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 4951 to 4975 of 5000 results

4951. Jesus Brings Hope

Revelation 1:4-8

Sermon

Richard Gribble

The International Government of the World, or IGW, made its announcement with joy: the last Christian in the world was dead. This last Christian was found hiding in an abandoned mine in South Africa. He was ferreted out, brought to trial, convicted, and then executed, all the while professing Christ. The world state ordered a half-day international holiday to celebrate; the rejoicing grew to a fever pitch. Images of Christ on the cross were burned in sub-capitals throughout the world and singing, which had ...

4952. Jesus, The Light of the World

Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:5

Sermon

Richard Gribble

In the beginning when the Great Spirit created all that exists, he gave great gifts to all the animals. The Great Spirit gave each animal a cedar box inside of which were very special and wonderful gifts. And, one by one the boxes were opened. The first box contained water. The second box contained the mountains. The third box contained the seeds of all things that grow. The fourth box contained the wind to carry the seed to the corners of the earth. Thus, one by one all the boxes were opened, except one. ...

4953. Jesus Rewards the Just

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Imagine picking up the Sunday paper, opening it and reading in giant letters, Jesus Christ Will Return In Two Weeks. What would we do? How would we react to this astonishing information? I think there would be two basic reactions. Some of us, out of fear, would change our lives immediately. The Lord is coming and we are not ready. We might start going to church more often, probably every day. Prayer would become a much higher priority in life. We would pray not only in the morning and evening, but many ...

4954. Sowing and Reaping

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

John Jamison

These words certainly sound like a threat, don't they? You will reap what you sow! So you'd better watch out! Don't think you can mock God and get away with it. God is watching with this big club, and if you get out of line, Whap! It may be sooner or it may be later, but you won't get away with it, that's for sure. One of these days ... Pow! Sorry. I kind of got carried away there. But is sure sounds like that is just what Paul is saying to the Galatians. You will reap what you sow. These were not new ...

4955. Boasting and Praying for You

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Recently, I was asked to give a prayer at the area chamber of commerce meeting, with these instructions: "Make it brief, and don't mention God too much." How am I supposed to do that? I can't stop boasting about God. God's work is so impressive to me that snowflakes don't even describe it. Nor do hummingbird's nests. Nor fireworks. Nor breakfast. God is so grand to me that I have to boast. What I most like to boast about is theology. Nature is second only to theology. Most of us understand how to boast ...

4956. Weary in Well Doing

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

What makes people weary is conflict. We are torn apart, split in two, we are challenged at our core in large and small ways all day long. We say wryly, "No good deed goes unpunished," running right into the conflict of getting weary in well doing. Biologists tell us we have two choices in most situations: We can fight or take flight or tend and befriend. The fight and flight response is most often articulated in funny hand motions — where we both beckon the person close and push them away at the same time ...

4957. Don’t Hope…Decide

Mk 10:1-12

Illustration

King Duncan

Michael Hargrove tells about a scene at an airport that literally changed his life. He was picking up a friend. He noticed a man coming toward him carrying two light bags. The man stopped right next to Hargrove to greet his family. The man motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. They hugged and Hargrove heard the father say, "It's so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!" "Me, too, Dad!" said the son. The oldest son (maybe nine or ten) was next. "You're already ...

4958. The Good News about Money

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

There is one good thing about a recession. It sobers us up. If we’re lucky it causes us to turn our back on things we don’t need and to hold close the things that really matter. After all, periods of recession usually follow periods of wretched excess. Martha Bolton and Phil Callaway, in their book It’s Always Darkest Before the Fridge Door Opens, tell about strolling through a mall one day laughing at all the things in the mall they didn’t need. Here are some of the things they found that they could do ...

4959. A Luxury that Destroys

Mk 10:17-31

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The story of a butterfly named "Maculinea Arion" is most instructive. The creature lays its eggs on a plant, and after feeding on the plant for several weeks the young caterpillar makes its way to the ground. In order to complete its development, it must meet a certain kind of ant. When such an ant meets the caterpillar, the ant strokes it with its antennae, and the caterpillar exudes a sweet fluid from a special gland on its tenth segment. Apparently the ant likes this substance, because it then carries ...

4960. Mark 10: 35-45

Mark 10:35-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

For many parents (yours truly being one of them), one of the most memorable, and mortifying, demonstrations of their toddler’s new mastery of language is when the cute little tyke lets loose with some shocking expletive. Not knowing that the word they are singing out is foul and forbidden, our desperate attempts to shush them usually just results in a louder, more insistent repetition of the bad word(s). The disciples in Mark’s three passion narratives are like that artless child. They keep repeating the ...

4961. Good News about Ambition

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

King Duncan

Back in 2003 Jim Hager of Oakland, California, earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. He accomplished this feat by eating 115 M&M candies in three minutes with chopsticks! I don’t know how long it took Mr. Hager to perfect this skill of eating M&Ms with chopsticks. And I certainly have no idea why he undertook this task, but I do know this all of us have our dreams. Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States says that when he was a small boy in Kansas, he went fishing with ...

4962. Service

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

James W. Moore

Have you heard the beautiful children's story about the three trees? The trees were talking in the forest one day about their dreams for the future. The first tree said it would like to be made into a cradle, so that it might go on living as a support for the fragile life of a tiny new baby. The second tree wanted to be made into a big ship, so that it might go on living, carrying important cargo and influential people to exotic new lands. The third tree longed to stay right where it was, existing only as ...

4963. Service Keeps Us Alive

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in 109 A.D. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow. Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, "This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor." They did; they laid modern ...

4964. A Servant in Saigon

Illustration

Keith Wagner

To be servants requires courage, sacrifice and lots of love. Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen tell the story of Betty Tisdale. (Chicken Soup for the Soul) She was the wife of a Naval Doctor in Vietnam. She had compassion on the hundreds of orphans in Saigon. She made 14 trips to Saigon by using her life savings. With great determination she managed to airlift orphans from Vietnam during the time it was falling into the hands of the North Vietnamese. It was not a simple task. First, she needed birth ...

4965. The Weight of the Cross

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

An American businessman traveled to Europe to see the famous Oberammergau Passion Play? Following the performance the businessman had the opportunity to meet and talk with Anton Lang who portrayed Christ in the play. Seeing the cross that was used in the play, the businessman wanted his wife to take his picture holding it. He attempted to lift the cross to his shoulder. To his surprise he could hardly budge it from the floor. He said to Mr. Lang, "I don't understand. I figured the cross would be hollow. ...

4966. Preparing the Way

Malachi 3:1-4

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

Preparing the way can become an all-consuming endeavor. Unforeseen obstacles often have a way of getting in our way to hamper progress and sidetrack us. Then, Murphy's Law goes into effect: "If anything can go wrong, it will." Plans for the Paris subway system were begun in 1845, but the actual work was not begun until much later. A civil engineer, Fulgence Bienvenue (1852-1936), was assigned the task of preparing the way. His first big task was to dig the network of underground tunnels for the trains. The ...

4967. An Invitation to Joy

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

Stan Freberg has written a musical farce parodying the commercialization of the Advent season, appropriately naming it Green Chri$tma$. That is green as in money, with dollar signs in place of the letter "S" in Christmas. In starring roles are two of our old seasonal favorites, Bob Cratchet and Ebenezer Scrooge. You may as well spell Scrooge with a dollar sign, too, because he is typecast as a greedy, unscrupulous Madison Avenue advertising executive who is out to exploit Christmas in every way imaginable. ...

4968. The Light of Christ

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

Isn't it wonderful to be part of a candlelight Christmas Eve worship service? It's truly breathtaking to see so many people holding candles, preparing to be bearers of Christ's light in the world. One of the special moments of a candlelight service is watching people pass the light through the congregation. One person gives the gift of light to another whose candle is dark and cold. But, the light is unlike a gift that when given, leaves the giver with less. Instead, after the light is shared, both candles ...

4969. Called by a New Name

Isaiah 62:1-5

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

Two or three generations ago, the only women who did not take their husbands' names after marrying were movie stars and a handful of professional women. Today, many women choose to retain their maiden names, so as not to lose identity with their families of origin. Husbands and wives also combine their names. I know one person who refers to these couples as "the hyphenated families." Some couples even become creative, combining syllables of both surnames in order to form an entirely new name. Children who ...

4970. Like a Tree Planted

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

You have probably never thought seriously about tiptoeing through the treetops, but there is a place where you can do that very thing. A lush Brazilian rainforest is home to a spectacular "canopy walk." Tiptoeing through the tops of several hundred different kinds of trees, you will observe creation from an entirely different perspective. You can look a golden-headed lion tamarin in the eye as it jumps from tree to tree. You will see termite nests the size of pumpkins, hanging from rubber trees that are ...

4971. Abraham Believed God

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

If you've traveled with small children in a car, you've probably heard this conversation more than once. Sooner or later, whether the journey is half an hour or half a day, someone asks, "When do we get there?" "Soon." "How much longer?" "A few minutes." How long do we have to wait? It is an essential question asked in scripture. Job, the psalmist, and God's people wonder over time how long they will have to wait until God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray that phrase in the Lord's Prayer ...

4972. Essentials

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

D. L. Miller of Mount Morris, Illinois, was a world traveler among a people who didn't travel much. He was a Dunker, one of the Plain People, who lived in the late nineteenth century. He wore a dark coat and dark pants and a long beard without a mustache. When others bought cars, the Dunkers kept their horses and buggies. If you were a believer, then you dressed like everyone else in your church, and acted like everyone in your church, and made a point of never standing out. His people made a point of ...

4973. The Undoing of Babel

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Stan Purdum

Several years ago, my wife and I took a vacation where we drove to Mexico City in an old Volkswagen van. Neither of us speak Spanish, but along the primary route down and in Mexico City itself, we had no trouble communicating because many people there spoke English. After spending a few days in that city, we decided to make our exit from Mexico by driving up a highway along the west coast of the country. That route provided us many attractive views of the Pacific Ocean and, as we got farther north, the ...

4974. Choosing to Believe

1 Kings 18:20-39

Sermon

Stan Purdum

Perhaps you recall recently when a burial box from the first century A.D. had come to light, on which was inscribed the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." This revelation caused quite a stir in the world of Christian scholarship because, if authentic, it would be the oldest tangible link to the historical Jesus — evidence of his actual existence. While even many non-Christians agree that Jesus was a real person, no physical evidence from the first century has ever been conclusively tied with ...

4975. The Kindness of Strangers

1 Kings 17:8-24

Sermon

Stan Purdum

In 1994, a 37-year-old man by the name of Mike McIntyre decided to confront his fears and the shaky path his life was taking. Living in San Francisco at the time, he left his job, his girlfriend, his apartment — all the trappings of his life, and decided to hitchhike across America, heading for Cape Fear, North Carolina, a location he selected for its name, which symbolized his fear of many things in life. He put a few things in a backpack, but to help him with this confrontation with his fears, he left ...

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