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Showing 76 to 100 of 391 results

76. Is God Still God?

Isaiah 44:6-23

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... and David? If God is for you, who or what can be against you? With God behind you, you can expect success, safety, and sustenance. If God is king, he has all authority and power. If our God is king, how could his faithful people be in exile while the adherents of false gods had liberty and success? Through Isaiah the prophet, God sends a message to his people and to us that he is king. As ruler, he governs the universe, and the nations are in his control. But as Jesus showed, he is a different kind of king ...

77. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Romans 13:1-7

Sermon

Carroll Gunkel

... are merely the messengers; they are by no means more important than the message they proclaim; they must never stand in the way of the message. He observed that Roman Catholics and Protestants share the same creed, say the same "Our Father" and adhere to many of the same traditions, founded not in Protestant or Catholic tradition, but in the Word of God.2 Bonhoeffer’s prophetic ecumenical spirit was to stand him in good stead as he offered leadership against Nazism. He was able to lead denominations ...

78. The True Nature of Happiness

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

... the face of everything that the world has taught us. The problem so often is that we put the cart before the horse. We study his teaching and hope that they will change us. The fact is that it is Christ who changes us. And, as we are changed, we adhere to his teachings. Thus, the Sermon on the Mount is the pattern of living for those who have received Christ as Savior. With this thought in mind, I would like to focus on two standards of living as set forth by Jesus, which we call today the Beatitudes. I ...

79. Issachar

Genesis 49:1-28

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... little children in his arms. The New Testament does not tell of a Savior who spent time basking in warm sunshine at the side of a sheepfold. Rather, he died for his sheep. The Christ of the dusty roads of Palestine will not let his adherents be comfortable. He calls to greater and greater tasks. From simple assignments, he leads to the more demanding. As the fiber of the soul grows, he gives commensurate responsibility. A modern disciple prayed, "Let me know something of spiritual fatigue in order that I ...

80. Not For Sale at Any Price

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... more than all the others put together. In 1977, during one week in January, ten million Hindus dipped themselves into the Ganges River. They traveled from all parts of India to bathe in the river for the washing away of their sins. At this special festival adherents are promised the benefit of escape from the endless cycle of birth and rebirth by entering into union with the Absolute. There may be some value in this because probably some will find release and peace. That is fine as far as it goes. Contrast ...

81. Virtue Won’t Hurt You

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... moral responsibility. While acknowledging this thesis, we must go to the corresponding question: whatever became of virtue? After all, sin has not been our real problem, but foolishness. Whatever became of virtue? The moralists in ancient Greece and Rome adhered to four fundamental virtues - wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage. Christianity took over all four virtues, but realizing that these virtues speak chiefly to man’s relation to himself and his society, added three more: faith, hope, and love ...

82. Christianity Can Be Fun

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... be pious and knowledgeable was to be preferred over being joyous. Their legacy is one that mankind has always found difficult to handle. Mankind to this very day has often sought to arm himself with an apparatus of prefabricated rules and regulations to adhere to in determining right and wrong, instead of simply enjoying the things and people on the earth. In Jesus’ day the focus of this problem was on the Pharisees. Most of the early Christians had been Jews. The ancient Jews were legalists. They lived ...

83. The Narrowness Of The Christian Way - 1950 (date estimated)

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... in any process, and then to obey those laws as undeviatingly as possible. Astounding results are achieved that way; undreamed of possibilities are disclosed; life vastly more abundant is realized. But this is no easy matter. It requires hard study, strict self-control, rigid adherence to assigned tasks, devotion to duty, willing obedience. It means going down a very narrow way. And that is what most of us do not like. The very idea of discipline is resented because it is so restrictive. We want to be free ...

84. What Are Christian Liberals? - 1951

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... outstanding characteristic of the totalitarians, whether they are to the right or to the left, is that they are intolerant and repressive. Each demands unquestioning acceptance and any deviation or dissent is disastrous. So they say, "One major demand we make, and that is absolute adherence to the line." This is just as true of Fascists as it is of Communists. It is just as true of the left as it is of the right. The worst sin you can commit, from the standpoint of the Communists, is any sort of deviation ...

85. Chapter VII

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... have, or it can pock-mark a life and destroy it. Today, as never before, sexual relations are being condoned as experiences all people should have at any time, in any place, with any person. Because that point of view has been picking up adherents, sexual promiscuity has become the current rage. Sexual relations outside of marriage are now being engaged in by all sorts of people. It seems that almost no age limits or social status is unaffected. Married people are chucking the promises made to their spouses ...

86. Reclaiming Our Covenant

Genesis 9:18-29

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... or sheer selfish interests can break any arrangement even when one has said, "My word is my bond." But in a covenant relationship God, the third party, invites the allegiance of both persons, and in response to their commitment he supplies the ability to adhere to it. This is the peculiarly biblical three-way relationship in which God always holds the trump card. From our human side, then, he looks for our humble acceptance of his will for us in this event or situation and with it our gratitude ...

87. The Richest Hill On Earth

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Robert Allen

... said, "How should I know? I’m a Baptist." Just as the Bishop finally had to reveal who he was, it was the Cross of Calvary which revealed the true nature of God. Before Jesus, God was a theological concept; before Jesus, God was a power that demanded adherence to the law; before Jesus, God was a mysterious God confined to the Temple in Jerusalem. But Jesus came and was crucified. It was on the Cross of Calvary where Jesus bled and died to say to us, "God is like this." That is the Gospel! The crucifixion ...

88. Finding the Truth That Makes Us Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... his salvation by works."4 Luther’s discovery of that truth about God has freed millions since from that bondage and burden. John Wesley is among them. Like Martin Luther, he sought in vain, and with many a sigh, to earn his salvation through adherence to law and the performance of good works. But a reading from Luther’s preface to the Commentary on Romans brought release to his tortured soul. He recorded his experience in his journal: "About a quarter before nine, while he (Luther) was describing the ...

89. Believable Light

2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... s keep on dancing, Let’s break out the booze, And have a ball If that’s all There is ... Here is the gray world of No. God save us! Instead, let us echo the firm Yes of Christ Jesus. Let us never set aside our sure adherence, our fixed discipleship, no matter what the circumstances of life may be. Paul Davis, a Seattle engineer, lost the power of physical locomotion one night. In the days that followed, he contemplated suicide in his hours of despondency. One evening, he dragged himself to the porch of ...

90. Enduring

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into an unbending lifestyle. Moses’ Commandments had been made inflexible. Prophets were no longer permitted to be those free, high-soaring spirits, but were rather stern judges, grim and philippic. Religion had become literal adherence of pendantic scribes. Many religious pundits became experts, not in keeping the law, but in how to get around it: how might the letter be kept, but the spirit violated? Jesus called these people "hypocrites," "whitewashed tombs," "serpents ...

91. His Baptism and Ours

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... banks of the Jordan, John announces that the long-awaited Messiah is about to appear and the Kingdom of God is about to be ushered in. Of those who seek entrance into the Kingdom he demands repentance, a genuine change of heart, in place of mere adherence to the dead forms of their inherited religion. And those who repent step down into the river and John administers to them the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The bold and direct appeal which John makes is illustrated by an incident which ...

92. The Holy Trinity

John 16:5-16

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... basis for it in the Old Testament unless one reads Christian theology into it. The faith of Judaism was and continues to be simple monotheism: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God" (Deuteronomy 6:14). Yet against the background of this strict adherence to the one God and in full accord with it, rose the apostolic Christian community with its new living contact with God in Christ. The first Christians confessed, "Jesus is Lord," and they lived by the gifts of his Spirit. They constituted a fellowship ...

93. The Courage to Be Me

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... fast to what we think is commonly believed, compartmentalize, or turn away from the discrepancies we feel by throwing out the "baby with the bath"? Often I talk with young people who, in the midst of intellectual discomfort, surrender their doubts to an adherence to pious mediocrity in religion or to the camp of detractors, who offer only despair and cynicism. What kind of choice is that? There is, of course, another alternative. It takes real courage to doubt, and doubting, to believe that there are better ...

94. Creeds or Deeds

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . But our traditions should never stand in the way of God’s command to love our neighbor and honor our parents. Corban, the Pharisees demanded, a gift devoted to God…family members may be suffering but don’t break your promise to God. That kind of strict adherence to tradition is a religion with no heart. Let me also say a word on behalf of creeds. Creeds are good things. They are necessary. Most every Sunday we say the Apostle’s Creed. The Church has been saying that creed for almost 1900 years. It ...

95. The Fruit of One's Doing

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... and its birth control methods. At the same time Stark ventures to say, as few sociologists are inclined to do, that the Christian believers were able to cope with problems and disasters by virtue of their faith. The belief system of the Christian adherents was vastly superior to anything the pagan religions and cults offered through the multitude of gods they had fashioned in their idolatrous practices. The Prophet Jeremiah claimed the same for the Hebrew faith in his day. He envisioned that the people who ...

96. The Ten Commandments #6: No Murder

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... scripture does not say so. In the 13th chapter of Romans, Paul goes on at some length about a citizen's responsibility to the state.(4) He says that we are subject to the powers of the government. That means we must obey our leaders when we are told to adhere to the civil law, to pay our taxes, and even when we are told to go to war. One thing should be made clear though. Paul had no intention of saying that we must obey the government even if the leadership is clearly operating contrary to the way God ...

97. Religion and Politics

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... response would be to stay scrupulously away from anything "political" at all. Perhaps you saw in the paper last week that there is at least one watchdog group out there going around to churches listening to preaching to see if pastors are adhering to federal tax guidelines restricting political activity by nonprofit groups.(5) Hmm. With that caveat, I wonder whether keeping religion and politics separate is possible. For that matter, I wonder whether it is desirable. I wonder if it is faithful. The witness ...

98. The Healing Touch

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Some among us are here with needs for healing. Our work will be (and make no mistake, it will be work) to join our hearts and minds and wills with each one who comes for anointing. We will come with faith - not the kind of faith that professes adherence to certain dogmas, but the same faith that Jesus called for from patients and family and friends, the same faith found in one very desperate woman so long ago - faith in SOMEBODY to get something done. Our faith will help us to EXPECT SOMETHING TO HAPPEN! I ...

99. I Have Been Baptized

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... to your rules," he continued, "religion counts only in the place where you pray. Our religion is a way of life. I have no time at all, not one minute, without Islam." Is that how the world views the Christian faith…its rules apply to its adherents only while they are in church? Where have we missed it? Why do we not understand that baptism means the beginning of new life? To paraphrase that young Muslim: "I have no time at all, not one minute, without Christ." Pastor Martin B. Hellriegel once returned ...

100. Reality Maps And Rolling Stones

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... hope of life after death. She might as well make the best of this world, because it is the only world there is. Have you heard of a group called People Forever International? According to the ARIZONA DAILY STAR this organization has adherents in 16 countries. PFI members think they will live foreverthat they can cheat death. The group began in 1960 when cofounder Charles Brown experienced with what he calls his "cellular awakening" while mediating. "We are a species that has the ability to perpetually ...

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