Sermon and Worship Resources

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Galatians 5:1-15

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... that the United States government wanted you to be a soldier. But how did Uncle Sam become a symbol for the United States? I'm told there was once a man in Massachusetts named Samuel Wilson who was around when Paul Revere made his famous ride to warn the American people that the British were coming. Later Sam Wilson worked for the Army stamping the letters "U.S." on barrels of beef for the U.S. government. Since those initials had not previously been used to stand for United States, the townspeople assumed ...

2. Living in The Spirit of Generosity

2 Corinthians 9:6-12, Galatians 5:22-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... s an old Dennis the Menace cartoon, it shows Dennis and Joey leaving the Wilson's front porch, each with a handful of cookies. Joey has this surprised look on his face and Dennis says, "Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we're nice, but because she's nice." ... the best way to be kind is to "Remember the Golden Rule . . . and remember that it's your turn." I really like that. Samuel Johnson once said: "Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." (6) Ann Curry, news anchor of NBC's Today Show ...

3. Ezekiel's Call

Ezekiel 1:1-28, Ezekiel 2:1-3:15, Ezekiel 3:16-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... the point. This is a “vision,” after all; its images and ideas need not correspond to our sense of logic (see R. R. Wilson, “Prophecy in Crisis: The Call of Ezekiel,” in Interpreting the Prophets [ed. J. L. Mays and P. J. Achtemeier; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987], ... Moses’?,” JSOT 61 [1994], pp. 97–109). This experience would have been overwhelming for the young priest. As Samuel Terrien observes, Ezekiel “could not expect that Yahweh would manifest his presence in a remote and totally alien ...

4. “His Anger Lasts Only a Moment, but His Favor Lasts a Lifetime”

Psalm 30:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... syntax is difficult. The NIV renders the Hebrew noun for “glory” (kabod), the obvious subject of the verb, as “my heart.” Wilson makes the very attractive proposal to take “glory” as an exclamation, just as it is in 29:9. Thus the psalmist ... whether it be the temple or the palace, would be the positive pole of history’s wide vacillations. In fact, the writer of Samuel remarks that David’s building of his palace marked that point when he “knew that the Lord had established him as king over ...

5. How To Treat Your Enemies

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." After World War I, President Woodrow Wilson as a Christian urged a greater measure of gentleness in dealing with the defeated nations. French Premier Clemenceau, who felt much ... that is what the gospel teaches for you and for me. Conclusion Yes, David treated his enemy Nabal with grace. But notice in 2 Samuel 18:5, David had occasion to live graciously yet again. His own son, Absalom, had revolted, trying to wrest the crown for himself ...

6. David and the Devil

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... palace roof. As he walked around up there, he saw a woman taking a bath in her house. She was very beautiful.” (2 Samuel 11:2) Nothing oblique yet. Every day, women and men encounter people of the opposite sex whose physical countenance leads them to give ... talk about David capitulating to the Devil. I do that with some trepidation, because it is tragically easy to fall into the Flip Wilson mode and say, “The Devil made me do it,” and thus avoid any sense of personal responsibility. But I take the figure ...

7. Something To Die For

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... in a vision, he saw Jesus bending over the feet of rough, uneducated fishermen. "Lord," he whispered, "you washed their feet; I will black their shoes." Samuel Brengle went on to establish the Salvation Army in America. At the time of his death, the Salvation Army was thriving in both the United States and ... Alumni Newsletter, Spring 2003. 2. Adapted from a sermon by Pastor Jonathan Wilson. 3.Redford Williams, M.D. and Virginia Williams, Ph.D., Anger Kills (New York:Times Books, Random House, 1993), p. 122.

8. Historic: The Declaration of Independence

Illustration

Staff

... New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton ...

9. “Create in Me a Pure Heart, O God, and Renew a Steadfast Spirit within Me”

Psalm 51:1-19

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... unaware of other moral aberrations, since they had no such revelation from their deities. 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned.Wilson explains: “The measure of the psalmist’s sin in this case is ‘what is evil in [God’s] sight’ (51:4)—a much ... God’s ways. 51:14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God.The idea here resonates with David’s story in 2 Samuel 11–12 and implicates him in the death of Uriah. It could, however, be a prayer that God will deliver him from having his ...

10. “In God I Trust and Am Not Afraid. What Can Mere Mortals Do to Me?”

Psalm 56:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... had seized him in Gath” (see 1 Sam. 21:10–22:1; 27:1–28:2). The writer of 1 Samuel does not give any specific information about this Philistine arrest. However, when informants approach the king about David’s public popularity ... means “trample” (sh’p). See Genesis 3:15, where shup (“crush”/“strike”) is a variation of the root sh’p (see also Amos 2:7). Wilson sees the imagery of the dog pursuing its prey and snapping at the heels of its victims, taking the verb sh’p in the sense of ...

11. “Zeal for Your House Consumes Me”

Psalm 69:1-36

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... be disgraced.The use of three names for God reinforces the prayer. The lesson here is that an individual failing has consequences for the wider community. Wilson draws attention to the shared concern of Psalms 69 and 70–71 for disgrace and shame as a result of enemy attacks (69:6–7, 19 ... building the temple. David had a great passion for building the temple, and while the story in the books of Samuel and Chronicles is clear on this matter, the idea that he was misunderstood for it seems to be an additional ...

12. Words As Images

Sermon

Michael Rogness

... stood before the king and told a story, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor ..." (2 Samuel 12:1) David was drawn into the story, so that when it was turned to him he immediately grasped the meaning. In writing about ... , and this is done by making sure that the listener knows what the primary theme, or "controlling image," is. Patricia Wilson-Kastner advises, Normally we will want to make one particular image central; other images will either clarify or support it. Sometimes ...

13. How To Love

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... children, not only about big issues, but also day-to-day matters. In the 1950s a psychologist, Stanton Samenow, and a psychiatrist, Samuel Yochelson, set out to prove that crime is caused by environment. They began a 17-year study involving thousands of hours ... answer to crime is a "conversion of the wrong-doer to a more responsible lifestyle." In 1987, Harvard professors James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein came to similar conclusions in their book CRIME AND HUMAN NATURE. They determined that the cause ...

14. To Live Is To Grow

1 Timothy 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and read the verses that call you to continue. Here are some samples of what you will find. "Continue following the Lord your God" (I Samuel 12:14) "Jesus said,...'If you continue in My word, you are truly my disciples..." (John 8:31) "As the Father has loved Me, so ... and destructiveness. We are aware that we are all these things, and yet we're a unique unrepeatable miracle of God. Woodrow Wilson was a man of great personal gifts. He was not, however, the best-looking fellow in the world, and he knew it. ...

15. Dad: The Head of a Godly Family

Joshua 24:15

Sermon

James Merritt

... father spends only 8 minutes a day in direct conversation with his children. In families where the mother works, too, it drops to 4 minutes.18 Samuel S. Leibowitz, the Senior Judge of Brooklyn's highest juvenile criminal court, concluded from his intensive search in various peoples of the world for the cause ... , The Atlanta Journal. 17 Feder, The Conservative Chronicle. 18 Colson, p. 176. 19 Carl W. Wilson, Our Dance Has Turned to Death, (Atlanta: Renewal Publishing Co.), p. 48. 20 Blankenhorn, p. 226.

16. Training the Formative Years

Illustration

In the 1950s a psychologist, Stanton Samenow, and a psychiatrist, Samuel Yochelson, sharing the conventional wisdom that crime is caused by environment, set out to prove their point. They began ... Personality, they concluded that the answer to crime is a "conversion of the wrong-doer to a more responsible lifestyle." In 1987, Harvard professors James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein came to similar conclusions in their book Crime and Human Nature. They determined that the cause of crime is a lack of ...

17. “They Will Proclaim the Works of God and Ponder What He Has Done”

Psalm 64:1-10

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... the king is rejoicing in God, the picture is completed in 64:10, adding all of God’s people to the king’s rejoicing. Wilson suggests that Psalms 56–68 form a group of poems that have an increasingly expansive emphasis on God’s subjection of the nations (67 ... my life from the threat of the enemy. The act of complaining is a grievance expressed in words. See 1 Samuel 1:16, where the word for “complaint” is translated as “anguish.” The word “threat” (pahad) means “fear” (a terrifying fear ...

18. “When You Ascended on High, You Took Many Captives”

Psalm 68:1-35

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... Deuteronomy text.1Given the hints of a composite nature, the story line nevertheless has produced a succinct and quite beautiful narrative of salvation history. Wilson makes a case for Psalm 68 as the climax in a series of psalms (Pss. 65–68) sharing a call to praise God and ... in Canaan with abundant showers. 68:10 Your people settled in it . . . you provided for the poor.In 2 Samuel 23:11, 13, the Hebrew word for “people” (hayyah) is used for a “group” (NIV: “band”). A better rendering here ...

19. The Plank

Matthew 5:38-48; 7:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Fullness of Time.” Robert H. Stein. “Jesus the Messiah.” Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with Trypho 88.” **See Marvin Wilson. “Our Father Abraham.” P. 120. ***Photos for threshing board in Nazareth taken by Tim Frank Archaeology. www.timfrankarchaeology. ... ” to “restore life to” to “vindicate.” For more on the “judges” such as Othniel, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samuel, Eli, Shagmar, Abimelech, Tola, Yair, Ibzan, Elan, Addon, Barak, Ehud, and Samson, who were known as deliverers (shophet ...

20. Samuel, A Blessing From God

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

Call To Worship Leader: Let all who have been blessed by the Lord gather now for worship! People: We have each one in our own way God's blessings and grace. Leader: And we are each one called to share God's blessings in all of the world. People: We are blessed that God may use us as blessings to others in need. Leader: Let us give praise to God for the gift of being a blessing to others. All: Blessed be the name of the Lord! Collect Almighty and merciful God, You have through history blessed the nations ...

21. Under Covers

Illustration

Wilson O. Weldon

Samuel Horton tells of visiting Lord Grey of Fallodon, an entrepid English statesman, after Lord Grey had spoken at a church conference. At this time Lord Grey’s eyesight was failing fast and he had learned Braille. During the conversation, someone referred to Grey’s eyesight and expressed sympathy. Lord Grey looked up with a smile and said, "Oh, well, I take my books to bed with me and put them under the covers and read with my fingers and keep warm and comfortable and that is what none of you can do." ...

22. Job's Reply to Bildad

Job 9:1–10:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

How Can a Mortal Be Righteous before God?: Job’s response to Bildad’s speech moves the discussion in a new direction. Up to this point in the book Job has largely been addressing the extremity of his suffering and raising the agonizing question as to how a righteous person can be allowed to suffer so horrendously. Now, however, in response to Bildad’s suggestion that the resolution of Job’s suffering lies in his willingness to “look to God and plead with the Almighty” (8:5), Job begins to consider the ...

23. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Sarcastic Introduction Job’s response to Bildad’s third speech is extended (six chapters long)—even for the usually loquacious Job! Many commentators divide up the chapters attributed to Job to supply an extension to Bildad’s brief speech, as well as to wholly reconstruct a missing third speech for Zophar. Such reconstruction, however, can only proceed on a presumptive assumption of what each speaker would have said—and is thus controlled ultimately by the reconstructor’s theory rather than challenged and ...

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