Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4351 to 4375 of 4999 results

James 2:1-17

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... a few minutes later with a dirty piece of pastry. The man was outraged. "You can't treat me this way. I have a right to be served like all the others. I expect good service and food for my money." "You don't seem to understand," the waitress responded kindly. "You can't buy anything here. We don't accept money. You have just arrived in heaven and all you can order here is what you sent ahead while on earth. I just checked the records and the only thing we have for you is this dirty eclair." The businessman ...

4352. Looking in All the Wrong Places

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... , but I've never been to me." The song was released amidst the turmoil of the women's liberation movement and the aftermath sexual revolution of the 1970s; and even then not everyone agreed with its sentiment (or even understood it). It stood as a kind of counterbalance to Helen Reddy's earlier smash hit, "I Am Woman." Taken together, both songs musically depict the struggle of the gender throughout the last century to find the female place in the world. For centuries, women have been told by their cultural ...

4353. The 6 Words that Can Save Your Life

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... garth” . . . can it? Can they? In this week’s epistle reading, Paul offers to the congregation at Philippi a road map to a new kind of existence—-an existence free from anxiety, a life free from worry and gnawing doubt, a life filled and fulfilled by what the apostle ... then be “prayerful in everything.” If we are truly “thankful in anything,” the “prayerful in everything” component is kind of a given. There is no way to be thankful in anything without resorting to being prayerful in ...

4354. Beware: Hypocrites on Premises

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

David T. Ball

... reaction is understandable. Who would want to go to a church filled with people who don't practice what they preach? That would, at the very least, be disconcerting. Maybe they've been frustrated by the discrepancy between friendly relations on Sunday mornings and the kinds of tensions and outbursts that can happen at church board meetings. Or maybe they simply think there isn't enough of a match between how people behave in church and how they behave during the rest of the week in their daily lives. When I ...

4355. A Clock or a Compass?

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

David T. Ball

... is at hand. Time to reach for our compasses. Consider the possibility that this passage has more to do with the direction that we are moving in within time, and the kinds of lives we lead within time, than with whether time as we know it is coming to an end. Jesus was talking about the direction his culture was moving in, and the kinds of lives people were leading, and was saying, “Hey! It’s time to change course, and time to change lives.” “Sure!” his listeners may have thought. “Like it’s in ...

4356. It’s About God

John 3:14-21

Sermon

David T. Ball

... getting compared to a snake! I don’t like snakes much — maybe you or your kids do — but I know they’re not portrayed in any kind of favorable light in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So I look closer at what’s being said, and all I ... s Son. The emphasis is on Jesus Christ as God’s gift to us, given out of God’s love for us, rather than as some kind of emissary who was “sent” to tell us something, or to do something to us, like judge us. God “gave” us God’s only Son, as ...

4357. Claiming a Do-Over Faith

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... of ashes, The oil of gladness rather than mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. This season that we now call Christmas, this time of waiting heralds the coming of God's acceptable year, the arrival of the jubilee, the emergence of a new do-over kind of world. And you and I have been personally called to announce it, to celebrate it, and to usher it in together. If we choose, we can be the bearers of the good news, to each other, to our community, to our nation, and even to our world. It ...

4358. No More Camping Out

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... 's not God who changes. It's we who change. Thus, our perceptions of God change, and we can see this by the way people relate to their understanding of God throughout our history. This was a God untempered by the religion of Jesus. This was not the gentle Jesus kind of God who snuggles up with the kids on his lap. This was a God who could lose it and "burst forth with an outburst upon Uzzah" (2 Samuel 6:8). This was God with an attitude. David was not only angry; he was scared. "How," he wondered, "can the ...

4359. Time for a New Wardrobe

Isaiah 61:1—62:12

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... of salvation." I can't help it but my irreverent side goes immediately to what size Isaiah may have worn. "Could I have the garments of salvation in a 42 long please?" Are these garments off the rack, or are they tailored, one-of-a-kind items? I wonder if they have anything from last season. Hmmm. All kidding aside, though, there are some issues that arise from this. What are the garments of salvation, anyway? Isaiah does mention "robes of righteousness," it's true. But he also describes bridal wear ...

4360. Time to Come Home

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... relationships together. I believe that our relationship with God is the same way. If we go to God once and think we're done, we've not understood either God or ourselves. This isn't a one time thing. I believe that we live in a kind of perpetual drift, moving with a hundred different currents away from the holy. My experiences tell me that we almost cannot help moving slowly (sometimes not so slowly) away from God. My experiences also tell me that we must develop an intentional disciplined life that helps ...

4361. Following a God Who Flip Flops ...

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... that humanitarian aid and other engagement might help stop the slaughter, so they lobbied the White House with all kinds of information. The president reviewed the information, and saw that maybe our nation could make a difference. He changed ... be erratic or flip-flopping who knows how to love, than I would for someone who is consistently arrogant and prideful. How about you? What kind of leaders do you want? How is it that we hold these people accountable? Let us make a new beginning today as we hold one ...

4362. Chocolate Cake, Flooded Waters, and Baptism

Genesis 9:8-17

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... where he was most vulnerable. Then the little voice of rationalization suggested that no one would know if he took a pepperoni stick. The pepperoni stick tasted mighty good as he first put it into his mouth, but as he sucked on it, he found that it had kind of an odd taste. Nevertheless, he was hungry, so he went back for a second piece. "They'll never notice that two sticks are missing," he thought. This time he looked closer at the label on the jar. It read, "Puppy Pepperoni." 1. Because of a variety of ...

4363. God’s Surprises

Acts 10:44-48

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the heavens opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. Then he heard a voice saying, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean." The voice said to him a second ...

4364. Being Good ... for Nothing

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... we can laugh at some of these silly suggestions, isn't it? It's good, because we know that we all have some of those kind of days, and they are anything but funny. Take Jeannie, for example. She had majored in motherhood for 25 years, and then her last child ... . Jay's last comment was, "I just want to die so I won't hurt any more." We have all struggled with losses of one kind or another, and sooner or later we arrive at the big three-letter question, "Why?" Have you ever wondered, "Why must I go through what ...

4365. Defining Love

Matthew 22:34-46

Illustration

Frank G. Adams

... a little old man and a little old woman who are still friends even after they know each other so well." Bobby, age 5, says: "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Jenny, age 7, says: "There are two kinds of love. God's love. Our love. But God makes both kinds." That last answer is worthy of a philosopher. Maybe we should listen to children more than we do. They see the world around them with clear, fresh eyes, and interpret it with clear, fresh minds.

4366. The Core of Hypocrisy

Matthew 23:1-39

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

The entertainment industry is an ego-driven affair populated by throngs of people who are full of themselves. As even actor Marlon Brando once observed, "The greatest love affairs I have ever witnessed took place with one actor, unassisted." Yet there is even so a kind of unspoken "code" among these people that says if you are too obvious with this self-infatuation, you will be shunned. Some years ago when actress Sally Field won her second Oscar in the span of only a few years, she famously gushed in her ...

4367. Keeper of the Springs

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

Peter Marshall

... . If you make a practice of telling social lies, it will be difficult to teach your child to be truthful. If you say cutting things about your neighbors and about fellow members in the church, it will be hard for your child to learn the meaning of kindness. The twentieth-century challenge to motherhood–when it is all boiled down–is that mothers will have an experience of God, a reality which they can pass on to their children. For the newest of the sciences is beginning to realize, after a study of the ...

4368. 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... stand before him on that day. As Paul continues his thanksgiving for the Corinthian Christians there is a hint of the metallic taste of irony in his words. He celebrates that these Christians “have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind” (v.5). This community of faith has been so “strengthened” by Christ’s gifts that they “are not lacking in any spiritual gift” (v.7). While thanking God Paul is also pointing out all those exact attributes, all the spiritual gifts that will ...

4369. Prepare the Way - Sermon Starter

Mark 1:1-8

Illustration

Brett Blair

His name was John. People knew him locally as the Baptist. Some would say of him that he was a religious eccentric. Others less kind would dismiss him as being simply a flake. He definitely did not seem to be the kind of "How to win friends and influence people" type of personality to usher in the news of the Messiah's coming. He just somehow doesn't seem to fit in with shepherds and wise men and the other characters that we traditionally associate with the Christmas story. Yet, this was ...

4370. Break Free From the Scrooge Syndrome

Mark 1:1-8

Illustration

Gregory Knox Jones

... poor, or even providing a living wage to dedicated workers. He clutches onto his money and despises the thought of parting with any of it. But it is not only his money that Scrooge withholds from others, it is his entire being. He withholds love and kindness, he withholds warmth and friendship. Then, one night, Scrooge undergoes a profound crisis. He sees himself through the eyes of others. He has a vivid vision of his past; and then his present. But what is most frightful to him - what shakes him to the ...

4371. Returning God's Call

1 Samuel 3:1-10

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

... the fledgling prophet have learned to open his mind and heart to receive God's words? C.S. Lewis said there are two kinds of people in the world: those who respond to God saying, "Thy will be done" and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way." ... It might also be said that there are two kinds of people who return God's call: those who say to God "Thy will be done" and those who respond to God by saying "All right ...

4372. The Three Stages to Truth: A Biblical Philosophy of Education

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that they are confronting a ghost, the disciples in Jerusalem obediently feed their master. In doing so they are reassured of his real physical presence among them. The disciples at Emmaus and Jerusalem do not gain new insights and ideas. They embody a new kind of relationship. As Brown puts it, at Emmaus the disciples discovered that "it is not 'enunciated truth' that matters so much as 'enacted truth."' (79) Knowing truth is not fully possible unless we are doing truth. Again Brown says it best: "It is a ...

4373. When C Is Not Average

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Psychologist Eugene Kennedy is famous for talking about "the wonder of the ordinary." He observes that "when persons suffer mental illness, they lose something of their individuality, they exhibit common kinds of behavior that we call 'symptoms.' Because of the similarity of their symptoms, people can be classified as having the same kind of illness." But that is not the way with ordinary persons. Healthy people cannot be put into categories for a startlingly simple reason. They are all different from one ...

4374. Protecting Your Valuables

James 3:13-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to signify "the sum total of principles, ideals, desires, and so forth that constitute the basic motivational structure of a person or, indeed, an entire culture." Now the word "value" means something more subjective than objective. Previously people saw themselves pursuing certain kinds of activities because those activities had value. "Now we are more apt to conclude that persons have values that lead them to behave in certain ways"(158). The down side to this is that we now think of values as personal ...

4375. Grits, Grats and Gruts...Not Grunts

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to achieve dramatic tax breaks and reduced gift effects. All three of these strategies allow one to help charities and churches while leaving assets to heirs, all the while retaining control over resources plus reducing gift and estate taxes. This is one kind of willpower. While Grits, Grats, and Gruts will surely be used and abused by individuals whose bank accounts are far more developed than their sense of responsibility and benevolence, they nevertheless open a way for the spheres of money and morality ...

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