Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 551 to 575 of 3160 results

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... but he has killed him!" (Mark 9:26 cf). Then a scribe, recovering his old boldness and arrogance, remarked to one of his fellows, "Yes, he has cured him, but he has killed him. What sort of a cure is that? We could have done that ourselves. We could have knocked the boy on the head and that would have been the end of it. What sort of a physician or prophet is this anyway?" You can see the face of the father as he looked at Jesus, stared down on the prostrate form, the expressionless face of his boy. You can ...

552. Is It True?

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... when he died. He has a peace and serenity about him that is palpable. As soon as Lazarus gets home and emotions have calmed down a bit, his sisters, Mary and Martha, ask him the inevitable question: "What is it like beyond the grave? Tell us. What sort of existence lies beyond our physical dying?" Once again Lazarus begins to laugh. He responds, "There is only life. There is only laughter, the laughter of God soaring into the heights and the depths. There is no death really. Death is not the end, it's not ...

553. Big Men in Little Planes

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... .” Now? Kenya? she gulped. Barb says that, being a person who is used to the finer things in life and who takes germs very seriously, she had visions of tribal warfare, genocide, natives on the rampage, AIDS, malaria, the Ebola virus, and all sorts of other things. Still, she managed enough courage to ask the next question: “Where is this Londiani?” She found Londiani was a small village in western Kenya. Another Christian missionary was already there and had started the school. She was now building a ...

554. Proper 12

Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm 85:1-13; 138:1-8, Hosea 1:2-10, Luke 11:1-13, Colossians 2:6-19

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... us to hopefulness. People: With music and dance, with words and silence, we thank God for divine goodness among us! Prayer Of Thanksgiving Energy of the Universe — dawn reminded us that you are still creating! Dawn reminded us that we are surrounded by all sorts of beauty and all sorts of suffering. Thank you for being with us through every day, all day and all night. In this hour, we listen carefully for your voice and we articulate what is going on with us. Be real with us, for we value your intimacy ...

555. The Unchanging Christ in a Changing World

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... we give to God in gratitude? Do we give to our neighbor in love? Do we center our lives around Christ or on money? Hebrews calls us to show the world our faith by how we live. In the midst of these ethical teachings, verse 8 stands out. Sort of out of nowhere, verse 8 announces a deep statement of theology. In this case, it announces something important about who Christ is. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." We could chew on that statement for several sermons, but let us reflect on it ...

556. Trumpet Medley

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... you and I live in a time when we can be rather selective about the sounds that we hear. Much more so than previous generations. It used to be that every telephone sounded essentially the same. Today, however, we can program our phones to play all sorts of pleasing or amusing personalized ringtones. Even the term is becoming a misnomer, for the younger generations may not associate phones with "ringing" at all. My wife's cell phone, for instance, used to be set to meow like a cat when someone called it ...

557. God All Along

Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... tian claims as dangerous and misleading, and so he set out to silence them. What he did not recognize, however, was that God was behind it all. So, see him traveling along on the road to Damascus. He is a man on a mission, albeit not the sort of mission we commonly associate with him. But the look is familiar, nonetheless. He is purposeful and devout. He is on the road for the Lord. Then, mercifully, the Lord meets him along that road. Paul's experience on the road to Damascus is distinctive, to be ...

558. The Good Works We Leave Behind

Acts 9:36-43

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... her out to present her to her astonished friends and loved ones. Can we even fathom the scene that ensued? All of the warmth of the people's grief now combined with their joy and surprise at the sight of Tabitha alive to form an uncommon sort of welcome and embrace. Have tears of sadness ever turned more quickly and completely into tears of joy? The gathered mourners, who not so long before had cried over her corpse, could now hug her person. The friends who had whispered their affection and appreciation in ...

559. The Man Who Wasn’t There

Acts 16:9-15

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... Paul had. I don't know personally, therefore, what you feel the next morning. But it's clear from the story that whatever Paul felt, he felt it so strongly that he and his companions changed their itinerary immediately in response to that vision. Perhaps this sort of turn-on-a-dime operation is acceptable for a missionary. It's a little hard to imagine in other lines of work, however. Does the salesman staying in Phoenix tell his boss that he decided to change plans and hop on a plane to San Diego in ...

560. Pet Peeves and Pet Pleasures

Luke 3:21-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , every day of his life, and the gift of that approval brought him unlimited joy. It was a joy that Jesus shared with all those who believed they were forever outside God’s pleasure — the tax collectors, the sinners, the sick, the poor, outcasts of all sorts, even Gentiles. Jesus reached out to include all persons because he himself received and recognized God’s pleasure, God’s love, as a gift of grace. We do not receive God’s love and pleasure as any earned bonus. God’s pleasure in us, God’s ...

561. Real Heros

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... may send. Jesus said very clearly that God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). In other words, good people prosper, bad people prosper. Good people suffer, bad people suffer. All sorts of tragic events can happen to the most blessed of saints. Expect the best, but should life deal you a crippling blow be prepared for it and hold on to God. Believe me when I say, God will never let go of you. Pastor Ray Pritchard tells ...

562. Pastor, Don't Talk About That!

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... . One day they set out on a walking tour of Japan. It is said that Japan is a walker’s paradise in cherry blossom time. But the culture was different than young Walter had ever experienced and the temptations to cast off all restraint and indulge in every sort of desire and impulse was great. But something nagged at him. He sat one evening in a hotel room struggling with his memories of his parents and his past, his heritage and his hometown heroes and he sat down and wrote words with which many of us are ...

563. An Invitation to a Wedding

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... emotions for life. But the point of God’s love is that he wants them to change. He hates what they’re doing and the effects it has on everyone else and on themselves too. Ultimately, if he’s a good God, he cannot allow that sort of behavior, and that sort of person, if they don’t change, to remain forever in the party he’s throwing for his son . . . “The point of the story is,” continues Bishop Wright, “that . . . God’s kingdom is a kingdom in which love and justice and truth and mercy and ...

564. An Announcement in Song

Psalm 98:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... the giving and receiving of gifts. Pastor John Piper tells about a cartoon from the series called “Marvin.” In the first frame a young mother has just finished reading the Christmas story to her young son. The lad has a puzzled look on his face as he sorts it all out. Then he thinks to himself, “Let me see if I’ve got this straight . . . Christmas is baby Jesus’ birthday, but I get the presents?” The final frame shows him with a satisfied grin as he says to himself, “Is this a great religion ...

565. When the Golden Rule Isn't Enough - Mother's Day

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... on his route. A passenger asked him why he’d done that. Doubledee explained that he’d seen the man standing there before and just couldn’t bear the thought that he didn’t have any shoes. (3) Gee, we say, that’s the sort of thing Jesus would do. Yes, and that is the sort of thing a follower of Jesus might do. After two thousand years of Christian history, that shouldn’t be such a radical thought, but it is. We claim to follow Jesus, but we have very feebly sought to live as Jesus commanded us to ...

566. What Kind of King Is This?

John 18:28-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... Christ through the ordinary days of the church year until today, the last Sunday in the church year, when we reach a sort of climax with a celebration of the coming reign of Christ over all the earth. Then, next Sunday, we begin the cycle ... own accord or if others had talked to him and influenced his question. Jesus is asking Pilate if he is concerned that he is some sort of political threat to Rome, that is, a revolutionary. To build a case against Jesus so that the Romans could kill him, the religious ...

567. Freedom In Christ

Galatians 5:1-15, Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... ). Paul may be tarring his opponents with the same brush with which they tarred him, that of lacking integrity and agitating for some sort of political advantage. Additional Notes 5:7 See V. C. Pfitzner, Paul and the Agon Motif (NovTSup 16; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1967), ... those with philosophical or religious sensibilities, then as now, Paul’s statement is a truism. Self-indulgence is slavery of a sort, and the capacity and opportunity to love is freedom. The command to be slaves to each other is, however, a ...

568. The Man of Lawlessness

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... , is frequently used in a political sense in LXX (e.g., Josh. 22:22; 2 Chron. 29:19; Jer. 2:19; cf. also Josephus, Life 43); but in Acts 21:21, the only other occurrence of the word in the NT, it indicates rebellion of a different sort: apostasy from God. In the light of verse 4, this is certainly Paul’s meaning here, but the apostasy may have a political expression, so that the other meaning should not be ruled out altogether (since the “governing authorities” are divinely appointed, Rom. 13:1, there ...

569. To Elders and Young Men

1 Peter 5:1-11

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... “the lots.” One implication of the choice of such a term could be that the care of a group of believers in the Christian community was allocated to each elder—though it must be added that there is no evidence from other sources that this sort of organization existed. More profoundly, the Greek word for “lot” is applied in the OT to God’s choice of Israel: it is as if God assigned Israel to himself as his special responsibility (Deut. 9:29). Now in the Christian dispensation, God is handing on ...

570. False Teachers and Their Destruction

2 Peter 2:1-22

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... false teachers are financially making a good living out of their dupes (cf. Jude 11, 12, 16). The effect of the false teaching is to lure others into similar paths of immorality and so to bring discredit upon Christ. Many will follow, for the attraction of this sort of conduct will be hard to resist, appealing as it does to the worst side of human nature. It issues in shameful ways, in acts of unbridled lust and brazen excess, which will bring the way of truth, Christ’s program for the believer’s manner ...

571. The Sin and Doom of Godless Men

Jude 1:1-16

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves, lit. “shepherding themselves.” Evidently these men were making sure that they looked after their own greedy self-interests at the gatherings (1 Cor. 11:20–22), not unlike the scene painted in Ezek. 34:2, 8, 10. The sort of thing that could go on is indicated by Didache 11.9, which declares that no prophet who (supposedly “in the spirit”) orders a meal is to eat of it, or else he is not a true prophet. Such men are like clouds without rain ...

572. Jephthah

Jud 10:6–11:40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... promise, even before Jephthah fulfilled his part (v. 11). It appears that the elders installed Jephthah as head and commander in a ceremony at the sanctuary at Mizpah; there is a vague reference that Jephthah repeated all his words there (v. 11), which sounds like some sort of oath of office. This is the second time in as many verses that the author has referred in Hebrew to Jephthah’s “word(s)” (Hb. dabar), and he will develop it into a major Leitmotif in Jephthah’s story (vv. 28, 37). Jephthah was ...

573. Ruth and Boaz on the Threshing Floor

Ruth 3:1-18

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... most pivotal scenes of the book takes place on a threshing floor (goren), one might imagine it to be a very private encounter. Yet Israelite threshing floors are very public places. People stream through them constantly, buying and selling goods of all sorts, not just threshed grain. In fact, so central are they to Israelite commerce, the idiomatic way to ask “Where can I find that?” in Modern Hebrew is still “. . . from the threshing floor or the wine press?” Festivals are celebrated there (Deut ...

574. A Woman Burdened with Guilt

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... to it. She still felt guilt. She still felt regret. She still longed to be made clean. Simon the Pharisee obviously wasn’t willing to cut her any slack. “If this man were a prophet,” he said to himself huffily, “he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” Jesus could tell what this Pharisee was thinking. So he said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” The Pharisee answered, “What is it, Teacher?” Jesus instructed him with a ...

575. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... that he could put up a better record “in the flesh” than most people, if he still attached any importance to this sort of thing (which he does not), he means not only external ceremonies but a wide range of heritage, endowment, and achievement. The ... existed outside of Christ and the gospel that he had commissioned Paul to make known throughout the world was a dead loss, the sort of thing to be lost or thrown away, like so much rubbish, the merest street-sweepings. When he entered the service of Christ ...

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