Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1826 to 1850 of 4938 results

1826. Epiphany 4

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, Micah 6:1-8, Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... you as being inferior to the one issuing the orders. In the world, the strong impose themselves on the weak but Jesus says that this is not the way it is supposed to be with his followers. Christ's disciples must be willing to be servants and give up the striving for positional advantage. Even in the church there are those who possess greater power than others (an Assistant Pastor is in a weaker position than the Senior Pastor) but power and position have nothing to do with worth or value. If we accept our ...

1827. Josiah Speaks: An Ancient King Brings Greetings

2 Chronicles 34:14-33, 2 Chronicles 34:1-13

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

... Amon succeeded him and did nothing to bring reform. After only two years as king, he was murdered by a servant. I was left an orphan. At the age of eight I became king. I was under the tutelage of Hilkiah, the high priest. It is a terrible loss to give up one's father at such a tender age, but it was a great gain to be under the tutelage of Hilkiah and his fellow priests. The priests of the temple of Yahweh took no chances with me. I was tutored by them, instructed in the ways of the God of ...

1828. Counsel for Discouraged Disciples

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Sermon

... his cries apparently have not been heard. He cannot see any way out of the tangled mess that engulfs him. In the midst of his depression and protest, however, he gets a message which, put in the slang of our day, was, "Hang in there! Don’t give up the ship!" Or, in the words of the scriptural record, the Lord said to him, "The vision awaits its time wait for it; it will surely come ... the righteous shall live by his faith." Paraphrasing this, it seems to me the Lord is saying to the discouraged prophet ...

1829. The Master Has Come - To Be Lord of Life

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

... . He said to his disciples that afternoon, "Why do questionings arise in your hearts?" We are troubled by many things, aren’t we? Life has a way of getting the best of us. We let it get us down. There are times when some of us feel like giving up. The disciples felt that way that fateful Passover weekend. But, that was the last time they would ever be that low again. They would have their ups and downs later on. That weekend they learned, however, that they were serving a risen savior. That gave them a ...

1830. Hay, Harmony, and Hallelujah

Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

G. William Genszler

... her family got so severe they were forced to flee for their lives. They left their home behind the iron curtain and tried to make it safely to the western sector. Nanuska’s mind asked all kinds of questions: "What kind of God was it that could cause people to give up their comfortable homes and end up in a cow barn with only hay for a bed? It just wasn’t fair. Surely her parents must be mistaken about this Jesus. If he were God, why didn’t he do something to help them now? Believe you, me, if I were ...

1831. My Soul Is Glad - Because of God

Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

... she would do it. Instead, she praised God because he showed her promise in her situation which she did not despise and reject but which she rather accepted. Inviting people to praise God does not mean asking them to be content with what they have and giving up all aspiration for something other; but it is asking them, rather than despise or reject their situation, to accept it - by faith. Again Daryl Stingley: I lost just about everything I had except my life. Then all of a sudden, it becomes a new way of ...

1832. The Second Naiveté: Babies, Angels, Shepherds, And God

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... the stars and guides the way to the Prince of Peace; so lead us anew to the manger to behold the Christ. We confess our fascination with the world of time and sense, pomp and circumstance. But on this night of humble love and eternal truth, help us give up the idols of our vain worship, to center our lives on the Christ. Grant us release from false ideas and inadequate concepts which hinder our vision of you. Let our hardness of heart be melted in the warmth of this manger room of love. On this night of ...

1833. Rise Above It

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

King Duncan

... in, He will. His will for us is not to make us happy or unhappy. It is to make us, us, as only He knows we can be. To will for us fullness and growth, He weaves into the tapestry of our lives both joy and pain. He will not give up until we all attain to the `unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ' (Eph. 4:13)." (2) Pain is inevitable in life. Pain may be essential to growth. UNDER CERTAIN ...

1834. Tevye's Question

Matthew 16:21-28

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... This is what he wants us to do also. That is what he means by taking up our cross. . . . What are some things that you have to do that are hard but it is the right thing to do? (Possibilities: mind parents because it is the right thing to do . . . give up a day of playing to help a neighbor, etc.) This is how you can "take up your cross" and follow Jesus, by doing what is right even when something else is easier. (If you have crosses for the children, pass them out.) Say: Take this cross to remind you that ...

1835. It's All In The Blood

John 18:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... on to Annas' schemes and drove his moneychangers out of the temple. Annas has every reason to want this pesky rabbi dead. Annas sends Jesus to Caiaphas, his son-in-law and the new high priest. Caiaphas tries to get at Jesus' hidden agenda, but finally gives up. Next, the Jews take Jesus to the palace of Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate's total disregard for his Jewish subjects has gotten him in trouble many times. He knows the Jews dislike him. If he doesn't rule in their favor, then they will report ...

1836. "God News" For Bad Times

1 Kings 17:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... to overwhelm us. Some boy scouts from the city were on a camping trip. The mosquitoes were so fierce, the boys had to hide under their blankets to avoid being bitten. One of them saw some lightning bugs and said to his friend, "We might as well give up. They're coming after us with flashlights." Who of us has not tried to hide from our problems but discovered them coming after us carrying flashlights? Life is hard and sometimes it is hard to hold on. One pastor remembers a boyhood exercise in which a class ...

1837. The Sower and the Seed

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Brett Blair

... fast. The enthusiast who fails to follow through. Dropouts cripple goodness. The gospel suffers from those who grasp the challenge but retreat from the pain. Those who seek Christ’s gift but resent the cost. This is the third condition of the heart: The person gives up when he is challenged. As a pastor I have encountered people like this. I go over to their homes and talk to them about uniting with the church. They sound ever so enthusiastic about ways in which they can become involved and I go away ...

1838. Grace: Amazing or Mystifying?

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... ?” The man quoted John 3:16. Peter said, “Nice try but wrong.” The man quoted John 3:17. Peter said, “Nice try but wrong.” The man recited the 23rd Psalm. Peter said, “Nice try but wrong.” Helplessly, the man blurted out, “Well, then, I give up!” And Peter said, “That’s it!” Peter extended his hand to the man and welcomed him into heaven. That’s grace. Amazing and mystifying grace. What can you do with this grace? Only one thing. Pass it on to someone else. 1. “Weigh the Cat ...

1839. Blank Walls or Filled Lives (Part V)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... which saved our lives." Paul writes to a church that is fragile and in the infancy of its development. The Philippian congregation did not have the advantage that we do today of some 2,000 years of history and tradition. Paul did not want them to give up but to "keep on keeping on." He writes to let them know how his imprisonment is actually helping, not hindering, the advancement of the Gospel. For me, it has been fascinating to read the great testimony and inspiring stories of faith that have come out of ...

1840. Sheep that Count

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... I'm sharing secrets with you that they don't want you to know about. Why, some of the things I've told you, they have never heard because they refuse to listen. They just want to live in bondage to that stupid human being, walking around eating grass and giving up their coats for him every time he takes a notion. But you, Edgar, you are different. You have a mind of your own. I like that about you." So Edgar went back to the flock, thinking about all the things he learned from Destiny. And like Destiny told ...

1841. Trapped in Paradise

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to let anyone in or anyone out. They were stranded in a paradise that had become a swamped, stampeded prison. But for a few tourists, the experience of vacationing in spite of the hurricane became a whole new kind of adventure. These tourists decided to give up their big plans and make some new preparations. Instead of being stranded in the big tourist trap resort towns, they took buses and headed inland away from the brunt of the storm. Instead of hugging the shoreline, they headed into the interior of the ...

1842. Drop It!

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... are you having trouble dropping? What do you need to drop this morning? Are you a control freak, a control junkie? DROP IT! Do you have a secret sin that no one knows about? DROP IT! Is your life trembling from fear and anxiety? DROP IT! Are you reluctant to give up your preconceptions? DROP IT! Drop it at the foot of the cross.

1843. The Compleat Christian

Romans 5:1-5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... not suffering through another boring meeting, or your daily gym work-out. Nor is suffering even physical or emotional deprivation. Christian suffering is not about learning to take on additional burdens or problems so much as it is about learning to give up the right to indulge in certain human weaknesses. When we agree to participate in Christ's suffering, that means we forfeit the urge to "get even," take revenge, harbor malicious thoughts or speak vicious words. Shouldering our own cross means returning ...

1844. Itchy Ears

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... for her necklace. At the third, her breast plate, at the fourth her girdle, and at the last gate she is asked to take off her very gown. Naked and bowed low, she enters the underworld. This reminds us so much of going to the hospital. We give up our role, our identity, our jewelry. In county hospitals, they put these belongings in a paper bag. We are disabused of any specialness about ourselves at all. Or, is it actually Christ's path to the cross which Inana is following? He, too, is stripped of everything ...

1845. The Cross No One Wants To See

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Lee Griess

... telling the story of the cross. For like Alice, Jesus' extravagant love for the unlovely, his compassion for the wretched and the worst of the worst enabled him to endure the cross. He was hung on the cross no one wants to see. And there he saved our lives by giving up his own. He endured the shame. But there is more. The cross was also a place of suffering and so it was intended to be. An upright wooden post with a crossbeam near the upper part of the post, it was an instrument of torture, a cruel form of ...

1846. God’s Doing

Philippians 1:21-30

Sermon

Larry Lange

... a thing as the dying violet offered to her in the chubby little fingers of her grandson, Trevor. She was thankful to be alive, but still she dreaded every day. When will it come back? How much more debilitated will I get? How much longer before Don gives up and walks out? She worried about this last thought more than the others because Don had had big plans for this part of their life: plans for travel around the world, plans for skiing and scuba, plans for romantic rendezvous on the warm, white sands of ...

1847. Matthew 5:38-48

Matthew 5:38-42

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... face that the first struck, but in reality that blow lands squarely on the face of the “evildoer,” marking the malicious wrongness of his actions. The same kind of indictment can be found in Jesus’ other two directives in vv.40-41. In urging the giving up of one’s cloak as well as one’s shirt (“chiton”), Jesus’ directive contradicted Torah law that strictly prohibited taking the coat of another as a payment for a debt (Exodus 22:25-27; Deuteronomy 21:12-13). The over-the-top behavior Jesus ...

1848. Matthew 21:1-1

Matthew 21:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of the moment inspiration. Jesus’ instructions are precise and detailed, suggesting a pre-arrangement made with the animal’s owner more than an exhibition of supernatural knowledge. The words Jesus instructs his disciples to repeat would hardly have convinced anyone to give up two valuable animals to a couple of complete strangers. But they may well have been an already agreed upon “password,” letting the owner know these were the men he had been told to expect. The explanation to the animal’s ...

1849. Sunday’s Comin’

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... worship on Sunday rather than on Saturday as had been their heritage. No doubt Sunday held that same special place in the mind of the writer of Hebrews and why there was such an insistence on coming together for worship each week — "Let us not give up meeting together ..." (v. 25). We need the fellowship of others who share our hope to encourage us and restore our occasionally downcast spirit, and we need to be there for them when they need encouragement from us. One of Tony Campolo's best-known sermons ...

1850. Prophesy Your Way Forward

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... “magical” insight of these “magi.” But in small but significant ways, all of us can and do “prophesy our way forward.” We pay this month’s electric bill because we know we need the lights to be on next month. We give up some “spending money” and defer some gratification because we know our family needs that life insurance policy. We build college savings accounts. We stockpile treasures in a “hope chest.” In 1895 Oscar Wilde presented his great theatrical success “The Importance of ...

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