Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1051 to 1075 of 3099 results

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... Jack does nothing. The robber impatiently queried, "Well?" Jack replied, "Don't rush me, I'm thinking it over." This morning I would like us to think a few moments about our money and our life. Let’s see what Jesus has to say about these two subjects. The background for our story is an incident that occurred in Galilee as Jesus was teaching to a large crowd. A young man called out from the crowd and said: Rabbi, tell my brother to divide the inheritance of our father.” Now, Jewish law clearly prescribed ...

1052. People Get Ready!

Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

Brett Blair

... to that question we must look closely at our text this morning for there are three ways for the people of God to get ready. I. First we are to get ready by watching for the Master’s return. The Second Coming of Jesus is such a touchy subject for the church. We wonder why he has tarried so long, so many have tried to figure out when he is coming back, and everyone of the them have been disappointed. William Miller (1782-1849) studying the books of Daniel and Revelation, predicted that March 21, 1844 was ...

1053. The Lord's People Together

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

... note this third dimension of relationship: All should be together with Christ. The Christian community is a disciplined fellowship. In a way, a football team is such a fellowship; that is, all players are amenable to the mind of the coach, responsive to his will, subject to his direction. In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul pleads with the people of that church that they be "united in the same mind ..." To the Philippians he says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:5, KJV ...

1054. Christ Has Set Us Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... on the scene. Worse than that, you couldn’t escape their tax collectors, publicans who’d stop you several times on every little trip to impose their wheel taxes, road taxes, sales taxes, and whatnot taxes. Who could forget for a minute that Judea was subject to Rome? Isn’t it remarkable then that having a history of 400 years of slavery under Egypt, 70 years under Babylon, 150 years under Greece, and 100 years already under Rome - with no end in sight - isn’t it remarkable these antagonists of ...

1055. Christ the King A King Worth Having

John 12:12-19

Sermon

... . Rulers often keep their distance. We appreciate why that should be, especially with the assassinations in recent years and the rise in terrorism. But some kings from time to time have become so convinced of their godlikeness they’ve required their subjects to prostrate themselves on the floor - if, in fact, they have permission to get close. Our king worth having shows us that true godlikeness is somewhat different, that the real lord of the universe doesn’t need to protect his dignity. You ...

1056. Emancipation Proclamation

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... forget that they were being watched by foreigners who occupied their land and that they chafed in their enslavement. But surely they had never lost identity as children of their father Abraham, and "walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage," nor subjection to a foreign power with its occupying army. But the bondage Jesus spoke of was not physical imprisonment or loss of national identity, but that unrelenting bondage to sin, for "everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin." And sin, as Jesus used ...

1057. How to Stay on Top of It

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... of rejection to the Cross, can his followers expect a better road? "They will lay their hands on you," he said, "and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, dragged before kings and emperors and governors for my name’s sake." We may be subjected in our time not so much to persecution as to scorn, or simply being ignored, or if persecution, it might be more likely from within than from without. But this will be a time for testimony, not a time to retreat into a holding pattern. It ...

1058. Formula for Life

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

... aspiration and confidence, but is very unspecific in orientation. Too often we have cheapened our profession of faith into a perfunctory ritualistic exercise of giving verbal assent to a creedal statement of beliefs. Another evidence of our great confusion on the subject is represented in the utilitarian notion that faith will enable us to get what we want. The business entrepeneur expects faith to help him get rich. The physically afflicted expect faith to help them get well. The persecuted expect faith to ...

1059. The Reins of Power

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

... . That’s why they invented kings in the first place, and why they persist in leaning on Jesus in infantile fashion. There is every reason to believe that Jesus did not want his relationship to his followers to be that of a king to his subjects. The thrust of his Gospel was toward empowerment, not subjugation. He wanted God’s children to recognize and use the power of God that was available to them by God’s grace: power to grow up and achieve maturity; to live victoriously and redemptively; to ...

1060. Everybody Pray!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

... only would the fact that she is a woman still be a mental block for some, but more than that, she is a heathen woman. "A Canaanite woman ... came to (Jesus)." She was a Gentile, and therefore a heathen. What useful material could she contribute to the subject of prayer? Why should we listen to her? Well, we do need to remember that sometimes the best teachers turn up in the most surprising places. Who are the experts in religion? Where do we find those who can effectively teach us about the Christian faith ...

1061. The Way He Taught

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

... and didn't care how they taught it. "You are to do this, and you are to do that, because it says so right here. This is the legal requirement. We are God's representatives. You should listen to us." The beautiful Law of God - all those subjects that have to do with the very heart and heat of life - these Pharisees reduced to statutes and formalism. That was their authority! The authority of Jesus was infinitely superior. It was serenely more profound. Jesus moved the people to do the same things for God ...

1062. Saving Sinners

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

... should stick to things we do well, if that's an excuse to by-pass other valid Christian tasks which Christ has laid upon us. At any rate, don't think I'm being one-sided or emphasizing half the truth when I talk to you this morning about the subject of "saving sinners." That's the emphasis of the text before us. It isn't at all as if that's the only thing Jesus has in mind for his church. But in this situation here Jesus wants to make a point of it. His mission, your mission, and the ...

1063. How Was Jesus' Death Different?

John 19:28-37, John 19:17-27

Sermon

... the rules, the penalty is a loss of a certain number of yards. That is part and parcel of life. God is a God of love, no doubt about it. But it is equally true that God is a just and holy God. When we go against God, we are subject to God's wrath. We have denied this in recent years, but at the same time we have been experiencing the judgment of God in terms of crime, wars, and political corruption. The amazing thing is that this penalty of death was taken by God in the person of Christ ...

1064. Fixing The Fox!

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... We plant the trees but only nature can make a tree." Another deadly thing about secularism's use of the mass media is the use of violence. To attract attention and to gain popularity, violence is used more and more. People are subjected to scenes of destruction, fires, fighting, damage, murder, and rape. The Annenberg School of Communications of the University of Pennsylvania reports that nearly three-quarters of the programs aired in the 1973-74 season contained violence. The report continued that a child ...

1065. The Godness Of God

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... and knowable. As a result of this, our worship has lost the feeling of awe and mystery and wonder. Our worship has become very prosaic and informal. We think more of man and man's condition than we do of the glory of God. Hymns have become subjective or social, dealing with individual or corporate needs. In many churches the only awe we find is the "Aw, must I go to church?" In what church can you find worshipers falling on their faces in humility and with a sense of unworthiness before a mighty, glorious ...

1066. If Only We Would Be Open To The Spirit ...

Joel 2:18-27

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... say to his teammates, "That’s the spirit!" Our next destination is a chemistry class at Raleigh’s Broughton High School. One of the students, who is having difficulty understanding a formula, says to the teacher, "I’m going to lick this subject yet!" And the teacher replies, "That’s the spirit!" We now shift the scene to the physical therapy department at Rex Hospital. An elderly patient, recovering from a broken hip, is beginning to take those first tortured steps. Inevitably, the therapist or ...

1067. Free from Sin

Romans 6:1-14

Children's Sermon

Object: a slide and a slide projector. Good morning, boys and girls. I want to talk to you this morning about something which we don't often like to talk about. The subject is death. Now, most people are afraid of death. They don't know what it is about, so they are afraid of it. It only comes to you once, and after it happens, there is nothing else that we know like it. I suppose if you only got a chance ...

1068. The Golden Gift

Drama

... ? ARLETTE: What does all this have to do with what we are talking about? BISHOP: How can we grumble about what we have when God was so generous with us? ARLETTE: I still don't understand. BISHOP: A few weeks ago I preached a sermon on this very subject. I talked about property and how we are only stewards of whatever property we may think we possess. All things come from God, I said, and our custody lasts only for the short period of our lifetime. Do you remember that sermon? ARLETTE: I - I think so. BISHOP ...

1069. Proper 6

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

... abhorence, but as the Anchor Bible reminds us (page 196, Vol. 1), we need to bear in mind a number of points before being too harsh in our assessment of Jacob from the reading of these verses. First, a business transaction in the Near East - while always subject to certain legal restrictions - from ancient times, has been looked upon as a sort of game. It is a process in which contestants match wits with one another. Skill in bargaining is something looked for and prized, and it is part of the fun of the ...

1070. Parable of Conversion and Conversation

Romans 14:1--15:13

Illustration

... are engaged in the business of God which brings about conversion. Conversation may be of such a light nature and of unimportant speech as to leave no impact. Nevertheless the words are related. The conversation of a Christian, no matter how light its subject matter, can well reflect the love of God and of fellowman. And that conversation ought also to reveal nothing which is detrimental to man's faith. Thus, the hearer of Christian conversation may be impressed with the joy of living under God, whether ...

1071. Dear Mrs. Day

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Thomas C. Short

... this sheep is frantically trying to get back into the fold. In fact it is quite possible that this "stray" sheep has found some good, untouched grass on which to graze and does not even know it is lost. Gee, there I go again. I’m a little off the subject (me), but all of this does shed some light on me. I was lost and did not know it. I thought I had found the good life. I never did anything too bad, but I sure did look forward to smoking some pot and drinking some booze and generally carousing ...

1072. Slavery and Freedom

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... to tell us an ethnic joke. I began to squirm in my seat because I am aware that I do not know how to handle those situations, or maybe I know how to handle them, but I am afraid to act on my knowledge. As we shared deeply about this subject and saw the hurt that these kinds of jokes bring to other human beings, this sin in my life was clearly identified for me. Christ was in the discourse of that group, and he was working to help me identify this wrong in my life. He was reminding me that ...

1073. A Criminal, A Cross, and the Christ

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Thomas C. Short

... education at age thirteen. The students who studied beyond that age were those who wanted to perfect their knowledge of the Law. At age thirteen, Etaus knew the whole law of Yahweh, practiced its requirements and had no desire to perfect his knowledge of this subject beyond that point. He remembered his Bar Mitzvah very well. On that occasion he was declared a "son of the Law," and he participated in the celebration by reading a passage from the Law in public. That was an important day for him. Now he ...

1074. Parable of the Brain and Your Religion

John 14:1-4

Illustration

... of my brain." "What I meant," answered Jim, "is that's how I got to know him quite well, and thus he explained to me about his handicap. When you understand him, then you see past the physical difficulty. And frankly, George, since you brought the subject up, going to church would do a lot for your brain and your attitude toward others." It is true that different parts of our body are directed by different parts of our brain, having different functions to control. It is true, also, that "man cannot live ...

1075. Parable of Grading the Teacher

I Corinthians 13:1-2

Illustration

Staff

... . Everyone in the class says he doesn't know how to teach." "What seems to be wrong with his teaching?" asked the father. "He doesn't have time for questions, he talks about too many other things than the lesson and he can't seem to explain the subject very well. Maybe he will learn after a few years, but it will be too late for us." Truly, giving grades is a real problem to teachers and many students do acquire knowledge more easily than others. But the skill of teaching depends on both the teacher and ...

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