Sermon and Worship Resources

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1 Kings 5:1-18

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... that do not suit him. It seems, then, that Solomon’s “rule” over the kingdoms mentioned in 4:21 is real enough, even if he chooses (in his wisdom) to deal in friendly ways with some of the kings over whom he is dominant. Cooperation there may be, but it is cooperation between a senior partner and a junior who ultimately has no ability to resist his will. This becomes even more apparent in 1 Kings 9:10–10:29, where it also becomes obvious who is the real beneficiary of the “treaty” between the ...

2. How to Play Fair in Foul Play

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of vengeance, forgiveness (Mt. 6:14; Lk. 17:3, 4;23:34); instead of hatred, love (Mt. 5:43-45; Lk.6:27-31); instead of greed, sharing and sacrifice (Lk. 12:33, 34; 18:22); instead of violence, willingness to suffer (Mt.5:38,39); instead of control and domination, cooperation and service (Lk. 22:24-27). In the midst of injustice and unfairness, one can still find the peace that the world cannot give (Jn.14:27); the peace that passes all understanding (Phil.4); the peace that comes from believing.

3. How Can We Foretell the Future?

1 Kings 2:1-12

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... in mind, it is not long before you have it in hand." How can we foretell the future? For one thing, we can check the dominant concerns in our minds, for they are the stuff out of which we build tomorrow: Isn’t it strange That princes and kings, And clowns ... we want to develop our capability to be physically healthy, we must cooperate with God. No doubt, theoretically, God could keep us strong without our having to eat, but he has chosen human cooperation as the means to grow food and to harvest that food for ...

4. Hope in the Shadows

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... you wait, till your Mom and Dad get home!” They watch with made beds and clean rooms. They watch with good behavior and cooperation. They also watch anxious to be embraced by the love of their coming parents. It may have been a few hours or a few ... the Holy Spirit to us day after day after day, the very reason He comes again to make all things new is so the shadows do not dominate our lives, but we might live in hope in the midst of the shadows. The Christmas season is a time to live like children, up on our ...

5. Pilate and the Condemnation of Jesus

John 18:28-40, John 19:1-16

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... as if to say, “You know very well what the charges are. Let’s get on with it.” Pilate’s initial cooperation in the arrest probably stemmed from what he saw as an opportunity to bring a potential troublemaker under questioning and learn ... inside the palace, Pilate questions Jesus for the first time. The theme of their conversation is kingship, a theme that will dominate the narrative from this point until Pilate places the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews” on Jesus’ cross and ...

6. Jesus Sentenced to be Crucified

John 19:1-16, John 18:28-40

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

7. Obedience to God's Plan

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... seen in the emergence of the church, those who profess Jesus as Savior and Lord. While this interpretation may bring justification to the church today and its dominance of the Western world in the common era, the more significant aspect of this prophetic utterance is that it provides a vital message for our contemporary society, namely the absolute need to cooperate with and be obedient to God's plan. We remember how the Hebrew people struggled with God's plan. This is the overriding reason why Yahweh gives ...

8. Proper 24

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40, 2 Timothy 3:10--4:8, Luke 18:1-8, Psalm 119:1-176

Bulletin Aid

William E. Keeney

... A Widow." (v. 3) As noted above, a woman without a man as her support or her advocate had little power in the male-dominated society. It showed not only persistence but considerable courage when she appeared in the court and insisted on justice. 6. "Grant Me Justice." (v ... Castro. Some believe a different course would be better by establishing contact and meeting the needs of the people cooperatively. God could use that better to bring justice to the island than by threatening the country with isolation and ...

9. The Household Leader

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

R. E. Lybrand

... rather chauvinistic to tell such a story as that. There are far too may unfair jokes and tales which paint pictures of women domineering their husbands. But I strongly suspect that if the truth were fully known, we would see that many wives and mothers have to ... out that we must do our part in running the household and raising the children in a spirit of love and cooperation. Dads, we have some responsibilities as head of the household, responsibilities which God himself has placed upon our shoulders. Let's ...

10. A Disconcerting Sight

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... term it has a slightly different ending (sarkikoi), which indicates not only "made of" but also "dominated by." As people with the Spirit, we should be increasingly dominated by the Spirit. Pointing out that they are real people, really made of flesh and blood ... learn. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas were not trying to begin cliques or "denominations." They were servants working cooperatively, complimentarily, and recognizing their own ultimate powerlessness to bring about growth. They were, in other words, modeling ...

11. From Singleness To Solidarity

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

Zan W. Holmes

... children. Furthermore, they were not only poor, widowed, single women without children, but they were living in a male dominated culture in which women had no rights and were both the property and responsibility of men. To be ... us in every situation. However, it is our responsibility to hear that word and respond to it by cooperating with God. In response to the word that she had heard from God, Naomi cooperated by making the decision to return home alone to Bethlehem. As a matter of fact, she suggested to ...

12. What's The Bottom Line?

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

George Johnson

... definition is that justice and righteousness means the right ordering of relationships and resources. God made this world to work. It works only in the right ordering of relationships and resources, when people learn to cooperate instead of compete, love instead of dominate. It involves our relationship to God. It involves our relationship to the earth. It involves our relationship to one another. It involves our relationship to ourselves. When any of these relationships and resources are broken, weakened ...

13. Who Has Everything?

Matthew 5:5

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... to control if; is aware of certain rights, but does not flaunt them. The meek person has ability, but does not lord it over others; has grievances, but is patient. He or she has advantages, but never takes advantage of, cooperates rather than dominates, assists rather than accuses, forgives rather than avenges. Jesus said that such gentle, restrained, meek persons are on the pathway to happiness. They will inherit the earth, because this world belongs to those who can control themselves in their dealings ...

14. Future Tense

Luke 12:54-59

Sermon

King Duncan

For nine seasons, "Seinfeld" was the toprated comedy on the air. It dominated the Thursday night television lineup. But the show almost didn't make it to the airwaves in the first ... associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s. "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." Gary Cooper said this about his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind." "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Decca ...

15. No Other Name

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history." (4) Will Durant (1885-1981) was a Pulitzer-winning historian and philosopher and author of The ... end." This is no less shocking than when heavy-metal rocker Alice Cooper reported that he had given his life to Jesus a few years ago. In an interview with a London newspaper, Cooper commented, "Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But ...

16. Taking the Long View

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... his Son into the world. Why couldn't that have happened in time and space that was not nearly as male-oriented, even dominated? Equality of the sexes, especially in religion, could have thrived at a different time and place. Why didn't he return to us ... to become more like our master, there is a certain grace that appears. It is as though our destiny is determined by the cooperation of God and man. Give thanks! A real shocker is forthcoming as it dawns upon us the truth of the Creator's omniscience. Our ...

17. Characteristics of the Church

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... him.” If at first this seems a wild statement, we may well consider in how many ways God’s will depends on man’s cooperation. God himself cannot do some things unless men think. He never blazons his truth on the sky that men may find it without seeking ... Yet, can there be any doubt that secular humanism, which is basically agnostic in relation to God, secular humanism has been the dominant force in America for at least 100 years. Education is the focus of this expression of life without fear of God. In ...

18. Instructions for Conquest and Settlement of Canaan

Num 34:1–36:13

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... . 25). This theme of totally expelling the Canaanites is further developed in Deuteronomy (Deut. 7:1–5, 17–26; 20:16–18) and dominates the history of later failure in the book of Judges. At the time of the second census, God introduced a fair plan for ... within their father’s tribe to preserve his property. Zelophehad’s daughters comply (36:5–12). This passage demonstrates cooperation with God, social justice and harmony, and formation of new families belonging to the generation that will finally ...

19. Hosanna! Please Save Us!

Matthew 21:1-11, Matthew 26:14-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... the kingdom of God. That kingdom is about peace, not power. It is about love, not bigotry. It is about gentleness, not about domination. Remember the prophecy that Jesus fulfilled when he chose a donkey instead of a stallion for his entry into Jerusalem: “Say to Daughter ... a war, it’s easy to tell who is on our side and who is not. But peace requires humility and communication and cooperation. It requires putting others’ needs before our own. The end goal in war is to conquer your enemy. The end goal in ...

20. Your Money and Your Life

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... an arena for merciless competition? Or is it intended for something more than that? Is our city meant to enjoy a spirit of merciful cooperation? Modernity seems to have one answer to this question while the Gospel has another. As Jesus puts it, it is the difference between laying ... , I want to suggest that you begin to practice "action therapy" against what psychoanalyst Karen Homey said is the dominant neurosis of our day, "the wish to have everything." Take a careful look at your family budget. What does ...

21. Freedom In Christ

Galatians 5:1-15, Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... true of freedom; one freedom produces a security of the body from men of superior strength, the other sets the mind at liberty from the domination of the passions” (Good Person 17 [Colson, LCL]). Epictetus said: I can show you a free man.… Diogenes was free. How did that come? ... of life that might gradually free people from enslavement to desire, Paul advocates human will (v. 16) in cooperation with the transforming work of the Spirit. Paul’s advice is an acknowledgment that there are daily struggles ...

22. Egypt

Ezekiel 29:1-21, Ezekiel 30:1-26, Ezekiel 31:1-18, Ezekiel 32:1-32

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... about eleven when Nineveh fell in 612 B.C. Thus, he would have had no direct experience of living under Assyrian domination. However, the patterns of power left over from that great empire, not to mention Assyrian material culture, would still have ... and they will haul you up in my net.” As verses 11–16 will make plain, this throng is the Babylonian army. The cooperation between God and humanity is a theme we have encountered before in this book, in the unresolved tension between divine grace and the ...

23. Badger or Bonobo?

Mark 9:38-50

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... DNA ancestors is the bonobo. Unlike chimpanzees, bonobos are peace-loving, gentle animals. They are known to share their food with others, express empathy, invite others into their communities, and welcome cooperation between groups and families. While many species of the animal kingdom have struggled to maintain dominance, the bonobo curiously seems to be becoming more and more domesticated all on their own. Somehow, they have realized that they will thrive better and more abundantly through compassion and ...

24. Spirit-anointed Son Of God The Father

John 1:29-34

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... by the descent of the Spirit upon the Son. Few would cite this as a major trinitarian text. The Great Commission with its dominical command, "Make disciples ... baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" is more ... holds women back from full and essential partnership in the world and in the church. In these endeavors, they deserve the full cooperation and prayerful support of all believers. But when they implicate the Trinity and indict the name of the Triune God in these ...

25. Understanding The Holy Trinity

John 16:5-16

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... other. Today's feminists protest against the Trinity and call for its rejection because, they claim, it perpetuates the symbolic domination of males as the true image of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The content of the ecumenical ... same power as the Father. Each person of the Trinity is equal in authority, power, and grace. Co-operative: The persons of the Trinity are cooperative. They are not in competition with each other. When we call upon the Father, at the same time we get the help of the Son ...

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