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 3801 to 3825 of 4681 results

3801. I Am a Rose of Sharon

Song of Songs 2:1-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

... kind of fruit tree native to Israel. 2:4 His banner over me is love: The sense of this verse is unclear. The word for banner (Hb. degel) is used only here and in Numbers, where it is used in connection with different tribal groups apparently bearing their standards. 2:5 Raisins: The precise meaning is unclear, although the reference is to some kind of delicacy. 2:7 By the gazelles and by the does of the field: Gordis ingeniously suggests that these animals are chosen not only because they have associations ...

3802. How Beautiful You Are

Song of Songs 4:1-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

... the Hb. ṣammātēk here and in v. 3 should be translated “your hair” instead of “your veil” (Song, pp. 166–68). 4:2 Each has its twin; / not one of them is alone: The NIV’s translation is preferable to the common translation “each bearing twins” and “none barren.” The literal implication is that the woman has no teeth missing and that they are well placed; the affective impact of the verse is of freshness, bounty, and symmetry. 4:4 Your neck is like the tower of David, / built with ...

3803. False Religions Worthless

Jeremiah 7:1-29

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... . The list of sins includes stealing, murder, perjury, adultery, and worshiping other gods. These are direct offenses toward the heart of God’s covenant law as expressed in the Ten Commandments. Nonetheless, these people still come to the temple (the house that bears my Name) and claim it as a refuge against outside attack. Strikingly, God accuses the people of turning his temple into a den of robbers. The Judean country-side was filled with caves that occasionally served as a hideout for thieves. Since ...

3804. Drought, Famine, Sword

Jeremiah 14:1--15:21

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... in an attempt to prod God into action. God is like a stranger in the land, a traveler who only spends the night. But because of the covenant, the people believe that God is “among us” and that they have a special relationship with God and “bear your name.” On these grounds, the prophet, on behalf of the people, appeals to God not to forsake them. God responds to the peoples’ plea with a cold shoulder (v. 10). He knows this people. They wander. They may repent now, but their attention is short ...

3805. Judgment Against Evil Kings

Jeremiah 22:1-30, Jeremiah 23:1-8

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... Jerusalem. He only lasted three months (in the year 597 B.C.), and when Nebuchadnezzar took the city, the Babylonians took treasures from the temple and palace and exiled the king, his mother, wives, and many others including the 7000 troops. From the book that bears his name, we also know that Ezekiel was a part of the exiled group (Ezek. 1:2). There is an interesting and telling contrast with Ezekiel concerning this king, but Jeremiah has a decidedly negative attitude toward him. The book of 2 Kings (25 ...

3806. Lying Prophets

Jeremiah 23:9-32, Jeremiah 23:33-40

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... . The rest of the chapter collects various prose and poetic oracles pronouncing judgment on those who claim to speak God’s word when in actuality they do not. Jeremiah was not the only one offering a “word of the LORD.” The false prophets bear a special burden of God’s anger because they make it more difficult for the people to discern the authentic divine message. Jeremiah 28 will recount a particular conflict between Jeremiah and a false prophet named Hananiah. 23:9–12 Jeremiah describes his ...

3807. Restoration of Israel

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... is an apt image because of the extreme pain and anxiety connected with childbearing since the time of the Fall (Gen. 3:16). However, the interesting twist here is provided by the introduction to the metaphor. It begins by asking a rhetorical question, Can a man bear children? The obvious and expected answer is, “Of course not!” But then the oracle goes on to ask why strong men are grasping their midsections like women in labor. The answer is that the fear is so great, even on those strong men who would ...

3808. Freedom for Slaves

Jeremiah 34:8-22

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... their original action as a result of repentance and as doing what was right in God’s sight. It also adds the additional information that the covenant that Zedekiah made with the people to release the slaves was ratified in the temple (the house that bears my Name). To break a solemn agreement between two human partners was bad enough, but that the agreement was made in sacred space makes it so much worse. 34:17–22 Now that the people’s sin has been described, God announces their fate. God will ...

3809. A Message About Babylon

Jeremiah 50:1--51:64

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... uses formulaic language to describe the conquest of Babylon. Their warriors no longer fight. They are exhausted. Their troops are like women (50:37; Nah. 3:13); their dwellings are on fire. The bars of her gates are broken (Nah. 3:13). Messengers come bearing news of Babylon’s defeats. Bridges are taken, even the surrounding marshes are set on fire. In verse 33 Babylon is likened to a threshing floor. The use of the phrase Daughter of Babylon to stand for the nation invites us to personify the nation ...

3810. How the Gold Has Lost Its Luster

Lamentations 4:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

... we read: The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities. (Deut. 28:56–57) 4:11 Kaf. The destruction of Jerusalem and all of its attendant horrors as described in this book are ...

3811. Punishment for Israel

Hosea 9:1--10:15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... reiterates the theme of 9:11–14 (see the comment there). However, this verse is even more emphatic than that passage. Now Israel’s vitality is already dried up. It is like an uprooted tree or like an unwatered tree that shrivels and dies and therefore cannot bear fruit. And the death of its children is now, not the result of war or exile or flight, but the result of the act of Yahweh himself: I will slay their cherished offspring. God himself will do his people to death. God, the lover of his bride ...

3812. A Call to Repentance

Joel 1:13-20

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... clean and the unclean; and they were to teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord had given them through Moses (Lev. 10:10–11). Thus in Exodus the priests are commanded to wear on their breastplates the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, symbolically bearing them into worship before the Lord (Exod. 28:21, 29–30, 38). So Joel turns to the priests in his preaching of repentance and points again to his primary concern: The means of communion with God through the sacrifices have been cut off (v. 13 ...

3813. God's Zeal for Salvation

Joel 2:18-27

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... :10); the wild animals will be fed (cf. 2:22 with 1:20); joy will return to Judah’s harvests and worship (cf. 2:23 with 1:16); the drought will be a thing of the past (cf. 2:23 with 1:10, 12, 18–20); the fruit trees will bear (cf. 2:22 with 1: 12, 19); threshing floors and wine vats will be full (cf. 2:24 with 1:5, 17). All are covenant blessings that God will again bestow on this people (cf. Deut. 11:13–17; 28:3–5, 11–12; Lev. 26:3–5). All make ...

3814. The Gift of the Spirit

Joel 2:28-32

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... :4), to be witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). In that witness, we proclaim a total worldview that sees everything in terms of God’s working in this world; we announce that God’s alone are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever; we bear the glad news that out of free grace, God offers to all persons salvation in the day of the Lord. Paul uses Joel 2:32 in Romans 10:13. But then he goes on to ask how anyone can call on one in whom they have not believed. “And how ...

3815. Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line

Amos 7:1-9

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... of seeded crops, as well as wild growth, are just appearing—all vegetation is meant. Apparently the royal house had first claim on what was planted, although the evidence for this is scanty. (First Kings 18:5 is usually mentioned but has no bearing on the practice.) The produce from this planting sustained Israel’s life during the dry summer months, and were it to be lost, both humans and cattle would die. In short, the locust horde threatened Israel with extinction. Locusts could and sometimes did ...

3816. Israel's Misery

Micah 7:1-7

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... . The bonds of community, of covenant faithfulness, are totally missing. Personified Jerusalem here admits and mourns that those relationships of ḥesed that are “good,” according to 6:8, and that God requires of it, are totally missing from its life. The passage bears the closest relationship to the court case of 6:1–8 and especially to the requirements of 6:8. Seemingly, Jerusalem’s situation is hopeless. It has nothing within its life to nourish its well-being (cf. v. 1). It has reaped only ...

3817. A Crown for Joshua

Zechariah 6:9-15

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... Baruch the scribe and several other men witness the transaction.) “Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon.” These men had been born in the land of captivity and returned to Jerusalem bearing evidence of the Lord’s blessings and the exiles’ enduring hope and faith. First, these men have testimony names, indicating their parents’ faith. Tobijah means “the Lord is good” and Jedaiah means “the Lord knows.” Second, these men represent ...

3818. The Lord Comes and Reigns

Zechariah 14:1-21

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... flesh-rotting disease in which the destruction of the body will be accelerated so that it takes place while they are still standing on their feet. In addition, the animals in those camps that will suffer a similar plague will be military mounts and cargo-bearing creatures. This panic from the Lord will also incapacitate these armies—for example, the Egyptians, the Canaanites, and the Philistines (Exod. 14:24; Deut. 7:23; Judg. 4:15; 1 Sam. 14:20). Each man, in their fear and confusion, will seize the hand ...

3819. A Room with Locked Doors

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... cottage was a beautiful lawn with flowers and trees. In front of the cottage was a family of four: a mother, a father, and two children at play. In the center of the paper, however, stood a tiny figure facing a large army tank which was bearing down upon him--about to run him down. Obviously the tiny figure represented the dying child who saw himself helpless before a gigantic force which was about to destroy him. Dr. Ross asked the group of students, “How could you help this child communicate his fears ...

3820. Timeout at Tiberias

John 21:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... I’m talking about? Have you ever let someone else down? Have you dreaded seeing them afterward--not because they had done you wrong, but because you had failed them. At a time like that, it might seem easier to let go of the relationship than to bear the shame of seeing them again. And so the disciples, seven of them at least--Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John and two other unnamed disciples--decide to take a timeout . . . a timeout at the Sea of Tiberias. After Christ’s resurrection an angel of the ...

3821. Don't Just Stand There!

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... were. We are to incarnate his love so that people in our community will know that he is still alive. This is Christ’s plan for establishing his Kingdom in the world. As we have noted before, it is in incarnating Christ’s love in our lives that we best bear witness for Christ. It is not in buttonholing people on the street and asking them if they have been saved. That is offensive to most people today. Pastor Kent Crockett tells about a lady who had a pet dog that was sick. Every day she tried to force a ...

3822. A Grayhound and a Kite

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” And the church, indeed, was born that day. A mighty movement began that would shake the world. Like a Greyhound bus parting the waters for an old station wagon or like a kite bearing a cable above Niagara Falls, the Holy Spirit took a handful of uneducated men from a rural region of an obscure part of the Middle East and started a movement that is still at work more than 2,000 years later preparing the world for the kingdom ...

3823. His Nature Is Light

John 1:6-8, John 1:19-28, Acts 13:47

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... from an ordinary flashlight and then fill it with junk such as shoe-strings, paper clips and other trash. Carry the batteries in your pocket. Good morning, boys and girls. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the light of the world and that we are to bear witness to the light. Later in the Bible we are told that we are the light of the world. I brought this flashlight with me to demonstrate what that means. When we tell everyone around us that we love Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are like ...

3824. The Gift of Love

Isaiah 7:10-14, Matthew 1:18-25

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... materials for costumes. When their friends arrive, they welcome them to an evening of singing, dancing, and storytelling. Each one receives his handmade present and goes home, tired but happy. The two characters in this story just happen to be a mouse and a bear. But they tell us something very important about giving: they use what they have. Instead of waiting until such a time as they could "afford to entertain," they went ahead and invited people to share with them the joy of the Christmas season. * That ...

3825. Forgiven

Luke 15:1-3, 11-31

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... about it. She could only hurt all alone. How was she ever going to face her teacher again? She didn't want to go back to school that next day, but she knew she had to. She kept her head down, though, all through class. She couldn't bear to look into her teacher's eyes. Suddenly, she heard the teacher calling her name. "Susie," her teacher said, "Would you take this note to Miss Jones class and bring back her answer?" Susie couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her teacher had forgiven her. Her teacher ...

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