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 3401 to 3425 of 4935 results

3401. God's Call for All

Acts 9:35-43

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

A church in Pennsylvania reported the death of one of their members recently. Though this woman and her husband, who had died a few years before, had been immensely wealthy, people spoke not of their wealth, although they were very generous, but of what this woman did. They talked about the cookies she would bake for church functions, the in-home visiting she did, the leadership she provided for the youth, and the soapsuds that lathered her arms as she did dishes after every church dinner. People felt the ...

3402. I Am the Alpha and the Omega

Revelation 1:1-3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Most of you here today would know the name Lloyd C. Douglas, the author of The Robe and Ben Hur. Mr. Douglas shares an experience out of his early life when he was a student at the university. He lived in a boarding house, and on the first floor below him, lived an old man who was a retired music teacher. The fella was infirm and was no longer able to walk. And Lloyd C. Douglas said that each day they would share a ritual together. He would come down the stairway and knock on the music teacher’s door and ...

3403. A Stone’s Throw From: Temptation

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Have you ever noticed how on some signs the message which was intended isn't the one that comes across? Like the one in a Department Store which announced: "Bargain Basement Is Upstairs." Or how about these signs: "Show Signs" My favorite is actually a mistranslation, at least I hope. I'm pretty sure they meant valuables but the sign in a Paris hotel read: "Please leave your values at the front desk." Unfortunately, many people do that without being told. And sometimes we are tempted to leave our values ...

3404. Like a Venomous Snake

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Radio preacher and best-selling author Chuck Swindoll once spoke to a group of pastors. He told about a man who was mountain climbing in the Sierra Mountains of California. In one particularly difficult section of his climb, he pulled himself on to a ledge only to find a six‑foot timber rattlesnake looking at him with his mouth open and tail rattling. The man froze. The rattler struck. The man moved so that the snake’s fangs barely missed grazing his neck. Still, the snake’s fangs got caught in the man’s ...

3405. A Chance To Dance

Luke 5:17-25

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

He was born Fredrick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska in 1899. His stage and film career spanned a total of seventy-six years, during which he made thirty-one movie musical. He's generally acknowledged to have been the most influential dancer in the history of film and television. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. In 1932, a Hollywood talent agent made this note on his screen test: "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little." The screen test was clearly ...

3406. When a Person Is Called

Galatians 1:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Galatians is the Magna Carta of evangelical Christianity. It is Paul’s great declaration of religious freedom a freedom that involves independence from men and dependence on God. Today, I’ll be sharing with you in three sessions a series of sermons on Galatians, this landmark profession of Paul’s Christian experience. I will not be doing a verse by verse exposition, but will “preach through’ the book, concentrating on the major themes an on those signal passages that are the heart and soul of Paul’s ...

3407. Lost and Found

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

A group of boys and girls were trying to find a game to play. “Why don’t we play Hide and Seek?” asked Billy. “No way,” said Sally. “I’m afraid I’ll get hid and nobody will be able to find me. Then everybody will go home and I will be lost.” “Lost and Found.” It’s such a common predicament that the classifieds run a special section for it each day. In Nashville this weekend somebody lost a small, black, fluffy, female cat near Thompson Lane. Somebody else found a silver-grey Schnauzer Terrier dog around ...

3408. God, What Are You Up To?

Genesis 12:1-9

Sermon

Stan Purdum

One of the better programs on television from 2003 to 2005 was a series on CBS called Joan of Arcadia. Like many thoughtful shows, this one did not score high enough to stay on the air for long, but it did last two seasons. The title alludes to Joan of Arc, the fifteenth-century teenager who believed she heard the voice of God urging her to save France from England during the Hundred Years War. That Joan led an army into battle, successfully forcing the British to retreat from Orleans. Later, captured by ...

3409. Made Perfect In Weakness

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

When Ben Franklin was the ambassador to France for the newly independent United States of America, his quick wit and well-thought wisdom opened many doors for him and for this new country. At one dinner in 1781 where the guest list included the powers of the day, the French foreign secretary began the dinner with a toast to King Louis XVI, "To His Majesty, King Louis, the Sun, whose shining presence radiates the earth of France." Not to be outdone, the British ambassador rose with the toast, "To King ...

3410. Chosen

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Have you ever thought about the company you keep? Who you hang with? The people you associate with? Most of us don't. Our parents did or do when we're teenagers. Who you are associated with, who you're friends are, sometimes says a lot about who you are. Sometimes who you choose as friends says a lot about your own reputation. In the movie Shanghai Noon (which is rated PG-13) Jackie Chan plays Chon Wang, a Chinese imperial guard who is on a mission to save a kidnapped Chinese princess in the Old West. He ...

3411. Because I Live (Memorial Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Actor Martin Sheen is known for his deep religious and social convictions. Some of you will remember him best for his role as President Bartlett in the television show “The West Wing.” Sheen shared with motivational speaker Tony Robbins an interesting story about something that happened to him while he was making the movie Apocalypse Now. The cast had been filming under a grueling schedule deep in the jungles of the Philippines. After a restless night, Sheen woke up the next morning and realized he was ...

3412. The Receptive Heart

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

Life is a matter of attitude. All the great motivational speakers tell us that. To succeed in life, attitude is critical. Of course, not everyone has a great attitude. In fact, some people have a downright rotten attitude. The Internet carried an item recently that reflects a rotten attitude. It is called the “Cynic’s Guide to Life.” It’s a clever take-off on some of life’s familiar clichés. See if you recognize any of these: The journey of a thousand miles . . . begins with . . . a broken fan belt and a ...

3413. See Something, Say Something, Do Something, Be Something

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It is the key you click before you can do anything. It is the box you check before you can go anywhere. You know what it is. It’s a “Terms of Service.” You are online and you sign on to some website that has the information or product you’ve been searching for. But before you are granted access to that portal you must endure the “Terms of Service” claimer/disclaimer. The “term of service” barrier is the twenty-first century version of the cherubim with flailing; flaming swords set up to guard the Garden of ...

3414. The Keys to Effective Praying

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to begin with a true but incredible story. Back in September 1996 a man named Edouardo Sierra, a citizen of Spain, was on a business trip to Sweden. He was driving through the Swedish countryside when he came upon a Catholic church. He decided to stop in for a few moments to say a prayer. The church was empty except for a coffin with a body lying at rest inside it. Edouardo decided to take a few moments to stop and pray for the man who lay in the coffin. Then he signed a book of remembrance left by ...

3415. Soiled Faith and Watered-Down Churches

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Some of us are born with green thumbs — able to water and plant barren landscapes into lush gardens. Some of us are born with gangrene thumbs — unable even to grow a “Chia Pet.” Some people are born with the ability to take things apart and put things back together. They are handy-dandy, fixer-uppers from the get go. But in the most shallow part of the wading area of that “fixer-upper” gene pool, there are those of us who should never be allowed to handle hammers, screwdrivers, or saws. There are those ( ...

3416. All In: Skin In the Game

Malachi 3:6-18

Sermon

James Merritt

One of the richest men in the United States is Warren Buffet, who is probably the most famous investor in modern times. He said that in his experience the high-ranking insiders and corporate leaders who do the best job in running their company are those people who invest heavily in their own stock. He said the higher up you go on the corporate ladder the more you ought to have “Skin In The Game.” If you are a college football fan, whatever your team might be, you probably at one time or another have or ...

3417. Those Amazing Two Words (Thanksgiving)

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor Doug Henry tells about a television commercial from Citibank. The bank wanted to say “thank you” to their customers for using their credit cards, so they were starting a rewards program whereby you could earn cash back just for using their card. One of the commercials involved two ladies in a grocery store. One lady put her hand on the stomach of the other and asked her when her baby was due. The woman looks at her and says, “I’m not pregnant.” Oops! Not knowing what else to say, the woman replies ...

3418. Jesus Heals Body and Soul

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

Two of our greatest presidents were born in February, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. One of the things I love about Lincoln was his sense of humor. Abe Lincoln laughed at himself, and especially at his appearance. He was reportedly a very plain looking man. I particularly like one story that Lincoln told on himself. He said, “Sometimes I feel like the ugly man who met an old woman traveling through a forest. “The old woman said, ‘You’re the ugliest man I ever saw.’ “‘I can’t help it,’ the ugly man ...

3419. The Peaceable Kingdom

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

What difference does my life make for others around me? What difference does anyone's life make? It's always a question related to parenting. Parents make choices that affect the manner in which their children form their identities. Harry Chapin put it well in his song, Cat's in the Cradle. When he was a young father he was too busy making a living to be bothered by his son. When he was finally old enough to enjoy time with the family, his son had learned to be too busy for him! Of course, the other side ...

3420. A Lost Boy

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

King Duncan

(Growing Strong in the Season of Lent, Lent 4) A father tells of putting his 4-year-old daughter to bed one evening. He read her the story of the Prodigal Son. They discussed how the younger son had taken his inheritance and left home, living it up until he had nothing left. Finally, when he couldn’t even eat as well as the pigs, he went home to his father, who welcomed him. When they finished the story, the Dad asked his daughter what she had learned. After thinking a moment, she quipped, “Never leave ...

3421. Paul in Ephesus

Acts 19:1-22

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

This section and the one before it are a pair. They are both concerned with the relationship of Christianity to an imperfect form of the faith—“the baptism of John.” In this case Paul deals with the situation himself. These verses include also a brief description of his ministry in Ephesus, aspects of which are illustrated in the following section. But again we must turn to Paul’s letters to fill out our knowledge of these years. They show that his achievement in Ephesus was at the cost of much suffering ( ...

3422. Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

A Plea and a Vision: Chapter 3 opens with a new heading that is even comparable to that of the book as a whole (1:1), and the chapter closes with its own concluding footnote (v. 19b). The heading designates it as a “prayer,” which takes the narrow form of a plea (v. 2) and of a declaration of trust in Yahweh (vv. 16–19). The main body of the chapter (vv. 3–15) comprises a description of Yahweh’s coming which is both an answer to the plea and the basis for the declaration of trust. While the book would not ...

3423. The Impending Departure II

John 16:5-16, John 16:17-33

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

The second farewell discourse runs most closely parallel to the first precisely where it is most properly a “farewell” (i.e., where it addresses directly the question of Jesus’ impending departure; cf. 13:33). Here, inevitably, is also where the differences between the two discourses become most noticeable. Whereas the first discourse was largely structured around a series of questions by various disciples, here the question-and-answer method seems to be consciously abandoned. The earlier discourse began ...

3424. The Christian’s New Dominion: Dedicated to Righteousness

Romans 6:15-23

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

Big Idea: The familiar contrast that runs from 5:12 through 6:14 continues in 6:15–23: the law of Moses cannot rescue from sin, which leads to death, but the grace of God in Christ engenders righteousness, which leads to eternal life. The new component of this contrast in 6:15–23 is Paul’s usage of the metaphor of slavery. Understanding the Text Romans 6:15–23 continues Paul’s enumeration, begun in 6:1–14, of the blessings of the new dominion as a part of the new covenant. Romans 6:1–14 was devoted to the ...

3425. Accept His Peace

John 4:1-26, Romans 5:1-11, Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

It was the deciding round of play of the 1983 U.S. Open golf tournament. A player named Larry Nelson was tied for first place. But then he hit a difficult situation. His approach shot to the sixteenth green left him sixty-two feet from the hole. His fans groaned. In the world of golf, sinking a sixty-two-foot putt is about as likely as a hole-in-one. Larry Nelson paused for a long moment. Then he raised his head, sized up the terrain, and stroked his ball. It rolled downhill for a spell, then up an incline ...

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