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 4963 results

376. Philippians 1:21-30

Philippians 1:21-30

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... his relationship with Christ will continue to develop and deepen. Paul refuses to view death as a source of separation from the divine. Thus, if in death we are not yet resurrected into the full presence of his glory, Christians must still in some way remain in vital, intimate contact with the Lord (see Romans 14:8). Having stated the "benefits" of both life and death, Paul reveals in verse 23 what at first seems to be a preference for death. Death appears to be his personal desire. But Paul immediately ...

377. Proper 16

John 6:25-59, 1 Kings 8:22-61, Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... in it God promised he would always have a member of his family on the throne. When the nation was destroyed in 586 B.C. and the people were captives in Babylon, the Davidic line came to an end. Whose fault was it? Outline: If God's covenant is to remain – a. We must walk before God with all our hearts v. 23. b. We must walk before God as David did v. 25. Epistle: Ephesians 6:10-20 1. Portraits of a Christian soldier (6:10-20). Need: We love to sing "Onward, Christian Soldiers," but few of us picture ...

378. Proper 25

Job 42:1-6, Job 42:7-17, Mark 10:46-52, Hebrews 7:11-28

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... but of his questioning and doubting God's goodness and will). Epistle: Hebrews 7:23-28 1. The priest above all others (7:23-28). Need: Priests come and go, but Christ our High Priest remains forever. In our churches, priests or pastors come and go but the people and the work of the church remain. They remain because the church has in Jesus a high priest who is eternal. In a fast-changing world, we need stability and permanence. Outline: A High Priest higher than all others – a. Our high priest is ...

379. Mark 4:35-41

Mark 4:35-41

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... .” The verb used here, “epetimesen,” is a technical term used to describe the silencing of evil spirits or demons. Likewise Jesus’ order to “Be still” recalls the exorcism conducted in 1:25. At Jesus’ word the winds do cease and the waters do become still, and remain so, creating a “great calm.” The power Jesus exercises over the wind and water echo the divine power flexed in both Jonah 1:4-15 and Psalm 107:23-32. In both those texts it is God who first stirs up the stormy seas and then ...

380. Did You Know...You Can Be Forgiven For Anything?

1 John 1:8-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... that is exactly what you must do if you are going to confess your sin before God and get it right. You've got to testify against yourself. You've got to refuse to take the 5th Amendment. How many of you recognize these words? "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights?" If you have ever seen a TV show or a ...

381. Call to Oneness

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... at least, it is that! We are never defeated in our mandate, as long as we refuse to surrender. Love shall continue to abide, as we are open to configurations the Holy Spirit makes available. The leap from who and what we are to Christ's yearning victory remains in our midst but even that not so blissful predicament is accentuated by love! We must never dare to ask the practicality of being one on the Father and Son's terms. If we do that, it is like a growing subterfuge, awaiting the time to be expedited ...

382. Weary in Well Doing

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... world religion that fell into the wrong hands. I beg to differ. Indeed, Christianity is a great world religion. And indeed, some of its spirit did fall into the wrong hands. People have hit each other over the head with Jesus on more than one occasion. I remain consoled that so much of its spirit is in your hands and in the hands of people as ordinary as gardeners and fishermen and single women without a portfolio. That spirit is as strong as any virus — and it will infect the world, if not sooner then ...

383. Shoots of Tomorrow

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... downward toward the ground. "Oh, good grief!" she exclaims. "You wouldn't listen, would you? Now it's the rake and the bonfire. You just can't tell those leaves anything!" Jeremiah must have felt at times that the people of Judah were like the last remaining leaves on a tree, desperately hanging onto the branch. They were dried up and without sustenance or hope. And, like Lucy, he could not tell them a thing, not about covenants, or faith in God, or even worship. The hope of Judah seemed to be crashing ...

384. Wisdom's Delight

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... prophetic portions of the Old Testament, wisdom texts are intentionally instructive. Much of it has an outcome-oriented tone rather than devotional one, and it focuses on how one should act so as to make one's way successfully in the world while remaining righteous. Although not ostensibly religious in its outlook, the central theological claim of the wisdom writings is that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). In this section of Proverbs, Wisdom is in effect presenting her ...

385. Song Sung Blue

Lamentations 1:1-6

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... in ruin, the Jewish believers took their grief and anguish directly into God's very presence. Their government could not help — it was literally held captive. Their priests were of no use — the temple and its altar of sacrifice were gone. Only God's Word remained. Only God's promise could sustain. It took the destruction of Jerusalem and Judea, but the people did return to Yahweh. So far as we know, they did not address their lament to Baal, whom they had once worshiped in the shrines. They cried out ...

386. Same Table, Different Chairs

John 15:11-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... friends are friends forever (as the song says). And I will support you as friends. But please know that Lara is my friend also, and to be her friend and colleague in ministry I'll support her as your Pastor in whatever way I can, while we remain simply friends. II. In My Heart A. There's a movie titled "In Her Shoes" starring Toni Collette, Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine. It's pretty much strictly a chick-flick about family, sibling rivalry, growing up and discovering who you really are in the midst of ...

387. The Character Of Christmas; Herod: The Not So Great

Matthew 2:13-22

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... is Simon Lagree, Philthy McNasty, Snidley Whiplash, Captain Bly, Lex Luthor, Darth Vader, the Grinch and Lord Voldemort all rolled into one. Herod is the Scrooge of the original Christmas story but a Scrooge whose heart never melts, a Scrooge whose heart is never touched and remains hard as stone and cold as ice. He may be the one John Calvin was thinking of when he came up with the theology of the Total Depravity of Humanity. In all of Christian history, there may not have been anyone as vile and evil as ...

388. Come and See

John 1:29-42

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . [38] When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" [39] He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. [40] One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. [41] He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah ...

389. He Breaks the Power of Cancelled Sin

John 8:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... doctrine about the immortality of the soul. Yet this is what we were singing about and this is what we were clinging to: the belief that somehow we would be delivered from death. I know better now. We are never delivered from death. The threat and fact of death remain always. Yet, however crude and impressive the song may be, it still is meaningful, and I sing it to myself now and then. It’s not a matter escaping death but a matter of Jesus saving “my soul from death and now I’m free.” It’s the ...

390. Being and Doing as the People of God

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... may not always respond to it; in fact, most of us never respond to it completely. I may succeed in tranquilizing it, but it remains real and persistent. The times come when it stirs from the quiet numbness into which I have drugged it to disturb my satisfaction and ... me send I you.” This claim is the claim of God. Our language to describe this may be different, but the claim remains. Or we may have responded, but are infants still in our discipleship. The claim is no less real. Listen to Peter in verses ...

391. Political Pardon

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... purchased other land, so he now had farming investments of his own. Moreover, my grandparents had retired, and Dad and Mom bought their land as well. And when they moved to the old Brouwer homestead, the land that they had sharecropped for so many years remained under their care as rental property. After all, no one could be trusted more with its well-being than Dad and Mom, who had invested their toil and sweat and family into it for decades. The old sharecropper arrangement was turned into a self-renewing ...

392. The Porch Light's On

Isaiah 60:1-6

Sermon

Tony Everett

... text. The hope of a glorious return from captivity had diminished into a dimly burning wick. Even that tiny spark of hope was nearly extinguished when they observed the enormous construction tasks and the lack of enthusiastic support from the people who had remained. It would be easy to simply give up and get used to it. Maybe this happens to us as well. In difficult, dark, disappointing situations that assail us, we first follow any sort of light — gimmick — promise — that appears to offer a little ...

393. With Our Own Eyes

2 Peter 1:16-21

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... Santa Claus. The wish list is not always filled. And what of those who tithe, who "name it and claim it" but remain poor? Baffour Amoa, of Ghana, then secretary-general of the Fellowship of Christian Councils of Churches of West Africa, summed it up in ... behavior, love of neighbor, and respect for the Ten Commandments? Toward the end of the New Testament era, the church was exhorted to remain faithful to the witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, a witness which the community had seen with its own eyes. It was a ...

394. Life in the Resurrection Zone

Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon

David O. Bales

... we see the evidence afterward. This giant hole of a tomb: empty. It's not empty of life the way at times our lives can be termed "empty." The tomb is empty because it once was full, holding in death's hand the body of our Lord. The empty remains of what used to imprison Christ is where our lives with him start. As surely as Jesus was dead and is now alive, so we, plunged into his death in baptism, have been yanked up into new life in his Spirit. We experience right here Jesus' resurrection — from prison ...

395. The Five-a-Day Rule

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... most memorable of gospel figures says as much about our own doubts and indecisions as it does about the appeal of this particular disciple. Doubt is not a bad thing. Genuine doubt keeps us engaged and ever questioning. Thomas was the only one of the remaining disciples who was not hunkered down in the Upper Room, quaking and shaking in fear when Jesus made his first appearance. Perhaps he was the only one bold enough to venture out into Jerusalem’s streets to buy food for his fellow disciples. Perhaps he ...

396. Because I Live (Memorial Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... parents’ strict rules. As an adult, when times are good, you would like a pause button. As the disciples suggested to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, wouldn’t it be nice to build three booths and just remain where we are? Why can’t our children just remain adorable infants? Why can’t our marriage remain forever like those early years of passion and discovery? If we just had a pause button... Some of us would like a rewind button and, perhaps, a delete button. If we could just go back and undo ...

397. How to Know What to Know

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... exactly? Why is he telling the church this? I am convinced that these are not intended to be passages of imminent threat or terror — that many would make them out to be — but rather words of hope and invitation. Like the widow with only two remaining pennies that she gave away, Jesus spoke to people who realized that reliance on themselves and their own tiny resources for their own salvation was useless. They knew their utter dependence on some other word to save them, some word beyond the words they ...

398. Disintegration and Reintegration

Mark 14:1-15:47

Sermon

John Smylie

... that lay in front of him receives the gift with deepest gratitude. He is the one who then scolds the critics, because they have missed the point of that moment. Even though they have been told of the imminent death that Jesus will be facing, they continue to remain blind to their Lord, to the environment which is crashing in upon them and most of all they are blind to grace. "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me ... She has done what she could; she has anointed my ...

399. Eyes on the Prize

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... in flight. We spend millions, if not billions, on research to discover products that will delay the effects of aging and decay, but nothing will stop the process. We may slow it down so that living to be over 100 may become routine, but we will not stop it. We remain mortal creatures, as Isaiah 40 puts it: "All flesh is grass." It is a difficult truth to accept, but we must come to terms with our own death if we are to find our lives. That is what Paul is noting here, using insight from Psalm 90: "Teach us ...

400. God Is the Hound of Heaven

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... would be better than their neighbors to the north. Scripture scholars often refer to the message Jeremiah proclaims in today's first lesson as the "New Exodus." While the north had been lost to history over a hundred years earlier, nonetheless a remnant of the people remained, a remnant that sought to be purified. These people, as we hear in the reading, call out to God asking the Lord to save them. God, the ever-present one, and the one who would do anything for his people, hears their cries and answers ...

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