Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1001 to 1025 of 5000 results

Isaiah 49:8-16a

Sermon

Tony Everett

... begun to think of ourselves only as losers. We look at life through "L-shaped" lenses. If anything bad can happen it does, and if something bad hasn't happened yet, it will. We expect to lose and we begin to shape our identity with the "L" clearly marked on our foreheads and deeply embedded in our souls. Losers! Weepers! Even if, by chance, something good does happen, we are certain that it will soon be taken away ... lost again! What else is new for us losers and weepers? It's interesting to see that the ...

1002. There Will Be Light

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

... will be able to find enough of the meaning of life, so that when the time comes he will be ready to die. It is his first Christmas Eve in the village. Mark is in the church. Everything is ready. He is alone, waiting in the hushed silence with the candlelight shining on the statue that stands in the front of the church, a statue of Christ holding a little lamb. The young priest walks slowly down the center aisle. Not wanting to ...

1003. When Christians Pray

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... here: they prayed to receive God’s power. Jesus had given them an impossible task. They were to go to all the nations of the world and make disciples of all people. They knew there was no way this could possibly be accomplished without God’s help. Years ago, speaker Mark Sanborn was on a cruise with his wife. This was a new experience for them and he was curious about the workings of this great ocean-going vessel. He visited the bridge of the ocean liner and spoke with the captain ...

1004. Time’s A-Wasting

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... , Ninevah didn't argue with the five blunt prophetic words of Jonah, and when Jesus called them, Simon, Andrew, James, and John realized in a flash that those famous and overworked words, "it's now or never" applied to them and applied to them now. Mark knew that when he reported it. "And immediately ..." he says. Tomorrow would be too late. In fact, this afternoon would be too late. Jesus called them. They followed him — immediately — in an instant, life would never be the same. If you are like I am ...

1005. Skin Game

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... out his hand ..." (v. 41). Most English translations carry some variation of that theme of Jesus' ‘pity' for the leper. But an ancient and well-attested version of that important little verse says, "Moved with anger, Jesus stretched out his hand...." Every commentary on Mark that I have — and because of a special course in seminary I have six of them — concurs that anger could be considered the more accurate word in describing Jesus' emotion. If you are like I am, that may come as something of a shock ...

1006. The Inconcealable Christ!

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him." — Mark 16:2-6 The forces of Rome could not deny who Jesus was and could not lock him away for good because he was, and he is, the inconcealable Christ! What He Can Do Cannot Be Concealed! "It is no secret, what God can do!" If Jesus Christ "could not ...

1007. Your God Shall Be My God

Ruth 1:1-18

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... die — there will I be buried" (Ruth 1:16b-17a). It is that commitment that we are left to work with. Giving up one's tradition, family, and gods for the sake of another would have been seen as a large loss in a traditional society marked by strong communal commitments. In our day, however, seldom is a person's tradition taken that seriously. The opposite tends to be true. We live in an age where there is growing biblical illiteracy and a lack of familiarity with our western, Christian traditions. We may ...

1008. Christmas Is a God-Thing

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... own anger at himself, at the man, and ultimately at God. Finally, realizing he didn’t know the stranger’s name, he asked. The man answered, “Hayzoos,” which is, of course, the Spanish pronunciation for “Jesus.” The ironic humor of the whole situation suddenly washed over Mark’s mind and heart. Here he was griping to God about taking a man named Jesus to a shelter on Christmas Eve! He felt as if it were a huge cosmic trick. The comic aspect of it both judged his anger and redeemed him out of it ...

1009. The Four Sacred Chords of Home

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... uses them as signs of the imminent arrival of the Son of Man. When at last this long-awaited figure appears, Jesus uses language from Daniel 7:13 to describe his approach. In Daniel’s text this “one like a son of man” is never clearly defined but here in Mark’s gospel the Son of Man is clearly Jesus (see 2:10, 28; 8:31, 38; 9:9, 31; 10:33, 45). The “clouds” that accompany this Son of Man’s arrival are a familiar Old Testament symbol of God’s presence (1 Kings 8:10-11). Unlike Daniel’s ...

1010. When the Service was Interrupted

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” And Mark tells us, “News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.” “What is this?” the people asked, “A new teaching and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” So, Jesus had authority because of his teachings ...

1011. The Reluctant Celebrity

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... tells him not to tell anyone how it happened. That might be a little unrealistic. But it wasn’t just the people he healed. In Matthew 16:20 we read, “Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.” And again, in Mark 9:9 following that spectacular event on the Mount of the Transfiguration we read, “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” The last thing Jesus wanted ...

1012. Don’t Be Childish, Do Be Child-like

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ) interesting, 2) true, and 3) practical. There are so many from the life of Clarence Jordan, the Greek scholar who was also a farmer, founder of Koinonia Farms and one of the founders of Habitat for Humanity. Here is one that speaks to this mark of maturity as knowing what to remember, to re-member, and what to forget. Clarence's daughter Jan was hassled and ostracized at school. One especially vicious boy, Bob Speck, called her names and threw her books down repeatedly. After a few weeks, Clarence decided ...

1013. Celebrate the Small Stuff

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that emerges from such a small seed were deemed extraordinary. The leafy largesse of the mustard plant makes it capable of offering shelter: “the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” (v.32). This declaration would surely bring to the mind of Mark’s readers the scriptural references to the huge trees used to illustrate national strength and stability. But in Ezekiel 17:23 it is a mighty cedar, planted by God, which offers up a shady place for birds to nest (“hypo ten skian”), not a mere ...

1014. Listen for the Questions

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Joel D. Kline

... 10:17) Who can separate us from the love of Christ? (Romans 8:35) Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? (Mark 10:38) Which commandment is the first of all? (Mark 12:28) Where can I go from your Spirit? (Psalm 139:7). What is this new teaching, with authority? (Mark 1:27) Who is this about whom I hear such things? (Luke 9:9) What is truth? (John 18:38) And this morning's Gospel lesson ends with the question, "Who then is this, that even the wind ...

1015. Watch Your Step

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... references to it as Jesus’ “hometown,” the Nazareth community has no references in any religious or historical writings through the first century. In short, Jesus’ hometown was a hick town, a podunk place, one little nowhere burg. The incident at Nazareth described by Mark is found in Luke (4:16-30) and Matthew (13:53-58). While told differently by each gospel writer, in each account Jesus is rejected by his hometown and as a result his ability to work effectively among the people is curtailed and ...

1016. L4G Live For God

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... has “kept all these since my youth.” In Judaism it was assumed that a pious and obedient Jew would and could keep all the commandments — all 613 of them. Jesus himself does not seem to take the man’s response as anything but sincere, and Mark’s text declares that Jesus “looked at him and loved him.” The “look” (“emblepein”) Jesus gives is a scrutinizing stare, a “look” that sees right through the man and yet he still loves him. Maybe Jesus even saw some of himself in the young man ...

1017. O Holy Night

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... what happened to those shepherds? There is no mention of them again in the scriptures, but undoubtedly they were changed men. In his book The World of Serendipity, Marcus Bach tells about a sixteen-year-old boy from Bishop, Texas, named Mark Whitaker who discovered a new comet. Mark accomplished this feat with a home-made telescope that measured just four inches and cost him seven dollars and fifty cents. One night about 2 a.m. this would-be astronomer spotted something in the heavens. The next night he ...

1018. Jesus Heals Body and Soul

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. Mark tells us, “The fever left her and she began to wait on them.” Well, so much for the role of women in that time. “She began ... long for word to get around about Jesus’ wondrous acts of casting out demons and healing the sick. “That evening,” says Mark, “after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and ...

1019. The Law of Unintended Consequences

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... for our best good. There may be circumstances that we are not aware of that keeps God’s will being exercised at the moment we ask, but God never wills anything except our best good. Of course we can’t know what was going through Jesus’ mind. All Mark says is that Jesus was indignant when the man came up and asked to be healed. And yet, Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the man. “I am willing,” he says. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left the man and he was cleansed. We see something ...

1020. Is the Doctor in Today?

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... leader in the local synagogue. This would make him a much respected leader in the community. Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter has fallen ill and is at the point of death. According to Luke 8:42 she is his only daughter, and Jairus is quite desperate. Mark tells us that when Jairus sees Jesus, he falls at his feet and pleads earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” This is a remarkable scene. A distinguished synagogue ...

1021. The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... John 3:24). Therefore, no one may ask whether the believer has been baptized with the Spirit, for the very fact of being in the body of Christ demonstrates that he or she has. There is no other way of entering the church. And since water baptism outwardly marks that entrance, it also becomes the outward sign of the believer’s entry into the gift of the Spirit (see further the notes on v. 38). It may still remain, however, for the believer to become “full of the Spirit” (see disc. on 6:3), for we often ...

1022. Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin

Acts 4:1-22

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... though Peter were actually pointing to him as he spoke. Behind the phrase he was healed is the same Greek word that is used in verse 12 with the wider meaning “to save.” The line between physical and spiritual well-being is always a fine one in biblical thought (cf. Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50). As for the source of the healing, it was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (see note on 2:38). This Jesus, these very council members (you) had sent to his death, but God has raised him from the dead (v. 10). 4 ...

1023. Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin

Acts 7:1-53

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... the Egyptian attitude toward them was hardening (Exod. 1:9, 12). Stephen repeats the words of Exodus 1:8 when he tells how a king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt (v. 18). This statement could be understood literally, especially if the notice marks the return to a native dynasty (the eighteenth or, more likely, the nineteenth) after the rule of the Hyksos kings, but more likely it meant that the kings chose not to recognize Joseph’s service (cf. Matt. 25:12 for this use of “to know ...

1024. Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem

Acts 9:19b-31

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... risk. But he was not without help. One night “his disciples” lowered him through an opening in the wall, and he made his escape (v. 30; cf. Josh. 2:15; 1 Sam. 19:12). He seems to have felt that this was a low point in a career marked by suffering (2 Cor. 11:30ff.). 9:26 When eventually Paul returned to Jerusalem (according to Gal. 1:18, three years after his conversion), he found it difficult to gain acceptance by the church. He particularly wanted to see Peter (Gal. 1:18), but neither Peter nor anyone ...

1025. In Corinth

Acts 18:1-17

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... the servant of a message that would be preached “in season and out” (2 Tim. 4:2). So he was testifying to the Jews. Does this mark a change of method from discussion to a more dogmatic approach? (See disc. on 2:40; cf. 1 Cor. 2:4.) Silas is mentioned in this ... :31 and 15:35, this paragraph ends with the phrase the word of God and, like those other verses, may be intended to mark the completion of a subsection, in this case, the account of the founding of the churches of Macedonia and Achaia. 18:12 The ...

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