Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1101 to 1125 of 1858 results

1101. Unstoppable Determination

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... . It is speculated that what saved him may have been that he fixated so completely on one detail in his situation that he managed to block out fear and hunger, and consequently did not panic. None of the dangers or distractions‑-wild animals, mosquitoes, heat, darkness, loneliness or frightening sounds‑-could cause him to do anything that would worsen his situation and prohibit his eventual rescue. (5) Focus. Ask any athlete about its importance or any successful business person. It’s also critical ...

1102. Shadrach, Meschach, Abeddnego: Unexpected

Daniel 3:1-30

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... in Egypt. You see, historians estimate that the marshmallow came into being over 4000 years ago. Marshmallows date back to ancient Egypt. Some historians claim marshmallows got their name when pharaohs discovered that by squeezing the mallow plant which grows wild in marshes, a sweet, sticky substance surfaced. Honey was flavored with the extract. The delicacy was so special, it was reserved for gods and royalty alone. Marshmallows were introduced in France in the mid 1800s, in small candy stores. Believe ...

1103. Nehemiah: The Fix

Nehemiah 1:1-11

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... has been so good about our Mission Project this year. Every child and every adult could serve by bringing school supplies. And that's what is so great about VBS. We've averaged 100 children every night but they didn't just come up here and run around wild for 2 ½ hours. A lot of work and preparation time went into helping these boys and girls Soar To New Heights With God. We had about 80 volunteers serving and helping each night. Not just in the class room but there were hall monitors, games, snacks, the ...

1104. A Chance To Dance

Luke 5:17-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... chaf finch has a peculiar characteristic. It can forget how to sing. If it doesn't learn how to sing again, it becomes depressed and dies. There is only one way for it to relearn its song. The bird has to be taken back into the woods where the wild birds sing. In order to keep from forgetting the dance steps we've learned, we have to associate with other Christians and participate in the Christian disciplines. When we do, we're surrounded by and we are enabled to remember both the Lord's Song and the Dance ...

1105. A Chance To See

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... 'll never be able to see. So they just keep their eyes closed. Two psychiatrists were talking and one asked the other, "What was your most difficult case?" His colleague answered, "Once I had a patient who lived in a pure fantasy world. He believed that a wildly rich uncle in South America was going to leave him a fortune. All day long he waited for a make-believe letter to arrive from a fictitious attorney. He never went out or did anything. He just sat around and waited." "What was the result?" asked the ...

1106. Cleaning House

Mark 1:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. [6] Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. [7] He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. [8] I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." [9] In those ...

1107. Cross Eyed: Focus

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... on him. [11] And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." [12] And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. [13] He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. [14] Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, [15] and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." So often we ...

1108. Eager for the Journey - Sermon Starter

Luke 5:1-11

Illustration

Brett Blair

... them around and told the group that if they came with him they would see some of the most marvelous things their eyes could ever behold. Sandy white beaches, juicy fruits, foreign peoples, priceless treasures, and gorgeous landscapes. And he told them that this wild adventure could be theirs if they came with him. Not one of them enlisted for the journey. The next day a different group came out. Drake told them that if they came with him they would encounter storms that would terrify them into tears ...

1109. God Loves the Elder Brother Too

Luke 15:11-32

Illustration

... turning point. She had stayed at home in the Father's house. She had done the right thing. But she needed to know that the Christ who was whipped was whipped for Teresa. And there was joy in heaven that day—-not over a soul returning from wild living but for a soul returning from the fields after a hard days work. United Methodists certainly know about the elder brother, because their own John Wesley was the best of them. He was so earnest, so methodical about his devotional life that people called him a ...

1110. Amazing Grace

Luke 15:1-32

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace back in 1779 certainly identified with the younger son, the son who wasted his inheritance. As a young man he left home and went to sea and there lived wildly and free. Like many people who abandon God, he was highly critical of the Christian faith, and spent much time tearing down the faith of the people he met as he went from place to place. It was only in later years that he realized that he had wasted his ...

1111. The Awful Grace of Amazing Grace

2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in early March (2010). It was unclear whether God’s amazing grace was supposed to be forgiving the state for increased tuition or forgiving the students for their increased indebtedness. John Newton, the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace” (published in 1779) had been a “wild child.” He went to sea at age eleven and by the time he was in his twenties, he was renowned in the Royal Navy for being the most hands-down prince of profanity anyone had ever heard. And this was among sailors at sea! During ...

1112. Abysmal Heights

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Sometime in life we have all had to endure a “know it all.” Maybe it was that annoying kid in class who read the dictionary for fun and whose hand was always waving wildly in the air while claiming “Oh, I know, I know.” Know-it-alls plague us later in life as well. The co-worker who always has a “better way” to do things. The naysayer who “just knows” that your new idea is doomed to failure. The clueless who claim they “ ...

1113. Christ Arose

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... critical question is, would you make such a sacrifice for something that you knew was patently untrue? Of course not. And neither would those early disciples of Christ. Don’t take my word for it. Read the record for yourself. These were not wild-eyed fanatics. They were intelligent men and women, responsible men and women, sensible men and women, but something dramatic had happened in their life, something so dramatic, so extraordinary that it could not be denied. They had met Christ risen from the grave ...

1114. Celebration (Series: Fundamentals of Family)

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... early grave. Those who understand Middle Eastern Culture suggest the boy in essence said, “Drop dead, old man, I want my inheritance now,” hardly, an attitude of gratitude for the gift of life. So, it comes as no surprise that he squanders his wealth in wild living and loses everything he has. Greed leads to need. “And he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” In every generation, almost in every family, there are prodigals among us. It’s ...

1115. Resurrection Power (Series: Living on the Resurrection Side of Life)

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... we owe you 3.50. After a long pause Max asks, “Three hundred fifty million, three hundred fifty thousand?” “No,” said the clerk, “Three dollars and fifty cents. It looks like your mother overpaid her final water bill by that amount. While some of our wild fantasies have crashed against hard reality, I suspect most of us will agree that life on earth has given us better than we deserve. If not here, then over there, things will be better than we imagine. For as the scriptures say: “No eye has ...

1116. Drink Deep

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

1117. The Gift of Comfort

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

1118. Follow Me (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . It is Easter! Thank God, it is Easter! Of course, the first Easter knew none of this hype. A few women went to the tomb and found it empty. When they told the eleven frightened disciples, they considered the news an idle tale, complete nonsense, some wild imagination of these women. They were frightened for their lives. That is how the first Easter started, except for one disciple, Peter. “But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen clothes by themselves; then he went ...

1119. Will 2012 Be the End of the World?

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... of you may be familiar with that painting. Hicks actually painted several dozen versions of this theme. While Hicks’ technique may seem childish to us now, he gives us a beautiful vision of a world at peace. It is a world where babies can play with wild animals and where people of different races can sit down and eat together. Hicks took his inspiration from the Scriptures that present God’s future kingdom. See, for example, Isaiah 11:6‑9: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down ...

1120. Guard the Good Treasure

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... of people who live their faith like optical illusions. They aren't really what they appear to be. They're like one of the illusions where everything seems to be moving, it's all a trick of the eyes. They are what John Eldredge in his book "Wild At Heart," calls "posers." In the sixties we called them "plastic." My son just calls them phonies. They are sort of like hollow chocolate Easter bunnies. A lot of promise but not much substance. In our passage for the message this morning, Paul gives thanks to God ...

1121. Time to Get Wet

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... moist. What keeps your clay moist? What's your moisturizer? If your clay hardens, and loses its wetness, your soul gets hard, brittle and bitter. In the new creation, the newly redeemed, restored, reborn community of Christ’s presence is called to be "wet and wild." We are to be dunked, deluged, dripping with the living water we have received. The world should be able to trace the tracks of Christians in its midst by following our sloppy, wet footprints. God wants us wringing wet so that we have plenty of ...

1122. Our Common Life in Christ

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... without sin. I mean by this that we should not strive for holiness of life, and seek to live righteously. I mean we should be careful about spiritual over-confidence. Just when we think we are solidly in the saddle, with firm clutch on the reins, the wild horse of the flesh may take a sudden turn or make a dramatic buck, sending us sprawling to the ground. Or, like Peter, we may be betrayed by over-confidence and end up denying Christ. Confusion plagues us is not always easy to decide what is right. So ...

1123. Magnificent Fools

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a fad of freedom. The kind of freedom too many of us know is like that of a sail boat without a rudder, like that of a ping-pong ball floating down a mountain stream. It expresses itself in our running rampant on pleasure binges, allowing our wild energies to swing loosely about, responding to the impulse of the moment without thought of others. This isn’t freedom; it’s a form of slavery. And men are slaves, said Bunyan, “Because freedom is difficult and slavery is easy.” That’s worth tucking away ...

1124. Dying to Live

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the Book of Daniel. In Daniel 7:1-8, the writer describes the world powers which had held sway — the Assyrians, Meads, and Persians. These powers were so cruel and savage, so sadistic and merciless that they could only be described with the imagery of wild beasts. So the writer talked about the Lion with the Eagle’s wings, the Bear with three ribs between his teeth, the Leopard with four wings and four heads, a terrible beast with iron teeth and ten horns – a ghastly sight, something like that which ...

1125. Lessons from Rephidim - Being the Lord's Intercessor

Exodus 17:8-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... do until He finds a person to pray. That ought not to seem outrageous to us. Meister Eckhart, the mystic, put the truth with extreme boldness: “God can as little do without us, as we without Him.” And Fosdick reminds us, “If at first this seems a wild statement, we may well consider in how many ways God’s will depends upon man’s cooperation. God himself cannot do some things unless men think; He never blazons his truth on his sky that men may find it without seeking. Only when men gird the loins ...

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