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 3026 to 3050 of 4976 results

3026. Stephen’s Stones

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

... wind is warm. A seagull from the coast is soaring, and a mob wants to kill someone - me - you, because of what we believe. It’s tough to believe it could happen, but if it did, I see it ending very differently. Who among us would be able to keep the faith when persons surrounded us with heavy stones determined to cast the one that makes our knees buckle and our body fall? Who among us could believe that what was happening could in any way imaginable be the working of God? Wouldn’t you duck the stones ...

3027. "When E. F. Hutton Talks"

Jeremiah 26:1-24

Sermon

Peter Rudowski

... morning, that things have to change. When God speaks, we are to listen. Buildings and structures also became a security blanket for the people of Jeremiah’s day. As long as the temple stood in the midst of Jerusalem, the people would be safe. Keep the building painted and in good repair. Keep the building in the best possible shape. When it comes to the budget, the building is the one category that you don’t have to worry about. Here is security, for as long as we worship in a nice place, God must be ...

3028. A Glimpse of God

John 14:5-14

Sermon

George Bass

... in death. There is no evidence that either Philip or James sought such visions when they died, nor does legend keep alive any beatific death and dying statements. We remember them because they were disciples of Christ who were faithful to ... comprehended what he meant when he said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Everything in their religion told them that God keeps his distance from people; even in the Temple, he was remote - in the Holy of Holies where only one person, the High Priest, on one ...

3029. He Bore Our Sins

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God ... so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21) Then, some make this excuse, "There are too many hypocrites in the church." True, there may be hypocrites. But you don’t keep out of other things because they have hypocrites. You don’t stop voting for statesmen because there may be crooked politicians. You still go to lawyers, though there may be shysters. You still see your doctor though there may be quacks around. You don’t ...

3030. No Condemnation!

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... to forgive our sins. When someone offends you, you can simply say, "I will forgive you," and the matter is settled. But God cannot do that with us. For God is God. God is holy. He hates sin. God is just. He must punish sin. God is truth. He must keep his word. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." And so what could God do about our sins? That was the problem. And the answer which God found to that problem is the most staggering thing of which you have ever heard. Even the Devil didn’t expect God would ...

3031. The New Covenant

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... an earthly means. But so it is, and so it shall be until the end of time: "As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come." Really, of course, the simplicity of all this is very much in keeping with the approach of God throughout history. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God chose a rough feed trough to cradle his Son (instead of a royal palace and bed). When Jesus was crucified, he was placed on a quickly thrown together and crudely constructed cross on which he ...

3032. The Surprise of Absolute Victory

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... . If you reject him, you will affirm him by your failure. If you are obedient to him, you will affirm him by your fulfillment. Remember: "Selective obedience is disobedience." Tolstoy rejected Christ in his early life. His roommate had to hide the fire-escape rope to keep him from taking his own life. Later on, Tolstoy risked Christ in his own life. His words reveal his surprise. "Great waves of life rose within me. To know God and to live are one." This experience released his greatness. But me: "I’m too ...

3033. Clouds and Son-Shine

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... the Son-shine will again break through the clouds and warm our lives with God’s grace. The problem is, though, how to keep going while the clouds hang over our heads. How do we maintain ourselves in the dark moments while waiting with faith that the Son ... out of power in the world of his creation, to see the clouds split by the Son-shine. Part of our daily task is to keep seeing the gifts around us, and never to take one thing for granted. The hand of the Father surrounds us on every side. The mystery ...

3034. Called to Be Saints

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... average person - is to ask just how or why God has bothered to call me into such a special position. It is rather astounding that he would even concern himself with me one way or the other, considering all the monumental things he has to do just to keep all creation going. It simply boggles my imagination to think that God would care about me in any way. Yet, time after time, the Scripture attests to God’s individual care and concern. Did you catch that in the First Lesson of the day? "The Lord called me ...

3035. Discerning the Way of God

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... way without Moses, but he presses on them the need to continue following the hand of him who had freed them from their slavery and given to them the land that lay before them. To follow the word that had been given them was to inherit the land and to keep it. To forget the word and him who spoke it was to lose not only the promise but the land itself and the life that he had placed into the veins of their national existence. We hear it again in the Gospel as Jesus insists that mere external compliance with ...

3036. Binding Up the Fractured World

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... fly off into every direction and dissolve into absolute chaos? We know, of course, for it is part of our confession of faith, that somehow we tie all this to the work of God. He not only created the universe, but has also maintained the bond that keeps it on an orderly course. We all too frequently look for the detail in the account of creation and thereby lose the magnitude of the work, the awe-inspiring marvel of a God who can command such a universe into existence and hold it altogether in place! Genesis ...

3037. GOOD SEX

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... Christ the goal of dating becomes a relationship of giving, not taking. The Lord helps us restrict sexual intercourse to marriage because it is his intention that we become "one flesh" in a total union which includes mind, spirit, will, and body. Save sex for marriage. After you’re married, keep it in the confines of marriage. It is a beautiful gift from God ... don’t misuse it ...

3038. WHAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO HONOR?

Illustration

John H. Krahn

"Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife ... wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health, and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?" And all of us who are married said, "I will." Tucked away inside this vow is a promise to honor our spouses, to respect them, stand up for them, and hold them in high esteem. High esteem does not ...

3039. The Joy of Being a Caring Person

Mt 25:31-46 · Lk 16:19-31

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... story of the Vietnam refugee: He was having a rough time of it, as a cameraman in a TV production. Suddenly he declared, "I want to be a Christian." When asked why, he replied, "A young woman who works with me brought her blankets to my family to keep us from freezing when the temperature dropped suddenly to eighteen degrees, where we were working. If that kind of caring is Christian, I want to be a Christian." It works. It really does. When I was a boy I would visit my grandfather’s farm in the summer ...

3040. The Forgiven and the Forgiving

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... down. We live under "people pressure." And so we wield "people pressure." It is just the way things are. I remember the recent cartoon with the big executive sitting behind the big desk, saying, "I don’t live under pressure - I create pressure!" Why are we trying to keep others under pressure when God in his forgiveness is taking the pressure off of us? Yes, this is a day of pressures, and so it was in the day of Jesus. He knew what he was talking about. He knows what we are up against. "Jesus didn’t ...

3041. The Agony and Ecstasy of Sight

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

... suffering of others."9 It is the second way which concerns Christ in our story of the man born blind, for our Lord says, "We must keep on doing the works of him who sent me." And the work of him who sent Christ is compassion - helping where help is needed and trying ... Our eyes are opened and we behold his glory! While It Is Day Before Jesus cures the blind man, he tells a brief parable: "We must keep on doing the works of him who sent me as long as it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. While I ...

3042. A Thinking Person’s Thankful Prayer

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... easy for Christians to love everybody but their neighbors. Paul realized that if this little congregation was to survive and have any impact upon the community in which it was located, its members had to overcome the economic and social barriers which might keep them apart. Thus, as he sat in a Roman prison and thought about these friends, Paul began a prayer of thanksgiving by asking that their love for one another might grow even more. Surely this is where the thankful prayers of all thoughtful Christian ...

3043. What It Takes to Stay Christian

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... the parable of the prodigal son when the waiting father ran to welcome his errant son with open arms even though the son didn’t deserve it. Agape-love is that kind of love which St. Paul described in 1 Corinthians 13 as being "patient and kind ... which does not keep a record of wrongs ... which never gives up" (T.E.V.). Agape-love is tough-minded love, love at which you have to work and work and work, day after day. It is the kind of love which is perfectly and succinctly described in John 3:16 when "God ...

3044. A SERMON DRAMA FOR CHRISTMASTIDE

Drama

Tom Eberle

... you are, or else I wouldn’t be talking to you. Male: And I still don’t believe you are - and I don’t know why I keep on talking to nothing. Gabriel: Let’s start all over again. What is it you do or don’t believe? Female: I believe you are the ... female return to their places in the congregation.] Gabriel: "Now in this same district there were shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch through the night over their flock, when suddenly there stood before them an angel of the Lord, and the splendor of ...

3045. A LITURGICAL DRAMA FOR ALL SAINTS’

Drama

Tom Eberle

... wage? Box: How would I know what peasants in Honduras make? Cypher: lf you would have read your newspaper some time ago you would know that an American banana exporting company was caught paying one and a quarter million dollars in bribes to Honduras officials to keep banana growers from organizing. Box: I wouldn’t doubt it. Cypher: Then, why do you complain about the price of bananas? Part of our work as missionaries is to help the peasants of our province gain ownership of a few acres on the huge banana ...

3046. Are You Exercising Your Faith?

Mt 4:1-11 · Phil 3:12 · Gen 32:3

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... , Jacob declares: "I have seen God face-to-face, and I am still alive ..." (Genesis 32:3d, GNB) We could point just as easily to St. Paul who denounces in Philippians, "I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself." (Philippians 3:12, GNB) In all three instances there is a dynamism at work, a dynamism that produces fruit. If exercising our faith is important - and I think it is - what kind ...

3047. God and the Weather

Matthew 5:45; 16:2-3 · Psalm 18:7-11; 46:1-3, 11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... of nature, but from the perverseness and folly of those creatures who have abused that liberty with which they have been endued.3 Another part of an answer resides in the affirmation that God does not intend us to be injured through natural calamity. We need here to keep in mind the initial and final visions of the Bible. The Book of Genesis and the Book of Revelation are one in a vision of life’s harmony in which God and his people dwell together in oneness and joy. In Genesis God says of creation that ...

3048. The Witch of Endor

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... leave me alone?" He claimed that God made him homosexual, and now society was out to get him. A youth was incarcerated for use of drugs. He wrote his pastor, "I have faith - both in God and man, and in myself - and I have tried to keep that faith even here in this place. I am no longer afraid of what people will say, or have said. After all, who are people?" Witchcraft is on the increase. It ranges from the traditional covens - thirteen witches and warlocks - to devil worship with obscene rites, secret ...

3049. IN THE BEGINNING ... THERE WAS LOVE ...

Drama

Marcia Millerf

... remember a lot about the past, don’t you? BOY: We aren’t supposed to. GIRL: I don’t know why not. We were allowed to bring something from the past with us. That would remind us of before. BOY: I don’t think it was planned that we would keep our things very long. Like my book that fell; I think it was planned that way. In time we were to forget. GIRL: I still have my instrument. BOY: You’re unusual. They didn’t plan on anyone selecting a musical instrument to bring. After all, that’s a bunch ...

3050. MIRIAM’S BABY BROTHER

Drama

Marcia Miller

... know he must have been smiling like he always does for me. MOTHER: My poor little boy! MIRIAM: Wait until you hear what happened next. The Princess saw the baby. I heard her say: ‘This must be one of the Hebrew children. He is such a pretty baby. I’ll keep him for myself, then he won’t be killed.’ With that, I came out of my hiding place. I said, ‘Shall I find a Hebrew woman to nurse him for you?’ ‘Yes, do,’ she replied. So, come, Mother. Let’s go to our baby. He will always be safe now ...

Showing results