The church is a body, and every member needs to be connected to the body. The church is a family, and every family member needs to ...

4086. Is God Pleased With Me?

Hebrews 11:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... in New York City and he made this startling statement. "One morning I woke up and something had happened in the night and it struck me that I had been working on this stuff for twenty years and there was not one thing I knew about it. That is quite a shock... For the last four weeks, I've tried putting a simple question to various people in groups of people. The question is: "Can you tell me anything you know about evolution, any one thing that is true?" I tried that question on the geology staff at the ...

4087. Fishing Buddies

John 1:35-42, John 1:43-51

Sermon

James Merritt

... and talked to the wife to let her know we couldn't come, because we were preparing to take our son to college this weekend. She said, "I am sorry you can't come, perhaps we could have dinner with you and your wife sometime." Quite frankly, years ago I would have said, "Yeah, right." Now, I am saying, "Yeah right!" because, that is what fishing buddies do. II. We Must Invest Ourselves In Building Friendships Andrew went immediately to his family. Philip went immediately to a friend. "Philip found Nathanael ...

4088. God's Christmas List

John 3:16

Sermon

James Merritt

... have its limits, but God will never stop loving you. Every Christmas that rolls around, I want to remind you that you are in God's continual love. You cannot go where God does not love you. You cannot act in such a way that God will quit loving you. You cannot reach the limit of His love, because His love is absolutely unlimited. You can never stop His love, because His love is unconditional which is exactly what Christmas tells us every year. Christmas also reminds us of one other truth... III. God Wants ...

4089. Shame On Who?

John 8:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... person's position. So, where the Pharisees had come to Jesus pointing at this woman, screaming out, "Shame on you!", Jesus had turned the whole situation on its ear and was raising the question, "Shame On Who?" The story doesn't stop there. If it did, quite frankly, we would not learn the full lesson that Jesus intended to teach from both the perspective of the Pharisees and the perspective of the woman, because the second lesson we learn is... II. Be Consistent In How You See The Sin Of Others Everybody ...

4090. Get Real

John 15:1-11, 16

Sermon

James Merritt

... to be joined to Confucius. The Muslim does not claim to be joined to Mohammed, but a follower of Christ is joined to Jesus Christ. He is connected to Jesus Christ, just like a branch is connected to a vine. This is where so many people, quite frankly, get the church confused with true Christianity. So many people today have an organizational or an institutional attachment to Christ. They belong to a church or they belong to this group or they attend this Bible study or they are a part of this religious ...

4091. Why Believe the Bible?

John 17:17

Sermon

James Merritt

... for that account. The evidence must come from ancient documents and manuscripts. All ancient history is based on documentary evidence. Remember, 1000, 2000, 3000 years ago there were no videos, televisions, cameras or tape-recorders. There wasn't even any FOX news! Furthermore, quite frankly, we are at a disadvantage because we don't have any of the original accounts. We don't have the original manuscripts that were first written when all these things took place, so the question is - how do we know we have ...

4092. The Climb

Joshua 14:6-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... degree. Finding meaningful employment. Starting a business. Staying sexually pure. Getting out of debt. Starting and building a new church. It hit me the other day, as I was driving into Cross Pointe, that every time you drive in to Cross Pointe, you climb a hill. Quite frankly, Cross Pointe is more than a church. It is a mountain. It is a mountain that I have chosen to climb and thank God a mountain that many of you have chosen to climb with me. Climbing mountains can be exhilarating, certainly full of ...

4093. Your New Home

Joshua 24:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... children against bathing by making them take a bath. You don't turn your kids against eating by making them eat at mealtimes. You are not going to turn your kid against church just by making him go to church. I can assure you if a kid grows up and quits going to church it won't be because you made him go to church. Several thousand years ago, this guy named, Joshua, stood up in front of an entire nation and said, "You choose what you are going to do, but as for me and my house, we are going ...

4094. Lasting Impression

Luke 3:34-38, Matthew 1:5, 16

Sermon

James Merritt

... every person on Earth is descended from one royal person or another.[1] It works the other way as well by the way. Anyone who had children more than a few hundred years ago is likely to have millions of descendants today - quite a few of them famous. For example, King Edward III who ruled during the 14th century had nine children and counts among his descendants: presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Zachary Taylor, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt, authors - Lord ...

4095. James 1:17-27

James 1:19-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... every perfect gift,” every “generous act of giving.” James’ emphasis is on the absolute perfection (“teleiosis”) of God’s gifts, which could never be tainted with temptations. At this point in his text James’ offers a description of God that is quite unusual: “the Father of lights.” It is a reference that calls attention to the Creator God, the one who brought about the stars, the sun, and the moon. Yet James also calls this Creator God “Father,” a title that emphasizes the ongoing ...

4096. The “Gratitude Salute”

James 1:19-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... are brought out and distributed throughout the congregation. Holding the scrolls high, the worshipers dance, weaving in and out, laughing, crying, rejoicing, embracing the gift that God has given to them, celebrating that they are living life “doing” the Torah. Maybe we’re not quite ready to wave our Bible’s over our heads and dance together in circles. But we need to find a way to show thankfulness, to recognize the giftedness that lives in our midst. Here’s one idea. It used to be when trying to ...

4097. The Paint Bucket

Mark 7:18

Illustration

Staff

... a lot of resources so he had to do his painting on foot. After the first day at work his supervisor was very impressed when he learned that this new employee had painted three miles' worth of lines. Unfortunately, the next day his results were not quite as impressive. He was only able to extend the lines for two miles. The third day he only painted less than one mile of lines. The supervisor went from being impressed to being concerned. The new employee's performance was now not acceptable. He called him ...

4098. I Didn't Know How to Teach Until I Met You

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Illustration

Keith Wagner

... of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy ...

4099. Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... says, "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Now there is a controversy about whether or not you have to accept Jesus Christ as Lord in order to be saved. Quite frankly, I don't know what the controversy is all about. First of all, why would anybody want to be saved if they did not want to accept Christ as Lord? Number two: That is the only kind of salvation there is. Jesus is not Savior or Lord. He is ...

4100. Am I a Real Christian?

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 ...

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