Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1201 to 1225 of 4884 results

1201. God Where Are You? - The Problem of Evil

Genesis 3:1-6, Judges 6:13

Sermon

James Merritt

... illness. You either know of someone or you are related to someone, who has either been murdered or committed suicide and you are searching for answers. I want to confess that I can't stand up here today and give you the perfect answer from God on this issue, because the perfect answer really doesn't exist. I can give us some biblical answers to these hard questions that can help us not only understand the problem of evil, but even experience victory when it comes our way. I. Where Do Evil And Suffering ...

1202. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Luke 2:8-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... all there must be vertical peace – there must be peace with God. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1, NKJV) Vertical peace then leads to internal peace. Isaiah 26:3says, "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you whose thoughts are fixed on you!" (Isaiah 26:3, NLT) This is internal peace. The peace that passes all understanding. The peace that helps you to keep your head when everybody around you is losing their own. It is ...

1203. The Masterpiece

Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-28

Sermon

James Merritt

... the list says it all, "By whom Jesus was born who is called the Messiah." (Matthew 1:16, NASB) It is just as if God was saying to the entire world, "Just like I said I would do it, I did it. The mosaic is complete, the picture is perfect, the Masterpiece is finished—the Messiah has come." It has been pointed out that as few as five points of identification can single out any individual from all the billions of human beings on this planet. If someone anywhere in the world were to write on an envelope your ...

1204. Life on the Rock

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

James Merritt

... a safe place to live where the atmosphere is ideal, the winds gentle, the rains controlled, the sun always shines, and the climate is perfect. That place doesn't exist really anywhere on earth, nor does it exist anywhere in life. I want to share with you another true ... does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him." (1 John 2:3-5) Now you have a choice. You can build a life ...

1205. God and the Minimum Wage

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... away from this beautiful parable. Lesson number one is: God doesn't owe us anything. You may sit there and say, "Yes He does—I teach Sunday School, I sing in the choir, I share my faith, I read my Bible." Let me ask you a question. Suppose you perfectly obey the laws in this state; you always come to a complete stop at stop signs; you always drive in the proper lane; you always use your turn signals; you always obey the traffic rules. Does the government send you a check every month in gratitude for what ...

1206. Handling Objections

Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... an atheist. An atheist is someone who says, "I know there is no God." An agnostic is someone who says, "I don't know whether there is a God or not." If a person claims to be an atheist, point out to him that a true atheist must claim perfect one-hundred percent knowledge of all the knowledge in the universe. Otherwise, in the body of knowledge a person does not have, God could exist. In the vast majority of time, that person will either admit they are an agnostic - that is they do not know whether there is ...

1207. Mrs. Proverbs

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... supper, which was delicious, and afterwards washed up all the dishes, fed the cat, mended socks, sprinkled the clothes, combed her daughter's locks and then opened the organ and began to play "When you come to the end of a perfect day." Yeah, well, I bet she didn't think it had been a perfect day. Of course, in taking this critical view of Proverbs 31, we are judging it by standards that weren't considered in the time in which these verses were written. To be fair, we should also look at the context of ...

1208. Putting God to Work in Your Life through Peas, Squash, Lettuce, Thyme

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... we hit a wall — when our finances fall apart, our family is in crisis, a serious illness develops, a hurricane bears down, a fire roars around — then we are eager to employ God. Everyone of us here this morning has learned how to throw a perfect “Hail Mary” prayer to God — a last minute, last chance, last-resort appeal to divine power to pull us out of the clutches of circumstances. We start taking seriously John 5:17 "My Father works, & I work.” Then, as soon as health, wealth, family, flood ...

1209. Can't We All Just Get Along?

Mark 9:38-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... peace in our own hearts. There is an insecurity within us that causes us to resent the person who is different. The basic cause of hatred is fear. The only cure is found in I John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear . . .” There is only one source of perfect love and that is God. God is love (I John 4:8). We need to so fill our hearts and our minds with the love of God that there is no room for hatred and resentment of others. Robert A. Schuller, young Robert, tells of ...

1210. Back to the Future

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

... , "Lord, this is great, this is fantastic. We ought to put up three tabernacles to commemorate what has happened here!" Simon is the perfect example of the person who, when he doesn't know what to say, still speaks. Even Luke comments. Look at verse 33. Luke ... upon, and, for just a few moments, letting someone else take care of our spiritual needs. If Jesus of Nazareth, the sinless, perfect, Son of God, had to have a time of retreat and prayer and revitalization and encouragement, how much more do we need ...

1211. More Time

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... relationships are. We may have even gone overboard in elevating the necessity of human interaction. If that is the case, we still have a lot of work to do in relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Mind you, these are not three gods but one perfectly united and working in total harmony. Grant we would never be confused in this classic understanding of who and what God is. So, how is it in our relationship with God? It is an inquiry always on the table. Why? Because our entire lives and deaths ...

1212. The Two Prodigals

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... with strong negative tones to describe this guy. When we apply a common standard of fair play, this hedonistic son is a real loser. Who is more justified than the elder in taking offense at the stupidities of a wayward brother? With the attitude and tone of "Mr. Perfect," the father's heart must be breaking. Yet, he manages to reiterate that his son, who was dead has now come to life. He also affirms the elder son and wants him to know he remains a very important son, who shares in all the father has. The ...

1213. So, Are You The Messiah?

John 10:22-30

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... and Holy Spirit. To try to fill in blank spaces with our so-called brilliance may only confuse the very people we are attempting to help. What more do we need to know? We are going to be with God forever, living in bliss and perfection. There will be no end to our flawless and perfect existence. Time will have no bearing. The creator of time will be in charge and no one will be able to remove us from the Father's hand. What else can we seriously ask for? Some of us have believed virtually all our lives that ...

1214. How Not to Become Distracted

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

... quiet time with his closest friends. Most of all he was looking for a warm welcome. And a warm welcome is exactly what he received. Let us pause for a moment over this and take full notice that it was Martha who welcomed Jesus into her home. Martha was the perfect hostess. And before we get too far into the story, and learn too much about her to prejudice our feelings about her, I want us to remember that it was Martha, not Mary, who was the first to welcome Jesus that day. But then in an effort to be the ...

1215. A Puzzling Parable with a Sharp Point

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... , the value of money and possession comes to a dead end when we die. The sharp point of this parable is that money and possessions will do us no good when we arrive at eternity and face the judgment of God. Helmut Thielicke, puts it this way: It is made perfectly clear to us that one day every one of us will be left destitute. The day will come when we shall stand naked before God, unable to answer him once in a thousand times. We shall be stripped of all things in which we put our confidence here below. We ...

1216. Lean on Me

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... into the same ugly situation, then you can walk a mile in her shoes. The fact is that the widow was not going to allow that judge to sleep at night until she was granted justice. In fact, that widow became a model for the early Christians. She was the perfect example of the need for prayer to be without ceasing. She showed that prayer is not a last resort; it is a daily Christian nutrient. We need it, it makes us strong. Her life is an example of a strong faith lived out as a witness to the world. It ...

1217. Minding the Store of Our Lives

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... come our way. Such testing will clearly involve some amount of suffering, but Paul also knew, as did the author of the letter to the Hebrews that it is through suffering that we gain perfection. Speaking of Jesus we read: "Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Hebrews 5:8). We should heed Paul's warning to the Christian community at Corinth, but we should also bask in the knowledge ...

1218. Caring for Others: The Christian Vocation in the World

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... common vocation to holiness. And we must realize that nothing can or will stand in God's way to assure this reality. The resurrected Christ, who today ascends to the Father, "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion," leads the way. Jesus is the perfect example for us and thus, as the Pauline writer concludes the prayer, "[God] has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1 ...

1219. Boasting and Praying for You

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... . Cruelty starts in interpretation. Your joy starts in interpretation. When we know God, we can't help but sing and speak and come out of our hiding places. I think of a boy who loved to play hide-and-seek. He found the perfect hiding place. The only problem was that his perfect hiding place was so good that the other children couldn't find him! They went on to another game. He was alone and hidden. He cried and cried. Instead, he could have found himself and begun boasting. We are people who come out ...

1220. Weary in Well Doing

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... pictured that she never met a detail she understood, that is a good team. We just have to render their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. We can inoculate each other with this kind of thinking as easily as we can inoculate with the old ways. We must be perfect or we have to be gotten off of the team or out of the family. We must be fixed and improved. Yech! Who wants to be fixed or improved? Indeed who can be fixed and improved? Most of us have fairly permanent warts to which we are very ...

1221. Genesis 2:18-24

Genesis 2:4-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... , divinely-created “ish,” which is most literally translated not as “helper” but as “savior” or “atoner,” comes from a side-place that is neither superior nor inferior to its source. When God prepares to create the perfect “ezer” for “adam,” the literal translation of God’s intent is this: “I will make him for him a partner as in front of him” or “according to what is in front of him” (“kenegdo”). The verbal root “neged” suggests one who is “in full view of” or ...

1222. The Boy Grows Up

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... my [sons and daughters], to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is the advice from [one] who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice. When you begin a good work ... pray earnestly to bring it to perfection.1 The words of Saint Benedict could well have echoed the words of the priest, Eli, to his young charge, Samuel. Eli is present in the temple at Shiloh when Samuel's mother, Hannah, is praying for her heart's desire, a son. Her inability to have ...

1223. A Day of Singing

Zephaniah 3:14-20, Luke 3:7-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... the dogs bark. They would listen to the wind through the trees. They would listen to the things going on around them in the world . . . in creation to see if they could hear angel song. What would this angel song sound like? It would sound perfect. They listened for harmony and perfect pitch in the sounds of nature. It’s a strange thing to do; it’s kind of an odd way to spend Christmas Eve. But that’s what this piano teacher and his friends did. “There’s a romantic notion to what they did,” says ...

1224. If We Do It, It Will Work

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

... : A star? God: Yes, a bright and shining star no one’s ever seen before. Bring it on. (A pinpoint spot beams a light on the wall. Gabriel “directs” its placement.) Gabriel: No, move it a bit to the left. Now back to the right. Now up a little. Perfect. Michael: Now, we go tell Herod, right? God: Not Herod. Not yet, anyway. There are some shepherds over in the next field. I want you to get the other angels and tell them. Gabriel: But if we don’t bring your message to Herod or someone like that, how ...

1225. A Squirrely Holiday

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... use all their squirrely attributes to get to the prize. They dig in with their toes. They balance on precarious perches. They use their tails like anchors. They use their front paws like a surgeon’s skilled hands. The squirrel's tactics aren't necessarily perfect, but they are always persistent. All squirrels antics are centered on a single-minded purpose. NUTS! And because of that single-minded purpose, they find joy in every moment as though it is the only one that matters. By the way, I think the 4 ...

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