Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1626 to 1650 of 4884 results

1626. The Witness Of Caiaphas The High Priest

Drama

Dann J. Ettner

... any of these things to perish. The salvation the Christians say God intended was the freedomfrom the curse of the law, the temple sacrifice, the rituals andceremonies I grew up with. By sentencing Jesus to die on a crossthey say I actually offered the perfect sacrifice which had nospot or blemish: the sacrifice God Himself had provided.Christians say that I played my part well, being high priest thatyear. Even if in the end that would be true, I want it said forthe record that I was an unwilling participant ...

1627. Feast Days During Lent

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... a simple man, but he possessed an unquestioning and absolute faith. Whether we be great or small, whether we move society by what we do or have little influence, let us imitate the simple faith of Joseph. If we can, we will help bring God's work to perfection today and each day of our lives. March 25 Ä Feast Of The AnnunciationIsaiah 7:10-14Hebrews 10:4-10Luke 1:26-38 Saying Yes To God The recently published book titled All I Really Needed To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham made me stop ...

1628. Week Five Of Lent

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... of heroism, bravery and significant accomplishments. Sometimes we even hear and tell stories of unconditional love and kindness shown to another. These are the types of stories we like to hear, ones that pick us up and make us feel good. Humans are far from perfect and thus there are other stories we tell which are not so pleasant. Children are some of the best at telling adults all about the not-so-good things that their brothers and sisters or friends have done. Children love to tell Mom when sister ...

1629. The Risky Business of Faith

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... this had been the home area for generations of their kin. They knew all the neighbors. Abraham and Sarah had watched the local children grow into adults. They remembered when they were little kids hiding in their mother's skirts. Abe had 30 years of perfect attendance at the Greater Tigris-Euphrates Rotary Club. Sarah served on the school board. Granted they lived as nomads on the fringe of Mesopotamian society. They moved from water hole to water hole. On the other hand, they were known at every oasis. It ...

1630. When Life Doesn't Go According To Plan

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... tend to Ishmael's needs in the wilderness, but Ishmael will also be the father of a great nation. To this day tradition holds that Ishmael is the father of all Arab people. Consequently, Abraham prepares to send Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. To be perfectly honest, Abraham doesn't provide much for them. He gives Hagar and Ishmael some bread and one goatskin of water. For a trip through the desert this is not over-provisioning. The text is quite fascinating at this point. It says that Abraham puts both ...

1631. Come, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come!

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... of moral readiness: Live in such a way that the sudden return will find our behavioral slates clean. We have, however, lived too long and accumulated too many experiences of our moral frailty to believe we can ever be morally ready for one whose standard is perfection. This Advent, I invite you to think instead in terms of spiritual readiness: Live in such a way that the cry, "Pronto viene, Jesus Christo," is a natural expression of your heart's true desire for the Lord's sudden and promised return. The old ...

1632. A Long Obedience In The Same Direction

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... temptation, and in his preaching, teaching, healing, reconciling, restoring, liberating ministry, Jesus continued that long obedience in the same direction. On the cross of Calvary, he pursued it to its inevitable end. This Jesus God raised from the dead. His long and perfect obedience in the same direction is the salvation of us all, through no merit of our own. Indeed, in spite of our miserable record, in spite of the fact that our lives are littered with broken commitments, abandoned resolutions and half ...

1633. Give To God The Things That Are God's

Matthew 22:15-22

Illustration

Phyllis Faaborg Wolk

... God, Mrs. Detweiler would be the first to say that she had her faults. There were times when she let her students down; times when she lost her patience; times when her mood affected her ability to respond to her students enthusiastically. Mrs. Detweiler wasn't perfect, but she had been created in the image of God, claimed as God's child through her baptism and renewed each day with the gift of forgiveness. As she gave God what belonged to God by giving of herself to her students, Jesus worked through her ...

1634. Called To Serve

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Phyllis Faaborg Wolk

... to climb the promotional ladder faster than your colleagues. Even as we live out our calling to be followers of Christ, we long to be somehow the best -- the best preacher, the best contributor, the most faithful worship attender, the most moral, the most perfect, sinless person we know. We long to be regarded as superior to other followers of Christ, even to the point of putting other people down. If Jesus were to describe the Christian community today, "judge" may very well be one of the words he would ...

1635. Sowers Of The Seed

Psalm 119:1-176, Romans 8:1-17, Genesis 25:19-34, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... who hear Jesus' message corresponds to the different kinds of soils on which the seed of the sower falls. Three soils are not fruitful in producing results because of the conditions of the soil. The analogy of the various kinds of soil to different people is not perfect, since the soil is passive and people are not. The nature of the soils is given. Persons have some freedom to respond. It depends on whether people act on the seed sown (the word) or simply react to their natural state. Thesis: 13:1-9 Good ...

1636. Proper 19

Matthew 18:21-35, Romans 14:1--15:13, Exodus 13:17--14:31, Psalm 114:1-8

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... Thesis: Gratitude for divine forgiveness should lead to readiness to reciprocate to others. Theme: Failure to forgive has dire consequences. Key Words of the Parable 1. "Seven Times." (v. 21) Seven was a number that had the quality of completeness or perfection. Peter no doubt thought he was proposing considerable generosity when he asked if forgiving seven times was enough. Most people would think that forgiving seven times was more than sufficient latitude to offer anyone. 2. "Seventy-seven times." (v. 22 ...

1637. The Promise Of The Spirit

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... new life. It has happened before and it can happen again. The Spirit acknowledges human weakness and paradoxically it glories in that weakness, because it is in weakness that the power of God is manifest. The word of the Lord to Paul was, "For my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). This is the message of Pentecost. The Promise Of Power First, look at Acts 1:8: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea ...

1638. Two-and-a-Half Cheers For Hypocrites

Matthew 6:1-2, Matthew 6:5-6, Matthew 6:16

Sermon

Thomas Long

... our cultural rage. In a therapeutic climate, where people clamor to appear on Oprah and Geraldo to do an emotional striptease, baring in the name of candor the deepest secrets of their past in front of an audience of perfect strangers, hypocrites seem, by contrast, emotionally stunted. They are guarded and deceptive; they put on false and pretty faces, hiding their true selves behind the cloak of pseudo-respectability. Indeed, "hypocrite" was originally a theatrical term, describing actors, who concealed ...

1639. The Seven Last Words Of Pilate

Sermon

Thomas Long

... :22 ear it all sounds rather manageable, perhaps even tame: A sheep is lost, the shepherd goes to find it, and that's that. But to the eye it releases its outrageous truth. To watch in astonishment as a seemingly sane shepherd walks away from 99 perfectly good sheep, leaving them to the perils of the wilderness, while he searches with wild and passionate abandon for one scraggly runaway is to be confronted with some extravagant and unruly grace at the heart of the gospel. The story in the Gospel of John of ...

1640. Behold The Man Who Trained Disciples

Luke 10:1-20

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... S. Stewart, The Life And Teaching Of Jesus Christ, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1957, p. 68. 2. William Barclay, The Mind Of Jesus, Harper & Row Publisher, New York and Evanston, 1960, p. 61. 3. David H. C. Read, "When We Say: 'No One Is Perfect,' " Pulpit Digest, January/February 1992, p. 33. 4. Richard A. Hasler, Emphasis, CSS Publishing Co., Lima, Ohio, September-October, 1992, p. 44. 5. William H. Willimon, Clergy and Laity Burnout, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1989, p. 32. 6. T. Cecil Myers, "On Letting ...

1641. A New Command

Sermon

Lee Griess

... the lives of countless generations of people to come. How strange it is that some 1800 years later, Karl Marx would proclaim that strife among people, rigid control of possessions, strict limitation of personal freedom and a move toward a godless society would bring about the perfect world that humanity was seeking. For the key to the kind of life that you and I desire had already been given us. It was there in the words of Jesus in that upper room. Hear the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples that ...

1642. Standing On The Shore

John 20:1-18 · Mark 16:1-8

Sermon

Elaine M. Ward

... of God's exuberance." When the seeker addressed the master himself with the same question, the master said, "I do not know." We never know. We only leap to accept the best life has to offer, for Easter is a gift of love and perfect love casts out fear. The text says that they "said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." The questions remain, the seeking for answers continues, but though the questions remain unanswered, accepting the gift of Easter, of Christ's resurrection, feels like one. Once ...

1643. Responding In Anger

Job 7:11-21 · Matthew 21:12-13

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

A 75-year-old man went to his doctor for a physical examination. The doctor went through all the procedures and found everything to be perfect. "It's amazing," the doctor said to the patient. "You have the body of a man 25 years younger. What's your secret?" The patient replied: "Well, when my wife and I were married fifty years ago, we made an agreement. We decided never to fuss or to argue with ...

1644. Easter Sunday

John 20:1-9

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... defeats are often your mighty victories. Our Father, let us look at all of life in the clear light of Easter Day, valuing most highly those things that death cannot corrode or snatch from us. Let the full circle of our days have its center in you, and be perfected by holding to your purpose for us, as was so of Christ, who came from you and returned to you. Thus may the truth, beauty, and goodness of Easter touch all our tomorrows, and may we live all our days in the glory of that morning. We pray in ...

1645. Maundy Thursday Service

1 Corinthians 11:17-34, John 13:1-17

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... thank you for it. And to us you have given spiritual food and drink, and eternal life, through your servant Jesus. We thank you most of all for being all powerful. All: Glory to you forever. Leader: Remember your church, Lord, and preserve it from evil, perfecting it in your love, and gathering it from the four winds, in holiness, into your kingdom which you have prepared for it. All: For yours is the power and the glory forever. Leader: Let your grace come; let this world pass away. All: Hosanna to the ...

1646. "Ascribe To The Lord The Glory Due His Name ..."

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... to hear God's voice we will probably miss it. If we do not seek direction from beyond ourselves we are unlikely to find it. It is one of those ironies that so many persons -- given an environment that lends itself perfection to spiritual disciplines and self-examination -- drift away from any spiritual discipline during the university experience. It no longer seems relevant. Maybe they've been turned off by the cultural idea of religion as simplistic moral platitudes or entertainment or personality cult ...

1647. The Assumption Of Discipline

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... were just right for God's will to be fully communicated. No wonder Jesus insisted, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). The law and the prophets had perfectly set the stage for Jesus' ministry. And Jesus says "whenever you give alms," "whenever you pray," "whenever you fast," not "if" or "in the event you choose to," but "whenever." Almsgiving, charity in the modern sense of the word, is always open to abuse. It can be ...

1648. The Christian Journey II: The Mountain

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... ) discipline, like that exercised by a skilled mountain climber; and second, that we should never be content to stay where we are in our relationship with God, but should constantly be striving for a higher level, what John Wesley referred to as "going on to perfection." This is the same point that the apostle Paul made by using one of his favorite metaphors, that of the athlete in training, certainly a common sight in the Greek cities in which he ministered. He spoke of the runner: Not that I have already ...

1649. The Christian Journey IV: The Pool

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... ) discipline, like that exercised by a skilled mountain climber; and second that we should never be content to stay where we are in our relationship with God, but should constantly be striving for a higher level, what John Wesley referred to as "going on to perfection." This is a point that the apostle Paul frequently made by using athletic metaphors: ... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus ...

1650. "Is It Community Today?"

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... , forgiveness, rebirth, conversion, and nurture that we need ... The grace of God is not often known by isolated individuals ... Our Creator has made us to be social creatures ... It is not good for man (or woman) to be alone (Genesis 2:18a). What a perfect symbol of this ... [community] is Holy Communion. Bread and wine are gifts of God, yes. But they are also products of corporate human labor ... Think of all the hands that put bread on your table this morning. When someone hands you bread at communion ...

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