Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 601 to 625 of 1089 results

601. Why Not a Christian Live 8 for the Environment?

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... styles and talents were performed in support of this battle against poverty. In Rome, there was red-haired rocker Roman Fiorella Mannoia one moment, and blond-blue-eyed country western signer Faith Hill the next. It was this unconventional coming together of artists and their completely different sounds, coming from locations all around the world, that gave a sense of power and genuine possibility to the staggering task they had set for themselves. Wipe out poverty? Why not! Thanks to Live-8, the continent ...

602. How Can Religion Go Bad Doing Good?

Matthew 7:21-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Public art. If ever there were fight'n words, these two simple words, "public art" would certainly qualify. The moment the intention for any new public artistic display is announced, the public outcry begins - an outcry that only reaches its full volume when the new piece is unveiled. The opening of the new Holocaust Memorial in the heart of Berlin is no exception. From the moment the memorial first became a topic of discussion seventeen years ago, ...

603. The Chair

Psalm 46:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and the valleys barren. Just ask Mstislav Rostropovich, universally recognized as the world's greatest living cellist. During the height of the Cold War, Rostropovich and his wife (the soprano Galina Vishneyskaya) spoke out on behalf of human rights and artistic freedoms in the face of a Soviet Union who were trying to shut up physicists like Andrei Sakharov and writers like Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In fact, Rostropovich wrote an open letter to Brezhnev protesting against Soviet human rights violations in ...

604. Don't Be a Turkey (Thanksgiving)

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... . If we go to an art gallery and view a beautiful work of art, or go to the movies and watch a movie that really moves us, part of the joy and wonder of those experiences is expressing our gratitude and appreciation for the gifts of the artist. We’re not meant to keep gratitude and appreciation bottled up inside! This Thanksgiving, if we have things to be thankful about, we need to say our thanks to God! Let me suggest some practical applications for this Thanksgiving. Make plans in your household to say ...

605. Four Cornerstones

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 't enlisted. When the enemy reaches his village it's a disaster because he can't run away. Then he's fortunate because only the able-bodied are put to forced labor. He may well end up with a pension so that he has the leisure to become a great artist or thinker, or better still, decide to become a simple ferryman. Who knows what's good or bad, success or failure in the long term? It may be that there's no success like failure and no failure like success. The break up of a relationship can seem like a ...

606. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , not a positive gift; mk's are perhaps the first generation in America that wants friends who are different from them, not the same (see Real People on MTV). Busters want music that's diverse; friends that are diverse; these kids process the world like artists do – all at once, not one step at a time like the Industrial Age taught us to do. Millennials have inherited a very violent world, and must survive amidst what for some of them are literal war zones. Even more armed to the teeth than busters ...

607. Hands On

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a plate on his head?" Her stubby purple-painted fingernail was pointing at the perfectly round golden halo that surrounded Jesus' head in all the paintings. Before I could attempt an explanation of the difference between a piece of china and an artistic representation of divinity, Soren's attention was suddenly snagged by one different picture. "Oh cool," she exclaimed gleefully, "Look Daddy, Jesus is throwing a Frisbee in this one!" Soren had spied a Rembrandt etching (now in New York's Metropolitan Museum ...

608. Are You Living the Three Advents?

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... found shelter in these high caves, protection from wild animals and other nomadic warriors. They spent their evenings telling stories of their hunting days, dancing in the light of night fires, and painting pictures on the cave walls. A few years ago an artist legally collected the charcoal from these cave walls, and made jewelry from it. Pendants and earrings made of charcoal, wire wrapped in 14K gold and accented with a fire-colored citrine gem, were for a short time available for purchase along with a ...

609. The Dash of Discipleship

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in paint. But the mission itself remained unchanged. Howard Finster, a Baptist preacher from Georgia, spent the first 65 years of his life pastoring churches. Not until his seventh decade of living did he begin painting . . . eventually becoming the most widely galleried artist of the second half of the 20th century. His mission was unchanged: calling people to Christ and witnessing to the glory and grandeur of God. But the form of his conceiving took on a different expression. For a disciple of Jesus, the ...

610. The Woods Are Lovely, Dark, and Deep

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... daily drawn. We spend countless hours there. We built tree houses and forts, hunted for arrowheads, and swung on grape vines. We played cowboys, knights, and Tarzan. We marveled at God's creation, and soaked up the beautiful scenes created by the world's greatest artist. What fun we had in the woods. But there was a dark side to the woods. They could be hostile and unforgiving. Thickets of briars. Acres of poison ivy. Ticks. Chiggers. And worse, snakes! We fell out of trees. We had sudden encounters with ...

611. Maker's Mark

2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Artisans placed unique symbols on their work, identifying pieces as genuine creations by a master craftsman. In pottery the first recognized marks were where the makers' thumbs were imprinted on a piece, set before it was fired so that everyone knew the artist who had created the work. Whether it was Samaian-ware of the second century or Wedgewood china of eighteenth century Staffordshire, the maker's mark became the all-important sign to look for. In 1266 we find the earliest English law on trademarks ...

612. Be Kind

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

James McCormick

... , holding it over the paper, we would dip a toothbrush in paint and rub it across the screen, spattering the paint on the paper below. When the ink had dried, we removed the leaf or the flower, leaving its outline on the paper. In this way, even a non-artist like me could produce a lovely work of art. That is to say nothing of the spattered artwork on my clothes! But I loved it! There were caring people who gave generously of their time and energy to play games with us, teach us songs, tell us stories, and ...

613. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

John 16:17-33

Sermon

James McCormick

... getting at the same reality. None of us would ask for more difficulty, but without it, life as we know it would be greatly diminished. To add one more case in point: it is often said that no-one can develop the sensitivity and feeling that a great artist must have unless he has known suffering. I read recently that Beethoven once said of Rossini that he had in him the makings of a great musician, if only he had had some failures and difficulties with which to struggle, but that his great gift was spoiled by ...

614. A New Beginning

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... feeling bad about our shortcomings, it is taking stock of our situation--personal attitudes and habits, relationships, the direction of our lives--and then taking action to remedy those areas that need improvement. Some of you are familiar with the work of artist Georgia O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe moved to New York City from Texas and married Alfred Steglitz, a famous photographer. One night shortly after making this dramatic move, Georgia O’Keeffe threw most of her paintings she had painted in Texas in the ...

615. God's Dirty Job

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... discouraged to report that except for portraits emphasizing the post-crucifixion “stigmata”—-the holes left by the nail pinning Jesus’ hands to the cross—-Jesus’ hands never show any dirt. Whether clasped in prayer or grasped in healing, the artistic renderings of Jesus’ hands are always pristine, without mark or blemish or grime. It seems unlikely that Jesus’ hands survived to adulthood without some trauma. He was apprenticed with Joseph as a stone mason/carpenter—-hewing rough materials ...

616. God Speaks and the Church Is Our Hearing Aid

Mark 4:1-9

Sermon

James W. Moore

... … so Sunday School Classes can see and hear my thoughts about the material in the book. Now, I have been doing television for over 30 years and in all that time. I had never ever used any kind of make-up… until last week! They brought in a make-up artist who had done Sharon Stone’s make-up for a movie she shot in Nashville… and she put so much make-up on me that when I looked in the mirror… I thought I looked like I should be in a horror movie called “The Curse of the Walking Corpse ...

617. What Christmas Gives to Us

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

James W. Moore

... you are needed most, where you can (at that moment) do the most good. - Knowing how to prioritize… how to put first things first. And, you know, I suppose that is true in every profession. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, engineers, architects, artists, entrepreneurs, administrative secretaries… whatever,… the question is the same… How do you use your time well? It is also the hardest question for parents. Some of the most agonizing moments for us as parents have been those times when our job ...

618. Settling for Less

Acts 2:1-21; John 14:1-14

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Charles Schultz, the artist who provides us with the Peanuts cartoons, is one of my favorite theologians. That ought to tell you something about the kind of seminary president I am. In one of his cartoon series, he has Snoopy, that hound of heaven, saying of Woodstock, that would-be bird of paradise; "Someday, ...

619. Gave It All Up

Acts 2:1-21; Matt 28:16-20

Illustration

C. T. Studd

... save the lost, not the stiff-necked; not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers and artistic musical performances, but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute, to capture men from the devil's clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell, to enlist and train them for Jesus and make them into an Almighty Army ...

620. Bright and Loud: What Do You Miss?

Matthew 6:25-34

Illustration

John Killinger

... the size of our sun. He probably never sees the delicacy of a cat's fur or the eagerness in a child's eyes or the lines in an old woman's face. In fact, he's missing most of the treasures that have always caught the attention of artists and photographers and poets and mystics and musicians. How many people are like him and miss the most intricate wonders of our environment? Is our secular culture breeding people who have no eye for the lilies of the field, who no longer make the connection between all of ...

621. The Picture of Jesus

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Illustration

John R. Brokhoff

For many Christ has never become a personal reality as he was to Matthew in the tax office. It is like a certain bachelor professor who had a friend, an artist. One day he went into his studio and saw a magnificent portrait of a lovely lady. He could not help admiring the painting. The professor asked if he could take it and hang it in his apartment. His friend suggested that maybe he might want to go one better and ...

622. www.Salvation.com

Ephesians 2:8-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... , it is an offer; it is not a reward for those who are righteous, it is a gift for those who will admit they are guilty. There is nothing in the history past or in the future to come like the grace of God. No artist could paint its beauty, no scientist could discover its ingredient, no language could describe its wonder, no imagination could conceive its greatness, no eloquence can explain it, no intelligence can totally understand it. II. Salvation Is the Possession of Faith This salvation that comes by ...

623. Who's In Charge Here

Judges 21:24-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... ; it mocks parents, home, and family; planting in the hearts of our teenagers the seeds of destructive rebellion. We see rebellion in morals. Fornication has become "co-habitation." Sodomy has become "a gay lifestyle." Perversity and obscenity is now defended in the name of "artistic freedom." The bottom line of the society in which we live, is this: "Nobody is going to tell me what to do, and if it feels good I am going to do it." Social responsibilities have been replaced by personal rights. So I want ...

624. O Little Town of Bethlehem

Micah 5:2

Sermon

James Merritt

... think of Jerusalem, you think of the cross. But the story of Jesus began at a quaint little town called Bethlehem. What otherwise would have been an unheard of Palestinian town, shrouded in anonymity, has instead become the theme for poets, the subject for artists, and the goal for pilgrims. Bethlehem, even to this day, is still relatively a "little town." But Bethlehem is living proof that indeed big things do come in small packages. Because there are three facts about the city of Bethlehem that make it ...

625. Mom: The Heart of a Godly Family

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

James Merritt

... and occupies, if she would only realize it, a more honorable as well as a more important position than any man in it. The mother is the one supreme asset of the national life. She is more important, by far, than the successful statesman, or businessman, or artist, or scientist.4 Just in case the feminist or the chauvinist thinks that Theodore Roosevelt was wrong, and overstated the case, I want you to remember something every time you pick up a bottle of Heinz 57 ketchup. When the will of Henry J. Heinz was ...

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