Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1526 to 1550 of 4963 results

1526. Heisman In The Hudson

Isaiah 43:16-21

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... only to close the waters in on the chasing chariots of Pharaoh. God reminds them of what he has done in the past, and that seems to be a useful and encouraging thing. After all, might not the miracles of the past engender faith in the present and hope for the future? Surely one of the recurring themes of Moses and the law, of the worship liturgy found in psalms, and of the prescribed holy day celebrations was to encourage the people to remember the past. If they would just recall what God had said and done ...

1527. A Marriage Made In Heaven

Hosea 1:2-10

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... God will preserve a faithful remnant while Judah is held in exile. During the forty years that the people of Judah are in exile, they begin to reconsider their faithlessness to God. The prophet Jeremiah, who goes with them into exile, speaks the word of the Lord, offering hope for another chance to live as God's beloved, as "children of the living God" (Hosea 1:10). The book of Hosea is not a long book, and I would encourage you to read it this week. Chapter 1 will introduce Hosea and Gomer and the three ...

1528. Two Sinners

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... behavior. Even more reprehensible, however, in Christ’s eyes was the smug, self-righteous spirit of the Pharisee. There was very little hope for him because he saw no need for change. The prostitute knew she was missing the mark; Simon was blind to the ... know: We don’t know what we would have done in the same circumstances. (4) Indeed, Christ seems to be indicating there was more hope for the woman than there was for Simon. Christ tells her that her sins are forgiven. Nowhere does he say that Simon’s sin ...

1529. The Church Is the Place

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... could experience a fresh start. What advice would you offer? She received several helpful responses. One person compared her situation with a child who makes a mistake. The writer claims that a parent does not stop loving a child because the child messed up. Hopefully the child learns from their mistake. Another person wanted to assure Nana that God still loves her. She was reminded that the church is a place for sinners, “no one there has the right to judge you,” the person wrote so, “hold your head ...

1530. On the Road with Jesus

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

David O. Bales

... the family on the ranch. Lorena realizes almost instantly that she’s offered a normal life. No matter how attached and hopeful she is about the man she’s traveling with, Lorena chooses to stay. A genuinely compassionate and concerned person meets ... us to come to him, all of us who are weary and overburdened. He comes to all kinds of people, those who are fresh out of hope or faith, those who are grieving, or those who are too shocked yet to grieve. And with the slightest response from us he’ll take us ...

1531. A New Name for a New Year

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... realize that perhaps with a little help and trust from you they could be different. Give people a chance to begin over again with you. You and I are to forgive those who have sinned against us. If we cannot even forgive each other, how can we ever hope to experience the unconditional love and forgiveness of God? When we call other people names it influences their identity and their future. We are to speak the name that God would speak to them. God wants something better for us in this New Year than we have ...

1532. Fear of Missing Out

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... saying. You move beyond the past and move forward, first in Safe Mode, then in Real Mode. God’s mission in the world gives us hope to Move Beyond our fears. Move out of the past and move over the past. Move Beyond, and Move On. Into the Future Where ... that he had bought a ticket which would treat him like a king. Let’s end this morning with a prayer, written by Emily Hope Morgan, that calls us to a good “FOMO” as we hunger and thirst for deeper and wider manifestations of “The Good Life” God has ...

1533. Pastor, Don't Talk About That!

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... Cinderella Man takes place in the middle of the Great Depression. Long lines of men stand outside factories and plants and dock gates hoping against hope to be picked to work that day. One day James comes home from a fruitless search for work to find that his ... filled with abuse. Nail it to this whole mass of damnation, which is our world: ‘we weren’t meant for this.’” (10) I hope that each of us will take that as our motto whenever we are tempted to betray our values, “We weren’t meant for this ...

1534. The Parable of the Careless Farmer

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... Or do we have receptive hearts prepared to go where God wants us to go? God wants to plant a seed in your life. Is the soil ready? “There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody; There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me. From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.” (5) 1. http://www.preaching.com/sermons/11563705/. 2. Roy O. McClain, This Way Please (Westwood, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co ...

1535. Odd Ducks in a Rubber-Ducky World

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... live differently. As Jesus put it to his disciples one day who weren’t being odd enough, “What do you more than others?” (Matthew 5:47). We live focused towards a future that the rest of the world longs for. We live with resurrection faith and hope, not monetary heap-it-up urges or emotional pile-it-higher-and-deeper surges. We live odd lives with odd beliefs and odd dreams, odd ducks in a rubber-ducky world. In Paul’s words to the first century’s first generation of the faithful in Thessalonia ...

1536. The Reject

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... blonde with a sweet personality, great ambition, and a seemingly bright future. Tragically she became another suicide victim. She killed herself after more than 200 unsuccessful job applications. She had dreamed of a career as a teacher or a television producer, but gave up hope for the future. A day after her 200th rejection, she wrote heartbreaking notes to her parents and boyfriend saying 'I don't want to be me any more' and took a huge drug overdose and died. She could no longer live with the thought ...

1537. Hamburgers Don't Grow on Trees

Mark 4:26-29, Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... the truest words of any song ever written are these, “This is my Father’s world, O let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” God is at work in the world. The attitude of the believer should always be hopefulness--not because of what human beings may do, but because of God’s plan for the world. The Kingdom of God is coming. God will prevail. This brings us to the final thing to be said: Let’s make certain we are on the winning side. We certainly don’t ...

1538. Discipleship: Backward or Forward to God

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... Jesus couldn't go home again – home to the people he loved and knew; home to the familiar streets, smells, and sights; home to the synagogue where he learned to read and write and began to memorize the sacred scriptures. There was a sense in which he had hoped to go back to God. Tragically and importantly, he learned that the way to God is usually forward, not backward. I. Perhaps that was what Jesus meant when he told the scribe that the foxes have holes and the birds have nests but the Son of Man has ...

1539. How to Get the Job Done

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... 'm elected.'" Jesus made promises, but not like that. Was Jesus, 2,000 years ago, promising something better? Indeed he was. He said he came to bring in the kingdom of God, the rule of God's righteousness in the world. For 900 years Jews had been hoping for a restoration of the glorious kingdom of David and Solomon. For 500 years they had been longing for an end to foreign tyranny and a return to prosperity and freedom. In Jesus' time, the longings and expectations were at an all-time high. For Jews of that ...

1540. Accusations

2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... 3; Zechariah 12–14). Paul takes over the Jewish concept of the day of the Lord, including the twin themes of eschatological salvation and future judgment (cf. 1 Thess. 5:2; 1 Cor. 1:8; 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14). However, he creatively integrates this OT hope with his own Christology, effectively transforming the day of the Lord (kyrios = Yahweh) into the day of the Lord Jesus (e.g., Phil. 1:6; 2:16). This corresponds with Paul’s concept that the resurrected and exalted Christ, who has now sat down at the right ...

1541. Body / Ambassador

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... not compromising, situation. Instead, Paul appeals to what they already know in their consciences about him as the basis for commending him. In this way, Paul wants to give them an opportunity to take pride (lit., “boast”) in him. In 1:14, Paul has already stated his hope that in the day of the Lord Jesus the Corinthians can boast of Paul just as he will boast of them. Paul seeks to avoid every appearance of boasting in himself and in his own accomplishments (cf. 1 Cor. 9:16; 2 Cor. 12:5), although he ...

1542. The Law and the Promise

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

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... the fulfillment of God’s promise. Paul refers to the Spirit also when speaking positively about the character of the Christian life. The Spirit is in the hearts of believers (4:6); the Spirit accompanies, encourages, and undergirds our faith as we wait for the hope of righteousness (5:5). In fact, the Spirit is the life and guide of the Christian (5:25). 3:3–5 Paul asserts that the Galatian believers have continued confirmation that God is at work among them apart from their following the law. The one ...

1543. Thanksgiving and Prayer

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... thanksgiving each refer to two of the three traditional Christian graces (see disc. on 1 Thess. 1:3). Only the word “hope” is omitted; nonetheless, the theme of the Parousia, which lies at the center of the Christian hope, pervades the letter, while the “endurance inspired by hope,” mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, is the subject of the next verse. Thus the thought of hope, if not the actual word, belongs to this thanksgiving. Paul offers thanksgiving for their faith, because your faith is growing ...

1544. Encouragement to Be Faithful

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... the rest by its two-sided appeal: not to be ashamed of Christ or of Paul his prisoner but, on the contrary, to be ready to join with Paul in the present suffering. The basis for such an appeal is grounded in the gospel of Christ, who has given us hope by his abolition of death and revelation of life and immortality (vv. 9–10). Thus, do not be ashamed of Christ (v. 8a). Then he reminds Timothy of his (Paul’s) own ministry, as one who is not ashamed to suffer for Christ, because God can be fully trusted ...

1545. A Workman Approved by God

2 Timothy 2:14-26

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... both vv. 14 and 16 have to do with the teachings, as does the wickedness (or “evil”) in v. 19b. So also do the imperatives in the paragraph that follow, and in this instance Timothy is even to try to “instruct” his opponents in hopes of winning them back—which is especially difficult if v. 21 is seen as a kind of excommunication of them. The full images get considerably stretched in either case. Timothy’s Responsibilities in Light of the False Teachers The commands introducing this section flow ...

1546. The Israelites Confess their Sins

Nehemiah 9:1-37

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... prayer finds further divine goodness in Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, the gift of the good Torah, and provision in the wilderness on the way to the promised land. God’s positive response to Israel’s cry (v. 9) as they suffered offered a ray of hope for the Levites crying on behalf of the people (“cried,” v. 4, NRSV; Heb. zaʿaq in both cases). 9:16–25 The rest of the Torah’s story, as presented in the prayer, does not (yet) follow the prophetic pattern of sin (shockingly following divine ...

1547. Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 11:1-31

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

... n wayyābōʾ qālôn that is almost impossible to produce in English. The REB has, “When pride comes in, in comes contempt.” 11:3 Read the Qere in v. 3b, “[it] destroys them.” 11:7 The LXX translates: “When the righteous person dies, hope does not vanish / and the presumption of the wicked is destroyed.” Any translation of v. 7 remains uncertain. 11:15 There is a noteworthy alliteration in v. 15a: the Hb. letters rêš (four times) and ʿayin (three times). In v. 15b, subject and predicate are ...

1548. People Who Are Down on Themselves

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

King Duncan

... Manhattan. Every morning this pastor would have breakfast at a little downtown diner. And every morning, he would see the same crowd who also started their day at the diner. One day, the pastor walked into the diner and introduced himself to the crowd, hoping to create a friendlier atmosphere in the place. It worked. Barriers were broken down. People began conversing with strangers. It worked for everyone but the owner. All he would reveal of himself was his name, Harry. A few weeks passed, and as all the ...

1549. A Mystifying Question

Luke 6:39-49

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... to do the right thing, don't we? Sometimes we goof. None of us is perfect, but if we love Jesus we try to be the kind of person he would want us to be, don't we? I hope we all do. I hope that we always try to do what we know we ought to do. I hope we always try to love other people like Jesus loved other people. I hope we try to live so that he will never have to ask us that sad, sad question, "Why do you call me Lord, and not do what I tell you."

1550. The Healing at the Pool

John 5:1-15, John 5:16-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... are future. These are clearly set forth in verses 28–29: At the end of the age there will be a resurrection of all who have ever died, either to life with God, or to judgment (i.e., condemnation). Even though this twofold resurrection was a common Jewish hope (at least among the Pharisees, Acts 23:6; 24:15), Jesus suggests that it will be a cause for amazement (vv. 20, 28) because God will accomplish these “greater works” through his Son, who is also Son of Man (v. 27). But if the God of creation is ...

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