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 4963 results

3826. Too Good to Be True?

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... means that God is getting close to us. We fear that. Easter, we say, is a day of joy and it really is. We say it is a day of hope and it really is. We say it is a day of promise and it really is. But we are not as fond of it as we think. We are afraid ... is rich in what ultimately matters. We didn't dream up these values. They come from the Lord of the Church, whose resurrection is our hope, our sustenance, and our joy. If you want to find the risen Christ, it is in these bottom line arenas where he will be ...

3827. Together, But Not Enmeshed

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... that through what becomes our glib use of a five-word phrase: "through Jesus Christ our Lord." The phrase points to the particular lens through which God comes for us more fully into focus. Looking through the lens that is Jesus, God's compassion, grace, overtures, hope, and mandates become visible to us. Every time we use that five word phrase we are reminding ourselves, and others, how it is that we can see most clearly. This is the vine that nourishes us and enables us to grow. God the vine grower. Jesus ...

3828. A Friend in High Places

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... so evasive. How many children really believe -- and feel -- that the love of their parents is unconditional and will always be there? How many adults really believe -- and feel -- that the love of a mate or best friend is unconditional and will always be there? This hope we all have, and our despair when it is promised and then either not given or taken away is profound. In our adult maturity, of course, we come to a time when we realize that the ultimate and only permanent permanence -- if I can speak that ...

3829. If You Are Willing

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us . . .” The tension between our inadequate understanding of the why behind suffering and the great plan God has for us, we call faith. The writer of Hebrews defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) And so it is. Philosopher Peter van Inwagen puts it this way: “I have never had the tendency to react to the evils of the world by saying, ‘How could there be a loving God who ...

3830. With a Little Help from My Friends

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... sobering to read that Kevin would not have jumped if only one person had reached out to him. What would have happened if you had been on the bridge that day? Would you have intervened to try to save Kevin, or would you have simply passed him by? I hope you understand that as I ask you that question, I am asking myself, as well. Word got out in Capernaum that Jesus was in the village. You know what happened next. We’ve seen it happen before. Crowds started lining up outside his door. So many gathered that ...

3831. When the Boat Begins to Sink

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... ?" Fourteen figures are in the boat: the twelve disciples, Jesus, and Rembrandt himself. There he stands, clutching one of the stays, holding his head in terror. That is where the artist saw himself. And it is there that many of us find ourselves, with little hope and much fear, as the furious storms threaten to sweep us overboard also. It is to such persons as we are that this incident is directed. The Gospel writers felt that this incident was important enough for three of them to include it. Though they ...

3832. Birthing the Kingdom

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... coming to birth! Because of Jesus, firstborn of the new creation, we are assured that this will not be a stillbirth. Because Jesus has joined us to himself, we can cry out and know we are heard and answered; we can grieve yet not without hope; we can face the worst the world throws at us and not despair. We can endure the painful small insults and rebuffs with forgiveness and fortitude. We can weather the natural disasters with generous and merciful concern for others. We can withstand human brutality with ...

3833. The Making of a Saint

John 11:38-44

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... Christ and lived in the messy, sometimes smelly realities of our sinful and broken world. When God goes about making us his saints, he doesn't make us immune from grief. Instead, he binds us to his risen Son and makes us people who grieve but who have a hope that cannot be shaken. When God makes a person one of his saints, he doesn't make life problem-free. Instead, he gives the rest of us saints Jesus' command to Lazarus' friends: "You unbind him, and let him go" (v. 44). He gives us, also, the grace and ...

3834. Anxious Thanks

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung & staff

... who humbly endure whatever "stuff" a broken world dishes their way. God's kingdom and righteousness are present whenever we place our hope and trust in God above any and all the good "stuff" -- the good blessings -- with which he has graced us. God ... God for all God's other blessings, so dear, so precious, so fleeting -- whether he enjoyed them now in fact or only in patient hope! "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." They're given ...

3835. The Story behind the Glory

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... pastor recently described his shopping experience at one of the busy malls. He watched a small boy put his hand hopefully on an inexpensive Christ-child on a counter. "What is this?" he asked his mother, who had him by the ... se got" to offer this tired world. We can give the laughter and joy of those who have caught some hint of Bethlehem's meaning. We can give hope and confidence because we have beheld the love of God flooding down the ages from the Manger-child who will never let us go. An unknown poet ...

3836. What Are You Going to Do with My World?

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... the hand of another and place it in the hand of God. The joy of reaching another is vividly put, in a medical setting, by psychiatrist Samuel Howe. He spent uncounted hours "fishing," so to speak, in the dark stream of blindness, deafness, and dumbness, hoping to bring a little girl, Laura Bridgman, to self-consciousness. He tells the story. "I worked patiently for three months without a 'nibble,' then there came a tug, and up came the soul of Laura Bridgman." "Up came the soul" -- that's great fishing! A ...

3837. Congratulations, You've Made the Team

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... kind for the Christian athlete! His pace possesses a spirit that can accept life not simply with resignation, but with blazing hope. It is not a patience which grimly waits for the end, but the resolution that radiantly plans for the dawn. The ... Stanley Jones put it so well, "The whole universe is on the side of Christ. Why? Because truth is stronger than falsehood, hope is stronger than fear, life is stronger than death, and Christ embodies them all." Woodrow Wilson, past president of Princeton University, ...

3838. What a Resume!

2 Corinthians 2:12--3:6

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... most complete résumés of Christian experience that one can find anywhere." Let me share the résumé with you this morning. I hope as we move along, the résumé will become more and more familiar. In fact, some, if not all of us, may be constrained ... heart to move, by some clear winning word of love; Teach me the wayward feet to stay, and guide them in the homeward way. In hope that sends a shining ray, far down the future's broadening way; In peace that only thou canst give, with thee, O Master, let me ...

3839. The Source

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... 's a sort of fat pipe off of which several other pipes go. You can have a manifold in the concrete floor of your basement which routes hot water to heat your whole house. The source. Jesus Christ is the source of eternal salvation, the dependable source of hope for this life and the next. He is the manifold, from which the riches of heavenly food and drink come, as steady as seed time and harvest, flowing into every corner of your life and our world. He is the one who truly understands, and thereby enables ...

3840. Learning from the Spider

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... will find ourselves out of gas, angry at those who don't respond to the gospel, and judgmental in our approach. The elder writes in verse 3 that if our hope is in God, we are purified. Our motivations are purified, our minds and hearts are purified, and we find more energy to live and serve as we place our hope and trust, not in our own efforts and creativity, but in the secret, powerful, mysterious, sometimes agonizingly slow activity of almighty God. The disciples were often irritated and confused about ...

3841. Grace in the Midst of Exasperation

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... is this "wretched man"? This is no mere spiritual wannabe. This is the early Church's greatest thinker and missionary. Paul's best intentions are being stampeded by a herd of his own desires that he has no ability to control. If Paul feels this frustrated, what hope do we have that we can ever change? What makes us think that we can kick habits or resist temptations? The very next verse presents the answer: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" It is through the Second Person of the Trinity that ...

3842. Grace in the Midst of Limited Resources

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... Jesus was "rich." At what point do I conclude the same about myself? How much money do you have to have to be wealthy? In the late 1990s a New York Yankees ballplayer signed an $89 million contract. He had held out for a long while before signing, hoping that management would match the $91 million offer of another team. The Yankees refused to budge. In an interview afterward, the player's wife said, "When I saw him walk in the house, I immediately knew that he had not succeeded in persuading them to move up ...

3843. Grace in the Midst of Guilt and Shame

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... us to be people of infinite value. Paul announces that God chose us before the creation of the world (vv. 4, 11). Our adoption as God's children was predestined (vv. 5, 11). This fabulous change in our identity happened "so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory" (v. 12). On top of it all we have received the Holy Spirit as "the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people" (vv. 13, 14). Grace doesn't say, "Oh, look, you're not so bad ...

3844. Humility

John 13:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... is humility. Put on the spirit of Christ. Nothing of lasting value has ever been accomplished in arrogance.’ The room was absolutely quiet. All of us were absorbed by what my Father had said, and we awaited what he was struggling to say next. ‘Someday I hope someone will come up to you as you’re fulfilling your duties as a senator, tug on your sleeve and say, “Senator, your spirit is showing.” Ashcroft tells about an event that occurred just a few months after his father’s death. He was at an ...

3845. Going Down to Look Up

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

... a resource which is the result of faith. All of Naaman's wagons loaded with finery from Aram would do him no good. Naaman had a problem, and a captive girl pointed him in faith to someone who could offer him help. Where would Naaman find his health and hope? It would be found in a prophet whose name was Elisha, which leads us to look at ... Elisha's Prescription Elisha sends a message to the King of Israel: "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him [Naaman] come to me, that he may learn there is a prophet ...

3846. Look Inside and Discover Life

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... must be our guide. Once we have been reconciled, have accepted who we are, and made a commitment not to engage in hurtful behavior to others, we are ready to map out our future course. All people need to set some goals and have some dreams and hopes for the future. Such an attitude keeps us moving forward and never allows us to stagnate, a condition, which if allowed to control us, will draw us into a life of complacency and destroy our ability to make a contribution to society and the church. Dorian Gray ...

3847. Jesus Brings Us to New Life

Isaiah 25:1-12

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... responded, "I need to rewrite my sermon." The next day David did not talk about New Being or estrangement from authentic selfhood; he simply told the story of how God raised Jesus from the dead and in the process gave him and all people new life and hope. People in the congregation thought the sermon was good but what really got them talking was the strange group of visitors who parked their shiny motorcycles in front of the church and sat in one of the front pews. When one of the ushers inquired about the ...

3848. Sowing Good Seed - Father's Day

Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... me the crumpled photo were the very same emotions I felt that February night in a college dorm room when I first believed in a God of love. Someone is there, I realized. Someone is there who loves me. It was a startling feeling of wild hope, a feeling so new and overwhelming that it seemed fully worth risking my life on." (7) Philip Yancey is one of the most important Christian writers living today. Obviously his mother's influence was powerful. But his father's love, even though he cannot even remember ...

3849. No Other Name

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... and that was Jesus. And Jesus is the only source of power that can save the world today. We will only find hope when the love, the grace, the acceptance he brought into the world become universal in every heart. That means it must begin with those who have ... had his name on our lips since early childhood. When we love as he loved, there will be hope for the world. Let me say a personal word to our young people. Perhaps you have been turned off by religion. Many people are ...

3850. A Forgiving Presence

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... moves to free her immediately by forgiveness. You see, Jesus is treating both of them in the same way. And what he desires for both the accusers and the accused is that sin be recognized and confessed and that persons be free by forgiveness. Is there a more hopeful, life-giving word in the gospel. Neither do I condemn you, go your way, and sin no more. I’ve said three things about the shaping power of the indwelling Christ as it relates to forgiveness. One, in the presence of Christ, the fact of sin is ...

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