Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1076 to 1100 of 4681 results

1076. Lessons from Rephidim - Being the Lord's Intercessor

Exodus 17:8-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... in high places, I cannot always throw my intellectual commitments into the battle, especially when that corruption is in parts of the world where I have no vote, but I can wrestle in prayer. When some human being comes to my study with a burden too heavy to bear, there are instances where no advice matters and no change of facts can be affected. But I can push hell back for a time. I can stand beside God and claim His will for an oppressed human soul. This is prayer as wrestling. It is our ultimate weapon ...

1077. Simon

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... own choosing. This is the thought I want to underscore: Nothing is more chafing and more tormenting than to be compelled to carry a heavy load that is not ours, a load we haven’t chosen, and don’t deserve. Yet, is there anything more beautiful than the person who bears willingly the burden that was not his or her choice? Isn’t that what makes the difference in life. We say it all the time, but we must keep it fresh in our minds. “It is not what life does to us that really matters, it is our reaction ...

1078. Should America Repent?

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... think you can call on Abraham to save you from the ax of justice, forget it. Fruit reflects the root. It is time to bear the fruit of repentance. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life. In a basketball game in 1989 between ... of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit of the Living God settles upon our lives we can do the undo-able, face the unface-able, and bear the unbearable. As surely as the Spirit of God moved over the chaos of creation in the beginning of time, so it is that the Spirit ...

1079. Impossible Possibilities

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... be highly favored by God means that you have been chosen for a partnership which fulfills the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Mary is chosen. Jesus said to his disciples, You did not choose me, I have chosen you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last (John 15:16). You are a chosen person today. When I was growing up, I was a little kid among older teens and adults. On Sunday afternoons we all played ball, not in nice parks and great recreation centers as we do today. In the ...

1080. A Very Present Help

Psalm 46:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... open the doors of possibilities that yet remain among us. He is our strength. Dave Dravecky once wrote: “In America, Christians pray for the burden of suffering to be lifted from their backs. In the rest of the world, Christians pray for stronger backs so they can bear the suffering.” It is going to take the strength of every American to overcome these days. Let us not be frozen in fear. Let us not be tempted by greed. Let the spirit of unity prevail. Let us work for the common good. Ask not what your ...

1081. Why Am I A United Methodist?

I Timothy 1:12-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... has not improved in the last 50 years. I wonder why? Ah, Mr. Wesley, could you be right? Are you not happy? It is because you are not holy. What if happiness is connected to personal holiness? What if there is a peace we forfeit, a restless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer? What if George Barna is right in his recent research that reports 82% of Bible readers feel “at peace” with themselves compared to only 58% of those who never read the Bible. It is already a fact ...

1082. The Door of Hospitality

John 12:1-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... another and God. In the Bible, strangers were considered messengers of God. Abraham received three strangers at Mamre, offering them water, bread, some fine tender beef, and they revealed themselves as messengers of God. They came with news that Abraham and Sarah were to bear a son in their old age and name him Isaac. When the widow of Zarephath offered food and shelter to Elijah, he revealed himself as a man of God even capable of raising her dead son. When the two travelers to Emmaus invited the stranger ...

1083. Where Is He?

Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... us nothing of what is to be, directs the sight instead toward what is. I mean the present, here and now, and what, or better, who is born within this tight yet waking moment. The Presence of new life awaits our presence and the precious gifts we too might bear inside the stable of the self.” Dr. Olds: The Presence of new life awaits our presence. Is that what you said? The Presence of new life awaits our presence. We do not come to God, he comes to us. He is there waiting all along. Thank you, Melchior ...

1084. Ezekiel: The Problem of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... were a great many bones and they were very dry. — The valleys are real. The bones are many. One of my plans this summer is to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I have seen the one in Jerusalem. It is almost more than one can bear to remember. Yet, the world must never forget that within many of our life times, six million Jews, two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population, were massacred, many without even bones to be remembered. — The valleys are real. Shall I go on to talk about the school ...

1085. David: The Problem of Family

2 Samuel 18:28-33

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... today. Absalom, in his rebellion, leads a fight against the kingdom. And just outside of Jerusalem the final battle takes place and Absalom is killed. News comes: We've won the battle! That's not what's on David's mind. How is Absalom? The first messenger can't bear to tell him. The second messenger comes. Good news! Good news! We've won the war! David says, “How's Absalom? How is my boy? Rebellious as he is, how is my son?" They break the news to him, that Absalom was killed. This lament in Samuel 18 can ...

1086. Jesus and Moses Both Delegated

Luke 10:1-24; Num 11:4-35

Illustration

Maurice A. Fetty

... them to the tent of meeting, where God manifested his presence. God said, "I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take some of the spirit which is upon you and put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone" (Numbers 11:17). So God's spirit did come upon the 70 and Moses had people to whom he could delegate responsibility and leadership. Thirteen centuries later, Jesus uses the same number 70 (some manuscripts say 72) to recruit ...

1087. Praising Our Savior

Philippians 3:7-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... let a trouble go to waste. I want to know Christ. Alan Paton said, “I have never thought that Christians would be free of suffering. For our Lord suffered. And I have come to believe that He suffered not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear our own suffering. For there is no life without suffering." “I want to know Christ," said Paul. Not to know about Him and not even to read the Bible and not even to know some history about Him, I want to know Him like I would know the most intimate ...

1088. Work, For the Night Is Coming

John 9:1-5

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... on which to walk? In dramatic fashion we have witnessed something that has been in the making in this country for a very long time. That is, the division between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, the healthy and the handicapped. Maybe people do bear part of the blame—not the people stranded in New Orleans, but you and I who call ourselves Americans. Some people say the systems failed. It's the government's fault; it's FEMA's fault. Where is the Red Cross when you need them? Why doesn't ...

1089. What Happens When You Are Not Number One?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... final focus for today: the true glory that Jesus shares with us... the #1 place he gives us. I almost entitled the sermon, “The Weight of Glory” because there is a weight – a burden – to Glory that Jesus offers us – a weight that many of us don’t seem to bear. When James and John made their request to have the first place – to sit on his right and on his left — in his kingdom, Jesus said to them: “You do not know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be ...

1090. Pigs Get Slaughtered

Lk 12:13-21

Illustration

King Duncan

Stock market guru Jim Cramer, host of television's Mad Money, says, "Bulls make money." Then he adds, "Bears make money." Then the punch line, "Pigs get slaughtered." "Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered." He is saying, "Beware of being greedy when you are investing in the stock market. You may overreach and lose everything." Jesus said somewhat the same thing. He told a parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to ...

1091. Center Stage

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... baby growing, thrashing, kicking in Mary's womb is God's act of salvation. This baby — beyond any ability we have to explain — is God in human flesh. Matthew quotes Isaiah as a way of saying what can't be said. "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." The words from Isaiah seem almost not to fit. The quote from Isaiah says that the baby's name is to be Emmanuel, which, of course, was not Jesus' name. Nevertheless, Jesus embodies ...

1092. Becoming Good Trees

Matthew 5:17-30

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... offering us freedom. Freedom from the things that control us really is a joy. If we look at this passage in light of the whole of Matthew's gospel we can see what Jesus really wants for us. In chapter 7 and in chapter 12 Jesus talks about good trees bearing good fruit (Matthew 7:17-20; 12:33-35). Only we know our thoughts, but our thoughts produce fruit. Jesus wants us to grow in grace so that we control our thoughts and impulses out of the goodness that has taken root in us. Then obedience becomes a joy ...

1093. What the Storms Blow Away

Matthew 7:21-29

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... house on rock. We enter the dominion of heaven by grace. Jesus is preparing the church for life in the dominion of heaven and to bear witness to the world about the dominion of heaven. In order to do that, we must live our lives as a reflection of the dominion ... somehow bring blessing in the midst of cancer."2 That is a faith that comes from the inside out. It is the faith of a good tree bearing good fruit (Matthew 7:18). It is faith built on rock. It is a faith that stands up to the storms of life. It is a ...

1094. Return to the Lord, Your God

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Lee Griess

... s an amazing picture, especially for a Jewish artist, and it is a theme for us in Lent. Lent reminds us that there is one who bears our sins before the throne of God. There is one who hears the cries of our hearts and receives them. There is one who waits ... awaiting us. If we turn from our sinful ways, there is a heavenly Father waiting to welcome us home. On this Ash Wednesday when we bear on our brows the ashen mark of our sins, let us heed the prophet's words. Let us turn to the Lord our God that ...

1095. Streams of Living Water

John 4:5-42

Sermon

Lee Griess

... stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and it never fails to bear fruit." I don't know about you, but that's the kind of life that I want to live, that's the kind of faith I want ... what you say when you tell me to "love my neighbor." I'm going to trust that you know what's best when you tell me to "bear another's burdens." I'm going to believe you know what what's when you say, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Friends, it' ...

1096. A Man Named Useful

Philemon 1:8-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Sometimes the biggest obstacle to people receiving a second chance is the attitude of fellow Christians. Just because a person bears the name of Christ does not mean that he or she has the heart of Christ. Pastor Stephen Fetter tells ... of Onesimus, but also for Philemon’s sake. This was a test of Philemon’s conversion, wasn’t it? He bore Christ’s name, but did he bear Christ’s heart? That’s a question for each of us, too. I suspect that each of us has somebody in our sphere of influence that ...

1097. David And The Giant

1 Samuel 17:1-58

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... giant was enough. If God wanted David to fight all five giants, David wanted to be prepared to do his part. David shows us that being prepared isn’t a lack of trust. It’s a sign of faith. David knew that God had guided his training — David had killed bears and lions who threatened his father’s sheep — and David knew that God would guide each stone to its target. David just wanted to be ready to do whatever God called him to do. What does this mean for us? Well, we could sit back and wait for God ...

1098. LENT: The Passion of Christ: "Betrayed"

John 13:21-30; Matthew 26:14-16; 45-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... said that Judas was chosen for this role. That his actions were predetermined, predestined and that he had no choice but to follow the script and do what was planned. Unfortunately, I think that's wrong. If Judas had no choice, then that means he bears non responsibility for his actions and he bears no guilt or fault in the matter. And that means he hung himself for nothing. It lets him off the hook. If there had never been a Judas, Jesus still would have wound up on the cross. We need to realize that Judas ...

1099. What Should We Do?

Luke 3:7-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [8] Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from ... to raise up children to Abraham. [9] Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." [10] And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" [11] In reply he ...

1100. Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief

James 2:1-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... instructed to sit in her favorite living room chair. One by one, the father and the two older children came in from the kitchen bearing their gifts on a tray, solemnly presenting them to Mom as if she were a Queen. The smallest girl, who was really too ... watching the party, she rose to the occasion. Just when the others thought the party was over, she appeared from the kitchen bearing an empty tray. Approaching her mother she placed the tray on the floor, stepped upon it herself, and with a childish wiggle ...

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