Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 2576 to 2600 of 4963 results

2576. OUR LORD RISEN

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

... interest had been Jesus, and their talk was of him. Mary took no part in the conversation, nor did she participate in the evening meal, and when they rolled out the mats and bed rolls to sleep on the floor, fully clothed as was the custom, she remained in the shadows, unmoved. By midnight, so many had come that others were bedded down in the upper room where he had brought his disciples for his last supper with them, some even sleeping on the roof under the booth of sycamore branches, although the spring ...

2577. Christmas: A Family Service

Drama

Ruthanne Cochran

... in a manner well pleasing to you and pray that they will be accepted. May they be used to bring joy and peace to others and may this spirit stay with us always. Amen. *The Closing Carol Joy to the World (Choir members recess, but enough remain in center aisle to begin passing of the peace.) (During singing of last stanza, the father extinguishes the large candle and members of the family do the same.) *The Christmas Benediction Minister: Let this hour not be forgotten. As you go to your homes, think about ...

2578. THE LIFE OF UTTER OBEDIENCE

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon Aid

John W. Rilling

... by his declining years, retirement and then death and oblivion. But the life of Jesus followed the reverse order. The Galilean springtime of popularity with thousands of followers was succeeded by declining influence until at last our Lord asked the little handful that remained, "Will you also go away?" But he had not yet reached the nadir of his declining fortunes. He died forsaken by men, and apparently by God, on a cross. "The rest" to borrow a phrase of Shakespeare, commenting upon a tragic death, "the ...

2579. Blessed With Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

... He stood there, completely captivated by it. Finally he picked it up. It was so delicate that the least pressure of his fingers would crush it. Yet it was undamaged and perfect. He was puzzled by this fact as the waves roared in upon him. How could a shell remain intact and unbroken in the midst of the tons of seething water? Suddenly it dawned upon him that the shell did not panic, fight the forces of the water, and seek to forge its own path in the ocean. The shell simply yielded itself to the waters. It ...

2580. Advent 4: Let Us Go Over To Bethlehem And Find The Christ of Christmas

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

James W. Moore

... was irritated. Impatiently, he brushed the dust off his leg and ordered the workers to throw the box out immediately. What was that box doing here in the middle of the building anyway? Get it out of here right now! You have already guessed. The box held the remains of his beloved wife. Shah threw out her coffin. He forgot she was there. (Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven, pp. 131-132) The one the temple was built for was cast out. The one who inspired the whole project in the first place was now forgotten ...

2581. A New Kind of Teaching

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... concerned about his hearers. He wanted them to understand, to know, to learn. So concerned was he that he risked himself, shared himself with his audience. No phony manipulation on his part. No false, gimmicky tricks to get his people to open up while he remained closed. Rather, with him we find a genuine openness, an inner confidence. When we listen to him, we encounter an authentic person, not a shifty, money-grubbing writer of pseudo-books. No wonder his was a new kind of teaching. It was the authority ...

2582. The Personal Touch

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Brett Blair

... car for Chevrolet for several years. They had such success with it in the States they decided to market the car throughout the world. In the Latin markets the Car was a complete failure. The research department went to work to figure out why but they remained baffled until one day they discovered the answer. In Spanish the word Nova meant “no go.” No Go! The Chevy No Go! Purdue Farms had the same problem when they tried to expand their chicken business. Their popular slogan tried to appeal to women by ...

2583. Astonishing!

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Brett Blair

... What is remarkable is that you can go there today and see the erect walls of a small first century home. The home has been identified since the time of Constantine as Peter’s house. 100 feet from the front door of Peter’s home are the remains of the synagogue of Jesus. Standing there with the winds of the Sea of Galilee blowing through the ruins you can picture Jesus and Peter waking up on the Sabbath, walking across the street with the rest of the disciples, and attending services. This being Peter’s ...

2584. When God Is At Work

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Brett Blair

... was God himself. In this life they were doomed. It was walking death. This, then, is the background of the leper we meet this morning. What can we learn from this man’s tragic story? I First we can learn of the loneliness of leprosy. His personal life remains a mystery to us. His name we know not. His years of suffering and pain are not mentioned. What we do know is that the leper comes to Jesus alone. There is no one else mentioned in this text, just Christ and the leper. Mark’s gospel simply shares ...

2585. The Call of the Trumpet

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

George Bass

... of the north country, I administered the Lord’s Supper in the candlelight of a village church. Only twelve had braved the great drifts of snow to be present. When they had gone and silence settled upon the church, I observed the fragments of sacramental bread that remained on the altar and the sacramental wine prepared for others who had not come. "Perhaps it was a recollection of Saint Francis who loved life on the wing that prompted me to lay the broken fragments of the bread on the branches of a spruce ...

2586. Confrontation in the Temple

John 2:12-25

Sermon

George Bass

... I’m a little afraid of dying, but only because like most other people I fear the unknown. There doesn’t seem much sense in prolonging what I have of life ... I believe in a kind God, and I believe he will accept me." His doctor, who remains anonymous, said that he would have made the same decision: "Jim hasn’t been able to accept transplants, and the dialysis hasn’t been good. He’s given this thoughtful analysis ... This isn’t suicide. That’s an active thing, putting a gun to your head. This ...

2587. Report of a Secret Meeting

John 3:1-21

Sermon

George Bass

... can be seen walking toward them along the waterfront. Webster says, "He (Jesus) is the ‘young Prince of Glory’ as in the original version of Isaac Watts’ famous hymn. He seems to be holding back the great volume of darkness, forcing its retreat ... But the Cross remains, dominating the world, and the world the artist sees is the world on which Christ looks from His Cross."16 That is how Salvador Dali interprets Jesus’ own words, "So must the Son of man be lifted up" - not simply on a staff in the ...

2588. When the Guest Becomes the Host

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

George Bass

... the ancient Passover is given new meaning. Now he becomes the Pascal Lamb in the broken bread and the wine that is consumed: "Take; this is my body;" and, again, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." It remained for Saint Matthew to add, "... for the forgiveness of sins." Mark probably doesn’t mention forgiveness because the disciples are finally beginning to comprehend the meaning of Jesus’ message to them. Perhaps we, too, understand that part of the action. His body was ...

2589. The Stranger at the Tomb

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

George Bass

... to walk across the red-hot coals without being burned or killed, they did reach several conclusions. One of them is this: "From our fire-walking we learned that the limit to our experience was the limit we had created ... If we decline to remain tied to specious views of the possible, the old boundaries on human potential will disappear, and the world could become a more humane, compassionate and hopeful place." They add: "This is our lesson from the fire walk."35 Although death is irreversible from the ...

2590. The Man Who Asked For Dinner

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

George Bass

... for us, and for all people on the earth. But Jesus did one more thing for the disciples: he asked them for something to eat: "Have you anything here to eat?" When they gave him some broiled fish, he took it and ate it before them, and any remaining questions about his resurrection and his appearance in their midst vanish. Ghosts don’t eat; they have no need for food and, more importantly, do not have the ability to eat. Jesus ate, before them - and they were convinced that, indeed, it was the Lord who had ...

2591. The Shepherd Who Loved His Sheep

John 10:1-21

Sermon

George Bass

... seem bent on destroying one another, not only through the threat of the Bomb, but particularly for reasons of self-interest. Richard Cohen, of the Washington Post, tells the too familiar story of Maria, who left her home in Guatemala because she was afraid to remain there. Sheer terror and fear, not ideology, moved her to emigrate to the United States; it was no longer safe to live in her village. Cohen says that she "only knows that her former neighbors are dead." She doesn’t know who killed them, or ...

2592. A Prayer for the Faithful

John 17:6-19

Sermon

George Bass

... reconciliation to the nations, to society, to all the broken lives of men: and how can we preach it when we are notoriously divided among ourselves? Certainly the difficulties are real and formidable, admitting of no facile solution. But the fact remains that there are doctrines we hold in common, and facts which these doctrines enshrine, so incomparably miraculous, so world-shattering in their significance, so incredible humanly speaking, that they dwarf everything that keeps us apart." And he asks: "If we ...

2593. An Old Plan For New People

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

Larry Powell

... are heard. It is not always a matter or preoccupation or disinterest. Occasionally, the orbit simply widens beyond what we are able to comprehend. Such was the case with Abraham, the Chaldean. At age 99, satisfied that his race had been run and that his only remaining objective was gracefully to take up the long sleep, he was somewhat bewildered to hear God say to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name ...

2594. A Thimble Full Of Ocean

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Larry Powell

... grievous wrong or inequity? Did you forgive them? If you did forgive them, then how is it that you remember the offense now? "Forgiving and forgetting" is a noble motive, but because our memories do not inscribe upon erasable-bond paper, the fact remains that some things are not easily forgotten. There is a much-traveled story about the wife who repeatedly reassured her husband that she had forgiven him for some mistake he had made. One evening as he perused the daily newspaper, she interrupted the silence ...

2595. On His Way

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Larry Powell

... bread and drinking water. The result? The prophet from Judah, who had dared to stand in condemnation of a king, surrendered his resolve, and was mutilated by a lion. Sad it is that, almost until the end of the chapter (1 Kings 31), the prophet had remained steadfast and faithful, but is recalled now as a man of broken resolve. Jesus had set his face like a flint, resolved to go to Jerusalem, resolved to assume the mantle of messiahship, resolved to personify the majesty of God over the powers of earth ...

2596. Behold the Blood of the Covenant

Exodus 24:1-18

Sermon

Larry Powell

Jesus of Nazareth had his own agenda. From the beginning, it had confounded even those closest to him. * We think of Joseph and Mary searching anxiously up and down the caravan line for their twelve-year-old son, only to discover that he had remained in Jerusalem to sit among the teachers at the Temple (Luke 2:41-52). * We think of Jesus standing as a young man in the synagogue at Nazareth reading from the book of Isaiah, concluding the reading with the astonishing claim, "Today, this scripture has been ...

2597. Advent: Lament, Repent

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... visited by the Ancient of Days? We lit the first candle on the Advent wreath, but did not think of the consuming fire of God’s anger. Our thoughts leap ahead to evergreens, while the more appropriate sign this day is a barren fig tree. Isaiah’s question remains at the center of our life together - "... In our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?" How, then, shall we be saved? It is a good question. Clearly we cannot save ourselves. We cannot quench the wrath of God with a sudden burst ...

2598. Marduk? or Yahweh?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... , the Holy City was overcome, and the people taken off into exile. Signs of that holy warfare were everywhere. No one could get away from the evidence of Yahweh’s judgment on Judah. There was no denying the bitter fruits of Israel’s sins. For those who remained behind, the signs were poignant and dear. The Temple of the Lord, where the swallows once nested, was now a ruin. Its pillars now looked like the tree trunks of a cut-over forest. In the streets of Jerusalem, scrub brush grew tall in the streets ...

2599. We May Have to Change Our Name

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... thy servant depart in peace, according to thy words. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel. And there was the prophetess Anna, remaining in the temple, "worshiping with fasting night and day" - "coming up at that very hour" and "giving thanks to God." The season of Christmas is a time of rejoicing, of giving thanks to God for the gift of a savior who is Christ the Lord. Isaiah ...

2600. Mary Ann Was Born Again

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... "drop-in center" which provided a nutritious meal and a social time afterwards. A donation of a quarter was asked for the meal, but no one was ever turned away. And the drop-in center staff would circulate among the hundred or so people who remained afterwards. They would join in a card game; referee arguments; but mainly just talk and listen. Every Monday evening was guaranteed to be hectic and exhausting for the staff: working to get an alcoholic to a detoxification center; trying to find housing of some ...

Showing results