Sermon Resources on Western Culture

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They Keep Going and Going…

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 20:8-10, Isaiah 40:29-31, 1 Kings 19:4-8, Matthew 11:28-30, Mark 6:31, Psalm 23:1-3

In 1989, the advertising world welcomed a new icon into the world. It was pink, it was furry, it wore sunglasses, and sported a drum-set. Can you picture him? It’s the Energizer bunny. Television scre...

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Author

Dr. Caroline Leaf

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 4:7, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 , Isaiah 40:28-31, Luke 10:38-42, James 1:5-8 , Psalm 1:1-3

Everything in our society seems to convey the message of “now!” It’s almost as if we’ve entered an era where we have sacrificed the processing of knowledge for the gathering of data.

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How We Wait

Author

Jason Farman

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Habakkuk 2:3, James 5:7-8, 2 Peter 3:8-9, Psalm 27:13-14

Part of our experience of waiting is cultural, and how time elapses while we wait can vary from person to person and context to context. We wait differently and we have different expectations that are...

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Our Problem with Time

Author

Dorothy C. Bass

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Colossians 3:23-24, Matthew 6:33-34, Genesis 2:2-3, Psalm 90:12, Ecclesiastes 3:1

We delude ourselves into believing that if we can just get everything done, if we can only tie up all the loose ends, if we can even once get ahead of the crush, we will prove our worth and establish ...

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Third Sunday of Easter

Author

Paul Koptak

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 1:17-23, Isaiah 40:6-8

(Scripture quotations below are from ESV unless noted otherwise.) Liturgical Context On this Third Sunday of Easter, the Revised Common Lectionary texts harmonize with the epistle’s praise of Jesus...

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Author

Dallas Willard

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Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Philippians 4:13, Joshua 1:9, Hebrews 12:1-2, 2 Timothy 1:7, Ephesians 6:10-11

This is an age for spiritual heroes—a time for men and women to be heroic in faith and in spiritual character and power. The greatest danger to the Christian church today is that of pitching its messa...

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Trying to Keep Up with the Jones’ in the 21st Century

Author

David Zahl

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Scripture

Exodus 18:13–27, Ecclesiastes 2:22–23 , Isaiah 40:28–31 , Luke 10:38–42, Matthew 11:28–30, Psalm 127:1–2

The picture shows cartoon villain Cruella de Vil, bloodshot eyes staring straight ahead, hands clutching the wheel of her infamous coupe, black-and-white hair waving wildly in the wind, oversi...

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The Survival of Scripture

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:8, 2 Timothy 3:16, Joshua 1:8, Isaiah 55:11, Matthew 5:18

Nahum Sarna points out in Understanding Genesis that it is a remarkable fact that the Old Testament exists at all. Most ancient texts have not survived. Ancient Israel did not spread its works by mi...

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Author

Henry Ward Beecher

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:2, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, Genesis 37:50, Exodus 3:11–12 , Isaiah 40:29–31 , John 15:1–5, Romans 5:3–5, Psalm 1:1–3, Luke 2:40, 52; 1

Christian character is not an act but a process, not a sudden creation but a development. It grows and bears fruit like a tree; it requires patient care and unwearied cultivation.

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Living in Two Worlds

Author

Ruth Chou Simons

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 12:1-3, Exodus 3:7-10 , Isaiah 40:28-31, John 1:4-5, Romans 8:18-25, Philippians 3:20-21

We all live between two worlds. We are planted here on earth while our hope is in heaven. We are given work to do in temporary soil that, we’re told, has the potential to spring up into unending fruit...

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Seeing the Great Water

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:12, 1 Kings 8:27, Job 38:8-11, John 21:25, Romans 11:33, Psalm 93:3-4

An old American Indian [Native American] legend tells of an Indian [Native American] who came down from the mountains and saw the ocean for the first time. Awed by the scene, he requested a quart jar....

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Strengthen Your Core

Author

Ken Costa

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:3, Philippians 1:6, John 15:5, Psalm 18:2, Isaiah 40:31, Ephesians 60:11, 2 Corinthians 5:17

You can only build an effective Christian life when you have a “settled core”: an inner self “hidden with Christ” (Colossians 3:3). When you go to the gym or a Pilates class, your instructor might enc...

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Sermon Illustration Tuesday (3.12)

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Justice

Scripture

Revelation 21:4, Ephesians 2:8-9, Philippians 4:6-7, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 8:28, John 3:16, Isaiah 40:31

W.H. Auden is one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century. Auden grew up in England but spent some of his adult years in the United States. In November 1939, he found himself in a German-language mo...

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What You Think About God Determines Your Life

Author

John Mark Comer

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 4:15-16, John 14:9, Colossians 1:15-16, Psalm 50:21, Isaiah 40:18, Exodus 20:3-5, Romans 1:25

Put another way, what you think about God will shape your destiny in life. If you think of God as homophobic, racist, and mad at the world, this distorted vision of reality will shape you into a relig...

liturgy

Lord—we’re so anxious we can’t

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14, Romans 12:2, Matthew 1:23, John 11:25-26, Hebrews 13:3

Lord—we’re so anxious we can’t wait! Some of us can’t wait for Christmas to come, while (honestly) some others of us can’t wait for it to be over. We’re not proud of it—but that’s just the way it is ...

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Re-creating the Conditions of Earth

Author

K.J. Ramsey

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 50:19-21 , Exodus 14:10-31, Isaiah 40:28-31, Matthew 7:24-27 , 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Psalm 1:1-3

In the desert outside of Tucson, scientists dreamed up an experiment to re-create the conditions of earth for space, when and if the earth could not be made great again. The biosphere was a little wor...

liturgy

God of Wonder and Majesty–You are the

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Psalm 46:1, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 40:31, Philippians 4:6-7, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8, Revelation 1:8

God of Wonder and Majesty–You are the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End... our past, present and future. You’ve come in the past ...You’re here with us now ...and You’ll come again in power and g...

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The Privileged Site of God’s Comfort

Author

Robert Barry Leal

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 3:1-2, Deuteronomy 8:2, 1 Kings 19:4-5, Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 40:3

Especially in the Hebrew Bible, wilderness is the privileged site where God comforts the Hebrew people or their representatives at times of crisis in their lives. In the wilderness God calls and leads...

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Christian Geese

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31, Romans 13:11, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Galatians 4:9, Hebrews 5:12; 12:1, 1 Peter 2:9

The Danish philosopher and contrarian Soren Kierkegaard once compared Christians of his time to a flock of geese in a barnyard. Every week, they listened to an eloquent speaker who recounted the stori...

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Interview with Singer Michael Card

Author

Andy Cook

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 29:13, Isaiah 40:26, Psalm 104:24, Romans 2:14-15, Acts 17:26-27

Again and again in China I talked to people who had never heard of Christianity, never heard of Jesus, never heard a single word from the Bible. Yet through nature and their God-given conscience, many...

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Scripture Guide Isaiah 61:1-4;8-11

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 61:1-4, Isaiah 40:null, Lamentations 1:2, Lamentations 1:9, Lamentations 1:17, Lamentations 1:21, Luke 4:18-19

Ancient lens What's the historical context? Living as Captives Our text today matches, at least in part, last week’s lectionary passage (Isaiah 40). Just as in Isaiah 40, a message of comfort...

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Doing the Work Before the Work

Author

Stephen W. Smith

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 24:27, James 1:5, Matthew 7:24-25, Proverbs 21:5, Colossians 3:16-17, Isaiah 40:3-4

In his highly insightful work, Inside Job , Stephen W. Smith provides an important analogy about the importance of spiritually preparing ourselves for the adversity and challenges that come with su...

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Accelerated Growth: Stretching Your Crops

Author

Michael Steinberg

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 10:36, Romans 5:3-4, Mark 4:28, Galatians 6:9, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14

The inordinate desire in the west to increase productivity, to go faster and faster, especially in business, can actually become counterproductive. In this short story from the Chinese philosopher Men...

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The Life-Sustaining Power of Hope

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Lamentations 3:21–23, Isaiah 40:31, Genesis 50:20, Romans 5:3–5, 2 Corinthians 4:8–9, Psalm 42:11

Survival requires more than the basic biological necessities we readily acknowledge—oxygen, food, and water. It also demands something less tangible but equally vital: hope. When hope vanishes, the hu...

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God's Word...

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 5:18; 24:35, Hebrews 12:25- 28, 1 Peter 1:25

Addressing the clergy gathered at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 was a pivotal moment in the Protestant Reformation. Luther wrote, “God’s Word is more ancient than you and will also be newer and more...

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Author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Keywords

Adversity

Scripture

1 Peter 4:12-13, Matthew 5:10-12, Isaiah 40:31, 2 Timothy 1:7, Proverbs 29:25, James 1:2-4, Galatians 1:10

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity. Before any great achievement, some measure of depression is very usual.

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Author

G. K. Chesterton

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 12:9, Isaiah 40:31, Romans 8:28, John 14:27, Psalm 23:4

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be. A man was mean...

lectionary

Third Sunday of Advent

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 126:, Psalm 126:1, Ezra 3:12, Luke 19:41-44, Isaiah 40:1-5, Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 53:3, John 1:11, Isaiah 53:4, Psalm 22:null, 1 Corinthians 15:20

Advent 2023: Make some noise! Echoes of a Dream AIM commentary Ancient lens What's the historical context? A Song Celebrating the Return from Babylonian Exile The book of Ezra recount...

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Reducing God to Manageable Terms

Author

A. W. Tozer

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 32:1-6 , 1 Samuel 4:3-10, Isaiah 40:18-25, Matthew 16:13-20, Acts 5:1-11 , Psalm 115:4-8

A. W. Tozer once wrote, Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. We want to get Him where we can use Him, or at least know where He is when we need Him. We want a ...

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Author

R. W. Church

Keywords

Scripture

Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 40:31, Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 33:18, Psalm 71:14, Zechariah 9:12

Hope, never destroyed, however overthrown, never obscured even amid the storm and dust of ruin, is the prominent characteristic of the Old Testament.

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