Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 951 to 975 of 4963 results

951. Saving Private Ryan

Acts 1:8

Sermon

James Merritt

... , thirty-two, died in Holland when a German plane bombed his truck. In four short months, Mary and Steven saw the war claim three of their four sons. As each son died, the Campagnones, aided by Representative Thomas J. Lane, asked the Army to keep their remaining sons off the battlefield. But the couple's requests were turned down by Army Brass, because military policy provided that a soldier would stay in the U.S. only if he was his family's sole surviving son. Only after the third son was killed, did ...

952. The Thrill of Victory Beats the Agony of Defeat

Judges 7:1-17

Sermon

James Merritt

... right over there." Now God gives Gideon some strange instructions. "Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.' And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained." (v.3) Gideon did something that I am sure no general before, and no general ever since, has done. He said, "If anyone is a bit fearful, or afraid to face the enemy, or you have a headache, or you are just not in the mood ...

953. The Sin of Silence

1 John 1:9-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... from? Well, many believe it's not from the Constitution or common law, but it was simply a product of the Supreme Court's fertile imagination. But be that as it may, it is the law and it's a law that says you have the right to remain silent. Ironically, one of the victims of the Miranda opinion was Ernesto Miranda himself. This rapist, whose conviction was overturned by that famous Supreme Court case, was stabbed to death in 1976 in a Phoenix bar, and the cops arrested a suspect in the killing. He wanted to ...

954. Face the Music

Hebrews 9:27-28

Sermon

James Merritt

... , and the subject of his sermon is always the same. He is an eloquent preacher, often stirring feelings which no other preacher could in bringing tears to eyes that never weep. His arguments none are able to refute, nor is there any heart that has remained unmoved by the force of his appeals. He shatters life with his message. Most people hate him; everyone fears him. His name? Death. Every tombstone is his pulpit. Every newspaper prints his text, and someday every one of you will be his sermon. Everybody ...

955. Bitterness: How to Overcome What You Undergo

Hebrews 12:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... have to dig it up in order to get rid of it. Everyday our bodies cleanse themselves of harmful toxins through the processes of waste elimination. If these toxins were allowed to accumulate they would cause us to get sick and eventually kill us. If we want to remain mentally healthy we must get rid of toxins that come to the mind, to the soul, and to the heart. Acts 8:23 speaks of the "poison of bitterness." Someone has said that bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the person to die. So how do ...

956. Put Your Best Foot Forward

Isaiah 52:7

Sermon

James Merritt

... the primary purpose that we (that's all of us) might be His witnesses (you could say missionaries) to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. Now back then people walked, or, in some cases, sailed. Today we can fly or drive, but the urgency remains the same. Doors are open, but they shut so quickly. Opportunities are many but they end so soon. Our feet must take us to where we can go while we can go. I put together some references in Scripture just to remind us of the urgency of the ...

957. When the Pressure Is On

John 6:1-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... Jesus in his life, and yet where the disciples doubted, the little boy believed. There is one area in which every one of us ought to remain just like a little child, and that is in the area of faith. Do you know what is wrong with a lot of us Christians? ... the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.' Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves ...

958. O Holy Night

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... the form of a bondservant and came as a man, He never ceased to be God. When Jesus became a man there was no subtraction. He remained God in all of His fullness. There was a time when Jesus was God, but not man; but there was never a time when Jesus was ... took upon Himself human nature which He had never before possessed, and He added humanity to His deity, and from then on He remained both God and man, two natures in one personality. I want you to understand this. If Jesus Christ was not God, then Christmas ...

959. The Great Depression

Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... you on hold. Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles. You go out to your garage to crank your car and the motor flies through your kitchen. You’re following a group of hell’s angels down the Interstate, when suddenly your car horn goes off and remains stuck. You wake up to discover that your waterbed has broken—then you remember you don’t have a waterbed. We all have those days when we are “down in the dumps” and we just feel like it’s going to be a bad day, and our mood is ...

960. The Church of Your Dreams

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... ‘till earth and the works thereof are burned up!'" All that…on a thirty-nine year lease! Now that's boldness! The great British preacher Colin Morris comments: In an act of cavalier disregard for the local authorities, he claimed that his edifice would remain until the end of the earth… Although the legality of his action is dubious, the theology is sound. The multi-million-dollar decision of the recent past to build the CLC was a similar act of boldness; the decision to renovate this space was an ...

961. When Seeing is Not Believing

John 20:19-31

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... But though it all he was also an ardent questioner, a seeker after truth, a doubter in every way. He began studying theology and exploring the questions. In his autobiography, he writes: I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous. And in his clever wit he says: Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about "man's search for God." To me, as I then was, they might as well have ...

962. From the Tomb

John 20:1-18

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... brought the end of the Sabbath. Once again, the dark of night settled in, but now there was, gratefully, something to do, some work to be done—gathering the spices which will be used to cover the stench of the decomposing body, folding and refolding the remaining grave cloths, making ready for the dawn. And finally, John says, "On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early…while it was still dark…," probably somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. Oh, the extravagance of Mary's ...

963. In the Upper Room

John 17

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... the brutality of the beatings and the suffering of his cross. In this prayer, Jesus prays for his disciples—the ones God has given him, the ones who have received his word, the ones who will carry his word into the world. He prays for the eleven who remain and he remembers the one who has left. Even Judas makes it into Jesus' prayer in a kind of regretful, pained acknowledgement of the loss of one who had traveled with him, prayed with him, ministered with him, and now goes to betray him. Jesus prays for ...

964. Precious and Privileged Children

Galatians 4:4-7

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... key to our success. Body 1. The Father wants us to imitate his Son. He "has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts...." That simply and unalterably means we are to be like Jesus, as nearly as we can. Through our joys and sorrows we are to remain steadfast in seeking to practice the teachings given to us. Through our good times and bad times we are to stay close. Through our successes and failures we are to hold up mirrors now and then to test our faithfulness to the highest and best we know. There is ...

965. Being Single-minded

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... we have. If we go all the way with him, we have a peace that passes all understanding. That does not mean we are free from various kinds of pain or even, at times, serious doubts. It is more than a change of pace. It is joy unspeakable that remains calm in the face of the lovely becoming decidedly unlovely. Yes, it is likened to the man who searched the world over and found the pearl of great price, discarding gladly all the others. Whenever the end comes, either with the Second Coming or our deaths, we are ...

966. Living the Word of God

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... God. James provides an image of how we deceive ourselves by self-observation in a mirror. When we look into the mirror we see all the imperfections, blemishes, and problems. If the user forgets what is seen in the mirror the situation cannot be corrected; things will remain in disarray. James is telling us that we must live the Word of God, as did Mahatma Gandhi, not only in what we say, but more especially in what we do. The apostle continues by saying that we cannot be true practitioners of the faith we ...

967. Where Is Love?

Hebrews 9:1-28

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... of their travels, the path to God's presence was laid out legally in the holiness code, as well as architecturally and symbolically in the tabernacle (and later the Jerusalem temple). Although the exact details and specifications have been lost in antiquity, enough remains in the Old Testament for a good artistic rendering. In the days when Moses and the Hebrews traveled the desert the tabernacle served as a kind of divine "mobile home" in which the holy and transcendent God could travel with the chosen ...

968. Dots on a Screen

Hebrews 9:24-28

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... The Greeks called it catharsis, a kind of emotional purification. The audience of worshipers could be drawn closer to God as they watched and participated. And yet, like the veil in the temple, the barrier between divine and human reality remained. For all its powerful imagery the experience remained "dots on a screen" — a faint copy of the heavenly reality. Then along came Jesus. The preacher of Hebrews insists that, unlike the pagan myths or the Jewish ritual, Jesus is no actor playing a role, he is the ...

969. When God Says No

2 Samuel 7:1-9; 16-18

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... His mother, six brothers and two sisters were there. His life seemed set. He was a shepherd and a shepherd he'd remain. That was his purpose in life. But everything changed. Sometimes things change, of course, because times change. A recent cartoon showed a ... Who said what?" So things change just because they do, but sometimes things change because God says No. Some of us would like to remain children, but God says No, you must grow and leave behind you one stage of life after another. Some would like to stay ...

970. What Part of “You Shall Not” Don’t You Understand?

Exodus 20:1-17

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... . God's "Big Ten" require that we make ethical choices. These choices are not like a choice between Ludefisk and pizza. These choices are between right and wrong. When we break these commands from God, we are broken by them. But God doesn't want us to remain broken. That's why he sends mercy and forgiveness. That's why he sent Jesus into the world. Jesus offers forgiveness and salvation. We have broken the commands of God, but we are not stuck with no place to go. We can return to God through repentance ...

971. An Exquisite Attitude of Gratitude

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... out stuffed into his shabby suit, and announces to the judges (including the dread-inspiring “Simon”) that he is going to sing opera. The judges set their collective jaws, and you can see their eyes rolling. The live crowd sucks in all the remaining oxygen in the audition hall, anticipating the sucking void of talent to come. Then this unassuming Paul Potts begins to sing. His voice, his love of the music, his spirit, slowly fills the space between himself and the judges, himself and the studio audience ...

972. Ever Watchful

Mark 13:24-37

Illustration

King Duncan

... and pumice at a rate of six inches per hour. In 17 hours that ancient city was buried under nine feet of ash and pumice. For 1,700 years Pompeii laid beneath tons of cinders, ashes and stone. Archaeologists in uncovering the city found the remains of many bodies preserved in hardened ash. Some of the bodies were in deep vaults as if trying to escape the volcano's destruction. The magazine pictured other bodies in luxurious chambers. What is most interesting, however, is that a guard, a sentinel, a watchman ...

973. A Womb With a View

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... mentors, friends, or spouses. But a safe and protected fetal faith which refuses to mature towards birth also faces all the restrictions of life in the womb. It has no voice. It has no capacity to lead - it must always merely tag along. It is forced to remain small and insignificant, its growth constricted by the walls of its chosen womb-tomb. There are too many believers who have yet to be born in any other way except physically. We shrink from taking that first step that pushes us out of the womb and into ...

974. Faith Is the Victory

Acts 10:44-48

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... verse in John reads: "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." Faith is the victory. When will the church come over to the victory side? For those who have faith, the battle is already over, the victory won. All that remains is commentary on what has already taken place. Victory is believing God enough to step out in faith. How do we recognize whether we are displaying faith or merely maintaining a hopeful belief? Martin Copenhauer spends a whole chapter in his book making the crucial ...

975. Stand Together or Fall Apart

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the Holy Spirit is to unify, not to divide. In 1 Corinthians 12:12 ff. Paul uses the analogy of the body to ridicule the existence of this internecine bickering over "gifts" surviving in a Christian community. As Christian communities continue to struggle to remain faithful to the image of community as ordained by Jesus and practiced with varying degrees of success by the early church, there is one more model we may turn to for guidance. So obvious that it may be overlooked, the uniquely Christian notion of ...

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