Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: Scripture References - John 8:31-32, John 14:6, Deuteronomy 23:21-23, Ecclesiastes 5:4, Psalm 50:14, Matthew 5:34-37, Luke 16:10 1. "Spin Room" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_room 2. “There is perhaps nothing that so marks us as human as the gift of speech…By speaking, we can reveal the hiddenness of thought, we can express the subtlest as well as the most devastating of em...

Sermon Resources: Scripture References: James 5:1-11; Luke 12:15; Luke 6:20; Mark 10:24-25; Matt. 6:19-21; Proverbs 23:4-5; Proverbs 6:8 1. "God and Mammon in America," by Robert Wuthnow; additional study: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-24-me-42320-story.html 2. “We live in a materialist culture, we want money and possessions, and very few people have heard a powerful voice tellin...

Sermon Resources: 1. “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” -Ecclesiastes 1:8 2. “Desire alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal.” -David Hume, "A Treatise of Human Nature" 3. "I can't get no satisfaction." -Mick Jagger, "Satisfaction" 4. “In almost every act of our daily lives, whether i...

The Great Con | Wisdom is from the World - James 3:13-18 - Daniel Barth by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: 1.  https://www.billboard.com/lists/drake-kendrick-lamar-beef-timeline/ 2. "...it is James' conviction that teaching is a dangerous occupation for any man. His instrument is speech and his agent the tongue." -William Barclay, DSB on James 3. "Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it." - J.K...

The Great Con | Spirituality Is Individual - James 2:14-26 - Clint Leavitt by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: 1. “Hostility isn’t integral to the definition of discrimination; you can treat people differently without being hostile to anyone. But it is important to understand how discrimination can occur both without hostility and without any intent to discriminate.” -Tony Greenwald, "Favoritism–Not Hostility–Causes Most Discrimination" 2. “This is God’s chosen lot. He had one opportunity...

The Great Con | Anger = Righteousness - James 1:19-20 - Tom Parker by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: 1. “Wisdom is that quality of heart and mind which is needed for the right conduct of life.” -Fenton Hort 2. “Cynicism creates a numbness toward life. Cynicism begins with a wry assurance that everyone has an angle. Behind every silver lining is a cloud. The cynic is always observing, critiquing, but never engaging, loving, and hoping. To be cynical is to be distant. While offeri...

Sermon Resources: 1. “The majority of politicians are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.” -Harold Pinter, "Art, Truth, and Politics" 2....

God Let Loose | Intercessor - ROMANS 8:14-27 - Clint Leavitt by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: 1. “The first thing about America that strikes observation is an innumerable multitude of men incessantly endeavoring to obtain the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is a stranger to the fate of the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he to...

Sermon Resources: 1. Death By Vending Machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_vending_machine#:~:text=Death%20by%20vending%20machine%20%2D%20Wikipedia,machines%20from%201978%20to%201995. 2. “We have generally come to expect immediate returns on our investments of time and resources. If we have a need, we have only to find the right place, product, or procedure and our needs will be met. It...

God Let Lose | Trinity Sunday - John 14 - Gayle Parker by Midtown Presbyterian Church

God Let Loose | Where's The Power - Acts 1 - 2 - Clint Leavitt by Midtown Presbyterian Church

1. “Their founder [Jesus] taught them that they should be like brothers to one another, and therefore they despise their own privacy and view their possessions as common property.” -Lucian of Samosata, early opponent of Christianity 2. “The impious Galileans [Christians] support not only their poor, but ours as well.” -Emperor Julian of Rome 3. “If you read history you will find that the Christian...

Brand New | The Resurrection Of The Dead - 1 Cor. 15:35-58 - Daniel Barth by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: 1. “Of course God will forgive me; that’s his job!” -Heinrich Heine 2. “The so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to all be lords of...

Brand New | Dealing Differently With Suffering | Gayle Parker - 1 Peter 1:3-9 by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: 1. "One Nation Under God," by Jon McNaughton, 2014 2. "Head of Christ," by Warner Sallman, 1941 3. Digital reconstruction of first century Jewish man: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3359548/Is-real-face-JESUS-Experts-use-forensics-reveal-Christ-looked-like.html 4. "I want to say to you that most of our brokenness cannot be simply taken away. It’s there. And the d...

Sermon Resources: 1. “We don't believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true.” -Dallas Willard, "Renovation of the Heart" 2. “Do you love your faith so little that you have never battled a single fear lest your faith should not be true? Where there are no doubts, no questions, no perplexities, there...

Easter Sunday 2024 by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Good Friday 2024 by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Glittering Vices | Envy | 1 Kings 21 - Luke Parker by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Sermon Resources: 1. Audio clip is not our own - from Disney's "Zootopia" (2016) 2. Sloth is "aversion to the divine good in us." -Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologiae" 3. “Sloth is not to be confused with laziness. Lazy people, people who sit around and watch the grass grow, may be people at peace. Their sun-drenched, bumblebee dreaming may be the prelude to action or itself an act well worth the ac...