Sermon and Worship Resources

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Hosea 2:2-23

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... the desert, as he led her at the first. There in the wilderness, where there is no baal to come between them, the Lord will “woo” his young bride again. Literally, in the Hebrew, God will “speak to her heart” (cf. Gen. 34:3), for it is Israel’s heart ... the wilderness is a significant place for Jesus of Nazareth. He begins his ministry in the wilderness, when he is baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. It is in the wilderness that he faces and overcomes the temptations of Satan (Mark 1: ...

2. Elihu

Job 32:1--37:24

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... verses! (If Hollywood were casting the role of Elihu, I think the only possible choice would be the marvelous comedic actor John Cleese in his Basil Fawlty incarnation, spouting his righteous indignation with an exaggerated posh accent and rolling eyes.) I am about ... subject of the following verb, NIV must supply no one. The verb entices is the same Hebrew word translated “wooing” in verse 16. Those who read “anger” also understand the Hebrew word translated riches to mean “scoffing” (NASB; NRSV ...

3. Repentance to Bring Blessing

Hosea 14:1-9

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... (11:1–11); that on the other side of the judgment God will take Israel—his beloved wife—once more into the desert and there woo her again until she is betrothed to him in faithfulness to her covenant bond (see the comment at 2:14, 15). It is out of ... has relied. God alone answers Israel, is responsible for its life, and “encloses” (NIV: cares for) it. In God is life (cf. John 1:4). Thus, beyond the destruction of its nation, beyond the punishment of its apostasy, beyond the reckoning for its sin, ...

4. The Blood Shall Be a Token

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Eskimo turned to the other and said, “I told you so. The White Igloo builder is no good. Light shine. Bell ding-dong. Horn woo-woo, but fog roll in all the same.” Well that’s right – as the lighthouse could not control the fog and the storm. So with ... is the clear representative in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the beloved disciple, John, called Jesus “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” and John Baptist denoted him “the Iamb of God who takes away the sins of the world ...

5. A Life Hidden With Christ

Colossians 2:6-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... by Him as though we were without sin.2. There is the recreation of the image of God in the life of the believer. This is the reason John Wesley talked about grace impinging upon us and working in three specific ways: prevenient grace, justifying grace, sanctifying grace. Prevenient grace is the grace of God going before, pulling us, wooing us, tenderizing our hearts, seeking to open our minds and hearts, and eventually even giving us faith. Even the faith we exercise for our justification is the result ...

6. Epiphany 8

Hosea 2:2-23, Mark 2:18-22, 2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... the gospel. Gospel: Mark 2:18-22 The foes of Jesus criticize him for not making his disciples fast, as did the followers of John the Baptist. Although obligatory fasting took place only one day a year, the Day of Atonement, pious Jews were in the habit of ... marriage of Christ and his church. Outline: 1. Hosea announces a renewal of the (marriage) covenant of God with Israel. God will woo his people. He will deal tenderly and lovingly with them. 2. In the Gospel Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom. 3. Christ ...

7. The Story of Christmas

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... . for it is a struggle going on within our own hearts. The Biblical record is the history of a Divine Lover seeking to woo and win His own creation. It is also, however, the history of a war going on within the soul of humanity a war that ... have seen his star,” they will say, “and have come to worship him.” What does it all mean? The writer of the Gospel of John tries to tell us in beautiful, but somewhat deep, theological language: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the ...

8. Pop Verses: John 3:16

John 3:16

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... ourselves and beg and crawl our way to him. That is not the God revealed in Jesus Christ. And that is not the God revealed in John 3:16. God loves you. You are his child. He created you. He wants you to be happy and whole. How much does God love you ... it wasn’t just lip service. God showed that deep love for us. “He GAVE” God held nothing back in demonstrating his love for us. God wooed us back to him by giving us his son. Now this is when this verse gets tricky for some of us. “Okay, first I hear that ...

9. The Vocation of Leadership: A Prophet Among Them

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... us to pay attention. In Perry County, Mississippi, where I grew up, we had a quaint but descriptive way of talking about a beginning courtship. Someone would say, “John is paying attention to Mary.” Isn’t that beautiful. And courtship is not a bad metaphor for talking about our relationship with God. The Bible suggests that metaphor. God woos us, courts us, as it were, seeking to get our attention – but more, to get our commitment Scripture, especially the Old Testament is scathingly clear: our God ...

10. The Authority of Scripture: God's Breathed Word

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a movement of love toward us. The big story of the Bible is the story of God staying with us – through His grace, wooing us, loving us, seeking to restore us to our created image and bring us back into fellowship with Him. When we are ... culture that is ours in this country. Our campus in Wilmore has a beautiful quad. In a prominent place there is a life-size statue of John Wesley preaching in the market place at Bristol. He is holding his Bible and because he was a man of one Book. When we placed the ...

11. Christianity's First Sermon

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... justify himself for the state-sponsored murder of a mob-chosen victim? What if Pilate wasn’t trying to woo favor with the Jewish establishment with a sign showing his concern for their spiritual sensitivities? What if, instead, ... enough statements every month, I don’t need another one) . . . God sent us a Savior. Jesus is The Way. Jesus is The Truth. Jesus is The Life. In John 3:21 a little verb leaps out and grabs me by the throat: “Those who DO what is true come to the light.” Want to know “the ...

12. Sinner to Saint

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... and read." He went to an open Bible and read, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ ...", and Christ became a reality to him. John Wesley was confronted by Christ as he listened to one reading Luther’s preface to the book of Romans and for the first time ... experience of St. Paul on the Damascus road. In Max Beerbohm’s Happy Hypocrite a wicked man wore a mask of a saint in order to woo a saintly woman he loved. Years later a woman he had cast off discovered his trick and challenged him to take off his mask in ...

13. Faces of Failure: Judas Iscariot

Matthew 26-27 (selections)

Sermon

Don Tuttle

... is not torture but comfort. Father Rodrigues, the imprisoned teacher, is provided with food, clean clothes, and honor, not simply to woo him but to show the starving, near-naked peasants that rejecting their Christian faith would be profitable for them. It is ... they are set in opposition to one another here suggests a difference in how the disciples and Judas view Jesus. For Peter, James, John and the rest, “Lord” evokes the Old Testament, where the term is used as a synonym for the name of God. It implies ...

14. Christ the King A King Worth Having

John 12:12-19

Sermon

... on a horse, but in the manner of peace - as on a donkey. He came not to mow people down but to woo them by love. The Revelation to John shows the same style in the form of another picture: Behold,I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears ... their brushes, showing our Lord knocking at the door of our hearts with no latch outside. He won’t force his way in. In John Stainer’s oratorio, The Crucifixion, there’s a line from the prophets in a chorus Stainer calls "The Appeal of the Crucified." It’s ...

15. Passing The Test!

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... called “the testing of Jesus." You know the story well. Jesus came from Nazareth at the age of thirty to be baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. As he came out of the water, the spirit of God descended upon him and a voice ... you a question, Gladys?" “Oh, what is it?" she answers. “Is your love for me beyond temptation?" he asks. “Say, Paul Newman was trying to woo you away, would you still love me?" And Gladys replies, “Of course dear! And I would miss you very much, too!"(2) There are ...

16. A Circle for Dorothy

Ephesians 2:11-22, Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... wandering in the far country and the other still at home but just as lost. God is like a frustrated bus captain and a bunch of tired tourists who comb the streets of an ancient city to find Dorothy. John Wesley called it "prevenient grace." It is the grace which goes before; the grace which nudges us, draws us, woos us, invites us, seeks us and finds us. To the Roman Christians, St. Paul will write: The proof of God's amazing love is this…that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 ...

17. Call to Oneness

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... God is God and there is no reason to take it as spiritual fact but more like a mystical moment that is unique to John's Gospel. In other words, any serious understanding is not necessary for the living out of practical matters in the Christian faith. If we ... appears as elusive as ever. We may be assured the Holy Spirit is at work, coaxing and cajoling, or should we simply say inspirationally wooing? We may also be assured we will not be telling the Holy Spirit what to do and what not to do. As we have ...

18. More Than a Book

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... know, and we wanted to remind ourselves that what we are about as Christians, and as a church is here, in this book. This is in John Wesley’s word: “The whole and sole rule of Christian faith and practice.” That’s why we did it, and I want to make that more ... a movement of love toward us. The big story of the Bible is the story of God staying with us – through his grace, wooing us, loving us, seeking to restore us to our created image, and bring us back into fellowship. The last verse of the 23rd ...

19. The Happy Hypocrite

Matthew 6:1-4, 5-6, 16-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... set a bad example because no one knew he was a doctor. Still, he was certainly guilty of hypocrisy. It’s true in every field. John MacArthur tells a story of a holy man in the Mideast who covered himself with ashes as a sign of humility and regularly sat on ... knew what he was really like, so over his bloated features he wore a mask--the mask of a saint. The guise worked, and he wooed and won her. After they had been married for a while, a woman showed up from Lord George’s past. She was angered by his ...

20. Joy to the World

Mark 16:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the words: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's who this is, the Son of God. In the Gospel of John, it is put in more familiar words: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not ... ?" That is to say, God came to us quietly, humbly, gently, not to overpower us. God came to us like a lover, to woo us. What happened? He was rejected. First, by the authorities. From the very beginning they plotted to do away with Jesus, because they ...

21. The Voice of the Shepherd

John 10:1-10

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... trouble because he didn't listen. He recognized his wife's voice but he didn't listen. Let's look at the passage for today John 10:1-10 and see what Jesus has to say about listening to The Voice of the Shepherd. [1] "Very truly, I tell you, anyone ... truth of this passage right before our very eyes. The Voice of the Shepherd is there whispering His love for us. Calling us and wooing us into an ongoing relationship. The Voice of the Shepherd Goes Before Us, The Voice of the Shepherd Guides Us, The Voice of the ...

22. Why Am I A United Methodist?

I Timothy 1:12-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... we have got it all worked out, or because we have conquered all doubt. We believe because God’s prevenient grace has wooed us to belief. The scriptures have called us to faith and reason has led us to logical affirmation. The experience of His ... to visit. Grace for Wesley was free. “Whosoever will” may receive it. In fact, the hymn his brother wrote on the occasion of John’s conversion has a line that goes something like this: “Outcasts of men to you I call, harlots and publicans and thieves. He ...

23. “Weak and Strong” Should Get Along

Romans 14:1--15:13

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... for the community. She invites this “frozen chosen” group to a lavish meal to taste the joy of the abundance of life. Babette woos them out of their darkness into a better way, of love for each other, one of joy. Strong and Weak Christians: The New ... 105 times in the Synoptic Gospels The kingdom of God and eating/drinking (v. 17) / Luke 22:30; see also Matt. 6:25; 11:18-19; John 6:54 Joy (v. 17) / Matt. 5:12 All things clean (v. 20) / Mark 7:19 Interpretive Insights 14:13–16 not to put any stumbling ...

24. Garden of Love

John 20:10-18, Song of Songs 4:1-16, Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . Jesus is calling you. Hear His voice. He is risen. He wants to be risen in you. Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text John’s Witness to Jesus’ Encounter with Mary in the Garden (20) Song of Songs (4): Garden of Love God’s Restoration of Humanity to ... may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.” The invitation or response to God’s “wooing” is to invite Jesus into our hearts and souls, to invite Him to breathe His breath upon us and within us, and ...

25. Godly Sexual Passion For An X-Rated World

Song of Songs 2:1-17

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... (Genesis 2). Jesus launched his public ministry at a wedding in Cana where he worked his first miracle by turning water into wine (John 2:1). Afterward, Jesus began to refer to himself as a groom with the church his bride (Matthew 9:15). And Scripture teaches ... All this, then one day Solomon spied the lovely Shulamite maiden working in the fields. And he was smitten! So he sent and wooed her with gifts, poetic words, and all the peacockery a king could muster. But, alas! She was in love with a simple ...

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