Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1451 to 1475 of 2665 results

1451. Worry and Wonder

Matthew 6:24-34

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... own finitude."1 And then Tillich suggests three kinds of anxiety - the threat of three kinds of non-being - all of which feed into what we have been experiencing in the last few weeks and months. There is the anxiety of death. Today a terrorist could drop a dirty bomb and we, and our children, could be asphyxiated by lethal chemicals. Then there is the anxiety of meaninglessness. If we are fragile targets of insanity, then what really is the meaning of our lives, the meaning of God, the purpose of creation ...

1452. Enduring the Trials of Faith

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... a Victorian home, his own plane, and significant real estate holdings. In November 1975, however, the bottom again fell out of Bill Mitchell's world. Piloting a turbo-charged Cessna with four passengers onboard Bill was forced to abort a take-off, causing the plane to drop about 75 feet like a rock back to the runway. Smoke filled the plane and fearing that he would again be burned Bill attempted to escape. Pain in his back and his inability to move his legs thwarted his efforts. In the hospital again, Bill ...

1453. Defeat Transformed into Victory

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Richard Gribble

1454. In Our Pastor's Success, So Is Our Own!

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... cell phones. And a pastor, to survive, must learn to work under a load of unfinished work. Why, today's pastor is like a man juggling a dozen balls well. The people of his congregation keep tossing him more balls until he's up to 64! Then he drops them all and people walk away, shaking their heads in disbelief, they spit in disgust or worse. Jesus knew the busy pace of ministry. But he had replenishing friendships that gave him breaks from his labors. A friend with a sailboat, a meal with no agenda at Mary ...

1455. Faith's Curious Dynamic

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... what to do if he threw up in his mask. The trainer didn't have a clear answer, and that's when Sides' second thoughts erupted. Then the interviewer asked how Sides' fellow journalists, who were going with the troops, reacted when they found he had dropped out. He said they understood completely. He went on then to say that the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has created a "curious dynamic" in this war: "We are trying to prove to the world that Saddam Hussein has these weapons. We ...

1456. So You Want to Be in the Lead?

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Sputnik 1 into space. That made the USSR, not the US, the undisputed leader of space exploration, and you could almost hear the collective thud across the heartland from Long Island to Los Angeles. That thud was the sound of a nation's heart suddenly dropping, stunned and in shock that we were now in second place in our military rivalry with the Soviet Union. But the national response was immediate and intense. In May 1961 President John F. Kennedy decreed that America would put the first man on the moon ...

1457. A High FLOSS Church

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Day Sermon. If so, use as follows . . . ] This weekend is extended by a day for many in recognition of Labor Day. What was originally a triumph for labor unions has become a day off from school right after it starts, and a way to squeeze an extra drop out of summer. But for thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, this year Labor Day will be a day of truly grueling, heart-wrenching labor. Have you been as gripped by the images of our Third-World nation as I have been? Have you been so ...

1458. Gross Personality Disorder

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... whether BTK was mentally competent to stand trial, the mild-mannered man revealed what he considered to be the source of all his violent and murderous behavior. "It was a demon," Rayder explained. Rayder blamed a demon for entering him when he was dropped as a baby. It was this demonic entity within him that planted the seeds of his killing fantasies. Rayder noted that since examples of demons could be found in the Bible and since priests and other religious authorities had long practiced exorcisms of ...

1459. Cross Purposes

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of different shades and hues of color into the room on a sunny day. Of course, our house is also located in an earthquake zone. In fact, every year at least a couple low-number, rocking-n-rattling sessions roll through the Puget Sound area. Although a tiny drop of museum putty helps give the glassware a bit of a foothold, we're ever mindful that any good shake could easily bring them all down. It would seem that our wish to keep the tumblers in clear view and the inherent instability of the land we sit ...

1460. Taking Something Up for Lent

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... argue that it's more like 90%. The more stressful our lives, the more multitasking we do, the more meditation we need. There are many meditative practices that you can take on, from more Eastern forms (which are very popular today) to one of my favorite meditative practices: dropping into a church sanctuary or chapel for prayer. In the words of an old saying: I like to step inside a church to rest and think and pray, the quiet calm and holy place can drive all cares away. 5) Or here's another idea for a ...

1461. God's Resolutions

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ocean of responsibilities? What if we resolved to relax more? What if we resolved to sleep more? What if we resolved to play more? What if we resolved only to make and eat really wonderful food? Or cuddle more? Or sing more? What if instead of insisting that we drop ten pounds we look to add five new friends or reclaim five old friends? What if we resolved to be more of what we can be, instead of resolving just to be less of what we already are? In today's reading from the Book of Consolation Jeremiah looks ...

1462. Keep on Praying

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . It's an absolute, positive law of the universe that your kid (regardless of age) is going to suddenly, desperately need whatever is being sold by the check-out stand in that particular aisle. Whether it's the gum aisle, the candy aisle, the cough drop aisle, or the battery aisle, cajoling, whining, nagging, begging, even out-right crying and screaming is sure to break out as the desired goody is passed. The child knows that if they beg, moan, screech, or scream long and loud enough, there's a good chance ...

1463. Stirred, Not Shaken

Hebrews 13:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... are troubled or stirred, there can be no healing. Disciples of Jesus are to be stirrers, to trouble the waters with movements of grace and truth so that authentic healing can take place. In the lab chemists use prefect stirrers - magnetized rods dropped into the mixing beaker - that whirl at a constant, unvarying rate to perfectly blend the chemical components being mixed. Perfect stirring in this world was only accomplished by Christ, as he brought together all the sins and shortcomings of humanity and ...

1464. Addiction Free

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is fighting two different addictions at once. The Phenobarbital that enabled him to keep to keep his seizures at bay also pulled a hazy, softening cloud over all the information and experiences that bombard any new-to-this-world child. As the medication level drops the decibel level of the world goes up, jarring all Egil's sense. The other addiction is one Egil has used as a self-calming mechanism, a kind of self-medication. Sucking his thumb has been a comforting activity, a reliable constant. Without it ...

1465. Crack Open Some Easter Eggs and Be Cracked Open

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Type The Magna Charta Luther's 95 Theses Calvin's Institutes Mozart's Requiem Jefferson's Declaration of Independence Pasteurization Immunization Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation The 19th Amendment King's "I Have a Dream" Today we celebrate the biggest Easter egg ever dropped into human existence: He is risen! Say it together: HE IS RISEN! Again: HE IS RISEN! Imagine the setting in Luke's gospel for that first Easter egg-plosion (NOT "explosion" but "egg-plosion"). It's the crack of dawn. Sleepy and ...

1466. The Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... the Father. We who were not entitled to anything were given the greatest gift of all, the gift of the Father’s love and grace. In Jesus Christ we received the bread of life, freely given. When we center our lives on that gift of love, we drop all of our feelings of entitlement, and we see life and everything in it as a gift from God. 1. From the Internet. Source unknown. 2. Copyright by Jimmy Dean, 20 Great Story Songs, Audio CD, 1999, Curb Records. 3. Max Lucado, Traveling Light (Nashville: W Publishing ...

1467. Experience the Mystery

Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... us all sorts of colorful characters. It offers a complete set of all the usual suspects. As the gospels and epistles unfold their tale, however, the mystery that is the heart of this story is only slowly revealed. In the gospels Jesus constantly drops lead-weight hints to his dense and often lightweight disciples. They never figure out the mystery during Jesus' ministry on earth. Only after the gift of the Holy Spirit is given at Pentecost do Jesus' followers finally experience the unveiling of the mystery ...

1468. From Black Holes to Red Holes

Luke 18:18-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... sacrifice, his obedience and willing acceptance of God's design for salvation, changed this world forever. The power of the black hole of sin and shame that had so overwhelmed the tax collector in today's text was instantly overcome, completely neutralized, by the crimson drops of Jesus' own blood as it fell into that spiritual vortex. The black hole of sin and pride was transformed by Christ's red holes of self-sacrifice on the cross. What poet Denise Levertov calls "God's pierced palm" (in chapter six of ...

1469. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -Varsity Fellowship national study (1993) identified the five main features busters were looking for in their religious experiences. In order they are authenticity; community; an abandoning of dogmatism, a focus on the arts, and diversity. As their play-with, make-up, drop-in, hang-out, fight-out TV shows reveal (NBC's Friends and Seinfeld, MTV's The Real World, ABC's Ellen), busters prize relationships and yearn for community. Unlike TV shows for workaholic boomers (e.g. ABC's Murphy Brown), which take ...

1470. Missing the Mark

1 Samuel 8:1-22

Sermon

Charles Allo

... to me all the time. I see a couple arguing in couple and Bam! "You shut your mouth when you are talking to me!" hits me broadside. Well, some of my favorite movies involve what I call "thinker movies" where an ending scene is shown first and little clues are dropped all over the place to help you figure out all the story developed to make sense. These movies involve us, the audience to take part and see how the people in the story got into the situation they were in. Let me tell you about the single dumbest ...

1471. Set Life Free

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -of-town visitor the packets of seed he had received through the mail. The rainbow colored packages promised huge, juicy, tasty vegetables of every kind. "This will be my best garden ever," boasted the backyard farmer. Late that summer the same out-of-town friend dropped by for another visit. "How's your garden doing?" he asked. "I'm sorry to say it hasn't done very well," the gardener replied. "That's a shame," sympathized the visitor. "What's the problem? Bad soil? Pests? Dry weather?" The gardener shook ...

1472. The Devil Takes Visa

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you feel like hating. Give more when you feel like quitting. Return when you feel like running. The Master's Card entitles us to . . . Be wild. Be weird. Be predictably unpredictable. Do not, under any circumstances, be normal. It's the Devil who takes Visa, and shops until the hooves drop. The Master's Card is the only way to fill your spirit with the joy, the abundant life that God has promised.

1473. The Lamb's Book of Life

John 1:29-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... time this morning to delve very deep into this discussion. But the church must get involved in the discussion. Does it bother ANYONE that when Celera Genomics announced it was the first to successfully assemble a complete human genome, the company's stock dropped. The market couldn't care less about pure science and scientific discovery. It only wanted to know where the profit was. And not long-term profit. Short-term profit. Does this not bother anybody? Are there not theological implications to the fact ...

1474. True Disciples

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... could possibly inspire anyone to do anything is a mystery to you. But they did. Like the band Phish is doing for you. Devoted Dead Heads – fans of The Grateful Dead band – often turned their lives upside down in order to follow the band. Dropping out of school, jobs, and families, roaming from town to town, following the concert itinerary, raking up as many events attended as possible (kind of like a bird-watcher's life list), these single-minded fans developed their own culture, dress, set of values ...

1475. The King Who Died

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... confused and of course terrified, thinks these two geniuses have gone insane. The dog takes off to find cover, under the brand new Navigator. The men continue to scream as they run. The red hot exhaust pipe on the truck touches the dog’s rear end, he yelps, drops the dynamite under the truck and takes off after his master. Then BOOM! The truck is blown to bits and sinks to the bottom of the lake. The insurance company says that sinking a vehicle in a lake by illegal use of explosives is not covered by the ...

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