Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1351 to 1375 of 2332 results

1351. The Prize of the High Calling of God

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... clarified. Calling made clear. This community has nurtured you, challenged you, and forced you to think and grow. It has been a safe place. It is true that some of you came here to find a haven from the storms of your life. Some came from parched deserts, and have found refreshing, new-birthing water. Others were broken and wounded and came as much to be ministered to as to prepare for ministry. I know. You have shared your prayer requests and I have prayed for you. The most of you came because you were ...

1352. The Authority of Scripture: God's Breathed Word

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Uzziah. He experienced God in the setting of worship, and God confronted him with his eternal call: “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” John the Baptist, in his heart of hearts, had experienced the revelation. Flocks of people came out of the desert and Galilian hills to be baptized by him in the Jordan. But no messianic complex overcame John as it does too many of us religious leaders. He had been confronted by the eternal God who had an ultimate plan – so he could humbly say, “I baptize ...

1353. The Vocation of Leadership: A Prophet Among Them

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... .” He paid attention. The result? “When I awoke I felt as if I were a slave again – but now God was my Master.” It’s not easy to stay at that point of confidence, is it? Most of us are in and out of that conviction. AT times we feel deserted and alone. The silence of God haunts, even taunts us. If we’re not an odd lot, we all know those “dry times,” those “dark nights of the soul” when we cry with the psalmist, “I feel like an owl in the waste places.” And yet, we still have to ...

1354. Staying Alive All Your Ministry Life: Will You Finish Well?

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ] evolution yet seem to lack the will for it. They want, and believe it is possible, to skip over the discipline, to find an easy shortcut to sainthood. Often they attempt to attain it by simply imitating the superficialities of saints, retiring to the desert or taking up carpentry. Some even believe that by such imitation they have really become saints and prophets, and are unable to acknowledge that they are still children and face the painful fact that they must start at the beginning and go through the ...

1355. Dealing With Your Enemies

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... the story. The crowds chanted, “Saul has killed his thousands; David has killed his ten thousands.” (I Samuel 18:7) And Saul was consumed with envy and hatred. He chased David all over the wilderness, seeking to take his life. On one occasion, in the Desert of Ziph, Saul took three thousand soldiers with him for the express purpose of hunting David down and killing him. It was on this mission that, one night while Saul was sleeping, David slipped into his tent under the cover of dark. There lay David ...

1356. God Does Not Forsake His People

Isaiah 62:1-12

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

Call To Worship If you are discouraged by the way your life is going, come worship the God of Hope. Our God has not forsaken or deserted us. He is ever present to strengthen and sustain us. Come, let us worship our loving God revealed in Jesus Christ. Collect Almighty God, even as you spoke to your people through the prophets in ages past, reassuring them of your love, speak also to us this day. Let this ...

1357. God's Love For His People

Hosea 11:1-11

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

Call To Worship Leader: Give thanks to the Lord. He is good and his love is eternal. People: We will repeat these words in praise to the Lord. Leader: Some wandered in the trackless desert. They were hungry and thirsty, and had given up all hope. People: Then in their trouble they called to the Lord, and he saved them from their distress. Leader: Come, let us worship the Lord with thanks for his constant love! Collect O God, we know that you will never ...

1358. Peacemaking and Self Control

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... has become an addiction, and it is toxic in the extreme. That is what unresolved anger does; it torches all it touches till it‘s all that’s left. A once healthy soul is slow-roasted to a burnt crisp by the inward heat of anger. The early desert monks categorized anger as one of the seven deadly sins. Frederick Buechner says this: "Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter ...

1359. A Kingdom Investment Policy

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... to get to the point of trusting God for everything when you have absolutely nothing. You and the Lord have developed a deep partnership and a track record with one another. No scheming. No anxiety. Can you imagine the freedom? When the fourth-century desert Egyptian monk Macarius returned to his cell one day, he found a thief stealing the few possessions he owned. He reacted calmly, though: he even helped the thief load his donkey with the objects from his cell. As the thief departed, Macarius said, "Naked ...

1360. Get off the Throne and Learn Wisdom

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... ?” And what we see, that is then what we say, “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is a log in your own eye?” In one of the early communities of monks in the Egyptian desert a brother committed a serious sin. The council met and requested the Teacher to attend. When he refused to come, they sent an urgent delegation. “Since you insist,” he said, “I will come in half an hour.” When he arrived, the Teacher entered the room carrying a leaking ...

1361. Keep The Faith

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

Call To Worship Friends and colleagues may desert us in our hour of need, but the Lord will stay with us and give us strength. Come, let us worship the Lord, our God, giving thanks for his steadfastness and praise for his wondrous works for us. Collect Lord, we are in the race of life to the end, ...

1362. Joy in the Journey

119:129-136

Sermon

Michael Milton

... of biblical Christianity. It is a Pharisaical religion that seeks to relate to God through what we do. If we begin there, we are destined to fail. This is what Paul was responding to when he exclaimed in Galatians, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— (Galatians 1:6). The different gospel that Paul was referring to was that they could relate to God through the old ceremonial law. Paul summed up the place of God ...

1363. What We Want for Our Children

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... , while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.” (35b-38) This is the peace Christ wanted for them? TV evangelists may promise you that if you follow Jesus, God’s going to pour out His blessings, but Jesus never made such a claim ...

1364. Spirit Power

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... Christian churches. As he said, “There ought to be enough divine electricity in every church to give everybody in the congregation either a charge or a shock! . . . What do you mean by singing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ when most of your army has deserted? . . . I agree with Joel. I’m embarrassed when pagans walk by our empty churches, look in on our feeble ceremonies, see us swapping members from church to church, moving corpses from one mortician to another, preaching a dynamite gospel and living ...

1365. Oskar’s Cruelty

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... clean cut off." No hope at all. Desolation and depression, gloom and sorrow everywhere. And they aren't there by choice. Can you feel the devastation Ezekiel says the Israelite people in exile felt? In his autobiography, It Doesn't Take A Hero, Desert Storm Coalition Forces Commander-in-Chief Norman Schwarzkopf writes of his reactions flying back to his headquarters after the cease-fire talks with the Iraqis. "We had to bring Kuwait City back to life, which meant repairing and turning on the water supply ...

1366. Some Things Ought Not to Happen

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

James L. Killen

... she had conceived a child and Sarah could not. Deep jealousy developed. Then, when Isaac, the child God had promised, was born, Sarah demanded that Abraham send Hagar and her child away. It did not seem to matter to her that she would be sending them out into the desert to die. Abraham did not want to do that. Both of the boys were his sons and he loved them both. But jealousy, and the tendency always to live in competition, decreed that one of Abra-ham's sons was destined to be the chosen one and one was ...

1367. When Jacob Got a Vision

Genesis 29:15-28

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... 's wrath and thirst for justice and found himself alone in the wilderness that it dawns on him what he truly values. He values family, not power. He values his brother, not money. He values mercy, not success."1 In the terror and loneliness of the desert the vision helps Jacob clarify his convictions and basic beliefs. He realizes what he most deeply believes about God. Jacob comes to realize that the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and the nearness of God in his life are more vital than winning over others ...

1368. Can You Hear Me Now?

Exodus 3:1-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... . Moses flees to Midian where he meets the priest Jethro and his seven daughters. Moses stays in Midian, marries one of Jethro's daughters, Zipporah, bears a son, Gershom, and settles down as a shepherd keeping Jethro's flocks. It has been said by a desert mystic, "He will never be a prophet who was not first a herdsman." Here Moses has time for the incubation of his soul in solitude and quietness. Shepherding sheep is quite a contrast to our modern mad rush in a country whose national monument is Rushmore ...

1369. Passing and Failing

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... to handle adversity. Moses summarizes the adversity in just a few words: "the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions" (8:15). What would this time of deprivation do to the Israelites? Could they keep their faith in the desert? Would they give up and pack it in? Would they keep going and fulfill their destiny? Keeping in mind our conviction that not every bad thing that happens is directly caused by God to test us, we know that life has its share of wilderness ...

1370. Here Is Your God

Isaiah 35:1-10

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; that the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. We have your promise that waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. Only our own obstinacy could make us fail to see your well marked path to glory. Burst into our lives so that even we cannot go astray. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. (Based on Isaiah 35:5-6) Hymns "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" "Christ Is Coming! Let ...

1371. Honest Abe and Sarai

Genesis 18:1-15

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship The view is long when we sit in the heat, resting beneath the oaks of Mamre. We can see all the way to heaven and back, watch travellers emerge from the haze of the desert, and come to know that God's promises are sure. Collect Three travellers, one God, the New Covenant in the Old - we will welcome strangers in our church, for we hope to entertain angels unawares. Amen. Prayer Of Confession We praise you for Sarai's honesty, laughing at your ridiculous ...

1372. Abraham Believed God

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... to others, you would probably question its relevance to your life. You would think to yourself, "I believe it, but it hasn't happened in 2,000 years. I doubt it will happen in my lifetime." If God told Abraham it was going to rain in the middle of the desert, Abraham would run for cover. When God told old man Abraham that he was going to become a father, even in his old age, Abraham began to build a cradle and get a nursery put together. When God told Abraham that he would be the "father of many nations ...

1373. At War with Myself

Romans 7:15-25a

Sermon

William G. Carter

... That's how some of the ancient Christians called it, sin as a persistent and troublesome force in our lives. She writes: These days, when someone commits an atrocity, we tend to sigh and say, "That's human nature." But our attitude would seem wrong-headed to the desert monks, who understood human beings to be part of the creation that God called good, special in that they are made in the image of God. Sin is an aberration, not natural for us at all. This is why Gregory of Nyssa speaks so often of "returning ...

1374. Families in Christ

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... the truth in Christ - I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit." Not only does this opening suggest there might be rumors about Paul circulating in Rome and other places, but also that there is a strong possibility that Paul is seen as deserting his own people by his actions. Paul's defense, that he is speaking the truth, is bolstered by the witnesses he produces for the truth of what he is saying. As required by the Jewish law, Paul provides the names of two witnesses - the Holy Spirit ...

1375. The Day of the Lord

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

Rick Brand

... They are to encourage each other with stories and testimonies about the icebergs. We might talk as well about the water table that is underneath the earth. And yet at various places the land dips and the water table becomes a lake or a stream. In the desert those places become oasis and the survival of the journey depends upon the people keeping watch out for the oases so that they may fill the canteens, bathe, and renew themselves. The children of the light, the people of the day, need to be alert for the ...

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