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 4945 results

3026. If Only We could Be Loyal ...

Hosea 4:1-19, Hosea 6:1--7:16

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

Jackie had been at our worship service on only two occasions, and when she came to me for counseling, I began by saying, "Tell me who you are." We spent over an hour talking about her, for my sole contact with her had been from the pulpit to the pew, an introduction, and a handshake. Jackie felt that her whole life was deteriorating. It began when her father abandoned his family and she watched her mother struggle for years to provide a home for her and her sister. Endowed with a brilliant mind, Jackie did ...

3027. Wellspring for the Soul

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Dean Lueking

When Water is Scarce Some time ago I had an experience unique in my life - living in a place for several weeks where no drinking water was piped in. On the western edge of Kenya I learned what it is to go to the village well, draw water for two buckets, and carry them back to the small house where our family was living. The African women at the well always wanted me to do it their way - carry the bucket on my head. I have neither the balance that takes, nor enough hair to give a water bucket much support. ...

3028. The Promise and the Task

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Dean Lueking

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matthew 28:16-20) Meaning ...

3029. God's Push

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Most of us, when we are pushed, will push back. When we are pushed harder, we will resist even more. A mother says to her teen-age daughter, "I'd like you to clean your room before you go away for the weekend." "Do I have to?" she groans. "Yes, you must." "I don't want to." "Do it," said the mother, "and that's final!" "No, I won't." And Slam! Bang! go the doors. Very few of us like to be pushed - and that's true of adults, not only youths. Sometimes, however, God pushes us. God nudges us toward something ...

3030. Sharing Your Safety

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Children's Sermon

Object: A snapshot of a home (A realtor’s picture.) Text: Genesis 6:18 - But I promise to keep you safe in the ship, with your wife and your sons and their wives. Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have heard the story about Noah and the ark? (Let them answer.) What do you like best about the story? (Let them answer.) I like the part in the story where God tells Noah how to build the ark, and Noah builds it exactly according to the plan. I have a friend who likes to think of how many hours it ...

3031. Who is Greatest Among You ...

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

How quickly we learn the desire to be great. The quest to become "number one" is a given in our competitive society. To some degree it is what fosters achievement and causes people to strive for excellence. Few people succeed without a fairly strong motivation to be foremost in their field. That’s the positive side. The negative side has to do with the absence of compassion and the undue pride that can go along with ambition. We can feel sorry for losers, but we prefer to associate with winners. Nothing ...

3032. Repairing Your Broken Dreams

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Dreams and visions are important in life. Every action we take in life was designed by someone. Every piece of clothing, every building, every hymn book, every chair, every light fixture, and every automobile existed first in someone's vision. Someone had to have the idea or the dream to turn out the product. The same holds true for the way we act. As Jesus said, "The eye is the seat of the body." If you cannot dream it, cannot envision it, then you simply cannot do it. Dreams and visions can also be very ...

3033. Do Lettuce Seeds Grow Into Corn?

Galatians 6:7

Children's Sermon

Object: Several different kinds of seeds. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to plant some seeds. In this way we can learn something about ourselves and the way we live with God. I brought along these seeds because I thought you might know something about the things that grow from these seeds. For instance, I have a package of seeds in my hand that I would like to plant. What kind of seeds are these? (Let them answer.) That's right, these are carrot seeds. What will carrot seeds grow? (Let ...

3034. Bringing Us Together

1 Timothy 2:5

Children's Sermon

Object: A paper clip. Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know the meaning of the word "mediator"? (Let them answer.) That is a hard word and I am not surprised that none of you knows the answer. But it is an important word and I want you to learn what it means. Let's say it together several times. (Repeat the word several times with them.) That's good. It is an important word because Jesus is called our mediator. All through the Bible we hear the word "mediator" and it is used to describe Jesus ...

3035. Fog-Clearing Moments

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Remember that fog we had last November? I had to venture into it early that Sunday morning. I left home about 6:00 a.m., long before most people even thought about getting up. The fog was dense. My automobile headlights would not cut it. Visibility was reduced to about ten feet. I turned on my dimmer lights and hoped that on-coming traffic would do the same. As I drove, I felt like my car was pushing through a tunnel of smoke. I was able to drive from my house to the church because I had driven along that ...

3036. Misunderstanding Jesus

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Once a minister was speaking of the difference between fact and fantasy. "That you are sitting here before me in this church is fact! That I am standing here in this pulpit speaking is fact!" Then he paused, and continued, "However to believe that anyone is really listening to me may be fantasy." You know, sometimes it is fun to be a preacher. After his return from church one Sunday a small boy said, "You know what, Mommie? I’m going to be a preacher when I grow up." "That’s fine," said his mother, "but ...

3037. The Passover Meal Of The Last Supper

Mark 14:12-26

Bulletin Aid

MAUNDY THURSDAY The Passover Meal Of The Last Supper A Communion Service This communion may be celebrated around tables or in the pews. It is possible for a meal to be served as part of the celebration, but not necessary to the service. This is not, strictly speaking, a Seder in the traditional sense, for many of the Seder traditions are rooted in the diaspora of post-biblical times. Rather, this is a celebration of the Lord’s Supper which includes some traditional Hebrew Passover prayers and symbolic ...

3038. Shipwrecked on Malta

Acts 27:1-12, Acts 27:13-26, Acts 27:27-44

Sermon Aid

CSS

Festus was a good administrator. Once the decision had been made to send Paul to Rome, he acted quickly. Yet it was a peculiar transferral. Agrippa and Festus are reported to have concluded that Paul had done nothing that was likely to undermine the security of the Roman Empire or otherwise be of interest to the high courts at Rome. They must have attached some bill of complaint to the military orders under which Paul was transported, but its contents are not known. The official charges against Paul never ...

3039. It Isn’t Fair!

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Every parent who has raised more than one child at the same time has heard the cry - whether justified or not - that one is getting special treatment over the others, or that one is being slighted to the advantage of everyone else. While the parent may or may not agree with the child’s assessment of the current situation (in fact, the youngster may not be discriminated against at all!), he or she will invariably agree on one thing, no child should be singled out for treatment benefiting them to the others ...

3040. The Spirit - For Me Too?

Joel 2:28-32

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit." Did you know that about 400 years before Christ, God promised you the gift of the Holy Spirit? Did you receive it? St. Paul asked the Ephesian Christians, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit...?" They answered, "No, we have never ...

3041. No Other Way To Be Happy

Deuteronomy 11:1-32

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God ..." "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15) "Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus ..." In a gospel song, these words of the refrain are sung over and over with each stanza. The chorus repeats the truth of our test: Obedience to God’s commands is the only way to get happiness (blessing). People in palaces are not automatically happy. The ...

3042. Free and Faithful

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted ... - Matthew 4:1 In Huxley’s Brave New World, Savage is contending with Mustapha Mond, the world controller. Savage’s sensibility has been shaped by the Bible and Shakespeare, readings no longer allowed to the public. He complains to Mond about the antiseptic quality of life in the new society. The controller says to him: "We prefer to do things comfortably." Savage rejoins: "But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want ...

3043. Job’s Joy

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

Two brief Old Testament lessons introduce the sermon for today. The first is from Job 38, the first two verses: "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?’ " The second lesson is from the 55th chapter of Isaiah, verses eight and nine: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." ...

3044. Called to Be Saints

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Hubert Beck

Have you ever considered the power of Jesus’ simple statement, "You are the salt of the earth"? (Matthew 5:13) No matter how you say it, that statement shakes you to your boots. Try it on for size. "You are the salt of the earth." Me? Isn’t it astounding to hear Jesus say that you and I are the salt of the earth? Surely he must have meant a special group of people. He couldn’t have been talking to us, could he? The words are from the Sermon on the Mount, spoken in some ways peculiarly to his disciples ...

3045. God and the Weather

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

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Imagine for a moment that you are a person who has a great deal of difficulty in sustaining a conversation once you have met a person. After initial introductions, you draw a blank. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit that if in 99% of these situations what you end up talking about is the weather. "Sure is hot today, isn’t it?" "Think it’s going to rain? Sure looks like it." "These weather forecasters, you can never trust them! They said yesterday there was only 10% chance of showers and our picnic was rained on ...

3046. Minute Accounting

Matthew 12:22-37

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

"I tell you, on the day of the judgment, men will render account for every careless word they utter." Really? A number of questions arise immediately when one hears that statement. One has to do with the logistics of accounting. A lot of careless words are spoken. Are we to believe that God (or some of his assistants!) keeps a verbatim record of all of these words and then confronts each person with the ones he or she has spoken at the final reckoning? Another question involves the justice of such a policy ...

3047. Chapter X

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

"You will not want for yourself your neighbor’s house; you will not want for yourself your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s." Exodus 20:17 With this Commandment we come to the end of the "Words" that God spoke to his people at Sinai. The warning that he gave that we should not long to have for ourselves that which belongs to our neighbors serves to cap off, and bring to a conclusion, this handful of directions for living. We ...

3048. Crossing the Great Divide

Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

"It’s his fault. It’s her fault. It’s their fault." "It’s not my fault. The devil made me do it." Since the first bad trip in the Eden garden, humans have made it a regular practice to pass the buck. From the man who pointed to his questionable helpmate and said, "The woman you gave me, she made me eat that fruit," to the woman who could literally say, "the devil made me do it," to Herod who could make no decision but send Jesus back to Pilate, to Pilate who thought he could absolve himself by a little ...

3049. Watch Your Language!

Matthew 5:33-37

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

A pastor was out taking a walk one evening. He looked up and saw a little boy barreling downhill on his wagon. The wagon slammed into a tree, and all four wheels fell off. The boy said, "I'll be darned." The pastor said, "son, couldn't you think of something better to say than that?" As the two of them put the wheels back on, the boy asked, "What should I have said?" The pastor thought a moment and said, "Well, you could have said 'Praise the Lord. '" with tongue in cheek, the pastor added, "If you say ...

3050. My Love Requires A Symbol

Malachi 3:6-18

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The other clergy on our staff and I perform lots of weddings. We enjoy it immensely. There are several reasons that we have so many weddings. We are a large congregation with an unusually large percentage of young adults. Furthermore, Cupid seems to run wild in our singles ministry. In fact, because of all those weddings, I have unintentionally memorized the wedding service. But I still keep the printed service in from on me, lest I call this Saturday’s bride by last Saturday’s name. Nothing so unnerves an ...

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