Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1251 to 1275 of 1533 results

Romans 8:22-23

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

It is not easy to promote someone else. Human nature rises up against it. If we believe in our self-worth and capabilities, why should we try to sell someone else? Yes, and why should we seek to gain acceptance of a religious leader, who will eventually cause us trouble. For example, Jesus for some was not only an irritant; he was an anathema as well. As usual, Saint Paul is not much interested in whether you like or accept him as a person. His driving mission is to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. He and ...

1252. The Paradoxical Power of Weakness

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

There are people who speak to us more powerfully out of their weakness than out of their strength. Brian Piccolo was a powerful, professional football player who entertained thousands with his feats of muscular strength and stamina. But cancer attacked, and out of weakness he spoke more powerfully than before. Whenever they show the movie, Brian's Song, we think of him and his faith and courage. Paul experienced a similar fall from glory. He had seen powerful visions of God, had entered into the third ...

1253. Mary, Did You Know?

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the most beautiful of the modern Christmas songs was written by a man who is best known, perhaps, as a comedian. His name is Mark Lowry. Lowry is also a musician of some note. He performed for many years with the Gaither Vocal band. In 1984 he was asked to pen some words for his local church choir and he wrote a poem that began like this, “Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?” A few years later ...

1254. Beware: Hypocrites on Premises

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

David T. Ball

Whenever I happen to be in a conversation with someone about why they don't go to church, it seems like the reason that they almost always give is that they can't stand all the hypocrites. I don't take this personally -- they aren't saying that all churchgoers are hypocrites -- just that there are usually too many hypocrites for their liking. I guess their reaction is understandable. Who would want to go to a church filled with people who don't practice what they preach? That would, at the very least, be ...

1255. God’s Surprises

Acts 10:44-48

Sermon

Ron Lavin

The initiating incident in the story of Peter and Cornelius is reverse anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is prejudice against the Jews. Reverse anti-Semitism is prejudice by the Jews against Gentiles. Gentiles are non-Jews. In the first-century church one of the biggest problems was the big question of what to do with Gentiles who wanted to become Christians. Some Christians insisted that the Gentiles could only become Christians if they were circumcised and became Jews first. Others, including Peter and Paul, ...

1256. An Exquisite Attitude of Gratitude

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

On a grey Friday in January 2007, during the peak of the early morning commuter rush, an unassuming young man entered the L’Enfant Plaza train station in Washington D.C. As the crowds rushed by, the man found a place to stand out of the way of the foot traffic. He opened the violin case he carried. He threw into the case a few coins and dollar bills to “prime the pump.” And then he proceeded to begin playing. But this was no ordinary street musician. The anonymous violinist in the train station was Joshua ...

1257. Merry Christmas or Happy Kitschmas?

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

When baby boomers finally got around to having babies of their own, like everything else about this “pig-in-the-python” generation, they put their own big footprint on the art and science of childbirth. Among the host of boomer books on natural childbirth, midwifery, home birthing, came a classic that is still in print today. Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Muzel co-authored the first of what would become a series of books entitled “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” This straightforward, month-by-month ...

1258. Grits, Grats and Gruts...Not Grunts

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

"Where there's a will...." This sermon brings together the financial concept of needing to have a will with the faith concept of needing to have a willing nature, to help people see the complex interconnections between the spiritual and the material, our will and our work, our desires and our deeds. The good news is that by continually flexing our spiritual willpower we can experience redeeming acts of resurrection in our lives. Do you have a will? Everyone needs one. You must not die without it. Do you ...

1259. Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus was unrelenting in his forward thinking. Consider how much time he spent teaching about the kingdom of God, which was both now and not-yet. What pleasures from God are being poisoned in our lives because we cannot escape a life of constant regret - the "if onlys," "wrong turns," "yes-buts," and "sour notes" of woulda/coulda/shoulda thinking? We've all done it: enraged or insulted, frightened or confused at someone or some situation, we have stood there sputtering and fuming or have fled in tears and ...

1260. Home Alone

Revelation 21:10, 22-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

To refer to a group of people as "homeless" one must believe in "home." Might that be part of our problem? Have we lost our concept of "home," if not our "home" itself? It is time to go home again and find that our home is in God. The runaway smash movie of the 1990-91 holiday season was a farcical comedy entitled Home Alone. The plot of the movie whirled around the adventures of a young boy who is accidentally left home alone when his family flies off for a European vacation. While his frantic parents ...

1261. The Gravity of Grace

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Postmodern culture has a moral atmosphere of zero. In a zero-morality culture, the church must pump up the atmosphere with the gravity of grace. One of the most basic skills astronauts must learn to master is how to function in an environment of zero gravity. While it may be a thrill to find your body suddenly capable of flying and free-floating anywhere in the cabin, an absence of gravity can also increase the difficulty of completing a host of tasks. For instance, just how do you get the toothpaste to ...

1262. 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. He turned on his life to ...

1263. Wanted: A Lasting Marriage. Only Good Chemists, Bad mathematicians, Expert Soul-O-Flexors Need Apply

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

107 million married persons in the United States are asking the question, "How can I make my marriage last?" The answer is in the details. Here's my favorite "Go Figure!" for 1997: A major status symbol in this greedy-get-more consumer culture of ours is something that no amount of money can buy. You can't inherit it; you can't discover it; you can't even own it. What is it? What is this remarkable commodity that draws gasps of astonishment and admiring glances when it is revealed? It's a miracle marriage ...

1264. Strength's Weakness

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It is at the point of our strengths rather than our weaknesses that we are most vulnerable. Our strengths can create even greater monsters than our weaknesses. In downtown Detroit, an entire side of the CadillacTower building bears the muscular image of Barry Sanders, the NFL's leading rusher and Detroit Lions running back #20. The only way you know who is responsible for this massive, looming work of people's art, this icon to a sports god, is by one symbol in the upper right-hand corner: a swoosh (Nike ...

1265. A Bill of Rights

Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

A church that believes in anything and everything is standing on the brink of believing in nothing. What is your basis for deciding between right and wrong? Do you even think in terms of right and wrong anymore? Do you have categories of rightness and wrongness in your life? Or are you paralyzed by an overdose of tolerance, drowning in what is "politically correct"? Jesus was more loving and accepting than any person who has ever walked this earth. He dined with sinners and tax collectors, he welcomed the ...

1266. Anywhere Goes

Romans 14:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The culture says "Anything goes." The Body of Christ goes anywhere, to anything, to anyone, at anytime. There is an old story of a visiting admiral chatting on the deck of a U.S. Navy ship with some enlisted men. "What would you do if another sailor fell overboard?" A sailor promptly replied: "I would raise the alarm and toss him a life preserver, sir." The admiral asked a second question: "What would you do if it were an officer?" At this, the enlisted man paused and thought before answering: "Which one, ...

1267. Fifty-Fourth and Lexington

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There is no song so broken, no monotone so horrible, no voice so tremulous, that God can't take it and compose it into a beautiful symphony. Have you ever played the game "Gossip" or "Rumors"? After gathering everyone into a circle, one person begins by whispering some message to a neighbor softly and quietly. The neighbor must then pass along that whispered message (or at least the version he or she heard of it). Everyone gets only one chance to hear what is said before telling it to the next one in the ...

1268. The Oblivious Obvious

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There are times when it's necessary and important to state the obvious. Such a time is now. Question: What do Smokey the Bear, Winnie the Pooh and John the Baptist have in common? Answer: The same middle name. Why is the obvious so oblivious, so hard for us to see? Dr. Samuel Johnson once observed: "Never be afraid to state the obvious. It is what most people have forgotten." As a pastor, out doing some home visitation, climbed the steps to the porch of one of his parishioners, he heard the sound of a ...

1269. On Being a Hot-Fudge-Sunday Church

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

There is an old Southern gospel song "There Ain't No Middle Ground." It is time the church gave up trying to find safety in big middles and risked ministry on the edges. In 1890, a Wisconsin merchant named Smithson came up with a creative way to cope with his Sunday afternoon shortages of ice cream. With no Sunday deliveries but with crowds of people with a welcome day off wanting ice cream, he thought of a way to stretch his supply. He began cutting back on the amount of ice cream he scooped and added ...

1270. Mark 6:30-44

Mark 6:30-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Of all Jesus' miracles, only this feeding of the 5000 is recorded in all four gospels. Obviously this story, and the complementary feeding of the 4000 (found in two gospels), were favorites of the early church. Perhaps part of the reason for their popularity is that the feeding miracles communicate on so many different levels. If we focus on Jesus we see the image of a compassionate good shepherd. Shift our gaze to the disciples and the text becomes yet another example of their failure to understand Jesus ...

1271. Romans 12:1-8

Romans 12:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Although when one thinks of Paul's teachings on "spiritual gifts," one usually turns to his writings in 1 Corinthians 12, this topic is also discussed and developed in Paul's letter to the Romans. In some ways, the apostle's unique use of "body of Christ" imagery for the church community is even more important and poignant for the Roman Christian communities than for those obstreperous believers in Corinth. Paul's letters addressed to "all God's beloved in Rome" (Romans 1:7) were intended not just for a ...

1272. Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

As Jesus and his followers continue to make their way toward Jerusalem, Luke relates situations that continually elevate Jesus in status and authority. Jesus had already sent out the Twelve on a previous missionary journey (9:1-10), and he was apparently in the habit of sending smaller envoys to villages ahead of himself to announce his coming (9:52). Now, a truly ambitious mission is mounted, with Jesus sending out 70 (or 72?) messengers of the Good News. Luke's vocabulary lends an almost political flavor ...

1273. Hebrews 12:18-29

Hebrews 12:18-29

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's epistle text focuses on the final section of the homileticist's long exhortation to his community. The central concern of the writer throughout Hebrews is that Christians realize how their membership in the new covenant gives them special privileges as well as special responsibilities. The fierceness with which this writer demands Christian fidelity to the new covenant suggests that there may have been some backsliding or at least some questionable behavior manifesting itself in the community ...

1274. 2 Timothy 1:1-14

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's second letter to Timothy overflows in the apostle's great love for his young colleague and his genuine concern about the challenges and hardships Timothy is facing. After a customary salutation in verses 1-2, Paul moves to a series of thanksgivings which reflect these dual interests of love and concern. This thanksgiving section foreshadows much of the content of the rest of Paul's letter - a literary device used also in 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 and Philippians 1:3-8. Paul's focus throughout this letter ...

1275. Mark 6:30-44

Mark 6:30-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

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