Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 151 to 175 of 662 results

151. Marriage, Sexual Intimacy, and Spiritual Devotion

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... please the Lord (7:29–31). Whether the relationship in question is ethnic (Jew/Greek), social (slave/free), or marital (married/single), Christians should let their eagerness to please God trump their anxieties about their worldly predicament. They can imitate their Lord regardless of their present circumstances. Paul’s argument is not that the Corinthians should maintain the status quo but that they should realize how significant their confession of Christ as Lord is for all earthly relationships and ...

152. The Priority of Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... Paul (2 Cor. 6:6; 1 Tim. 1:16; 2 Tim. 3:10). love is kind. Doing acts of kindness, or mercy, exemplifies God’s character (Rom. 2:4; 11:22; Eph. 2:7) and presence (Eph. 4:32)—something Christians should imitate (Col. 3:12).8 It does not envy. According to Paul, being enraged by envy, behaving like a braggart, and being inflated by self-praise are marks of the flesh, not the Spirit (3:3). It comes from a pursuit of worldly things rather than the things of the Spirit. ...

153. The Celebration of the Great Multitude in Heaven

Revelation 7:9-17

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... are the kinds of deep cultural commitments confronted by Revelation 7:9–17. The great multitude have won a victory all right, but they have triumphed and conquered through suffering and sacrifice. We conquer by relying upon the finished work of Christ and by imitating his manner of life. The Lion conquered as a Lamb—through a willingness to suffer and die. We are an army of potential martyrs. This way of winning must define our lives and our churches rather than allowing secular definitions of power to ...

154. The Ordination of Aaron and His Sons

Leviticus 8:1-36

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... , almost unconscious, process, children follow the examples set by others, modeling both behavior and the accompanying emotional tone. When children see their parents reading regularly, they want to read and be read to. When they see disrespectful or violent behavior, live or on television, they are just as likely to imitate it.6 The takeaway: example is highly significant. This is true not only for children but also for anyone who is learning how to do something new. People inevitably observe and ...

155. Jacob Flees to Harran

Gn 27:41–29:14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... through whom nations will be blessed, the promises made to that family, and God’s commitment to those promises. Esau, still holding on, tries to buy a little favor with his parents by marrying a non-Canaanite girl (28:6–9). Jacob imitated him. Now he will imitate Jacob. Somewhere between Beersheba and Harran, at a site referred to nebulously as “a certain place” (28:11), Jacob makes preparations to go to sleep. Here we have the third instance of God communicating via a dream (28:10–22; cf. Gen ...

156. Apostles of Christ

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... through the gospel” (4:15), he has written in a fatherly act of compassionate correction to warn them of the dangers inherent in their self-centered attitudes and to urge them, as his children, to grow out of their immaturity by imitating their father. In order that they might learn to imitate in the way their father intends, Paul says, “I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord.” Like an older brother, he will remind his brothers and sisters of their father’s ...

157. Paul’s Ministry in Thessalonica

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... The message of the gospel has the power to transform people’s lives. Paul introduces one of the evidences that demonstrated their true reception of the gospel: their suffering persecution (2:14; 1 Thess. 3:3–4): “For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews” (2:14). While many early congregations suffered for their adherence to the gospel (Acts 14:22; 1 ...

158. The Disorderly

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... out of line,” “disorderly,” or “undisciplined.” Certain Thessalonians did not live according to the apostolic teaching or tradition (see 2:15) given them through deed and word (3:7–10). Here, as elsewhere, Paul calls the believers to imitate his and the others’ conduct (3:7). Learning by imitation was prescribed by the ancients, especially in the sphere of moral teaching about virtue and vice (3:9; Phil. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:7; 1 Pet. 5:3). Examples were considered more persuasive than ...

159. Jesus Like Melchizedek

Hebrews 7:11-28

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... sacrifice and of the joy and spiritual benefit that was the fruit of the believer’s participation in this ritual is set aside in order to pour contempt on these bare ceremonies as utterly incapable of making sinners right with God. In this, the author simply imitates the technique and the argument of the great prophets before him (Isa. 1:10–20; Amos 5:21–25; cf. 1 Cor. 10:1–5). The author’s intention is certainly not to contrast believing life and experience in the Old Testament with that of the ...

160. Concluding Exhortations

Hebrews 13:1-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... instruction in the Christian life, and marvelously adorned their doctrine by the holiness of their lives (cf. Titus 2:10). As valuable as the examples of heroic faith from the distant past may be (Heb. 11:4–38), there is yet more reason to imitate the sturdy faith of those one has known in the flesh and to whom one is greatly indebted. Whether “outcome” suggests martyrdom or, as is probable, simply the righteous character of their lives, they are apparently now numbered among the “spirits of the ...

161. Waiting on the Lord

James 5:7-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... (5:9). The Lord who is coming to deliver us from sin and want is also coming to evaluate the lives of his people. In their patient endurance of difficulties, Christians are to imitate the prophets and Job (5:10–11). At first glance, Job would seem to be a curious choice to hold up for imitation, for he frequently expressed his exasperation with the Lord. But what James wants us to emulate in Job is his perseverance: despite the disasters he faced, and the relentless attack of his “friends,” Job ...

162. Joy at Believers’ Walking in the Truth

3 John 1:1-14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... ’s leadership in the church may be assisted by human leaders, but it is never supplanted by them; as in authentic worship, the Lord leads his followers in spirit and in truth, and all who attend his leading can discern it and obey. 11–12 · Imitate Not Evil but Good: The primary emphasis of 3 John is the elder’s exhortation of Gaius to extend hospitality to others despite having been denied it himself. Demetrius is featured as a good example of someone whom others testify about favorably (v. 12), and ...

163. The Soldiers Mock Jesus

Matthew 27:27-31

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... the coins of Tiberius Caesar (H. St. J. Hart, JTS, vol. 3, pp. 66–75) rather than inward so as to inflict pain. The major purpose of the soldiers was to mock Jesus: they had already beaten him cruelly. They put a staff in his right hand (in imitation of a royal scepter), knelt before him in jest, and exclaimed, Hail, king of the Jews! They spit on him, and taking the staff, hit him repeatedly (etypton is imperfect) on the head. When they had finished making sport of him, they dressed him again in his own ...

164. Thy Will Be Done

Luke 20:27-38

Sermon

Molly F. James

... s Prayer, we pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy will be done.” We do not pray “my will be done.” Being a follower of Christ means that we commit to imitating Christ. We commit to following his model of self-giving. We acknowledge that God comes first, not our own selfish desires. We imitate him who gave himself over to God’s will. Think of Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I ...

165. Reading the Last Chapter First

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... were in the presence of a superstar. And Adele removed her disguise and revealed her true identity to cheers and hugs from her fans. (5) In this man Jesus, at this moment, on this mountain, the disciples saw the One True God. No one else could imitate his glory. No one else could speak God’s perfect truth. No one else had the power to restore humanity back to God. Knowing the truth about Christ means making a decision. The apostle Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 1: 20, “For no matter how many promises ...

166. The Problem with "Fawneys"

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... So many persons were defrauded in this way that anything fake came to be called fawney. This was later Americanized to the word phony. (1) Nobody likes a fawney, or a phony—someone who looks like the real thing but is, in truth simply an imitation. There is a fascinating story about the death of the former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Stalin, of course, was known as a cruel and vindictive man. He is reputed to have suffered a seizure at a meeting of the Presidium, the Communist party executive committee ...

Art may imitate life, but life imitates TV.

Ani DiFranco

He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.

Francesco Guicciardini

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.

Francois Rene De Chateaubriand

Imitation can acquire pretty much everything but the power which created the thing imitated.

Henry S. Haskins

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Oscar Wilde

172. Celebrating the Virtue of Humanity

Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-7). Probably unknowingly, President Jefferson, when he picked up the old man and gave him a ride, was imitating the humility of Jesus. We are called to do likewise in our lives. Humility has many facets, but three of the most important ideas, which form a sort of trinity, are compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation. Rather than exhibiting these three virtues, too often ...

173. A Call To Community

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... all of the wrinkles. They named her Jiggles, because when she runs her wrinkles jiggle like Jell-O(r). The breeder had told this family that shar-peis won't bark unless they learn that behavior from a neighbor's dog. If they hear another dog barking, they will imitate that behavior. The first day home with the puppy, the parents found their five-year-old son on the floor of their front room barking at Jiggles. The little boy's father told him, "Don't bark at her. You'll teach her to bark." The father then ...

174. New Wine

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... and called to the fellow raking the grass to ask if he thought his friend would like the job. The man yelled to his partner to ask him, "Hey, Fred! Do you think for $100 you could step on that rake one more time?" Just so impossible is it to imitate or duplicate the events of Pentecost in our day, but we do know that God would like to send a fresh outpouring of his New Wine into our thirsty souls and refill us with his own dear, divine Self. It will take for us just what it took for those ...

175. You Need A Point Of Contact With The Lord

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

James McLemore

Let me describe how important a point of contact is. An experiment was performed on some baby monkeys. The baby monkeys were placed in a wire cage with two surrogate mothers: a wire imitation mother with a milk bottle, and a cloth mother with no food. The experiment was trying to determine to which of these mothers the infant monkeys would go. The monkeys fooled the experimenters. They went to the wire mother with the milk when they were hungry, but they spent the ...

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