Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 476 to 500 of 747 results

476. The Upside Down Life

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a big bat. Rosie O’Donnell once did this on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, I think. Another method is to strap your whole body to a flat surface that then completely flips upside down, the body suspended head down, feet in the air. Inversion advocates claim when you exercise while in this upside down position — in other words, when you do sit-ups or torso twists upside down — you are helping your squished, painful vertebrae to expand, realign, and even regenerate. Strengthened by exercise and set free from ...

477. Harmony and Humor: The Ties That Bind Christianity’s Many Christianities

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that marks our faith. Christians are scandalous in so many ways. Long before Jesus was convicted as a criminal of the state, as a heretic of faith, and was executed in the most public, excruciating, and humiliating way, he was advocating scandal. Jesus recruited apostles from smelly fishermen. That was scandalous. Jesus dined with despised Roman tax collectors. That was scandalous. He walked among the wicked, pressed the flesh with lepers, socialized with social outcasts, offered advice to adulterers. That ...

478. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to God” (v.20). The gift of a clean slate, of reconciliation and a new life in Christ, is available to all. But genuine faith and true reconciliation must be extended within the community as well as from God. Paul does not advocate “trickle-down” reconciliation. All whose debts are cancelled by the cross and forgiven by the grace of God need to release floodwaters of forgiveness and acceptance across their faith community. To be “reconciled to God” means to extend God’s reconciling grace ...

479. Commitment (Series: Fundamentals of Family)

Ephesians 5:22-33

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... covers a multitude of sins. II. Commitment Is a Promise of Presence in a World of Selfishness Servant Leadership is the teaching here. Love seeks to SERVE. About 30 years ago, Robert Greenleaf gave us the book, Servant Leadership in which he advocated service above self in business, in education, in churches, and other institutions of society. Just as Jesus came “not to be served, but to serve,” so we must develop that attitude in our relationships with others. Great leaders are servant leaders. They ...

480. Radical Love is Risky (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Luther King, Jr. came home from a meeting to find his home had been bombed while his wife and children were inside. Crowds full of anger swarmed in the front yard. After a while, Dr. King came out to address the crowd. This is what he said: “We are not advocating violence. We must love our enemies. What we are doing is just and God will be with us.” Do good to those who hate you. There is nothing new about that, it’s all over the Bible. Romans Chapter 12 says it perhaps as well as anyplace. “Do not ...

481. Radical Love is Forgiving (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to change. He taught me the very deep nature of God’s love for me.” God starts with us where we are. Forgiveness. Yes, it’s a debt canceled but it is more than that. Forgiveness is a life restored. Clemmie Greenleaf is a 46-year-old advocate for the homeless in Nashville, Tennessee. She has lived in Nashville all her life. She lost her parents when she was 13. They were both alcoholics. Prostitution became the only way Clemmie could make enough money to take care of her younger siblings. So she turned ...

482. Am I My Brother’s Keeper? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... go with you! Put off the gentlewoman; you bear a higher character.” We do good by “ADDRESSING SYSTEMIC CAUSES.” John Wesley not only visited the sick, he also wrote books on promoting health. He worked tirelessly for the end of slavery and advocated major prison reform. We live in a country where poverty is increasing, where jails are overcrowded, and where 39.2 million people have no health insurance. Can Christians continue to ignore these concerns by blaming the government for inaction? There is ...

483. What Difference Does It Make?

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... to everyone we meet. The love we have experienced through Christ is supposed to be shared. Let's look at the passage: John 14:15-21 (NRSV) [15] "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. [17] This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. [18] "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to ...

484. Dealing with Stress Creatively

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

... That’s what this first school of thought says to us. It’s not a good answer to the problem of stress, but it is a popular one these days. If you want to check that out, go watch our TV commercials… and notice how many of them advocate this escape philosophy. They brag about it. They have - Just the right drink, - Just the right pill, - Just the right place, - Just the right trip, To solve all your problems by getting you away from them. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I know that there are times ...

485. A Parable in a Miracle

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... preacher. He calls himself a “steeple dropout”. He’s a preacher without a pulpit, but people come to him from all over America, and he ministers to people in some of the most interesting and fascinating ways. He is a civil rights activist, prison reform advocate, yet a priest to members of the KKK. He was minister to the University at Ole Miss at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and worked with the National Council of Churches in the Civil Rights Movement following his time at Ole Miss. He ...

486. Sons of God

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

King Duncan

... wanted to “do their own thing.” Even Norman Vincent Peale claimed in the late 1960s that “the U.S. was paying the price of two generations that followed the Dr. Spock baby plan of instant gratification of needs.” Spock answered that he never advocated instant gratification. (4) Anyway, even Spock was not perfect. So, the question is, why didn’t God give us a perfect guide for raising children? Let me offer a suggestion. Maybe it is better for parents and offspring to work through the parent/child ...

487. The Darkness Before the Dawn

John 13:18-30, John 13:31-38

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health but a lifetime is a long, long time. We want to be Christian in our professional and business lives but the temptations are strong. As Al Pacino said when he played the devil in the movie Devil's Advocate, “Vanity is Satan's favorite vice." We want to be loyal to the Church, but the stink inside sometimes tempts us to try the flood outside. There is a little bit of Judas in all of us. II. FOR PETER, IT WAS A DARK NIGHT OF DENIAL. It was ...

488. The Holy Spirit and You

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... -sensitive conscience and you just feel guilty about everything. A conscience is not a good guide if it doesn't have the right content. But Jesus said, “When the Holy Spirit comes to you, he will guide you into all truth." The word Jesus used for this advocate is paraclete. It is a word that means “called along side another." It comes from the military world. As surely as there is a soldier on the front line who is supported by his fellow soldiers at all times, so it is that this paraclete of God comes ...

489. What Would Jesus Say About Materialism?

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... quickly announced Jesus would drive a Honda without talking about it since in John’s Gospel 12:49 Jesus says, “I did not speak of my own accord.” Evangelist Pat Robertson says the whole discussion is offensive and blasphemous while some environmental advocates remind us that the donkey Jesus rode could probably go forty to fifty miles on a bale of hay, which would make it environmentally friendly. Before we ask for your keys at Communion today, let us consider that question in a little broader ...

490. What Would Jesus Say About War?

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... prepare a sealed room. Studies following the war revealed that more people died from heart failure brought on by fear and stress than from the scud missiles themselves. I am not suggesting we bury our heads in the sand and pretend that all is well in our land. I am advocating that we face our fears as people of faith. So on I go not knowing I would not if I might I would rather walk in the dark with God than walk alone by light. I would rather walk with him by faith, than walk alone by sight. I don ...

491. Conversion or Credentialing?

Acts 9:1-5, 10-12, 17-19

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... is a new set of glasses by which I will see the world and interpret the events that are going on. Conversion is a new way of seeing. Paul's eyes were opened that day: Enemies became friends The hated became the loved An arch enemy became an advocate for Christianity This man of violence would one day preach that Christ himself is our peace. He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility and reconciled us to Himself. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but one great ...

492. Mulliganeers, All

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... about bringing “weapons” on school grounds extended to include that Lego ornament, that toothpick-sized armament. Sorry, but sometimes “zero tolerance” makes “zero sense.” At least zero common sense. A “zero tolerance” policy is what the synagogue leader was advocating in today’s gospel lesson. Charged with keeping the reading and reflection of the Torah on the straight and narrow, this officious official couldn’t see beyond the letter of the law, beyond the jot and tittle of his title ...

493. Always with Us

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Lee Griess

... I will live again and you will, too. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another counselor who will never leave you — a Counselor who is the Holy Spirit. I will not leave you. I will not abandon you. I will send you a counselor, an advocate, a comforter, a friend who will care for you, who will offer you hope when there is none to be found, help when you are helpless, comfort when you can find none, and life in the face of death. The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us in our ...

494. With a Firm Foundation, Application Is Second Nature

Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Practice makes perfect. If you do these things for Jesus, the Lord will bless you. Much Prosperity Gospel preaching advocates these themes. It's a word that America wants to hear. Even Reverend Rick Warren of the California megachurch, Saddleback Church, has said that: I must apply its [the Word of God's] principles. Receiving, reading, researching, remembering, and reflecting on the Word are all useless if we fail to ...

495. No Partiality

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... end of the nineteenth-century, women were being used as models for portraits of Jesus. Counteracting this was the manly Jesus who not only cleanses the temple (in the gospels) but beats up on his opponents (not in the gospels) like Billy Sunday and advocates of twentieth-century "muscular Christianity." There is the totally acculturated Jesus who looks just like us (whoever "us" is) and would surely feel about everything and respond to all today's needs just like we do. And isn't this right where Peter was ...

496. Spiritual Judo

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... grace of God that awaited her, allowing her the strength not only to survive but to serve God and others with her limitations. She learned to draw and to paint with a pencil or paintbrush in her teeth. She began to write and to advocate for the disabled. She's written over thirty books and received a presidential appointment to the National Council on Disability and served on that council when the Americans With Disabilities Act became law. Her list of accomplishments, awards, and honorary degrees is long ...

497. Is Your Church a Museum or Mission?

Luke 15:1-32

Illustration

Wallace H. Kirby

... . They wanted attention given to those who were stable, pious and not a liability if invited to the country club. Theirs was a "let's have our synagogue programs be for us dependable, like-minded types," as some present-day church-growth advocates. Jesus disappointed them by insisting that the issue was one of mission: to reach out to those who needed great mercy, lessons in etiquette, social graces, and perhaps a bath. Paying attention to these "lost" persons would change the comfortable fellowship the ...

498. Moving Day

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... make our home with them. [24] Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. [25] "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. [26] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. [27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not ...

499. Luke 6:20-31

Luke 6:17-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... anyone who stood in obvious opposition, or who existed outside any accepted kinship relationship. Jesus’ directive turns the designation “enemy” into an oxymoron, for extending “love” to an “enemy” negates the enemy status of the other. The “love” Jesus advocates here is not a noun but rather a verb, an action word. Luke’s text immediately exegetes the word “love” as to “do good,” “bless,” and “pray for” definitive activities that embody this “love” for the “enemy ...

500. Good News about Hair

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... advance” because he will give them the words to say, he is suggesting that he will be with them and will not abandon them. He is saying that as they stand before a court or a synagogue seeking to persecute them, he will be standing there with them as an advocate, and he will tell them what to say. Now, most of us will never go to court over the fact that we are Christians. But all of us will have adversaries of some kind. All of us will have dark nights of the soul sooner or later. We will have ...

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