Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1251 to 1275 of 4884 results

John 9:1-7

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... choice, here's the deal. I will make you into a human being with a soul that lives forever. I will put that soul into a body and you will have wonderful relationships with people in all kinds of ways, but I need to tell you I have not perfected this body thing yet. It has the potential to bring you great pleasure and great joy, but I need to be honest with you about this deal, it may cause you great pain. When bodies break down, they are costly, troublesome, and they bring tremendous sorrow to other people ...

1252. How To Triumph Over Terrorism

Ephesians 6:10-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of Paul can help us. In the last chapter of Ephesians this old soldier of the cross declares war on evil. He advises Christians to get dressed for battle. His military metaphors sound offensive to those of us who no longer sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” To be perfectly honest, I would much rather preach a sermon that invites you to a party than to talk today about preparing for battle. But like I said, things are different now. And after we have done it all, we still must find a way to stand and to ...

1253. Jesus’ 10 Commandments

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a meal, working two jobs to make ends meet, spending time in prayer, or spending time at play, then your actions will nurture more love. The more love you pour out, the more love you will have to pour forth. Love is the greatest and most perfectly renewable resource we have access to in our lives. 5) Be Merciful “Mercy” is one of the most original and revolutionary notions ever introduced into the course of human history. And mercy comes from the Hebrew prophets and Jesus. We must show mercy, because of ...

1254. The Road Home

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . I know it better now than I knew it then. I don't want to face life alone. I need my friends. I need a church family to rejoice with me and weep with me. There are plenty of good ones around. Oh, I know, church people are far from perfect. Sometimes we want other people to do for us what only God can do, that is love us unconditionally. Being in a community is not always easy, but community is essential for survival. So, we gather at the table for Holy Communion tonight. We gather not because we are good ...

1255. Why Am I a Christian?

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the Church that communicated the Holy Spirit's message, “You are my son, whom I love, and with you I am well pleased." The Church has provided me a place to be, a place to belong, a place to become what I was created to be. No church is perfect. If it were, you and I could not belong to it. The body of Christ has its warts. Congregations have faults. The little country church of my childhood gave me a foundation of faith. A little group of farmers up in Bardstown, where I served as student pastor, refused ...

1256. Amos: The Problem of Justice

Amos 5:18-24

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... because of their ethnic origin is wrong. As we rush to enforce the laws, let us not succumb to a new wave of prejudice. To be righteous is to love one another, especially our enemies. Wesley challenged his followers to pray for the Holy Spirit to perfect us in love. The real fruit of the Spirit-filled church is not emotion packed services where people speak in tongues, but a community of believers where outsiders are shocked at the depth and sincerity of their service to others. I John 4:18 says, “There ...

1257. By Belonging

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . Confirmation kids learn that as part of the names of God that we teach them. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “God is the rock, his works are perfect and all his ways are just." When Hannah prayed for a child in I Samuel she said, “There is no rock like our God." The psalmist ... magic. It may not cure all our cancers, or make us successful, or even cause all our children to grow up into perfection. Prayer may change us more than it changes things. Prayer does create a bond between us and the human race. Prayer is ...

1258. A Thousand Points of Light

Isaiah 60:1-3; 18-22

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... we can do to make it better? How we can become more effective and is God being glorified in what we are trying to do? There is no greater honor than to be here in this place today with you. Of course, the Church is far from perfect. The resurrected Christ is now embodied in these frail jars of clay. We, who represent Christ, can be poor representatives. As one person complained, “By the time my simple outpatient surgery made its way through the church prayer chain, I'd had both my legs amputated, died ...

1259. Being Present

Luke 10:38-42

Illustration

... I wish I had more time to speak with our host!" I imagine this Martha from over 2,000 years ago to have something in common with a certain ‘Martha' from our present. Fussing over the perfect table setting, the most delicious and perhaps elaborate meal, adjusting every little detail until it is just so…and only when everything is perfectly in place, turning to the guests to enjoy their company. There is a lot of joy to be taken in being a host and doing something gracious your guests, but it should never ...

1260. Leaping Where You Cannot Look

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... he is able. Wasn’t he afraid during those days when he challenged his government? Walesa himself answered that question like this: “Deep religious belief . . . eliminates fear.” (1) Please do not misunderstand. Walesa is not a perfect man. He is simply a man of faith. He simply sought to serve God. Abraham was not a perfect man. Go back and read his story in the early pages of the Bible. But Abraham heard God’s voice telling him to make a difference, to leave his home and to go to a place that God ...

1261. A Faith That Transforms, Not Just Adorns

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Unrepeatable. Unreliable. Hope based on hype leads nowhere at best, hell at worst. The passionate preacher of the “Letter to the Hebrews” didn’t give his spiritually exhausted congregation a message of “hope” based on hype. He didn’t weave them a yarn about a perfect life that was just around the corner. Instead, he spoke about FAITH. Faith was that which stood firm even as the years passed and the promise of a “promised land” seemed to be a lie or lay fallow. In fact, none of the examples ...

1262. Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... , a hall of clay feet more than a hall of marble: “Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets” (v.32). Though in the end the faithfulness of each of these individual is proven, their lives were by no means consistent examples of perfect faith. Barak was downright balky, refusing to fight Sisera (Judges 4:2) unless Deborah would cover his back (Judges 4:7-8). Gideon groused that “the Lord has cast us off, and given us into the hands of Midian” (Judges 6:13). Jephthah’s faith ...

1263. It’s Not about You; It’s All about God

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... , just "good enough" for God to use and bless it.4 I would say that this gets the focus off God and Christ's work on the cross, shifting the attention instead on to our good intentions and efforts. God does demand perfection, but accepts us anyhow, not because we are "good enough." What happens to you when you don't get so hung up on yourself, when life is more about God than about yourself? We can get some helpful ideas from the giants of the faith — both with regard to how ...

1264. All Who Share This Hope

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... way."3 This is kind of like the definition you may have heard, given by a child who had been told that the figures in stained-glass windows were saints: "A saint is someone the light shines through." Lydia Gruchy4 was that kind of saint. She was not "perfect" (whatever that means), but she was wonderfully human. She was a Christian, a respected model of faith, a person through whom others saw the light of God's presence and grace shining into the world, and she was a life-giver. It was a gift to have her ...

1265. What About the Baby?

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

Tony Everett

... vacuum, would you be able to hear my voice?" Suddenly awakened, poor Ralph responded, "Well, it would depend if the vacuum was turned off or on." Sometimes it really does seem as if our lives exist in an endless and perfect vacuum, with no escape whatsoever. Sometimes it seems that like Brian, we are so frightened by the Christmas journey that we are unable to hear the promise of God's Christmas gift, the baby given lanu immanu; for us, to us, and with us. This night, we see the baby ...

1266. Caught in the Middle

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... the credit. Paul would have them, and us, remember that when things go well, it is because we are cooperating with the grace that God has given us. As a lifelong Wesleyan, I recognize the danger of seeing John Wesley's notion of "going on to perfection" lurking around every corner. But it is almost impossible not to see it in the conclusion of Paul's introduction: God gives us these gifts and strengthens us, the apostle says, "so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing ...

1267. Oddballs for God

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

... 're at a family event and Aunt Mary is there, we three are attracted to her as iron to a magnet. Her kind of love creates a reverence, which helps me understand reverent living for God. We want to please God, because God loves us like the perfect Father, or like the perfect aunt. Verse 23 recalls for Peter's friends that their new life and understanding of God has come about "through the living and enduring word of God." We take our place in God's new family and live as exiles in this world because God has ...

1268. Children of the Heavenly Father

Romans 8:12-25

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... be childless. Some infertile couples will spend thousands of dollars trying to correct that status. It is also not normal that children "lose" their biological parents for whatever reason. In a perfect world, every child born into this world would be loved and nurtured by its biological parents. But our world is not perfect. All too often parents are without children and children are without parents. One such remedy for this imperfect situation in this imperfect world is adoption. It is not the norm, but ...

1269. Just a Little Faith Will Do

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... goes far beyond our ability to comprehend with our gray matter the mysteries of existence. No, it is ultimately not our minds that are saved, but our souls. There is something deep within the human soul that cries out for God, and will not be satisfied until it is in perfect union with its Creator. But there is a second thing we need to see. Just as we are not saved by the extent of our knowledge, we are also not saved by the level of our commitment. This may be a little more difficult for us to grasp. We ...

1270. One of the Family

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. [11] For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is ... If we win, you wash and wax our cars. If you win, we'll do the clean up, today." Since we hated cleaning up, it was the perfect thing to bet. We won. And the most joyous part about winning that year wasn't the fact that we didn't have to clean up. No ...

1271. A Child Will Be Born

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... For to us an ‘obstetric product’ is born . . .” No, we will settle for the traditional language: “to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.” Can there be a more perfect place to be on Christmas Eve than God’s house? Can there be a more perfect story than the story of the first Christmas? God entered the world as a tiny babe. That’s impossible for us to get our minds around yet I can’t imagine any better news in all the world. The Creator of the ...

1272. Everything He Says Is True

Luke 18:9-14; 1 Cor 13

Illustration

Ray Pritchard & Brett Blair

... money. We'd probably make him an elder or a deacon. He's just that kind of guy. He looks really good on the outside. Everything he says about himself is absolutely true. So what's wrong? Well, for all his goodness he isn't perfect, no one is, and the Law requires perfection. I like to call this narcissistic righteousness. What good is all the law if you don't have love? If you are not reaching out to those around you. If the center of your righteousness is You, you've missed the center. The center is love ...

1273. We’re Not Paradise People

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

... . He writes, "My people aren't paradise people. We've lived in Minnesota all our lives and it took a lot out of us. My people aren't sure if we'll even like paradise: not sure that perfection is all it's cracked up to be. My people will arrive in heaven and stand just inside the gate, shuffling around. `It's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be,' we'll think. We'll say, `No, thank you, we can't stay for eternity, ...

1274. You Bring Me Great Pleasure

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in you.” Of course, the paradox of our saint/sinner status is that all of us fall short of pleasing God, but that God’s graces covers our failures. In other words, each one of us hears two opposite things at the same time: “You have failed me. You are perfect.” But let’s not get there too quick. For a lot of us are more in the people pleasing business than in the God-pleasing business. We were not put here to please people. We were given this gift of life to please God. In today’s gospel text we ...

1275. The Garden of Temptation

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

... the freedom to disobey. It is significant that God put an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. This is the Bible’s way of saying that never again on this earth will people live in a perfect paradise. Never again on this earth will people live in perfect innocence and intimacy. We had our chance, and we blew it. But wait, there is hope. That is what the Gospel is all about. There are three gardens of note in scripture. One, of course, is Eden, where humanity first cried out ...

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