Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 4226 to 4250 of 4968 results

4226. When C Is Not Average

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... look how God used these average people to do wondrous and mighty things. Ordinary people like Moses, who couldn't talk before people; ordinary people like Isaac, who was an honest man, a good man, but boasted nothing special about himself; ordinary people like the twelve disciples, none of them rich, or famous, or studied - just twelve common men with uncommon faith. And if you read the Bible with an eye toward whom God chooses, you will see over and over again that God has let the gospel hang by a thread ...

4227. Speaking the S-word

1 Samuel 16:14-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... evil. We need not fear speaking the "S"-word, acknowledging the existence and work of evil in our lives, if we possess the "Sword" of the Spirit. The "Disciple's Prayer," more commonly called the "Lord's Prayer," specifically asks God to "deliver us from evil." The mediator of that deliverance is the very gift given to the disciples at Pentecost - the active spirit of God. Since Pentecost, therefore, we are all engaged in deliverance ministries, using our own experience of God's spirit to battle various ...

4228. A Postmodern Coat of Crayola Colors

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... do our doubts and fears keep us looking backwards over our shoulders, expecting the worst to befall us? This week we consider what message we send to the world when our faith is so fragile that we cannot even trust God to be with us. Like the disciples, sadly we, too, lack a daily trust in God's continued presence in our lives. Despite the fact that we are supposedly a Pentecost people, living with the knowledge of the resurrected and risen Christ's reconciling power, we still twitch and tremble at the sign ...

4229. How to Play Fair in Foul Play

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus tries to get his followers to understand that they too will face a hostile world, a world that destroys those who confront its sins and shortcomings. For the soul to survive this world Jesus suggests guidelines to his disciples so that they may continue to play fair in the midst of foul play. Disciples of Christ must learn to ignore the call of the self. It is the self that lashes out defensively when attacked. It is the self that tries to "get even." From Jesus and from Job we get a lesson ...

4230. Are You a Crazy Dog?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... way high is low. Jesus turns the world upside-down, and invites us to an upside-down way of living, an inside-out way of thinking. Are you brave enough to be a Crazy Dog? Jesus spent most of his ministry promoting "Crazy Dog" thinking - urging his disciples to join with him in the Crazy Dog pursuit of faithfulness and fulfillment. The Kingdom of God, Jesus insisted, would be filled with Crazy Dogs - people who believe the first are last, the greatest are the least, the strong are the weak, and the meek win ...

4231. Has He Appeared to You?

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... different parts of your life, different days in your week, in order to rediscover God's presence there. Jesus' physical appearance on this earth was just the beginning of the greatest story ever told. For a few, like Simon Peter and the rest of the disciples, the physical presence of this living, breathing Jesus was enough impetus to effect radical change in their lives. But God's salvation story came into full bloom when the resurrection took place. For the rest of us, then, it is through the appearance of ...

4232. Let It Breathe...

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... kissed by the divine. If the first kiss brought us breath and birth, the second kiss brought us rebirth and a second breath" (298). As John records Jesus' first post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, Jesus came and stood among them. "Peace be with you!" he said, and then showed them his hands and his side. So when the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus repeated, "Peace be with you!", and said, "As the Father sent me, so I send you." Then he breathed on them saying, "Receive the ...

4233. Terminator 3

Acts 9:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... expects the worst - judgment, accusation, termination. But Jesus' welcoming words and soothing actions dissipate Peter's guilt and transform it into faith and love. Instead of the judgment he feared, Peter finds himself entrusted with a new mission and a unique authority. The disciple who could not even stand up for his Lord on the night he was imprisoned, is now called on to watch over all members of the faith, guiding them and guarding them into the future. Part of what children found so entrancing about ...

4234. I Love You, Man... And I Don't Want Your Beer

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , frustrated and vengeful. The church cannot count itself as one with these legislatively directed reactions. We must act differently because the church is grace-based. Our community exists solely as a result of Christ's loving sacrifice for our sake and for our salvation. As disciples of Christ, we know that all Jesus required of his followers was one thing, and that one thing was everything that they love one another. When any of us falls short of that goal, as each and every one of us will time and time ...

4235. Dare Care

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... entrepreneurial, risk-taking, failure-embracing strategy. Can we support the more imaginative and energetic self-starters in our midst? Social systems are not unlike biological systems; they work not so much by trial and error, but by trial and success. The disciples risked ridicule and retribution by proclaiming the gospel message out to that crowd in words they could all easily understand. They took a chance and believed that the authority and power of the Holy Spirit would work through their words. It ...

4236. The Hand, the Lamb and the Dove

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... be?" is the great question throughout history when one is faced with the mystery of the Trinity Three-in-One and One-in-Three. In Helen Waddell's famous book Peter Abelard, the Canon of Notre Dame converses with one of Abelard's fiery young disciples, Pierre, about the master's latest treatise on the Trinity. Pierre asks: "Have you read the De Trintate, Gilles?" Gilles nods. "It is more than his accusers have, I be bound." "And is it heretical?" "Of course it's heretical. Every book that ever was written ...

4237. Armageddon Anxiety

John 6:56-69

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and he will reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15). "Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father ... so that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:24, 28). In this week's gospel text, Jesus is deserted by "many of his disciples" because of his refusal to tell the people what they wanted to hear. His flesh and blood imagery was both too gutsy and too graphic, too fantastic and too unreal for a large portion of his Jewish audience. The great irony of this text is that the very ...

4238. When Too Much Can Be Too Little

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... discipleship, to the kingdom of God. Jesus challenged the man to give up his trust in things, to relinquish his hold on what he held, to give up his control, to take up God's security. In exchange, Jesus offered the rich man a place as one of his disciples. Here was an offer from the Messiah to travel with him, live and walk with him on an intimate, daily basis. That Jesus' words hit directly at the center of this rich man's most damaged, separated self is evident by the pain those words caused him. The ...

4239. A 24-7-365 God

Hebrews 7:23-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . As our high priest, Jesus is constantly "on call." Jesus is eternally accessible at a "needs notice" 24-7-365. The healing story in today's gospel text demonstrates how Jesus made on-demand "house calls" at any time, any place, anywhere. Jesus and his disciples are starting out on the road to Jerusalem, moving toward the final events that await them there. Suddenly, the cries of a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, come ringing down the road: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Despite the shushings of others ...

4240. Hello!?

Romans 8:26-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is a legacy of loaves and fishes. In the face of homelessness ... there is compassion. In the face of hardship ... there is the promise of goodness. Alternative Sermon Idea Simply reverse the sermon theme. Are you prepared for the world to say "Hello!?" to you? As a disciple of Jesus, what you do and say will be greeted with a chorus of "Hellos!?" by the world. Brendan Manning and Jim Wallis have warned us of the need to be prepared to be seen as "fools for Christ." "A Christian living in the world but not ...

4241. And Again I Say...Amen!

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... By squarely facing the criticisms and cut-downs our enemies throw at us _ as Jesus suggests "taking it on the chin" _ we have all the more negative energies that we can put towards positive purposes _ adjusting our own attitudes. 2. Be a So-Be-It Disciple If you must say "No," consider grounding it in a "Yes." It is easy to become a "No-Christian." It is easy to find yourselves sitting with people only in their troubles and bad times and seldom sitting down with them for celebration and gratitude. Look how ...

4242. Spiritual Focus and Peripheral Vision

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... vision. He brought into focus the smallest and the least alongside the cosmic and divine. In the midst of serving an anxious, pressing crowd, he could feel the touch of the hemorrhaging woman and focus on her needs. In the midst of teaching his chosen disciples, he could connect with the tiny children running underfoot and focus on their needs. In the midst of preaching to and healing a huge throng of people, he could hear the hungry rumblings of empty stomachs and focus on that need. The choice is ours ...

4243. On Time

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... cannot hope to fully understand God's sense of timing - if neither the "angels of heaven, nor the Son" are privy to the divine schedule of events, it's a cinch that no simple human is likely to get a printed time sheet. Jesus' words to his disciples in today's gospel lesson urge them not to worry about God's sense of timing, but to be concerned about their own state of readiness. "Keep watch," "stay awake," "be prepared" is Jesus' counsel - not "worry," "stew," or "fret" about what you cannot control. The ...

4244. Ephesians 1:3-14

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... The “seal” of the Holy Spirit clearly marks the community of faith. Those who are truly “in Christ” bear this “seal,” this mark, of the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives. The central blessing portion (vv.4-10) describes just how disciples “in Christ” will experience this new reality in their lives. Though Paul introduces the idea of predestination in this blessing unit, the nature of that predestination is not his concern at this point. What is his concern is blessing and praising God ...

4245. John 6:24-35

John 6:24-35

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... text, it is a good thing he did! Seldom has a more ungrateful, obstreperous, and pathetically ignorant lot been more clearly portrayed than by John in this chapter. On the day after the miracle of the loaves, the throng wakes to find Jesus and his disciples had crossed the sea to Capernaum. (John's geography does not agree with Mark's or Luke's, but it is of little consequence.) Conveniently (for both the crowd and the gospel writer) some boats appear and ferry the people over to Jesus. Though anxious ...

4246. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... those to whom he appeared. Luke breaks with Matthew and Mark's tradition of placing the call of the first disciples at the earliest stages of Jesus' ministry. Rather, Luke waits until Jesus has an established reputation, considerable fame and an impressive ... following before he has Jesus call his first 'official' disciples. As Jesus approaches the Sea of Galilee, or what Luke calls "the lake of Gennesaret," he is surrounded by a ...

4247. Luke 9:51-62

Luke 9:51-62

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... , veritably epitomized by this vagrant journey he has undertaken, is the mark of this Messiah's ministry (for the wildlife imagery see Mahlon H. Smith, "No Place for a Son of Man," Forum, 4 [December 1988], 83-105). The second and third would-be disciples' requests sound so reasonable and compassionate that Jesus' rebuffs seem all the more startling. The one who requests time to go and bury his father is told to "let the dead bury their own dead," and is urged instead to go and "proclaim the kingdom ...

4248. Luke 13:22-30

Luke 13:22-30

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... picture here is of a teaching Jesus, lecturing in the streets, surrounded by a milling crowd of believers, doubters, disciples and curious hangers-on. From this mixed crowd comes the question from "someone" about the salvific scope of the approaching eschaton. We ... do not know whether this questioner was a devoted disciple or a troublemaker trying to get Jesus into the proverbial tight spot. However, Jesus' response makes it quite clear that the ...

4249. Matthew 24:36-44

Matthew 24:36-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... :46) are more concerned with the quality of this in-between time or if our proper focus should be on the unpredictable nature of its duration. The second theme undergirding all these words about the parousia, then, is its sudden and unexpected nature. Disciples apparently are both to be ready for an unexpectedly expected intrusion of the Son of Man, and to be busy performing acts of Christian love and obedience. Regardless of which horn of this dilemma one chooses to perch upon, the outcome for those caught ...

4250. Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... a mission that was not completed simply by the act of incarnation, but by the climatic ending of his work through his death on the cross. It is this obedience, even to death, that gives the human Jesus his claim to Lordship and which encourages his disciples to follow in his footsteps. The final three verses of this hymn reflect as high a Christology as is found anywhere in the Scriptures. God exalts the obedient Christ and then raises the name - that is, the very essence of Jesus - above every other name ...

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