Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2376 to 2400 of 5000 results

James 1:19-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... First, recalling his proverbial mandate in v.19, the “religious” must “bridle their tongues” and watch the words they speak. Again reminiscent of Jesus’ words on purity, it is not what goes in but what comes out of the mouth which causes defilement (Mark 7:20). Second, James declares that in its most basic form true “religion” requires the faithful “to care for orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself unstained by the world” (v.27). Caring for widows and orphans was a standard ...

2377. Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... this way: He didn't have to put his signature on the corner of the sunrise: He's the owner! He didn't have to put a laundry mark on the lapel of the meadow: He's the owner! He didn't have to carve his initials on the side of a mountain: He's the owner! ... officer was found to disgrace the army, they would take his sword away from him and break the blade, because the sword is the mark of being an officer and a gentleman. But giving up your sword was the ultimate act of total surrender. That is why this story ...

2378. Am I a Real Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... it ever occurred to you that you can be born and raised in a Christian home, attend a Christian school, join a Christian church, live by Christian principles, read a Christian Bible, and even have a Christian worldview and still not be a Christian. Now these things may mark a Christian, but they do not make a Christian. There is a difference between being a Christian in name and being a Christian in nature. Now, it is not for me to tell you what a Christian is. It is not for you to tell me what a Christian ...

2379. The Passion of the Christ – The Rest of the Story

Matthew 27:45-56

Sermon

James Merritt

... mind, if you took this many silver dollars, they would cover the state of Texas – two feet deep. If you marked one silver dollar among them and then had a blind-folded person wander the whole state and bend down to pick up one coin, those would be the ... odds that he would choose the one that was marked. Now add to this that there are some 300 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament and Jesus fulfilled every one of them. ...

2380. Daily Homework

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

James Merritt

... church and go into the world. God never intended for the church to be a country club for Christians only. Did you know the church is the only voluntary association in the world that exists for the benefits of its non-members! The second thing we are to do is "mark disciples." After we make disciples we are to "baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." That is the first step a disciple takes when he makes up his mind he is going to live his life for Jesus Christ. After The Great ...

2381. A Clear and Present Danger

Nehemiah 5:1-19

Sermon

James Merritt

... of the wall. First he tried derision, then he tried discouragement, then he tried danger, but here in chapter 5 he pulls out his greatest weapon – division. Why is that his greatest weapon? As Jesus said in Mark 3:25, "If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." (Mark 3:25, NIV) As soon as our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin looked at them an said, "Gentlemen, now we must all hang together or we shall surely all hang separately." Ben Franklin ...

2382. The Dark Side Arrives

Sermon

James Merritt

... exit particularly if you take an exit on which there is no return to the freeway. If you are on the freeway looking for happiness, don't ever take the exit marked, "adultery." It may look like a shortcut, but I tell you it is now; it is a dead-end street. You had better keep driving until you find the exit marked, "Purity." [[1]] I told you last week the dark side is always revealed. Every play-boy has his payday; people talk, wives find out, reporters snoop, pregnancies occur, disease is spread, guilt ...

2383. A Pair of Ducks and Abundant Life

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... two medical doctors, but I’m not sure what he said about them.” Let me refresh your memory. A paradox is a statement that sounds contradictory, but actually it holds an abundance of truth. One of the best known paradoxes is found in today’s lesson from Mark: “Then [Jesus] called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for ...

2384. Can't We All Just Get Along?

Mark 9:38-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... God, and a group split off from that calling itself the Only True Church of God. (1) Each of those denominations was formed when somebody got upset about something and headed off on their own. This is ironic when you consider today’s text from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is teaching in Capernaum. One of his disciples, John, comes to him and says, “Teacher, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who ...

2385. Are We Askew, Too?

Mark 9:38-41

Illustration

King Duncan

... rafters. They first cut a rafter and then traced around it with a pencil and cut another one. They based the third rafter on the second the fourth on the third and so on. What they didn't take into account was the width of the pencil mark. Each rafter was one pencil mark wider than the one before. After a while, this can add up to quite a difference. By lunch time they looked at the barn and discovered it was going up at a very strange angle because they had deviated from the original standard. Do you not ...

2386. The Two Prodigals

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... once sorrowful cheeks. Nothing would be too good for this young prodigal who had been to the far country and now had returned. He was beaten up badly and probably smelled like the pigs that may have been the closest thing to friends he had. A gala event would mark the return of him who had thrown away not only his material resources but himself as well. So, we have placed before us the story, most likely ours as well, of one who trampled on his inheritance and the good will of his father. We can relate to ...

2387. Those Who Doubt

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... our shoulders in polite disbelief. Of course, the virginal conception of our blessed Lord is another really big area of question marks! But let us not digress from our major consideration. Thomas was very specific about his requirements for believing. Don't try to tell me ... you have seen the Lord, unless you have some real proof. Show me the mark of the nails, so my finger can be placed there. Yes, and my hand must touch his side. There will be no sentimental ...

2388. The 300th American

Mark 10:17-31

Illustration

In 2006 America welcomed her 300 millionth citizen. To put this in perspective, we hit the 100 million citizen mark around 1915. Current estimates are that every eight seconds, a child is born in this country. Every 47 seconds ... up to these obligations? These are daunting questions and we can feel sympathy for the young rich ruler in Mark's Gospel, but we should remember that each of us has the power to make the world a better place, and multiplied by 300 million, that should be a powerful change indeed.

2389. Shine, Moses, Shine

Exodus 34:29-35

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... part of the journey.3 God's glory becomes your own when you are chosen to be sons and daughters of God. And you are chosen. You have been chosen by God and baptized into the glory of the death and resurrection of Jesus. You are marked with the cross of Christ forever, a mark that cannot be destroyed. Your face will glow, too, as the love of Christ fills your being. This glow works its way into the world as you serve God and your neighbor, as you shine like stars in the world. The world's glory pales when ...

2390. Wisdom's Delight

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... own and speak of it as though it were an entity outside of ourselves, such as, "My sense of fair play would not let me do thus and so" or "I had to keep my wits about me." In any case, this personified-woman, Wisdom, says that while God was marking out the foundations of the earth, she was "beside him." In other words, Wisdom was God's companion in the process of creating the world. In trying to impose some sense on that claim, we might be tempted to say that before God set out to create the world, he ...

2391. Luke 3:1-6

Luke 3:1-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Sodom and Gomorrah, making the area known for its history of debauchery, not just its agricultural production. Luke’s text echoes Mark’s description of the exact nature of the baptism John offers to those who come and seek him out on the ... face” and flip into a new direction. This spiritual U-Turn is physically reinforced by the act of water baptism John offers. As in Mark’s gospel, Luke reaches back into the prophetic tradition to offer a kind of proof text for the validity of John’s words and ...

2392. The Power of Purpose

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and over the mountains, through blinding blizzard and blistering sun, traveling in peril of his own life, shipwrecked, beaten by the Romans, stoned by the Jew. Yet, throwing back his great cloak to show the scars of his beatings there saying, I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ. It matters. It matters that it’s a man like Paul who says this, I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith, I have finished the course. The truth is obvious. There is power in purpose. There is power in purpose ...

2393. Putting Ourselves in the Picture

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that’s rare. Most of the time – get this – most of the time, the life of sin and failure carries with it a kind of awful retribution. The prodigal son returns from the far country, but even there in the security and love of the father’s house, the marks of the far country are upon him. Forgiveness does not annul the results of sin in our life. What we do; how we fail; we pay for on the installment plan. Bring it home. As I look over this congregation today, I could introduce you to at least three ...

2394. Every Day God Empowers

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... preacher, Mary and God had all conspired to bring me to this point. I stood up the day I was baptized and knew that I belonged. I was a child of God. It didn't make any difference what others might think. That little bit of water on my head marked me and sealed me as one of God's children. And no one could ever take that from me. III. Our Story: A. And that's OUR story. You see Baptism is about belonging. Oh, it's about a whole lot more stuff, too. It's about repentance and forgiveness ...

2395. Shaped By The Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Master Glass Cutter goes through a stringent training that involves a minimum of 5 years as an Apprentice and 3 years as a Journeyman. Glass Cutting is a very precise and specialized skill which requires steady hands, dexterity and concentration. And while the piece is marked, the pattern is done by memory, whether it is one of the flat cuts or one of the wedge cuts. The actual cutting is done with a cutting wheel. And because that cutting generates so much heat that the crystal would shatter, the wheel is ...

2396. Only Jesus

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... back down in the valley." And that's when God got Peter's attention by speaking up. Basically God said, "Be quiet and listen." Mark's Gospel puts it this way: God said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" So, one of the things we can learn from this ... passage is to listen. To listen to God and to listen to Jesus, the Son of God. II. See A. Mark's Gospel also tells us: Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. We're invited to listen ...

2397. Wednesday: The Way Of The Cross: Oooh, That Smell

John 12:1-11

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... love. One of the interesting things about this passage is that this story is related in all four Gospels. The details are a little bit different, for whatever reason, but the story of the perfume being poured out and the objection is the same. In Matthew and Mark the story takes place in the home of Simon the Leper (whom Jesus had healed) and the woman is nameless. In Luke it takes place in the home of Simon the Pharisee, who objects to the woman (still nameless) because of her past, instead of the perfume ...

2398. Thursday: Broken Bread And Broken Trust

Mark 14:10-26

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Mark 14:10-26 (NRSV) [10] Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to ... And this is the piece Jesus took and said, "Take eat, this is my body." C. And then the wine, a common drink, sometimes more sanitary than the water, symbolizing the blood of the lamb which marked the doors of the Israelites when Pharaoh named his own punishment and proclaimed the death of every first born child. And now, this First Born Child of God, God's only Son, the Lamb of God ...

2399. A Chance To Be Made Whole

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . Then he smiled over at her with a beatific smile and said, "There, it's happened. My car just reached the 100,000 mile mark. 100,000 miles in this old beauty. Now the speedometer is starting over again. Everything is back to zero." Shocked and disappointed the young ... interruptions on the Journey and how Jesus responded to them. There's a old country western song that says: "Whenever I make my mark, somebody paints the wall." I can't tell you how many times I've felt like that. How about you? That's exactly ...

2400. Cleaning House

Mark 1:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... there in the wilderness next to the Jordan River preaching repentance. He called for people to repent and let God change their lives. John the Baptist called them to repent as a way to clean up the spiritual clutter in their lives. Listen to what the Gospel of Mark says: Mark 1:1-12 [1] The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. [2] As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; [3] the voice of one crying out in the ...

Showing results