Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 451 to 475 of 3160 results

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

James McCormick

... voices. He wanted to hear the One voice, the voice of God. What he discovered was that even in that remote wilderness there was more than one presence, and there was more than one voice. There always is. It was up to Jesus and it is up to us to sort out the many voices we hear. To focus on the One voice that is the source of truth, the source of strength, the source of life. The ultimate question is: in the presence of many voices calling to us, enticing us, and tempting us, to what voice will we listen ...

452. Have You Caught Any People for Christ

Illustration

James L. Collier

Have you been fishing lately? Have you caught any people for Jesus? If you are a typical Presbyterian (or Methodist or Lutheran or mainline Christian of any sort) the answer probably is a shrug of the shoulders and a bewildered look. "He can't be serious, can he?" A few years ago there were some statistics floating ... another person to Jesus Christ. True - most of us, if asked, can't remember ever talking to a non-believer about our faith. We just don't do that sort of thing. We haven't done much fishing.

453. Matthew 14:22-33

Matthew 14:22-36

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... ). With the disciples setting off to sea, Jesus departs for the “mountain” for his prayer retreat. There is no record in Matthew’s gospel about the content of Jesus’ prayers. Some scholars contend that the feeding of the five thousand indicates some sort of grass-roots appeal for Jesus to be a more “militantly appropriate” messianic figure. If this is true, it helps us understand Jesus’ urgent need to get away and reconnect via prayer with God the Father. Leaving the crowds behind, sending his ...

454. Yet Alive....Are We?

Romans 12:1-13

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... AND ALIVE WITH OUTREACHING LOVE In response to a question about what it means to be a Methodist, John Wesley wrote a pamphlet which has become a classic, called "The Character of a Methodist:" The distinguishing marks of a Methodist are not his opinions of any sort, his accepting of this scheme of religion, his embracing any particular set of notions, or mouthing the judgments of one man or another. All these are quite wide of the point. As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we ...

455. Taking the Long View

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... see it that way!" To live in a real world demands we adjust to the ways and means of the workaday world. Some people have to be kept happy, just for us to support our families. God may be God, but tell that to General Motors! Questing of the sort the writer is speaking can be placed in a corner of the mind and never called upon again. It is labeled miscellaneous and perhaps even hurtful to one's progress. Before "the beginning and after the ending" is for a handful of philosophers to meditate upon. For John ...

456. Looking to the Unseen

2 Corinthians 4:18

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... loses his life for my sake and the gospel's, finds it" (Mark 8:35). III Lastly, the lure of the unseen suggests that eternal, spiritual life is more real than temporal, physical life. Most of humanity has for centuries believed in some sort of immortality, some sort of life after death. There has been the deep feeling that there is something more, that temporal physical existence does not explain the deep yearnings within the human heart and mind. In our own time numerous people have written books about out ...

457. No Excuses

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... gives us a new reference point for life - freedom in God's Spirit to truly love and serve each other. Luke's trilogy of discipleship drop-outs is hardly unique. The Bible is filled with people with piles of alibis - people who came up with all sorts of creative excuses for not serving God. But in the eyes of God, those who excuse themselves actually accuse themselves, for they are arguing only with their own weaknesses and worries. Consider Elijah who said, "Excuse me, Lord, but my nerves can't take it!" Or ...

458. Chutes or Ladders

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and provided them only with strange, "on-the-road" instruction. Instead of playing up his miraculous strengths, the wonder and power of his true identity, Jesus chose to appear before the world almost anonymously, as a simple, dusty craftsman, rabbi-of-sorts and out-of-sorts leader. Today's gospel text offers a perfect example of Jesus' failure to capitalize on a scenario ripe for success. But not Peter. Although stunned and scared, Peter at least recognizes a golden moment when he sees one. If no one ...

459. A-wake or A-live

Galatians 2:15-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... tighten the reins" or institute a new set of rules? Do production and morale improve at the office when upper management imposes new, restrictive policies? Keeping the laws of God, or of our city and state, or the household "laws" that keep things running smoothly is simply a sort of default moral obligation: It's the least one can do. We can't expect God to give us a medal for behaving the way we should behave even if the law were absent. "We know," Paul says, "that a person is justified not by the works ...

460. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... surface in their own Christian community, the Corinthians were both pleased and confused. Were all those who experienced an ecstatic experience of any kind to be believed and accepted? Beginning in chapter 12, Paul offers specific criteria to help Christians sort out the spiritualist environment in which they found themselves. Paul begins by offering a very basic rule of thumb that immediately distinguishes the Spirit of God from an evil or demonic spirit. If any supposedly spirit-filled individual declares ...

461. Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... jewels to buy this one great pearl. Jesus' third illustration (vv.47-50) describes a typical fishing practice in the Sea of Galilee - using suspended, weighted nets that were then pulled toward shore. The mixed catch, as described, then had to be sorted to cull the inedible and ritually unclean fish from the catch. Jesus immediately provides a literal translation of this image in vv.49-50 - leaving no chance for disciples to misinterpret his intent. God's invitation to gather all people together, Jesus ...

462. Memories of Home: The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... need. I have darkness in me too. The cause of it may be different from yours, but it’s the same darkness. I need Jesus to help me find my way home too.” We come to Jesus’ Table and rub elbows with all sorts of prodigal sons and daughters and all sorts of elder sons and daughters; with those who are hurting but who are afraid of letting anyone know; with those whose darkness is so dark, they’ve considered suicide; with the tired and lonely; with those anxious over how the recession will affect them ...

463. Advent 2

Mark 1:1-8, 2 Peter 3:1-18, Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... soon. How long is soon? Is 20 centuries soon? The text has an answer to the question. Outline: Why the delay – a. God has eternity v. 8. b. God forbears to save us vv. 9, 15a. c. God gives us time to be holy vv. 11, 14. 2. What sort of persons? (3:11, 14). Need: The practical implication of the parousia is that we need to be in condition to receive Jesus. While waiting for his return, Christians should be busy preparing themselves that they may be fit to be in his presence. We have moral obligations to ...

464. The Rush and the Hush of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... knows what the disciples envisioned the promised Spirit would bring to them? Perhaps they hoped for super-hero powers. Perhaps they dreamed of the perpetual presence of cherubim and seraphim or some other daunting heavenly creatures. Perhaps they prayed for some sort of spiritual military mobilization. If you were one of the disciples, what do you think you might have been hoping for before Pentecost? . . . . . [This would make a great karaoke moment: hand your people the mike and let them tell what their ...

465. Too Good Not to Be True

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

King Duncan

... racks and shuffled the letters into slots with amazing speed. The foreman had never seen anything like it. At the end of the day, the foreman shook the new man’s hand, thanked him and said, “I’ve never seen anyone who could sort mail as fast as you.” The new immigrant smiled and said, “You think I’m good now you wait until I can read English.” (1) Well, maybe he wasn’t as fast as he looked. I wonder where some of the mail ended up? Some things are just too good ...

466. Small Saves

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... we leave undone. For every moment we miss the opportunity to do something small but right, the small but wrong won’t hesitate to move in. A smile directed at a neighbor can offer a fragment of the kingdom. A frown or blank stare invites the seed of another sort to settle in — the seeds of suspicion, hostility, disregard. God is not calling us to save the world. Jesus did that for us. But God is calling us to make small saves, to share shards of the grace we have been given to all those we encounter, in ...

467. Go Fly A Kite

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... be grounded. And the higher you soar, the more tethered you need to be. Holding tight to the tethering string is crucial—for that is what keeps the tension on the line, and enables the invisible winds to lift and play with the kite. A kite can do all sorts of spectacular things sail, dip, soar, swoop and re-group as long as the string stays taut and tough. Let go of the string and what happens? The kite might make a few impressive free-for-all swoops and spins. But before long the kite will crash. Without ...

468. When Nothing Is Sacred

Isaiah 6:1-8

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... an optional moral code that we can use or not use, as suits us, what good is it? For another thing, when nothing is sacred, life itself is cheapened. Christians maintain that all human life is sacred. When we forget that, it becomes possible for all sorts of atrocities to be committed. Consider what happened in the area we now call Bosnia as the former Yugoslavia broke up. We heard the awful term, "ethnic cleansing." What it meant was that people of one ethnic line were seeking to wipe out the people of ...

469. The Maybe Moment

2 Samuel 11:1-15

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... to temptation. Now I don't want to stay on David's story any longer because my topic this morning is not adultery, but the ways we choose to ignore those early warning alarms at the time of any sort of temptation, alarms that I am convinced are among God's gifts to us. Temptations come along in all sorts of guises. Recall that in the Garden of Eden, the temptation was for Adam and Eve to consider their own judgment better than God's. Some temptations come at different stages of life. One edition of the Old ...

470. April Love

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... . That this book is in the Bible always comes as a bit of a surprise to new readers of the scriptures. After encountering all sorts of heavy theological and spiritual themes in other biblical writings, readers coming to this little book are astonished to discover that it is a ... collection of fairly explicit love poetry — and it's not love directed at God or the Christian "love thy neighbor" sort. No, it is passionate romantic love between a man and a woman, and the lovers take turns praising each other's ...

471. First Things First

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

... loved and loving in the present rather than speculating about the future. There is an old story about a warrior who was struck one day by a poisonous arrow. This man happened to be a speculative sort of person, so as he lay on the ground he mused to himself: "I wonder what kind of wood this arrow is made of? What sort of birds, do you suppose, the feathers come from? I wonder what type of man shot this arrow — tall or short, dark or light." His comrades, who saw his plight, could bear it no longer, but ...

472. A Tax Collector Becomes Rich

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... and going from the city. Of course, for us, a tollbooth is on a highway and we are paying to travel on that road. Zacchaeus was collecting customs on goods traveling the Jerusalem highway. Sort of a "sales tax" on goods that were going to be sold or traded. Some of the most honest people in the world have a hard time paying their taxes. It just sort of rubs people the wrong way to give away that which they have worked hard to earn. It would not be human not to be a bit tight with your money. I have a ...

473. A Breadbasket Full of Goodies

John 6:25-35

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... them all the manna they needed. The people really wanted Jesus to be the new Moses, but they wanted more than just a biblical leader. They wanted Jesus to be the new Moses that was both a religious and a political leader. Jesus is not going to fall into any sort of trap here. He is not the new Moses, he is the realization of what Moses and the people have wanted all of their lives. Jesus is quick to point out that what he is speaking about will fill them for eternity, no quick fixes here. "Do not work for ...

474. The Good News about Money

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... audiences this question, "Are you rich?" He says the response to that question is always the same. There will be a murmur. A sort of collective, "Wait a minute. What right has he to ask me that?" Then a few hands will go up, tentatively. Somebody will ... she walked up the steps to the bus and dropped in her $1.25 fare Karen quickly thought through what she should do. She said the sort of things we say to ourselves. "Why should I help him? Why should he get a free ride? There are so many other people who have ...

475. God's Call for All

Acts 9:35-43

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... of person, one known to be "devoted to good works and acts of charity" (Acts 9:36). When Tabitha died, her friends sent for the Apostle Peter. When he arrived, people were quick to show him the same sorts of things. As it says, "All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them" (Acts 9:39). Remember that widows in the ancient world could not get jobs or take care of themselves. They were dependant upon ...

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