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 3751 to 3775 of 4944 results

3751. The Word Made Flesh

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

Characters (in order of appearance) Father (Aaron) Benjamin Esther Mother Rebecca Ruth Joseph Mary Innkeeper (Daniel) Innkeeper’s Wife Leah Innkeeper’s Child 1 Innkeeper’s Child 2 First Shepherd Second Shepherd Third Shepherd Props Two tables Four chairs Door Scrolls Broom Pitcher of water Glasses Tray with food and bowls on it Blanket Towel Manger Star Notes This play draws together ancient prophecies from the book of Isaiah and the birth of Jesus, showing how his coming was a fulfillment of those ...

3752. An Announcement from the Wilderness

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

After some last-minute Christmas shopping, a woman was rushing her grandchildren into the car. It was then that four-year-old Jason said, “Grandma, Susie has something in her pocket.” He then proceeded to reach into Susie’s pocket and pulled out a new red barrette. Though she was tired, this grandmother knew it was important for Susie to put the item back where she had found it. They did just that. Then they headed to the grocery store. Later at the grocery store checkout, the clerk asked, “Have you kids ...

3753. What Are You Waiting On?

John 11:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

It is something that all of us will spend at least an hour doing every day and I mean every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. In fact, we will spend 5 years of our lifetime doing nothing but this. It is universally above everything else the one thing everybody hates to do. In fact, there is nothing that we do that is more frustrating, aggravating, irritating and feels like more of a waste of time than doing this. Can you guess what it is? It’s waiting. An hour every day we wait on something. We are put ...

3754. Distress and Help

Isaiah 33:1-24

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Oh You Destroyer Who Has Not Been Destroyed: We noted in the Introduction that the major copy of Isaiah from Cave 1 at Qumran leaves a space after chapter 33, and this chapter indeed closes off the first half of the book. It does this quantitatively, because we are fairly precisely half way through the book. It also does it thematically and verbally. At one level chapter 33 is jerky and puzzling. The addressees keep changing, we are not clear who is being talked about, and no train of argument develops ...

3755. Defeating Discouragement

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Charley Reeb

Yard sales are interesting to me. I don’t frequent them very often, but I am always fascinated by the fact that “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” Someone can’t wait to get rid of old tapes and records — doesn’t want them cluttering up the house anymore. Along comes a complete stranger and he just can’t believe anyone would want to sell them. He buys them for a steal and drives home with a big smile thinking he just committed robbery. He brings the records home, clutters up his own house ...

3756. This Woman Was a Fighter

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

She was a single mom with a special needs child, and she desperately needed Jesus’ help. Okay, so the scriptures don’t actually say that she was single. Our lesson simply doesn’t mention her husband, but I’ve seen enough single moms courageously facing difficult obstacles that I can imagine she may have been one of them. Perhaps her husband had been killed in an accident or simply died young as many people did back then. Maybe when he saw the extent of his daughter’s disability, he decided he didn’t want ...

3757. Rebirth

John 3:14-21

Sermon

John Jamison

The city of Jerusalem was packed with strangers during the Passover feast, so you could walk a long distance and never see anyone you recognized. He was counting on that, as he quickly moved along the streets with his head held low and his face covered. He moved from alleyway to alleyway, looking carefully in all directions before stepping into the openness of a street, making sure there was not someone who might recognize him. But while he tried to remain hidden, he had to be careful to not appear too ...

3758. A Taxing Encounter

Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 2:13-17, Luke 5:27-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8) Prop: Envelope…junk mail marked IMPORTANT You know those envelopes you get in the mail sometimes marked IMPORTANT! Here is one of them. You scramble to open it, thinking it’s a check or some important document that you need . . . only to find that it’s an ad to buy life insurance or something you don’t need! Yikes! Fooled again. Living in our culture is a lot like that. Signs are everywhere telling you that THIS message is IMPORTANT! ...

3759. Let It Loose!

Mark 7:31-37, Exodus 4:1-17, Exodus 4:18-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Let it loose! Let ‘er rip! Open up and give the best rip-roaring shout of praise you can muster up! Ready –shout! [Cock your ear to listen…] That was your shout of praise? Let’s try that again! [Invite people to whoop it up!] Well, that’s something that’s become hard for us to do in church these days, isn’t it? Here we are experiencing the most amazing, mind-blowing truth of all time –the resurrection of Jesus and the super-charged presence of the Holy Spirit blowing right through and among us here this ...

3760. Revising The Agenda

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

William G. Carter

Whenever I hear this Bible passage, I smell potato soup. One day when I was about fourteen years old, my mother announced we were going to church for something called a “sacrificial” supper. She said it had something to do with the season of Lent. That was curious, too. We were a low-church Presbyterian family. Liturgical seasons didn’t mean much to us. Any talk of Lent didn’t make much sense. At least, not until that night. There we were, one Sunday night in late winter. The fellowship hall was half-empty ...

3761. Love Without Limits

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

The epitaph on the grave of Albert Camus, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, reads: "Here I understand what they call glory: the right to love without limits." In our gospel lesson we see two people who love without limits. Neither of them seem very glorious. One is a tired itinerant preacher named Jesus. The other is a woman who has no name -- only a racial designation: a Canaanite woman. "Canaanite" was to the Jews of Jesus' time what "Native American" is to the majority of North Americans. ...

3762. Why Not Walk On What Jesus Walked On When He Walked On Water

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

I wish Matthew, Mark and John had consulted me before they wrote their gospels. If they had only sent me their rough drafts, I could have put a big red "X" through this story about Jesus walking on the water. (Luke apparently had a good editor. He didn't include this story.) I would have written a note in the margin stating that I think it would be best not to include this story because it would cause two kinds of reactions in the twentieth century: some people would laugh at it, and others would take it ...

3763. Christmas Eve at the Candy Cane Inn

Drama

Edward Long

Drama 2 Cast of Characters NARRATOR: Sets scenes and takes care of transitions. EFFECTS TECHNICIAN: In charge of recorded or live effects. THE APPLE FAMILY: Family stranded by a snowstorm at the Candy Cane Inn; Mr. Apple has been out of work and Mrs. Apple has been ill. HENRY APPLE: An unemployed engineer in his late 30's; normally a confident, happy person, he is in a bad way at this Christmas Eve. FREDA APPLE: A quiet, tense woman who attempts to keep the family functioning in a difficult time for them. ...

3764. In Quest of a Treasure

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Larry Powell

The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's obsession with discovering the fountain of eternal youth led him eventually to the land of flowers, or as we know it, Florida. Even now, there are those who claim that the bold adventurer did, in fact, discover such a fountain and that its perpetual waters contain the treasure of agelessness, or the much pursued "ever young" potion. Several years ago, somewhere in Florida, I took a drink from a fountain which was allegedly the genuine source designated by Ponce de Leon ...

3765. Seeking What Matters

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

"... in his joy ... he sells all ..." - Matthew 13:44 Have you ever thought of it? The process of our living involves a lot of trade-off and barter. We are forever giving up some things in order that we might have others; we are perpetually sacrificing this so we may have that. We do this in our marriages; we do this in our occupational choices; we do this in the matter of having children; we do it at almost every juncture of the journey we make. In most of our choices we are actually giving up certain ...

3766. A Daughter of Jacob

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

This miracle is not simply the story of a mother and her demon-possessed child; it is really an international incident which was to affect the future shape of Christendom. What happened to the Canaanite woman that day affects us today in a most direct and vital way. Like most international incidents it happened at the border between two adversaries. Jesus had traveled to the extreme north end of the Jordan Valley. He was standing at the border line between Syria and Galilee. The inhabitants of Syria were ...

3767. Yes or No?

Matthew 5:1-12

Drama

Dave Marsh

Director's Notes In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us to let your "'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' `No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Jesus is bringing up an issue of integrity. Where do you stand on this issue? Is your word as good as gold? Can people rely on you if you tell them that you will do something? This drama shows that anywhere, even within our family, if we say we will do something, we need to do it. Cast Dan: A husband Jackie: A wife Skip: Dan's friend Props 2 phones A wrapped present ...

3768. An Excuse to Be Better

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Lent. A fascinating time in the church year that Presbyterians and other Protestants are only beginning to appreciate. The name Lent has nothing to do with something previously loaned - it comes from an ancient word that meant "springtime," - that period of the calendar during which the days lengthen. Because the church season always fell at that time of year, the name came to apply there as well. Even after the word "Lent" no longer referred to spring, it was still used by the church to describe the ...

3769. When Fisherman do Strange Things

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

If I were to name the year 1989, I wonder if you would know the significance of it. I imagine most people would think back to something that happened personally to them that year, something that touched their life in a dramatic way, like a birth or death in the family. We wouldn't forget that. But in 1989, during the season of Advent, you will remember, the Communist empire crumbled, the Cold War ended, and the Berlin wall came down. I have a piece of that wall. Our children gave it to us after a trip to ...

3770. The Love of the Harvest

John 4:34-38

Sermon

James Merritt

We all know the name Billy Graham. He has spoken publicly about Jesus Christ, and preached the gospel to more people than any person in human history. He is easily one of the most recognizable and famous people on the face of planet earth. If anybody knows anything about the harvest, it is Billy Graham. Billy Graham said this: The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men, and of nations, is always being decided. Every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the past generation ...

3771. There's God In Them There Hills

Psalm 19:1-14

Sermon

James Merritt

On September 27, 1998, Philip Ozersky went to a baseball game and saw his life changed forever. With one swing of a bat, and in two twinklings of the eye, he caught not just a baseball, but a gold mine. Now a lot of fans have caught home runs, but this was no ordinary home run. A lot of batters have hit home runs, but this was no ordinary batter. On that day, Mark McGuire came to the plate and hit his record-breaking seventieth home run. The ball was launched over Ozersky's head, hit a wall and bounced ...

3772. The Serpent

John 3:14-21

Sermon

John Smylie

Growing up in the northeast, I didn't have a lot of exposure to snakes. There may have been a small garter snake or the threat of a dangerous serpent down at a local pond near our neighborhood. But honestly, there wasn't much of a threat of snakes that I was aware of to be found in northern New Jersey. Wyoming, where I presently reside, is a different story. While serving as a consultant for the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, I had the opportunity to visit the northeastern part of the state. There was a new ...

3773. Apostles of Christ

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

God as the Only Real Judge The thought and logic of this passage are clear, although in Greek much of Paul’s language is awkward. Any translation struggles to render Paul’s statements in a sensible and reliable way. These verses begin by informing the Corinthians how they are to regard Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and all other early Christian workers. They are merely servants and stewards who are called to serve Christ as agents of the proclamation of the mysteries of God’s grace. A single quality must ...

3774. In Search of a New Life

Revelation 21:1-5a

Sermon

King Duncan

Do you like stories of buried treasure? Here’s one that you may not have heard. According to a legend from the Wild West, back in the 1870s, notorious outlaw Jesse James and his gang stole millions of dollars worth of gold bullion from a Mexican general. The men proceeded to bury their treasure somewhere in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. Rumor had it that Jesse had scratched a secretly-coded map on an old bucket and left it as a marker. One source says that after Jesse’s death, his brother Frank James ...

3775. Let 'Er Rip

Mark 13:1-31, Mark 13:32-37, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Wake up, world! The world is waking up. The world needs to wake up. We’ve been asleep for a good long time, and the time has come for the Rip Van Winkles of the world to wake up to the signs of God around them. God is working in our midst. Can you see the signs? The watcher in the tower is the prophet. And you are all watch people. You are all prophets of the Lord! There is not just a priesthood of all believers. There is a prophethood of all believers. The call is coming in! Sound the message to everyone ...

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