Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4851 to 4875 of 4977 results

4851. The Foolishness of God

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

King Duncan

... very thirsty. The old crow had not had anything to drink in a long time. He came to a jug that had a little water in the bottom of it. The old crow reached his beak into the jug to get some of that water, but his beak wouldn’t quite reach. So what did he do? He started picking up pebbles one at a time and dropping them into the jug. What happened as those pebbles accumulated in the bottom of the jug? Why, of course. The water rose until finally the old crow was able to get a drink ...

4852. Stargazing, Naval Gazing, and Other Waiting Games

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Tony Everett

... of things? Just when would Jesus start the restoration ball rolling? It would be easier to prepare for all this if only Jesus would at least give them a target date. Star gazing and naval gazing, drifting and dreaming in their private reality, the apostles did not quite get it yet. The new kingdom wasn’t all about them. It wasn’t all about their wants and needs. It wasn’t all about gaining control over a world that seems to be in chaos. It wasn’t all about getting secret insider knowledge of exactly ...

4853. What Difference Does it Make?

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Tony Everett

... many sincere, moral, caring people today; they were on the outside looking in at the faithful. As Gentiles, they were unclean; however, because they prayed and gave alms and believed in God, they were sort of “almost-but-not-quite” clean. They could not become Jews without first observing strictly proscribed dietary laws and following specific religious rites that included circumcision. They couldn’t become Christians without first becoming Jews. In many Christian congregations there are people who ...

4854. Stuck in Park

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

Tony Everett

... to join the church/tithe your income/chair a committee today?” Too few of us take time to see the whole picture — “The Shih Tzu on the seat” — as we go about our daily lives. Many of us are too quick to “leave it in park.” We are not quite satisfied with the way things are, but not really motivated enough to look at possibilities. It’s too easy to put visitors on a new list of “prospective buyers” rather than to welcome them as guests in a new community. It’s too easy to see them as ...

4855. Here's Mud in Your Eye

John 9:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... gray bowed head of the stroke victim in her wheelchair. The voice in Alice’s head instantly cried: “Oh, let her get up and walk!” But of course the woman didn’t, and Alice felt crazy to imagine such a thing was possible. The poor woman was quite unchanged or so Alice thought. But then something happens. Let me tell it in Alice’s own words: “When the wheelchair was steered back down the aisle I saw that [this old woman] was very far from being unchanged. Her dark eyes were luminous with joy and ...

4856. Honk If Something Falls Off

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Peter Barnes tells about a radio preacher that he listened to while he was in college named the Rev. Apostle J.R. Chambers, Jr. Quite surprisingly for a radio preacher, Chambers had a decided speech impediment. Each week he recited the verse from the Bible on which his entire ministry was based. It was Matthew 5:48, “You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Because of his impediment each week the verse ...

4857. Jesus and the Man Born Blind

John 9:1-41

Sermon

James W. Moore

... ! The neighbors are amazed. They can’t believe it. They ask him how this happened and he says the man called Jesus healed me. He gave me my sight. And there is great joy in the city and they all live happily ever after?… No, not quite! The Pharisees, the watchdogs of religion, get wind of this… and they come out fuming … upset about the whole thing… because for one thing they are suspicious of everything Jesus does… and on top of that, it happened on the Sabbath Day… a blatant violation of ...

4858. What If It's True?

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... small children the first “loss” is often that of a pet — their first realization that life has a life-span. We tend to give very young children pets that are somewhat “disposable” — goldfish, turtles, ant farms, small creatures that don’t usually require quite as much connection and commitment. One six-year old girl had as her “first pet” a horned toad. A horned toad is a prickly, pointy reptile creature, like a frog with a hard, scaly dry skin. Still this small creature was her pet, and ...

4859. The Lord Is (More Than) My Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... my Shepherd, and I will discover that I can solve my problem by simply turning around. God has a simple solution already prepared for me. I am not the solution maker, my Shepherd is.” (5) It’s not comforting to be compared to a sheep. They can be quite dumb sometimes. But it is good to know we have a Shepherd. Pastor Charles Heins says he loves that place in Psalm 23 where it says “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” He says he imagines two angels, one named goodness ...

4860. Apron Up (Mother's Day)

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... shots. Whatever way the leader went, whatever the leader did, the “followers” were supposed to imitate. It was a fun game until some “leader” decided to do something, well . . . not smart. Jumping over a ditch was an adventure until someone didn’t quite make it and tumbled down and got hurt. “Following the leader” goes bad when the leader goes bad, when the “leader” doesn’t consider the welfare of the led. Sheep are great at playing “follow the leader.” The “herd mentality” looms ...

4861. Waking the Giant

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... friend. “My church is hopeless when it comes to evangelism,” he moans. “A lot of congregations struggle with that issue,” says his friend. "Yeah,” says the pastor, “but how many churches do you know that have an unlisted phone number?” (2) Well, we’re not quite that bad yet, but who will deny we have lost our passion for reaching the world for Christ? Even worse, we seem to have lost any desire to have a lasting influence in our society. We seem content to reflect the mores and the values of ...

4862. A Holy Kiss (Father's Day)

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... to help him capitalize on those gifts. Gladwell summarizes the story of Langan in one sentence: “[Langan] had to make his way alone, and no one not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses ever makes it alone.” (2) That’s quite a profound statement by a man who has studied what it takes to be a success in the business world: No one ever makes it alone. St. Paul knew that the only way the church at Corinth could become what Christ wanted it to be was for ...

4863. Hemlock and Hyssop

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... up — whether with lacy baptismal gowns for infants or with lemonade and cookies for older children and adults — it is still a truly strange ceremony. One eight year old, upon being told that baptism meant she was being “buried with Jesus” responded, quite reasonably, “Well! That’s not very nice.” (As told by theologian Claire Watkins in her book Living Baptism [2004] 58) That eight-year old child was absolutely right. That does NOT sound very nice. It sounds nuts. It sounds “weird.” Maybe ...

4864. Daddy, I'm Afraid

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... “Well,” replied the ironworker, “I used to drive a school bus but my nerves gave out.” I guess we all have our breaking point. Walking a narrow beam 15 stories in the air is one thing, but driving a bus-full of noisy children is quite another. Stephen King is known as a writer of scary stories stories like Carrie and The Shining. In an interview Stephen King talked about his daily writing routine. He said that he only writes in the morning. The interviewer asked him whether he ever wrote anything ...

4865. Breaking News: A World Gone Wild

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... #3: What kind of a God would allow this to happen? In fact, one newsman commenting on Hurricane Katrina said this, “If this world is the product of intelligent design, then the designer has some explaining to do.”[2] Question #4: When are religious people going to quit believing in God at all? For those of us who do believe in God and even more believe in the God of the Bible, it is a formidable question. We can at least deal with murder, rape, and torture, because we can always say, “This is what ...

4866. Breaking News: God and Government

Romans 13:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... the government commands what God forbids or forbids what God commands we have a duty as followers of Jesus Christ to resist and to disobey the government. When Peter and the other apostles were commanded by the civil and religious authorities over them to quit preaching the Gospel they plainly said in Acts 5:29, “Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than men!’” (Acts 5:29, NIV) Whenever laws are enacted that clearly contradict God’s Law civil disobedience is not just an ...

4867. On the Ropes: Round 2 - Debating God

Habakkuk 1:12--2:1

Sermon

James Merritt

... was, “Babylon doesn’t have the last word. Even after Babylon is through with Judah I still won’t be through with Babylon.” This is so important to understand. God wasn’t going to let the Babylonians get away with anything. God said to Habakkuk, “Habakkuk, quit worrying. It is not a matter of whether I will judge, but it is a matter of when I will judge. Don’t you understand? I judge sin everywhere. I don’t play favorites. Nobody gets a free pass. Whether it is the Babylonians or My own ...

4868. Family Re:Union - Great Expectations

Ephesians 5:22-33

Sermon

James Merritt

... the wife gives into the husband. In reality, in that arrangement no one is happy, especially if the wife is always giving into the husband, because as the fantastic philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “If momma ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy.” Or (3) We Quit - we give up, walk out of the marriage and immediately or at least sometime down the road start looking for someone else that we think can meet our expectations. Let me tell you why that arrangement never works. At least, it never works to anybody ...

4869. Treasure Hunt

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

King Duncan

... God, and that day I recommitted my life to Him . . . Jesus came into my life not only as Savior, but for daily strength and direction.” (3) So many people are trying to live nowadays without God. Many give the illusion that they are doing well. Many are quite cheerful as long as life is going their way. But ultimately there is no joy, no lasting happiness without God. Trusting God, and giving God control of your life, is the key to victory in every situation. It doesn’t mean that everything in life will ...

4870. The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Acts 20:13-38

Sermon

James Merritt

... is found in the Book of Acts. It was quoted by the Apostle Paul and it was obviously something that Jesus had said so many times that the early Christian community had memorized it and remembered it. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35, NIV) Quite frankly, that just doesn’t sound logical. If I give you something that you don’t have, logic says you will have more of what you didn’t have and I’ll have less of what I did have. If that is true, then there is no way you can ...

4871. God Is Not Dead

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... that his father Uzziah had done (although he did not enter the temple of the Lord). But still the people acted corruptly.” (27:2) Jotham refused to go to church. The father worshipped the wrong way and got angry. The son took up his father’s anger and quit going to church. Here we see forsaken worship. But the story does not end here. After Jotham died, his twenty year old son, Ahaz, ascended to the throne. Unlike his father, and his grandfather, he did not walk with God. He was a man of iniquity, a man ...

4872. Ignite: The Fire Burns Brightly

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

James Merritt

... want it whether it reaches the next generation or not.” The biblical picture is not a picture of what people are getting from the church, but a picture of what people are giving to the church. Do you know what happens when you take the time and energy to quit focusing on your own needs and start focusing on the needs of others? You know what will happen? We will all have our needs met together. God will bring someone into your life that can meet your needs. You have some needs I can meet, but you can’t ...

4873. Ignite: Burning Love

Acts 5:17-42

Sermon

James Merritt

We all learn sooner or later that “Things are not always as they seem.” Sometimes what we think is bad news is really good news in disguise. That is illustrated by a story of two women who had not seen each other in quite a while. They were catching up and the first woman said, “I just got married.” Her friend said, “That is good news.” She said, “No, it is bad news. He is ugly.” Her friend said, “That’s bad news.” She said, “No, it is good news. He is rich!” Her ...

4874. Ignite: Fire Extinguishers

Acts 15:1-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... . The entire future of Christianity is at stake. What you are going to find in this chapter are “Fire Extinguishers”. You are going to see why churches fight, why churches die, why people don’t go to church, why people who used to go to church quit going to church and why a lot of people who keep going to church don’t enjoy it. Nothing will kill the heart, the spirit, the mission, the passion, or the effectiveness of the church greater than fire extinguishers. Key Take Away: Make sure your Christian ...

4875. Up Close & Personal: Open the Doors

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

James Merritt

... ? The answer is in verse 5. “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:5, ESV) God is good all the time and all the time God is good. He loves us with an everlasting love that will never quit. He is faithful to us at all times and all places and never fails to keep His promises. No wonder we ought to want to be up close and personal with this unbelievable, magnificent God. We connect when we respect. Any time we want to we can not only ...

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