Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 26 to 50 of 609 results

26. Designer Religion

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

King Duncan

... humility. Worse than their lack of humility was the Pharisees’ sheer hypocrisy. They put heavy burdens on other people, said Jesus, that they don’t practice themselves. Nobody likes hypocrites. When two prominent evangelists in this country were revealed to have indulged in certain sexual sins several years back, the hue and cry was widespread. It was not that they were the only persons in our society who have committed such sins. In fact, polls indicate that the majority of Americans have indulged at ...

27. True Fasting

Isaiah 58:1-14

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... occurs elsewhere only in Deuteronomy 18:20, where the context indicates “speak their own words.” So the idea may be that people do not have the right to decide for themselves what to do on the sabbath. Specifically they have no right to indulge in the kind of talk verse 9b referred to (the expressions are very similar—“speaking evil” (NRSV; NIV reads malicious talk) and “speaking a word”). The sabbath is intrinsically made both for God (for the honoring of God) and for human beings (for their ...

28. Don't Worry--Give Thanks

Matthew 6:25-33

Sermon

King Duncan

... heavenly Father feeds them.” Then he adds a very practical admonition: “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” No you can’t, but you can sure take many hours, days, months or even years off of your life by indulging in an exercise that can poison every cell in your body. That’s worry. There’s a popular Bible App from an organization called YouVersion, that allows you to read or listen to the Bible on your cell phone. This app has 400 million users worldwide. Recently the ...

29. Looking to the Unseen

2 Corinthians 4:18

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... . "His heart becomes so jaded by excitement that the world contains nothing for him which can awaken fresh or new emotions." It seems many college young people today live just such a life. Many of their weekends are spent in heavy indulgence in alcohol. A typical party consists in heavy and excessive drinking coupled with the smoking of pot and the use of cocaine. Sexual looseness and immorality are commonplace. Fueled by affluence and protected by privilege, many young people are rushing frantically toward ...

30. Getting Back into Shape

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Scott Bryte

... clever, unnamed printer, with a nose for what would sell to the public, took the notice down, translated it from academic Latin into everyday German, and printed off copies as fast as he could. It was like a bomb went off. Within two weeks, the sale of indulgences in Germany, once a steady stream of income, fell off to a trickle. It is the questions raised by the 95 theses, about the power of the church, about the mercy of God, about how we are made right with God that we celebrate this Reformation Day ...

31. Be Prudent or Productive?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in order to be fulfilled. Consumerism has become our most basic identity. We are what we consume — the cars we drive, the brands we wear, the apps we download. We “consume,” therefore we are. How many of us respond to a bad day by indulging in a little “retail therapy?” Since birth we’ve been taught and told that consuming more feels good and is good. “When the going gets tough, the tough . . .go shopping.” As our economy struggles and our individual bank accounts get more anemic, we are ...

32. Plutarch's Consolatory Letter to His Wife

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... book is blotted, do not forget all the other leaves whose reading is fair and whose pictures are beautiful. We should not be like misers, who never enjoy what they have, but only bewail what they lose. And since she is gone where she feels no pain, let us not indulge in too much grief. The soul is incapable of death. And she, like a bird not long enough in her cage to become attached to it, is free to fly away to a purer air. For, when children die, their souls go at once to a better and a divine state ...

33. The Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy 5:1-33

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... , as well as to the Israelites, that Yahweh is God, not only in Egypt but in the whole earth (Exod. 6:7; 7:5; 8:22; 9:14, 29; 10:2). The first commandment follows naturally on such manifest proof, and the second prevents any temptation to indulge in the divine statuary for which Egypt was noted. The exodus story also involved a fresh revelation of the divine name (Exod. 3:13ff.; 6:2–8) and demonstrated its power. No Israelite must attempt to use the power of that name, which had operated for the national ...

34. Concluding Exhortations

Hebrews 13:1-25

Understanding Series

Donald A. Hagner

... 1 Peter is described as a “brief letter” (5:12), the words may be taken more literally than here. Our author has tried to keep the length of the work under control despite the significance of what he writes, and he asks the readers’ indulgence in this regard. 13:23 Since our author shows some contact with Pauline theology, he was probably a member of the larger Pauline circle, and thus the likelihood that this Timothy was the disciple of Paul is increased. The verb released (apolyō) occurs in Hebrews ...

35. Overseers and Deacons

1 Timothy 3:1-16

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... makes them (like the overseers) worthy of respect (Gk., semnous; cf. 2:2, “holiness,” and 3:4, “with proper respect”). This is followed by three prohibitions: “not double-tongued” (NIV, sincere), that is, fully trustworthy in what one says; not indulging in much wine, like the overseers (v. 3); and not pursuing dishonest gain, also like the overseers (v. 3), that is, loving money to the point of questionable integrity. From these characteristics Paul turns to a positive: They must keep hold of ...

36. Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

Habakkuk 2:2-20, Habakkuk 1:12--2:1

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... the cry refers to a silent submission before Yahweh when Yahweh acts, the real-life silent submission that the silent submission expressed in worship would symbolize. The commendation of silence might raise the question of whether Habakkuk is also going back on his indulgence in loud protests in 1:2–17. At the same time, verse 20 may also prepare the way for chapter 3. Additional Notes 1:12 The TNIV follows the Jewish tradition that sees we will not die (loʾ namut) as an emendation of “you will ...

37. Paul's Longing to Visit Rome

Romans 1:1-17

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... set me apart from birth and called me by his grace” (Gal. 1:15; see also Acts 13:2). The Greek word for set apart, aphorismenos, is the normal Greek rendering of the Hebrew word for “Pharisee,” which probably means “to separate.” If Paul is indulging in a word play he seems to indicate that he now is a different kind of Pharisee from what he had been. Previously he had been a Pharisee separated from Gentiles; now he is separated for them! Verse 1 is unambiguous about Paul’s self-understanding ...

38. Pressing on Toward the Goal

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... 6:1). In verses 18 and 19 Paul is concerned about people who took the latter line, in practice and teaching alike. Christ endured the cross to free believers from sin and to reconcile them to God (Rom. 6:7; 2 Cor. 5:18–21); those who deliberately indulge in sin and repudiate the will of God deny all that the cross of Christ stands for. Paul had warned the Philippian Christians against such people before—whether by word of mouth or in writing we cannot say. If he now repeats his warning, it is because he ...

39. Proverbs of Solomon

Proberbs 10:1--22:16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... 3 offers an explanation. The Lord provides for the righteous while preventing the wicked from satisfying their cravings. Verse 4 implicitly qualifies such provision; it may come through diligent labor rather than by just relaxing and waiting for it. Those who indulge in the latter behavior bring poverty upon themselves (10:4a) as well as disgrace upon their parents (10:5). The second subunit (10:6–11) emphasizes the impact of both edifying and harmful speech, culminating in verse 11: a righteous person ...

40. The Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... and its content on a self-serving lie. Since they had already replaced the living Lord with a golden calf that they called by the same name, they also felt free to improvise in their celebration. When they had finished eating, they got up to indulge in revelry. They created a new aspect of their festival that did not resemble any of the festivals in the book of the covenant (23:14–17). Their revelry included (potentially good) dancing and singing (vv. 18–19). The last time the people danced was after ...

41. Getting Your Politics Right

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... -obsessed and narcissistic culture where everything is about us and our needs and our self-esteem and how we feel about things and what we want and how we think things should be done, and the church of Jesus Christ is a grand protest against such indulgence in the cult of the sovereign self. We are not the center of the universe; God is! God first: God’s holy name and fine reputation, God’s kingdom rule, God’s effective will. Worship as entertainment and worship as group counseling and therapy is a ...

42. Personal Greetings

Romans 16:1-27

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... majored on the problems of Jews and Gentiles may have detained him until now from addressing other problems that, though of less magnitude, were not unimportant. The familiarity of the preceding list of names may have induced him to drop his reserve and indulge in the pastoral urgency for which he was known. This compact admonition sums up not only the foregoing ethical injunctions (chs. 12–15), but the theme of the unity in faith of Jews and Gentiles that runs through the entire epistle. Regarding the ...

43. Time and Stewardship

Sermon

Larry Powell

... its birth in the silence. There is no exception to this rule in all the evidence of life." The Plains people knew it, oriental religions have recognized it for centuries, Quakers have focused upon it in their worship, great thinkers of all ages indulged in it, and Jesus regularly "withdrew himself apart" to nourish his soul with the sweet balm which the world, with its noise and preoccupations cannot give. There is power in silence, particularly if that silence is the occasion for meditation. (1) It puts us ...

44. Praise and Prayer

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... s remembering (v. 11a: another form of the same verb). 63:11b–14 If Yahweh’s is a deliberate remembering, so is the prophet’s. The fact that it goes on for some lines of verse marks it as deliberate, or at least self-permitted. The prophet indulges in unrestrained mulling over the question of why the recent past has been so unlike the distant past, or rather, where now is the one who once saved and redeemed and carried. If verses 8–9 recall especially the distress of Israel’s time in Egypt, verses ...

45. Prayers for Epiphany

Bulletin Aid

Rolland R. Reece

... for their lives. Enable us to be patient until we clearly understand how we are to pray. There are those times, our Creator, when we are aware of the need, but feel no compassion for the people. Perhaps they have committed some heinous crime or indulged in some unspeakable immoral act, and as a consequence all we feel is revulsion. Lord, in such a moment is it still wisdom simply to bring their names to you -- praying that your will be accomplished? Let us remove ourselves from negative prayer for fear that ...

46. The Trial Before Felix

Acts 24:1-27

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... with savagery and lust he exercised the power of a king with the disposition of a slave” (History 5.9). The picture drawn by Tacitus of Felix’s public and private life is not a pretty one. Trading on the influence of his infamous brother, he indulged in every license and excess, thinking “that he could do any evil act with impunity” (Tacitus, Annals 12.54). Luke gives a rather better picture of him, though he was certainly not blind to the governor’s faults. Within five days of Paul’s arrival in ...

47. Warnings from Israel's History

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... Paul’s Gk. at this point is vivid, filled with strong negatives and intense verbal forms (such as the use of the hortatory subjunctive, which makes this call not to commit sexual immortality a strong exhortation). The NRSV translation, “We must not indulge in sexual immorality,” more accurately captures and communicates Paul’s strong tone than does the relatively sterile rendering in the NIV. 10:9 Behind the phrase translated We should not test the Lord is a textual variant that may cause different ...

48. Advent 4

Psalm 80:1-19, Isaiah 7:1-25, Romans 1:1-17, Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... about. "It took place in this way. . . ." Waiting and celebration, rejoicing and recitation, go hand in hand. The liturgical planner's job is to tell the story so that the hearers are anxious for what comes next. The pastor will be sorely tempted to indulge in a riot of Christmas carols on this day because of the pervasiveness of the secular culture and its tendency to alter time for its own convenience (as with President's Day, for example). For that reason the temptation should be resisted. Still, some ...

49. Life by the Spirit

Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... the law provided an opportunity for sin (Rom. 7:7–25) is not in view here. 5:21 The word live is a rendering of a Greek present participle (prassontes) that means “those who are given to practice.” The warning is directed at those who consciously and repeatedly indulge in these vices. Unlike the gospel writers, Paul does not often use the phrase the kingdom of God. On occasion he uses it in ethical contexts (1 Cor. 6:9–10; Rom. 14:17) but also in other settings (1 Cor. 4:20; 15:24, 50; 1 Thess. 2 ...

50. Exhortations

Philippians 4:2-9

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... take them into account” or “give them weight in your decisions” (F. W. Beare). Set your minds on such things, he says, and having set your minds on them, plan to act accordingly—whatever is (1) True. This could be a warning against indulgence in mental fantasies or baseless slanders. But even some things that are factually true are not healthy things to dwell on: whatever is true has the moral qualities of uprightness and dependability, of reality as opposed to mere appearance. (2) Noble. This word ...

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