Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3851 to 3875 of 4977 results

3851. No More Camping Out

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... looking skyward, and finished the exhale with the words, "Someday he'll light." Ultimately, of course, I did settle down and head off to seminary, but not before adding a few more gray hairs to my father's thinning collection. While bugging my folks, it all seemed quite normal to me. After all, it was my life, and I was having a good time. But finally, I landed. And today with a wonderful family and a great ministry, I feel blessed beyond description. I guess it was time. In our scripture reading today we ...

3852. It’s Good to Know Who Is Calling

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

When I was a boy, our family used to have a parakeet. The bird's name was "Beauty." Beauty was a bird like most. She spent her life in the cage poking at a mirror and whistling while my mom played classical music. She was quite tame, and we all loved playing with her. One special skill that she acquired, however, was whistling. In fact, she was able to perfectly copy the whistle that my dad used to call our pet dog. It was amazing. You really couldn't tell whether it was my dad or ...

3853. Great Expectations

2 Kings 5:1-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... . But the whole story has to make us stop and wonder how we have let our expectations limit us. Well, not so much our expectations perhaps, but rather our rigid adherence to our expectations. I remember calling on an elderly woman once who was quite racist. She refused treatment by a doctor on the hospital staff because he was African-American. No one could persuade, cajole, or otherwise convince her to change her expectations about black men. Compared to her, Naaman was a pussycat. Every place we go, every ...

3854. Setting All the Idols Down

Hosea 2:14-20

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... , and now refers to a psychological malady. Have you heard anyone accused of having a "martyr complex"? Similarly, preaching has taken on a negative connotation in secular circles. Preaching is now the equivalent of nagging or offering an unwelcome opinion. "Quit preaching at me!" The concept and meaning of idolatry has met with a similar fate. For we who inhabit the Judeo-Christian tradition, idolatry refers to a painful historic tendency for our ancestors and ourselves to pursue other gods. Idolatry ...

3855. A Funeral for “I Can’ts”

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... of the cross is the only way to Easter. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Mark 8:31-33 In other words, Peter ...

3856. Risking Relationships That Redeem

Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... the 1930s. Evelyn is suffering through the growing pains of a midlife crisis when she and her husband come across the quaint Depression-era ghost of a town called Whistle Stop. Their destination is a nearby retirement home where Evelyn quite by chance meets octogenarian Ninny Threadgoode. Evelyn is unhappy with herself and dissatisfied with her marriage. Sensing Evelyn's depression, Mrs. Threadgoode decides to lift her spirits by reminiscing about two Depression-era women whose friendship gave meaning and ...

3857. Tasting the Gruel of Love

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... is a man named Charles Colson. Many of you remember him as the political hatchet man for President Richard Nixon. While he was serving as special counsel to the President, Colson seemed to be a dispicable man, seemingly without a conscience. Then, quite remarkably, Chuck Colson had a thorough and complete conversion experience. It was in 1973 during the height of the Watergate proceedings. Please don’t be suspicious. This conversion experience was no ploy to keep Colson out of jail. In fact, he refused ...

3858. The Core of Hypocrisy

Matthew 23:1-39

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

... me!" She has never been nominated again. After F. Murray Abraham won an Oscar for his stellar performance as Salieri in the movie Amadeus, he was tapped to be an Oscar presenter at the following year's ceremony, and when he did this, he conducted himself quite pompously. In other words, he outwardly displayed the same pompous pride that inwardly filled the hearts of every actor there. But because he made the mistake of letting it show, he, too, has ever since been cast out into a kind of wilderness. So here ...

3859. Doomsday Prophets

Matthew 25:1-13

Illustration

Steven A. Peay

... War I almost gave some credence to Russell's "millennial dawn " and imminent Battle of Armageddon, but his claim that "millions now living will never die" just didn't hold. Russell died in 1916. His successors, now calling themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, have not been quite so specific about the end, but they'll still talk to you about it. By the way, they're also still convinced that the Watch Tower Society will someday rule the world. Over the last twenty years the writings of Hal Lindsey (The Late Great ...

3860. A Lifetime to Prepare

Matt 25:1-13; Luke 20:27-40

Illustration

King Duncan

... the marketplace he'd meet some pretty stupid people. But he was never sure they were worse off than he. Years passed with the servant carrying his staff. Then one day, he came back to the castle and was ushered into the bedroom of his master. His master was quite sick. In the course of their conversation, the master said, "I'm going on a long journey." The servant said, "When do you plan to be back?" The master said, "This is a journey from which I'll not return." The servant said, "Sir, have you made all ...

3861. Service

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

Richard Love

... sizes, different shapes, different notes, different roles to play. But like the piccolo player in Sir Michael's orchestra, we often in our own sovereignty decide that our contribution is not significant. Our contribution couldn't possibly make a difference. And so we quit playing. Stop doing that which we've been given to do. We drop out. But the Conductor immediately notices. From our perspective, our contribution may be small, but from His, it is crucial. I just have to believe I'm talking to some ...

3862. The Long Haul

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

David Beckett

... concerned with faithfulness than success. When success is our goal we are often tempted to take short cuts. And when we do we often miss out on vital life lessons faithfulness can teach us. Are you presently committed to something that is not yielding much return? Are you tempted to quit and try something else? Maybe a spirit of sticktuitiveness is what is needed, a long term vision to be patient and wait for the return.

3863. Give Us a Little Longer

Mark 13:24-37

Illustration

King Duncan

... her instructions. When she returned, sometimes she would come quietly up the stairs and see through the half-open door that they were quarreling or fooling around or just absorbed in something. Then there were other times when she would see that her children were not quite finished with their task so she would creep away to give them more time. Sometimes she would shut the front door with a bang and hear sudden noises of bustle as they hurried to get the room straightened. At such times one of the children ...

3864. In the Wrong Place?

Mark 1:1-8

Illustration

King Duncan

... church just as the Sunday School lesson was concluding. The pastor entered the church and greeted some of the people as he made his way to the pulpit. That morning he delivered a strong and inspiring sermon. People in the congregation weren't quite sure what to think, but they listened attentively. When the worship service concluded, the pastor descended from the pulpit, shook hands with the good people and headed toward home. Meanwhile, there was another small church a few miles away. It was filled with ...

3865. No Comment

2 Kings 2:1-12a

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... completeness - sometimes we dare not speak because no words can express our joy and happiness. Other times, like Isaiah in the temple, we can only utter "Holy, Holy, Holy" (6:3). To be sure, silence is not always golden. Sometimes it can be quite yellow, downright cowardly. In the words of Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, "In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot" (Nobel Lecture [New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980], 13). Whereas ...

3866. MegaGrace

Acts 4:32-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... work, his words on grace shattered all the old illusions of earned acceptance in which his Pharisaic life had schooled him. Acknowledging the unmanageable, unmerited quality of God's grace is one thing - learning to live with trust in its continued presence is quite another. In his second letter to the Corinthian Church, Paul admitted he had prayed three times for God to remove "a thorn in his flesh" (2 Cor. 12:7) which kept him from fully enjoying his newly redeemed life. Paul suggests that initially ...

3867. The Three Stages to Truth: A Biblical Philosophy of Education

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of the lawyer and the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The lawyer asks a good "academic" question: "Who is my neighbor?" What would naturally follow would be a discussion of the definition of "neighbor." What followed in the Jesus seminary was quite different - the transformation of an "academic" question into an engaged question: "Which among them proved neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?" Suddenly the discussion revolves around an issue that includes those both in and out of the story: "Go and ...

3868. Seeing the Elephant/Hearing the Owl

2 Samuel 18:24-33

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... goes way back to the third century BC, when Alexander the Great's soldiers defeated King Porus' elephant-borne troops in the IndusValley. Gerald Conti,"Seeing the Elephant,"Civil War Times Illustrated, (33 June 1984), 19. Today some of our "elephants" and "owls" are not quite so dramatically physical, but they are just as capable of stopping us dead in our tracks. How many people struggling to make their lives better have been trapped by the irony that you can't get a job without experience and yet you can ...

3869. Yellow Wind

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... convinced that each and every image is a clairvoyant prediction of our own age and believe our own status as that of the final culminating "end-times" in order for these texts to have any relevance at all? And if we can't quite swallow all these bizarre creatures and feel uncomfortable in confidently applying all the ancient words to our current world, must we find large portions of scripture completely unapproachable and irrelevant? It is ironic that the "mainline" (a.k.a. "sideline") churches have often ...

3870. A Lovehope Faith

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Paul so ardently underscores, and the two other "abiding" virtues, faith and hope, still remains an outstanding guide to our understanding. (See Emil Brunner, Faith, Hope, and Love [Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956].) Brunner insists that the relationship between faith and love is quite simple for, "...faith is the hand by which we receive love, the way in which we receive God's revelation." In other words "...faith is nothing in itself but the openness of our heart to God's love" (75). For Christians ...

3871. Home Alone

Revelation 21:10, 22-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of a young boy who is accidentally left home alone when his family flies off for a European vacation. While his frantic parents encounter endless delays trying to return for their misplaced son, the boy is shown learning to manage by himself, quite nicely, thank you. He masters the tasks of grocery shopping, cooking, laundry and not-so-incidentally also manages to foil two would-be burglars. For this upbeat movie there are few bad consequences suffered by either parents or child from their unplanned ...

3872. Speak Up for Forgiveness

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -reducing technique, forgiveness beats aerobics and primal scream therapy. But forgiveness is not a duck's back. Being a "forgiving" person does not mean a water-rolling-off-the-back kind of disengagement from people or situations that hurt us. Quite the opposite. Forgiveness requires deep involvement with the offending party and situation. It requires facing up to and feeling the full brunt of the hurt. Hidden feelings do not have the necessary strength to forgive. Master storyteller/pastor/theologian ...

3873. The Necessary Book

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... capable of meeting all their basic necessities for perhaps many, many miles. Thus the town was a stop "necessary" for the well-being, even survival, of the travelers. (Some towns in Pennsylvania and Virginia still have "Necessary" in their names.) Until quite recently, one could buy at a local stationery supply store a volume entitled "The Necessary Book." Indeed a thoughtful, responsible provider would not neglect keeping his or her "Necessary Book" up-to-date and easily accessible. The Necessary Book was ...

3874. Rags and Robes

Micah 1:1-7; 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... on the basis of his dress. Hendricks finds Barrows' work, though new in costume, completely in line with the best in traditional religious art. Still, her work shocks. One convent had to remove a Barrows painting after a visiting superior declared she was quite sure Jesus would never wear overalls. History and Scripture would seem to disagree with her. God has consistently focused divine concern on those who are oppressed and overwhelmed, poor in pocket and in heart, ragged in flesh and in spirit. Micah's ...

3875. FaithRace

2 Timothy 4:6-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . The referee counted to 10 and the fight was over. Sociologically speaking, life does not always have a happy ending. But we must still strive to finish. We don't set out to "run the great race of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12, NEB) with a mind to quit halfway. What is involved in this admonition to "finish the race?" What does it mean for a Christian or a congregation to take this text seriously and train for a race where one runs for the duration? What does it take to complete the course? During broadcasts of ...

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