Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2076 to 2100 of 3160 results

2076. Every Day God Equips

John 14:15-27

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... speak Holy Words. B. You know all those spy movies and cop shows where the undercover agent goes into the room wearing a wire and an ear piece that looks like a hearing aid so the police or handler or whoever can tell them what to say? Well, that's sort of what the Holy Spirit does for us. When we're called upon to bear witness, we don't have to rely on ourselves. We don't have to rely on OUR words or OUR power. Instead we're called to rely on the power of God through the Holy ...

2077. Every Day God Enables

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... his partner about it. He says: "I'm getting way to comfortable lying and sneaking around all this spy stuff, okay. I'm starting to feel that that is my real life." His partner says: "It's all to be expected. It's an existential spy crisis of sorts." Chuck says: "It used be all compartmentalized, you know, Chuck World and Spy World. But when I watched those ambulance doors close and my sister was behind them with that sweaty nuclear spy freak, my worlds collided." It's hard to live in this world and not be ...

2078. Every Day God Encourages

Acts 4:36-37; 11:22-24

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... to talk about how Every Day God Encourages us. Like that young musician who Sibelius encouraged, we all need encouragement from time to time. Encouragement is a necessary part of life and a necessary part of the life of Discipleship. Encouragement is sort of like a peanut butter sandwich the more you spread the peanut butter around, the better things stick together. The more we spread encouragement around, the better we stick together. A United Methodist Pastor relates how his four year old daughter was ...

2079. Braveheart

John 20:24-29

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... was completely different. They didn't attend church and they didn't make their kids attend either. At this point in their marriage, Tommy and Sophia faced a real dilemma. Tommy had promised he'd give church a try. And he did. But the whole thing left him sort of cold. He just couldn't buy it all. There was just too much there that was unbelievable! Tommy tried talking to Sophia about it one Sunday after they had been to church. "Can't we find some kind of compromise on this religion thing?" Tommy asked. But ...

2080. Startled By Jesus

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... own safety. The passage says, [37] "They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost." I guess that would make Jesus a "holy terror." Sorry, I couldn't resist, we've had the grandkids for the last couple of days and it just sort of slipped out. Jesus suddenly appeared in the midst of the disciples. Like some magician's illusion in reverse, one minute He wasn't there, then "Presto Change-o," the next minute He was. No wonder it startled the disciples. But then, I think they should ...

2081. Shaped By The Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Happy Mother's Day to all of our mothers in congregation. Years ago, I asked my Mom if I was a gifted child, she looked at me sort of funny and said, "Well, I certainly wouldn't have paid for you." Years ago I read story about female physician who was taking her four-year-old daughter to preschool. Mom, the doctor, had left her stethoscope on car seat, & her little girl picked it up, hung around her ...

2082. Living In The Spirit Of Peace

Galatians 5:22-25, Colossians 3:14-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... in Paul's letter had two usages. First of all, it dealt with the whole idea of the serenity or physical and mental peace of a village or country or community and the individual who was in charge of keeping the peace. The keeper of the public peace, was sort of like the western idea of a sheriff and today's understanding of the police officer whose primary duty is to help us 'keep the peace' when we get unruly. A lot of people are only seeking this kind of peace. They want financial or social peace. But what ...

2083. Seeing God In The Ordinary: Family

Luke 4:16-30

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... gifted at an early age. He graduated from Martin High School in Arlington when he was 15 and from Texas A&M when he was 18. He's now at Emory University working on his PHD in Political Science. People are always amazed when I tell them that. It is sort of parental bragging rights but they always ask "How did you do it?" And "Wasn't it hard?" And I guess the best answer is, "He was just Josh." He started that way and was always that way. He didn't turn four and all of a sudden all the ...

2084. God IS In The Ordinary

Romans 12:1-2, 9-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... do for you now." [2] That's the heart of Wesley's rule and idea of "Do no harm." B. The problem is that we understand what it means to "Do no harm." And for the most part, I think most of us try to live like that. It's sort of a reverse or negative version of the Golden Rule. We try to live by this rule but what happens when someone else doesn't live by that rule and harms us either purposely or by accident. What should we do? I know you've probably seen the Nationwide Insurance ...

2085. Acts 8:14-17

Acts 8:9-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... understood as the gift presented to all baptized in Jesus’ name. Yet throughout Luke/Acts there is no single coherent experience of this water and Spirit baptism. In Luke 10:47-48, the Holy Spirit comes to new believers before they receive any sort of water baptism, before they are “officially” full members of the faith community. In today’s Acts text, Acts 8:14-17, just the opposite order presents itself — the Samaritans who have received water baptism, who had confessed “the name of the Lord ...

2086. God's Getting Better at It

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Illustration

Lane Boyd

... to live with principles, values, and sense of sacredness that God wants from all humanity. Sometimes the people heard and responded to God, and sometimes they ignored God. God kept trying. God kept working at getting their attention. I heard about a little girl who sort of understands that about God. She was sitting on her grandfather's lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her ...

2087. Plenty Of Room

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... rolls around and suddenly there is a rival for Andy's affection and attention named Buzz Lightyear. Buzz Lightyear is the newer toy and of course gets played with more. Of course, Woody gets jealous. But what sets them both apart is something they only sort of realize. Here, watch this scene. Woody has awakened after his first night of not sleeping in bed with Andy. He's grump and jealous. And he overhears Buzz Lightyear telling two of the other toys, Rex and slinky: "Say there, lizard and stretchy dog ...

2088. Joshua People Obey and Serve

Joshua 1:6-8, 24:14-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... wouldn't or couldn't follow the basic rules in the Ten Commandments. And every time someone disobeys, the rest of society pays. Disobedience Has Consequences. B. Once again there was a great show of Obedience. The entire nation stood together before God. God sorted out all the tribes and clans and when it came to Achan's clan, he confessed. The entire people of Israel meted out the punishment, death. Everyone shared responsibility for Achan's actions as well as Achan's punishment. Because both Obedience and ...

2089. Joshua People: Remember, Remind and Recommit

Joshua 24:14-18, 2 Peter 1:10-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... 23 years, was fired when the local bureaucracy decided to merge Norway into a larger school. Kent Stock, a 24 year old one-season assistant coach to Van Scoyoc, is hired as a sure fire failure so the merger will go through. In this "David and Goliath" sort of flick, Coach Stock must win over his players and convince them and himself that he can fill their former coach's shoes and that they can go out winners, taking home their 20th State Championship before their school is closed. In the locker room, before ...

2090. A Stone’s Throw From: Heaven

Matthew 16:13-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... all those juices begin to simmer and bubble and run together flavoring every other kind of berry in the pie. And that's the way it should be. Everything in life affects everything else. Our faith is the overarching ingredient that binds them all together or it should. Sort of like the crust on a berry or fruit pie, our faith holds it all together and keeps it from falling apart. It's true that cheesecake has a crust but it's pretty much incidental to the rest of the cheesecake. It's basically just something ...

2091. Walking First Class

2 Corinthians 3:12-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... O.K. and enough to hide some for a rainy day. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. (2) God wants more than weeders and waders. Jesus didn't die on the cross so we could sort of give our lives to Him. Or become just a little bit of a Christian. III. Walkers A. God's desire for us is to become walkers. God's desire is that walk first class lives, seeking to become more and more like Christ every day. Walkers are those are ...

2092. Finding ‘Comfort’ Instead of ‘Little Hope’

Romans 12:12-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... in astonishment, "Mom? Did they really eat pizza?" (1) Sometimes we look at something and it just looks strange, doesn't it? We don't see it the way other people do. Every time I drive from Dallas back home I see the new Cowboy Stadium. It's huge and sort of looms there and takes over the horizon. It's huge and as it sits there I can't help but think it looks like one of the space craft out of the movie Independence Day. There are all kinds of strange things in this world aren't there. Some ...

2093. Leaving ‘Last Chance’ Heading For ‘Needmore’

Romans 12:9-11

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... ordinary events of our lives and redeems them. Jesus touches our lives and changes the ordinariness of our lives and transforms them into something beautiful. God transforms our lives and moves us from ‘Last Chance' to ‘Needmore'. A sermon and illustration have sort of swept across YouTube. A particular pastor noticed how some of the homeless or needy hold cardboard signs at intersections with words like, "Will work for food" or "Viet Nam Vet, need help" and he started wondering about their back story ...

2094. Settling In Celebration

Romans 12:1-2

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Today IS a day to Celebrate. We should leave Worship today and every day with the same sort of smiles and the same bounce in our step. Today IS a day to celebrate. You see, whenever we gather to worship we celebrate life and faith. We celebrate the fact that God is still in charge and we can leave the burden of running the world to the One ...

2095. Daddy, Tell Me a Story

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... . There have been many great philosophers, people who have studied about life and have come to understand many important truths about life. Socrates was a philosopher. Buddha was a philosopher. Emerson was a philosopher. I suppose Dr. Phil is a philosopher of sorts. And we can learn from these insightful individuals. But Christian faith is not a philosophy. Christianity is based on a historical event the Word of God became flesh and dwelled among us. God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. When we recite our ...

2096. Like a Venomous Snake

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... birds are kept. The hallway where the people walk is dark; the birds are in lighted cases of glass. All along each side of the building is a long case that looks like a tropical rain forest. It has a miniature waterfall, a pool, trees, and all sorts of plants. Among the trees and rocky ledges the small, brightly colored birds fly. As people watch this, they eventually become aware that there is no glass between them and the birds. They could reach in and touch the birds if they chose. Why don’t the ...

2097. How Great Is Your Faith

Matthew 15:21-28, Matthew 15:1-20

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... about her, "Tell her to go away." Jesus ignored both them and her. But she kept shouting. So Jesus says, "Look lady, I've only come for the lost sheep of Israel, I can't be fooling with the likes of you." I think the disciples heard this and semi, sort of believed it. They might have even nodded their heads in agreement. Scripture did say they were the chosen. But this woman wouldn't be denied. She even got on her knees and begged. Jesus looked down and called her a dog. In those days 'Dog' was a term the ...

2098. Altar Your Presence

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... , in Japan. LORAN was the precursor to GPS. We broadcast a radio signal for ships and planes to use, along with others, to track their positions. The radio room of our base, like every other radio room at the time, had two teletype machines, sort of like prehistoric fax machines. It was amazing technology back then, though electronics were a lot bigger. Anyway, the radioman on the base was in charge of keeping all the radio equipment up and running. And the Coast Guard had a regular preventive maintenance ...

2099. Discover the Promise of Christmas

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... end that alienation and bring about reconciliation. John and the prophets simply call us to remember and once again prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ. II. The Preparation A. The signs are all around us. And we know how to read the signs of Christmas don't we? Sort of like the Krispy Kreme sign right? We know when the doughnuts are hot and fresh don't we? There's no doubt. And it's the same with Christmas. You'd have to be dead not to know that Christmas is coming. There's an old Garfield series of ...

2100. LOST? Looking For Love

John 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 1 John 4:7-19

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... many times we get it wrong. God loves us. II. As Is Love And that brings us to the "As Is" tag you've all received and I'm wearing. I found this in my box one day this week and nobody seemed to know where it came from. As sort of a joke I put it on. We all laughed and then we got to talking about something, the newsletter, year end reports, something and I forgot I had it on. A few minutes late we had someone come by (a sales rep who we've done business with before ...

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