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 4701 to 4725 of 4977 results

4701. Celebrate the Small Stuff

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . The in-between time is not for us to worry about. It is shrouded in the mysterious providences of God. Because Jesus had supreme confidence in God’s promises to bring in God’s kingdom, there was no one who celebrated the “small stuff” quite so well and publically as Jesus. Jesus went to weddings and banquets. He dined out with friend and strangers and sinners. He kept company with respected authorities like Nicodemus and despised tax collectors like Levi and Zacchaeus. Jesus took time and he took ...

4702. The Awesome Power of a Mustard Seed (Father's Day)

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... of an Italian film with the unusual title, “Tree of the Wooden Clogs.” This film portrays the plight of Italian peasants at the close of the nineteenth century. In one scene the village priest is shown talking with the parents of a 5-year-old boy. They are quite poor. The boy’s father wants the boy to stay at home, work around the farm and help support the family. The priest tells him the family must send the boy to school since God has given the boy the gift of intelligence. He explains that the ...

4703. Why Are You So Afraid?

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... , ready to marry and settle down. But this young man had a problem a problem directly caused by fear. He was a responsible young man but he couldn’t keep a job and he was discouraged. Why was he in such a state? It was because he stuttered quite badly. He heard that a candy company in Plant City, Florida, was looking for a route driver. And he’d heard that the owner of the company, a man named Miller, was a former stutterer who had somehow learned to control his stutter. A fellow sufferer, this young ...

4704. I Want My Dollar Back!

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... aisles with an offering plate, while his father beamed down from the pulpit and encouraged everyone to "dig deep, brothers and sisters, for the good work." (2) Well, that’s another way to raise money for the church, I guess. None of these approaches to raising money quite fits me. I hope you appreciate that. It’s not that I’m embarrassed to talk about money. Jesus, as you may know, talked more about money than any other one subject. He knew what money can do to people. And he knew the proper place of ...

4705. Mark 6:1-13

Mark 6:1-6

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... traveled back and forth across the Sea of Galilee a couple of times, Jesus and his disciples leave the shoreline scene and undertake a significant side trip to Nazareth, some twenty-five miles to the south. The journey might have been quite a jaunt, but the destination was far from distinguished. Nazareth was a small, obscure, unimportant village with a population of a few hundred, mostly related residents. Outside of the New Testament references to it as Jesus’ “hometown,” the Nazareth community has ...

4706. Watch Your Step

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

4707. Adopted

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... practice among Jews in New Testament times. Jesus never used the term adoption nor is the word used in the four Gospels. Adoption is a concept that Paul introduced from his own background as a Roman citizen. He used the term at least five times. It was quite common in the Roman world for wealthy families who did not have sons to adopt one in order to have someone to inherit their property. Girls weren’t adopted in that time since, under Roman law, they could not inherit property. (3) It was a very special ...

4708. Walls, Walls, Everywhere Walls

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... some of them actually believed they were serving Christ with their hateful acts. They were serving Satan. Anyway this particular group had come to know the love of Christ and had disbanded, and they sent their robes, their white sheets, to the Red Cross. Quite significantly, the Red Cross cut the white sheets into strips and eventually used them to bandage wounds the wounds of suffering black people in Africa. (5) Now that is a conversion that would thrill the heart of God. All forms of hatred are from ...

4709. Zombie Zone or Beulah Land?

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... some sort of mutant virus or alien invasion that spawns great crops of these crusty creatures. Oddly, while the fact that they are now walking-around in dead bodies doesn’t seem to concern zombies all that much, the fact that they are quite literally “brain dead” does seem to perturb the corpse creatures. According to Hollywood, what all zombies yearn for is to munch down on nice, living brains. For the zombie, it seems, eating brains is like us consuming an entire pint of chocolate cookie dough ...

4710. Holy Smokes! God Is Here

John 6:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... three small rafts lost in the far Pacific. They battled storms. They ran out of food. Sharks, some ten feet long, would ram their nine-foot boats. When asked how they were able to endure that experience, Rickenbacker’s answer was quite succinct. He said simply, “We prayed.” For days they drifted helplessly under the scorching tropic sun. The heat, the hunger, the exhaustion, brought Rickenbacker and his young, inexperienced crew to the breaking point. But Eddie Rickenbacker continued to pray. Were his ...

4711. Screaming at the Television

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

... B.C. Xerxes sought to invade Greece with a huge army. His plan was to cross a narrow strait between Greece and Persia called the Hellespont. He purported to do this by building two pontoon bridges and using them to cross over the strait. It was quite an engineering feat. However a great storm came up and destroyed both of these pontoon bridges before his army could cross over them. This infuriated Xerxes to the point that he had those responsible for building the bridge beheaded. If he had stopped there, we ...

4712. Enough Foolishness!

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

... ” who over-indulge more than four times a month. The toll that takes in automobile accidents, the toll that takes on families, the toll that takes on people’s minds and bodies is indescribable. “Do not get drunk on wine,” Paul says. I was quite surprised to read that binge drinking is not just a problem among college students, though, of course, it is. But among older people retired people who are old enough to know better binge drinking is becoming epidemic. When we are unrestrained in any of our ...

4713. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Illustration

Staff

... thought for a second and then answered. "You know, I'm glad you raised that issue. I've been thinking about astronomy and astronomers with all your theories about an expanding universe and black holes and myriad galaxies. We don't need all that scientific mumbo jumbo. Astronomy is actually quite simple and can be summed up in a few words. Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are."

4714. Tradition Can Be Changed

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Cynthia Cowen

... from Egypt when the Angel of Death came, killing the firstborn of the Egyptians but passing over Israelite homes. At twelve years of age, Jesus was now allowed to attend the festivals. He and his family joined other families traveling to Jerusalem. It was quite common to caravan to keep one safe from robbers. Imagine entering the holy city for the first time, seeing the temple, and observing sacred rituals. How that would have fascinated Jesus. Jesus was no longer a child. As a man he would follow the ...

4715. This Fellow Welcomes Sinners

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... storyteller Jesus draws us in, then leaves us with a cliffhanger that challenges us to put ourselves in the story. At different times in our lives we may find ourselves as the father, the older brother, and the younger brother. Or we may even find ourselves absent, though quite alive. Keep in mind, of course, that this is a story. It's a sacred story, it was told by Jesus, but he was telling it to illustrate a point. One of the reasons for storytelling by the teachers in first-century Judea was that we take ...

4716. No Pleasing Some People

John 12:1-8

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... Jesus as saying that we will always have the poor among us that suggests there is no use in trying to work against poverty since we will never solve the problem. But that ignores what Jesus was saying. Sometimes people don't study their scriptures quite enough. I've often heard people quote the words Jesus spoke after his feet were anointed with expensive perfume (John 12:8: "You always have the poor with you") as justification, somehow, of leaving the poor to their lot. They suggest that even Jesus was ...

4717. Holy Ground

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... heard only rumors about the foot washing and the large meal that accompanied communion for the group known as German Baptist Brethren, or Dunkers. What she experienced was the equivalent of a three-day slumber party. The Love Feast was quite different than other religious practices of the day. It stemmed from the peculiar theological synthesis of the Dunkers — part Anabaptist, part Pietist, and fully determined to implement those ordinances that they found in scripture as the result of joint Bible ...

4718. How Much of an Honor?

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... the ministry. The result was published as Flockfood, a sort of consumer guide to sermons. As a member of the flock Durnbaugh had to admit he wasn't flattered by the comparison to sheep. As it happens I find the imagery objectionable. I have never quite forgiven Jesus for coming down so hard on the flock and sheep language. Granted that this was a natural metaphor for Palestine, I wish he would have chosen almost any other animal. I dislike sheep. It is with great difficulty that I associate myself with ...

4719. Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... . What could be a better, a more admirable task than to care for one's family? How many times have you and I said, "My family is first"? The most righteous, respectable, and acceptable statement politicians, CEOs, and others make when changing careers is, "I'm quitting so I can take more time for my family." I wish Jesus would have contrasted "following him" with a lame excuse. But family — that's an admirable, lofty, sterling excuse. But it's not family first — it's the kingdom first! How do we ...

4720. Checked the Ditch Lately?

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... intentions, but with good reasons." "Sin" reflected the priest in Shusaku Endo's book, Silence, "is not usually what people think it to be. It is not to steal and tell lies. Sin, is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind."3 We talk so glibly about loving our neighbor. If I love you and do not know anything about you, my statement about loving you is nothing else but hypocrisy. One of the neighbors that we have the greatest encounter ...

4721. Stuff!

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

... . Of course it doesn't always happen, but I've heard enough stories about people who win the lottery and end up within a few years in what my parents would have called the "poor house." Most, it seems, take trips, buy motor homes or motorcycles, quit their jobs, build bigger barns for their stuff, and hide from long-lost distant relatives scheming for a slice of the pie until there are no more slices for anyone. There are the stories about groups of factory workers who together buy a number of ...

4722. What If the Disciples Had Email and One of the Disciples Was a Woman?

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

... made at the synagogue. I know you know this, but I want to remind you that there are many magicians out there who can do the same sorts of so-called miracles that this Jesus claims to do. We've had to put up with these so-called Messiahs for quite some time now. Our ancestors even warned us in the story about Moses and Pharaoh, how the court magicians could do almost everything that Moses could do by the power of God. Yet, Priscilla, I also know that you are a bright girl and that you are a good judge ...

4723. Finish What You Start

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

... knew that we had signed up for a life of service that would likely, from time to time, result in some amount of suffering, of hardship, and of testing. Little did I know how true those words would be. In my naïveté, I would soon be able to relate quite well to the person in Jesus' parable who failed to estimate the cost of building a tower. I was no different than the king who decided to wage war but never sat down to ascertain if he had enough soldiers to finish the job. In short, I was shocked, though ...

4724. How Do You Know the Good Guys from the Bad Guys?

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

... for us. It would seem that he is teaching us to be shrewd and crafty when dealing with the people of the world. That doesn't sound very Christian to us. Yet it is so easy to be taken in by some people who profess one thing and do something quite to the contrary. Help us to keep our eyes open, our minds alert, and to use all of our smarts when dealing with those who perhaps have values that differ from ours. We ask this of you who with Jesus and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God ...

4725. Can't Stay Away

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Scott Bryte

... , worldwide, mostly in places where the sanitary conditions are poor. It is highly treatable and almost always curable. Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium from which Hansen's disease develops, succumbs easily to antibiotics. In the ancient world, on the other hand, it was quite a different story. They didn't know about bacteria, antibiotics, rates of infection, or any of that. What they knew was this: Sometimes what starts out as a simple rash on the skin, can lead to some very bad things, and what ...

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