Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 72 results

1. Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians' Faith

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... concerns “the God who has a purpose for them and who will surely bring that purpose to pass” (Morris, Themes, p. 90). At all events, the verse ends with the preachers in mind. What they preach, they live. There is a consistency in their ministry such that their lives exemplify their message. The final clause in the Greek is connected to the rest of the verse by the conjunction kathōs, which marks a close correspondence between what precedes and what follows: as our gospel came to you with power, said ...

2. Thanksgiving and Prayer

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... verb meaning “to put to flight,” “to pursue,” and refers in particular to trials that come to us as Christians (cf. Matt. 13:21; Mark 4:17; 10:30; Acts 8:1; 13:50; Rom. 8:35; 2 Cor. 12:10; 2 Tim. 3:11). 1:5 From thanksgiving, Paul turns ... forget that he shared the same world as that inhabited by the Thessalonians; he, too, was afflicted (2 Cor. 11:23–29)” (Morris, Themes, p. 53). Relief will come when the Lord Jesus is revealed—the word is apokalypsis, literally, “in the revelation,” and ...

3. Willing And Able

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... you with any problem you have today? The man with leprosy knew Jesus was able. WHAT HE WANTED TO KNOW WAS IF JESUS WAS WILLING. Mark tells us that "he knelt in front of the Master and pleaded, "˜If you are willing, you can make me clean.'" If you are willing ... us needs to be involved in some form of ministry to others. Not for the sake of others--but for ourselves. A man named S. R. Morris writes about a ministry in which he is involved. He says that in July 2000 at the urging of what he believed to be the ...

4. Light For A New Year

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... the great-great-grandson of John Morris. William had never married or had children, and he was nearing eighty. He tried to inspire his nieces and nephews with tales of the family fire, but none of them seemed interested in keeping the fire alive after William was gone. The fire was 150 years old by now. It marked a proud family tradition, one that everyone in the area admired. Would that tradition end once William died? William took it upon himself to see that it didn't. From an interview in the Spartanburg ...

5. They Also Serve Who Wait

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Thomas Long

... , "I promised that in any country I come I will do something for God." The synagogue, like the tenements which fill the neighborhood in which it stands, is marked by peeling paint, deteriorating floors, and falling plaster. Morris, himself, is feeling the wearing effects of the passing days. "I'm broken down like this shul," he confesses. In the days before the war, Morris had been a promising young medical student, but now his youth is gone, his money is gone, and all he has left are the synagogue and hope ...

6. They Also Serve Who Wait

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Thomas Long

... I promised that in any country I come I will do something for God." The synagogue, like the tenements which fill the neighborhood in which it stands, is marked by peeling paint, deteriorating floors, and falling plaster. Morris, himself, is feeling the wearing effects of the passing days. "I’m broken down like this shul," he confesses. In the days before the war, Morris had been a promising young medical student, but now his youth is gone, his money is gone, and all he has left are the synagogue and hope ...

7. Disillusioned Thomas

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... few years ago, a fascinating book by Mitch Albom hit the bestseller lists. You may have read it. It was titled, Tuesdays with Morrie. Here’s the story. The author learns that his old teacher is slowly dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. After an absence of ... him? Why should he have to listen to a fairy tale about his dead friend being raised from the dead? “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands,” Thomas said adamantly, “and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not ...

8. Jesus Came Preaching

Mark 1:14-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... conscience. Or it may mean that the listener was right and the preacher wrong! None of us has a degree in infallibility. As Colin Morris says about preachers who claim to know too much: “They would be modest enough to confess they haven’t the foggiest idea what is ... come to take it for granted, and lose the wonder and amazement of the message. For it is an amazing message! Mark Twain once wrote: “A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be scientifically regarded as a thing of beauty.” Just try ...

9. The New Jerusalem

Revelation 21:1-27

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... return. In this sense, the new order does not refer to a “brand new” reality; neither does Christ’s parousia mark the end of human history. Rather it consummates the renewal of the old order. In making everything new, God removes ... inheritance. The relationship between the eschatological community and its God depends on a commitment to the prior action of the slain Lamb (cf. 3:5; Morris, Revelation, p. 248); only then can the overcomer refer to the Lamb’s God as “his God” (cf. 3:12) and to God’s ...

10. The Two Witnesses

Revelation 11:1-14

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... fiery power of the prophet Elijah (cf. 2 Kings 1:1–18) to devour their enemies who must die as “a compelling divine necessity” (Morris, Revelation, p. 144). Their powers extend to the natural order to shut up the sky so that it will not rain … to turn the ... of the anti-Christian kingdom have acted with unbridled disrespect. Without social manners there is left anarchy and chaos, which are the marks of the Evil One (cf. Rom. 1:29–31) and not of Christ. 11:11–13 To this point of the interlude, ...

11. The Fellowship of Kindred Minds

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... and activity. Tuesdays with Morrie is a tender story about Mitch Albom, a sportswriter who catches up with Morrie Schwartz, a former professor dying of ALS. The two meet on Tuesdays to talk about life and death, friendship and faith. Morrie, near death, says to Mitch ... and fourth generation. No one of us in this room lives alone; no one of us in this room sins alone. Every time we miss the mark, we take some other people with us. We ought to remember that the next time we miss what God is calling us to be in ...

12. The Beast out of the Earth

Revelation 13:11-18

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... and miraculous signs are used to establish idolatry (cf. Deut. 13:1) that finally deceives rather than converts the inhabitants of the earth. 13:16–17a The meaning of the mark on the right hand or on the forehead is contested (cf. Morris, Revelation, p. 168); however, in the immediate context it is analogous to the “seal” of the Lamb, marked on the foreheads of the faithful remnant (cf. 14:1–2): that is, it is a symbol of ownership or allegiance to someone in authority. The universal scope of the ...

13. A Guide for Growth

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... “walk” six times in this one epistle. The “walk of the Christian” is Paul’s way of talking about the distinctive marks of those who, having put on Christ, are seeking to grow up as Christians. So we continue to talk about Christian ... point is that even living good lives we will miss what is most vital. We even do it in the church. Let me illustrate: Colin Morris is one the leading Methodist preachers in England. A few years ago he was serving as a missionary in Zambia. One day a Zambian dropped ...

14. Christmas Is a God-Thing

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... congregation, named Mark, was a friend of Robert Morris. Mark was a man who was devoted to serving the homeless, but he was getting weary and this final Hispanic gentleman was almost “one homeless person too many” for him. Mark knew that ... man answered, “Hayzoos,” which is, of course, the Spanish pronunciation for “Jesus.” The ironic humor of the whole situation suddenly washed over Mark’s mind and heart. Here he was griping to God about taking a man named Jesus to a shelter on Christmas Eve! He ...

15. A Faith for the Uncharted Way

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... - and always to paths unknown. For a time I was in theology classes taught by Professor Frank Paul Morris. (As I mention his name, I wish to pay tribute to a good and great-hearted man - and somewhat of an eccentric, too. How well I remember him ... things are going to change; and you can count on that. We have reached the end of the well-trodden trail, the end of the well-marked road, the place where the road abuts the wilderness, and beyond which it does not go on. And this is not a wilderness of trees and ...

16. Living to Please God

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... at this point (e.g., C. F. D. Moule, Idiom Book of New Testament Greek [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959], p. 161). Morris comments that Paul can use “finally” quite early in a letter (1 Cor. 1:16; 4:2; Phil. 3:1; 4: ... come, but how precisely had God’s people been taught? They had been taught by Jesus: by the precepts that he had given them reaffirming the law of love (Mark 12:31; John 13:34; cf. Lev. 19:18; Rom. 13:8–10), by his own practice of that law (John 13:1), and by the Spirit who ...

17. Final Instructions

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... ; 14:19; 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:3; Col. 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:22; Heb. 12:14) going back to the instruction given by Jesus himself (Mark 9:50; cf. Ps. 34:14), for it goes to the heart of what we as Christians are called to be and to do: “Be imitators of God ... , as in verses 23 and 28, and that Paul should invoke him in this way is “another indication of the stature of the Lord as Paul saw him” (Morris, Themes, p. 33; see disc. on 3:11 and 2 Thess. 2:16). 5:28 The letter ends much as it began (1:1) and in a manner ...

18. God’s Saving Righteousness and the Restoration of Israel

Romans 3:21-31

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... “Scripture”). Interpretive Insights 3:21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known. “But now” marks the eschatological shift between this age and the age to come; between the old covenant and the new covenant; between the old ... sacrifice on the Day of Atonement for Israel’s sins (see Lev. 16:2 LXX; also Heb. 9:5).1Leon Morris, however, has convinced many against Dodd.2Dodd argued that hilast?rion should not be translated “propitiation” because that conveys the ...

19. To the Church in Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... to the seven churches and the same or similar symbols found in the closing vision of Christ’s parousia which marks God’s final triumph over evil. The overarching structure of Revelation, which focuses the reader’s attention on the ... bad” (Revelation, pp. 57–58). However, he offers us no theological interpretation of this literary pattern. If we accept Morris’ assessment of the spiritual condition of the Ephesian congregation, then the overarching pattern of this material is chiastic (ABCB′A ...

20. The Trumpets

Revelation 8:6--9:21

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... ’s redemption-destruction dualisms, calls attention to the reversal motif of apocalypticism. The landmarks of a fallen creation are also the marks of a new creation in which evil is turned upside down at the triumph of God’s salvation through the Lamb. ... locusts’ scorpion-like appearance. No doubt this shift of tense indicates that “the scene becomes increasingly vivid to him” (Morris, Revelation, p. 127). As John looks again at the visionary scene before him, he recognizes the locusts to be ...

21. God’s Love and Ours

1 John 4:7-21, 1 John 5:1-12

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... 16:3, 17; Epistle of Barnabas 11:7; 19:10; 21:6. F H. Klooster, “Judgment, Last,” ISBE, vol. 2, pp. 1162–63; L. Morris, The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), and W. Schneider, “Judgment,” NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 361–68. In the Gospel of ... wife may also be said of love for God and for one’s fellow believer, “What God has joined together, let man not separate” (Mark 10:9). 5:2 This verse begins with the last of the writer’s eight This is how we know statements (2:3, 5 ...

22. Faith in the Son of God

1 John 5:1-12, 1 John 4:7-21

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

23. Body

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... Jesus. This seems to be confirmed in Galatians 6:17, where Paul states that he bears on his body “the marks of Jesus,” referring to the wounds and scars that he received in the service of Christ. Paradoxically, however, Paul’ ... are a reiteration of Adam’s sin and exile” (Paul Morris, “Exiled from Eden: Jewish Interpretations of Genesis,” in A Walk in the Garden: Biblical, Iconographical and Literary Images of Eden [ed. Paul Morris and Deborah Sawyer; JSOTSup 136; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992], pp ...

24. The Coming of the Lord

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... . 2:2), and its mention now as the meeting place of Christ and his saints may suggest Christ’s victory over them (so Morris), but that point cannot be pressed. We are not told what will follow that meeting in the air, but the imagery suggested by apant ... The metaphor of labor pains finds parallels in both the OT and NT (Isa. 13:6–8; 21:3; 37:3; Jer. 4:31; 6:24; Mark 13:8; John 16:21). Sometimes the emphasis is on the pain; sometimes, as here, on the suddenness of its onset and its inevitability. They will ...

25. How to Turn the Ballot into a Blessing Box

Proverbs 29:2

Sermon

James Merritt

... is wicked appeasement. "The king establishes the land by justice, but he who receives bribes overthrows it." (Prov. 29:4) This will always be the mark of a wicked leader. Some way, somehow he will let it be known he is a political prostitute whose name, honor, and even country, are for sale. Governor Morris, one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States, once said: Vicious rulers, chosen by vicious people, turn back the current of corruption to its source. Placed in a situation where they can ...

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