Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 601 to 625 of 1285 results

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... opening words of Handel's Messiah, "Comfort ye my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem." He does not sing it loudly. He sings it softly. "Tell her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." The prophets saw that the Exile in Babylon was the moral consequence of the choices that the nation had made. They made wrong choices, trusting in material things, in arms and in idols and in money, rather than trusting God. Historically ...

602. No Fear

John 15:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... drops to a lower age every year. Thirty years ago we were concerned that there were drugs in our colleges and universities. Now they are in the upper elementary grades. It is said that there are fifteen million youth at risk in this society. Teenage suicide has doubled in the last ten years. We hold the world's record now for teenage pregnancy. Last week I attended The City Club where Tony Robbins, who is also a part of the steering committee for the summit, analyzed the situation by pointing out that this ...

603. Now What?

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Mark Trotter

604. Now Try Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... law required, Peter asked, "As many as seven times?" He reasoned that if our righteousness as Christians is to exceed that of the Pharisees, then that ought to do it. I mean, seven times seemed about right. It is more than anybody else would ask. It doubled what everybody else was supposed to do, so nobody could ask more than seven times. Except, Jesus said, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." Which means, forgiveness is beyond calculation. There are no limits to it. Which means, it ...

605. Now What Do We Do?

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Mark Trotter

606. Where's Your Spirit?

Acts 19:1-7

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . So he says, "What about when you were baptized?" They said, "Well, we were baptized into John's baptism." Paul says, "Aha, that's the problem. John's baptism was for repentance." Whereupon he laid hands upon them, and gave them what must have been a double dose of the Holy Spirit, considering their response, which was to prophesy and to speak in tongues. Now I suppose that most of us are like those Ephesians. The idea of the Holy Spirit being with us is strange to us. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit ...

607. Vital Vulnerability

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... of images. One image she keeps coming back to is Nurse Eisberg, an obstetrical nurse in a large urban hospital. Reminding us that 10,000 American babies are born each day, Dillard describes the nurse’s work: Here on the obstetrical ward, is a double sink in a little room ... This is where they wash the newborns like dishes ... Nurse Eisberg lifts them gently, swiftly, efficiently ... She wipes white lines of crumbled vernix from folds in his groin and under his arms. She holds one wormy arm and one ...

608. Jesus, Our Rock Foundation

John 14:1-14

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... weights, pulleys, and springs which allowed him to exercise even more. After several months, Charlie again looked in the mirror. There was definite improvement. His chest had grown and his arms were more muscular. The positive results encouraged him and thus he doubled his efforts. He did more difficult exercises, lifted more weights, and now even began to eat only certain foods. He took lots of vitamins as well. After a couple of years of this strenuous exercise program, Charlie again looked in the mirror ...

609. Things to Come!

Matthew 13:47-52, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... verses 31-32. The kingdom of heaven is like that tiniest of seeds, the mustard seed that is planted and grows into a shrub. Up until this point, the apostles are with him. But when Jesus said the shrub grows into a tree, they must have done a double take. "Say what!" It'd be like saying an azalea bush grew into a forest giant. The mustard shrub is the kardah plant. It is never bigger than six to ten feet, and it bears thousands of tiny seeds in its branches that when harvested and properly prepared, yield ...

610. True Reformation

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... 's theory, so here: The real truths are not those of common sense. Empires and tyrants who have relied on domination and destruction have passed away, while Christ crucified is, as Paul said, "the power of God and the wisdom of God." Jesus Christ is the truth in a double sense. He is, on the one hand, the fullest expression of what humanity is supposed to be, the truth of what creation is all about. On the other hand he is, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, "true God from true God." We can know the truth ...

611. Praying Through

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... will be given you." Once in graduate school my wife and I were running very short of money. Inflation had taken a big bite out of our income. We had a new baby. Rent was going up. Gasoline prices had soared. And our electricity bill had more that doubled. For several weeks I worried and schemed and grew irritable. I could see no way out of our financial plight. During those weeks I am ashamed to say that I never once prayed about things. I guess I sort of figured seminary students were supposed to be poor ...

612. No Bones about It

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... well. Fourthly and finally, connect dem different bones. Truth be bold, for most of us there's probably only one reason we remember the prophet Ezekiel - "Dem bones, Dem bones, Dem . . . Dry bones. Now hear the word of the Lord." That African-American spiritual, which doubles as a crash course in anatomy, caught both the peculiarity and the power of Ezekiel's bony vision so perfectly, and put into such an unforgettable and fun tune that we all love to hear and sing about "Dem bones, dem bones, dem . . . dry ...

613. Humans, Inc.

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... find the bad label inhuman so sadly, madly fitting. In today's text, Zacchaeus "learned human" (as the title of Les Murray's most recent book of poetry puts it). Christians share this planet with lots of people who aren't Christian. We must do double duty: be distinctively Christian and universally human at the same time. In today's text, Zacchaeus joined the human race. He became part of "Humans, Inc." And he joined the human race by incorporating himself into the body of humanity. He became part of what ...

614. Move Life from Duty to Destiny

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ” is more than offset by the ultimate good news he finally brings. In v.13 he declares that as his disciples stand before all these establishment enforcers, they will have the perfect opportunity to be “witnesses,” a word which originally carried the double meaning of “martyr” and “messenger.” This Lucan declaration will come to fruition again and again in Acts (3:15; 4:33; 5:32; 20:26) as the disciples do “bear witness”— sometimes under the direst of circumstances. Jesus admonishes his ...

615. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... full impact of divorce (50 percent were brought up in homes where parents divorced), busters exhibit all the problems that go with latch-key upbringings – depression; lower self-esteem; emotional, learning, behavior problems. Busters have suicide rates double those of 1970; they are three times as likely to be depressed as their grandparents' generation. Over 1.4 million will have psychological counseling before adulthood. The first electronic generation, busters are the "designated decision makers" about ...

616. Jedi Christians

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... What are the winds that strain to get your attention, to become central to your lives? They could be the winds of Ambition: getting ahead no matter what track you're taking; Greed: like the Enron and WorldCom executives, like Lotto fever, like double orders of Big Macs; Addiction: seeking fantasy journeys, fantasy worlds blurred over with the haze of alcohol, drugs, food; Helplessness: believing in that nasty little voice that disclaims "what can I do all by myself?" Busyness: compiling to do and done lists ...

617. The Shadow

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... it looks as though some rather short, stocky person is peeking in at us from just outside the front door. Even though we know its our dear old binnacle, the strange shadows it casts by porchlight and moonlight never fail to startle us and make us do a quick double-take. The shadows transform the familiar into the threatening. I suspect most of what we fear about the dark is not the fact that we can't see anything. Rather, our fear of the dark is rooted in the fact that we can see something, but what we see ...

618. The Uncloudy Cloud?

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... outcast life living in deserts, on mountaintops, in caves, or even holes in the ground. The cloud of witnesses is cloudy indeed. We like to think of the cloud as a pure white, pristine pillow of shimmering goodness and light. But that word cloud has a double meaning: it also means something that darkens and obscures, or a blemish on a polished stone. A cloud on someone's reputation isn't a good thing. This cloud of witnesses here in Hebrews isn't a clear, shining beacon of unadulterated goodness shining in ...

619. Be Ready!

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

King Duncan

... with the title, Oddballs and Eccentrics. In his book Shaw chronicles the lives of many curious people-- people who lived somewhat “outside the box,” shall we say. For example he told of a British squire named George Edward Derring. Derring lived a mysterious double life. For years the servants at his mansion near Welwyn, England hardly ever saw him, except on Christmas Eve when he would suddenly appear, read his mail, then vanish again on Christmas morning. That was it. He was there on Christmas Eve; he ...

620. Are You a Leg-Grabbing Christian?

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -grabber? Where can adults reconnect for a confidence boost, find a pillar of unshakeable love, or simply lean all our weight and all the weight of our fears, doubts, responsibilities, and failures, against someone else? In today's gospel text Jesus' message is double-edged. On one hand, he chastises his disciples for behaving like Gentiles that is, those outside the family who worry about "what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear" (verses 26, 30). Jesus' admonition ...

621. Inside-out Living

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the same reason we scrupulously avoid the person in the office who just got in big trouble with the boss because we don't want that person's tainted image rubbing of on us, Jesus' words on uncleanness pack a real punch today. The punch is doubled because Jesus argues that because it's what's inside that makes us unclean, none of us no, not one can be deemed ritually clean. We all suffer from the fearful blight known as phytophthora infestans. Between 1845 and 1849, the Great Potato Famine cruelly tortured ...

622. Catch the Fever

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

James Caldwell III

... start hundreds of societies, schools, hospitals, and orphanages. The same fever fueled by fire at Pentecost, and fanned by the Holy Spirit. The same fever that causes us to take risks, explore virgin territory, and reevaluate and reorder our priorities. To hear the double-ring of postmodern ministry both to the ordinary and the outer limits. Mark is telling us that Jesus says, "If you follow me, you'll have to catch the fever." The same fever that spreads revival, preaches repentance, and kills the bacteria ...

623. Weak Sauce

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is walking up and ordering at the counter of McDonald's instead of using the drive thru window. But don't associate the national failure to work out with a timidity towards work itself. As our national waistline grows, Americans are working harder, working longer, working double, sometimes triple jobs, and are the most likely workers in the world to not take all their vacation time. We go to work more, stay at work later, bring more work home with us, and take more work along on brief three-day weekend mini ...

624. In Life Nothing Works but the Impossible

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Paradise Regained. Politics may be called the “art of the possible.” But religion is the art of the impossible. Jesus’ true kind of humans are people who refuse to conform to the limits of the possible: they practice immoderate, intemperate, odd, double, dare dreams--like love your enemies, overcome evil with good, die to yourself, forgive 70x7. You say: Impossible! I say: Impossible is nothing! One of my favorite biblical expressions is Mary’s words of wonderment: “How can this be?” (Luke 1 ...

625. Advent 3

Psalm 146:1-10, Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-12, Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon Aid

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

... psalm would more simply be divided between the introductory praise in vv. 1-2 and a larger section of vv. 3-10 entitled, "alternatives for human trust." Significance. Psalm 146 provides both a meditation on and a celebration of hope. As we noted above, the double-sided nature of hope is explored through the contrast between vv. 3-4 and vv. 5-10. Verses 3-4 describe the disastrous results of anchoring our hope in human power. Through a pun on the word human (Hebrew, 'adam; English, Adam) and earth (Hebrew ...

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