Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2226 to 2250 of 2665 results

2226. Poem: Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

Eulogy

Thomas Gray

... rustic moralist to die. For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e’er resign’d, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind? On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires; Even from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, Even in our ashes live their wonted fires. For thee, who mindful of the unhonoured Dead Dost in these lines their artless tale relate; If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, Some ...

2227. Poem: A Dirge

Eulogy

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Why were you born when the snow was falling? You should have come to the cuckoo’s calling, Or when grapes are green in the cluster, Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster For their far off flying From summer dying. Why did you die when the lambs were cropping? You should have died at the apples’ dropping, When the grasshopper comes to trouble, And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble, And all winds go sighing For sweet things dying.

2228. When Is Enough...Enough?

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... tie, a hundred?and fifty?dollar shirt, and a pair of two?hundred- dollar shoes. It costs me fifteen dollars to clean my suit and six dollars to have my shirt hand?washed. “I don’t even want to think about what it would cost if I should get a drop of spaghetti sauce on my tie. And this woman wants me to roll up my pants and walk along the beach! All I can think about is how much it’s going to cost me if she wants to sit down on the sand. Here’s the bottom line that ...

2229. A Fig Tree Sprouts Leaves

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... , he was surprised to be given permission to immediately pull his crew together and fly his plane home. These young military men flew across the ocean to Massachusetts and then had a long drive to western Pennsylvania. They drove all night. When his buddies dropped Robbins off at his driveway just after sun-up, there was a big banner across the garage--”Welcome Home Dad!” How did they know? No one had called, and the crew themselves hadn’t expected to leave so quickly. Robins relates that when he ...

2230. Demons, Pigs, and the Economy

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... the ages the world has been refusing Jesus because it prefers the pigs" (Levertoff, quoted in Matthew, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, R.V.G. Tasker, p. 94). It doesn't need to be pigs or healing. It can be both. Bill Gates, America's richest man, dropped out of Harvard to start what is now Microsoft. He went back to Harvard in 2007 to give the commencement address and they awarded him his degree much to his attorney father's relief. Concerned now about world poverty and disease, Bill Gates and his wife ...

2231. The Good Samaritan (Revised Edition)

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... encumbrances and involvement, and desiring to justify himself, he asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? Many Americans have the lawyer's frame of mind. Next to Israel, America is the most litigious country in the world. We are ready to sue most anyone at the drop of a hat. Frustrated, angry, and desperate about the complexities of modern life, we seek restitution in the courts! Add to that the cascade of government rules and regulations, at once the lawyer's spawning ground and livelihood, and it is no wonder we ...

2232. Second Chances

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... so that we might bear more and better fruit. I love the way Louisa Tarkington once put it. She wrote: “I wish there were some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again, Where all of our past mistakes and heartaches, And all of our poor selfish grief, Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door And never be put on again.” Well, there is such a place, this Land of Beginning Again. It’s at the foot of the cross. Lent is a reminder to us that we all have missed the mark. But Christ offers ...

2233. A Lost Boy

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... his money in wild living. It was party time all the time, and he was living it up. Until . . . the money ran out . . . and all the fun ended. The younger son had spent all that he had and then there was a recession and jobs for people under 30 dropped off the radar and he was forced to move back home. No, it doesn’t read quite like that, but you get the idea. Things were a little more desperate back then. There was a famine in the land and with no money, literally, he could have starved to death ...

2234. Eyes Fixed Upon the Goal

Philippians 3:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... They got over this difficulty by placing the ballot boxes in a row with a symbol on each box representing the various parties. This way even those who could not read knew who they were voting for. However, one man, says Jones, tore his ballot into small bits and dropped a piece in each of the ten boxes. He voted for all ten parties. What he did not realize was that in doing so he actually voted for none! Only a certain amount of time and energy and material resources are allotted to each of us. In order to ...

2235. A Complicated Disciple

John 18:15-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... livelihood. They had been raised to catch fish. Fishing was their life’s vocation. The Bible indicates that Peter himself was married, possibly with a family. His family depended on his success in casting his net as a fisherman, but he and Andrew both dropped their nets instantly when Jesus called them. Two things stand out in this scene. The first is obvious: there was something quite compelling about Jesus for them to make such a sudden and life-changing response when Jesus challenged them to join him ...

2236. Are You Giving Up Chocolate for Valentine's Day?

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... refers to the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ was facing the cross. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” . . . “And being in anguish,” Luke writes, “he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (22:42-44). So this is where we begin our Lenten pilgrimage--with Christ being tempted, or tested, in the wilderness. Hebrews 2:18 explains why it was necessary for Christ to face this test: “Because he himself ...

I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit, coming from God, and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf; a few months hence I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing—the way to heaven … God Himself has condescended to teach the way. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that Book! At any price, give me the book of God!

John Wesley

2238. A Salty Condition

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Suppose we pour a measure of salt into a container of pure water. The salt affects every drop of the water to the extent that all the formerly pure water becomes salty. From that time on, every bit of water drawn from that container is salty and no pure water can be drawn. This is similar to the depraved condition of man. The first sin was an act, one act that brought sin into the human race. Since that one act the very bloodstream of the human race has been polluted.

2239. No-excuse-to-stay-home Sunday

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... a special announcement in the mail, listing the many things that would be done for them at church on the following “no-excuse-to-stay-home Sunday.” According to the pastor, cots would be available for those who say Sunday is their only day to sleep. Eye drops would be supplied for those who have red eyes from watching late Saturday-night TV shows. There would be steel helmets for those who say the roof would cave in if they ever went to church, blankets for persons who think the church is too cold, fans ...

2240. The Bigger Hand

Humor Illustration

Michael P. Green

... the mother had made a purchase, the clerk invited the child to help herself to a handful of candy. The youngster held back. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like candy?” asked the clerk. The child nodded, and the clerk smilingly put his hand into the jar and dropped a generous portion into the little girl’s handbag. Afterward the mother asked her daughter why she had not taken the candy when the clerk first offered some to her. “Because his hand was bigger than mine,” replied the little girl.

2241. If I Should Die Before I Wake

Matthew 5:23-24

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... I should die before I wake … If I should die.…” “Go on, go on, Danny,” said his mother. “You know the rest of the prayer.” “Wait a minute,” interrupted the small boy. Scrambling to his feet, he hurried downstairs. In a short time, he was back. Dropping to his knees once again, he took up the petition where he had left off. Finally his mother questioned him about the episode and issued a loving rebuke. Danny explained: “Mom, I did think about what I was saying, but I had to stop and put ...

2242. Happiness Is A Scratched Itch

Illustration

Philip Yancey

There is an ancient Chinese philosophy which says: ‘To be dry and thirsty in a hot and dusty land—and to feel great drops of rain on my bare skin—ah, is this not happiness? To have an itch in the private parts of my body—and finally to escape from my friends and to a hiding place where I can scratch—ah, is this not happiness?’ Pain and pleasure are inextricably linked. The pleasure would not exist, or least be recognized, if it were not for pain.

2243. The Apostles Persecuted

Acts 5:17-42

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... , for the reason mentioned earlier (see on vv. 34–35), the council followed Gamaliel’s advice (v. 38f.). 5:40 The apostles were recalled and sentenced to be whipped. The charge of blasphemy (if indeed that had been the charge) was apparently dropped, leaving only the lesser charge of disobedience. It was within the competence of the Sanhedrin, and also of the lower synagogal courts, both to sentence and to carry out punishment without deference to the Roman authorities in any case other than a ...

2244. The Church Persecuted and Scattered

Acts 8:1b-3

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... for the first time in Acts the church is so described. Hitherto the church has been thought of as one, and no information has yet been given of any effort by the Christians to reach out into the countryside of Judea. But now Luke drops a hint that there would soon be new “churches”—local expressions of the one church—as the gospel was carried elsewhere by fleeing Christians. Throughout Judea and Samaria: These two regions (Luke’s word) formed one province under the procurator of Judea (see note ...

2245. Saul’s Conversion

Acts 9:1-19a

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... him (see disc. on vv. 15f.; 22:12–16, also 22:17–21). Meanwhile, his companions were much less affected than he was by what had happened. They had seen the light, they had heard the sound (v. 7; cf. 22:9; 26:14), and like Paul they had dropped to the ground (26:14, though here they are described as now standing); but only he had understood the voice, and he alone was blinded by the sight (22:11 explicitly links his blindness with the light). Jesus had once called his kind blind guides to the blind (Matt ...

2246. Paul Speaks to the Crowd

Acts 21:37--22:21

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... only a sound—to them it was not speech. 22:10 The question What shall I do, Lord? is an addition to the earlier account (cf. 9:5f.). The address “Lord” would not at first have had the significance that it later had for the apostle, but he now dropped into the Christian use of the title in his narration: the Lord said … Jesus was not, of course, Lord to this Jewish crowd. Jesus’ reply is essentially the same as in 9:6. Compare the more condensed account in 26:16ff. 22:11 That the light was divine ...

2247. The Trial Before Felix

Acts 24:1-27

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... , if in fact they had anything to say against him. This point was well made, for “Roman law was very strong against accusers who abandoned their charges” (Sherwin-White, p. 52). The point, however, was not decisive, for though the Asian Jews had dropped out of sight, the original accusation (in a modified form) had been taken up by the council. The Sanhedrin was now Paul’s accuser, and its representatives were present. To them, therefore, he threw down his final challenge. 24:20–21 He demanded ...

2248. Warnings Against Idleness

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... discussion on 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12. 3:6 The strong-sounding verb, we command you (parangellō, see disc. on 1 Thess. 4:11) affords a distinctly military ring to the whole verse. The metaphor contained in the reference to every brother who is idle of the soldier who drops out of line (ataktōs, see disc. on 1 Thess. 5:14) further enhances this tone. The command is issued, moreover, on the highest authority: in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Thess. 4:1 and 1 Cor. 5:4f. for the use of this phrase ...

2249. Advice About Widows, Elders and Slaves

1 Timothy 5:1-6:2

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... . 5:16 Despite the fact that the reading “the believing woman” is clearly the more difficult and better attested, the NEB, Moffatt, and Easton prefer the reading “Christian man or woman” (NEB). Such a choice assumes the words pistos ē (“Christian man or”) dropped out because a scribe’s eye jumped over these words to the similar pistē (“believing woman”). But the evidence for pistē is so early and so diverse that one would almost have to argue for such a phenomenon to have occurred more ...

2250. Christ's Sacrifice Once for All

Hebrews 10:1-18

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... well allude, see J. Schneider, TDNT, vol. 2, p. 670. It has been suggested by some that the word body (sōma) in the LXX was caused by a scribe’s misreading of the word “ears,” which in Greek would only have involved (apart from the dropping of the initial sigma, perhaps owing to the ending of the preceding word with the same letter) mistaking the letters TI for M (thus ōtia for sōma). Despite this interesting conjecture, however, it is more probable that a body you prepared for me was a deliberate ...

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