Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4601 to 4625 of 4999 results

4601. What Matters In the Light of Eternity: “God Matters”

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . We can live together with those differences. But what about the weightier matters of life? Why do we believe that napalming babies is bad, starving the poor is wicked, buying and selling each other is depraved? If there is no God, there can be no good reason to be kind, loving, or work for peace? We all live as if it is better to seek peace instead of war, tell the truth instead of lying, to care and nurture rather than destroy. But if the cosmic bench is empty, who is there to say what is right and what ...

4602. Conflict Resolution (Series: Fundamentals of Family)

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... truth is not when a mother’s child has been killed by a drunken driver. So, before any words pass from your lips, let them pass this litmus test of love: Are they true? Are they kind? Are they Necessary? In your heart, give a truthful answer. II. Be Flexible Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. A Green Bay Packers fan, upset that his 7-year-old son would not wear a Packers’ jersey during the team’s playoff victory last Saturday, restrained the child to a ...

4603. Valley of Suffering (Series: Peace in the Valley)

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... unexplored assumptions of most people. We believe in the “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” God trumps death with life, not some vague, shadowy existence of the soul in the great sea of all humanity, but real life, individual life, bodily life, a kind of life that’s hard to imagine on this side of the grave. None of this may be significant to you who are busy making a living, raising a family, trying to hold things together here, but one of these days when your troubles and struggles ...

4604. Valley of Weakness (Series: Peace in the Valley)

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to take a chance on me.” II. To Be Weak Is To Be Needy “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, and those who weep now.” Kind of a sorry lot, wouldn’t you say? Which brings me to my second question, “Why is it so hard to ask for help?” To be ... restaurant. “That’s what’s wrong with this country,” snapped the woman. “Kids today don’t even know how to pray.” But a kind, old gentlemen came to the rescue. He winked at the child and said, “I happen to know that God thought that was a great ...

4605. Come and See

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... it all got mixed up in his stomach any way. And he responded that it most certainly did not, HIS stomach had compartments for each kind of food. We did everything, including trying to bribe him, to try and get him to just try one bite of a casserole. One night ... was to learn about automobiles. He was so good that while blindfolded, he could listen to an engine and tell you what kind of automobile the engine came from. Over the years he had amassed information and manuals on almost every known vehicle ever made ...

4606. The Gift of Gifts

John 1:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... profound. The Gift of Gifts, the true meaning of Christmas fills us not only with hope, but with the Spirit of Christmas, which is the Fruit of the Spirit found in Gal 5:22-23: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things." NRSV The True meaning of Christmas, this child, the Word of God made flesh, lives in us through the spirit. God gave us Himself. God is the Spirit within us, reminding us ...

4607. The Gift Unwrapped

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... something or someone bigger. A God with a "mighty hand and an outstretched arm!" as the prophets said. A God with his dukes up ready for a good brawl! A turbo- charged, beefed up, hard body, no-nonsense, take charge, "The Force be with you!" kind of God. Not a baby. What kind of God announces his coming, puts everybody on hold until their expectations are high and then comes as an infant who makes us wait until he grows up. We want something or someone who will turn the world upside down, now. Not in thirty ...

4608. The Gift of Comfort

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... moments that you have occasionally. And it got me to thinking about today's passage of Scripture about bringing comfort. The goal for the comforter is the same as what I saw in my mirror, to only see Jesus. When someone pauses to reflect on the care and kindness we've shown, or the ministry in which we've been involved, and then looks into the rearview mirror of their memory, all they should see is Jesus. Jesus being lived out in us. Jesus reaching out through us. Jesus caring for them through us. All they ...

4609. The Family Album

1 John 3:1-3

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... on photographs and other items of family history and memories. One of the family members objects and asks, "How will we know it's us without our past?" Family Albums are fun to look at. The remind us who we are. They capture moments of our history that evoke all kinds of emotions. When my Mom died, one of the things I was able to do was put together a video tribute of her life. My brothers and cousins and Uncle and I went through 3 boxes of photos and photo albums. We found pictures none of us had ever seen ...

4610. One Lord, One Table

Exodus 20:1-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... tomatoes, lettuce and carrots. But his favorite was peaches. The Wallaces had a double lot and he must have had three dozen peach trees. He sold many of the peaches to a local grocery store. But Mr. Wallace also had red and purple grape vines, plum trees, four kinds of apple trees, two kinds of pear trees and one big cooking apple tree. For us kids, it was our own private fruit stand. We could eat any of the fruit we wanted as long as we didn't waste it and as long as we didn't eat from Mrs. Wallace's ...

4611. Who Do You Put On?

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... the midst of every aspect of life, especially tragedies like Hurricane Katrina. We need to let Christ use us to fill others with hope. God never leaves us. God is right there in the midst of the search and rescue efforts, the efforts to bring aid of every kind. God's heart has broken for every family involved, for every person hurt or lost. God's heart is broken but God is there, Christ is there. And you and I are the hands and feet of Christ in the world today. Conclusion A mother with two young children ...

4612. Seen The Doctor Lately?

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... made me mad for a couple of reasons. First, because of who Pat Robertson is and how many people listen to him. If he s going to represent Christ, then he needs to be like Christ. Second, because the Christian Church doesn't need another black eye. People hear this kind of mean spirited non-Christ-like garbage and judge the rest of us by it. Jesus didn't teach us to love our enemies for their good. He taught us to love our enemies for our own good, to keep us from becoming the enemy. "If it is possible, so ...

4613. Getting It, Together

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows." That's a special kind of love. A love that will not let us be lost. A love that searches for us, seeks us out and cares for the most intimate details ... in their lifetime. All the positive incidents in the person's life, plus their good attributes, strengths, and kindnesses, are recalled with accurate detail. Not one word about their irresponsible or antisocial behavior is shared. The ceremony ...

4614. Getting It Right

Romans 5:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... lives and fled. Then the king explained, "The cross which I drew beside each name was not a sign of punishment, but a pledge of forgiveness extended for the sake of the crucified Savior, who upon His cross forgave His enemies and prayed for them." (1) We know what kind of lives we lead. We don't always get it right. As a consequence sometimes we lose all hope. We see the cross and think only of the judgment and the consequences of our action and we're consumed by guilt. Sometimes that guilt gets in the way ...

4615. The Challenge, The Call, The Cure

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... the Rocket Boys. Overcoming social barriers to befriend someone else is difficult in our social conscious society. The people with whom we associate reflect who we are. If you're in to social status then you know don't move up the social ladder by hanging out with those kind of people. You can't climb the ladder by hanging out with weirdoes. If you do, people look at you like you're crazy and pretty soon they label you as one of the weirdoes. But, you know, that is exactly what Jesus did. Let's look at the ...

4616. If Everybody’s Okay, What’s the Problem? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

1 John 1:5--2:14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... in my life when I cringed at that word wretch. How dare anybody refer to themselves as a wretch? Then I read how slaves were treated on Newton’s slave ships. I went to see the movie Amazing Grace and I concluded that even the word wretch was too kind. So, whether you are an innocent looking lady in a mink coat, or an ornery old sinner treating people like slaves, the mercy and grace of God is available to you. B. The grace of God is SANCTIFYING GRACE. There are about two million people behind bars in this ...

4617. Radical Love is Truthful (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... which all the parts are touching. The mind, body, heart, and spirit are all aligned with each other, giving that person a kind of depth and grounding. Integrity means that what we say corresponds with what we inwardly know to be true. We say what we mean and mean what we ... say. That is integrity. That’s the kind of truth in our innermost being and in our relationship with others that we’ve got to strive for in the midst of life ...

4618. We Believe in the Trinity

John 16:5-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... faith that reflected the community of God as expressed in the Holy Trinity? What if there was power in the church to really transform chaos into creation? What if our sins really were confessed and forgiven? What if the Holy Spirit really did bind us together in a kind of radical love that the world had never seen before? O, deep in my heart, Sometimes I catch the vision Of what it might really be like To embrace the Holy Trinity! In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Brought to ...

4619. Radical Love is Forgiving (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... notoriety. Whatever the motive, Jesus accepts the invitation. Dinner parties of the rich and famous in our day take place in secluded mansions or heavily guarded ball rooms. Such was not the case in Jesus’ day. Dining happened in open courtyards, in public, in an open kind of place. When I was in Greece late last year, I was shocked by the way people, cats, dogs, and cars all shared the same space. You could dine in a fine restaurant and clean the headlights of passing motorists at the same time. It gave ...

4620. Will 2012 Be the End of the World?

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... Bach.” O.K., I said it was a bad joke. Jesus said he would be back someday. Jesus is our friend. Jesus is our redeemer. His return can only be good news for those who love him. What’s the big deal? In the meantime, we have all kinds of very real obstacles in the real world we have to face every day. The real message of Revelation is that God will be with us regardless of our circumstances. When the book of Revelation was written, Christians were suffering miserably at the hands of the civil authorities ...

4621. The NFL of Grace

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... have no intention of ever identifying the boy. He just made a mistake." (4) That's Forgiveness. The Disciples experienced that same kind of forgiving Grace there on the mount of transfiguration. Peter wanted to build tabernacles and enshrine the moment, he wanted to ... like you!" (6) That's what we all say when we encounter and experience the love of Jesus. We want to be as loving and kind and caring and as God centered in our lives as Jesus. We want to be as compassionate and as forgiving. We want our lives ...

4622. Catch of the Day

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. As we found out last week, Andrew had already become a fisher of people. Andrew had moved from a seeker to a pointer and introduced his brother Simon to Jesus. That must have been some special kind of encounter. Jesus must have really been struck by something in Simon's character that set him apart. Jesus even gave him a new name. Peter, the Rock. But apparently, Peter didn't just immediately jump onboard. Or maybe he did and didn't really know ...

4623. Come To the Water

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... a baptism of repentance. As the people came to the water, they were consciously surrendering the guilt of their sin, being cleansed by the water of baptism and rising clean, whole and set free to serve God in a new way. But Jesus didn't need that kind of baptism. He was and would remain sinless. John even tells Him, "I need to be baptized by you." Jesus gently reminds John that it's all part of the greater plan and purpose and it will fulfill all righteousness. Some early commentators suggest that the only ...

4624. Pursue the Life That Really Is Life

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 1 Timothy 6:6-19

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... way to express our faith is to get off our knees do something. Faith is seeking to put our relationship into action in our everyday lives. IV. Love A. That brings us to Love: Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NRSV) [4] Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant [5] or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. [7] It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures ...

4625. Fingerprints and Lovemarks

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... these in the margins and peripherals, together into a new “oneness”? It is not unity of cultures. It is not unity of liturgies and prayers. It is not a unity of theological systems or philosophical schemas. It is not a unity of ideas or ideals. So what kind of “unity” is it? The “oneness” that Jesus prayed for is a oneness of heart and a oneness of love that I call LoveMarks. Oneness for Jesus is a LoveMark of hearts that have experienced the truth that God sent the Son into the world “so that ...

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