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

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4926. "Job" Is Our Name Too

Job 6:1-7:21

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

"Have you considered my servant Job?" God asked Satan in the heavenly court. This "blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Well, Satan considered Job all right. But he only considered him a God-fearing man because he was being blessed. Remove all that blessing, Satan argued, and Job’s piety will crumble and he will curse you. So the agreement is made between God and Satan; only Job’s life must not be taken away. But everything else is of Job’s is negotiable - family, servants, ...

4927. Religion in Focus

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon

Richard Patt

"Tell me, who do people say I am?" (v. 27b) Every photographer knows the importance of having the camera lens in focus before triggering the shutter. You can set the right shutter speed. You can open the lens to its proper setting. But if that lens is not in focus, the picture will be worthless. Anyone who’s trying to sell something these days knows the importance of having an accurate focus on the market for which a product is intended. Whether you’re trying to sell soap or soft drinks, it’s necessary to ...

4928. Total Commitment

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Richard Patt

"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?" (v. 50a) The theme "Total Commitment" arouses deep questions within us. How committed a person am I concerning the ideals I hold dear? How much do I really stand up for the truths I have learned? Am I really convinced about my "religious convictions"? What are my commitments in life anyway? A chicken and a pig were having a conversation one day. They were discussing how each of them provided for their master’s daily breakfast. ...

4929. Where’s the Power?

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

The purveyors of "positive thinking" like to tell us that if we want something badly enough we can get it, no matter what it is. All we need is the desire, the hunger, the commitment, and if we have these three things, we can accomplish whatever we want. If we fail to achieve our goal, it is only because we didn’t want it badly enough. Positive thinking has much to recommend it, but it has its limitations. One such limitation is this: we cannot always have what we want "just because we want it." All the ...

4930. When the Word Comes to the Wilderness

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

William G. Carter

You can tell Christmas is on the way when the catalogs start arriving in the mail. Long before the first snowflake falls, there is an avalanche of slick paper flyers. They come as gifts from merchants with toll-free phone numbers, all in the hope that we will buy what they have to offer. Last year the first catalog came from a company that specializes in Christian home decorations. Like other catalogs, there were smiling snowman doormats and weatherproof gift-wrap for covering the mailbox. On page three, ...

4931. Living Free

Haggai 2:1-9

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Why are things not better in America? With the booming economy, the new freedoms won by the Civil Rights movement and the Feminist movement, why is there still so much poverty, inequality, and discrimination? Questions such as these that we are asking today were on the lips and in the hearts of ancient Jews around 520 B.C. Many, if not most, of these Jews in Judah (southern Israel) at that time had been exiles in Babylon during the Babylonian Captivity. Some eighteen to twenty years before they had been ...

4932. At The Potter's House

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15

Sermon

John W. Wurster

(Note: This monologue is from the point of view of an imagined contemporary of Jeremiah.) I was down at the potter’s house yesterday. Have you been recently? I haven’t see you there. In fact, I haven’t see many people there at all recently. Nobody much comes to the potter’s house these days. It’s certainly not how it used to be when the potter’s house was a gathering point for the community. Well, you know how people would come just to watch the potter work with the clay. We would just stand there and ...

4933. The Healing Power of the Resurrection

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

IMPORTANT NOTE: The illustration that opens this sermon about Mel Gibson is not true. It is an urban legend. It has no bases in fact. Some years ago, a hard-working man took his family from New York State to Australia so he could take advantage of a job opportunity there. One member of this man’s family was a handsome young son who dreamed of joining the circus. He wanted to become a trapeze artist or actor in the circus. This young man, biding his time until a circus job or even one as a stagehand came ...

4934. Does God Care Who Wins the Superbowl?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Does God care who wins the Super Bowl? An intriguing question. Not original with me. It comes from an article in this week's Sports Illustrated by William Nack.(1) Of course, our national attention WILL be focused on San Diego this afternoon (a nice breather from the Washington sex scandals). The Super Bowl has grown into a phenomenon that has transcended being a mere sporting event - 800-million people are expected to tune in from 187 countries and hear the broadcast in 17 different languages.(2) People ...

4935. Now That School's Out...

Proverbs 8:1-36

Sermon

David E. Leininger

School is out. "No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks..." Somewhere I read of the last day of classes being marked by yelling and cheering, bells, whistles, cartwheels in the halls...and that was the TEACHERS! Of course, this is the time for Baccalaureate services and Commencement exercises. It was a delight to watch my own son march with his high school graduating class on Friday night. Just as every other proud pappa, with a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat, I was snapping ...

4936. Hope for Hurting Hearts

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"...Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Sure does sound like Christmas, doesn't it? I wish everyone could feel it. But the war in Afghanistan goes on. Families that lost loved ones on September 11th are preparing for a holiday that, a year ago, they could have never imagined. There is a certain dissonance to the season. Trips to malls and stores with the sacred Muzak in the air singing of "Joy to the World" or "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" mock the harsh realities ...

4937. No Time for a Knapsack Faith

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

King Duncan

A ridiculous story made the rounds years ago. Most of you have heard the story, but I wonder if you have caught its religious significance. It is about a pilot and three passengers--a boy scout, a priest, and an atomic scientist--and a plane that develops engine trouble in mid-flight. The pilot rushes back to the passenger compartment and exclaims, “The plane is going down! The plane is going down! We only have three parachutes, and there are four of us!” Then the pilot adds, “I have a family waiting for ...

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