Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 126 to 150 of 1285 results

126. Life's Four Big 'Ds' and One Bigger 'D'

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . These are especially fun . . . and frustrating. For males, there's Sporty's catalog, which offers four and five digit big-boy toys (boats, deluxe grills, golf carts with mini-bars!). Here's Neiman-Marcus (a.k.a. "Needless Markup") for that ankle length fur or double strand of pearls that you "need". My wife's favorite method of catalog shopping is to go through each one, dog-ear a page that features something she discovers she "needs," then stack up the catalogs on the floor by the bed. After a couple ...

127. The Good Life vs. The God Life

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... other hand, even more pure junk food the stuff that comes from all those fine fast food establishments like McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell offer an amazing amount of food for very little price. Of course, if you buy a soft drink your costs double. But still: a double pattied cheese-burger for 99 cents is hard to beat! Taco Bell has an "any 10" combo (choose from crunchy taco, burritos, soft tacos) for eight bucks. That's a lot of food for a little money. Especially if you have a big family and not ...

128. The Oneness of Twoness

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... like growing up in a trailer park or a low-income housing project. Nazareth was like the West Virginia of jokes. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” was the snide slight slapped in Jesus’ face throughout his ministry. Do you hear the double-ring? If you are not hearing opposites being brought together, you aren’t hearing the “good news” of the gospel. The Christian always rings twice. Or let’s look at those who are recorded as being in attendance at Jesus’ lofty yet lowly birthplace ...

129. Proper 15

Genesis 45:1-28, Matthew 15:21-28, Romans 11:1-10, Romans 11:25-32, Psalm 133:1-3

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... interaction with the text; (2) they will be anthropological rather than theological, and thus not worthy of or dependent upon the Gospel; and (3) they will miss an important message of the text. In ancient Jewish eyes this Canaanite woman lived with a double liability: she was a woman and she was a Canaanite. The second was far worse than the first, and essentially made the gender issue irrelevant. Her poor daughter had a triple problem: Canaanite, female, and demon-possessed. Jesus identifies the issue in ...

130. What is Eternal life?

John 3:1-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... as both “again” and “from above.” Rebirth must be both temporal and spatial. Later, when Jesus asserts in v.8 “the wind blows where it chooses,” the reborn existence of those baptized joins the earthly and the spiritual together. Jesus himself spells out the double meaning of the serpent being lifted up by Moses (Numbers 21). That historic saving event from Israel’s past is now a template for a new saving event, for “the Son of Man” also will “be lifted up.” In every other instance in ...

131. John 10: 1-10

John 10:1-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... up.” Variously translated as “verily, verily I say unto you” or “very truly I tell you” or as a double “Amen” (I translate it as “I tell you the truth”), Jesus uses this exclamation to call attention to an important ... say, the sheep will not come to him, for they are not his. Abruptly Jesus now mixes his metaphor, declaring with the “take notice”, double “Amen,” “I am the gate for the sheep” (v.7). This image of Jesus as an access point is similar to Jesus’ self-description ...

132. Once Save - Always Saved

John 10:27-29

Sermon

James Merritt

... are safe temporarily, you are really not secure. Well, no Christian should ever feel insecure because he can never become unsecure. You are not only a safe sheep, but Jesus proves the point you are a secure sheep. He tells us that we are actually in a double grip. We have surrounding us a double wall of security. He says in v.28, "neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." But then he said in v.29, "and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand." So what he tells us is, we are in ...

133. Don't Forget to Forgive

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

James Merritt

... times. But after the third time you could beat the plowshare into a sword and run your opponent through. You were no longer obligated to forgive. In other words, "it was three strikes and you're out." Now Peter thinks he is being very very generous. He doubles the number of times that the law demanded, and then added one free pass as a bonus. After all, any Jew knew that the number seven denoted perfection. So Peter thought he had arrived at literally the perfect answer. You had to forgive a brother seven ...

134. Fiscal Fitness

Proverbs 3:9-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... than we were thirty-five years ago? We are not. In 1957 thirty-five percent of Americans told The National Opinion Research Center they were "very happy." In 1991, with doubled American affluence, thirty-one percent said the same. Judged by soaring rates of depression, the quintupling of the violent-crime rate since 1960, the doubling of the divorce rate, the slight decline in marital happiness among the marital survivors, and the tripling of the teen suicide rate, we are richer and unhappier. How can we ...

135. Foundations for the Future

1 Corinthians 3:9-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... ago; one you ought to know if you don't already know. It's called the "Rule of 72." You take any interest rate, divide it into 72 and that will tell you how many years it will take for your money to double. If you invest $1000 and it gains 12% interest, that means that your money will double every six years. Interest can either work for you or it can work against you. Now the problem that too many people have is that they are in financial bondage. They are chained by the handcuffs of debt. Now I want to ...

136. Guilt: How to Keep Your Conscience Clear

Psalm 32:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... country we have a law that is based on the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution called “The Law of Double Jeopardy.” That law said that once a man is found innocent of a certain crime in a certain jurisdiction, he could never again be tried for that ... crime. Well, there is also a spiritual law of double jeopardy. Once the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, and you confess that sin and get forgiveness of that sin, the Holy Spirit will ...

137. I Am the Keeper of the Zoo

Isaiah 11:1-9

Sermon

... ice of the Straits of Mackinac and taken up residence somewhere between Roger's City and Gaylord. But most live north of the bridge, where the DNR estimates the wolf population to be about 360. There's plenty of food for them up there. Eric writes: "Even if there were double that number….and even if every wolf ate a deer a week…..wolves in the U.P. would still kill only a fraction of the deer that starve each winter." In fact, Eric bets that cars kill more deer in the U.P. than wolves do. But he thinks ...

138. Get Real

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ahead, but then I began pulling miscellaneous bills out of my suit coat pockets until the total came to $250 dollars, almost double the amount she had given me. (NOTE: You may need to use your discretionary fund for this illustration. Whenever I use this illustration, I try to have ... at least $500 in cash hidden on my body so that I can at least double their money.) "It's yours," I said as I turned around and returned to the pulpit. "Now let's talk," I said. And this ...

139. Dr. God

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... doctor, author and alternative healing advocate Larry Dossey has spent years studying the positive effects that prayer seems to have on the healing process. Dossey and other scientifically trained physicians have actually run a raft of methodologically precise, double- blind experiments to test the healing power and effectiveness of prayer. The undeniable "scientifically" obtained results demonstrated something that generations of believers had always known: Prayer changes things. Prayer Heals: In those ...

140. The Four R's

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... U-Haul culture, we still develop a sense of who we are based on where we come from. In baseball, home plate is both the beginning and destination of your journey. You go from base to base, with perils in each base path pickoffs, rundowns, force-outs, double plays, strike-outs. You are finally safe only when you get back to your roots home plate. Poet John Berryman, who ridiculed those who asked about his 'roots' ('as if I were a plant,' he scoffed) he wrote this credo of rootlessness: Exile is in our time ...

141. Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of narratives, each containing three separate miracle stories. This week's gospel reading is found in the third set of these miracle groupings a set that is composed of three "double" healings plus two additional dispute stories. The lectionary reading chooses one of these disputes Jesus' call of Matthew the tax collector (9:9-13) and one of the double healing stories healing the woman with the hemorrhage and raising a little girl from the dead (9:18-26). The dispute detailed in verses 9-13 is over whether ...

142. John 3:1-17

John 3:1-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... for entrance into the kingdom one must be born again. In Greek, this term means both "from above" and "again, anew." While most translations choose one of these meanings and then relegate the second meaning to a footnote, it is more theologically correct to maintain this double meaning. Just as the kingdom is often referred to as both now and yet-to-come, entering into this kingdom requires one to be born anew into a new life and a new identity and to be born "from above" that is from the heavenly place ...

143. Luke 23:33-43

Luke 23:33-43

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... is on the cross, he is the Messiah. It wasn't the disciples who "got it." It wasn't Jesus' family who "got it." It was this "criminal" (v.40), this outsider, who "got it" and gave witness to whom Jesus was when everyone else had deserted, double-crossed, and derided him, and then gone into hiding. The power of Jesus' words, "be with me," should not be taken lightly. This is not only an offer of forgiveness, but also of friendship. Although the criminal's request was rather open-ended ("Remember me when you ...

144. John 3:1-17

John 3:1-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... symbol, the kingdom of God denotes both a time and a place where God will reign. Coupled with Jesus' unfamiliar dictum that one must be born another, the coming kingdom takes on an individual nature for each believer. The Greek another has a distinct double meaning - "from above" and "anew" or "again." The shortfall of any English translation is the necessity of choosing one of these meanings as dominant, while at best relegating the other to a footnote. In this we (another irony) are forced to read Jesus ...

145. Mark 14:1-15:47

Mark 14:1-15:47

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of his disciples, in the temple "day after day" (v.49). As a servant of the high priest, then, it is quite likely that this woman had seen Peter and the other disciples with Jesus on several occasions. Peter's denial is both immediate and awkward. His double insistence, "I do not know or understand," is stated poorly so that the Greek text's grammar reflects the panic and desperation of the disciple. Speaking with his body as well as with words, Peter moves out of the courtyard proper, only to stop and look ...

146. John 6:24-35

John 6:24-35

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... there is no grammatical reason not to read into this query deeper questions of Jesus' origin and identity. Since it is Jesus' identity and the faith it should evoke that form the nucleus of this discourse, it is not unreasonable to suppose John intends the double-entendre here. Where has Jesus come from? How did he come to be among the people at that time and that place? Jesus' first response to the crowd is an authoritative rebuke. The use of "truly, truly" (NRSV "very truly") signals any Johannine reader ...

147. The Most Stubborn Man in the Bible

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... , should be obvious. The first one we’ve already noted. There’s no place you can flee from God’s presence. That’s the first lesson. There’s nowhere that God is not, if I might be allowed a double negative. God is a universal God. And here is the second lesson: God’s love is a universal love. Again a double negative: there is no one that God does not love. In fact, you can make a case that God loves diversity. God created a rainbow of different people and that’s the way he prefers it! I was ...

148. John 3:14-21

John 3:1-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... dei”) and will also accomplish for all who witness and follow. The term Jesus uses, “hypososan,” contains a double meaning, both a physical “lifting up” and a spiritual exaltation. The Son of Man’s lifting up will be both ... disciples, or the specially chosen. God’s love is all-inclusive. God’s love covers the whole world. Again, the gospel’s language has double meaning. God “gave” his only son to the world, but God also “gave” the Son to be lifted up, to endure suffering love. ...

149. It's Not a Snuggie Love

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

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a new and yet unknown future. “You crossed me,” needs to be reborn as a message of love and commitment and compassion. b) Here’s another cross-over to grab a phrase that needs reclaiming: “double-cross.” Every cross-training, cross-bearing, cross-over Christian should be actively involved in the “double-cross.” The cross of Christ consists of two beams. There is the vertical beam — planted deep in the earth and pointing straight up to heaven. A heaven-and-earth connection is needed to keep ...

150. The Transfiguration Of Our Lord

2 Kings 2:1-18, Mark 9:2-13, 2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... on your circumstances at the time: terminal illness life; sin forgiveness; sickness health; poor money. But Elisha was in no dire circumstances except his spiritual father was leaving. What did he want most of all? Would we want what Elisha asked for? Outline: If you asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit – a. You would be asking for God Elijah's spirit was God's Spirit. b. You would be asking for love Spirit of God is love. c. You would be asking for power Spirit brings power. 2. What a way to go ...

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