Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1026 to 1050 of 4884 results

1026. The Reality of Fear--The Power of Faith

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... have blocked your view. St. Augustine was right on target when he wrote: "To have faith is to believe what you cannot see--and the reward of faith is to see what you believe in by trusting God." Malcolm Muggeridge once described a dear friend as the perfect Episcopalian. "He was one who loved God with all his heart and doubted God with all his mind." Not a good combination. Yes, training our hearts and heads to trust in God is the requirement for fruitful service to His kingdom. When we train our entire ...

1027. Staying Focused--Traveling Light

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... in the 100-yard dash, but his chief rival, who was winning, glanced back, and in that instant, Bob caught him and nipped him at the tape. This is why for those of us in the race of life, we look to Jesus Christ who is the pioneer, author, and perfecter (finisher) of our faith. We, as believers, don''t look back--but we do look up. He kept his focus on God and traveled light. During the summer of 1966, I had the privilege of going to the famous Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. The night before our group ...

1028. God Help the Fish

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... whose baptism marked the beginning of a ministry that changed the world for all time. Last week we acknowledged that what is unique about us is that we have been presented to God as perfect, valuable, worthy--not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what Christ has done. We do not need to hang our head. We are not perfect people, but we are Christ’s people. We have not arrived, but we are on the journey that leads to the kingdom of God, when God will reign in every heart. Key to that process ...

1029. To a Life Beyond

John 6:51-58, Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... , the music, and the people -- all these things are nice. But the best of it all is Jesus! And I'll fall on his neck with joy! Interestingly, Revelation 4:6 describes the area around God's throne as "a sea of glass." Like the lake surface on a perfect summer morning, in God's presence, there is not a ripple of care, pain, doubt, worry, or sin. In short, we shall live in the Lord's presence undisturbed forever. Who Gets In? A final question, the most important question of all, is: "Who is allowed into heaven ...

1030. The Dangers of Being Religious

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... Pharisee, however, stood up front and center, looked to heaven, and bragged to himself, "I thank you, God, that I'm not like other men. I tithe, fast, pray...." He had one eye on himself, one eye on his neighbor, and no eye on God. Aren't we perfectly capable of hearing a good sermon and thinking, "Boy, he really gave it to them today, didn't he?" 9. Are you constantly wallowing in guilt? Do you have feelings that you can never measure up? Are you driven instead of called? Do you feel compelled to work for ...

1031. Anxious Thanks

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung & staff

... we place our hope and trust in God above any and all the good "stuff" -- the good blessings -- with which he has graced us. God cares even for birds and wild flowers and graces them with loveliness. God doesn't freeze the flower in timeless perfection; the day comes when flowers fade, die, scatter their seeds for another year, and are finally gathered for fuel. Is God's care any less real because the flower isn't eternally fresh? God graces our lives with the loveliness of his blessings: everything from ...

1032. Grace in the Midst of Exasperation

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... sick desires of our old natures? Here is the wonderful answer: God has already given us the status of righteousness. But we still don't have the reality of righteousness. God looks at Christians right now as God's perfect children, even though, in reality, we aren't even in the zip code of acting like perfect children. We can summarize our situation this way: "Even when we foul up, we don't foul out." Imagine what it would be like if you were awarded the Olympic gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle -- which ...

1033. Excited!

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... was crowded on that first Pentecost. No wonder so many different languages were being spoken. This was as much diversity as you were apt to get at one time in one place. In other words, the time was absolutely perfect for the Spirit of God to descend on the church. It was also the perfect time to bring in a completely new era in the history of humankind. It would be an era like no other. It would transcend national borders. It would transcend every known language. It would ultimately draw all people ...

1034. No Other Name

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... it is also true of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, etc. In our war with a few insane followers of Islam, for example, we dare not overlook the fact that the vast majority of the adherents of this religion are peace-loving, law-abiding folks. No religion is perfect, however, because all are tainted by contact with sinful humanity. Religion is humanity's quest for God. And because it is humanity's quest, it is always flawed. Human pride and human greed have both served to distort the human quest to find God. Here ...

1035. A Healing Presence

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... cheered millions all over the world for a 100 years, were written by a little woman who never saw the sunshine. When you sing ‘Blessed Assurance’ again, remember the blind woman who wrote it. Especially when you come to that second verse, perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight, angels descending bring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love. Visions of rapture, bursting on the sight of a blind woman, because Christ was vibrantly alive in her life. You hear ...

1036. Singing The Lord's Song In A Strange Land (ii)

Psalm 137:1-9

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to the question of abortion which is going to occupy our nation at pitch-heat level now that the Supreme Court made its ruling in the Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services case that was just decided. And that's not the end of it. The pill that is being perfected in France that enables a woman to take it after intercourse to get rid of egg and sperm and never know whether she's had an abortion or not -- what moral questions that's going to raise. What do we do with science and technology when they bring ...

1037. The Primacy Of Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! You must be perfect -- just as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Get the message now. We are commanded to love our enemies. Why? In order that we may be sons, children of God -- in order that we may be like God. And what is the action cited? God sends the rain on the just and the unjust ...

1038. The Rest Of The Story

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... good." In the second chapter of Genesis, where the second story of creation is told, that creation story reflects the same kind of perfection, "And out of the ground the Lord made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the ... the garden. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." (Gen. 2:9) It was a picture of beauty and pleasantness -- the perfection of all creation symbolized in a garden. Into that garden, God puts the man whom he has formed, with the woman he has given ...

1039. Look Carefully How You Walk

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Paul would say. You remember Paul's testimony in Phil. 3: 12-14. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not ... by gift and promise. And that must be our stance -- that's the Christian stance. To be aware of what is yet lacking in our being perfected and to press on to "lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ." The Christian's life is never static. I ...

1040. The Little Madness Of Hope

1 Peter 1:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... for ourselves, and to do what others can't do for us. And in all the tomorrows, it will be that way. Samuel Goldwyn Mayer of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Productions in Hollywood was once asked to describe his fantasy of the perfect motion picture. This is what he said: "The perfect motion picture will start with an earthquake, and build toward a climax." Well, my sisters and brothers -- Easter is not a product of Hollywood. But it starts with something like an earthquake, a crashing of a mighty rock -- a man coming ...

1041. If Only -- In Spite Of

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that Paul discovers the true mercy of failure. Because it was the third time that the Lord told him that the thorn was not going to leave him, but he added, "You'll be able to bear the thorn because my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness." And that's the place where we can come to a close. If we know -- and we should know as Christians -- if we know that God's grace is sufficient, we can move from the "if only" response to life and begin to live triumphantly "in spite of ...

1042. On Level Ground

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... me. "Young as I was, though, I had known for a long time a that the catalog lied. I knew that under those fancy clothes there had to be scars, there had to be blemishes and malformations of one kind or the other because there are no perfect human beings." (Donald J. Shelby, "God Rides the Lame Horse", February 6, 1983). Harry Crews is right, and deep down we know it. "Have you ever felt like Peter or Paul: Inadequate, unloved, embarrassed, unworthy, unsure? I have. Such feelings overcome me when I stand in ...

1043. Getting Ourselves Off Our Hands

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... though the whole burden of living was in our hands. So, today we are talking about getting ourselves off our own hands. That's where our scripture lesson would take us. Paul knew that process, not perfection, was the name of the game of life. Listen to him again in verse 12: "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." He also knew that while we are responsible for the decisions we make, ultimately, life is in God ...

1044. Promises, Promises

Jeremiah 33:1-26

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... that we have not kept some spoken word. We think a person who keeps his or her word is a person to be honored and trusted, and we deplore and rue the times when we fail to be thus trustworthy. We even might say that there is only One who perfectly keeps his promises, and if we study the scriptures, we find that One is God. Throughout the Bible, God is a promise-keeping God. "The Word of our God will stand forever," Second Isaiah proclaims (Isaiah 40:8). My word "shall not return to me empty, but it shall ...

1045. The Promised Messiah

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... A.D. 451, it formulated what is known as the Creed of Chalcedon, to which the church has agreed ever since. "We, then ... all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man ... Only begotten, in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably...." Our Messiah, as Micah promises, is both God and man, both divine and human. The God of the Bible not only does things in his own ...

1046. Generic Christianity Is Not Enough

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Bible. Three, there are judgments in life, and there is the judgment, the final judgment. I close with this. We’ve had a heavy month at the Seminary. As in any community tragic things happen -- things we don’t understand. Also shocking actions and attitudes (perfection has not yet come to us as a community). Some of you know about one of our tough issues. Jessica, the 13-year-old daughter of one of our students, Rick Winchester, has been here at St. Jude’s, recently diagnosed with bone cancer. Thank ...

1047. Let Not Thy Will Roar, When Thy Power Can But Whisper

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... limited and how dependent I am upon the Lord. Again, in that Mt. Tabor experience, God sent me to our New Testament lesson for the morning. That graphic word of St. Paul. Paul heard Jesus say, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Then his paradoxical conclusion, verse 10: “For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Well, I have not had that dream since. A year later I came to the presidency here, and I believe that experience was one of the preparations for my ...

1048. Staying Alive All Your Ministry Life: Will You Finish Well?

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... carry the weight of it on my shoulders. God doesn’t intend that for any one of us. So I surrendered. I realized again how limited I am and how dependent I am upon the Lord; how yielded I must be to Him if His power is going to be perfected in my weakness. The line that I had marked in my devotional reading a few days before had been made powerfully alive by my dream; “Let not your will roar when your power can but whisper.” Now here’s the kicker. A year after that dream, I became the President ...

1049. Going Hard against the Grain

Matthew 5:33-37

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... whether he was casting out a demon, teaching a crowd, or sleeping under the stars of Israel after a long day of being swarmed by desperate people. In Jesus we see and hear what the kingdom looks like when it intersects a broken world; he is its perfect embodiment. This mysterious kingdom is supremely personal in that it comes out of the communion that is within the God we name The Holy Trinity. It is a multi-dimensional kingdom and supremely engaging. It is the kingdom of the Father, the kingdom in the Son ...

1050. Getting Your Politics Right

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... a local call. So if prayer is not to impress others, and if it’s not like pulling the lever and hoping for three of a kind, how do you pray? What prayer fits both who God is and what we need? “Pray then like this....,” he said. Knowing perfectly well who we are and how easily we are distracted, Jesus did not leave prayer to something as ephemeral as feelings or whim. He gave a pattern of words to start with. A man once asked his pastor, “Can you teach me to pray?” “Of course,” the pastor ...

Showing results