Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1376 to 1400 of 2157 results

1 John 5:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... our will done in heaven. It is to get God's will done on earth. Incidentally, do you know why you should always desire the will of God? God wants to give you what you would want God to give you if you were wise enough to want it. Another version translates this verse this way, "We are sure that if we ask anything that He wants us to have, He will hear us. " (I John 5:14, NLV) I was thinking the other day about prayer and I realized there are two types of prayer that I am very grateful ...

1377. God's Christmas Tree

1 Peter 2:24

Sermon

James Merritt

... . For all intents and purposes, the cross was God's Christmas tree to the world. It was planned, planted, purchased and placed on this planet for the glory of God and the salvation of the human race. I want us to read this verse again in a slightly different version. Remember that the word "cross" in English is the Greek word that is used for "tree." Let's just see why every Christmas tree should take us back to God's Christmas tree and why indeed Jesus is the reason for the season. "And He Himself bore our ...

1378. Friends

1 Samuel 18:1-4

Sermon

James Merritt

Friends - It was one of the most watched television shows in the nineties. It was in effect, the twenty-first century version of what friendship is all about. That one word, perfectly describes the relationship between two men named, David and Jonathan, who had, what one could argue is the most famous friendship in the history of the world. As we have just seen in the previous chapter, David had just pulled ...

1379. Multiplying Men Of God

Malachi 2:5-7, 2 Timothy 2:2

Sermon

James Merritt

... 7 says, "For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 2:7, NASB) The word for preserve is a word that literally means "to watch" or "guard". The Amplified Version translates it this way. "For the priests' lips should guard and keep pure the knowledge of My law." (Malachi 2:7, AMP) In order to do that you have got to be careful who you deposit the truth with. We've got to be on the lookout for men ...

1380. Mission Possible

Acts 1:8

Sermon

James Merritt

... be better than another one, but all of them are adequate in terms of having a relationship with God and spending eternity with Him. The Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, put it this way - "There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it." Pluralism is the view that all major religions are equally valid and lead to God and salvation. This belief holds some things to be true that are true. For example, there are good and sincere people in every religious belief system. Furthermore ...

1381. The King and His Throne

Acts 1:1-8

Sermon

James Merritt

1382. Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... problem, because we were all born in sin. There is an interesting verse in Psalm 58:3 that says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies." Psalm 58:3 (NKJ) Listen to this same verse in this version. "The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle; their first words out of the womb are lies. Psalm 58:3 (MSG) Listen to it still in one other translation. “...People are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.” Psalm 58 ...

1383. Am I a Real Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... , because we were all born in sin. There is an interesting verse in Psalm 58:3 that says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies." (Psalm 58:3, NKJV) Listen to this same verse in this version. "The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle; their first words out of the womb are lies." (Psalm 58:3, MSG) Listen to it still in one other translation. “....People are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.” (Psalm ...

1384. Begin With the Blueprints

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Sermon

James Merritt

... the show is the title is misleading. It really should be called, "Extreme Makeover: House Edition", because people can change a house, but only God can change a home. Over the next several weeks, we are going to be giving you God's version of "Extreme Home Makeover for Families", because the home and the family today are definitely in need of an extreme makeover. In 1947, a sociologist at HarvardUniversity named, Carle Zimmerman, published a book entitled, Family and Civilization. In that book, he traces ...

1385. Why Me Lord?

2 Corinthians 9:6-8, Exodus 35:4-5, 10-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... the seed. But giving is also like a boomerang that always comes back to you. You notice in Ex. 35:21 we are told "And they came everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution…" (English Standard Version) That is very amazing. It is not that they were bringing their contribution to the Lord, they were bringing the Lord's contribution to the Lord. Now listen carefully. What they were giving was not only to the Lord, it was from the Lord. Did you ...

1386. Is God Pleased With Me?

Hebrews 11:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... heaven is there. By faith I know I am going to heaven as if I were already there. The text goes on to say that faith is, "The evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1b, NKJ) Now the word for evidence literally means, "legal proof." The New International Version says it this way. "Faith is being certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1, NIV) Faith is the legal proof and absolute guarantee of things that we can't even see. This is why faith pleases God because faith sees what the eye cannot see. My ...

1387. Why Believe the Bible?

John 17:17

Sermon

James Merritt

... after the last event of the Old Testament took place. There is no other book in the world that has as much manuscript support or is as closely tied to the original event than the Bible. Putting together all of these manuscripts and comparing them with the version of the Bible we have today, we now know that we have at least 99.5% of what would be considered the original document. No other historical source or book in the history of the world can make that claim, but that still raises the question - How ...

1388. Don’t Be a Hypocrite

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

James Merritt

... are called on to pray and it is pretty obvious that what they do in that time is catch up on their prayer life and they will literally pray you around the world and they just go on and on and on. They will use this flowery 1600 King James Version language to try to impress you that they really have a hot-line to God. May I just be honest with you? There are times I have heard pray and I just wanted to say after about fifteen minutes, "Knock it off!" Think about how many times even in our ...

1389. Is It From Within or From Without?

Mark 7:1-23

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

The Good News Bible version of the Gospel says: "what comes out of a person makes him unclean ... from the inside, from a person's heart, come the evil ideas which lead him to do immoral things..." (paraphrase) What is inside has to come out! I saw a survey that compared the worst discipline problems ...

1390. Am I a Real Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... sin problem, because we were all born in sin. There is an interesting verse in Psalm 58:3 that says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies." Psalm 58:3 (NKJ) Listen to this same verse in this version. "The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle; their first words out of the womb are lies. Psalm 58:3 (MSG) Listen to it still in one other translation. "…People are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way." Psalm 58 ...

1391. Milli Vanilli Religion

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... body to produce antibodies that will defend it against future attacks by that very same form of the disease. Well in a strange way, Christianity is a disease against which it is very easy to become inoculated. There are many dead and decaying versions of Christianity that build up people's resistance against the real thing. We have a responsibility as Christians to defend ourselves, our families, our children, and our churches, from "Milli Vanilli" religion. We are to do three specific things as we stand ...

1392. Smooth Out Your Day

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30) Eugene Peterson in his contemporary English version called "The Message" quotes it this way. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do ...

1393. One Step at a Time

Nehemiah 2:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... on which I rode. And I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the Refuse Gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire." (Nehemiah 2: 12-13, NKJV) In my version it says that Nehemiah "viewed the walls." The Hebrew word there means to "closely examine." It was a medical term used by a surgeon to describe an intense examination of a wound. Nehemiah was finding facts. He was fixing his focus. He was doing his homework. The ...

1394. When Nothing Is Sacred

Isaiah 6:1-8

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... American flag. Most of us were brought up to honor the flag and treat it with respect. But in our lifetime we have seen news footage of the flag being burned by Americans protesting various things. In college, I can remember students who wore a small version of the flag as a patch on the seat of their blue jeans. Sunday was once considered a special day, set apart for the purpose of worship, reflection, and restoration. There were so-called "blue laws" that forbade merchants to open on that day. That has ...

1395. Mourning Our Fallen Tormentors

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... prisoners of war in his shameful household. I can barely look back on my sorrowful youth, yet it haunts my every waking moment and makes me a terrible husband, father, and friend.4 Conroy goes on to say the abusive father in The Great Santini is a toned-down version of his real father. When Conroy published that book, his father viewed it as a betrayal of his life, but it also forced the older man to look at how he had been, and he actually made some efforts to change. Conroy says, "I believe my father used ...

1396. April Love

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... that does not make the gift a bad thing. According to a common practice in biblical times, the authorship of this book was attributed to the king, and thus the book is called the Song of Solomon, but it almost certainly was not written by Solomon. Some Bible versions call this book the Song of Songs, which simply means "the best song," and that's an excellent title for a book that celebrates one of God's good gifts to humankind. Love is worth singing about. While I said earlier that we should not feel that ...

1397. Stewards of Power

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... , sullenness, or inefficiency. Passive-aggression is a form of power wielded by the seemingly powerless. Power plays are so much a part of human dynamics that they even happen among schoolchildren. Bullying is one nasty form they take, but there are also milder versions. For example, among children playing together, you'll sometimes hear one say something like, "If we don't play this way, I won't like you anymore." In a life stage where being liked and accepted is important, such a threat is often ...

1398. A Problem Being At Peace

Mark 9:50

Illustration

Brett Blair

... during the last 4,000 years there have been only 268 years of peace. This in spite of thousands of good peace treaties over the centuries. In the last 300 years alone there have been 286 wars on the continent of Europe alone. OR THIS VERSION OF THE SAME FACTS: The Personnel Journal reported this incredible statistic: since the beginning of recorded history, the entire world has been at peace less than eight percent of the time! In its study, the periodical discovered that of 3530 years of recorded history ...

1399. The Bible: Head and Heart

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

... us the ministry to love and care for everybody - the homeless, the poor, those with AIDS, but we say, "Don't make me touch one of them!" We know in our heads, but to know in our hearts is completely different. Jesus was trying to give to them a new version of reality. Jesus was trying to enter into their imagination and help them see a different world. Things did not have to be the way they were. Jesus was trying to help them see a new vision of reality, a new vision of how the world could be because that ...

1400. A New Continuing

John 14:8-17, 25-27

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

... what you're saying, Jesus. How can we possibly make it without you?" Jesus is quick to put all these fears to rest. To reassure them, he promises them that the Father will send them someone in his place. As it's translated in our version this morning, "... he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever" (John 14:16). This word, "Advocate," is translated in many ways, depending on the Bible you look at. Some Bibles call Jesus the Advocate, a Comforter, others a Helper, still others, an Encourager ...

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