Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 626 to 650 of 1138 results

626. Everyone's a Fundamentalist About Something

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... vs. the toilet-paper-rolls-over-fundamentalists, No-nuts-in-fudge fundamentalists, Christmas presents opened on Christmas Eve fundamentalists, no white shoes after Labor Day fundamentalists. Even within the defined domain of "religious fundamentalism" there are many varieties. If you think your church is flexible and receptive to new ideas, just try suddenly changing the prescribed Sunday morning order of worship. It will suddenly become apparent that even within the most "liberal" congregations we tend ...

627. Parable Power

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to cover ourselves and explain these freakish occurrences: "I guess you just had to be there." "It loses something in translation." "You just don't get it." But the fact is, storytelling of any sort, amusing anecdotes or tragic tales, is an unrepeatable art form. The variety of people listening, the inflections in your voice, the mood of the day, the color of the sky they all combine to create a one-time-only atmosphere for the words you speak. A story may bring a tear or a smile at one telling, and ...

628. The Ultimate Soul Food

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... our stomachs to get to our souls. One thing that makes bread such a good medium and metaphor to convey the image of soul-sustaining nourishment is the life-giving process it goes through to become a fragrant loaf. Except for a few special unleavened varieties, what really makes bread for most of us is yeast. A tiny one-celled organism that grows and metabolizes its own food with great speed, yeast organisms "work" in the dough, slightly fermenting and releasing gases so that the bread begins to rise. This ...

629. How Do You Sell A Vacuum Cleaner?

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There is only one way to sell a vacuum cleaner turn it on and use it. There is only one way to evangelize turn on your faith and use it! Jesus used a variety of methods sometimes strange, sometimes plain, sometimes controversial to bring wholeness and wellness into people's lives. Jesus tailored his healing techniques to the needs of the person or community, but there was one unchangeable and unshakable foundation around which everything else revolved: He was what he said he was. ...

630. One Breathwork, Many Bodyworks

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Yet for each individual, the experience was different. Each disciple received a different flame of that Spirit and each disciple began to speak in a different language, until voice was given to all the tribes of the earth. But despite the variety of sounds and expressions pouring forth from the Spirit-filled disciples, they produced a unified "global" message. As those witnessing this phenomenon heard and testified, all these different languages were proclaiming the same message "God's deeds of power" (v.11 ...

631. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... construction. Through his parallel sentences, Paul structurally represents the triune God. The underlying sameness of the Source is verified while the diversity of form is demonstrated. The "same Spirit," the "same Lord," the "same God" are manifested in varieties of "gifts," "services" and "activities." Thus Paul illustrates there is only one Spirit, the Spirit of God, but that its expressions or its "distributions" ("diaireseis") take on as many variations as there are people called by God. Whatever ...

632. Acts 17:22-31

Acts 17:22-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... him. These recent experiences may have influenced Paul's rhetoric somewhat encouraging him to try being a bit more irenic, a bit less irritating, when addressing new listeners. Yet Paul was not inclined to keep quiet. While in Athens, he sought out a variety of places and audiences. He witnessed before the Jewish devout in the synagogue (17:17), the esteemed philosophers (17:18), the masses in the marketplace (17:17), and the simply curious (17:21). Speaking to so many audiences with such equanimity brought ...

633. Luke 13:1-9

Luke 13:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... may be Luke's "kinder, gentler" version of that episode. This parable begins with the owner of the vineyard visiting his fields to survey their fruitfulness. In Palestine, it was not uncommon for land given over to a vineyard to also include a variety of fruit-bearing trees. The owner's visit is quite intentional _ the text clearly emphasizes how purposefully this man sought the fruit to which he was entitled. Even though this landowner is justifiably perturbed at the fruitless condition he discovers, the ...

634. John 13:31-35

John 13:31-35

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... :26, reflects these two agendas. Biblical scholars have fits and fun discerning the various layers of influence and meaning that may be perceived running throughout this section. While some have concluded that the farewell discourse essentially repeats itself (with a variety of theological and social reasons as to "why") between 13:31-14:31 and 16:4-33, others delight in dissecting these chapters into ever more minuscule and ultimately meaningless sub-categories in an attempt to hold onto some coherent form ...

635. Luke 16:1-13

Luke 16:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... that some commentators have simply thrown in the towel. They claim that the original meaning of verse 8 has been lost due to a disastrous scribal error. Whenever in doubt, it seems, blame "scribal error." Of course, there are a variety of explanations for what went wrong. One camp suggests that the tiny difference between a Greek capital "lambda" and capital "delta" is to blame. Alikias, meaning "experience" or "expertise," or in this case "prudence," became adiakias, "un-righteousness." Thus, the original ...

636. 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

637. John 21:1-19

John 21:1-19

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... different words used here for "love" and for "sheep" there may be less than meets the eye. John seems to use agape and phileo interchangeably and in Hebrew and Aramaic (Jesus and Peter were certainly not speaking Greek) there is only one primary word to express varieties of love. Jesus now speaks cryptically about Peter's future. Accustomed to moving about at will, the day will come when Peter will "grow old ... and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go" (v.18 ...

638. Refusing to Quit

2 Timothy 4:5-8

Sermon

James McCormick

Years ago, a Midwestern University unveiled a plaque honoring an undistinguished alumnus. During his college years, this alumnus had participated in a variety of campus activities, but he had never been president of any organization. For four years he had gone out for football, but he had never made the first team or played in an important game. His scholastic average was in the B’s. When World War I came, he served ...

639. Matthew 5:13-20

Matthew 5:13-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of salt that for people on salt-restricted diets, it is a struggle to find low-sodium or sodium-free foods. Salt is everywhere, in everything. Not so in Jesus' day. In the first century world, salt was a precious commodity that served a variety of crucial purposes. Sometimes used as wages instead of coinage, salt was best known as a preservative. Before refrigeration, salted foods were the lifeline to survival when fresh foods became scarce. Salt was also used as a disinfectant ("salt in the wounds"). Salt ...

640. Acts 2:1-21

Acts 2:1-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... undertake is a mere bookkeeping one - choosing a replacement for Judas. Then comes the rush of mighty wind and tongues of fire. Suddenly the Holy Spirit is among them and within them demanding of them just one thing - speech. While the crowds are amazed at the varieties of languages, the true miracle here is the content of the words spoken to them. Suddenly the same disciples who had been little more than towers of timidity are shouting out for all to hear and understand about "God's deeds of power" (v.11 ...

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

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of all the seeds, the positive growth of both the wheat and the weeds is assumed in this story. Central to the wheat and weeds parable is the fact that the weeds are intentionally planted by a secretive, scheming neighbor. The weed, possibly a common local variety known as darnel, was a poisonous plant that looked very much like wheat when young. Thus, the malicious neighbor's deed isn't visible until the weeds and wheat are both well developed. In verse 27 the focus of the parable now shifts from the state ...

642. James 1:17-27

James 1:17-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... inserts such an unusual metaphor that we almost lose his focus. The mirror metaphor used in verse 23 and running through verses 24-25 is an odd shift, but the mirror itself was often used by philosophers and theologians of the first century in a variety of ways. James uses the mirror here to further emphasize the different attitude that molds "doers" and "hearers." Part of what throws us off is that the mirror image seems to change in mid-stream. In the first case the "hearers" look into a mirror ...

643. The Most Stubborn Man in the Bible

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... the human race. Most of us feel threatened by those who aren’t like us. Whether the pigmentation in their skin is different or their ideas run counter to our own or their outlook on life is just plain strange, diversity makes us uncomfortable. Variety may be the spice of life, but most people prefer their life bland. Those strange people with their strange ways of doing things perplex us. And worse.” (4) And yet God created diversity. There is a reason. Different people have different gifts. Especially ...

644. A Very Different Top 10 List

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... for extinction, have someone write your people’s #10 down on a whiteboard, or if you use video or PowerPoint, place the list on the screen so that everyone can see. . . . [If you would rather preach the sermon yourself without their participation, you have a variety of candidates to choose from. We humans are a jungle of human selfishness, sordid hypocrisy and base cruelty. So you might begin there, and talk about our need for root canals of the soul, root canals that do more than numb or reduce our ...

645. Don’t Forget Your Dance Partner!

Mark 1: 21-28

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

C.S. Lewis once penned some thoughts on worship, particularly in the face of liturgical innovators in England who seemed to think that every worship service needed to be a kind of variety show with each week being different from the week prior. Lewis had no truck with that kind of thinking. Worship, Lewis wrote, should be a bit like dancing. Once you have learned how to dance and have become good at it, you are able to immerse yourself in the dance ...

646. Jesus Is Contagious!

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... networks. Wong says that Google researchers have discovered that only ONE OUT OF 10 people share. The rest simply consume, but do not share. (This information comes from my friend Chuck Fromm, publisher of Worship magazine, who works with Wong on a variety of projects). Google’s information is down-loaded to one web address and is never “passed along.” Only 10% of Goggle-users pass their discoveries along to others who might benefit from them. The same percentage of a “hoard it” vs. “share ...

647. Hurts Can Heal

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and “resurrections.” In fact, the phenomenon of “cutting,” of self-mutilation, is the dark side of the role of “hurt” and “pain” in coming to life as a human being. Studies on why teenagers “cut” their arms and ankles reveal that, for a variety of reasons, some kids no longer feel. Because of traumas and tensions, because of home environments and inner conflicts most of us cannot even imagine, they become emotional zombies. These kids are so desperate to come alive to life that they cut ...

648. Consumerism

John 2:12-25

Illustration

Brett Blair

... gets into the church, more time is spent on membership and expenditures than God's dream of the Good News proclaimed, justice administered, and inclusiveness and healing accomplished. Discipleship cannot be seen as a church option, alongside volleyball and jazzercise. Likewise, worship cannot be viewed as a weekly variety show, but an opportunity for us to get in touch with the Transcendent God. And yes, clergy are guilty as well. Too much time is spent encouraging people to think positive about their sin.

649. The Comforts of "Thy Rod and Thy Staff": Rulership or Relationship

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a countercultural life in every detail of your existence, you are selling out to the culture (zeitgeist). Wait a minute . . . in nature differences and adaptations are the way populations of the same species learn to survive and thrive in a variety of environments. Climate changes, shifting food sources, and population density all challenge species to change in order to succeed and reproduce. Successful species are always “locavores.” Have you heard that word? It was one of the top new words of 2007 ...

650. A Violent Wind

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... be controlled; it blows where it will. As Dr. DeYoung puts it, “Wind is a powerful force. It cannot be stopped or controlled by people. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is not subject to human control. The moving of the Holy Spirit is God at work. There is great variety in the wind. It may be a soft whisper gently rustling the leaves on the trees, or it may be a hurricane uprooting trees. Likewise, the Holy Spirit may gently bring a person to Christ, such as a little child raised in a Christian home, or he may ...

Showing results