Sermon and Worship Resources

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Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... and sometimes-necessary stepping-stones to personal advancement. That is why his name has gone down in infamy as a synonym for devious trickery. I even used a Machiavellian tactic illustratively in the title of this sermon. Had I titled this message, "Jesus or Machiavelli," you would have guessed right away what I had in mind. However, when I used his first name, Niccolo, you probably had no idea what I had in mind. With this verbal slight of hand, I probably had you fooled until now. Similarly, Satan ...

2. A Princely Passion

2 Samuel 13:1-22

Sermon

... across a hot desert. Her eyes were deep pools of refreshment. Her loveliness was an oasis in a desert landscape. She was a princess without a prince charming. He was a prince, but he was far from charming. Amnon was more in the mode of a Machiavellian Prince. Machiavelli, who had written that a prince "... must be a fox to recognize traps and a lion to frighten wolves."1 Amnon’s problem was Amnon. He worshiped himself and his desires to the exclusion of all else. Like a cat in a canary cage, he was king ...

3. When the Church Becomes a Culture of Complainers and Crusaders, What To Do?

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in the faith. First, if you are going to do more than just sit there, if you are going to do something for God and the gospel, you will have people who criticize you. What did Jesus say? “Beware when all speak well of you.” Even Machiavelli shrewdly observed that "hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil ones." In fact, like Paul you won’t have mere critics. You’ll have crusaders. Roland Bainton, the great Reformation scholar of another era, said that the Crusader spirit had four premises ...

4. When You Are Wrongly Criticized

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ” truths, a recent rag celebrates the fact that “You’re nobody until your Anathema to Somebody . . .” Mark’s candid description of Jesus being labeled as “crazy” by his family and as a demon-possessed, Satan-empowered magician by the staid and stately scribes proves Machiavelli’s shrewd observation that “hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil ones.” You can count is as a life truth: the people you help the most will betray you the worst. You can count is as a life truth: the ...

5. Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ

Romans 5:12-21

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... that “[Adam] was a pattern (Gk. typos) of the one to come” (v. 14). A “type” is a particular person or thing that foreshadows or prefigures something true of a larger group to follow. Sparta was a type of the military state, Machiavelli of the despotic ruler, Jefferson of the liberal democratic mind. Adam and Christ are types too. Like the “lesser light” of Genesis 1:14ff., Adam represents humanity apart from salvation. There are many satellites in his orbit: “trespass” (v. 15), “sin” (v ...

6. Crossing Over

Luke 10:25-37, Genesis 48:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Why did the chicken cross the road? Well, I spent some time this week investigating the whole chicken and road dilemma and here are some of the best explanations I’ve found: Machiavelli: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The ends of crossing the road justify whatever motive there was. Thomas de Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll find out. Timothy Leary: Because that's the only kind of trip the Establishment ...

Machiavelli taught me it was better to be feared than loved. Because if you are loved they sense you might be weak. I am a man of the people and help them but it is important to do so through strength.

Don King

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.