Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 801 to 825 of 4914 results

801. Jesus’s Authority to Forgive and Heal Sinners

Mark 2:1-12

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: In contrast to the crowds, the leaders begin to oppose Jesus’s ministry because he ignores the requirements of their oral tradition. Jesus, however, conducts his ministry not to satisfy rules but to bring sinners to forgiveness. His authority to forgive sins is proof of his divine sonship. Understanding the Text Jesus’s authority continues from Mark 1, but now with a polar opposite reaction: rejection rather than wonder. This begins five episodes (2:1–12, 13–17, 18–22, 23–28; 3:1–6) that center ...

802. Job Feels Both Confidence and Terror

Job 23:1--24:25

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

Big Idea: God’s justice draws Job toward confidence, but God’s sovereignty intimidates him. Understanding the Text In Job 23, Job rejects what Eliphaz has just said in the previous chapter, when he counseled Job to “submit to God and be at peace with him” (22:21). This is yet another indicator that the communication between Job and his friends is breaking down. Instead of speaking directly either to his friends or to God, Job speaks in a soliloquy, as he did in chapter 3. His internal conversation reflects ...

803. The Healer

Matthew 4:23-25, Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) “I am the Lord, who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26) Prop: stethoscope [Hold up the stethoscope.] How is your heart? [Have a volunteer come up. Listen to the heartbeat. Put the stethoscope to the mic.] What do you hear? [Allow people to listen to the beating heart.] Listen to that. That’s the sound of a living heart. It’s the sound of a heart alive in Jesus. When your heart is synchronized with Jesus, it will be alive in ways that ...

804. The Richest Hill On Earth

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Robert Allen

All of us have taken trips that were memorable. There are certain vacations that stick in our minds. Perhaps, we were lying on a beach on a tropical island. Perhaps, the crisp cold wind was whipping against our face as we skied down the side of a mountain. Perhaps, we simply curled up with a good book and forgot about our everyday routines. We all have memories of certain trips or vacations that are as clear today as they were when we took them. Many years ago, I was with my family on vacation in Montana. ...

805. When Christians Pray

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a story by Hugh Price Hughes titled, “The City of Everywhere.” In this story a man arrives in a city one cold morning. As he gets off the train, he sees that the station is like any other station except for one thing everyone is barefoot. No one wears shoes. He notices a barefoot cab driver. “Pardon me,” he asks the driver, “I was just wondering why you don’t wear shoes. Don’t you believe in shoes?” “Sure we do,” says the driver. “Why don’t you wear them?” asks the man. “Ah, that’s the question,” ...

806. Divine Dynamite

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"You will receive power ..." (Acts 1:8). Here was a ragtag bunch of people with no power, no position, no influence, no clout, being given the promise of their risen Lord that things were about to change for them. Not in the way that they might have wished, to be sure. After all, the power they were about to get was not political (even though that is what they wanted) — there was no promise of an earthly kingdom. Just divine power. And we celebrate the coming of that power every year on Pentecost, the day ...

807. Proper 7

Mt 10:16-39 · Rom 5:12 – 6:11 · Jer 20:7-13 · Gen 21:8-21 · Ps 86

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Genesis 21:8-21 Sarah jealously guards the rights of her natural son, Isaac, by ordering Abraham to throw out her slave girl, Hagar, with her son. God speaks to Abraham in his distress about the plight of Hagar and her son, telling him to do as Sarah wished because his descendants would be counted through Isaac. Furthermore, God would also make a great nation through Ishmael. Lesson 1: Jeremiah 20:7-13 Jeremiah was born about 650 B.C. and began his ministry in the 13th year of King ...

808. Journey To The Cross VII (Easter): Jesus And The Women At The Tomb

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

Do you remember the Legend of the Touchstone? It’s a great story to recall on Easter Sunday morning. According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand. Once a man sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search of ...

809. The Church: An Enclave of Resistance v1

Romans 12:1-8, Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Last September, there was a groundbreaking service for a Catholic cathedral that is going to be constructed in Los Angeles. The Diocese of Los Angeles commissioned the famous Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo to design the building. Their hope is that the cathedral will be completed by the beginning of the millennium. It’s to be a pectacular witness to the glory of God. There were models of the cathedral at the groundbreaking service and on the basis of the models a Los Angeles Times reporter wrote a ...

810. In the Darkness of Suffering, There Is the Light of Life

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

Several years ago, I read Sidney Sheldon’s Novel, The Windmills of the Gods. I read it with a good deal of interest, though it was not about windmills and it was not about God. I was struck by a scene where the heroine had lost her young husband, a doctor. She was left with her two children, and was trying to put her life back together. She laid awake one night thinking how easy it would be to die, how happiness and love were so easily snatched away. Then this thought ran through her mind, “The world is ...

811. Fifth Vision - Zerubbabel Empowered

Zechariah 4:1-14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

This vision is linked to the previous vision as the focal point of God’s work of cleansing and empowering his people. The task before Zerubbabel and his associates must have seemed insurmountable, especially in view of God’s descriptions of the coming glory of Jerusalem and the temple. This fifth vision is given to show Zerubbabel that God gives divine enablement for the work that he has ordained. The vision contains two major objects. The first is a solid gold lampstand (4:2). The lampstand no doubt is ...

812. When I Am Weak, I Am Strong

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Sermon

King Duncan

I read something interesting recently about one of the world’s most revered religious leaders. He is the Tibetan Buddhist leader known as the Dalai Lama. It seems that, though the Dalai Lama may be what the Buddhists call an “enlightened being,” he has his weaknesses. According to a report in The Week magazine, it’s said he sneaks chocolate chip cookies when he’s supposed to be fasting. And he uses an air gun to scare away irritating birds. Anybody identify with that? Here’s a good one: While the Dalai ...

813. The Real "Lord's Prayer"

John 17:6-19

Sermon

King Duncan

Here’s a question for any of our women who have been mothers. Do you remember your favorite gift that you ever got at a baby shower? A woman named Louise Cramer tells the story of opening gifts at the shower for her first child. Among all the necessities and toys, Louise found one very special gift. It was a baby quilt hand-sewn by her grandmother, who had passed away years before. As Louise marveled over the beauty of the quilt, it hit her that her grandmother had planned this quilt, and spent weeks ...

814. A Healing Presence

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I want to call you to prayer in a focused sort of way this morning. And we need to remember as we pray, because of who we are as Christians, that word of the prophet Micah, listen to him - he shall judge between many peoples. And how shall decide for strong nations far off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. That’s a dream of the kingdom, a kingdom that the Lord promises ...

815. Advent 1

1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Isaiah 63:7--64:12, Mark 13:32-37, Mark 13:1-31

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: The return of the Lord. In Isaiah 64:1 the writer earnestly hopes that God will rend or tear the heavens and come down to restore his people and subdue their foes. In Paul's introduction to 1 Corinthians he prays that the Lord would sustain them until the revealing of the Lord Jesus. The Gospel has Jesus warning his disciples to watch closely for his return. COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Isaiah 64:1-9 (C, E); Isaiah 63:16b-17; 64:1, 3b-8 (RC) As the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon, they had high ...

816. Epiphany 6

1 Corinthians 10:23--11:1, 1 Corinthians 9:1-27, Leviticus 13:1-46, 2 Kings 5:1-27, Mark 1:40-45

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: God's cleansing presence and power, with or without water. In the First Lesson Elisha cleansed Namaan, the Syrian, by telling him to wash in the Jordan River. In the Gospel Jesus cleansed a leper who requested healing by touching him. COMMENTARY Old Testament: 2 Kings 5:1-15 Namaan, a general from the army of the Syrians, was sent to the king of Israel by his own king, asking that he be healed of his leprosy. An Israeli girl, absconded in war, informed her master of a prophet in Samaria who could do ...

817. Discipline and Means of Grace

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

We move now to talk about discipline and means of grace. In my definition of Spiritual Form I chose words very carefully – Listen again: “and appropriating by commitment, discipline and action.” Our discipline is armed at cultivating an awareness of the indwelling Christ. Paul’s words to the Romans make it clear. Listen to Paul in Rom. 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your ...

818. God's Sovereign Choice

Romans 9:1-29

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

The Election of Israel What remains of God’s promises to the Jews now that the Messiah has come and the Jews from whom and for whom he came have, for the most part, failed to recognize him? That is the theme of Romans 9–11. Finding the exact term to describe Paul’s discussion of the theme is somewhat difficult. On the one hand, Romans 9–11 is more or less an excursus complete in itself. The beginning declaration (9:1) and the concluding doxology (11:33–36) delimit it clearly from the remainder of the ...

819. Resurrection And Life

John 11:17-37

Eulogy

Jonathan W. Schriber

Retired Pastor's Wife I was very anxious to meet ____________. Even before my ministry here, I knew a bit of the ____________ legacy through my close relationship with Pastor ____________. Upon arriving here, I was reminded of this man's impact on the life of this congregation. I wanted to meet his widow -- both as a link to him and yet in her own right as a person, a wife, a mother. ____________ now rests from her labors in the presence of her Lord. We gather, sorrowful that she is separated from us, but ...

820. The Strength of Poverty

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Hubert Beck

"If poverty is strength, may the good Lord make me weak!" I can hear the idea running around in your head from the time you read the title of today’s sermon. This sermon title sounds every bit as upside down as the Beatitudes that we read as today’s Gospel or as the Second Lesson for today. "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things ...

821. Holy Handicap?

2 Cor 12:9

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Reserved parking in shopping malls, newly constructed ramps into public buildings, motorized wheelchairs, special hardware in restroom facilities, experts seen translating the spoken word into sign language for those in the television audience with hearing deficiencies, even monkeys trained to meet the everyday needs of paraplegics and quadriplegics - all are signs that we are, as a nation, becoming more sensitive to the special needs of the handicapped. Everywhere we go we are faced with reminders of ...

822. Promises Kept!

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Some years ago the Canadian Medical Association reported the strange case of Jack Traynor. Jack was an Englishman who fought in the trenches of World War I. Twice he was shot: one bullet severed the nerves and tendons in his right arm; the other put a hole in his skull. Jack was alive, but his arm was useless and his brain was damaged. He couldn’t walk, and he had constant epileptic seizures. His right arm hung paralyzed. Doctors stopped treating him and predicted his death in a very short while. The ...

823. Leave Your Stuff Behind

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Loren Isley is one of my favorite writers. He is a distinguished anthropologist and essayist. What makes his writing so gripping to me is that he has the eye of an artist and the soul of a poet. He sees beyond the surface and he has that rare double gift which enables him to enter deeply into an experience and then share that experience with us in the kind of way that enables us to vicariously experience what he himself has experienced. In one of his poignant vignettes from boyhood, he shared a moment of ...

824. Rules for the Road

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

NOTE: This sermon, written in the 90s, read the way it's written below, could be a good introduction on how rapidly things have changed. Think about how to rerwork it as an illustration using the original lanuage or completely adapt it by updating the items. How to cruise on the new-century superhighway. People who work at or own a computer should be aware of these two things: First, they have more processing power at their fingertips at home and at the office than the sum of NASA computers that got the ...

825. Greeting, Doxology, and Confession

Revelation 1:4-8

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

Big Idea: John’s greeting from the Father, Spirit, and Son results in praise to God and anticipation of Christ’s return, and is a powerful reminder of God’s sovereign control over the universe. Understanding the Text The prologue (1:1–8) continues with a greeting and doxology (1:4–6) followed by a prophetic confession (1:7–8). John’s greeting of grace and peace to the seven churches compares to the kind of greeting we find in Paul’s letters, but John includes a fuller description of the source of the ...

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