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 3301 to 3325 of 4490 results

3301. The Reality Of The Resurrection

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Brett Blair

Here we are in the year 2003. It still fills me with a bit of awe that I witnessed the turn of the millennium. We are looking back this year and celebrating some amazing things that happened, things that seemed impossible in their day. There are three major celebrations. Perhaps you are aware of them: We are celebrating a centennial: 100 years ago few people thought it possible that man could fly. No one except the two sons of Rev. Milton Wright who at 10:35 on the morning of Dec. 17, 1903 made their first ...

3302. Stop Following Your Shadow

Mark 8:27-38

Illustration

Robert Salzgeber

There is a fable about a man who lived in the desert. He would wake up every morning and follow his shadow. So as the sun moved across the sky from east to west the man essentially walked in a large oval. At sundown he ended up where he had started. This continued for years. The man walked in circles day after day, following his shadow. One night the man heard the voice of God in a dream while he slept. The voice told him to stop following his shadow. Instead, "Follow the sun," the voice challenged, "And ...

3303. Good News for Bad Times

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"Mail Early" is a slogan we often see and hear during these Advent days. The Postal Service would like the four billion Christmas cards sent annually in America in the mail by this second Sunday in Advent. American families send Christmas greetings costing an average of 35 cents per card plus a 32 cent stamp to send it. This amounts to a cost of $2.68 billion. That is a tremendous amount of money, time and trouble invested in just sending season's greetings to friends and families. What message could be ...

3304. Salvation Includes Social Justice

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

On this last Sunday of the Church Year (we call it Christ the King Sunday) our attention is directed to the reign of Christ — to his glorious reign which has already begun with the resurrection on Easter. It is a Sunday to think about salvation, because where Christ reigns salvation is effected. These themes are especially evident in our First Lesson. Jeremiah conducted his ministry in Judah (the Southern Kingdom of the Hebrews ruled by David’s heirs and centered in the great capital of Jerusalem) in ...

3305. When God Does A New Thing

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

The woman whose heart is broken because her husband cheated on her cannot get past that experience and has vowed never to love again. Two brothers have not spoken to each other in years because a business they built together failed due to the skimming of profits by the older brother. The young man who has not visited or spoken to his mother and father in ten years because of an abusive childhood cannot bring himself to forget the past, forgive his parents, and move on with his life. These are just a few ...

3306. Saturday Night Live?

Drama

Dave Marsh

Director's Notes: So, as we grow as Christians, the folks we hang out with begin to change. It's inevitable (and understandable) that we spend more time with friends from our church and see our non-Christian friends less often. Of course, you see the problem - we can't barricade ourselves behind the church or our select friends. Without compromising our convictions, we need to be a witness to our friends and, especially, not be judgmental! Anyway, this drama throws a humorous look at that. Cast: Jeff: A ...

3307. The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

It is always sad when nations go to war. In recent years the sadness has been magnified because just a little more than a decade ago, we seemed so close to a lasting peace. The wall had gone down in Berlin. Eastern Europe had opened up. The cold war with Russia had thawed… and at that time in the early 1990s, we thought, “Finally! At long last, we can have a peaceful world. But then suddenly on August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait launching a crescendo of tension-packed events that led to the Persian Gulf ...

3308. The Imperatives of the Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Do you like to be told what to do? Some do. Some don't. But there are times when even the "don't's" want all the help they can get. After all, there are times when we would have no idea how to proceed WITHOUT some instruction. I suspect that would have been the case if we had been in the garden with the women on that first Easter morning so long ago. Had we all been there, we would have been glad to get any direction at all, because without it, we would have been wandering around like chickens with our ...

3309. The Last Laugh

Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

An old, old story has a fellow coming to the most famous and expensive doctor in town. From the very beginning the patient admitted that there was no way he could afford the physician's $500 fee, but he happened to catch the Doc on a generous day and the fee was reduced to $400. "But Doctor," pleaded the man, "I have a wife and six kids to feed." The fee was reduced to $250. "But Doc, that's a month's rent." Eventually, the fellow's begging and poor-mouthing got the fee down to $100 then $50 and finally to ...

3310. Remembering the Good Old Days

Numbers 14:1-10a

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Some of you may remember the name John Gilbert, a famous actor of silent film days, a "sexy" leading man. His career declined with the advent of "talkies" because his high, thin voice was not at all what folks had imagined of this great screen lover. Gilbert was once called on short notice to play the role of the heroine's father in a Chicago production. He learned his lines in record time, but was still struggling to remember the name of his character, Numitorius, when the play opened. A colleague ...

3311. The Imperatives of the Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

3312. God's Plan For Empowerment

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you know that there was once a sit-down strike in space? It's true. This strike occurred on the Skylab 4 flight in December 1973. Ground control in Houston was trying to make this final space mission as profitable as possible. They scheduled the astronauts' days so tightly that they were even forbidden to participate in their favorite pastime ” watching the sun and the earth. Houston daily "sent up about six feet of instructions to the astronauts' teleprinter." The civilian physicist on board begged ...

3313. Broken Hydrants

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Sermon

King Duncan

At the corner of East 179th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, there stand two fire hydrants. On one corner, standing in cracked concrete, is an old hydrant, faded and rusty. Litter and weeds crowd around its base, all but obscuring a black band painted around its middle. On the opposite corner there is a newer hydrant. The concrete is whole and solid. The paint is fresh. And when disaster strikes, the fire fighters will attach their hoses to it, rather than its forlorn-looking cousin across the ...

3314. On Being Mistaken For A Mannequin

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

King Duncan

The sign on the stage proclaimed, "The Motionless Man: Make Him Laugh. Win $100." The temptation was irresistible. For three hours boys and girls, men and women performed every antic and told every joke they could dream up. But Bill Fuqua, the Motionless Man, stood perfectly still. Luis Palau in his book HEALTHY HABITS FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH, tells about Fuqua, the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS champion at doing nothing. Fuqua, says Palau, appears so motionless during his routines at shopping malls and ...

3315. Comfort My People

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that people are funny? It makes no difference what time of the year, people are funny. Maybe you read the story in the newspapers this time last year about a young Romeo in France who was trying to woo his girlfriend Santa Claus-style. Attempting a surprise visit to his girlfriend while her parents were away, the youth climbed down the chimney of the girl's home. On his way down, he became trapped in the narrow flue and called for help. Firemen, alerted by the girlfriend, said they ...

3316. The Problem With The Big Ten

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Book publisher Bennett Cerf once told about a book called THE TEN COMMANDMENTS which was to be published for the armed services during World War II. Unfortunately the book was too long. "How about using only five of them," quipped one of his editors, "and calling it A TREASURY OF THE WORLD'S BEST COMMANDMENTS?" That's what we would like, isn't it ” take out five and have a treasury of our favorite commandments? It's like a fellow who walked out of church after the service one Sunday. He shook hands with ...

3317. Yearning For Rejection; Thriving On Insults

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

A young single man checked into a Hilton Hotel. A card left on his pillow said, "Turn down service available, 7-10 p.m." The message meant that a housekeeper was available to turn down the covers on the bed during those hours. This young man saw a different message. "Why would you ever want a service like that?" he asked. "A turn down service ” unless you have incredibly low self-esteem." He added, "Usually my turn downs come long before 7 p.m.." Have you ever been turned down? Rejected? Insulted? A group ...

3318. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

John 6:25-59

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever heard someone describe something they are pleased with like this: "It's the greatest thing since sliced bread." That phrase is meaningless to most of us. Here's the rest of the story. The first electric toaster appeared in 1909. It toasted one side at a time and required constant vigilance: when the toast was done, you pulled the plug. The first automatic electric toaster was designed in 1919 by Charles Strite, a man sick and tired of burned toast. Americans were skeptical at first about ...

3319. Follow that Dream

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

In 1872, at the age of 16, Booker T. Washington decided he wanted to go to school. For a boy, born a slave to a plantation cook in Virginia, who had no idea who his white father was, this was a huge step. He decided that he would enter the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. With nothing more than a small satchel of clothing, he started walking from Malden, West Virginia, 500 miles away. Eventually he made it to Richmond, about eighty miles from his destination. He worked there for a few days unloading ...

3320. It Makes No Difference Where You Belong

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

Religion has always been a rich vein for humorists to mine, particularly the differences between denominations. For example, two men were in an airplane and the plane developed engine trouble. It was clear that they were going to be killed. One said to the other, "Well, this is it. We are going to die. Are you religious?" The other one said, "No, are you?" The first one said, "No. I'm not either. We ought to do something religious, though, because we're going to be dead in a few seconds. Don't you remember ...

3321. A Pentecostal Church

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

In the days of the great California gold rush some prospectors discovered a very rich mine. "We've got it made," they said, "As long as we don't tell anybody else before we stake our claims." And they made a vow of secrecy. But they had to go into town for provisions and tools. When they left the town, a great host of people followed them. Why? Their "secret" was written all over their faces. It was impossible for them to hide what they had found. A gifted speaker was asked what was his most difficult ...

3322. Finding Jesus

John 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

Bill Bryson traveled to Hannibal, Missouri, to visit the boyhood home of author, Mark Twain. The house was a "trim, white-washed house with green shutters, set incongruously in the middle of downtown." It cost two dollars to walk around the site. Bryson found the house a disappointment. "It purported to be a faithful reproduction of the original interiors," he writes, "but there were wires and water sprinklers clumsily evident in every room. I also very much doubt that young Samuel Clemens’ bedroom had ...

3323. You Can Face Your Giant

1 Samuel 17:1-58

Sermon

King Duncan

One spring day a tornado touched down in West Texas near Paul's home. He was only three or four years old. At the first hint of trouble his father hustled all the children inside, laid them and their mother on the floor together, and covered them with a mattress. His father explained that they would be safe there. But as they waited out the tornado, Paul realized that his father had not climbed under the mattress with them. Paul peeked out to discover his dad standing at the window, watching the funnel ...

3324. Jesus And The Lake Wobegon Effect

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

A scandal is brewing in the hallowed halls of Academe. It has to do with test scores given to our young people. A West Virginia doctor noticed sometime back that all 50 states claim that their students score above average on standardized test scores. That, of course, is impossible ” for everyone to be above average. Someone has even given this scandal a thoughtful name ” the Lake Wobegon effect. Lake Wobegon is author Garrison Keillor's mythical town where "All the women are strong, all the men are good ...

3325. Our Damascus Road Experience

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that most of us fit into one of four styles of behavior? That's what some psychologists tell us ” four distinct styles of behavior. Some of us are dominant. Dominant folks like to be in control. Nobody has to ask dominant people what they think. They are blunt, direct ” fast to make judgements and ready to take action. Then there are those for whom life is a party. These are "people" people. They like to talk. They are very animated. They like meeting new friends. Their nature is ...

Showing results