Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2126 to 2150 of 3160 results

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... to a Peptobismalad. Pop culture and the image of what is IN and cool and perfect changes nearly as fast as computer technology. That's why Paul says: "Rejoice in the Lord, always. And again, I say Rejoice." It's that discipline of "Always" that sort of alludes us at times. And yet, I've come to believe that the “Always" attitude is as much a spiritual discipline as Prayer, Bible Study, fasting, tithing and worship. It's an attitude that has to begin with centering ourselves in our relationship with ...

2127. Who's Working In You?

Philippians 2:1-13

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... where Dogbert tells Dilbert, "I decided to start a discount religion. The tithing would only be 5% and I'd let people sin as much as they wanted. The only problem is that I don't want to spend any time with people who would join that sort of religion." (3) There has to be Credibility to your answer of the question "Who's Working In You?" V. Visability The final ability we need to answer the question "Who's Working In You?" is Visibility Do you all remember Lewis Grizzard, the Southern writer and columnist ...

2128. Dare To DV8

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... live as a Living Sacrifice? I remember one Building Campaign we were involved in. One family in particular was already doing everything they thought they could do. Dad and I had talked. They had 2 high school kids and money was tight. They did the same sort of thing we did on Friday or Saturday nights, rent a movie and order pizza. This family decided they would give up renting a movie and calling out for pizza and use that money for the Building Campaign. They did. That was their sacrifice. I shared that ...

2129. Getting Real

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... stories might very well be, "Get Real." But they are fact. Just read News of the Weird in Friday's paper or subscribe to This Is True. It doesn't get any more real that that. I don't know about you but I think this whole reality TV thing sort fits in with News of the Weird and This Is True. I really can't believe some of the things people will do for money or to be on TV. That's what causes me to say "Get Real." "Get Real!" We use that phrase interchangeably with "No Way!" Or ...

2130. Radical Love is Risky (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... didn’t just start the last few years. Sooner or later somebody has got to stop it! If it’s cheek for cheek, will we not eventually run out of cheeks? Let me explain what I mean by turning the other cheek. What I mean by that is not some sort of masochism or martyrdom. “Wow, hit me again. It’s good for me and I’ll get the joy of forgiving you.” That’s crazy. That’s not what I’m saying. In fact, you ought to go back and read I Corinthians 13. Remember Paul said, “Even if I ...

2131. Follow Your Mentors (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... on. Our parents were most likely our first mentors. Abraham Lincoln once said, “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my mother.” One thing we all have in common is a mother. Mothers come in all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of possibilities and problems. Some mothers think they are god, and try to be all things for all people. Other mothers fail to fulfill the fundamental responsibilities of parenthood and even dump their babies in trash cans. Mothers, like all the rest of us, stand in need ...

2132. Radical Love is Forgiving (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... one hand it’s clear that sinners need it. Everybody knows the woman is a sinner. They really don’t have to tell us three or four times in this text that she’s a sinner. You’ve got to give credit for the honesty of the Scripture that just sort of tells it the way it is. It doesn’t sugar coat evil or psychologize wrong or minimize mistakes. There is freedom of just being honest. That’s what I tried to say last Sunday in the sermon. Sinners need to be forgiven. You remember what Paul says again and ...

2133. Do You Love Me? - Sermon Starter

John 21:1-14

Illustration

Brett Blair

... the way it started months before with Christ saying to Simon at the seashore these words, "Follow me!" Isn't that a great story? Jam-packed with the stuff of life powerful symbols, strong emotions, and dramatic lessons. There is a very real human quality to this story. Let's sort this out with three basic human questions: 1. First, what do we see here physically? 2. Second, what do we feel here emotionally? 3. Third, what can we learn here theologically, spiritually?

2134. Shaped By the Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... sundae. The little girl replied, "I don't want to wait until Sunday... I want ice cream NOW." (1) Have you ever waited expectantly for something? Christmas day, your Wedding Day, a birthday, commissioning. There's that whole jittery sense of anticipation. Well, that's sort of the way I've felt about this sermon. Partly because it's Pentecost Sunday, the day we received the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit and the day we celebrate as the birthday of the church. I've anticipated this day because it's also ...

2135. Eye Opening Faith

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... challenged to ask the right questions: "What can God do with the circumstances of my life through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit? How can my situation, good or bad, be used to glorify God?" When you ask those questions and similar questions, you'll experience that same sort of "Eye Opening Faith" that can only come through Christ. As we come to the table this morning, ask those questions. Ask God how your life can bring Him glory.

2136. The NFL of Grace

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... pried loose from his hand. The Refrigerator politely suggested to his coach that there was no reason to remove the turtle. "Just stick out your other hand and I'll bite that one instead!" (2) How many of you are going to watch the Super Bowl tonight? It's sort of an American tradition isn't it? You have to watch it, if for no other reason than the commercials. Today is Super Bowl Sunday and there will be lots of hype and hoopla. There will be a half time show, hopefully not quite so revealing as last year ...

2137. Catch of the Day

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Bill Gates, "Why would anyone want to have a computer on their desk?" We have to have dreams don't we. We may even need dreams before we can catch a Vision. Because I believe that the Vision coalesces out of the substance of the dreams. Dreams are sort of ethereal and nondescript but a vision has solidity. But you have dream first. Walt Disney said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." I agree, it's just that some dreams take longer to do or implement. And some dreams are dependent upon others. Israel ...

2138. Come and See

John 1:29-42

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... in Jesus of Nazareth. His eyes. Powell captured the ethereal and holiness of Jesus in his eyes. They were penetrating and captivating. Maybe that's all it was for Andrew and John. There's a scene in the first Toby McGuire Spiderman movie that sort of gets to the point I'm making. In the beginning of the movie Spider-Man, Peter Parker undergoes a transformation. Bitten by a spider that's been subjected to genetic experimentation, Peter develops superpowers and becomes a hero who nightly swings between the ...

2139. Another Road

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... so compelling that they went running with haste, they dropped everything and skeedaddled over there to see this baby. And when they went back to their flocks, they went back changed, filled with excitement, anticipation and expectation. I'll bet some of them even began a sort of countdown or a count up. They began listening to the gossip and talk about all the upcoming preachers and rabbis. Maybe they heard about a young boy teaching the elders in the Temple and thought, "No, it can't be him, it's only been ...

2140. Hope in a Plain Brown Wrapper

Luke 1:47-55

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... brown wrapper. I. Mary Why, just look at Mary. She wasn't a beauty queen. She wasn't a star. She wasn't noted for anything. There's no footnote about how glorious she was anywhere that would cause God to choose her. She was just a young, every day sort of girl, filled with faith. We don't know much about her other than she had an Aunt named Elizabeth and she too was chosen for something special. There is some speculation and even an old tradition that says her mother's name was Anna. And that Nicodemus was ...

2141. Thanks, But No Thanks

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... tiger Hobbes (whom he imagines to be real and his best friend). He says: "People are so self-centered." Then he adds philosophically, "The world would be a better place if people would stop thinking about themselves and focus on others for a change." Hobbes sort of rolls his eyes and thinks aloud, "Gee, I wonder who that might apply to." Calvin answers, "Me!. Everyone should focus on me!" (1) Bill Watterson's cartoon character Calvin could have been the poster child for the Pharisee in today's passage from ...

2142. Cosmic Embrace

John 13:31-35

Illustration

John Gibbs

... I am lifted up from the earth I shall draw everyone to myself' as he hangs from His cross with outflung arms, thrown out to clasp all, everyone, and everything, in a cosmic embrace, so that all, everyone, everything, belongs" (p. 265). "Cosmic embrace." There's our answer to the sort of "purity laws" and taboos, even in Leviticus, that bear no gospel for man or beast. In cosmic embrace we rediscover the depth and scope of holy love.

2143. John 5:1-9

John 5:1-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... time. Jesus’ response is as definitive as the man’s had been defensive. As is characteristic of Jesus’ healing methods, the one who seeks healing is commanded first of all to take action. In this case Jesus commands the man whose problem is some sort of lameness to “stand up.” Furthermore the man is to pick up his mat, his portable “sick bed,” and to walk — activities that will physically testify that he is truly healed. Jesus’ command IS the cure: “at once the man was made well.” The ...

2144. Condition Yellow Christians

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... an eye out for surprises and needs. Condition Orange is a heightened state of alertness, brought about by some behavior, some environmental change, that suggests a real cause for concern. Condition Red is reached when some threat is all too real and some sort of definitive action, whether fight or flight, must be implemented. This morning I only want to talk about the first two Color Codes — Condition White and Condition Yellow. These two are the most fascinating to me, partly because it is one of the ...

2145. But Not Yet

John 14:23-29

Illustration

David Zersen

... Monica and her Christian witness. One day in his garden, Augustine had one of the most famous self-confrontations in history. "Suddenly I heard a voice from some nearby house, a boy's voice or a girl's voice, I do not know. But it was a sort of sing-song, repeated again and again, " Tolle lege, tolle lege," "Take and read, take and read." I ceased weeping, and immediately began to search my mind most carefully as to whether children were accustomed to chant these words in any kind of game, and I could ...

2146. Chosen by God

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... convinced that God had a plan for his life. He was like Jeremiah who heard God say, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and therefore before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) Now that sort of staunch conviction of call may not be burning in our bones. As a lay person in the church, you may not have given too much thought to call. But it is precisely at that point, our failure to see that every Christian is called, this failure is cause ...

2147. To Live Is to Choose

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a second fact. If indecision is poisonous to the person. Decision making is perilous. Did you hear the story that city school teacher who brought a live rabbit to her kindergarten class the week before Easter. These five year olds were delighted and asked all sorts of question about this live rabbit. One child wondered if it was a boy or a girl. The flustered teacher said she didn’t know. One little girl said brightly, “Well, we could vote on it.” Some dilemmas can be resolved by majority vote. But ...

2148. Being Christ by Affirming and Forgiving

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... living out the thrilling possibility that each one of us can be Christ to and/or receive Christ from very person we meet. What Christ has been and done for me, we must be and do for others. Our life and our ministry in his name are inseparable. That sort of attending is the context in which the Spirit comes alive in relationship and evangelism takes place. It is a listening with mind and heart out of which comes revelation. When I listen in this fashion, the gap between the other person and me is bridged. A ...

2149. Our Common Life in Christ

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... 30 a.m. to begin her work as a missionary among 10,000 garbage pickers in Cairo, Egypt. These people are the “untouchables,” who live in what amounts to perpetual serfdom. They bequest their trade and squalor to succeeding generations. The garbage pickers stay alive by sorting through the refuse that is hauled out from the city in creaking donkey carts. These ragged men and women save the bottles and tin cans to sell for the only money they ever see. They use most of the waste food to slop the pigs that ...

2150. The Broken English of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... food seem like a virtuous act. But the most amazing thing about the new Sunchips bag? It is not that it is compostable. It is how LOUD it is. Pick up a bag and you’d swear it was wearing a microphone. There is even a disclaimer of sorts printed on the bag: “This bag is louder because it is compostable.” Every crunch and crinkle is amplified and resonates. Digging into a bag of Sunchips makes your ears hurt. Going to rock concerts and wearing ear buds connected to a cranked up Ipod are nothing compared ...

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