Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1201 to 1225 of 2404 results

1201. A Gift for You

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

James L. Killen

... be a little arrogant - and he had a temper. But God accepted them as they were and worked with them and used them in the service of God's high purpose. A saint is not some super-human being who lives up to a standard that no real person could achieve. The Christian faith will make some differences in your life. But after those differences are made, you will still be you. And being "real" is a part of what it means to be a Christian. A saint is not someone who can't have any fun. You will see that ...

1202. With a Song in Your Heart

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

... know that there is a special place in God's love and in God's plan for you. The adoration from Ephesians tells us that God knew you before the beginning of all things and that God wants something good for you and God is working in your life to achieve it. It may not be the particular good that you have chosen for your goal in life, but, if it is not, it is something better. And God is at work in your life to make it possible. That should invite you to go to meet life in openness and ...

1203. Removing Obstacles

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Sermon

James L. Killen

... wise ... so that no one might boast in the presence of God" (1 Corinthians 1:27, 29). Paul did not say that to cut us down. After all, we have been freely given the role and status of beloved children of God. That is far better than anything we could achieve or claim for ourselves. We should find great joy and self-confidence in that. But, since the best thing that we have is something that has been freely given to us and to others, none of us ought to feel superior to others. We are all parts of one family ...

1204. Sheep that Count

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... steps today. And we have to admit that there are sometimes more important issues than our comfort, our lifestyle, and even our health. We have to choose our fights carefully and always weigh in the balance the good of the outcome we are trying to achieve. Now, for a reality check, and without rationalizing what I just said, I have to add that not all selflessness is admirable, and not all self-defense is bad. I do have problems condoning some situations of oppression for the sake of the gospel. A child ...

1205. Doing Well and Doing Good

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... sounds attainable. The commandment says we should not covet, which is certainly more difficult, but something we can work on and at least make it seem as if we can manage it. In the time of Jesus, the commandments were often reduced to very achievable tasks. Honor your father and your mother, for example, was simplified to providing for your parents in their old age. Simply placing enough money in the Temple storehouse to provide for the needs of your parents meant, at that time, that you had fulfilled ...

1206. Worthy of God

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Sermon

Rick Brand

... in step with the ebb and flow of life and the rhythm of the Creator. I just had to learn to trust that God would meet my needs if I followed my soul's urging. Trusting that I was created for more than a mediocre existence devoted to drive and achievement.1 Wil Willimon, who preaches at Duke University, can add that he knows lots of young adults who can tell you that it is a great, good freedom to strip down, break free, and throw their future away on the kingdom of God rather than harness up for a lifetime ...

1207. When Is Being Right Wrong?

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Rick Brand

... offered in Jesus Christ. That is what makes this message of God acting in Jesus Christ so special, so powerful, so refreshing. The word of the Good News is that God has already offered in his own love for us the possibility of the relationship we have been trying to achieve. For you and me it is not an accomplishment we need to complete. It is a gift that has already been given and we are invited to receive and enjoy. It is a gift of love that opens to us the relationship with God that we know needs to be ...

1208. Say What?

1 John 3:5-6

Sermon

Rick Brand

... slowly makes you numb. You begin to feel like U2 in their Zooropa album: "Don't move, don't talk out of turn, don't think, don't worry everything's just fine. Don't grab, don't clutch, don't hope for too much, don't breathe, don't achieve, don't grieve without leave...." Don't, don't, don't. Soon, after all those rules, something inside of us begins just to want to break one, just to do something wild and reckless. There are so many rules that we find ourselves longing to rebel, and so sin is ...

1209. The Power of God

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Rick Brand

... think negatively or to think realistically, to say that we can't do that now, to think that evil cannot be overcome, to say that nothing can be done about that sickness, to close the doors on options for the future simply because we do not see how we can achieve that. God may not heal our sickness. God may not give us at this moment the resources to give good-paying jobs to everybody. God may know that what we need most is the struggle and not the success, but to say that it is not a possibility, to say ...

1210. Blind Ambition

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... this. Ambition can mislead you in this life. In fact, ambition can blind you to what is really important in this life. We live in an age in which it is preached that success is everything and, therefore, everything else can be sacrificed to achieve that goal. So dominant has this cult of success become, that people even interpret Christianity as a part of it. I have heard people testify that their discipleship to Jesus has meant that they have received all these wonderful material blessings. But Jesus didn ...

1211. Called to Freedom

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the custom of the Christmas tree. And he loved Katherine. At one point he wrote that he feared for his soul, because, he said, "I think I love Kate more than Christ." Luther was a man of his time. He transcended his time in some ways and achieved immortality. But in other ways, he remained mired in his age and thus dated, and even dangerous. I mentioned his teaching about the state is an anachronism. He participated in the anti-Semitism of the Middle Ages, and never transcended that. That is a shame. But ...

1212. Get Lost

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , forget yourself, get outside of yourself, in order to hear what God has done for you. Now I have to remind myself of that. Like many of you, I was raised, and conditioned, to believe that my worth as an individual is dependent on my own achievements, especially as measured against other people. Which meant that I was always worried about how I was doing, always concerned about what other people thought about me, and what I was doing. Since I was never doing very well, against the norms that I had used ...

1213. God Never Gives Up

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... in this statement. That there was a possibility that God really loves me, Maya Angelou. I suddenly began to cry at the grandness of it all. I knew if God loved me, I could do wonderful things. I could do great things. I could learn anything. I could achieve anything. For what could stand against me with God, since one person, any person, with God form a majority now.” There are many people who are just like that. They think it is unbelievable that God would know me, that God would love me, that God would ...

1214. Hosea's Marriage Troubles

Hosea 2:14-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

There are certain periods in history that seem to give birth to genius. The latter part of the 18th century in this country was a time of political greatness rarely achieved by any nation. Why was it, we ask, when the population was limited to the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, just a few million people, a fraction of the population of the country today, that there were so many great leaders and philosopher/statesmen? It was amazing. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, ...

1215. How to Be a Blessing

I Peter 3:8-12

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... to a child, and you bless them. And they will be blessed, and their life will blossom. I heard about a little boy who was in preschool. The practice of the teacher in the preschool was to award the little children for whatever they did, to recognize some achievement by giving them an award. The award was a great big star on their clothing. The little boy came home from preschool, a big star on his shirt. His mother said, "What did you do to earn that star?" He said, "I'm the best rester!" That teacher ...

1216. If You Can't Stand the Heat

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... So if we measure ourselves simply by our own feelings, our own comfort zones, then on that scale of life from inanimate to animate, or from lower forms of life to higher forms of life, we come out at about the bovine level, about where cows are. Our highest achievement in life would be to eat a lot, and then find a nice shady spot to rest and chew our cud. But if we measure ourselves by the highest that there is for human life, by the standard of the New Testament, namely the standard of the full humanity ...

1217. If You Look Like Your Passport Photo

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... of the I World War. He wrote a marvelous book about flight, entitled, Wind, Sand and Stars. In it he drew an analogy between flying and the human spirit. He said, that is what we are born for. Our spirits should fly, be free, soar, take risks, and achieve great heights. That is what we are born for. He said he experienced that kind of spiritual exhilaration as he flew, especially at night, over the deserts of Africa. When he came back to France, he took a train up to Paris, and sat opposite an old peasant ...

1218. Landing Instructions

Isaiah 40:25-31

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . Don't strive for very much. Don't love very much. Don't get outside of yourself and reach out to others too much, because if you do that, you are going to be disappointed. For the higher the spirit soars, the more we seek to achieve, the greater the disappointment. George Faux was an Englishman living in the 19th century. He had a reputation as something of an eccentric. One day he announced that he had conquered flight, he knew how to fly. He gathered people around to watch his demonstration of flight ...

1219. Lord of the Dance

Mark 2:13-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... exchange is to tell you who gets into the Kingdom. The scribes and the Pharisees assumed that they could get into the Kingdom because they were the ones who had lived the kind of lives that ought to be rewarded. They expected to be recognized for their achievement, for the wonderfulness of their lives. They also expected God to punish the evil ones, the tax collectors and the sinners, for the kind of life that they lived. But look who the Messiah eats with. The Messiah, when he came, was supposed to be at ...

1220. Now Stand Up Straight!

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... abuse, they were trapped in poverty, with no real chance of escape from it. They all had these wonderful hopes. It is almost pathetic to hear them talk about the dreams they had for their lives as young girls, because their heroic efforts to achieve those dreams were always defeated, either by circumstances outside of them that they could not control, or by their own defeated spirits. Almost all of them believed that the situation that they lived in was what they deserved. They deserved nothing greater than ...

1221. Now Try Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... would denote virtue, as in "simple kindness" and in "simple honesty," indicating a kind of integrity, with no sham or hypocrisy, just simple kindness. As if that is all that was required to get along in this world, to work out your problems and achieve happiness. Just be loyal to these simple virtues. A simple, honorable life is the icon represented by Jimmy Stewart. But America has changed. It is much more complicated now. The small, homogeneous, Midwestern town is dying. A new America is emerging. In fact ...

1222. Now What Do We Do?

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Mark Trotter

1223. On the Beach

John 21:15-25, John 21:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... "girded." It is like being carried. It is the most wonderful feeling. Or it may be that you reach a point in your life when you look back and realize how dependent you are on other people. You boast of your self-reliance. You brag about that, your own achievements. You are caught up in this great American myth of self-reliance, and believe all that stuff about it being all up to you. You read the books and you go to the motivational seminars that say you can do it all by yourself. But one day, when you ...

1224. Plain Talk

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... a gift to be free, Tis a gift to come down to where we ought to be." The same song could be easily sung, "Tis a blessing to be poor," and mean the same thing. So Christians, some of them, have always taken on voluntary poverty in order to achieve a spiritual blessing. But there is a third way Christians have responded to this Beatitude. They have become advocates for the poor. They use the wealth and power and influence that God has given them in this life to make sure that the poor are not forgotten. They ...

1225. Until It Dawns on You

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... higher, more complex forms, so that what is now is better and more sophisticated than what was before. That was brought home to me when our children pointed out to me, "This is the 80s." They said that back in the decade in which they achieved independent enlightenment, and they assumed that the progression of time had made their father's ideas and tastes irrelevant. They said, "You are still living in the 50s." By which they meant, the only people interested in what I had to say would be archaeologists ...

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