Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1126 to 1150 of 1858 results

1126. It's Tough to Be God

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... have come home. It’s also tough to be God because it’s not easy for God’s children to be found. Look at that shepherd, leaving the 99 safe in the fold and going out and seeking that one lost sheep, risking his life, braving the wilds, to find that wandering sheep. Look at that housewife, sweeping every corner of the room, every crevice under the chairs, under the bed - seeking the lost coin. - Look at the picture of God here in our scripture lesson. Moses had to wrestle with God, had to intercede ...

1127. Taught by a Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and now he had sworn that he was going to make Israel be multiplied as the stars in the heaven and give them the land of promise. He prayed, he points to the scripture. When Moses got down from the mountain and saw what was happening, the people dancing wildly ‘around the golden calf, his anger burned hot. He threw the tablets that God had given him on the mountain - the tablets of testimony —- he threw them out of his hand, and they broke. He took the calf which they had made and he burned it in the ...

1128. Just When We Think We're Safest, There's a Sunset Touch

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... see this is one of those interruptions in Jesus’ life, because He was on his way to heal Jairus’ daughter when in the midst of the jostling crowd, He sensed something going on, someone was touching Him. What a bold thing this woman had done what wild abandonment in faith and trust - just to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. She did, and Jesus did - He healed her. We can cope with our interruptions and integrate them positively in our lives if we keep the perspective that persons, not things, are the ...

1129. When Nature Says No

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... queen. And that’s just the beginning of what becomes a painful, recurring reality throughout life - nature saying “no” to some “yes” within us. There are the dramatic cases: 1. An auto accident maims a brilliant young man and sends his career careening in a wildly different direction, or no direction at all. 2. A birth defect limits a baby for life. 3. Business failure wrecks the security of a family. 4. The birth of a child, by unfortunate events. First, we must simply accept the fact there is a ...

1130. He Presented Himself Alive

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Lord lay.” It was from that experience of despair that had been transformed into hope that those women ran quickly with fear and great joy to carry the word to the disciples. But the presence of the angel was not enough. As the women ran wildly from the Garden, Jesus met them, saying, “Joy to you! And this introduces the title of the sermon today. The sentence comes from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, verse 3: “He… presented Himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs.” Here ...

1131. Why Jesus Didn't Perform Funerals

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... persecuting the tiny but fast growing Christian community. It was the old self of unhappiness, fear and rigid adherence to the law. The new life Paul experienced was spiritual. Paul’s experience reminds me of two sisters I heard about who enjoyed attending wild parties parties that were not consonant with Christian values. However, one day these two sisters found new life in Christ. They received an invitation to a party and sent their RSVP in these words: “We regret that we cannot attend because we ...

1132. The Shared Life of the People of God, Part 2

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Any of us may slip. The church should never take the stance of being a “pure” people, a people without sin. We should be careful about spiritual overconfidence. Just when we think we are solidly in the saddle, with a firm clutch on the reigns, the wild horses of our nature may take a sudden turn or make a dramatic buck wending us sprawling to the ground. Or, like Peter, we may be betrayed by overconfidence and end up denying Christ. The second signal Paul it giving us is that we need to realize ...

1133. Characteristics of the Church

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of the race is clear that some things God never can do until he finds a man who prays Indeed, Meister Eckhart, the mystic, puts the truth with extreme boldness: “God can as little do without us, as we without him.” If at first this seems a wild statement, we may well consider in how many ways God’s will depends on man’s cooperation. God himself cannot do some things unless men think. He never blazons his truth on the sky that men may find it without seeking. Only when men gird the loins of ...

1134. Characteristics of the Church, Part 2

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... was. Wes observed: “Lawnmower salesmen are not surprised to find clergymen looking at their merchandise. Motorcycle salesmen are! Why? Does this tell us something about clergymen? Lawnmowers are slow, safe, sane, practical and middle-class. Motorcycles are fast, dangerous, wild, thrilling... Thinking out loud, Wes asked the question: “Is being a Christian more like mowing the lawn, or like riding a motorcycle? Is the Christian life safe and sane, or dangerous and exciting? Does it have more appeal to ...

1135. Led by the Spirit, Tempted by the Devil

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... may be the new life invitation you are now experiencing because of retirement or it may be the trials you are facing as you rear two teenagers. The wilderness is as much a part of the landscape of the Christian life as is the River Jordan. Temptation and wildness go together. They both suggest trial and/or testing. And it isn’t as though we can go into the wilderness and be prepared once and for all. Gethsemane was a wilderness for Jesus. And that came only a few days before his death. It’s often true ...

1136. Emmanuel - God with Us

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , Where the beasts feed and foam; Only where He was homeless Are you and I at home? We have that fashion and heads that know, But our hearts we lost - how long ago! In a place no chart or ship can show Under the sky’s dome. This world is wild as an old wives’ tale, And strange the plain things are, The earth is enough and the air is enough For our wonder and our war; But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings And our peace is put in impossible things Where clashed and thundered unthinkable ...

1137. A Parable in a Miracle

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... crowd to shrink back. “He seems to have appeared there suddenly, having forced his way somehow into Christ’s presence. And there he was, with his horrible face, with his tightened, glistening skin, with a rag over his mouth, and a hunted look as a wild beast in his eyes. The crowd shrank back from him; so he had no difficulty making his way to where Christ is sitting, calmly teaching. (Maclaren, p. 40). With his lively narrative, Mark gives a vivid picture showing the leper flinging himself down before ...

1138. Audacious Faith

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... almost eliminated the word from their vocabulary, as well as those folks who have allowed their efforts at morality, their commitment to righteousness to blind them to the most devastating expression of sin in their life. Anger, hostility, impatience, competition run wild. Pride - people actually thinking they can control their lives. Neglect — the sin most common to us because we’re so self— centered and so self-serving. These are the sins Jesus dealt with most. These sins that play havoc with our ...

1139. Casting Out Demons

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . We know that there is healing and cleansing in Jesus. But other forces pull us, preventing us from coming clean with Jesus. Preventing us from casting our crowns at his feet and making Him Lord of our lives. Look further at the man – his speech is wild. He literally shrieks, cries out in hatred — and at the same time, in despair. Instead of describing him as a man with an unclean spirit, some translations have it, “a man in an unclean spirit as if the human spirit was immersed in that filthy flood ...

1140. The World Is Our Parish

John 3:16-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... different God he would be a different man." "If he had a different God, he would be a different man." America is engaged in a war unlike any war in our history. We are fighting terrorists led by extremist Osama bin Laden. Mr. bin Laden is no mad man gone wild; he is a holy man gone fanatic. He is to the Muslim religion what the Ku Klux Klan is to Christianity. In his twisted view of God, he has declared a Holy War against the United States in a grudge match that dates back to the Crusades. For this cause ...

1141. War and the Prince of Peace

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... War was raging. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was grieving the death of his second wife when news came that his son had been gravely wounded in the war. That was when Longfellow sat down and wrote this poem: I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play And wild and sweet the words repeat, of peace on earth good will to all And in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth I said For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth good will to all. In a matter of nine days ...

1142. When It's Time to Reconcile

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... thing. We need to build a bridge of love. In John 13:35 Jesus said, By this shall all people know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Love is an action verb. Reconciliation is love in action. Bill was a college student. He had wild hair, torn clothing, and imperfect personal hygiene. He was a brilliant, but off-beat kid who found the Lord in a college dorm one night. Bill had no church background. He knew nothing about the customs of Christianity. He did not know how to be proper in church ...

1143. Finding Our Place in All Creation

Genesis 1:1, 26-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... world grows in me, and I wake in the night in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things, who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water and I feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and I am free.” I suspect that ...

1144. Hearing the Questions of Children

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... I can discover the nature of the God whose hand has provided all that we need. The Lord will provide. Thanks be to God. 1. Barbara Esteves-Moore, “Centennial’s Harju Scores Perfect 1600, The Tennessean/Williamson A. M., June 10, 2003, p. 1W, cols. 3-6. 2. John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secrets of a Man’s Soul, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 2001

1145. Finding Our Place In All Creation

Job 38:1-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... world grows in me, and I wake in the night in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things, who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water and I feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world and I am free." In this drama ...

1146. Regardless of the Cost?

Luke 8:26-39

Illustration

Bryn MacPhail

... genuine faith. In the late 1890's, a famous tightrope walker strung a wire across Niagara Falls. As 10,000 people watched, he inched his way along the wire from one side of the falls to the other. When he got to the other side, the crowd cheered wildly. Finally, the tightrope walker was able to quiet the crowd and shouted to them, 'Do you believe in me?'. The crowd shouted back, 'We believe! We believe!'. Again he quieted the crowd and shouted to them, 'I'm going back across the tightrope but this time I'm ...

1147. Engaging the Master Designer

Psalm 139: 1-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Cullen Bryant, was pondering the future of his life as he walked on a December day through Massachusetts in search of a job. He wanted to be a poet, but felt compelled by the need to make a living to try law. As he walked along he saw a wild duck flying swiftly southward. He watched the lone wanderer until it was lost in the distance, as he asked himself from whence it had come and whither it was going. Later that night Bryant wrote these words in the poem, “To a Waterfowl.” The last stanza goes like ...

1148. Come, Holy Spirit, Come

Psalm 104:24-34

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... I. WHEN THE SPIRIT COMES, WE ARE CREATED. “Oh Lord, how manifold are your works. In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures" (Psalm 104:24). When we want to be awed, we go to Disney World or visit the Wild Kingdom or some amusement park. When the Hebrews wanted to be awed, they took a walk in the wilderness or strolled beside the sea. The sights were imposing, impressive, inspiring, incredible. Psalm 104 is a canticle of creation. Everywhere the Psalmist turned he saw the mighty ...

1149. The Calling of Our Baptism

Luke 3:21-22; Matthew 28:18-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... , we are given a name. By the waters of baptism we are claimed as children of God. Don’t ever forget who you are. II. BY THE WATERS OF BAPTISM WE ARE CALLED. We are called to be disciples. Jesus calls us o’er the tumult Of our life’s wild restless sea, Day by day his sweet voice soundeth Saying Christian, follow me. Jesus calls us. By our baptism we are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. It is a lifetime calling, it is bigger than we can accomplish but we lean into it by God’s grace. By ...

1150. From Anger to Courage

Mark 11:12-19

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Sabbath, and bold claim to be the Son of God, and tendency to hang around with sinners got him crucified. “That's not the way we do things around here." “So they sought some sly way to kill him." II. THE CROWD IS ANGRY It's anger that spreads like wild fire. Those who crown Him King on Palm Sunday are persuaded to crucify Him on Friday. Echoes of their chant can still be heard these centuries later: “Crucify him! Crucify him!" I got my education in the 60's and early 70's. I owe my soul to the ...

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