Sermon and Worship Resources

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Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ride the waves with peace and joy and pass out kites. Jesus doesn’t promise calm seas. But he does promise to calm us in every sea. Jesus doesn’t promise to speak peace to every storm that comes our way. But he promises to give us perfect peace in the midst of every perfect storm. The essence of the gospel, in the words of Herbert McCabe, is that if you don’t love, you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you. If you want a quiet life, a life of peace and contentment, then don’t follow Jesus ...

577. Easter 3

Psalm 4:1-8, Luke 24:36b-48, Acts 3:11-26, 1 John 3:1-7

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... in the strength you have given us in the church. We are of the same humanity that repudiated the suffering Messiah. We are of the repenting community whose sins are wiped out. We need to know you more truly so that your divine love may come to perfection in us, through the Spirit of the Risen Christ. Amen Declaration of Pardon Pastor: Friends, hear the good news! We have come to plead our cause with the Divine Parent, Jesus Christ, God’s Son. People: Jesus Christ is just and the remedy for the defilement ...

578. Proper 16

Hebrews 12:14-29, Jeremiah 1:1-19, Psalm 71:1-24, Luke 13:10-17

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... rather go our own way and avoid the training you insist on giving us. We like to be easy-going, slack in our morals, haphazard in our prayers, spiritually out of condition. Forgive such denial of our responsibilities as your children, so unlike your true and perfect Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Declaration of Pardon Pastor: Friends, hear the Good News! By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are called to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. People: We are called to ...

579. Shame On Who?

John 8:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... to judge his adultery. Even though we are not to judge the homosexual, we are to judge his homosexuality. Don't think you have to be perfect to condemn sin. Condemning sin is not the same as judging the sinner. I want you to write this statement down in big, bold letters and ... will go and sin no more I will not condemn you." He didn't say, "If you will guarantee Me from now on to live a perfect life, I won't condemn you." He said, in effect, "I don't. Now, you don't." I "don't condemn you. Now, you don't ...

580. Mary: The Promise Conceived

Luke 1:26-55

Sermon

James Merritt

... name occurs over 51 times in the New Testament. There are a lot of misconceptions about Mary. Nowhere in the Bible does it say where to worship Mary. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we are to pray to Mary. Nowhere in the Bible does it say she was perfect or sinless. Nowhere does it say that she was God or even co-equal with God. What is so special about Mary is, she was so un-special. God took an ordinary, run of the mill, teenage, peasant girl and used her in an unbelievably extraordinary way. You are ...

581. Jesus: The Promise Received

Luke 2:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... with you and that leads to external peace, which is "peace with others." I know for many of you, Christmas is tough, because you have relatives you don't speak to. You’ve got family members you have unresolved issues with. I want to tell you this is the perfect time to reconcile, to break down walls and to build up bridges. You can do that if you have peace with God, because that will lead to the peace of God which you can share with others and they can experience that same peace with you. I like the ...

582. Joseph – The Promise Believed

Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... , who told her to pay no attention to God and eat the fruit (which she did) and that one act has put us in the mess we are in today. For a moment, Satan was deliriously happy. He thought he had messed up everything. He had ruined a perfect world. He had damaged a perfect marriage. He had broken the fellowship that Adam and Eve had with God. Satan would have won except God made The Promise which we read in Genesis 3:15. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he ...

583. Finish the Drill

Nehemiah 4:1-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... but he did the practical thing. Listen to verse 9: "But we prayed to our God and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves." (Nehemiah 4:9, NLT) Nehemiah did several things practically to prepare the people for the worst. This is so important. It is perfectly fitting when you lie down in bed at night to pray, "God protect my house from burglars", but you had better make sure the doors are locked before you go to bed. There is truth to the saying, "God helps those who help themselves." Look at the ...

584. I’m Movin’ On

Philippians 3:12-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... of shame, sorrow, and heartache. But he tells us how he dealt with a past that was weighted down with guilt, so he could look forward to a future that was filled with glory. I. Be Dissatisfied With Your Position "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." (Phil. 3:12) Now Paul was saved and Paul was sanctified, but Paul was not satisfied. Because even though this man walked with God, had a dynamic ...

585. Know Fear: The Fear of God

Proverbs 1:7

Sermon

James Merritt

... is in His proper place in your life and you have put nothing else in front of Him or before Him, He will satisfy every need you have, because He is all you need. When you understand who God is - a holy righteous perfect God, who demands absolute perfection; a God who because of His perfect holiness cannot tolerate human sin; a God who sent His son Jesus Christ who had to die to deal with our sin—then you understand why a healthy fear of God is necessary to have a relationship with God. As I prepared this ...

586. What Do I Do When I Can't Get Started?

Proverbs 6:6-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... There motto is "We are behind you all the way!" Their number one commandment is "Don't put off procrastinating!" You will love this. They hold a 4th of July party every December 31st. The wisest man who ever lived, a man named Solomon, gives us the perfect antidote to procrastination. Believe it or not, he says the best way to overcome procrastination is to take a trip out to an anthill. You heard me correctly. He said an ant can tell you exactly how to overcome procrastination. "Go to the ant, o sluggard ...

587. Keeping His Word

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... that are troubled and afraid! If the Holy Spirit working in you and me can deliver all of that, how tremendously happy our lives should be. All of us have seen some evidence of the reality of such happiness from time to time. Oh, there is no perfection in the sense that there are those who are encompassed by these blessings all the time. It is painfully and incessantly an imperfect — even evil — world. Yet, colleagues in the cause of Christ, he has kept his word. It begins with love for him who first ...

588. Call to Oneness

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... day of days. We know it is to be but we do not know the final configuration. We must be patient. The Father and Son are perfectly related in love. This is such a lofty idea and what are we to do with it? Perhaps our response is that God is God and ... eternal virtue brings with it a solidarity. Every thing and every one becomes as they were intended. We were originally made for heavenly perfection and we are not to back away in stubborn resignation. When we tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love, we ...

589. Repairing Our Lives

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... stem and had carved around it an intricate rose with petals, leaves, and thorns. The king was overjoyed and offered the old man half of his kingdom for he had taken something beautiful and perfect and improved upon it. But the old man refused the offer in front of the whole court, saying, "I did not make something perfect better. What I did was take something flawed and cracked at its heart and turn it into something beautiful once again." The king thought that all was lost. Since his kingdom was small and ...

590. The Prodigal Father

Romans 8:14-17

Sermon

John Jamison

... . In most every house throughout town, fathers grabbed their young sons and said, "C'mon boy, now you're gonna see what happens to boys who don't behave," or "Grab the boy, Charlie, there's gonna be a whoppin' today!" It was the perfect ending to the perfectly bad situation, with the perfect lesson to be learned in the process, because they all knew exactly what was going to happen. And the father knew as well. The law was quite clear on this kind of thing. He really had no choice in the matter. The older ...

591. Walking in the Light

Isaiah 60:1-6

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... we don't move toward our destruction, but instead toward salvation. Amid the darkness that threatens to engulf the world, among the lost that we encounter every day, God has set perfect light. In the confusion of a million clamoring claims on our hearts, God has set perfect light. In places where people live distressed or desperate lives, God has set perfect light. Jesus reminds us again, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life" (John 8:12 ...

592. The Whole Family Survival Kit

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... crawl; to love one’s self is to love them all. John Updike, “Relatives,” Collected Poems 1964-94 (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), 240. Updike nails it, doesn’t he. “To love one’s self is to love them all.” So why is the most perfect Christmas, the first Christmas, always represented as family free. Have you ever wondered about that? What’s up with that? Set up your Christmas crèche and whom do you have? Describe for me the “holy family.” A nuclear family of Joseph, Mary, and the Baby ...

593. Superman: More Than A Super Hero

John 1:1-5, 9-14; John 13:31-32; John 20:30-31

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... need a Man of the Cross. We need the man who was both Human and Divine, God and Man in the flesh. We need the one who stepped out of heaven and put on the rags of our flesh and blood and became one of us. We need Jesus, the perfect Son of God who came not only to teach us how to live as Disciples, but to save us and offer us life eternal. And Jesus did it, not with fisticuffs and bare knuckles, not by bending steel with his bare hands, not by pummeling the enemy to dust; but ...

594. Batman: Driven By Guilt or Grace?

Romans 5:1-11; 8:1-2

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... why Batman is so popular. While Superman appeals to the best in us, Batman appeals to the rest in us. The rest of what everyday humanity is like. We can identify with that self made model who Batman is. He has honed his body to physical perfection with exercise and martial arts training, yet he is vulnerable and has been bruised and wounded a number of times. That could never happen to the man of steel. Bullets bounce off of him. Batman has also honed his intellect and skills of perception, training hour ...

595. Followed By Mercy

Psalm 23:6

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... the soul. The only way God lead in paths of righteousness is if we've given ourselves to the Shepherd's Care. That's Justification. It's not anything we've done but what is done for us that makes us the Shepherd's. And then there's this ongoing Perfecting or Sanctifying Grace spoken of here. It's the Grace that follows us. The Grace that continues to remind us of God's faithfulness. It's the Grace that allows us and grows us into being like Christ. You've probably heard or maybe even used the phrase: "Don't ...

596. Batman: Driven By Guilt or Grace?

Romans 5:1-11; 8:1-2; Luke 18:9-16

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

597. Superman: More Than A Super Hero

John 1:1-5, 9-14; John 13:31-32; John 20:30-31

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

598. What Matters In the Light of Eternity: “Church Matters”

Acts 20:13-38

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to his bedside.” In a voice that was barely a whisper Mr. Craddock said, “Tell them I was wrong.” “Wrong about what?” asked Fred. “Wrong about the church,” said Mr. Craddock. “At my funeral, tell them I was wrong.” The Church is far from perfect. How could it be perfect? People like you and me are members. Groucho Marx said, “I wouldn’t want to be a member of any church who would have me as a member.” Fred Allen said, “The first time I sang in the choir, two hundred people changed ...

599. One Lord, One Table

Exodus 20:1-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... not eating from his special tree. One tree. One law. Pretty easy to follow, right? Wrong. Just like me and Mrs. Wallace's tree, it was hard. Adam and Eve couldn't resist the forbidden fruit. They had to have it. And when they did. The gates to the perfect place, the garden created just for them, were closed to them forever. They couldn't even cut through to get to the other side. It was off limits. One tree. One law. Pretty easy to follow. Wrong. Time passed and God developed a relationship with a group of ...

600. Praising God All the Way Home

Psalm 150:1-6

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... just give him his daily bread and the strength to accept whatever that might entail. Soon he found out that a friend of his daughter had been praying to the Holy Spirit as she was considering donating a kidney and was determined that she would be a perfect match. He wasn’t really sure that he wanted someone to sacrifice for him that way but she insisted that she wanted a number to call. He had a lot of people here in the church praying for him, especially his Encounter Sunday School Class and many people ...

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