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 4526 to 4550 of 4937 results

4526. Placard Faith, Complex World

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Robert Noblett

As you have sat in your easy chair munching on snack food during any NFL game, you have seen this sight innumerable times. The camera zeroes in on one of the end zones and just beyond the uprights, you see a person carrying a huge placard sporting the name John, followed by the numbers, 3:16. This text is one of the most famous in the Bible and it is the darling of those Christians given to cutesy evangelism. I suspect that in their view it is not cutesy -- but gutsy -- evangelism they are about. Be all ...

4527. A Scream And A Laugh

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

"My name is Asher Lev, the Asher Lev, about whom you have read in newspapers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties. The notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn crucifixion." With those words, Chaim Potack begins his novel entitled My Name is Asher Lev. It's about a young boy whose extraordinary talent leads him away from his family and his faith into a painful maturity and a perilous success. Asher Lev longs to be a painter, and he pursues this longing ...

4528. A Confidence for All Seasons

Psalm 27:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Pete Rose has been one of the big names in the news over the past few years. He's an interesting study in human nature. The way the press is dealing with him, and the public response adds immeasurably to that study. A few weeks ago, his daughter got caught up in the fracas. Newsweek Magazine reported the story. The daughter has not lived with Rose since he and his wife got a divorce some years ago. And one of the reasons is because she says her dad was a crummy father. But did you hear what Pete said about ...

4529. Jesus, Desirous

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

In the powerful movie, Ulee's Gold, Peter Fonda plays a tired man who is a beekeeper by day. He runs the old family business of collecting and selling the golden honey that pays the bills. It is exhausting work for a man now in his late sixties. Ulee does most of it by himself because he cannot afford to hire someone to help him. He maintains and moves the hives, gathers the trays, separates the honey from the wax, spins the final product into jars, and ships it off to market. He worries about the ebb and ...

4530. Fire Falling from Heaven

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

Jesus spends much of the twelfth chapter of Luke reassuring and encouraging his followers in the face of possible catastrophic circumstance. "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more" (v. 4). "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life" (v. 22). "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (v. 32). The same chapter ends on a far less positive note. Rather than encouraging reassurance, Jesus ...

4531. Free Living Water for All

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

Travelers near the Badlands of South Dakota were surprised and intrigued in 1936 to see a sign which read, "Get a Soda ... Get Root Beer ... Turn next corner ... just as near ... to Highways 16 and 17 ... Free Ice Water ... Wall Drug." It all began out of frustration when the drugstore was on the brink of closing in Wall, South Dakota. One Sunday afternoon when Dorothy Hustead couldn't sleep, she got up and told husband Ted, "I think I finally see how we can get all those travelers to come to our store." " ...

4532. 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 ...

4533. Called to Freedom

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Mark Trotter

The temptation in all times, the temptation in the Middle ages and the temptation of many in our time, is to make religion a matter of rules, and to believe that those who obey the rules are the ones who are good, and saved, and those who do not obey the rules are the ones who are damned. Which is bad enough as religion, but what made it worse is that God is made the enforcer of this system of rewards and punishment. What Luther did was break through all of that and establish for all time that Christianity ...

4534. Dig In

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

There is a story about a businessman who checked into a hotel late at night. He decided that he would stop in the lounge for a nightcap. Pretty soon he called the hotel desk, and asked, "What time will the lounge be opened in the morning?" The night clerk answered, "9:00 a.m." About an hour later he called again. The phone rang. The night clerk answered it. The businessman again asked, "What time will the lounge be opened in the morning?" He said, "9:00 a.m." He called a third time, and every hour ...

4535. Let's Dance

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

At one time or another, all of us here have had the uncomfortable experience of either being or watching someone with absolutely no sense of rhythm, movement, or beat try and dance and move to the music. We call them people with "Baptist feet." No matter that the bass line is thumping along so loudly that it's giving everyone else synchronized migraines – it seems there is always someone out on the dance floor who just can't find the beat and move to it. For those with well-tuned senses of rhythm and ...

4536. Taking Aim

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In 1221 the young Dominican order took on a new member who would ultimately be known as Peter Martyr. Young Peter's parents had been members of the Cathari sect, but Peter was drawn to the Dominicans while a student at the University of Bologna. A gifted and zealous speaker, Friar Peter became known for his preaching throughout Lombardy. But his notoriety begat jealousy and suspicion. He was accused of immorality (letting women into his monk's cell) and he argued with far too much success and conviction ...

4537. Living Outside the Box

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In the 1950s and 60s the five-and-dime market was invented and then dominated by two entrepreneurial giants Woolworth's and Newberry's. Like the giants Wal-mart and K-mart today, both these marketing geniuses broke ground for the megastores that have now asphalted forests and farmlands. The idea both Woolworth's and Newberry's sold was that you could get virtually anything and get it cheap at their stores. It did seem that they stocked everything from dishes to dresses to tools and toys; from a hundred ...

4538. The World's Best Hearing Aid

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Selective hearing. Anyone NOT been accused of that? Throughout the course of our lives we all develop a remarkable talent for selective hearing. Dale Carnegie said that hearing one's name is the most beautiful sound to the human ear (and he proved it personally with his gift of libraries, all of which bore his name). But that only applies when the one calling our name isn't a parent or spouse asking us to perform some chore. No matter what decibel level is used, kids can always fail to hear mom calling ...

4539. Conviction with Compassion

John 8:1-11

Sermon

James McCormick

You and I are living today in the midst of a massive moral muddle. There is pervasive confusion or indifference concerning what is right and wrong. And, some people are wondering whether or not such terms should even be used. After all, we are being told again and again that all values are relative, that standards of behavior change from generation to generation. We have seen it happen that an action which is declared unacceptable in one decade is approved in the next. So, people throughout our land are ...

4540. What Is That in Your Hand?

Exodus 4:1-17

Sermon

James McCormick

The dominant figure of the Old Testament is Moses. He stands head and shoulders above all others in the history of Israel. He is Moses, the deliverer, the one who led the Hebrew people out of Egyptian captivity. He is Moses, the law-giver, the one who came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the law. He called the people into covenant with God, and led them through the wilderness to the land of promise. There is no doubt about it: Moses towers above all others in the Old Testament! And yet, when we ...

4541. 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

TEXTS FROM ACTS AND PSALMS In the weeks of Easter, readings from Acts replace the normal Old Testament lessons. Several of the Acts readings are closely related to one another. Thus, in the sections on "Setting" and "Structure" for the text from Acts, information is given that is relevant for this Sunday's reading from Acts, as well as the next two Sundays. The material will be given only in this chapter. Readers will be reminded in the subsequent two weeks to refer back to this information. A portion of ...

4542. The 3 Rs of a Holy Life

2 Corinthians 13:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

An old adage warns, “bad things always come in threes.” Have you found this true in your own experience? That bad things (and good things) like to happen in community, in bunches? You say: we invent this connection by suddenly realizing that we got a flat tire on the same day that a computer glitch devoured our hard drive, shortly after our last contact lens just slid down the drain. I say: there seems to be something significant about the power of three. Today the church celebrates the Triune God—Father, ...

4543. Good Christian Men Rejoice

2 Corinthians 8:9

Sermon

James Merritt

Seven centuries ago a Christmas carol, often sung today, was written in Latin, with a Latin title that meant "With Sweet Shouting." The great composer, Johann Sabastian Bach, liked it so much he arranged it for the organ, and John Mason Neale later standardized the hymn in English. In English the title was changed to "Good Christian Men Rejoice." The first stanza tells us what every Christian understands about the season called Christmas. Good Christian men, rejoice, With heart and soul and voice; Give ye ...

4544. Why Is Life So Unfair?

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Sunday a week ago, the newspaper headline was just sickening. We saw the picture of State Trooper Calvin Jenks, age 24, whose body had been found beside his cruiser in rural Tipton County. Two suspected drug dealers have been arrested and charged with his murder. Calvin moved to the Memphis area last July to be near his fiancé, a student at the UT Medical School. They married in September and absolutely adored each other. After just three months of married life, Calvin was gunned down by criminals. (1) ...

4545. The Twenty-Ninth Chapter of Acts

2 Timothy 4:1-22

Sermon

John E. Harnish

Pentecost and Peter and the first great sermon of the new era. Andrew and Barnabas, and yes, Ananias and Saphria in their greed. Philip and the Ethiopian. We have tracked the early days of the early church in these first eight chapters of the book of Acts to try to catch a glimpse from the first century of what God might have in mind for us in the twenty-first century; to discover what it means to be a model New Testament Church for today. Now fast-forward… I realize we are skipping over the greatest ...

4546. Like a Child

Hebrews 4:1—5:10

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

Angela was still a pre-schooler the Christmas Grandpa Harvey got her the red Radio Flyer wagon, and by summer it had become a popular item in the family's backyard. When her younger sister learned to toddle along sometime later they made a game of pulling each other, often with the help of Mom or Dad. As is known to happen with siblings, one afternoon the cooperative play turned competitive, then became a heated argument. And so it was that Angela informed her little sister in a physical way that this was ...

4547. The Double Cross

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Some of the disciples felt double-crossed. They expected perks, priority, position. Instead they got a double-cross in which the more VERTICAL their relationship to God, the more HORIZONTAL their relationships with others. We all have a favorite restaurant. What's yours? [Make this an interactive moment in the sermon by having the people call out their favorites.] What's the one restaurant in which the food is just to your liking, the service gracious, and the ambiance enfolds you in comfort and well-being ...

4548. Do You Look Good On Wood?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In a culture awash in self-hug spiritualities, it is time for disciples of Jesus to take up their crosses and follow him. The year ... 177 A.D. The place ... the arena at Lyons. The celebration ... fiesta time. The sport ... killing criminals, runaway slaves and Christians. A letter from the local church to a sister church in Turkey describes what happened: The governor had the blessed ones form a procession for the enjoyment of the crowd ... Maturus, then Sanctus, Blandina and Attalus were led to face the ...

4549. Jesus Radical Prescription

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Mike Ripski

We’re still sitting on the hillside with those whose lives Jesus’ has changed with the miracle of God’s love. He’s teaching us about God’s new world, where God’s love reigns. Jesus has just told us that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. For example, “The law says, ‘Do not murder.’ But I say that not killing someone doesn’t go far enough. God is concerned about how you feel toward others, how you perceive them, how you relate to them. Therefore, beware of your anger toward others. Beware of ...

4550. Know Fear: The Fear of God

Proverbs 1:7

Sermon

James Merritt

I am concluding the series of messages we have entitled - fear factor. I am afraid fear may have gotten a bad rap, because some fear in life is good. In fact, some fear is even necessary. Small children need to be taught to be afraid of a hot stove or else they will be burned. As they get older, they need to be taught to be afraid of a busy street or else they may get hit by a car. As they become teenagers, they need to be taught to be afraid of driving a car too fast or they might be killed. The fear that ...

Showing results