Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 151 to 175 of 4958 results

151. Paul Called by God

Galatians 1:11-24

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... would, no doubt, sting his Jewish-oriented opponents. The revelation of God’s Son in Paul (1:16) had as its purpose the consecration of an individual to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. This is a decisive calling for Paul, one that allowed him to claim an equality of apostolic standing with the leader of the disciples, Peter, who in Paul’s view was specifically chosen to lead the mission to the Jews (2:8). Acts 26:17 fully records God’s commissioning of Paul to the Gentile mission. His response to ...

152. Signs of the End of the Age

Mark 13:1-31

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... desolation, it is described as an unparalleled disaster (vv. 19–20) that will be mitigated only by the merciful hand of God (v. 20). Even so, it is not the time of the end, and the disciples must be on their guard against false hopes and deceptive claims (vv. 21–23). Jesus’ purpose in predicting the disaster is not to reveal the time of the end but to prepare his disciples for the event so that they are not deceived by the excited appeals of the misguided (v. 23). In effect, Jesus revises the popular ...

153. The Trustworthy Lord Over Nature, Nations, and Armies

Psalm 33:1-22

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... history, and providence. Verses 16–17 draw upon Israel’s ancient songs of Yahweh war: in view of Yahweh, the warrior, armies, and horses fail (Exod. 15:1–4; Judg. 5:18–22). Perhaps what is most remarkable is how the psalm moves from universal to particular claims. Yahweh is celebrated as Creator of the universe and Lord of history but also as he who forms the hearts of each individual (v. 15; lit., “the fashioner,” cf. Gen 2:7). All the people of the world are to revere him (v. 8), but there is ...

154. The Lord, Not Idols

Isaiah 44:6-23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... ” or “I will be what I will be.” It is not a statement about abstract being, but rather a promise that Yahweh will be there with the people acting in whatever way is needed. And there is no one else who is in a position to make that claim. “Apart from me there is no God.” No one else has been at work over the years in that way. The Poet has often been described as perhaps the first, and certainly the greatest, exponent of monotheism in Israel. This description may be accurate, though it skews the ...

155. Jesus Matters

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Michael L. Sherer

... in his gospel. That genealogy concludes that Jesus was a descendant from David through Joseph, not Mary. And so, if the Virgin Birth is true, then the descendancy from David cannot be true. The opposite is also the case. Why did Luke include two contradictory claims for Jesus in his gospel? The best answer we can imagine is that this writer wants to make the argument, any way he can, that Jesus truly does matter. Perhaps Luke believed that, if one argument didn’t convince his readers, the other would. It ...

156. Nobody Owes You Anything

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

Richard Patt

... they had a clean slate. There was no other payment needed. Nothing to do now but stand before God and accept the keys to heaven which God owed them. As you can see, this parable becomes a way of proclaiming the Gospel in reverse. The parable unflinchingly claims that there is nothing we can do to merit our eternal salvation. The reverse side turns out to be that God therefore does everything for our salvation. The Good News is that in Jesus Christ God has done exactly that. Nobody owes us anything, but God ...

157. Weather Signs

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... in unity and peace. Instead it leads to the most divisive of conflicts. Religion deals with the most important of values. That is the basis of all conflicts. One type of conflict occurs over disagreement about what is of value. Religion addresses that issue directly. It claims to know what is of value and how to receive it. It calls for people to decide for or against it. The only final way to resolve the inherent conflict is for all people to come to agreement. When they do not, the conflict can escalate ...

158. Do You See What I See?

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... hidden. God uses them to help us see the most important thing in the world: his love for us in Jesus. But there is a problem in all of this. We live in a world where no one seems to be able to make any firm and sure claims about anything. In the last generation our society has come under the influence of a way of thinking called "post-modernism." In this world there are nothing but competing interests and points of view. There is no consensus about anything. The only absolute is that nothing is absolute ...

159. Proper 22

Philippians 4:2-9, Philippians 3:1-11, Philippians 3:12-4:1, Isaiah 5:1-7, Exodus 20:1-21, Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... . God comes to represent that which is alien to him. Old Testament: Isaiah 5:1-7 1. Sermon Title: Does God Give Up? Sermon Angle: According to Isaiah, God expected more from his people than he received. It was a bitter harvest. It seems that the prophet is claiming that the Lord was abandoning his people, letting them go a-wilding. It appears that God is giving up on his people. The Old Testament suggests that God does reach a point where he gives humankind over to their own devices. For a time, it may be ...

160. Jesus Rejected

Mark 15:1-15

Sermon

R. Sheldon MacKenzie

... until a few hours before their first and last meeting. In the gospel story we have only a digest of what took place at the meeting of Pilate with Jesus. On that point everyone agrees. The gospel itself suggests it. The main charge against Jesus was that he had claimed to be "The King of the Jews." This is the first time any mention is made of Jesus as a King. And there is a good reason for that. As a Roman Governor, Pilate would have had no interest at all in a religious charge of blasphemy. What possible ...

161. What "They" Say

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Larry Powell

... elbows in dishwater. The specific topic of the lively discussion has long since faded from memory, but I do recall that both of us claimed the victory. To confirm the matter one way or the other, my friend brought his wife into it. "What do you believe, dear?" Although ... the other. "Who do you say that I am?" That is the question. Think one last time before answering. (3) Do not claim Jesus as Lord while clinging to some false security. Norman Vincent Peale has observed, "It is curious and sad the way much of ...

162. Who Is Your King?

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Erskine White

... no king but success! We have no king but patriotism - my country, right or wrong! We have no king but national security! We have no king but violent revolution! We have no king but the pursuit of happiness! We have no king but keeping up with the Joneses! All other claims of love, justice, mercy or faith must take a back seat, because we have no other king but ... Fill in your own. There are so many to choose from. As a well-known preacher said in one of his best sermons, Jesus was a Man with a tough mind ...

163. Barefoot in the Palace

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God." Isn’t this a commentary on present times? Even if the privileged still maintain their hold on the palace, they do not rest easy. They sense that the barefoot ones are coming to make their claim. In fact, or in anticipation, the present and future are signed by the bare feet that scurry through the palace corridors, or threaten to do so. I So we stay with this truth. The image of bare feet in the palace is a way of understanding our times ...

164. No Sooner Said Than Done!

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... God would give him the cure for cancer. Throughout the history of the church, the orthodox position was that God spoke exclusively in his Word, and the supposed voice of God beyond the Scriptures was open to question unless it conformed to the written Word of God. That voice you claim to hear may be the Devil’s! To be sure it is God’s voice, check it out by the Scriptures. All that God has to say to us and all that we need to hear from God is in the written Word, the Bible. A Purposeful Word Through ...

165. The Danger of Being Religious

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... was when his daughter, having fallen in love with a Jehovah’s Witness, would not allow him to perform the cermony because he was allied with Satan. Nothing is farther from the truth! We have a "church" that denies the reality of sin, sickness, death, and hell. It claims that these ideas are only figments of imagination. Certainly, this is a half truth. You may be asking, "How do we know we have the truth of God? Where can one get the truth?" It is a good question. The truth of God is recorded in the Bible ...

166. Not of the World

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... the Evil One will try to conform us to that agenda. When Christian people start defining Christian blessings in the same terms, when Christian people start defining blessings in terms of riches and things, then the world has simply won the battle. "Name it and claim it," the "prosperity Gospel" says. "God does not want anyone to be poor." Those slogans are a sure sign that the world has gotten the upper hand in the struggle for our soul. Let me just quickly review for you some basic biblical realities on ...

167. The Mystery of His Presence

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Richard Patt

... man (Jesus) give us his flesh to eat?" I suspect that the people in the story here asked this question because in fact they did not want to eat the flesh of God; that is, they did not want an operative God that close, that real in their lives. The claims on them would then be too great! If God were so close as to be "consumable," to be eaten, then he would be close enough to shape their thinking, to mold their motives, and to guide their words and actions. That would be "real religion," and they did not ...

168. Visioning Or Vanishing?

Proverbs 29:1-27

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... past or live off its memories. We can no longer blame our problems on others that God has called to address those problems. We must focus on God's power and purpose for the church. We must now FOCUS on the vision God is calling us to claim, rather than complaining about the lack of one for the past twenty years. Anybody can curse the darkness, but people of faith light candles to defy the darkness. Charles Dickens, in his classic book A TALE OF TWO CITIES, perhaps describes best the paradox that the Church ...

169. What Does It Mean To Be Really Free?

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... that illegal Mexican immigrants stole her license, changed her personal stats to make her seem younger and thinner than she really was, then returned her license to her. Finally, Gabor ended up slapping the officer when he tried to arrest her. Later, after her trial, Gabor claimed she was convicted because no one from “her class of people" was on the jury. (3) Now, we do not want to judge Ms. Gabor. And we do not have all of the relevant details, perhaps. But it would not be surprising if a person in ...

170. Who Is the Light of Your Life? (I am the light of the world)

John 8:12-30

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... lives reveal as much darkness as her''s. Their vices were just as wrong as hers. There was need for a light to lead all of them into the way of virtue and spiritual victory. It is in this arena that Jesus makes another bold and confident claim when he states without reservation or qualification: "I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." This statement only made the opposition to Jesus grow stronger and more intense. The darkness is always ...

171. Thanks for the Memories

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... in its totality, it is not a morbid thing." There is a great power in memory. THE MEMORY OF THE PAST PROPELS US FORWARD TO CLAIM THE FUTURE. The Church of Jesus Christ is not a museum, but a mission launching pad. Once we have been nurtured on why we are, ... God to carry us to our next destination in the journey. The fertile soil of the past allows us to dream dreams and to claim the vision in our own time. Only when our past reaches forward can it deliver us from our own self-centeredness, when it connects ...

172. What Really Matters The Price Of The High Calling

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... we live in the present moment, as those who have died with Christ to sin, yet who are still sinners. We have been reckoned by God as righteous and he has accepted us by our faith in Jesus Christ. Yet we are, in fact, unrighteous and any claim we make to righteousness is as filthy rags. This is the tension. There are two frames of reference out of which we Christians tend to operate – either of which is debilitating to our Christian growth and service. One is a false humility, which refuses to name and ...

173. Faith Working In Love

James 2:14-26

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... whether works without faith can save us -- but rather whether faith without works can save. II. So, let's press for clarity by putting the issue into some bold affirmations. One, there is no salvation without discipleship. What do I mean by that? I mean we can't claim Jesus as Savior without a willingness to surrender to Him as Lord. Two, an emphasis on faith that does not include fidelity to Christ's call to walk in newness of life is a distortion of the Gospel. What do I mean by that? I mean what James ...

174. Warning To The Clueless Enthusiasts

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... debts and debtors" or "trespasses and trespassers." Read the Bible every once in a while. If called, tell the Gallup Poll that you believe in God and are a "born again" Christian. Not much to this stuff of being a Christian. Contrary to the ease with which we can claim we follow the Christ, there is a cost. In fact, if we take this faith seriously, there can be a very high cost. It still might require you to go against the wishes of your father and mother. It might mean picking up the cross. It still might ...

175. Removing Obstacles

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Sermon

James L. Killen

... God's people. Paul said some things to the Corinthians that can help us to get all of those attitudes into perspective. First, he reminded the Corinthians - and us - that we all have our status in the presence of God as a gift of grace. None of us can claim any standing in the presence of God because of who we are in the community or because of what we have done or because of our goodness or our wealth or our education or even because of our faithfulness. We are saved by grace. Paul said, "God chose what ...

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