Synonyms: replica, copy, representation, mock-up, dummy, imitation, double, duplicate, lookalike, reproduction, prototype, stereotype, archetype, type, version, style, ideal, paragon, perfect example, specimen, perfect specimen, fashion model, supermodel, mannequin, sitter, poser, subject, artist's model, photographic model, design, mark, configuration, variety, kind, sort, original, original design, exclusive, toy, miniature, facsimile, prototypical, prototypal, archetypal, illustrative, perfect, exemplary, classic, flawless, faultless, consummate, impeccable
Antonyms: deficient, imperfect
Showing 326 to 350 of 4999 results
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... was known as Sheol, a dark, shadowy, not-living but not-torturous “place” at the center of the Earth. It was a kind of “waiting room” for souls, not a fiery pit, but definitely deep in the scary bowels of the earth, not part of the ... heavenly sphere. It was into this dark, dismal, scary space, a space defined by the ugliest kind of segregation (separation from God’s presence) that Jesus voluntarily ventured. Here is George Mackay Brown, poet of Orkney, in his poem ...
327. Easter 5
Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-17
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... love and the responsibility to love both God and people. The key to the passage is "God is love." (v. 8) Since love is of many kinds, John explains the nature of God's love. (vv. 9, 10) To love God is to know him. (v. 8) To love God is to ... giving of his only Son to die for us. Love today can be seen when it is manifested in the lives of Christians through their understanding, kindness and unselfish service. Since God is love, God can be seen in the love life of his faithful ones. 2. God is love (v. 2). It ...
Sermon
Gary L. Carver
... her very existence in this world is something of enormous value. I think it is fair to surmise that the moment a child comes out of the womb and enters the realm of time and space, the little one begins to send out all kinds of questions into this environment. The infant wants to know: What kind of realm is this? What about my needs? Will I be provided for as well as I was back in the womb? And what about my presence here? Am I welcomed or resented? Am I regarded with esteem and delight, or looked down upon ...
329. I Am the Vine
John 15:1-17
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... to adorn your coffee table, it’s to adorn your life. It’s not for show, it’s for your salvation. So we make real Jesus’ presence by prayer and scripture, but also by worship. Our private worship in our daily quiet time, but more than that, the kind of worship in which we’re engaged today, when the people of God come together to confess their sins and to receive the forgiving grace of Jesus Christ. When they come together to celebrate what God has done in their lives and the great acts of God in ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... A wall is there, between you and a child who is even more separated. The child is in the far country and is spending his or her substance in riotous living. Your heart is broken and the pain is well now unbearable. A wall is there, it may be any kind of wall. And young people, it may be walls that you feel too, between you and your parents, you feel that they don’t understand or listen or even try to understand and listen. That they’re most interested in your performance than they are in you as a person ...
331. If, Because, Regardless
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
... they: "did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it." They did there part when he was with them, so he wouldn't be a burden. I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but that phrase: "eating someone else bread without paying for it" kind of struck me. And when we take advantage of the ministries of the church and expect the church to continue to do what they do without our support and involvement, it's the same as "eating bread we didn't pay for." And it's probably those folks who don ...
332. A Guide for Growth
Philippians 1:1-11
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... he had been forgiven. A wonderful peace came. He committed himself to follow Christ. He determined to make things right which he had messed up. To symbolize his commitment, he had put on some clean clothes he had in his bed roll and left the others as a kind of offering, giving God his old life. He said he walked out the door a new person with a new vision and a new hope.” (The Communicator’s Commentary, Volume 8, pp. 221—222). It is a dramatic symbol - clean clothes to symbolize new life. Paul also ...
Sermon
Lee Griess
... sends its roots out to the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and it never fails to bear fruit." I don't know about you, but that's the kind of life that I want to live, that's the kind of faith I want to have. Those who drink of the living water that Jesus offers cannot fail. We are like a tree by the river that never dries up. The mercies of God are always present — our lives are safe in God. Streams of ...
Sermon
Chris Ewing
... enough of us do it enough of the time that, over the centuries, the church has — through the daily life of its members as much as through its preaching and teaching — been able to nurture a distinctive vision, a unique outlook on the world that results in a different kind of living in it. That's a pretty remarkable achievement. Our heritage is summed up in the words of the first letter of John, "We are even now children of God; and what we shall be has not yet been made known. But we know that when it ...
Sermon
Donna Schaper
... save and put down evil. [Speaking of Rama.] This Son on the other hand who goes hungry, who suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is anxious, heckled, and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don't get it and opponents who don't respect Him — what kind of God is that? It is a God on a too-human scale, that's what. There are miracles, yes, mostly of a medical nature, a few to satisfy hungry stomachs, at best a storm is tempered, water is briefly walked upon. If that is magic, it is minor magic ...
336. The Legacy of Jesus
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... afford to be peaceful — her worries were taken care of, and she was too young to know any different." That's true, but it makes no difference here, because that is precisely what Jesus was leaving his friends — a "worries taken care of" kind of peace that comes from a childlike trust. In Philippians, Paul writes, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will ...
Sermon
April Yamasaki
... in the letters of James or 1 Peter or here in our text from Romans 5. We don't rejoice for suffering in any kind of sadistic or masochistic way. But we can rejoice in the midst of suffering because there is a divine chain reaction — suffering that leads ... the Holy Spirit to be with us to the very end of the age, no matter what sufferings and trials we may go through. This kind of hope will never disappoint us! The hope of eternal life, the hope in God's love, the hope in the Holy Spirit's presence — ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... could do if everyone was unified and working toward one common goal like that? Of course, these were people who were living very close to the resurrection of Jesus; a few had even experienced that resurrection. It is probably unrealistic for us to have that kind of unity in the church today. Dr. Ray Pritchard tells about a cartoon where a town council was seeking to have more unity in their small town. And so they passed a resolution that read like this: “Be it resolved from this time forth, that all ...
Understanding Series
Gordon D. Fee
... who have let themselves be taken in. It is with this information in hand that one must read 1 Timothy 2:9–15; 3:11; 4:7; 5:3–16. Thus Paul ties the false teachers to the preceding vice list by saying that they are the kind (lit. “of such people” as those mentioned in vv. 1–5) who worm their way (a verb suggesting “creeping in” under false pretenses; cf. “some of that ilk sneak into,” Berkeley) into homes (Gk., into the homes, implying into those homes you already know about—this feat ...
Understanding Series
Gordon D. Fee
... –10 it may also include the pagan critic. But what does it mean for them to be ashamed? Does Paul intend a kind of judgment; that is, they will be disgraced because they can find nothing in Titus’ conduct to reproach? Or, perhaps more likely ... Christ stand in apposition? All who side with the KJV on the second question see it as in apposition to our Savior, as a kind of balance to the adjective great. Thus: “Our great God [the Father] and our Savior Jesus Christ:” Most of those who take the position ...
Understanding Series
John Goldingay
... is Habakkuk who speaks and reports his vision, but at another level the reporting of the vision does give Yahweh one last word in this dialogue. Initially, we could not be sure whether Habakkuk is giving an account of Yahweh’s coming in the past of the kind described in passages such as Judges 5, and certainly his way of describing Yahweh’s coming follows such patterns. But a note such as the reference to your anointed one (v. 13) suggests that rather he is giving an account of Yahweh’s coming in the ...
342. Warnings and Exhortations for Jerusalem and Judah
Zephaniah 1:1-3, Zephaniah 1:4-13, Zephaniah 1:14--2:3
Understanding Series
John Goldingay
... books; it is especially close to that of Hosea. First, its editors describe the book as a whole as The word of the LORD. The word dabar can signify a section of a discourse such as a sentence, but it commonly signifies a complete discourse of some kind, such as a message or command or promise or statement (cf. 2:5). Thus little stretch would be involved in describing a whole book as “the word of such-and-such a human author,” and then by extension as “the word of the LORD.” The expression suggests ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... Louis Stevenson. As a memorial, they tabooed the use of firearms on the hill of Stevenson’s grave, that the birds might sing there forever undisturbed. (3) I don’t know about you, but it encourages me to know that a famous writer was also a man of kindness and love. Such people are found in every walk of life. Paul M. Stevens in his book Gathered Gold tells about a Japanese magazine that had a picture of a butterfly on one of its pages. The butterfly was printed with special inks that appeared to be a ...
Teach the Text
Daniel J. Estes
... as payment for debts (see, e.g., 2 Kings 4:1; see the sidebar). This charge indicates how tense the situation has become already. Later, in 22:5–9, Eliphaz will use even harsher language as he accuses Job of mistreating powerless people. 6:28 But now be so kind as to look at me. Job feels that they are talking about him as an object, rather than to him as a person. He pleads with them to look at him instead of averting their eyes from his hideous appearance, to acknowledge that he is indeed Job, their ...
Teach the Text
Daniel J. Estes
... ore and gemstones (28:5). 28:7–11  No bird of prey knows that hidden path. It is hard to imagine seeing better or farther than a falcon, but humans surpass even the keen-sighted birds of prey as they search for wealth. None of the four kinds of wild animals cited in verses 7–8 has gone to the lengths that humans have in their attempt to find wisdom. Although humans seek throughout the whole world in their diligent search, they will inevitably return disappointed. 28:12  But where can wisdom be found ...
Sermon
James L. Killen
... to love life as you have it now and get excited about life as it can be? Are you able to love others with the same kind of love you have for yourself or could have? Are you really happy with even the love you share with those who are closest to you? ... who brings a new possibility. And here is the key. God is still at work in our lives and in our world to do the same kinds of saving works that God did through Jesus. When we see those things happening, either in our lives or in our world, we will know that ...
347. I am the Door
John 10:1-10
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
... through me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” We need to get the picture clearly in our mind in order to experience the full impact of it. Dr. William Barclay reminds us that “in this parable, Jesus spoke about two kinds of sheepfolds. In the villages and towns, there were communal sheepfolds where all the village flocks were sheltered when they returned home at night. These folds were protected by a strong door of which only the guardian of the door kept the key. It is to that ...
Sermon
James L. Killen
... wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3-5) The boys must have talked a lot about who might be the one whom God would find to make that kind of total commitment to the purpose of God and to venture out, not knowing where the purpose would take him or what would be required but only knowing that the commitment would be costly -- and that it would be necessary for the salvation of God's people ...
Sermon
James L. Killen
... ? In the next chapter, there is a story in which Jesus has a conversation with a woman who has messed her life up so badly that she is ashamed to go to the town well to draw water when the other women are there (John 4:1-30). That is kind of a stormy conversation, but it ends with Jesus showing the woman that there is another possibility for her, a better one. In the eighth chapter, there is a story about Jesus forgiving a woman who was guilty of adultery and shaming the proud people who wanted to stone her ...
Sermon
James L. Killen
... a special new possibility. We shouldn't let Matthew's use of the words "the kingdom of heaven" mislead us. He is not talking about something otherworldly. He is talking about a very real here-and-now possibility. It will be a life that is very different from some other kinds of lives that we might live. In the Sermon on the Mount, from which we read today, and in many of the other things that Jesus taught, he was trying to help us get the picture of the shape of that new possibility he came to offer us. We ...
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