Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 37 results

John 13:18-30

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... According to this view, Judas was simply a strong believer who tried his best to make Jesus a stronger leader; and he failed. That is one possible explanation for what he did. I have not mentioned the ancient notion that Judas was motivated by simple greed and avarice. That he sold out his Master for personal gain. That seems too simple to me. The sum of money—thirty pieces of silver—is too trivial for a treachery so terrible. I have a hunch that Judas’ main motivation was disillusionment, rather than ...

2. Extreme Measures

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... proportions because the theft and murder were entirely senseless, and because they were committed by leaders who were called to demonstrate moral fortitude and courage at a critical time in Israel's history. Ahab could have easily planted his garden elsewhere, but because of avarice in his heart, he could not bring himself to accept "no" for an answer. What began as a query for the purchase of land ended up as senseless homicide. What began as an effort in horticulture ended up as a felony murder in the ...

3. A Tale Of Two Cities

Amos 7:1-9, Amos 7:10-17

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... ourselves into the kingdom, we can never simply be content with maintaining things as they are. Amos understood the necessity of transformation. He knew the hazards of maintaining things as they are. He knew that God was fed up with sin, lies, avarice, lust, betrayal, greed, corruption, and the wholesale crimes of influence peddling among the religious establishment. Israel had lost her sanctity and Amos was interested in restoring it in the name of God. The priest wanted to maintain order while the prophet ...

4. Will The Real Messiah Please Stand Up?

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

William L. Self

... What is the third characteristic of the true messiah? The third characteristic of the true messiah is that the spirit of the Lord is upon him. It is hard to discern but it is clear. "He anointed me to preach." False messiahs have the spirit of avarice. False messiahs have the spirit of political power upon them. False messiahs depend upon the structures of this world. The true messiah is dependent upon God alone. III. The real messiah does stand up. One thousand years later in a ragged little village on the ...

5. The Demons Within

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Alexander H. Wales

... than offering our support and care. AIDS is just as demonic as any other worldly creature. It ravages individuals while others seek to pretend it will go away if one ignores it long enough. Greed is a demon, threatening to make us slaves of want. Avarice has always been one of the deadly sins, but today the desire to have and to hold is something that many in our society prize and encourage. Things are often more important than people, more important than faith. As the scripture passage reminds us, the ...

6. You Can Be Less Worried

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... . 2 -- What are our priorities? What are we anxious about? Here is how Jesus asked the question: "Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" Contrary to popular belief, our generation did not write the book on greed, gluttony, avarice and self-centeredness. Even 2,000 years ago in Galilee people were often worried about material things to the virtual exclusion of concern for God or neighbor. During the disastrous storms in Bangladesh a few years ago (when approximately 200,000 lives were ...

7. First Things First

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

... , putting self-respect and self-control into the British character in place of a gin-based society. Thus England was able to defeat Napoleon. Wilburforce confronted the vested interests of slavery around the world and brought this monument to human avarice toppling down. Our offering is Martin Luther King, Jr. who, by his endurance, shook the foundation of a social system built on prejudice and economic injustice. Great monuments are important. Even those Jesus predicted would fall were rebuilt. People need ...

8. The Quest And The Question Of The Way

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... an understatement. Unexpectedly, in the Bible, lowliness is often associated with this ultimate quest for God who alone has lasting power, riches and glory. The lowly are exalted.The exaltation of the lowly is certainly the theme of Micah's prophecy. Greed and avarice ruled like a monarch in the hearts of the nobles, the priests and the false prophets in the eighth century B.C. in Jerusalem where Micah lived. This lowly farmer-prophet promulgated the theme of exalting the lowly - the poor, the homeless and ...

9. The Gospel of the Little Man

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

... was also in the upper economic echelon of Jericho - very rich. And we remember, too, that on the list of those we love to hate, Zacchaeus held the top spot with his fellow town folk. He had sold out, not only in his compromise with Romans, but to avarice and greed, and his wealth had been accumulated as a traitor to his people. He collected taxes for the hated Romans, adding his own charges to the tax bill. Only when these facets of his character are in perspective does his story slip from the branches of ...

10. God’s Safety Net

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

D. Wayne Burkette

... the very sheep they were supposed to tend. Thus, the prophet envisions a day when God will personally shepherd the peopie of Israel, a day when there will be a Good Shepherd who will care for and feed the flock with justice and tenderness, not avarice and greed. Ezekiel’s imagery is vivid. The Good Shepherd will seek the lost and bring back the recalcitrant sheep who keep going astray. The Good Shepherd will bind up the injured and crippled sheep, strengthen the fearful and weak. The Good Shepherd will ...

11. Being Set Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... can’t seem to help it. Our way of life - our habits and weaknesses, our shortcomings - has often enslaved us, and we have heavy guilt on our backs. "Show me," said Seneca, "anyone who is not a slave. One is a slave to lust, and another to avarice, and a third to ambition; all alike to fear" (Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII). "No one," as Goethe put it, "is more of a slave than he who thinks himself free without being so" (Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII). "Where one has once passed through the meadows ...

12. Everybody a Cinderella

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... , pushes deep down beyond the slave that has encased us, and touches that inner dignity and worth, bringing it to new life. Love is the only gift that makes us able to live well in a world that does not make sense, that is illogical. Where avarice, envy, lust, and stupidity profit far beyond the virtues of honesty, justice, and humble service, how can virtue win the day? Love makes us feel triumphant in spite of the victories of evil. Love gives a divine sanction to override evil’s victories. Winning the ...

13. It Might Have Been ...

Luke 22:1-6, Matthew 26:14-16, Matthew 27:1-10, Matthew 26:47-56

Sermon

... from the treasury. I think that John, years later after the enormity of the betrayal had had time to settle in, was unable to think any good thing about Judas - and painted his picture as black as he could in his gospel. So I don’t see avarice or greed as the loyalty in which Judas was caught up. Basically I think his problem was that he gave his prime allegiance to his nation. And therein lay the seeds of his destruction. Twice we get clues about Judas. Right after Christ refuses to accept a crown ...

14. Who Did He Praise?

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... people one by one who owed the rich man money, he asked the first, "How much do you owe my boss?" "A hundred jugs of olive oil," was the answer. "Make it fifty," said the manager. I can see him rubbing his hands together with glee and avarice. This is a good example of why some employees should not be given two weeks notice. Some should be sent packing immediately. Then he asked another of his boss' creditors, "And how much do you owe?' He replied, "A hundred containers of wheat." The manager said, "Make ...

15. Three Words America Needs to Hear

Acts 24:1-27

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... he made this observation about American society. He said: "We demand freedom without restraint, rights without responsibility, choice without consequences, pleasure without pain. In our hedonistic, narcissistic, valueless preoccupation we are becoming a people dominated by lust, avarice and greed." (2) If you listen to those who analyze the state of our nation today--historians, business leaders, ministers, people from all walks of life--they''re saying that this corruption, this unrighteousness, is eating ...

16. The Shy Member of the Trinity

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... is more intolerable to him than death.” She might have been talking about America when she said, “The avaricious greed that prompts men to cut down forests for the speedy making of money brings down a judgment of flood and famine, because that sin of avarice in the spiritual sphere runs counter to the physical laws of nature.” She concludes: “We must not say that such behavior is wrong because it does not pay; but rather it does not pay because it is wrong.” And so the world is wrong about ...

17. Afraid of Sanity

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... live more simply so that others of God’s children may simply live. So, what did the townspeople do? They asked Jesus to leave. He was bad for business. In seminary I remember hearing a student preach a sermon titled “My God! My Pigs!” He described the avarice of the crowd who valued their pigs more than their neighbor. Their kind is surely not all dead, yet! And one must ask the question “Who are the possessed in this story?” The people’s eagerness to reject Jesus, to get rid of Him, shows that ...

18. I've Been To The Mountain

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of holiness." It happens in the opposite kind of way -- as someone has put it, "The Devil writes his mark upon people's faces. The world and the flesh do so. Go into the streets and look at the people that you meet. Care, envy, grasping, gripping avarice, discontent, unrest...and many other prints of black fingers are plain enough on many a face. And on the other hand, if a man or woman get into their hearts the refining influence of God's grace and love by living near the Master, very soon the beauty ...

19. In the Wilderness With Moses

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... God. It hurts God to see men and women debased and distraught because they chose to disregard their faith in this one area of their lives. I realize we have the tendency to blow sexual sins out of proportion in our culture compared to other sins such as avarice and prejudice, but it is a problem that has brought much pain to many people. FORTUNATELY THERE IS HOPE. IT IS FOUND IN THE GRACE OF GOD. It grieves Paul that the people of the church at Corinth are making the same mistakes as the people that Moses ...

20. Loving Like God Loves

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... find nothing in you of God's love and God's kindness and God's patience and mercy and understanding of the weakness of men. Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God. For it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and sensuality and selfishness that have killed his faith.”12 In other words, who I label as enemy may say more about me than about them. It is interesting to inspect the images Jesus used. If some of us had our way, according to Jesus ...

21. Shalom Shattered

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... The envious will die, but envy never." Envy is a sin against the ninth and tenth commandments. Exodus 20:17 says, "You shall not covet." Envy also appears as one of the seven deadly sins in Dante's Inferno. Of the seven deadly sins (lust, sloth, wrath, avarice, gluttony, envy, and pride), only pride was considered deadlier than envy. With envy such a curse, we try to repress it and ignore it. The source of envy is alienation from God and from one another. Envy comes from our low self-esteem, from our fears ...

22. Are You a GOT TO or a GET TO Christian?

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... jump in the consumption of peanut butter. Have you ever noticed how Lenten sacrifices are almost always about food. How come nobody ever talks about giving up, oh I don't know — SIN? You know, at least one of the Big Seven - The Seven Deadly Sins: greed, avarice, lust, gluttony, anger, envy, sloth...what's your big one of the seven? Instead we give up hamburgers and then pat ourselves on the back and feel virtuous. And we rarely speak any more about taking on something for Lent. At the very least Lent is ...

23. Orient Your "itudes"

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... money out of our propensity to sin, here are the top Seven Deadly Sin Stocks, the stocks that will give you the greatest return on your investment (Money Magazine (November 2002), 2): 1. Lust: Playboy Enterprises 2. Anger: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) 3. Avarice: Trump Hotels & Casinos 4. Sloth: La-Z-Boy 5. Envy: Allergan (AGN) Botox injections 6. Gluttony: Krispy Kreme (KKD) 7. Pride: Fair Isaac (FIC) (credit rating company) All we have to do is open a Wall Street Journal, read a tabloid headline at ...

24. When Too Much Can Be Too Little

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to decouple overpopulation and overconsumption, it is the church. In this week's gospel interchange, Jesus struck a fatal blow to a young man's disease of addiction and suicidal mania. In Colossians 3:1-17, verse 5 specifies four sins of sensuality followed by "avarice" or "covetousness" or the drive to get and get, which is best defined as idolatry (cf. Ephesians 5:5). The consumerist lifestyle is as fatal to the soul as it is to the environment. One of the biggest beguilers of the Christian mind, even ...

25. Mark 12:38-44

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... not so much as praising her devotion and selfless generosity as it should a back-door, back-handed indictment of the religious system that allows such injustice to exist in the name of God. Jesus praises the widow while he condemns the whole hierarchy of the Temple whose greed and avarice make such contributions necessary. Having pronounced this final judgment upon the cultic system, Jesus now leaves the Temple with his disciples, never to return.

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