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 4938 results
Understanding Series
Norman Hillyer
The Stone—Living and Deadly Peter now turns from exhorting his readers to conduct that befits their life within the believing community to inviting them to consider the nature of that community which Christ has brought into existence. 2:4 The shift to stone from the figure of “milk” (v. 2) is unexpected and seemingly without reason. But for a Jewish reader there is a natural succession of ideas in this passage—not milk: stone, but the Hebraic one of babes: house. A helpful illustration is in Genesis 16:2. ...
Understanding Series
Elizabeth Achtemeier
God’s Case against the Foreign Nations (3:1-8): 3:1–3 The NIV has eliminated two important words in the translation of verse 1. In the Hebrew, the verse begins, “For behold,” which not only connects this passage with the preceding poem, but also emphasizes the content of verses 1–4. In 2:28–32, Joel has announced those signs that will precede the coming of the day of the Lord. He now tells what will happen at the time of the day itself. When the day comes, God will save Israel (v. 1) but will gather ...
Understanding Series
Pamela J. Scalise
Reverence for God’s Name: The second speech continues the theme of family relationships and domestic life as a metaphor for Israel’s life with God. Verse 6 introduces the Lord as a father figure and master of a patriarchal household. By the contempt they have shown for the Lord’s table and the food placed on it, the priests have fouled their own home, hurt the other family members, and brought the name of the Lord, their father and master, into disrepute. Yet an opportunity for restoration and renewal ...
Understanding Series
F. F. Bruce
First Conclusion: Call to Rejoice “With this communication about Epaphroditus now the epistle seems to be at an end” (Ewald, ad loc.). If so, nothing remains but a final word of greeting. The reader is therefore prepared for Finally. 3:1 Finally: the natural inference from this phrase (drawn by most commentators) is that Paul is on the point of finishing his letter. If the letter be regarded as a unity, it must be assumed that something suddenly occurred to him which prompted the warning of verse 2 with ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
A son at college was seeking to apply pressure for more money from his dad. In a letter home he wrote: “I can’t understand why you call yourself a loving father when you haven’t sent me a check for three weeks. What kind of love do you call that?” The father wrote back, “That’s unremitting love!” [1] We smile at that. Some of us may even chuckle, though not out loud, because we have all been there. But who has ever really defined love that way? Unremitting. We usually think of it in completely opposite ...
Sermon
Robert Leslie Holmes
A pastor friend who lived in an apartment complex in San Francisco tells about the time that he and his wife parked their brand new Honda Accord under cover in the secured parking area next to their apartment complex. The next day they decided to celebrate the purchase of that new car by going out to breakfast together. Not only would they enjoy eating out together, it would give them another opportunity to drive their new automobile. Leaving the apartment building, they greeted the guard on duty at the ...
3432. Called to Bigness
Isaiah 58:1-12, Matthew 5:13-20
Sermon
James L. Killen
Lots of Christians think of Judaism as a worn-out, rigid old religion that needs to be replaced. Apparently Jesus didn't think that way. When Jesus gave the teachings that are parts of the Sermon on the Mount, he was speaking as a Jew to Jews. He apparently thought of himself as part of a vital religious tradition through which God had been at work for centuries and through which God was just about to do something new and even greater. When Jesus spoke of fulfilling the law and the prophets, he was calling ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Robert Lewis in his book Real Family Values tells a fascinating story about a remarkable, heartwarming discovery workers at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Ohio, made in the winter of 1993. While renovating a section of the museum, they found a photograph that had been hidden in a crevice underneath a display case. The man in the picture had a bat resting on his shoulder; he was wearing a uniform with the words “Sinclair Oil” printed across his chest; his demeanor was gentle and friendly. Stapled ...
Sermon
King Duncan
When you were a kid what superpower did you want to have? Flying like Superman? Scaling tall buildings like Spiderman? What superpower did you want to have and how did you want to use it? I thought about that recently when I saw a question which was posted on the website forum Reddit. The question was, “If you could have a useless superpower, what would it be?” Did you catch that--a useless superpower? Here’s one response that came in to that question: “The ability to win at rock- paper-scissors every ...
3435. The Healing Tree
Revelation 22:1-6, Luke 8:1-15
Sermon
Lori Wagner
“Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” --Ezekiel 47:12 “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will ...
3436. Missional Discontinuity
Mark 6:30-44, Mark 6:45-56
Sermon
Dean Feldmeyer
What is it with Americans and work? We work, on average, 1,836 hours a year, more than just about anyone else in the industrialized world, and we take less vacation. 42% of working Americans don’t take any vacation at all and, of those who do, 61% report that they were working when they should have been playing!1 Paid time off makes up, on average, 7% of an American workers’ compensation package but most workers don’t collect all that they are entitled to. In fact, according to Fortune magazine, the ...
Sermon
King Duncan
In a civilized society, there are laws that cover almost every facet of human life. And sometimes those laws can be overreaching or burdensome. It’s the price we pay for living as part of a community instead of as a bunch of unorganized loners. But at least most of our laws make sense. Maybe we’d complain less about the laws of our state or town if we lived in a town where there are laws that don’t make any sense. For example, how about a law against dying? That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it, to create a ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
Introduction Roller coasters are becoming more and more popular in America; they are being built taller, and longer, and faster - and nearly every major theme and play park seems to have one. In a world that keeps us as dizzy as being on a roller coaster, or at best we have a suspicion that we are being used as a yo-yo, trying to meet the demands of all the strident voices about us. So, when a church event that has its anniversary on a certain Thursday every year - not even a Sunday - we find it a bit ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
A Sunday school teacher asked her young elementary class where God lives. After the usual answers of heaven, church, and in our hearts, Bobby spoke up and said, “God lives in the bathroom at our house." The surprised teacher asked Bobby to explain his answer. “Well," said Bobby, “every morning about 7:30 my Dad gets up, walks down the hall, beats on the bathroom door where my sister is locked inside getting ready for school. Then he screams, ‘My God are you still in there?' God lives in the bathroom at our ...
3440. Proper 26
Psalm 65:1-13, Psalm 145:1-21, Psalm 32:1-11, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, Haggai 2:1-9, Exodus 34:1-28, Isaiah 1:1-31, Luke 19:1-10
Sermon Aid
George Bass
THEOLOGICAL CLUE The "count" of the Sundays in this period of the year tells those initiated in the mysteries of the church year that it is approaching its conclusion. This, the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, is the last of the Sundays of Pentecost to be used with any frequency over the years; Easter has to occur in March in order for the number of Sundays in Pentecost to surpass 25, including Christ the King Sunday. One might begin Tennyson's In Memoriam on this Sunday - for the church, not the ...
3441. Holy Arithmetic!
Matthew 28:16-20
Sermon
Johnny Dean
It hardly seems possible, but it’s been almost 12 years now since I first stepped into a pulpit to preach. In fact, it was the second Sunday in June 1987. How well I remember that terrifying experience! Shortly after I had gone to my pastor and talked with him concerning this vague sense of calling to ministry that I was experiencing, he suggested that I preach while he was on vacation. By doing that, I could get some sense of what preaching was about and perhaps help to determine if that was the direction ...
3442. Weed-Pulling
Matthew 13:24-30
Sermon
Richard Patt
"Jesus told them another parable: 'The Kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up. The man's servants came to him and said, "Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?" "It was some enemy who did this," he answered. "Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?" they ...
3443. 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 ...
3444. Holy Tares!
Matthew 13:24-30
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
Another parable he put before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said, to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us ...
Sermon
Jerry L. Schmalemberger
There is a way of looking at the personal stories of certain women and men to learn of the richness and the potential of human life lived by the grace of God. We are going to do that over the next weeks in this series of sermons we have chosen to name "Saints Who Shaped the Church." The people we will consider convey something of the breadth of Christian history. They are a rich assortment of young and old, learned and ignorant, people of action and people of thought, whose common denominator is simply ...
Sermon
Richard L. Eslinger
Advent rushes to a finish. You know how hectic this next week will be. "Only (you fill in the blank) more days until Christmas," and there is an awful lot to be done. There is the last-minute shopping, rubbing shoulders with all the other last-minute people. Then, toward the end of the week, the planning and procuring for the big Christmas dinner begins. But we’ll probably forget something essential to the menu and be back at the supermarket on Christmas Eve, too. Here at church there is as much bustle as ...
Sermon
William G. Carter
A few years ago, I accepted an invitation to preach in a church in upstate New York. The sermon was based on Matthew’s version of what we have just heard from the Gospel of Luke: “Turn the other cheek. Give to everyone who begs from you. Pray for those who curse you. And love your enemies.” These are nearly impossible words to put into practice, much less hear, and I said as much in my sermon. Jesus is instructing us to take the initiative for making peace, to move beyond revenge and retaliation. We cannot ...
Sermon
James W. Moore
Recently I ran across a story that absolutely amazed me… and yet it’s a story that may well represent the “cater-culture-give-‘em-what-they-want world” in which we now live. A church wanted to improve attendance at their major worship services, so they hired a powerful advertising agency to come in, study their situation, and make recommendations. The ad agency did their research… and then suggested to the church that they should get rid of all the crosses in the church… because the crosses might send a ...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
John is an amazing character, isn't he? Not what we would expect as we come up to Christmas. What if, riding atop the last float of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, there was not jolly old Saint Nick, but a wild-eyed John the Baptist dressed in a glorified burlap sack? Even the perpetually perky Katie Couric would wince as she offers parade commentary from her reviewing stand, not quite sure what to say. But this is not mid-town Manhattan and this is no Macy's extravaganza. It has been something of a ...
Sermon
King Duncan
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] A famous news anchor tells about attending a revival as a boy in his home town of Bloomington, Texas. It was a spectacular extravaganza the whole town attended. The tent was open, the floor was sawdust ...
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