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 3701 to 3725 of 4957 results

3701. Snake Eyes

Numbers 21:4-9

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... worship. We lift high the cross which is broken in our bodies. We lift high the cross from the pages of the Bible. We lift high the cross in the story we have to tell of our lives together. As your Spirit moves among us today, inspire us to claim your cross, though it seems foolishness to the world, in order that we might rescue others and share in your salvation as well. Your steadfast love endures forever, Lord. We, who are the redeemed, say so! Amen. Prayer Of Confession Let us look upon the Lord in our ...

3702. Short Order, Long Order, Melchizedek’s Order

Psalm 119:10-12, Hebrews 5:5-10

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... by adoption. We are no longer strangers, but members of one family in your service and love. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Heavenly Father, we need no other between your throne and our low state except your Son, high priest forever, naming us, claiming us, calling us, clearing us! High priest discovered when least expected, influence echoing down long centuries, fresh and bright today, our advocate and friend, Jesus, Brother, Lord, and Savior, we praise you with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hymns Are ...

3703. Try Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 104:1-35

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... in his works! (Psalm 104:31) Collect Open the graves of our lost desire. Clothe the bones of our skeletal discipleship. Fill us with your Spirit, so we again become your Pentecostal people. We're shifting our weight uncomfortably, Lord, because we know if we claim this new life we're going to have to get up and get moving. These bones can live! Speak Lord. We will act. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Can these bones live? I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief! Amen. Hymns Ezekiel Saw The Wheel Dem Bones Breathe ...

3704. Comforters And Quilts

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... my soul. Praise the Lord! Amen. Prayer Of Confession Spirit of God, moving, revealing, we have looked everywhere for signs of your presence and missed the wonder of your dwelling in our hearts. We will not try to control you, co-opt you for our causes, nor claim to speak for you when it is our convenience and comfort we really desire. Stand behind us, Spirit of God, and push! We let go of our will and wait expectantly for your mission to be fulfilled. Amen. Hymns Blessed Quietness There Are Many Gifts, But ...

3705. Living Church

Mark 2:23—3:6

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... race, cease to measure our lives by product and production, and simply to be, to become, to bide. Open your gates to us. Grant us more than rest — walk with us toward joy. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Forgive us, God Almighty, when we fail to claim rest and renewal. We have listened to the lies of this world and measure everything — especially the sins of others. Your Son has challenged us to save the world instead of our false standards. We will try, with your help. Amen. Hymns Come, Ye Thankful People ...

3706. Pitch Your Tent

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... sand, dependent on the pronunciations of others whose agendas may not be pure, or leaning on the hope we have in those things that will not last. We praise you, Lord, for the home you have built for us, not with hands, but eternal in the heavens, and stake our claim there, knowing the door is open to all people in all times. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. Hymns Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise Holy Ground Take My Hand And Lead Me, Father

3707. Adoption Papers

Ephesians 1:3-14

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Come, God's people, found by one, who now are one in Christ. Collect Father, we take your name as our own, and joyfully claim our place in your family. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Lord, listen to your people praying. Your faithfulness is evident all around us, in the green of the hill, in the rushing of the rivers, and in the life that surrounds us. The birds who eat the seeds we leave out, ...

3708. No Cutting In Line

Mark 9:30-37

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." Collect Heavenly Father, gather us, first, last, and always. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Choose us last, Lord, for we are busy figuring this servant thing out. Give us a little more time as we claim our place in line. Let us watch others, your saints, your great examples, who live in our midst. Then perhaps we will dance in your kingdom like a child, hollering and shouting without worrying what the world thinks. Like a child, Lord, lead us. Amen ...

3709. For Such A Time As This

Esther 7:1-10, Psalm 124:1-8

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... 't going to be as hard as we thought? Right? Or could it be that each of us is called for such a time as this? Collect Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Amen. (Psalm 124:8) Prayer Of Confession Before we claim too much credit, God who moves in secret and silent ways, we confess that if it had not been for you we would have been swallowed by our adversaries, our problems, and the sins of this world. Thank you for your presence, your guidance, your perseverance in finding us and ...

3710. An Unexpected Bequest

Galatians 4:4-7

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... we follow your example of giving richly, as we offer today a measure of our time, our talents, our prayers, our energy, our wealth, and our poverty. Bless us as your family this day. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Heavenly Father, we are your children, yet we rarely claim it, instead acting as if we were children of the world. We are the heirs yet we squander our inheritance as if it belonged to another. Let your light shine well the world over, and over our worldly cares as well. Let what has been fulfilled in ...

3711. Do I Know You?

John 1:10-18

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship God made us. God knows us. God claims us. Come together, God's people, in this name above all names. Collect God's Word is alive and moves in our midst. God's Word won't stand still. God's Word tents among us, pulls up stakes, and is gone. Today we pledge to seize what is precious ...

3712. Imitate Generosity

Matthew 20:1-16

Illustration

Douglas R. A. Hare

The climax of the parable occurs in verse 15: "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?" The vineyard owner claims the right to pay his workers not on the basis of their merits but on the basis of his own compassion. Why should such generosity be condemned as injustice? Underlying the parable is the Old Testament conception of God as the creator who is GOOD, that is, generous to all ( ...

3713. Integrity Deficit Disorder

Matthew 21:23-32

Illustration

Otis Young

... moods, desires and feelings. It even protects you from the changing moods of other people. It protects you from saying you are going to something and then not following through. One day Jesus told a story designed for people who have integrity deficit disorder. His target audience were people who claimed to be the most religious.

3714. The Pain of Rejection

Matthew 21:33-46

Illustration

King Duncan

... hurt. A lady wrote to Reader's Digest to tell about a friend of hers whose dorm sisters had a system for dealing with the problem of what to do when the wrong fellow calls asking for a date. "It wasn't hard to say no in my dorm," she claimed. "I put together a list of ten excuses and taped it next to the phone. That way we could decline an invitation without fumbling around for an excuse. It worked like a charm." Except for the time one flustered girl was overheard saying, "I'd love to go out with ...

3715. When What’s Holding You Up Lets You Down

2 Samuel 18:33-19:8

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... it was, when David got up out of his chair of grief and resumed the responsibility of leadership, his army met him, and life was once again on the move. How can you and I swing into action when what's holding us up lets us down? How can we claim our new beginning? Answers will differ for each of us. Let me offer two. (1) Set new goals. Helen Keller writes: "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us ...

3716. Ten Million Dollar Winners

Matthew 18:23-35

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... , nothing is too big for us to forgive. We can let go of self-doubt, pick ourselves up and move on. Because we're $10 million winners, we can forgive ourselves and we can forgive others. According to Webster's Dictionary, to forgive is to "give up resentment and our claim to requital." A man told a friend about his romantic woes. He said, "I asked my girl friend to forgive and forget. She said "I'll meet you half-way. I won't forgive you, but I will forget you." Refusing to forgive is our decision. But I've ...

3717. Jesus the Iconoclast

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Neither icons are concerned with a relationship, a vital, living loving connection to God. Jesus dismisses the "choices" he is given. Forget "A" and forget "B." Instead, fearlessly, Jesus offers his listeners the "C" option: "C" for clear the deck and claim a new perspective, get a relational revelation. What the Pharisees and Heroidians were sure was an "iconoclash"—-a crashing collision of two icons Jesus redefined as a single vehicle accident. The question about paying taxes to the emperor was about ...

3718. Joy to the World!

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometimes something comes across the Internet that simply has to be shared, even on Christmas Eve. This item was obviously authored by a woman. Her claim is that all the reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve have to be females. Think about it for a moment. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year. However male reindeer lose their antlers ...

3719. A Promise Fulfilled: A Gift Given

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... ; if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself." The apex of God's plan of salvation is found in Jesus, the ultimate manifestation of God's promise to his people. As we heard last Sunday the Angel Gabriel came to Mary with a remarkable claim, that she, a virgin, would conceive and bear a son. Today the angel's promise is fulfilled in Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. The Son of God, sent by the Father, takes on the human condition, save sin, in an act of ultimate love for all of us. The ...

3720. Seeing and Not Being Seen

John 12:20-33

Sermon

David T. Ball

... was asked whether it’s lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not. This was a tough question to answer. If he were to say, “Yes,” he might be seen as violating Jewish beliefs about the importance of worshiping only one God, for the emperor, too, claimed to be divine. If he were to say, “No,” that might have ended his ministry right there, with a swift arrest and conviction for inciting disobedience of Roman tax laws. So instead, he said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and ...

3721. The Quiet Day of Pentecost

John 16:5-16, John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

George Reed

... by becoming familiar with it. This is where all of our Bible study and devotional reading comes into play. We learn to recognize God's voice by reflecting on the ways in which God has spoken to others in the scriptural record. We all know of those who have claimed to have heard a clear word from God declaring when the world would come to an end. All this in spite of Jesus' clear teaching that even he did not know when the end would take place. We need the balance of good scripture study and reflection to ...

3722. Water and Spirit

John 3:1-17

Sermon

George Reed

... or Jesus would not have been so explicit to declare that one must be born of water and the spirit. There have always been those folks who have tried to split people into parts and then to argue about which part is more important. There are those who claim we are no more than creatures of the earth and that there is no reality beyond our physical existence. There are those who say that all the physical world is but an illusion and there is no reality but the spiritual realm. Between these two extremes one ...

3723. The Importance of Voting

Illustration

Brett Blair

... . (1960) I'm only one but I am one. I can't do everything but I can do something and what I can do I ought to do and that by the grace of God I will do. NOTE: This illustration is factually inaccurate in almost everyone of it's claims. We leave this illustration up to warn about it's use and to help us and you to be wary of using non-credible material in the pulpit. While there is no problem in using legends and urban myths, so long as they are prefaced as such, factual information like ...

3724. Denial Ain’t a River in Egypt

Isaiah 64:1-9

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... who has moved." Even so, when the chips are down, when things go badly, don't we often think of God as having abandoned us first? How many times over years of pastoral ministry have we comforted the broken-hearted and the grieving while hearing the painful claim that God has gone away? Split? Taken leave? The Israelites in exile certainly felt that way. The young mother who has heard from the military that her son died in the war in Iraq feels that way. The person who has lost their job and faces eviction ...

3725. No More Camping Out

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... calf (Exodus 32:1-10). Sisters and brothers, as we gather this moment in our own temple, let us recognize that we, too, have landed in a strange land. We are a people of love and generosity, lost in a land of anger and greed. We are a people who claim the redemptive power of self giving love in the midst of a storm of narcissistic grasping, and we are a people who have been planted in this place by a mighty God, who calls us into motion and ministry; a Savior who walks with us and comes to us in ...

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