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 3551 to 3575 of 4490 results

3551. Family Ties and Good-byes

Mark 3:31-35

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Jesus experienced family ties and good-byes. So do we. According to Mark 3:20-35, Jesus was about to be confronted by his frustrated and conflicted family as crowds gathered around him to hear his stories, behold his miracles, and observe with great interest the conflicts he had with religious leaders from Jerusalem. Conflict. But there were also good, tender, and beautiful joys in Jesus' family. Look at the tenderness at the time of his birth. Good-byes and ties. All families have stress, as well as ...

3552. I Am the True Vine

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Brett Blair

It is fascinating to me that in our Southern Protestant religious culture, such a strong emphases is placed upon literal interpretation. Interestingly, Jesus so often did not speak literally, but figuratively. He spoke in allegories and images. He painted word pictures. Instead of literally coming out and saying what he meant, he so often would tell a story and let people draw their own conclusion. Indeed, these hidden messages of Jesus frequently frustrated his disciples. They wished that he would speak ...

3553. Carried to His Room

Illustration

Peter Marshall

In a home of which I know, a little boy, the only son, was ill with an incurable disease. Month after month the mother had tenderly nursed him, read to him, and played with him, hoping to keep him from the dreadful finality of the doctor's diagnosis—the little boy was sure to die. But as the weeks went on, he gradually began to understand that he would never be like the other boys he saw playing outside his window. Small as he was, he began to understand the meaning of the term death, and he too knew he ...

3554. Free From What? For What?

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

Today’s readings give us a chance to talk about freedom quietly a week before advertisers and politicians can fill the airwaves with patriotic rhetoric designed to sell us everything from washers to “wisdom” from Washington. We call the Fourth of July “Independence Day” and have good reason to celebrate. We say this is the day we gained our freedom from British rule. But are the words “freedom” and “independence” really synonyms? I would maintain that, though we did gain our independence from England in ...

3555. Know Jesus--No Peace

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

George Reed

How can we understand it when Jesus, the Prince of Peace, says, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”? What do we make of Jesus proclaiming that households will be divided because of him; that parents and children will be at odds? While some of the wits around us have used the pun of Know Jesus — Know Peace; No Jesus — No Peace, it seems that Jesus would have said Know Jesus — No Peace. Jesus was aware of those around him who resisted the Roman ...

3556. Blessed

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

We hear it all the time. We hear it in church, in interviews with sports and movie stars, and we hear it a whole lot around the Fourth of July. “I’ve been blessed.” “We’ve been so blessed.” But what does it mean? What does it mean to be blessed? Usually we associate it with plentitude. It means that we have a lot of something: money, property, talent. Certainly, in that sense things haven’t changed much over the past 2,000 years. Ask any first-century Jew who the blessed people were in their community and ...

3557. A Piggy Pudding

Matthew 8:28-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: pig bones In my hand, I am holding pig bones. Now this may be nothing special to any of you who love pork! But pig bones mean everything to an archaeologist on a site in Israel today. Why? Because pig bones are only found in areas where non-Jewish practices were going on. Finding lots of pig bones in a certain town would indicate the presence of Greeks, Romans, or Philistines, depending on where you were digging. But NEVER Jews. Because Jews never eat pork. For example, a recent excavation in a part ...

3558. Surely, Surely

Luke 1:1-4, Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.” (Isaiah 14:24) Prop: let dove fly through church (if you dare) OR celebrate an event, such as a baptism, or an ordination, or a blessing for mission Today, as we prepare to celebrate the baptism of __________, I invite all of you children to come forward to witness this great event, as all of you too in the congregation bear witness to this momentous occasion. [You can opt to do the baptism ...

3559. Three Wise Women

Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.” --Psalm 117 (Hebrew Hallelu) Everyone LOVES a baby shower. Babies seem to just create a spirit of silliness, natural joy, and celebration. When we look at a baby, we reflexively smile and think happily about the future. Preparing for a child brings out the creative ….and the downright “strange” in us. Grown men get all gushy and mushy and hand ...

3560. Follow the Light

Genesis 1:1-2:3, Matthew 2:1-12, Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.” --Psalm 30:5 This morning, we are celebrating the birth of the Light that came into the world. Jesus, the Light of God, the Light of Love, the Light of Peace, the Light of Hope. There are high and holy words. But what do they mean for us today? What does it mean for Jesus to be the Light in our world? In your life? In my life? Today’s scriptures are about the stars. Stars are balls of fiery plasma, burning brightly in the realms of space. ...

3561. The Field House

Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 4:23-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

The Allen Fieldhouse on the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas is home to the Kansas Jayhawks men’s and women’s basketball teams. Dedicated in 1955, the Allen Fieldhouse is noted as a historical and rave-worthy building, hosting NCAA regional tournaments, NBA exhibition games, famous concerts, and high-profile speakers. But its notoriety comes not from the building itself but from what happens within the building. Shouts, whoops, cheers, roars! Yes roars! In fact, on February 13, 2017, the Allen ...

3562. Trapped!

Romans 6:15-23

Sermon

King Duncan

Ming Kuang Chen, a delivery man from a Chinese restaurant in the Bronx was making a delivery one Friday evening to a thirty‑eight story apartment building. He took an express elevator to his customer’s apartment. That meant there were no stops, and no exit doors for the elevator, between the second and twenty‑first floors. At least, there were not supposed to be any stops. Chen had made his delivery and was on his way down when suddenly the elevator halted just below the fourth floor. Suddenly he realized ...

3563. Why I Believe In The Resurrection

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Brett Blair

You probably do not remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. During his day he was as powerful a man as there was on earth. A Russian Communist leader he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which by the way means truth), and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. There is a story told about a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism ...

3564. The Art of Critique

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Today, as our world continues to become ravaged by COVID-19, people are feeling anxious, impatient, frustrated, and critical. We are less busy with the things that normally hold our attention. We are bored with staying inside, refraining from seeing the people we love and doing the activities that animate us. We are sick and tired of being “sick and tired!” The more cooped up we feel, the angrier we get. And our often kind and calm demeanor is turning testier and more critical. As humans, when our ...

3565. A Working God

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sermon

R. Kevin Mohr

As I originally prepared this sermon the news was breaking about the tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, with the Honorable Reverend Pinckney and eight of his parishioners gunned down in the historic black Emmanuel A.M.E. church. But this tragic act couldn’t be conveniently blamed on Islamic extremists. No! This time the perpetrator in custody had the blasphemous audacity to pretend to be one of us and claim the name of Christ as his Lord, and, in fact, was a member of a congregation of my own ...

3566. The Invisible Robe of Righteousness

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“You are what you wear.” Job coaches taut this phrase continually to prospective job applicants, letting them know that “dressing for success” can make or break and interview. You need to show people not only who you are but what you’re capable of. What you wear expresses something about your character and your initiative. In fact, in 1997, Nancy Lublin founded the nonprofit “Dress for Success” for this very reason. “Dress for Success is a global nonprofit organization that provides professional attire for ...

3567. Joy

Luke 2:1-11 · Isaiah 9:2-6

Sermon

Will Willimon

"I bring you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day...a Savior,..." Church doesn't get much more joyful than this; Christmas Day, and on a Sunday. All of today's scriptures speak of joy, as well as the hymns. "Joy To the World." Joy can be a challenge in church. On most Sundays, church tends to overdo the imperative, filling the air with "should," "ought," and "must." Do this, don't do that. You come to church feeling fairly good about yourself, about the world; we'll fix that. ...

3568. He’s Not Who We Thought

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Michael L. Sherer

There is something strange, almost jarring, about the appearance, exactly in the middle of the sixteenth chapter gospel of Mark, of a story about an other-worldly sound-and-light show on top of a mountain. The report of what we have come to call “The Transfiguration of Our Lord” doesn’t seem to fit where it appears in Mark’s gospel. Think about it. Before he gives us the story of Jesus with two Old Testament prophets, being glorified in a blaze of light, Mark reports that Jesus’ disciples were, to put it ...

3569. Together In One Place

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

Today, Pentecost Sunday, is the day upon which we traditionally celebrate the birth of the Christian church. But before we light the candles and sing, “Happy Birthday,” perhaps we should take a few moments to talk about what the church is and what it isn’t. What, exactly, is a church? How shall we define it and how shall we define its purpose? The Internal Revenue Code uses the word “church” but it doesn’t actually define what it means by that word. Certain attributes of a church have been developed by the ...

3570. Why the Greatest?

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

The late film critic Roger Ebert once said there was a great reason many critics considered “Citizen Kane” the best movie of all time. For one thing, it really is a fantastic film. Director Orson Welles combined a compelling story with a great script and creative use of pioneering techniques for filming and editing. But he also pointed out that once you pick the greatest of anything you can stop arguing about whether something new is the greatest and focus on a new film’s merits on its own terms. He had a ...

3571. The Baptism of the Lord

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

Rummaging through some of my old memorabilia I rediscovered a post card with the picture of a church on it. I well remember the church because it was the one where I was baptized. As a child of eight I asked Jesus to come into my heart at the altar of my small local church. It was an important time in my life and it started me on my Christian walk. The small church where I put down my spiritual roots did not have a baptistry in it. My pastor told us that it was important for new Christians to be baptized ...

3572. Revolutionary Rules For Living

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

Author Bob Welch observed that in Les Miserables that the uprising that Victor Hugo observed occurred in June, 1832 as a small Parisian insurrection that lasted only a short time. It was more of a street riot with a tragic outcome. Quoting Hugo, Welch said that the uprising was a defiance against the royalist government of France as a reaction to three problems of the day. First it was a defiance of man by the exploitation of his labor. Second, it was in opposition of the ruination of women by starvation ...

3573. Beloved

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

How do you know that someone loves you? Whether it’s your spouse, partner, parent, friend, or someone you’ve been dating, relationship therapists tell us to look for certain “signs” that you are feeling love toward that person, or that that person loves you.[1] Those signs are pretty straightforward, and I’m guessing every one of us has encountered at least some of them. If you’ve been fortunate enough to encounter them all, you know what it means to share a loving relationship: You feel safe with them. ...

3574. With Gratitude and Humility

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

April Yamasaki

On a recent trip out of town, I stayed at a hotel that offered a complimentary breakfast. After serving myself from the generous buffet, I decided to send a photo of my breakfast to my sisters just for fun. I re-arranged the country-fried potatoes on my plate, moved the sausage patty and hard-boiled egg so they were nestled beside the potatoes, with the watermelon and other fresh fruit filling the rest of the plate. With my cup of herbal tea and cutlery to the right, and my newspaper to the upper left, the ...

3575. Confidence, Joy, and Hope

Acts 2:14a, 22-32

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever been the bearer of bad news? It’s tough, isn’t it? Nobody wants that job. You may have heard of the saying, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” It means, “Don’t take out your anger on the person delivering the bad news. It’s not their fault.” Did you know there are variations of this saying in countries all over the world? And that some form of this saying was found in writings from 446 BC—almost 450 years before the birth of Jesus Christ? The great playwright William Shakespeare was the one to coin ...

Showing results