Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4701 to 4725 of 5000 results

4701. Wake Up

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

"The best way to make your dreams come true," writes Paul Valery, "is to wake up." How can you have a dream come true if you don't wake up? Before your dreams can come true, you must first wake up! What does it mean that Christ has risen from the dead? There is a deeply traditional pilgrimage almost all Americans feel pulled to make at least once in their lives - to America's new heartland, Disney. Disney's role in America's modern mythology is absolutely critical, even central. Increasingly the world sees ...

4702. Terminator 3

Acts 9:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The power of Christ can turn "Terminators" into "Transformers." A few years ago the big rage among the 5- to 10-year-old set were little plastic toys known as "transformers." These ingenious little gizmos looked like any average robot-like alien creature. But with a tutored pull, twist, flip and click, small fingers could transform them into a car or tank or flying-killer-attack-weapon. Wheels and wings and guns were cleverly hidden inside the robot bodies of these toys giving them their dual identity. ...

4703. Healing in His Wings

Acts 14:8-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus spent his entire ministry doing three things: preaching, teaching and healing. This sermon explores the three steps to a healing ministry and healing church. The reign of modernism in our culture has been shored up by a very powerful myth we long to believe: that we can be in control through technological manipulation and mastery. The quest to control nature has led to an explosion in scientific knowledge - allowing us to splice genes, wipe out pathogens and multiply our food supply. Likewise our ...

4704. Down the Up Staircase

Genesis 11:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Whose life will be a staircase for God''s descent to earth? The tower of Babel would seem like pretty short stuff compared to today's architectural wonders. Buildings are now built so tall that engineers design flexibility into their frames, allowing them to sway in the swirling winds without damaging the integrity of the structure. Our cities are so filled with sky-scraping boxes that we have created whole new weather and wind patterns within these steel and concrete canyons. A few creatures have even ...

4705. Let's Give Jesus a Hand

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

"What is that in your hand?" God asked of Moses as God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 4:2). God asks us the same question today. And God will ask us the same question at Judgment Day: "What is that in your hand?" In some churches today there has developed the terribly annoying custom of someone interrupting worship or a concert and hollering, "Let's give Jesus a hand," causing everyone to erupt into applause. While this type of enthusiasm is certainly a welcome sign of life (especially in ...

4706. Healing Aerobics

2 Kings 5:1-15ab

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There's healing for you today. Getting sick is so easy. Consider the dreaded winter "flu season," when all you have to do is encounter one school-age child or shake hands with someone in order to suddenly be the new home base for some exotically named virus that has dismally familiar symptoms. Summertime colds are similarly transmitted, but are much sneakier - they prefer to wait until you are on your long-anticipated fun'n'sun vacation to remind you that sinusitis flourishes in tropical as well as in ...

4707. Speak Up for Forgiveness

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The Christian faith boasts a "Six Step" Recovery Program to repair and restore broken relationships. If, as we discussed in last week's sermon ideas, the marriage covenant is sealed in freshness and finality through the culturally dubious virtue of faithfulness, that is still only half the story. In order for one weak, struggling, stumbling, sinful human being to remain faithful to another similarly hamstrung human being, there needs to be an enormous flow of forgiveness between the two. Faithfulness ...

4708. Shame on You

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

A sense of guilt and shame can sometimes be spiritually healthy. Dogs are great at guilt. The moment you walk into the house, a dog will telegraph to you with its whole body the sin it has committed. The eyes squint and dart this way and that. The ears are flattened. The head is lowered. The tail trails. Pathetically ingratiating behavior usually accompanies all this - desperate little hand licks, half-hearted tail wags, general obeisance. When you discover the actual crime - a mistake on the rug, a broken ...

4709. The Necessary Book

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Spiritual well-being is the ultimate "necessary" of life. In the not-so-distant past, modest men and polite women might find themselves needing to be excused from the family by pleading a trip to "the necessary," or even "the nessie." A "necessary," of course, was a discreet reference to the outhouse, the outdoor receptacle for the Sears and Roebuck catalog. In earlier days, when the term "necessary" appeared on a road sign, it served as a code-word for travelers, letting them know that the next town was ...

4710. Rags and Robes

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

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Disciples of Jesus Christ are in the business of making rags into robes. We need to clothe people with integrity (a robe) even when they are dressed in rags. In the "affluent '80s" the rich got richer at a rapacious rate, while our increasingly stratified society saw the poor get much poorer at an equally alarming speed. Slowly, we became aware that our economic system was producing a growing underclass that had nowhere to go, nowhere to live except the streets. Even the most career-obsessed, social- ...

4711. O Holy Nightmare

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How have we managed to transform the Christmas season from an awe-filled consideration of "O Holy Night" into an awful "O holy nightmare"? Isn''t it time we rediscovered the real Christ of Christmas, the Christ who came (as that old revival saying put it) not to "see through you," but to "see you through"? "Be prepared." Jesus said it, Paul emphasized it, Matthew reiterated it, and eventually even the Boy Scouts picked it up as their own mantra. The season of Advent begins today with its own admonition for ...

4712. Three Wise Gifts

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Three gifts, if given this Christmastide, will do nothing less than heal the world. Two thousand years ago, gold, frankincense and myrrh were worth (in today's equivalents), six hundred, five hundred and four thousand dollars per pound, respectively. A similar gift today (frankincense and myrrh have declined in value, gold has increased) would set a 20th century king back six thousand dollars for the gold, but only fifteen dollars apiece for frankincense and myrrh. The Magi celebrated the Christ child with ...

4713. Prophets or Professionals?

Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In its quest for worldly sophistication, the church often prefers to be professional rather than prophetic. When the phone rings during the dinner hour, it is usually a good idea to just ignore it. Chances are pretty good these days that the caller on the other end is someone trying to sell you life insurance on your credit card, solicit a donation for some charity fund, or poll your opinion on some topic you really don't care to discuss with a stranger. These telephone solicitors have so perfected their ...

4714. Dare Care

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

If we want transformation, we must risk chaos of the chrysalis. Risk is another word for faith. Remember your first science project? Or more precisely, what is the first science project you remember? Often, one of the first science projects children undertake is to watch a plain little caterpillar spin a cocoon about itself until it is completely shrouded within a chrysalis. The wonder of transformation is made real to the children when, days later, an entirely different creature a beautiful butterfly ...

4715. How Do You Sell A Vacuum Cleaner?

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There is only one way to sell a vacuum cleaner turn it on and use it. There is only one way to evangelize turn on your faith and use it! Jesus used a variety of methods sometimes strange, sometimes plain, sometimes controversial to bring wholeness and wellness into people's lives. Jesus tailored his healing techniques to the needs of the person or community, but there was one unchangeable and unshakable foundation around which everything else revolved: He was what he said he was. He turned on his life to ...

4716. Quenching St. Anthony's Fire

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The world invites us to climb ladders; the gospel invites us to lift crosses. What will it be? The Ladder or the Cross? There are two contemporary works of art that have rare symbolic power: the Vietnam Memorial and the AIDS Quilt. Both address the mystery of suffering that has no rhyme or reason; both restructure reality to enable us to deal creatively with the mystery of suffering. In the last half-millennium, a work of art which has exerted great symbolic power on a vast number of people is the " ...

4717. The Double Cross

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Some of the disciples felt double-crossed. They expected perks, priority, position. Instead they got a double-cross in which the more VERTICAL their relationship to God, the more HORIZONTAL their relationships with others. We all have a favorite restaurant. What's yours? [Make this an interactive moment in the sermon by having the people call out their favorites.] What's the one restaurant in which the food is just to your liking, the service gracious, and the ambiance enfolds you in comfort and well-being ...

4718. The Widow's Might

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How do you measure life? In worldly weights and measures like dollars and cents, or using spiritual scales of love, service and friendship? In our local supermarket, there are several different candy counters. A big display of all the old favorites greets you just as you turn your cart into the first aisle. At the opposite end of the store is half a wall of bulk candy big packages for big families or big sweet tooths. There are racks of typical "movie candies" at the video rental desk. Finally, there is ...

4719. Stand Against or Walk Alongside?

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus never "stood against" anyone. He always "walked alongside" everyone. He journeyed with people where they were and as they went. Over and over again, Jesus crossed the street and "came to where he was" as he crosses the streets and comes to where we are today. During the course of his earthly ministry, Jesus was always on the move. Most rabbis and their disciples established "schools," centralized locations where others could come to them for information, debate, discourse. The great rabbis taught ...

4720. The Ride of Your Life

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

With Jesus in charge, you get a white-water-rafting kind of experience throughout life not a dull float downstream, but a hang-onto-your-hat exhilarating, get-wet ride. Jesus offers us a life-substance, not a lifestyle. How much do you have invested in your "lifestyle"? This "investment" counts not only the money, time, energy and enthusiasm spent, but also the satisfaction gained. Think you aren't "rich and famous" enough to have a "lifestyle"? (Ever watch "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"?) Think again ...

4721. Make Disciples

Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

What would it mean if we were to become disciple-making churches? A tourist collected a few of the signs in English that monolingual Americans traveling abroad must contend with. In an airline ticket office in Copenhagen, there is this promise: "We take your bags and send them in all directions." A Swiss restaurant announces to its customers that "Our wines leave you with nothing to hope for." A rather severe Acapulco hotel posts a sign assuring its customers that "The manager has personally passed all the ...

4722. Welcome or Warning?

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

People who try to revoke other people's tickets to heaven are those who are least likely to be allowed on the train themselves. Was there anyone the least bit surprised when Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson finally announced they were going to divorce? Most of us never even bothered trying to accept the fact that they had married in the first place. After all, what was the point? It may have been the first wedding in history greeted with death knells instead of wedding bells. Sure, Lisa Marie and ...

4723. Was Jesus the First Buster?

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

As the first, in-your-face Buster, Jesus said: "Don't listen to people's WORDS; look at their DEEDS." 1996 is a very significant year for baby boomers because it is the year the first wave of boomers hit 50. Boomers like rocker Bruce Springsteen and actor Diane Keaton, director Steven Spielberg, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and singer Dolly Parton (to name a few) are squinting into the sun of their golden years with a mixture of joy, fear and modulated anticipation. Boosters, the GI generation born ...

4724. Tremendous Trifles

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Moral failure comes not from enormous misdeeds, but through lapses in "tremendous trifles." Have you ever tried quickly to pull a dangling thread from the hem of a pant-leg or skirt or jacket, only to find you've got hold of one of those dreaded running stitches? Instead of breaking off, the thread continues to unstitch itself until the entire hem falls out. Instead of freeing yourself from one annoying little thread, you now have a major clothing catastrophe. It is always the little things that end up ...

4725. Rules for the Road

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

NOTE: This sermon, written in the 90s, read the way it's written below, could be a good introduction on how rapidly things have changed. Think about how to rerwork it as an illustration using the original lanuage or completely adapt it by updating the items. How to cruise on the new-century superhighway. People who work at or own a computer should be aware of these two things: First, they have more processing power at their fingertips at home and at the office than the sum of NASA computers that got the ...

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