Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4851 to 4875 of 4964 results

4851. Giving Up Control

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... that we really get to know God. Waiting is the category of real faith, because when we wait, we recognize that we are not in control. God is in control. The psalmist wrote: "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait and in his word I hope" (Psalm 130:5). When your hope is in the Lord, not yourself, you have real faith. Isaiah 40:31 says, "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." When you ...

4852. Am I Eating Manna or Bread from Heaven?

John 6:35, 41-51

Sermon

Rick McCracken-Bennett

... later offered. She replied that she had desecrated the sacrament and was thus unworthy to receive it until she could go to confession. I suppose that the next Saturday afternoon when we all dutifully filed into that darkened sanctuary to confess our sins, she confessed her "sin" of desecration. I hope the priest set her straight but I never asked and she never offered to tell me, afraid perhaps, that revealing something said in confession might also result in a sin. I don't share this story lightly and I ...

4853. Free Indeed!

John 8:31-36

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... to be done before our transformation is complete. We are free indeed as a past accomplishment of God, and as a future hope. As the flood waters rose, many people were hard at work building walls of sandbags around their homes. That was their way ... the Spirit of God who grows us and sets us free in Jesus Christ. We are free indeed -- as a past accomplishment, as a future hope, as a present reality as we walk with Jesus. Lord, grant us your freedom and grace for each day. When we struggle with various decisions ...

4854. In It for the Long Haul

John 6:60-69

Sermon

King Duncan

... question. She asks, “Why did you have a mask created that looks precisely like your own countenance?” While he sought to live like a saint, an unknown unseen power had been at work. He had grown into his face. (6) Maybe there is someone in this room who is hoping to grow into the face you have shown the world. Faith is hanging in there when the day looks dark and the options are limited, because you know that somehow God is at work in your life. So you have decided that by the grace of God you are here ...

4855. Characteristics of Christ That You and I Need

Mark 8:27-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... man said, “Somebody had to help that woman.” Now there were six people standing on the wing of the plane. A rescue helicopter hovered above them. Someone in the helicopter lowered a long line with a life ring at the end. This life ring was the only hope the six survivors had. Among those six people on the wing, there was an older man, in his fifties, balding, portly, pot-bellied, with a giant mustache. The life line with the life ring came down from the chopper and the big man grabbed the life ring ...

4856. Big Bubba Has Your Back

Revelation 21:1-6a

Sermon

King Duncan

... 300 pounds, maybe 2 percent body fat. Just huge. Ortberg and his friends called the big man “Bubba” (not to his face of course, but afterwards, when they talked about him). Bubba didn’t say a word. He just stood there and flexed. You could tell he was hoping the thugs beating on the poor man would try and have a go at him. All of a sudden Ortberg said his own attitude was transformed, and, with a new-found confidence, he said to those guys, “You better not let us catch you coming around here again ...

4857. Advice from a Billionaire

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... is, there is love. And wherever love is, there is God. The kingdom has something to do with love. St. Paul writes, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” In other words, if you are a citizen of the kingdom of God, it will show by the ... /07/08/warren-buffett-interview_n_639536.html; July 7, 2010. Cited in Wilson, Jim L. Fresh Illustrations: Faith, Hope & Love (FreshMinistry.org. Kindle Edition). 2. Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. Cited in Stories for the ...

4858. She Gave More than Bill Gates

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... man. They sang I Got Shoes. Bishop Golden said he suddenly realized these children who sang that old spiritual about having shoes were all barefooted. It reminded him that when his people had composed and sung that song, they too were barefooted. They were singing a song of hope and trust for they knew there were shoes laid up in heaven for them. (2) Remember how it goes? “I got shoes. You got shoes. All God’s children got shoes. When I get to heaven, I’m going to put on my shoes and walk all over ...

4859. Of Mice and Men

Hebrews 10:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... and play.” (4) That is the grace of Jesus Christ. “Don’t bother me with that stuff anymore. Go over and play.” That is the only hope for our guilt. This can be the dawning of a new day. The past is past. We can make a new start today. If guilt is saying ... made perfect forever those who are being made holy . . .” Are you in the company of those who are being made holy? I hope so. There’s no greater feeling in the world than knowing your sins have all been forgiven. 1. Tarbell’s Teacher’s Guide ...

4860. A Difficult but Joyous Journey

Luke 1:39-55

Sermon

King Duncan

... ministry she could only barely comprehend, he was still first and foremost her son. Mary’s love for Jesus, however, is but a pale reflection of God’s love for all God’s children. That is why the star shines above the Christmas tree. It is the star of hope, it is the star of peace, but, most surely of all, it is the star of love. Bruce Larson tells a beautiful and true Christmas story that appeared years ago in the Denver Post. A week or so before Christmas, a pastor told his congregation about a needy ...

4861. The Way Up Is Down!

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... sell. As she passed the knight, her rickety old vegetable cart hit a bump on the road and turned over. Potatoes, onions, carrots, and peas spilled everywhere. The peasant woman scurried to get them all back in her cart to no avail. She looked toward the knight in hopes he would help her but already he had forgotten what it was to be a servant. The knight stood there, unmoved, holding his pose. He would not bend to help her. He just stood at attention keeping his vow to never again bow his knees or lift his ...

4862. Hard and Soft Hearts

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... sense of their need for the gospel. They have just experienced the limits of life and are primed to listen to the word of hope in Jesus Christ. However, at a wedding there are so many distractions that the last thing anyone wants to hear about is their ... here. Sin is not just our mistreatment of others. Sin is our mistreatment of God. God wants us to trust him, to count on him, to hope on him more than anything else in this world. But that takes a soft heart, not a hard heart. That takes a heart that is ...

4863. How Angry Are You?

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... public ministry that he preaches his first sermon. The hometown folk are thrilled to hear Joe and Mary’s boy proclaim the hope of their Jewish faith. He reads words from Isaiah that conjures up the image of the Messiah who is to come — the one ... Jesus takes that time to pay attention to his life. He takes time to pay attention to his feelings, to his anger and his fear, to his hopes and to his dreams. Yes, Jesus shows us a way to “befriend” our anger and to accept it as part of who we are, to come to ...

4864. The Reception was Excellent

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... -de-loops. He had seen God in his physicians finding and implanting a new liver into his body. He had seen God in all those people who had prayed for him. He knew that each of these were miraculous signs of the presence of God. Have you seen miracles? I hope so, for that means that you are attuned to the presence of God in your life. Most miracles occur within the events of everyday life within the confines of God’s natural order. That is the way God has chosen to work, but He does work. Keep your eyes ...

4865. A Remedy for Rejection

Luke 4:22-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... to you if you are going through a hard time right now, hang in there, regardless of how desperate you may feel. Most people who determine to take their own life discover that, if they can just hang in there until the cloud passes from their soul, there is hope on the other side. Time is a remedy for rejection. But an even greater ally is God. If somebody had just gotten the word to Kurt Cobain, not in a superficial way, but in a deep, authentic way that “Jesus would want him for a sunbeam,” what a ...

4866. In the Wilderness with the Devil

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... that it was not in her best interest to marry him, but she also knew she couldn’t resist him when she was in his presence. Jail seemed to be the only answer. We don’t know what happened to her after she was released from jail. We can only hope that she made a wise decision. We do know, though, what it is to be tempted. Jesus knew what it was to be tempted. Jesus also knew how to deal with temptation. Jesus was aware of the powerful connection between thought and deed. In that beautiful prayer that he ...

4867. It Is Always the Third Day

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... Cecilia Coplestone meant when she said, “There is something wrong with me.” Yet, Ann also listened for the hope in the next line T.S. Eliot gave Cecilia, “There is something wrong with me that could be put right.” Whatever is wrong with us can be put right. ... That is the hope. Ann’s life was put right when she came to know Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection. She said that her conversion ...

4868. Blago and Radnan, Two Lost Sons

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... own. I thought I didn’t need my father and his traditional ways. I was wrong. I have ruined my life and embarrassed my family. My only hope is to return home, beg my father’s forgiveness, and ask for a minimum wage job at one of his gas stations.” For the next couple days ... computer anticipating an email from his wayward son. Each day, Yakob studied the faces of customers at the gas station hoping to recognize Radnan, his lost son. It happened in the middle of a summer afternoon. Yakob was home doing ...

4869. The Awesome Power of FUD

John 21:1-19

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... our faith is not to avoid fear, uncertainty, and doubt. The promise of our faith is that we can live confidently and victoriously when the possibility of FUD lingers at the edge of life. Keep the threat in perspective. Trust God and step out in faith. Never lose hope in what tomorrow will bring. Most of all, believe not only that Jesus was alive back then, but he lives today. The power of the risen Christ is still set free. We can connect with that power and be strengthened by it. Because he lives, we can ...

4870. Young in the Mind

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as yourself—confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage—so long are you young. When your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then are you grown old—and then, indeed, as ...

4871. Making the Most of Life

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... one man that God and heaven are near, I shall not then have lived in vain while here. If from my mind I banish doubt and fear, and keep my life attuned to love and kindness; if I can scatter light and hope and cheer, and help remove the curse of mental blindness; if I can make more joy, more hope, less pain, I shall not have lived and loved in vain. If by life's roadside I can plant a tree, beneath whose shade some wearied head my rest, though I may never share its beauty, I shall yet be truly ...

4872. A Point of Contact

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... his pant leg, exposing that all too familiar iron brace and leather knee-strap holding a poor twisted leg. The boy answered, "Mister, that pup is going to need someone who understands him to help him in life!" Crippled and disfigured by sin, the risen, living Christ has given us hope. He understands us—our temptations, our discouragements, and even our thoughts concerning death. By His resurrection we have help in this life and ...

4873. The Scandal of the Cross

Illustration

A. Leonard Griffith

... relatives of the murdered boy. It read in part: "Our family has met together, and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment possible within the laws of your government be given to those who have committed this criminal action. In order to give evidence of our sincere hope contained in this petition, we have decided to save money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social guidance of the boys when they are released. We have dared to express our ...

4874. A Hall of Fame Dad

John 16:12-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... say to us among other things that the first Hall of Fame Dad was God? After all, the first two persons of the Trinity in traditional religious language are the Father and the Son. [I can see why women would feel left out whenever we use that language. I hope you know that I know that God is Spirit and not flesh and therefore has no gender. But change is slow in an institution like ours. Please bear with me.] Today we salute our fathers. Dad, we love you. The role of a Christian father is more important in ...

4875. Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

Luke 9:11b-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... planned to commit suicide while on this cruise by jumping into the ocean. Clements’ care and attention gave the woman hope, and she changed her mind about ending her life because of their conversation. Susie’s remarkable ability to recognize others ... Jesus, is your partner in this work. There are people all around you who are searching for truth and meaning, who are aching for the hope that only God can provide. And they’ll never walk into a church and admit it. It’s our calling to be ready to share ...

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