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 2801 to 2825 of 4943 results

2801. Hard Words to Hear at Christmas

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... be promising us not the destruction of evil people, but the destruction of evil and injustice themselves? John's timing may have been off. The first coming of the Messiah did not accomplish the destruction of evil. Still, John holds out this hope for God's continuing work in creation. We may not quite be ready to put John's sermon on a Christmas card, but a promise of the complete destruction of evil is cause for joy and celebration. Let us be thankful to John for helping us understand what we celebrate ...

2802. and Forgiveness Come Easy When You’re Filled with The Spirit

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... here is a wish for complete concord and unity among all those blessed.) Jesus comes to wish the best for his people as well as to offer them unity and harmony with himself and with each other. That's what he wants for you and me. The risen Lord continues to address his followers. He told his disciples he was sending them, as his Father had sent him (John 20:21). Christ is sending you and me! And then, John says, Jesus breathed on them; he gave them the Holy Spirit! (John 20:23). There you have it. According ...

2803. With a Firm Foundation, Application Is Second Nature

Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... But wait, there is another wrinkle to the agenda of the author of the gospel of Matthew. Its author seems to have been identified with a community of Christians which was still very much in dialogue with the church's Jewish roots. But while maintaining this continuity, while still desiring to affirm that the message of Jesus did not nullify God's law (5:17-19), the author of Matthew still sought to distinguish the gospel of the kingdom from rabbinic thinking.4 We can see this at several points in the gospel ...

2804. If Your Sense of Purpose Ever Becomes a Burden, Remember Your Value

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... and thrive. Of course, a touch of humility is also relevant here. Rick Warren does not seem to have heard this point, as he makes what you and I do as Christians a bit too important in contending that a Christian's mission has eternal significance, that it continues Jesus' mission on earth.8 Let's get real. Much of what we do in life seems mundane, routine, not really important in the big picture, in the grand scheme of history. It is common these days to hear the media talk about the "legacy" of the ...

2805. How Jesus’ Friendship Makes Your Burdens Light

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... and deceitful opinion of our own righteousness and virtue.3 Only when we know how sinful and twisted you and I are will we appreciate grace, God's forgiving love, and our need for it. Despite some economic hard times and the poverty that surround us, America continues today to be the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. And wealth can be a cross to bear. The great German theologian of the World War II era, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died as a martyr in the cause of resisting Hitler, spoke of the ...

2806. The Holy Way

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Tony Everett

... course, life is tough. Of course, wilderness spaces and places exist in the dark and dry spaces of our souls. Alone, our hands are weak; our knees feeble; and our hearts are fearful. We cannot do it alone. But in Christ, God did, does, and promises to continue to be a guiding, loving presence in the wilderness. In Christ, God has promised to make your way a holy way. As you travel, remember God's refreshing splash of love in your baptism. Taste God's forgiving, transforming presence in the bread and wine of ...

2807. Stop, Drop, Cover, and Roll!

Isaiah 7:10-16

Sermon

Tony Everett

... from mighty Assyria. He did this by recognizing Assyrian supremacy over Judah and by paying enormous "protection" tribute to Assyria. Judah became a vassal state and Ahaz, a puppet of the Assyrian king. No wonder Isaiah urged Ahaz to listen to the Lord! No wonder God continued to urge Ahaz to ask for a sign of God's presence and guidance. Poor, wimpy, wishy-washy Ahaz the deal maker. He did whatever he could to keep power and maintain control. He even tried to "bow out" on God's promise of protection from ...

2808. Restoration Frustration

Isaiah 63:7-9

Sermon

Tony Everett

... in today's lesson. Restoration comes from God's action and not our own efforts. Restoration for the returning exiles, and for us, begins with remembering what God has done, is doing, and has promised to continue to do in our midst. In these verses of our Old Testament lesson, God reminds the discouraged of God's continuing and loving presence. "Surely they are my people," says the Lord, "and he became their savior in all their distress" (Isaiah 63:8). Surely we are God's people, named and claimed by God at ...

2809. What Were You Thinking?

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Tony Everett

... world. Through Christ, God had declared us "not guilty." God invites us not to merely remember the crucified and living Christ of the past. He invites us to demonstrate Christ's saving, amazing grace in the present. And that's not all: God promises to continue to save God's own weak, vulnerable, weary children in the future. What were we thinking anyway? Because of our sin, we were thinking only of ourselves — our wants — our happiness. Because of our sin we have not been mindful of the needs of others ...

2810. I Don't Do Windows

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28

Sermon

Tony Everett

... present wilderness, they were able to live as God's people, cleansed, both inside and outside. Therefore, on the inside, God says, "You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul ..." (Deuteronomy 11:18). Because God was with them in the past, and continued to be in the present, and promised to be with them in the future, therefore, Israel could do this. God did not and would not abandon them. The "heart" here refers to the will, the intentional focus of God's people. Here is a clear, proactive ...

2811. Forty Days and Forever

Exodus 24:12-18

Sermon

Tony Everett

... God's people are gathered for worship. Here beneath the cross, in front of the altar, beside the baptismal waters, in the midst of God's people, God reveals his presence to us. Here in the proclaimed word we hear what God has done, is doing, and promises to continue to do among us and for us. Here God invites us to be formed and "transfigured" into a new identity as God's own people. Here could be a spiritual mountaintop high for us, just as it was for Moses and for the disciples. However, we don't always ...

2812. Sleeping through the Alarm

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... t really work for me. It's just too nice. A little Mozart in the morning doesn't wake me, it merely accompanies me as I continue to sleep. I guess I have to just deal with the fact that I need the sound of the trumpet blowing. I need the alarm telling ... a deep sleeper. Walk in the room, call it by name, and it will not awaken. Tap it on the shoulder and shake it gently. It continues to snore. In fact, I wonder if the church is in the process of sleeping its life away? What do you think? The prophet Joel brings ...

2813. A Blessing in Disguise

Genesis 32:22-31

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... a child earn the reputation he has within his family? And to what extent does the reputation he has with his family continue to shape and condition the child? Isaac and Rebecca called him "Jacob," and their boy lived up to — or down to — that ... cheat someone nearby. Jacob's name suited him well. From his birth on, he was a heel-grabber. And indeed, for his early years, it continued to be his older brother, Esau's, heel that Jacob kept grabbing. There was an occasion when they were both young men living at ...

2814. Eat and Run

Exodus 12:1-14

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... be out the door in a matter of moments. The hurry-up feel of that evening meal was in stark contrast to all that had come before. The children of Israel had been in bondage there in Egypt for four centuries. Imagine that: the equivalent of continuous slavery from the time of Rembrandt's birth to the present! Four hundred years of the descendants of Jacob sitting down, night after night, year after year, to their meager evening meals in bondage. The pain and drudgery of living and dying in slavery; and night ...

2815. Not All of This Is Me

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... another point, the people were thirsty and God instructed Moses to strike a rock with his rod. The result was that enough water flowed for all the people and even their livestock to drink. These experiences taught the people to trust God, God would continue to provide for all their needs. Imagine wearing the same garments for forty years without them wearing out. Never once did the people have blisters on their feet. God would see them through to the promised land. As our lesson from Deuteronomy opens, the ...

2816. Dare to Be Different

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... lifestyle, while still accepting and supporting each other as sisters and brothers in Christ. That is part of what it means to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh," with its selfish and contentious nature. Paul continues his argument in chapter 14 with two examples that are not in the lectionary but are amazingly contemporary: one dealing with a lifestyle issue, the other with a religious practice. Both were much bigger issues than we may realize. Some people are vegetarians ...

2817. Hidden in Plain Sight

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... numbers of congregations that are doing both, reaching in and reaching out, and, to use Marva Dawn's phrase, "reaching out without dumbing down." The Alpha Course, the Renovaré movement, and the variegated forms of the Cursillo movement all provide avenues to bring people to Christ while encouraging them to continue to grow in their faith. Writing in the Christian Century (December 2, 1998), Luke Timothy Johnson observed, "If Jesus is alive among us, what we learn about Jesus must include what we can ...

2818. With Our Own Eyes

2 Peter 1:16-21

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... the population at large not perceive Christians as those who have seen what the "good life" is "with their own eyes"? During the same last quarter-century, George Barna and his mentor, George Gallup, and all those who measure such things, noted a continuing decline in what could be called "Judeo-Christian religious literacy" among those who claimed to have attended worship within the past week, even as that percentage of the population held more or less constant. Pundits and church leaders have not tired of ...

2819. Spiritual Judo

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... which God demonstrates grace is beneficial. Paul writes, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." God's grace reaches us at the right time, when we really need it, when we can't fix our problem with God. And God's grace continues to meet us at the right time. A friend, to say the least, had experienced a bad month. He'd been phoned by the elementary school to come in and talk to the principal about his son (for the second time in three weeks). His father-in-law was 35 ...

2820. The Ordinary in God’s Hands

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Sermon

David O. Bales

... who was a liar or Jacob a cheat. Or, Paul could progress into the center of Israel's history: David whom Sunday school piety notes was an adulterer, but who, as 1 Samuel 27 informs us, was also a genocidal mass murderer. If Paul were going to continue the list of how God works in ordinary life, he could leap ahead to our Lord Jesus as the greatest example of God's grace in our ordinary existence. After Jesus started preaching, he mostly traveled in Galilee's smaller villages, and, along with healing the ...

2821. A Friday We Call “Good”

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

David O. Bales

... to happen between us and God, and expecting to regain our passion in faith. God has promised to meet us here, and "He who has promised is faithful." In response to God's love and faithfulness, the book of Hebrews says we need to do three things: Continue to gather with one another for worship, cling tightly to our hope in God, and encourage one another in the ways of Jesus Christ. After we've met the great and good God, the faithful God who keeps promises and grants us unlimited access through Christ, and ...

2822. A Big Enough Reason

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

David O. Bales

... a sense of purpose and direction that would integrate their lives — an insight confirmed during World War II by the Jewish psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl. Frankl was imprisoned in the Nazi work camps Auschwitz and Dachau. There he pondered why a person in abject slavery continued to live, as so many prisoners definitely struggled to do. He found by talking and listening to fellow inmates that one needed a reason to live, whether it was to care for a child or to reunite with a spouse, or whether their reason ...

2823. Power Sharing

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

... Do we settle for a church as usual? Do we pray for a church as usual? What's wrong with us if we choose to continue a mundane, ho-hum life? What's happened to our faith if we dally in despair? Did we forget that Jesus gives his church all ... his kitchen became a turning point for King because he realized he couldn't tell his parents. He needed a power to help him continue the cause of desegregation without his having to worry about himself or his family being harmed. He prayed and his faith became more real to ...

2824. Surprises

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... or entire nations seem hopeless. When we're anxious, we especially need to cast our cares upon God who has shown us the pattern that undergirds all of life: Jesus' death and resurrection. As Christians we are part of God's great, grand, and cosmic work. God continues to fight evil through us, to deliver gracious love to others through us, and to bring life from death in us. God's working in our lives isn't obvious every minute. Sometimes you have to do a little research to perceive what God accomplishes in ...

2825. Pentecost ... Again!

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... when I was complaining to him that the people in my congregation were becoming lazy and negligent and were not attending church in the numbers I thought they should, he gently put me in my place. He said words that I will never forget and have had to continually recall throughout my ministry every time I want to turn the church into a club where I am keeping score. He said, "Steve, remember that you have no right to expect anyone to ever walk through those doors on a Sunday morning. That anyone comes at all ...

Showing results