Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3176 to 3200 of 4963 results

3176. The True Definition of a Sanctuary

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and that can immediately communicate back to others our exact location. Hikers and explorers take beacons and cell phones with them so that they're never truly lost, just perhaps not yet found. Our risks aren't geographical anymore. But there remain high-risk, frighteningly unknown territories for us to dare to explore. Where? The new uncharted, unknown territories lie inside our hearts and inside our souls. These offer risks that can be far more terrifying that any mythical dragons or uncharted waters ...

3177. A High FLOSS Church

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... cared less for individual differences than he did for the great message of the gospel. Whether weak or strong the community of faith stood together before God. We are servants of the Creator, therefore all creation must serve together. Separate agendas, individual idiosyncrasies can remain, as long as faithful service in God's name is at the center of all the community's actions. [Note: This sermon can also be used as a Labor Day Sermon. If so, use as follows . . . ] This weekend is extended by a day for ...

3178. Gone with the Wind

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 've heard of the centipede with 100 legs. He walks fine until someone asks him, "How can you walk with 100 legs?" and once he begins to realize how impossible that is, he can't move an inch. For those who have already sunk beneath the waves, their only remaining power is to try and pull other down with them. That's the reason in most "12-Step" programs recovering alcoholics or drug addicts are told to cut all ties with their old gang of users and abusers. Misery loves company, and if it has to, Misery will ...

3179. Why Not a Christian Live 8 for the Environment?

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... From a biblical perspective, we can't escape this truth: the state of creation is intimately linked to the state of human actions and attitudes. Poisonous attitudes begat a poisoned environment. The rage of war leaves behind ravaged, savaged land. No ecosystem can remain in balance as long as the desires of humanity are imbalanced. Paul links together the fall of Adam and the consequent fall of creation with a poignant description. All creation groans, as he puts it, to be brought back into its God-created ...

3180. Choose Four

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... crowd had accused the apostles of being influenced by alcohol, not moved by the Holy Spirit. Yet in his new Pentecost power and his new Spirit-filled voice, Peter had the audacity to ask this hostile audience to make a choice. Choose to remain as you are - unhappy, unfulfilled, uncertain, unopened to the Spirit and the mission of God. Or choose a new path, choose something else entirely. Peter called upon those gathered, those who had heard amazing, multi-lingual calls to faith to respond with definitive ...

3181. Are You Willing to Be a Donkey?

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in honor of the donkey's humble service to Jesus, the animal was rewarded with a permanent "sign of the cross," for most donkeys do show a distinctive black cross pattern across their sturdy shoulders. Despite this lip service from church tradition, the donkey still remains far beyond the pale of glory. Little girls don't dream of riding across summer fields on a little donkey. The Kentucky Derby doesn't blow the herald horn for a herd of dinky donkeys to race around the track. And everyone from Shakespeare ...

3182. The Insight of Eyesight

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that we thought it was. We visit a country where fresh water is a luxury and death and disease an everyday companion. Yet how many of us have also glimpsed tremendous truths, mind-altering insights, and yet chosen to blink them away, preferring to remain in the safe surroundings we've built around ourselves and our lives. We turn off the commercials that implore us to save the children. We hurry past the street-people littering our sidewalks with their misery and despair. " We black-out the sounds of ...

3183. How to Beat the Devil

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... what it was they needed. Jesus refused to buy into Israel's doubts and despairs. Jesus refused to let the devil play on either his physical weakness (his hunger and exhaustion), or his spiritual strength (his affirmation as God's beloved Son). Jesus simply remained confident, obedient, and humble in the face of life's reality and God's omnipotence. Staple's, the huge office supply chain store, has a new commercial out that illustrates the power of the devil's various temptations. In their ad whenever an ...

3184. Night Vision

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... by it. But there were times when these three eyewitness disciples were blinded by the light, not illumined by it. They could neither grasp its majesty, nor see in what direction it was shining. There were times when the transfiguration remained an isolated spotlight, an unconnected mountaintop experience, until after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. It took the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to regenerate the light of the transfiguration into the life of the new Christian communities. It ...

3185. What God Requires of Us

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus the Christ. Through Jesus, the only one who could wholly fulfill the qualities of mishpat, hesed, and hasnea in a human life, the door to a right relationship with God has once again been opened to us. But to stay in that covenant bond the requirements remain the same. We're still called by God to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. We're still called by God to live these three words while our whole beings: remind me of these three words again: mishpat, hesed, hasnea. How tragic ...

3186. Come Back

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... turned him over to the hated Roman authorities. Even the Romans betrayed their own legal boundaries and rules of order, enabling them to put Jesus to death, despite his innocence. In this week's gospel text Jesus cautions his disciples that if they remain faithful to him they too will experience the bitterness of betrayal even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends. We can even be betrayed by strangers. There was another national news story the last week in October. Maybe some of you remember ...

3187. Unchained Melody

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Systematic Theology [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999], 38.) The epistle text for today declares that the word of God isn't chained (verse 9). Even though Paul himself was chained, imprisoned for his preaching of the gospel word, the Word made flesh, the gospel itself, remained free from the restraints of human effort. God's divine Word, the person and power of Jesus Christ, couldn't be contained or detained by the walls of a prison or the iron shackling witnesses for that Word. It was the powerful witness ...

3188. Quarterback 101

Jeremiah 32:1-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... conducts this business in front of a court full of witnesses. He carefully attends to all the details so that the sale is wholly legally, fully binding. Finally Jeremiah orders a third party, Baruch, to place the deeds in an earthenware jar so that they may remain safe and undamaged for a very long time. Just how long is suggested by the mid-twentieth century find of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scrolls carefully saved for thousands of years in earthenware jars in order to preserve them and keep them safe. But we ...

3189. Stirred, Not Shaken

Hebrews 13:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... us from generations past. Christians are called to be stirred, not shaken. The Hebrews author makes it clear that shaking is God's domain - a divine job with global and cosmic ramifications. If the church is built on true foundations, it can and shall remain unshaken no matter what amount of shaking is going on in the wider culture, no matter what quakes and shakes God is doing in the world. Stirring is the job of the faithful - continuous, unfailing, untiring, stirring. In fact, at the pool of Bethesda ...

3190. But Wait! There's More!

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... from time to time. News about progress in the war against cancer, and heart disease, and diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, etc. And we are grateful. We want to cling on to life. But deep in our hearts we know these are only holding actions. One thing in life remains inevitable: we all shall die. We all shall lose people we love to death. There is no more hopeful good news that can come to us than that which was announced 2,000 years ago: Death has been defeated. “O death, where is your victory; O death, where ...

3191. The FUD Club: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... “gathering” of the faithful had not occurred at the time of Jesus’ return, then what other tenets of Paul’s preaching might be without merit? The focus of this Second Thessalonian letter, therefore, is to urge the faithful to remain unshaken in their convictions and unmoved by false reports of an already returned Redeemer, whether these “reports” come through prophetic utterances, oral testimony, or written words. There is some debate over whether this false teaching actually declared that the ...

3192. An Uncomfortable Comforter

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Jerome how comfortable he felt in that chair. He couldn't understand the concept. He wouldn't know how to answer you. The word comfortable did not originally refer to enjoyment or contentment. Its Latin root was ‘confortare’--to strengthen or console--and this remained its meaning for centuries. We use it this way when we say "He was a comfort to his mother in her old age." (Witold Rybczynski, Home: A Short History of an Idea (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), 20.) In fact, our modern concept of comfort ...

3193. The Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... leading a worship service at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. He opened up the service with song requests. A horribly disfigured woman requested the song, “Count Your Many Blessings.” As the worshipers sang enthusiastically, the missionary bowed his head and remained silent. He was too overcome with emotion to join them. A friend who heard his story remarked, “I suppose you’ll never be able to sing that song again.” The missionary answered, “No, I’ll sing it. Just never in the same way ...

3194. Thanks for Nothing!

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... were all waiting in the wing to deluge a helpless world with their calamities. Thanks for nothing, Jesus! And that wasn't the worst of it. Jesus discloses to his band of 12 that special miseries and hardships await them. Those who remain faithful are guaranteed such special attentions as arrest, persecution, public inquisitions, betrayal by friends and family, even death at the hands of those they trusted. Thanks for nothing, Jesus! No one could possibly accuse Jesus of sugarcoating and frosting the future ...

3195. Conversion to Christ

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... the ground and the frost painted the trees silver. The Giant could not understand why spring had not come to his garden; he was confused. The spring came and went to the land, but not to the Giant's garden. Summer passed and autumn came, but the garden remained in winter. One day the Giant awoke to the sweet song of a bird. He looked out the window and beheld a beautiful site. Children had crawled through a small opening in the garden and were playing. The trees were in their autumn glory, the flowers were ...

3196. Hands On

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in Houston, Texas, there used to be an exhibit in which people held hands. The idea was the more people who held hands, the brighter the lights of the exhibit became. If there was no interaction--then the exhibit and the area around it remained dark. Two Possible Endings: 1) "Gerald Coates, leader of the Pioneer movement in England, compared the fivefold ministry to the five fingers of the hand. The apostle is the thumb. He gives stability, holds the counterbalance, and can literally touch all the other ...

3197. Let Familiarity Breed Contentment

Hebrews 13:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... lesson the Hebrews writer mandates some behaviors that for twenty-first century Christians may appear quite mundane. They're not. They are, in fact, daily, deliberate miracles. · Love each other. · Extend unqualified hospitality to all who seek it. · Remain true and faithful in marriage and in all your commitments · Dismiss the false securities of money, of those valuations which can be held and sold, gathered and scattered. · Claim the Lord as your greatest – indeed only – asset. · Remember ...

3198. Missing the Mark

1 Samuel 8:1-22

Sermon

Charles Allo

... and with it eternal glory. 11 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; 13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Through Christ we will have the opportunity reign with Him, victorious over sin, death and the grave. No more pain, no more suffering. We are commissioned as emissaries and the reflection of His grace to minister to those in need. Yet, we ...

3199. Obstacles as Popsicles

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... midwives featured in Exodus' preamble to Moses' birth announcement? They feared God but did not have any inkling of God's long-range plans or provisions. These midwives knew that fearing God meant that certain behavior was expected of them, that they must remain true to their calling to serve life, not death. But even as they covered their inaction with a clever deceit, the midwives had no way of knowing what Pharaoh would do to them in retaliation. [NOTE: The text itself is obscure, with few commentators ...

3200. Set Life Free

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... producing fruit." Without fruit, you're nothing. Without fruit, you're without a defining identity. No matter what your DNA says. John 12:24 tell us that much fruit results from Jesus' death: "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Set life free, church. Sow some seeds. And in so doing, bear much fruit.

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