Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 66 results

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... to be who we are built into the dynamics of Christian faith and grace. DONALD C. HOUTS (see biographical note preceding Smart, Wise, and Foolish) relates this courage to three common debilitating fears in his sermon The Courage to Be Me: The fears of doubt, self-disclosure, and failure. There is a sense in which vitality in human life is a product of the tension between fear and faith. If all were certain, then our concept of faith would lose its meaning. But each of us is subject to the mysteries of the ...

2. No-fault Religion

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13), 14-17

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... our hostility and resentment of the other is a constant theme of the world's literature, and its consequences are strewn throughout history in politics, revolution, and all the tragedies of human hatred."2 Therefore, one of the painful works of love is that of disclosure — disclosure not so much of somebody else's wrongs, but of our own. And Paul's no-fault religion is one that assures us that "behind a frowning providence, [God] hides a smiling face." We are able to face up to our wrongs, because we have ...

3. Whatever Became of Sin?

Romans 6:23

Sermon

Lowell D. Streiker

... two more old-fashioned words to describe the path to wholeness. These words are "confession" and "atonement." For the early Christian church, confession was a public act. Menninger tells us: The order of worship was, first of all, self-disclosure and confession of sin...This was followed by appropriate announcement of penance, pleas for forgiveness, and plans for making restitution. A final period of friendly fellowship...closed the meeting.(5) When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, and the ...

4. A Name To Be Remembered

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Walter Kimbrough

... . He did not want to be a stranger to this missionary sending agent. He might have said, “Tell me your name so that I can appear half way intelligent to the people you want me to help.” But, if we go back to verse six, God had already issued a disclosure of identity to Moses. God said, “I am your God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob… (Exodus 3:6).” The question has to be raised whether Moses had forgotten this name to be remembered or whether he was just ...

5. Liberating Truth

John 8:31-41

Sermon

William G. Carter

... of sheer grace. The incarnation announces that God is recklessly, relentlessly inclined in our favor, that "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son." Yet on the other hand, the coming of Christ is also a disclosure about ourselves. Jesus reveals the truth about who we are and who we are not. In Jesus, truth comes down to a world of falsehood, just as light breaks into a world of darkness. Either way you look at it, truth and light both mean exposure, and honesty, and stripping ...

6. Preaching Your Life

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

... Of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." The sermon is largely a confession of faith of the preacher - my faith - to which you can respond yea or nay. It's a self-disclosure in words and like other self-disclosures in words - "1 love you," "I hurt," "I believe" - it begs a reply, begs you to take a stand, and, it is hoped, share that personal faith. Faith begins in us when we hear others speak of their faith - the pastor, a Sunday school ...

7. Don't Forget What You Look Like

James 1:19-27

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... their gathering. The early church followed this worship formula until A.D. 325 when Constantine assumed control of the church for all Roman citizens. With an eye toward making the church acceptable, Constantine replaced the requirement of open, personal disclosure with private confession to a priest. Finally, in the thirteenth century, the church made private confession to a priest at least once a year an obligation. Martin Luther, of course, dispensed with closed confession.1 Verbal acknowledgment of one ...

8. In the Cross of Christ We Glory

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Michael Milton

... showed how He would suffer: He would be rejected by the religious leaders, He would be killed by them, but He would rise again. And He said this plainly. I draw your attention to this phrase: “The Son of Man must suffer.” It is the key to the self-disclosure of Jesus and to the plan of God for salvation for sinners. The Greek word for “must” is dei. It could also be rendered “it is necessary,” as William Lane states in his classic work on Mark.[2] In the mind of God, He purposed that He would ...

9. God, The Venture Capitalist?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... If you've seen me, you've seen the Father" (John 14:9). This, then, is the Bible - a record of human experience with God; a reasonable appeal to the human mind; an authoritative statement of knowledge gained; but most of all, a record of God's self-disclosure. Read the scriptures with the question "What is God like?" uppermost in your mind. There the Lord gives revelation of himself. The Lord's Prayer tells us he is like a father (Matthew 6:9). The parable of the prodigal son tells us God is a daddy waiting ...

10. No Intimidation

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... are to finish well and that means spiritual success abounding in great joy. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world grants us mercy and then lasting peace. It is a death knell for those whose rejection is generations old. The disclosure of disclosures comes before the world for all to behold. First it comes to the Jewish people — God's chosen people. It begins the gathering of pulling his people together. It is as though a hen is gathering her brood under her wings and there are the reluctant ...

11. Holy Wisdom From On High!

Proverbs 8:1-36

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... religion holds to or teaches this. The Trinity gives balance to our understanding of God. In this text in Proverbs, Wisdom, which is a Divine attribute, is expressed as a person (a woman, strangely enough). Wisdom is often used in scripture to express God's self-disclosure. Wisdom, then, is one of the many ways in which God reveals himself to us. What a desperate need there is in our time for wisdom. We have access to a plethora of knowledge. Books and information abound. No one need lack for knowledge if s ...

12. What Money Can't Buy

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... would pay for his medicine. He would give the prophet a monetary reward for services rendered. Notwithstanding his desire to pay the prophet, Naaman would soon realize that he would receive something that money could not buy. Money did not buy a servant's disclosure of someone who could heal Naaman's leprosy. How paradoxical that a servant girl captured in the one of the raids of the Arameans would approach Naaman's wife with information about a prophet who could cure her husband's leprosy. This information ...

13. Have I Got News For You!

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

William L. Self

... not unlike our world, which has its own shadow of death -- war, poverty, rampant paganism, domestic violence, and the like. "On those who live in deep shadow a light is shown" (v. 2). To that end we follow him. Light figures brightly in Christ's later disclosure of himself. He announced to Israel at the Feast of Lights in Jerusalem, a celebration that marked the light that followed the night and day during the exodus from Egypt, that he was the light of the world -- no wonder they killed him. On November 11 ...

14. Ready Or Not -- He Comes

Mark 13:32-37, Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... Have you noticed every time God seeks to change the world God allows a baby to be born? First, it was an infant in the bulrushes of Egypt and then a child in a manger in Bethlehem. God always comes to us in the most unexpected manner. God's self-disclosure through the biblical narrative is usually in a quiet and low-key, almost unseen, way. It catches us by surprise because we don't expect it to be that way. The advent of Jesus' birth is no exception. The good news today is that "God is coming." Take heed ...

15. Be Charitable In Your Judgment

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... God's mysteries." Lest we be led astray, we must not think of "God's mysteries" as something like the esoteric knowledge of the mystery religions that flourished in the Mediterranean world of the first century. Paul is consistent in understanding the term "mystery" to mean the disclosure of God's plan of salvation hidden for ages but now made known in the coming of Jesus Christ, his Son. To be faithful to that message is the essential task of God's servants. If that is the case, then God alone is capable of ...

16. Veiled Glimpses of God's Glory

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... is the reason God sometimes speaks to us most clearly through absence, so that we may come to know the Lord best through our missing God. What Yahweh finally does permit to pass before Moses is the Lord's goodness, not the Lord's glory -- a description rather than a disclosure of the Divine Presence. It's almost as if the Almighty had said: "I will reveal to you what I am, not how I look." And placing Moses in the protective cleft of a rock, Yahweh goes on to explain, "I will cover you with my hand until I ...

17. Meeting Jesus At The Well

John 4:1-26

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... into that kind of personal thing. And as those who design churches by consumer poll remind us, people very much control institutional religion. There are individuals who are very out of touch with their inner spiritual self and who are very afraid of self-disclosure who are really up on church structure and polity, or on the shortcomings of every denomination. If the topic of God or religion ever comes up they can fill the space with verbiage without ever getting close to their spiritual self. In situations ...

18. Uncovering Cover-Ups

John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... sawdust from our brother's or sister's eye. But the judgment referred to here is the divine judgment: the divine judgment which is absolutely fair and impartial, the divine judgment which cannot be seduced or bribed, the divine judgment which finally and forever makes full disclosure of the truth. The scripture says, "Let God be found true and every man a liar." When the truth is known, we all realize the cover-ups in our lives. Many of us fear the truth. We do not want to be exposed to the light because ...

19. You Meant Evil; God Meant Good

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... about his interest. Joseph wanted to see them again, so he created a situation whereby, when they would come to buy grain the next time, they would have to bring their youngest brother, Benjamin. Finally, Joseph reveals himself to them. "I am Joseph." Joseph's disclosure is pure grace. When his brothers are dismayed, he says, "... do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life" (v. 5). Joseph opens up a new future for them, a future in ...

20. Between The Parentheses

Revelation 1:4-8

Sermon

William G. Carter

... of their own book. Even so, the book of Revelation may also be one of our great undiscovered treasures. It was first addressed as a letter to the church during uncertain and dangerous times. The original name of the book is the "Apocalypse," which means a disclosure. In the Bible, an apocalypse is a moment when God pulls back the curtain that hides heaven from earth. The Revelation offers glimpses of a holy reality which is normally hid from our eyes. Today we hear a voice from heaven announcing, "I am the ...

21. A Voice Crying In The Wilderness

John 1:1-18, John 1:19-28

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... ." The Wilderness Experience As Leonard Sweet points out, the wilderness theme is extremely important in understanding this text and John's place in this new exodus. Just as the first Exodus took place in the wilderness this second mighty act of God's self-disclosure also takes place in the wilderness. Let us consider the wilderness, not as a place of testing and judgment, but rather as a place that can cleanse, purge, and renew. The crowd asked John, "Who are you?" John confessed that he was not the Christ ...

22. Music as Prescription

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... and motivation. A Channel of God’s Grace Best of all, music is a channel for the grace of God. God’s presence is always a meditated one, and like the burning bush, music is yet another vessel of service in God’s disclosure to his people. Robert McAfee Brown has said this about the close association between theology and music: There has always been a close association between theology and music ... No theological statement of divine ineffability can begin to compare with the wonder of mystery ...

23. A Sleeping Bag God

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... or two, proved to be an inaccurate one. It would have been unfair for us to hold to that notion when evidence to the contrary became consistently clear. So, too, should it be with our religious ideas. They should always be tentatively held, pending the disclosure of future insight. I submit that this, not a frenzied defense of orthodoxy, is the essence of trust. Such a stance is informed also by the joyful conviction that God continues to reveal truth to his children. We worship not an idea about God, but ...

24. Made New By 180 Degrees

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... that turned out to be a small swing set. The best story I have ever heard was about parents who got a treehouse to assemble for their kids, but it had instructions enclosed for a sailboat. Apparently the company caught their mistake and put a last minute disclosure on the box. The slip read: "While we regret the inconvenience the mistake must have caused you, it is nothing compared to that of the man who is out on a lake somewhere trying to sail your treehouse." The greatest stress of the season is often ...

25. A Continuing Presence

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Larry Powell

... is not always easily determined, particularly when it has been misrepresented. The government assures us that the tax dollars we provide are closely monitored and applied toward the cost of goods and services which are in our own best interest. However, disclosures about Pentagon spending and political scandal convey a tainted truth. Religious personalities preach about the things of God, condemn sin, appeal to our consciences, and invite us to surrender our lives to the leadership of the Spirit. It is a ...

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