Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 126 to 150 of 391 results

126. And God Breathed Into Man

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Chicago, and James B. Connant, then President of Harvard. The discussion dealt with the structure of a university curriculum. The basis for the debate was the recognition that persons in leadership must determine what ideals they would like for their country to adhere to. Human values must be ordered so that some things are judged to be better than others. But, what is the source of the values. Are some values objectively higher than others? Hutchins took the position that some values are objectively higher ...

127. Singing In The Rain

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... like Grandpa." All of that is to introduce the fact that the Christian walk, which we are talking about in this series of sermons, is a joyful walk. Let's forever be done with the notion of a mule-faced, pinch-faced, dark-clouded, droop-shouldered Christianity, whose adherents look as though they had been baptized in lemon juice. Now I know that mere living doesn't always inspire us to employ our heart and soul and senses to express joy. It's not as easy as saying that behind every cloud is a silver lining ...

128. Getting Ourselves Off Our Hands

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... may be open or subtle, worldly or Christianized. It may mean smashing enough faces and brains to wow the world of boxing. It may mean taking over enough companies to wow the corporate world of business. It may mean getting enough church members or adherents to wow the religious world. Or individually, memorizing the most verses, visiting the most shut-ins, teaching the biggest Bible class -- whatever makes the rest say "wow!" "Or ego may mean writhing and seething because you haven't made it to the top: you ...

129. A Church Shaped By The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... incredible to Jews that the Messiah could be crucified and die without restoring the Davidic kingdom to Israel. It was incredible to scientists and medical people who knew that ‘dead men don’t rise’ (hardly a modern discovery). It was incredible to adherents of other religions, for these and a variety of other reasons.” (Howard A. Snyder, Global Good News: Mission in a New Context, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2001, p. 222). In this post-modern age, we must become apostolic in our style and passions ...

130. A Thousand Years Of Ashes

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... priest or minister offers the worshiper an instruction while applying the ashes. Among the traditional instructions is this one: “Remember, man, that you are dust And unto dust you shall return.” This wording comes from Genesis 3:19. In churches that adhere closely to tradition, the ashes that are used in the service are derived from burning the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations. (3) Here’s an important fact: Did you know that Christians have been celebrating this sacred rite ...

131. Dealing With Your Enemies

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... . It is not easy to love our enemies, whether on a personal level or a corporate one. In light of continuing threats to our security, many Americans are having difficulty with their feelings toward followers of Islam. Even though a relatively tiny number of adherents of this ancient religion are involved in acts of terror, our fear might cause us to generalize our hatred to the entire population. And that would be wrong. It is true, of course, that the fundamentalist followers of Mohammad are sometimes very ...

132. We Are Put Right With God By Faith

Romans 3:21-31

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... a burning zeal that the light of your Church may shine bright and clear to illuminate the path for all people to find their way home to your abiding presence. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Heavenly Father, forgive us when we have tried to earn your favor by strict adherence to the letter of your Laws. Create in us clean hearts and pure motives that we, living by faith in you, may show by our words and deeds that we truly love you. Amen. Offertory Prayer Almighty God, we know that rituals are not enough to show ...

133. Fire Falling from Heaven

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... we choose to follow the Christ, we can get in trouble at work. This Gospel can have a negative impact on our friendships. If we take our faith seriously, we can plan on losing enemies because God commands we commit ourselves to turning enemies into friends. Adhering to this faith just might get us thrown in jail. II. The Radical Gospel of Jesus Christ For the most part, this radical edge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been lost. Most who now claim Christianity as their religion understand Christ as the ...

134. Access Denied

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... it that denies us access? Is it the lack of an historical past such as the Jewish people have? Do we, as Gentiles, not have the connection with Abraham that our Jewish brothers and sisters have? Is that what's denying us access? Is it not having a tradition of adhering to the laws that stands in the way of obtaining the grace of God? Perhaps, like the coal miner in the story, we have a hard time believing that grace can come to us so easily if we have not paid some kind of price for it. Therefore, we have ...

135. Coming Home

Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . He was raised in the Church. He was a good Anglican, he became an Anglican priest. He was an Oxford don (a professor at Oxford University, which even in the eighteenth century was the most elite university in the world). He was extremely religious. He adhered to the most fanatical kind of religious discipline even in college, and that's where people looked at him and his friends, and said they are so methodical and disciplined in their life, they called them "Methodists." As a young priest he went to the ...

136. My Precious, My Precious

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... with the needs and wants of the self over all else, usually finds other cultural mind-sets either quaint or downright anachronistic. But putting the community before the individual has been a necessary survival method for most other cultures. The Amish, who still adhere to a strict set of community rules and roles appear ridiculously rigid and out of step with notions of improvement or advancement. But the Amish have eyes fixed firmly on what's best for the community, for the continuation of the Amish way ...

137. The Naked Christian

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... CDs to women's clothing (as well as more traditional marketing spin-offs like cookware and olive oils), Jamie Oliver is almost equally well-loved and well-hated. Yet, despite al the fru-fru and fame that accompanies his cooking show, Oliver still adheres to his 3 naked food principles: 1. Only the best, freshest foods; 2. Enlivened with the barest suggestions of spice and sauce; 3. Prepared with simplicity and speed. The Naked Chef has made fashionable, not to mention tasty, chicken breasts cooked in folded ...

138. Mystery

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... mystery religions into an inclusive term "Gnostic." Gnosis means knowledge in Greek, and it was special, secret gnosis or knowledge that would reveal the ultimate mystery of life's meaning that these groups promised. Followers of gnostic religions often adhered to long, detailed sets of rules, and lived lives governed by strict regulations, in order to prepare themselves, make themselves worthy, of the secret knowledge that they were seeking. Typically only a few specially trained or divinely-chosen members ...

139. Fear Factor

Psalm 25:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in everyday life. Besides now being a part of official government civil defense strategies, duct tape supposed to be good for curing warts, setting broken bones, getting rid of pet hair on clothes and furniture, improvising medieval costumes, fixing broken plumbing, and generally adhering to almost anything. (Strangely enough, the one thing duct tape isn't very good at sticking to/fixing up are actual heating ducts!) But duct tape is not going to save us. "Duck (Duct) and cover" drills won't ever insure our ...

140. Lent 1

Mt 4:1-11, Rom 5:12-21

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... origin of grace—it is a free gift from God. It may take a little effort and illustration to persuade most people that there is real evil in the world, but perhaps the case is worth making. Increasing numbers of mainstream Christians sound like adherents of Christian Science when they say that evil may only appear to be evil because of our limited human perspective. This "new age" thinking is out of line with biblical perspectives that take evil with absolute seriousness. Only when we take sin seriously ...

141. Proper 9

Psalm 45:1-17, Romans 7:7-25, Matthew 11:25-30, Matthew 11:1-19, Genesis 24:1-67

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... in this passage to deal with God's will in an unrestricted sense. Paul declares a shocking truth, namely that sin has the power to dupe humanity into the most hopeless situation. Sin can use genuine devotion to God, specifically strict concern with adherence to the law as an absolutely accurate statement of God's will for humanity, to produce exactly the reverse of our purposes. Duped by sin, humans have an inauthentic relationship to God in the place of the genuine intimacy that they sought and desired ...

142. Changed Lives - Mary Magdalene

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... God would say to us about this story is that you can’t divorce the resurrection from the cross. Many people today are trying to do that. In fact, that is basically what much of the New Age movement is all about, though most of its adherents probably don’t realize it. It is Christianity without the cross. Take the love from Christianity, take the joy from Christianity, take the hope and the magic from Christianity, but leave the cross. Penney Schwab’s grandsons, six-year-old Ryan and four-year-old ...

143. EXEGESIS: 1 Peter 4:12-14; 6:6-11

1 Peter 4:12-19

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Rome in 54 CE, Emperor Nero found the new sect of "Christians" a handy scapegoat for the Empire's problems. Far from being a refuge, a safeguard, a tool to worldly success and prosperity, the new faith known as Christianity was bringing its adherents suffering, torture, even death. 1 Peter's letter directly addresses this dissonance in the every lives of Jesus followers: where the greater their faithfulness, the greater the likelihood hardships and pain. The first set of 1 Peter texts read for this week, 4 ...

144. Building a Successful Life

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... congregation into the faces of some people who have lived by the teachings of Jesus most of their lives who will tell you they have found a rock--the Rock--upon which to build their lives, and they do not have a moment of regret. Their adherence to Christ’s teachings has helped them have healthy bodies, great marriages, loving families and an enduring sense of well-being. It doesn’t always happen, of course. There are forces that can mess with our bodies, mess with our marriages, mess with our children ...

145. Who's In Charge Here

Judges 21:24-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... 000 years ago. The police had become afraid of the criminals. There was no respect for the law. The political process had completely broken down. Guilty criminals were being acquitted because there was no single standard of justice to which everyone adhered. Thirdly, you would have seen social confrontation. Neighborhoods had become war zones. When one person's right becomes another person's wrong, conflict becomes inevitable. God had been totally taken out of the equation. When God goes, anything goes, and ...

146. Thou Shalt Not Judge - True or False?

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... in his brilliant book, The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals, makes this tremendous statement: Those who constantly invoke the sentiment of "who are we to judge?" should consider the anarchy that would ensure if we adhere to this sentiment and say, in, say, our courtrooms. Should judges judge? What would happen if those sitting on a jury decided to be "non-judgmental" about rapists, and sexual harassers, embezzlers, and tax cheats? Without being "judgmental" Americans would ...

147. It Ain't Over Til It's Over

Matthew 5:31-32

Sermon

James Merritt

... embraced Jesus Christ. 87% of the born-again adults divorced after they accepted Christ.7 Two-thirds of Christians surveyed by Barna saw divorce as "A reasonable solution to a problem marriage." But the news gets even worse. The Christian denomination whose adherents have the highest likelihood of getting divorced, are Baptists. Nationally, 29% of all Baptist adults have been divorced. That is even higher than atheists and agnostics who are at 21%. You may or may not realize this, but only two things cause ...

148. A Time for Penance and a Time for Partridge

Ps 100, Col 2:1-7

Sermon

... , if you resist being taught by a Catholic, consider the Hasidic Jews, who are almost off-the-charts when it comes to orthodoxy. To all outward appearances, it would appear that their mood is as black as their suits. But that would be wrong. For even though they pay strict adherence to Torah law and Sabbath ritual, I am told that they have a stated commitment to taking joy in this world as it is….in life in this world as it is….and in every hour of life in this world as it is. Can you and I do that ...

149. A Defiant Response to a Dangerous Theology: Does God Desire to Wipe Us Out?

Gn 6:1-8. 9:6-17

Sermon

... wipe our brows and say: "Praise God" or "Thank you, Jesus," without ever giving a moment's thought as to what, if anything, God or Jesus had to do with it. On Sunday, January 9, the psalm designated by the Common Lectionary (for churches and preachers that adhere to the Common Lectionary) was Psalm 29, verse three of which reads: The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The glory of God thunders upon many waters. Which is followed by verses seven, eight and nine: The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames ...

150. Like a Child

Hebrews 4:1—5:10

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... of Christian service. Caught up in the busyness of doing for Christ we neglect being with Christ. The congregation to which Hebrews was written was wrestling with their Jewish heritage and some persistent voices from within their group that demanded adherence to the Mosaic traditions and Law in addition to the Christian confession. Faith in Jesus is well and good, they declared, but those "good works" insured extra protection from the perils of the journey. No one wishes to discourage Christian service ...

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