Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2201 to 2225 of 2665 results

2201. Up Close & Personal: Seeing Clearly

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

... They Really Are Notice what happens in verse 8. “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8, ESV) Isaiah is now so close to God he can ease-drop in on a conference call that is taking place between the Trinity. It is obvious the Lord wasn’t just talking to Himself. He said, “Who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8, ESV) Once you see God for who He really is you will want to surrender everything you ...

2202. Do You Believe In Miracles?

Matthew 15:29-39

Sermon

James Merritt

... of the miracles Jesus performed, because they either suspended or superseded the laws of nature. Whether it was changing water into wine, stilling a storm, walking on water, or feeding 5000 people with a few loaves and a few fish, these were the jaw-dropping miracles. These were the “Can we see You do that again?” type of miracles. These were the “Can you show me how You did that?” kind of miracle. Then there were what I call the “supernatural” miracles. These were the miracles where Jesus would ...

2203. The Question that Will Change Your Life

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... bidding. “Heal my body, Lord, take care of my children, help my stocks do well. Amen.” They never examine their souls. Their prayer is not that they may be conformed to God’s will, but that God will conform to their will. They will never sweat great drops of blood as Jesus did in Gethsemane praying, “Not my will, but thine be done,” because it has never occurred to them that there could ever be a difference between God’s will and their own. Am I being overly harsh with those who live such lives ...

2204. That's Not Fair

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... of them, in anguishing personal detail. Finally a beachhead is established, and for a moment the troops are safe. “But then the real plot of the movie begins. Eight soldiers who survived the invasion are sent to rescue an American paratrooper named Ryan who was dropped behind enemy lines. “They go through harrowing experiences to find him, and when they find him several men lose their lives trying to rescue him and get him out. The last one killed is the captain of the unit played by Tom Hanks. As he ...

2205. An Announcement from a Stable

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... can give you a report on Carolyn Jones. Today, she is a successful business woman who owns and runs C&S Paving in Atlanta. One consequence of that long-ago rejection is that every year she cooks enough food at Christmastime to feed dozens of people. If anyone were to drop by at Christmas and need a meal, she wants to be ready to welcome them. (3) I wish all shut-out people around the earth could have their lives turn out like that. If you and I do our part, maybe some of them will. No room in the inn ...

2206. An Announcement in Song

Psalm 98:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... hearts as nothing else can do. That’s why so many of us invest in earphones and sound systems. We must have our music. When Bishop Will Willimon was a pastor, he decided to visit a member of his congregation. This man was a lawyer. Willimon dropped by this man’s office. Everyone had gone home but this lawyer who was working late. Starting off the conversation Willimon asked, “What sort of day have you had?” The lawyer replied: “A typical day . . . full of misery. In the morning I assisted a couple ...

2207. Faith’s First Impressions

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in the “presence” of the Holy Spirit, and the “passion” of faith, that “the word of the Lord has sounded forth” (vs.8) from this first small community in Thessalonica throughout two millennia. In 45 CE this population of Jesus followers was a tiny drop in a sea of religious choices. Thessalonica was a large port of entry, a crossroads for commerce, a favored independent city politically coddled by Rome. In the first century, the variety of gods to worship and cults to join were larger than a ...

2208. Why He Did It

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... or the other and it was clear that she wouldn’t make it by 4:00. She started thinking about that whuppin’ that was waiting at home for her. She started crying on the bus before she even got home and she felt as if her heart was going to drop out of her chest. When she got home, she was relieved to discover that the whuppin’ wasn’t nearly as awful as the anticipation that it was going to happen. Can you relate to that? Maybe not to the whuppin’, but to the terrible dread when you anticipate that ...

2209. A Guide to a Rich and a Joyous Life

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... right at the Baldwin family. The squad leader chewed them out and sent them on their way. The next morning, the family returned to the barricade wall to survey the beach. Imagine little Stanley’s horror when he looked over the wall and saw a forty-foot drop to the rocky coastline below! If his sister hadn’t called for him when she did, if the soldiers hadn’t shown up when they did, Stanley might have jumped over that wall to certain death. He thought the barricade wall had been blocking his access to ...

2210. Dust in the Wind

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Timothy Cargal

... ’s liturgical refrain, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” As I repeat those words with the imposition of ashes on each parishioner’s forehead, playing inside my own head it’s the “Same old song / We’re just a drop of water in an endless sea / All we do / Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see / Dust in the wind / All we are is dust in the wind.” Certainly “Dust In The Wind” captured the existential angst of my generation. The culturally dominant ...

2211. Starting Over

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... study is called Understanding the Book of Hebrews: The Story behind the Sermon (Westminster John Knox, 2003). Schenck’s view is that the letter was written to a mixed congregation of both Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome who were in danger of dropping Jesus from their religion because of imminent persecution. Most prone to this move were those who had been Gentile pagans and then became Jewish proselytes before the message of Jesus was circulated. These people had already made a move to biblical ...

2212. Everything Must Go: Striking It Rich

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... to invest in the stock market – don’t put your hopes in it. Between 1948 and 2001 the United States economy endured 10 recessions. Those downturns lasted an average of 10 months and resulted in the loss of billions of dollars. About every 5 years or so, the economy drops the people who have been dating it and starts over. If you put your hope in the stock market, when it falls, your hope is destroyed. If a farmer puts all of his hopes in his crops, if the crops fail his hope is destroyed. When you put ...

2213. Peacemaker

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

James Merritt

... could use one big security blanket. Everywhere you look you don’t see peace, but rather unrest and worry. It’s as if the world is under a continuous panic attack. As I was working on this message, rockets were being fired into Israel and bombs were being dropped on Palestinians. Every day you hear that this nation is about to go over a fiscal cliff and if that isn’t bad enough it looks like we are going to be without Twinkies! In all my years, I’ve never seen so much worry. People are worried about ...

2214. What Are You Waiting On?

John 11:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... and this family, John adds this in verse 5. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” (John 11:5, ESV) So understand these are not just friends, this is family. So the story continues in verse 6. “So when He heard that Lazarus was ill He immediately dropped what He was doing, got to Bethany as fast as he could, and healed Lazarus.” Um, I know, that’s not what is says. That’s what we would expect it to say, but instead we read: “So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two ...

2215. The Reject

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... began my senior year, for a number of reasons, I broke off the engagement. Looking back now, I realize that was God’s doing, but I crushed the heart of this girl. It put her into a tailspin and caused her to make some poor choices in her life. She dropped out of school and I went on to graduate. Almost 20 years went by with no contact, but the guilt of what I had done to her haunted me. I was invited to speak to a church down in Florida about two hours south of where she knew she might ...

2216. The Loser

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

James Merritt

... who walked away is the Man he walked away from. It broke Jesus’ heart. In fact, this is the only time in all four Gospels where Jesus invited someone to follow Him and they refused. Every time Jesus says, “Follow me” in all four Gospels, people dropped their nets, left their boats, abandoned their tables and followed Jesus except here. People could leave their work, but this man could not leave his wealth. Every time we pass the bucket in this church, do you understand what we are doing? We are not ...

2217. Who Is Right

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... were scattered across the floor. In the upstairs room, there is a lone chair sitting against the wall and a man sits in front of the coffee table where a line of cocaine has been sprinkled and scraped. He can feel the addiction gripping his heart as he drops to his knees to begin another ritual of snorting that line of cocaine into his nostrils, when all of a sudden a flood of conviction broke through the dam of his heart. Instead of reaching for the syringe, he looks up to heaven and says, “Oh God, there ...

2218. No Excuse

Luke 14:15-24

Sermon

James Merritt

... servants to give the second invitation to tell them the banquet was ready and it was time for them to come. Verse 17 actually records the second invitation. The first invitation had already been given. The guests had already agreed to come. Now they were to simply drop what they were doing and take their place at the table. You may think that they had an excuse, because maybe they weren’t prepared for the time of the banquet. The problem is that unlike the Greeks who usually ate three meals during the day ...

2219. Lost

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

Have you ever lost something of value that was really, really important that really mattered to you and you couldn’t find it? Once you realized it, what did you do? You dropped everything you were doing and immediately went looking for it. Do you remember when you found it? Do you remember the joy, the relief and the happiness that you felt? Maybe it was your car keys or your wallet or a credit card or even a wedding ring. How many ...

2220. To the Rescue

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

James Merritt

... it you shall surely die.’”(Genesis 2:16-17, ESV) One thing is very abundantly clear. In scripture, God never has and never will break a promise. When Adam eats of the fruit when he does exactly what God told him not to do you would expect Adam to just drop dead, but instead he runs and he hides. At first glance it appears God missed it. Did God shoot and miss? Did Adam duck? God was very specific. He said, “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam did die. Ultimately, he did die in his ...

2221. Shockproof

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

James Merritt

... vices that Paul lists? It is like he is trying to think of every single fault that can cause such a relational earthquake that it would make forgiveness almost impossible. If you are harboring any type of hurt in your heart for anybody – lose it, drop it, and get rid of it. You notice that he begins with bitterness. The word bitterness originally meant something that was sharp or pointed. Bitterness is that imaginary knife that you like to use to stab someone. It is that sphere you carry in your hand ...

2222. Jesus Prays for Us

John 17:6-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... rabbit goes just fast enough to stay ahead of the dogs. A few years ago at a racetrack in Florida, a funny thing happened. The dogs were all crouched in their cages, waiting for the start of the race. The starting gun sounded. The cage doors dropped open and the dogs took off after the mechanical rabbit. As the rabbit rounded the first turn, however, something incredible happened. An electrical short caused the rabbit to explode and catch on fire. In seconds, all that was left of the rabbit was some black ...

2223. Have You Had Your Caffeine Today?

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... stimulation as three cups of coffee. (2) There is caffeine for every taste. It appears that we need energy to keep up with the demands of our busy lives. Can you imagine that after Jesus’ crucifixion that his disciples would have had their energy level drop and their enthusiasm go off a cliff? That would be a normal reaction to the disappointment they had experienced. Then, they discover that he has risen from the dead. This would certainly lift their spirits, but how long would that last? Would it carry ...

2224. Dealing with Cantankerous People

Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... field.” So they went out to the barn and found some boards and made a casket. They put the box on their shoulders and carried it out past the barn. As they passed through the gate, one of the boys bumped into the post and this caused them to drop the box. The casket broke open and the cantankerous, crabby old man sat straight up. He was alive! He had only been in a very deep . . . sleep! Well, life got back to normal. He lived two more years, just as ornery and mean, cantankerous and crabby as ever. The ...

2225. Poem: I Shall Know Why - When Time Is Over

Eulogy

Emily Dickinson

I shall know why, when Time is over, And I have ceased to wonder why; Christ will explain each separate anguish In the fair schoolroom of the sky. He will tell me what Peter promised, And I, for wonder at his woe, I shall forget the drop of Anguish That scalds me now, that scalds me now.

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