Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 501 to 525 of 3314 results

501. Ash Wednesday

Mt 6:1-6, 16-21 · 2 Cor 5:20b--6:10 · Ps 51:1-17 · Jl 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... ; thus Paul can say that "for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." For Paul, the phrase the righteousness of God is a coded expresssion, naming God's saving work. Here the apostle means that inherent in God's gift of salvation in Christ is the demand for a life of faithful service on the part of those who experience salvation—strikingly this obedient service comes as part of the gift of salvation. Verses 3-10 support Paul's appeal to ...

502. Epiphany 3

Psalm 27:1-14, Isaiah 9:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, Matthew 4:12-17, Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... [the] Lord Jesus Christ." In this manner Paul locates the authority for his message in one other and greater than himself. Second, the call for the Corinthians to be united in mind and judgment is similar to the passage in Philippians 2 where the apostle calls for that congregation to have the very mind of Christ—meaning, harmony is achieved when humans move the focus off themselves and invest their lives in their Lord. Third, the presence of cliques that identify with this-or-that leader shows that even ...

503. Lent 3

Jn 4:5-42 · Rom 5:1-11 · Ex 17:1-7 · Ps 95

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... time and space of our ungodly past evoked, Paul drops God's saving work in Jesus Christ into our midst. Then we move back to the present, and Paul once again declares our current status by saying that now we are justified by the death of Jesus Christ. The apostle is not interested in explaining how Christ's death justifies us; rather, he brings in this idea to remark on the marvelously unmerited character of God's love. Though we did not deserve it, God's love is so great that it did for us what we could ...

504. Proper 13

Psalm 17:1-15, Romans 9:1-29, Matthew 14:13-21, Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... Israel and recalls the central moments of that history. The particulars of Paul's list are interesting, but one should not get lost looking at the trees. Rather, the end of the path Paul takes, not the scenery along the way, is the point to which the apostle directs us. God brought forth the Christ from Israel, and that is both Israel's greatest privilege and Israel's greatest hope. The coming forth of Christ is not merely one item among many in Israel's favored past; for Christ does not belong to the past ...

505. Proper 15

Genesis 45:1-28, Matthew 15:21-28, Romans 11:1-10, Romans 11:25-32, Psalm 133:1-3

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... that is all God is going to do. But su conclusion does not fit the evidence of Paul's statements. In Romans 11:2a, the apostle boldly declares, "God has no people whom he foreknew." Exactly what he means by this become ar in the final verses of our lesson, when ... 3) God is faithful. If we grasp Paul's point(s) and if we believe, we may be moved in conclusion, as was the apostle, to the praise of God (11:33-36). Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28 - "Great and Unprecedented Faith" Setting. The revision of the lectionary ...

506. Proper 23

Psalm 106:1-48, Philippians 4:2-9, Matthew 22:1-14, Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... of Pharaoh who did miracles, better men than the people of Israel who could not do them, and yet that people were the people of God? What is that wedding garment then? This is the wedding garment: "Now the end of the commandment," says the Apostle, "is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." . . . Not charity of any kind whatever; for very often they who are partakers together of an evil conscience seem to love one another. They who commit robberies together, who ...

507. Thanksgiving Day, North America

Luke 17:11-19, Deuteronomy 8:1-20, Psalm 65:1-13, 1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... to work miracles. These preachers claimed to possess that extraordinary power, indeed they maintained they were sources of divine power. Paul referred to these people as "super-apostles," a clearly sarcastic designation in the apostle's use, but a title which may have been their self-designation. Although the super-apostles clearly came from Jewish-Christian circles, they were like other Hellenistic religious propagandists of that day who had a flashy, obviously powerful style of ministry—powerful in ...

508. Acts 17: 22-31

Acts 17:16-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... learned Pharisee, had addressed a Jewish audience as a Jew, using the common ground of scripture and tradition to introduce his listeners to the new kind of messianic reality found in Jesus Christ. Now Paul addresses a completely different kind of audience, and the apostle adapts his message accordingly. Paul’s ambition to be “all things to all” ( 1 Corinthians 9:22) for the sake of the gospel takes concrete form as he now inhabits the persona of learned Roman citizen, not pious Jew, in order to speak ...

509. They Lied and They Died

Acts 5:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... sale, when in fact they had only given part of it. "But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet." (vv. 1-2) Now why did they do this? Well, let me tell you what I think their root problem was. They were more concerned with their reputation than they were with their character. You see, they wanted the same reputation Barnabas had, but they didn't ...

510. Out With the Old - In With the New

Philippians 3:12-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... still plenty of room for improvement in his Christian life. He still had a lot of growing in the Lord to do. I find it amazing that perhaps the greatest man of God in all of the New Testament said on one occasion, "I am the least of all the apostles, and the chief of all sinners." You think about it. If anyone could have rested on his laurels, Paul could have. He had seen the risen Lord, he had visited the third heaven, he was the world's greatest preacher, he was the world's greatest missionary, he was the ...

511. The Truth about Trouble

2 Timothy 4:16-18

Sermon

James Merritt

... this is no ordinary Roman citizen. The judge knows that whatever else this man is, he is not like any other criminal ever brought before him. He says to Paul, "Is there anything you want to say, in your own defense, since no one else will defend you?" Amazingly, the Apostle Paul says, "No, I don't want to get on the defense, I want to go on the offense. Because I don't want to talk about me, I want to talk about Jesus." For you notice why the Lord strengthened Paul: "So that the message might be preached ...

512. The Surety of Security

Jude 1:1-2

Sermon

James Merritt

... end, is all of God. Now someone else says, "Wait a minute. What about faith. Doesn't faith come from us?" Yes it does. But the Bible also says in Heb. 12:2 that Jesus is "the author and finisher of our faith." Nobody put it better than the Apostle Paul when he said: "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for ...

513. Romans 8:26-30

Romans 8:18-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... portion of this argument Paul boldly asks the rhetorical question, “If God is for us, who is against us?” The inclusiveness of Paul’s argument is complete. Even as God gave up his own Son “for us all,” so God stands up “for us all.” The apostle’s a fortiori argument is straightforward: IF God “did not withhold his own Son,” even when we were still mired in sin, THEN how could God withhold all the rest (“ta panta”) from us now that Christ has given all for our salvation. The presence ...

514. What a Serve!

Acts 6:1-7

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... model this new life in Christ, it had to live out both sides of the Gospel: the preaching of the word and the work of ministry the witness to Christ and the compassion of Christ the concern for the soul and care for the body the work of the apostles and the work of the deacons sacrament and servanthood side by side Now I wonder why, after two thousand years, has it always been so hard for the church to get it right? It seems the church is always getting caught between the two and, depending on your theology ...

515. Apostolic Instruction

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... their fruits. One of our monumental problems in America is having the strength and fortitude to unlearn what we have been taught about success. It appears we have been inflicted by a persistent ailment: You must succeed "the American way" or indeed you have failed. The apostle maintains "this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." So, in a pointed way he seeks to convey the road to living that is successful. It transcends the common and well-worn path of a secular world that aids and abets misery born ...

516. Plea for Discipline

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... that viewpoint, ours is seldom an easy life and the sooner we learn the devil is for real, the better off we are. We can never please everyone and that — lest we forget — is not our purpose. 2. Aimless wandering can be the loss of precious time. The apostle would have us to understand we must be fixed on Christ and his requirements. There is a certain time consciousness built into his lesson for us. Our days and nights have a timekeeper. We call him the Father of us all. The cliché that we have just so ...

517. Living the Word of God

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... user forgets what is seen in the mirror the situation cannot be corrected; things will remain in disarray. James is telling us that we must live the Word of God, as did Mahatma Gandhi, not only in what we say, but more especially in what we do. The apostle continues by saying that we cannot be true practitioners of the faith we profess if we cannot bridle our tongues. James would say, think before your speak. Furthermore, we are not simply to talk about what we will do, but to care for orphans and widows in ...

518. Salvation in Jesus’ Name

Acts 4:5-12

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... is the resurrection of the dead" (Acts 4:1-2). The tension was high as the Jewish leaders learned that about 5,000 people believed what Peter had told them. In other words, the inciting incident of our story is a red-hot power struggle between Christ's apostles and the officials of the temple. It is also important to look at the back-side of the text before we examine the story itself. Acts 4:13 tells us: "Now when they (the Jewish leaders) saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were ...

519. Yesterday, Today, and Forever

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... the good news of Jesus in Samaria. Philip was one of the seven deacons, or lay leaders, chosen by the apostles to help with the work of Christ. Stephen, another deacon chosen to help with spreading the good news, had been martyred ... that outsiders like the Samaritans were made insiders by the name of Jesus? Isn't it a good thing to hear that Paul and the other apostles spread this message of Jesus across Asia Minor, Europe, and the rest of the known world, to your distant relatives and mine? Isn't it ...

520. Ephesians 1:15-23

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... who is “in Christ” and so is welcomed by God to participate in and experience God’s power in life and in death. Discipleship is nothing less than a divinely powered state of existence. The extent of God’s power is described more fully by the apostle in the closing verses of today’s text. The power available to disciples is that same divine power that raised Jesus from the dead, that shattered the bonds of death itself, and then exalted Jesus by placing him at God’s “right hand in the heavenly ...

521. The Devil's I

Acts 5:27-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... search of a land of his own when he was already an old man. It was in obedience to God that Hosea married Gomer, a woman no man would have willingly chosen as his wife. It was in obedience to God that such ordinary men as the apostles stood before the powerful Sanhedrin and defied their authority. To obey God rather than to adhere to human rules and regulations empowers the faith. All our weaknesses are transformed into strengths when they are used for God's sake. To obey God means to surrender the moment ...

522. Luke 6:27-38

Luke 6:27-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In Luke, Jesus goes to the mountains for prayer, reflection, refreshment, rejuvenation. It is while enjoying one of these mountaintop moments that Jesus singled out 12 apostles from among his many disciples. Immediately after this, Jesus leads his newly appointed apostles back down the mountain to "a level place," a place where apostles, disciples and a crowd of eager people stand shoulder to shoulder. The level place accords them all equal footing, just as they are all equally in need of Jesus' message. ...

523. Acts 8:26-40

Acts 8:26-40

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and presents another tradition. Acts 6-8 is generally believed to have been gleaned from a Hellenistic source which focuses on the early spread of Hellenistic Christianity. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that this source claims that Hellenists, not the Jerusalem-based apostles, were the first to spread the gospel out into the Gentile world. As today's reading from Acts testifies, it was Philip, unattached and out on his own, whose on-the-road witnessing brought the first Gentile convert to belief in ...

524. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of powerful and purposeful ways. Instead of focusing on how Paul deals with believers who have been too inclined to celebrate one spiritual gift over another, consider the remarkable number and variety of these spiritually empowered expressions of God's presence that the apostle could easily identify and list for his readers. Not only is the litany of spiritual gifts itemized in 1 Corinthians 12 impressive, but match this list against that provided by Paul in Romans 12:6. Only the gift of prophecy is noted ...

525. 1 Timothy 1:12-17

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... through the churches or for Christ's redemptive work in the world. The gratitude voiced here is a much more personal expression of thanksgiving. Here, Paul gives thanks for his own experience of divine forgiveness and the miracle of Christ's saving work in the apostle's formerly sin-filled life. Paul holds up his own life as a prime example of the excellence of God's grace and the enormity of God's forgiveness. Thankfulness flows from Paul not only for what Christ's sacrifice has taken away from him (his ...

Showing results