Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 401 to 425 of 972 results

401. The Preacher Was Caught by Surprise

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... today. Every group I know expects God to show partiality to its own group. Even at football games, people want God to favor their team. Two thousand years ago in Judea, this was a particularly important theme. The Jewish people had survived by being exclusive. And even the early Christian church restricted itself to those who were circumcised Jews. Now Peter was disregarding all that. No one is to be regarded as impure or unclean. It was an amazing turnabout. Then Peter begins to preach the good news of ...

402. Saying Yes To Forgiveness

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that I had to make up for my sins. And so, as a teenager in the middle fifties faced with a time when it came time to do something with my life, I was of the opinion that it would be difficult for me to love one person to the exclusion of all others, and marriage therefore seemed out of the question even though I felt that was a stronger personal desire than going into the Convent, but I needed to make up for my sins, and so, I thought God must be calling me into the Convent. Two of my ...

403. Pack Up Your Troubles

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... me. We could have been such support for one another." When that fellow told me that, I remembered a powerful story in Robert Veninga's book, A Gift of Hope. One day, Veninga was in the hospital visiting a nurse who, for 21 years, had been working exclusively with terminally ill patients. "Robert asked her if there was such a thing as a 'good death.' She said that there sure was such a thing, but it had one prerequisite: All important tasks must be completed. He asked her what she meant and she told him ...

404. When You Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... we pray. And what is the name? “Our Father.” I know there are those who would seek to diminish the use of Father as the Christian’s primary address to God. They feel this turns God into a male figure, and that it is exclusive of females. That’s a distorted perception, and it takes feminist theology that has so many positive dimensions to it in a negative direction. God is neither male nor female — but, here is Christianity’s characteristic address. Paul affirmed to the Galatians, “God is sent ...

405. Generic Christianity Is Not Enough

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... these things happen and we know that there are ways of life that promise much but offer little. There are ways of life and there is the way: Jesus, “the way, the truth, and the life.” There are those who would say that it’s too exclusive to claim Jesus as the way. There are all sorts of ways, they say. Did you see the TV segment about the orphanage in Albania? A young man, Mark Nyberg, is the director. Burning, looting, and wild tirades of killing forced our government to evacuate American citizens ...

406. The Church: An Enclave of Resistance v1

Romans 12:1-8, Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... our understanding of grace and makes grace the active force that defines the church as an enclave of resistance. Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides a perspective here that makes our discipleship clear. When we’re called to follow Christ we’re summoned to an exclusive attachment to His Person. The grace of His call bursts all the bonds of legalism. It is a gracious call, a gracious commandment. It transcends the difference between the Law and the Gospel. Christ calls, the disciple follows; that is grace and ...

407. Staying Alive All Your Ministry Life: Will You Finish Well?

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Some fine golfers – Ian Baker-Finch, Steve Ballesteros, Chip Beck – have revamped their swing and never returned to their earlier glory. What was Woods thinking? “I knew I wasn’t in the greatest positions in my swing at the Masters,” Woods said during an exclusive interview last week. “But my timing was great, so I got away with it. And I made almost every putt. You can have a wonderful week like that even when your swing isn’t sound. But can you still contend in tournaments with that swing ...

408. The Work of An Evangelist

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... -class university. Between the two, the reasons for holding them back were three-fold. 1) Too strong an emphasis on the transcendence and holiness of God. 2) An unwillingness to surrender a “Father image” of God. 3) What the committee called “too exclusive claims for the person and work of Jesus Christ in our salvation.” Now to be sure those students may have been too brittle in their unwillingness to nuance language and metaphor – the language of God. But on the other two issues the committee ...

409. Salvation Is For All

Romans 9:30--10:21

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... are with us. In this time of worship, strengthen our faith and grant us the courage that comes from knowing we are not alone, for you are always with us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Loving God, when we are tempted to think we have exclusive claim to your love and care, remind us again that in your eyes there are no differences between your children everywhere, and that you are the Lord of all. Help us so to live that we may be messengers of your love that says: "Everyone who calls out ...

410. The Heart of an Intimate Matter

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... and in the deep memory of the flesh. Adultery is kin to the world adulterate, which means to mix something so that it loses its purity. Adultery, whether in mind or action, divides a person; it divides the loyalty of the bonds which are by design exclusive. Adulterers are cross-bonded, making promises in two worlds that they keep in neither. They are split. Jesus said, not that you may not but that you cannot serve two Masters. TURNING TO THE TEXT Human nature has not changed; the human situation and human ...

411. Facing Fears, Kingdom Style

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... to avoid our problems and the suffering they cause, proceeding far afield from all that is clearly good and sensible in order to try to find an easy way out, building the most elaborate fantasies in which to live, sometimes to the total exclusion of reality.”3 Jesus was under no illusion about mental and spiritual health of his first followers. Thomas was a born skeptic, Peter greatly impulsive and blind to his considerable frailties; James and John used their mother to triangle Jesus and beg favors ...

412. The God Who Must Be Pursued

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... said: "It's logical that someone would fall, down there." A CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST came along: "You only THINK that you are in a pit." A PHARISEE said: "Only BAD people fall into pits." A MATHEMATICIAN calculated HOW he fell into the pit. A NEWS REPORTER wanted the exclusive story on his pit. A FUNDAMENTALIST said: "You DESERVE your pit." CONFUCIUS said; "If you would have listened to me, you would not be in that pit." BUDDHA said: "Your pit is only a state of mind." A REALIST said: "That's a PIT, all right ...

413. Jesus Came To Seek And To Save The Lost

Luke 19:1-10

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... of worship that it may revive our spirits and deepen our concern for all people who do not know you. Send us forth from this time together to seek and to save those who are lost. Amen. Prayer Of Confession O Lord, help us to shed any semblance of exclusiveness in our church that all may feel welcome and find here a place where they will hear the call of Jesus. May they respond to his bidding to come out of their hiding place and welcome Jesus into their lives. Amen. Offertory Prayer O God, we, your people ...

414. Resurrection

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... . The thorns of Good Friday have blossomed into the roses of resurrection. Christ the Lord is risen. [Christ is risen indeed!] Pastor Cameron S. Smith tells a wonderful story. It is about the only white person in the state of Georgia buried in a cemetery reserved exclusively for African-Americans. This man had lost his mother when he was just a baby. His father, who never married again, hired a black woman named Mandy to help raise his son. She was a Christian woman who took her task seriously. Seldom has a ...

415. All Keyed Up

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... from Paul's Letter to the Romans. You will read that in all Paul's letters throughout the New Testament. The Church is a body, the body of Christ, made up of many members. Each member has something special to give. God has given each member a gift, a talent, exclusively to that person. A member of the body of Christ is to exercise his or her gift for the good of the whole. If one part of the body just sits, then the whole body languishes. If a certain critical mass of the members of the body just sit, the ...

416. View from the Mountaintop

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... never watch the wheat and barley ripen or smell the fresh bread made from them. For Moses himself, the years of drudgery do not pay off. Moses does the hard work; someone else will enjoy the bounty of the Promised Land. Our initial response to Moses' exclusion from the Promised Land may be frustration at the unfairness. How could God be so inflexible? Even if we cannot answer that question entirely, if we reflect on the story, we can begin to see some instruction for ourselves. On one level, the story was ...

417. Family Matters

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... is the first Church Council at Jerusalem. The issue was whether Gentiles would be let into the Church without circumcision, which meant, do they have to become Jews in order to become Christians. Or what it really meant is that, in a church that is made up exclusively of Jews, do they have to become like I am in order to become a Christian. Paul came back to Jerusalem to raise that question among the elders. Paul is making his point. The elders are all sitting around in a circle, Paul in the middle. Paul ...

418. Have You Got a Prayer?

Luke 3:21-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... everybody in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." Which is to say, go baptize people so they will have the experience that I did in knowing that I am a child of God. Then teach them how to pray, "Our Father." The exclusiveness that characterized all religions up to that point was shattered, just demolished by that preaching. The hierarchy of class was demolished by that preaching. The segregation by race, the division by gender, the separation that is caused by poverty and wealth in our society ...

419. Who Is This Man?

Mark 14:43-52

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the linen cloth. Now that was the theory. This was John Mark, who witnessed the scene and then later wrote down what he had seen. For many it explained why this strange reference is here in the Gospel of Mark. No other gospel records this. This is exclusive to Mark. It serves no salutary purpose, no edification. It's just like a footnote in this story. Or it's like Alfred Hitchcock, you remember, who always put himself into his pictures. For just a fleeting moment, just a second, he was there. It was always ...

420. Epiphany 6

Matthew 5:17-37, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; 3:1-23, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Psalm 119

Bulletin Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... of age" in the sense of outgrowing God, but it is a growth into the wisdom of God. 2. Secret (v. 7). Paul has a secret to share. He knows and understands something the non-Christian does not perceive. It is a hidden wisdom that is not held in an exclusive or proud manner. This is the wisdom of God - knowing the mind of God in terms of God's fulfillment of his plan to redeem humanity. 3. Spirit (vv. 10-13). The Spirit is the guide and revealer of the truth of God. Since God is spirit, it is necessary ...

421. Proper 16

Matthew 16:13-20, Romans 11:33-36, Romans 12:1-8, Isaiah 51:1-16, Exodus 2:1-10, Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... the extent that he has revealed himself. Paul reminds us that what we know is infinitesimal, only a tip of the iceberg. Who can plumb the depths of god's wisdom, judgment, will, and grace? In this period when God is imminent to the exclusion of transcendence, when God is humanized, when Christianity has become a sanctified anthropology in place of theology, we need Paul's corrective in reminding us that God is the totally-other, the hidden, incomprehensible God. Our finite minds are unable to grasp even the ...

422. God's Delight

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... , was, in the last few years of his life, head of the troubled New York Public Library system. Before his sudden death several years ago, this commanding and influential priest was the confidante of several United States presidents, a valued guest at the most exclusive dinner parties, a towering intellect who could intimidate the most famous scholars in the world. And yet, as one friend said at his memorial service: "(though) Tim was bigger than life, he was also gentle as anything. I don't know anybody who ...

423. God Never Gives Up on Anyone

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... special roles of responsibility. It is, for most, relatively easy to pursue those we like, those who do something for us, those who make us laugh and feel joyful. How hard it can be to pursue those we find problematic or troublesome. God is not exclusive in his pursuit of us; the Hound of Heaven searches for all without reservation. We must pursue members of our family, not only those we like, but maybe most especially those with whom we are estranged or find difficult. We must pursue our neighbor, whether ...

424. Predictable Surprises

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the Lord would return, only to have the world go on with alarming normalcy when that great day dawned. Faith was crushed. Whole faith communities disbanded in disarray when predicted end days became simply another day. End-time fixations were not exclusive manifestations of ancient communities. On October 23, 1844 thousands of Christians sold their earthly possessions, dressed in white robes, climbed to the tops of the highest mountains they could find, climbed to the tippy-tops of trees to get even higher ...

425. Live and Learn

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... reside in a householder's home are his responsibility and his concern. If Jesus refers to the Canaanite woman, to all he people, as mere house dogs in God's household, to her that means they're indeed part of the family. She hears inclusion, not exclusion, for house dogs are a welcomed part of the household. A householder keeps faith, keeps care, of all those in his household. This is what the Canaanite woman learns from Jesus' example. And this is what she reveals back to him. In other words, Jesus "learns ...

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