Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. The Christian Shema: Loving God and Neighbor

Mark 12:28-34

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. This is the first part of the Jewish Shema (from the first Hebrew word of the creed, meaning “hear”), consisting of Deuteronomy 6:4–9; 11:13–21; Numbers 15:37–41 and recited by pious Jews each morning and evening (Deut ... teaching on the Trinity, the book tells the story of Farid, a nominal Muslim who came to the United States in 1993. He became involved with a group of Muslims who were debating Christians. But in those debates Farid found his own position ...

2. Good Old What’s-His-Name

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... to get people’s attention. Once he said, “Muslims have one God and three wives; Christians have three gods and one wife.” In this case, Pike was off the mark. According to the Koran, Muslims may have four wives...and no responsible ... help to bring them to His side. We are the only Bible the careless world will read; We are the sinner’s gospel, we are the scoffer’s creed; We are the Lord’s last message given in deed and word What if the line is crooked? What if the type is blurred? What if our ...

3. Finding Unity through Christ

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... their turfs, often using tactics, words, and methods that are completely inconsistent with the teachings that the faith proclaims as its creed. We seldom overtly seek what is common, but tend to concentrate on what divides. I am sure that Christ is ... and non-Christians divide over ideology and find it the source of world conflict. Jews and Muslims continue their seemingly perennial struggle in the holy land. Christians and Muslims often use religion as the pretext to promote the war on terror. It would be ...

4. True Reformation

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... - just "whatever works for you." There's truth for women and truth for men, truth for rich and for poor, for Christians and Muslims and atheists and many other faiths and non-faiths - but who's to say that one person's truth is true for another? ... humanity is supposed to be, the truth of what creation is all about. On the other hand he is, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, "true God from true God." We can know the truth about ourselves and about God not in an abstract idea or principle which might be ...

5. Love Without Limits

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

... accepting everyone impartially and unconditionally. They would swear up and down that everyone got equal treatment regardless of race, creed, color, class, gender or age. However, if you have ever been or are now of the wrong race, color, ... any different? I mentioned The Autobiography of Malcolm X a few minutes ago. Toward the end of the movie, Malcolm X, who was a Muslim, made a pilgrimage to Mecca. On the pilgrimage he found people of all colors and races who believed as he believed and that experience ...

6. Who Holds the Keys to the Kingdom?

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Steven Burt

... Jesus himself were at the head of the table -- doing the inviting -- whom do you think he would exclude? Children? Jews? Blacks? Muslims? Unbaptized people? Whom would he turn away?” That look of understanding, of sudden awareness, came over his face, and he said, “ ... base your decisions on -- the knowledge which comes out of your relationship with Jesus Christ -- not by the books or creeds or tradition. Speak out of that relationship, and you can speak with authority.” It was what is called a teaching ...

7. Separation of God and State?

Isaiah 44:24--45:25

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... run by church or religious leaders? We have an illustration of theocracy in today’s Iran which is governed by a Muslim religious primate and other lesser religious leaders as subordinate officials. God forbid that the church should ever be over the state! Church ... God is using Communism to bless us? That seems like an impossibility. Is not Russia an atheistic country? Is its creed nothing but materialism and imperialism which allow no true religious or civil liberty? Because of this we Americans are scared ...

8. JESUS: Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Lord

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Brett Blair

... that the unusual circumstances of her pregnancy never got out. What do we call these unusual circumstances? The virgin birth. It is part of our creed, “born of the virgin Mary.” Jesus is both born of man and born of God. Born just the way you and I have been born ... some pretty attractive alternatives. Prophet is not on the list. Many would like to relegate him to this status. The entire Muslim world does. Teacher and Rabbi, is not on the list. Many have put him here. Pointing to the importance of his ...

9. The Ten Commandments: One God, Only One

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... god or rain god. Does this first commandment apply to us? At first glance, no. The majority of America - Christians, Jews, Muslims - says there is ONE God, the all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God. Christian belief goes even beyond that: God is ... : The Wild Rise of an American Tycoon, (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995) 4. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer: The Prayer, The Creed, The Commandments, (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 189 5. Matt. 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10: ...

10. Saving Private Ryan

Acts 1:8

Sermon

James Merritt

... to be a witness so much as to what we know, but as to who we know. Jesus said, "You shall be My witness." We are not to witness to a church, a creed, a code, or a cause, but to Christ. Jesus is the center, the circumference, and the core of our witness. Sometimes people talk about "sharing our faith." Well, a Buddhist can share his faith, a Muslim can share his faith, a Hindu can share his faith; we are to share Jesus. What this world needs is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the subject of witnessing. He is ...

11. Decisions, Decisions

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... . Liberals are on this road. Gentiles are on this road. Jews are on this road. Men and women of all race, creeds, and colors are on this road. There are also some people on this road that may very well surprise you. There are ... Baptists on this road. There are Methodists on this road. There are Episcopalians, Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Mormons, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims on this road. In fact, anyone who has never accepted Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior is on ...

12. Call to Oneness

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... our call to oneness one which self-destructs because many in our world see us as worshiping two gods? Our Jewish and Muslim friends have always had a problem with such mathematics. How can one plus one equal one? Perhaps we are straining to ... might quickly add that most, if not all, have been disappointed. The inspirational adjectives from what is popularly known as the Nicene Creed may be a major exception: "one, holy, catholic, apostolic." But aren't we astonished specifically that it makes no mention of ...

13. The Christ Connection

Colossians 1:9-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... theology and be our own persons. We have to stay in community together. Instead of separating ourselves, we need to join hands with Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and New Agers. Let us meet at the Round Table of Dialogue where we can face common problems and perplexities together. E ... destiny of humankind like that one solitary life. So, which will it be for you? Chaos or Christ. I am not offering a creed, I am not offering a church. I invite you to see something beyond that. I invite you to be “in Christ," which ...

14. Lighting up Your Neighborhood

Acts 13:44-49

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... despise. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. The world God loves includes more than right wing, white, conservative Christians in the South. God loves the Muslims as much as he loves the Methodists. God loves the Mexicans as much as he loves Europeans. God loves people regardless of their sex or sexual orientation, their color or creed, their age or stage of life. While we might appropriately debate the true nature of God, and the right behavior for believers, let us never sink into the moral ...

15. Embracing Christ—The Light of the World

John 8:12-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of Christianity is that we find the revelation of God primarily in a Person. Jews have the Torah (Law of Moses). Muslims have the Koran (revelation of Mohammed). Buddhists have the teachings of Buddha and Christians have Jesus Christ. He is the revelation ... men in His way, We are the only Bible the careless world will read, We are the sinner's gospel; we are the scoffer's creed. Become the body of Christ! Live a life of clarified values. Be a Christ person. We can embrace His light. I want to walk as ...

16. A Winsome Witness

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... city thought of by people of faith as God's hometown. God-fearers, then and now, look forward to a pilgrimage to Jerusalem just as devout Muslims dream of a Hajj to Mecca. Now, he was going home. As he rode, he read — the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Interesting choice ... for a ... questions and answered them. It was that simple. He did not try to talk theology to the man. There were no creeds to be followed, no doctrines to be affirmed. There was just the story of Philip's special friend, Jesus. For those ...

17. What Do You See?

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

James Merritt

... and out for an hour, all of a sudden he realized someone was watching over him. He looked up to see a man in traditional Muslim dress standing next to his wife in a full burka. There was a kindness in the man’s eyes when he said, “Sir, Are you ... poem that I have written. I don’t write many, but I wrote this one: Key Takeaway: “A neighbor is not defined by color or creed; A neighbor is defined by nearest need.” Are you a good neighbor? I can tell you whether you are not if you are always constantly ...

18. The Story of Abraham versus the Story of Israel

Romans 4:1-25

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... congregation. Particularly appropriate is the first verse of the hymn: “My faith has found a resting place, / not in device nor creed. / I trust the ever-living One, / his wounds for me shall plead.” Biography: Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, author of ... as an Episcopal priest in 1984, made a profession of faith in Islam in 2006, and she claims to be both a Christian and a Muslim. Because of her decision, she was deposed as a priest in 2009. She says, “I look through Jesus and I see Allah.” How might ...

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