Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1501 to 1525 of 4977 results

1501. Realizing the True Nature of Jesus the Christ

Mark 8:27-30

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Grant R. Osborne

... most likely wants privacy with his disciples as he begins his final journey. 8:28 Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets. Clearly, the disciples all along have been wrestling with Jesus’s true identity and were quite confused. They had seen example after example of his authority, both in word and deed. Jesus had promised to reveal to them the mysteries of God (4:11a) and had told them parables about the kingdom that he was inaugurating (chap. 4). Still, they ...

1502. Jesus Proclaims Judgment on the Temple and the Nation

Mark 13:1-31

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Grant R. Osborne

... , posting the fastest time in the first round and winning his quarter-final race. With just 250 yards remaining in his semifinal heat, Redmond’s hamstring tore. He hobbled and then fell to the ground in pain. Stretcher-bearers came to get him, but Redmond refused to quit. He had begun to hobble on one leg to the finish line when his father came out of the stands to help his son. Together they finished to a standing ovation from sixty-five thousand spectators. No matter what we face, the Lord wants us to ...

1503. The Birth of God’s Son Announced

Luke 1:26-38

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R.T. France

... about Luke’s meaning. The point is underlined when Gabriel compares Mary’s situation with Elizabeth’s pregnancy despite her known sterility (1:36): this is to be a supernatural birth. Matthew 1:18–25 makes the same point no less explicitly though quite independently. Whatever the problems raised for modern genetics, these two Gospels insist that Jesus did not have a human father. Joseph, a descendant of David. Joseph plays a minor role in Luke’s birth narrative (he will be mentioned by name again ...

1504. True and False Discipleship

Luke 6:46-49, Luke 6:43-45, Luke 6:37-42

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R.T. France

... 6:43–49 (“bears [fruit]” twice in 6:43 is the same word in Greek). There is scope here not only for examining others but also for disciples to test their own performance. Those who discern a speck of dust in someone else’s eye may be quite unaware that they have a plank in their own. Jesus’s teaching in this sermon, then, is probing and discomforting. It keeps before us the two possibilities of being saved and being lost, and it invites those who hear it to apply that distinction not only to other ...

1505. Ready for the Kingdom of God?

Luke 13:31-35, Luke 13:22-30, Luke 13:18-21

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R.T. France

... of those few who had specifically forfeited their place through rebellion and unbelief. The idea of only a few finding the way to salvation (13:22–27) and of Gentiles coming in to replace Jews (13:28–29) was therefore by now a quite subversive notion. The geographical sequence of Luke’s journey narrative is unclear, but Jesus’s eventual approach to Jerusalem by way of Jericho indicates that he, like most Galilean pilgrims, traveled down the east side of the Jordan to avoid going through Samaritan ...

1506. The Trials of Peter and of Jesus

Luke 22:66--23:25, Luke 22:63-65, Luke 22:54-62

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R.T. France

... 22:69. Jesus has not called himself “Son of God” publicly, though the title is at least implied in his parable in 20:9–18, but Judas may have briefed them on such private declarations as 10:22. You say that I am. This reply is positive, without being quite straightforward, as in 23:3 (cf. Matt. 26:64; 27:11; Mark 15:2). It should probably be taken as a “Yes, but . . .”: Jesus accepts the words that they have used, but not the meaning that they might read into them. 22:71 Why do we need any more ...

1507. Unity and Community (Part 1)

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

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Preben Vang

... belong to Christ (Rom. 8:9). It is far from certain, however, that Jesus is the object of the curse. If the Corinthian believers time and again tried to find room for their pagan (or cultural) practices within the Christ community (see chap. 11), it is quite likely they also tried to continue their pagan practice of cursing their opponents. The “Christian” change from their pagan days was that they now cursed in the name of Jesus, who had more power than any of their former gods (cf. 1 Pet. 3:19). Jesus ...

1508. Last Encouragement and Final Greeting

1 Corinthians 16:19-24, 1 Corinthians 16:5-18

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Preben Vang

... farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:13–38. Christian faith is a call for all seasons of life; early retirement from our labor is never an option. Quote: Oliver Wendell Holmes. Holmes once said, “Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” The same is true of believers when it comes to their calling and vocation: elderly Christians do not retreat from their mission and purpose in the kingdom because they are tired and depressed; they become tired and ...

1509. Making a Successful Future

Numbers 34:1-29

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Joe M. Sprinkle

... was being determined by his actions in the present: “We had the wild drunken weekend and it was no different from any other weekend,” Laura Bush said of the trip the couple took with friends to Colorado Springs in 1986. “George just woke up and he knew he wanted to quit,” she said. “And he stopped and he was able to stop. A lot of people can’t. A lot of people need help to stop. He just stopped cold turkey.” In the book, she wrote: “I was not going to leave George and I wasn’t going to let ...

1510. “In Peace I Will Lie Down and Sleep”

Psalm 4:1-8

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C. Hassell Bullock

... 3:19.2The phrase “with stringed instruments” (bineginot) appears in the titles of Psalms 4; 6; 54; 55; 67; and 76, with a variant form in Psalm 61. The noun derives from the verb ngn, which means to play a stringed instrument (1 Sam. 16:16). Quite certainly this term means that the psalm was to be recited or sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments.3 4:1 my righteous God. Give me relief. The phrase “my righteous God” means that God is the standard of righteousness, the supporter of the ...

1511. “You Are Not a God Who Is Pleased with Wickedness”

Psalm 5:1-12

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C. Hassell Bullock

... tsinnah), compared with the small one (magen; e.g., Pss. 3:3; 7:10).3 Theological Insights The path to righteousness is often engineered in the crucible of suffering—in this case, unjust suffering. While the psalmist does not concentrate on the justice of God, he is quite aware that God has an ear and a heart for justice. That is the reason he can pray that the Lord will declare the evil persons guilty and leave them to fall by their own devices (5:10). Western thinkers are able to separate one’s person ...

1512. “When I Awake, I Will Be Satisfied with Seeing Your Likeness”

Psalm 17:1-15

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C. Hassell Bullock

... in Proverbs 4:14 (NIV: “walk”). The Hebrew verb for “held” (tmk) is an infinitive absolute used in place of the first common singular (“I have held fast”).[11] Calvin understands “your paths” to be a metaphor for the law,[12] which is quite possible, especially since the ninth commandment (“you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor,” Exod. 20:16) seems to stand behind the psalm. 17:6 my God. As in Psalm 16:1, the divine name is ’el, the abbreviated form of ’elohim ...

1513. “Taste and See That the Lord Is Good”

Psalm 34:1-22

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C. Hassell Bullock

... said everything necessary until they have petitioned or affirmed Yahweh’s redemption of Israel. Regarding the consonant waw, it is quite possible at this stage of the development of the Hebrew language that it had not yet taken its place as ... says, “Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh,” says Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “Safe?” says Mr. Beaver. “Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’ ...

1514. “May the Net They Hid Entangle Them”

Psalm 35:1-28

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C. Hassell Bullock

... him.” One of the tragedies of the secularization of the church is that our spiritual brain has sometimes lost its capacity to handle the inverted image that is cast by a sinful world upon the retina of our spiritual eye. The psalmist’s ocular capabilities were quite excellent, and he insists that the world, turned upside down (35:12), is one that he has envisioned turned right-side up (35:13), and one that the Lord himself intends to turn right-side up (35:27). Evil for good and good for evil Applying ...

1515. “Blessed Are Those Who Have Regard for the Weak; the Lord Delivers Them”

Psalm 41:1-13

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C. Hassell Bullock

... my heart” (40:8). In fact, it is not sacrifice that God wants but doing his will, which is contained in the Torah, which is in the suppliant’s heart (40:6–8), and in which the psalmist delights (1:2). Second, Psalms 40 and 41 quite appropriately compile a summary of the struggles and sentiments of David represented in Book 1, presenting David as the prototype of the righteous man. David indeed is the “blessed” person who “has regard for the weak” (41:1). As already observed, this ideal profile ...

1516. “Within Your Temple, O God, We Meditate on Your Unfailing Love”

Psalm 48:1-14

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C. Hassell Bullock

... your unfailing love.” Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1942–44) expressed the essence of this statement on worship in an address he made to the people of the United States: I am disposed to begin by making what many people will feel to be a quite outrageous statement. This world can be saved from political chaos and collapse by one thing only, and that is worship. For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination ...

1517. “No One Can Redeem the Life of Another or Give to God a Ransom for Them”

Psalm 49:1-20

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C. Hassell Bullock

... of those who have foolish confidence, the end of those who are pleased with their portion.” Then follows the description of death in 49:14. 49:14 death will be their shepherd (but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).This verse forms quite a contrast to Psalm 23, where the Lord is the psalmist’s Shepherd and leads him safely through the “valley of the shadow of death” (23:4; see NIV footnote)! Here death conducts the psalmist to the other world or in the other world. Kidner points ...

1518. “Why Do You Boast of Evil, You Mighty Hero?”

Psalm 52:1-9

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C. Hassell Bullock

... in its effect and has the power to shape us into its foul image. Thankfully the righteous, faced with the powerful and wealthy, are encouraged by the hope of divine intervention. While the suppliant is very much conscious of the power of evil, he is also quite aware that his trust in God has made him like an “olive tree flourishing in the house of God” (52:8)—that is the contrast between him and the evil person he indicts. In this confidence, the psalmist can write that person’s epitaph in those ...

1519. “I Will Praise Your Name, Lord, for It Is Good”

Psalm 54:1-7

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C. Hassell Bullock

... God is my help. Here the psalmist introduces the underlying reason that generates his request: God is his helper. It is a turning point in the psalm, with selah (see NIV footnote) at the end of verse 3 probably alerting the reader to the change. While it is quite possible that selah was not original to the text of the Psalms but was a later liturgical note, this is one place where the term indicates a change in the tone of the psalm.3 54:5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness ...

1520. “Your Love Is Better Than Life”

Psalm 63:1-11

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C. Hassell Bullock

... about by those who want to kill him (63:9), has caused him all the more to “thirst” for God (cf. 42:1). Furthermore, the hardship created by their murderous and lying designs has resulted not in his destruction but in the praise of God; and quite contrary to his enemies’ intentions, it has resulted in their own destruction—a boomerang effect. At the same time, the psalmist’s experience in the sanctuary, where he has gazed on God’s power and glory (63:2), has taught him the real value of God ...

1521. “They Will Proclaim the Works of God and Ponder What He Has Done”

Psalm 64:1-10

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C. Hassell Bullock

... pictures of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, an “archer” shooting arrows at his enemies (64:7). Some would say that is not a worthy picture of God. Admittedly, it is pretty bold. However, there is a perspective on this picture of God as “archer” that is quite reassuring. It gives us a picture of God entering the fray of human conflict. When the psalmist is threatened by evildoers who use their tongues as weapons against him, he has the assurance that he is not in the battle by himself: God is there ...

1522. “Endow the King with Your Justice, O God”

Psalm 72:1-20

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C. Hassell Bullock

... definitely arises out of Israel’s monarchy. If it is written by David for Solomon, as we have suggested, then it probably comes toward the end of David’s reign in the first half of the tenth century BC. The hopes in the psalm expressed for Solomon’s reign are quite in keeping with the historical data of the book of 1 Kings. His reign was one of prosperity and peace (Ps. 72:3–7, 16; 1 Kings 4:21b–23, 26–28), and his realm extended all the way from the Euphrates River to the border of Egypt (Ps ...

1523. How to Deal with Demons

Matthew 12:38-50

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . The Devil almost succeeded in undermining Kagawa’s soul, when discouragement and despair clouded his vision and he was ready to quit. Kagawa wrote: One month in the slums And I am sad, So sad I seem devil-possessed, Or mad… Sweet Heaven ... hell; The careless earth Rings no alarm bell Is there no way That help can come? But Kagawa resisted the Devil’s temptation to quit, to give up, to compromise his commitment. And later this Christian saint wrote: Unless thou lead me, Lord, The road I journey on is ...

1524. How to Escape Being Possessed By Our Possessions

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to misplace values and put self in the center of things. II. Now, some questions – questions that will give us perspective as we seek to escape being possessed by our possessions. The first question: Where do I place my security? Our Lord is quite explicit about the reason why he regarded the possession of wealth as undesirable. To possess wealth gives a man a false sense of security. Jesus spoke of the “deceitfulness of riches” (Matt. 13:22). When a man possesses riches, he’s deceived about his ...

1525. Unnoticed at Your Own Party

Isaiah 35:1-10, Matthew 11:2-11, James 5:7-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... world. And he’s available to us all. All we have to do is to accept him as our own. A woman once told the esteemed pastor Lloyd John Ogilvie about a conflict between her husband and her son over a piece of property. The land, which was quite valuable, had been placed in the father’s will for the boy, but he wanted it now. When his father resisted his demands, the son simply broke off the relationship. He seldom came home for a visit. One Christmas his mother did convince the young man to spend Christmas ...

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