Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2151 to 2175 of 3160 results

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that Service really reordination?’ or ‘How will The Methodist Conference vote?’ They ask a simpler question, ‘Where does my next meat come from?” The bread they are interested in is not that, covered by a fair lined cloth, over which the theologians argue, but the other sort that eases a gnawing pain in the belly.” We need to discover a sense of what is vital. Something at the heart of life keeps reminding us that it is God “in whom we live and move and have our being.” This is what Malcolm ...

2152. He Breaks the Power of Cancelled Sin

John 8:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the power of cancelled sin. Listen to him. “He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” II CHRIST FREES US FROM GUILT Christ frees us from meaninglessness. He also frees us from guilt. We are plagued by all sorts of guilt. We haven’t been good husbands or wives. We haven’t functioned well as parents. We failed to live up to previous commitments. We have cheated our future by compromising ourselves. In moments of impulse we hurt someone we loved, and yet never had ...

2153. Being and Doing as the People of God

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... you with my innermost thoughts. But this morning I write in joy! I’ve begun again, this time with a clearer picture of the struggle ahead than ever before. Yet, now once again, I can welcome it. I have the feeling that I am waking slowly after a long sort of unreal dream. As I now look back, I realize I never felt deserted - and I know God was simply waiting patiently for me to let go.” There is a significant lesson in this witness. One of the greatest problems, as we seek to be dynamic disciples is our ...

2154. One to Take the Place of Jesus

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of his announcement to his disciples that he is going to leave them. He is preparing them for his crucifixion and resurrection. (READ SCRIPTURE LESSON) Somewhere I read about a church in Boston which had a “committee on water levels”. Now we have all sorts of committees in this church, but not a committee like that. The reason for this committee is that the church stands in the Back Bay district of Boston, which 150 years ago was entirely under water. When they built the church, they drove 4500 wooden ...

2155. Born Again

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that is on in our designer name Polo and Dior. Unfortunately the label “born-again Christian” sometimes carries with it from the one who bears it the same kind of condescension for the non-bearer as designer label-wearers have for those happily any old sort of brand. I won’t press that too far — only to make the point that our labels may be pure in intention but our intentions may be woefully inadequate in communicating truth. I heard a funny story recently which vividly illustrates the truth. A man ...

2156. Christ's Chosen People: Privilege

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that’s not the point I want to share. I was visiting with his wife. They had a thirty-year marriage and they had given their lives to Christ and His Gospel. My friend and I, the wife, were talking long-distance. You could feel a kind of alternating sort of way, tears in her voice, as well as feel the joy of her spirit. They’d had a thirty-year marriage, and something like that doesn’t end without taking its toll on the life of a person and without bringing its almost unbearable trauma. She kept saying ...

2157. When Are We Most Like God?

Exodus 2:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Even you who might hope I’d cut my sermons a bit shorter wouldn’t be pleased week in and week out with 5-minute introductory thoughts. I did hear a story the other day that tempted me in this direction – a story about Will Campbell. Will is sort of a renegade Baptist preacher – not too many Baptist would claim him. He is severely iconoclastic. He’s at once the champion of prison reform and civil rights, and yet, at the same time, is the only clergy I know who has deliberately sought to minister to ...

2158. Barriers to Grace

Exodus 6:28--7:7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... - obstinate. Two things will help to understand this perplexing notion. First, we need to remember that in Hebrew thought, the heart was the source of the intellect or the will, not the emotion. It was the seat of volitional action where decisions were made, the sort of emotional tones that we identify with it today. Then, a second thing we need to remember is that in Hebrew thought, there was no dealing with secondary causes that is, causes standing between an event and God. It easy for us to say that ...

2159. Let God Be God - As if It Could Be Otherwise

Exodus 7:14-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Could Be Otherwise. Pharaoh and the Egyptians thought it could be otherwise — and while we might not admit it so explicitly, we think it can be otherwise, and that’s the reason we’re giving specific focus to God today. With tongue in cheek, a poet expressed sort of where we are today or where some of us are. Of old our fathers’ God was real Something they almost saw That kept them to stern ideal And scourged them into awe They walked the narrow paths of right Most vigilantly well Because they feared ...

2160. Fresh Every Morning - A Test

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... lot - not just where money is concerned, but the daily pressure of rearing three children, the daily pain of loneliness for a young woman without a marriage partner, the temptations of singleness, and the moral pressures. But she’s happy. Her face radiates a sort of transparent joy. I hardly ever see her without thinking of Jesus’ first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” No wonder Jesus put that one first. The poor in spirit are those who know they are ...

2161. Updating Some Ancient Laws

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to desire what other folks have that we don’t, or on what ground to be base our almost insatiable desire for more, on what do we have it at all? Listen now. We are operating out of two illusions. One, we convince ourselves that all of us have a sort of cosmic right for an equal share of the good things of life. This is a fallacious idea, and it plays folly in all our lives. There is no equality in talents, ability, and opportunity. There is not even any equality in our being at the right place at the ...

2162. Lessons from the Ordinances

Exodus 21:2-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free for the eye’s sake. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free for the tooth’s sake.” So there was compassion of sorts for the slaves. Now look at a beautiful example of how the poor are to be treated. “If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him. “If ever ...

2163. It's Tough to Be God

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to be God because God cannot rest until all his children have come home. A lot of people have trouble with the 14th verse of our text - “And the Lord repented of the evil he thought to do to his people.” They try to explain it in all sorts of ways. The question is how could God repent? Doesn’t the scripture say God is changeless? That he is the same yesterday, today and forever? It certainly does – and that’s the reason this is your powerful word about God. He is the same yesterday, today and ...

2164. Taught by a Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , and still lose our souls. That’s the problem Jesus was addressing when he said, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of my heavenly father.” But we do it in all sorts of ways and we’ve done it in the church. Our liturgy is a means of worshiping God, but an elaborate liturgy can become an end in itself; so that the means and method of worship becomes more important than worship itself. (Note: Comment on music and clapping ...

2165. Just When We Think We're Safest, There's a Sunset Touch

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... is the right word – to contend or struggle successfully. For twelve weeks, we’ll be involved in this series. We will lift up some of the thorniest and most devastating experiences such as depression and death, as well as some of the nitty-gritty, everyday sorts of problems such as loneliness and stress. We want to lift the experiences up, look at them in the light of God’s grace with the resources of scriptural guidance, prayer, and our commitment to Christian discipleship, and see if we can’t find ...

2166. Clear to the Better End - Parent Burnout

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... children. Some parents crucialize- that is, they have a tendency to turn something that should be routine into some thing that is critical. For example, they might go into a panic over choosing a day care center for their 3-year old. Our culture has given parents all sorts of worries - will baby nurse properly if I don’t hold it within ten minutes of birth? - on what side of the crib should I put the mobile?- do we have the right kind of car seat? Then there’s fear of crib-death. Some parents exhaust ...

2167. Come Forward to God's Throne Where There Is Grace (Relief for Guilt)

Hebrews 4:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and consciences play tricks on us. As long guilt remains that vague, unnamed, oppressive, painful stirring within, we can’t deal with it. Be very specific. Why am I feeling guilty? What have I done that would bring on these feelings? All sorts of emotions build up within us – molehills become mountains if we don’t deal precisely with the issue. Akin to this clarification is another necessary principle. Recognize that you may process a crushing guilty conscience which is illegitimate. You can blame ...

2168. Out of the Miry Bog (Dealing with Depression)

Psalm 22:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , he finds it tremendously difficult to face the day, so he says verbally to the Lord, “Lord, I don’t feel like being a priest today; I don’t feel like being the town pump available to all who would come and demand of me.” That’s the sort of thing I’m talking bout - we need to honestly locate ourselves before the Lord. One of the problems with Christians is that we think there is something bad wrong with our Christian experience if we admit that we’re not on top. Somehow, and I think the devil ...

2169. When Nature Says No

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... hurt. So, my first word today is: Recognize that there is a tragic dimension to life, and even though you might reason about it in a satisfactory way, still all of our reasoning does not alleviate the pain of it. We simply have to live with the fact that a sort of “half-witted brother” will continue to interrupt God’s good intentions for us. Nature will continue to say No to some Yes within us. II So, we have to go one step further. And this is a dramatic step - a step of faith that is essential if we ...

2170. When You Have Everything You Need, Except What You Need (Managing Money)

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

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the feeling that you have when you have been used by God. It’s interesting that Jesus talks about laying up treasures in Heaven. When Ken Kinghorn was with us in our Mini-Conference last weekend, he told about a fellow named John. John is an ordinary sort of man in terms of education and wealth. Yet, such a committed man and so perceptive in things of the spirit that he was invited to serve on the board of one of the outstanding Christian colleges of our land. On one occasion, the Finance Committee of ...

2171. Who Are We Waiting For?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of the hymn, “0 come, 0 come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that moans in lonely exile here.” They knew who they were waiting for. They were waiting for a deliverer, one to ransom them from captivity. What are we waiting for? Our captivity may be of a different sort. Our exile may not be geographical, but we need someone to ransom us, don’t we? This is what Advent is about. Long before Jesus arrived on the scene to the prophet had a clear idea as to who this God was, and what He was about in ...

2172. Three Wise Men

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... quest in the first place? The need of their life, the deep yearning for meaning, drove them to it. They had not found salvation and meaning in their studies, their systems, their science even in their stars. So, in their wisdom, they started looking for Christ. Oh for that sort of wisdom. We’ve run the gamut haven’t we? At times we think education will save us, and then in one of the most educated nations of the world, we have a Hitler and a Holocaust. We think government will do it, then in the boldest ...

2173. A Curse for Our Redemption

Galatians 3:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to blow your brains out.” There was one fatal difficulty. Jorge could not speak English and the Texas Ranger could not speak Spanish. There they were, two adults at an utter verbal impasse, but a man’s brain was about to be blown out if some sort of translation did not take place. About that time, an enterprising Mexican came up and said, “I am bilingual; do you want me to act as translator?” The ranger nodded. So this enterprising Mexican began to speak Spanish to Jorge, telling him that the ranger ...

2174. Not a Servant, but a Son

Galatians 4:6-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... was the article and a large picture of the woman. He hadn’t even recognized her. This was not the woman he knew at all. What stared back was a picture of an elderly lady sitting at a desk holding the phone with an arthritic hand – an ordinary sort of woman, not at all the vibrant and inspiring woman he knew. He asked several other friends if they had seen the picture and they shared his same feelings. When he saw her next he looked carefully and recognized that she did look like the picture. Her hands ...

2175. Why Jesus Didn't Perform Funerals

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... God is always loving. God always wills His children’s good. There is nothing about God that needs to change. Prayer is important because it changes us. Prayer allows us to center our thoughts on the One who is the source of our life. With God’s guidance we sort out what is really important in our lives. We discover God’s will for us. We discover insight into how we might effectively accomplish that to which God has called us. For the weary he is rest. To the wanderer, he is a roadmap. Finally, to the ...

Showing results