Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: contest, tournament, match, game, round, heat, fixture, event, meet, encounter, rivalry, competitiveness, vying, contesting, opposition, contention, conflict, feuding, battling, fighting, struggling, strife, war, opposing side, other side, other team, field, enemy, foe

Showing 501 to 525 of 676 results

501. Proper 17

Psalm 81:1, 10-16, Jeremiah 2:4-13, Luke 14:1-14, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... by which we barter for what we want/need. Work is how we manifest our creativity and thoughts. For people whose work and job coincide — wow, living can be good! Psalm 112 describes happiness for those whose work honors the Holy One. Luke 14:7-14 suggests that competition and profit cannot be the goals of our jobs or our work. Perhaps the primary focus could be on jobs we are afraid to get out of and the jobs that compromise our perception of Divine grace and the jobs that satisfy us and make the world a ...

502. Obedience: Our Gift to Jesus

Hebrews 10:5-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... suggests the best possible gift we can give to Jesus is our obedience. Society today creates many difficulties, roadblocks, and barriers that hinder us from being obedient people. As a society we stress the individual, self-accomplishment, individual awards, and honors. Competition is endemic to every facet of our society. At times we are all quite bullheaded; we want our way and no other. We believe that everybody else must change to accommodate our needs. We are not willing to move or change course ...

503. A New Point of View

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... behind because someone else was better. We all want to know that we matter, that we count, that we are loved, that we are right. There is no escaping that need. It is what makes us human. So we build our empires. We plan our careers. We plot against the competition. We make our case for being right. We draw our lines in the sand. We divide the world into those who are for us and those who are against us. That brings to mind the old office joke: "What's the difference between God and Mr. Z? God never acts ...

504. Endurance

2 Corinthians 11:24-27, 2 Timothy 4:6-8

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

When my daughter, Hannah, was five years old we lived in Minnesota. Before she entered kindergarten, she had to take an entrance exam. Being the non-competitive but responsible parent that I am, I decided to help Hannah prepare for this test. I taught her how to count to ten — in four languages. I taught her the colors by buying a box of crayons — 64 count, including turquoise, magenta, and chartreuse. We worked on a puzzle of ...

505. Look Who's Talking

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... -talking on the field or on the court between players. The ill-advised comments in an interview that become bulletin board material for the other team. The over-the-line remark that earns a technical foul. Talking is a major part of most athletic competitions. John McEnroe was notorious for his talking to the judges during matches. Michael Jordan was well known for trying to get into his opponent's head with his talking. Brett Favre is still famous for his playful conversations with members of both his ...

506. The Narrow Door

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... Make every effort . . .” is agonisma. That’s the same root found in the English word “agonize.” When we say somebody is agonizing, we would say they’re in an intense struggle. But agonisma was a technical term for athletics. It was used of athletes in competition, like at the Olympics. They “agonize” to win the prize. What I’m trying to deal with is the idea that seems to be prevalent in the church today, that the Christian life is easy. That it requires only a minimal output of effort. We ...

507. Your Home Page

Hebrews 13:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... your credit card, you are the proud owner of a dodo or a dinosaur. Cell phone companies try to tie their customers to a strict “upgrade” schedule to keep them using their older model phones for two to three years. But lately the competition between all the big name “smart phone” providers has become so intense that the “upgrade” limits have been tumbling down or trashed altogether. All the major competitors seem to be welcoming the return of still warm “hot-off-the-presses” models in order ...

508. The Right Reason

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

David O. Bales

... , then Dick bicycling with Rick connected to Dick’s special bike, then Dick running, pushing Rick in a running chair. As of August 31, 2008, they had completed 229 Triathlons, 66 Marathons, and hundreds of shorter races. Their best time in a triathlon Ironman competition was thirteen and a half hours. You might be interested to know that the father, Dick, is 68 years old.[4] Sometimes we need a startling demonstration to see how much someone likes us, which we now have with Jesus’ death and resurrection ...

509. Jesus’ Prayer: The Pause in the Battle

John 17:1-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... or twenty-ninth). Our life with God can be like a cross-country race between four runners. The first runner is splendid and soon is so far ahead that he’s out of sight. One runner is slow and soon lags way behind. The only race interesting for its competition is between two equally able runners. Pretty soon everyone at the meet is watching those two battle for second and third and almost forget who’s the best in the whole race. The church can be like that as we major in minors. We settle for the pretty ...

510. A Faith that Works

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... ? It’s true in every organization. Some people do not do their share. Indira Gandhi once said, “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group there is less competition.” Did you realize, by the way, that among rich countries people in the United States work the longest hours? Americans work much longer than Europeans, for example. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States ...

511. Only Time Will Tell

James 5:7-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... care to teach toddlers that instead of snarling and snapping over their crackers and crayons, they should willingly share them with others. It is a hard lesson to learn. But it is the first crucial step necessary to create compassionate human beings out of competitive creatures. And it is a lesson we never can stop learning, throughout the length of our lives. As the world both mourned the death and celebrated the life of Nelson Mandela last week, there were the musings of those who wondered what more might ...

512. Fear of Missing Out

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... keeps people from engaging in the “real world” because they are panicked at the possibility of “missing out” on the latest communication or excitement in the “virtual world.” In its extreme form, this “fear of missing out” is “an exhaustive, competitive, and obsessive mental and emotional condition that can consume people’s energy and seriously affect the quality of their lives.” Today, we still have “FOMO” as Christians, but it doesn’t arise from a desperate effort to get inside ...

513. A Family Celebration - Maundy Thursday

John 13:18-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... and baked together can we experience full fellowship.” (4) This small church has discovered a richness in their celebration of the Eucharist that is missing in many churches. This means the culture inside these walls is different than that which is outside. Competitiveness is replaced by cooperation. Looking out for number one is replaced by loving God and loving our neighbor. We are a family, the family of Christ. Pastor James W. Moore illustrates this in a beautiful way. He writes of an encounter his ...

514. Building a New Team

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... on a hillside with no shepherd to guide them. England without Churchill was a patchwork of competing ideologies, stymied at the crossroads of the twentieth century’s critical international events. India before Gandhi lacked cohesive identity and played a game of competitive kowtowing to expatriate authorities, and was only turned around when he helped inspire a national common cause. In each of today’s lectionary passages, there is a new team being called into existence by a great leader. God lays claim ...

515. An Annual Reminder

John 20:1-9

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... grace toward me been in vain — like the seed that fell upon the path, or like the talent entrusted to the third servant? “In vain” is something of a recurring concern for Paul. Perhaps it is a concern born of his natural pragmatism, or his competitiveness, or whatever regret he lived with for his pre-Damascus living. In any case, he uses the phrase twelve different times in his letters, including five times in this chapter alone. The people’s believing (15:2), their faith (15:14), and the apostles ...

516. The Kingdom Is at Hand

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... opening kick of the World Cup last summer was delivered by a man who is a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down? How does this happen that a man who is paralyzed from the waist down runs up and kicks the ball to open this great worldwide competition? It was because he was wearing a contraption, called an exoskeleton that allowed him to move his legs. But here is what is impressive. The exoskeleton was operated by his brain. Mentally he told his legs to move and they moved. Thanks to this new technology ...

517. Can One Become Two?

Matthew 19:1-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... t stick. Incompatibility, alcoholism, drugs, poor money management, gambling, too much golf or football are not grounds for divorce. When two believers marry and become one flesh the only thing that can break that one flesh bond is adultery. Recently, a linguistic competition was held in London, England, and a man who won the grand prize gave such a brilliant answer that the audience gave him a standing ovation which lasted over 5 minutes. The final question was, “How do you explain the difference between ...

518. The World's Largest Covered Dish Lunch

John 6:1-15

Sermon

... . The evidence of compassion, according to Margaret Mead, is the first sign of civilization. (4) Who can question that she is right? Compassion is certainly at the heart of our faith. Mike Barrett, in his book, The Danger Habit, tells how difficult it is for highly competitive people to be compassionate. He tells about men who tried to climb Mount Everest in 2006 and some of the choices they were forced to make. He tells about a fifty year old climber, Lincoln Hall, who was left for dead by his team, and ...

519. How God Looks at Marriage

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... were not merely like beings, they were two halves of the whole . . . thus establishing the equality of the man and the woman--they were created out of the same lump, as it were. They were both created in the image of God. They were not created competitive beings, but two beings who complete each other as one. Thus we have Adam’s confession: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh . . .’” (4) God made them male and female yet fully complementary to each other. The Genesis writer concludes ...

520. King Jesus

Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... alienate the rich and powerful, rebuffed the efforts of his disciples to start an armed rebellion, hushed the adulation of those who were the recipients of his mighty power, told the existing rulers that if he had a kingdom it was not in direct competition with theirs, and died an ignoble death meant for the worst of society's scalawags. Yet from the first connections people made with Jesus, he was often identified as king. Foreigners traveled hundreds of miles to Judea when he was born, telling folks along ...

521. The First Christmas

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... lavishness to keep the population from rising up and throwing out the leaders. Interest rates were spiraling upward in the midst of an inflated economy. External religious observances were considered a political asset, and abnormal emphasis was being placed upon sports and athletic competition. Racial tensions were at the breaking point. In such a time, and amid such a people, a child was born to a migrant couple who had just signed up for a fresh round of taxation, and who were soon to become political ...

522. No Place Like Home

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... the opposite banks of the Potomac River, the Union’s band played one of its patriotic tunes, and the Confederate musicians quickly struck up a melody dear to any Southerner’s heart. Then one of the bands started to play “Home, Sweet Home.” The musical competition ceased, and the musicians from the other army joined in. Soon voices from both sides of the river could be heard singing, “There is no place like home.” In a similar way, the church, in spite of its many divisions, is bound together by ...

523. Trading Pain For Gold

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In the 1976 Summer Olympics, Shun Fujimoto competed in the team gymnastics competition for Japan. In a quest for the gold medal, Fujimoto suffered a broken right knee in the floor exercise. But his injury did not stop him, for during the next week he competed in his strongest event, the rings. His routine was excellent, but he astounded everyone by squarely dismounting ...

524. Belt Evidence

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... the most successful baseball manager of his day, John J. McGraw may have been responsible for there being a third-base umpire. Long before he became a famous manager of the New York Giants, as a young third baseman with the old Baltimore Orioles the intensely competitive McGraw had a habit of hooking his finger in the belt of a base runner who was tagging up to score after a long fly ball. This trick usually slowed the runner enough so that he was thrown out at home plate. Despite violent protests, McGraw ...

525. Rules for Christian Households

Colossians 3:18-4:1

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... is, it exercised considerable freedom of the Spirit in its life and worship. This provides a backdrop for much of Paul’s concern for the disorder in the Corinthian church, where spiritual gifts were overemphasized and the congregation became fragmented and competitive (1 Cor. 11–14). This manifestation of religious enthusiasm may have been inspired by the prophetic fulfillment of Joel 2:28ff. (cf. Acts 2:17–21) and influenced by pagan cults in which ecstasy and spiritual excesses abounded. At any rate ...

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