Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 951 to 975 of 4939 results

951. Pretenders

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... service. The little girl from next door asked him what the smudge was on his forehead. He replied, "It's Ash Wednesday." "What's Ash Wednesday?" she asked. "Oh," he replied, "It's when Christians begin their diet." Ash Wednesday is about more than giving up chocolate for Lent. It is about examining ourselves in the light of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. And the central question which we ask ourselves this night is, Which is it: Pretense or Performance? It's fun to watch little children play pretend ...

952. Servants Of The Servant Who Was Lord

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and Jesus’ call to be a servant. Most of us serve by choosing when and whom and how and where we will serve. We stay in charge. Jesus is calling for something else. He’s calling us to be servants. And when we make this choice, we give up the right to be in charge. Then, amazingly, we experience great freedom. We become available and vulnerable. We lose our fear of being stepped on or manipulated or taken advantage of, and aren’t these our fears? But what joy comes – what energizing of life – when ...

953. Lord, Teach Us How to Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

James McCormick

... time for God and us to get to know one another and how best to communicate with one another. I know that most people give up too quickly. There is a story about H.G. Wells, that when he was a young man he prayed hard for something to happen. It ... world is full of people who say, “I’ve tried prayer and it didn’t work.” I’ve always wondered why we give up so quickly on something as important as prayer, while we invest significant amounts of time, money, and effort on enterprises far less important ...

954. Full Immersion

Acts 19:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of the cross and “I” crossed out. Not to obliterate the “I”’ but to give the “I” arms and wings arms to fill Christ’s mission in the world, wings so that you can fly and be fulfilled. The cross is the sign that you can give up your false self, your fake self, and become your true self by immersing yourself in the Spirit of Christ, who wants to live his resurrection life in and through you. Because You Are Greater, life doesn’t satisfy unless you cross the “I.” Things don’t satisfy ...

955. Paul’s Life as an Example of the Truth of the Gospel

Philippians 3:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... s life should show forth the truth of the gospel, and Paul is supremely confident that his own life shows that fleshly circumcision is something that needs to be put aside so that Christ can be fully glorified. The same pattern of giving up privilege and voluntary humiliation that characterized Christ’s life characterizes Paul’s life as he enters into an intimate relationship with Christ. This union with Christ in no way depends on circumcision or any other human accomplishment. Instead, it demands that ...

956. The Rich Young Man

Mark 10:17-31

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... Jesus what he must do, the man refuses. He is told to part with the goods of this age since he is so interested in the next one, but he will not do so. His interest in the next world is not sincere enough to enable him to give up his preoccupation with this world (vv. 21–22). The brief discussion with the man about his form of address to Jesus (vv. 17–18) is not just a quibble about religious propriety. The man’s address, Good teacher, may have been a mere complimentary address, mild flattery. Jesus ...

957. The Sign of Jonah

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... former “life” as a fisherman. He tells the others he’s going fishing. They take their nets and go out that night to do the same. But they catch nothing. Peter is running away. Running back to what he knows and who he used to be. He is in effect “giving up,” deciding that he cannot be an apostle for Jesus. That he doesn’t have it in him. That he is after all only a fisherman. But he finds, he can no longer go back either. He is no longer the person he used to be either. And nothing comes of ...

958. The Art of Critique

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... peace from our anger, a break from our never-ending frustration, a reprieve from our helplessness. Jesus offers to fight the fight with us, to give us back control over our lives by allowing us to glide in his powerful, safe, protective shelter.It doesn’t mean we give up the fight, but Jesus asks us to trust him, to open up to him, to let him guide us in our efforts, so that we too can learn the relational art of critique, the kind that leads to change and healing, peace and humanity. Jesus came not just ...

959. Feeling Down And Looking Up

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... were telling them. They were convinced that Yahweh had failed to help them, and even that their God had been defeated by the gods of Babylon. They were downhearted and inwardly, at least, still a defeated and dejected people. Still this Second Isaiah would not give up. He had learned a few things during those years of captivity. Some revelations had come his way that had not been known in Palestine before the exile, for he and the other captives had come to the greatest center of culture and knowledge in ...

960. Bearing the Cross

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... cross, you are saying something entirely different. You are saying that you are willing to serve God, you are willing to serve others, you are willing to put aside selfish concerns and focus your attention on God’s Kingdom. If that costs you money, if you have to give up some of your precious time, if you have to get out of your comfort zone, then that is just what you will have to do. When you bear a cross, God’s will comes first in your life. Is that where you are today? Does that accurately describe ...

961. Coping With Anger In A Close-up World

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... full he lets go into the diaper. Everything revolves around the infant; he or she is the center of the world. One of the hardest tasks in growing up is accepting that we are not the axis around which everything and everyone revolves. We have to give up the pleasure principle and learn to live by the service principle. The person who is not "other" directed is in trouble. The whole world is not interested in us. Unless we learn to serve others and fit into a kingdom that emphasizes servanthood as greatness ...

962. Need Help Removing That Roadblock?

Exodus 13:17--14:31

Sermon

Steve Burt

... will be new roadblocks, new external ones. But the most troublesome will be the old internal roadblocks coming back to haunt them -- fears, doubts, and low esteem that will make them consider taking their eyes off the prize. It will be a struggle, but they will not give up. They will persevere, believing God wants them to succeed. So it is with us. Individually and corporately we must work to uncover or discover God's vision for us. Some of us must recover it. We must honor it and ask God to help us achieve ...

963. Proper 22

Hebrews 1:1-14, Hebrews 2:5-18, Job 2:1-10, Mark 10:13-16, Mark 10:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... when the bullet lodged in his skull, he panicked and ran away. He recommended his two cousins to finish the job and Fran agreed to pay them $500 each. They shot Tony in the heart but he didn't die. You might think that Fran would give up the murder racket and seek a simple divorce at this point. Right? Not Fran, she fed Tony soup laced with barbiturates. The police finally rescued Tony from this coterie of bumbling assassins, finding him in a semi-conscious state. Fran served two years at the state prison ...

964. The Importance Of Asking The Right Questions

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

Larry R. Kalajainen

... . This business of learning to ask the right questions applies not only to our national life, but to every area of life. It applies to our life as a church, certainly. If we are always asking the question, "What should we do so that we will not have to give up the things we've become comfortable doing?" we will never become what God wants us to be and we will not experience the very security we seek. At a church-growth workshop the leader, Bill Easum, who himself grew a church from 29 members to over 2,400 ...

965. Liquid Hope

John 7:25-44

Sermon

James Weekley

... God. Faith taps the reservoirs of his Spirit, releasing the floodgates of his Life Source. There, we are overwhelmed by his surging surf. We meet him, as did Jesus, knee-deep in the Jordan, on the terms of intimacy. His compassion for us splashes forth. He never gives up on us, you know. "Will our trust turn its parched lips toward his healing streams?" Remember that Jesus did not thirst on a tree so that we might dam up the "waters of life" in the stagnated eddies of doubt and fear. He thirsted in order ...

966. Rejoice! It's Lent

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... rehearse our failures as much as it is a time to renew our faith that God is at work creating a promising future out of the mess that we have made of his world and of our lives. Lent is not a time when we are to practice shallow fasting - giving up things we can easily do without. Lent is not a time to fast as it is a time to fasten our faith more tightly to the hope-filled promises of God. Lent is a time to stand with the prophet Joel in the wastelands, left by the locusts, and to ...

967. Failures Need Not Be Fatal!

Mark 14:66-72

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... ...to the parent whose son is charged with drug possession? What artist could paint that look? Disappointed yet affirming...caring yet pained. If only Judas could have seen that look; perhaps he would not have gone out and hanged himself. No one would ever give up or despair after any failure if he could be fixed by the loving look of Jesus. ACT III FINDS PETER WEEPING GOOD TEARS. Not all tears are good. Some tears express despair, hate, or selfish frustration. But Peter wept good tears, tears that cleansed ...

968. Stand Up Straight

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... is a state of mind, not a state of health. You are crippled if you have lost your enthusiasm for tomorrow and live only in yesterdays; if self-pity becomes a way of life instead of counting blessings; if adversity makes you want to give up instead of bravely persevering. You are crippled if your own preoccupation with self blinds you to your brother's burden. You are crippled if cynicism causes your faith to waver instead of remembering that his eye is on the sparrow. "'Are you crippled'? the little ...

969. Jesus Won! We Won!

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... to recognize him." (3) The good news for us this day is that Jesus knows exactly how hard it is for us to recognize his risen presence. Mary is a good example for us precisely because she did not recognize Jesus easily. Jesus did not give up on her. Jesus does not give up on us. Jesus persists in speaking to us and giving us glimpses of himself. It was not until Jesus said her name, "Mary!" that she knew and recognized him. What a powerful thing it is to speak someone's name! According to a Celtic legend ...

970. Do Not Lose Heart

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... , but it was all over with for them. Why? They had given up. Evidence is accumulating that we cannot live without hope. Doctors know that telling some patients that they are terminal is in itself a death sentence. When people have no hope, when they give up, deterioration is rapid. St. Paul was looking toward those things as yet unseen, but still anticipated. This hope kept him from losing heart. Belief in the future will do that. That is the first step we need to take in order to keep from losing heart ...

971. Worried About Her Child

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... need of our loved one, it can be frustrating getting anyone to listen. We may feel that the whole system is against us. Let's learn from this mother who would not be turned away. First of all, this woman was persistent. Too many people give in and give up without getting the help they need. When Henry Ward Beecher was a young boy in school, he learned a lesson in self-confidence which he never forgot. He was called upon to recite in front of the class. He had hardly begun when the teacher interrupted with ...

972. Like A Tornado

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... for the next 20 years, then he would be allowed into the Holy of Holies. Amazingly, the man agreed to the deal. So the high priest assigned the man the most menial tasks, such as sweeping the floors and taking out the garbage. He fully expected the man to give up and go home. But the man continued faithfully in his work for 20 years. Finally, the high priest had to admit the man to the Holy of Holies. He took the man to the secret door in the Temple and announced, "Open this door and walk through it. On ...

973. Marks Of A Champion

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... . After the surgery he thanked his fans for their prayers and said he sensed an "amazing" peace after doctors amputated his left arm and shoulder. Life's not easy. And so to righteousness, godliness, faith and love, St. Paul adds endurance. You don't give up in the fifth round, or the seventh round. You fight the good fight to the end. But there's one more characteristic the Christian champion embodies, says St. Paul. Gentleness. Once again this is a misunderstood quality. In the awful days of apartheid in ...

974. Who Counted the Fish?

John 21:1-14, John 21:15-25

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... and the marvelous catch of fish and said, “Simon, do you love me more than all these material things?” These material things are not evil (as the Gnostics teach), they have their place, but that place should not be first place. “Are you willing to give up all these things—a steady job, comfort, and security—and come, follow me?” That is one possible meaning of Jesus’ question. Or, (b.) perhaps the question means: “Simon, do you remember how you said to me a few days ago that you would follow ...

975. Why You Should Study the Bible

Psalm 119:105

Sermon

James Merritt

... Lord. I heard the Christian life was supposed to be the only way to live, but God was not real to me. I decided I was going to seek God with my whole heart. Then if I found this to be nothing but an empty endeavor, I was going to give up living. I fed upon tapes of your Bible teaching. The Lord began His work in me through His Word…the Holy Spirit showed me just exactly what my problem was and what I needed to do about it. My problem was sin—a heart that would not forgive, and it ...

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