Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2176 to 2200 of 4997 results

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... for years we Jews have had another feast called the feast of Purim and at that feast we have a little four-cornered cake and we eat that cake in memory of Haman. “And while you were up there speaking, sir, I was sitting here thinking and wondering what kind of a cake we were going to eat to remember you by. “ (1) How shall we treat our enemies? This Jewish gentleman was on the right track. There was once a shepherd boy who became a legendary soldier. But, after a brief time of service, he made a very ...

2177. The Curriculum of God’s Kingdom

Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... He taught; he preached; the Spirit performed wonders through his touch and command. It was show-and-tell time. The tragedy is that in rejecting him, Jesus’ hometown had rejected the blessing of the kingdom of God, and so it bypassed them for Capernaum. They rejected his kind hands, and so his feet went elsewhere. Just because some don’t want much of Jesus does not mean others do not. God is always looking for a receptive audience; history tells us that one time it was the Methodists who said Yes! It was ...

2178. The Way Up Is the Way Down

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... to trust and obey.”8 Outsiders do not and cannot understand because they have not yet obeyed. This much is clear; first Jesus called them to follow. They did. He then launched out on an initial ministry tour- his first as well by the way, which was a kind of extended field trip with him in the lead from village to village, first announcing the nearness of the kingdom- “a new game is in town,” then doing the works that show hurting people what it means for God to show up in loving power to make things ...

2179. Getting Your Politics Right

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... of open spiritual eyes and a sense of spiritual emptiness that drives us to prayer. Merely human schemes cannot do what needs to be done. I am not an outside critic; after eight years I am an inside observer. I am thankful for what I do see of Christian kindness and missionary service, but it is not enough to fix what ails us. TURNING TO THE TEXT vv. 1, 5-6 The Call To Private Prayer. At the center of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus pointed to three spiritual disciples that keep our hearts open to the grace ...

2180. A Kingdom Investment Policy

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... without any of this? Perhaps you can. God's goodness is so great, I am sure, that He will let you in if He can find any basis at all to do so. But you might wish to think about what your life amounts to before you die, about what kind of person you are becoming, and whether you really would be comfortable for eternity in the presence of one whose company you have not found especially desirable for the few hours and days of earthly existence. And he is, after all, One who says to you now, ‘Follow me!’"5 ...

2181. Get off the Throne and Learn Wisdom

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... Christ and in communion with the saints, all of whom are still in process. Having a critical spirit is not a gift of the Holy Spirit. It comes up from hell rather than down from heaven. A judgmental attitude is acid that eats away at love and the kind of help that actually helps people grow past their sins and out of bad habits. A critical spirit is the mother of gossip, and its bitter offspring is a divided church where everyone is complaining about others. So if you are one of those people who is always ...

2182. Comfortable Christianity Is a Big, Fat Lie

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... warning is clear that the costs are high. Say it with me: Comfortable Christianity is a big, fat lie. Not only which gate you choose but who you listen to for spiritual and moral guidance matters greatly because, according to Jesus, there are also only two kinds of prophets, the false and the true. True prophets walk the talk and point to the narrow gate and the hard path; they live under the same discipline and standards they offer others. If it’s a privilege, they go last, and if it’s a responsibility ...

2183. Obedience Really Matters

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... a prayer. No wonder they are up near the front. I’m sure they’ll be received, and when they enter the gates let’s all clap. These are the cream of the crop.” All of a sudden there is a hush; the crowd grows still and quiet, kind of like when a bailiff says, “Order in the court. Order in the court. All rise....” The heavenly proceedings begins in verse 21 with an announcement of divine intent, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mental assent to ...

2184. Big Fish

John 21:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... dreams. We’re not saying that if you live by the principles of Christ you will succeed in everything you do. What we’re saying is that you don’t have to stay down. Christ himself died on a cross between two thieves. His disciples experienced every kind of setback you can imagine and most of them gave their lives for their testimony. The essential question is, how do you define success? We can read this episode on the Sea of Tiberias as a success story. The disciples did as Jesus said and pulled in ...

2185. Love without Limits

John 13:31-38

Sermon

John K. Bergland

... in the conversation. We talked about sports and favorite restaurants. Then the conversation turned sour. I'm unsure how it began, but all kinds of racial slurs spewed out of the barber's mouth. He said, "Don't you know, they are all animals." I was silent ... for you? Lord, you must be crazy or kidding! Tell me you're kidding. Obviously, you have mistaken me for someone who cares about those kind of people. This is where I came in, and this is where I get off!" So Jonah thought that if he left Israel he would ...

2186. Thank God for Dads

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth . . .” Hard to believe that Paul the persecutor ...

2187. A Friend in Low Places

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , The Great Gatsby, and Catcher in the Rye. All of them begin in innocence, and then temptation in some form or another, and then a fall. And I think that is so characteristic of American fiction, because from the very beginning, America saw itself as a kind of Garden of Eden. The founding fathers and mothers talked about America in that way, as a place that was unspoiled by centuries of European corruption. That is the American myth. And it is still the myth today. There are still people who come to this ...

2188. Achieving Peak Performance

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... is greater than the Church. It is greater than any dream this world has ever had. It is transforming this world to be the kind of place God intended it to be. That is our mission. And it is given to us, ordinary folk. In fact, ordinary, sinful folk. ... larger, like loving your neighbor, who is hurting, or who is in need, or who is lonely. You do that, and you will discover all kinds of things, good things, will be given to you. Not wealth or fame. If you want those, then you are in the wrong place. Go ...

2189. Get Up and Go

Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , is hearing the command, "Arise, and shine," and getting up and going. As a part of that spiritual discipline, Wesley wrote a service called, "The Renewal of the Covenant." It calls us to remember the promise that God has given to us, and pledge ourselves to live the kind of life that would realize that promise in our own lives. He got the service originally from the Puritans in England and placed it on New Year's Eve. He thought a renewal of the covenant at New Year's Eve, a watch night service, would be ...

2190. Where's the Fire?

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... he could reflect on his life, and that is where God got him. Into this ordinary life, came fire, passion, dedication, commitment and compassion for other people. But I also want you to see that Moses resisted this. Moses was a reluctant prophet. That is the best kind. Beware of a prophet who enjoys his work. There isn't a prophet in the whole Bible who "whistles while he works." They are all dragged to it. They are all summoned and they all demur. God had to practically drag them to their job. They didn ...

2191. A Cloud of Witness

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... resistance is no different in Oslo than in most other cities. The secret is the track itself. It is a narrow, six‑lane track, and the stands that surround it are very steep. According to RUNNER’S WORLD, when 21,000 fans all scream, “Go, go!” in this kind of up close and personal setting, you run faster. The crowd forces you to keep your rhythm and push harder for one more stretch, for one more turn. (4) It’s like being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Such faith helps us be all that we can be ...

2192. Experiencing the Reality of God

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

James L. Killen

... actually there in our real world, one who is alive, one who loves us and enables us, one who is always calling us out into a kind of life that is a real adventure, one who will relate to us like Jesus related to the disciples. When we live our lives in ... gotten in touch with the one who is holding all things together and making them work. A young woman shared a very different kind of an experience. She had been on a religious retreat during which she came into a very intimate relationship with the God who ...

2193. The Subject Is Salvation

Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19

Sermon

James L. Killen

... our personhood is doubly affirmed. That is a gift of God. Your person-hood is miraculously suspended over the abyss of meaningless and impersonal existence. And look at the world around you, at your family, your community, your nation, your world. You can actually identify the kinds of chaos that are there waiting to destroy those things that are important to you, can't you? That can and should terrify us. But in spite of all of the hate and the greed and the indifference, in spite of all of the tyranny and ...

2194. The Problem with Promises

Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7

Sermon

James L. Killen

... know about God can only be experienced from the inside of a relationship with God. We have to take the risk of believing and trusting and venturing out in relationship with God before we can know for sure that the one whom we are trusting is real. That kind of venturing out in trust is what the Bible calls "faith." Paul, who is the Bible writer who has the most to say about faith, wrote "... since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access to ...

2195. Discovering that It’s Not about You

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

... like yourself, each of whom has a unique relationship with God and a story of her or his own. Yes, very important relationships will exist between you. You will do important things for each other. But the relationships will be based, not on ownership, but on the kind of respect that is an aspect of real love. That can make a big difference in your relationships. It can put an end to jealousy and manipulation and a lot of the hurt feelings and bad feelings that often exist between us. It can let you claim ...

2196. The Best Offering

Micah 6:1-8

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... ? One: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; All: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Based on Micah 6:6-8) Collect God of what is seen and what is unseen, we praise your ... us as your children, and waiting for us to assume our tasks as disciples. What do you require of us, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you? You are patient with our failure when we try, but we confess that at times we have never tried to ...

2197. Look Who Is Standing at the Door

James 4:1-12; 5:1-12

Sermon

James L. Killen

... way of the world. One of every Christian's greatest challenges is to keep living according to the Spirit, that is to say, living a life that is being shaped daily by a relationship with the living God, while everyone else around us is living a very different kind of life. That is hard to do. The temptations and the influences and the intentional pressures of our culture are always pulling us or pushing us to live like everyone else and making it costly not to do that. What is this "way of the world" that we ...

2198. Different

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon

James L. Killen

... love, we don't have a very clear idea of just what that could mean. We suspect that it has to do with some kind of unrealistic sentimentalism. And the message of the cross tells us to live in commitment to something bigger than ourselves. It tells us to ... be like if every community, every church, every family, yes, if the whole world learned to live that way? Wouldn't that be a kind of salvation for the world? When Paul said that the message of the cross is the power of God for salvation, he was saying ...

2199. How Does It Work?

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

Sermon

James L. Killen

... Paul was suggesting. He was simply saying that learning the wisdom of a culture or of a religion is not what makes the difference in our lives - and a "wisdom" that makes some people feel superior to others is counter-productive. Now, as a matter of fact, there is a kind of wisdom that is spoken of in the Bible. It is a major theme in some parts of the Old Testament like Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Job. And it has a role to play in the New Testament faith, as Paul said. But it is different from ...

2200. The Reward

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Sermon

James L. Killen

... because of their loss. But they knew to be grateful that they still had everything that was really important. That was a kind of a salvation. Many have gone through crisis experiences that helped them to realize that some of the things they thought ... they had neglected were the things that really made life worth living. That can indeed be an experience of salvation - and that, too, is a kind of reward. But then Paul moves on to enlarge his metaphor and he has a surprise for us. He says, "Do you not know that ...

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