Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 826 to 850 of 2404 results

826. Faith A New Potential for Life

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... . H. G. Wells once called this Kingdom of God "the mightiest conception that ever entered the human mind." And Bishop Watkins concludes, "Yet this Kingdom was to be composed, not of angels, but of sinful human beings who had been redeemed." How is this achieved? By faith, that releases the grace of God in us and produces righteousness in the sight of God and righteousness in human relationships. Two and two equal four whether we accept it or not. The Kingdom of God exists whether we respond or not ...

827. Children of the Eighth Day

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... practice, plenty of money, a beautiful home, a wife I love, and three children. I have the house at the beach, the boat and all that. Why do I want to blow my brains out?" My son looked at him and was inwardly praying for understanding. He answered: "You’ve achieved every goal you ever set for yourself. You’ve lived your life; there’s nothing else to live for. Go ahead and take your life. But there is one thing I want to tell you before you do. "You’ve been living only for yourself and you are bored ...

828. The Importance of Unity

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... together of many ideas, perspectives, personalities, and thoughts around a common, unifying, over-arching concern or theme. There is room for much variation of opinion and feeling when one is seeking unity, so long as all that variation is given over to the achievement of the common goal, the adoration of the common center of all these variations. Artists, for example, may have great differences of opinion about how to paint, about styles of work, about color and texture and a host of other things they are ...

829. The True Nature of Happiness

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

... children: Happiness. The problem is that we really don’t grasp the true nature of happiness, and because of that it so often seems to elude us. You see, we think that happiness deals with our outer circumstances. We think that the truly happy man is one who has achieved outer success. Thus our beatitudes read: 1. Blessed is the man who makes a fortune. 2. Blessed is he who earns six figures. 3. Happy is the man who has a palace in the city and a summer home in the mountains. 4. Blessed is he who has won ...

830. God's Kind of Happiness, Today

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

The Best Gift

... would be removed. Like most of us, I suppose, he believed that personal happiness would come to him only after the handicap was gone. But then, one day God sent him a new insight: The creative use of his handicap could actually become his personal means of achieving happiness! So, Matheson went on to write: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, but ...

831. NEITHER YOUR NOSE NOR YOUR NAVEL

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... or a mantra. Since Yoga and Transcendental Meditation have their bases in the non-Christian religion Hinduism, we must be careful that we are not offending the name of the Triune God by practicing them. Better to do Christian meditation and achieve all the physical and psychological benefits of worshiping the Triune God. Most people who practice meditation are seeking peace in a confused world. But only Jesus Christ is unequaled in ability to produce peace at the deepest level. Therefore, it makes great ...

832. PERFECT LOVE

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... the apron strings so that you can develop into your own person." With parents it says, "I love you and will try to act in a way to make you proud of me." With a spouse it says, "I love you and I want you to be happy and to achieve the fullest stature of your being." Love is not primarily a result, but a cause. It causes people to grow into happiness. It is not primarily a product, but it produces. It produces fulfilled and whole people. Perfect love is Christ flowing through us. The secret to perfect love ...

833. The Necessity of Moral Commitment

Gen 3:1-24 · Is 28:15

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... and love to share this "meaningful arrangement," person-to-person, until the Kingdom comes. But, stupidly, we continue to believe "that the reason for our rebellion against God’s order is not irrational pride, but a legitimate determination to achieve self-fulfillment through ‘freedom’ and to devise a better, universal ‘meaningful arrangement’ than God did in the first place."2 How stupid can you get? Our existential philosophers have affirmed the authentic sovereignty of the individual person in ...

834. "I Don’t Want to Be Perfect - Or Do I?"

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... perfect" - but I do want to be better than am. I do want to be as good as I can be. I will never be mathematically perfect, everything just right, fixed. But as long as I live, I am going to be yearning after something that I have not yet achieved, and I am going to be responding to a pull that ever tugs me to a higher level of life. I don’t want to be a semi-Christian. I don’t want to be a "born again" Christian whose "conversion turns him around ninety degrees instead of one hundred ...

835. I Knew You’d Come

John 6:16-24

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

... and make a fool of himself, the results of Christ’s walking on the water were far more exciting, dramatic and meaningful? Peter’s foolishness - his impulsive, reckless action - made possible a situation which created for the disciples the opportunity to achieve faith. How we need people today who are willing to become fools for Christ - to take risks and stick their necks out. Even though they fail trying to accomplish the impossible, they nevertheless contribute to the common corporate faith by serving ...

836. In Debt Forever!

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... about love, the higher he goes. People gather to gape up at him and exclaim. Berringer shouts "Love and you can go up one rung of the ladder after another. You can climb one branch after another. You can do anything!" He feels that by loving he can achieve anything. "Go as high as you’d like!" he cries. Then he disappears, and there is silence on the stage. In a little while, he slowly comes down again. He is depressed and dejected. Berringer concludes by saying he went up so high that he saw beyond our ...

837. Forever His

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... all? Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today, and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is something within me still like a beaten army, fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a man who lived and died in such a way as to disclose to everyone that his Christ was "Lord both of the ...

838. Winners, Losers and the Gospel

Mt 16:25

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... expressed it. Winning is held in such high esteem by some that they will do anything in order to win, I mean quite literally anything. Think of the high school student who feels pressure from within or without to excel academically and goes to any extreme to achieve that end. She may win top grades, but she may lose, and what she loses may not be worth what she has won. She may lose too much sleep and eventually become sick. She may lose perspective and eventually find her friends slipping away. She may ...

839. Phoebe

Joel 2:28-32

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... decisions about buying and selling. The market place taught her to be resourceful, and with no husband, she had only her wits, judgment, and common sense to rely upon. She believed in herself - she had to. It was not easy in that competitive world, but she achieved status, and was respected for it. CHURCH We have no way of knowing the precise time Phoebe became a Christian. Probably it was under Paul’s preaching that she heard of Jesus Christ. Here was fulfillment: a faith as free and high soaring as the ...

840. The Unexplainable Reality

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... hear that even voice charged with vibrancy ... 10, 9, 8 and so on, ending in a crescendo of BLAST OFF! With spectacular power and energized fury, another spacecraft is launched on its incredible journey. With each departure comes a new advance in knowledge and achievement. We have a profound respect for the genius of man and his accomplishments ... so much so, that it has almost become commonplace. I would like to reverse the condition. Let me say a word about God’s incredible arithmetic. Once upon a time ...

841. On Being Able to Be Sorry

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... off his chest and out of his troubled conscience. He admitted something that had to be admitted and that he wanted to admit for his own peace. It had to be said. It had to come out in order that the next relationship could be achieved ... that forgiveness could be given, and wholeheartedly received. So the father forgives him ... not by a profusion of words, but by the joyous welcome of a celebration feast. Without genuine sorrow expressed and the joy of forgiveness received, the feast would have turned to ...

842. Running With Patience

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... its importance, and had no deep desire to do his best. To his chagrin, he lost the race he so easily should have won. The tortoise, plodding and persistent, enduring and determined, moved unswervingly toward the goal and won his laurels because he was prepared to achieve. He had the patience and the will to win. St. James uses another figure of speech when he says, "Look at the farmer quietly awaiting his precious harvest. See how he has to possess his soul in patience till the land has had the early and ...

843. Little Things Affect Little Minds

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... , the more St. Peter frowns. Finally he drums his fingers on the table, grunts, and looks the candidate in the face. Summoning commendable courage, the man cries, "Let me submit to you the honors I received while I was on the earth. Look at my achievements. I was a devoted father, a regular church attender, and a man of civic responsibility." St. Peter speaks. "You are not accused of being slothful. I know how industrious and faithful you were." Somewhat confused, the man retorts, "Well it’s true, I did ...

844. The Poor - With Us Always?

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... to preach good news to the poor. Following the example of the Christ, the early church cared for its poor. In fact, helping the poor was considered a privilege. Yet men are not oriented toward others. Whatever we have, we all want to think of it as achieved solely by our own efforts. The poverty-wealth problem has always been a problem in the church. In the book of James in the New Testament, one of the earliest church fellowships was being upset by favors shown to some and lack of respect for others. That ...

845. A Higher Form of Love: The Good Neighbor

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... help people, the prime motivation is not their discomfort but our own guilt. We sometimes fail to realize the difference between loving someone and feeling sorry for them. Jesus of Nazareth was noted for many things in his lifetime. In many of his achievements he was not the first. This is true relative to "love." For centuries mankind had heard love preached. To claim uniqueness for Jesus solely on the basis of his preaching the love of God is intellectually dishonest. Unfortunately many people try to pit ...

846. Love of God and Love of Country

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... work like that. "You do not know what you are asking," he retorted. "... whoever would be great among you must be your servant." Oh, the need for those words to become actual in our country. Regardless of the wealth, strength, and technological achievements we attain, those words remain the backbone of greatness. If we do not undergird our economic and political efforts with the Christian gospel, our country will be like the horde of gorillas sitting down before complex computers. We will drown in our own ...

847. For Losers And Cowards

Judges 6:1-40

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... repentance for sin. But people and plans fail us. Let a person go to a psychiatrist to cure his sins - and all you get is an adjusted sinner. Let a person go to a physician to cure the disease of sin - and you get a healthy sinner. Let a person achieve wealth - and you have an affluent sinner. Let a person join a church, sign a card, turn over a new leaf, and you have a religious sinner. But let a person come in sincere repentance and faith to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, confessing his sins - and ...

848. When Christians Quarrel: Resolving Conflict in the Church

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... to give up. In fact, it challenges us to win the heart - the hardest heart! It tells us that Jesus finds no person hopeless - and neither must we. Reinhold Niebuhr, in The Irony of American History, writes, "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime: therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone, therefore ...

849. God’s Generosity Resented

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... last shall be first, and those who are first will be last" (Matthew 20:16b). The person who goes about serving with no regard for the reward, but working for the joy of it, will know the joy of the Christian life - to aim at regard is to fail to achieve it, and to forget reward is to find it. When the wife of the late Bishop Frederick Bohn Fisher took an Indian child up in her arms, she did not know that the burning body of the child was tortured with typhus; but three days later, she was dead. Her ...

850. The Hard-to-Believe Promise

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... two or three times to Mahatma Gandhi. In each case, he calls him a fool and a fanatic, because he chose a course of nonresistance and peaceful revolution to seek the freedom of India. In Goebbels’s estimate, only force, only power, could achieve victory in the world. It was the only thing that really had meaning. Today, Nazi Germany is just a terrible memory - and India is a growing, independent nation. That which Goebbels thought was strength was weakness. That which he thought was weakness was strength ...

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