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 376 to 400 of 609 results

376. What Would Jesus Say About the Media?

Mark 9:1-9

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... have a VCR, even though most of us over 50 still can’t figure out how to keep the 12:00 from flashing. It probably doesn’t matter anyway since the DVD player is rapidly making the VCR obsolete. The remote control has become the most cherished household possession, especially for men. My advice to you ladies is not to fight over the remote control. Become a Baptist, graciously submit, and let him have it. The average American spends five hours a day watching television. That is 20% of your life. A seven ...

377. Repent

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... mercy on us. We throw away more food each year than some small nations produce. Lord, have mercy on us. We have no rivals when it comes to plundering the environment of the earth. Lord, have mercy on us. While most Americans continue to cherish the illusion that we live in a classless, equal opportunity society, our courts, our prisons, our public assistance programs and our schools tell a different story. May the Lord have mercy on us. Meanwhile, we fill our churches with nice people offering them every ...

378. The Fundamentals of Family Ties

1 Corinthians 13:1

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... mention surely apply. So what are the fundamentals of family ties? I. ENDURING COMMITMENT The first tie, it seems to me, is enduring commitment. Saturday after Saturday I stand in this sanctuary and listen to people of all ages promise to love, honor and cherish each other for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health until they are parted by death. What an awesome, overwhelming, outrageous covenant we make at marriage. Do these young people have any idea what they are saying? Why do ...

379. Watch!

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... be a liability to this great church. I am depending on you to tell me when I can no longer do my job. In the meantime, I am inclined to work harder than I have ever worked before, live more urgently than ever before, take each moment and cherish each moment and experience it to the fullest. I hope he finds me hoeing cotton when he comes. For your prayers and patience, I will be eternally grateful. The second parable Jesus tells following this teaching is the parable of the talents. You know it well. A man ...

380. Sharing God’s Blessings

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... imagination. We did it our way. We worked for it, paid for it, earned it, deserved it, and now all we have to do is protect it from individuals or institutions who might dare to alter the wonderful life we have so carefully constructed. “Property rights" are a cherished freedom in this country. The Bible has a better idea. The Bible says: “The earth is the Lord's and everything that is in it" (Psalm 24:1). “God owns the cattle on a thousand hills; the sun, the moon, and the stars are his" (Psalm 50:10 ...

381. A God Who Suffers with Us

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Lee Griess

... to be in that family? "I know just how you feel being crippled; I had a bad case of tennis elbow last month." Great, that helps a lot. "Your present improvement is just wishful thinking." How's that for encouragement? Or, how about this one? "God must really cherish you a lot to trust you with this burden." The things people say and the things people think and the things they do reveal to us who they really are. The story from today's gospel reading is no exception. It all began with a question, seemingly a ...

382. The Rest of The Message

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Lee Griess

... and gone. Now, I suppose that's an understandable feeling. I suppose we can forgive her mistake. Religion says that death is a passage to a new life. But when death comes to a loved one, when death visits someone near, when it is the death of a friend we cherish, it's hard to see the whole message. Death obscures our sight. Death clouds our vision. Death puts us in a fog and keeps us from seeing. That's how it was for Mary — and even worse. For Jesus was more than friend to her, more than just a loved ...

383. Backseat Drivers: Named, Claimed, Commissioned

Isaiah 49:1-7

Sermon

Tony Everett

... block. After Nancy finally pulled into the parking lot to practice parallel parking, Harold finally lost control. "You just don't listen! Can't you do anything right? I can't believe you did that." On and on this went until Nancy, Harold's firstborn child, cherished daughter, burst into tears. "I'll never be able to please you, Daddy," she cried as she got out of the car, slammed the door, and started to walk back home. Suddenly, Harold recalled an inscription on the plaque that his high school metal shop ...

384. Endless Line of Blunder

Exodus 1:8

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... today, and more tomorrow — the tyrants come and go. Their plots prevail for a moment. But God's purpose endures — and therefore God's people endure. So Samuel Stone sang: The Church shall never perish! Her dear Lord to defend, To guide, sustain, and cherish, Is with her to the end: Though there be those who hate her, And false sons in her pale, Against both foe or traitor She ever shall prevail.1 When the Sanhedrin was weighing their options against the early followers of Christ, old Gamaliel cautioned ...

385. Appointment with Thunder

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... not to be crossed — not by priest, not by people, not by animals — not until the trumpet sounded. Frankly, the whole process and scene there at Sinai may be unappealing to us. For you and I have cultivated a very different understanding of our access to God. We cherish the picture of a God that we can talk to any time and any place; and in this matter we have surely gained much over the ancient Israelites, who trembled at a distance. But it is not all gain, for we have perhaps also lost some things that ...

386. Power Sharing

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

... , so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints." Maybe the most exalting knowledge we need to learn, accept, and cherish is that all Christians are saints. In the New Testament, every believer was a "saint," even those Christians Paul disagreed with. "Saint" means: "One who is set apart for God's use." As Christianity evolved into the early Middle Ages, Christians began to define ...

387. A Spiritual “Re-formation”

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... , Katherine, suffers also, acting out at home, at church, and in school. The congregation turns on Tyler, gossiping about Katherine and speculating that he is having an affair with his housekeeper. The powerful, almost mystical feeling for God that Tyler has cherished is gone now, as he falters in his faith and staggers under a burden of doubt and debt. Previously, he had always found strength and solace in reflecting on the life and teachings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and Nazi resister ...

388. Making Sacrifices

Luke 14:25-35

Illustration

King Duncan

Chiune Sugihara was born on a day of new beginnings January 1, 1900. As a boy, he cherished the dream of becoming the Japanese ambassador to Russia. By the 1930s, he was the ambassador to Lithuania, just a step away from Russia. One morning, a huge throng of people gathered outside his home. They were Jews who had made their way across treacherous terrain from Poland, desperately seeking ...

389. Oops! I Didn't See You

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... .org/cleanlaugh. 3. “A primer on preaching like Jesus,” by Rick Warren, Rev. magazine, Mar. /Apr. 2002, p. 46. 4. David McCullough, Mornings on Horseback (1981), pp. 97,101,167; Hofstadter, op.cit., pp. 209-210. Cited in Richard Shenkman, Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History (New York: Harper & Row, Pub., 1988), pp. 39-40. 5. Philip Yancey, Rumors of Another World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), p. 104. 6. Holmes, Marian Smith. “Back in the Land of the Living,” People (May 29 ...

390. The Idea of Resurrection

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

... to wonder what a woman who on earth had seven husbands would do in the afterlife. The set-up reminds you of the time someone wanted to get under the skin of C.S. Lewis. Lewis was fond of suggesting that in heaven, animals (and maybe even our cherished pets) could very well find a place. A person who thought that to be silly snidely asked Lewis "Well, what about the mosquitoes?" to which Lewis replied that God was clever enough to combine a hell for humans with a heaven for mosquitoes! (Or it reminds you of ...

391. John Had an Outlook

Matt 3:1-12; John 3:22-36

Illustration

Leonard Mann

... the apex toward which all else had forever been aimed, and beyond which nothing of any notable quality would ever appear again. There isn't much future in that. This man John was a different type; beyond himself he saw something else, something better, something to be cherished and looked forward to. "He who is coming after me is mightier than I," says he. It is he, not I, who will do the wonderful things the world needs to have done, he says. "His winnowing fork is in his hand," and he will put everything ...

392. Matthew 11:2-11

Matthew 11:1-19

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... reference to Jesus. From his prison cell John hears about “what the Christ was doing.” The designation of “Christ” or “Messiah” referred to a biblically foretold figure, but whose mission was not yet precisely revealed. The most common and most cherished perception of the Messiah involved political or military leadership, a new leader for the Jewish people who would make a strong, independent existence for Israel a reality. John’s own preaching suggests that he envisioned the “one who is to ...

393. A Higher Value than Freedom

Matthew 3:13-17

Illustration

Johnny Dean

If there's one thing we Americans value above everything else, it is freedom. We cherish, guard and exercise our freedom, and woe be unto those who threaten it in any way. We're even willing to go to war to defend freedom, whether it's ours or someone else's. We are the world's self-appointed watchdogs of freedom. But Jesus says there's ...

394. The Triumph and the Tragedy

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... to be part of such an auspicious gathering . . . Something else was more troublesome yet than the fine, upstanding people in these pictures. The images of these events had not only been documented on film,” says Viera, “they were also turned into postcards. They were cherished mementos to be mailed to family and friends...” (5) O. K., you and I are repulsed by these images. What I want to remind you is that these are not images from Rome 2,000 years ago. These are images from America 100 years ago ...

395. “Your Honor:” Jesus’ Honor Code of Turning the Other Cheek

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... deep resonance. *Cub Scouts declare, “On my honor as a Scout...” *Soldiers pledge themselves to “Duty. Honor. Country.” *The fifth commandment (depending on how you count) says “Honor thy father and thy mother.” *Husbands and wives promise to “Love. Honor. Cherish.” A point of honor is a good thing. Honor points us beyond ourselves and our little orbits. Honor connects us to others. A shared sense of honor creates a common culture. But when the wrong things become “honored,” honor itself ...

396. Your Honor: Jesus' Honor Code of Turning the Other Cheek

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

397. The Thoughts of Our Hearts

Luke 2:22-40

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... to give us all the marvelously touching stories about angels serenading shepherds on a hilltop, and the baby born in a barn, resting in a manger instead of a bed. But even though Luke paints a picture that we have all grown to love and cherish, he won't allow sentimentality to overcome this one purpose of his whole proclamation. And that is to show dear Theophilus, the highly esteemed official of Caesar's government, and all others outside the faith, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not some mysterious ...

398. Looking for Jesus?

John 20:1-18

Sermon

John Smylie

... is a reference that says that Jesus cast seven demons out of her, and now her life is transformed. She has left behind the old sinful ways. In a sense, she gave up everything she knew in order to follow the Lord and her liberation that she so cherished which was found in following her Lord Jesus must have felt crushed at the cross. In many ways, Mary Magdalene, even on this first Easter morning, is still at the cross. She is not anticipating an empty tomb and a risen Lord, but rather a miserable tomb where ...

399. The Little Golf Club

Sermon

John Smylie

... a little boy, my mother and I moved in with my grandfather because of my mom's divorce and my grandmother's death. I know that my grandfather loved having us there with him. It was a secure environment, one in which I always felt loved and cherished by him. I have memories of sitting on his lap as he sat on his large, dark brown leather chair with his feet stretched out upon the ottoman and watching the Philadelphia Phillies in his den as he drank an occasional Miller Beer and smoked his unfiltered Camel ...

400. But Is It True?

Luke 2:8-20, Romans 16:25-27

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... are fairly minor and come down to an "and" or was it a "but." "Is" or was it "was." Was it an inn or a stable or a cave? It seems that Ehrman wants to push these discrepancies a bit further by putting into question many of our cherished, biblical stories and widely held beliefs such as the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, the miracles, and Jesus as the Messiah as nothing more than fairy tales coming from the alterations by ancient scribes. So, I come back to my original question: Do you believe it? Is it ...

Showing results