Sermon and Worship Resources

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Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the men. With her mother's help, she tied him up with a leash and held him until the police arrived. (1) Imagine that. Only a teenager. Only a girl, but she corralled a bad guy. Way back in 1958, a high school senior from Ohio, Robert G. Heft, designed a 50-star American flag for a history class project. At the time, the U.S. had only 48 states, but there was much talk of bringing Alaska and Hawaii into the Union. Robert's mother was "horrified" at his choice of a project; she insisted that he was ...

77. The Heart of an Intimate Matter

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... .8 The figure is ten percent higher for laymen, and thirty-four percent of the readers of Today’s Christian Woman magazine admitted to the same. The problem is not just out there in a wicked world but in here in a compromised church. By God’s design, when a man and woman come together, a transcendent bond is created, one that, in the words of C.S. Lewis, will be either eternally enjoyed or eternally endured.9 You have, biblically speaking, had as many marriages as you have had voluntary partners. For a ...

78. Redundant Love

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... version of Jesus' statement, "What is hateful to you do not to your neighbor," he concluded "that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary on it; go and learn it" (b.Sabb.31a). All Scripture is a wonderful, complex, interconnected network of redundancies, designed to lead stumbling humanity to the truth about God. Enter it anywhere, and you end up at the same place: "For God So Loved The World." " God created the universe and said "It is good." But with the image of the rainbow, God's promise ...

79. House of Jesus

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ], 27). This is the radical promo idea. You can create your own future. Life is not passive, but active. Cultural barriers, environmental barricades, all these things are gone. To take control of your life is not to bring your life under your control: it's to design a life. But at the same time "I choose, therefore I am," the challenge of establishing identity is becoming more difficult in this global image economy. There is a self-help genre of literature that sells big for a reason. The problem with most ...

80. Others

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... pencil in just one hole and allowing the geared-edged teeth of the wheel to intersect with a guide you could create fantastic designs that you could never draw free - hand. It was little tricky. If you ever lost the "flow" of your tracing... if you pushed ... -teeth that kept the parts moving against each other would skip, get stuck, or break the flow of your hand-movement. Your design would be spoiled. If you give up your dependence on simple straight lines, on the safety of old-standard divisions - rich and ...

81. Never Say What You Won't Do!

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... diapers just might become the best diaper changer in Shelby County. Look with me now at two portions of Scripture that relate directly to marriage. First, from the creation story in Genesis 2. Notice the first title for Eve- “Helper.” Presumably man and woman are designed to help each other. This mutuality was highlighted by the fact that God created Eve out of Adam’s rib. Granted, God had to enhance that rib considerably. If God could make a woman out of a plain old rib, perhaps he can also “make ...

82. 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... 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 into two verses, 12 and 13, making the closing benediction verse 14. The severity of some of Paul's earlier words to the Corinthians is mediated somewhat by his closing words to them ...

83. Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew 25:31-46

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Jewish-Christian apocalyptic writings. If the "sheep and goats" being judged in this text are righteous or sinful Gentiles exclusively, with no explicit knowledge of Christ and his teachings, good works appear to become the criterion for judgment. Yet another imprecise designation used in this text suggests that some question still remains about to whom these good works, this benevolent behavior, must be extended in order for these Gentiles to merit mercy. In verse 40 and again in verse 45, the text clearly ...

84. It’s Humble or the Umbles

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... offered cheek, ear, and neck protection. Marching sandals, “caligae,” were equipped with gripping studs on the sole. A simple coarse woolen tunic was worn under all the various protective gear. The function of the Roman soldier’s armor was defensive. It was designed to keep the soldier from dying so that he could go on fighting for the Empire. The function of the Christian’s “armor” described in today’s Ephesians text is quite different. The function of the “armor of God” is to keep the ...

85. One Lord, One Table

Exodus 20:1-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... get to eat it. And then she called my Mom and told her what I'd done. One tree, one law. Pretty easy to follow. Wrong. Once upon a time there were two people who lived in the perfect place. It was designed by the perfect designer. Everything in it was a designer original. It was a place filled with everything they could ever need. It was absolutely beautiful. It was the most beautiful estate ever created. And it had been created especially for this couple. At the very center was a gorgeous fruit tree. But ...

86. What Would Jesus Say About Me?

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... love softening our hatred. He came as a guide showing us the way to live. He was full of grace and truth which helps us find our way home. In Jesus we can rediscover the lost “image of God" within. Who am I? Jesus would say, 'You are endowed and designed as a child of God.' What do I want? Jesus says you are created with spiritual desires. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, Magi came from the east and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews ...

87. Family Matters

Romans 8:12-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... clubs, fraternities, sororities, civic organizations, sports teams, PTA, and even Churches. We have a need to be in community with others just like us or close to being like us. That's part of how we are wired. The passage tells us we are INCORPORATED, DESIGNATED AND ALLOCATED. I. Incorporated A. Belonging is important because it's the way God created us. We are meant to be in community with one another. God created Adam and Eve together so they wouldn't be alone; so they would have support, nurture and ...

88. 1 Peter 2: 2-10

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... made the words of promise and the messages of prophets a brilliantly vibrant picture of the truth for each new generation. In today’s epistle text Peter packs his words with an unprecedented number of images and metaphors. Some are new, some familiar, all designed to describe the remarkable new reality that is available to all because of the work accomplished by Jesus the Christ. The first image created by Peter’s pen transforms an image of weakness into an image of eager new beginnings. Unlike Paul’s ...

89. The Fred Factor

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... small book called The Fred Factor. It reminded me of Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 5. Paul challenges us to look beyond ourselves, our work, our needs, and our wants to see the bigger picture in how each one of us fits into God's grand design. Paul boils it down to three basic attitude adjustments — rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. Fred is a postal worker who has a relationship with the people on his route. They aren't just addresses for Fred. He knows them by name ...

90. Family Re:Union - Inverting the Pyramid

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

James Merritt

... . The result is when the children move out the foundation has dissolved. What appeared to be, not only the logical way of doing family, but the right way of doing family actually had the pyramid all wrong. God has a design for the family. His design is an ultimate myth buster. His design looks like this: God Marriage Children Even this pyramid can be misleading, because oftentimes God really isn’t first. In fact, God really isn’t present. There is a reason why God and family and God in family are so ...

91. Solomon Builds the Temple

2 Chronicles 3:1-17

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... in all its glory. In the previous episode, however, Huram-Abi was explicitly offered to Solomon by King Hiram of Tyre to perform these duties. In 4:11 the name Huram occurs twice (in both variations: Huram and Hiram). It is thus clear that he was the designer of all the artful decorations mentioned in the next verses. In 4:18 Solomon becomes the explicit subject of the verb again in accordance with the source text in 1 Kings 7:47. At this point it becomes clear that, although the Sidonian artisan Huram was ...

92. Trials and Temptations

James 1:1-18, James 1:19-27

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... creative word of God (Gen. 1) or to the veracity of all he says (e.g., Ps. 119:43), but surely in this passage something more is meant. What word in the New Testament era was more “the word of truth” than the gospel? The phrase is a semitechnical one designating the proclamation of God’s action in Christ (2 Cor. 6:7; Eph. 1:18; Col. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 1:25). God purposely sets his second creation, his re-creation, into motion by sending out the word of the gospel. The result of this act ...

93. Habakkuk’s Second Complaint

Habakkuk 2:2-20, Habakkuk 1:12--2:1

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... writing (v. 2), and now an explanation about time to elapse before the fulfillment of the revelation whose content we have not been told (v. 3). Again, this would fit with the prophecy being a piece of narrative theology, if the readers for whom it is designed are people who have been waiting some time for Yahweh to act. There will indeed be some time before the moment of fulfillment (v. 3). Habakkuk has implied that one of the problems in the community (as psalms often make clear) is deception; people’s ...

94. A Squirrel Crossing a Busy Street

Romans 5:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

... s what God means for His people to do--to keep moving forward when life strikes us a blow. That is how we become stronger. That is how we build up the spiritual resources we need to successfully deal with life. Bad times are not designed to destroy us but to make us stronger. Times of adversity also make us wiser. They help us take stock of our lives and make changes that can propel us forward. As St. Paul writes, “Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Sherwood ...

95. Jesus the Bread of Life

John 6:25-59

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... as “the Jews” because in the writer’s day the Jews and the Jewish synagogue stood as a threat against the Christian community (cf. 16:1–2). Sometimes the term refers particularly to the religious authorities (e.g., 5:15–18), but here it becomes a designation for the crowd as it begins to grumble to itself about Jesus. The word grumble recalls the behavior of the Israelites in the desert in the time of Moses (cf. Exod. 16:2, 7, 8). Ironically, it was in response to their grumbling that God gave ...

96. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... seem to have been any substantial Jewish community in Philippi (see pp. 4–5). As for the view of W. Schmithals (Paul and the Gnostics, pp. 65–91) that they were Jewish-Christian Gnostics, hē katatomē would have been a most imprecise and misleading way of designating such people. As with so many other features of Schmithals’s interpretation, Gnosticism has to be read into Phil. 3:2 in order to be read out of it. 3:3 We who worship by the Spirit of God: Gk. hoi pneumati theou latreuontes, for which ...

97. Cities of Refuge (II)

Deuteronomy 19:1-14

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... to God’s Torah. However, even in a nation living with the ideal standards and patterns of life of 14:28–16:17 and with the ideal leaders of 16:18–18:22, things could go wrong. Premature deaths could happen, by accident (19:5–7), by design (19:11–13), in war (ch. 20), or through causes unknown (21:1–9). It was all very well to have the fundamental rule, “You shall not kill,” but not all killing was the same. Certain crucial distinctions were needed for the purpose of protecting the innocent ...

98. A Prophecy Against Babylon

Isaiah 13:1--14:23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... 5). The concern of Isaiah 8 is the many-watered roar of one great nation, Assyria. The concern of Isaiah 17:12–14 is the stilling of the many-watered roar of many nations. Third, the Balaam story fits the horizon of prophecies against other peoples that are designed to harness divine power to the defeat of one’s enemies. Isaiah 13–23 is not generally concerned with the defeat of peoples with whom Judah is or might be at war. While one or two of the poems, such as that concerning Moab, would fit such a ...

99. Paul, Phoebe, Patronage, and Spain

Romans 16:1-27

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... way to resist false teaching is to know well the truth of the gospel. Quote: Franz Kafka. Essayist and educator George Steiner (b. 1929) wants to read books that operate on his affections: “To read great literature as if it did not have upon us an urgent design . . . is to do little more than make entries in a librarian’s catalog.” He then quotes from a letter that the renowned novelist Franz Kafka (1883–1924) wrote at twenty years of age: If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist ...

100. Marriage, Sexual Intimacy, and Spiritual Devotion

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... the widowed and divorced) from receiving inheritances. “A widow was expected to remarry within a year, a divorcee within six months.”3 The law required the woman to produce at least three children to secure the husband’s inheritance. Marriage was designed for the procreation of legitimate Roman children, as only they received citizenship. The question of whether Paul was an unmarried bachelor or a widower is not possible to settle with certainty. Most of the church fathers claim Paul never married.4 ...

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