Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 76 to 100 of 1089 results

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... curator showed him an obscure fifteenth-century painting of Madonna and Child. The child, the baby Jesus, had the features of Down Syndrome. The medical student, Brian Skotko, who has a 25-year-old sister Kristin who has Down Syndrome herself, said he thought "the artist was someone like me, living in the fifteenth century, who had a brother or sister with Down syndrome and chose to use the child as a model." Here's the exact excerpt from the article in The Wall Street Journal: "One morning, Mr. Skotko and ...

77. The Insight of Eyesight

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... champagne-colored fabric crossing through acres of Marin and Sonoma counties); the 1983 Surrounded Islands (floating pink circlets enclosed the waters around two neighboring islands); in 1995 the Wrapped Reichstag (cocooning that dour German edifice in white fabric). The artist's intention, in part, is to cause us to look at everyday images with new eyes. Art historian Robert Rosenblum, commenting on Christo's 1985 Pont Neuf Wrapped project in Paris, exclaimed, "It was breathtaking . . . Something you took ...

78. Soren's Heart

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... love, your heart will break. No one has ever loved with all their heart who didn't suffer a broken heart. But the promise of the gospel is this: it's takes a broken heart to birth true love and make your heart sing. (We encourage you to invite an artist or better yet multiple artists during the worship/sermon to draw this picture of Soren's heart. Since the story comes late in the sermon, the artist(s) won't be giving anything way. Or an alternative is to show an image of Soren's heart on the screen.)

79. What's the Value of Your Life?

Genesis 28:10-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the world changes, the value of an object may change – even if the object itself remains exactly the same. Art collectors have always counted on Lesson #3. Any serious collector stockpiles works by respected, noted living artists knowing full well that the moment that living artist becomes a dead artist, the value of his or her artwork will rise significantly. The pieces themselves have not changed. But because their creator is no longer creating, they're now valued according to an entirely new set of ...

80. Good Actions

Matthew 10:40-42

Illustration

King Duncan

Baron de Rothschild was one of the richest men who ever lived. Legend has it that the Baron once posed before an artist as a beggar. While the artist, Ary Scheffer, was painting him, the financier sat before him in rags and tatters holding a tin cup. A friend of the artist entered, and the baron was so well disguised that he was not recognized. Thinking he was really a beggar, the visitor dropped a coin into the cup. Ten years later, the man who gave the coin to Rothschild received a letter containing a ...

81. Tranquility in the Midst of Turmoil

Luke 1:26-38

Illustration

William L. Self

... had best captured the idea. The winner would get a rich commission. And after they had been painting for a long time, the judges assembled to view their work. The first artist unveiled his painting, and there was a beautiful, magnificent pastoral scene, with a farmer coming in after a hard day in the fields. His wife was cooking, his children were playing around the hearth, and all was at peace in this tranquil and beautiful farm. "That's it," said the ...

82. It's Not a Snuggie Love

Mark 15:1-15, Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . How dare she “cross over” into the secular market. But amidst all the criticism, there were a couple of voices who defended Amy Grant and promised to pray for her. One of them said: “There is nothing better than a Christian cross-over artist if the artist takes the cross over.” Just as Jesus’ sacrifice transformed the cross from a symbol of horror and death into a symbol of redemption and divine love, so Christians need to redeem other “cross-over” language. Here are a couple of examples: a ...

83. A Life of Trust

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... in the net hurts only if you stiffen up and resist it. The result of falling and being caught by the net is a mysterious confidence and daring on the trapeze. You fall less. Each fall makes you able to risk more!” (7) Do you get that? Trapeze artists develop confidence by falling and discovering the net below them. They actually get hurt less by relaxing and trusting the net. Do you understand that beneath you is an invisible net? You cannot fall so far that the loving arms of God will not catch you. That ...

84. Shaped By The Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... call in our lives. I believe that we are all called by God. You may not have discovered your calling yet. Mine is preaching. I don't think we are truly happy if we are not doing what God has called us to do. And I believe that the Master Artist and Creator has etched that calling on our hearts and spirits. Conclusion So, you see, what started out as a tour, became for me, a powerful spiritual experience. I'll never look at a piece of crystal the same way again. And because of this day, Pentecost Sunday and ...

85. Shaped By The Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

86. Shaped By the Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

87. Redemption: A Wide Angle Picture

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... day. It was altogether too cold, and there was too much snow and ice for us to tour the battle field. But we had the opportunity of visiting the Cyclorama - the giant painting on canvas the high water mark of that awful war. Paul Philippoteaux was the artist. He came to America in 1881 from France to study the battlefield and interview eye witnesses. The scene that he painted took place on July 3, 1863 and it focused on Pickett’s Charge. The fields around the town of Gettysburg had already seen two days ...

88. Ministering Angels

Exodus 23:20-33

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... quiet, tranquil, serene. Green hills, ringed with tall pine trees, served as background as well as reflection in the mirror-like surface of the lake. This is the picture of peace for those who believe peace comes from the outside in. “The second artist painted a very turbulent scene with violent waterfall crashing down jagged chunks of granite rock. Sound like home or the place where you work? But he added something. Alongside the waterfall was a slender birch tree with its fragile branches reaching just ...

89. Like a Waving Flag

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , for all to see, whatever you are doing, wherever you are? One of the most popular songs in the world today, and a song that has become almost the second national anthem of Canada, is the song “Like a Waving Flag.” The song was written by a Toronto-based artist named K’naan. Born in the capital city of Somalia, Mogadishu, in a part of the city known as the “River of Blood,” K’naan’s mother knew she had to get the family out of the country when K’naan and his childhood friends picked up what ...

90. Be Square

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... roof over the head. In other words, the halo protected the enshrined celebrity from the ever-threatening rain of bird droppings! But the “halo effect” reached forward. Instead of commemorating gods or goddesses, great rulers or the holiest figures in Christian history, artists found a way to honor and glorify those who were still living at the time their artwork was produced. Instead of a round halo, living men and women of great holiness and honor were depicted with a square halo behind their head ...

91. Looking at Footprints

John 17:1-11

Illustration

Barbara Lundblad

... into the clouds. If you look closely at the picture, not in the clouds, but on the ground, you can see footprints on the earth. The artist has carefully etched Jesus' footprints down on the level where the disciples are standing with their mouths open. Perhaps the artist was simply imagining a homey detail that isn't in the text. Or, perhaps, the artist is pressing us with the old question, "Why do you stand looking up into heaven? Look at these footprints here on the earth." Jesus' muddy footprints ...

92. A Picture of Evangelism

John 17:1-11

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

... was a moving scene. Looking at the painting, one could see in the tempest a symbol of humankind's hopeless condition. And, true to the Gospel, the only hope of salvation was "the Rock of Ages", a shelter in the time of storm. But as the artist reflected upon his work, he realized that the painting did not accurately portray his subject. So he discarded the canvas, and painted another. It was very similar to the first: the black clouds, the flashing lightning, the angry waters, the little boat crushed by the ...

93. When the Going Gets Tough

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... made perfect in weakness.” What does that mean? God’s power is made perfect in weakness. It means at least two things. First of all, it means that adversity strengthens us for service. We grow by overcoming our weaknesses. The story is told of a Renaissance artist who made the world’s most prized vases. A visitor came to observe his method. After laboring for many weeks with one piece of clay firing it, painting it, baking it he placed it upon a pedestal for inspection. The visitor sat in awe at this ...

94. In the Potter's Hands

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. — Genesis 2:7 Here is narrative that would inspire any artist, as lifeless clay is shaped by God and lives when God breathes into it. The relationship between artist and art, between creator and creature is very clear. The power the artist holds to create or destroy is implicit in this scene from creation. So much has changed since the day the Lord God created the man and woman and planted a garden ...

95. The Greatest Gift

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... He. But fortunately, since we could not reach up to God, God reached down to us. God clothed himself in human flesh. That’s the first thing we need to understand about Christmas. Here’s the second. God took upon himself our limitations. God became as we are. Artists of the Middle Ages painted a halo, a golden circle of light, around the head of the infant Jesus and of his mother Mary. That was out of reverence for Christ and his Holy Mother. I hope you realize that light was not there around their heads ...

96. Falling Into Faith

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... suffering from macular degeneration, a disease which deteriorates the eyes and affects vision. You would think that an impairment of this kind would be an artist’s worst nightmare, but not for Sophia Libman. Ironically, the disease has helped her become a better artist. Because she is not able to see details, her ability to capture the essence of what she paints has increased. Her work has become more truthful, unencumbered by decoration. Her condition gives her the ability to envision and paint only ...

97. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... large woven baskets—with a capacity of a little more than 100 gallons or three bushels—in which these building materials were carried. The phrase what he lays up refers to the possessions amassed in the previous verse. Notice how the poet artistically reverses the order of possessions considered in order to form a chiasm: the righteous will wear . . . the innocent will divide. In verse 16 the wicked lay up “silver” and then piles of “clothes.” Here in verse 17 the righteous first “wear” the ...

98. Recycling Tragedy

Illustration

Thomas Lane Butts

... she was weeping. He asked why. She showed him a handkerchief of exquisite beauty that had great sentimental value, which had been ruined by a drop of indelible ink. The artist asked her to let him have the handkerchief, which he returned to her by mail several days later. When she opened the package she could hardly believe her eyes. The artist, using the inkblot as a base, had drawn on the handkerchief a design of great beauty with India ink. Now it was more beautiful and more valuable than ever. Sometimes ...

99. Where's the Magic?

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... called the Flying Rodleighs. Henri Nouwen greatly admired the Flying Rodleighs. They became close friends and they even let him practice with them on the trapeze. Once, Nouwen recalls, he asked the leader of this group of trapeze artists about flying through the air. The leader of these trapeze artists explained his craft like this: “As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher,” he said. “The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher ...

100. First the Bad News...

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... ’ve got some good news and some bad news for you, Dad.” Dad says, “OK, but since I’ve got no time now, just give me the good news.” Son says, “Well, the air bag works . . .” (1) Or a gallery owner says to an artist, “I have some good news and some bad news.” The artist asks, “What’s the good news?” Gallery owner says, “The good news is that a woman came in here today asking if the price of your paintings would go up after you die. When I told her they would, she bought every one of ...

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