Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 726 to 750 of 4943 results

726. Suffering Leads to Victory

1 Peter 3:18-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... easy. Rather, he made it very clear that being rejected or even hated by others could easily be our lot. He summarized all the possible negative effects of being a member of the church when he said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). The season of Lent presents us the challenge to ask how much are we willing to ...

727. Advice

Romans 12:2, 9-20; 13:8-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

... letter telling him to register for the draft. He sat down and wrote a polite letter to his draft board saying that he couldn't do what President Carter had asked because you see, as a Christian, Jesus had told him to turn the other cheek, to not take up the sword, to be willing to die rather than to kill. He took that Bible advice seriously. Literally. And when his church found out about his letter, they kicked him out, excommunicated him. "Where do you think I got this stuff?" he asked them. "You’re the ...

728. Loving Through Action

1 John 3:14-24

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks with compassion for the world. Christ has nobody on earth but yours.” Yes, we, the Christian community, are the hands and feet, the eyes and the ears of Christ in our world. It is our responsibility to take up the mantle and to love others through action as did Jesus. Saint John’s challenge in today’s second lesson is indeed a great one, but we have the best example in Jesus, and, therefore, the inspiration we need to do what is necessary. Therefore, inspired ...

729. Third Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:36b-48

Bulletin Aid

RobertT D. Ingram

... be engaged in the physical world, as well as prepared for the world that is yet to come. Then have the congregation join in the affirmation of faith printed above. An alternative to the affirmation of faith would be to challenge the worshipers to take up some project for improving the environment or the physical life of an individual, or people in general. Challenge the congregation to form small Bible study groups in their homes. They can invite neighbors and other friends to attend. Even two or three can ...

730. We Wish To See Jesus

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... powers of darkness that will to rule in your life. At the cross I draw you unto myself; I draw you into my death that you might live with me my new life. If you really want to see me, look to my cross. Be set free through my cross. Take up my cross and follow me each and every day of your life."

731. One-Fired Up Preacher!

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... us about living in the face of death is that we should plan to leave a blessing behind. “Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you’ ” (2 Kings 2:9). What might we leave that will bless the generation that takes up God’s work after we are gone? Do it! The best is still to be. Invest your life in the next generation and put God’s work in your will, and you will be a part of God’s plan for tomorrow. “Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven” (2 ...

732. Who Am I Supposed To Hate?

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... that when Matthew reports Jesus' words, he softens them a bit. In Matthew Jesus says, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." (Emphasis added.) Well, that's better. We can see loving Jesus more, but who could literally hate his father and his mother? Liesel Brooks remembers the day she turned her back on her family. She rejected her parents and ...

733. Lift High the Tree

John 12:20-36

Sermon

George Bass

... likely converts in spite of themselves and their faith in Buddha? "And I, if I be lifted up ..." Jesus said. These are no idle words. And so, as we approach the climax of Lent and are soon to be confronted by the Tree and the Tomb, we take up the hymn which begins and ends with a refrain: Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim Till all the world adore his sacred name. And the invitation is sounded in song: Come, Christians, follow where our captain trod, Our king victorious, Christ, the Son of God ...

734. Better Than a Spanking

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... , we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.” (6) Do you understand the water of baptism can be a powerful force in our lives? When the water was applied to us in baptism [as an infant or as an adult] something powerful was taking place. The Holy Spirit was taking up residence in our lives. We became part of God’s kingdom on earth. As such, we became God’s agents in our family and in our community. As we ponder our own baptism, it might cause us to ask, “Am I being all that God created me to be? I ...

735. Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... curtails that anger by placing a time limit on its existence with the proverbial “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Carefully nursed anger, anger that stays the night, anger that takes up residence in the heart, offers a potential place (“topos”) for the devil to take up residence. The sacred space that is the community of faith must avoid offering the powers of darkness any foothold within their midst. The next directive sounds perfectly Pauline. It is an admonition to thieves: turn ...

736. Why He Did It

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... for their faith. In light of that, how could he do otherwise? Notice what he says in the verses that follow his rebuke to Peter: “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” He leaves us with no ambiguity. Being a Christian is serious business. There was a story in a ...

737. Jesus Taken Up into Heaven

Acts 1:1-11

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... is this: Jesus remains active, though the manner of his working has changed. Now, no longer in the flesh, he continues “to do and to teach” through his “body,” the church (see disc. on 9:5). This is the story of Acts. 1:2 Before Luke takes up that story, he briefly recalls the events that brought the first book to a close. Prior to the ascension, Jesus had given instructions … to the apostles he had chosen. In the Gospel, the title “apostles” is limited to the Twelve (Luke 9:10; 17:5; 22:14 ...

738. Cross Choices

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

R. Kevin Mohr

... can follow Christ. To choose life through the death of self and our affections, lusts, desires, wants, and allegiances is never easy. Every day we will encounter new temptations, and every day we ask God’s Spirit to help us choose again to die to self and take up the cross. Again, the choice of the cross isn’t easy — it wasn’t for Jesus, as his anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane proves — but the choice of the cross was and is the right choice, the best choice. That it happens at all has nothing ...

739. Harmless Hospitality

Luke 10:38-42 · 2 Kings 4:8-17

Sermon

Will Willimon

... (9:51). The strange man of God that Martha invited to dinner has a cross on his back. What's more, opening your door to Jesus, asking him in, is not just a matter of fixing up a few nice things for the preacher. It's a matter of Martha taking up her cross as well. Remind you of Elisha and the Shunammite woman? Open your door to a man of God, you might get surprised. God's intrusions are rarely harmless. "Look, all I wanted was a little food, polite conversation." What she got was a trip from the geriatric ...

740. Cross Purposes

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... discipleship may divide families, strain or even snap the bonds that keep human homes and hearts together. " The final directive Jesus gives in this list of dubious discipleship duties is the ultimate test of commitment, the greatest evidence of foolishness for Christ's sake: "take up the cross and follow me" (verse 38). What could seem to be more at absolute cross-purposes with life than Jesus' admonition that "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it ...

741. The Promised Glory of the New House

Haggai 2:1-9

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... pilgrimage festival would mean that more people were present in Jerusalem than usual, and of the three pilgrimage festivals Sukkot was the one in which people were mostly likely to take part. 2:3–5 Like 1:2–15a, this confrontation begins by taking up something the people are thinking or might naturally be thinking, bringing it out into the open, and disputing it by urging a different stance and suggesting reasons for that stance. Given that 63 years have passed since the temple was destroyed, the answer ...

742. Use It or Lose It

Luke 19:11-27

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... be acclaimed “king” (19:38). He has declared that salvation has come “today” (19:9). Is this then the moment for the “kingdom of God” that he has preached to be brought in, with Jesus as its king in his capital, Jerusalem? This parable takes up that issue and prepares the reader for the paradoxical way things will work out in Jerusalem. It warns against expecting too much too soon, but at the same time it warns against indifference. The king will return, and those who have disobeyed or opposed ...

743. Arise! Shine! For Your Light Has Come

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... prayer be counted as incense before you, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice" (Psalm 141:2). The myrrh stood for the Christian response of suffering. Jesus had promised that the servant would not be above the master, but that Christians would have to take up their own crosses to follow Jesus. The magi model the Christian life for us. Our task is to join them. As Martin Luther says: If we Christians would join the Wise Men, we must close our eyes to all that glitters before the world and look ...

744. Peter. Rock. Follower of Jesus.

Matthew 16:13-20

Drama

Thomas Blowers

... as the way to truth and life. How was I to make all that square with all this? How was I supposed to react to all this except as madness? Then I caught some more of his words: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return ...

745. Christ Has Set Us Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... , and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Doesn’t sound too exciting at first. Discipleship - or continuing in the word of Jesus - looks like work. It demands commitment. Jesus was always talking about that, how we must deny the self and take up our cross if we want to follow him. But why strain yourself? Maybe slavery to sin is better, if the alternative is slavery to Christ. Before throwing that out, let’s first look at how it is in the world of music and the world of sport ...

746. Lent 1

Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 5:12-21, Matthew 4:1-11, Genesis 2:4-25, Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon Aid

... v. 19b), "Remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." That part of the story, which is really about the "first exodus," needs to be read, somewhere, sometime, too. Romans 5:12 (13-16) 17-19b This part of Paul's letter to the Romans takes up where the Genesis story leaves off; it completes it and clarifies it from the standpoint of sin and redemption. Adam and Eve were the first sinners, and all other human beings born after have become sinners with them and suffer the same fate they experienced ...

747. Cross-Bearing

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... is the self-defeating life, and though the fasting and prayer of Christian life are aimed at others, they also represent the only avenue to spiritual freedom and continuing growth. Luke adds one word to this command that is not in Matthew’s Gospel, "Let him take up his cross daily." The very important element of cross-bearing and sacrifice is not one or two dramatic sacrifices in our own life, but rather a whole life-style which considers first the demands of God and needs of others. So much of the church ...

748. What If The Lord Really Did Come Today?

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... hand opened and the sleeping pills rolled out on my bed. A great peace came over me, and I slept and slept. God spoke to me in the days that followed. If I were to live again I must lose my life for the sake of others. I had to take up my cross and follow him." Do you suppose that this lady was prepared for the coming of the Lord? I suspect that she was. Many of us lead such self-centered and self-satisfied lives because our lives have not been refined by the fires of tragedy and heartbreak. "Blessed ...

749. The Young And The Restless

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... thrust on us. They happen. They will always happen. The best way to prepare for them is to learn to be adaptable. The way we learn to be adaptable is to move out of our comfort zone occasionally and try something new. Acquire a new skill, take up a new hobby, travel somewhere where few people speak your language, involve yourself in a ministry that is outside your comfort zone. Anytime we try something that we have never tried before, we gain confidence, we push back the limits of our self-perceptions and ...

750. Proper 7

Psalm 86:1-17, Romans 6:1-14, Matthew 10:1-42, Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... the insolent ones who are persecuting the psalmist in v. 14 must be read as the people of God themselves in this context. NEW TESTAMENT TEXTS The lesson from Romans 6 meditates upon the depths of the meaning of Christian life. The passage from Matthew 10 takes up the theme of disciples being witnesses for Christ and gives emphatic assurance that their final fate is in God's hands. Romans 6:1b-11 - "Dead and Buried with Christ and Freed from Sin" Setting. Chapters 5-8 in Romans form a large unit concerned ...

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