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 351 to 375 of 4963 results

351. I'll Be Somewhere Listening

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

... he may choose to reveal his will to us by using all. The fact is, God still speaks! Too often when God speaks, we remain ignorant of the fact that this thought is coming from God, and our response is negative. When God sends us a message, are we ... yam what I yam, and that's all." Ancient Israel could say before Samuel, "I yam what I yam." God did not want Israel to remain as she was. Thus, through Samuel, God called Israel to a new resolve, a new beginning. This new beginning was to be characterized by God ...

352. Death Leads to Life

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... world." The third tree viewed the valley from its mountaintop and said, "I don't want to be made into anything. I just want to remain here and grow tall so I can remind people to raise their eyes and think of God in heaven who loves them so much." ... paradoxes. Jesus expresses this clearly in the Gospels. "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). Again Jesus tells us, "For those who want to ...

353. To Live Is To Grow

1 Timothy 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... from now until Thanksgiving: Continue to Grow. Our sermon today insists that to live is to grow. Earlier, I used my son Kevin and the novel, The Tin Drum, to picture the situation of many people who have decided not to grow. They want to stay little to remain children. That's a deadly decision not to grow. But I want to use the image of a child or the nature of children, as a challenge for us. You remember Jesus' experience with His disciples and children. When the crowd brought children to Him for Him to ...

354. Facing Fears, Kingdom Style

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... and the help of the mission. Down-and-out to up-and-on is a story line with endless variations. Jesus Christ is in the conversion business, and those who turn to him will not be disappointed. That’s the gospel. A changed life and a new life remains one of the most powerful arguments for the truth of this faith. “This is who I was before; this is who I am now, and the credit goes to Christ and his people.” Every life is a spiritual drama, and testimonies are great faith builders. In doing research ...

355. Comfortable Christianity Is a Big, Fat Lie

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... open your life to the occult and demonic through any of its seductive avenues, it will fill you with unholy fascinations; if you surrender to the obsessions of the culture it will morally mis-shape you, and if you do not live a lifestyle of repentance, you will remain a person in bondage. This is the network of forces Jesus came to rescue us from, and he invites and requires our full and lifelong participation. There is simply no other way to be saved. It’s why he said in verse 13, “Enter by the narrow ...

356. Commencement Address

Acts 1:6-14

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... seated during the entire trip no matter what happened. If the stagecoach got stuck in the mud, or had trouble making it up a steep hill, or even if a wheel fell off, you could remain seated because you had a first-class ticket. If you had a second-class ticket, you also could remain seated -- until there was a problem. In case of a problem, second-class ticket holders would have to get off until the problem was resolved. You could stand off to the side and watch as other people worked. You didn't have ...

357. How's the Old Complaint?

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... it, poke it, punch it, abuse it. Then at the end of the poem comes this line: "Thou answers all of this with spring." It is just amazing, the faithfulness of God. God answers our abuse of the gift that he gives to us with spring. "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall never cease." That's a promise. So when we receive the gift, and abuse it, or misuse it, or are ungrateful and do not recognize the Giver, what does God do? God returns it to us ...

358. Proper 11

Genesis 28:10-22, Romans 8:1-17, Romans 8:18-27, Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... destroy false Christians, the weeds. 3. Are You A Weed? (13:24-26). Need: According to this parable every church consists of wheat and weeds. Who is to determine who are weeds? Who are we to judge? Since Jesus teaches that we should allow the weeds to remain, why try to decide who are weeds? Only God knows who are genuine believers, members of the invisible church. But, should not a weed be converted into wheat? Only the individual can conclude that he is a weed and thus needs to repent. This sermon is to ...

359. The Price of God's Glory

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... the world." The third tree viewed the valley from its mountaintop and said, "I don't want to be made into anything. I just want to remain here and grow tall so I can remind people to raise their eyes and think of God in heaven who loves them so much." Years ... along the way. Jesus says it so plainly: "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls in the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life ...

360. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... greatest generations this country has ever produced in its 200+ years of history. You're one of the greatest generations that have ever lived. Let's give this generation a hand. Will those of you who were born between 1930 and 1945 remain standing? You are known by sociologists as "The Ikes," or the Eisenhower Generation aka War Babies, Depression Babies, Silent Generation, etc.). You constitute a very special segment of the booster population. Born during the Depression and World War II, you now comprise ...

361. Saved by the Bell

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... full. Our forebears did not have the legal scruples about grave sites that we do today. So in some places they decided to recycle the graves and reuse the space. They dug up the coffins of those that had been buried in centuries past, removed the remains to another site, and buried new bodies. As they reopened the coffins, they discovered to everyone's horror that in 2-5 percent of the cases, there were scratch marks on the inside walls of coffins, claw marks, kick marks, bodies that were turned over with ...

362. Keep Going, Today, Tomorrow and the Next

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . According to the alternative gospel reading (Luke 9:28-36), Jesus is coming off a mountaintop experience of revelation we call the Transfiguration. Jesus quickly left that moment behind, setting out on the dusty road to Jerusalem. Jesus refused to remain posed in some heavenly abode (tableaux), poised in some applauding environment (milieux). He was transfigured but he would not be transfixed. He knew the fulfillment of his mission lay elsewhere. When the Pharisees warned Jesus about the dangers posed by ...

363. Fear Factor

Psalm 25:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). Perfect love is, of course, a state none of us can achieve by ourselves. Like the psalmist who recognized his own sins and transgressions, we're all too aware of how tenuous and tepid our abilities to love remain. The only one who patterns perfect love for us, who offers perfect love to us, is Jesus the Christ. Despite our fears, our imperfections, our shortcomings, Jesus promises to be "with you always, even to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). As long as ...

364. Proper 6

Matthew 10:1-42, Matthew 9:35-38, Romans 5:1-11, Psalm 116:1-19, Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... her speech. We learn that she was listening, that she is alone, and that she is well past menopause. A complex sequence of speeches follows. First, Sarah demonstrates her unbelief by laughing privately over this seemingly ridiculous promise in v. 12. The motif of laughing remains central to the rest of the story because in Hebrew it is the name of Isaac. Second, God asks Abraham in vv. 13-14 why Sarah is laughing and then poses the central question to the story: Is there anything that is too difficult for ...

365. The Right Connection

John 15:1-8

Sermon

James Merritt

... , and this is truly the key that unlocks the door to the joyous victorious Christian life. But what does it mean to abide? Why is abiding so important? When you put a tea bag in a cup of hot water, something amazing happens to that water. As the tea bag remains, or "abides" in that water, it begins to color that water and flavor that water, until that water begins to take on the color and the taste of the tea. Now the longer the bag abides in the water, the stronger the color and the taste of the tea. That ...

366. What Is A Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... in Acts 5:41 he and the others "departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." For centuries Antioch remained an important center of Christianity, but unfortunately today nothing remains from that New Testament city. Today Antakya, a city in Turkey, is all that remains of that ancient city. It speaks Turkish and Arabic, not Greek, and it is predominantly Muslim with very few Christians. I wonder if those who were saved by Christ quit ...

367. Floating on Your Back

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... for a brain tumor. Then, she’d lost her father, her mother and her home. The staff all wondered how Mary would react to the test. But, she went into the MRI machine without protest. They started the test. Each imaging sequence required her to remain perfectly still for about 5 minutes. That’s hard for anyone, especially a 5‑year‑old. Dr. Brown says, “About two minutes into the first sequence, we noticed that Mary’s mouth was moving. We even heard her muted voice on the intercom. We stopped ...

368. Settle for an F

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to spend the rest of one's life in an institution." Without the lumps and bumps, woes and warts of marriages, stand-up comics would starve. In some ways our culture has much in common with the attitude that prevailed in the first century - remaining faithfully committed to one's partner is seen as kind of quaintly foolish, at times even marginally masochistic. We are a society where Wilt Chamberlain's non-basketball statistics (20,000-plus women) are considered as impressive and laudatory as his on-court ...

369. Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... seeks to keep at a distance might also be understood as those thoughts and energies and forces in this world that work against us, making us less than God would have us be. As Jesus' prayer continues in verses 16-18, he asks that the disciples remain in this world but not of it, that they will avoid the worldly practice of hateful thoughts and deeds. He concludes this portion of his prayer in verse 19 by consecrating himself as a sacrifice so that the apostles themselves may become consecrated to the great ...

370. John 1:29-42

John 1:29-42

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the Baptist about what he has witnessed. Both John's eyes and the words of "the one who sent" him to baptize focus on two facts. First, the Spirit descends upon Jesus, which establishes a direct linkage between the heavens and Jesus. Second, this Spirit "remains" with Jesus - enters into him, becomes a part of him. The Spirit of God was often visited upon Old Testament leaders and prophets as divine help in times of crisis. But with one exception, that Spirit always returned to God when the moment of crisis ...

371. Matthew 14:13-21

Matthew 14:13-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... disciples feed the crowd, however, Jesus gives the food to the disciples to distribute. Not only are all fed to capacity, but there is food left over. Enough remains that each of the doubting disciples still has a final responsibility to this gathered crowd. Twelve baskets of broken pieces, one for each disciple to collect, are what remain of this simple yet satisfying meal. In the story of the loaves and fishes, Matthew distinguishes the power of messianic authority from the abuses of power as demonstrated ...

372. Luke 10:25-37

Luke 10:25-37

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Israelites eventually intermarried with the Assyrians, "diluting" their Jewishness. Samaritans hence- forth were viewed as a "mixed race," impure in blood and soul. Hostility simmered between the Samaritans and the remaining Judean Jews. It came to a violent climax in 109 B.C. when John Hyrcanus, then the Judean king, destroyed the Samaritans' temple. Little wonder that Jesus' messengers were faced with stony rejection at the Samaritan village when it became known they were Jews traveling toward their ...

373. Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

374. 1 Peter 3:18-22

1 Peter 3:18-22

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and argued about by biblical scholars since the days of Augustine. Ironically, the main focus of this text is usually not the primary interest of scholarly inquiries. The epistle writer is making a case for Christians to endure suffering while remaining righteous. The writer naturally turns to Christ himself as the ultimate example of suffering for righteousness' sake. But as the writer continues to develop this theme, he chooses to use a unique example which is both textually and theologically problematic ...

375. Acts 5:27-32

Acts 5:27-32

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... to reach out "to the ends of the earth" obviously suggesting a Gentile-inclusive audience. Thus while it may appear that Jewish leadership and "the Jews" in general were consistently the "bad guys" in this missionary saga, we must keep in mind that the Jews remain the central focus of the disciples' evangelizing efforts. Despite the fact that at the end of Acts the Jews have continued to reject the gospel message and the thrust of the church has now turned toward the Gentile world, it would be wrong to read ...

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