Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 176 to 200 of 793 results

Psalm 25:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: As students in the school of faith, we have the Lord as our Teacher, and his ways (and will) are our curriculum. Understanding the Text This psalm is another example of reflective prayer (see Ps. 16), in which the suppliant talks to God and then reflects on the subject of the prayer (see “Outline/Structure” below), either alone or in company with others. Goldingay proposes that it has an instructional purpose, to teach people to pray.[1] Generically, Psalm 25 is generally typed as an individual ...

177. The Creation of the World

Genesis 1:1-2:3

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The creation of the world (1:1–2:3) Primitive History (1:1–11:32): The Bible does not begin by attempting to prove the existence of God. It simply assumes this fact. But it does begin by describing God’s creation of the heavens and the earth (1:1–2). This phrase may be an illustration of what is known as merism, the expression of totality through the use of opposites. Thus verse 1 is simply saying that God created everything. This he did in the beginning, which is the Hebrew way of saying, “a long time ago ...

178. The Fall of Man

Genesis 3:1-24

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

The Fall: The interchange among the man, the woman, and the serpent provides dramatic movement, and captures how motivation to disobey God rises from an inversion of the order of responsibility that God had established. 3:1–5 Act 2 of the drama begins with the introduction of a new actor, the serpent, one of the wild animals the LORD God had made (2:19). The serpent is described as more crafty (’arum) than the other animals. ’Arum makes a wordplay on “naked” (’arummim), which occurs in 2:25, and thus ...

179. Witnesses

Deuteronomy 19:15-21

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

Manslaughter, Murder, and Malice: The whole section 19:1–21:9 may be thematically linked to the sixth commandment, “you shall not murder.” This is clearest in 19:1–13 and 21:1–9, but there are some links in the intervening laws as well, particularly 19:15–21. The organization is not overly tidy, however, and other commandments can be detected; the eighth and tenth, for example (19:14), and the ninth (19:16–19). Israel needed structures of authority and leadership that would preserve their societal ...

180. To Us a Child is Born

Isaiah 9:1-7

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Isaiah’s Significance, and the Fall of Darkness: We come to the close of the material that focuses on the crisis presented by the pressure of the northern allies (6:1–9:7). Isaiah speaks further about his ministry and its significance for Judah (8:11–22) and Yahweh offers a vision of light dawning the other side of the coming darkness (9:1–7). 9:1–7 To close 6:1–9:7, light replaces darkness (v. 2), joy replaces death (v. 3), and deliverance replaces oppression (v. 4). An earlier vision pictured weapons ...

181. To Us a Child is Born

Isaiah 9:1-7

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

182. The Technicolor Sign

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

Larry Powell

Lent is the traditional period of spiritual introspection and abstinence observed by Christians in remembrance of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, it includes the forty days, excluding Sundays, preceding Easter and is also symbolic of the forty days Christ fasted in the wilderness. Consequently, we have come today not to the first Sunday "of" Lent, but the first Sunday "in" Lent. The word "Lent" is quite beyond the Hebrew or Greek vocabulary, which is to say, it ...

183. With a Bang or a Whimper?

2 Peter 3:1-18

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

Back in 1925, T. S. Eliot wrote the poem, "The Hollow Men." It is an indictment of a whole generation of people whose lives are empty because they seem to believe nothing. They have been only a "paralyzed force, gesture without motion." They have accomplished nothing: they are the product of the dry intellectuality of modern life. Eliot describes them this way. We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw They are not "lost violent souls" but only hollow men. ...

184. A Converting Presence

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Now hear the word of the Lord. From the first apostle of John, the first three verses of that apostle. “See what love the father has bestowed upon us in allowing us to be called children of God. And that’s not just what we’re called, but who we actually are. The reason the world does not know us, is that it did not know Christ. Beloved, we are God’s children. It doesn’t appear what we shall be in the future, we only know that when we reality breaks through, we will reflect his likeness, for we will see him ...

185. Getting a Handle on Our Faith

John 11:1-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It’s time to find our pump handle, or to get a right pump handle. Let me explain. 150 years ago, 500 people died of cholera in just ten days in one London neighborhood, marking the beginning of another horrible epidemic. Victorian physician Dr. John Snow of London had already written a controversial pamphlet suggesting that cholera was not caused by “vapors,” but was instead a disease of the “gut,” spread by contaminated water. With the high number of deaths in this neighborhood, he studied the cases and ...

186. Decoding the Da Vinci Code (Part Two - Explaining the Facts)

1 Peter 3:15

Sermon

James Merritt

There is a true, but old story about a pastor who went to see a play one time that featured a very famous British actor and the theater was just packed. He noticed that a lot of the people there were members of his church who hardly ever attended church. He happened to meet with this actor the next day and he asked him this question, "How do you draw such large crowds by presenting fiction while I present facts and hardly anyone comes to here me?" The actor, who had been at this man's church before, said " ...

187. Birthdays and Marriages

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Stephen P. McCutchan

It is common to speak of Pentecost as the birthday of the church. I want to add to that the image of marriage. As most of you are aware, marriages do not just happen with the signing of a contract. There is the courting period and the public declaration of engagement before the formal ceremony takes place that lifts up the importance of the couple's commitment to each other. Even the formal ceremony does not make a marriage. A marriage without a period of courting is based on blind chance. It may work, ...

188. By Faith

Hebrews 11:1-40

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

The Nature and Importance of Faith The mention of the importance of faith in the last two verses of the preceding chapter leads naturally to this famous chapter on faith. It is impossible to know whether the author is making use of a source, which he now takes over in part or totally, or whether he is composing a fresh catalogue of heroes on the model of existing examples. Extensive reviews of the history of Israel had been composed to substantiate a warning or to provide encouragement, and some of these ...

189. Judgment of Israel's Neighbors

Amos 1:1-2:5

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

The Superscription (1:1): 1:1 Amos is introduced to us by a number of editors, probably from Judah, who have, over a period of time, formulated the superscription as we now have it. Probably the original heading of the book read something like, “The words of Amos from Tekoa.” The NIV mistakenly connects the shepherds with Tekoa, but of Tekoa modifies Amos, and the reference to the shepherds simply states Amos’s occupation. The facts that the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel is synchronized with that of ...

190. Walking in the Light

1 John 1:5--2:14, 1 John 2:15-17

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

Walking in the Light and the Problem of Sin The next two sections of 1 John are on the theme of walking in the light. The first section, 1 John 1:5–2:2, addresses the theme in relation to the issue of sin, while the second section, 1 John 2:3–11, focuses on walking in the light in relation to obedience, especially to the love command. The terms walk, light, and darkness occur throughout the section (1:5–7; 2:6, 8–11) and unify it. The Elder’s opponents are always present in the background. They have made ...

191. Let Us Love One Another

2 John 1:1-13

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

Salutation Second John begins with a greeting or salutation similar in form to other NT letters. The writer and recipients are identified, followed by a wish for God’s blessing. But this introduction also contains material that fits the writer’s and readers’ specific situation and recalls the controversy in which all three letters of John are set. The Elder quickly reveals the two main concerns which are on his mind, and they correspond to the two principal themes of the letters of John as a whole: truth ...

192. Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia

Ezekiel 25:1-7, Ezekiel 25:8-11, Ezekiel 25:12-14, Ezekiel 25:15-17

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

Oracles against the Nations: Oracles against foreign nations were an important part of the prophetic repertoire. Collections of such oracles appear in many prophetic books (apart from Ezek. 25–32, see Isa. 13–23; Jer. 46–51; Amos 1–2). However, it is doubtful that the prophets meant for foreigners to read these words, or that any foreign king ever saw them. For though the prophets directed these oracles against other nations, their intended audience was the people of Israel—just as, in our own day, ...

193. Paul's Vision and His Thorn

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

12:1–10 Up to this point in the “Fool’s Speech” Paul boasts that, as a servant of Christ, he is superior to his opponents (the so-called super-apostles) mostly in terms of his far greater sufferings (11:21b–33). In 12:1–10 the apostle goes on to boast of his surpassing revelatory experience. In contrast to the disgraceful descent from the wall in Damascus (11:33), Paul here recounts a glorious ascent into heaven (cf. T. Jos. 1:4 for a similar contrast between descent as humiliation and ascent as exaltation ...

194. Walking in the Light and the Problem of Sin

1 John 2:15-17, 1 John 1:5--2:14

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

195. Little Ones

Luke 18:15-17, Matthew 19:13-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Animations: stuffed lamb or if you dare, a real lamb; Youtube: “Do Sheep Only Obey Their Master’s Voice?”; (optional: book of fairytales) How many children do we have in worship today? Raise your hands! Why don’t you come on up! All of you… I wonder if you’d come on up and help me with someone. [Bring in the lamb….if you can have some of the children help to hold his leash.] Do you know who this is? Her name is Nessa. Would you like to pet her? [Allow the children to sit up front anywhere they like.] There ...

196. The Physician

Isaiah 38:1-22, Matthew 8:14-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Isaiah 53:4) In 1917 during the Bolshevik Revolution a painting by the artist known to us as Rembrandt called “Christ with Arms Folded” was confiscated from the home of Russian Count Alexander Orloff Davidoff of Petrograd. Ten years later, the painting was again stolen from the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow and ruthlessly vandalized, slashing and scarring the canvas. The painting remained missing for four years before it was found buried in a sealed can ...

197. Called to Be Saints

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Hubert Beck

Have you ever considered the power of Jesus’ simple statement, "You are the salt of the earth"? (Matthew 5:13) No matter how you say it, that statement shakes you to your boots. Try it on for size. "You are the salt of the earth." Me? Isn’t it astounding to hear Jesus say that you and I are the salt of the earth? Surely he must have meant a special group of people. He couldn’t have been talking to us, could he? The words are from the Sermon on the Mount, spoken in some ways peculiarly to his disciples ...

198. How Can We Foretell the Future?

1 Kings 2:1-12

Sermon

Edward Chinn

In 6,000 years, our descendants will open the Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia, and discover how twentieth century people lived. A president of the University, Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, created a vault in the Atlanta institution because he wanted people out there in the future, around the year 8,000, to have a "complete picture of how human beings lived and thought during the days of our generation." The date for the opening of the Crypt was chosen, because it represented a ...

199. When Ten Equals Two

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Larry Powell

In the jungles of South America, there lives a peculiar, indolent creature known as the three-toed sloth. Actually named for one of the seven deadly sins, the sloth will spend at least eighteen hours each day sleeping. Even when awake, this lazy creature remains almost motionless. When it does move, its sluggish movements are excruciatingly slow. Being too lazy to indulge in personal grooming, its coarse hair provides a home for two species of bluegreen algae, a cockroach-like moth, and hundreds of beetles ...

200. The Game Is For A Team

Colossians 4:7-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Clarence Forsberg tells a story about what it means to be a part of a team. It is a story of Al McGuire and Butch Lee. McGuire was a great basketball coach, who retired from Marquette after winning the NCAA tournament in 1976. Butch Lee was a kind of prima donna player on that team. The story is about McGuire trying to teach Butch Lee about team basketball. This was the coach's word. "Now, Butch, the game is forty minutes long, and if you divide that between the two teams that means there is twenty minutes ...

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