Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4926 to 4950 of 5000 results

Luke 7:36-8:3

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

... is not so much to enjoy Jesus' company as it is for Simon to look good in the eyes of the town. If Simon really wanted Jesus to be there because he wanted to learn more about what Jesus had to say, he would have observed the customary marks of hospitality and good manners current at the time. He would have washed Jesus' feet, given him a kiss when he arrived, and anointed his head with oil or perfume. Good manners dictated that these three be done for a guest. Streets were dusty and sandals let in ...

4927. What Happens When You're Not Prepared for What Happens

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

... . The demons make the suggestion to Jesus that they be driven into the pigs instead of the abyss. Without so much as a hesitation, Jesus agrees. At their request, Jesus drives the demons out of the man's mind and into the herd of pigs. The Gospel of Mark says that there were 2,000 pigs. Luke is content to reduce the number to a more manageable "herd." Luke leaves the exact figure to our own imaginations. But, by driving the demons into the pigs, in an ironic twist, the demons get precisely what they were ...

4928. Abba, Your Kingdom Come

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... in the person of Jesus. In other words, the kingdom of God is a future event, but it came near when Jesus appeared on earth in the past. Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news" (Mark 2:15). While the kingdom of God won't come in fullness until the end of time, Jesus encouraged his followers to start living as if it had already arrived. In addition, the kingdom of God comes today. The kingdom will come in fullness at the Second Coming of ...

4929. Family Ties and Good-byes

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... us?" "What did we ever do to him?" "Is Joseph's son suddenly condemning his friends?" We pick up the story in verse 29. "When they heard this, all the synagogue were filled with rage" (emphasis mine). In the account of the same story in Matthew 13:54-58 and Mark 6:1-6, we are told that Jesus' brothers and sisters were in the synagogue that day. Listen to what happened next. "They got up, drove him out of town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl ...

4930. Lean on Me

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... not until we find ourselves unable to carry on that we discover that with God we can carry on and we can excel because in Jesus we have a friend that will carry us when we can no longer carry ourselves. This chapter of Luke is marked with important transitions. Jesus is embarking on a preaching ministry that will carry him into a variety of settings. The section we are dealing with is one of those teaching gems that Jesus so carefully scatters throughout his ministry. It is followed up later with four very ...

4931. A Tax Collector Becomes Rich

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... our money usually fall within that category. It is not uncommon, even in today's world, for people to distrust and even revile the IRS. That fact makes what happens in our lesson today even more important. Jesus and his association with Zacchaeus marks the last recorded incidence of Jesus' openness to the religious outcasts of his day. He had demonstrated repeatedly that the least of these really are important to God. He has walked, talked, and touched all those who were deemed unclean by the authorities ...

4932. Building God’s Kingdom: The Christian Challenge

Romans 10:8-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... of the Christian life come with significant responsibilities as well. Baptism is our common call as Christians to live lives of holiness. We are called as well to be servants, to aid our brothers and sisters as did Christ, who came to serve, not to be served (Mark 10:45). Christianity calls us to be beacons of light and hope to a world often shrouded in darkness. In short, we are called to build God's kingdom through our united efforts. But we, as Paul suggests to the Romans, and Jesus states directly at ...

4933. Be Reconciled — To Christ and Others

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... 's solution to his dilemma was found in Jesus and so too must our answers be sought. Let us remember Jesus' words: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:17). The young man on the train found that reconciliation was not found through a sense of righteousness or aggressive behavior; it could only be found through an active outpouring of compassion. Yet, he had to learn, by observation of the older man, that God was ...

4934. Carrying the Burdens of Others

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... , Jesus points us in the proper direction: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it" (Mark 8:34b-35). Humility means that we should never exalt ourselves, and think we are better than others. Jesus challenged his disciples with a parable: "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor ... [Rather] when you ...

4935. Repairing Our Lives

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... his Son to be one like us, human, as well as divine, so we could be saved by one like ourselves. Now we can stand in the light and rejoice. We can stand before the power of God grateful for what Jesus has done for us. Jesus' resurrection marked his physical return to life. We might say that Jesus repaired his own life. But this great miracle was not only efficacious for himself, but for all. More importantly for us, he will restore to life all who belong to him. As Paul says, Jesus will repair the whole ...

4936. Jesus Brings Hope

Revelation 1:4-8

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... in a prophetic voice. The author, most probably John the Apostle, as judged by its rather unlettered construction and prose, hears God's Word (1:2) and is on eleven different occasions ordered to transmit this word to his brethren. On four occasions the seer clearly marks the book as a document of prophecy: "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who keep what is written in it" (1:3). In today's lesson, we initially hear of the universality of God's message ...

4937. Death to Glory

Revelation 5:11-14

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life [as] a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). Similarly in another context, Jesus taught his followers who were competing for position: "Whoever wants to be the first must be the last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). In still another setting he said, "The greatest among you will be the servant" (Matthew 23:11). The role of the servant, if lived well, is one of dying to self for the betterment of others. If we are to live like Jesus then this must be ...

4938. Jesus, The Light of the World

Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:5

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... image of God, and God's Son, Jesus, as the source of our light, our sustenance, in short our very lives, is found throughout the scriptures. The image of how the light of God shatters the darkness is clearly manifest. The message of the prophets is clearly marked by this vision. Isaiah, when proclaiming God's message to the southern kingdom of Judah, spoke of this reality: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined." He ...

4939. Claiming Our New Life in Christ

Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19)

Sermon

Clayton A. Lord

... will find best-selling books by modern day gurus telling us how to please God, live long, and prosper. We may think it is a modern phenomenon but things haven't changed over the centuries. Even in Paul's day there were people who made their mark in the community by selling people on the idea that if you did certain things you could earn God's favor and live prosperous lives. In our text today, Paul addresses this situation head on. He calls these spiritual profiteers false teachers and tells the Colossians ...

4940. God Is Rock Solid

Hebrews 12:18-29

Sermon

Clayton A. Lord

... thought of God and the way he protects us in the savage storms of life. God is our rock and our refuge and he will not be shaken. He will always be there to hold onto. If God is a sure foundation, then his word will also be unshakable. In Mark 13:31 hear Jesus say, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Peter echoes this in his epistle when he tells us that, "the word of the Lord endures forever" (1 Peter 1:25). The Bible is living and powerful and eternal. We can ...

4941. Whose Inheritance Is It?

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... ordinary, to go on being just plain and ordinary. Plain and ordinary people are out to get something. They forget that they already have something. We all have spiritual money in the bank. We have a divine inheritance. We don't talk about the unsaintly marks of the ungrateful, but all of us have them from time to time. We have private jealousies, resentments, fantasies, and greeds. We want something that we already have! The great Sojourner Truth, who is a saint by most people's standards, when told that ...

4942. Think on these Things

Philippians 4:4-9

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... that comes by grace is one that comes from looking up, looking out, and looking around. One Friday night, our church was a beehive of activity. A dinner of rice and beans was being prepared in the kitchen for a youth group that was staying overnight. Anthony and Mark and Mary were putting a rehearsal dinner together in the courtyard. At about 3:30, I looked up from my desk and its piles of unanswered/unanswerables and saw the cold, brown tables on which so much of our life here is lived. I saw that the ...

4943. Strange Arithmetic

Mark 10:7

Illustration

Donald B. Strobe

... still retain your individual identity, but you add to yourself the identity of the other, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." (Mark 10:7) A wise person once said: "A marriage consists of one master, one mistress, and two slaves; making, in total, one." That may be strange arithmetic, but it is good theology.

4944. The Senseless Rejection of Common Sense

Mark 10:1-12

Illustration

Brett Blair

... two will be become one flesh" (NIV). One flesh! Yet there are those who propagate a notion that divorce can be managed. One million new children every year, to quote statistics from the magazine article, get caught up in the divorce of their parents. In 1980 we hit that mark and we have hit it every year since. We are now well over 20 million kids in 20 years who have had their lives wrecked by divorce. He said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them." God I hope that this church would ...

4945. The Good News about Money

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’" "Teacher," the young man declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." Mark tells us Jesus looked at this young man and loved him. He was a good guy. "One thing you lack," Jesus said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the young ...

4946. What Must I DO to Receive Life? - Sermon Starter

Mark 10:17-31

Illustration

Brett Blair

... money kept him out. We see him as a moral coward. But that conclusion is too simple. The fact is there are a lot of good things that can be said of him. I'm impressed with the fact, for example, that having talked with him only a few minutes, Mark tells us that Jesus looked upon him and loved him. That doesn't sound like a scathing criticism to me. And, I think that we also need to remember that to this young boy Jesus was not the Son of God. He was simply a new prophet, with an exciting ...

4947. Operation Omega

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of Christ in our lives every day — “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). The secret to being last is the three letter word “all.” For mortals it is impossible, but not for God: “for God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27). If you are Christ’s, “all things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:21). God wants to do in your life “above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). God will supply “all your need” (Philippians 4:19). You want it all? The ...

4948. "Others"

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

King Duncan

Every holiday season we begin to see people in uniforms in shopping malls ringing bells collecting donations for the poor. They are doing the work of the Salvation Army. In 1878, when the Salvation Army was really beginning to make its mark, men and women from all over the world began to enlist. A man who had once dreamed of becoming a bishop in another denomination crossed the Atlantic from America to England to enlist in the Salvation Army instead. His name was Samuel Brengle. Brengle left a fine ...

4949. I Hate To Leave This Church

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

William G. Carter

... been few preachers who, once they are elected bishop, turn the job down. "Teacher, we want you to put us on your right and on your left. But keep it quiet. Don't make it too obvious. Others may become offended that we asked first." By telling us this story, Mark knows what you and I know: we are prone to the same desire for privilege and protected status. We want a Jesus who will give us what we want, a Lord who can shower a little power on us, a Savior who can make us better than we are.

4950. A Servant in Saigon

Illustration

Keith Wagner

To be servants requires courage, sacrifice and lots of love. Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen tell the story of Betty Tisdale. (Chicken Soup for the Soul) She was the wife of a Naval Doctor in Vietnam. She had compassion on the hundreds of orphans in Saigon. She made 14 trips to Saigon by using her life savings. With great determination she managed to airlift ...

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