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 4326 to 4350 of 4977 results

4326. Jesus Prays for Us

John 17:6-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... he prayed that none of us will be lost from the fellowship of believers. He prayed that none of us would ever slip away from our faith in God. I love the way the Psalmist put it: “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone” (91:11-12). Christ prayed for his disciples’ preservation. Kathleen Lowthert described a special conversation she once had with her granddaughter. This was at a critical ...

4327. Have You Had Your Caffeine Today?

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... into man and man became a living soul. This was the beginning of human life. In Acts, when the Holy Spirit blew upon or breathed upon the followers of Christ who obediently waited, they received a newness of life that would stun those who looked on. Let’s keep reading. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled ...

4328. It Was a Dark and Stormy Evening! Father's Day

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... !” writes Ernie Nivens, “If you are caught in the thunder, stand in the assurance that a rainbow is coming your way. In the meantime, be a rainbow for someone else.” A song from the 1942 Broadway musical Carousel says it beautifully: “When you walk through the storm keep your head up high and don’t be afraid of the dark . . . Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone.” (7) I don’t know what kind of storm you’re going through today, but ...

4329. A Fig Tree Sprouts Leaves

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... was heartbroken that she missed others and the joy of the reunion itself. But she missed a sign. Signs are important. Imagine trying to navigate your way in an area unknown to you without signs or a GPS. Signs keep us aware of our surroundings; they help with directions; and they even help us to keep safe by offering warnings to us. To ignore signs is risky. It can sometimes be quite costly. So has it ever been. Go back with me to the year 1941. Two American soldiers observe something unusual on their radar ...

4330. The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... by a senior angel. After touring all the galaxies of the universe, they come at last to our solar system. The junior angel is tired and bored and not very impressed by what he sees. The senior angel points to the earth and says, “Keep an eye on that planet.” The younger angel thinks the earth looks small and dirty and insignificant. “That is the Visited Planet,” say the senior angel. “You don’t mean …” the junior angel begins to interject . . . “Yes,” the senior angel replies, “that ...

4331. Brushing Your Teeth with Oreos

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

King Duncan

... allow them to sleep on the floor. A university spokesman said, “They often can’t accept that their children have now left home and come to university. Sometimes they move to the local area for months offering to cook and clean for their children--and keep an eye on them. “The university decided to act after finding some of the parents had arranged to sleep in their children’s dormitory with them, which the university decided is unacceptable. They now give them a blanket and a place to wash and eat ...

4332. The Peaceable Kingdom

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... when he looked at himself in the mirror and knew that the only reason he can go to work instead of someone else is because he cheated? Says Maurice Boyd: "He discovered that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent and that one way you can keep your soul is by refusing to sell it. He realized that whatever else he lost, and God knows he lost enough, he didn't have to lose himself." John the Baptist shouted that message to the crowds from Jerusalem who came to see his odd ministry at the Jordan ...

4333. The Challenge to Forgive

Luke 7:36--8:3

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... good guy, white hat hero horses like Trigger or Silver of the Lone Ranger's "Hi, Ho Silver, away!" Yes, it is a scene unlike my childhood memories of cowboys and Indians and the Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian sidekick Tonto. The scene is more in keeping with today's Lone Ranger episode where the famous good guy lawman and Tonto are being charged by a vicious group of Indians. "Looks like we have a problem, Tonto," said the Long Ranger. And Tonto replied, "What do you mean we, white man!" Yes, this is ...

4334. The Good Samaritan (Revised Edition)

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... assistance to those in need. A friend in need may be a friend indeed, but he had also learned what a friend of mine believes and that is a friend in need is a friend to avoid! Wishing to avoid as many friends in need as possible, wishing to keep his life free of encumbrances and involvement, and desiring to justify himself, he asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? Many Americans have the lawyer's frame of mind. Next to Israel, America is the most litigious country in the world. We are ready to sue most anyone at ...

4335. Our Father Who Art in Heaven

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... : Well said and since God himself is an adventurer, he expects his people to be the same. So Moses led his people in the Exodus and the wilderness wandering where Israel was molded into a unique people of God. By contrast, matriarchal religions and gods tend to keep people in the confines of the womb, in the nest, in the comforts of the home and the security of the city. They favor the known over the unknown. In the biblical religions, where God is Father and masculine, God's people are called to adventure ...

4336. The Happy Hypocrite

Matthew 6:1-4, 5-6, 16-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the talent and virtuosity of the musicians. It also impressed him greatly to see these two ushers standing there applauding more vigorously than all of the concert goers. His experience was somewhat diminished, however, when he heard one usher say to the other, “Keep clapping. If we can get them to do another encore, we get overtime!” (1) I thought about these ushers when I read our lesson for today from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of ...

4337. The Word According to Superman

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... a renewed sense of faith and joy. But, as time goes by, we forget. And then we find ourselves in a difficult spot again. We see no way out and so, once again, we doubt God’s presence and love. When will we learn? God can be counted on. God keeps His promises. There are times in our lives when our faith is tested by our life circumstances. Remember how we said last week when we began our Lenten journey that life’s tests are not designed to weaken us, but to help us grow stronger in our faith journey. We ...

4338. You Hit What You Watch

Illustration

Michael P. Green

One thing a carpenter learns quickly is how to drive nails. He hammers hundreds of nails a day, and that’s a lot of practice! The most important thing in hammering nails is to keep your eye on the nail, not on the thumb that’s holding the nail. That is because you will always hit what you watch! If Christ is your “spiritual” nail, what are the “thumbs” you keep hitting?

4339. Mooving Cows

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... has been told of a farmer who was trying to teach his son how to plow a straight furrow. After the horse had been hitched up and everything was ready, he told the boy to keep an eye on some object at the other end of the field and aim straight toward it. “Do you see that cow lying down over there?” he asked. “Keep your eye on her and plow straight ahead.” The boy started plowing and the farmer went about his chores. When he returned a little later to see what progress had been made, he was shocked ...

4340. The Marital Law of Thermodynamics

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law states that any closed system left to itself tends toward greater randomness; that is, it breaks down. It takes an ordered input of energy to keep anything together. This is readily seen with a house. Any homeowner knows that to maintain a house, one must daily, monthly, and yearly invest time and energy to keep the house enjoyable to live in. If no energy is expended on the house, it eventually comes to the point of needing a complete overhaul, or else it is knocked ...

4341. Yours Is The Earth

Illustration

Rudyard Kipling

... word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run— Yours is the Earth and ...

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort, of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

George Eliot

4343. Too Close To Temptation

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... far away from that wall as I could.” This candidate had a different focus. He understood that true skill in driving is not based so much on the ability to steer the car to a narrow miss as on the ability to keep a wide margin of safety. Like the fourth candidate, there are many aspects of human nature, such as sexual temptation, that are best dealt with by keeping a wide margin of safety. When we decide what to do in a doubtful area, such as going to a particular movie, we should be as wise as that man.

4344. In Time Of Trouble

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... this advice I’m writing down for myself. It may be that she’ll find it helpful.” This is what was written: "In time of trouble, say, “First, he brought me here. It is by his will I am in this place; in that I will rest.” Next, “He will keep me here in his love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as his child.” Then say, “He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons he intends me to learn, and working in me the grace he means to bestow.” And last, say, “In his good ...

4345. The Fall of Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... of Jeremiah’s prophecy—or at least that is the traditional interpretation. Furthermore, the Chronicler proceeds to interpret the duration of the exile as a period of sabbath rest for the land. The desolation of the land is indicated to be a keeping of the sabbath in order to complete the symbolic period of seventy years. The end of this seventy-year period, according to the Chronicler, coincides with the establishment of the kingdom of Persia. A comparison with the Deuteronomistic source texts in 2 ...

4346. Peter Addresses the Crowd

Acts 2:14-41

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... the dead (see note on 4:10). The antithesis is stated with dramatic force (cf. 3:15; 4:10; 10:39). The resurrection, no less than his death, was God’s plan for Jesus, for the Scripture had foretold it. It was impossible, therefore, for death to keep its hold on him. What was foretold must be fulfilled. So God freed him from the agony of death, the resurrection being likened here to a birth out of death—a remarkable metaphor, if indeed that is what Peter meant. The phrase “pains of death” is found ...

4347. Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin

Acts 4:1-22

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... Ultimately, it was God’s power that had healed the man, and no charge could be laid for making that claim. 4:15–18 In some embarrassment, perhaps, the council chamber was cleared while the members argued the case. Their chief concern was to keep this thing from spreading (v. 17); the reference can hardly be to the miracle, news of which had already spread throughout the city, but to the teaching about Jesus and the resurrection. Since they had condemned Jesus, their credibility was at stake. But though ...

4348. Ananias and Sapphira

Acts 5:1-11

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... believers. Like Barnabas (4:36f.), they sold some land, but unlike him they kept back part of the proceeds before handing over the rest to the apostles (see notes on 4:35). The verb “to keep” (Gk. nosphizein) that occurs here and in verse 3 and again in the New Testament only in Titus 2:10 is used in the LXX of Achan’s keeping back some of the booty of Jericho that had been devoted to God (Josh. 7:1). The rarity of the word in the New Testament suggests that Luke deliberately drew on the language of ...

4349. Peter at Cornelius’ House

Acts 10:23b-48

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... to their being gathered in the presence of God (v. 33). In a sense, this is true of every situation in life, but never more so than when the gospel is being preached. Those who meet in such circumstances do well to remember the company they keep (cf. Matt. 18:20). 10:34–35 This speech is the first recorded preaching of the Good News to the Gentile world. It must be assumed, of course, that these were almost entirely “devout” people like Cornelius himself and that they were familiar, therefore, with ...

4350. In Athens

Acts 17:16-34

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... 1.291). It is evident from the fact that God is himself the source of human life. What, then, can we give to God? This thought is expressed emphatically in the Greek, “Not by human hands is he served,” and then underlined by the present participle, “he [God] keeps on giving” life. This description of God is drawn from Isaiah 42:5 (cf. Gen. 2:7; Wisd. 1:7, 14), but Paul may have intended a double meaning, for life (Gk. zōē) was popularly linked with Zeus, and he would have them know that God, not ...

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