Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 701 to 725 of 1138 results

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

It would take very little personal conversation among us this morning to discover the healing, encouraging, strengthening, supporting, comforting power the Psalms have been in our individual lives. A variety and a large number of Psalms would be pointed to as the ones that have ministered to you in a particular time of need. At our Administrative Board meeting two weeks ago, Karla Grant shared her Christian pilgrimage verses from the Psalms. This is her story. Six weeks after she ...

702. We Hold These Truths To Be Essential

1 Peter 3:8-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... that together. You see, a disciple is a follower, a learner, a lover. A disciple is an apprentice, an adherent, a student, a supporter, a devotee. I believe in building a church on the principle of easy entry, and high expectations. I know you can do it in a variety of ways. I know you can set up lots of hoops through which people need to jump in order to become a member of a community of faith. Today, I prefer to offer you a different kind of church. I want a fellowship that is easy entry and high ...

703. Is There More Than One Way to Heaven?

John 4:19-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . In many ways that is the way it should be. Tibetan leader, His Holiness Dalai Lama says, “All religions are essentially the same in their goal of developing a good human heart that we may become better human beings." There are common teachings among the varieties of religion. We all love the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Jesus spoke it in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:12. Nearly every religion under the sun has a similar statement. The Buddhists say, “Hurt ...

704. What Would Jesus Say About War?

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... held various views of war and peace. For many of you today this is old news, but I share it as a history lesson to provide a foundation for a call to prayer that I want to make in this service. Historically, moral people have looked at war in varieties of ways. There has historically been what is called a Holy War Tradition. It is the belief that God uses war to accomplish His will. Deuteronomy 20 contains the children of Israel’s instructions for war: In the cities that the Lord your God is giving you as ...

705. Checking Out the Scene

John 1:35-42

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Monday night at a ministry called the Loop. Young adults in their 20’s are now driving two to three hours to be a part of this community of faith. Here, young singles, many new to Nashville, are finding people who care. Here, people from a wide variety of backgrounds are joining together in worship and praise to God. Sometimes we need a friend and I, for one, will do everything in my power to see that this ministry continues to thrive. It is the lifeblood of this church. What are you looking for? What ...

706. The Calling of Our Baptism

Luke 3:21-22; Matthew 28:18-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... miracles happen? Could not this become a place where the moving of the Spirit was so powerful that when persons walked in the door they could feel the spirit of God among us. Let people’s lives be transformed and touched and healed and saved in varieties of ways. Jesus calls us to unconditional love. That is our business; that is our calling. Early Christians knew how to love one another. If we could create a community where it was outstanding because people truly loved one another it would make a mark on ...

707. By Humbly Doing Good

1 Peter 5:6-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... IN THE FAITH Stand firm in the faith because you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering (I Peter 5:9). Andrew Jackson said, “One person with courage makes a majority." Courage is expressed in a variety of ways. Courage is the power to endure in unchangeable situations of life. Courage is the ability to give a reason for the hope that lies within us. Courage is seeing a wrong and trying to right it. Courage is standing up for liberty and justice ...

708. Mary, Martha, and the Martha Stewart Church

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to figure out what Curly meant. What IS that “just one thing?” Psychologists, marriage counselors, relationship gurus of all stripes, warn us not to expect one person to provide for all our emotional, intellectual, and relational needs. We need a variety of relationships, a network of spouses, friends, colleagues from work, basketball buddies, quilting club comrades, children, elders, and peers, to meet all our relational needs. But what might be true for our human connections does not hold true for our ...

709. Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... women is a first waning and then waxing force. From what the world would see as triumphs to what unbelievers would view as tragedies, the author suddenly shifts to focus on the fearsome facts of a life of faithfulness. Physical tortures, heinous in a variety of ways, are spelled out, as is the fate of those faithful “of whom the world was not worthy” (v.38). The Hebrews preacher no longer names names, making it possible for the sufferings he delineates to be applied to any number of biblical figures ...

710. Sickness Rearranges Priorities

Luke 13:10-17

Illustration

Brett Blair

In 1971, in Plano Texas, a woman by the name of Linda gave birth to a boy she named Lance. She did what many mother's do with boys. She molded his temperament by involving him in a variety of sports. He soon showed an aptitude as an athlete and by the age of 13 his skills were confirmed when he won the Iron Kids Triathlon—a combination of swimming, biking and running. Three years later at the tender age of 16 he became a professional triathlon athlete. When ...

711. Religious Balkanization

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... into it. Jesus' fame at working miracles has spread, and a woman from the north, beyond mostly Jewish Galilee, has come seeking his favor. She is from Tyre, now part of Lebanon. Her ethnic lineage could have been any of a dozen local varieties, but it is certainly not Jewish. Jesus and his disciples recognize that immediately. When she requests that he heal her daughter, Jesus comes back with the standard segregationist rhetoric announced day by day in the streets and shops and synagogues. "You seek help ...

712. Kingdoms in Conflict

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... of covenants regularly made. The first was a "Parity Agreement" which shaped relations between individuals of similar social rank in the ancient world (think of Jacob and Laban forming their parity treaty at the end of Genesis 31). In addition there were two varieties of king-subject covenants. One was a "Royal Grant." This was essentially a gift bestowed by a person of power and political privilege upon someone down-caste a rung or more. Usually the king noticed an act of bravery in battle, or striking ...

713. Dressed for the Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Chris Ewing

714. Martyrdom Chic

Acts 7:55-60

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... top" at times, but my own sense of things tells me that for him, his faith was utterly central to his life. This, sisters and brothers, is what it all comes down to in the end. Whether we are Stephen in scripture or just a regular garden-variety Christian trying to get it right, the ultimate and real call to us is to invest our lives fully and completely in the unshakable core belief that self-giving love has redemptive value. Moreover, we make this move, this investment if you will, as recipients of that ...

715. A Way of Seeing

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... That above all, is why I remain a Christian, for Christianity helps me to interpret life with a sense that it is good and that despite the pain and hurt of our world, it will come out right in the end. In his classic book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James, writes of "once-born" and "twice-born" people. This is not the same as what we mean when we say "born again." The once-born people are those who move through live without ever experiencing anything that seriously challenges their faith ...

716. Sentimental Slaves

Exodus 16:2-15

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... by photos of a neighborhood before and after a tornado, or photos of an entire city before and after a hurricane. These photographs record loss and devastation. The pictures we are not so conscious of — though we all have them — are not the "before and after" variety, but rather the "during and after" pictures. This, you see, is the stuff of memory. How does a time, a place, or an experience look to us in the present — that is, "during" our time there? And, by contrast, how does that time, place, or ...

717. A Little Theology at Christmas

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... Advent season, but the Ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future in Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol. It is conventional for preachers to point out that while he attended the Anglican Church, Dickens' personal beliefs seemed more of the Unitarian variety and that one should not expect too much real theology in this work, often dismissed as an idealization of Victorian Christmases. But why then its enormous popularity, even among Christians? I would suggest it is because in its own somewhat ...

718. Not What You Expected

Hebrews 2:10-18

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... creature to bits. Our college group was stunned. My early-childhood-professor wife would remind us all that the original Grimm Brothers' tales had a good bit of violence and that we have become too comfortable with the sweetened up Disney and Golden Book variety of children's stories. But I have to confess that this traditional tale was not what I would have expected in a "good child overcomes the monster" yarn. Obviously, at least part of the problem was with us. Similarly, were I to tell you that ...

719. The Vastness of Relationships

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love." We are called to bless God, to give God the honor and glory due God's name, throughout scripture and for a variety of reasons. God is the creator, we are creatures, and so we bless and praise God for the gift of life. God has given us the great gift of the law, of revelation, so that we, as people of faith, are not left to our own devices to stumble around ...

720. Caught in the Middle

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... . And we should probably be aware that in many cases what is growing is an indigenized form of our denominations which might startle us. Some of the church-growth models that have been accepted as divine truth by many American churches (things like a variety of services for every age group and niche marketing of worship styles) either amuse or befuddle many third-world Christians where they all get together for worship and do it all, all day long. And the pseudo-gospel of success, the "name it and claim ...

721. Small-Minded Christians in a Big World

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... together from a diversity of Christian backgrounds and from all around the world. Of course it may well be that few, if any, share exactly the same faith journey, but how exciting it is to see how others have experienced God, how Jesus Christ is made real in a whole variety of ways! The apostle Paul calls all of us "to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours" (1 Corinthians 1:3). If you feel too alone, he reminds us, it may be ...

722. Will It Last?

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... in my neighborhood, would my house hold up? Would it last?" We have seen, for the past several weeks, Paul's concern about the fractured nature of the Corinthian church, a fellowship he had been instrumental in founding. And, as is typical, Paul uses a variety of metaphors and examples to make sure his audience understands what he is saying. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, he reminded them that they were not as well developed as Christians as some of them thought; indeed some were still babes in the faith. Then ...

723. In the Balance

Romans 5:12-19

Sermon

David O. Bales

... can call it sin, call it brokenness, or just the drifting away from life's original purpose, but it's here, around us and within us, and we look to God to fix it. The psychologist and philosopher, William James, wrote his famous book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, at the turn of the last century. It was enormously influential because it pointed out not just that people have religious experiences, but that people with problems who turn to the spiritual realm often feel as though they've been helped ...

724. Boast in Our Suffering

Romans 5:1-8

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... who wasted his talents in a life of sexual excess. I have never seen anyone play the role of a defiant and decadent rogue like Johnny Depp in this movie. By the young age of 33, the Earl's life was ruined and he was dying from a variety of diseases brought on by his irresponsible lifestyle. Sick and bedfast, he is visited by a pastor who comforts him by reciting the words of Isaiah 53, words that foretell the death of Christ, the suffering servant, on the cross. "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried ...

725. A Spiritual “Re-formation”

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). When we deny sin, we also deny the grace of God that overcomes sin. Anger is a sin that permeated the Reverend Tyler Caskey's church and community. It was not the blazing, obvious kind, but the brooding, simmering variety. Two different words in the Hebrew Bible are used for anger. One of the words means to have "pregnant nostrils." When we are angry, our nostrils enlarge. I am reminded of waving a red flag before a snorting, raging bull. That same Hebrew word is used for ...

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