Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4726 to 4750 of 5000 results

4726. The Devil's Sermon

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

When all about us is change, there are still some things that remain the same. In Indiana, a frustrated taxpayer recently noticed the following sign on a bureaucrat's desk in the county office building: "We Don't Make Change." We sure don't. We resist change or making changes, and the more set our routines of life become, the more we don't make change. I am finding in my own life, as I get older, that it is easier to get in the habit of defending positions rather than making discoveries. Sigmund Freud ...

4727. Never Give Up

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Because God never gives up on us, we need never give up. From the many true and apocryphal stories about the life of Winston Churchill comes the report of a singular commencement address. After enduring a lengthy introduction, Churchill is reported to have risen from his seat, strode to the podium and stared fixedly at his audience of new graduates. "Never give up!" he pronounced solemnly. Churchill then turned, walked back to his chair and sat down. As the stunned students momentarily sat in silence, ...

4728. Fingerprints of the Soul

Romans 5:1-5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Unlike "fingerprints," which everyone is born with, we die with soulprints. How deep those soulprints go depends on the depth of our moral character and virtue. Do you know who your patron saint is? Maybe you didn't even know that you were born on the "feast day" of Saint Somebody-or-other. "Feast Day" refers to the death date, not the birth date, of a designated saint. Death dates, rather than birthdays, were celebrated as "feast days" because it was assumed that the saint's birthday into eternity was on ...

4729. The Dailyness of Healing Measures

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Thank God for the daily gift of health - physical and spiritual health - and for the surgeries and healing measures that keep us well. Last fall there was a much-publicized "shootout at the ratings corral" between two highly touted new doctor shows. In their mysterious wisdom, the network executives decided to face "E.R." and "Chicago Hope" off against each other. After opening night, though, the battle was all over. "Chicago Hope" lay bleeding on the floor, while "E.R." rode off as the hero. "E.R." ...

4730. Learn Your ABCs

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Once we open the Scriptures, the sluices of heaven open and we get drenched...in showers of blessings and downpours of strength. Dwight L. Moody, in his Edinburgh crusade, spoke to a large congregation of very young boys and girls. Moody began his sermon with a question: "What is prayer?" He wasn't expecting an answer, but the words were no sooner out of his mouth than hands raised all over the hall. The evangelist, stunned into departing from his script, asked one boy for his answer. The young child ...

4731. Life's Two Pockets

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Every one of us needs to be reminded constantly of our smallness and our greatness. Some days everything goes right. Some days everything goes wrong. Some days it's "Good morning, God." Other days it's "Good God, it's morning." Every now and again, you wake up to sunshine and blue sky, your favorite shirt is clean, commuter traffic flows along like a river, the boss loves all your ideas at work, you finish early, you discover a $20 bill folded up in the corner of your pocket, dinner is a culinary ...

4732. Do Not Grow Weary in Well-Doing

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

At the same time Christians are called to rest and not grow weary, we are called to strain for the mark of our high calling and labor for the reign of God on earth as in heaven. In sum, the church is called to be at the same time a rest stop and a rescue shop. There is a Frank and Ernest cartoon that has the two of them riding a road that is marked by an arrow "Road to Success." But up ahead is another sign: "Be Prepared to Stop." In a world that prizes bigness, we need to be reminded that small is ...

4733. What Jesus Wants for Chrismas (Part 1)

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

What might we consider giving to Jesus at Christmas? In a season of gift-giving, the giver of every good and perfect gift often gets left out. What might our gift be? What is the "perfect gift" for Jesus? Every year, all of us get caught up in making Christmas "wish lists." Children's lists are typically very long and densely populated with plastic (Power Rangers/Barbies), fur (puppies/kittens) and microchips (computer/video games). Teenagers often add gas guzzlers and machines that emit very high decibels ...

4734. An Extraordinary Gift

Lk 1:26-38

Illustration

King Duncan

Wade Burton tells about a man who was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He had a stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at a lunch counter, a woman came out of the ladies' rest room carrying a tiny baby. She asked the man, "Will you hold my baby for me, I left my purse in the rest room." He did. But as the woman neared the front door of the bus station, she darted out into the crowded street and was immediately lost in the crowd. The man couldn't believe his eyes. He rushed to the door to call the ...

4735. The Christmas Touch

Luke 2:29-32

Illustration

Robert L. Crouch

Let me tell about a man who in my book was a "light for revelation" as Simeon put it. When he was alive his parents called him Billy Frank. His wife called him Bill. His face was drawn by the gravitational pull of years. The wrinkles on his brow betrayed a life of hard work and stress. His legs were weak. So, too, his arms. His hands trembled involuntarily. His voice, once strong, grew tired. He grew old gracefully. For most of his 82 years, this man touched the world by holding before it the Christ of ...

4736. A Great and Wonderful New Year - Sermon Starter

Illustration

King Duncan

At the beginning of a New Year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers' New Year's resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. "Why weren't my resolutions posted?" She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk. As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This ...

4737. Mark 6:30-44

Mark 6:30-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Of all Jesus' miracles, only this feeding of the 5000 is recorded in all four gospels. Obviously this story, and the complementary feeding of the 4000 (found in two gospels), were favorites of the early church. Perhaps part of the reason for their popularity is that the feeding miracles communicate on so many different levels. If we focus on Jesus we see the image of a compassionate good shepherd. Shift our gaze to the disciples and the text becomes yet another example of their failure to understand Jesus ...

4738. Mark 12:38-44

Mark 12:38-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Jesus' teachings from Mark are part of a longer section beginning in chapter 11 that confronts and challenges the "organized religions" of his time. One by one Jesus engages in debate, discourse, and sometimes diatribe against the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Herodians, and Temple religion in general. His overarching indictment of the religious-political-economic establishment is summed up when he accuses the leaders of having transformed the Temple into a "den of robbers." (11:7) This whole ...

4739. Luke 2:41-52

Luke 2:41-52

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Luke's two-chapter description of the events surrounding Jesus' birth concludes with a kind of epilogue. After following prescribed law and presenting the baby Jesus at the temple, Joseph takes his family and returns to Nazareth. Instead of then fast-forwarding to the beginning of John the Baptist's preaching ministry, however, Luke freeze-frames an event in Jesus' childhood. Although several non-canonical "gospels" relate miraculous tales of remarkable feats performed by the boy Jesus, Luke's re-telling ...

4740. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's vigor and vision was intimately tied to his life-altering Damascus road experience. All his letters to the fledgling churches, struggling to understand their new Christian identity, were composed within sight of Paul's own conversion story. So it is that while this week's epistle text speaks explicitly of resurrection, we must keep in mind the miracle of conversion sealed by baptism that Paul has already experienced. Paul begins to discuss the mystery of the resurrection by adopting a diatribe style ...

4741. John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

God has planted throughout the Scriptures time-released fireworks. At various periods in the church's history these bombs go off under their texts, exploding for all to see, inviting people of that era to "look at me" and take seriously the Word of God coming alive specially for them right before their eyes. Two books of the Bible exploding under us, and wanting to explode within us (that's what preaching basically is), are the books of John and Genesis. Why John? First, it stands apart from the other ...

4742. Psalm 23

Psalm 23:1-6

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The Lord is a Shepherd - watching, tending, worrying, caring for each and every sheep in the flock. And for good reason. Sheep are notoriously stupid, defenseless and foolish creatures. It is only through the vigilance of the shepherd that safety is assured. When the psalmist declares God the Shepherd, the psalmist declares reliance on God, in total confidence and trust, for preserving his well-being. The psalmist carries this image forward in order to emphasize that this Shepherd-God is interested in far ...

4743. 2 Kings 4:8-17

2 Kings 4:8-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The Old Testament is so filled with intriguing people and enticing stories that it does us good every now and again to make their acquaintance and hear their voices. The Shunammite woman is one of these. While she may not be completely unknown, she has rarely been the focus of attention. In fact, the few times in history when she and her story have been singled out, she has still sometimes lost her identity. Rembrandt painted a stunning portrait of a haunted-looking woman obviously embarking on a long ...

4744. Hebrews 12:1-2, 12-17

Hebrews 12:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The homily to the Hebrews is full of dire warnings and extravagant promises. Both of these extremes are punctuated by the writer's almost frenetic pleas for the people to press on in faithfulness so that they may bring the promises to fruition in their own lives. The first two verses of chapter 12 establish a motif that the author continues through verse 13. Using familiar physicality, he creates an image that translates into the 20th century pulpit with as much power as it had in the first century. By ...

4745. Luke 16:19-31

Luke 16:19-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The Lukan parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a particularly graphic story with an outcome we find uncomfortably harsh and stark. But before reading Luke 16:19-31, it is insightful to look back to verses 14-15. Jesus was a master at tailoring the thrust of his teachings to the specific audience he was addressing. This story is no exception. Verse 14 clearly defines those who are listening as "the Pharisees, who were lovers of money...." Jesus' metaphors are amazingly vivid and bold. On the one hand ...

4746. 2 Timothy 1:1-14

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

As in the other two pastoral epistles, Paul begins his second letter to Timothy with a formal apostolic greeting that lays out the primary motivation for this letter: "for the sake of the promise of life that is in Jesus Christ." It is only that "promise of life" that drives Paul on, despite his imprisonment, infirmities and loneliness. Paul considers these physical limitations to be of little consequence - significant only if they provide a new layer of depth and meaning to his witness. Because of his ...

4747. Colossians 1:11-20

Colossians 1:11-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The epistle to the Colossians is typically Pauline in the style and nature of its discourse, and yet somehow reaches beyond Paul's usual theological parameters. Phrases of greeting and peace and farewell all echo Paul. But there are also numerous new words, unfamiliar phrases and a longer more complicated syntax, all of which raise doubts about the authorship of this letter. Doctrinally, Colossians presents a much more cosmic Christology than usual for Paul. Much of the portion read this week reflects that ...

4748. Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew 1:18-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Sometime near the end of the first century (about AD 90-95) a virtually anonymous literary artist whom we know as "Matthew" wrote his version of the gospel. The style and grace of his writing tells the story of Jesus' birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection with a unique kind of sophistication and artistry. Luke is a master storyteller, John a consummate theologian, Mark an emotional eyewitness, but Matthew is the creation of a closely woven literary masterpiece. Yet Matthew's genius is only interested ...

4749. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Paul continues to offer his view of essential Christian unity amid myriad claims to the exclusivity of certain groups and their ideas. While verses 10-16 dismissed any special claims that Corinthians might make based upon their loyalty to any one individual leader, Paul now turns to the even more insidious divisiveness suggested by those who touted one form of theological knowledge or insight over another. Corinth was an extremely Greek Roman city. Its Greek heritage was long; its ...

4750. Matthew 5:13-20

Matthew 5:13-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The gospel text for this week deals primarily with criteria for discipleship. In Matthew, these criteria follow on the heels of Jesus' more impersonal list of "Beatitudes." These two units are linked together by the personalization that finally emerges in the final Beatitude ("Blessed are you when people revile you"), and the emphatic "you" Jesus offers in verses 13 and 14, "You are the salt," "You are the light." While pointedly personal, both of these images are also corporate in nature. Considerable ...

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