Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2126 to 2150 of 4997 results

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... to making concrete decisions that get our hands dirty, our schedules loused up, and our hearts broken. That's Jesus' way of loving; it won him a cross. Can we let his love shape ours, no matter how risky and painful those "close encounters with the sinful kind" may be? I think it was Charlie Brown who said, "I love humanity! It's people I can't stand!" Yet the costly love that Jesus embodies involves an intimate encounter with God's fierce and holy love. It involves pouring out self for real people, sinners ...

2127. Waiting for Godot?

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... or accusation against us." That, dear Christian, is good news. That is amazing, astonishing, astounding grace: love without limit! What kind of response on our part can begin to carry with it the measure of gratitude that rises to the surface when ... is also the God who will not let us down! He is the one who has "enriched us in him [Christ] ... in knowledge of every kind." Knowledge: it is an elusive word, but it is a biblical word, another word of grace. An Arabic aphorism observes: He that knows not and ...

2128. What It Takes to Do the Job

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... people and people. Saint Paul goes on in the succeeding verses to tell about all the trials and hassles he and his compatriots had gone through, and that how they dealt with those crises was vital in their effectiveness in being a valid, powerful witness to the kind of God they serve, the kind of God they had come to know in Jesus. So, today, it might be that during Lent we might look at the way we deal with the major and minor crises in our lives. Does the way we handle them in front of our children and ...

2129. Needy People Please Apply

Acts 4:32-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... man approaches them asking for money. One of the college students adamantly rejects the man in disgust. The other whips out his wallet, pulls out a couple of dollars and gladly hands them over to the homeless man with a smile. The homeless man thanks him kindly and then continues on to the other passengers. The first student is outraged by his friend’s act of generosity. “What on earth did you do that for?” he shouts. “You know he’s only going to use it for booze.” And the second student replies ...

2130. A Passion for Christ (New)

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... by whose power this man walks.” It’s ironic. We understand when people have a passion for sports or for music or for science or for business. But sometimes we are turned off by the person with a genuine passion for God. Peter had that kind of passion. He never missed an opportunity to talk about Jesus. Peter was also forthright about confronting people with the barriers that kept them from experiencing Christ in their own lives. Listen to how he talked to them: Talking about Jesus he says, “You handed ...

2131. Excited!

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... . The image of a wild goose descending upon you is a different matter altogether. A wild goose is one noisy, bothersome bird, jarring us out of our complacency." A wild goose stirs up feelings that are quite extraordinary. I wonder if it isn't time for a wild goose kind of Christianity? We in the church need to be shaken out of our complacency. We need to be shaken from our sanctuaries and into the streets. It's so easy to use church as a retreat. Perhaps the image of the Spirit as a wild goose will do that ...

2132. God's Children

Romans 8:1-17

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... Have you ever gone to a friend's house to play but you were shy and didn't play like you would have at home. You kind of let your friend make the plans and always be the leader and you just follow along? You know you don't "belong" in that family ... is the way it is in God's family. We really belong there and should act like it. How do God's children act? (kind, loving, sharing, patient, etc.) This week, let's try to act like God's special children! Prayer: Lord, help us to act like your children. Help us to be ...

2133. The Preacher Was Caught by Surprise

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... a vision. "He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, ‘Get up, Peter. ... was from another church and didn't really know the youth or the adult leaders. His name was Ben, and he was, to put it kindly, a challenge. The leaders had been given the heads-up on Ben. He was a troubled young man who was often belligerent toward people in ...

2134. The Church: Identity And Function

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... I almost grabbed her arm and exclaimed, look at the sunset. Well, she peaked unenthused out the window and returned to Cosmopolitan. I’m not a very timid fella, but I became timid at that point. But as she rose from her seat to begin her duties, I ventured a kind of apologetic, “I guess you get used to it, flying all the time.” “Yes,” she said. “It’s like any other job, you get used to it and it’s tiring.” She left to do her job and, and it struck me rather powerfully, that’s it not all ...

2135. An Affirming Presence

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... normal are abstract categories used to describe people - true only in general, never in particular, never in particular. In his book, The Person in the Room, Dr. N.J. Barrell put it, ‘every person needs to know and to know early on that he is the only one of his kind and that other persons are different in ways of their own and demand respect for who they are. He needs to know that whether his gifts are large or small, they are his own. And that he sees the world around him in a different way than it has ...

2136. A Healing Presence

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... I feel in order that I can get into perspective that which is going on in my life, also that I might track my relationship with God. I had gone through this auto accident, it was quite a trauma physically, mentally, and, to a marked degree, spiritually. And a kind of summing up of my ordeal came one day early in the morning in this prayer, which I wrote in my spiritual journal. “Lord, it seems as though you’ve decided to keep vivid signs from me. I suppose you know how gullible and fickle I am. Seeing ...

2137. Breaking The Negative Cycle

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... place that we ought to be transparent, it is within the context of the home. But for a marriage to be wholesome, even to survive, we have to allow the power of the positive to operate in our relationship. You and I do not within our own power have the kind of tolerance and patience that we need to deal with other. We can be intolerant. We get caught up in a negative cycle. We aren’t as sensitive and as appreciative as we ought to be. Christ is the divine yes in marriage, reminding us that we must continue ...

2138. Living Lightly

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... you shall put on, or what you shall wear, consider the lilies of the field. The Christian faith should result in a kind of carefreeness, an ability to live lightly. But what does that mean, and how do we begin to do it. I. We ... can’t say I love you without responding to my I love you, forget it.” Now Jeri came from a very warm and expressive and loving kind of family. They were always expressing their love for each other. If somebody went to the mailbox, they’d kiss them before they left and hug when ...

2139. What If God Is Dependent Upon Our Praying?

2 Chronicles 7:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... went through all sorts of faith contortions, praying but not really knowing how to pray. Would God heal Kay? If God would not heal her, why would he let her suffer? Why? What did God have to do with this? If God had anything to do with it, what kind of God was he? Now these were not sophomoric questions to tickle Jeri’s intellectual fancy. Jeri was involved with Kay and with God. And because of her praying, she could no longer either be separated from Kay or separated from God. And I never will forget the ...

2140. Dynamics Of Prayer

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... vital - when we honestly locate ourselves before him, in terms of what we are feeling and experiencing. In terms of what is going on in our lives when we come to God in prayer, we locate ourselves, we name ourselves, and communion with God becomes real because of that kind of honesty. III. We Allow God to Name Us. There’s another dynamic of naming and being named in prayer. Not only do we name God as he is in our experience and, not only do we name ourselves before God, we allow him to name us. We allow ...

2141. Confession And Supplication

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... for this is late in the evening, just before we go to sleep. And this is the way it might work. We replay the day, moving through it hour by hour, job to job, relationship to relationship. Did I do my best in that job? Was I understanding and kind in that relationship? Did I speak the truth in love? Was I condemning, judgmental? Did I fail to speak when I should have? Did I allow someone to be hurt by idle gossip without raising a question? Did I write the needed letter or make the helpful telephone call ...

2142. Curiosity Or Consecration

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... your minds so that you may prove what is the will of God. What is good and acceptable and perfect.” And hear the angel speaking for the Lord to Gideon – “I meant for you to love me, but you were only curious.” With a challenge of Paul as a kind of vision toward which we move, and the probing word of the playwright as a possible assessment of our lives, I want to ask a big question this morning. Where are we in our Christian faith and commitment? Is it curiosity or consecration? Now to assist us in ...

2143. Who Are You Waiting For?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the toughest time. But God is coming alive to him, he’s walking and fainting. A young man has violated the personhood of a young woman, used her for his own selfish satisfaction. He can’t stand the guilt any longer, he pours out his confession in a penitential kind of way - hears the word of forgiveness that I have offer, and goes his way to sin no more and to live responsibly. This is the meaning of Christmas. God comes to us at the point of our deepest need. At this point, he intersects our life with ...

2144. Miracles In Contrast

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of clothing. Today she sits in the middle of the street, I sometimes wonder if she has not grown to the pavement in a kind of transplant. Ruby is concerned about something she sees in the brick street. She concentrates on it with a peculiar Christ-like, child-like ... chill. It does it when we announce a fear, it really is more than a fear, it is death itself. And we all know about that kind of fear, first hand in our own life or in the lives of others we love. A friend’s 16 year old son commits suicide. Our ...

2145. Even Marriages Made In Heaven Require Earthly Care

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that I have done, no decision that I’ve made, apart from my decision to follow Christ and be his minister has had the kind of meaning that my relationship with Jeri has had, and I’m certain of it - it’s a part of the providential, prevenient caring ... Then, deep down in that mysterious abyss of ourselves, we begin to doubt – am I in love? Was I ever in love? Those are the wrong kinds of questions to ask. It’s not a matter of being in love, it’s a matter of deciding to love. I keep seeing that bumper ...

2146. Recovering The Essence

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Listen. If we make it to heaven, our biggest surprise may be who we sit with for the first banquet. A more distressing thought is, that we may not eat bread in the kingdom of God unless we’ve been willing to eat bread on earth with the kind of people Jesus always shared his means with – those he referred to as the least of these. So there you have it – what I believe is the essence of this bold experiment of a nation – seeking to build her life under God. The essence is three pivotal principles ...

2147. A Christian Style Of Being And Doing

Colossians 3:18-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... on. But when Mother Teresa and her nuns came out on the floor of that coliseum, a holy hush descended upon that crowd. I think you could hear the nuns walking on the floor -- had they not been walking, you may could have heard a pin drop. It was a kind of eerie hush that spoke of reverence and awe. This tiny, stoop-backed, wrinkled, dried-up little woman, evoked that holy hush from that mass of people. I know that response is to what people know about her and her mystery -- but I can't help but believe it's ...

2148. How May We Come To God?

Psalm 24:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... wanted to be a shortstop for the Detroit Tigers, a pdriest and an architect. He didn't become a priest or an architect, but he made it to the Tigers. He said the person who was really special to him in that orphanage was Sister Mary Berarda, a lively and kind and caring nun who would say to him: "Okay, Tom. Have faith in God, have faith in yourself -- then go out and do it! You can be anything you want to be." She showed up at every game he was in and really encouraged him. She started him reading books ...

2149. In A Mirror Dimly

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... things as we want them, to cause us to revert back to childishness and do those things, say those things, and live the way that keeps a wedge driven in relationships that should be relationships of love and sharing and caring and mutually beneficial. That's the kind of childishness we need to put away because we've become adults -- we've become Christian, and we don't live in terms of our own little world -- we know the world is bigger than we are -- that it includes all those people around us -- in fact ...

2150. Loving The Jesus Way

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... those horrible riots broke out. You remember them, the burnings and the lootings and the shootings. But Hill was a courageous man, and from his own pulpit he denounced his neighbors who were destroying the property and stealing from the merchants. And this brought all kinds of threats against him as a person. "One night the telephone rang. It was late, and there was something about the way Hill held the receiver that told his wife that something was wrong. When he hung up, she wanted to know who had called ...

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