Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 801 to 825 of 4972 results

801. Because He Lives

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... was neither a priest nor a preacher. But they begged him all the more, "Oh sir, do give us God." That is the need every one of us has. It is to know the inner witness of the risen Christ. The assurance Christians have is available for everyone who leaves their self-centeredness behind and trusts in Christ and lives for him. He alone can give us resurrection and Heaven. The Bible says, "He that hath the Son hath the light, but he that hath not the Son hath not eternal life." Today we grieve, but not as those ...

802. Where Meek Souls Will Recieve Him Still

John 3:22-36

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... for producing children, but of little benefit to society otherwise. Then she sees Him: a Jewish man sitting at the well. Her steps falter. “Why does he have to be here?” Discomfort stiffens her frame. “How quickly can I reach the well, draw water, and leave?” She is aware that He has noticed her approach, but fear keeps her eyes downcast. “Will he call down a curse or spit upon me? Will he greet me with a cold, silent indifference and contempt?” As she reaches the well, nervous hands hurry to ...

803. Making Sense of the Ascension

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... earth moved around the sun. Not being the stuff of which martyrs are made, he took it all back. But as he was leaving, he is said to have muttered under his breath, “Nevertheless, it still moves!” It wasn’t until 1822 that the Pope officially ... is far better to be single than to be married to the wrong person. God doesn’t call everyone to marriage. But I use the story to leave you with this reminder. In a deeper and more profound sense, you and I DO know how life is going to turn out. It is going to ...

804. The Glorious Interpolation

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... is. They were all copied by hand, and the closer one can get to the originals, the more likely the manuscript is to be correct. But out of the most ancient manuscripts, this story is only included in one! Six early manuscripts omit it completely, and one leaves a blank space where it should have been. What are we to make of this? Why was it omitted? St. Augustine (354-430) hinted that the story was removed from the original text of the Gospel because “some were of slight faith” and it was removed “to ...

805. It’s Hard to Eat While Lying

John 13:18-30

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... We lie to God with our lips and with our lives. One of the best place for doing such lying is in church. We sing, “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee,” and then make doubly sure that He doesn’t touch our lives and leaves us alone. We lie to God in our church membership vows, our marriage vows, and in so many different ways. I imagine that Judas once said similar words to Jesus: “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee.” But then something happened. Other things got in ...

806. The Shy Member of the Trinity

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... day, lost his place, and shingled right off into the fog! And he said, “There is hardly any subject on which it is easier to shingle off into the fog’ than the subject of the Holy Spirit.” He was right. Most sermons about the Holy Spirit leave the listeners cold. Or sometimes they make folks think they are drowning in a sea of marshmallow. “Holy Spirit?” they ask. “What is that?” And to make matters worse, the Gloria Patri which we often sing in church calls the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost ...

807. A Terrorist among the Twelve

Luke 6:12-16

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, these words are found: “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin, and seek to live in peace with one another.” In other words: “Leave your old life behind; leave your old animosities behind, leave your angers, hurts, grudges, grievances, and jealousies behind, and make a new start here and now, a new start in love with God and with your neighbor.” For if we are not in communion with one another, how on earth ...

808. Secretary to Saint Peter

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... sorts of wonderful adjectives: holy sacred, divine, etc., We even have some pretty good nouns to go with them. But we are short on verbs. Mark is filled with the great verbs of our faith: Come! Repent! Go! In Mark, we are faced with a choice. We are called to leave our nets (whatever they may be) those nets that hold us back and keep us from becoming what God had in mind when he created us; called to cast them off, and to rise up and follow Christ. The Christian life is not so much contemplation as it is ...

809. Losers Keepers

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... While we are climbing our ladders of success, we must contend with the fact that while we are climbing up, we must stumble over Jesus, being carried down. He lost His life at Calvary; but, in the providence of God, there came an Easter Day. I want to leave you with one sentence. When I was in my twenties, five young men about my age went as a missionary team to the Auca Indians of South America. It was a daring venture, and a dangerous one. The Aucas were virtually unknown, but they had a fierce reputation ...

810. On Being the Greatest

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... have been the most civilized people on earth at the time - the Egyptians. They had intellect, and they had power. What more could God wish for? But whom does God choose? An obscure sheepherder named Abraham, 75 years old, about ready to settle safely into retirement. “Leave this country and go to a land which I will show you,” says God. All along the way God seems to delight in pulling one surprise after another. God promises Abraham’s wife Sarah that she will have a son at age 90. All Sarah could ...

811. On Claiming One’s Inheritance

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... , out of gratitude, care for it, and share it? We ought not to give to the Church out of compulsion, but out of love and gratitude. Tillich was right: The Good News of the Gospel is that God accepts us just as we are. But God is not content to leave us there. God calls us to grow and love and give and share what we have received. But first of all, God accepts us just as we are. There are several different stories about how one of the most popular hymns in Protestantism came to be written. I have come ...

812. Sine Qua Non

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... that if you loved them enough, you might eventually come to like them. But whether you like them or not, you are called to have active active goodwill toward them. When Columbus was sailing on his perilous journey to the new world, he saw floating on the sea leaves and branches. That told him that he was getting closer to another world. Whenever we see people reaching out in love to other people, we know that person is not far from the kingdom of God. “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God ...

813. An Eye-Opening Experience

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... has come to like a lot. She is eighteen years of age. He really wants to make a good impression on the girl’s parents. Before they leave to go out on the date, he promises her parents that he will have her home at 11:30 p.m. They give their blessings and ... Day! We have been reckoning our own strength, and that fails. Let us turn to God. Ring the bells and have services as usual, and leave the matter in God’s hands." They agreed to do as he said. Then from the church towers there rang out joyous peals in ...

814. The Tenacity of Trouble

James 4:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... that he can only make a small impression." Little Brother Gimlet arose and said, "All right, but Brother Screw must go also--you have to turn him around and around to get him anywhere." Brother Screw then said, "If you wish, I will go, but Brother Plane must leave also; all his work is on the surface. There is no depth to it." Brother Plane replied, "Well, Brother Rule will have to withdraw if I do, for he is always measuring other folks as though he were the only one who is right." Brother Rule then ...

815. A Full House

Romans 5:12-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... on the back of the map of the world was the figure of a man. The child responded by saying, "If you get the man right, you will get the world right." However, as we learned from the Collyer brothers, getting ourselves right is not a job that we can leave to ourselves. We need a Savior. Without a Savior we keep stock-piling and collecting junk, garbage, and other self-help methods that only litter the landscape of our soul. At some point, we must let go of sin and self and be grabbed by the power of faith in ...

816. The Marvelous Message of Easter

Mark 16:1-20, Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... can fully capture the meaning and symbolism of the resurrection event. That is why Christianity cannot be limited to an occasional visit to the church house. It is a good start, but you need more for the journey of life. In a few minutes, we will leave this beautiful sanctuary. The Word of God will have been spoken and sung. The lilies will have been taken home. The doors will be fastened, the perfume from the flowers will soon fade, the lights will be turned off, and your preacher and church staff will ...

817. A Fantastic Feast

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... tonight." The sisters learned what Joseph Marmion once stated: "Joy is the echo of God''s life and presence within us. Christianity stripped of joy is not Christianity at all." Babette can sense the sisters are sad because they believe Babette will soon leave them. She declares, "I cannot leave you now; I have no funds. I spent it all on the Feast." In the reading from Luke''s Gospel today, we see Jesus dining at the house of a Pharisee. They were watching Jesus carefully, in all probability to "trap" him ...

818. Entrustment

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... to others. When we marry, we are making a statement about the trust we have in our helpmate. Every time we board an airliner, we entrust our lives to pilots. In surgical suites, we entrust our lives to a medical team. In fact, every time we leave the house to go off somewhere is an act of entrustment. Arguably, entrustment (or faith if you prefer) is the most important resource we can develop. Without it, we would all hole up somewhere, with our only excursions beyond being those of absolute necessity. The ...

819. A Higher Calling

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... millions of other people who have lived on this earth over the past 2,000 years, we want to stay on the good side of God, but we want to do it from a distance. We will stay in our boats and give lip service and leave it to someone else to leave their nets and follow Jesus. There was an amusing item in the press not too long back. It concerned the funeral of James Smith, a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. When mourners arrived at the funeral home, they found the recently deceased Mr ...

820. You Are Free to Fail

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... be very entertaining. He tried unsuccessfully several times later, but few tickets sold. Even his own family wouldn't come to hear him play. His father told him that music was all right as a pastime, but not as a life work. Lawrence decided that he would have to leave home to find a place where his music would be accepted. His father warned him that he wouldn't last six weeks, but on his twenty-first birthday, Lawrence left his hometown to test his dream. It was only then that he found success as a maker of ...

821. What Are You Going to Do with My World?

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... a person, he is a new person, life is turned upside down! That grace becomes in him, among other things, a loving concern for the needs of others. E. Stanley Jones tells how, when an epidemic swept though his district in India, he asked two Brahmin saints to leave their wayside meditations and join him in helping the diseased and dying. "We are holy men," they said, "we don't help anyone." Not so with one who is touched by the grace of Christ. He helps. He reaches out. He serves. He longs to share what he ...

822. Who Needs a Doctor?

Mark 2:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... into the country to the Bolton Full Gospel Church where the party was being held. For the first time, I began to catch my breath and think, now what can I say about Pauline? The mystery of the way our minds work is fascinating. On my way back from Study Leave I had spent some time with my Mother and Father down in Richton, Mississippi. I'm sure my visit with Co-Bell was fresh on my mind and in my heart. She's 85 and Pauline is 84. I'm sure that had something to do with the way my ...

823. Waiting for God

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (NIV) For forty days after his death, the risen Christ had been meeting ...

824. The Fourth Day Comes

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a child and we’re helpless and can do nothing but sit by the side of that bed and hold the child’s hand, as that child hovers between life and death. It may come with advancing age, when we’re forced to pull roots of a lifetime and leave our home and accept the limitations of decreasing vitality. We may head for Emmaus when our involvement in the struggle to right some wrong winds up in utter defeat, and the cause to which we gave our life is undermined by the greed and deceit of trusted leaders. It ...

825. Living Deliberately

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose on the sheep or not, sees the wolf coming and leaves. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. As the father knows me and I know the father, and I lay down my ...

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