Sermon and Worship Resources

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Hebrews 9:11-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , or the anatomical explorations of a knife that punctures a heart . . . But in terms of what happens after death, there is "a kind of acceptable pandemonium regarding the subject," says John Killinger in his book God, The Devil, and Harry Potter (NY: Thomas Dunne, 2002), 134. Although probably most of us would concur with the observation made by John Denmark of Seminole, Florida who remarked: "When I die I want to go like Grandpa; peacefully and in his sleep. Not yelling and screaming like the passengers ...

2. The World's Best Hearing Aid

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... was a breathtaking piece of art, a marvelous sight indeed. It was so beautiful, in fact, that no one ever noticed that it was no longer capable of the clear, seductive notes once played upon it by Moses." (God, the Devil, and Harry Potter [New York: Thomas Dunne, 2002], 162-3.) How do we tell what voices to listen to, whose advice to take, what directives are important, and what we should just let fall on deaf ears? In today's gospel text the divine voice from the enshrouding cloud offered Peter, James, and ...

3. A Career in The Kingdom

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... that makes Joni's win in 1985 so surprising — moving from near death to sports endurance triumph. Here is the second — Joni Dunn says that there is only one thing that pulled her through the torture of the grueling race: her religion. "Just moving ... immediately, and found his infant son barely hanging onto life. The child died a few hours later. In a moving funeral service, Thomas Dorsey buried his beloved wife and tiny son in the same casket. Despondency set in. The great blues singer wandered in a ...

4. Paul, Phoebe, Patronage, and Spain

Romans 16:1-27

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... had obtained their freedom. These two Paul calls “outstanding among the apostles.” Moreover, they had become Christians before Paul was converted. The meaning of “apostles” is also much debated. Thomas Schreiner and Douglas Moo argue that the term is not the technical one for the twelve apostles.9 James Dunn and Robert Jewett do not necessarily disagree, arguing that Paul, Andronicus, and Junia belonged to the group of apostles (larger than twelve disciples/apostles) who were appointed apostles by ...

5. Dapple Gray

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

... crass materialism if we recognize the original materials as divine. Those who are true stewards under God must leave the land after they have finished with it in better condition than that in which it was received. An African-American share-cropper mother, Lousiana Dunn Thomas, has expressed this sense of stewardship under God thusly: We are tenants of the Almighty Entrusted with a portion of His Earth To dress and keep And pass on to the next generation When evening comes and we must fall asleep. Those who ...

6. The Language of the Heart

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Christ."(9) In 1722, the Town Council of Leipzig was looking for a new cantor in the School of Saint Thomas and organist for the church of St. Thomas. The Council searched for this new person, and selected one who, three weeks later, turned them down. They then contacted ... 184 2. From Outre-Mer, ibid. 3. Twelfth Night, 1, i, 1 4. "Missouri School Music Newsletter," collected by Harold Dunn 5. Kemp P. Battle, Great American Folklore, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1986), p. 281 6. Quoted by Cynthia Pearl ...

7. The Language of the Heart

Psalm 98:1-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... . In 1722, the town council of Leipzig was looking for a new cantor in the School of Saint Thomas and organist for the church of Saint Thomas. The council searched for this new person, and selected one who, three weeks later, turned them down. They ... God for the gift of music, the language of the heart. 1. "Missouri School Music Newsletter," collected by Harold Dunn. 2. Paul Brand, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made quoted by James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers ...

8. The Reversal of the Deuteronomic Curses and Blessings: Replacing Law with Faith

Romans 9:30--10:21

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... effect that Paul portrays the law negatively, however, does not sit well with some modern scholars. Interpreters such as James Dunn view this passage as refuting only Jewish nationalism (circumcision, Sabbath, and dietary legalism), not the law per se.2In other words, ... to harmonize divine sovereignty and human responsibility. It is known as Molinism. Over three hundred years after Thomas Aquinas, a Spanish Jesuit of the Counter-Reformation, Luis de Molina (1535–1600), advanced Aquinas’s compatibilist ...

9. Y'all, What's in Your All?

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the saving redemption of God's promises, we must first make Christ our in all and with all or these other all promises cannot be claimed. I cannot get out of my head a newspaper story from a few years back. (--as found in Donald Dunn, When Heaven is Silent [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994], 187.) It told of a young secretary who, one day during her lunch hour, climbed out on the edge of the building in which she was working and announced her intentions to jump. Life, at least hers, had no purpose, made no ...

10. Stephen Seized

Acts 6:8-15

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... ), so that the picture we now have of Stephen as a preacher need come as no surprise (see Hengel, Acts, p. 74; Dunn, Unity, p. 270). He is described as a man full of God’s grace—a phrase capable of bearing the double sense of ... heart (Mark 7:15). Thus, in the saying about destroying the temple and in three days raising another (John 2:19; cf. Gospel of Thomas 71), he had declared the temple obsolete as the place of expiation. Cleansing would now come through his own death and resurrection (cf. Mark ...

11. Abraham Justified by Faith

Romans 4:1-25

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... . Grace is “God’s very presence and action within us.… the sanctifying energy of God acting dynamically in our life” (Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness, p. 30). “Man shall not quite be lost,” said Milton, “but sav’d who will, Yet not ... Num. Rab. 14 (173a). Quoted from Str-B, vol. 3, p. 209 (my translation). For further extrabiblical references to the same effect, see Dunn, Romans 1–8, p. 213. 4:14 for Buber’s thesis, see I and Thou, trans. W. Kaufmann (New York: Scribners, 1970). Similarly ...

12. More Fully Understanding Christ

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... well, so it frequently re-routed calls to the wrong person or department. This was according to Capt. John Dunn, who oversaw the Shreveport Police Department’s police communications, “In Louisiana,” he said, “we have a problem with Southern ... Growth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 19. Cited by Max Lucado, Glory Days: Trusting the God Who Fights for You (p. 189). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. 5. Marcus J. Borg, Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power--And How They ...

13. God’s Love and Ours

1 John 4:7-21, 1 John 5:1-12

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

God’s Love and Our Love There is little agreement among those who have made a serious study of 1 John as to how to divide 1 John 4:7–5:4, but most have understood 4:7–12 to center around God’s love for us and, in response, our love for one another. It is likely that the opponents of the Elder had stressed their love for God (cf. 4:10, 20), their devotion, piety, and mystical spirituality (cf. 1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, 6, 9; 3:18; 4:1). But the Elder thinks that it is God’s love for human beings which is ...

14. Faith in the Son of God

1 John 5:1-12, 1 John 4:7-21

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

15. Lent 1

Mt 4:1-11, Rom 5:12-21

Sermon Aid

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

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The themes of sin and death that were central to Ash Wednesday are carried over into the First Sunday in Lent. These themes, however, are explored somewhat differently. Rather than a prophetic announcement of divine judgment against the people of God in the form of the Day of the Lord, as was the case in Joel 2, Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 explores the consequences of sin for all humans and for the creation itself through the stark imagery of exposed nakedness in a garden that is quickly ...

16. Walking in the Light

1 John 1:5--2:14, 1 John 2:15-17

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

Walking in the Light and the Problem of Sin The next two sections of 1 John are on the theme of walking in the light. The first section, 1 John 1:5–2:2, addresses the theme in relation to the issue of sin, while the second section, 1 John 2:3–11, focuses on walking in the light in relation to obedience, especially to the love command. The terms walk, light, and darkness occur throughout the section (1:5–7; 2:6, 8–11) and unify it. The Elder’s opponents are always present in the background. They have made ...

17. Children of God

1 John 2:28--3:10

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

This section of 1 John is unified by the idea of the children of God: who they are and how one can identify them by their lives. It is a passage dominated by ethics, particularly an ethical concern for righteousness and sin. It compares two “families”: the children of God and the children of the devil. In the background, as always, are the Elder’s opponents, the secessionists, whom he strongly contrasts to his own “dear children.” The unit is built on a structure of four antitheses, four pairs of opposing ...

18. Assured by the Certainties of Faith

1 John 5:13-21

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

The Elder concludes his message of exhortation to the remaining faithful members of his community by assuring them of several certainties of the Christian life, with regard to possessing eternal life (13), asking and interceding in prayer (14–17), not sinning (18), being God’s children in an evil world (19), and knowing Jesus Christ, the true God (20). In the light of these great realities comes a final warning (21). 5:13 Continuing his style of linking the beginning of a new section with the end of the ...

19. Walking in the Light and the Problem of Sin

1 John 2:15-17, 1 John 1:5--2:14

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson