Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1676 to 1700 of 3160 results

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... has become a best-seller. A few weeks ago (October 6), Benjamin Stein wrote one of the most helpful articles I have read. I was thrilled to find it on the editorial page of The Commercial Appeal. He listed 12 reasons for not committing suicide and called them "a sort of manual of why not to die." One of them was "There are a number of questions you should be asking yourself before you shuffle off this mortal coil: Do I really want to never see another sunset?Do I really want to never hear by children laugh ...

1677. Our Father's Love Begotten

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... possible days of our lives, in the darkness time of the year we wait and God comes. God comes in love as Jesus Christ. I've been using Oswald Chamber's classic book My Utmost for His Highest for my devotional time each morning. It's a book that is sort of timeless, always relevant. In the reading for November 11, he had this to say, "When your cup is sweet, drink it with grace. When it is bitter, drink it in communion with God." We can do that because God has done what only God could do come to us ...

1678. O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... seven hundred and forty kids run away from home, (where about 2,000 marriages) come to an end and 69 people commit suicide." (Donald Shelby, "The Presence of His Presence: Vision and Hope") Is the promise of hope more cruelty than a comfort when we think of these sort of conditions in our city, in our country, in the world? Arlo Gutherie once commented "The world has shown me what it has to offer... it might be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." We can't be Pollyannish, looking at ...

1679. Reflections On A Calling (ten-year Anniversary Sermon)

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of the treasure in a clay jar. Now that's not difficult for me to do, that is, that's not difficult for me to stay aware of the earthen vessel that I am. I've always been terribly puzzled by those preachers who manage to move about with a sort of "other worldly air:, as though they were representing some third gender of human kind, or another order of life rather than one I'm a part of with my feet of clay. I remember a story of the preacher who was beginning his ministry with a new congregation. He ...

1680. The Grace Question: Are You A Teacher...and Yet Do Not Understand?

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... there any other kind? Is there any other kind of Christian than a born-again one? Now, I know how that term is normally used, and that us is a little bit unfortunate. It's used to distinguish between people who -- usually as adults -- have had some sort of dramatic experience that confirmed for them their Christian faith. It's used to separate people who may have come into the Christian life in what some would call a "normal" kind of way. (and I put that word normal in quotation marks)...to separate those ...

1681. From Russia With Love

Acts 3:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... wonderful. The politicians, the economics, the educators, were all very friendly and agreeing that what we had going on here in the United States was the best thing that could ever happen. And Yancey was kind of hoping that at least they would have some sort of give and take dialogue. But it didn't happen. The first person to speak among the pressed was a distinguished looking, silver haired gentleman, who identified himself as the editor of the Literary Gazette. And some of you know that that is one of ...

1682. What Do You Want To Be Like When You Are 65?

Proverbs 3:1-35

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of our time, who would it be?" This was Shaw's response: "If I could relive my life in the role of any person I desired, I would want to be the man George Bernard Shaw could have been, but wasn't." Do you get it? We can be the sort of person we want to be if we make that decision now, and begin to practice habits that will shape us into that person. Character doesn't come naturally; it is the expression of accumulative habit. It's a very practical proverb. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart ...

1683. Fair Weather Friends

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... always a put down. Take for example this scene played out at a Waffle House: "You are so stupid; why can't you eat right? Can you do anything right? I wish I hadn't brought you. Next time I'll leave you at home." Can you imagine what that sort of "correcting" is going to do to that child? When Harold Ross was editor of The New Yorker, he would frequently examine an article that needed just a bit more work. In such cases he would write at the top over his initials, "This piece is so good that it ...

1684. Food That Is Needful

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of a couple in his church, Don and Candye Chavez who adopted a child a couple of years ago. They had wanted a child, for a long time, but had not been able to have one. To be able to adopt was like a dream come true. They had all sorts of dreams and aspirations for their baby. Don couldn't wait for him to grow up and be big enough to ride bicycles and build and operate go carts and do those things that dads like to do with their sons. And Candye was so proud of little Brian. After ...

1685. Through God's Breathed Word

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... First, when our minds are open to understand the Scripture, our hearts are open to receive God's grace. Let me say that again: When our minds are open to understand the Scripture, our hearts are open to receive God's grace. Grace comes to us in all sorts of ways. I had a marvelous visit this past week with Ernie Felts, a member of this congregation. Ernie has had a tough time of it; malignancy and extensive treatment for that interrupted by back surgery. Ernie came to see me on Labor Day -- called and said ...

1686. Songs of the Season

Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... of power -- whether talent, money, or position -- is a divine trust and God will someday, somehow call it to account. Jesus warned that those who have been given much will be held to the most severe reporting. This hazard, of course, is this: power of any sort inevitably breeds a certain kind of arrogance; and it blinds us, or at least dulls our sensitivities, to the pain of others. It is very hard to understand how someone on poverty row feels in a supermarket, if we can fill our own basket without undue ...

1687. Costly Extravagance

John 12:1-11

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

... of this story. This particular night he was eating dinner with a grateful family. Do you remember what happens one chapter earlier in this Gospel? Two sisters meet Jesus a few days after a funeral, completely overwhelmed with grief for their dead brother. They even get sort of testy and uppity with Jesus. "If you had been here, Jesus, our brother would not have died." Usually when a funeral is finished the mourners gather for a meal. The strange thing about this meal is that the deceased is present and even ...

1688. Promises, Promises

Jeremiah 33:1-26

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... decent and good kings, such as Josiah and Hezekiah, both of whom carried out sweeping religious reforms. But most of Israel's kings were not righteous, and that was especially true in the time of Jeremiah. Jehoiakim was a despot, introducing all sorts of syncretistic worship into Judah, oppressing the poor, and persecuting the prophets. Judah's final king before the Babylonian exile, Zedekiah, was nothing more than a puppet of the Babylonian empire. Thus, through the ages before that and even after, when it ...

1689. God's Messenger

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... with the New Testament, we sometimes have to employ a double focus. Verse 1 of our passage promises that God will send a messenger ahead to prepare the way of his coming. And that is certainly true when we look toward Christmas. God gives all sorts of preparatory signs before Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem. An angel choir announces to shepherds that the one born is the Savior of the world. A rising and leading star alerts Mesopotamian astrologists to the fact that a special king has been born. Indeed ...

1690. The Coronation of Christ

Isaiah 51:17--52:12

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

In biblical times, when a king was crowned in Israel, two acts took place. First, the king was crowned in the temple and presented with something that was called the "testimony" (2 Kings 11:12; 2 Chronicles 23:11). The testimony was probably some sort of document embodying the basic terms of the Lord's covenant with the house of David. As such, it was the legitimization of the king's rule by God. Second, the king was then led to his palace, he ascended his throne, and the beginning of his rule was ...

1691. Growing with God

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... our lives. By the work of the Spirit, Paul tells the Corinthians, God is changing us into the likeness of Christ, from one degree of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18). We rarely think about that. In our society, who wants to be good anymore? We have all sorts of goals. We want to be successful or slim or self-assertive or rich or beautiful, but good? Do you want to be good? Do you want to be a woman of God or a man of God? Is that the image that you want other people to have of ...

1692. Salvation Oracle

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... is "with" us, everything said about God's deeds is important for us church members. When we come to our baptisms, or when we present a child to be baptized, the first fact we are to remember is that God has "created" us. But that has been the most intimate sort of creation. God has "formed us," say verses 1 and 7, like a potter working with a lump of clay, shaping our bodies and organs and muscles in the wombs of our mothers. As Job says, "Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with ...

1693. The Two Ways of Life

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... faith is another fundamental belief, however, the belief that we have no continuing connection with God. According to the scriptures, you and I and all people have been created in the image of God. That means that we always stand in some sort of relationship with him, and we cannot be fully understood as human beings except that relationship be included. The many areas of human learning may describe us in various terms, from the standpoint of psychology, sociology, economics, history, geography, and so ...

1694. Return to the Father

Joel 2:12-17

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... ), by weeping and by prayers like that of the priest in verses 15-17. But those were all external rituals which could be done apart from the engagement of the heart, just as are so many of our Lenten practices of giving up some sort of food or of attending special worship services or of performing special acts. God, the prophet is proclaiming, does not want externals, however. God wants our hearts. God wants sincere, heartfelt repentance which leads to the amendment of our total lives. In fact, that ...

1695. Return and Be Forgiven

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... however, is his incredible, forgiving mercy. We human beings do not forgive very readily. If someone has ignored us for most of our life, we have eliminated her from our list of friends and treated her with indifference. If certain persons have said all sorts of evil things about us, we have counted them as our enemies and often vowed revenge. If others have accused us of wrong against them, we have treated them with scorn or ridicule. But not God. Those have never been God's reactions. Israel, languishing ...

1696. Passing From Old to New

Joshua 5:13--6:27

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Christians live under new conditions. Paul tell us in the Epistle lesson for this Sunday that the old life has been done away and that the new life has begun. We are new creations of God. There are all sorts of metaphors that the Bible uses to describe that Christian passage from old to new. It says that we have been born anew, or that we have passed from slavery into freedom. It proclaims that we have emerged from darkness into light, or from despair into meaning, from mourning into ...

1697. Suffering Servant Song

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that, if possible, he not go to the cross. But our Lord realized that such was the will of his Father. And so he gave up his life willingly, because that was the plan of his Father. Not because his God was some sort of abusing Father. Not because God desired vengeance and blood. Heaven help us if those are our thoughts! No, it was the will of God that his Son die on the cross, because God loves us and wants to save us. God took upon himself our sin in the person ...

1698. The Conversion of Saul

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... to a cross. So it is too with us. God has not transformed our lives by his active Spirit and made us his disciples just so we can enjoy his fellowship all by ourselves. And surely he has not made us Christians so we, in our pride, can claim some sort of spiritual superiority to those around us. Heaven help us if we exchange our discipleship for self-glorification, For then we do not belong to Christ, and he is not our Lord. No, we are called to accomplish tasks for our Lord. Each one of us has a task. Yet ...

1699. Tasks For The Living God

Acts 16:11-15

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... world. We sometimes wonder why God chose Paul's period in history to convert the Mediterranean world. But it has often been remarked that Paul's journeys were made considerably easier by the magnificent system of Romans roads throughout that empire. God takes advantage of all sorts of human constructions to advance his kingdom. If you are an alert reader or listener, you have noticed that at 16:11-17, the story is told using "we" (also in 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1--28:16). That sounds as if a companion ...

1700. A Church Shaped By The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Lectures at Yale Divinity School on the theme, “Toward the Renewal of Mainline Protestantism.” He expanded those lectures into a very helpful book, The Church Confident. On the cover of that book was a challenging word. It was not a subtitle—but a sort of personal admonition from the author: “Christianity can repent, but it must not whimper.” That’s a good word. Despite the crisis, God’s people are not to whimper. Acknowledge our sin, and repent, yes, but not whimper. Keck was mindful of the ...

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