Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1476 to 1500 of 2665 results

1476. The Golden Bull or the Old Rugged Cross?

Acts 16:16-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... bottom line" in the American Dream is in fact a "bottom line," reducing our hopes, energies, and life-achievements to a dollar amount. Celera Genomics announced it was the first to successfully assemble a complete human genome. When it did, the company's stock dropped. "The Market" (ever notice how we personify it, we worship it, we glorify it, we submit to its mysteries-in short, we goddify it?) couldn't care less about pure science and scientific discovery. It only wanted to know: Where's the profit? Not ...

1477. What's the Value of Your Life?

Genesis 28:10-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... from a funny Jadite pitcher. Thanks a lot, Martha! Now Jadite is as scarce as hen's teeth and its price has gone through the roof so that only the rich and famous can collect it. The funky green dishes we've used, enjoyed, and on occasion dropped on the floor with careless abandon, now possess an entirely new value. A compilation of violin Lessons #2 and #4 have transformed their perceived value by this celebrity-conscious culture. Most of us are oblivious to the value of the things that surround us on a ...

1478. Living in the Red

Galatians 6:11-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... branded. I get calls all the time from people who want me to take up their cross. And sometimes I look at the cross they're carrying, and it seems like a lot less of a burden to bear than the one I'm hauling around. I'm tempted to drop my cross and pick up their seemingly lighter one. But then I hear Jesus say, "Take up YOUR cross and follow me. . . My yoke is easy, and my burden light . . . Your burden will never be more than you can bear . . . You can bear your cross, knowing that these are but ...

1479. Life's Four Big 'Ds' and One Bigger 'D'

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... saved the best till last, which is when her oohs and aahs turned to something else. They brought her outside to her backyard, and there revealed a huge, state-of-the-art barbecue unit they had built for her Friday night barbecues. When Alice saw this, she dropped to her knees, looked up to the heavens, and cried out "Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God," as tears streamed down her face. Up until that point, every improvement was nice and wonderful. It was for her and her family. But when they put in something ...

1480. Palm Pilot

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... so varied and harried that we could never navigate the way on our own. But palm pilots are small, delicate, tricky things. They can be left on a restaurant dining table or easily stolen from an overcoat pocket. Those perfect little stylus pens can seem to drop into black holes the moment you reach for them. Worst of all, your electronic brain, your life in a little black box, can fry a few silicon chips and turn your future into incomprehensible, blinking blips or a just a big blank screen. Trusting the ...

1481. Inward, Upward, Outward

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... tempted to redesign the spaghetti freeway intersection I must travel through because I'm not an engineer and I have no concept of what such a task would entail. I may be tempted to fudge figures on my endless and convoluted income tax forms. The ability to drop a zero or "forget" to add up a column is entirely within my puny math skills. I'm not tempted to take advantage of insider-trading information to pump up my stock portfolio first because I don't know anyone who could give me any inside-information ...

1482. Which Will It Be - the Silvered Cross or the Slivered Cross?

Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to close on Sundays, but other Christian observances were commonly honored as well. McDonald's came out with it's Filet-O-Fish sandwich in the 1960s not out of some kind of early health consciousness, but so that on Fridays observant Catholics could still drop by the fast food restaurant for a quick bite. Within memory of many here, it was routine for businesses to shut down on Good Friday between the hours of noon and three o'clock the hours Christian tradition declares Jesus hung on the cross allowing ...

1483. Will You Still Listen?

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... your new divinely directed pathway. When that happens, will you still listen? Sometimes, as NASA's geological experts learned when soil samples revealed they had not touched down in what they believed was one of Mars' long-evaporated lake beds, the Word will drop you into situations that seem far beyond your capabilities. What you believe to be your strengths will be weaknesses, while what you believe to be your weaknesses will be revealed as new sources of insight and strength. When that happens, will you ...

1484. Attics, Basements, Closets

Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... from her position as President and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In a move that seemed as strange as Ford Motor Company throwing out the Ford family, MSO felt that in order to save the company's reputation and salvage its plummeting stock ($273 million drop since the charges were made) the corporation had to put as much space as possible between itself and its beleaguered, nine-count indicted founder. All to avoid losing a measly $45,673. Of course, it's hard for some of us to feel a whole lot ...

1485. Loud and Clear

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to everyone: Young and old. Men and women. Slave and free. Rich and poor. Priest and laity. Everyone will have the opportunity to be plugged into a power source that will interpret and transform their misguided human efforts at expressing love into crystal clear drops of true communication. To be plugged into a power source that we allow us to live and love in ways that would otherwise be unimaginable! And through this interpretation of and by the Holy Spirit, Peter went on to preach a great sermon of ...

1486. Dip into the Well

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... used to be that when test-marketing products, or planning for the success of some new line, researchers would try to appeal to the center. Their guide was the bell-curve average of a middle ground. Today all middles are in trouble, as the middles are dropping out and the ends are getting huge. In fact, middle ground is considered fallow ground. Nobody wants to be average or to have mass appeal. To call someone vanilla is now an insult. There is no happy medium anymore. Both ends are now being played against ...

1487. Don't Lose Your Footing

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... be celebrated). The two of you stand behind the altar, and while you put your arm around them ask them how best you can pray for them. After this exchange, invite everyone to join the two of you in prayer. As soon as you bow your head, drop to the ground, pull out of your pocket a handkerchief, and while you're praying shine their shoes. Keep praying until you've shined both of them, and then conclude your prayer on your knees. You might also work this ‘Ancient Future’ foot washing into your communion ...

1488. Dirty Laundry or Angels?

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... If you've ever gone clothes-collecting on laundry day, you know you can pretty accurately track the movements of a child or spouse in their room by the trail of discarded clothing they leave behind. Socks fly off in one direction, pants and shirts get dropped later, pajamas and underwear end up in one heap by themselves. The clothing trail makes its own kind of perfect, if messy, sense. Knowing the end of the Easter story helps us to think about what the two separate piles of clothing may have indicated to ...

1489. Fear Factor

Psalm 25:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , definitely still alive insects and reptiles they're forced to swallow. YUCK! This isn't the measure of a real fear factor. It's some prime-time, adolescent voyeurism that delights in the gross and revolting. I'm not afraid of worms or guts or semi-fermented animal droppings. I'm simply too commonsensical to put any of those things into my mouth. Maybe we tune in to the fake fear factors because we can't tune out the real fear factors. Fear is the lead line in all the newscasts, It's the rapid pulse-beat ...

1490. Follow Me!

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

James McCormick

... not want to die. He could see the cross looming before him, and he did not want to die – not then, so early in his life – and not like that – so painful, so lonely, so rejected. The struggle was so intense that sweat appeared on his brow like great drops of blood. But, finally, he received the grace necessary to pray the greatest prayer that can be prayed. He prayed, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” So, the cross we are called to bear is the same as the cross Jesus was called to bear. The cross ...

1491. It Is Good News!

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

James McCormick

... has been dramatically flavored by the salt of Christ. The world has been illumined by the light of Christ. All of life is dramatically different because of His entrance into human history. Usually when a person dies, his influence gradually wanes. Like dropping a pebble into a pond, the ripples, quite noticeable at the point of impact, gradually diminish and then disappear. But with Jesus, just the opposite took place. He was little known throughout the world just following his death and resurrection. But ...

1492. Be Kind

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

James McCormick

... talking loudly in a restaurant as if they are the only patrons there. Taking a cell phone call in the middle of a movie or a concert. People breaking into the front of a line as if their business is more important than anyone else’s. People dropping litter. Golfers neglecting to rake a bunker or repair a ball mark on a green. Not holding a door open for others. Common courtesy. I’ll bet that a poor disposition has ruined more marriages than infidelity ever did. I’ll bet that grouchiness and self ...

1493. Jesus' Forty Days, and Ours

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

James McCormick

... of Jesus’ struggles with it. You remember that Peter tempted him to reject the way of the cross, and Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” And, that struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane - the struggle so intense that sweat appeared on his brow like great drops of blood - Jesus was tempted again to reject the cross and to say “No” to what God was calling him to do. No, Jesus had recurring temptations, and we will too, as long as we live. I’ve never been able to believe in a red devil, with ...

1494. Promises to Keep

Hebrews 8:1-13

Sermon

James McCormick

... Not on your life. Such blessings would be reserved for those who deserve them! You have to keep your part of the bargain! If you planted a garden and were not faithful, I would have it rain right up to your property line, and stop. Not a drop on your crop! There would be perpetual drought until you took your faith commitment seriously. And, if you cut church and went fishing on Sunday morning – nary a nibble, not on Sunday morning! And, Sunday morning golfers? I would have every ball find the rough, or a ...

1495. Weak Sauce

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 10 hottest sauces known to humankind, all of the number one hottest were gone. It seems that the number one hottest sauce had been a best-seller for Christmas. This despite the fact that it's SO hot it can only be sampled by placing an infinitely small drop on the tip of a toothpick and then sampling it on a large chip. Even then number one reduces its tasters to pain and panic, and they predictably gulp down milk or stuff slices of bread in their mouths to attempt some relief of their agony. But everyone ...

1496. You Shall Name Him Jesus

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... brand names, trademarks, and companies throughout the world. They finally narrowed the choice to two names Exxon and Enco. Just before the final decision was reached, researchers discovered that Enco was a Japanese term that could mean “stalled car”! Enco was quickly dropped and in 1972 Exxon became the corporation’s new name. (5) What’s in a name? You may remember a news story from 2002 in which a couple from Tampa, Florida, sought unsuccessfully to auction off the rights to name their baby. The ...

1497. Christmas 1

Mt 2:13-23 · Heb 2:10-18 · Isa 63:7-9 · Ps 148

Sermon Aid

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

... he has been deceived, Herod orders "the slaughter of the innocents." Then, we read of the flight to Egypt by the holy family. This is the final incident in Matthew's birth account. Structure. The previous lectionary attempted to present a unified narrative by dropping Matthew 2:16-18 from the reading for this Sunday. The decision was unfortunate, for the story shows, in heinous detail, the earliest form of human opposition to God's work in and through Jesus Christ, an opposition that persists throughout the ...

1498. Epiphany 3

Psalm 27:1-14, Isaiah 9:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, Matthew 4:12-17, Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon Aid

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

... commentary put it, "this feast can be considered a liturgical evidence of the primacy of honor and jurisdiction attached to the chair of Rome." (St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, ed. [St. Paul: E. M. Lohmann Co., 1953], p. 612) The feast was dropped in the missal of Paul VI, but nothing was put in its place, so for Roman Catholics, the Unity Octave lost the symbolism of the balance between Peter and Paul. Lutherans and Episcopalians have attempted to restore the balance by instituting a new ...

1499. Lent 3

Jn 4:5-42 · Rom 5:1-11 · Ex 17:1-7 · Ps 95

Sermon Aid

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

... weak. By this he means that we were formerly ungodly—we were sinners. But perhaps because he has already devoted significant attention to our sinfulness, Paul does not ponder that matter here. Instead, with the time and space of our ungodly past evoked, Paul drops God's saving work in Jesus Christ into our midst. Then we move back to the present, and Paul once again declares our current status by saying that now we are justified by the death of Jesus Christ. The apostle is not interested in explaining ...

1500. Lent 4

Jn 9:1-41 · Eph 5:8-14 · Ps 23 · 1 Sam 16:1-13

Sermon Aid

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

... , the act of healing, and some confirmation of the miracle—the person demonstrates health or the onlookers are amazed. But in John 9 there is much more. The healing is "set up" by the disciples' question (v. 2) and Jesus' speech-answer (vv. 3-5). Remarkably Jesus drops out of the story after v. 7 and does not reappear until v. 35. And all the material in vv. 8-41 is dramatic expansion building off the basic miracle story. The text has been analyzed by several scholars (most notably by J. Louis Martyn in ...

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