Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 51 to 75 of 87 results

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13), 14-17

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... us not on the basis of our merits, but on the basis of his grace. We can be reconciled to God and therefore to one another, not because we are without fault, not because we are without sin, not even because we might in our anxiety, claim to have impeccable credentials. No, not because of all that, but because God was in the world reconciling us to himself, not holding our faults against us. III The no-fault religion of which Paul speaks promises the power of re-creation. "If any person is in Christ, he is a ...

52. Make the Most of God’s Gifts

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

Richard Gribble

John Harding had it all; his credentials were impeccable. He had a wonderful family. His wife, Sally, was one of those people everyone enjoys meeting. His eight-year-old son, Rick, was a good student, enjoyed athletics, and obeyed his parents. John himself had moved up the corporate ladder. After graduating from Arizona State University, where he played baseball ...

53. Acts 10:44-48

Acts 10:44-48

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... ' and Peter's dreams, Luke's recitation of events has gradually widened the circle of believers. In this week's installment the circle is completed with the consummation of the mission to the Gentiles. As usual the Holy Spirit's timing is impeccable. In Acts 10:43 Peter reaches the climax of his speech before the crowd of Gentile believers by proclaiming that with Jesus everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Once Peter explicitly recognizes faith as the requirement ...

54. Joshua 3:7-17

Joshua 3:7-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... overseeing the ark's triumphant entrance into Canaan over the waters of the Jordan. The scene that now begins to unfold here is skillfully drawn with great drama and suspense. In his "opening night" role as Israel's anointed leader, Joshua's command and timing are impeccable. Yet even his words lend authority to the status of his own role as Joshua focuses the whole meaning behind this "crossing over" on Yahweh's power and plans that await Israel on the other side of the divide. The placing of the ark front ...

55. Acts 10:44-48

Acts 10:44-48

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

56. Mark 4:26-34

Mark 4:26-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... be obedient here on Earth. Today's second parable has never suffered from an identity problem. It has always been confidently referred to as the parable of the mustard seed. Not only is its focus clear, the pedigree of this parable is likewise impeccable. It is found in Mark, Matthew, Luke and in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas. Like the preceding parable, the mystery of growth pervades this text. Human understanding cannot fathom how, out of the tiniest of all seeds, the mysterious powers of generation bring ...

57. Rainbows and Roses

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... to cherish ’till death us do part.” The promise we give each other in the marriage ceremony. Promises are important. Of course, a promise is only as good as the character of the one making the promise. The One who has made 3,000 promises to us in scripture has impeccable character. If God says that He will be with us through the storm, you can count on it. If He says He accepts us just as we are, you can take it to the bank. If He says He has prepared a place for us that where He is there ...

58. The Dark Side Revealed

Numbers 32:23

Sermon

James Merritt

... your fingerprints on every sin you commit and one day either in this life or in the life to come, either in time or in eternity an infallible detective will bring those fingerprints before an inerrant prosecutor who will present his case before an impeccable judge and you can be sure that your sin will find you out. A college student invited his mother over for dinner. During the meal, his mother couldn't help noticing how beautiful his roommate Julie was. She had long been suspicious of the relationship ...

59. Discipline and Means of Grace

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... holiness as a Pharisee.” Now neither the mystic nor the Pharisee was a model championed by Wesley. Yet at times he came near the edge of mysticism, and certainly a good part of his life would reflect the model of a Pharisee who knew the law impeccably, and sought diligently to keep it. To put the two together in this fashion, I believe, is one of those flashes of genius that come out now and then in Wesley’s writings. “As tenacious of inward holiness as a mystic, of outward holiness as a Pharisee ...

60. Characteristics of the Church

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... if it were true that we are made from dust. She said, “Yes.” “And is it true,” he continued his probing, “that our bodies return to dust when we die?” She again replied, “Yes, that’s true.” Then said the little boy, with impeccable logic, “wish you’d take a look under my bed, because someone is either coming or going.” 72 American winners of the Nobel Prize in Science, united in urging the Supreme Court to strike down a Louisiana law requiring public schools teaching evolution to ...

61. Righteous!

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... of the mid 1960s, The Righteous Brothers. Remember "Unchained Melody"? I remember once hearing an interview with one of the Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley, when he described the significance of their name. Normally when we think of the word "righteous," we think of impeccable behavior and sterling moral character. But their name was not so much about their morality as it was about the quality of their music. In the '60s (and I suspect that in some ways it is not much different today), "righteous" was also ...

62. Swept Clean

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Priorities For Life, and Savoring The Best First. I. Cleansing the Clutter of Our Soul A. How many of you have ever watched the TV show on the Learning Channel, Clean Sweep. Well, my sister, Pam, could have used their help. Most of her house was always impeccably clean, even though she had three kids who, given a hammer and an anvil, could have destroyed the anvil. I know, I used to baby sit for them. It was more like being in animal control. Anyhow, Pam hated to do laundry. Consequently, her laundry room ...

63. Thanksgiving Means Giving

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... leads directly to peace within our hearts. There is a short little story that aptly illustrates this point. One day a young man answered a want ad for a farm hand. He told the owner about his previous experience, which was abundant, and his references were impeccable. He ended the interview in a rather odd way, however, by telling the owner that he could count on him, because he could sleep during the wind. The owner was confused but he could not argue with the man’s credentials so he was given the ...

64. Up Close & Personal: Open the Doors

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

James Merritt

... can live there. We can take him with us everywhere we go as long as we go with Him everywhere He wants to take us. I read a story one time about a young navy officer who had made his first trip on a destroyer across the ocean. He had impeccable training, so he was given the assignment to take the destroyer out of the harbor and bring it back to the United States. Since it was his first major assignment he wanted to do it just right. He was a very bright young officer and in a moment the deck ...

65. Still Surprised After Christmas

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... to enact his plan. In his famous retort in Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas questions the Lord’s timing, asking why Jesus came in such a “backward time” when there was no mass communication. Yet the timing of God is impeccable — far beyond the comprehension of Judas’ manifest misunderstanding. Moffatt takes a somewhat different view of the timing issue. “But when time had fully expired,” he writes, “God sent forth his Son.” Reminiscent of judgment and eschatological passages, Moffatt sees ...

66. Dealing with Cantankerous People

Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... twelve children at home too young to work. Because of the kindness of Mr. John R. Anderson, who ran a local grocery store, Zig and his younger brother went to work before they were really able to be of much help. Mr. Anderson was a successful businessman of impeccable character, says Zig, and he had such a huge positive impact on him that he named his first son after him. By “successful,” says Zig, he doesn’t just mean materially. He was the kind of man a young boy could model his life on. He goes on ...

67. Paul Before Agrippa

Acts 25:23--26:32

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... , with in Jerusalem added by way of more precise definition. For a long time he had lived as a Pharisee, the strictest sect of the Jewish religion (v. 5). His purpose in stating this was to establish his credentials as a Jew (which were clearly impeccable) and then to suggest that there was no discontinuity between his Jewish upbringing and his present belief. The hope instilled by the one had been fulfilled by the other. It was a strange irony, therefore, that he should now be on trial—the reference was ...

68. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... the problem James has with these plans: There is absolutely nothing about their desires for the future, their use of money, or their way of doing business that is any different from the rest of the world. Their worship may be exemplary, their personal morality, impeccable; but when it comes to business they think entirely on a worldly plane. 4:14 In contrast to the secure rationality of their plans stands the insecurity of life: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. In fact, life is utterly ...

69. Stubborn Israel

Isaiah 48:1-11

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... Yahweh would become the real thing, but the passage left open the identity of the people who apparently needed to come to a genuine recognition of Yahweh. It is now overt that this is how the prophet sees the community as a whole. Their pedigree is impeccable, their public commitment to Yahweh is well-known, their lives are based in trust in Yahweh, and their eyes are fixed on their home in Jerusalem. Yet not in truth or righteousness (v. 1) is written over their entire religious life. The dynamics of this ...

70. Jesus Adopted by Joseph

Matthew 1:18-25

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... ways to Israel’s experience of exile. Jesus is Savior and Immanuel—God with us. History: Born in the thirteenth century, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary was a German princess, the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania, with an impeccable pedigree. Yet after her marriage to Ludwig IV, she established a hospital, where she herself served and cared for the poor in their sickness. Outside the hospital she cared for the poor and downcast, spinning wool and sharing food. For the ways she ...

71. Transition to Jesus’ Public Ministry

Matthew 4:12-17

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... ample reason for Judean Jews to view their Galilean counterparts as distinct from themselves and with some amount of disdain. Matthew illuminates this distinction on a few occasions in his narrative (e.g., 21:10–11; 26:69). As R. T. France highlights... Even an impeccably Jewish Galilean in first-century Jerusalem was not among his own people; he was as much a foreigner as an Irishman in London or a Texan in New York. His accent would immediately mark him out as “not one of us,” and all the communal ...

72. Adversity of a Righteous Man

Job 1:1-22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... character that is prominent. In the first verse of the book the narrator describes Job in glowing terms: “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” Later, in 1:8 and 2:3, Yahweh repeats this description, affirming Job’s impeccable character as a man of integrity and piety. As a sterling example of biblical wisdom, Job loves what Yahweh loves, and he avoids what displeases Yahweh. This is not a claim that Job is morally perfect as Yahweh is perfect, but rather, within the ...

73. Job Hears the Whispers of God’s Works

Job 26:1--31:40

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... of their enemies (cf. Obad. 12), but Job says that he has not taken delight when his enemy has suffered disaster. In his words and in his attitudes, Job obeys God by not sinning even against those who have wronged him (Prov. 24:17–18). Only a man of impeccable blamelessness would dare to make a claim like this. By his oath, Job invites God to probe his inner motives and attitudes, not just his overt actions (cf. Ps. 139:23–24). 31:31–32 my door was always open to the traveler. In the ancient world ...

74. How Do You Get Rid of Evil without Destroying Good?

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and righteousness and justice. The Church and Christians are to serve as “a spiritual and moral beacon amid a fallen world.” Even so, we don’t sacrifice our ministry of love and redemption in order to have a body of true believers in pure doctrine and impeccable moral performance. We don’t destroy the wheat that is trying to grow by pulling up the tares that may have slipped into the field, or even that may have been planted there by the enemy. III. So how do we get rid of evil without destroying ...

75. Division of the Land

Ezekiel 45:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... keep their hands off their subjects’ holdings and are to be honest in the collection of taxes for the upkeep of the temple. Thus, the king is to be one who has “learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Phil. 4:11) and who is impeccable in his business affairs. With these collected portions the king can provide what is needed for the additional offerings on the feasts, the New Moon days, and the Sabbaths. Verses 18–25 speak of the annual sacrifices. Of special import here is the sacrifice ...

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