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Showing 126 to 150 of 2404 results

126. Be Reconciled — To Christ and Others

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... wayward son realized that he needed to be forgiven, by himself and by others. Similarly, Jesus' arms are outstretched on the cross as a sign of his welcome of us when we have strayed off the path that leads to life. All that is necessary to achieve this reconciliation is for us to ask. The final step in the process of reconciliation might not seem obvious. God has pursued us and we have found reconciliation within ourselves, with others, and with God. One thing more is required, however; we need to look to ...

127. Good News about Ambition

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... lesson that we learn is that Jesus did not condemn James and John for their ambition. Jesus wants his followers to seek after greatness. Why would we ever think that Jesus wants his people living mediocre lives? Set your course, whatever it might be, on achieving stardom. I hope every young person knows the story of Booker T. Washington. Washington was born in 1856 on the Burroughs tobacco farm in southern Virginia. His mother was a cook, his father a white man from a nearby farm. He went to school not ...

128. John the Baptist: Parable and Prophet

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... was not one intentional foul. He closed the article with these words. “Matched on that yardstick, the athletes in the real Olympics will be an inferior lot. It is no trick to win the long jump when you’ve got two legs and neither one is metal. It’s no achievement to win a mile when you can see which way to go. It is no honor to win the 440 when a fellow athlete stumbles and falls and you don’t stop to pick him up.” Listen friends, there is nothing wrong with ambition, but if it blinds you to ...

129. Climbing the Right Ladder

Genesis 28:10-19a

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... grasped the notion of the blessing that is his. In reality, God comes to him anyway. Here the Lord builds a ladder all the way to Jacob. The Bible says, “The Lord stood beside him.” The Bible never gets better than this. When the Lord comes, Jacob moves from achieving to receiving. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the ...

130. Righting Wrong

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Larry Lange

... to Jim's repudiation of his congregation that is similar to the repudiation of the gospel among some of Paul's brothers and sisters among the people of Israel. How is it possible, some of the religious leaders of the people of Israel argued, to achieve righteousness apart from doing the works prescribed by the law? How is it possible to associate with people who fall so far short of the law: lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, Gentiles? How is it possible, Jim argued, to associate with people who seemed to ...

131. Dream Power

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , perhaps you were enticed to sleepwalk along some easy path rather than follow the divine dreams of a loving God. If the church is to be a DreamScapes (notice I didn’t say “DreamWorks” since God’s dream is a gift that is received not a work that is achieved), DreamScapers should be sure of three things: 1) We must make sure we are following God’s Dream and not the dream of some of the god. God’s Dream for the world is not the American dream. It is not the celebrity dream. It is not the Idol ...

132. The Need for Transformation

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... Dream." As the last echo of the song dies away, someone shouts to her, "Aldonza!" She proudly responds, "My name is Dulcinea." The crazy knight's love has transformed her. Like Aldonza, we need to be transformed to a better appreciation of ourselves. We can achieve this by appreciating our self-worth, made as we are in the image and likeness of God. Certainly transformation also requires us to change and to be the people God calls us or wants us to be. This may mean changing a few bad habits, transforming ...

133. Samuel Was the Search Committee

1 Samuel 15:34-35, 16:1-13

Sermon

William J. Carl, III

... be able to fool ourselves for a while. But we can never fool God. Why? Because the Lord looks not on outward appearance or achievement. The Lord looks on the heart. Walk your way through the Bible and you will see. Here is Moses who got tongue-tied every ... woman at the well and Peter and James and John. Just as with David and you and me, the Lord looks not on outward appearance or achievement; the Lord looks on the heart. "You've got to have heart to play on this team, boy," says Bear Bryant. "I don't care ...

134. Passing Shadows

Illustration

Staff

... scholar, as an example. Martyn, a Cambridge University student, was honored at only 20 years of age for his achievements in mathematics. In fact, he was given the highest recognition possible in that field. And yet he felt an emptiness inside. He said ... that instead of finding fulfillment in his achievements, he had "only grasped a shadow." After evaluating his life's goals, Martyn sailed to India as a missionary at the age ...

135. Don’t Get Into Things!

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... super‑heroes proved their “super‑ness” by using their own unique powers to overcome the forces of evil and destruction. In “The Avengers” not one of these chosen heroes are enough on their own. They MUST work together as a team in order to achieve save the world. A uniting force must drive them and bind them to work together so that they might succeed. After Pentecost the disciples, the “chosen twelve,” and the 120 of the other faithful, and all those who were to come, were joined together ...

136. Blind Ambition

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... then that Wanda Webb Holloway became nationally known as the “Texas-Cheerleader-Murdering-Mom” and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The school principal, James M. Barker explained it this way, “After all, it’s the American way. We all want our children to achieve. There is a part of Wanda Holloway in all of us.” That’s probably true, but, hopefully, Ms. Holloway is an extreme example. James and John, the disciples of Jesus, are more typical of you and me. James and John had dreams. They had ...

137. Teammates in Building The Kingdom

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... work together to accomplish great goals. We are not solo operators in the world; we need each other. While we may be different and possess varied talents, in this case some to run with the ball and others to block and run interference, all are needed to achieve the desired common end. In a similar way, Saint Paul uses the famous image of the body to demonstrate that while we are different in many ways, possessive of various gifts and talents, we must be united as the body of Christ in our common effort to ...

138. Worthy of Your Call

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

Worthy of your call. That is Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians; that they would be worthy of God's call (1:11). It is one thing to have low expectations, something that would take little effort to achieve. But in chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians, we have a sense that God has larger aspirations for these young Christians — and so does Paul. You have a sense that through all the persecution and affliction that they have suffered (1:4), Paul envisions a God-sized dream for them. What ...

139. The Ark Brought to the Temple

2 Chronicles 5:2-6:11

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... did the carrying. This translation represents another minute change that the Chronicler made to his source text, which reads “priests and Levites.” By identifying the priests who helped with the carrying as being of Levitical lineage, the Chronicler achieved his goal of highlighting the role of the Levites without omitting the priests from the occasion altogether. The addition in 5:11 of “regardless of their divisions” therefore also indicates that both priests and Levites had consecrated themselves ...

140. Amaziah King of Judah

2 Chronicles 25:1-28

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... version another ten thousand Edomites who were captured alive and thrown off a cliff to dash them to pieces (25:12). This further elaboration ensured that the reader would be impressed by the dramatic victory that a relatively small Judahite army could achieve. 25:13 This verse, which is part of the Chronicler’s own material, forms an interlude in the description of the Edomite excursion. It presents the reader with some background information about what happened to those troops that Amaziah had sent back ...

141. The Apostles Persecuted

Acts 5:17-42

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... prisons or bonds, since God’s arm is strong enough to burst the locks of prison doors” (J. Jeremias, TDNT, vol. 3, p. 176). More than this we cannot say, except to add that the objection to any theory of divine intervention on the grounds that nothing was achieved by it is entirely unwarranted. To the apostles it must have brought great encouragement at a time when they needed it most. And had the Sadducees eyes to see it, it might also have shown them how useless it was to try to stem the tide of the ...

142. The Law and the Promise

Galatians 3:15-25, Galatians 3:1-14

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... law in a general sense to be that which reflected justice. As Aristotle says, “ ‘The just’ therefore means that which is lawful or that which is equal and fair” (Eth. nic. 5.1.8 [Rackham, LCL]). Law was a way of measuring and achieving justice. By broadening the field to speak about law in general Paul asserts that the Galatians have already followed the law. This is an effective rhetorical strategy, for the conclusion is plain that through believing in Christ crucified (cf. 3:1), the Galatians ...

143. The Living Stone and a Chosen People

1 Peter 2:4-12

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... 20) of the precious (timios) blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:19). They are his and are due to share both in the family inheritance (1:4) and in the divine family likeness. To be sure, the honor is due not to any individual’s status, worthiness, or achievements, but it is solely the consequence of being made a member of God’s family through Jesus Christ. That is the glorious prospect of you who believe. But to those who do not believe, the outlook, if they continue on that slope of unbelief, is perilous in the ...

144. Living for God

1 Peter 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... their labors is due to the effectiveness of divine resources rather than to any innate abilities, then they will see that the praise is addressed to the one to whom it is due, to God. The employment of gifts in service is not to promote any pride in human achievement (1 Cor. 4:7), but to further God’s glory through Jesus Christ. Peter brings the thought back yet again to his Lord, who is at the heart of every Christian life and whose glory is the object of all Christian work. The sounding out of a paean ...

145. The Lord Commands Joshua

Joshua 1:1-18

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... toward the potential gift, the Fertile Crescent, the part of the Middle East that reaches across the northern Syrian Desert and extends from the Nile Valley to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The tribes will need to wait until the reign of David to achieve anything near to those borders. God’s promise of land becomes the challenge for subsequent generations. This gift will be won on the field of conflict, for God directs Joshua to attack enemy forces and to expect victory through God’s support. God ...

146. The Lord’s Anger Against Nineveh

Nahum 1:1-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... that Yahweh had sent him to destroy Judah (Isa. 36:10). Nahum puts on the lips of Yahweh’s foes an equivalent theological statement: they say Yahweh is bringing about a total destruction of Judean strength, of the kind Sennacherib tried to effect, and almost achieved. It will be one that will thus mean trouble will not come a second time. There will be a final solution to the Judean problem. Assyria will not have to come to deal with trouble in Judah or bring trouble to Judah again. The irony ...

147. Pressing on Toward the Goal

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... behind is that part of the race that has been completed so far, but it will not help a runner to outstrip the others for the first nine-tenths of the way only to falter and be overtaken in the last lap. When Paul did contemplate what he had achieved in apostolic service, it was only to reinforce his resolution to go on as he had begun. When he recorded the completion of his ministry “from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum,” it was to announce his plan to travel to Spain and repeat in the western ...

148. The Table of Nations

Genesis 10:1-32

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... be a multitude of nations as a result of his blessing Noah and his sons (9:1, 7). Later God would elect one nation from Shem’s line. That election, however, is the means by which God’s blessing would reach all tribes and peoples. Whatever God achieves for and through his people has merit for all the peoples, since God’s people are an integral part of the fabric of all nations. Reference to Noah’s sons frames the table (vv. 1, 32). The three lists of peoples coming from these sons occur in inverted ...

149. The Three Visitors

Genesis 18:1-15

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... been told what was to take place (ch. 17), God honored Sarah by informing her that she was to become the matriarch in the fulfillment of God’s original promise to Abraham. God valued Sarah’s person as much as Abraham’s, working through both in order to achieve the promises. This was evident earlier in God’s giving each of them a new name. In God’s eyes they were equally essential in order for him to bring blessing to the earth. We need to keep the honor and role of the matriarch before us in ...

150. The Suffering and Glory of the Servant

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... . Our puzzlement at the picture partly reflects the fact that “description” is too prosaic a word for it. What we have here is a vision. Admittedly any job description is a vision, a vision of what someone hopes and longs and believes needs to be achieved and could be achieved if the Archangel Gabriel applied for the post. It is also a vision in the more traditional sense. With the inner eye the prophet has seen something. A picture has come into the prophet’s mind. It is a static scene, but a scene ...

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