Sermon and Worship Resources

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26. Crack Open Some Easter Eggs and Be Cracked Open

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... how old we get, we still hope for surprises and are delighted by their materialization. Easter eggs have gone through some necessary transformations over the past few years. Salmonella scares have made most Easter egg hunts into a search for plastic replica eggs. Since these are filled with small candies and chocolates instead of crumbling yolks and slimy whites, this is a definite improvement. More recently, Easter eggs have been "post-modernized," becoming a part of computer-culture. If you don't know ...

27. What Gift Do You Have For Us?

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... evident by the large number of airport gift shops whose entire inventory is devoted to these poor, gift-searching parents. Why else would our airports be filled with exorbitantly expensive stuffed animals, designer felt-tip marker sets, thousands of tiny-sized T-shirts and replicas of every Disney creature ever imagined. You will also note that all these shops are doing quite well. The unfortunate side effect of this gift-giving syndrome is not just the huge dent it makes in you wallet at the end of every ...

28. This Is Where We Come In

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Walesa pushed the first “domino” at that mock wall, and his single action started the chain-reaction, the “domino effect” that continued until the entire edifice collapsed. As one eye-witness put it: “All over the city, smaller Wall replicas had been put up in school playgrounds and parks. Children waited impatiently and, at the signal, rushed yelling to knock them over. It was all such a success that Wall-busting might become an annual festival. Invented tradition? Trivializing symbolism ...

29. The Exalted Christ

Mark 9: 2-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the mountain. Oh, Jesus, this has been such a wonderful time in our lives we ought to put a museum up here and pilgrims for centuries would come. I can see them now, by the tour bus loads, they will gather here. We could charge admission and make little replicas of the temples we are building and they would buy them and take them back home as pilgrims do from place to place. Let's just stay up here. It is wonderful. Then Verse 9 says, “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders to keep ...

30. Something to Brag About

Galatians 6:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... of shame in those days. Criminals died on crosses not decent folk. Suppose, instead of a cross, we hoisted an electric chair and put it on our wall as a worship center? Or a gallows? Or an IV bag, in honor of lethal injection! Can you imagine an enormous replica of an IV bag from the hospital hanging where the cross is? No wonder Paul writes in I Corinthians 1 that the cross is foolishness to both the Jews and the Greeks. I said that Paul could not be crucified because he was a Roman citizen. The Romans ...

31. Twenty Ways to Confuse Santa

Humor Illustration

... pounds. While he's in the house, go find his sleigh and write him a speeding ticket. Leave him a note explaining that you've gone away for the holidays. Ask if he would mind watering your plants. While he's in the house, replace all his reindeer with exact replicas. Then wait and see what happens when he tries to get them to fly. Keep an angry bull in your living room. If you think a bull goes crazy when he sees a little red cape, wait until he sees that big, red Santa suit! Build an army of mean ...

32. Don’t Be Childish, Do Be Child-like

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... pint-sized pots and pans, play-doctor kits and miniature tool sets. Some of us are even old enough to remember playing with perhaps the worst child-oriented product ever invented — candy cigarettes. Does anyone remember those? These were facsimile red-tipped replicas that let us “smoke” just like grown-ups. Gives you the shivers now, doesn’t it? The hard truth is children want to imitate and emulate the adults around them whatever those behaviors might be. That is why being an “adult,” being ...

33. The Foolishness of God

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

King Duncan

... crosses not decent folk. We’ve asked this before, but suppose, instead of a cross, we hoisted an electric chair and put it on our wall as a focus of our worship? Or a gallows? Or an IV bag, in honor of lethal injection! Can you imagine an enormous replica of an IV bag from the hospital hanging on the wall of our church? Let’s make the example even more vivid. Imagine a group of people who loved former President John F. Kennedy. Imagine that they got together from time to time to honor his memory. When ...

34. Prelude to the Passion

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... for him but offers himself as a sacrifice for all. A king who builds the foundation of his kingdom not on the power of the sword, but on the power of love. We are told that over the entrance to the Upper Room in Jerusalem is carved a pelican. Replicas of a pelican were also found on the shields of the crusaders. Why the pelican? There existed in those days a tradition that when the mother pelican could find no food for her young, she would tear out her heart as food for them. Humanity had never been exposed ...

35. God Is Not Dead

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... the security of this world. No idol, constructed by human hands, can ever represent the majesty, the glory, and the wonder of our great God. It would be like asking a scholar to explain the history of the world in one sentence; asking a sculptor to make a replica of Mt. Rushmore on a single grain of sand; asking a musician to play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with a referee’s whistle. It cannot be done, and thank God, it does not have to be done. God has already revealed Himself in an image. Colossians 1 ...

36. Do You Believe In Miracles?

Matthew 15:29-39

Sermon

James Merritt

... the immigration official and told him who he was, the brilliant French painter. The official handed him a piece of paper and a pencil and said, “Draw a picture of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background.” Within a few minutes he produced an exact replica of the city and convinced the official he was exactly who he claimed to be just by what he wrote. That is exactly what the miracles of Jesus were for – to reveal He was exactly who He said He was. The last purpose is glorification. The ultimate ...

37. The Knot: Bound

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... The word for “one” there is actually used of God himself when it says, “The Lord our God our God is One.” The Trinity is made up of three co-equal persons: One God who reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Marriage is to be an exact replica of this trinity (three persons who are one.) God’s ideal idea is for a marriage to be made up of a man, and a woman and God. In totality they are one. This only happens if the right process is followed. First, God brings us together spiritually. The ...

38. The Question that Will Change Your Life

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... use some special software to stitch the 3D photos together into 360-degree 3D model. Once you are happy with the 3D model, you push a button to place an order and within a couple of weeks you will have delivered to your home a 4 inch tall life-like replica of . . . yourself. You can place this life-like statue of yourself on your dresser and bow to it three times a day if you so choose. The cost is only $59. That’s a bargain for those drawn toward self-worship. What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ ...

39. Prescription on a Pole

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... the same time affirming the necessity of faith (Romans 3:22-31) and our participation in our salvation (Acts 16:29-31). We are prompted to consider again the observation that the remedy recalls the malady. It was not some symbol of health hung on the pole, but a replica of the poisonous serpents. So, too, God “made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Beyond the notion of Jesus paying the price for sin on the cross, Paul goes a dramatic step further and says that he was made “to be sin ...

40. Mission and Rejection in Galilee

Mark 6:14-29, Mark 6:7-13

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... involves being immersed in Jesus’s teaching and ministry. This is one of the major themes of the book of Acts, where Luke emphasizes that the history of the early church involved reliving the life and ministry of Jesus. Most of the miracles in Acts are replicas of the miracles of Jesus. The road to Rome taken by Paul replicates the road to Jerusalem taken by Jesus. The trials of Paul are parallel to the trials of Jesus. In other words, the meaning of discipleship (Mark 3:14: “be with him”) is that ...

41. “God Is Our Refuge and Strength, an Ever-Present Help in Trouble”

Psalm 46:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... the melodic theme, gives it the eschatological name of YHWH Shammah (“The Lord is there,” Ezek. 48:35). Psalm 46 maps out the water sources of the city, which were in geographical reality limited to the spring of Gihon, and makes the city a virtual replica of the garden of Eden (see “The Text in Context”; see also Pss. 65:9; 87:7; Ezek. 17:1–12; Joel 3:18; Zech. 14:8). Some commentators object to an eschatological interpretation of this psalm, but when Jerusalem takes on the features of the ...

42. Saul Tries To Kill David

1 Samuel 19:1-24

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... his mood swings. 19:8–10 A further outbreak of hostilities gave David more opportunity to cause havoc among the Philistines. Whether David’s further success caused Saul’s further loss of his always vulnerable mental and emotional control is not clear. But in a replica of his previous action (18:10–11), Saul tries to pin David to the wall with his spear. However, David dodges and disappears. Saul was not to be given an opportunity to make a second attempt. David’s escape appears first to have been ...

43. At the Intersection of Heaven and Earth

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... this is what God has done in Jesus Christ. He shows us what He himself is like within the bounds of our human ability to understand. Here, then, is the first glorious truth about Advent and Christmas. God has come down in Jesus Christ. Christ is an exact replica of God reduced to human size. Al Lindgren, a professor at Garrett Evangelical Seminary, tells about taking his junior-high-school son fishing years ago. It was one of those days when the fish wouldn’t bite, so the two of them had a lot of time to ...

44. The Rag Doll

Illustration

Randy Spencer

My daughter, like the typical American girl, has had her share of dolls and stuffed animals. Today, through modern technology, a little girl need not be content with dull, lifeless dolls, but can experience the thrill of owning a lifelike replica of a baby chat can walk and talk, drink and wink, slurp and burp, cry, sigh and laugh-almost anything a real baby does, including wet itself and get diaper rash. After ten years of buying these mechanical marvels, I wondered which of these dolls was my daughter's ...

45. A Child of the Resurrection

Luke 20:27-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... was the result of Adam and Eve’s sin. I read recently about a man in Michigan named Michael Luther. Michael was a video game enthusiast. He was such an enthusiast that when he died in 2007, his sister had a tombstone marker carved to look like an exact replica of the Pac-Man arcade game. On the front screen of the tombstone are the words inscribed in capital letters, “Game Over.” (7) God did not create us so that He could declare on our tombstone, “Game Over.” And if death is the final act of all ...

46. The Catch

John 21:1-14, John 21:15-25, Acts 10:1-8, Acts 10:9-23a, Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... on your journey, but who goes WITH you in your journey. May your metaphors light your way, so that Jesus, through you, may light the ways of others! *See Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; and Luke 5:2-11; now John 21. **Replica of a first century fishing boat from Jesus’ time at the Sea of Galilee. ***National Geographic Magazine online. “Can the Blue Revolution Solve the World’s Food Puzzle?” Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text Jesus’ Seaside Appearance and the Reinstatement of Peter (John 21 ...

47. Sola Fide

1 Peter 1:3-9

Sermon

Dr. Ronald Love

... Clavius becomes a Christian and gives up his position in the army. But in one telling scene, Clavius in his confusion to learn the truth, is seen kneeling in the empty tomb holding the burial cloth of Jesus, which of course is an ex- act replica of the Shroud of Turin. So, unto an unsuspecting public, but to appease the evangelicals in the audience, Hollywood perpetuates a myth. But because we can only know the resurrected Jesus by faith, shroud of turin will never be the authentic and historical burial ...

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