Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 526 to 550 of 4884 results

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... your body as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, who is your spiritual worship. And be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” And hear the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord speaking to Gideon - I meant for you to love me, but you were only curious. Is the angel speaking to you? I meant for you to love me, but you were only curious. Well. Is he speaking ...

527. My Stress Is Killing Me! -- Is It?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... we couldn't understand the Pope but he spoke to each of us personally, and in English." "Well, interrupted the barber, "What did the Pope say to you?" "Well, he placed his hand on my head and blessed me. And then he leaned close to my ear and said, in perfect English, you've got a lousy haircut." There are many people who are like that barber. They don't see the world as it really is. They are in a rut. They are blind to what they have become -- hemmed in -- taking life for granted -- no effort to grow ...

528. From Empty Nets to Full Lives

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... with boundaries no larger than the Sea of Galilee? I am thinking particularly of our capacity for goodness and Christian quality. We think little of Jesus's command that we should be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). We discount the words as a kind of ancient hyperbole, or we push it aside with self-deprecating laughter: "Perfect? Who, me?" As one of your very imperfect brothers, I understand such feeling. But I don't want us to rule out so easily what God's grand purposes might be ...

529. Baptized with Christ

Luke 3:21-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... its centrality in our lives. PART OF THE MEANING OF BAPTISM IS THE WASHING AWAY OF SIN. The scriptures teach, and personal experience affirms, that each of us is a sinner. It is sin that separates us from God. Baptism doesn’t mean that we become perfect, but it does mean that sin is no longer a barrier to our relationship with God. Some of you may have seen the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou. This is a whimsical retelling of Homer’s Odyssey set in 1930s Mississippi. Three hapless escaped convicts ...

530. Imitators of God

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of God’s work in us is the recreation of a people able to obey the commandments. Now that’s a radical notion, but it is clear in Ezekiel: God’s saving activity not only forgives and frees us from previous sin, it makes us capable of perfect obedience by giving us a new heart. There is a wonderful lesson for us here in comparing Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Jeremiah you remember, spoke that memorable word for God “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days . . . I ...

531. Jesus' Most Perplexing Parable

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... Don't worship your money. Use it as a tool for doing good. Lesson two: Friendship and a good reputation count for more than money. In fact, wise people will use money to do good and thus to improve their reputation. Lesson three: Even less-than-perfect people like you and me stand a chance with God. Thanks be to God for that. 1. Lectionary Homiletics, Volume VI, Number 10, September 1995, p. 31. 2. John T. Carroll and James R. Carroll, Preaching the Hard Sayings of Jesus (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson ...

532. The Incarnation: What and Why?

Hebrews 2:10-18

Sermon

James L. Killen

... them how it should be done. The coach had one of the team members hold the stop watch and keep his time. He ran the course perfectly and, to everyone's surprise, his time broke the league record. The coach said, "If I can do that, you can do it, too. I ... sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken ...

533. Are You Feeling Sheepish?

Psalm 23, John 10:11-18

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... about what you are called to do. That is why basketball coaches call "time" when the opposition team, in the final seconds, has a free throw. If they make it, they win the game. So he calls "time" so that that player can "think about it." Yogi Berra put it perfectly, "How can I bat and think at the same time." The most disastrous thing that you could ever do is to start thinking, "How am I doing?" Or even worse, "What do other people think about what I am doing?" It is true of preaching, too. I am right at ...

534. Coming Home

Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... God's love, that he discovered that God's grace is given to him freely. You don't have to earn God's blessing. All you have to do is ask for it, and receive it--by grace. Just like prodigals. In Wesley's case, his striving for perfection didn't make him perfect; it just made him mean. He denied the sacrament to those people in the colony that he didn't agree with, or who crossed him. That is when Governor Oglethorpe stepped in and fired him, sent him home. He went back to London depressed. He realized that ...

535. Lord of the Dance

Mark 2:13-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... has started. Except there is a hitch here. The text includes this line. "The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then in that day they will fast." It's just like the Bible to complicate matters for a preacher, mess up a perfectly good sermon. I was just sailing smoothly through this sermon, talking about joy and putting down fasting, then I come to the text that says, "The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away, and they will fast." Which means now we have to say, "On ...

536. Who Gives You Your Grade?

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... metaphor for that which says that you must achieve in order to be loved. Or it says you have to measure up to a standard of perfection before you are acceptable. The Law, in other words, is whatever gives you your grade. It says whether you are worthy or not. It is ... is asking, "Are you going to live by the Law, or are you going to live by grace?" The Law says you have to be perfect in order to be loved. Grace says that God loves you even with your imperfections. Are you going to labor under the Law, or are ...

537. Million Dollar Christmas

Matthew 19:21

Drama

Matthew Powell

... and you haven't bought a single thing for yourself. I wish I had asked Mary, your housekeeper, what luxury you would like. (Pause) Edgar 2: Well, Helene, since you mentioned it, I'll tell you exactly what I want most, and it fits into our plan perfectly because it is something very ornamental indeed. Edgar 1: We were coming in under the trees in front of her house. I took my life into my hands and told her just exactly what I wanted for Christmas more than anything else in the world. (Edgar 2 whisper ...

538. Advent 4

Isaiah 7:1-25, Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... owned by the master's purchase. A Christian is a slave bought by the precious blood of Christ. A slave gets no wages except the reward of the master's "well done." As a slave, a Christian is obedient to the Master's will. In this slavery a Christian finds perfect freedom. 2. Gospel (v. 3). Paul plans to come to Rome to preach the Gospel. But, what is his understanding of the Gospel? He sums it up in one person, Jesus Christ. He is the Good News. Why? Because of who Jesus is. Paul sees the humanity of Jesus ...

539. Proper 22

Exodus 20:1-21, Isaiah 5:1-7, Philippians 3:1-11, Philippians 3:12-4:1, Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... give to another is a good example. Paul imitates Christ and offers himself as an example of the Christian life. What a daring thing to do! Who would dare to set up his life as an example to be followed? It indicates that Paul had an exemplary life, not perfect, but a life dedicated to becoming like Christ in all things. It is not a "do your own thing" but "do as I do." PREACHING POSSIBILITIES Gospel: Matthew 21:33-46 1. Whose World Is This? (21:33-43). Need: The modern person has lost sight of whose world ...

540. Proper 23

Exodus 32:1-33:6, Isaiah 25:1-12, Philippians 4:2-9, Philippians 4:10-20, Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... . It is a robe of righteousness which is given to those who have faith in Christ. He is our righteousness, and we are in the kingdom because faith puts on Christ. We are then worthy to be in God's holy presence, because we are clothed with the perfection of Christ. Old Testament: Exodus 32:1-14 1. Make (v. 1). The people say to Aaron, "Make us gods." The difference between God and gods is that God makes himself and we make gods. They are fabricated gods made of gold and fashioned with a graving tool ...

541. The 4 LAWS of a Whole Personality

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . This Messiah is a far more complex, divinely-tuned spiritual leader than John the Baptist had been waiting for - or had ever imagined. The messianic identity Jesus brought to the people wasn't a martial one but a spiritual one, the perfectly integrated divine-human, capable of incarnating and communicating the divine plan for humanity since the dawn of creation. Dan Montgomery has summarized powerfully Jesus' unique messianic personality in his work Beauty in the Stone: How God Sculpts You Into the Image ...

542. The Ladder or the Wheel

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... example of forbidden work. Not only did Jesus regularly profane the holy Sabbath day, he committed an act associated with witchcraft and sorcery: he raised Lazarus from the dead. This one act of Jesus--raising someone from the grave--gave Jewish authorities a perfect legal right to put Jesus into a grave. According to first-century Torah interpretation, when it comes to raising the dead, the life you saved would definitely not be your own. Jesus didn't violate all these Jewish laws out of disregard for ...

543. How to Beat the Devil

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... IS everything. Where are You Most Vulnerable? Does anyone doubt the devil's timing when he arrives to accompany Jesus after forty days and forty nights of fasting in the wilderness? Here is Jesus: exhausted, hungry, alone, tired, wobbly. Jesus is at his weakest physically. Perfect timing for the tempter. The King James translation refers to the devil as the tempter, the one who bides his time. Give the devil his due. No one has a better sense of timing than the devil: and he bides his time for you and ...

544. What Names Are You Naming?

Isaiah 49:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... able to perform virtuoso performances that still defy complete comprehension. Without a real language, with brains so small and simple we jeer them ("bird-brained"), these speckled clouds, these crowds in the air, whirl and swirl, dip and dive, twist and turn in perfect synchronicity. Never do you see some slow-poke sparrow forget to turn and cause a twelve bird smash-up in the sky. It's almost like an exquisitely choreographed ballet, with two hundred little wings suddenly tilting at exactly the same angle ...

545. Stirred, Not Shaken

Hebrews 13:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... so that authentic healing can take place. In the lab chemists use prefect stirrers - magnetized rods dropped into the mixing beaker - that whirl at a constant, unvarying rate to perfectly blend the chemical components being mixed. Perfect stirring in this world was only accomplished by Christ, as he brought together all the sins and shortcomings of humanity and perfectly absorbed them with his own body on the cross. But we're still called to act as stirring sticks, as spoons that mix the pot, never letting ...

546. A Sourdough Sprirituality

Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , stirrers, and swirlers. Human chemists can't maintain the consistency and duration needed to achieve the results they desire. Communities striving to bring a sourdough spirituality to spongy, tangy, ripeness must depend upon other than their own resources. To bring about the perfect mixing needed to fully leaven the members of the body of Christ, Jesus left behind the Holy Spirit, that "leaven of heaven." The gift of the Spirit enables the kingdom of God to be there, here and still not yet – all at ...

547. The Lamb's Book of Life

John 1:29-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , arrhythmia, cancer, the inability to do mathematics or read maps. Some of us are gene-poor. Others inherit blessings like low cholesterol (I once had a parishioner whose doctor prescribed for her at least one milk shake a day), full heads of hair, perfect pitch, always able to find a parking place. These people are gene-rich. Some of our genes are expressed from the moment of birth-hair color, eye color, right or left-handedness. Some genes lurk within – waiting for some mysterious button to turn ...

548. Life's Four Big 'Ds' and One Bigger 'D'

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... home they ask just to be happy. Just an easy life. That's all they want. When starting a new career we ask just to do our best at all times. Just a life of accomplishments. That's all we want. What happens when the baby isn't perfect? What happens when the marriage sours and turns south? What happens when the job gets boring and disappointing? Here come one or more of the 4 D's: doubt, despair, disappointment, depression. We like being in charge. We want to be in control of our lives and our livelihood ...

549. Innercizing Your Shopping List

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of our lives (unless, of course, you're a tennis pro or a truck-driver). But we feel keenly our shortcomings in our parenting skills, or cringe at our inadequacies in professional arenas. Why? Because these are facets of our existence which we have struggled to perfect; these are aspects of our lives we have worked to bring to excellence. One of the most respected columnists in the world, Thomas L. Friedman, recently wrote in The New York Times: "You know when I really get mad? It's when my wife tells me ...

550. Warts and All

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... personal encounter with the power and person of the risen Christ, and had preached Christ crucified far and wide. But it took his own experience with weakness, his own thorn, his warts-and-all personality to finally and fully realize that God's power is made perfect in weakness (verse 9). Paul's thorn revealed to him that God could use his weaknesses, the worn-thin and threadbare places in his being, to shine forth divine power and grace. It was then that Paul learned not only to accept his thorn, his warts ...

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