Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1626 to 1650 of 4938 results

1626. John 20:19-31

John 20:19-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the personal commissioning and the breathwork of the Holy Spirit. Think how left out Thomas must have felt when he returned to that locked room and found his friends celebrating instead of mourning. But Thomas, despite his new role as outsider, does not give up the group. Instead he expresses genuine, deep-seated doubts while remaining a part of his faith community. The other disciples, for their part, do not toss Thomas out for his skepticism - they try to convince him of their claim's truthfulness while ...

1627. 1 Corinthians 9:16-23

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... most translations is Paul’s continuing emphasis on his “freedom” before everyone and everything. In the Greek the opening word of v.19 is “free” (“eleutheros”). Here Paul is emphatically declaring that his “freedom” is the bedrock of his actions. But Paul “gives up” that freedom in order to be Christ’s “slave” in order that he might live for the gospel. Because Paul is still “free” with respect to all else but Christ, he is able to proclaim the good news to a wide assortment ...

1628. How to Fail Successfully - Sermon Starter

Mark 6:1-13

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... solid instruction here in our Scripture lesson and from Jesus himself instructions that there may come a time when it's really time to quit? We can try too long. At least Jesus is saying that there are moments when in order to keep on keeping on we need to give up face our losses and accept failure. I think there is an understanding for us here maybe a guide to "how to fail successfully." Let's look at the possibility. 1. We Can ...

1629. Does Jesus Have a Health Plan?

James 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... understand what was really making people sick - and what was really making people well. Medicine didn’t really become scientific until 1865, when Joseph Lister described germ theory and the concept of antiseptic surgery emerged. Yet far from “giving up” or “giving over” health care to these new scientific practitioners, the church committed itself to promoting and providing these new healing methods more than ever. New hospitals were built by both local churches and various denominations all over ...

1630. Being What We Are

1 Samuel 8:4-20

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... how much we are like the other realms, but through how faithful we are to what Christ calls us to be. It is only in that way that our contribution will be, as Jesus described it in the New Testament, "the pearl of great value," that which a person will give up everything else to gain. As members of Christ's church, we share in the unique identity as people of God. When we realize how unique and blessing-laden that identity is, we have all the more reason to value it, and welcome others to be part of it. 1 ...

1631. Fish and Sheep

John 21:15-25, John 21:1-14

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... and again as the prime apostle to lead the ancient church. Our dear Lord just would not let loose of him! It is here that some of us reflect on voyages in our spiritual experiences which are best noted as hectic and perhaps earthshaking. But did the Master give up on us? The answer is in a resounding negative. We were not remotely close to what we should have been but the Lord clung tenaciously to us. We are not in the "star" category. Yet we know firsthand the power of Christ's persistence and his ways of ...

1632. No Box Seats in the Kingdom

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

William G. Carter

... said otherwise. "For the first time in my life, at 46, I was learning what it means to be a servant," he says. "It gave me a different view of Christ, and a different view of the real needs of human beings." A friend of his didn't give up on his calling. He set up Joel to preach at some black congregations. For some reason his preaching caught fire within African-American churches. Then he was back and professor of preaching at Baylor. It was a riches-to rags-to riches story, and all quite humbling. Jesus ...

1633. Living In The Spirit Of Joy

Galatians 5:22-25, Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... make you feel happy but it's much deeper than that. B. Joy is a gift. Sometimes it's a surprise gift, coming when you least expect it. Sometimes it is as illusive as a summer breeze, the more you pursue it the further away it seems. And when we give up looking for joy, it suddenly, surprisingly springs up right in front of us or overwhelms our hearts at a baptism or a sunrise or in the hug of a grandchild. It might even makes its way into our heart and soul through the melody or the words of a hymn ...

1634. Being a Christian “Survivor”

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... after her. He gave her presents. She ran off again. He went after her again. She bore three children (presumably not Hosea's), but none of that mattered. Hosea never gave up on Gomer. The message of the book that bears that prophet's name is that God never gives up on his people, no matter how low they go. No matter how unfaithful we are, God will always be faithful. For those in the midst of a struggle for survival, it is comforting to know that our God will never desert us, will always stand by us, and ...

1635. A Lifelong Career

Illustration

Steve Farrar

... and some that there aren't...Our race has thought it worthwhile to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world....But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean....If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge (at his work)....But if it means that the hard work is ...

1636. How Can I Know God's Will?

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... you respect and listen to their counsel. Pray over your specific decision and go ahead and make it. And finally, and most important, trust God to help you turn that decision into the right decision. Even if your decision turns out to be the wrong one, don’t give up. Trust God. After all, God made the ultimate gamble when God sent His Son to die in our behalf. Then God took that event the rejection of his Son by sinful humanity and used it to save the world. So, follow these steps for all your decision ...

1637. We Don't Like Pop

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... stop drinking them? As the wife was telling her husband of her decision, the little girl, who had heard the conversation, piped up to ask, “Mommy, we don’t like pop any more?” Mommy said “That’s right!”—and that was all it took. Oh, for such a readiness to give up something when we learn that God does not want us to do it.

1638. Kierkegaard’s Story of the Prince

John 3:16, 16:5-33; Mt 28:16-20

Illustration

Brett Blair

... uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain that the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendor. The prince came up with another solution. He would give up his kingly robe. He moved, into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and because ...

1639. Faces of Failure: Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Don Tuttle

... the point. To be born “again” or “from above” is to be born of God by the Spirit. But, Nicodemus doesn’t get it. He so obtuse that Jesus chides him: “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things?” Still, Jesus doesn’t give up. “We speak of what we know,” he says, “and bear witness to what we have seen.” What Jesus knows and what he has seen, he goes on to say, are “heavenly things,” the things of God. He knows them because he is the Son of Man who has ...

1640. Jesus' No-Nonsense Guide to Discipleship

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... up and to call out. God is in the midst of those voices. God is near. God will hear our voice in the midst of the crowd. When Jesus heard Bartimaeus, Jesus called out to him, and Bartimaeus responded. Unlike the rich young man who could not give up his possessions, Bartimaeus left his cloak -- apparently his only possession -- and came to Jesus. Like Simon's mother-in-law earlier in the gospel, he responded immediately to the word of Jesus. Today, Jesus still calls us to come. "Come to me, all you that are ...

1641. I've Seen the Lord

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... more, you should be here on the high holy days... whether you do so to honor your mother and father, or honor a tradition of affirming your connectedness to something you can’t really give full ascent to but yet are not fully prepared to give up. Or perhaps you come because something within, much like the salmon drawn to their birthplace, nags at you, encourages you to try this worship thing again. Perhaps you come, because, at its most common basics, this Sunday is a Sunday when you can be reasonably ...

1642. The Garden of Betrayal and the Garden of His Burial

John 18:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” And then we have some of the details of Jesus’ death, including his last words, “It is finished.” With that, he bows his head and gives up his spirit. That brings us to the second and final garden story in John’s Gospel which we might call the Garden of His Burial. That story goes like this: Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple ...

1643. About Those Magi

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... in which right and wrong—good and evil—love and hatred still do mortal conflict. It’s the reason it is important where we choose to stand. With the haters? With the exploiters? With those who flaunt their bigotry? Or with Christ who was willing to give up his life that all who choose him may have life? Fortunately, the story continues. “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child ...

1644. And That’s All I Need To Know

John 10:11-18

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

... , they would know, protects his sheep. When Jesus told them he was the Good Shepherd he added that he was the kind of good shepherd that would lay down his life for his sheep. If attacked by a lion or a bear, our good shepherd would not run, not give up protection even if it was a battle to the death. Jesus was the kind of shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep. When Jesus told them this truth, the disciples did not understand the prophetic nature of his comments. For at that time Jesus was ...

1645. Only Human?

Psalm 8:5-6

Sermon

Will Willimon

... creation, but we ourselves," Paul wrote in Romans 8. "The creation was subjected to futility." Groaning. Futility. Those chickens on the trucks on 15/501. Me. You. In the Great Chain of Being which biologists know only as a chain of food, some creature is always giving up its life for another. Those chickens, on the way to their destiny, die so that I can live. Perhaps some morning I shall flag down their truck and at least thank them for their sacrifice. In an older day, when grandmother when out into the ...

1646. Easter Makes Us One!

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... , a devout Gentile who was also a commanding officer in the Roman army (vv.5-8,17-23). Meanwhile, Peter had had a vision teaching him that the Gentiles were not unclean (vv.10-16). This miraculous series of events had led the apostle to give up his Jewish practices of maintaining social distance from Gentiles lest such fraternization render him impure and displease God (v.28). He began socializing with his Gentile host Cornelius and his emissaries (vv.23,27-29). We pick up this story with the sermon he ...

1647. Do You See Lazarus On Your Doorstep?

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... say about all of the other Sodoms and Gomorrahs?[5] We can agree with Bell when he stated that the dominant theme of the Bible is healing and restoration. God judges in order to discipline, correct, and eventually restore. We don’t want to give up on the Lazarus on our doorstep or anyone else. God’s compassionate grace continually seeks us. Amen. [1]. Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske, Howard Hughes: The Untold Story (New York: A Dutton Book, Penguin Group, 1996), 339. [2]. Keith Nickel, Preaching ...

1648. Afraid at the Thank God Ledge

1 Kings 3:5-12

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... and the knowledge to distinguish right from wrong so that the kingdom of Israel would reflect the character and purposes and glory of the King of Kings. Sadly, like all human kings, he failed in many ways to listen to and follow God. But God never gives up on God’s creation. He is always ready to hear the prayer of those who ask for His wisdom. In 1937, a young man named Marion Wade founded a residential cleaning and moth-proofing business. Over the next five years, he expanded his services and began ...

1649. Risky Business

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... sometimes as many as 40 or 50 times. Most successful relationships come after dating people who do not feel compatible. Yet most churches try something once and say in a resigned way, “We tried that. It didn’t work. No one likes us. Let’s give up.” Why are we so afraid of risk-taking? Because our fear of failure is holding us back, keeping us stuck, preventing us from moving forward, from growing in our discipleship, from relying on our faith, from stepping outside of our doors. But as Jesus ...

1650. Good News

Luke 3:7-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of the people of Israel! A place in which the power of death had been “stayed” by God’s own decision! What we need to understand is that the All Powerful God has the right in any circumstance to create or destroy at will. But….that God gives up that power out of love and compassion for God’s people! This…is what we celebrate! In our scripture for today, Luke tells us that at John’s explanation of what was to come, the people celebrated, as he “proclaimed the good news” to them! The coming ...

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