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 4376 to 4400 of 5000 results

4376. The Glory of Christ Revealed

Ephesians 3:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Men: Come together, all God's people, in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, Women: in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. Collect Lord, during this season of light we strive to shine, coming together today sure of your mercy and goodness, and determined to mirror these in our ministries to the world. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Surely, Lord, we see how all things have worked together in history to ...

4377. Church Divided, By Christ United

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Savior, let your light dawn in our lives and call us to share that light with others through the ministries of our caring and love which we share beyond this, our time of worship together. Collect Lord of light, in this season of Epiphany we discover to our surprise that the light has already dawned upon your people. You are our light and our salvation. You are our hope and security. Today we seek to behold your beauty here in this, your house. Consecrate us as your people today as we seek ...

4378. The Triumph of the Lamb

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship One: Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. All: But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. (Isaiah 53: 4-5) Collect Let your words about your suffering servant cause us to tremble, Lord. Let your words strike to the core of our souls. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Lamb of God, before you are ...

4379. Night Crawler

John 3:1-17

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship One: I lift up my eyes to the hills- from where will my help come? All: My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Women: He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Men: He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Right Side: The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. Left Side: The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. One: The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. All: The Lord ...

4380. Playing the Game

Romans 6:1b-11

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1b-4) Collect Let us die to sin and be raised in new life. Lord we have asked to ...

4381. Using the Word as a Blunt Instrument

Matthew 23:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Hope in Christ. Hinder no one who wishes to worship with us. Have faith. Collect Father in heaven, gather us in, the haughty and proud, the meek and the lowly, the saint and the sinner, the winner and loser. Gather us as one people who have come to realize that all of us are loved and wanted by you in your kingdom. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Alas for us when we exalt ourselves at the expense of others. We ask your forgiveness for those occasions when we have forced burdens on others that we ...

4382. Grace Has Appeared

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

A little baby was born nearly 2,000 years ago under very unimpressive circumstances. He was born to poor working people living in an oppressed country. He was born while the parents were on a journey that was required by a tyrant, and they had to stay in a stable instead of in a home. The baby was laid to sleep in a trough from which cattle usually ate. And yet, Christians down through all of those years have believed that there was something very special about that birth. We have believed that, in that ...

4383. Adam's Legacy

Romans 5:12-19

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye is the Jewish father of five girls living in a Russian village who finds himself going through a period that is continually challenging his traditions. First, his oldest daughter, Tzeitel does not want to accept the man picked for her by the village matchmaker. But Tevye has already struck up a deal with this man to marry his daughter. And so Tevye goes through a mental wrestling match with himself that goes something like this: "On the one hand ... I'm the papa, ...

4384. Temptation of the Palms

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

A couple of years ago a popular slang expression came out that said: “Give it up.” To show you that like someone who is being introduced or a piece of music that’s about to be played, the person making the introduction will indubitably instruct you to “Give it up for..." And you applaud. You scream and yell and jump up and down. You do whatever it takes to show that you really are excited to see this person or hear this particular song. Go ahead; give it up. If that phrase was around a couple of thousand ...

4385. A Holy-wood Ending

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida for a long weekend to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. Because both had jobs, they had difficulty coordinating their travel schedules. It was decided that the husband would fly to Florida on a Thursday, and his wife would follow him the next day. Upon arriving, as planned the husband checked into a hotel. He settled into his room and decided to open his laptop computer and send his wife e-mail back in Minneapolis. However, he accidentally left ...

4386. No Shame

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28 (29-31)

Sermon

William G. Carter

I am very taken by what Paul says. He claims, "I am not ashamed...." Most of us have known people, maybe a lot, maybe a few, and they are ashamed of something. I struck up a conversation with a woman I had known for a couple of years. I thought I knew her fairly well. One day she blurted out that she had been married four times. I said, "You never mentioned it." She said, "I guess I'm ashamed." A man lost his job. That was hard enough. What made it more difficult is that he lost the job because he was ...

4387. Beautiful Feet

Romans 10:5-15

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

There are some things which are not often associated with the word "beautiful." Our lesson today ends with an image associating such an item with "beautiful," and then bringing up another topic which seems completely unrelated. This odd sentence is: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." It is strange enough to call feet beautiful. Most often we think of feet in a much more utilitarian context, as something we stand on and walk on, our basic support for standing upright. People who ...

4388. Body Parts and Pride

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

It sometimes happens that small parts of the Bible seem to become dated, especially when they echo particular periods of time. When these small portions are brought up later, they seem out of touch with the modern world. The lesson today might serve as an example of this phenomenon. When we read the lesson it sounds almost as if it should be a part of the '60s. Early on, there is a comment about not conforming, then something about transforming by renewing your minds, and finally, the ending about ...

4389. Heaping Coals and Virtues

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

A French writer and historian once wrote, "We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder." While many people might be tempted to agree that gunpowder has been an invention which has caused many problems for humanity, it is the other item which is surprising to find on a list of the worst inventions of humanity, particularly on the very short list. Even though this isn't the time of year when people think especially about thoughts of love, this is only a few ...

4390. Life, Death, and Judgment

Romans 14:1-12

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

In 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached a famous sermon with the title, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." In great detail Edwards spoke of the wrath people rightly faced when they confronted the judgment of a God who was angry at the way the people had failed to do what they were called to do. While many people understand only this much about that famous sermon, and hold it up as an example of the worst sort of preaching meant to terrify those who hear what is said, the sermon itself is actually quite ...

4391. Struggles, Death, and Christ

Philippians 1:21-30

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

Many people cling very tightly to life. They refuse to let go of it, and hold onto a shred of life beyond all reasonable expectations. And then there are others. There was an old man, lying in the bed in the back bedroom, surrounded by his wife, daughter, and his four granddaughters. His breath was coming slowly, almost in sighs, and the time between the sighs was stretching to longer and longer periods. Finally, when the silence had stretched to an unbearable length, the youngest granddaughter threw ...

4392. Bragging Rights

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

A mouse was once riding on the back of an elephant, and the pair went across a rickety bridge. As might be expected, the bridge shook and rattled. When the duo had successfully navigated the bridge, the mouse exclaimed, "My, oh my, we certainly made that bridge shake, didn't we?" It is all too common an experience to meet people who sound as if they are somehow related to that mouse. People who brag loudly about their successes, their skills, the ways they are crucial to the history of the world, or at ...

4393. Living in Denial

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Imagine you are a race car driver in the Indianapolis 500 automobile race. How would you deal with the inherent risks associated with this sport? How would you deal with the possibility of crashing, even dying, on that track? According to one driver, you don’t. “[If a fatal accident occurs,] you don’t go look at where it happened. You don’t watch the films of it on television. You don’t deal with it. You pretend it never happened.” The Indianapolis International Speedway operation itself encourages this ...

4394. A Tale of Two Dancers

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Our lessons for this morning tell of two dancers: one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. The one in the Old Testament is the king, David; the one in the New Testament is the step-daughter of the king, Herod. Both stories have to do with political intrigue. They are not commonly read as lessons in the Sunday worship, but during these dog days of summer, this is the kind of stuff they give us to read. So we will faithfully look for the word of God speaking to us in these two stories. Let us ...

4395. Are You Trying to Prove Something?

Genesis 12:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Theodore Parker Ferris had a great impact on my life, at a time when that impact made a difference. I was a seminary student in Boston. Ferris was the rector of the famous Trinity Church in Boston, in Copley Square, one of the great churches in America. Ferris was one of the great preachers in his day. He had a marvelous ability to present profound, sometimes difficult, ideas in very simple language that everybody could understand. And he was disarmingly honest. That was another characteristic of his style ...

4396. Beware of Crowds

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Mark Trotter

You read the Gospel of Mark, you get the impression that Jesus didn't like crowds. Which is strange considering that he's a Messiah who has come to save the whole world. But I'll tell you something even stranger, he hides the fact that he is Messiah. When the demons recognize him, he says, "Don't tell anyone. Keep it quiet." Which makes it even more curious, because in this phase of his ministry, it's at the beginning, he's in Galilee with his friends, he is preaching to those who are enthusiastic about ...

4397. Even God Can Change His Mind

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

I was stunned by the Old Testament lesson for this morning, where it says the Lord changed his mind about the disaster he planned to bring upon his people. I have read that passage before, and there are many others just like it in the Old Testament. But I guess I never paid much attention to them. I thought that they were simply vestiges of a more primitive stage of religion, and something that we in the modern age need not take seriously. But then I read a book a few weeks ago by Richard Friedman, a ...

4398. Eye Exercises

Matthew 6:25-33

Sermon

Mark Trotter

4399. Have You Got a Prayer?

Luke 3:21-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

In the season of Epiphany we look at those special events in Jesus' life where his presence was especially manifested with power. Jesus' baptism is one of those epiphanies. You heard Luke's version read this morning. The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased." In newer translations, which are thought to be more accurate, the adjective "beloved" is made a separate phrase to emphasize the intensity of the ...

4400. Here We Go Again

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Mark Trotter

This last week I got a letter addressed to, "The Pastor of the MethodistChurch," unsigned. It began, "To the church that awaits my coming. I am the Lord." That got my attention. This is from Jesus, I could see. It was handwritten, which I want to point out to all of you who have been trying to get me to get a computer. I just follow Jesus. When he gets one, I'll get one. I read on. "I am not pleased with those who claim to be members of my body. You have turned away from me." The letter continues with an ...

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