Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. Staying Alive All Your Ministry Life: Will You Finish Well?

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... uses for domestic work – an accordion-type file, usually brown, with ten or twelve compartments. The lesson? I need to be more dependent upon Jerry. We need to accept the care of those who love us and admit our need for that care. I put all the sermons ... and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. (Acts 16:25-33) The conversion of a Gentile businesswoman and a jailer, along with the healing of a demon-possessed slave girl – all the result of Paul’s surrender to ...

2. No Partiality

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... to Christianity. The latter would have been believers who came from the ranks of the so-called "God-fearing Gentiles," people who were not ethnically Jewish, but who had been attracted to the monotheistic faith of Israel. They were ... to William Wilberforce to continue the anti-slavery fight. The really bad news is that not everyone agreed. Well into the '60s, Jerry Falwell opposed Martin Luther King and other anti-segregation clergy by misrepresenting the Old Testament "Curse of Ham" as teaching that ...

3. Ephphatha...Be Opened

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... awfully rough. "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." Mom knew the ill-feeling between Jews and Gentiles. But calling her a DOG to her face? Umm! Again, folks explain that away, and they had BETTER! After all, calling someone a dog, even ... of Presbyterians, a group that supports the ordination of gays and lesbians, shared a sofa with the Rev. Jerry Andrews, a co-moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition, which opposes gay ordination. Amazing! Instead of talking ABOUT each ...

4. There Is a Price for Everything, Part 2

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ’s a price for relationship. Note the obvious to which we give too little attention attention. It costs TO BE A CARING PERSON. When Jerry and I were in Amsterdam a few weeks ago, we visited the home of Anne Frank. You recall the story; many of you have ... impressive memorial is a walk lined with carob trees planted to honor those whom the Israelis consider “righteous Gentiles.” A righteous Gentile is a Gentile who risked his or her life to save Jews during Hitler’s holocaust. One tree is planted in ...

5. Super Sunday

Deuteronomy 5:1-33

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... here. That is a bit much. The most I could handle would be, if Jerry McCann were here, his rendition of "Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goal posts of life." [Jerry McCann was the organizing pastor of St. Paul Presbyterian Church and served the congregation for ... NEED that kind of break. The wonderful words of Matthew's gospel then are made real: "And in [Jesus'] name the Gentiles [...and indeed ALL people...] will hope" (Matt. 12:21). "Observe the Sabbath day," says the scripture (Sunday, for you and me ...

6. Being A Man of God

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to what God is miraculously doing among the Gentiles. James sought to interpret that: “Brothers, listen to me,” he said. “Simon has described to us how God first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself.” The King James version ... in the mainline Church of America. In China, 32,000 people pray to receive Christ every day. I wish you could have been with Jerry and me in China a couple of years ago. Young pastors, most of them under 30 years of age, preaching in 12 to 20 ...

7. Equipping the Whole People of God: Penultimate Questions

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

8. Put Your Best Foot Forward

Isaiah 52:7

Sermon

James Merritt

... you all the nations shall be blessed." 2 Tim. 4:17 – "But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." Rev. 12:5 – "And she bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And ... World Evangelized by AD 2000 and Beyond (Birmingham, AL, New Hope, 1990, p.54. 5. D. James Kennedy and Jerry Nucombe, What if the Bible Had Never Been Written, p. 167.

9. 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... "seems to have afforded an uncommonly favorable opportunity for everyone to become an interpreter of the Bible" (As cited by Jerry W. McCant, "Paul's Thorn of Rejected Apostleship," New Testament Studies 34 [1988],550). Truly, the quest to discern just ... who Paul's detractors were in the Corinthian church (Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians, Jewish gnostics, Gentile spiritualists, etc.) coupled with the quasi-scholarly musings on the "thorns" that so afflicted Paul (bad eyesight ...

10. Tear Down This Wall!

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... is that doesn’t like a wall. That wants it down.” Be careful when you build a wall. Walls can destroy as well as protect. Pastor Jerry Locke tells about an occasion when he was asked to be with a man’s family at the hospital while the man had cancer surgery. Tom ... wall was about 3 or 4 feet high. It ran through the court of the temple. The purpose of the wall was to keep Gentiles from entering the inner court, into which only Jews were permitted. There was a sign which warned anyone who wasn’t a Jew ...

11. Jesus’ Baptism by John

Matthew 3:1-12, Matthew 3:13-17

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... Jesus (3:3; cf. Isa. 40:3) and also resonates with Jesus’ ministry, as themes of repentance, warnings of judgment, and Gentile inclusion in the coming kingdom of God resound. Jesus as God’s son has already been introduced at 2:15, where ... final judgment of all humanity and so invites people to repent and return to God’s ways. Quote: The Adventure, by Jerry Sittser. Sittser offers a compelling picture of Christian discipleship as human responsiveness to God’s initiative, which always precedes our ...

12. The Good Samaritan: A New Look at an Old Story

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... offended over the preceding nine years on the air come back to testify against them for being insensitive, uncaring creeps. Guilty! Jerry gives his closing monologue from prison. Yes, people KNOW a Good Samaritan when they see one...Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, ... The Samaritans were ready to welcome them back, but the returnees would have none of it - they had intermarried with gentiles making them "half-breeds." They had perverted the race. They had also perverted the religion. They looked to Mt. ...

13. The Terrible Burden Of Judging Others

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

King Duncan

... of orthodox Jews. But many of them ” particularly those who came in through Paul's influence ” had been pagan Gentiles. Just like in a marriage, each new convert brought into the Christian family their own traditions, their own ... ARE YOU SURE YOU KNOW ALL THE FACTS? This is a good question to ask when you are ever tempted to criticize anyone else. Jerry Simmons, a pastor in Houston, TX, tells of attending an afternoon college football game with his family. Afterward, they stopped at a McDonalds nearby ...

14. A Church Shaped By The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... love in obedience to Jesus Christ the Lord. Scripture calls this the life of holiness or sanctification.” (Quoted by Jerry L. Walls in his article, “Purgatory for Everyone,” First Things, April 2002 Issue, Number 122, p. 26.) To reduce ... no easier to believe in the first century than it is today. It was a “stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles” (I Corinthians 1:23). I doubt that any of the objections to Jesus’ uniqueness raised today were not raised in the first-century ...

15. Do You Know Your Name?

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... us”) and “Savior.” *Simeon also dubs the baby Jesus as the “Consolation of Israel” and as the “Revelation to the Gentiles.” *John the Baptist names Jesus the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29). *At Jesus’ baptism the heavenly voice declares him ... secret name? Susan, your secret name is: “The Giving and Forgiving One.” Paul, your secret name is: “Blest to Bless.” Jerry, your secret name is: “Funster and Punster.” Etc. . . . . [This makes a great way to end your sermon: lifting up some ...

16. The Heifer that Will Change the World!

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Sermon

Larry Lange

... that real estate will pass into the hands of Israel, and the third temple will be built. The Reverend Jerry Falwell believes that the development of CNN was foretold by the book of Revelation, so apparently anything is possible ... ) whom "God has the power to graft ... in again" (Romans 11:23). The apostle Paul uses the same grafting image to describe how the Gentiles became Christians. He treats "the elect" among his people no differently than he treats those who have been "elected" to be Christians (Romans 8: ...

17. Shall We Waddle or Fly?

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body--whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. ... you to offer your talents to making this church all that God means for it to be. In 1993 scientist, Dr. Jerry L. Hall of George Washington University Medical Center, for the first time cloned human embryos, splitting single embryos into identical twins ...

18. Crossing Over

Luke 10:25-37, Genesis 48:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically predisposed to cross roads. Jerry Seinfeld: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask, "What the heck was ... Judah, just as Samaria is a relative of Jerusalem. Ephraim had an Egyptian mother and Jewish father. Ephraim was part of Jacob’s “gentile” descendants. And yet he receives a blessing just as the others did. When Jesus traveled to Galilee and back to Jerusalem, he ...

19. A Violent Week

Mark 14:1-2 · Luke 22:14-23:56

Sermon

Will Willimon

... having Cicero beheaded on the spot, his body left in a pool of blood. This was pax romana. Thus Jesus said to his followers, "The gentile rulers lord over their subjects, but it shall not be so with you." The Caesars of this world dominate and exploit. Jesus came emptying himself ... not the just war but rather the crusade, in which violence is imbued with righteousness. God takes sides, our side. Jerry Falwell speaks of the need for a strong nuclear deterrent in order to help God's missionaries spread the ...

20. When Christians Quarrel: Resolving Conflict in the Church

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

One of the things I like best about the New Testament is that it is so practical. It must have been the fact that Jesus had human beings called disciples always with him that forced him to speak in such everyday terms about everyday problems. Sometimes Christians disagree in the congregation of believers. Sometimes they quarrel. Sometimes they hold grudges against each other. The Scripture for today says that we must never tolerate any situation in which there is a breach of personal relationship between ...

21. God’s Generosity Resented

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Here is the crazy story that Jesus told: A man owned a vineyard and needed to get the grapes harvested before the rains came. He hired some men at the early morning hour and agreed to pay them a silver coin for the day’s work. At nine and noon, and then at five p.m., he hired more men to help with the harvest. When evening came, the owner called all the workers together. They were all paid the same amount. Those who worked ten hours were paid the same amount as those who worked one hour. Those who had ...

22. Called To Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Drama

Jerry Eckert

Comment: Several times over the years, I preached a series of sermons out of the letter to the Galatians. Having tried a number of other dramatic techniques, I decided to have a phone conversation between Paul and Barnabas. I prepared a script and got two phones, one for me (Barnabas is one of the great saints of the New Testament and I played him) and one for a church member who played Paul. In succeeding weeks, I went further, having a four-way phone consultation including a representative of the ...

23. The Disciples' Tenebrae

Mark 12:13-17

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

Comment: Emmanuel Church in Horicon had accepted the Christmas Eve "Pageant" very well (see page 25) but had showed no signs of interest in such drama for sermons. However, when we began planning the Maundy Thursday service, there was a fond remembrance of a tenebrae service, a service of candles, that had been done six years before. I wrote to the former pastor, Rev. Owen Miller, who generously sent what he had done. The concept was to say something about each disciple and extinguish a candle to bring ...

24. An Invitation to a Feast

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Did you ever hear such a story? The Gospel for the day tells it: a man gave a marriage feast and no one showed. He sent his servants out and found everyone too busy. Some even treated his servants badly when they were invited. So he went out into the streets and dragged in anyone who would come, and finally the wedding reception was full. To those who heard the story from Jesus’ own mouth, there was special meaning: The guests who had been invited and didn’t come were the Jewish people. They had been ...

25. OUR LORD DELIVERED UP

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

He walked rapidly, his long robes flowing behind him to be whipped by the brisk, dry east wind. His two servants occasionally quick-stepped to keep pace, their sandals padding softly on the dust of the deserted streets. As they turned eastward from the upper city, the declining, full moon flung their shadows ahead like long moving fingers pointing toward the white limestone buildings of the temple compound. Nicodemus’ mind was thoughtless, yet filled with many thoughts. He had no plan, no course of action ...

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