Sermon and Worship Resources

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2351. The Why Behind the What

Illustration

C.S. Lewis

... get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from my pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they would start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. Our Lord is like a dentist. Dozens of people go to him to be cured of some particular sin. Well, he will cure it all right, but he will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if ...

2352. Hate the Sin - Love the Man

Illustration

C.S. Lewis

... occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life namely myself. . . In fact, the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things. Consequently Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery. . . But it does want us to hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves: being sorry that the man should ...

2353. Keep You Mouth Shut

Illustration

Staff

... against the Russian czar Nicholas I in December 1825. But the rope broke and Ryleyev, bruised and battered, fell to the ground, got up, and said, "In Russia they do not know how to do anything properly, not even how to make a rope." An accident of this sort usually resulted in a pardon, so a messenger was sent to the czar to know his pleasure. Nicholas asked, "What did he say?" "Sire, he said that in Russia they do not even know how to make a rope properly." "Well, let the contrary be proved," said the ...

2354. A Striking Encounter with Wildlife

Illustration

Charles Swindoll

... go "I had to pry my fingers from its neck." Rathman, 45, who works for the Defense Department in San Jose, estimates his encounter with the snake lasted 20 minutes. Warden Dave Smith says of meeting Rathman: "He walked toward me holding this string of rattles and said with a sort of grin on his face, 'I'd like to register a complaint about your wildlife here.'"

2355. Wait on the Lord

Illustration

James Packer

... , but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much ...

2356. Christmas Is a God-Thing

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Here is someone doing what I do; the world isn’t just an unfamiliar place of terror and uncertainty, and when I do this, I can draw out an answer, an echo; I’m not powerless. And so relationship begins.” Archbishop Williams says, “To see this sort of thing in action is intensely moving. This is real mental and spiritual healing at work. But it gives us a powerful image of what it is we remember at Christmas,” that at Christmas God broke down the barriers between ourselves and God by becoming one ...

2357. Life Is Yours

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... us tuned in. Bad news, dour predictions, impending disaster, keep us riveted. As Samuel Johnson famously noted, “Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging.” One’s own, especially. So it is little wonder that “risk management” has given us all sorts of “disaster preparedness” plans—-personal, community, state, and national. We get flu shots. We get pneumonia shots. We make a family “escape plan” for getting out of the house if it catches fire. We keep an emergency roadside kit in the ...

2358. Be Prudent or Productive?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In the Pacific Northwest there are three common prickly plants that populate the hedgerows and fence-lines — blackberries, salmon berries, and brambles. All three flourish without care and create impressive thickets for hiding all sorts of small critters. All three sport impressive thorns. But only one of them is valued and hunted down every fall. Brambles bear no edible fruit at all — lots of snagging, snarly vines, but nothing to eat. Salmon berries produce pretty salmon colored gems that are ...

2359. Matthew 25:14-30

Matthew 25:14-30

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... with a huge amount of money. Each is trusted with a true fortune. Although the master gives each of the three servants different amounts “according to his abilities,” we should not confuse the monetary “talents” being doled out here with some sort of accounting of human “talent” or skill. The master knows his servants, assesses their abilities, and does not overload any one of them with unreasonable expectations. Still, each one of them is given charge over a vast amount of money. The details ...

2360. How Big of a Risk Would You Take?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!" Then the man who had received one bag came. Can’t you see him shuffling forward with his eyes downcast, afraid to look his master in the eye? "Master," he sort of mumbles, "I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you." Let me pause here. If ...

2361. The Painting Was Framed

Humor Illustration

Staff

... by the great artist Sargent in an art gallery in New York City. He kept muttering to himself, "I've been given a place at last. I have a place at last." Artist Robert Henri was standing nearby. Henri was mystified at the man's words. "Are you in this sort of work?" he asked the man. "Oh, yes," said the man, "but this is the first time I've been displayed like this." Now Henri really was disturbed. "But I thought that this work was by the great painter Sargent," he said. "That's right," said the man, "but it ...

2362. Peter at the Pearly Gates

Humor Illustration

... St. Peter wouldn't let him through the Pearly Gates. But when he got to his destination, he was welcomed with open arms. "Are you certain that you didn't make a mistake?" he asked St. Peter. "You see, there are certain parts of my life of which I'm sort of ashamed." St. Peter answered, "No, we didn't make a mistake. You see, we don't keep any records." The man was greatly relieved and overjoyed and a sudden peace came over him. Then he saw another group of men over in a corner beating their heads against a ...

2363. How To Behave

Illustration

Staff

... to the restroom." I thought to myself, "Is he really saying this on radio?" Then, to make matters worse, he added, "I have to wait till the service is over to go to the restroom and so can you!" I let out a hearty laugh. That's not the sort of thing most of us would broadcast as part of a worship service. Smugly, I finished tying my tie and laughed inwardly about this unsophisticated messenger of the Gospel. Then the voice of God spoke to my heart. "King," God said, "the reason that pastor has to tell his ...

2364. Riding the Family Name

Humor Illustration

... would be introduced as a businessman or teacher. But when it came my turn, I would hear, ''Tom Kean, the son of congressman Robert Winthrop Kean,'' or, ''the grandson of Sen. Hamilton Fish Kean.' So now I try to move past an introduction of that sort by using humor. I tell the story about the Princeton graduate who applied for a job with a major department store in Philadelphia. The personnel manager wrote to one of the fellow's references and received a lengthy reply, detailing the applicant's fine social ...

2365. Benefits of Laughter

Illustration

Staff

... Life, Love and Laughter (Ball Memorial Hospital, Muncie, Indiana) has compiled some fascinating statistics. Did you know.... Studies have pinpointed 18 different kinds of smiles? The most common and recognizable is the smile of enjoyment. (Who does the research for this sort of thing? Wouldn't you love to have his job? I could see his college transcript. Freshman year he takes classes like Upturned Mouth 101. Later he studies the Abnormal Psychology of Smiles, like The Smirk: A Smile Gone Wrong. Finally, he ...

2366. DNA Nursery Rhyme

Humor Illustration

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was slightly gray. It didn't have a father, just some borrowed DNA. It sort of had a mother, though the ovum was on loan. It was not so much a lambkin, as a little lamby clone. And soon it had a fellow clone, and soon it had some more. They followed her to school one day, all cramming through the door. It made the ...

2367. The Final Wish

Humor Illustration

After a week of travels three friends were in different sorts about their journey. The cattle baron, became despondent; he missed his ranch. A second longed for his native Manhattan, where he was a cab driver. The third man, a happy-go-lucky type, was enjoying himself, finding the experience rather peaceful. One day, as they were walking along the beach, ...

2368. Why Do We Try to Know It All?

John 1:1-18

Illustration

Kenneth W. Collins

It seems to be a relatively late hobby, peculiar to western Christianity, to contrive a sort of ‘unified field theory' of the Bible that can include all facts and explain all things. That, of course, would require us to comprehend God. However, a mind can only comprehend something less complex than itself—so if we could comprehend God, He would not be God. For this reason, ...

2369. Hebrews 1:1-4

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... need to further distinguish the Son from any other heavenly beings. There is some suggestion by commentators that the Hebrews author may, in part, have been writing to argue against an outbreak of angel-worship. If such is the author’s reference to “all sorts of strange teaching” in Hebrews 13:9, then he clearly puts those other heavenly beings in their place with the final words in today’s reading. Although the language is ambiguous from the context, it seems evident that the “name” which is so ...

2370. No Time for a Sermon

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

2371. Doing Your Own Thing

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... in trouble in the first place. To state things even more emphatically, you could make a case that this is the very definition of sin doing your own thing with total disregard for God’s purpose for your life. St. Paul ran into this sort of attitude more than two thousand years ago. Conversion to Christianity was a great liberation to many who had felt enslaved by the Jewish Law. They felt gloriously free when they became Christians, and they exulted in their new freedom. But soon that freedom turned ...

2372. Better Angels of Our Nature

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... You mean you don’t know . . . ?” That is the attitude of these “knowledgeable” Corinthians Paul is addressing. They believe they have knowledge of gnosis that is not available to all the other member of their community. That gnosis puts them in some sort of a superior position. Paul pounces on that “puffed up” spirit. Instead of congratulating them on their insights, the apostle pulls the plug on their inflated egos. In its place he offers that which is available equally to all — love. It is ...

2373. 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

2374. How Can I Keep From Singing?

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... secrets. After all what is the point of having “secret knowledge” if you cannot share the fact that you have it? The lure of “secret knowledge” that is, conversely, known and controlled by a select few, is what has kept all sorts of organizations going — such as modern day fraternities and sororities, the mysterious Masons, the secretive Knight’s Templar, the ancient Gnostics. They all have wanted to keep their secrets. But also, selectively, to share them. Biblical scholars have long noted the ...

2375. John 2:13-22

John 2:12-25

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... all Jesus says and does. In the second half of today’s text, “The Jews,” who given this setting must be either Temple priests or official members of the ruling Sanhedrin, demand that Jesus back up this zealous behavior with some sort of miraculous “sign.” If he is a genuine prophet, apparently, such out-of-bounds behavior might be tolerated. But his prophetic identity must somehow be authenticated. Instead of a “sign,” however, Jesus offers one of his most cryptic declarations — “Destroy ...

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