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 3701 to 3725 of 4946 results
Children's Sermon
Brett Blair
Exegetical Aim: Having faith involves taking risk. Props: Four envelopes labeled 1 through 4. In the respective envelopes place the following: two quarters, two dollars, five dollars, and a band-aid. Prop the envelopes up at the top of the stairs or railing in sequence. As the children arrive sit with them facing the envelopes. Hold in your hand the envelope with the two quarters. Lesson: Good morning. We are going to play a game today called risk takers. Who wants to play? (response) I have in my hand an ...
3702. Raised Voices
Deuteronomy 26:1-15
Drama
Pamela Urfer
Cast: Two women, HANNAH and REBECCA Length: 8 minutes REBECCA is seated on her stool when HANNAH rushes in, very excited, and takes the stool next to her. REBECCA: Hannah! Hannah! Have you heard the news? HANNAH: What news? REBECCA: Then you haven't heard. We're to get packed and ready. We're leaving. Immediately. HANNAH: Leaving? Leaving for where? Why should we be leaving? REBECCA: Leaving for the Promised Land, silly! Of course you knew this. You're just teasing me. HANNAH: I don't know anything about ...
3703. The Piety That Isn't
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Sermon
Carl Jech
Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen ... (Matthew 6:1a) The well-known San Francisco newspaper columnist, Herb Caen, recently made a provocative observation when he wrote: "The miracle of Christmas is that it survives those who believe in it too loudly." The Christmas/Epiphany season is now over, and it might be good for us to ponder the significance of Mr. Caen's observation. Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination. The most common form of such self-examination focuses ...
Sermon
Carl Jech
Those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No. (Luke 13:4-5a) Reward and punishment! A basic fact of life! In San Francisco there is a chain of pastry stores called "Just Desserts" - a clever name with more than one level of meaning. "You've been good. Treat yourself! You deserve a reward." But many of us would also think: "Too many of these rewards and my just desserts will be obesity and ...
3705. Seeking Hands
Psalm 141:1-10
Sermon
Hands are useful. They allow us to accomplish many things. Not only are they able to do, but they also help us communicate. All of us have probably been recipients of bad communications when people use their hands to make gestures that were less than complimentary. There are also good gestures - a gesture that says "hi," or a wave. In Brazil, if a mother beckons her child like this (palm up), the child understands that the mother is communicating for the child to come. But if she beckons the child like ...
Sermon
Kendall McCabe
Hearing this Gospel lesson read on a Sunday morning may come as a shock to many of us. It is not the setting we are used to. "In my Father's house are many rooms" is a phrase we tend to associate almost exclusively with funerals, and small wonder, since, in many churches, that is or has been the only Gospel lesson appointed to be read at the burial of the dead. Here on a spring morning, with the trees in bud and new life popping out everywhere, we have to remember funerals we have attended and heard those ...
Children's Sermon
Object: A road map. Good morning, boys and girls. Do you all know where you are? Are you sure that none of you is lost? That's good. Has anyone here ever been lost? Isn't that an awful feeling? I remember one time when I was lost. I thought I knew where I was going and it was the wrong direction. Before long there were fewer and fewer houses, and the couple of houses that I did see had no one living in them. The sun started going down and the trees seemed very tall and made dark shadows across the road. ...
Sermon
"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Brothers and Sisters in Christ, after worship, a little boy told the pastor: "When I grow up, I'm going to give you some money." "Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "but why?" "Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers we've ever had."1 With the risk of this story in mind, I am pleased, nevertheless, to bring you the fifth sermon in a series of six, dealing with the spiritual needs of Americans as discovered by George Gallup, Jr. ...
Sermon
Gary W. Houston
I don’t know about you, but I have difficulty identifying with the image of Jesus as the Great Shepherd. This is not said to be negative. I simply have no experience with sheep. I was around cows for a couple of years though. Therefore, today I would like to talk to you about "Cowherding Christians." My grandad was a farmer and for many years he had milk cows. I can close my eyes and almost see him today heading out across the field in his old Chevy truck, rounding up the cows. True, he didn’t dress much ...
Sermon Aid
CSS
Paul was too restless to remain long in any place. As he completed the second year of his ministry at Ephesus, he began planning his next move. To pave the way, he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, ahead of him into Macedonia. Shortly after they left, a major shift in the situation at Ephesus took place. Paul’s teaching had been tolerated and even welcomed by the Ephesians so long as it remained in a purely religious context. When it began to swell in influence so that it affected the city’s ...
3711. Let’s Face It
Matthew 25:1-13
Sermon
Michael L. Sherer
With the familiar parable which forms the text for this day, we draw very near to the close of the church year. Since the Middle Ages, Christians have used the closing days of the old church year to focus on "last things": the end of the world, the end of life, the promise of things to come, the thought of the return of Christ (one of the themes celebrated during Advent, the next season on the church’s calendar). The parable of the wise and foolish virgins fits well into the pattern. The bridegroom is ...
Sermon
Robert G. Tuttle
To have courage without pugnacity, To have conviction without bigotry, To have charity without condescension, To have faith without credulity, To have meekness with power, and emotion with sanity, To have love for humanity without mere sentimentality - that is Christianity. (Charles Evans Hughes) Being a "beautiful Christian" is that second mile that a true experience of Christ produces in us. There are no "ugly Christians" not really. When I was a student at the Duke Divinity School the bells were just ...
3713. Sinner to Saint
Matthew 9:9-13
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. [Matthew 9:9] "You’ve come a long way, Baby" is an expression used by a popular cigarette commercial. You are shown a 19th century girl who is hiding her smoking with embarrassment. In contrast there is a 20th century girl openly, proudly smoking a cigarette. Indeed, women smokers have come a long way from public displeasure to acceptance. To become a saint, a ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
Pentecost VIII That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil but when the sun rose ...
3715. Nag, Nag, Nag!
Matthew 15:21-28
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
Pentecost XIII And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon." But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." And ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
Women have sometimes had the reputation for doing some pretty dumb things. My preacher-husband, John, and I drove to a preaching mission in Mississippi recently. Three different times, the same day, we found ourselves behind a woman (a different one each time) who signaled to make a turn, then turned the opposite direction from her signal. It reminded me of the person who said "When a woman sticks out her arm, and indicates a left turn, the only thing you can be absolutely sure of is that the window is ...
Sermon
Louis H. Valbracht
As our Lord took leave of his disciples, promising them the coming of the Holy Spirit and the power that would be thereby transmitted to them and through them, he repeated a promise which he had made before. He was attempting to reiterate the power that we have at our fingertips, if we only believe it. Actually, it concerns the subject of prayer, because any petition addressed to Christ is a prayer. So when he says: "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it," we have the whole key to the power of prayer. ...
Sermon
Louis H. Valbracht
In both his Letter to the Galatians and his Letter to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul, without equivocation, admonishes us all NOT to be weary. And then, paradoxically almost, in 2 Corinthians, we find that he is after all, human himself, and he admits that he himself has often been weary. Perhaps it’s the most used expression in our conversation: "I’m tired! I’m beat! I’m dead! I’m weary! I’m worn out! I’ve had it!" Christian people are supposed to feel beneath them the everlasting arms. Instead, they feel ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
As with so many of the stories of Jesus, the parable of the debtors arose out of a question that was posed to Jesus. Simon Peter said to him: “Master, if my brother sins against me, how many times should I forgive him? Seven times? Even as he asks that question my mind cannot help but think about children and how they will sometimes confess something they do wrong expecting to get praise from a teacher or a parent because they were so honest. In the same sense, Simon Peter by asking this question is not ...
Sermon
Robert Allen
The day after Christmas we carefully made our way out of town on the ice. We were on our way to South Padre Island for a few days of rest and fun. It is a long drive to South Texas, and we were glad to finally arrive. When we found the leasing agent for the condo we had rented, I went inside to get the key. When I went inside the office, the woman at the desk was on the phone speaking Spanish to someone. The longer I waited, the more irritated I became. I was tired after the long drive, I wanted to get ...
3721. The More Excellent Way
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Sermon
Robert Allen
The 1988 Winter Olympics were marked by controversy for the U.S. team. The controversy centered around the fact that we had not won as many medals as expected. In fact, the last time we had done so poorly was in 1936. We won a few medals, and those winners have become household names. Debi Thomas went head to head with the East German, Katerina Witt, and came away with only a bronze medal, Bonnie Blair won the gold medal in speed skating as well as a bronze, Brian Boitano picked up the gold in figure ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
With Election Day upon us, I thought this text about hypocrisy was appropriate. I am reminded of a story about Theodore Roosevelt. During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on him at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up. "Ah, gentlemen," he said, "come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work." At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, "John, where's all ...
Drama
Esther Lense
If the church’s seating arrangement allows, have all the children of the pre-school through the sixth grade sit together on one side of the chancel, with the junior choir on the other side. As the program opens, the children of the pre-school through sixth grade face the congregation and sing Come and Hear the Grand Old Story. As they sing, the "family" characters enter and arrange themselves on the chancel or stage. The school children are seated, and the spotlight focuses on the chancel. A mother and ...
3724. On His Way
Matthew 21:1-11
Sermon
Larry Powell
See in your mind’s eye a city that has doubled in population almost overnight. The city is Jerusalem and faithful Jews have converged upon the holy city from great distances to celebrate the Passover. They have come from every country district and all the lands of the Diaspora. The Jewish historian, Josephus, recorded that as many as 1,000,000 pilgrims came annually to the feast. Families were reunited, friends renewed acquaintances, spirits were high, and from the Temple priests down to the simplest ...
Sermon
Robert G. Tuttle
An author writing in Vogue magazine says that he believes America’s loss of values, and her moral and ethical breakdown, arise from the fact that for the first time in history most of the people of America do not believe in life after death. When we lose our faith we lose our focus on a dependable structure of life. If life has no meaning, if it is going nowhere, then we can summarize history and the future, - "So What?" Eat, drink, and be merry - if you can! If life after death is not, I don’t want to ...
Showing results