Sermon and Worship Resources

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Ezekiel 4:1-5:17, Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... to the model siege in the first sign). The last third he is to scatter to the winds (v. 2)—except that he is to take a few strands of hair and tuck them away in the folds of your garment (v. 3). But he is to take a few hairs even from these to burn: A ... an encounter with the Lord. Just as Isaiah’s vision of the Lord’s Glory reveals to him his sinfulness (Isa. 6:5), and Paul’s vision of the risen Christ reveals to him his tragically misplaced zeal (Acts 9:5), so in Ezekiel knowledge of God leads the ...

2. I Am The Way, The Truth, And The Life

Sermon

Ronald Lavin

... he is going. Jesus gladly shows us where he has been and where he is going. Since we have a tendency to get lost or stranded, it is good to know that we have a guide on the way. The Christian life can be described as getting on the way and ... Meynell We do not need to reach God as the end of our striving. Jesus puts an end to our frustrated striving to reach God. As Paul writes, "It is not a matter of achieving, but believing..." (Romans 3:27, Phillips translation). It is a matter of trusting Jesus who is one ...

3. Epiphany 2

1 Corinthians 6:12-20, 1 Samuel 3:1--4:1, John 1:35-42, John 1:43-51

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... at any time, so we reason. A little titillation here, a little stimulation there won't hurt anyone. But then slowly, strand by gossamer strand, sexual sins weave their sensuous silk about us so that we are no longer free; we are prey. Gospel: John 1: ... : Have you ever slept in church? Take comfort because you are not the first. Remember Eutycus who fell asleep during the apostle Paul's late night sermon and then fell out of the second-story window? In this lesson we see that Samuel slept regularly in ...

4. The Knot: Tied

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

... what we call “love” too often is completely and totally different. I will say this, “Show me a martial knot that is tied with the strands of a real love like this and I’ll show you a knot that can’t come untied.” So if my love is real… ... . If my love is real… III. I Will Show How Love Lasts I’ve saved the best for last, because the greatest statement that Paul makes about love are in the first three words of verse 8. “Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:8, NIV) What else could you ...

5. They Didn't Have To Do It, But They Did

Genesis 14:1-24

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... as they sped off. My friend sat in his car not knowing if the men would come back to lynch him. What was a black man doing stranded on a road in Southern Georgia? Should he stay in the car or leave the car? Twenty minutes later a tow truck pulled alongside his car. A ... Road, but he did. He didn't have to find a room in the inn and pay for his meals, but he did. The apostle Paul did not have to risk life and limb to missionize parts of Asia Minor and other territories by starting new churches. He didn't have ...

6. Something Is Missing

John 6:24-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... was missing in life--something he never found. Actor Paul Newman was once quoted as saying, "I'm just not happy. I don't have inner serenity. And I don't have the guts to do anything else." Paul Newman seemed to have it all: fame, fortune, looks, ... things that held him. When the outer strands were broken by retirement, the inner strands were not enough to hold him...Fortunately, with me," Jones continues, "Surrender to Jesus was the primary thing, and when the outer strands were cut by this stroke, my life ...

7. Of Mice and Men

Hebrews 10:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... wrong with our body. Author Philip Yancey tells how his perspective on pain was changed by his work with Dr Paul Brand, the dedicated orthopedic missionary surgeon working among leprosy patients in India. Dr. Brand made the startling discovery that all ... saying another word about it. Not then, not ever. (5) You and I have a Father with more love and forgiveness than Mark Strand’s dad. If only we would confess our sin. The writer of Hebrews says, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his ...

8. Knitted Together from the Womb

Exodus 2:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... imagined for ourselves. I like to think of our relationship with God as a “holy” braid….not just Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but as Paul says, Faith, Hope, and Love, and the greatest of these is Love. Love is like that bitumen…..when it covers a life woven together ... narrow road is never taken alone, but only with the help of God. The metaphor of the basket –the woven strands that define our identity like DNA, the weave of our relationship with God, marked by our experiences, our unique identity ...

9. The Words We Speak

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... WORDS KIND AND GRACE-FUL? The word is not "graceful", meaning smooth, coordinated, and athletic. The word is "Grace...hyphen...ful", meaning filled with grace. Paul says it well in verse 29: "Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there ... Complete this sentence often: "One of the things I like about you is..." Each statement is like another strand of grace making the bonds of matrimony ever stronger. Frank Gifford, the ABC sportscaster on Monday night football, ...

10. Getting out of the Doldrums

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... stuporous halt in our spiritual journey, and instead of traveling an ever unfolding journey of faith have become stuck and stranded in some spiritual version of “The Doldrums.” We all need to look over our shoulders, inspect our desk-tops ... forgiveness. Yes, there is healing. Yes, you were made in God’s image. Yes, God loves you. Yes, you can have life eternal. No wonder Paul calls Jesus “God’s eternal Yes!” But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For ...

11. Freedom In Christ

Galatians 5:1-15, Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... the path the Galatians are considering from the one they are on. As believers they live in hope of righteousness, a hope that is theirs by faith … through the Spirit. Paul brings together several strands of his argument: the Spirit, which is the evidence that the promise made to Abraham is given to Gentiles (3:14), is the means by which righteousness is given; righteousness is given to those of faith (2:16; 3:6–9), who are those who have received the Spirit (3: ...

12. Instructions on Worship

1 Timothy 2:1-15

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... already turned away to follow Satan” (5:15). To say that Adam was not the one deceived simply means that he was not deceived by the “snake.” But Eve was, and that led to her downfall. 2:15 Paul will now bring this instruction on women to a conclusion by picking up several strands from the preceding verses. In so doing, he expresses himself in a way that has been troubling for generations of Christians, because it seems so contradictory to his own theology, on the one hand, and somewhat demeaning to ...

13. Paul the Preacher to the Gentiles

Ephesians 3:1-13

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... join the Lord surely includes the Gentiles (Gen. 12:1–3; Isa. 11:10; 42:6; 60:3; Jer. 16:19; Mic. 4:2; Zeph. 2:11). Paul himself uses Isaiah 49:6 to justify his call to the Gentiles when he disputes with the Jews (Acts 13:47). And in Romans 15:9–12, he ... one turns it gently; it is like beholding a marvelous tapestry that a designer has woven from a variety of different strands (Stott, p. 123). In this verse, the author has a magnificent vision of a triumphant and unified church that demonstrates the ...

14. Imitating Christ's Humility

Philippians 2:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... in creation: he is the one “through whom all things came” (1 Cor. 8:6; cf. Col. 1:16, 17). Other NT writers agree with Paul in this presentation (cf. John 1:1–3; Heb. 1:2; Rev. 3:14); it is evidently bound up with a primitive Christian identification of ... used at the beginning of the fourth Isaianic Servant song (Isa. 52:13): “he will be exalted” (hypsōthēsetai). All strands of NT witness concur in celebrating Jesus’ exaltation: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” ...

15. The Whole World Is under the Curses of the Covenant

Romans 3:9-20

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... the Torah is to stir up the bad inclination. This is why, says Paul in Romans 3:19–20, no one will be justified at the final ... Paul thereby refutes a synergistic/legalistic approach to justification that was pervasive in Second Temple Judaism. Illustrating the Text The heart of all humankind is depraved. Literature: Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. Written by a Nobel Prize–winning British author, this novel (1954) is sometimes seen as an allegory or fable. A group of British schoolboys is stranded ...

16. 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... is much less literal - being best understood as an eschatologically aimed echo of Psalm 22:21. Verse 18 pulls together all the strands of the web of Pauline faith. Out of Paul's experience of suffering, even out of his very death itself, the assertions of prayer, petition, thanksgiving and victory are made manifest for all to see. As the tense shifts from present to future, we know Paul's confidence is not in a physical rescue, but in the spiritual deliverance that awaits him. As a final word of praise ...

17. The Way Things Are

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... as a proof-text for anti-intellectualism and the idea that "you don't need no book learnin' to be a good Christian." Others have used it as a pretext for anti-Semitic thought, as if Paul is saying that because those bad Jews look for signs, and we don't (?) we are better than they. Neither of those strands is the heart of what Paul is saying. What he is saying is pretty clear: The message ("word") about the Cross is the power of God (v. 18); Christ is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (v. 24); he ...

18. Making Your Life Count

1 Timothy 2:5-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... great painstaking detail that the sculptor had employed on this statue—even on the very top of the head. Every strand of hair was in place. What impressed Hammerstein so was that the sculptor lived before helicopters or airplanes. He could ... very nature. He is intimately involved with His world and in the lives of each of His children. “There is one God,” declares St. Paul. Then he adds, “And there is but one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all . . ...

19. On Not Giving Up

Galatians 6: 7-16

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... the law, about persecution and the cross of Christ, about crucifixion and new creation. He draws together the different strands of his letter here, but the heart of our passage is verse 15: "For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is ... order of things. There is a new freedom from the old religious law. Even those who were pushing for circumcision didn't keep the whole law, Paul argued. As he writes earlier in Galatians 3:28: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no ...

20. Dust in the Wind

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Timothy Cargal

... reality of salvation. Salvation is the “grace of God” that we accept, but even having accepted it, one might have received it “in vain.” Paul’s emphasis here on reconciliation rather than repentance leads him to draw on a different strand of the tradition regarding the “day of the Lord” than what we have seen in the Joel passage. Citing Isaiah 49:8, Paul emphasizes that the climax of this age is “a day of salvation” rather than judgment. As we have seen, Joel would not have disagreed with ...

21. A Holy Kiss (Father's Day)

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: If I didn’t block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his. “The difference between mediocrity ... hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny. He had had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime ...

22. Israel’s Ill-Placed Confidence

Amos 5:18-27

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... words as well as deeds (Matt. 5:21–22; 12:36). Future, eschatological judgment is a key theme for Jesus (Matt. 10:15; 11:22, 24; 12:42), Paul (2 Thess. 1:5), and other NT writers (Heb. 9:27; 10:27; 2 Pet. 2:9; 3:7; 1 John 4:17; Jude 15; Rev. 14: ... is widely apparent in calls for repentance, personal moral uprightness, mercy, and concern for the marginalized. The NT Epistles continue these general strands of the concept. Righteousness is related to personal conduct (1 Thess. 2:10; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22; 1 ...

23. Searching for Happiness

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... artists started wandering the curb, carrying the bogus boxes inside the Macy’s shopping bags. When they spotted a potential buyer stranded in traffic, they walked up to the car window and started fast‑talking a cash deal. “Hey, man, I got a ... as blessings, he didn’t have what he really needed most--a grateful heart. I hope you’re not making the same mistake. St. Paul writes, “Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are ...

24. True Excellence

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Now, let me make sure I understand this. St. Paul seems to be saying that I can be an eloquent preacher of the gospel, with my worship services broadcast by satellite around the world, ... didn't. Amy had no other way to pay for either the rental car or the motel room. "So there I was," Amy wrote, "stranded at the airport." She went immediately to a pay phone to call her roommate back in California. She was upset and crying hysterically. It ...

25. The Family: A Place For Persons

Colossians 3:18-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the Church calendar. What a combination. Home, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Banquet -- and they go together. So we leap forward in Paul's letter to the Colossians to that challenging word about relationship in the family. Let's read those verses: ... The wind was cold, and the snow was deep. He slid and bumped and finally made it around the corner to the bus station. Every stranded traveler in Western Canada seemed to be there. Strangers to each other, pressing and pushing and loud. He finally found a place to sit, ...

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