Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: beginning, start, origination, genesis, birth, dawning, dawn, emergence, inception, launch, creation, birthplace, cradle, early stages, conception, inauguration, foundation, outset, source, derivation, root, roots, provenance, etymology, descent, ancestry, parentage, pedigree, lineage, line, line of descent, heritage, extraction, background, family, stock, blood, bloodline, genealogy, beginnings

Antonyms: end, conclusion, termination

Showing 1 to 25 of 4980 results

1. The Agony And The Ecstasy Of The Family

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." -- Mark 3:31-35 Jesus brought potential resolution to the confrontation with his brothers and sisters by redefining the family. "My family members are those who do God's will," he said. To discover what Jesus meant by God's will, we have to look at another difficult verse in our story which at first seems to confuse the situation even more. We pick up the story in verse ...

2. The Family Ideal, Not Idol

Genesis 12:1-4a

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... we can offer a child against becoming either the victim or the perpetrator of violence - or, as it turns out, poverty" (8). We have either too many parents who are having children with little responsibility for those children, or parents who are making not a family but a fortune off their offspring. From a purely statistical standpoint, here is the greatest predictor of drug use and/or drinking: the number of hours a child is left alone during the week. In Elshtain's own words, she asks us to consider that ...

3. Dad: The Head of a Godly Family

Joshua 24:15

Sermon

James Merritt

... over the role of the father. Many of you are doing a wonderful job, and I commend you for it. But in God's plan for the family, it is, and always will be, the father who is to be the spiritual leader in the home and is to take the responsibility of leading ... daddy, that his daddy knows God. What a difference it would make in this nation if every father knew God and brought his family to know God. David Blankenhorn in his best selling book said every man in the United States should be requested to take the ...

4. Family Ties and Good-byes

Mark 3:31-35

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearers will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too." At this moment when Jesus refused to see his own family and spoke of family in such different terms than they had ever heard, Mary must have felt the prick of that sword beginning to stab her. It was a harsh and hurtful good-bye time. Jesus' brothers and sisters must have felt the tip of the sword beginning to pierce their ...

5. Family Ties and Good-byes

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... room, knocked, and entered. She was crying. He listened to her sobs; then he listened to her side of the story. When she was done crying and feeling sorry for herself, Stan said, "In our religion we teach respect for parents as one of the basic teachings for the family. You may not agree with your mother, but you've got to get your act together and show her more respect." He turned on his heels and walked out the door. It didn't change Mary right away, but little by little she came to realize that her lack ...

6. All in the Family

1 Timothy 3:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... strategy. I want it to be known for its love for one another. I want people to say about Cross Pointe, "Yes, I know that church. That's the church where they really love each other." That raises a question. How do you know if you are in God's family? Three verses give the answer." Anyone who does not love other Christians does not belong to God." (I John 3:10,NLT) "Those who do not love their brothers and sisters, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they've never seen." (I John 4:20, NCV) "But if ...

7. Family Reunion

Mark 3:31-35

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... you all - prodigals all, who have wandered far away. As Paul put it: “Once you were no people; now you are God’s people.” Jesus stretches out His arms to the least the last, and the lost, and says: “Here are my mother and my brothers. This is my family. And the only folks who are outside it are those who choose to be. For I invite all.” As Charles Wesley put it in a famous hymn: “Come, sinners, to the Gospel feast; Let every soul be Jesus’ guest; Ye need not one be left behind, For God hath ...

8. The New Family

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Will Willimon

... and working with young people, that one of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child is the reassurance that all of the parents' hopes, dreams, and aspirations are not resting upon that child. Whenever the parent complains to the child that "I gave you…", "You owe me…" the family has failed. And one of the greatest gifts children can give parents is the reassurance that the source and significance of their lives is not totally dependent upon the competency or goodness of the parents. The ...

9. Meet the Rose Family

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... That the apple’s a rose, And the pear is, and so’s The plum, I suppose. The dear only knows What will next prove a rose. You, of course, are a rose — But were always a rose. Robert Frost believed that you could be a member of the Rose family without becoming a plant, without giving up your DNA and entering a new kingdom. You could be a member of the animal kingdom, as we are, and still be a rose by simply acting like a rose. By being a beautiful person. By being kind and loving and fair and ...

10. Family Reunion

Genesis 29:15-28

Sermon

Will Willimon

... to marry Rachel. Laban says something a bit ambiguous like, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me." They shake hands; it's a done deal. Nothing on paper, no lawyers involved. After all, they're family! So Jacob slaved seven years for Rachel. But Genesis says, ''they seemed to him but a few days because of the love" he had for dear Rachel. End of seven years, Jacob says to his father-in-law-to-be, "This has all been wonderful but now hand over my ...

11. Jesus: The Hope of a Godly Family

Psalm 127:1-2

Sermon

James Merritt

... matter what else you do right in a home, that home is wrong if Jesus Christ is not at the very center and core of the family. But I was surprised to find that this word also means wicked. Hab. 1:13 says, speaking of God, "You are of purer eyes than to ... end with an ambulance. Start early and you start right when you let the Lord start from the first. II. Only the Lord Can Build a Godly Family The word build is a beautiful Hebrew word. It is the same word that is used in Gen. 2:22 when it says, "Then the rib ...

12. Seeing God In The Ordinary: Family

Luke 4:16-30

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... ." But we put the word fun in dysfunctional. A lot of you grew up in similar situations. And yet in the midst of those difficult situations, some of us found a sense of inspiration. We saw God working in and through the life of another member of the family and it inspired us. We may not have recognized God at the moment but the inspiration of the moment continues to live on. Thank you for sharing your stories about how you have seen God In The Ordinary. One of those stories tells about a 10 year old girl ...

13. A Divided Family

Mark 3:20-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Wow. That’s kind of brusque. Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9: 59-62). Later he puts it even more starkly: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children ...

14. Families in Christ

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... , those who have the name of the favored people of God. We are Christians, those who bear the name of the Son of God: To them belongs the adoption, those who were selected to be the chosen people. To us belongs the adoption, which makes us part of the family of God. To them belongs the glory of the shekina, the continuing presence of God among the chosen people. To us belongs the glory of the promise of Christ, that he will be with us, always, to the end of the age. To them belong the covenants of Noah ...

15. What Makes A Family?

Mark 3:31-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... committed to her? Do you think it would have mattered if he had been her biological father or not? He always kept his promises to her. That brings us to a final observation from our text. It concerns the role of character in the family. "Whoever does God's will," says Jesus, "is my brother and sister and mother." GOOD PEOPLE MAKE GOOD PARENTS. People of questionable character make questionable parents. Kimberly E. Davis tells how her brother once snooped through their father's drawers. Instead of some dark ...

16. Family Survival

Genesis 37:1-11

Sermon

Stephen DeFur

... Here's Amy being born. Here's Amy's first day of school. Here's Amy graduating. Then the fourth one--the last kid, open that book. Here's Ben being born . . . we've got to get some more pictures of Ben! All of us have some dings from imperfect families, but most folks in this room have some real deep hurts. I want to speak in these moments to three categories of people. 1. Some of you have never worn the robe. Some of you have never received the kind of affirmation and love from your parents that you longed ...

17. Family Values

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Could you be mine?" Even Mr. McFeely, the postal carrier, went around from house to house making a neighborhood out of what would have been a bunch of separate houses divided by hedges and picket fences. The family values we saw in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood were courtesy and kindness and curiosity. In one episode, Mr. Rogers took us to a sneaker factory where there was an assembly line of workers. He watched one woman working, and he wondered out loud if she ever ...

18. Family Re:Union - Inverting the Pyramid

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... , there is a myth that I want to dispel at the very beginning of this series that I think has become as destructive to the family as any myth I know. It is a myth that was largely developed during the second half of the 20th century and it is intensified ... boy sitting on the end of the row and he said, “Mr. Smith, I don’t know why I love God. I guess it just runs in my family.” Mom and Dad, it doesn’t matter what else you give your children if you do not give them a real love for God. Think about it ...

19. God Needs To Save This Family

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Sermon

James McLemore

... just as her father came home from work. It was late, too late to be coming home, too late for excuses, almost too late for this family. In his anger the father hits his daughter, hard, too hard. There is some blood on his hands, and blood on her face, and some ... , "Why are you doing this to me? I am a good man. I try to be a godly man. All I want to do is have a family and raise children. Why should I be married to the wrong woman? Why should I be forced to raise strange children?" He must have told God, "I ...

20. The Whole Family Survival Kit

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing, for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ [For not even his brothers believed in him.] (John 7:3-5) Family is always hard to impress. They know us too well. The huge, scary, professional linebacker who now packs a mean wallop and earns a hefty paycheck, is remembered by his mother as the toddler who couldn’t get to sleep without his special stuffed bunny. The surgeon who ...

21. Christmas and the New Family

John 1:1-18

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... gave power to become children of God" -- could well have been placed at the very beginning of the New Testament. It would be the key to all that follows in the Gospels, the Epistles, and even in Revelation; because the climax of the whole biblical story is a kind of family reunion in eternity. And it is the explicit summary of what Jesus was sent to do. He came not simply to teach or to be an example, but to do what he alone could do: prepare the way for you and me to become children of God. The Bible wants ...

22. The Family Was God’s Idea

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... in the temple having his child baptized by the priest. At that moment when he knew in his head what was going on, he was dedicating his child to a Christ of love, and at the same time, living out a Satanic objective. The ties that tie us in a family are the ties of spirit, of faith. This is a matter of good news and of blessing for our time. Paul said to the Philipians, "Be children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world." Are ...

23. Being Christian in the Family

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

James McCormick

... what has been my greatest fear in life? I have feared that somehow I would be a stumbling block to my children and grandchildren. I have feared that when they come to Christ in faith it would not be because of me, but in spite of me! What does your family see in you? Do you love Christ and his church? Does it show? Is there a consistency between what you say and what you do? If your child or grandchild is stretching out to walk in your footsteps, are they leading in the right direction? I like what one ...

24. Adoption Into God's Family

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

... us live before God rightfully. Orphans in the dark world of sin -- that is who we are and that is who we would still be, if it were not for the infinite love of our Heavenly Father, who desires us to be children of the light, members of his family of love. The Heavenly Father approaches our human system to make his appeal. He goes through the requirements. In Jesus Christ, the heaven-sent Son, God became like us in every respect. The Son gave up the glory of the Father, so that he might fully identify with ...

25. The Family Reunion

Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

Glenn L. Borreson

... of helpers to join him in his ministry, twelve of them to be exact. To this group he gives authority to do the work he has been doing, not - you must notice this - not among strangers and outsiders at this point, but among people who belong to the same family and who have been so ignored or excluded they are described as "lost sheep," the "lost sheep of the house of Israel." Oh, yes, there will come a time when the gospel proclaimed by Jesus will go out to the Gentiles. In fact, there will be a day when ...

Showing results