Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1951 to 1975 of 3099 results

1951. Hope in a Plain Brown Wrapper

Luke 1:47-55

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... attempts to tear it. We have fiber strapping that some knives won't cut. And we have adhesives that you can't get off with dynamite. And toys are wired into packages so pieces don't inadvertently disappear. I ran across a poem dealing with this subject, by Mary Elizabeth Counselman, that sums up the difficulty in unwrapping Christmas. "Hats off to you makers of gadgets galore. Hooray for your shipping and stackage. But why do you make it so hard, more and more, to take all your wares from the package? Your ...

1952. Love and Obey (Mother's Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... expectations for us. The Scriptures are full not only of God’s promises, but also of God’s instructions for how we are to live our lives. Obedience to those instructions is vitally important. Pastor Chuck Swindoll gives us a wonderful modern day parable on this subject. Imagine a company whose president decides to travel abroad. He is going to be away an extended period of time. So he says to his trusted employees, “Look, I’m going away. And while I’m away, I want you to pay close attention to the ...

1953. Fingerprints and Lovemarks

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... grown, then we are guaranteed an inexhaustible resource of love for our whole life. LoveMark is the unity of love – the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as they are poured out into the hearts of every disciple. That is the subject of Jesus’ final prayer. Jesus was not praying that believers become doormats, accommodating everyone, everything, every idea, all in the name of some wishy-washy, “love” principle. What Jesus does expect disciples to incarnate is his LoveMark body in this world. The ...

1954. God and Creation Are Always One

John 17:20-26

Illustration

Anthony Jewiss

... light from the new planet had taken so long to reach us that our cousin planet had actually ceased to exist several millions of years ago. If God is immutable, however, can nothing ever change? We know that to be patently untrue. Theologians have a lot to say on these subjects and I suppose the most straightforward answer is that God and creation are always "one" no matter what part of creation we are looking at, or the era we are considering.

1955. Dealing with Stress Creatively

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

... sticking it out. In a recent Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown expressed it like this: “I have a new philosophy of life, Linus. From this moment on, I’m going to only dread one day at a time!” Now, that’s a light treatment of a very serious subject. Many people today do see life as a “daily grind” as a “hard grueling test to be endured. But, where’s the joy? Where’s the zest? Where’s the enthusiasm? Where’s the excitement? For these people the celebration of life faded and died long ago ...

1956. Holiness of Heart and Life

Romans 2:21-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... used two areas of concern: the home, and our relationship to others. What does holiness in the home mean? Men, it means loving your wife as Christ loved the Church and gave His life for Her. Women, it means loving your husband and being subject to him as the head of the family, because you are submissive to Christ. Children, it means obeying and honoring your parents. Parents, it means respecting and valuing your children as unique, unrepeatable miracles of God, not provoking them to anger, but bringing ...

1957. A Sunday Kind of Love

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... doctrines of our faith: the magnificence and mystery of divinity that is three-in-one — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you know your church history, you realize that the Trinity has been one of the thorniest thickets, one of the trickiest subjects in the history of Christianity. Its elaboration has been complex, a theological construct hashed out by theologians and church elders centuries ago and yet still argued over every few decades. So although when we sing the Doxology we “Praise Father, Son, and ...

1958. We Must Speak the Truth

John 16:5-16

Illustration

Brett Blair

... as an expert witness at a trial. During cross-examination a lawyer demanded, "What are your qualifications as an expert witness in this case?" The normally modest and retiring professor replied quietly, "I am the greatest living expert on the subject under discussion." Later a friend well acquainted with Rowland expressed surprise at the professor's uncharacteristic answer. Rowland answered, "Well, what did you expect me to do? I was under oath." The church must speak the truth, like the Physics professor ...

1959. Whatever Happened to Respect?

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... not modeled that in the home. I don’t understand why we have so misunderstood the pattern of the Christian home Paul provides in Ephesians 5 and 6. We’ve distorted the instructions Paul gives there by ignoring everything but his instruction to wives to be subject to their husbands and we’ve taken the completely out of context. Discover how much more time you spend watching television than you do reading the Bible or even in church on Sunday. You’re going to discover that you spend far, far more time ...

1960. The Darkness Where God Was

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... writers through the ages have called “the dark night of the soul.” There is an old story about a temperance speaker who started his congregation one night by saying, “This evening I’m going to preach on the evil of rum, and I’m full of my subject.” That’s true to some degree with me as I come to the point because all of us know about the dark night of the soul at some lead. Quite apart from specific tragedy that invades our life, devastating trials that occasionally strike us - quite apart ...

1961. Lean Thine Arm on the Windowsill of Heaven (Growing Old Gracefully)

Psalm 90:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... when you know what I’m talking about - but you have grandparents - remember that. And you young adults, you’ll be tempted to do the same - to turn off, because growing old is not your concern. But I warn you - your day will come. So, it’s a subject for all of us, though I’m sure that for those who are older the message - will have more existential grip. The question is an existential one, the realization that we are growing old. I read a funny thing sometime ago about this experience and tucked it ...

1962. When You Have Everything You Need, Except What You Need (Managing Money)

Luke 12:22-34, Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Not Allowing Money to Manage us.” Let’s begin where we should begin – with the scripture. If you’ve ever doubted that Jesus was concerned about money, read the 12th chapter of Luke. The truth is Jesus talked as much about money as he did any other subject in life. I wish we had time to read the entire 12th chapter of Luke; I hope you’ll read it sometime today or during this coming week. The pivotal issue of the chapter was illustrated with a parable Jesus told. We didn’t read that parable, but ...

1963. When Being Christian Has Worn You Down (Compassion Fatigue)

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... they should do some thing meaningful to meet the problems of the new world. So they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects. The duck was excellent in swimming; in fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying, and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running ...

1964. Opening and Closing Doors

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and colleagues who were leaders in their field. “Then, quite by accident, I discovered that such a work had already been completed. If you were to take the sum total of all the articles ever written by the most qualified psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental health - if you were to combine them, and reline them, and leave out the excess verbiage — if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific ...

1965. The Geography of the Christian Experience

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... “For freedom Christ has set you free, I he shouted. Women, slaves, children you are somebody. God loves you. You are free.” Now, he says, be submissive voluntarily not because you are a woman, but because you are Christian - all Christians - men included are to be subject to one another in love. Submission is the Christ style of life. Paul called women and men to live a new life in the home to demonstrate Christ’s love. His word to men was as radical as his word to women. “Husbands, love your wives ...

1966. The Power of Death Reversed

Luke 7:11-17

Illustration

Ron Luchies

Alfred Krupp, a famous munitions maker, lived in constant fear of death. Everyone throughout his entire company was strictly forbidden to refer to the subject of death in conversation. He ran from his own house because a relative of his wife's suddenly died there. And when Mrs. Krupp objected, Alfred became so enraged that he initiated what was to be a lifelong separation. During his last sickness, he offered his doctor a million dollars ...

1967. The Shared Life of the People of God

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... .” Thomas Langford has given us a sharp perspective on this dimension of the shared life of the people of God. “Such self-affirmation is always fraught with the danger of confusing derived strength with self-engendered strength. It is subject to a substitution of personal achievement for gracious endowment But a reverse temptation must also be recognized, namely a denial of strength, which is actually possessed under the guise of pretended weakness or false humility. The danger of misplaced confidence ...

1968. Extravagance

Luke 7:36-8:3; Matthew 26:6

Illustration

Larry Powell

... his now-famous "Golden Fleece Award" to some government committee or agency which, because of some redundant high-dollar project, has achieved recognition for excelling in flagrant, wasteful, unnecessary spending. Senator Proximire gets our attention because he illuminates a subject of interest to us all: how money is spent. We do not like to spend more than we have to and have little tolerance for irresponsible, reckless spending wherever it occurs. "Throwing money out in the yard" and "pouring sand ...

1969. The World's Best-Known Widow

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... their fault. The King and Queen had established Baal worship in the land, which was an abomination in the eyes of God. Elijah tells them it was wrong, and, therefore, the famine in the land is the judgment of God. Well, kings don’t take very kindly to subjects telling them how to do their business. So, Elijah had to flee, went off to the desert, east of the Jordan, where there was even less food and no water. He was fed by ravens, until God sent him to a widow in a little dessert village named Zarephath ...

1970. Fish or Cut Bait

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... when we meet Jesus in our own heats, pour out our love to him from the depths of our being, and begin to walk with Him. Some years ago, Dr. J. Edwin Orr was speaking to a group of college students at the University of Chicago on precisely this subject. When he got through, a young woman stood up and said, “I object. If a person believes in communism, he is a Communist. If he believes in socialism, he is a Socialist. If he believes in capitalism, he is a Capitalist. And if he believes in capitalism, he is ...

1971. A Parable in a Miracle

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Himself and assumed the position of a slave. He willingly gave up all the prerogatives of heaven. “Though He was equal to God,” Paul says, “He gave that position of grandeur and power up to become obedient unto death.” Jesus became subject to the same influences that dominate us, put himself in the position of suffering with our fears, uncertainties, and anxieties. Yet He willingly chose this way of powerlessness and dependency. Selfless compassion and submission was not a part—time activity for ...

1972. Peter, Our Folk Hero

Mark 14:27-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... To get started today, let’s look at some brief snapshots of Peter. Do up remember when he first met Jesus? He and his friends were toiling with their nets along the Sea of Galilee and came along. Without any kind of introduction or warming up His subject Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” The scripture doesn’t say so, but I would stake my life on this - that it was Peter - impulsive Peter, who looked and Jesus and responded without hesitation, threw his nets down ...

1973. Judas, A Person Like Us

Mark 14:43-52

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... will get mad about it. They will act as if their very life hangs on the issue. They may even get an ulcer over it (Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline p.97). That’s the reason submission is an important spiritual discipline. Paul urged us to “be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ” (Eph. 5: 21) What a burden it is the terrible burden of always needing to get our own way, to be in control. It will lead us certainly to distraction if not to destruction. III Judas’ sin of taking ...

1974. Knowing When To Run

Genesis 39:1-2, 6b-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... ARE REAL They are real for all of us. In a few moments we will pray, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." Why would Jesus have taught us to pray for deliverance from temptation unless he knew we would be subjected to temptation? The synoptic gospels all tell the story of Jesus' temptation, the sinless one struggling in the desert for his very soul. Paul says in I Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has seized you except what is common for human beings. And God is faithful ...

1975. When It's Time For Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... said they try to get even. In our minds at least, forgiveness outdoes revenge six to one. Forgiveness—what a wonderful idea! Forgiveness is the oil that lubricates the human machine. Without it, all of life becomes hot and squeaky. Or as my favorite author on the subject Lewis Smedes says, “God has invented forgiveness as a remedy to the past that even He could not change.” Jesus said, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37) So, if we want to move from the house of hurt and hate to a home ...

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