Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4426 to 4450 of 5000 results

4426. Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired?

Matthew 9:35-10:8

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... man, and the Lord will raise him up." If you follow Jesus around in his New Testament ministry, you will find him healing many people of various diseases. He healed those who were sick due to some sin (Matthew 9:1-8). He healed those oppressed or possessed by Satan (Mark 5; Luke 13:10-16; Job). He healed some that were sick for the glory of God (John 9:1-33). In some cases God even healed those sick unto death (John 11:1-44; Isaiah 38). Yes, the Lord healed many. But it is not true that Jesus healed ...

4427. Things to Come!

Matthew 13:47-52, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... every place it symbolizes evil! For instance, in Luke 12:1, Jesus said, "Beware the leaven of the Pharisees" which is legalism. In Matthew 16:6 and 12 he bids us watch out for the leaven of the Sadducees, which is liberalism and rationalism. Then in Mark 8:14-15 we are warned of the leaven of the Herodians, that is materialism. So the church, meant to be unleavened bread, actually has the person in charge of the household introduce leaven directly into the process! This is the corruption of the divine agent ...

4428. The Cry for Help

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

In the Gospel of Mark, the woman in our story is called a "Syrophoenician." Matthew, however, calls her a "Canaanite." That's easier to say than "Syrophoenician" but there's something more important going on with that change. The Canaanites are not just Gentiles but enemies. They are the people who were to be driven ...

4429. Church Discipline: A Cure for What Ails the Body

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

When a sixteen-year-old stays out all night drinking, then drives home, a father disciplines him with grounding. When a student cuts class, is late with papers, and turns in inferior work, a college professor disciplines him with failing marks. When an employee is lazy and is caught pilfering company goods, his boss disciplines him by firing him. At the businessman's club a member who skips meetings and refuses to join in service projects is disciplined by dismissal from club membership. A church member ...

4430. Influence!

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... listen in and be careful to apply his words to our own lives. Don't hide behind the false security of the fact Christ Jesus is talking to temple leaders, church staff as it were. You might say Christ is an equal opportunity troubler of professions. In Mark 5:26, he spoke of a sick woman who had suffered much ill health and spent a considerable fortune on hospitals, doctors, and medications, and was no better but growing worse. In Matthew 5:25-26, Jesus expresses wariness at the judicial system telling us to ...

4431. Faith's Curious Dynamic

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... for they will be comforted." Really? Those in grief will be happy? How about this one: "Fortunate are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account"? Really? Being slandered and persecuted is a mark of good fortune? Those statements seem to defy logic! What we come to understand is that Jesus is talking about the ultimate outcome of people who cling to God in faith. Things that seem to be diametrically opposed, become, under God's hand, the poles ...

4432. The Process of Love

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... potion that can make humans fall in love. What with our church splits, divorce rate, homicides, racism, and terrorist wars, such an elixir, such a love potion, could come in handy in our own day. Jesus Christ told us in the Great Commandment to love our neighbor (Mark 12:28 ff). Then he stuck around to show us how it's done. What we have in the Gospels is not just words of love, but the deeds themselves all demonstrated in Christ's treatment of people. We call this "relational theology." And nowhere are the ...

4433. Three Ways to Know a Saint

Sermon

King Duncan

... to be. If they would just forget themselves, they could really find life quite fulfilling. There once was a good and ordinary woman who experienced a rather extraordinary problem: she began to glow. A gentle light shone forth from her features--the unmistakable mark of a saint. While it all sounds like a blessing, in reality it was rather distracting. Her husband even moved to another bedroom because the glow was keeping him awake. The woman’s doctor made an official diagnosis: “You’re a saint. That ...

4434. Show Me Your Passport

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 9-11 all that has changed. Now it seems anywhere in the world there are hate-filled forces that keep their eyes out for that little e blue book. As the numbers of slain US civilian contractors and workers in Iraq testifies, in many places our citizenship marks us as targets, instead of offering us a shield against hostile enemies. A US passport now is a bulls-eye target. It clearly identifies its possessor as a member of a way of life, a system of government, a code of conduct, that jihadists and other ...

4435. Still in One Peace

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Every year, it seems, the fireworks of the Fourth kicks off the vacation season. The arrival of July, with its big 4th of July national party, really marks the opening of vacation season. Throughout June kids are still having to go to school. There are graduations and auspicious end-of-the-year occasions that make for mandatory attendance. For the many schools and corporations whose fiscal calendar ends on June 30, it's a month of deadlines, hoped- ...

4436. Why Are Christians Such Bad Tippers?

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to emerge, especially in the morning and early afternoon when the service crew works the hardest but the bill (and hence the tips) are the smallest? What might happen if the world were to identify Christians by our tradition of large tipping? And what if we were to place the mark of the fish by our tip on our credit card stubs as a sign that we're doing this in Jesus name?

4437. How Can Religion Go Bad Doing Good?

Matthew 7:21-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... was demeaned by such graffiti, Eisenman cast his vote for interactive public art: "Maybe it would add to it." The public comments on this public art have only just begun. But whether one thinks this latest memorial is eloquent and moving or mute and misses the mark, it does rivet our attention on a place and a time within the living memory of people we know. It was a time when the murderous atrocities of a "Christian nation" called on its citizens to participate in the heinous act of Holocaust in the name ...

4438. The Purple Church

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... purple is the sign of love for each other. " Not red. Not blue. The combination of those two extreme colors brings a new, deeper, richer color to the world's landscape. The Color Purple. Purple has a long, regal bloodline. The color has always been the mark of royalty. Purple dye was so difficult and costly to obtain that it was valued more highly than gold. The deep, true purple color coveted by the rich was created by extracting the colored fluid found in shellfish veins. To obtain enough dye for just one ...

4439. The Difference between Happiness and Joy

1 Peter 1:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... at the eschaton all God's plans are revealed. " All Christians can confidently hold in their hearts the future hope of salvation. But in the here and now, in our day-to-day existence in this fallen world, Peter identifies a different distinguishing characteristic that marks a disciple of Jesus: joy. Christian joy is as far distant from human happiness as marshmallow salmon eggs are from Beluga caviar. Here are 4 ways in which happiness and joy are different. 1) Joy is a command. "This is the day the Lord ...

4440. Yellow Lights

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... intellects and our imaginations - that Christ has offered us? How many Christians are running red, unknowing heeding the lawless one by our failure to love, a love which for Paul is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10)? "You shall love the Lord your God" (Mark 12:30), Jesus said, and you should "love one another." There's no other commandment than these. Let us love God and love one another this week with both our ears - with our right ear of intellect, and our left ear of imagination and intuition. And ...

4441. Yes!

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of faith never answers no to God, never waffles or hesitates to take God's word for it and step forward despite the unknowns. A few years ago, a hand gesture circulated that was used in tandem with that word "yes." Whenever you wanted to put an exclamation mark in a verbal response, you clenched your first and jerked it into your side while simultaneously saying, "Yes!" As I read this passage of Scripture from 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 (NIV), whenever I came to that word "Yes!" you're going to say it for me ...

4442. Dolphin Drops

Isaiah 56:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... [London: Darton-Longman & Todd, 2001], 79.) What are the dolphin drops that fall into our life and remind us of our true identity as disciples who live lives of mishpat and tzedekah, lives of justice and righteousness? In today's Isaiah text one of the marks of a faithful, righteous foreigner is that they keep the Sabbath, and do not profane it (verse 6). The Sabbath is one of those beautiful shimmering dolphin drops that plops right down in our lap each and every week. Keeping the Sabbath does not have ...

4443. Don't Be a Turkey (Thanksgiving)

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... with the biggest sales in your community? Those who "have" even more may use this long weekend as time for the first skiing vacation of the winter ... with enough time and enough money (you) can find snow somewhere. For the "have nots," Thanksgiving marks a new beginning as well. In the "have not" culture, Thanksgiving is the first disappointment of the ... holiday season. For the lucky ones, it’s a ... meal served cafeteria-style at a church or mission. The food is nourishing, the spirit welcoming. But ...

4444. For All the Saints

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Good morning, saints! Good morning, sinners! We're all here. And all that we are is here. The month of September is still warm and green, even though late in the month autumn officially begins. October is marked by cooler temperatures. But the shameless displays of gaudy, glorious colors dull the impact of the real changes that are creeping up on us. November can no longer disguise the grey-on-grey that cloaks the Pacific Northwest. We are a part of the country that embodies the word "watershed." ...

4445. Four Cornerstones

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... come across or read about people who have looked suffering right in the eye and refused to buckle under. · Yvonne and Yvette are 32 years old and permanently joined at the head. They have two independent brains, but share one bloodstream. They get on with living. · Mark Hicks could turn his head only thirty degrees. That's all the control he had of his body. But he became a brilliant painter, and the movie about his life, Gravity Is My Enemy, won an Oscar in 1981. · Terry Fox, a 22-year-old Canadian who ...

4446. Get a Peace of the Rock

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 's war against the Jews, and the world sent blankets, beans, and bandages to camps controlled by the killers, apparently hoping that everybody would behave nicely in the future." (Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You...170). How can we escape this mark of Cain, this geyser of blood and violence, destruction and depravity that erupts like Old Faithful throughout human history? Jesus sent out his missionaries with one message on their lips. Peace. The peace they were proclaiming was the arrival of the ...

4447. House of Jesus

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... rooms for rent. This dwelling (menos) or "abiding with" is a spiritual, not a spatial move. The Father's house (oikia) is a household, a family – not a building (oikos), not a place. It's perhaps surprising that Jesus, who intentionally choose rootless-ness and wandering as marks of his ministry ("foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" – Matthew 8:20, Luke 9:58) refers to the sense of house and home in order to offer comfort and promise peace ...

4448. If the Shoe Fits, Wear It

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and homes, reordered their lifestyle and priorities, and followed him to learn, train, and practice their new discipleship trade. Although Peter and Andrew, James and John could never fill Jesus' shoes, they could follow in his shoes and the path they marked. It wasn't long before Jesus and his new disciples began leaving their shoeprints all over Galilee. In verse 23, Matthew summarizes this early ministry activity as "teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing ...

4449. Let the River Flow

Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... overflow with genuine Christian enthusiasm. We don't need to lecture people on what is the right thing to do they already know what is right. We don't need to point out to people what is wrong in their lives they already know where they fall short of the mark. We don't need to tell people something is missing in their lives they already know they have a "hole in the heart" as the saying goes. We don't need to give people tasks to accomplish and tests to perform for their lives to get better – they already ...

4450. Straw Polls and Soul Quakes

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of the things that jumps out at you is how "Every single believer is vital and an important link in the chain of God's work. The Holy Spirit descended upon every one of the 120 who were there. It descended upon the young, as John Mark was probably a teenager. The Spirit descended upon the elderly, as Mary the mother of Jesus was in her late forties or early fifties, quite old for that day. The Spirit descended upon betraying cowards like Simon Peter and doubters like Thomas. It descended upon nationalistic ...

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