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 2701 to 2725 of 4962 results

2701. The Good Husband

Isaiah 54:1-17, Isaiah 55:1-13, Isaiah 56:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... If they did, our lives would not be free, but we would be living in a padded cell. We can’t protect our children or our loved ones from living in an imperfect world. We CAN be there to pick up the pieces when sometimes our dreams and our hopes are temporarily shattered. We CAN have their backs. Yes, they will sometimes let us down. Our husbands may leave us, our best friend may betray us, our parent may even abandon us. But here is the difference between those people in our lives and God: “God’s ways ...

2702. Third Day

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... you….a place for all of us….who recognize him….on that Third Day. For He is the Bridegroom, come to celebrate with us in God’s heavenly feast. He is the Master of the Vineyard, and the Creator of the Rains, and the Winds. He is the Restorer of Hope and the Giver of Life. HE is your God. And He has come …for you today with the power to turn water into the sweet wine of salvation. For today is the Day. Those who follow Jesus, those who trust in Him, recognize Him, believe in Him, commit heart and ...

2703. Unreasonable Mercy

2 Kings 5:1-27, Matthew 8:5-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a Centurion’s Servant (Matthew 8:5-13) Minor Text The Lord’s Blessings for the Faithful (Deuteronomy 28) Psalm 41: God the Healer All People Will Be Drawn to the Jews (Zechariah 8:20-23) Jesus’ Healing of a Centurion’s Servant (Luke 7:1-10) Christ the Hope of the Gentiles (Romans 15:1-13) The Story of Philip and the Eunuch (Acts 8: 26-40) The Story of Cornelius and the Gentiles Baptized by Peter (Acts 10) The Healing of Naaman the Syrian Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He ...

2704. Bringing in the Sheaves

Ruth 1:1-22, Ruth 2:1-23, Ruth 3:1-18, Ruth 4:1-12, Ruth 4:13-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... from the field with joy! For God is Lord of the Harvest. You know sometimes as people of the Church, we think we need to be responsible for the harvest. We spend a lot of time worrying about results, and fretting when things don’t turn out like we hoped they would. We plan events, and few come. We try ministries that sometimes don’t work. We touch lives, and we fret, because those people aren’t in our pews. And sometimes, we start to feel down, because we feel that our efforts don’t matter. But we ...

2705. Heart of a Pelican

Matthew 17:24-27, Exodus 30:11-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ,” where people come to meet Jesus and receive their FREE PASS into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Church is about relationships, about loving and living, but most of all, the Church is a place and a people of hope. And wherever hope lies, there you’ll find sacrifice. Not the kind that bares animals to the flame. Not the kind that requires a price of entry. Not the kind that favors rich or poor, foreigner or member. But a sacrifice of selfless love. When we follow Jesus, we sacrifice our need to ...

2706. Tale of the Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the field, but to determine our own heart! The best way for us to live the truth and live in truth is to stay rooted in the Truth –the True personhood of Jesus. Only when He lives within us and we in Him can we look to the harvest with hope. We are Jesus’ workers in the field –only to encourage people to grow in Him. But the decisions, the harvest –it’s not ours. But God’s. We bring all to Jesus’ feet. Jesus decides who goes “into the barn” and who goes off with the chaff. The metaphors of ...

2707. Dangerous

John 12:12-19, Zechariah 9:9-13, Zechariah 9:14-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... drink from the Well of Living Water as he encounters a woman from Samaria at historic Jacob’s Well is in God’s hope in humanity’s willingness to respond to the gift of life offered freely even if it means ultimate and life-altering change! ... you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with ...

2708. God Encounter

Luke 1:1-4, Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a promise of difference –a firm promise that nothing will be the same again, but will change you and everything around you. And you in turn, or in your turning, will help change the world. For you are part of God’s Dream, God’s message of hope. You in your encounter become yourself, a Thin and Sacred Space with potential you cannot even imagine. Where God has broken into the world, the darkness can never again overcome. This is the promise. This is the celebration. This is your story. And this is your ...

2709. It's Hard to Be an Atheist with Neighbors Like That

Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... writes, “For the Son came into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” What a startling piece of Good News that is. “The Son came into the world not to condemn the world . . .” That means there is hope for everyone in the world . . . even us. It would have been easy for Christ to condemn the crowds. That’s what many preachers have done through the years—condemn the crowd for their sins. Let them feel the fires of hell lapping at their feet. Many people ...

2710. Baby Steps on the Sea of Galilee

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... for. Some of you may have come to worship today mainly to appease a family member. Some of you came out of curiosity or a feeling of guilt. Some of you came because you want to raise your children in church, or you’re looking for friendship, or hope or comfort. All good reasons. But just coming to church isn’t going to answer your questions or heal your hurts or change your life. Committing your life to serving Jesus, on the other hand, will make a real difference in how you experience life. As I said ...

2711. Desperate Times Call For...

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... to one who is Supreme or Master. How did she know? Even when Jesus’ own disciples weren’t sure of his claims, this foreigner recognized who he was. She knew that the power of life was in his hands. Somehow, she knew he was her only hope. Anne Lamott, a New York Times bestselling author, has said that her prayer every morning is, “Help me, help me, help me.” Her nightly prayer is “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” In between those two prayers, she says, is an occasional “WOW” prayer when she ...

We want to create hope for the person; we must give hope, always hope.

Mother Teresa

And as far as false hope, there is no such thing. There is only hope or the absence of hope - nothing else.

Patti Davis

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, For hope would be hope for the wrong thing.

T. S. Eliot

Man is, properly speaking, based upon hope, he has no other possession but hope; this world of his is emphatically the place of hope.

Thomas Carlyle

2716. The Suffering Servant

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... our current world, in which our mortality and fear of it has become a daily reminder. Collective grief can be a debilitating ailment for community and world. It can result in depression, suicide, anger, uprisings, hopelessness, illness, destructiveness, and disinterest. Yet hope rises from understanding that to serve with compassion both honors and heals grief. Jesus healed himself, even as he healed the crowd before him. He fed his own emotional needs, even as he fed those around him on that hillside. He ...

2717. Standing in the Forecastle

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Ron Love

... that must be made during the coming year are overwhelming. I guess like Mary and Joseph in the stable and with Herod on the throne, things could not seem more bleak. But then, when Mary and Joseph looked into the manger and saw the Christ child, hope and peace was instilled within them. We too must take our eyes off Herod and fix our gaze upon the child in the manger. When we can do that, we will become thankful. Kermit the Frog, who is that adorable Muppet from the television program Sesame Street ...

2718. About Face!

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... another young woman who found help with her fear. On Palm Sunday 1987, near the end of her church’s worship service, this young woman suffered a horrifying brain aneurysm. In the hospital, doctors told the young woman that they could wait and watch the aneurysm and hope it didn’t get much worse, or they could perform a very risky surgery to remove it. She chose to put her life in God’s hands and have the surgery to remove it. The young woman experienced moments of overwhelming fear as she waited for ...

2719. Are You Ready to Wait?

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... pray, “Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven,” but in spite of our well-meaning prayers, God’s kingdom seems no closer today than it did yesterday or last month or last year. No wonder we are tempted to toss in the towel, give up our hope for a better tomorrow, and call it quits. But the New Testament won’t let us do that and in its own prophetic way urges us to believe that “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again,” as we say in our Communion liturgy. The challenge we ...

2720. Your Faith is Your Fuel

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... our tank. We venture into the pathways of our lives, rolling over stones, into thickets, and over potholes with no spare tire in the trunk, just hoping nothing will happen to jar our plan or mess with our day. Often, we get away with it. But sooner or later, we are going to ... . Only some are still happy or in some cases more happy at their 25th or their 50th anniversary. As Paul writes, faith, hope, and love, these three abide to make what could be a simple flash in the pan infatuation of love into a lasting ...

2721. The Judge of the Living and the Dead

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... to live lives of service and self-sacrifice. Of course, the bottom line is still this: No matter how good we think we have been, when the time comes and we stand before Jesus, the righteous judge, seated at the right hand of God, each of us will want to hope and pray that the judge will be merciful. Amen. 1. M. Craig Barnes, “Good Dog, Bad Dog” in The Christian Century, November 12, 2014, p. 35. 2. Ibid. 2. Robert Fulghum, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It (New York: Ivy Books, 1988), pp. 183-185.

2722. Choosing to Be Grateful

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... 5 As I sat in the cabin of our boat and pondered the brave and beautiful, life-in-the-face-of-death words such as these, my own problems seemed silly by comparison. So rather than complaining about a vacation that didn’t turn out the way that I had hoped, instead, I felt compelled to open my eyes to the beauty and wonders of God’s goodness. I chose to be grateful. And, frankly, that makes a world of difference in anyone’s approach to life. As one of our great old hymns puts it: All good gifts around ...

2723. Driven to Their Knees

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... they had seen until after he was resurrected from the grave. Then, they were to tell everyone. And that is where we are today. In our time together this morning we’ve been with Jesus and those three disciples on the mountain top. In our minds and hearts, hopefully we’ve been driven to our knees. Now that we are leaving this place, it is our turn to witness with our lives as well as our speech that we have been in the presence of the transfigured Christ—Son of man . . . Son of God . . . Savior of the ...

2724. No Promotion Required

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... it may be ugly and bad, is paint that the Master Craftsman can use for good.” (5) God is at work even when we are not aware of it. The people that first Palm Sunday were looking for a conquering king. Jesus appreciated the peoples’ high hopes, but he knew that those hopes were shortsighted. God had a different plan— a plan that would change the world forever. This brings us to the final thing to be said for the morning. It is our job to make God visible to the world. People are not likely to see God ...

2725. It’s Sunday…But Friday’s Comin’

Mark 11:1-11 · John 12:12-16

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

... . On Friday their faith had been stripped away from them. On Friday their trust and belief was rocked as they watched him placed into a tomb. On Friday they wept great, bitter tears as the stone was rolled in front of it. Yes, they were crushed on Friday. Hope was lost on Friday. Everything they screamed for on Palm Sunday was true but now their faith was pierced by the three nails and dashed on the sharp edges of his stony grave. On Palm Sunday they believed he was the Lord. On Palm Sunday they believed he ...

Showing results