Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 151 to 175 of 1285 results

2 Kings 6:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... deal with losing your cutting edge is to stay productive. Everybody wants to be productive. A psychologist at Stanford University tried to show that we live for productive results, or what you and I might call fruit. This researcher hired a man, a logger. He said, "I will pay you double what you get paid in the logging camp if you will take the blunt end of this ax and just pound this log all day. You'll never have to cut one piece of wood; just take the end that is blunt and hit it as hard as you can ...

152. Are You In The Know?

John 10:27-29

Sermon

James Merritt

... one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." (John 10:28-29, NASB) Jesus tells us that we are actually in a double-grip. We have a double wall of security. We are in the Son's grip and the Son's grip is in the Father's grip. Too many people think that their relationship with God and the security of that relationship is based on their holding on to God, but it is really ...

153. A Pair of Ducks and Abundant Life

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... lose. That is a lesson of life and the first paradox that we need to see this morning. A medical doctor, W. Beran Wolfe, once wrote, “If you observe a really happy [person] you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his [children], growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert . . . To find happiness we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves.” It is the person who has a purpose for living, it is the person who is giving of himself or ...

154. Do Not Be Quickly Shaken

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... ministers to stabilize their lives, to keep them from being shaken. The goal many parishioners come to church to achieve is stability. They don't want to be shaken. They want to be secured. Unfortunately, ministers also shake people up. Saint Paul enters this remarkably interesting double bind to tell us that we are not to be easily or quickly shaken. In other words, we are to have a wild equilibrium in the middle of great disequilibria. We are to be peaceful in the midst of conflict. We are "all shook up ...

155. Plenty Good Room

John 14:1-4

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... you cannot follow now, but later on you will come. To their minds, which are almost now paralyzed, Jesus gives that bracing word, let not your hearts be troubled. It’s a word that speaks to the double bind in which they found themselves and which you and I find ourselves today – the double bind between the pull of our discontent and the pressure of our doubts. We all know that discontentment—it really is the badge of our humanity. Anthropologists tell us that we human beings are the only organisms ...

156. A Stone’s Throw From: The Rolled Stone

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . I immediately turned around and rang the doorbell. The door opened and I took Emma's hand, I pulled her outside and pointed. We both stood there in stunned silence as we looked at one of the most beautiful double rainbows I have ever seen. It was a horizon to horizon full double rainbow. The colors were brilliant. Emma started crying. And then she started laughing. She looked at me and through her tears and laughter said, "He's alive." She hugged me, ran inside and started opening curtains and blinds. The ...

157. Political Pardon

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... chest increased. Before long, tall and upright Fouke began to walk with a bit of a bend, and stoop more when he was working. And his boundless energy seemed sapped by the changes taking place in his body. Within several months Fouke trudged down the street nearly doubled over, and his face wore a constant grimace of pain. In desperation he cried out to God. Surely he did not deserve this! What was happening to him? How could he find relief and release from the awful torment? That night, an angel was sent to ...

158. Hidden in Plain Sight

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... that enables them to clearly see this public mystery of God. It is hidden in plain sight, plainly visible to the eyes of faith but hidden from those who do not have the Spirit. The church today, like the church of Paul's time, has a double mission, a mission of outreach and inreach and all too many of us content ourselves with one or the other when both are needed. There are many congregations that provide very effective growth opportunities for their members without reaching much beyond the church walls. A ...

159. Cookies and Milk, a Sacramental Meal

Matthew 14:13-21

Illustration

Glenn L. Borreson

... George's seven-year-old brother, who was also his closest friend and playmate. Little George was so distraught at the gravesite that he had tried to jump into the grave himself. Now at home, he had buried himself and his grief under the bottom of the double-decker bed in their room. He wouldn't come out. He just said, "I'm here and I'm never coming out." His mother tried. Schmidt tried, talking until he was blue in the face. Nothing worked. Arguments. Bribes. Nothing. Finally, Schmidt said the Lord got his ...

160. The Tongue Is Mightier than the Sword

James 3:1-12

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

... the great philosopher, Socrates, to be instructed in oratory. The moment the young man was introduced, he began to talk and there was an incessant stream for some time. When Socrates could get in a word, he said, "Young man, I will have to charge you a double fee." "A double fee, why is that?" The old philosopher replied, "I will have to teach you two sciences. First, how to hold your tongue, and then how to use it." Such an art is good for all of us to learn, especially for Christians. In our lesson today ...

161. Antidote for Bad Times

James 5:13-20

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

... anything we must ask in faith: But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. — James 1:6-7 The second antidote is this: "When you are sick, seek the prayers of your friends." The last antidote, which James offers, is "When you have sinned, confess." Alcoholics Anonymous has long recognized that repressed and ...

162. Being Two People at Once

2 Samuel 11:1-15

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... How can the same man be both men? Those of us who know ourselves know exactly how this can be. We understand. We also have a double nature. We may be very kind outside of our homes and very unkind inside. We may be lazy at work and full of energy at ... even something as good as religion is comfort to some and poison to others, we do come, eventually, to understand our double nature. We understand the link between virtue and vanity, the link between lust and loveliness, the strange connection between praise ...

163. An Answer Out of the Whirlwind

Job 38:1-7 (34-41)

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... ! But is it enough? The natural world and our role in it may be clarified, but is the moral universe restored? The story, or folktale, makes an attempt at that. We note that in the end, Job gets it all back and more — his dignity, family, friends, and double his possessions. Of course, there is a certain naiveté to that end of the folk story, as though such things as family can be replaced, or such suffering forgotten. In MacLeish's play, JB, Nickles says, "Job won't take it! Job won't touch it! Job will ...

164. To Satisfy the System

Illustration

Patrick Ryan

... , he duly filled in the required figures. The third year he replied that the schoolroom was still the same size. The education office badgered him with reminders until Birmingham finally filled in the figures. This time he doubled the dimensions of his schoolroom. Nobody queried it. So he went on doubling the measurements until "in the course of five or six years that schoolroom became a great deal larger than St. Paul's Cathedral." But nobody at the education office was at all concerned. So, the next year ...

165. Leave and Don't Look Back

Gensis 13:1-13, Genesis 19:1

Illustration

... moral standards he had learned from his uncle Abraham, and he didn't approve of the wicked things he saw and heard. But as an official at the city gate, he apparently had little impact on the wicked society of which he was a part. Lot's double-mindedness brought him much inner torment and rendered him spiritually powerless. He couldn't even convince his sons-in-law (and their wives) to leave Sodom before God's judgment fell. Only he, his wife, and the two daughters still living at home escaped. And his wife ...

166. How Big of a Risk Would You Take?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... belongs to you." Let me pause here. If you had never heard this parable before, how would you expect the master to feel? He had entrusted his wealth to his three servants. Two of them had not only protected that with which they had been entrusted, but they had doubled it. Now this third servant is asked to account for his stewardship. And he is forced to announce that he had buried his master’s wealth in the ground and had not added an ounce to what he had been given. If you had been his boss, how would ...

167. God All Along

Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... a singularly personal experience. It was a pointedly personal experience, for the voice called him by name. This was not a public address: this was a one-on-one encounter with bystanders. "Saul, Saul," the voice called (v. 4). Grammatically speaking, this is a double vocative, and we have seen it elsewhere in scripture. In the Old Testament, we remember God trying to speak to a young boy at night, calling, "Samuel! Samuel!" (1 Samuel 3:4). Meanwhile, in the New Testament, we think of Jesus' gentle word of ...

168. Put Within Us

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

R. Kevin Mohr

... goes on at the cellular level gives us a physical illustration of this significant spiritual change God announces. As science and technology have allowed us to delve deeper and deeper into the wonder of the living cell, the DNA molecule, with its now-famous double-helix structure, continues to astound us with its complexity and significance for all life. So much DNA is packed into the nucleus of a cell, for example, that if it were stretched out it would measure roughly three miles long! Even more amazing ...

169. In the Shadow of His Brother

John 1:35-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... , but touching story about a young man, a fictional character named Norton who, like Andrew, was a disciple of John the Baptist. The first time Norton met John the Baptist he was struck by John’s appearance. He described him like this: wearing a “double-breasted camel hair suit (wrong-side out), platform high-top sandals, teased hair, the works . . .” The first night by the river, says Norton, was the beginning of a deep friendship with John. “In only four days I was arriving early enough to get a ...

170. Boasting

2 Corinthians 11:1-15, 2 Corinthians 11:16-33, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... 13). To mention the receipt of support from other sources may also have exacerbated the situation, demonstrating once again how double-minded and inconsistent Paul really was (cf. 1:17). Second, Paul claims to have robbed (or “plundered”) these other ... and probably did not boast in such things themselves (cf. 5:12). The fact that Paul does so is part of the double “foolishness” of the section. With respect to literary form, this section constitutes a tribulation catalogue (see on 4:8–9). In 6 ...

171. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... has two meanings. On the one hand, it means: “You have enjoyed yourselves on the day of slaughter.” Since the fresh meat was soon dried or salted, it was customary to have a big barbecue when one slaughtered animals. But on the other hand, James understands the double meaning, which the NIV correctly expresses. The wealthy have plenty to eat; they enjoy life. But it is the biblical day of slaughter, the day God slaughters his enemies (e.g., Isa. 30:33; 34:5–8). They have enjoyed life as if on a day of ...

172. At Mount Sinai

Exodus 19:1-25

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... . 19:16–19 On the morning of the third day the Lord came down to meet the people. Earthquake and dense smoke accompanied the sound and light to fully engage, even overpower, all five senses. The people trembled. It began with double sight and double sound in the lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, [thunder] and a very loud trumpet blast. The Hebrew words for “thunder and lightning” are plural, indicating a continuous manifestation. When the trumpet sounded the signal, Moses led the people ...

173. The Tabernacle

Exodus 26:1-37

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... frames: six regular frames plus two special corner frames that would have been half a cubit (9 in.) wide each. Scholars are divided about the construction of the corner and translate it quite differently. The NIV is helpful here: “At these two corners they must be double from the bottom all the way to the top, and fitted into a single ring.” The corner frames were solid wood made of two boards joined tightly at the top by a gold ring. This hints that the studs themselves were a quarter cubit in width ...

174. Let Him Kiss Me

Song of Songs 1:1-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

... a teasing exchange between the two central characters, with the woman speaking in 1:7 and the man replying in 1:8 (although recent versions of the NIV, along with many interpreters, assign 1:8 to the friends instead of to the male lover). There is a double-entendre in 7a—b. Although the NIV adds your flock and your sheep, these expressions are not in the Hebrew. The second of the verbs (NIV rest) is a form ordinarily used with a direct object, although the Hebrew does not include one. Thus, the woman’s ...

175. I Am a Rose of Sharon

Song of Songs 2:1-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

... apple tree sight and taste, and the reference to shade has a tactile sense. Raisins and apples suggest taste. The man’s arms under the woman’s head and embracing her are tactile for the central pair, but evoke a visual image for the audience. The use of double refrain lines in verses 6 and 7 suggests to those who divide the book into major sections that this is the end of one of them. This division is likely and is reinforced by the fact that while the central man was apparently present at least through ...

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