Sermons on 4th Sunday:

Learning To Live Inside Out: First Sunday In Lent, Year A Series

Contributed by Amiri Hooker on Feb 25, 2023

Intro: If Black America endeavor to work in the world around us, we will fall. From time to time, we will fail; our efforts will not be received in the spirit intended; the fruit of Black History has been slow in coming. So, if we must fall, let us fall down in worship of the one who redeems us.

Matthew 4:1-11 The Message (The Test) 4 1-3 Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11

Denomination: United Methodist

Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time, B-- My Inner Demons

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Dec 26, 2023

The demon uses the object pronoun “us,” which is non-binary.

I saw a sweatshirt that said, “I Stopped Fighting My Inner Demons because I realized we’re On the Same Side.” Although most deviant behavior may be explained by natural causes, psychotics, for example, suffer from a loss of object reality while demons are separate spiritual beings. Psychology can ...read more

Scripture: Mark 1:21-28

Denomination: Catholic

First Sunday Of Lent, Year B-- Among The Wild Things

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jan 20, 2024

Jackals, “wild dogs, cheetahs, spotted hyenas and lions all of which are often "starvation driven."

He was among wild beasts. (Mark 1:3 from our First Reading) This is no Garden of Eden. Jackals, “wild dogs, cheetahs, spotted hyenas and lions all of which are often "starvation driven" must exploit every opportunity to obtain a meal, which includes humans.1 The wild beasts “likely ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 9:8-15, Mark 1:12-15

Denomination: Catholic

Immaturity (Sixth Sunday After Epiphany, February 12, 2023)

Contributed by John Williams Iii on Feb 10, 2023

In the very first verse Paul has stepped on toes! There are two words that illustrate well how Paul stepped on their toes. These two words, “carnal” and “babies” lose some of their emphasis as they are transliterated from Greek to English.

IMMATURITY Text: 1 Corinthians 3: 1 – 9 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. (2) I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Denomination: United Methodist

Fifth Sunday Of Lent, Year A- "Lazarus, Come Out!”

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Feb 16, 2023

We have a part to play in our coming out of the tomb

Reader’s Digest has printed many quirky items from the daily lives of ordinary people. Many of these items are quite amusing. For example, Jennifer Pace wrote a few years ago to tell about a billboard she passed while driving through Texas. The billboard read: “Stand Up and Be Counted for the 2000 ...read more

Scripture: John 11:1-45, Ezekiel 37:12-14

Denomination: Catholic

Tenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B: Combat Boots

Contributed by Paul Andrew on May 4, 2024

“feet shod with the kind of shoe created for the Gospel of peace.”

General Douglas MacArthur wrote that there are 4 things necessary to win any battle. One is strength-- We hear Mark 3:27 in our Gospel, “no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder the house.” Jesus explains that ...read more

Scripture: Mark 3:27, Genesis 3:15, Ephesians 6:15, Ephesians 4:27

Denomination: Catholic

Eleventh Sunday In Ordinary Time And Father's Day

Contributed by Paul Andrew on May 14, 2024

But when the father is a regular church-goer, but the mother is not, there is still a very good chance their children will continue in the faith.

A man was out on the golf course. He spotted another man who seemingly had four caddies. “Why so many caddies?” the first man asked the second. The second golfer replied, “It’s my wife’s idea. She thinks I should spend more time with the kids.” I suspect he’s the same Dad who was asked by his ...read more

Scripture: Mark 4:26-34

Denomination: Catholic

Second Sunday Of Advent, Year C: A Straight, Immovable Section.

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Nov 17, 2024

That dangerous S-curve was removed in 1981 and replaced by a straight, immovable section.

A man named John Hakel says his three-year-old daughter looked at a calendar and asked him, "Daddy, how many BE GOOD days until Christmas?"1 On the Second Sunday of Advent, we meet John the Baptist in the Desert: Luke 3:2: “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:1-6

Denomination: Catholic

King Of Kings And Lord Of Lords: A Sermon For Christ The King Sunday

Contributed by Mark A. Barber on Nov 17, 2024

Is it necessary to accept Jesus as Lord as well as Savior?

King of Kings and Lord of Lords: A Sermon for Christ the King Sunday 1 Timothy 6:13–16 NKJV I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until ...read more

Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:13-16, John 18:33-37

Denomination: Independent/Bible

Betwixt And Between (Sunday After Christmas And Before New Year)

Contributed by Steve Pearman on Dec 19, 2024

The Sunday between Christmas and the New Year can be quiet and reflective. Here is a sermon I've prepared for such a Sunday

The phrase "betwixt and between" is an old-fashioned or literary expression that means being in an intermediate or transitional state—neither fully one thing nor the other. It describes a situation of uncertainty, ambiguity, or being caught in the middle. One such example is the days ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:25-38

Eighth Sunday In Ordinary Time Year C- Mote And Beam

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jan 27, 2025

We get impatient with others who represent aspects of ourselves that we have pushed away

Doctor Jesus is like an ophthalmologist and a psychologist in our Gospel today. He is speaking about projection. We get impatient with others who represent aspects of ourselves that we have pushed away.1 We are aware of all the mitigating factors that go into our own mistakes but not those ...read more

Scripture: Luke 6:39-45

Denomination: Catholic

Second Sunday Of Lent: Transfiguration Year C-- Higher Leagues

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Feb 8, 2025

Lessons from the heavenly three and the earthly three

There was a baseball player, Brooks Robinson, former third baseman of the Baltimore Orioles. In his entire 23-year career, he is considered the greatest defensive third baseman in major league history. “It was often said of Brooks that he played third base as if he "came down from a higher ...read more

Scripture: Luke 9:28-36

Denomination: Catholic

Live Each Day Like It’s Easter Sunday!

Contributed by Michael Otterstatter on Aug 14, 2023

Today as we gather in the afterglow of Easter, we are again going to recall the facts surrounding Jesus great victory and be led to continue to respond to that victory in our daily lives. It is my prayer for all of you that you would

Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a crucial battle raged between two great civilizations—the Greeks and the Persians. They were among the world’s super-powers at that time. The clash of their armies took place on the level fields near a city called Marathon. The battle went on for ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 118:14-21

Denomination: Lutheran

Easter Lenses (Third Sunday Of Easter , April 23, 2023)

Contributed by John Williams Iii on Apr 20, 2023

Peter gives us the good news that this world is not our home! ... Peter tells us how to use our Easter lenses as exiles. Today we will examine reverent fear, obedience and love.

EASTER LENSES Text: I Peter 1:17 – 23 1 Peter 1:17-23  If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.  (18)  You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:17-23

Denomination: United Methodist

Did Jesus Go To Hell On The Sabbath Before Easter Sunday?

Contributed by Dr. Craig Nelson on May 6, 2023

Not much is said about the Sabbath day that followed the death of Jesus and preceded Easter resurrection morning

Jesus willingly gave His life on a Friday afternoon before sunset when the Sabbath began. It is known as Good Friday because He forgave all sin on the Cross and conquered death. Not much is said about the Sabbath day that followed His death and preceded Easter resurrection morning in modern Western ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Acts 2:24-32, Philippians 2:9-11

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational