Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1201 to 1225 of 4943 results

1201. Full Devotion

John 6:51-58

Illustration

Edwin D. Peterman

... the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Most people probably think Jesus is talking about communion. He isn't. He's talking about the difference between external lip service and internal embodiment. He's talking about the difference between admiring him and actually taking up one's cross and following him. He's talking about the difference between acting like a Christian on the outside and being a Christian on the inside.

1202. Past, Present, Future

Isaiah 43:16-21

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... 'd be persecuted, shunned, slandered, driven away, arrested, tortured, and murdered. Assuming you didn't mind standing with Jesus and suffering the same fate. Are you prepared to walk away from the lures of power and wealth? Are you really and truly willing to take up your cross and follow Jesus? Are you prepared to look back into biblical history not as a literary exercise but because you intend to live forward, into the future, as the stewards of God's earth and disciples of Jesus Christ? It means being ...

1203. Living In The Spirit Of Love

Galatians 5:22-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... between a man and a woman. IV. Agape (Caritas) A. And that brings us to Agape or Caritas or Unconditional Love. This is the Love which drives the Church. This is the Love you and I experience from God through Jesus Christ. This is the Love which allowed Jesus to take up His cross and suffer for our sakes. This is the kind of love which has no conditions on it at all. This is the love which allows and motivates us to love our neighbor as our selves and motivates us to love our enemies, even though that's the ...

1204. From Laziness to Passion

Psalm 51:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of Christ should not be acted out in words and plays. It should be embodied in real life." The writer of Revelation says "Behold! Christ stands at the door and knocks." Dare I have the nerve to open the door to this Christ of Lent? To this Christ who says "Take up your cross and get in line behind me?" To this Christ who dares to say, when James and John want a promotion in the system, 'How about it guys? Are you able to drink from the cup that I am about to drink?' When we wonder about how people are ...

1205. He Looks Like You

Luke 19:1-10

Illustration

Mark Trotter

Mark Trotter, a few years ago, told a beautiful story about a boy whose parents were missionaries to India. When the boy was 12 years old, his parents left him and his younger brother to go to India and take up their tour of duty there. Their intention was that once they got settled they would send for the boys. But shortly after they left America, World War II broke out. They couldn't get to the boys, and they couldn't get the boys to them. So the separation between ...

1206. The Christmas Message of Hope

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... cost us much in a spiritual sense. However, the one and only thing that Jesus desires is our hearts. Let us not disappoint him. On Christmas Day, when we welcome the light and hope it brings, we must be bearers of hope to others in our troubled world. Let's take up the challenge, dispel the darkness, and welcome the light. May the Christmas mystery of the incarnation change us forever. Amen.

1207. How to Bake a Cake

Illustration

Staff

... knocked on the floor. Get another bowl Answer doorbell Return to kitchen, remove baby's hands from bowl. Wash baby. Answer phone. Return. Remove one-fourth inch salt from greased pan. Look for baby. Grease another pan. Answer telephone. Return to kitchen and find baby. Remove his hands from bowl. Take up greased pan and find layer of nutshells in it. Head for baby, who flees, knocking bowl off table. Wash kitchen floor, table, walls, dishes. Call baker. Lie down.

1208. Matthew 2:1-12

Matthew 2:1-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... that gets Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, Matthew starts with them already at Bethlehem. In Matthew all the traveling occurs after Jesus’ birth, first by the magi on their mission, then by Joseph, Mary, and Jesus as they flee to Egypt and then return to take up residence in Nazareth. Among all the wondrous events that surround the story of Jesus’ birth, there is perhaps none so startling as Matthew’s tale of the “magi.” Little surprise to learn that “The Adoration of the Magi” is one of the most ...

1209. Stand Firm

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... that has been incorporated into this (see Schmithals, pp. 193f.). Nothing can be proven, of course, and it is better therefore to regard these verses as simply resuming the earlier thanksgiving (1:3f.) in much the same way as 1 Thessalonians 2:13 takes up again the introductory thanksgiving of that letter. In the closing verses of this section (vv. 16–17), thanksgiving turns to petition (another so-called wish-prayer, see disc. on 1 Thess. 3:11–13), with Paul praying that God, Father and Son, would ...

1210. The Burnt Offering

Leviticus 1:1-17

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... is receptive to the petitions of those totally consecrated to him. Understanding the Text Leviticus continues the story of the book of Exodus. Eleven and a half months after the exodus, Israel completes the tabernacle, and the “glory of the Lord” takes up residence there (Exod. 40:1, 17, 34–38). Leviticus instructs Israelites on using that tabernacle for burnt offerings (Lev. 1), grain offerings (Lev. 2), fellowship offerings (Lev. 3), sin offerings (Lev. 4:1–5:13), and guilt offerings (Lev. 5:14 ...

1211. Elijah Taken Up to Heaven

2 Kings 2:1-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Elisha wants a double portion to avoid prophetic burnout or a repeat of Elijah’s depression. He certainly witnesses Elijah’s departure, and tearing his clothes in two pieces is similar to sacrificing his oxen in 1 Kings 19 and anticipates his taking up of Elijah’s mantle in verse 13. Notably, like Elijah he too poses a question to God (“Where now . . . ?”), and his public profile begins with an answered prayer. All the while, the band of prophets have been watching, and their banal questions ...

1212. The Shepherds

Zechariah 11:4-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... As Zechariah symbolically tends the flock, his care is particularly for the oppressed—those who recognize the word of the Lord being fulfilled in the coming of the shepherd. They are a small, despised minority. In caring for the sheep, Zechariah takes up two staffs, one called Favor, the other called Union. The first signifies God’s special favor exercised on behalf of his people; the second signifies internal unity and cohesiveness within the nation, especially the two major factions, Judah and Israel ...

1213. John the Baptist Beheaded

Mark 6:14-29

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... please the crowd. By appending the return of the Twelve to the death of John in 6:30, Mark signals that, in following Jesus, one must reckon with the fate of John, as Jesus will teach in 8:34: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

1214. The Passover Meal

John 13:1-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... about servanthood (Luke 22:24–27). Foot washing was a common custom due to the wearing of sandals and the dry, dusty Palestinian roads. A good host would provide a servant who would work in this capacity, but if none were there he certainly would not take up the chore himself, as Jesus does (13:4–5). That which enables Jesus to serve like this may be described in 13:3. Jesus has perfect self-esteem: he knows of God’s love expressed in his origin and destiny and therefore can relinquish human status ...

1215. Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... contrast of lesser with greater, so that through these images he admonishes the Corinthians to have less concern for spectacular spiritual gifts and a greater concern for the reality of love, God’s own love. From these metaphors Paul takes up the idea of knowledge that occupied his reflections in earlier chapters. Current knowledge is labeled partial, whereas eschatological knowledge is promised to be full. Current Christian knowledge, though valuable, is of limited importance in comparison with the full ...

1216. The Appointing of the Twelve Apostles

Mark 3:13-19

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... of the rest of the book, it seems closer to the truth to say that Mark presents the Twelve in an ambivalent light, as individuals who, in spite of their own weaknesses, were chosen by Jesus to be the foundation of the church. (We shall take up the question of how Mark presents the disciples at several later points when they are featured in the text.) In the present passage Jesus is pictured as ascending a mountainside (lit., “the hill/mountain”), and it is a reasonable suggestion that this setting is ...

1217. Woes and Judgments

Isaiah 5:8-30

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... . They simply describe the wrongdoers—implicitly the people’s leadership. In the third woe, the people pull punishment along as they scornfully invite God to hurry along the plan that the holy one is allegedly pursuing. Their comment on God’s work takes up and justifies Isaiah’s earlier observation about their disregard for it (v. 12), and their chilling taunt about the Holy One of Israel resonates with Isaiah’s subsequent comment on who this God is (v. 16). One need not suppose that people ...

1218. Praying Hands

Luke 2:21-40

Children's Sermon

Edward G. Hunter

... he work for both of them while Durer tried to find work as an artist. When Durer became a successful artist they would both quit work and concentrate on their art. After several years Durer did become successful as an artist, and told his friend that he could now take up his work as an artist, for he (Durer) made enough for both of them to live. But his older friend had found that his fingers had become too sore (from the hard work he had been doing to make a living). He was unable to paint anymore, so he ...

1219. Hosanna! Please Save Us!

Matthew 21:1-11, Matthew 26:14-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... would be so much simpler if we could just make Jesus into whomever we want him to be. He could be a prophet, a guru, a role model, a buddy. But Jesus made the truth crystal clear: he is God incarnate. He made our decision crystal clear too: take up our cross and follow him—or ignore him, reject him and miss out on the blessings only he can provide. That’s what Judas Iscariot chose to do. Judas followed Jesus, worshiped with him, ate with him. Judas heard all his teachings and witnessed all his miracles ...

Middle age occurs when you are too young to take up golf and too old to rush up to the net.

Franklin P. Adams

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

Henry Ward Beecher

What one man can do himself directly is but little. If however he can stir up ten others to take up the task he has accomplished much.

Wilbur Wright

1223. He Set His Face

Luke 9:37-45, Luke 9:18-27

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

... ). The disciples must have been stunned. They had glory on their minds, too. But, no, the way of this Messiah was to be a way of suffering for him and for the disciples. "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). The disciples never could get this through their heads. In the story of the transfiguration which Luke tells next we hear Jesus discussing the departure he would accomplish in Jerusalem. Jesus, that is, was discussing with ...

1224. Lent 2

Luke 13:31-35

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... a charming bonus in this passage, and may be based on the feminine personification of wisdom common in the Old Testament. Liturgical Color Purple Suggested Hymns Jesus, Refuge Of The Weary Lord, Thee I Love With All My Heart O Jesus, Joy Of Loving Hearts "Take Up Your Cross," The Savior Said Lent 2 Jesus followed your plan, Lord, although people tried to deter him. First, Herod tried to stop him. Then, many others took their turn along the way. The words leveled at Jesus havea familiar ring. Be careful! Are ...

1225. Proper 18

Luke 14:25-35

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... sobering for modern purveyors of Christianity as a gospel of prosperity and success to see the total self-renunciation demanded in v. 33. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns Praise The Almighty Lord Of All Nations, Grant Me Grace O Son Of God, In Galilee "Take Up Your Cross," The Savior Said Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus God, My Lord, My Strength Proper 18 -- Pentecost 16 -- OT 23 Lord God, your Son taught us to count the cost before becoming disciples. After all, builders plan ahead to determine whether ...

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