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 3626 to 3650 of 4972 results

3626. Work and Worship

Luke 10:38-42

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

... he loves me? (response) Application: There is a word for what you're talking about. Do you know what that word is? (response) We call it "worship." We worship God in church, don't we? (response) Worship is very important in our lives. It is a time for me to leave all my chores at home and come to God with empty hands. Hold out your hands to the children -- palms up. No hammer in my hand. No broom. No brief case. No pots and pans. No cell phone. Nothing. Just hands that are empty and anxious to hold God's ...

3627. Gobble, Gobble, Gone

Luke 12:13-21

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

... picking out the greens. My favorite M&M's are the green ones. Hold out all the greens. Look at all those green M&M's. Don't they look great? (response) Now eat them. Take a little time to chew and enjoy and nod to the children in approval. Leave your hand open so they see the others. Boy, that was good. I sure do like the green ones ... look down at the M&M's and pick out the brown, but, you know, these brown ones remind me of chocolate and I love chocolate. Put all the brown in ...

3628. Kingdom Order

Luke 14:1-14

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

... surprise you. There was a party and whole lot of people showed up for the party. Everybody there was trying to be number one or number two or number three. As you speak the following words, take the ribbons one by one and place them on the three smallest children. Leave time to walk each ribbon down to the small children. Don't do them all at one time. The symbolism needs to be given time to work. But Jesus said to them, when you get invited to a party don't try to be number one. Try to be number ...

3629. Little Big Man

Luke 19:1-10

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

... are short? (response) Why do you feel short? (response) I wonder who is the shortest. Hold out the tape measure. What is this? (tape measure) Let's find out who is the shortest. Everybody stand up. Here are two ways to proceed: 1. Measure each child, leaving the shortest for last. 2. If you have too many children to measure individually, then measure five feet from the ground and slowly decrease the height of the tape. Are any of you this tall? (response) How many are this tall? (response) And so on. Have ...

3630. Scene 1 The Annunciation

Drama

Nancy Steltz

... end. Mary: How can this be, since I have no husband? Gabriel: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy. Gabriel and Chorus: The Son of God. (All leave the stage.) Isaiah (Standing): I'm in the right place. This is it! the sign God promised. (He faces the congregation and noticeably quotes himself.) "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall ...

3631. Altered Expectations

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

... her reputation in the eyes of the community and, in all likelihood, ruining any chance she had for future happiness. Option two allowed the man to quietly and simply break off the engage-met, without a lot of fanfare and public involvement, but still leaving the woman with the burden of bearing and raising the child alone. Matthew tells us that this latter option was the one Joseph was planning to exercise. This tells us that Joseph was a compassionate man, and that he likely had deep feelings for ...

3632. Strangers at the Manger

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

... abuse them or neglect them, then the future is bleak. If we destroy the children, if we stifle them in their expression of joy and innocence in the life of this church, then the future of the church is dark, because as soon as they are old enough, they will leave to seek wisdom and truth elsewhere. If we kill the child in ourselves and in our young people by forcing them to grow up too fast or by imposing too many limitations on them, then the spirit of hope will die in our midst. But if we are seekers ...

3633. Dealing with the Devil

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... people in the world, but the solution seems to lie more in the area of better distribution of the food that’s available, rather than in the magic of being able to turn stones into bread. And unless you are deeply mentally disturbed, you’re not likely to leave this worship service, get a ladder, climb up on the roof of the church, scale the steeple, and take a flying leap into space, believing all the while that before you hit the ground, the angelic rescue squad will arrive with a net to catch you! That ...

3634. See the Light, Be the Light

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... , anytime? I must also confess that like every preacher who will be honest about it, I have the very basic human need for acceptance and fulfillment. And because of that need, I have to fight the terrible temptation of somehow trying to impress you, so that you leave God’s house saying, "I’m telling you, that Johnny May not be much good for anything else, but he sure can preach, can’t he?" Compliments do have a way of over-inflating the ego, you know? But every time I start feeling smug or over ...

3635. Sowing Seed Is Never A Waste of Time

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... week without injuring or maiming any of the campers or each other, and I really owe my fellow counselors a debt of gratitude for their care and concern for me and their prayers on my behalf. On departure day, the vast majority of the campers were crying, sad to be leaving camp. I take that as a sign that they at least had a good time. But just so you will know that every great once in a while, we ARE accorded the rare privilege of seeing the seeds beginning to sprout, let me share this with you. I haven’t ...

3636. Oh Me of Little Faith

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... . The church, no longer the center of the social life of the community, seems more and more to be like a fragile boat struggling to stay afloat in a world filled with dangers and disappointments. Rural decline is forcing many people to leave small communities like Snow Creek. Sickness and death are invading congregations and diminishing membership in many rural churches. The number of people in the pews is dwindling. Over the past twelve years, the number of members in the Christian Church (Disciples of ...

3637. The Pop Quiz

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... I worked with this text, a strange thought entered my mind (I know – there’s nothing unusual about that.) As I read about the pop quiz Jesus sprung on his disciples, I wondered what would happen if, instead of preaching a sermon, I gave YOU a pop quiz (don’t leave! I’m not really going to do that!) What if I had just read the scripture and then passed out to each of you a pencil and a piece of paper with one question written on it: "Who do you say that Jesus is?" How would you respond? In agreement ...

3638. Reality Check

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... lady, what words of comfort he can give her to prepare her for her eminent death. He arrives at the hospital, goes up to her room for the visit. He sits and talks with her a few minutes, just small talk really, nothing earth shattering. When he makes ready to leave, he asks if she would like him to have prayer with her. She answers, "Yes, of course. That’s why I wanted you to come." He then asks politely, "And what exactly would you like me to pray for?" "Why, I want you to pray that God will heal me ...

3639. Gentiles 'R Us

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... for Saturday afternoon. Several months ago, my wife’s father was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and told that he had only a few months to live. On Thursday of last week, he also died, and his funeral was scheduled for – you guessed it – Saturday afternoon, leaving my wife and I in the position of either having to try to be in two places at the same time, or have her go to be with her family at her father’s funeral while I remained behind to conduct the funeral of our church family member ...

3640. Exasperating Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... , and if you play you’d better be prepared to pay. That’s why you go to church – to be reminded of the rules. Do what Jesus would do, read your Bible every day, pray for your enemies, take your vitamins, say a little prayer for good luck before you leave for work each day, keep your nose clean, and you’ll be alright. Grace? Yes, there is grace, and God’s grace is truly amazing, but if you step out of line, God’s going to get you, grace or no grace! I wonder if Matthew was a hall monitor ...

3641. Monday Morning Faith

Matthew 21:23-27, Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... . But are we able to live up to those Sunday morning promises on Monday morning? All too often those verbal commitments we make through hymns, prayers, and confessions of faith don’t change anything about the way we live. Yet we leave the church on Sunday feeling good about ourselves, having managed somehow to make it through another worship service without falling asleep, believing that our very presence here communicates our desire to be loyal children of God. We seem to have this uncontrollable ...

3642. Another Tricky Question

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Johnny Dean

There is a scene in the movie Used People in which a mother/daughter confrontation occurs. In the movie, the daughter - rapidly approaching middle age (whatever that is), divorced, mother of two children - is leaving home and heading for California to make a new life for herself and her children. Naturally, Mother objects. And as mothers sometimes do, she tries to lay a load of guilt on her daughter in order to force her to reconsider this foolish notion. The daughter, however, has learned a ...

3643. Here Comes the Judge!

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... that. Maybe Jesus will have to form a third group on that day and have them stand in the middle, a group that perhaps will be much larger than both the others put together. He’s going to have to do something with us, after all. He can’t just leave us there, can he? Well, maybe he could, I suppose. Maybe limbo or purgatory will be a real place after all. If Jesus were like us, the outlook wouldn’t be too promising, would it? I mean, there’s only one outcome that we would like, and a whole bunch ...

3644. Holy Arithmetic!

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... . As long as you’re in school, Kindergarten Teacher God will feed you milk and cookies, wipe your runny nose, and give you a big hug when you cry. This God will also help you put on dry clothing if you have an accident. But once you leave Kindergarten, you’re on your own! Finally, there is God the Parent. God is a very good, very caring parent. The Parent God, traditionally referred to as Father but sometimes also in recent years as Mother, is loving and tender, and is familiar with all the material ...

3645. Making Christmas Last

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Brett Blair

... I'm wearing for breakfast. I'll get out the sled and drive this note to the post office as soon as the glue dries on the envelope I'll be making. Hope my breakfast guests don't stay too long, I have 40,000 cranberries to string with bay leaves before my speaking engagement at noon. Love, Martha Stewart P.S. When I made the ribbon for this typewriter, I used 1/8-inch gold gauze. I soaked the gauze in a mixture of white grapes and blackberries which I grew, picked, and crushed last week just for fun. Here ...

3646. Home for Christmas

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... of us. We don’t need psychologists to tell us that what children fear most is abandonment, because that’s the very thing we adults continue to fear most of all. There is no dread so terrible as the fear that everyone we know and love will go away and leave us alone. Perhaps that’s why the longing for home is greater at Christmas than at any other time. "I’ll be home for Christmas," the song says, "if only in my dreams." I would be less than honest if I did not admit that, unlike most times when I ...

3647. Lent

Sermon

Betty Lynn Schwab

... Room, Jesus had his final conversation with the disciples. He said that where he was going the disciples could not go. He also said they knew the way to go. He had to go away - he said - in order to prepare a place for them but he would not leave them feeling alone. Reader 2: Thomas replied that they didn't understand. Where was Jesus going? How could the disciples possibly know the way? Jesus said he was the way, the truth and the life. If the disciples wanted to abide in him, and he in them, they were ...

3648. The Lantern

John 18:3

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... from dangerous people and these soldiers were no different than any others who have a job to do. There was one other thing about the mission that was different than other missions. The man they were looking for might not be alone. They were told to leave the others alone and just bring back the one who was considered dangerous, an enemy of the people. To make sure that they had the right man, the priests and Pharisees told them to follow another man, Judas, who was a former disciple of this dangerous ...

3649. Some Assembly Required

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... It came in a large, innocent-looking box. It was meant to be our daughter’s "big present" that year. We had already taken photograph after photograph with the camera of our imagination of our little girl, riding the range on her palomino pony while never leaving the safety of our home. Every child should have a rocking horse, and we hoped our daughter would be pleased with hers. About ten o’clock that night, after we had returned home from the Christmas Eve worship service at church and our little angel ...

3650. Easter Celebration Is Just A Foretaste

Luke 18:31-34, Mark 8:31--9:1, Matthew 27:45-56, John 20:10-18, John 20:1-9

Sermon

Joann Hary

... watched what we had hoped would be a thriving business turn to ashes, and we have been assaulted by the throes of death itself. And the stone became heavier and buried our expectations for life even deeper. Pain does happen. It is a part of life. And it leaves us numb. Sometimes facing a new morning is as tough a job as we think we can handle. Our lives get overrun with paying bills, looking after our children, facing April 15, wondering when the good weather is ever going to come. And yet, in spite of all ...

Showing results