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Showing 201 to 225 of 4943 results

201. In Spite of Evidence to the Contrary

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... and you believe that. And that is all that matters. Believing such a promise changes everything. Now those odd words in the second half of today's gospel begin to make sense. At first they sounded so threatening, so disturbing, so dangerous: denying ourselves, taking up our cross, losing our lives and yet saving them. Now they are not threats but invitations. Now we understand that life comes not from fear and self-preservation like Peter thought it did when he tried to talk Jesus out of going to Jerusalem ...

202. Lent 2

Mk 8:31-38 · Rom 4:13-25; 8:31-39 · Gen 17:1-7, 15-16; 22:1-18 · Ps 22

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... in shame. I knew he was right. WORSHIP RESOURCES Psalm Of The Day: Psalm 22:23-31--"All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord..." (v. 27); Psalm 16; Psalm 115 Prayer Of The Day: Gracious God, your Son has called us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. Yet our blood curdles at the prospect of self-denial or any kind of suffering. Give us the fortitude and faith to follow you, wherever that may lead. In the name of the One who went all the way for us, Jesus, our Lord. Amen ...

203. Living Sacrifices

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

William J. Carl

... Peter does this is that following a God who suffers means we will probably have to suffer, too. Sure enough we were right; for immediately after Jesus puts Peter in his place, he says, “Those who want to be my followers must first deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow me.” What Peter probably figured out right from the beginning was that he would have to sacrifice. Paul carried the thought a step further in Romans 12 when he said that we are called to be “living sacrifices” which may be ...

204. The High Cost of Christian Living

Matthew 16:24-28

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

... to press in ten minutes. Nearby sat a wise old editor. When he saw the young man in trouble, he walked calmly to his desk, laid his hand on his shoulder and said, “Take your time, son, you have one minute.” God calls each of us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow the Christ. We each must take our time in making the decision as to how we will respond to that call, for we have one minute. Prayer Creator and Guide of all people, during this Youth Week, we thank You for the homes in which our ...

205. When God Has Enough

Zephaniah 1:4-13, Zephaniah 1:14--2:3

Sermon

Sims Robert

... lift up Christ the Savior of the world. The only one who can lead us is the Lord Jesus Christ. Did he not say, “I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)?” Jesus Christ knows where he is going and knows how to lead the way. Take up your cross and follow him. Phillips Brooks was one of the best-known pastors of the last century. We perhaps know him best as the man who wrote the Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” The story is told that when Phillips Brooks came to the end of life ...

206. Lent 2

Lk 9:18-36; 13:31-35 · Php 3:17--4:1 · Jer 26:8-15 · Gen 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... is my son" v. 35. What difference does it make that the one who goes to Jerusalem to suffer and die is none other than God's son? B. Tells us what was Jesus' life purpose v. 31. He was to go to Jerusalem to die for mankind. Christians likewise take up their cross and follow him. C. Tells us what our responsibility is to Jesus v. 35. Not only are we to listen to his words as Son of God, but we are to listen to him in terms of obedience. Lesson 1: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 1. God ...

207. Focus on the Finish

Galatians 6:7-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... the third week in October. There are people walking around today with a seed planted in their body called AIDS. They don't know they have it, and neither does anyone else. There is a point in time when the virus cannot even be seen by a microscope. It may take up to ten years for that seed to blossom, but blossom it will into a harvest of terrible and terminal illness. The point is, don't give in to sinning. You will reap what you sow. In the front of one of my study Bibles, I cut out something that I ...

208. Bitterness: How to Overcome What You Undergo

Hebrews 12:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... of them were wounded or killed as their own arrows with high velocity fell back to earth and pierced their own hearts. That is exactly what happens through a person's bitterness. Bitterness will mentally dominate you. As the root of bitterness grows, you will find that it takes up more and more of the soil of your heart. It is like a plant we're familiar with here in the deep south called kudzu. Kudzu is a vine-like plant that grows like wildfire and takes over everything it can, and you can't get rid of ...

209. There Is a Price for Everything, Part 2

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... IS NOT TOO GREAT. That’s the reason I have combined the second passage with these parables. It is that tough saying of Jesus with which we are all familiar. But let’s read it again —— Mark 8:3 ANY MAN WOULD COME AFTER ME LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS AND FOLLOW ME. FOR WHOEVER WOULD SAVE HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT: AND WHOSO— EVER LOSES HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE AND THE GOSPEL’S, WILL SAVE IT.” RSV That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? But the word that ties the two lessons together is found ...

210. The King on a Donkey

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... has a right to take Does that rest heavily on you? Of course it does. It’s the call to discipleship put in a way we’re not used to. But what else did Jesus mean when He said, “If any person would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow.” The Lord has need of it. Lift up your head, peasant owner of an ass - he Lord has need of you. Lift up your head, Christians of varying gifts and talents, Christians with little and Christians with much, Christians who are strong and ...

211. The Cost of Discipleship: Get Lost!

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... program, of dear Dr. Grant pledging $6,000.00, of Horace Branch pledging $3000. Today you heard the witness of Donna Libby. A wide range of amounts but all rooted in the same truth: Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice. What would it mean for you to take up your cross in the Because We Care program? III. Now the third facet of this great truth Jesus is stating : Follow Me. This, too, could be an entire sermon. We need to remember a Jesus’ focus here. He’s telling the disciples what kind of Messiah he ...

212. How the Lord has Covered the Daughter of Zion

Lamentations 2:1-22

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... , his bow is the Babylonian army, but the author of Lamentations knows that the arrows of Babylon are really shot by the Lord. God is described as wielding human weapons elsewhere in Scripture. In Joshua 5:13–15 he holds a drawn sword. In Psalm 7:12–13 he takes up sword and bow. Beauty (those who were pleasing to the eye) is no protection against the Divine Warrior. His wrath is like fire consuming the tent of the Daughter of Zion (see 2:1). 2:5 He. The poet repeats the fact that God is like an enemy to ...

213. The Nations Judged

Joel 3:1-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... opposite direction from Greece. Evil’s Resistance and God’s Victory (3:9-16): Christians welcome God’s judgments of them, because they know that God is working with them, purging out the sin in their lives and making of them new creatures in Christ. Christians willingly take up a cross and have their old self crucified, for then God can raise up a new person. 3:9–12 Evil people, on the other hand, always try to resist God’s judgments, to deny them, and to fight against them (cf. John 3:20). And ...

214. Jesus Proclaims Judgment on the Temple and the Nation

Mark 13:1-31

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... one event. The first two views have two returns, the third a single return.6 Teaching the Text 1. The saints witness in the midst of persecution. Some think that during the final persecution under the antichrist at the end of history, the church will virtually take up arms and fight against the beast’s army. Nothing could be further from the truth. Revelation 13:10 says, in effect, “If to prison, to prison we go; if to the sword, to the sword we go.” The messianic army will not “repay evil with evil ...

215. Good News / Bad News

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... the suffering, and, finally the crucifixion. Jesus understood that The Way was not going to be easy for him and neither is it going to be easy for those who choose to follow him in it. Later he would speak of his road as one upon which you must “take up your cross.” Finally, in verse 51 he laid it all out for even the most clueless listener. Do you think that I have come to bring peace to earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! And then he followed up this general statement with several examples of ...

216. Fasting: Foolish or Fruitful?

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

... opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ. As a hymn puts it, "Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free?" No, there is a cross for you and for me! When Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me," he really meant that fasting was identified with cross-bearing. To follow Jesus is to share his passion. In these days of Lent, we go with Jesus - we go along, not Jesus alone - to Jerusalem where he will suffer and die. When we fast ...

217. Priorities

Luke 9:51-56

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... HEAD TOGETHER) Behave and walk this way. (LARRY AND CURLY WALK LIKE MOE) MOE: (PRESENTING HIMSELF TO JESUS) We are ready to follow you, Jesus. JESUS: Your flesh is willing but your mind is weak. MOE: What about the spirit? JESUS: Your spirit is even weaker. Take up your cross and follow me. CURLY: Oh, no. More things to carry. MOE: (DOUBLE SLAP) Never mind them, Jesus. Why not just take me? JESUS: Why not just take me? CURLY: I don't understand. JESUS: Trust me. CURLY: Just trust you? JESUS: You believe in ...

218. It’s Hard to Eat While Lying

John 13:18-30

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Judas tried one last time to force Jesus to show His hand. He would maneuver Him into a position where His very life and the life of His movement would be threatened. Perhaps then Jesus would forget all of this namby-pamby nonsense about non-violence and take up arms against His foes. But no, like a lamb led to the slaughter, Jesus did not resist His enemies, and even chastised Simon Peter for trying to use a sword to defend Him. Judas’ plan to push Jesus into the limelight went sadly awry, and he watched ...

219. The Lord's Supper

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... essential for the time between the cross and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul has already dramatically registered the importance of the cross as the foundation of God’s salvation in chapter 1, especially 1:17–25. In turn, in chapter 15 he will take up the eschatological issues of resurrection and “the end”; but at this point, he is focused on the present as a concrete form of life that finds its shape and direction from Christ’s cross and God’s ultimate reign over all. In reminding the ...

220. Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... said, if you care to be different and dare to call yourself a Christian, you must deny self. JESUS’ OTHER COMMAND WAS THIS: TAKE UP YOUR CROSS DAILY AND FOLLOW ME. What does it mean to carry a cross for Jesus? It does not mean to hang on ... to grow in Christ, if we are going to be protected from the enticements of the devil to forfeit our salvation, we must deny self and take up our cross daily. God is not content just to save our souls. He wants to make us holy. Though we were once good for nothing, He ...

221. You Don’t Really Feel That Way

Job 6:1-7:21

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... years. Jesus knew that after such a long time, his frightening condition must be something that the man himself knew a lot about. So his first response was to ask, "Do you want to be healed?" Upon hearing that he did, Jesus heals him, ordering him to "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." At once he was healed. What Jesus demanded of this man was his honest confession of the state of his being. Yes, he did wish to be healed. This being so, there was something in him for Jesus to work with. What we observe ...

222. Jedi Christians

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... orders like the Jesuits, Franciscans, and John Wesley's Holy Club. This Order of Jedi Christians would serve to "recover the radical nature of Jesus' original vision for his disciples." A Jedi Christian would be single-minded in a commitment to deny self, take up a cross and follow Jesus. Jedi Christians would: obey the great commandments (Luke 10:26-38), master the weapons of spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-20), and produce the fruit of the spirit in daily life (Galatians 5:22-26). Jedi Christians would ...

223. Christmas Eve at Angel School

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

... the front and perch on the end of the platform, between the “school” and the Angels telling the story. 5th Angel crosses to Mary and hands her a “manger” holding the Baby, which Mary settles next to her. Standing over Mary and Joseph, the 5th Angel takes up the narration. As soon as 5th Angel begins to speak, Shepherds should enter from stage left and curl up in a circle on the floor in front of the platform.) 5th Angel: And there were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping ...

224. WWF: Smack Down In The Wilderness

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... up and move in. They don't swoop down and invade. Those demons are the ongoing temptations of everyday life. We face them every single day. They are there wooing and beguiling us. Waiting for just one small invitation. And once the door's open, they move in and take up residence like a destitute relative who won't help them self or move out and move on. B. There's an old episode of the Dick Van Dyke show that I just love. The title of the episode was: "The Curious Thing About Women." In this episode, Rob's ...

225. A Lesson from Dr. Seuss

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... . W.E. Sangster chose to be a servant of God rather than a slave to sin. Please don’t let the first-century imagery of being a slave or a servant get in the way of your understanding. We could use the imagery that Christ used of “taking up his yoke” (Mt 11:29), and we would be on the same road. Let’s use another example. Thirty years ago a psychologist named William Glasser wrote a very helpful book titled, Positive Addiction. Think about that term for a moment, positive addiction. Usually when we ...

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