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 3826 to 3850 of 4943 results

3826. Don't Sweat The Numbers

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... it's that 'plus one' that always puts The Infinite out of reach." Someone asked him, "Then how do we become one with The Infinite?" He replied, "You can't." The people were stunned, shocked, silent. But the silence was redoubled when he continued, "The Infinite has become one with you!" "That's absurd," challenged the Chief Number Cruncher of the Temple. "The Infinite cannot become finite." "The Infinite" replied the Stranger, "can become anything or anyone The Infinite chooses to become." "And," the Chief ...

3827. The Way, The Truth, And The Life Style

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Thomas Long

... that he, unlike Murray, is realistic, willing to deeal with the available world. He has no desire to change the world, just to accommodate to it Arnold says that he does not consider himself to be an exceptional man; he has a wife and children, and "business is business." He continues: You cannot convince me I am one of the bad guys. I get up, I go, I lie a little, I peddle a little, I watch the rules, I talk the talk. We ... have those offices high up there so we catch the wind and go with it, however it ...

3828. The Seven Last Words Of Pilate

Sermon

Thomas Long

... , "the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." "What is truth?" prompts Pilate. "He is. He is the way, the truth and the life." "Where is he from?" Pilate prods, continuing the litany. "He is from God on high," sings the church in reply. Most ironically moving of all is the moment when Pilate leads the congregation in a violent doxology. Repeatedly striking Jesus across the face, Pilate and his cohorts nonetheless bow down before ...

3829. When God Is The Problem

Psalm 13:1-6

Sermon

Robert G. McCreight

Introduction During Lent we are focusing our biblical attention almost exclusively on the passages from the psalms, allowing their themes and their spirit to rise up and identify themselves to us. Today we are continuing to gain a greater familiarity with these conversations from the heart. Through song and reading and spoken word the religiosity of the psalmists of old is speaking to us today. A For the first two Sundays in Lent our attention was on what Old Testament professor Walter Brueggeman called ...

3830. Behold The Man Who Taught By The Sea

Mark 4:1-20

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... allow the Kingdom of God to live in them. He called them to look around and see it everywhere, and to anticipate its coming. He called them to realize the Kingdom's great power, and to submit their lives to the rule of God. This is a call we must continue to heed. We are still called to come live in the Kingdom of God, and to allow the Kingdom of God to live in us. In a children's Sunday school class all the children were singing, "Praise him, Praise him, All ye little children." They sang through that song ...

3831. The Mark Upon Us

Sermon

Lee Griess

... . Through our baptism we are claimed by God and made part of GOD'S family. In baptism we receive our name and are marked with God's grace forever. Perhaps you haven't noticed but during the Service of Holy Baptism the pastor says the person's name and continues saying, "Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever." And as the pastor says that, the pastor traces the mark of a cross on the person's forehead. It is a moment of grace. The canceling of one ...

3832. Who Lives In You?

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Lee Griess

... , our interest in Scripture reading, our attention to prayer. For the reality of our Christian faith is our relationship with Christ, the same kind of response that Jesus gave those Pharisees. "Look and see how I act," he said. "See, I go about my business. I will continue to care for the sick and proclaim God's Word." Who lives in you? The answer must always be "Christ lives in me." The same love, the same compassion that Jesus had is present in me. The same life, the same power of God that was present ...

3833. The Breath Of God

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Marc Kolden

... faith and sorrow had banished hope. Now Jesus' coming into their midst as Lord, bringing the peace of God, reversed all that. We might think that this was the climax, but actually it was only the beginning. "Peace be with you" is just the first sentence. Then Jesus continues, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." God the Father sent the only Son from heaven to save the world and now that Son says, "That's how I'm now sending you." Can you imagine those disciples? Here they were, huddled in fear ...

3834. Demon-Possessed Child

Matthew 15:1-20, Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... the Jewish God. God sent Elijah to the widow at Zarephath. We know the story because Zarephath lay just south of Sidon. Having exhausted himself, the prophet lost heart. God commanded the woman to feed Elijah during his time of wondering how he was to continue. Asker: You believe you may have been sent to nourish Jesus' soul at a difficult time. Then this story carries meaning beyond the healing of your child. Woman: I was thinking only about stories of Jesus' compassion and my daughter's need. Later, I ...

3835. Wanting To Be Seen

Matthew 6:5-6

Sermon

David Belgum

... American usurper. The Washington presidency was nothing if not theatrical. Why else the elaborate rituals of levee and drawing room, in triumphal progress to occasions of state and deferential response from lawmakers for whom the president was both symbol of continuity and instrument of change? As the embodiment of revolutionary virtue, Washington knew that whenever he appeared, partisan murmurs would be lost in a chorus of hero worship. This alone was enough to make him the young republic's greatest asset ...

3836. Brainstorms

Sermon

John R. Bodo

... Than None. Apollos "knew only the baptism of John" (the Baptist). His experience and training prepared him for the gospel. It also made it more likely for him to resist the gospel. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." That is why the mainline Protestant churches continue to insist on a fully-educated clergy. It is also why we offer as much adult education to laypersons as we can. Even a blank mind holds out more promise than a mind confused with half-truths. A Clash of Wills. 1 Corinthians 16:12 can ...

3837. Standing On The Shore

John 20:1-18 · Mark 16:1-8

Sermon

Elaine M. Ward

... never know. We only leap to accept the best life has to offer, for Easter is a gift of love and perfect love casts out fear. The text says that they "said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." The questions remain, the seeking for answers continues, but though the questions remain unanswered, accepting the gift of Easter, of Christ's resurrection, feels like one. Once I was closely involved with a dying friend. We daily visited her in her own home, surrounded by her family and friends. She had not been ...

3838. The Word Jesus Spoke

John 2:13-22

Sermon

Elaine M. Ward

... had been destroyed. The revolt was a defeat. All that remained were a few at Masada awaiting their death. To this community Jesus' words created a new world, connecting life with God beyond the Temple, in the world here and now, and they asked, and continue to ask, for a response. "Whose words will you follow?" There is a war of myths. The Roman government has its myth. The revolutionaries have their myth. The temple priests have theirs. It is true, as well, today. Madison Avenue has its myth: "Buy! Buy ...

3839. Troubled By A Talking Whirlwind

Job 38:1-7 · Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... state my case before him and set our my arguments in full; then I should learn what answer he would give and understand what he had to say to me.-- Job 23:3-5 Job is frustrated by God's silence, and God's apparent refusal to answer. So he continues: Let God weigh me in the scales of justice, and he will know that I am blameless ... I should plead the whole record of my life and present that in court as my defense.-- Job 31:6, 37 And then the story says that out of the whirlwind God answered ...

3840. The Backside Of God

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... our hand -- just a stick. What will we get to see of God? Naturally the answer lies in the fact that here, as in most of life, there is more to the story. Rather than being a story of Moses getting the short end of the stick (if I may continue with my "stick" motif), it is actually a story of God's amazing grace, freely given -- one in a long series of such stories. Remember where today's reading comes in the grand scheme of things. God had heard the cry of the people of Israel in their bondage in ...

3841. The Assumption Of Discipline

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... to a deserted place, and there he prayed." When the apostles were tempted to invest their time and energies in other very necessary and important tasks in the exciting days of rapid expansion in the Jerusalem Christian community, they determined to give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). And Martin Luther, when asked how he managed all his affairs, declared, "I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." John Wesley spent two ...

3842. Eighteen Years Is Long Enough

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... on to you," Paul wrote the Corinthians in words we often quote in Communion services, but which in a larger sense summarize how we pass the faith along from generation to generation. Because we believe the Bible to be inspired by God, we find it to be continually inspiring in new and often surprising ways, but we are, by definition, connected to this tradition. Jeremiah knew that he was not an elder of the community, not a gray head, and so because of his youth, he felt unqualified to speak on behalf of the ...

3843. "Is It Community Today?"

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... lack of anyone caring. He said in an interview with Time magazine after his release, "Nothing I did mattered to anyone. I began to realize how withering it is to exist without a single expression of caring around [me] ... I learned one overriding fact," he continued, "caring is a powerful force. If no one cares, you are truly alone." Christians are never truly alone. We are fortunate to receive God's gracious care through the church. The sense of that caring can give us the strength we need to endure. It ...

3844. Words, Words, Word

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... 're swimming in a sea of words. Studies indicate that the average American man speaks 25,000 words a day; the average American woman 30,000. (I don't make up these statistics. I just report them.) Astronaut Michael Collins once quoted that statistic at a banquet. He continued, "Unfortunately, when I come home each day, I've spoken my 25,000 and my wife [who was apparently the "house spouse"], hasn't started her 30,000." We sometimes may feel not just that we're swimming in words but that we're drowning in a ...

3845. Pentecost: From Confusion To Communion In Christ

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... to heal the wounds and divisions that sin has inflicted upon creation. We are moving from the confusion of the Tower of Babel to the communion of Christian love. We are joining God in reuniting creation under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That process will continue until God has the New Creation, a New Heaven and New Earth, filled with harmony and peace, with Jesus Christ at its center. Pentecost is part of the journey to that New Creation. The divisions are being reversed. The wounds are being healed. We ...

3846. Fulfilled, Or Just Full?

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... revealing passage in one of his books: a book on Communion ironically titled Sunday Dinner. In it Willimon writes, "I am convinced that my own overeating, the binges I often lapse into, have a direct relation to periods of intense pressure or anxiety in my life." He continues, "My weight is a kind of barometer of what is going on in me. For instance, in the summer, when my family and I are at leisure, my weight seems easier to control. In the winter, in a time of schedules and deadlines, short days and long ...

3847. The Savior Life Diet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... love of God. Just a few years ago, after doing time in prison for killing his wife, he came into a relationship with Jesus Christ. "I can't understand that kind of love," Ben says, shaking his head. Angie, as she has for more than four decades, continues on in the work of God. (Taken from Descending Into Greatness by Bill Hybels and Rob Wilkins. Copyright (c) 1993 by Bill Hybels and Ron Wilkins. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House). Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." Jesus is the Bread that ...

3848. Wedding: Garments Of Marriage (for a formal wedding)

Colossians 3:1-17

Bulletin Aid

Derl G. Keefer

... you for one another. It's a beautiful thing to see. It shines on your faces. It shows in your eyes. That's why people love to watch brides and grooms on their wedding day. But you know each other well enough to realize that life is not one continuous wedding day. What are the actions and attitudes that will wear well for the two of you when you have to get back to the hard work of daily living? After the wedding clothes are put away, with what garments will you clothe your heart? The Apostle Paul seemed ...

3849. Wedding: Building A Marriage (for a couple fixing up a house)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Derl G. Keefer

... ways of being in families, different personalities. In the context of your love for one another, those differences can be interesting and exciting. They can add a lot of spark to your life together. Looked at in a positive way, you will be amazed as you continue to discover new bits and pieces about each other's background that help you put together another part of the puzzle that your partner will sometimes seem to you. Be sure to let each other know what things you love about one another as you learn ...

3850. Wedding: Deciding To Love (for a marriage after divorce)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Derl G. Keefer

... a pond, love spreads and touches others in indirect ways you may never even realize. "Love never ends." (Bride) and (Groom), God has shown you what is possible in your love for each other. I pray that God will give you all the faith, hope, and love you need to continue experiencing God's eternal love, in your marriage and in every other part of your lives. Amen.

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