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 2901 to 2925 of 4977 results

2901. Why Earthly Powers Need No Longer Enslave

Daniel 7:15-28, Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... good for business insofar as these dynamics have swelled the workforce and created the flexible, mobile pool of workers which the new economy demands. Can you see how much power the institutions of American society have over your life and mine? We are really quite powerless in some instances; we are merely pawns. There are some genuine similarities between us and the Jews in the years when the book of Daniel was written. We have both been manipulated for many decades by foreign powers. Do you see how our ...

2902. God Notices

Amos 8:1-14

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... blowing so strongly? Who wants to hear criticism and condemnation when it should be obvious to anyone that things have never been better? It’s hard to be a preacher when all seems well. Who needs a word from the Lord when our own words appear to be quite sufficient? Who needs to acknowledge a creator when the works of our own hands have been so successful? Who cares what God thinks when our own thinking has produced so much wealth? It’s hard to be a preacher when all seems well and wallets are fat and ...

2903. God Knows

Isaiah 5:1-7

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... Often times those consequences will be difficult. In this passage, the vineyard is torn down and trampled. The disappointed owner tears it up. It is utterly destroyed. God knows the consequences of failing to meet the vineyard owner’s expectations are quite severe (5:5-6). Bad choices can end relationships. Poor decisions can wreck families. Mistaken actions can ruin marriages. Bowing down to false gods can deplete our souls. Worshiping idols can destroy us. There are serious consequences, God knows. The ...

2904. At The Potter's House

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... going to punish us just because we’re trying to live our own lives, to do things our own way, to do what we can see is best for us? God did bring us out of slavery, and God did bring us into this land, and so obviously God cares quite a lot for us. And we give God our worship, too. We do get to the temple; we do perform the sacrifices and burnt offerings; we fulfill our religious duties, checking off what is required. We may not be completely loyal to God. We may not truly love God with ...

2905. Changing Seasons, Constant Love

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... really changed; nothing has really improved. The time keeps moving along, but we seem stuck in the same ruts. Old routines remain, prejudices persist, dullness and anxiety continue to be constant companions. Lingering in the air is that nagging sense that things aren’t quite right, not as they could be, not as they should be. As Jeremiah says, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (8:20). Time has moved along, the seasons are changing, but nothing has really changed for us ...

2906. With All Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17, Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... return to God with a heart of repentance. Repenting means acknowledging, confessing, and turning away from sin. Repentance is the act of contrition carried out to cancel sin’s transgression. To say we have sinned is one thing. To turn away from sinful ways is quite another thing. God wants a repenting heart. A heart that is open to being used by God to set new directions for the future. The conviction of sin causes an action that renounces and turns away from sin. Repenting of sin is turning toward God ...

2907. Sustaining the Weary with a Word

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... ? Loving the little children? A willingness to be crucified for the sins of the world? What are the charges? Healing on the sabbath? Sitting and eating with sinners? Having women to support my movement? Choosing the most unlikely to succeed as my disciples? Quitting my job as a carpenter and receiving the call of the Father to make fishers of men and women? What are the charges? Calling women into ministry? Loving those who are gay and different? Refusing you the privilege of stoning a prostitute? Refusing ...

2908. Deformed, Disfigured, and Despised: A Marred but Magnificent Messiah

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... cruel trick upon his people? He is ugly and unattractive. He cannot save himself. He has no political connections. He has no money in the bank and no armies marching behind him by day and by night. He has no large following. His disciples are a rag-tag bunch. He quit his job as a carpenter. He is homeless and jobless. He is friendless and wifeless. He has no children or posterity to carry on his name. He walks everywhere he goes. He is not a citizen of Rome or a rabbi in the best of our traditions. He goes ...

2909. A Messenger of Promise

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... who is able to measure what goes on in the change and the work of the people of God. Gunnar Myrdal, the Swedish scholar, gave us the landmark study An American Dilemma. He liked to think of sociology as social engineering, but he was quite disappointed in the directions that sociology took. He thought that sociologists should have behaved more as prophets who could call people to moral accountability. We can assert that not only do people fail at social engineering, but also they always will until they deal ...

2910. A Song of Promise

Zephaniah 3:1-20

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... had already done for them. God had saved this people before, and God would do it again. The song would be a refrain of the songs of thanksgiving God’s people had composed before. Songs Today The songs encouraged by the prophet are quite different from the songs of our age. So much of the contemporary literature composed for the symphony orchestras is dissonant, discordant, and harsh sounding. Composers have always been wary of imitating models from other periods lest they be regarded as being uncreative ...

2911. The Promising Child

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... the development of that Holy Child whose birth we have just celebrated with joy and high delight. However, in Bible classes pastors generally have difficulty handling the protests of mothers who think that the behavior of the twelve-year-old boy Jesus was quite reprehensible. Mothers normally contend that no matter how impressive Jesus may have been with the teachers in the Temple, he gets poor marks for the anxiety he caused both Mary and Joseph. Any parent who has experienced the trauma of worrying about ...

2912. The Promise of Baptism

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... in its approach to Mr. Buckley’s confession of faith. A baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic from his youth, the author reveals a studied approach to the faith that reveals his struggles with the great questions that can trouble us all. Obviously quite satisfied with the strength that he gains from his faith, Mr. Buckley has refrained from making a public display of religious language in the public debates he enjoys immensely. When Buckley was asked by his publisher to write about his faith, his ...

2913. The Fruit of One's Doing

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... middle years and during the last decade of the nineteenth century, Cassatt featured principally mothers and children in her paintings. Having never married herself, she was deeply touched mainly by the bond between mothers and daughters. Her paintings reflect quite plainly the emotional and sensual feelings between mothers and daughters. The subject of children also reflects the commonly held notion of the day that children are innocent. One painting featuring a group admiring one child was believed to have ...

2914. Keeping the Glow On

Exodus 34:29-35

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... ministries designed to witness to the presence of God in the lives of God’s people. These revelations were never intended to be spectacular and sensational moments of when and how God comes only in glory. We shall see from the First Reading that the purpose is quite different from that. To be sure, it is good that the purpose was different. Otherwise, we should never be able to handle all the glory that is involved. We shall learn from the experience of Moses and his people that it is not easy to handle ...

2915. There Is Hope (A Christmas Communion Meditation)

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Brett Blair

... and sentimentalized the story. When we read the story we are too often projected into a world that was more rosier than ours, where miracles were still possible and God was more active and hope made more sense and evil was stoppable and reality wasn’t quite so harsh. The Christmas story sometimes creates a little of the feeling of Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy and her dog Toto have been transported by a tornado into the land of Oz, you’ll recall that Dorothy looks around at her Mother Goose surroundings ...

2916. Reason for the Season

Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56, Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20

Drama

Dave Marsh

... .... that's okay though. (stands up and puts his arm around her) It's probably best this way. Teri: What do you mean? Dave: Don't you remember last year? You know, my brother and the carving knife? Teri: (starts laughing) Oh yeah! I've never seen a ham cut quite that way before! Oh well, I'll find some chicken or something. I mean, it's not that big of a deal. If that's the worse that happens today... (The lights suddenly go out) Dave: Whoops! Too late. Looks like we're gonna be eating in the dark... Teri ...

2917. Father Knows Best?

Luke 6:17-26

Drama

Dave Marsh

... the good book instead. Adam: Oh. (long pause) Paper boy never came, eh? Dad: Nope. This was the only thing I could find to read. Adam: Well, it’s good for you. Dad: (looks up) What? Adam: You know. It’s good for you. You’re always telling me to quit reading junk and, well, this is good for you. Dad: Did your mother put you up to this? Adam: No, dad. Dad: (looks at him suspiciously and then, flips a bunch of pages, and puts his finger down on a page) Adam: Is that how you’re supposed to read ...

2918. Worship Worries

Drama

Dave Marsh

... the guy with the guitar. Wants us to stand and sing. Ok. Must be the right place. But I don’t want to seem to eager to do that but I don’t want to be too slow and be the last one up… (stands awkwardly as he can't quite decide how quickly to get up)...Oh, that was smooth (sarcastic). Dave: Ok, ok. This song is kinda catchy. (taps foot) Like the beat. You can dance to it. (starts to sway and snap fingers) Sure. Yeah. Sounds good. Like it. (sways more) Yeah, I like the words being projected ...

2919. The Attic

James 5:13-20

Drama

Dave Marsh

... ? John: Jello. Katie: ah. John: Hmmm. (goes back to the box) I’ve got to have something else in here! Katie: John? John? JOHN?! (pulls him out!) John: What? Katie: Did it ever occur to you that you should pray about it? John: Pray? Katie: Yeah, you know, quit worrying about it and pray. John: (long pause) Yeah, sure. Now, where’s the rest of that stuff? (goes back to the box) Katie: Argh! (storms off stage) John: AHA! Honey? Honey! Here it is! (he throws it around his neck as he shouts after her) The ...

2920. The Delimma II (A Drama about Prayer)

Drama

Dave Marsh

... Man, what am I doing wrong? Okay, think. How was my position? Pretty good I think – hands clasped, head down, eyes closed. Hmmm, that all checks out. Well, I guess the problem is still in the prayer. While it was a good prayer, it probably wasn’t quite up to par. Maybe a 'year six' prayer. Yep, that’s it. I need a 'year ten' prayer! Okay, here we go… Dave: (closes eyes and prays – angelic soundtrack playing in the background) Dear Lord of Hosts, Almighty Jehovah, Ancient of Days, Hear me and know ...

2921. They Left Everything

Luke 5:1-11

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... story about the time that Jesus told his disciples to pull their nets out of the water on one side of the boat and put them down on the other side of the boat, and when they did it, the nets were full of fish? (Let them answer.) That was quite a day. The disciples had not caught anything for the entire day and now their boats were so full of fish that they had to get out of the boat and swim to shore because there was hardly any room for them. How many of you have ever been fishing ...

2922. Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen

Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

Brett Blair

... t really need it, while people in Memphis are homeless, hungry, and in despair, God will surely call us to account. Let’s suppose that you have three grown children. One son is a company vice president in Atlanta, earning $200,000 per year. Your daughter is doing quite well as a surgeon in Miami. Your other son is an alcoholic in Richmond, living hand to mouth, unable to hold a steady job. As a parent, where would your focus be this Christmas? On Richmond, of course. And I’m certain you would call those ...

2923. When Our Children Teach Us

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

James W. Moore

... soiled from almost incessant drooling. She does not walk. Her sleep pattern is erratic. Often she wakes in the middle of the night and her screaming awakens others. Most of the time she is friendly and happy, but several times a day she gets quite agitated without apparent cause. Then she wails until someone comes to comfort her.” After presenting the class with this challenging case, Dr. Ruskin then asked his students if any of them would like to volunteer to take care of this person. No one volunteered ...

2924. When Our Children Teach Us - Sermon Opener

Luke 2:41-52

Illustration

James W. Moore

2925. Father Knows Best?

Matthew 5:1-12

Drama

Dave Marsh

... the good book instead. Adam: Oh. (long pause) Paper boy never came, eh? Dave: Nope. This was the only thing I could find to read. Adam: Well, it’s good for you. Dave: (looks up) What? Adam: You know. It’s good for you. You’re always telling me to quit reading junk and, well, this is good for you. Dave: Did your mother put you up to this? Adam: No, dad. Dave: (looks at him suspiciously and then, flips a bunch of pages, and puts his finger down on a page) Adam: Is that how you’re supposed to read ...

Showing results