Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 726 to 750 of 1249 results

726. Whatever It Takes

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... be right with God. Paul was under liberty. He was free from the demands of the law. Yet, Paul willingly subjected himself to the law's ritual requirements, in order to get a hearing for those who still were trying to keep the law. In other words, he adopted their customs. Whatever their ceremonial law dictated he was willing to do. If they didn't eat pork, he didn't eat pork; if they didn't eat meat sacrificed to idols, he didn't eat meat sacrificed to idols. If their sensibilities demanded that a certain ...

727. Love: The Happiness of a Godly Family

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... the best way she knew how. She really loved them. She mothered them, fed them, spanked them, read to them, taught them to love the Lord, to say their prayers. She spent valuable time with them. They knew that they were loved. One day a wealthy lady came by to adopt one of these little children. She picked a cute little boy out of that group and all the rest of the children were so happy and excited that this little boy was going to be with this wealthy lady. The lady picked this little boy up and said, "I ...

728. Pour the Salt and Turn on the Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... salt and enough light for all of the earth and the entire world. I heard a story one time about a duck who broke his wing during the flight home for the winter. A sympathetic farmer retrieved the fallen duck and took him home. The farmer's children adopted the duck as their pet and began to feed him from the table and take him along as they performed their daily chores. By next fall the children were heartbroken as they watched the duck look at the other ducks who were flying south for the winter, but ...

729. A Time for Penance and a Time for Partridge

Ps 100, Col 2:1-7

Sermon

... us a turkey. Which certainly isn't biblical. I went so far as to look up the word "turkey" in a biblical encyclopedia last week, where it wasn't. It should have been right between "turban" (an ornamental Egyptian head covering made of fine linen, later adopted by the Jews as the headgear of the High Priest) and "turtle dove" (a smallish pigeon used in Temple cultic sacrifices). Turbans and turtle doves….but no turkeys. Biblically speaking, we'd be better off with a leg of lamb on Thursday (or a roast from ...

730. Miracles Are Part of Our Lives

Matthew 14:22-33

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

... for joy: "Miracle drug found for cancer!" ... There was a car accident the other day and the body of the car was totally smashed, and those who saw the car exclaimed: "It is a miracle that anyone came out of that car alive." ... Births and adoptions often evoke the word, miracle. A baby is born, and the parents almost automatically say, "This is a miracle," and the parents who have been struggling with infertility for five, ten, or fifteen years, when their child is born, truly believe that their child is a ...

731. Belief in Hell

Matthew 15:21-28

Illustration

King Duncan

While the majority of Americans believe in heaven and eventually expect to end up there, studies show most people today do not believe in hell. It reminds me of a P. D. James' story. A young woman discovers that she was adopted. Almost immediately, she begins looking for her biological mother and father. She is stunned to discover that as a baby she had been taken from her parents when they were sent to prison for the murder of a ten-year-old girl. Although the father subsequently died in prison, the ...

732. For Better, For Worse

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... .org (1) Bennett, William J., The Broken Hearth, (Doubleday: New York, 2001), p. 13. (2) Ibid., pp. 77, 79. (3) Ibid., pp. 80-81. (4) Ibid., p. 147. (5) Swindoll, Charles R., Marriage, (W Publishing: Nashville, 2006), pp. 27-28. (6) Op. Cit., Bennett, p. 158. (7) Reagan, Michael, Twice Adopted, (Broadman & Holman: Nashville, 2004), p. 37 (8) Article by Jim Fitzgerald of the Associated Press, published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, March 8, 2006 edition. (9) Op. Cit., Swindoll, pp. 99-100.

733. Holy Habits

1 Timothy 4:1-16

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . 2. You were tailor-made by God himself, and he made only one just like you. 3. Jesus knows everything bad about you yet he loves you anyway, unreservedly. 4. Though you are a sinner, you are a forgiven sinner. 5. You are royalty because you have been adopted into the family of the King of kings. 6. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 7. You are heaven-bound. I have suggested five possible resolutions for 2007. You may think of others. The purpose of these resolutions is not to ...

734. I Believe In Jesus Christ

Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... and openly announced that he was God’s Son. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) Notice that the Creed declares that Jesus is God’s only Son. This statement was in reaction to some false teachers who said that all believers are adopted as children of God and therefore Jesus was no different from the rest of us. The Creed and the Bible make it clear that Jesus’ sonship is different from ours. In John’s gospel Jesus is described as “the One and Only, who came from the Father ...

735. Ministry By Faith: Does She or Doesn't She?

I Corinthians 16:14, James 2:14-26

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... with the Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, our General Conference approved an entirely new ordering of ministry in the United Methodist Church. Our work as a board for the next four years would be to try to implement what the Conference adopted. In part, it created a new order of clergy, the Deacon in Full Connection—and currently we have three seminary students from our church preparing for that ministry. But the real energy for that initiative had more to do with the ministry of the ...

736. Bart and Homer, Father and Sons

1 Samuel 20:24-42

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... good old Father Abraham argued with his brother, lied about his wife and had to deal with the jealousy of his sons throughout the succeeding generations. And certainly one of the most dramatic father/son relationships is that of King Saul, Jonathan, and his adopted son, David. Today's reading shares a turning point in the tragic journey. It's a story of the deep love and abiding friendship between Jonathan and David. It's a story of seething jealousy and threatening rivalry between Saul and David, the one ...

737. Breakfast on the Beach

John 21:1-14

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... have to put on clothes. And, well, it could start a whole downward slide until the whole of civilization goes down the tube. No, no, no. The only right way to fish is out of the left side of the boat. I mean, we've got rules here. General Conference adopted it. It's in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2004 and so we have to fish out of the left side of the boat. Right side of the boat? Never. Never. Never... John doesn't record that conversation, but I've been around the church long enough, I just ...

738. A Time for Us

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... the boundless optimism of its youth, to the pensiveness and self-doubt of middle-age. The western world itself has been obsessed with a belief in inevitable progress. After accepting the theory of biological evolution, whose higher life develops out of lower, we adopted a theory of social evolution, wherein higher social life evolved out of lower. There was a naive belief in the gradual, but certain, ascent, not descent, but ascent, of the human race. Every day in every way, things were getting better and ...

739. Hoping Against Hope

Romans 4:13-25

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Come children of Abraham, adopted by God. Now is the time for worship. Now is the time for hope to be fulfilled. Collect Faith is our standard, God, faith revealed in your people, from Abraham and Sarah through those who share with us this hour. Great things have been done in your name. Greater things ...

740. Short Order, Long Order, Melchizedek’s Order

Psalm 119:10-12, Hebrews 5:5-10

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... O Lord. (Psalm 119:10-12) Collect Lord of the cross, scant days before we call to mind your pain and suffering we pause to praise you as high priest of power. You are the Son. We are your sisters and brothers, not by blood, but by adoption. We are no longer strangers, but members of one family in your service and love. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Heavenly Father, we need no other between your throne and our low state except your Son, high priest forever, naming us, claiming us, calling us, clearing us! High ...

741. Floating on Your Back

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... with the Army in 1944, Maria gave up her career to stay home with the children. She cheerfully accepted the sacrifices common to the roles of wife and mother. In the late 1980s, Maria was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Now it was Wallace’s turn to adopt her motto. He prayed that he would use this disease as an opportunity to repay his wife for all the sacrifices she made for him. He determined that St. Paul’s words in I Corinthians would guide his attitude and his actions toward his wife. (4 ...

742. Transformation to the Light

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... of the efforts of these first disciples. As we were given the light, so must we transform our lives, believe in the good news, and share the light with others. Christianity requires us to respond to God's call and bring the light to others. First, we must fully adopt the light in our own lives. We need to cast out the manifestations of darkness that at times pervade our lives. We prefer the dark because it is cozy and we do not have to do anything. But Jesus did not come to make us comfortable; he came to ...

743. Seeing and Not Being Seen

John 12:20-33

Sermon

David T. Ball

... .” These were probably not people from Greece itself, but rather people who weren’t Jewish living in the eastern Mediterranean region. With the conquest of Alexander the Great, Greek language and culture had become dominant, and many urban residents had adopted Greek as their primary language. Interestingly, they had approached Philip, who went by a Greek name, who may have seemed more approachable for that reason. Philip then went to Andrew, the only other disciple with a Greek name, and together they ...

744. Time to Come Home

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... It can be a country. Immigrants understand this in a potent way. Whether they come from Latin America or Africa, from Russia or the Ukraine, from China or the Philippines, there is a bond to the homeland that never dies. Sure, the new country is adopted. New customs and languages learned. There are new friends, and in many cases, spouses and families. But always, the soil of home stays a little bit between your toes. One thing, too, that's important to remember is that immigrants, most of them anyway, leave ...

745. Apocalypse Wow!

Isaiah 25:6-9

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... helpless and frightened in the face of death. Unexpected death can be the worst, when we have not had any time to prepare ourselves or to say "good-bye." In the book, Andrew, You Died Too Soon, Corrine Chilstrom shares with us the death by suicide of her adopted son, Andrew.1 Her journey through grief involves helping the heart to learn what the head already knows. God has promised never to leave or to forsake us. This promise is for us and for the loved ones whom we have lost. The prophet Isaiah and the ...

746. Keeper of the Springs

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

Peter Marshall

... “progress," but tomorrow, oh, you Keepers of the Springs, they must be made to see that it is not progress. No nation has ever made any progress in a downward direction. No people ever became great by lowering their standards. No people ever became good by adopting a looser morality. It is not progress when the moral tone is lower than it was. It is not progress when purity is not as sweet. It is not progress when womanhood has lost its fragrance. Whatever else it is, it is not progress! We need Keepers ...

747. Faith Is the Victory

Acts 10:44-48

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of faith and thus cannot be trustees of God's power. 5. Faith is healing - Both the woman with the hemorrhage and the blind Bartimaeus are miraculously healed through the power of their faith alone. 6. Faith is inclusive - The book of Acts demonstrates how faith makes possible God's adoption of all as God's "chosen" people.

748. The Golden Calf and the Golden Table

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , or subjects, only objects, only things, then we have allowed technology to undermine our humanity. "Mythinformation" is a concept scholars like political scientist Langdon Winner are using to describe "the almost religious conviction that a widespread adoption of computers and communication systems along with easy access to electronic information will automatically produce a better world. It is a peculiar form of enthusiasm that characterizes social fashions of the latter decades of the 20th century ...

749. Global Warming

Genesis 2:18-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... relationship with a particular people - the Hebrews - joining them together with an everlasting covenant. But God was dissatisfied with the limitations of this covenant and took radical steps to enlarge its scope. Thus, the whole of humanity was adopted into the covenant through Christ's incarnation and his gift of life. Study after psychological study has demonstrated that relationships are central to human health and happiness. But if God is overwhelmingly committed to establishing relationships between ...

750. Let's Give Jesus a Hand

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , steeped in individualism, shallow consumerism and militarism, and now sitting on a harvest of poverty, pollution and decaying plutonium, really need that fact pointed out to it? Yes! Give Jesus a hand by helping to clean up a dump site, working in a soup kitchen, adopting a public school branch or lobbying for peace. By sowing to the Spirit with these and other acts, we "work for the good of all" (Galatians 6:10). As the church we are Christ's body incarnate. Our hands are Jesus' hands. Sowing seeds of ...

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