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 4276 to 4300 of 4489 results

4276. Abba, Your Kingdom Come

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Ron Lavin

The provoking incident for Jesus teaching his followers what to pray and how to pray is that the apostles watched Jesus and listened to his prayers. Nobody had ever prayed like this. His prayers were uniquely personal and profoundly humble. The apostles wanted to know more about prayer. So do we. "Lord, teach us to pray," they said (Luke 11:1). We have the same plea today. There is a vague sense that we don't pray enough, nor with as much focus as we should have. There is a longing among Christians today ...

4277. Song Sung Blue

Lamentations 1:1-6

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

Some records are made to be broken — like Olympic speed skating; Cal Ripkin, Jr.'s, most consecutive baseball game appearances; and North Dakota's longest cow chip toss. Other records we'd prefer to let stand — the world's deadliest disaster, or the most active hurricane season, for instance. Years 2004 and 2005 will probably make the books as among the most dramatic in weather history. Hurricanes pounded the southern coast of the USA. Floods and blizzards battered the Midwest. Earthquakes devastated parts ...

4278. Angels and Shepherds: Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There is a special joy in children at different stages of their lives. This is a gay time for Jerry and me with Kerry and Kevin. We were together for a happy time – Thanksgiving. We had a very special time with Kerry. It pleased us that she was so excited about school; that hasn’t always been the case. She’s primarily excited about her art. At one point in our conversation, Kerry grew quiet and subdued - which is very unusual for this most bubbly of all our children. She began to talk about the way she was ...

4279. The Smell Of Smoke Still Lingers

John 21:1-19

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

An old Reader's Digest story tells about a family who moved to Seattle from Texas. The whole family was missing Texas, especially when Christmas was just around the corner and the whole place was covered in snow. We like it snow on Christmas morning or Christmas Eve, just as long as it's all gone by the time we get on the road to go to visit our families, right Well anyway, this woman said she went to pick up our first-grade son from school, his teacher told me about a conversation she overheard as the ...

4280. Dead Works

Luke 13:1-9; Heb 9:14; Jer 13:23

Illustration

Stephen Craig Jennings

Simply changing outward behavior is not repentance. We at times change our behavior for self-centered reasons. Sometimes we change in an attempt to atone for my sins. Such change will only make my sinfulness more sinful. This is the basis for the reference in Hebrews of repenting from ‘dead works'. A dead work is a work that is not done with the leading and empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Hence any good work a non-Christian would attempt is a dead work. And many types of good works that ...

4281. What the World Expects of the Church

Luke 15:1-7

Illustration

Brett Blair

On a cold, dreary December evening, several hundred people gathered at a large downtown church in Winston-Salem to celebrate the Christmas season. Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald, present that evening, had gone down a long hallway to help a small boy who was pushing against massive oak doors trying to get outside. The boy was about 2 years old and as he pushed he was crying as if his heart would break. The Bishop picked him up, thinking he belonged to someone at one of the Christmas parties but as he opened the ...

4282. John 21:1-19

John 21:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Whenever anything truly significant happens in history, there is never an “ending” to the story. Perhaps this is why scholars are almost unanimous in their agreement that the twenty-first chapter of John’s gospel is a later addition. There is, however, a split decision on whether the original author or a later editor added this final note to the gospel story. There are Greek vs. Hebrew grammatical discrepancies in this final chapter. But the message, the testimony of an ongoing, faithful community, is the ...

4283. Eye Opening Faith

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Years ago, I remember hearing a speaker or reading an article about the Wycliff Bible translators in Africa. They always used the local people to help them translate the Scripture. In one particular area, the people were helping but without a whole lot of enthusiasm. No one even seemed to even be the least bit interested in the story of Jesus. Until they came to this passage and then the whole village began to buzz with excitement. The translators couldn't understand why, so they asked and were admonished ...

4284. Bearing the Marks of Christ

Galatians 6:11-18

Sermon

James W. Moore

When I was a young boy, our family made a vacation trip to East Texas one summer to visit relatives there. One of the vivid memories of that trip was a tour of a Texas ranch… where we watched some cowboys hard at work… branding their steers. A mark was made on each steer to dramatically and clearly signify who his owner was. Something like that was done to human beings in Biblical times. In New Testament times, slavery was quite common. Slaves were regarded as pieces of property… and they were marked with ...

4285. Let Everything That Breathes Praise the Lord

Psalm 150:1-6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

When his faith was at its lowest point, G. K. Chesterton said that he maintained it by gratitude toward God. He said, “I hung onto my religion by the thinnest thread of thanks.” Praise and thanksgiving belong not to a particular day or a particular season. They belong to the whole of life. As I’ve lived with this psalm during the last few weeks, getting ready for the sermon today, have been inspired to ask four questions this morning. Where is God to be praised? Why is God to be praised? How is God to be ...

4286. The Shepherd Lord

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Henry Ward Beecher called this 23rd Psalm “the nightingale of the Psalms.” This beloved poem – one of the most familiar passages in Scripture had filled the whole world with melodrama and has been “a very present help for time of trouble.” You know I have never preached a sermon on this Psalm and I’ve been preaching for more than 30 years. I’ve quoted it at funerals and weddings. I’ve shared it as comfort with sick folk. I don’t know how many times I have laid my hands on the forehead of a dying person - ...

4287. Sisters

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to begin with a song. Don’t worry. I’m not going to sing. Perhaps I should say, I want to begin with a song title. I’m not going to ask you how many of you remember the song. It might say something about your age. The song is titled simply, “Sisters.” It’s a classic Irving Berlin tune much beloved by previous generations. It begins by describing how devoted two sisters are to one another. But its famous refrain goes like this: “Lord, help the mister who comes between me and my sister and Lord help ...

4288. Oh, No You Do Not

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

One evening a record-breaking crowd in Atlanta, Georgia attended a special session of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The audience was literally captivated with the piano playing of one gentleman. It was later written that after the performance a lady went up to him and greeted him with the words: “Oh, how I wish that I could play the piano like you.” She was rather taken back with his response. He said in a firm but gentle voice: “Oh no you don’t.” Of course, he was right. What we desire is the finished ...

4289. Leaping Where You Cannot Look

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

Somewhere I read some amazing information about an antelope known as the African impala. These residents of southern and eastern Africa are amazing leapers. They can jump to a height of over 10 feet. One leap can cover a distance greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent animals can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3‑foot high wall. You see, impalas will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. That is a wise, conservative approach to life. Do not jump if you cannot see where your ...

4290. Christianity Involves a Struggle

Luke 12:49-53

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

There was this amateur naturalist who saw a cocoon. This amateur naturalist saw a butterfly struggling to get out of that cocoon. The butterfly was struggling to get out of the cocoon and was just about ready to break out of that cocoon. The amateur naturalist was closely watching as this miracle unfolded. Then, the amateur naturalist did a very dumb thing. He took out his pocket knife and he slit the cocoon so that the butterfly did not have to struggle. The butterfly came out and flew around but it was a ...

4291. A Revolution in Seven Verses

Luke 13:10-17

Illustration

Mickey Anders

Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, suggests that Jesus' action represented a revolution happening in seven short verses. In this short story, Jesus tries to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. He often talks about the Kingdom of God where people have equal worth and all of life has dignity. But in the latter part of his ministry, he begins to act this out. In the midst of a highly patriarchal culture Jesus breaks at least six strict cultural rules: 1. Jesus speaks to the woman ...

4292. Becoming Good Trees

Matthew 5:17-30

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Most pastors have seen the damage caused when a purple-faced preacher has sought to scare a person into faith. Pastors counsel with people even into their eighties and nineties who still have trouble feeling love from God because when they were children, someone had frightened them with images of an angry God, ready to smack them down if they didn't behave and believe. Parents will tell us of children coming home in tears from other churches. An adult had gotten in the face of a child demanding an answer ...

4293. Show Me What’s Real

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

Have you ever found yourself in a position or place where you would rather not be? Sometimes it is our own doing, our own poor choices that bring us to a place we would not choose. At other times it is a series of circumstances that carries us to that place. A church near campus has a chapel for university students to meditate and pray. Students have the opportunity to reflect and share their thoughts in a notebook. The entries sometimes reveal an inner struggle. One young woman candidly shared, "My ...

4294. Forward March

Joshua 3:1-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

It was truly a day of new beginnings as the people prepared to make the long-anticipated entry into the promised land. After the Israelites had spent forty years journeying through the desert, they had finally arrived at this pivotal point in time. To say that there were problems or even setbacks along the way would be an understatement. The people complained about not having enough food and water. Along the way there were some who desired to return to the land of slavery — where life was not great but at ...

4295. Headed in the Right Direction

Romans 15:4-13

Sermon

John N. Brittain

If you don't know that Christmas is a couple of weeks away, you must be living underground. And you must have no contact with any children. And you cannot have been to a mall, Wal-Mart, Walgreen's, or any other chain store since three weeks before Halloween. Christmas, probably more than any other day in the contemporary American calendar, is one of those days where impact really stretches the envelope of time not just — like some great tragedy — after the fact, but also in anticipation. If we aren't good ...

4296. You Can’t Judge A Filling By Its Chocolate

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

Object: Box of chocolates with mixed fillings and Card stock printed with 1 Samuel 16 (reference only) (Open the box of chocolate. Take one out, bite it, and announce its filling. Take out a second piece of chocolate, bite it, and announce its filling.) These pieces of chocolate are very good! From the outside, they very much alike, but when you bite into them, you find out that they are very different. Without the map that sometimes comes with the box, you have to break or bite the chocolate to know what’ ...

4297. Finding Financial Freedom

Luke 16:1-15

Illustration

Brett Blair

Some of you may have read a remarkable short story sometime during your school years by D. H. Lawrence titled, “The Rocking‑Horse Winner." I wonder if you remember how the story begins? It is a haunting tale about a family living above its means. The mother is considered by friends and neighbors to be the perfect mother, in spite of the fact that deep down she knows she has difficulty loving her three children. It's important to the husband to keep up the pretense of success the large house, staffed with ...

4298. We Are Blessed, Adopted and Sealed

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

One of the classic American fairy tales and one of the most watched movies ever is The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. I remember when Mary and I were first married, we bought our first color TV so we could watch the Wizard of Oz in color. Do you remember the end of the movie. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion have returned from their seemingly impossible task of capturing the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West. They've completed the task and now they want to redeem the promise ...

4299. Saying the Right Thing: True Thanksgiving

Luke 19:1-10

Illustration

James W. Moore

In one of my favorite Peanuts comic strips, Lucy's feeling sorry for herself and she laments, "My life is a drag. I'm completely fed up. I've never felt so low in my life." Her little brother Linus tries to console her and he says, "Lucy, when you're in a mood like this, you should try to think of things you have to be thankful for; in other words, count your blessings." To that, Lucy says, "Ha! That's a good one! I could count my blessings on one finger! I've never had anything and I never will have ...

4300. Some Not So Bright Thieves

Lk 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

Not everybody who takes up a life of crime is all that smart. Sometimes movies or television glorify criminals. They make them appear sophisticated, even cool. Most criminals do not fall in that category. Like the guy who walked into a little corner store in England with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the ...

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