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 426 to 450 of 4964 results

426. Here We Go Again

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , God is in charge. Therefore, good awaits us, and not evil. There will be life, not destruction awaiting us. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. The ones who stand against God are going to face the consequences. But the faithful can lift up their heads, in hope. That is what all this means in the 21st chapter of Luke. But I remind you, the Son of Man did not come, nor did any of these signs come, nor did Rome fall (not for another four hundred years), and the end of history has not come, not even ...

427. Not What We Expected

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... , “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” (9:2) That’s where we are sometimes--walking in darkness. But we must keep going. We must believe that we will see a great light. Victor Frankl experienced soldiers giving up hope and dying. Let me tell you about someone who had nearly the opposite experience. Willem Brandt was one of thousands of Dutch citizens also imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II. The camps were brutal places, and prisoners were treated like animals ...

428. Easter 2

John 20:24-31, John 20:19-23, 1 Peter 1:1-12, Acts 2:14-41, Psalm 16:1-11

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... of being "born again" in vv. 3-5, and a reflection on the meaning of being born again for the life of the community in vv. 6-9. The text can be outlined in the following manner: I. What it means to be "born again" (vv. 3-5) A. Hope B. Inheritance C. Salvation II. Genuine Faith as a Result of Suffering (vv. 6-9) A. Love B. Belief C. Salvation Significance. The outline suggests a symmetry between salvation (vv. 3-5) and discipleship (vv. 6-9), with faith providing the link between the two. The central theme ...

429. Lent 3

Jn 4:5-42 · Rom 5:1-11 · Ex 17:1-7 · Ps 95

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... Thus, our justification is grace! This good news puts us at peace, because, Paul says, we have (through being justified) access to grace. But this experience of the goodness of God is neither static nor complete! For the apostle immediately talks of our hope. Hope is related to our future, which has been created by the gracious work of God in Jesus Christ. For Paul, this scheme is far from "possibility thinking"; rather, it is "reality living." So Paul continues his 0meditation by bringing us all down into ...

430. Christmas Gifts That Always Fit

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

... defeated. Even though evil will sometimes make loud noises in our world, we, as Christians, can be confident… and filled with hope because we know that ultimately God and His righteousness will win… and just think of it… He wants to share the ... with eyes closed in sleep. But how could the Christ child so loving and fair, Not waken and smile when He heard their glad prayer, Of hope at His coming, of Faith in His birth, Of Praise at His bringing God’s peace to the earth? And then, as the light softly ...

431. Romans 8:26-30

Romans 8:18-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... communicating to God, the one who “searches the heart,” our true desires and needs. Because Jesus’ disciples are “in Christ,” the Spirit of Christ may reach God in prayer. The thrust behind all of Paul’s illustrations here is to give reasons for why “hope” (v.24) is the right attitude and key to faithfulness. Just like both Peter and Paul have the same feast day (June 29th–the church decided not to separate them or to choose between them), so Peter and Paul have the greatest statements on ...

432. Dead Man Walking

John 11:38-44, John 11:17-37, John 11:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... failed. Near the end of the four day attempt, to bring these men to the surface, a diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of the vessel and heard a man tapping Morse Code from inside. This was the last question that he heard. "Is...there...any...hope?"[[1]] If there is any day of the year and any person in history that positively and definitively answers that question, that day is Easter and that person is Jesus Christ. Of all the Sundays of the year we are especially glad that you are here to celebrate ...

433. Ready or Not, Here I Come

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. P.S. It sure is hot down here! The widow wasn't ready for that message. It was ... when we die and come before his throne of grace. He doesn't ask us to be perfect. He asks us to wait with faith and hope and act faithfully with obedience to what he has taught us. He wants us to be ready. In the child's game of Hide and ...

434. Seeing God In The Ordinary: Others

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Without Strings and Love Without Limits when we see it in others. It moves us. It reminds us that God IS in the ordinary acts and activities of life. But the question it asks is: "What or rather WHO do others see in us? Do they see Compassion Without Embarrassment, Hope Without Strings and Love Without Limits?" We're called not only to look and see God In The Ordinary, we're also called to help others see God In The Ordinary through our lives. "WHO do others see in us? WHO do others see in you?" 1. The Call ...

435. Room At The Inn: Is There Room For Christmas?

Luke 2:1-7; John 1:1-5

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... him up and filling him with insight for the rest of us. We still need that kind of insight. And that insight can only come because of the birth of this child. The World Still Needs This Baby. Conclusion There IS Room For Christmas. The World Still Needs Hope, The World Still Needs This Baby. Don't miss out on the greatest gift God has ever given the world. Don't get so caught up in the trappings and parties and preparations of Christmas that you forget the baby. Take time to reread the Christmas stories in ...

436. The Character Of Christmas; Mary: Faith Filled

Luke 1:39-56

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... had to run for her and the baby's life before the child was even two. She became a refugee in a foreign land and yet still her faith sustained her. The vision of what was to be and what would happen drove both her and Joseph and gave them Hope. And like Mary, in the midst of the hardships of life, we discover that God IS Good. We discover it the same way Mary did, through the birth of Jesus. For in the miracle of that birth, in the miracle of that moment when Salvation Was Wrapped In Swaddling Clothes ...

437. Cross Eyed: Promise

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... this passage: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." III. Promise Of More Third there is the promise of more. More to come, more life, more love, more hope, more faith, more strength, more mercy, more of God, more of Christ, so much more that it will take an eternity for us to receive it all. Kathy was one of the happiest women around. She had worked in a hospital kitchen. But her work came to an end ...

438. The Gift of Gifts

John 1:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... us through the spirit. God gave us Himself. God is the Spirit within us, reminding us who we are and whose we are so we can be the people God created us to be. III. Faith (Polar Express Clip) And because God is with us, because we experience the Hope and Spirit given by this Gift of Gifts, we can say with the conductor. "Sometimes seeing is believing. And sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see." And that's not a statement about Santa Claus. That phrase is about faith. That ...

439. Getting It Right

Romans 5:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... punishment, but a pledge of forgiveness extended for the sake of the crucified Savior, who upon His cross forgave His enemies and prayed for them." (1) We know what kind of lives we lead. We don't always get it right. As a consequence sometimes we lose all hope. We see the cross and think only of the judgment and the consequences of our action and we're consumed by guilt. Sometimes that guilt gets in the way of accepting God's forgiveness and we get the message all mixed up. When in actuality, the Good News ...

440. Touch and Feel, Taste and See

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... his side or the wounds in his hands, but to reach out and receive the bread and the wine. The Sacrament that symbolizes and embodies His sacrifice on the cross for us. Just as Jesus gave Thomas hope and a future and sealed his faith with that touch, this simple bread and wine that we receive this morning gives us hope, gives us a future and seals our faith. All we're asked to do is believe, stretch out our hands and receive. So, I give you this simple invitation. Come to the table this morning. Bring your ...

441. Unexpected Invasions

Isaiah 64:1-9

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... for war. What if this December were different? Could you use a miracle this Advent season? How about an ‘unexpected invasion' of a Divine kind, that leads to an unlikely restoration and an unusual joy. Ponder these impossible possibilities. These are the things I hope for you this Christmas. The prophet Isaiah was looking for a miracle when he offered the prayer we find in Chapter 64. God, who once seemed powerful, now seemed impotent. The God who once was near was now nowhere to be found. So Isaiah ...

442. Will I Really Live Forever?

John 11:18-27, 39-45

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the rose bush whose withered blossoms float upon the breeze the sweet assurance of another springtime, will he withhold the words of hope from people when the frosts of winter have come? Immortality. It is in nature itself. Those of us who go by the ... is not raised, then we have no faith to live, but if Christ is raised from the dead then we are, of all people, most hopeful, most prophetic and most believing. My friends, if I didn’t believe that today I could not do my job every week. At every funeral ...

443. Let Go of the Stone

Mark 16:1-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... down. On that rock is a personal, hand written message for you—HE IS RISEN. I have come to tell you today: Things are not always what they sometimes seem to be. God still moves stones. I. Let go of the stone of HEARTBREAK and embrace a life of HOPE. Never morning wears to evening but some heart breaks, a heart just as sensitive as yours or mine. In the last few months, Sandy and I have buried our grandson and walked through the valley of the shadow of death with my father. Quite candidly I must admit the ...

444. Tomb It May Concern

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... raised Jesus from the dead. We are moving toward a day when "the Lord ... will descend from heaven ... and so we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). This passage relates to us as much as it did to the Thessalonians, since it deals with the hope of life after death. We do not need to be afraid for we have one another. Death's sting will never prevail because we have the gift of each other here and now and the gift of those who have gone before us later. Out of this reality, we find ...

445. Thanks for the Memory, Bob

John 6:24-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... wrote, Enthusiasm isn't listed as a virtue in the Bible but it's one of the most attractive attributes a person can have. An entertainer who loves to entertain has a big head start appealing to an audience, and no one ever loved being on stage more than Bob Hope. Every time he got up in front of a crowd, he had a good time and it was catching; his audience had a good time, too.[1] The New York Times informed its readers of Bob's death by running an obituary written by Vincent Canby, the veteran Times ...

446. The Trial Before Felix

Acts 24:1-27

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... they heard brought conviction, for when Paul went on to speak of the judgment to come (see disc. on 1:10f.; cf. Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:3), Felix became afraid and brought the interview to a close. 24:26 One reason for these repeated meetings was Felix’s hope of receiving a bribe. He could either keep Paul in prison indefinitely or, if he chose, could speed up the process of justice and have him acquitted (there was no way that Paul could justly be condemned). But before he would set him free, he wanted it made ...

447. Freedom In Christ

Galatians 5:1-15, Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... God gives freely and Paul’s gospel is a witness to the grace (gift) of God in Christ’s death (Gal. 2:21). 5:5 Paul distinguishes the path the Galatians are considering from the one they are on. As believers they live in hope of righteousness, a hope that is theirs by faith … through the Spirit. Paul brings together several strands of his argument: the Spirit, which is the evidence that the promise made to Abraham is given to Gentiles (3:14), is the means by which righteousness is given; righteousness ...

448. Thanksgiving and Prayer

Ephesians 1:15-23

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... 1:1) have their faith grounded in the Lord Jesus. Faith is given practical expression through their love for all the saints (cf. Col. 1:4); or to state it another way, love toward God’s people is an outgrowth of their faith in Christ. Love, faith, and hope (1:12, 18) appear in Ephesians and in the Pauline epistles as basic Christian graces (cf. Col. 1:5). 1:16 The report that the apostle has heard drives him to a prayer of thanksgiving for his readers (I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering ...

449. One in Christ

Ephesians 2:11-22

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... God’s people (v. 19) foreigners to the covenants of promise (v. 12) vs. no longer foreigners and aliens (v. 19) without hope (v. 12) vs. without God (v. 12) 2:11 The Greek text begins with the emphatic therefore, remember. On the basis of ... 27; 1 Thess. 2:19; 4:13; 1 Pet. 1:3; 3:5). J. A. Robinson makes an interesting observation about Jewish hope and Gentile hopelessness when he writes: “The Jew had a hope: the Gentile had none. The golden age of the Gentile was in the past: his poets told him of it, and ...

450. Paul's Charge to Timothy

1 Timothy 6:11-21

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... that, but they tend to put altogether too much confidence in what is so uncertain. The uncertainty of wealth is underscored in the Proverbs (23:4–5); here this theme is tied to its being only for this present world (in contrast to “the coming one,” v. 19). Putting hope in wealth was denounced by the prophets (e.g., Jer. 9:23) and seems to be the one thing above others that closed the door of the Kingdom to some in the ministry of Jesus (cf. Mark 10:17–27; Luke 12:15, 16–21). As with all others (4 ...

Showing results