Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 601 to 625 of 4884 results

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... 5 - putting the two together as a guide for growth. Let’s focus then on the Philippian passage, verses 9-11 of Chapter 1 and share from the American translation: “And it is my prayer that your love may grow richer and richer in knowledge and perfect insight, so that you may have a sense of what is vital, and may be men of transparent character and blameless life, in preparation for the day of Christ, with your lives filled with fruits which pf’ uprightness produces through Jesus Christ, to the honor ...

602. Assurance: The Privilage of All Believers

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... it, Fanny Crosby did – and it’s great Wesleyan theology: Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood And the third verse of that hymn states it clearly: Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest.... II That leads to our next big point - ASSURANCE. And this brings us back to our scripture lesson. Wesley’s favorite text for this central theme of his theology was Romans 8:16 ...

603. A Sunday Kind of Love

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... God loves ME.” But if we cannot learn to accept our Beloved status in the eyes of God and others, the power of the living, loving Trinity is broken. We can’t offer this world “A Sunday Kind of Love.” Maybe if we cannot be the perfect “three-way bulb,” fully inhabiting each love relationship, we can at least practice being like a “dimmer” switch. Maybe our ability to accept our own Belovedness is at the bottom of the dimmer “slide.” But we can move up the intensity as we try to express ...

604. A Glimpse of God

Exodus 33:19-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... toward sin. He is bound to be against sin because of who He is. Or the Bible talks about God being a “consuming fire”. That does not mean that God is capricious one moment a Father and the next a consuming fire. It means that because a father of perfect goodness, He cannot put up with badness - just as you cannot put up with anyone’s making improper advances to your daughter. “In the light of that fact, then, we’re ready to take in the meaning of one of the though words god spoke to Moses. He said ...

605. Clear to the Better End - Parent Burnout

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Sign of Today’s Stresses, interview with Joseph Procaccin, U. S. News and World Report March 7, 1983, p. 76.) But let’s be more specific: “What causes parent burnout?” I think it lies in two general areas. One, when parents constantly seek perfection from themselves as parents they are likely to get burned out. They certainly set themselves up for frustration, guilt and especially anger. Anger robs us of energy more than any other emotion. And anger is caused, most of the time, by not getting what ...

606. Sons of God

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

King Duncan

... a much different God than the Law presents to us a God who calls us into a very intimate relationship with Him. Rather than rules we have a relationship one designed to help us grow into the likeness of Christ. Even if it were possible to keep the Law perfectly, the Law could not help us grow into Christ’s likeness. We are not robots, and we were never meant to live sterile lives of conformance to a written program. We were created to live in a dynamic relationship with God. We were created to be sons of ...

607. The Difference Disciples Make

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... moral, stable, dependable, solid folk who had as much concern for others as they had for themselves. In the little town of my origin, my father lies today in a hospital. It is very unlikely that he will ever live an independent life again. My father is far from perfect. But, he is a salt of the earth kind of person. Orphaned at age 11, he could have lived his days resentful. Instead, he got a job, took a wife, and together they dug out a living through the years that seemed to be plentiful. He could borrow ...

608. Hearing the Questions of Children

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... salvation. The obedience, the righteousness of one man continues to be a blessing for Christians like us. Somebody said that people are a lot like tea bags, you never know their real strength until you put them in hot water. On Mt. Moriah Abraham passed the test. Perfect score. But, you know something else? God passed the test, too. Abraham obeyed, but God provided and by faith you and I can discover the nature of the God whose hand has provided all that we need. The Lord will provide. Thanks be to God. 1 ...

609. Finding Our Place In All Creation

Job 38:1-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... life. I. SUFFERING STUNS US. Once upon a time in the land of Uz, there lived a man whose name was Job. Job was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. He had a perfect family of seven sons and three daughters. If you know Old Testament numbers, you know that arrives at a perfect number. He owned a perfect ranch and had plenty of stock. He was the greatest man among all the people who lived in the East. Then one day all hell broke loose. The Sabeans stole his donkeys. The Chaldeans swiped his ...

610. The Power to Look Up

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... entangles us, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." Look up to Jesus. It's Memorial Day weekend in the nation. It's Ascension Sunday in the Church. For most ... looking back, more than looking out, I invite us today to look UP, to look all the way up to Jesus, the author of our salvation, the perfecter of our faith. When we don't know where we're going—He is the way. When we wonder in whom to believe—He is the ...

611. Something to Brag About

Galatians 6:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... working to produce a beautiful new rug. The first thing the weavers did was to shear the sheep. Then, with a detergent they washed the fresh wool. Then the weavers sorted the wool into two piles. Over here was a small pile of perfect white wool. The weavers would take that perfect white wool and weave it just as it was. But over in another area lay a pile of flawed, tarnished, stained wool. The weavers took the flawed wool and dyed it many colors. Then, with great skill, they began weaving the flawed wool ...

612. The Broken Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 11:17-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... bread to give us strength. There is an old legend out of India about a water bearer who had two large water pots in which he carried water daily from the river to his master. One of the pots was perfect. The other one had a crack in it. The perfect pot always arrived at the master's quarters perfectly full. The cracked pot was always half empty. Embarrassed and ashamed, the cracked pot said to his carrier one day, ‘Why don't you get rid of me? I never arrive at the master's quarters more than half full ...

613. Three Basic Attitudes about Life

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... aim. We cannot picture life going on without us, therefore we must find some way to live forever says Krauthammer. It’s perfectly human to desire this, still it is at heart a selfish goal. The lawyer suspects that Jesus has some special insight on ... say this realizing that this may be the reason most people come to religion. What’s in it for me? We want to go to heaven. Perfectly natural. But this is only the beginning of our obsession with our own needs. When we get sick, we want to know that there is ...

614. The Real Real Estate

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is this: What the rich man guaranteed was that he would die a pauper. He had no relationship with God. No cords of compassion tied him to anyone else in his life. He had no one to “eat, drink, and be merry” with. His vision of a perfect future was huge hoards, bursting barns, and himself. His notion of nirvana was glorying and gloating over his riches. But he entertains no notions of sharing his bounty with others — no family, no friends, no community of faith. The richest real estate is only found in ...

615. God’s Weather Report

Matthew 5:38-48

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... killers in prison, taking his hand and offering forgiveness. She says that forgiveness saved her life. "It's a new life, almost like a resurrection."1 Our passage ends with Jesus calling us to be prefect as God is perfect. That is not perfection as in not making mistakes. It is perfect as in being whole. We live in a broken, imperfect world. We will not all face the situation that Immaculee Ilibagiza faced. We will face challenges in showing love and offering forgiveness. We bear witness to the character of ...

616. A Disconcerting Sight

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... . Others dislike this idea of Christian growth, of striving toward the goal, because it seems to set up a spiritual hierarchy that strikes us as, well, unchristian. Does this not foster a kind of competitiveness of those who are further along the path to perfection? Does it not suggest that there might be some people who, for whatever reason, are more suited than others for a particular task? And, as Christian people, are we not to believe that we are totally egalitarian, that all are created equal and that ...

617. Come

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... piano so you can get the proper pitch and key. You can tune it by yourself and it will be in tune for you. But unless you have perfect pitch, it won't match anybody else's. It will be just a little off. It'll sound OK to you until you start to play with others ... God, we need constant "tuning" or a constant refreshing of the Spirit to keep us in tune with the one who holds the perfect pitch, the perfect tone for us to match the music of our lives and souls to. And that, of course, is Jesus. But we have to ...

618. Good and Mad

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... We can do like Paul says in Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." God doesn't expect us to be perfect. If that were the case we wouldn't need mercy and grace. I give thanks that we have a God who, while not expecting us to be perfect, challenges and calls us on to perfection and then offers mercy, grace and forgiveness for those times when we fail. We have a God who understands being "Mad and Good." Conclusion Comedian Buddy Hackett says: "Don't carry a grudge ...

619. The Ministry Of Do WOP

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... THE PRINCE. Let's see how James describes this Do WOP Ministry. James 1:17-27 (NRSV) [17] Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. [18] In ... in action. We're called to DO WORKS OF PRAISE. What does that mean? James says: "Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." We're called to DO those Generous Acts of Giving in the ...

620. Time to Unpack

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... reason and for our redemption, is making a journey TOWARDS us. This week’s gospel text reminds us just how long God had been preparing for this journey. Before the baby Jesus was even born, God had arranged for the ideal advance man, the perfect prophet to be conceived and born and nurtured to adulthood. Generations before John the Baptist there were other prophets whom God provided with selected slices of insight, like a freeze-framed GPS map. Moses and Isaiah, Malachi and Daniel: all provided peeks at ...

621. Romans 7:15-25a

Romans 7:7-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... grace of “the law of the Spirit” (Romans 8:2). Whichever way one reads Paul’s text, it is evident that the apostle is emphasizing for his Roman readers the vast chasm that lies between the perfection of God’s law and the ability of men and women to embody that perfection in their own lives. Paul’s heartfelt frustration is the disparity between “willing” and “doing,” a disparity he decries repeatedly in vv. 15-20. Although Paul recognizes and proclaims the spiritual goodness of the law, he ...

622. A Plea from The Heart

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... . It was at that point that my mother started crying and asked me that searing question, "Nibs, don't you love me?" I started crying, too, and told her that I loved her and would go to the burial in Mississippi, and I did. It hurt to lose my perfect attendance prize, but I learned that there was a deeper and wider world than winning that prize. I remembered that 1959 encounter as we buried my mother in that same family plot in Mississippi in October 2004. My mother had found a way to keep us in that house ...

623. The Eternal Sanctuary

Hebrews 9:11-14

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

... time and space dissolve around this table, as bread is broken and wine is poured and we celebrate the Lord's death yet again until he comes again in great glory. So it is that we follow our great high priest into this eternal sanctuary, into that greater and more perfect tent, into a building which will not decay or rot or crumble with the ages. For this new place is the holy place, spoken of by the author of Hebrews so long ago. It is that place where the eternal offering of Christ's own blood is made to ...

624. For What Do We Wait?

Luke 1:26-38

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

... some extra spending money and maybe some peace of mind. I just can’t wait. Bonnie: Well, as long as everybody is volunteering to share what they’re waiting for, I might as well, too. Mrs. Abernathy: This oughta be interesting. Bonnie: I’m waiting for the perfect man, Mr. Right, someone who’ll sweep me off my feet and with whom I’ll live happily ever after. Mrs. Abernathy: Honey, you’re gonna be waitin’ a long, long time! I don’t know anybody like that. (speaks as she exits) Bonnie: And I don ...

625. Finding the Right House for God

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

Sermon

William J. Carl, III

... with a minimum of fix-up. Every family searching for a new home has its own requirements — so many bedrooms, bathrooms, and a certain style garage. Finding the right house means there will be no rest for the weary. Some decide to give up looking and build the perfect dream house, and if that doesn't cause you to lose your religion, nothing else will! One day, David got the bright idea that God needed a house, and David even volunteered to help. Never mind that God hadn't needed a house so far — that is ...

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