Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4176 to 4200 of 4957 results

4176. Make Disciples—Intentionally

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... resignation? We've done all we can do, we just have to wait and see. Or is surrender finding a new Lord to whom we pledge loyalty and a new kingdom in which to pledge our allegiance? You have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior—dare you claim him as your Lord? B. Stewardship. What comes to mind? The manipulative efforts of the pastor to get selfish people to pay his salary? Money donated to a worthy cause for a common good? Sharing spare change with the poor? What if stewardship were surrender to Jesus ...

4177. Love

John 15:9-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... love." I. Love Is An Experience Love is an experience before it is an expression. So let me ask you. Are you living as a loved child of God? To be loved is to be chosen. To be chosen is to be picked, selected, wanted, desired, adopted, claimed, singled out, set aside. The need to be chosen causes pastors to run for bishop, teenagers to try out for sports teams, politicians to seek elections, and employees to work for promotions. It is a good feeling to be chosen, and a raw feeling to be overlooked, passed ...

4178. This Little Light of Mine

Matthew 5:14-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... shining? A university professor was invited to speak at a military base in December. He was met at an airport by an unforgettable soldier named Ralph. This is the professor's story: “After we introduced ourselves to each other, we headed toward the baggage claim area. But Ralph kept disappearing. Once he stopped to help an older woman with her baggage. Once he stopped to lift two toddlers up to see Santa Claus, and again, he paused to give directions to someone who was lost." Finally I said, “Where ...

4179. Lighting up Your Neighborhood

Acts 13:44-49

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... least and the lost along the road. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Stop. Look. Listen. Neighbors are those in need. III. NEIGHBORS ARE THOSE WE HAVE NOT YET MET When Paul and Barnabas got kicked out of Antioch for having too many converts, they claimed the Lord's promise made to Isaiah centuries before: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." Isn't it amazing how the Lord refuses to let the Gospel become the possession of any particular ...

4180. Males or Females?

Acts 18:1-3, 18-19, 24-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... than any other denomination in this country, but we still have a long way to go. Churches, including the Roman Catholics, Mormons, Southern Baptists, and most independent churches continue to deny ordination rights to women. A very large church in Louisville, Kentucky claims no creed but Christ and no discipline but the Bible. They allow no leadership from women beyond elementary Sunday school. Every time I get the chance I ask their leaders, “What part of Christ do you choose to follow? How much of ...

4181. The Humble King

John 12:12-19

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . Jesus is Lord, yet we insist on calling him everything else. C.S. Lewis said, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish things that people say about Jesus. I'm ready to accept Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. 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 or the devil himself. You must make your choice. Either ...

4182. Hot Air or the Holy Spirit?

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... so hard to be “with it" that we just “don't get it." We need to be in touch with the world, not in sync with the world. My suggestion is the Church ought to be a little weird. We're not in sync with the world. We don't claim to be, we shouldn't be. If we adopt the same value system as the world, we are in huge trouble in the Church. So if we are a little odd, a little weird, don't do things in such a common way, then maybe curiosity alone would help people ...

4183. Finding Our Place in the Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:12-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... effective means of ministry, I suggest the concern is more secular than spiritual. Customers question the effectiveness of providers to meet their needs. You are not a customer; you are a child of God. We were baptized into one Body. Two things happen at baptism. We are claimed and cleansed. We die with Christ at Baptism in order that we can be raised with Christ to new life. You are a loved child of God. So get over earning it, proving it, asserting it, defending it, demanding it. Take it from one who has ...

4184. Work, For the Night Is Coming

John 9:1-5

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Orleans, but you and I who call ourselves Americans. Some people say the systems failed. It's the government's fault; it's FEMA's fault. Where is the Red Cross when you need them? Why doesn't the church do something? Of course, all of us who claim to be “helpers of the hurting" bear some responsibility even though we are human and capable of being overwhelmed. Perhaps the worst thing we can do is get on television and say to people sitting on their rooftops, “We understand; we know how you feel!" We don ...

4185. Fanning the Flames of Family

Ephesians 5:8-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... RESPECT. Paul addresses family concerns a little later in this Ephesians letter by saying, “Love one another as Christ loves the Church." That is a wise instruction for husbands, for wives, for children, for parents, for grandparents, and even aunts and uncles and anyone who claims any kin to one another. Love one another as Christ loves the Church. Love is more than a second-hand emotion; love is first-hand devotion. Love is more than an act of passion; love is an act of the will that leads to service ...

4186. Embracing Christ—The Light of the World

John 8:12-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... follow Jesus. For you see, life is not about you; life is not about me. Life is about following Jesus. So, I want to give as much of myself as I understand to as much of Christ as I can comprehend. That really is all He ever asks. Would you claim Him as Savior and Lord? So, I end where I began. What will you do with Jesus? We can hesitate making up our minds, but we cannot hesitate making up our lives. For our lives get made up one way or another. You can choose not to choose, but life ...

4187. A Thousand Points of Light

Isaiah 60:1-3; 18-22

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... turn a good deed in a day of trouble. The ray of hope comes from neighbors helping neighbors, churches opening their doors as shelters, and millions of people giving money to relief efforts. The greatness of America is in the goodness of its people. We who claim to follow Jesus need to lead the way. Indeed, many are. We are rewriting the book on disaster response. When the new edition hits the press, I hope it gives credit to people of goodwill who have risen to the challenge of this devastation. People of ...

4188. Dancing with the Saints

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... as “saints.” He commends them for their loving attitude towards “all the saints.” He encourages them to celebrate their participation with “the inheritance of the saints in the light.” Clearly Paul is encouraging each member of the Colossian community to claim their own identity as a “saint,” to recognize that their fellow Christians are each and everyone “saints,” and to recall the past generations of God’s people as “saints in the light” in which they now share. You know what ...

4189. The King on a Donkey

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to say, “If you will not hear, you must be compelled to see.” (cp. specially I Kings I 30—32). These dramatic actions were what we might call acted warnings or dramatic sermons. That is what Jesus was doing here. Jesus’ action was a deliberate dramatic claim to be Messiah. But we must be careful to note what He was doing. There was a saying of the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 9: 9), (‘Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion. Shout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just ...

4190. The Tavern

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

J.K. Johnston

... of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly thereafter lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing ...

4191. Hebrews 11:1-2; 8-16

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... paroikein”), living in tents as though they were simply passing through, until the promise of the land was finally realized. The Hebrew’s preacher gives Abraham even longer faith-sight, declaring that the patriarch was focused not on establishing an earthly claim-hold but on a distant “city” with a heavenly blueprint, for its “architect and builder is God.” (v.10) The tent poles of Abraham’s present pointed to the heavenly future he anticipated through his faith. The outward reality of faith ...

4192. A Faith That Transforms, Not Just Adorns

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... handles” or cheese thighs is really going to defy the space-time continuum and strip away everything wrinkled, grey, or saggy. We all KNOW that if that super-secret skin serum being hawked on that late-night infomercial could really do what it claims, its manufacturers wouldn’t have to be advertising it on a late-night infomercial. But. And every cosmetic manufacturer in the world loves, depends, exists on this “but.” BUT we do have “hope.” The problem with this “hope” is that too often it ...

4193. Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... 11:10). What links those who lived and died in faithfulness to this “something better?” It is this new community of faithfulness through faith in Christ. The Hebrews’ preacher puts his audience on the stage and in the spotlight: “apart from us,” he claims, apart from the continued chain of faithfulness now passed on to the body of Christ, those faithful ones in the past would not “be made perfect” (v.40). It is this generational connect, this all-enveloping fog of familiarity between past and ...

4194. Who's Who

John 1:29-42

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... his disciples at random. In John, Jesus' first disciples make a shift in loyalty. The Baptist himself encourages this shift in loyalty, by pointing away from himself and toward Jesus. The Baptist again calls Jesus, "The Lamb of God" in front of his disciples. Sometimes, claiming to be disciples of Jesus means that we place our loyalty to Jesus above some of our other ways of defining ourselves. If we define ourselves as an athlete, our loyalty to Jesus has to come first, over the Sunday golf game. If we ...

4195. Sneak Preview

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... presence is anything but obvious for most of us. Where is God in the brutality of war, or the political corruption everywhere we look? Where is God when hurricanes and tsunamis wipe out hundreds of lives overnight? Where is God with all of the competing religions, each claiming to hold the truth? Where is God in the everyday dreariness of life? Where is God in our personal grief that never makes it to the headlines? With all of the things that seem to deny God's existence, or at least our ability to see God ...

4196. Wonderful Opportunities for Mission

Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... shepherd (Matthew 9:36). Matthew reports that Jesus cured every disease and sickness he encountered (Matthew 9:35b). Our Lord was clearly trying to make a point about his own mission and that of his followers with these deeds. He called the disciples together after claiming that he needed laborers to bring about a harvest he had planned (Matthew 9:37-38). And then Jesus gave the twelve "authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and sickness" (Matthew 10:1). He did not say a ...

4197. Why Is God Unfair?

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... for a game of poker. When the cards are dealt, she is surprised and thrilled. She has a royal straight flush. She will trounce God and win for herself whatever prizes God has brought to the table. In great excitement she slaps down her cards, claiming her winnings. Nothing can beat this hand! But God only laughs, a great, rolling, joyful exuberance that energizes everything around. In rich good humor, with no malice at all, God throws down his cards. Five aces! That's impossible! But there it is. And when ...

4198. A Career in The Kingdom

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... . This was the call and invitation of John the Baptist which too many had refused to heed. From Jesus' perspective, John was the first hint of dawn calling to minds newly awakening from the twisted darkness of the world in which we are trapped: the advertiser who claims to know what I need and what I want and who can make everything better with just a single credit card; the entertainer who promises me a quick fix, a cheap trick, a sensuous fling that really is love; the politician who has my best interests ...

4199. Kingdoms in Conflict

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... if the trek itself causes the demise of any or all of the compatriots. So it is in Jesus' small glimpse of the mission of God. In a world turned cold to its creator, in an age riddled by Delphic oracles and temple prostitutes and emperors claiming divinity, in a little corner of geography where messianic hopes ran high, God called together a strange team to make its mark by playing a different game. Walter Wangerin Jr., in his great allegory, The Book of the Dun Cow (along with its wonderful sequel, The ...

4200. Dressed for the Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Chris Ewing

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