Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 101 to 125 of 154 results

101. The Lenten License to Steal, Drink, Lie and Swear

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Christians who believe IN God, who believe IN Christ, but their lives don’t really seem to change. When we believe IN, our lives don’t have to change. We don’t have to live or know or act any different. It’s only when we finally relinquish control, finally have faith and trust, finally become a follower, a disciple, acknowledging that our life is in God’s hands, that the plan of God unfolds before us. Jesus called his disciples to “follow me.” But Jesus didn’t tell them where they were going ...

102. The Five-a-Day Rule

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... out on boats, into the desert, just to have some personal, private time with the Father. Singular prayer is never solitary. There is always a listening ear. In the silence of solitude all doubts and despairs, all heights and depths, can be revealed and relinquished to a higher power. Pray . . .In Community: Giving voice to the needs of others is like getting a great massage. It makes everything in you work better, feel better, and be better for those around you. Praying for your faith community, your school ...

103. Where Would We Be Without...?

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... moved to silence the popular German, Staupitz tried to protect Luther, but his defense of the Reformer aroused papal suspicions. Had he, too, fallen under Luther's spell? In 1520, Staupitz signed a statement of his submission to the pope, but he relinquished his office as vicar-general of the Augustinians and became a Benedictine. Martin understood. In his last letter to Staupitz, in September 1523, Luther disavowed any harsh feelings toward the counselor who had made God's grace so plain and clear and ...

104. The Divine Deal ...

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Sermon

Ken Lentz

... in the early morning of World Freedom Day, September 1, 1983. That straw that broke the camel's back led to expulsion from their own country. In obedience to his "call," Dietmar Linke had to endure public accusations by the authorities, the relinquishing of his driver's license on several occasions, and the unannounced entry into his home by security police. Complaints by the authorities against him were made to the leaders of his denomination, his children were harassed in school by their teachers, and ...

105. Do Not Forget Your Servant

1 Samuel 1:4-20

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... week it was Naomi and Ruth. But the motif is common in the scriptures: We can remember Sarah, who had to wait for Isaac; Rachel, who had to wait for Joseph; Elizabeth waiting for John the Baptist. Facing infertility puts us in a hard place — to relinquish control and look to God. We are asked to believe that, in the midst of barren hopelessness, we can still know fruitful waiting and God's ultimate gift. The issue is presented today through the story of the birth of Samuel. There is the Israelite Elkanah ...

106. Something by Tolstoy

Illustration

Staff

... name of it." Then she told him a story of childhood sweethearts. A story of a newly married couple who lived in an apartment above a bookstore. A story of a young, ambitious wife who left to seek a career, who enjoyed great success but could never relinquish the key her husband gave her when they parted. She told him the story she thought would bring him to himself. But his face showed no recognition. Gradually she realized that he had lost touch with his heart's desire, that he no longer knew the purpose ...

107. Bear the Burden

Illustration

David Augsburger

... it. It hurts to forgive. Forgiveness costs. Especially in marriage when it means accepting instead of demanding repayment for the wrong done; where it means releasing the other instead of exacting revenge; where it means reaching out in love instead of relinquishing resentments. It costs to forgive...Stated psychologically, forgiveness takes place when the person who was offended and justly angered by the offender bears his own anger, and lets the other go free. Anger cannot be ignored, denied, or forgotten ...

108. Historic: The Declaration of Independence

Illustration

Staff

... in their operation till his Assent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose ...

109. Practicing the Presence

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of the Spirit at work in the world. And the Holy Spirit moves and manifests its presence through prayer, through prophesy, through disciplines of the Spirit. We aren’t our own, and we don’t have to make it on our own. We can relinquish our Titanic pretensions, and Carnegie illusions. It is time our laboratories of the Spirit practice the presence, and then preach what we practice. You’ve been baptized. So the Holy Spirit is present in your life. But will the Holy Spirit be preeminent in your ...

110. Lift High the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... think of the years I’ve allowed this faulty belief to influence me. “We’re all equals at the Cross.”[2] It’s easy to lose our focus and allow other thoughts to invade our faith. In order to surrender all to Jesus we might have to relinquish everything that gets in our way. Sometimes it is our attitudes that prevent us from becoming the people Jesus has called us to be. The Corinthians thought wisdom was the pathway to God. Instead, Paul wanted them to focus on the cross of Jesus Christ. While the ...

111. The Outlandishness of Lent

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... was weak enough to be crucified and yet strong enough to redeem all who follow The Way, offered strange, “nutty” directions: The way up is down The way in is out The way first is last The way of success is service The way of attainment is relinquishment. The way of strength is weakness The way of security is vulnerability The way of protection is forgiveness The way of life is the way of death. Believing that the God of the universe cares about every unique individual is the ultimate leap of faith. And ...

112. On to Jerusalem

Acts 21:1-16

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... Peter, John 21:18) and may have been deliberately chosen (probably by Luke) to show the similarity between Jesus and Paul (see disc. on 19:21–41). Actually, though, the Jews did not hand Paul over as predicted, but were forced to relinquish him when the Romans intervened. There is no question, however, that the Jews were ultimately responsible for Paul’s Roman imprisonment, so that the intention if not the detail of the prophecy was fulfilled (cf. 28:17). Agabus’ introductory formula, the Holy ...

113. Boasting

2 Corinthians 11:1-15, 2 Corinthians 11:16-33, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... although he later accepted contributions from the Macedonians (2 Cor. 11:9; cf. Phil. 2:25; 4:10–20). Already in 1 Corinthians 9:14, Paul defended his right as an apostle to receive support from the churches, even as he also explained why he voluntarily relinquished that right (1 Cor. 9:15–17). Earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul has touched on the subject of peddling the word of God (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17), and he returns to this contentious issue in the subsequent context (cf. 12:13–18). Since Paul has divine ...

114. The Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... they had made from their earrings. This stripping of ornaments and their mourning in 33:4 (ʾabal, grief as at a funeral) were both signs of their repentance. They accepted the reality of their condition as “stiff-necked” and relinquished the “plunder” of their deliverance from Egypt. Additional Notes 32:1–34:35 Critical scholarship has explained the disjunctures in the extended narrative of Exod. 32–34 as a redaction of separate independent sources (JE). This commentary follows the inclination ...

115. A Time for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

... be a time for judgment. This claim has potential for comfort, coming as it does after both the poem asserting the existence of proper times and the prose reflection acknowledging human inaccessibility to the divine time scheme. The reader might expect Qohelet to relinquish control and accept God’s wisdom about when the time for patience is over and it is time to execute justice. The potential consolation, however, is not realized and Qohelet never observes the longed-for justice. The tone of the segment ...

116. The Charge Against Israel

Hosea 4:1-19

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... gods and goddesses is captive to a “spirit of harlotry” (vv. 12 RSV, 19). That is the major theme of this oracle, and it is a theme that Hosea will develop further in chapter 5. The Israelites are unable to repent and mend their ways. They can not relinquish their worship of the baals and obey the covenant commandments of their God. They are slaves of their sin (cf. Rom. 6:16–18), and unless God does away with the baals (cf. 2:17) and gives the Israelites a new nature, bestowing on them a faithfulness ...

117. Jacob Meets Esau

Genesis 33:1-20

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... that God’s blessing was on his brother’s life and that God had intended the blessing of Abraham to go with Jacob. Esau yielded to Jacob’s pressure and accepted the gifts. In this act Esau humbled himself, for he honored Jacob’s desire and relinquished any claims he had against Jacob. This gift sealed a bond between them, a bond that had not existed in their youth. 33:12–16 Enthusiastically Esau stated that both of them needed to resume their journey. He offered to accompany Jacob on his way. His ...

118. Jesus Adopted by Joseph

Matthew 1:18-25

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... established a hospital, where she herself served and cared for the poor in their sickness. Outside the hospital she cared for the poor and downcast, spinning wool and sharing food. For the ways she willingly emptied herself and relinquished her rights, Elizabeth was canonized shortly after her death. Her actions illustrate an incarnational way of life. Literature: Aurora Leigh, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In this epic poem, Browning wrote the following lines evoking incarnation: Earth’s crammed with ...

119. Turning Up the Pressure

Job 2:1-13

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... a bit of her story, writing that without the grace of God she might have been hard, even “grasping.” After she visited the misery-ridden streets of Calcutta, she realized she belonged there, not in the pleasant convent where she had been working. Relinquishing everything, she went to the most wretched quarter of the city, gathered up a few abandoned children, and began her ministry. She chose to live her life within the slums of Calcutta. Muggeridge witnessed horrors in Calcutta he had to turn away from ...

120. Daniel's Prayer

Daniel 9:1-19

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... contract” (argued in different nuances by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau) asserts that “a contract” (much like a biblical covenant) is formed when one party consents to relinquish some freedoms and submit to an authority, receiving in return the protection of that authority. For example, in American government, citizens consent to certain stipulations on their part (such as obedience to the law), and they implicitly ...

121. Boaz’s Acceptance

Ruth 4:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... a high profile to the act of redemption, the necessary event to secure restoration for both women. In fact, the terms “redeem” and “kinsman-redeemer” appear multiple times in chapter 4. The repetition reflects the importance of the event. “The redeemer” is relinquishing his rights to Boaz (4:6). Boaz accepts his obligations, which entail marrying Ruth, purchasing the land, and giving money to Naomi in the form of property (4:9–10; Deut. 25:5–10). The decision confirmed ( 4:7–12 ) · The ...

122. Samuel's Farewell Speech

1 Samuel 12:1-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Like Moses and Joshua, Samuel does not relinquish his leadership without challenging the nation to be faithful to the Lord. The theme of covenant renewal that characterizes the whole book of Deuteronomy and Joshua 24 is emphasized once again in Samuel’s farewell. Since the wickedness of Samuel’s sons was a factor behind the initial request for ...

123. Nehemiah Helps the Poor

Nehemiah 5:1-19

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... style, alluded to in 5:10, is now further explained (5:14–19). The twelve years (5:14) include time after the events of these chapters but certainly indicate the unselfishness and generosity of his leadership at this time. His concern for the poor and needy and his decision to relinquish his income to alleviate the taxes on his fellow citizens serve as an example to all the leaders. Likewise, his trust in God, his moral integrity, and his wise leadership certainly have a lasting impact on the community.

124. Jesus Predicts His Death

Mark 8:31--9:1

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... discipleship by such a repugnant symbol may account for the fact that in the second half of Mark there are fewer and smaller crowds around Jesus than in the first half. The image of the cross signifies a total claim on the disciple’s allegiance and a total relinquishment of his or her resources to Jesus. This truth is reinforced in 8:35–37, each verse of which declares the total claim of the gospel on one’s existence. To lose one’s life for the gospel is, ironically, to save it (8:35); to gain the ...

125. The Day and Hour Unknown

Mark 13:32-37

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... reintroduces the theme of the second coming of verses 14–27. Remarkably, in this, the only passage in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus explicitly calls himself “the Son [of God],” he confesses what he does not know and cannot do! The Son relinquishes all claims concerning the future to the Father’s plan. In the great mysteries of life, humans want signs; Jesus, however, wants only the Father. Given such mysteries, Jesus’s concluding word—five times in verses 33–37—is “Be on guard,” “Be ...

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