Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 626 to 650 of 3852 results

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . Any objective observer can tell that. Within a seven-week period following the death of Jesus, a little band of depressed, cowardly men were transformed into a militant, exuberant team of evangelists who spread the Resurrection news across the world. Ten of the original disciples were executed for their beliefs. Their lives would have been spared if they had just denied that Jesus arose. But they would not. People are not usually willing to die for a lie. According to Dr. Luke’s account of what happened ...

627. I Am the Keeper of the Zoo

Isaiah 11:1-9

Sermon

... out that they can make a much easier living by hanging out near a town and eating those four-legged offerings the nice people put out for them?" Yet even the domesticated species can be vicious and cruel. The phrase "It's a dog-eat-dog world" had to originate some place, didn't it? And just the other night I was in the lovely living room of some lovely people who have some lovely cats….which they have to keep separated, one from the other. Because when their two lovely cats are in the same space at the ...

628. From Silence to Sight

Job 42:1-6, Job 42:7-17

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... do seem content in their new circumstances. Their obsessions with possessions have dissipated. In the last chapter of the book of Job, after all is said and done, Job prays for his friends and is restored to his original status. In the end, the scriptural Job's earthly possessions supercede even his original wealth. Job's story begins, "Once upon a time" and ends with "... and they all lived happily ever after." This ending seems a little incongruous to us, doesn't it? Just as Job's experiences showed him ...

629. Love Is Something You Learn

Mt 22:34-46

Illustration

King Duncan

... : Boyd learned to love from his mom. Each of us learn to love the same way. From Mom. From Dad, from Grandparents, a favorite aunt. Each of us has our own story to tell. We saw ourselves in someone else's eyes. But where did such love originate? The epistle of John tells us it originated with God who is the source of love. We love because God first loved us. "In life's uncertain moments," writes Sandra Carr, "it is comforting to know I am still in my heavenly Father's eyes." Love is something you learn.

630. The Job Description of a Leader

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... by God to Jesus Christ. It was given to him so that he might show his servants what must shortly happen. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John ..." The word used over and over again for "servant" is hupertes, which originally meant an "underrower," someone who worked in the galleys, or the lower deck of a ship's crew. It eventually came to mean a servant or steward. Jesus' "upside-down thinking" defined leadership first in terms of followership. The best definition of a Christian leader ...

631. Terminator 3

Acts 9:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the robot-aliens usually changed from being body-shaped creatures into some kind of vehicle. Their transformation was usually into some weapon-like transport - a tank, a plane, a car - which was capable of doing all sorts of things they could not perform in their original form. Christ's transforming love empowers us in the same way. We become vehicles for that love, and like Saul, we too are charged with "carrying" Christ-the-Good-News out into the world. Under the power of Christ's love, Saul becomes the ...

632. Settle for an F

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... should be one of the most flexible and dynamic realities in our lives. Lutheran pastor Michael D. Warner reminds us of the true nature of marriage by looking back to a rather unusual example - Adam and Eve. Warner suggests that "...God's original intent in establishing marriage and, subsequently, the family was that he intended Adam and Eve to reflect his image dynamically in their marital union" (Michael D. Warner, "A Response to Marriage and the Family," in Kenneth S. Kantzer, ed., Applying the Scriptures ...

633. Say Amen, Somebody

Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... or scholars." Cranky, unhappy people don't praise much of anything. "Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible" (C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms [New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1958], 94). For the psalmist, faith originates in praise and affirmation. If our walk with God doesn't originate in praise, it doesn't end in praise. My favorite line in all of Abraham Heschel's writings asserts, "The beginning of prayer is praise. The power of worship is song. First we sing, then we understand ...

634. Enemies of Promise

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... /Templeton prize recipients? Why is the world run by C students? My mother thought she knew the answer. She had a favorite saying that she used on us unsparingly: "Pride goeth before a fall, boys." In her mind, the Genesis story of the original sin of Pride and the origination of The Fall were adequate explanations for why some people lived their entire lives on the reputation of the reputation they might have had. Pride got in the way. Why has God been able to use Billy Graham so powerfully? He has stayed ...

635. New Beginnings

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... to be a Mercedes.” There was a young man who understood his potential. Tony Buzan in his book The Power of Verbal Intelligence gives us a wonderful example of the potential each of us brought into the world. He tells the story of the origins of the Suzuki method that has helped millions of children learn to play the violin. It begins with a Japanese teacher, musician and instrument maker named, of course, Suzuki. Suzuki had two moments in his life when he gained life-changing insights. Suzuki’s first ...

636. 1 John 4:7-12

1 John 4:7-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... defining God, he now reveals "God is love." Love is not just one of God's many qualities, it is God's essence. Furthermore, God's love has now become manifest in another aspect of God's essence - God's Son Jesus Christ. John has now articulated an original connection between knowledge and love. If human beings are to live up to their roles as imago dei and as imitators of Christ, then the knowledge to re-create in human experience is love - to "love one another." To "know" Jesus is to be "in him" and to ...

637. Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... shall love the Lord your God and you shall do so with every facet of your being - heart, soul, mind and strength. Note that this latter-day version of the Shema differs from the original found in Deuteronomy 6:5 by adding "mind" to the list of the ways of love. This is not so much an addition to the original text as it is a cultural adjustment made by Jesus for a strongly Hellenized environment - for the Greek thought and language separated the seat of emotions (the heart) from the seat of the intellect ...

638. Hebrews 10:5-10

Hebrews 10:5-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... to highlight the radical changes in our relationship to God made possible by the life and work of Jesus Christ.The Hebrews' author even clarifies the idiomatic Hebrew reference to embodiment in order to focus on the miracle of a bodily presence. The original, picturesque Hebrew phrase "ears you have dug for me" is replaced by the Septuagint's more obvious "a body you have prepared for me." By using the Septuagint's description rather than the old Hebrew, the author misses an opportunity to make additional ...

639. 2 Kings 4:8-17

2 Kings 4:8-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... her plan to her husband, she does not refer to Elisha by name. Instead she calls him "a holy man of God." This title, combined with the extended narrative style of verses 4:8-37, has prompted some scholars to suggest that this might not originally have been a tale about the prophet Elisha. There were hundreds of prophets, unknown to us today, wandering the countryside, doing holy work. Likewise, hundreds of stories sprang up about these "men of God." Chapter 4 of 2 Kings is clearly a compilation of four ...

640. Luke 13:22-30

Luke 13:22-30

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... commitment had better be strong, for this "narrow door" does not have easy access. Jesus' eschatological image is clearly drawn as he continues to flesh out this proverb. Scholars are divided over whether Luke's version or Matthew's is closer to the proverb's original form. Luke's text develops the whole theme of rejected entry to a much fuller degree and incorporates the teaching image to make identification with Jesus as "the way" even stronger. Part of the power of Jesus' image of the shut-up house in ...

641. Isaiah 42:1-9

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... these promises, who wears this glory. This week's text introduces the first of the four wonderful "servant songs" found in Second Isaiah. This first "song" (so-called because of its poetic form) is seen by many scholars as this servant's original "call" or "commission." It begins with the unmitigated exuberance of the Lord for this servant. The cry "Here is" or "See" (Hebrew hen) which introduces verse 1 is emphatic with its positive delight - starkly contrasting this approved servant with the condemnation ...

642. Matthew 5:21-37

Matthew 5:21-37

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... , more stringent demands (v.27). There is much in common between this example of Jesus and early rabbinic material from this same era. While similar texts found in the Babylonian Talmud were not compiled until a later date, there is evidence that the original material the Talmudic tracates discuss (B.Nid.13b) came from the middle of the first century. The focus of both Jesus' words and the Talmud teaching are on correct sexual behaviors and attitudes. Jesus' mandate makes it clear that his interpretation of ...

643. 1 Peter 2:2-10

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... image one of the most startling images in Scripture, an image as paradoxical as the cross itself: "living stones." Some scholars have tried to reduce the lunacy of this image by suggesting that "living stones" refers to unhewn or uncut stones stones still in their original state. But as 1 Peter continues to use this and other "stone" images, it seems evident that the paradoxical nature of such a reference is meant to be emphasized not smoothed over. First, the Lord is the "living stone" a reference now more ...

644. 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... up of several letter fragments joined together (although they agree less well on just how many fragments and where all the cutting and pasting has occurred). It appears, however, that the final portion of 2 Corinthians runs from 10:1-13:10 and originally included the greetings and benedictions found in today's epistle portion, 13:11-13. Note that in some translations, these final words extend over 13:11-14. The two "greeting" references, designated in the NRSV as verse 12, are in other translations, divided ...

645. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... disciples are present. This is the setting for the allegorical explanation of the wheat and weeds in verses 36-43. In this second rendering of the wheat and weeds story, the focus shifts to the end time the time of "harvest" to which the original parable only alluded. Now the force of the illustration is to demonstrate events that will occur at the "end of the age," instead of describing any present reality. Many scholars argue that these verses are the Matthean community's attempt, less to understand the ...

646. Philippians 4:1-9

Philippians 4:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... their names listed "in the book of life." If there is one central message in the Philippian correspondence, it is encapsulated by Paul's outburst in verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." Although it is true that in the original Greek of this text, the term "rejoice" could also be meant as a farewell greeting, it seems evident that by choosing to repeat again, "rejoice," this is a declaration of great joy, not just a closing salutation. In verses 4-9, Paul outlines the attitudinal ...

647. Luke 1:26-38

Luke 1:26-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... passages to focus instead on the end result of Mary's visitation and obedience the human birth of the Son of God, the arrival of Jesus Christ on Earth. Luke's text seems to offer weight to both these foci. Clearly the gospel writer wants to convey Jesus' divine origins and to emphasize the miraculous nature of his coming into our midst. Yet it is also true that Luke chose to look at Mary's obedience and her "favored" status not at Joseph as did Matthew, or at the Spirit as did Mark, or at the pre-existent ...

648. John 21:1-19

John 21:1-19

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the tide may be turning), the unit itself breaks down into four additional stories. This author seems less adept at integrating piecemeal material into a coherent narrative; scholars find the connections within the various scenes of chapter 21 as fragile and awkward as the author's original transition from 20:31 to 21:1. But no matter how tenuous a grip chapter 21 has on the rest of John's gospel, it is firmly a part of this gospel's tradition. No versions of John lacking chapter 21 have ever been found or ...

649. 1 John 4:7-12

1 John 4:7-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

650. Hebrews 10:5-10

Hebrews 10:5-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... all made evident in verses 50-53 - an awesome image that makes the new face of God taking shape in the tiny helpless unborn child Mary carries all the more startling in contrast. What J. Gresham Machen called “a genuinely Jewish religious ideal" ("The Origin of the First Two Chapters of Luke," Princeton Theological Review 10[1912]:260-61) is celebrated in the final verses of this "magnificat."Underlining the personal joy Mary experiences at being chosen as the mother of the Messiah is the jubilation of a ...

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