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 3201 to 3225 of 4943 results

3201. Serpentine Soul

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: rubber snake (preferably a horned viper –warning, do not use a live viper) “I desire mercy, not sacrifice….I have come to call sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13) I have here a snake. I can see the wrinkled-up noses, yes! That’s the reaction we usually have, most of us, to snakes! There’ something about a snake that just strikes discomfort or terror in the best of us. They are unusual looking, have sharp teeth. They are fast-moving and most of all unpredictable. In the holy land, especially in the desert ...

3202. Impetuous Faith

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Remember in school that one kid, the “kiss up,” the “butter up,” the “brown nose,” the suck up”? The kid who always raised his or her hand for every question, who always volunteered to help the teacher, who loved to be the class leader, who wanted every time to be chosen first for good behavior? Yup, that’s the one. Every class had one. Every job often has one. Throughout life, you’ll always encounter those who crave special attention, who obsess over being first at everything, who seem to need extra pets ...

3203. Not Guessing

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

In his book George Lucas: A Life author Brian Jay Jones tells the story about how the famed filmmaker rose from obscurity in the small California town of Modesto to become the world-famous creator of the Stars Wars series. Lucas, an indifferent high school student, became serious about pursuing a career in film after surviving a devastating car crash. His college student films attracted some attention, but initially only a few people recognized that he had the potential to become a great filmmaker. However ...

3204. The Reckoning

Matthew 14:13-21, Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

How many math wizards are out there today? Anyone? I’ve always been amazed at those phenomenal people who can compute sums and fractions in their heads in the matter of moments. Or how about accountants? Tax accountants! Hear me? Oh man! You have to have a certain personality I think to be a tax accountant, amen? Or what about statisticians? Or those who program AI! Rocket scientists? Physicists? Math wizards! When I was in school, we called these super amazing computational people “geeks.” Now, I’m ...

3205. The Serpent's Tongue

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— ...

3206. Hang Time: A Good Friday Sermon

Matthew 27:45-56

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

Lent is a season for recalling the suffering and triumph of our Lord, Savior and Liberator, Jesus Christ. It is a time where all Christians should take spiritual inventory in their lives; a time of discarding those things which hurt us and holding on to those things which help us. Lent is a time of remembering the passion, suffering, and resurrection of Christ. As heirs of his kingdom, we become co-participants in the struggle for love, justice, and truth as we are crucified and resurrected in the daily ...

3207. Palms By Day And Plots By Night

Sermon

Erskine White

Old Testament Text: Isaiah 50:4-9aNew Testament Text: John 12:9-19 Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me." (Isaiah 50:8) I am so glad Jesus lived long enough in the flesh to see Palm Sunday. He deserved it; you might even say He needed it. Everyone needs a day like the day Jesus had in Jerusalem.After spending our lives in thankless toil and turmoil, we all need at least one day of recognition and praise. It might come to you as a mother or father ...

3208. Journey To The Cross VII (Easter): Jesus And The Women At The Tomb

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

Do you remember the Legend of the Touchstone? It’s a great story to recall on Easter Sunday morning. According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand. Once a man sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search of ...

3209. The Fourth King In The Christmas Story

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

I hope you had a joyous holiday. Perhaps, though, you have moved from the anticipation of Christmas to the anxiety after Christmas. Particularly if you gained weight during this season of celebration or spent more than you planned. Julia Boynton Green spoke for many people when she wrote: "Twas the night after Christmas and all through the house, We were paying each one for our yuletide carouse. I felt in my tummy a burden like lead, and visions of tumors careened through my head. Martha tumbled and tossed ...

3210. Minority Report

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

Sermon

James Merritt

Put on your thinking caps for a moment; become an amateur pastor or theologian, if you will, and see if you can give an answer to the following three questions: 1. If the gospel is the power of God—why doesn't everybody that hears the gospel become a Christian? 2. If the Bible is the Word of God—why doesn't the Bible have the same effect on everyone who reads it? 3. If Jesus is the Son of God—why doesn't everyone believe in Jesus? We can even narrow those questions. Why don't most people who hear the ...

3211. Cleaning House

Mark 1:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A few years ago I read an Ad in the Thrifty Nickel which read: "We cater to Clutter. Dependable house, apartment or business cleaning." And then there were a couple of phone numbers so you could contact the folks. There's nothing real earth shattering or funny about that ad but what struck me is that ad could be the Church's motto. Any Church's motto. We cater to clutter. We don't cater to the perfect. We don't cater to those who have already made it. We don't cater to those who don't need help. We cater ...

3212. The Character Of Christmas; Herod: The Not So Great

Matthew 2:13-22

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I don't remember where I gleaned this story, but it was in some of my readings this week in sermon prep. But Brenda Roberts of Stone Mountain, Georgia is a Sunday School teacher. She was reading the story of Jesus' birth to her day-care children one morning. As usual, she stopped to see if they were paying attention and understood. "What do we call the three wise men?" she asked. "The three maggots," replied a bright 5-year-old. "What gifts did the Magi bring baby Jesus?" the teacher corrected. That the ...

3213. Beneath The Shadow Of The Cross

Mark 15:16-37

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A. It was weird. It was really weird. The sky that afternoon had taken on a ghastly, ghostly, almost haunted hue. Ever since the midday bells had rung it had been like the edge of night. The darkness of the day seemed to reflect the way the apostle felt. It seemed to reflect the darkness of his soul and the darkness of the event taking place. John; one of the chosen twelve; one of the inner circle of leadership; the one who always seemed closest to Jesus, stood shrouded in his own sorrow. The lump in his ...

3214. Beneath The Shadow Of The Cross

Mark 14:1--15:47

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

It was weird. It was really weird. The sky that afternoon had taken on a ghastly, ghostly, almost haunted hue. Ever since the mid-day bells had rung it had been like the edge of night. The darkness of the day seemed to reflect the way the apostle felt. It seemed to reflect the darkness of his soul and the darkness of the event taking place. John; one of the chosen twelve; one of the inner circle of leadership; the one who always seemed closest to Jesus, stood shrouded in his own sorrow. The lump in his ...

3215. Waltzing With Coyotes

Luke 6:27-36

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

Theme: Loving your enemy is not as easy as it sounds. Summary: Willie and Bart are friendly enemies who are both interested in a lovely young Indian princess named Li'l-Buttercup-Shines-In-The-Morning but cannot understand her Indian sign language. Along comes Chief Bull-Feathers-In-The-Campfire who has obviously been educated, not only in the English language but also in the Bible. Maybe the chief can get these two "ornery critters" to be quiet long enough to listen to his wisdom. Playing Time: 7 minutes ...

3216. All The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Is it tomorrow, or is it still yesterday? In the cartoon, Dennis the Menace is tugging at his dad's covers, and Mr. Mitchell is trying to lift one eyelid. Dennis wants to know, "Is it tomorrow yet? Or is it still yesterday?" It's a profound question. Something like that -- some 2000-year-old Aramaic version of it anyway -- must have been in the minds of the women on their way to the tomb. In fact, they went to the tomb fully expecting to find yesterday, and instead found tomorrow. They went expecting death ...

3217. A Most Important Dawning

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

Early in January in northern Canada the sun peeks above the horizon for the first time after six weeks of hiding. An important dawn for Canada. Imagine how the lives of people in the northern latitudes would be different if they got used to the darkness and never even expected that a dawn would ever lighten their horizon again. The people to whom the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah witnessed and preached so long ago were a people whose hope for dawn had been all but extinguished. First the northern kingdom, ...

3218. The Man Born Blind

John 9:1-12

Drama

Dallas A. Brauninger

WHAT'S HAPPENING? First Point Of Action As Jesus walks along, he sees a congenitally blind man. Second Point Of Action Jesus' conversation with the disciples: The disciples question him about whose sin, the parents' or the man's, caused the man's blindness. Rejecting the notion that sin causes blindness, Jesus notes God's purpose in the blindness. Jesus uses the light of the world metaphor. Third Point Of Action Jesus heals the blind man: Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud with the saliva, and spreads it ...

3219. Moving At The Speed Of Light: In Corinth Or Cana?

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

It is hard to know what more can be said about marriage. Weddings are stressors. The planning, the showers, the many opinions, the money, the lists, the social pressures ... who can survive a wedding? The summer before my teenage bride and I were wed in our September nuptials, we worked as lifeguards at a local swimming pool, making buckets of money. We were between our sophomore and junior years in college and had all the worldly possessions that one would expect from two who had partially furnished two ...

3220. In The Beginning

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Drama

Jerry Eckert

June 20, 1982 Comment: "Why don't you do sermons as stories?" my wife suggested. "You tell stories well and people seem to like them. Besides, you won't end up criticizing us as often!" My wife has a way about her. That was all I needed to try it out. Who wants to be preached at? I surely didn't! The first time I tried the following sermon in its current format, I served a church which had a lay person who had taken university level courses in Old Testament. How do you preach to someone with that kind of ...

3221. Easter 7

John 17:6-19, Acts 1:12-26, 1 John 5:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: The church organizes for mission and Christ prays that the ways of the world will not subvert that mission but that the Father would keep them in his grace. COMMENTARY Epistle: Acts 1:15-26 The post-resurrection church begins very small, some 120 souls. Once again, Peter takes the lead in filling the slot left by the bloody death of Judas. They selected two men who met the criteria: (1) They had witnessed the resurrected Jesus and they were in the company of Jesus' disciples since the baptism of ...

3222. See the Light, Be the Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Johnny Dean

You have come today, as most of you regularly do, to worship God. You’ve come to pray, to hear the reading of Scripture, to sing songs of praise, and to be reassured by the presence of your neighbor. But there may be an additional reason many of you have come today, one that you may or may not be aware of: curiosity. What hymns will we sing today? Will they be the old standards the church has been singing for a thousand years or will the preacher or the choir director try to make us learn one that was ...

3223. Storms of Life

Mark 5:21-43

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: Having faith involves taking risk. Props: Four envelopes labeled 1 through 4. In the respective envelopes place the following: two quarters, two dollars, five dollars, and a band-aid. Prop the envelopes up at the top of the stairs or railing in sequence. As the children arrive sit with them facing the envelopes. Hold in your hand the envelope with the two quarters. Lesson: Good morning. We are going to play a game today called risk takers. Who wants to play? (response) I have in my hand an ...

3224. If Only We Could Remember ...

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

On the back page of our capitol city’s daily newspaper there are two columns headed "Divorces Filed" and "Divorces Granted." Sometimes when I glance at that back page and see the lists, I read through the names, and I wonder what kind of stories lie behind them. What happened to John and Cathy, to Bill and Sue, to Joe and Betty? I can almost picture the high moments in their lives as they made plans for their weddings, almost sense all the expectations that they carried into their marriages. Now, because ...

3225. Is Repentance Necessary?

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Is repentance really necessary? If so, for whom? Whom does it satisfy? According to the teachings of the Bible, in the Old and New Testaments, which is the source book of authority for our faith and preaching, the answer is "yes;" repentance is necessary. It is not for God; God has not sinned. Repentance is for us. It satisfies God because God intends that we return to him that we might live and know salvation and peace. In the Old Testament repentance is largely associated with the whole nation of Israel ...

Showing results