Sermon and Worship Resources

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1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11) (3) The Hebrew Bible is a book of joy! The New Testament is a book of Good News! This is God's will for us to be joyful, to pray continuously and to give God thanks in all circumstances. Dr. Paul Rees, whom we mentioned earlier, once told about a man from Louisville, Kentucky, who had to travel to St. Louis on business. This was years ago when Christian people still kept Sunday as a very special day. For this man, "keeping the Sabbath" meant not riding the ...

2. The Song of an Awe-Filled Life

Psalm 138:1-8

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... praise and thanks to God the Father now be given. The Son, and him who reigns with them in highest heaven. The one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore; For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. 1. Detroit Free Press, Nov. 20, 2002 2. Paul Rees, Stand Up in Praise to God, page 7 3. Eugene Peterson, The Message, Psalm 138, page 476 4. Michael O'Bannon, Belle Meade UMC, "He Had a Hat," Nov. 24, 1996 5. Companion to the Methodist Hymnal, page 651 6. Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Poems, page 32 ...

3. Give me a C...

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... key is not to dwell on your own imminent defeat, but on any weaknesses, real or imagined, on the other side. Rah, rah, ree, kick them in the knee. Rah, rah, ras, kick them in the ... other knee. And no matter how strange, untalented or highbrow a ... this season." And so it goes. As adults we learn a subtler form of "top that" - one that almost seems to suggest a link with Paul's focus on an apparent weakness as a source of strength. This is called the "we were so poor..." boast. Middle-class adults are most ...

4. Caring for the Needy and Commissioning Apostles

Mark 3:7-12, Mark 3:13-19

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... chose are startling in light of their makeup; he selected those who were personally weak and politically marginalized to change the world. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:30, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” Teaching the ... Jesus, which requires a radical change in our lives. Sadly, many of us want Jesus on our own terms. On this point, Wilbur Rees wrote a powerful poem, “Three Dollars Worth of God.” It is a satire about our tendency to want just enough of God to ...

5. What’s So Amazing about Grace?

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... in their lives. The fourth verse recalls God's promise of goodness, and that reminds us that grace is a gift of God. In Ephesians, Paul put it, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God ..." (Ephesians ... page tell us that this verse is anonymous, meaning it was not written by John Newton but by someone else — possibly John P. Rees in the mid-1800s. Maybe that's a way of showing that the message of grace takes on life for new generations. Each ...

6. An Announcement from the Wilderness

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... hear. This is important for us to see. The Christian faith is not a truth that someone has discovered or an idea that someone has carefully thought out. Christian faith is an announcement, it is a proclamation. It is an act of revelation. As Dr. Paul S. Rees once put it, “The Gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate. It is an announcement!” It is an announcement of God’s wondrous love. An angel makes an announcement to Elizabeth and Zechariah that Elizabeth will bear a child even at their advanced ...

7. Surprise!

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... if you were in their shoes? Is it any wonder that later on in the chapter we discover that the men of the synagogue tried to kill Jesus? Of course, he got away. But we can't blame the Nazarene congregation for their reaction. As Dr. Paul S. Rees says, “The Gospel is neither a discussion nor a debate. It is an announcement!" (2) And that's exactly how Jesus treated it. He didn't explain, argue, pontificate he just announced this mind-blowing piece of information and let the worshipers make up their own ...

8. Getting Your Politics Right

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... in that beautiful kingdom, and the more of both we have in the here-and-now, the less pain there will be in the crossing. Paul himself said that all we have done will be tested by fire.1 Not the fires of hell which are for the damned, but the ... examine my prayers I am embarrassed to admit how hurried and thoughtless they often are. It stung my conscience to read the words of Wilbur Rees: “I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal ...

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