Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2526 to 2550 of 4943 results

2526. On Trusting the Work of God

Mark 4:1-20

Sermon

George Reed

... them time to settle in and get to know us before we begin asking them a million questions or pressuring them to join up. If our welcome is to be the sowing of the gospel seed it must be done so that the stranger feels our respect for them. We continue to sow the seeds of God's reign in our caring for one another. While this is not limited to our own members, even the caring we do within the congregation is part of sharing the gospel as we help create a community where people feel cared for and loved ...

2527. John the Stall Cleaner

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of embracing the Advent of God’s forever new, rebirthing, redeeming, fractal love in this world. Mark’s gospel starts, like Genesis starts, with everything new — “a new beginning.” The Genesis text introduces us to God’s original design for creation, for life, for humans. The Mark text reveals the continuation of God’s “beginning” in the “gospel,” in the “good news” of “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” This is the Advent that we “prepare” for. Nothing less than the ...

2528. Changing the Inner Parts

Mk 1:1-8

Illustration

King Duncan

... energy every day, 3 or 4 times a day, turning the clock's hands to the right positions. This went on for several years, which kept the owner weary. He finally had had enough of the continuous corrections and decided to have the clock's inner parts fixed?" God did not intend us to make continuous changes by sending Christ into the world. God intended nothing less than to change the whole dynamic of human character. That's why each Advent we encounter this strange character John the Baptist with his call ...

2529. Wild Beasts

Genesis 9:8-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... activity bears the personal fingerprints of God. The human beings God creates on the sixth day of the Genesis 1 story reside in the same relationship to God as does the rest of creation: complete dependence upon God for their very existence, and continued dependence upon their fellow creatures for sustaining their existence. There is no hint that the relationship between God and non-human creation is diminished in any way because of the presence of this new human order of life. Indeed, the text this week ...

2530. Thank You, Magic Dragon

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... favorite gifts was a large green plush toy dragon, who quickly became the embodiment of the gift-giver and P.J.'s constant companion. As P.J. grew sicker, "Magic Dragon's" attentions never waned; notes of encouragement and support arrived continuously. The treasured toy dragon accompanied P.J. to the hospital, sympathetically sporting the same bandages and sharing all the painful, unpleasant treatments with this little boy. Tragically, despite all efforts, P.J. lost his battle with leukemia. At his funeral ...

2531. The Three Stages to Truth: A Biblical Philosophy of Education

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... deeply "in the breaking of bread.") But truth must be embodied in two ways. First, as the personal experiences of those who encountered the risen Jesus illustrate, the truth must be embodied within. Without an inner conviction of the truth there can be no continued movement. But truth must also become embodied without. It must reach beyond our minds and hearts and escape our lips. When Jesus leaves the travelers in Emmaus, he does not actually leave them, for he leaves himself on the table in the bread. But ...

2532. Stand Together or Fall Apart

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that the very nature of the Holy Spirit is to unify, not to divide. In 1 Corinthians 12:12 ff. Paul uses the analogy of the body to ridicule the existence of this internecine bickering over "gifts" surviving in a Christian community. As Christian communities continue to struggle to remain faithful to the image of community as ordained by Jesus and practiced with varying degrees of success by the early church, there is one more model we may turn to for guidance. So obvious that it may be overlooked, the ...

2533. You've Got That Healin' Touch

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... freedom has enabled us to pound out our own distressingly clashing accompaniment to this universal symphony. Thus we experience disease, injury, anxiety, stress, psychosis, and death. Thankfully, Romans 8 reminds us that the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are continually making intercession for us, and in words that are too deep to be uttered. Honest physicians realize that the only reason a doctor can produce health is because the human body is biased in favor of health. The universe is prejudiced ...

2534. The Urge to Purge

2 Samuel 12:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... rolled through. The pattern of public confession, with corporate consequences slowly transforming into private admissions of particular faults, re-played itself. But the basic irony of the church's attempt to make confession and forgiveness part of a life of faith has continued throughout. As the church has tried in various ways to get people to personally experience the gospel's urgent message to "Repent: The Kingdom of God is at hand," the act of confession itself has become a formal assurance that people ...

2535. The Job Description of a Leader

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... leaders are not to falter or break down, they will need the special prayers of a servant community behind them, and in front of them a personal resolve to set aside sacred time for the soul's feeding and growth. The techniques of "continuing instant in prayer" (Romans 12:12) are especially useful. It is a technique perhaps most fully developed by General Stonewall Jackson, the brilliant Southern tactician, who testified to a surge of prayer every time he licked the envelope of a letter he had written ...

2536. The Golden Calf and the Golden Table

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... table prepared for the Lord by the faithful Levite priests. It is a division in the standards of humanity that remains even today. Some choose to worship that golden calf of knowledge - which takes nearly as many forms as there are bits of information. Others continue to petition God for the gift of wisdom, placing their request on the golden table of true worship. Yet another "golden calf" text can be found in Psalm 106:19-20. These verses scathingly report that "They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped ...

2537. No Green Without Red

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... cookie. The man then ate a third cookie and she did likewise. By this time you would have thought the message would have gotten through to this cookie monster, but he still continued eating the cookies and she persisted in eating one for one until all the cookies were gone. As they boarded the plane, the guerilla warfare continued as each glared at the other with fire blazing in their eyes. Then she took her seat, reached into her purse for a tissue, and there found her still unopened package of cookies ...

2538. LightWorks

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... room, welcoming and reminding all who enter the home that the Lord's presence is there. A mezzuzah functions somewhat like a display sign on a business, proclaiming to those outside what they will find within - lives committed to upholding and continuing the Torah. The mezzuzah's presence literally embodies the Shema in the home, making it visible to all the generations gathered under that roof. Another symbol connected to the Shema is tefillin or phylacteries - leather boxes worn as reminders of faith ...

2539. Has He Appeared to You?

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... always lends strength and flexibility to the rest of any structure. Jesus' appearance began with a central core, his twelve disciples. It slowly branched out - to the 500, to the new apostles, and finally to the irascible Paul himself. This process continues today as Christ appears to each of us in our own experiences with the risen Lord. His presence may then be reproduced through the physical, psychological, interpersonal, institutional and ecological facets of our lives as they draw their strength and ...

2540. Christ the Snake

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... faith - we get inoculated with just enough of his death that a sort of vaccine is formed (l5). Paul has already received this inoculation. Without the pall of death hanging over him, Paul could joyously engage in his "ministry of reconciliation." Paul continues God's process of like curing like when this obstinate, obstreperous, sometimes downright obnoxious apostle seeks to bring the news of God's reconciling love to a church community that can match Paul's personality quirk by quirk. All of 2 Corinthians ...

2541. Unum Humanum

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... common with a Gentile who earned his living locking up and abusing prisoners? The answer of course is nothing - nothing except complete faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is everything. With that faith Paul, Silas and their former jailor became unum humanum. As the world continues to shrink we find our own welfare increasingly caught up in the well-being of our global neighbors. Ephesians 2:19-20 gives us an image of what might be if the church can witness through its own oneness to the rest of the world ...

2542. From a Distance

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... been as faithful in advocating peace and human rights, while aggressively providing emergency aid for refugees and economic development assistance, as the AFSC. It has selected as its anniversary theme three words that, when brought together, will help the world in the "continuing challenge to work for justice and peace as the 20th century draws to a close." The three words? "Faith, Risk, Change." Perhaps the best way to conclude this week's sermon is to ask your own congregation to squint in the direction ...

2543. Settle for an F

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to view faithfulness as virtuous for its own sake, we will consider it as an effective last-ditch effort to save our own hides by avoiding the AIDS epidemic. Much of postmodern culture seems to be a frenzied attempt to escape boredom by continually pushing out the borders and boundaries of experience. Why else would people voluntarily go "bungee-jumping" (leaping off bridges with only stretchy bungee cords lashed about their ankles to stop their free-fall), or spend $100 per person for a meal of nouvelle ...

2544. The Cost of Non-Discipleship

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... those who practice non-discipleship, who live their lives for their own sakes, need fear the Day of the Lord. For them, physically surviving these political and natural upheavals is of no consequence. Their souls remain in mortal danger as long as they continue to invest only in things and keep trying to buy God's pardon with gifts. The cost of non-discipleship, ultimately, is death. The modern media provide us with innumerable portraits of non-discipleship. In the best-selling weekly magazine in America ...

2545. Pit and Rock

Colossians 1:11-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of Jesus Christ, has taken coal dust and turned it into diamonds and has turned a dry hole into a well of sweet and life-sustaining water. Comparing our "pit and rock" beginnings with our diamond and well-spring present can only cause us to continuously praise the power and wonder of the Lord. The psalmist is right to follow his initial command for praise with a litany of God's strength and circumference. Paul is right to follow his recounting of our deliverance with his hymn of adoration for the power ...

2546. What Are You Looking For?

John 1:35-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... have "dropped out" for the rest of their lives. For most others, pressed for time but hopeful to find "filling" for this gnawing emptiness deep inside the soul, the spiritual search erupts at odd moments and in peculiar ways. Perhaps it is our continuing commitment to a "filling" schedule that has made a boom market for spiritual "quick fixes" in the last few years. In the marketplace of the mid-90s, spirituality has become a major consumer item. Whenever a spiritual ache twinges or an empty soul growls ...

2547. Easter Completes

Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... do the best job you can? 4. financial incompletes do you have debts that are mounting, and do you have trouble saving as you know you should? 5. physical incompletes do you eat and drink things that you know are bad for you, and do you continue to put off committing yourself to a healthy lifestyle? 6. personal incompletes do you avoid dreaming like you once did, especially dreaming that impossible dream that once set you on fire? 7. spiritual incompletes do you wish to commit 100 percent to God, yet fail to ...

2548. Was Jesus the First Buster?

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... " a moment when they watched the fragile illusion of "In Science we trust" and "In Technology we trust" blow up in their faces. Despite all the bad press Busters generally get, there is plenty good to say about this generation that must continually pick up the mess Boomers leave in their culturally swamping wake. Among the most endearing positive features that the Buster generation embodies: - The premium they place on friendships. Turn on television any night of the week and you will see show after ...

2549. One Breathwork, Many Bodyworks

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to give them special attention and care back on their home planet. What would you say to this proposal? What do you think your neighbors would say to this proposal? Try posing this question in an adult study group. Break up into small groups to continue to discuss it. Reform your larger group and share the thoughts that have been put forward. How many of this congregation, or how many of your neighbors, would be willing to have African-Americans taken to a "better home." Now, consider what your reaction ...

2550. By Faith Living

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... us out of any forward movement. Living victoriously in faith means we are free to prophesy our way forward in life, empowered to work with every fiber of our being to participate in that prophecy's birth. Faith in God's promises, faith in God's continued presence faith itself is the victory. When we live by faith, there can be nothing less than a victorious ending. Where was the victory for Abraham? When he took that first step on his journey to Canaan and claimed God's promise. The rest was commentary ...

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