Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1101 to 1125 of 2404 results

1101. Standing Outside Graceland

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... help you get the A. You have just experienced . . . grace." The teacher then went around the room and asked each student individually, "What is your grade? Do you deserve the grade you are receiving? How much did all your studying for this exam help you achieve your final grade?" This student, writing about this experience, says, "Now I am not a crier by any stretch of the imagination, but I had to fight back tears when answering those questions and thinking about how the Creator has passed the test for me ...

1102. A Father Pleased With His Son

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... ." I suppose there are parents who think that they are doing their children a favor by withholding their approval. It will make them work harder, they deduce. If so, it will be at a great emotional cost. Listen one last time. The chronically under- achieving child is not that way because he or she has been spoiled by a parent's attentiveness. Rather that child's apathy is because his or her spirit has been broken by a feeling of unworthiness. A healthy relationship motivates, energizes, encourages. I hope ...

1103. The Divine Family

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

King Duncan

Our Scripture lesson for the day describes how God first created people-- male and female--and told them to multiply and fill the earth. Someone has said that this was that only commandment that humankind has obeyed. In order to achieve God's goal of a planet populated by people, God gave us the family. As soon as the scripture says, "He created them male and female the entire dynamic of life on earth was changed. The New Testament affirms the worth and dignity of the family. William Barclay voices the ...

1104. Clearing Back The Jungle

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... bed was on fire when I got in it!" (2) I expect that the judge was not taken in by the man's explanation. There is something within each of us that grieves the heart of God! Just as importantly, there is something within us that keeps us from achieving our own dreams--something that causes us to grieve even our own hearts. A down-and-out derelict stood on a street comer one day and watched a big limousine bearing a boyhood friend drive by. With a philosophical shrug he sighed: "Ah, there but for me, go I ...

1105. Formula For A Glowing Face

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... people who are filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Paul even tells us, in the letter that he wrote to the Romans, to "Never lag in zeal; be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord." (12:11) (RSV) Then in the very next verse he tells us how to achieve just such a glowing face: "Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." And that's the formula: "Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." Let's take a look at these one at a time. First, "Rejoice in your ...

1106. The Three R's Of A Spiritual Life

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... to those roses are we humans? How many of us never grow to our full potential? How many of us never display the full glory of God? How many of us stay tightly closed against the world all our lives, and die never knowing what we could have achieved? (6) So it is with those who never open their lives to the Spirit of the living God. Instead of beginning a relationship with God, they take unacceptable risks. Without even being aware of it, they live in rebellion against all that God has for them. And thus ...

1107. Grace: Amazing or Mystifying?

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... a Major League baseball game in their lives. Maris’ children did not receive special attention because of what they had done, but rather because of who their father was. He had made it possible for them to be present and honored because of his achievement years before. “One day,” says pastor Keller, “we will sit down at a feast with Jesus Christ and enjoy the benefits of the eternal kingdom, not because of who we are but because our heavenly Father redeemed us through Christ.” That’s grace. But ...

1108. Day People

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

... .” As soon as they got the kids off to school they plugged in their aerobic tape. As the lady started going through the different motions with Kerry and his wife, Janet, following her every move something hit Kerry like a ton of bricks. He realized that to achieve this goal of having a body like “RAMBO,” it was going to take some time, in fact it was going to take a lot of time. After about five minutes into the program, he was panting--he couldn’t catch his breath; he was perspiring profusely, his ...

1109. To Care for the Earth

Leviticus 25:1-7

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... us. All of us, I hope, recognize the problem, but what is the solution? A growing world population puts greater strain on our resources. A better quality of life--which all of us desire--demands more and more of our earth. Is there any hope of achieving a balance between human need and environmental protection? The answer is yes, there are some things we as Christians can do as responsible stewards of God''s earth. One, we can help change the way people think about our world and its resources. People will ...

1110. Three Words America Needs to Hear

Acts 24:1-27

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... of righteousness and our need to find that righteousness in Jesus Christ as we surrender our lives to him; our need for self-control, that control which none of us can exercise on our own, but we must have the working of his powerful Holy Spirit within to achieve; that word of judgment which one day we will face, there to receive good or evil according to what we have done in our bodies. Today I''ve spoken about the tragic consequences of the lack of righteousness, of the lack of self-control, of sin in ...

1111. Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hell!

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... property, they do all they can to embarrass their mother and dad because they want love. They cry out to their parents: "Mom and dad, notice me, love me!" And the mothers and dads are caught up in their own lives, centered on accumulating things or achieving status in life. Of course, they''re giving their children all kinds of things-- "See how much I love you, take this and be gone--take that--be happy." And then they wonder why the child does what the child does. The parent scolds and says, "After ...

1112. The Question That Will Not Go Away

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... AND TEMPORAL NATURE OF THIS LIFE. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick shares that one of the great pieces of classical music is the "Unfinished Symphony" by Franz Schubert, who died when he was 31 years old. That is a great illustration of human life and achievement. Seldom, if ever, does anyone die when all of their business is complete and all of their talents are used up, when all of their relationships have reached their pinnacle of development. Richard Baxter (1615-1691) was a dynamic and dedicated preacher who ...

1113. Joy In the Midst of Sorrow?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... was urged by his emperor and the pope to deny his faith. He refused. And from his prison he wrote, "I write this in prison and in chains, expecting tomorrow to receive sentence of death, full of hope in God, I will, this day, joyfully die." That is the supreme achievement of the human soul--to joyfully die trusting in the Saviour. The death of our loved one in this Christmas season may seem to be an occasion to drain all joy from life, but not so if we believe in Immanuel and hear him as he says once again ...

1114. RISK-FREE RESOLUTIONS

Drama

Angela Akers

... No one''s goin'' to slow me down." Pastor: (trying not to be sarcastic) "I''m really impressed. You''ve obviously committed yourselves to making this a better year. I wish everyone had your vision. I just hope you don''t push yourselves too hard to achieve such high goals. Have a good day!" Family: "You, too. Thanks. Bye!" TV: "There you have it. The people seem to be enjoying the newer, lighter, less filling brand of faith just as much as they did the old one. You try it, and see for ...

1115. What’s the Good Word?

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... around 560BC and lived in Ephesus (where tradition says that John composed this Gospel)! For Heraclitus, Logos came to mean Reason personified, the principle of divine order under which the universe continued to exist. The word was also used by Plato, and achieved new currency around the time of the writing of the Fourth Gospel through the teachings of the Stoic philosophers. The Stoics were amazed at the order of the world. Order implies an Orderer, a Mind behind it all. The Stoics asked, “What keeps ...

1116. The Glorious Interpolation

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... became permanently embittered, left the community to go into a foreign land, and died forlorn and alone. The second brother stayed home and faced the music, repented of his sin and determined to win back the respect of his neighbors. As the years passed he achieved a reputation for honesty and integrity and goodness. One day a stranger saw the old man with “S.T.” still visible on his forehead. He asked a resident of the town what it meant. “It all happened a great while ago,” answered the local ...

1117. Doors Are for Entering

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . Yes, there is a certain exclusivity to Jesus, just as there is a certain exclusivity to life... have you ever noticed that in many areas of life, life is exclusive? There is only one door to knowledge that I know, and that is study. Learning cannot be achieved by osmosis. I have been trying to find a short-cut to the hard work of preparing sermons and lectures for years, but it still eludes me. Oh, the invention of the word processor has helped immensely, but it still seems that one must apply the seat ...

1118. Aren’t All Religions Basically Alike?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... is the way.” The first Christians were called Followers of the Way. It is our faith that in Jesus Christ something has happened to the world which is of cosmic consequence. “And the word became flesh and lived among us.” Our human desire to achieve a connection with God through religion failed. But God took the initiative and established the connection from the other side. Some years back there was a popular fad for some Christians to sport bumper stickers on their cars with the slogan, “I found it ...

1119. The Jesus Connection

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... that we have done. We have even put a man on the moon! Just look at all of the wonderful gimmicks and gadgets we have accumulated. We now have instantaneous communication to every part of the globe.” Winston Churchill once observed that we had achieved instantaneous world-wide communication precisely at the time when nobody seems to have anything to say. That is a wry and somewhat accurate observation. Unless we have the guidance of the spirit of Jesus Christ, we may well discover that the road to hell ...

1120. If Christ Had Not Come

John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... got the cross: from Christ, who said that God cares infinitely for the least, the last, and the lost. Before Christ came, people speculated about the nature of God. Many believed that if, indeed, God did exist, He must be (as Woody Allen says) an “under-achiever.” God seemed to be distant and aloof from the world; too far removed from the world to care very much about the fate of humankind. Then there came into the world One who was called “Immanuel,” i.e., “God with us...” One who taught us to ...

1121. Food for the Fed-up

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... little book on the Eucharist titled Sunday Dinner, Dr. William Willimon says, “Every time your stomach growls and you feel pangs of emptiness, it reminds you that you are a creature dependent upon the gifts of a Creator and the gifts of others. You may have achieved much in a life that is worthwhile and enduring, but you have not overcome your basic human need for food and love. You are still needy, dependent, and vulnerable as far as your most basic needs are concerned. Being rich or being adult or being ...

1122. Afraid of Sanity

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . Nor do we. If someone came to us and said, “I can give you a world which will be a better world...a world without poverty or war or oppression. But there is one catch to it: you will have to sacrifice some of your comfort in order to achieve it,” I imagine that most of us, even today, would say: “Thanks, but no thanks. I’d much rather you leave things as they are.” But this is not a hypothetical situation, is it? It is precisely the sort of situation we find ourselves in, in today’s world ...

1123. Men Like Trees Walking

Mark 8:22-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... them as pawns moving over a map in some “situation room.” And even less to pay taxes to build weapons to destroy other human beings at a safe distance. World War Two gave us the word “expendable.” Some people were “expendable” in order to achieve a military objective. The Vietnam War gave us the even more obscene term “body count.” There is a tendency to see others only as objects in a landscape, with no more emotional impact on us than trees might have. Our first concern is with ourselves ...

1124. On Not Knowing What to Say

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... from more water overhead by a dome-shaped firmament, or sky. Beyond the firmament and the water it held back was heaven and the throne of God. With that ancient three-storied view of the universe, it was only natural that mountaintops would achieve mystical significance. We recall that the Law was given to Moses atop Mt. Sinai. Immediately following the unveiling of the idea of the Suffering Messiah by Jesus, follows the vision of the Transfiguration. Here we come face to face with an incident that ...

1125. Radical Surgery

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... worth giving all to get. That’s Jesus’ message in these difficult words. Whatever else you may miss in life, don’t miss the Kingdom! You may miss out winning the lottery. You may miss out on having fame and fortune and friends. You may miss out in achieving that goal you always wanted. You may miss out on having good health. You may miss out on so much, but you need not miss out on God’s Kingdom! It’s yours for the asking. Neglect all else rather than this! We should feel about the Kingdom ...

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