Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4276 to 4300 of 5000 results

2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... , Winston Churchill offered to have him buried with other notables in Westminster Abbey. His children declined this honor, saying that they felt their father would have preferred to be buried next to his wife. In a quiet cemetery he now rests, a small gravestone marking the spot. On the gravestone one can read simply his name, the dates of his birth and death, and, underneath, a small symbol understood by those who have been Scouts. The symbol is used by Scouts who break camp to inform their comrades where ...

4277. The Face that Launched a Thousand Lives

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... -- or the ability -- to achieve: forgiveness for the accumulated guilt of the human race. The old hymn put it well: There was no other good enough, to pay the price of sin, He only could unlock the door of heav'n and let us in. Mark Twain wrote a short story bearing the interesting title, "The Terrible Catastrophe." Before he had finished, he had worked his characters into such a predicament that whatever any one of them did would destroy them all. Reflecting on his creation, he concluded by saying, "I ...

4278. The Source

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... on the part of Madonna's publicist is remarkable. And sad. There are some who feel that way about Jesus. About God. About the church. About faith. Empty, well-meaning words by pastors and priests at times of terrible pain have left a question mark about the ability of the Divine Reality to understand truly. Not everyone sings the song with feeling, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, glory hallelujah." The scripture reading this morning sounds ...

4279. Height Advantage

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... images are only feeble attempts to speak of our mysterious and loving God whose character and being we have glimpsed through Jesus Christ. Ascension Day is celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter, or the sixth Thursday after Easter. That's this Thursday. Mark your calendar. Get out of bed this Thursday with joy and gratitude, for Jesus has ascended into heaven, and his Spirit is therefore available today to warm your heart and enable you to walk in his footsteps and live even your challenging life ...

4280. Grace in the Midst of Suffering

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... deliverance from hardship. From time to time God does indeed provide remarkable rescues. But history, on the whole, informs us that Christians die from accidents and diseases at almost the same rate as non-Christians. Enthusiastic evangelists who say otherwise are dangerously off the mark. They either fail to understand the Bible or reality or both. In fact, some preachers are so eager to get God off the hook when it comes to suffering that they are willing to put us on the hook. Whose fault is it if ...

4281. Grace in the Midst of Unanswered Prayer

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... his suffering child. If God can do anything, why did those prayers go unanswered? Jesus himself, just hours before the apex of his own suffering, affirms the unlimited power of God. He pleads in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible" (Mark 14:36). At the door of death Jesus says, "Father, you can do anything. I know that. You are all-powerful." But Jesus died. God could have done something. Yet God didn't. What are the Bible's answers to the scandal of unanswered prayer ...

4282. People See Through Us

James 2:1-13

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... . These teachings pioneered subversive modes of community. They built communities on the basis of shared ideas and commitments and not on accidents of ethnic origin, financial wealth, or formal education. They bonded the nation of the sacred to morality. They marked off favoritism between male and female, Hebrew and Greek, slave and free person, and rich and poor as a prime target for socio-moral reformation. They broke with the surrounding cultures in not linking the sacred to military strength. They ...

4283. The Lions Are Shackled

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

King Duncan

... be. The lions are shackled. Let us go forward with confidence as those for whom Christ died. 1. Bruce Felton, What Were They Thinking? (Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press, 2003), p. 135. 2. http://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Isaiah.html. 3. Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen, The One Minute Millionaire (New York: Harmony Books, 1990). 4. Sermon Fodder, http://www.sermonfodder.com. 5. Pastor Ian Hussey, North-East Baptist Church, Brisbane, AU. http://neb.sev.com.au/sermon19.php. 6. A. Dudley ...

4284. Maundy Thursday: Seeing Ourselves in the Disciples

Matthew 26:17-30

Sermon

Brett Blair

... , a man who was in bed with the Romans. It was his responsibility to extract the tax money from his brothers--money that went to support the very institution that was enslaving the Jews. Matthew’s mind was like an adding machine. His god was the dollar mark. He reminds us of just how far many of us are willing to go to advance our own personal ambition. But when Matthew came over to Jesus he came all the way. Now he was using that brilliant analytical mind to analyze the message of the master. Now ...

4285. The Gospel According to Johan

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

... stay on the outside because we insiders don't want anything to do with outsiders." The story of Jonah reminds us that we exist for the sake of the people of our world. Who cares? God does, and God's people should. The story of Jonah ends with a question mark. This "Scrooge" doesn't have a heart for the people. So here's the question for you and me: If Jesus came to save the people of Kabul, New York, London, Tokyo, and all people everywhere, what kind of love should we show others if we claim to experience ...

4286. The Challenge of God Brings Hope

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... history. According to the Priestly tradition of the Old Testament, the great flood, a story which most exegetes believe arose from the famous Babylonian epic "Gilgamesh," signals the end of the first great epoch of world history. The second epoch, marked by the covenant with Noah, presupposes the theological disorder caused by sin and introduces as normative those adverse conditions of life, namely the many tests, challenges and vicissitudes of our daily journey, that the average person encounters. Today's ...

4287. Obedience to God's Plan

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... " because they did something different than the teams. Strangely, it was The Others who were given the baton to carry, since the teams argued amongst themselves over which group should have it. The five teams, the Reds, Yellows, Blacks, Browns, and Whites, took their marks and then took off at breakneck speed. The Yellow team won the second lap. The teams decided after the second circuit of the field, just for the heck of it, that they would station various members of each team at select sites around the ...

4288. Led by the Spirit of God

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... Tim's Clean Laugh List - http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh. 2. Alison Leslie Gold, Fiet's Vase (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2003), pp. 169-170. 3. Lucinda Bassett, Life Without Limits (New York: Cliff Street Books, 2001), pp. 141-142. 4. Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen, The One Minute Millionaire (New York: Harmony Books, 1990). 5. Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990). 6. Paul Tournier, Creative Suffering (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982). 7. Philip Yancey ...

4289. Sowing Good Seed - Father's Day

Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... Strindberg who said, ‘That is the thankless position of the father in the family the provider for all and the enemy of all.' Oscar Wilde said, ‘Fathers should neither be seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.'" (1) In our lesson from Mark, Jesus is describing the kingdom of God: "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how . . ." Now Jesus is not ...

4290. The Good Shepherd

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... them went astray. In our way of thinking a 99% return on our investment would be most desirable, but not this shepherd. He left the 99 to go in search of that one lost sheep. Later, when Jesus was speaking to a great throng of people, Mark tells us that he had compassion upon them because they were "as sheep without a shepherd." Throughout the Judeo-Christian faith, then, the image of the shepherd has been stamped upon our thinking. In our scripture text for this morning Jesus again taps into this imagery ...

4291. The Preacher Was Caught by Surprise

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... people--until that day comes when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. This is our task. That is our reason for being. We have no other. 1. Holy Thursday (Year A), St. Mark the Evangelist Anglican Church, Ottawa, ON (March 28, 2002 L.http://www.bloomquist.ca/publications/Church%20materials/holy%20thursday%20year%20a%202002.html 2. Charlotte Ann Russell, "Summer Prayer," preached at First Congregational Church of Berkeley on July 26, 1998. Dr. Gregory Knox ...

4292. Replacing a Fallen Comrade

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... online service, but he does not know how to go online himself. Does it bother you that a man advertising an online service doesn't even know how to operate a computer? Hey, that's advertising, but we expect more out of a spokesperson for Christ, don't we? Author Mark Twain was a man who was a life-long critic of the Christian faith. Though he married a woman of deep faith, Twain himself was a cynic. Here's what happened to Twain to cause him to lose his faith. As he was growing up, Twain knew church elders ...

4293. And God Breathed Into Man

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of less value than agriculture. In fact, it is worthless. If God exists, then theology is more important in a university curriculum than agriculture." (This debate was reported by William M. Logan, In the Beginning, God , John Knox Press, 1957. Portions in quotation marks are taken from his book, pages 31 and 32). It would appear that Hutchins lost the debate. I don't know a university in which the theology school and the theology curriculum is seen as unifying discipline for everything else. NOTE: INSERT ...

4294. An Affirming Presence

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , whether it is our husbands, whether it is our wives, whether its members of the family, or whether it is our friends, to accept persons on the basis of their performance is a superficial, selfish sham. I thought I had won the battle, and to a marked degree I had, but about three years ago, it ravaged my spirit again in a rather subtle but telling way. Douglas Spear, the great Quaker scholar and champion of the inner life, who has written so helpfully a number of books on prayer and spirituality, came ...

4295. A Guiding Presence

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... trace a pattern and the pattern is this - when I am intentional in cultivating an awareness of the indwelling Christ, yielded and responsive to that presence, I have known wholeness of life, a vibrancy of spirit and joy. And my ministry has been marked by an obvious spiritual quality that genuinely blessed others. But when I’ve been slack in that intentional effort of staying alive to the aliveness of Christ in me, then my joy diminishes, my confidence deteriorates, what accomplishments I experience seem ...

4296. Being Christ

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... word, but it supports Jesus’ beatitude, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Possessions, position, and power. Not approached with meekness, generate mistrust, severing of relationships, even violence. Meekness generates reconciliation and caring, and meekness is the telling mark of our being Christ in the world. I heard a beautifully simple but poignant story the other day, and with this I close. A 7 year old boy from a poor family in New York was doing his bit to help the ...

4297. Reconciliation: Our Gift And Our Ministry

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... God. I thought that Sunday worship was the pinnacle. I thought it was all I could take, and I wasn’t ready emotionally for Monday. Olar Parnamince, the president of the Estonian Methodist church, that we’re going to have at ChristChurch one of these days, mark that down, invited clergy and lay leadership from all over the Republic to come for a Monday teaching and worship session. All but one who had been invited came, that one was sick. There were over 60 leaders of the church gathered in their small ...

4298. Why I Believe In Tithing

Malachi 3:6-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... tithe as a minimum. Now it amazes me that there are some who object to tithing because we’re no longer under law, but are under grace. It’s absolutely true that we are under grace. But to make that a reason for giving less than the tithe is the mark of an ungrateful, uninformed heart that is not fully aware of the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, and what grace is all about. If you want to make the fact that we’re living under grace rather than law a reason for ...

4299. Miracles In Contrast

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... whom I will share this most human of all moments, is there anyone else? If Christmas is true, the answer is yes. Is anything more desperately needed? The barbed wire of estrangement, separation, conflict, crisscrosses our lives. The guilt of missing the mark, betraying ourselves and our highest values, selling out to immorality, and so our need desperate forgiveness and acceptance. In Christ, God speaks that forgiving word and here again is the miracle in contrast. Dark night of sin and guilt, bright dawn ...

4300. Participants In The Gospel

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... universal. That’s the reason I’m a Methodist - because John Wesley had, as his cardinal proclamation of the gospel, the universality of grace and universal salvation. The gospel is universal. The gift of God of himself in Jesus Christ is offered to all. Yet, mark this down, the privilege is an exclusive one. The privilege is an exclusive one. Belonging to those who by faith belong to Jesus Christ. Now I want you to get that clear. This is the universal aspect of the gospel – over against the claim of ...

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