Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 601 to 625 of 972 results

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... future? It is not eating and drinking and being merry. Jesus did that all the time. It is not relaxing and taking joy in life. Jesus did that all the time. So what is the rich man’s problem? It is his focus on himself — to the exclusion of all others. Idolatry beings with an “I,” and this affluent agri-entrepeneur has a focus in life is fixated on “I.” *He asks himself how he should deal with his good “problem” of over-abundance. *He congratulates himself on the answer he comes up with that ...

602. Grow Up!

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... each other in the church should have been noticeably different from the rest of the world. But unfortunately that was not the case. Within the fellowship of the church there is no place for people to insist on their own way to the exclusion of everyone’s ideas and feelings. Whenever people insist on their own way, they hold everyone else spiritually hostage to the detriment of the mission of the church. Knitting groups have been started in many churches. Women come together to knit and pray together ...

603. When God Does Something New

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Argile Smith

... church and in the city on October 9, 1989. What happened then and there reflects well on how God can do something new in the hearts of his people. In 1982, the minister began leading prayer meetings at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig on Mondays. The exclusive purpose of the Monday night prayer meetings was to pray for peace. Having grown up in Leipzig during a time when the city was under Communist rule, the pastor knew about the tension among the people and the East German government. Leipzig happened to be ...

604. The Lamb

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Argile Smith

... people to keep on mentioning the name. Because of the story behind the name, Polycarp has significance for us as we worship. It’s a name rich in meaning when we think about the Christians who died as martyrs. They died because they devoted themselves exclusively to Jesus Christ. John had them in mind when he wrote about the Lamb. He wrote about people in white robes gathering around Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and worshiping him. For that reason, the name Polycarp signifies the value of All Saint’s ...

605. God Cares

Ezekiel 34:1-31

Sermon

Argile Smith

... soul that we don’t even sense it. We have gone so long without any spiritual food that we have lost our taste for it. In the New Testament, Peter talked about the food. He compared Christians to newborn babies who depended on mother’s milk exclusively for their nourishment. He went on to say that believers needed to take in pure spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:1). From what source did such spiritual nourishment come? According to Peter, it came from God’s word. A steady diet of his word would give believers ...

606. Who Wants to Be Your Brother?

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a picture of first-century, socially acceptable compassion, extended by this incredibly wealthy man, to an incredibly unacceptable person. “Dives,” the “rich man” Jesus describes in this parable, is VERY rich. The purple, the linen, the daily feasts, the exclusive gate — all these elements sketch-out an extremely wealthy individual. This “Dives” was Bill Gates rich. He was Donald Trump rich. He was a Prince of Dubai rich. This “Dives” didn’t just have big money — he had HUGE money ...

607. Let Them Eat Cake

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the future of a faithful life. Instead of listening to worthless words Paul urges Timothy to present himself as a “worker,” as one who has kept to the gospel Paul has preached and so has “no reason to be ashamed.” Instead of disputations and debates, Timothy is urged to cling exclusively to “the word of truth.” Obeying the gospel both as “good news” and as potentially short-term “bad news” is the message Paul leaves for his faithful followers.

608. 2 Timothy 2:8-15

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

609. He's Back

John 20:19-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

... out in front of us, we’d better get going after him and living his way; because, if we don’t start following him now, he’ll circle around and come back again and again until we do. 1. The Christians’ first Bible wasn’t the Hebrew Old Testament. Almost exclusively they read the Greek translation of the Hebrew, in which the verb, “he breathed upon” is exactly the same in the Greek of Genesis 2:7 and John 20:22.

610. A Faith that Leaves a Legacy

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

King Duncan

... , “Then they’re giving it to the right person.” (6) That couldn’t be said about Paul. He wasn’t receiving an award for doing nothing. Paul was receiving what he called “the crown of righteousness.” But he didn’t look at this crown as an exclusive award. It was the award that all who serve Christ will one day receive. I love the way Joni Eareckson Tada once described that day when she will fully be in the presence of the Almighty. Joni, as you know, was left quadriplegic by a diving accident ...

611. Duuuh!

John 14:15-31

Sermon

David O. Bales

... . He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (v. 15). That’s our full response to Jesus: loving him and keeping his commandments. Even though many of us like to emphasize one over the other, loving Jesus and keeping his commandments aren’t mutually exclusive. Saint Augustine of Hippo stated this well in the early fifth century, “Here is the rule: Love, and do what you will.” See how that works? If you truly love God and others, you should be able to figure out how to live. Edward P ...

612. Remembering Jesus

Matthew 26:17-30

Sermon

David O. Bales

... over sixty is bent in a constant stoop. By the time the rainy season passes, she’s set to delve into the cause of the old peoples’ painful posture. The monsoons end, people spend more time outdoors, and Emma realizes that village clean up is accomplished exclusively by the older people. Each day they sweep the ground with a broom made of palm fronds, yet the broom handle is only a couple feet long. The elderly spend their twilight years bent under a burden of their own making: the tradition of a short ...

613. What Difference Does it Make?

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Tony Everett

... any unclean person. At the same time God showed Peter a tomb-shattering, difference-making vision of Easter reality. “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (Acts 10:15). Here is the Easter difference. God rolls away the hypocritical and exclusive blinders many Christians wear these days, just like Peter wore in those days. God gave Peter a new and faithful way to understand Gentiles. God gave Cornelius and his household a new and faithful way to understand Christians. Today, God is doing ...

614. Will this Be on the Test?

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Tony Everett

... friends. Again, this time with more volume, Lorna asked, “Don, aren’t you going to bless me?” Wanting to do things right and still not wanting to offend anyone, Don blurted out, “I can’t bless you because I don’t know how!” Poor Don. Exclusive focus on avoiding the wrong often results in forgetting to do what is right. Primary concentration on what is prohibited tends to minimize gifts that are to be celebrated. On the one hand, like Don, we pay so much attention to these things in order to ...

615. How Does Your Garden Grow?

Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that had both scales and fins (so sorry — no lobster, crabs, scallops, clams, shrimp). Those bottom-feeding “fish” that were not “kosher” were simply thrown back into the sea. Like the “wheat and the weeds,” they were gathered up together, without any preliminary exclusion credentials. For both farmers of the land and farmers of the sea, the cardinal rule is to feed the soil not the plants, feed the water not the water’s creatures. It is by adding to that richness of the growing, nurturing ...

616. Up Close & Personal: Open the Doors

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

James Merritt

... , all the earth!” (Psalm 100:1, ESV) This psalm is all about worship, because worship is the primary way you really get up close and personal with God. In fact, worship is so vitally important to God that the first four of The Ten Commandments deal exclusively with worship. No book in the Bible talks more about worship than the Book of Psalms and no psalm talks more about worship than the 100th Psalm. Get ready, because the worship we find here is far different than the worship that takes place in most ...

617. Don’t Be a Trender - Be a Trendsetter

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... “trend.” He continues to treat her as a subject, not as an object. When the Canaanite woman continues to engage Jesus in a faith driven conversation, when she refuses to let the chosen status of Israel be an excuse for her exclusion, Jesus listens and knows he is his hearing a voice of true faithfulness. Neither Jesus nor the Canaanite woman accept the “trending” mentality that drives their individual cultures. Instead they engage in a new dialogue and together become “trend setters,” creating ...

618. She Had Great Faith

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... . “I was sent,” he said, “only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Is this truly how Jesus viewed his ministry not as the world’s Savior, but only as a Messiah for the Jews? Or is he saying, “Up to this moment my ministry has been directed exclusively toward the Jews, but I am preparing to do a new thing.” The Canaanite woman was certainly not put off by his words for she came to him directly and knelt before him. With a crushing load of love for her suffering daughter, she pleads, “Lord, help me ...

619. An Announcement about Our Future

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... for this message is loosely based on a passage in Dr. Tom Long’s book Shepherds and Bathrobes (Lima, OH: CSS Publishing, 1987). 3. http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/merry-christmas-or-happy-holidays-jeff-strite-sermon-on-christmas-115899.asp?Page=2. 4. Dale Bruner, “Is Jesus Inclusive or Exclusive?” Theology, News, and Notes (October 1999), p. 3. Cited by Jim Parsons, http://www.adventuresinrevland.com/2008/12/john-16-9-19-28-sermon-hoping-for-light.html

620. An Announcement from the Wilderness

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... gift this day? 1. Laugh & Lift - http://www.laughandlift.com/. 2. The Rev. Dr. Thomas G. Long, http://www.nationalcathedral.org/worship/sermonTexts/tl080601.shtml. 3. MONDAY FODDER, http://family-safe-mail.com/. 4. “Is Jesus Inclusive or Exclusive?” Theology, News, and Notes of Fuller Seminary (Oct. 1999), p. 4. 5. C. Philip Green, http://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-sermon-central-staff-stories-christmas-78736.asp. 6. The Evangelical Christian. 7. “A World Without Christmas ...

621. Night of Light

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Timothy Cargal

... Jesus? The answer to that question lies in a proper understanding of how Matthew and his contemporaries understood the relationship between ancient prophecies and their own time. First, Matthew would have been the first to admit that Isaiah’s words did not refer exclusively to Jesus. Isaiah spoke God’s word to his own contemporaries and did so to help them understand what was happening in their own lives and not what would happen centuries later. But Matthew would also have argued that Isaiah’s oracle ...

622. Prescription on a Pole

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... is motivated by love, and that love prompts him to initiate. It is not merely that he responds mercifully when we come to him, but rather that he begins by coming to us (see also Romans 5:8). His love and salvation are not limited to an exclusive group, a covenant people, a worthy few, but for “everyone who believes” so that “the world might be saved.” The end of this gospel lesson makes abundant reference to “light,” which is a large and significant theme in John’s gospel. At the outset, John ...

623. Dealing with Cantankerous People

Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... like? He was the man for others. The only malice, anger or bitterness he ever showed was toward wrongdoers, and he even forgave them. What was Christ like? He never looked down on anyone, never called anyone a sinner, he welcomed all into his family. He was never exclusive, always inclusive. He was a friend like no other. To be in his presence was to be in the presence of love, healing and hope. As a friend, he lay down his life for those he loved. No greater love has any person for his friends than to ...

624. The Challenge to Forgive

Luke 7:36--8:3

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... real badness of prodigals and prostitutes. Dr. John Shea states it profoundly when he says, "forgiveness is not magnanimously forgetting faults but the uncovering of self-worth when it is crusted over with self-hatred." Shea adds, "The graciousness of God focuses exclusively on the fact that although nobody deserves it, everyone gets it." Even our enemies. Or to say it again in Shea's words, "forgiveness reclaims the essential worth of the person" (The Challenge of Jesus, pp. 121-122). The profound truth of ...

625. Demons, Pigs, and the Economy

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... tell us he lived in the carved out caves or tombs near the Sea of Galilee. Ostracized from society because of his initial mental illness, the demoniac's condition is exacerbated by society's total rejection. Wild in his efforts to resist rejection and exclusion, the authorities chain him down by his hands and feet. In a surge of frightened, defiant, maniacal strength, he refuses to be entrapped by the ancient equivalent of a straitjacket. He bursts the bonds, ripping off his clothes as a rejection of all ...

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