Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1751 to 1775 of 2962 results

Exodus 20:8-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... He said the city ought to rest. The businesses ought to rest. Even animals ought to rest. We are committed at Cross Pointe to strengthening your family and to helping your family find time to be together and that is why we are not going to specifically begin to design this church in such a way that you feel like you've got to be up here every night of the week. Even though for the time being we are going to take Sunday nights, for just short periods of time each year, to do discipleship training, by and ...

1752. Sex and the City

Exodus 20:14

Sermon

James Merritt

... seen everything, I came across this on the internet. Just like there are birthday cards and anniversary cards and mother's day cards and father's day cards, there are now "Secret Lover Cards." There are twenty-four in the Secret Lover Collection designed specifically and especially for those who are having adulterous, extramarital affairs. One card called "my lover" reads like this: Just when I thought I would never find my true love - you came along…My soul has been searching for you since I came into ...

1753. God Where Are You? - The Problem of Evil

Genesis 3:1-6, Judges 6:13

Sermon

James Merritt

... we saw last week how science itself has proved with certainty that the world is not eternal. The universe had a beginning. The only feasible option to explain the origin of the universe is a transcendent creator. DNA itself is a compelling example of the incredible design that permeates all of life and tells us that behind all of this there is a God. But that, in turn, raises even more questions. Vincent Bugliosi, spent 8 years as a prosecutor for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office where he won 105 ...

1754. Hell under Fire

Matthew 5:22; 28-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... prepared hell for you and me. Jesus said in Matthew 25:41, "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matthew 25:41, NASB) This place called hell was designed for the devil and his angels, not for human beings. That is why God sent Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins, so that through His grace and by our faith in the Son of God and His death on the cross, we could receive forgiveness ...

1755. Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... I should submit to your providence I follow my will; When I should study, honor, and trust You I serve myself; I fought and correct your laws To suit myself; Instead of You I looked to man's approval, and am by nature an idolater. Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to You.4 But if Jesus Christ is Lord of all, that obviously means something else. III. His Lordship Demands Our Financial Stewardship If you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and you're going to live as if He is Lord of ...

1756. Don’t Sweat the Big Stuff

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

James Merritt

... garment ever made for a king like Solomon, put it under a microscope, and it will look like common sackcloth. But if you examine the petal of one flower, you will become lost in the wonder of what you would see. There is a texture, a form, a design, a substance and color to just the petal of a little flower that man with all of its ingenuity and creativity cannot come close to duplicating. The point is very simple. If God will take care of the flowers, won't God take care of you? III. Apply Steadfastness ...

1757. WeatherProofing Your Home

Matthew 7:24-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... not always going to get along with children. To be very honest with you, if you don't want to have any problems with your children, then you had better not have any children. Notice again - you have two houses made of the same structure with the same design, built out of the same materials and there was only one difference in the two homes, but it was a huge difference. The difference was the foundation. The first home was built on a solid foundation. The second home was built on a sandy foundation and the ...

1758. James 2:1-10

James 2:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... founder Jesus, the brother of James. In today’s James text the author describes a situation of “favoritism” that occurs in the “assembly” (“synagoge”), not using the more common term for a Christian gathering, “ekklesia.” “Synagoge” designates both a place for worship and a center for community study and legal proceedings. James’ use of the term “synagoge” coupled with his reference to “prosopolempsia,” “favoritism” as it might be revealed in a judicial setting, suggests ...

1759. Law and Order

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

James Merritt

... been completed six days before the beginning of the new year and as Ezra was reading through the scripture, they discovered that God's Word called for a New Year's festival known as The Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles to be celebrated. This feast was designed to remind the people of how God had delivered them from Egypt and had provided for them in the desert. The feast was to last seven days. During that time the people were to live in booths or what we might call huts made of boughs of trees ...

1760. Handling Objections

Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... us from going everywhere conducting our business and living our life. We go to the grocery store with hypocrites and to the doctor's office with hypocrites. But even more importantly, what better place for hypocrites to come than to the church which is designed to share a message with them that will deliver them from hypocrisy! At this point, you must get back on track to the Gospel with this observation - the fact of the matter is we are all hypocrites, because we are all sinners. The real question ...

1761. You Can Know What to Do With Your Life

Proverbs 3:5-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... give you the cash. In other words, that check was in essence a money-back guarantee that if taken to a bank - cash would be given in return. Out of that, a figure of speech entered into every day language known as "Take it to the bank" to designate something that was sure; something you could count on no matter what else happens. When someone tells you something that is absolute truth and can be verified by a third party source, you can "Take It To The Bank." We are beginning a three week series of messages ...

1762. The Power of Purpose

Proverbs 16:4

Sermon

James Merritt

... of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so God's generosity can flow through you." (I Peter 4:10, NLT) Let me tell you what that verse says in one simple sentence. Every member is a minister and every member should have a ministry. We were all uniquely designed by God with different talents, different skills, different gifts and different abilities. In other words, we all come "wired" in certain and different ways. If you are like me you came "hot wired", but it is not an accident that we are who we are and no ...

1763. Misled By Beauty

1 Samuel 15:34-35, 16:1-13

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... God looked on David's heart and found him worthy to be the next king is a way of saying that even though David was a good-looking man, his real beauty was at the heart level. The Navajo, I am told, use the word beauty to designate the beneficial alliance between spirits and nature.5 While the traditional Navajo faith is not Christian, Christianity can understand that way of using the word. Jesus told the Pharisees that cleaning the inside of the cup (that is, their hearts), would result in a clean outside ...

1764. The Maybe Moment

2 Samuel 11:1-15

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... the right. She quickly corrected and went safely on her way. Bezzina was grateful for the warning, but there was nobody in the car to thank. The alert had been generated by a device she was field-testing for an auto parts maker. The gadget was designed to warn drivers about road departures and lane shifting. Although that warning system is still experimental, you will likely have something similar in the next new car you buy, and some form of it is predicted to be widespread by 2010. Not only will your car ...

1765. Working Together with One Heart and One Mind

Illustration

Staff

... 19,000 pounds. Mike figured that three hundred forty four people would only have to lift about fifty-five pounds to carry the barn to higher ground. But how do that many people get a grip on the barn in order to lift it? Mike ingeniously designed a grid of steel tubing and attached it to the inside and outside of the barn. This provided handles for the barn raisers. As the town of Bruno was planning its centennial activities, Herman suggested a barn raising as part of the celebration. As the centennial ...

1766. Mark 9:38-50

Mark 9:38-41

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the inner circle of disciples are accepted because they are done in “the name of Christ.” It is because of their recognition of that unique name that they will be included in “the reward” (v.41). The “us” is a flexible, inclusive designation. It includes Jesus’ disciples, little children, simple believers, all those who do acts of power using Jesus’ name. At the heart of this expanded “us” there is a constant, a particularity — the “name of the Christ.” There is an invitation to a ...

1767. Our Task: Acceptance and Challenge

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

... you leave and walk for a whole day and not notice that your twelve-year-old was not with you? However, this is probably an unfair criticism. I read recently that because they walk more slowly, women pilgrims often left several hours before the men with some designated place to rendezvous at night. It is possible, then, that Mary assumed that Jesus was with Joseph and Joseph assumed that Jesus was with Mary, and so it was not until they got together that they realized that he was not there at all. At any ...

1768. Fish and Sheep

John 21:15-25, John 21:1-14

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... have been some sight, because you remember he jumped into the water, after the disciple Jesus loved told Peter of the presence of the Lord. It even sounds like the other disciples were doing all the work in bringing the heavily loaded net to shore. This fellow designated as "the Rock" by many was certainly colorful but many, if not most of us, would not have made him first among equals in the college of the twelve apostles! Yet, the gospel story, not just in John but the other three, tells us he and the ...

1769. A Samaritan Took Care of Him

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

The situation was this: A young Jewish lawyer wanted to reassure himself that he was doing the right thing. To help him, Jesus took the opportunity to tell him a story. The story was designed to set the young man straight. The story begins the way a lot of stories begin. "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho" (Luke 10:30). At this point, we aren't told anything about the man. Not his nationality or even his name is revealed to us. ...

1770. Putting Eternity to the Test

Luke 20:27-38

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

... remember that the Sadducees accepted as their scriptures only the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture. They said that they found no evidence of the resurrection in those five books, so they rejected the idea. They put a question to Jesus that was designed to show how mistaken the whole idea of the resurrection really was. They used as their argument, what was known as Levirate marriage. This was the practice whereby if a husband died without leaving any children, the wife would then be married off to ...

1771. Flying Coach to Nirvana

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... Will we be spent by engagement? Absolutely. We will be refilled by engagement? Absolutely. Many radicals argue that devotion to family and communal celebration seems a bland and retrograde goal. It is better than consumption and shopping but not exactly the stuff of bold designs and revolutionary politics. But, if I tell you big dreams are the fare you need to get to Nirvana, not big money, I ask you where are your big dreams? Of course, they include peace. They include rice for Afghani children. They want ...

1772. Genesis 2:18-24

Genesis 2:4-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... have four different gospels. That is why there is both Exodus and Deuteronomy. That is why there is Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Genesis 1 describes a top-down, high-to-low hierarchy of creation. God created, and creation proceeded according to a sequential design. Genesis 2 is a different-same story. Genesis 2 is less about the “what” of creation and more about the “why” of creation. Genesis 2 is about the creation of what is The Ultimate Real: relationships. Having created the whole world, the God who ...

1773. Mark 10: 35-45

Mark 10:35-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... parallelism Jesus presents his alternative — those who wish to be “great” must be “your servant,” those who wish to be “first” must be “slave to all” (v.44). While “diakonos” is also used in the New Testament to designate “deacon,” the term here carries its “servant” connotation. The disciples are commanded to become “servants” and even more than that, “slaves” (“doulos”). Jesus also extends the serving/slave identity beyond the borders of his chosen disciples. They ...

1774. Operation Omega

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... any town or suburb in America and you will see signs announcing the names of local churches. There will be a “First Presbyterian, a “First United Methodist,” a “First Baptist,” a “First United Church of Christ.” Only after the “First” designation has been snapped up to later churches start to shop around for a different name. “Second” isn’t very popular. Better to be “Third” or “Fourth.” There is even one “Twelfth Presbyterian Church” that I know of. Every church wants to ...

1775. Worship Services that Seek to Accommodate Rather than Dictate

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Timothy Wright

... often enter our churches feeling the same way. They do not know what to expect. They are apprehensive, if not actually frightened. I am unsure what they think will happen to them, but whatever it is, they think it could be awful. Visitor-oriented congregations take those feelings seriously and design services that put guests at ease. An informal setting encourages visitors to settle in and relax. An upbeat, celebratory climate, friendly people and enthusiastic music help guests forget their fears."

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