Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1126 to 1150 of 4939 results

1126. No Fair!

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... equally, and will bestow just as much grace on one who is lost and now found –in fact more!—than those who have known Him from the onset. God wishes all disciples to celebrate with God upon the found, not to grumble at sharing God’s table or giving up a seat to another. This is one of the hardest lessons his disciples have to learn. And in a sense, they never do as long as he’s with them. This parable comes on the heels of the prior exegesis, and many of the same scriptures apply. Again, God ...

1127. The Best Gifts

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

Mary Austin

... a kid who doesn’t have a lot of toys.” The next year they did the same thing, and then the next. It became a familiar part of their Christmas tradition. Some years, the decision was really hard. The year that he anguished over the gifts, and finally decided to give up a game of checkers, his mother came in later with a piece of cardboard and some bottle caps. They made a new checkers game out of those, and played on that all year. One year, his mother was out of work for part of the year, and there wasn ...

1128. A King Worth Having

Zechariah 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... peace with others. Christ came to bring peace to the world. The secret to peace is that all must have the spirit of love. Peace is not possible on a unilateral basis. For this reason, there can be no guarantee of lasting peace if only one nation gives up its weapons and has love in its heart for its enemies. The probable result will be that a warlike and imperialistic nation would treat the disarmed nation like a lamb in a lions’ den. Here is the urgent reason why we Christians must send missionaries to ...

1129. Playing A Role Or Being A Truth

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... concerned about what others think and what others are laying upon us, so long as we’re bound up in our preoccupation, worrying about the little events of our life, fretting with our selfish selves and our self directed futures, we’re paralyzed. But once we give up trying to make something of ourselves, once we find ourselves in commitment to God and to the person God means us to be, low we are free. The world then cannot squeeze us into its mold. Arthur Miller, despite his moral character, is one of the ...

1130. There's an Elephant in the Room and Her Name Is Katrina

Exodus 14:10-15

Sermon

James W. Moore

... church will help him… and God will help him too. Now, one final response to trouble remains to be listed… the response of Moses. Moses said: V. “LET’S GO FORWARD… TRUSTING GOD.” Though caught between the Pharoah and the deep Red Sea, Moses did not give up, he did not quit, he did not throw in the towel… No, he trusted God and went forward. When trouble suddenly erupts into our lives, we can remember Moses at the Red Sea. He didn’t have all the answers, but he did stay in communication with ...

1131. Where Have All the Heroes Gone?

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Sermon

Clayton A. Lord

... He faced enemies who were ruthless and often jealous. He grew older and yet he never questioned God's promise that he would be the father of a great nation. And when he finally received the joy of bearing a son, Isaac, God asked him to trust him and give up his son. Abraham never wavered in his faith. That's why the writer of Hebrews says look to Abraham and see a hero. True heroes are people who we can look up to and try to emulate. They are people who passionately believe in something and are even willing ...

1132. An Important Village with a Questionable Reputation

John 1:43-51

Sermon

King Duncan

... jumps to her death; cause unknown, but something they said made her do it.” (3) “They said . . .” Possibly her friends thought they were doing her a favor by discouraging her dream. Perhaps in their estimation, she would never make the grade. She might as well give up before she wasted any more of her life. Maybe their words were meant as a kind of intervention. But who knows? Maybe she would have had a very satisfying life living in a small New York City apartment and picking up a part in a minor ...

1133. The Lonely Prophet

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a

Sermon

King Duncan

... God. Can you relate to Elijah’s struggle? Many of us are trapped in the same place as Elijah and we’ve never really confronted it. How did this happen? And what can we learn from Elijah’s story to protect us from discouragement and giving up? The first thing we learn from this story is God doesn’t have to respond to our “shoulds.” Have you ever struggled with disillusionment and anger toward God because God “should” have done something different in your life? God “should” have fixed your ...

1134. The Word Of The Lord Came To The Prophet Haggai

Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... and do something. No more excuses. Just do something. Take a large task and break it down into smaller tasks. Get started. This is something that is easy to forget. The job ahead can seem so complicated, the work of the kingdom so daunting, that we are tempted to give up. Which of us, for example, can solve world hunger? On the other hand, most of us can spend a few hours in a soup kitchen or gathering groceries for the local food pantry. Most of us can't rescue a nation, but we can write a check that fits ...

1135. Learning to Walk on the Water

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

... I must sail, there are many contrary winds that blow, many storms that rage, many perils that threaten. Life is like this. It comes equipped with a built-in element of struggle, and not to accept this is to reject the very character of life itself. We must not give up on living just because the storm is around us and the wind is in our face. We must go on living even when the going is not easy. If one has made up his mind to do everything possible to avoid thorns, then under no circumstances would he ever ...

1136. Caiaphas and Pilate

Drama

Jon Joyce

... be done with the matter, priest. You and your religious do-gooders do what you want with him in your court. When you bring him to me for sentences, I shall sentence him according to the testimony that I hear. Now, you may go. CAIAPHAS: [Disappointed, but not giving up] One more moment, if I may, Excellency. I am disappointed that you do not see the danger as clearly as we do. I had hoped that we could reach a gentlemanly agreement, and that bringing him to your court would be a routine, cut-and-dried matter ...

1137. Recognizing Christ

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... will be answered. God is not dead. God is not buried in the ground. God is alive and God is with us. That’s what the disciples discovered on the road to Emmaus. They were discouraged, downhearted, defeated. And just when they were ready to give up, they encountered the Master. In 1972, NASA launched an exploratory space probe called Pioneer 10. The mission of Pioneer 10 was to fly to Jupiter and take pictures of the planet and moons, and send back data about the atmosphere, magnetic field, and radiation ...

1138. Ten Million Dollar Winners

Matthew 18:23-35

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... God has forgiven us, nothing is too big for us to forgive. We can let go of self-doubt, pick ourselves up and move on. Because we're $10 million winners, we can forgive ourselves and we can forgive others. According to Webster's Dictionary, to forgive is to "give up resentment and our claim to requital." A man told a friend about his romantic woes. He said, "I asked my girl friend to forgive and forget. She said "I'll meet you half-way. I won't forgive you, but I will forget you." Refusing to forgive is our ...

1139. Living at Cross-Purposes

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... and peace in living for God’s purposes, a joy and peace that no earthly rewards can match. There is a reason that this verse is quoted in all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It’s an ironclad promise from the God who willingly chose to give up his own life to save us. God created us for a life of abundant joy, peace and purpose that can only be found in knowing Him and living for His purposes. In 1930, a young woman named Alberta Skinner moved to Czechoslovakia to serve as a missionary there ...

1140. The Contestant

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... time teaching people in his time? Why Moses had such a hard time leading the people of God out of the desert? Why every prophet was practically stoned? Why Jesus in the end had to die? Bravado. Stubbornness. Stiff-necked people. And yet God never gives up. Jesus never gives up. The stories of Jesus’ disciples have got to be some of the most humorous stories in scripture sometimes. Like the story of Jonah (in which if you read it out loud, you can’t miss the gut-wrenching humor in that tale), the story ...

1141. Click to Unfriend

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... ®, they would most certainly have unfriended each other. The greatest threat to the people Paul wrote to in Hebrews was not the pressure from outside the church, but from division inside the church. That is what he wrote about. He said they should not give up meeting together as some of them were apparently doing. He said that instead of arguing they should be encouraging each other now more than ever. If they were going to provoke each other, they should provoke each other to love and do good things ...

1142. Finding the Sermon

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... gotten the message that Herod had killed John the Baptist. He knew it was time. It was time to leave Nazareth. It was time to give up the safety of being Joseph and Mary’s boy and tend and feed God’s sheep in his role as the Son of God. Regardless ... need to take to become who God intends us to become. For me, that means we might think about how God is challenging us to give up some piece of security and stand out from the crowd. Something we might change in our lives that might make it possible for God to ...

1143. Generous Religion

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Then, taking a semiautomatic rifle, he walked into a crowded shopping center and started killing people at random. By the time he was finally chased into a grocery store (where he held a young woman hostage for several hours before the police persuaded him to give up), he had killed six people and wounded a dozen more some seriously. Emotions ran high. One of the ladies killed was a sixty-eight-year-old saint who worked in a church nursery. People were confused. What role did justice play in this kind of ...

1144. Jesus' Good News of a New World · Part 1

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... to someone who has known only softball, what soccer is. The softball player knows the rules of softball. The softball player has practiced the skills needed to play softball. Her rules and skills won’t work in a soccer game. She must, as it were, give up her “citizenship” in the world of softball in order to become a citizen in the world of soccer. She must “repent,” change her mind, her way of thinking and acting. She must allow herself to be transformed from a softball player into a soccer ...

1145. Living In The Spirit Of Love

Galatians 5:22-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... present our Graduating Seniors. Many of them are going off to College. Some may be going to trade school. Some may just go to work. But out of all the Seniors we know that some will succeed, some will try and fail and start over. Some will fail and give up. Some will get distracted. Some of them will make life changing mistakes. We wish them the best and hope and pray that we have prepared and equipped them for the world. But we need to send them off with the knowledge that no matter what happens in their ...

1146. Paul's Concern for the Galatians

Galatians 4:8-20

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... further describes their present life as one of being known by God. A similar concept is expressed in 4:6–7, where Paul claims that the Galatians have been adopted by God and made heirs. Stressing his incredulity that his readers might be willing to give up so much, Paul asks how they can think of turning back. His question reminds them that their desire to add law-observance brings them nothing new but only returns them to their former state of slavery. Pushing his point still further, Paul describes the ...

1147. I Wonder Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Romans 8:28-29

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... hustlers. These hope hustlers churn out cotton candy theology that teaches that if you really have faith in God you will never experience tragedy in life. And then when pain and tragedy comes they blame their suffering on a lack of faith. Some may even give up on God all together. As a result, they are left with no inner resources with which to battle the trials of life. Scripture does not teach us that Christians will escape tragedy and turmoil. In fact, in our scripture lesson for today, Paul uses words ...

1148. When I Am Weak, I Am Strong

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... her. Wilma wanted to win the gold. So she motivated herself to work even harder for the 1960 Olympics in Rome--and there Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals, the most a woman had ever won to that time. Wilma Rudolph simply would not give in to her weakness or give up and she became a champion. To think, this was someone who spent the first seven years of her life with braces on her legs in order to be able just to walk. She’s a good reminder that a weakness can become a strength if we don’t give in ...

1149. Framed by Love

John 14:15-21

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... That’s an impossibly high standard, isn’t it? Who among the disciples could love like Jesus? Who among us can love in that surprising, self-giving, and sacrificial way? If that’s the gold standard of love, we might as well cut our losses and give up now! But in our text, Jesus also tells his disciples that he will not abandon them to struggle along on their own. Instead he says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, to be with you forever” (verse 16). The word “advocate ...

1150. Day of Pentecost

John 20:19-23

Sermon

William G. Carter

... are priests, we can free others of shame and our own souls of hurt. If we are victims, we hold onto the hurt, which is like holding onto a virus. If the hurts consume us, it will be hard to be the priest. We will wonder if we can ever give up the overwhelming pain. But the truth of Pentecost is that we have some help with this. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon us before he called us to forgive. The Spirit gives us the courage to do the work of Jesus Christ. As someone said, “What this means is that ...

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