Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 801 to 825 of 1138 results

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... England (2013). What they reveal about the cycle of seedtime and harvest in this region of the country is surprising. When you and I today think about the pastoral landscape of New England, we think of the richly carpeted foliage of oaks, maples and a variety of hardwoods that give us the spectacular mosaic of colors that we associate with “leaf-peeper season.” But when the Puritans showed up, what they found in New England were pines. A giant canopy of green. That’s it. These vast pine forests were ...

802. For Troubled Hearts

John 14:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... Don’t be afraid.” That’s what he is saying to us here: “Do not let your hearts be afraid. You believe in God; believe also in me . . .” A story is told of the emperor Augustus. Augustus was a man with a troubled heart for a variety of reasons. The empire was continually at war. Constant intrigue stalked the halls of government. Hmm . . . sounds like our country today. Augustus, this troubled emperor, heard about a man in Rome who was heavily in debt. Yet, despite his financial woes, this man slept ...

803. Family Re:Union - Inverting the Pyramid

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... me a burning, blazing, passionate, all-out love for God they are looking at a cracked mirror. I heard about a Bible-teacher one time talking to a group of kids and he asked this question, “Why do you love God?” As he went down the line he got a variety of answers, but the one he liked best came from a little boy sitting on the end of the row and he said, “Mr. Smith, I don’t know why I love God. I guess it just runs in my family.” Mom and Dad, it doesn’t matter what else ...

804. Faith’s First Impressions

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... throughout two millennia. In 45 CE this population of Jesus followers was a tiny drop in a sea of religious choices. Thessalonica was a large port of entry, a crossroads for commerce, a favored independent city politically coddled by Rome. In the first century, the variety of gods to worship and cults to join were larger than a “Google” search for good shoe buys in the twenty-first century. The chance of a small group of Gentiles and a few Jews who professed faith in a Roman-executed convict making any ...

805. Dust Off The Throne

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Luke 1:26-38, Romans 16:25-27

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... and works. Paul doesn’t use this exact phrase anywhere outside of this letter, but he uses the phrase “to bring about the obedience of faith” essentially to bookend what he writes to the Romans (1:5; 16:26). Meanwhile, as we consider the variety of significant topics that Paul mentions without elaboration, there may be a method to his madness. He has assembled such a constellation of important truths, and then he has subordinated them all to a doxology. The sentence seems to have so many subjects, yet ...

806. Get Out the Ticker Tape - Palm Sunday

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... that all the cars out front meant that this must be a great place to shop! The same thing happens with churches. Some people are attracted to church because their friends are there. Nothing wrong with that it’s a great first step. We come into worship for a variety of reasons. Some of us come into this room with a sincere desire to know God’s will for our life. Others are still seeking a workable faith. Still others come because their family expects it. If I were to ask you today why are you here, what ...

807. A Watery Grave

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... fable may be used for all sorts of mischief, of course, but it does provide a helpful image: Namely, that some truths are larger and more complex than any one person can fully understand or adequately describe. Baptism may be one such truth. Such a variety of imagery is used in scripture and beyond to unpack the mystery of baptism. We meet a sampling here. As our people read their Bibles, front to back, they may be startled by baptism’s sudden and without introduction appearance at center stage. It does ...

808. Table Manners

John 2:12-25

Sermon

Craig MacCreary

... have to endure a boatload of boorish behavior. However, you would find an anxious presence as I tried to sort out which fork and spoon goes in what order. It seems as of late that finer restaurants are adding all sorts of utensils to down a whole variety of new courses. The meals are prettier and there are whole new flavors and new cuisines from around the world that are making it onto my plate. Yet I feel discomfort and anxiety. This is how I suspect a lot of lay people feel about much of the offerings ...

809. An Annual Reminder

John 20:1-9

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... have forgotten how to do certain mathematics. The result for my friend, of course, is that he got lost. The result for me is that I cannot solve the problems in my daughter’s math book. Perhaps we might consider, with our people, what variety of things we human beings forget — including some things we thought we would never forget! Next, we might consider the instances in scripture where God’s people seemed to forget what he had said or done, identifying the consequences of their forgetfulness. And ...

810. Spiritual Marines

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... discovery. He determined that while almost half the country attends church services, only six to ten percent of all Americans are what he terms “highly spiritually committed.”[1] He went on to compare the behavior of the church and the unchurched in a variety of categories—people who call in sick when they are not, people who lie on their resumes, people who cheat on their tax deductions—and found “little difference in the ethical views and behavior of the churched and the unchurched.”[2] No one ...

811. Don't Forget the Bread

John 6:25-59

Sermon

... bread that would satisfy them forever. You see, Jesus was making a profound point in the statement, “I am the bread of life,” that, as Westerners, we may not fully grasp. For us, bread is optional. We may enjoy it, especially the variety of breads we can purchase in our super markets today. We can get our bread as white bread, whole wheat bread, multigrain bread, cornbread, flatbread, cinnamon bread, rye bread, buckwheat bread, Italian bread, yeasted bread, unleavened bread, sourdough bread, etc. We can ...

812. Shall We Take the Escalator?

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... these annoying animals.” “I like all the trees but you need to plant some flowers. Flower gardens would be so pretty in the forest.” “The giant trees are spectacular but there are too many of the same kind; you should plant different types, for variety.” “Reflectors need to be placed on the trees every 50 feet so people could hike at night with flashlights.” “You should have a petting zoo here so that the children could touch the squirrels, deer and bears.” I don’t know about children ...

813. The Joy of a Thankful Heart

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... leprosy. But that term applied to a range of other skin rash maladies from extremely contagious impetigo to non-contagious psoriasis. Medicine had not advanced to distinguishing one from another. Without an explanation or treatment for everything from garden variety rash to disfiguring malady, society acted then as society frequently acts today--with fear, ignorance, and a policy of isolating the afflicted. Leviticus 13 details the rules: lepers must wear torn clothes, stay away from healthy people, and cup ...

814. Pride Is a Noxious Weed in the Garden of Life

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... of tourists from rural Galilee. He wears the robes and finery that identify him as a Pharisee. He prays in a loud, yet mellifluous voice that echoes off the temple's stone walls. “I thank you God that I am better than the thieves, rogues, adulterers, and garden variety riff-raff who gather here on Temple Mount. I am confident that I believe all the right things and I try to be over the top in doing the right things. The Law requires I occasionally fast, but I fast regularly. Twice a week I put on ...

815. When the Dragon Wins

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... to bind their various ethnic groups together. At the same time, asking about grandchildren in Swahili would seem impolite. For that, they would have to use the tribal tongue, the language of home. What a wonderful ability. To speak a variety of languages offers the opportunity to choose the language appropriate to the situation: one language for business, one for national issues, and still another for family. Each language requires a different vocabulary. Each language requires its own way of organizing ...

816. Tranquil: The Blessed Village on a Hillside

John 6:25-59

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... the village's motto: "Tranquil, Where Contented People Have Their Needs Met." Now do not misunderstand. This was not a village of great wealth. It was just a comfortable community. Every egg laid was not golden. Usually the goose eggs were of the ordinary variety: white, in a fragile shell, egg-shaped, and filled with the usual goose egg ingredients. Only on occasion did the goose deliver a solid-gold egg. When that happened, the people celebrated. Tranquil was a great place to live. No one went hungry. The ...

817. Uncovering Cover-Ups

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... and as a result, the image of some of our dearest heroes has been tarnished. For example, my father and his generation were great admirers of J. Edgar Hoover, head of the F.B.I. But many books and articles on Hoover have uncovered a variety of behavior and improprieties that would have greatly offended my dad. President John F. Kennedy lauded Thomas Jefferson when, at an assemblage of artists, actors, authors, and musicians in the East Room of the White House, he remarked that there probably had never been ...

818. Cell Division or Unity

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In any flesh-and-bones body, there are a variety of cells. There are nerve cells, blood cells, muscle cells, and many others, each having a distinct function. The body operates smoothly, not because the cells get together and vote on what to do, but because each one does what it was designed to do. It is the function of ...

819. The Pain of Crucifixion

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... every movement painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened; the arteries—especially at the head and stomach—became swollen and oppressed with surcharged blood; and while each variety of misery went on gradually increasing, there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst; and all these physical complications caused an internal excitement and anxiety, which made the prospect of death ...

820. Life's Flight Simulator

Illustration

Michael P. Green

When American Airlines trains their pilots they first seek to prove them by use of a simulator. The simulator is designed to present the pilot with a variety of potential problems so that he will be able to handle any emergency in the future. First the pilot is tested with simple challenges, which eventually build up to catastrophic situations. The pilots are given more difficult problems only after they have mastered the previous ones. The result is that ...

821. Solomon Builds the Temple

2 Chronicles 3:1-17

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... then moves to a description of the portico in front of the temple (3:4–7), and then provides a detailed account of the Most Holy Place, its contents, and separating curtain (3:8–14). After this (3:15–4:22) there are descriptions of a variety of cultic objects, decorations, structural elements, and so on. As in the source texts in 1 Kings 6–7, the repetition of the verb “and he made” punctuates references to the different objects that were made. Unlike in the source texts (where the vocabulary is ...

822. Jehoahaz King of Judah

2 Chronicles 36:2-4

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... get similar harsh treatment in the book of Jeremiah: “The verdict pronounced by the writers of Chronicles typifies an advanced state of a concept that took shape over a long period of time. Stages of this process are attested in the book of Jeremiah itself, where we encounter a remarkable variety of attitudes toward this last Davidic king” (p. 627). The prominence of Jeremiah is discussed in the next section.

823. The Apostles Persecuted

Acts 5:17-42

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... connects this instruction with Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem (Luke 13:34) and suggests that here, for the last time, Jesus is heard (through the apostles) making his appeal to its people (p. 26). The story of the apostles’ release has received a variety of explanations. Some say that it was due to a natural phenomenon, such as an earthquake or lightning, others, that someone well-disposed toward the believers let them out—the jailer perhaps, or someone else with the jailer’s connivance. The Greek ...

824. Peter at Cornelius’ House

Acts 10:23b-48

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... asked before, Why did you send for me? (v. 29). 10:30–33 Cornelius replied by outlining the events of three days past that he saw as an answer to prayer (v. 31). The details differ slightly from the earlier verses, but only for the sake of variety. Essentially the two accounts are the same. He remarked on Peter’s kindness in coming (lit., “you have done well …,” an expression of thanks, cf. Phil. 4:14; 2 Pet. 1:19; 3 John 6) and ended these preliminaries by declaring that they were all ready to ...

825. The Storm

Acts 27:13-26

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... rocks and sandbanks, and though the danger was still some four hundred miles distant, these sailors were taking no risks. Luke tells us that they “lowered the gear” (so the Greek), by which he probably meant the mainyard, which carried the mainsail, though a variety of other suggestions have been made, ranging from the lowering of a sea anchor (NIV) to the whole of the rigging. Some sail, of course, would have been necessary, otherwise the ship would have been entirely at the mercy of wind and wave. The ...

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