Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
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 3426 to 3450 of 5000 results
Sermon
Michael L. Sherer
A wealthy architect, whose self-designed rambling lake home was the envy of the entire city, was given to hosting lavish dinner parties. They were always the event of the social season, and the folks who were invited always knew they were on a special list. One year the architect changed tactics. Instead of mailing special invitations, he simply ran an advertisement in the personals column of the Sunday classifieds in the metropolitan newspaper. "Masquerade Party!" the heading read, in type no larger - and ...
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
On Hampton Plantation in coastal South Carolina there used to live an elderly sharecropper, illiterate but very wise. One of his favorite sayings was this: If you ain’t in trouble, your prayers ain’t got no suction.” The Bible declares that our extremity is God’s opportunity. God is most likely to be found at your wit’s end, just when you need Him most, when you have run out of answers and almost out of hope. Consider the great prophets of the Old Testament: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. ...
3428. Living in the Past
Matthew 3:1-12
Illustration
William B. Kincaid, III
On the television show M*A*S*H, Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III made it clear what separated him from everybody else. "I'm a Winchester," he was heard to say more than once. For him, it was his family name that made him superior to everyone else. Other people carry other burdens. One woman received her education at Harvard and found a way to work Harvard into every conversation. Congregations fall victim to the same problem. Churches become satisfied with their pasts to the point that they do not make ...
Bulletin Aid
James Wilson
Call To Worship Leader: Come all who would hear the call to proclaim God's prophetic word. People: We are called to take light where there is darkness and despair. Leader: We are called to carry hope to lives where hope has been lost. People: We are called to share God's Love so all might know true Life itself. Leader: We are called to proclaim God's mercy and grace for all to hear. All: Blessed be the name of the Lord! Collect O God, we come before You today asking You to hear our prayers of recommitment ...
3430. Midnight Turned Into High Noon
Isaiah 42:10-17, Isaiah 42:18-25
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
"... I will turn the darkness before them into light ..." David Hume, the philospher, once wrote an essay on the sufficiency of the light of nature for man’s spiritual matters. About the same time, F. W. Robertson, a noted minister, published a sermon upholding the opposite thesis, pointing out that the light of nature needs to be supplemented by the light of a revelation from God. Mutual friends of the philosopher and preacher decided to bring the two together to debate the matter. When the evening ended ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and he set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord God, thou knowest." Again he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Misinformation is often passed around as Gospel truth. It is like the two little boys who were talking between themselves. One of them couldn’t understand why they had holes in their tummies - where did their belly-buttons come from? But his little five-year-old friend had a ready answer. "Oh, that’s easy," he said. "You see, God makes ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
Now when he had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven." And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:50-51) The ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
"... wait for the Promise of the Father." When you were a child, did your parents ever say to you, as mine said to me, "Hold your horses!" I must have heard that phrase literally hundreds of times as I was growing up: when I wanted school to be out for the summer, when I fretted because a meal was not ready, when I wanted to do something exciting "now," when I spoke too hastily, when I demanded something be done immediately, when I couldn’t stand still while mother measured a hem in a skirt - I can hear it ...
Sermon
Dennis Kastens
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive ...
3437. Laborers Needed for the Harvest
Matthew 9:35-38, Matthew 10:1-42
Sermon
Dennis Kastens
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them ...
3438. Echoes of Eternity
Matthew 10:24-32
Sermon
Dennis Kastens
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops. And do not fear those who ...
3439. We Know Exactly How You Feel, Jesus
Matthew 8:3, Luke 7:14, Luke 8:44
Sermon
Frank Luchsinger
Oh, Christmas has come and gone, but its scent lingers: spiced cider, evergreen, bayberry candles, cookies baking, popcorn, ham and scalloped potatoes, chestnuts roasting, and hot chocolate. Christmas has come, and its scent lingers: the aroma of newspaper casually read by a crackling fire or the smell of a new book received as a gift; pungent chemicals of instant pictures developing, or tempera paint on a homemade gift; play- dough, silly putty, gift perfume or cologne, shoe polish applied generously for ...
3440. What’s God Going to Do With You?
Hosea 5:1-15, Hosea 6:1--7:16
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
What shall I do with you, o Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. "What in the world am I going to do with you?" Have you ever heard that before or said it? A mother shakes her head at a child who is always getting dirty and asks, "What am I going to do with you?" A husband, like Hosea, has a faithless wife, and each time he takes her back, he despairingly asks, "What am I going to do with you?" A criminal appears before a judge ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
And they set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my possession among all ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord; and the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words which you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. Yet hear now this word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: "I am the first and the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any." In the good times of life, it is easy to believe ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
There he came to a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." And he said, "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great ...
3445. Count Me In!
Isaiah 56:1-8
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
"My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." He drew a circle that shut me out - Heretic, Rebel, a thing to flout! But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in! The world is forever drawing circles that shut people out. In a polite way we say, "By invitation only" or "Reserved." Books are copyrighted so that no one, except by permission, may duplicate any portion of them. Trade names, such as "Coca-Cola" and "Orkin," are registered to prevent others from copying ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
"Moreover I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold in bondage and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment, and I will take you for my people, and I will be your God.’ " When someone does not care, bitterly we say in the vernacular, "He does not ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil which we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, ‘Say to Joseph, Forgive, I pray you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, we pray you, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord'; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Two young boys were close friends ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise, O dwellers of the dust, awake and sing for joy! But some one will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" (1 Corinthians 15:35) "Body Shop," "Body Control," "Body Power," "Body Wisdom," "Body Glow" - so say the newspaper ads urging us to do something about our bodies. Today we are a body-conscious people. We believe in body building through exercise. In America, there are 10,000,000 joggers, 15,000,000 serious swimmers, 25,000,000 ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
"And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken." "And he made us kings and priests unto God and his Father." (Revelation 1:6a [KJV]) A four-year-old boy was about to have a birthday. His mother told him he could have any kind of party he wanted. He asked for a party where everyone would be a king or queen. In preparation for his big day, ...
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