Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 51 to 75 of 83 results

51. What Do I Do When The Load Is Too Heavy?

Exodus 18:13-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... when he would handle stress God's way. He would live longer. He would work smarter, everybody would be happier and nobody would be exhausted. All that needed to get done would get done and everybody's life would be in balance. A bathysphere is a miniature submarine that is used to explore the ocean in places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional submarine like aluminum can. Bathyspheres have been known to dive up to 37,000 feet into the ocean. When the bathysphere was invented, and it ...

52. Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

Proverbs 16:1, 9, Philippians 3:12-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... How does this happen? When the bonsai peaks its head above the ground, the young sapling is pulled from the soil. The Japanese then tie off its tap root and some of the feeder roots so the growth of that bonsai is deliberately stunted. The result is a miniature tree; it's beautiful but it's small. But there is another tree that is equally fascinating that I have seen also with my own eyes. It is the giant sequoia out in California. One of those giants called the General Sherman is 272 ft. high and measures ...

53. Think on these Things

Philippians 4:4-9

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... so much of our life here is lived. I saw that the winter light was on its way, too. Next time I looked up, I saw white tablecloths. Then the candles came out. Then the magenta and white orchids, followed by the burnt orange and red miniature calla lilies. The light continued to envelop the activity and the courtyard. I walked down the hall. The rest of the staff was noticing the same thing I was noticing. A few joined me with tears in their eyes. Something very beautiful was happening. People were making ...

54. Knowing but Not Really Understanding

Mark 10:17-31

Illustration

... phone, surfed to a NASA page on the Internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, then opened up a database and some Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas. He finally printed out a 150-page report on his hi-tech miniaturized printer, turned around to our shepherd and said, "You have here exactly 1,586 sheep!" "Amazing! That's correct! Like I agreed, you can take one of my sheep," said the shepherd. The shepherd watched the man make a selection and bundle it into his ...

55. Like a Venomous Snake

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... Worth, Texas is a building where tropical birds are kept. The hallway where the people walk is dark; the birds are in lighted cases of glass. All along each side of the building is a long case that looks like a tropical rain forest. It has a miniature waterfall, a pool, trees, and all sorts of plants. Among the trees and rocky ledges the small, brightly colored birds fly. As people watch this, they eventually become aware that there is no glass between them and the birds. They could reach in and touch the ...

56. Rahab: Seven Minutes To Midnight

Joshua 6:15-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... some big way. Simon wasn't expected to live. He was born tiny and had an abnormally small heart. They expected him to die in the first 24 hours. But here he is 12 years old. Of course, he's the target of tons of childhood prank because of his miniature size and his odd sort of cracked voice. He's a disappointment and embarrassment to his parents. Yet despite all of the negatives, he still has a deep faith and believes is going to use him. He best friend Joe doesn't believe in God and doubts God has a ...

57. The Gift of Comfort

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... the thrift shop to buy the doll house. He gathered paint and fabric and tools and proceeded to "renovate" the beat- up doll house. He even wallpapered the kitchen. Six weeks later, the doll house sparkled. It was now a colorful dream home, complete with miniature furnishings. Something even Santa could not improve upon. In the cold, gray dawn of Christmas Day, Rick loaded his treasure into his car and drove over to the little girl's house. He gently cleared the snow from the front steps and carefully placed ...

58. Where do You Live?

Romans 14:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... what Sabbath was all about. But when they accepted Christ, they began worshipping together on the First day of the week, or Sunday, the day which coincided with Christ's resurrection. And they celebrated the Resurrection of Christ. Every Sunday was seen as a miniature Easter. So, you had a group of well meaning, knowledgeable people, old timers who'd had a religious awakening, stirring up the new comers, the new baby Christians, who were still growing, not just in their faith but in their knowledge of the ...

59. The World Is Our Parish

John 3:16-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... our religion too. The first basic buttonhole principle of Christian faith is this: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life. Martin Luther said John 3:16 is the gospel in miniature. Evangelical fans at professional football games put it on banners for all the world to see. Many of us in this place learned it from our mother's knees. In times like these, which try our souls, we will be wise to return to the first-button ...

60. The True Nature of Happiness

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

... human faces. The crowd represented a cross section of humanity. There were rich and poor, young and old, doubtless varied races, those who were astute business men and those who were failures. In fact, the crowd that Jesus spoke to that day represented the world in miniature. Yet, as different as they all were, Jesus understood that they were all on the same quest. They were all after the same thing. They all wanted happiness. Well, we are just like them aren’t we? Isn’t that what we want for ourselves ...

61. No Freedom Without the Word

Illustration

Staff

... ." But Anatoli was detained and finally imprisoned. Their reunion in Jerusalem would not only be postponed, it might never occur. During long years in Russian prisons and work camps Anatoli was stripped of his personal belongings. His only possession was a miniature copy of the Psalms. Once during his imprisonment, his refusal to release the book to the authorities cost him 130 days in solitary confinement. Finally, twelve years after parting with his wife, he was offered freedom. In February 1986, as the ...

62. Keep the Pressure Out

Acts 2:38; Mt 28:19-20

Illustration

Brett Blair

There are two ways of handling pressure. One is illustrated by a bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional submarine like an aluminum can. Bathyspheres compensate with plate steel several inches thick, which keeps the water out but also makes them heavy and hard to maneuver. Inside they're not alone. ...

63. Don’t Be Childish, Do Be Child-like

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... children dress up like Mom and Dad. (My brothers and I did “fashion shows” for our parents wearing their clothes.) Kids a little older pretend to drive the car. Older kids still play with pint-sized pots and pans, play-doctor kits and miniature tool sets. Some of us are even old enough to remember playing with perhaps the worst child-oriented product ever invented — candy cigarettes. Does anyone remember those? These were facsimile red-tipped replicas that let us “smoke” just like grown-ups. Gives ...

64. Be Patient

James 5:7-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... -sustaining world. Four men and four women were sealed for two years in a palatial three-acre glass and steel structure outside Oracle, Arizona. This large terrarium boasted a rain forest; a savanna, a coral reef, a marsh, and a miniature ocean. Here, in a sealed environment, the eight people were to live together in harmony with the environment. Unfortunately, says one observer, “living inside the sealed habitat proved to be much more difficult than originally thought. Sixteen months into the twenty ...

65. Remembering Jesus

Matthew 26:17-30

Sermon

David O. Bales

... metaphorically for forgiveness literally means lifting up or carrying away.[3] When we truly remember Jesus, it sinks into us from our freed and forgiven memory that we’ve been lifted up to true life. The consequences of the meal Jesus serves remind us in miniature of what his entire life accomplished: Jesus lifts us up. Even if we are perpetually bent by arthritis or confined daily to a wheelchair, in the eyes of our Lord Jesus we stand before him as true human beings, heads lifted — not in arrogance ...

66. Stuck in Park

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

Tony Everett

Martha had lived alone for several years, except, that is, for her dog, Otto, a three-year-old miniature Shih Tzu. Martha and Otto went everywhere together. Even where dogs were not permitted, Otto was content to wait patiently in the car for Martha to return. One particular sunny afternoon Martha had to make a quick stop at the corner grocery store. As was her custom, Martha rolled down ...

67. The Question that Will Change Your Life

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... parts. We’ve already had kidney and heart tissues printed out on these printers. One of the more intriguing uses of the 3-D printer, however, is a service offered by a company called Shapify. Shapify offers a service by which we can produce a life-like miniature 3-D color statue . . . of ourselves. The process works like this. You take a series of eight 3-D photographs of yourself. Then you use some special software to stitch the 3D photos together into 360-degree 3D model. Once you are happy with the 3D ...

68. Spiritual Marines

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... just one big “Yes” to Him, and one big “No” to anything that would replace Him or reject Him. Too many people, who think they want to come to Jesus, are like that man who went to a circus one time. He saw this beautiful circus woman putting a miniature marshmallow between her lips, and then a lion would come over to her and put his lips on her lips and lick that marshmallow right out her mouth. That man began to yell and say things like: “That ain’t nothing, anybody can do that. That’s an easy ...

69. Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi

Acts 16:11-15

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... , transfer of land, payment of taxes, local administration, and law, became the same as if they were upon Italian soil; as, in fact, by a legal fiction, they were” (BC. vol. 4, p. 190). The colonists themselves have been fairly described as “a miniature likeness of the great Roman people” (J. B. Lightfoot, St Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians [London: Macmillan, 1868], p. 51), and in both Luke’s account of Paul’s visit to Philippi and Paul’s own letter to the Philippians, we are constantly ...

70. Jesus’s Manifesto

Luke 4:14-30

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... is the enemy of parochialism. Teaching the Text One good approach to teaching this episode is to invite listeners to consider why Luke placed it in this prominent position as the opening salvo of Jesus’s public ministry. The Nazareth sermon plays out in miniature the whole ministry of Jesus, including his proclamation of the gospel in the power of the Spirit and his ultimate rejection by his own people. It would be illuminating to go through the Isaiah text clause by clause and point out how each of ...

71. God on His Throne as the Sovereign Creator

Revelation 4:1-11

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... in all that follows.6 Teaching the Text The message of Revelation 4 centers around the worship of God on his throne. 1. God is the holy, sovereign, eternal Creator who alone is worthy of worship. Although most of us don’t own miniature pagan gods, there are plenty of idols competing for our worship. This passage reminds us that idols aren’t worthy of our devotion. They cannot provide life, give truth, sustain us in trouble, or deliver us from evil. Richard Bauckham writes, “False worship . . . is ...

72. “You Are My Son; Today I Have Become Your Father”

Psalm 2:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... 3) “serve the Lord”/“celebrate . . . with trembling”—the fear of the Lord is the proper spiritual posture (2:11); (4) “kiss his son”—fall down in humble submission to the sovereign God (2:12; cf. James 4:10). This is the gospel in miniature. Illustrating the Text History and parable History: Psalm 2 represents the raw rebellion of the “kings of the earth” against God and his anointed. It is both history and parable. What happened in David’s time is history, and as parable it presents ...

73. “Come and See What God Has Done”

Psalm 66:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... that has a legitimacy of its own apart from Israel’s, but rather it is tied to God’s covenant with Israel, enunciated in the redemptive events of the exodus from Egypt and the entrance into the promised land. Behind the story of Israel in miniature is the blessing of the nations that God promised through Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 12:2–3). Psalm 66 is a psalm of thanksgiving made when sacrifices were brought to fulfill a vow made during adversity (66:14).9The historical review of the Red ...

74. “When You Ascended on High, You Took Many Captives”

Psalm 68:1-35

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... . 68:6 God sets the lonely in families.“Lonely” (lit., “solitary ones”) probably alludes to the Israelites in Egypt, and “in families” literally means “at home,” a likely reference to Canaan.7Thus it is the story of the exodus and Canaan in miniature, as the rest of this verse and verses 7–14 attest: “He leads out the prisoners with singing.” 68:7 When you, God, went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness.The exodus is in view here, using words similar ...

75. Plot Against Jeremiah

Jeremiah 11:18-23

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... two terms represent a person’s internal motives. Commendably, the prophet refrains from retaliation. His prayer is in accord with the teaching, “‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom 12:19 NASB). God’s response to bring disaster on the plotting townsfolk must be seen as a miniature scene showing how God can be expected to deal with covenant partners who conspire. Verses 20–23 make up Jeremiah’s first personal lament.

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