Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1576 to 1600 of 3099 results

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... all of us to the riches of His Kingdom. We may be passing through difficult times -- we may think there's no escape -- but there's going to be a great getting-up morning -- again to use the words of the Negro spiritual -- a great getting-up morning, and loyal subjects of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords will be welcomed into the Kingdom of God. And will have a position as exalted as any other person. James is telling us that even though we may be poor -- we can be rich -- rich in the things that ...

1577. What Is Your Life?

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... do we live as though we know it. In our scripture lesson, James emphasizes the truth that a life of faith is one of daily dependence on the Lord. Our day to day planning must always be made with the awareness that our minutes, our hours, and our days are subject to the will of the Lord. He describes our life as "a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." And then he adds that our attitude at all times must be "if the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that" (4:15 ...

1578. Prepare The Way Of The Lord

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... resurrection of our Lord, and the time of his Return. I. First, we prepare the way of the Lord, by being hopeful. The prophet Isaiah was expressing that hope. The night of Israel had been a long and dark one. They had been in and out of slavery, subjected to the tough rule of foreign powers. They had lost their way, and though not now wandering in an literal wilderness, they were in the wilderness of despair. So, Isaiah speaks to them. Listen to him: A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the ...

1579. He Comes As He Came

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... it doesn't set well in the minds of folks, who for at least a half century, have been schooled in moral relativism, and the notion that what is right and good can be settled by popular vote. But the church is not a democracy. It can never be subject to majority rule. The authority of the church and moral decision comes not from the consent of the governed, but from Christ, its Head, who rules through Scripture and the Holy Spirit. And Christ comes to us in the world as he came to Jerusalem in judgment. The ...

1580. How Is It With Your Soul?

Luke 6:37-42

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Somewhere along the way I read a piece entitled "What is a Person" written by a little boy in West Virginia who was asked to write an essay on that subject. This is what he wrote. "When you are a person...your head is kind of round and hard and your brains are in it and your hair is on it. Your face is in the front of your head where you eat and make faces. Your neck is what keeps ...

1581. The Road Less Traveled

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that we must strive, or agonize to get through the narrow door. This is the agony of the soul and the spirit. “The narrow way is very demanding. A scholar must “scorn the lights, and live laborious days” says Milton. An athlete must avoid rich food, and subject themselves to rigorous discipline. An artist must give weary hours and days to practice. A saint must pray and pray, and then deny the self so as to be able to live the prayer that they are praying. “For Jesus, the door was as narrow as the ...

1582. Gratitude Takes Practice

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... contagious and sinful one would not want to have anything to do with them. So lepers were segregated in the society, pushed into little colonies where they all lived together in anguishing isolation. When they came into the presence of others, they were subject to diminishing themselves even more in a cruel way. By law they had to announce their own uncleanness. So they would shout as they would approach others, "Unclean! Unclean!" Our story is full of lessons for us "clean" folks. One of the big lessons ...

1583. When Being Good Is Bad For You Or Breaking The Chains Of Co-dependency

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , there is a sense in which we are set up for it by Christian teaching. Co-dependents are people who have to "take care" of others; but the "taking care" has a sick quality to it. Melody Beattie has written three classic books on this subject: Co-Dependent No More, Beyond Co-Dependency and Getting Better All The Time, and Co-dependents Guide to the Twelve Steps. She defines co-dependency as "being affected by someone else's behavior and obsessed with controlling it." Do you see the possibility? Being good ...

1584. The Cross Question: Am I Not To Drink The Cup?

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... lovely, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." A year later, he attempted to write a companion poem to it on "The Passion." After some eight toilsome verses had been written, he gave it up. Sometime later, he wrote these words about the unfinished poem: "The subject the author finding to be above the years he had when he wrote it, and nothing satisfied with what was begun, left it unfinished." Today, many Christians are also powerless to explain or to put into words the meaning of the Cross. But no preacher ...

1585. Remember Your Baptism

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... royalty. The nation publicly proclaims in the coronation - this woman is royalty, put a crown on her head. Likewise, at baptism, the church says publicly, this person is royalty, baptize her. This person is God’s property, God’s child, God’s subject – baptize him. Shift gears now and think about adult baptism. What happens in adult baptism or in what some may call believers’ baptism? And in the practice of confirmation in most churches is the same. That is the self-conscious decision on the ...

1586. The Problem with Signs

John 6:25-59

Sermon

King Duncan

... , and then we begin to doubt. We start looking for a sign. Has it all been a mistake? Is God really with me? Corrie ten Boom was arrested in Holland for sheltering Jews from the Nazis. She was transported to a death camp in Germany. She was subjected to all manner of humiliation and torture. She watched her sister die there in that camp. And yet later Corrie ten Boom would write, "However deep the pit, God's love is deeper still." Christian faith is rooted in God's love. The Old Testament character Job ...

1587. Smart Living

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

... idiot. WARNING: consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell the same boring story over and over again until your friends want to smash your head in. WARNING: consumption of alcohol may cause you to thay shings like thish. It may be that the most taboo subject in many pulpits today is that of alcohol abuse. Many of us remember the overzealousness of earlier pastors influenced by the prohibition movement, and we fear that we might turn people off if we use the same tactics today. And yet, a 2002 study by the ...

1588. What God Has Joined Together

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... -72. 4. Author Anonymous. Monday Fodder, Send an Email to Sermon_Fodder-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to subscribe. 5. James C. & Shirley Dobson, Night Light: A Devotional for Couples (Multnomah, 2000). 6. http://www.freshministry.org/illustrations.html. 7. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 8.Michael D. Hargrove, Chapnotes, mailto:ChapnotesMail@aol.com?Subject=Subscribe.

1589. Fit for God

Psalm 24:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... someday, when we’re old. And so we become part of a culture of compromise. What do I mean by a culture of compromise? Let me give an example. A study was conducted by Professor Robert Feldman of the University of Massachusetts on the subject of lying. This study found that lying is more common than most people realize. In the study, pairs of strangers were put together for ten minutes and instructed to carry on a conversation. They were unaware that their conversations were being videotaped. Afterward, as ...

1590. The Perfect Man

Hebrews 10:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... influential Christian who ever lived--and we’re not perfect people. A few years ago, author Frank McCourt was working as a creative writing teacher at a New York high school. He faced the daily struggle of getting kids to choose a subject and write creatively about it. What would it take to ignite his students’ enthusiasm? Finally he found his inspiration from a forged excuse note a student turned in. Authentic excuse notes, meaning those written by the students’ parents, were, according to McCourt ...

1591. Saints in Shorts

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... my pride, bridle my tongue, sheathe my desire for vindication, and just walk away. I was in a small fellowship group recently where folks were sharing a bit about their daily struggles to live lives that are pleasing to God. They came to the subject of stressful family relationships, and two people in the group reported that they were learning just to walk away from the harsh and berating speech they sometimes hear. The most Christ-like alternative to retaliatory words or action that they had found was to ...

1592. God's Messenger

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... welcome Christ and to stand before his burning love? Or would we like to put off the coming of the kingdom, with its last judgment, indefinitely? There is a hopeful note, however, in our Malachi passage. The prophet proclaims that when God comes in judgment, he will subject us to his refiner's fire and his cleansing fuller's soap. A refiner was one who sat before his bubbling cauldron full of ore and boiled out all of the impurities, until there was left pure gold or silver. A fuller bleached out spots from ...

1593. The Light Has Come

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... . That's why our text talks about the rod of the oppressor being broken and the battle equipment of warriors being burned. The new davidic Messiah will bring in a realm of everlasting peace and justice and righteousness. No longer will the people be subjected to a foreign conqueror, because the Messiah's reign will be established forever. That was just a future promise given to Israel. The writer of the Gospel according to Matthew said that promise had been fulfilled, however. After the death of John the ...

1594. Salvation Oracle

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The subject for this Sunday, as set forth in the accompanying New Testament texts, is baptism, the baptism of Jesus in Luke, and the baptism of the Samaritan disciples in Acts. Let us therefore use our Second Isaiah text also in relation to baptism, namely our baptisms. To be sure, the prophet ...

1595. Suffering Servant Song

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... . Israel was despised and rejected in exile, cursed by all who saw her plight. But there would come a time when God would deliver her from captivity and exalt her among the nations. When other peoples saw her salvation, then they would realize that God had subjected Israel to judgment in order that he might manifest his power to save her before all the world. Israel would become the living testimony to the God of judgment and of salvation, and by that testimony, all peoples would be led to worship the Lord ...

1596. Generic Christianity Is Not Enough

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to undergo. (1) Again, Bishop Holloway observed, “It all seems a long time ago, but that is only because we have short memories.” Some of us can remember when such warnings sounded from pulpits and even our Christian conversation would occasionally engage the subject. I want to make a confession. One of the weaknesses of my preaching throughout the years, and I make this confession with an aching heart, I have not sounded the note of judgment as clearly as it is called for in history and demanded ...

1597. On the Road Again

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... near – and went with them. It was Jesus Himself who joined them. The writer could have simply said, “Jesus – Jesus drew near,” But He said, “Jesus Himself.” I believe the reflexive is added to emphasize that it was the real, personal Jesus, the very subject of their conversation, who actually drew near them, then and there, alive after His crucifixion. How precious it is for us to know that it is this same Jesus – “Jesus Himself,” who will link Himself with us on our walk to Emmaus. That ...

1598. The Nature of the Church and Christian Discipleship

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the title The Devil at Noonday. After one of those sermons, I received a letter from a woman in the congregation. She began her letter in this fashion: “I just wanted to affirm your boldness to preach on the devil and to ‘thank you’ for ‘making public’ a subject that many of us are too scared to talk about, or too unsure of to accept – the truth of the reality of the devil and the evil he vomits over the world.” She went on to describe the fear that stalked her early years because of threats ...

1599. Keeping Our Souls

John 13:18-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... was that fall. During that time, Jimmy Swaggart was accused of adultery -- there were pictures of a woman and a motel room. Shortly thereafter, the popular Bible teacher and author John MacArthur gave a lecture. He spoke in the chapel of Master’s College on the subject, “What We Learn From the Fall of Jimmy Swaggart.” He said a lot of good things. His reason and logic were almost impeccable. I found myself agreeing with about 90% of what he said. But I have to confess in the first part of the lecture ...

1600. Awake to Glory

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... The effect was so powerful that Jesus' very appearance was changed. Luke doesn't tell us the nature of the change, but he does say that Jesus' garments became "dazzling white." Suddenly two men were talking with him -- Moses and Elijah -- about a specific subject: What Jesus was to accomplish at Jerusalem. As Moses and Elijah were ready to leave, Peter broke the silence. His statement was typical of Peter -- well-meaning and earnest, but just missing the point. "Master," he said, "it is good for us to be ...

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