Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4701 to 4725 of 4915 results

4701. Past, Present, Future

Isaiah 43:16-21

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

We have a great history as a nation, but many of us are content with the pious stories we learned as children and shy away from learning more about the great events that shaped America. For instance, most people would prefer the story that, as a child, George Washington said, "I cannot tell a lie," in admitting he had cut down a cherry tree with his axe. The true story, according to Henry Wiencek in his book, An Imperfect God, is that Washington admitted to his mother that he had ridden a favorite horse of ...

4702. Connected

John 15:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

For Christmas one year, a particular woman had asked for a specific vacuum cleaner, A Rainbow Vacuum. These vacuums use water to trap the dust. They had seen a demonstration and were absolutely floored by what this vacuum could do. But since it was a high priced vacuum (about $1,000) the woman decided to ask her family to purchase it for her. About a week before Christmas, the vacuum was delivered and everybody agreed that it would be good to give it to mom early so they could use it to clean the house for ...

4703. No More Tears

John 11:17-37

Sermon

King Duncan

You may have noticed that our lessons for today from Revelation and from the Gospel of John both involve tears. In one passage Jesus weeps. In the other, God wipes away tears from His children’s eyes. All of us can relate to the idea of crying. We’ve all done it at some time in our lives. Of course some people cry easier than others and people cry for different reasons. “You don’t love me anymore,” said one poor guy’s wife as she turned on the waterworks. “When you see me crying, you never ask why.” “I am ...

4704. Living in Chains

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. (2 Timothy 1:12). It was in 1965 that the Rolling Stones recorded the song, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction." Even today, over fifty years later, we are still saying the same words and feeling the same emptiness of trying and trying, but getting no satisfaction. Commercials promise it with whiter teeth and fresher breath. Wall ...

4705. All Roads Lead To Bethlehem

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus came to save humans from being rat packs feeding on each other instead of sheep feeding with each other. This was never made so clear than in the recent “Black Friday” images of people stomping on each other and fighting it out, all done to the musical background of Christmas music. Our sentimental — yet always cynical — culture likes to start singing Christmas carols the moment Thanksgiving turkeys come out of the oven. But listen carefully: You’re hearing a lot more choruses of “Jingle Bells” and “ ...

4706. Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Luke 1:39-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

We have been “on the road to Bethlehem” throughout this Advent season. In this week’s final gospel reading before Christmas, that travel motif continues. What is the first thing Mary does after receiving the visitation of Gabriel and hearing the angel’s announcement of the child she will bear? She hits the road. Jesus’ own mission will be marked by constant movement, but his first journey was taken while in the womb. This visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth is the bow with which Luke’s narrative ties ...

4707. Surprise in a Graveyard

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

On February, 27, 1991, at the height of Desert Storm, Ruth Dillow received a very sad message from the Pentagon. It stated that her son, Clayton Carpenter, Private 1st Class, had stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was dead. Ruth Dillow later wrote, “I can’t begin to describe my grief and shock. It was almost more than I could bear. For 3 days I wept. For 3 days I expressed anger and loss. For 3 days people tried to comfort me, to no avail because the loss was too great.” Every parent here can relate to her ...

4708. A Topsy-Turvy Gospel

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

“Mushers” and people who travel by dog sled over snowy, frozen terrain. “Mushers” have a saying: “If you’re not the lead dog, the scenery never changes.” That “Mushers” saying has become a centerpiece doctrine of the leadership literature that has been inundating the corporate and church worlds of the last thirty years. If you are not the “top dog,” in other words, no matter how far you travel your journey is just going to be a “tale of tails.” Striving to be “top dog” is the goal we are encouraged to ...

4709. Turning Pity-Parties into Praise-Parties

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

After World War II the world entered a grey combat zone known as the “Cold War.” The two most powerful nations on earth, the US and the USSR, stood face to face, toe to toe, and seriously considered nuking each other. Thousands of nuclear warheads were armed and aimed by both nations, targeting each other’s homelands, in a strategy known by the acronym MAD: Mutual Assured Destruction. President Truman even had to fire General Douglas MacArthur because of his insistence that we use nuclear weapons against ...

4710. Particles of United Light

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between a spotlight and a laser beam? How can a medium-power laser burn through steel in a matter of seconds, while the most powerful spotlight can only make it warm? Both may have the same electrical power requirements. The difference is unity. A laser can be simply described as a medium of excited molecules with mirrors at each end. Some of the excited molecules naturally decay into a less excited state. In the decay process they release a photon, a ...

4711. Paul and Silas In Prison

Acts 16:16-40

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

See introduction to the previous section. 16:16–17 The missionaries appear to have gone week by week to the place of prayer for a number of weeks, and as they did so, they were followed on several occasions by a demented slave girl whose shouting made them the center of public attention. The force of the Greek of verse 17 is that she “kept on following” and “kept on shouting” about them. Luke describes her in a curious way (not apparent in NIV): She had “a spirit,” he says, “a python” (v. 16). The word “ ...

4712. The Christian and the World

James 4:1-12

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

Because he is aware of practical problems in the community, James makes an abrupt switch from peacemakers, the wise leaders of the community, to the actual situation of intrachurch conflict. 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? That is a good question, for if God’s wisdom is found in peacemakers, community strife does not come from them. A conflict with the pagan world or the synagogue might be the inevitable result of following Christian standards, but these are quarrels within the church (i.e ...

4713. False Prophets

Micah 2:6-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Opposition to the Prophet: As the arrangement of chapter 2 now stands, this passage shows the reaction of Micah’s listeners to his announcements in both 2:1–3 and 2:4–5. Those to whom he preaches take insulted exception to his words of doom directed against them; this is not an unusual reaction to the words of OT prophets (cf. 1 Kgs. 18:3–4; 19:10; Jer. 11:18–19; 20:1–2; Isa. 50:6, etc.). Persons, especially powerful persons who control others’ lives, do not like to hear that their God does not approve of ...

4714. The Flood

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

The Increase of Wickedness on Earth: This passage explains why God had to judge the inhabited earth with a deluge (6:9–8:22). It has two distinct sections: a description of the rapid increase in population, when the sons of God married daughters of men (vv. 1–4), and God’s response to human violence (vv. 5–8). The first section reports the population explosion, presumably spurred by the extraordinary marriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men. During that era superheroes are said to have ...

4715. The Trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin

Mark 14:53-65

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: This is the first terrible contrast during Jesus’s trial: the horror of people condemning Jesus without seeking truth versus the reality of Jesus as final eschatological judge (which turns out to be the final stage in the christological development in Mark). Understanding the Text There is a frightening chronology and logical progression in each of the final scenes of Jesus’s passion. The movement away from Jerusalem to Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives is preparatory, as Jesus prayerfully ...

4716. Testing in the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Teach the Text

R.T. France

Big Idea: The Son of God is tested in preparation for his mission, and he defeats the devil’s attempts to drive a wedge between him and his Father. Understanding the Text The devil’s proposals echo and depend on the declaration that Jesus is God’s Son, which has just been made in 3:22. This scene, still set in the wilderness where John has been baptizing, now completes Jesus’s preparation before his public ministry begins in 4:14. That ministry will take him back up north to his home province, among the ...

4717. Separation of Faith and Life

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

Big Idea: The desire to gain cultural acceptance, significance, and influence can lead a church to lose its Christ focus and make it blind to even the most blatant violations of the Christian message by its prominent members. Genuine disciple making, then, becomes impossible and even unnecessary. Understanding the Text A major shift occurs here. The theological discussion of the first four chapters dealing with the church’s cliquish behavior, pride, and attachment to secular culture now moves to a head-on ...

4718. Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin

Acts 4:1-22

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The different roles the people and their leaders played in the persecution of their Messiah (see 3:17) are again illustrated in the varied response to Peter’s call to repentance (4:1–4). Instead of repenting of their rebellious acts, the Jewish leaders put Peter and John into jail (4:1–3). Many among the people “believed” (4:4), however. This division of the people fulfills yet another prophecy concerning Jesus in Luke’s first volume: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in ...

4719. Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit

Luke 4:31-37

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

Jesus Casts Out Demons: With the exorcism in 4:33–36 we have the first of some twenty-one miracles performed by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. These miracles may be assigned to four basic categories: Exorcisms, healings, resuscitations, and nature miracles. (1) In addition to the exorcism of the demon-possessed man in the synagogue, Jesus exorcises two other demon-possessed persons (the Gerasene “demoniac” in 8:26–39 and the mute man in 11:14). Luke 4:41 refers to exorcisms in general, while elsewhere in ...

4720. Balaam’s First Oracle

Numbers 23:1-12

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

Balaam’s Oracles: Balaam’s oracles comprise much of the rest of the Balaam cycle. Olson’s treatment of the first three oracles has shown clearly how the material is organized as a narrative. Olson has further noted that the account of the three oracles mirrors the account of the three encounters with Balaam’s donkey in chapter 22 (Numbers, pp. 145–47). Balaam is caught between God’s intention to bless and Balak’s desire for a curse, as the donkey was caught between Balaam and the angel. As Balaam’s ...

4721. Samuel Subdues the Philistines at Mizpah

1 Samuel 7:2-17

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

Samuel’s Ministry: In some senses this chapter is interim, signifying the passing of time until the writers come to the next main focus, the beginning of kingship. In chapter 7 we have Samuel’s ministry and his credentials as an appropriate kingmaker established, but we also have the power of God presented in such a way as to indicate the writers’ view that human kingship was unnecessary. 7:2–13a Twenty years pass from the ark’s lodging at Kiriath Jearim to the events at Mizpah, which result from the ...

4722. Israel Asks for a King

1 Samuel 8:1-22

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

The Request for a King: The parallels between the behavior of Samuel’s sons and that of Eli’s sons are unmistakable. The misuse of power may not have followed the exact pattern, but the contempt for God’s law, God’s people, and thus God was the same. The strong, competent Samuel had no more success in controlling his sons than had the ineffectual, food-loving Eli. The text gives no indication that Samuel tacitly concurred in his sons’ misdoings as Eli did, but he appointed them, and he did not prevent ...

4723. David Anointed King over Judah

2 Samuel 2:1-7

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

David’s Rise to Power Begins: Chronicles, which is primarily concerned with the history of the house of David, gives little detail about the reign of Saul. First Chronicles 10 records Saul’s death in the same form as 1 Samuel 31 but with the addition of a negative summary of Saul’s reign. Chapter 11 of 1 Chronicles then moves to the meeting of the whole nation with David at Hebron that is described in 2 Samuel 5:1. The pains and struggles that accompanied the birth of David’s reign and the role of Ish- ...

4724. David Becomes King Over Israel

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

Confirmation and Consolidation: 5:1–5 This section provides an editorial summary of what may have been protracted and at times tense negotiations. The delay between Ish-Bosheth’s death and David’s enthronement over Israel is not known. It was seven years and six months before the capital was moved to Jerusalem, and verse 5 could imply that the two events were simultaneous. However, although it is likely that the negotiations took longer than they would have if Ish-Bosheth had lived, it is unlikely that ...

4725. War Between the Houses of David and Saul

2 Samuel 2:8-3:5

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

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