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 526 to 550 of 676 results

526. Encouragement to Be Faithful

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... one to be more cautious in describing other such metaphors, unique to these Epistles, as un-Pauline. 2:5 For the information that participants in the Olympic Games had to swear an oath to Zeus to observe strict training for the ten months prior to the competition, see Pausanius, Descriptions of Greece 5.24.9 (Loeb, II, p. 529). Kelly sees the point as “arduous self-discipline,” but that seems to move too far afield from the thoroughgoing context of sharing in suffering. 2:6 D-C, followed by Hanson and ...

527. Trials and Temptations

James 1:1-18, James 1:19-27

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... 1 Cor. 1–3; 5:19; Eph. 2:2; John 12:31; 15:18–17:16; 1 John 2:15–17). True piety is not conformity to human culture but transformation into Christ’s image (Rom. 12:1–2). For James this means specifically rejecting the motives of competition, personal ambition, and accumulation that lie at the root of a lack of charity and an abundance of community conflict (e.g., 4:1–4). In declaring this alone to be true religion in God’s eyes, James declares that conversion is meaningless unless it leads to ...

528. Living for God

1 Peter 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... 1:14; 2:11. Drunkenness: The Greek oinophlygiai implies habitual intoxication (from oinos, wine; phlyein, to bubble up, overflow). Orgies (kōmoi): the result of excessive drinking (“wild parties,” JB). Carousing (potoi): This word can refer to drinking competitions to see who can down the most. Detestable idolatries (athemitoi eidōlolatriai, “lawless idolatry” [RSV]): practices forbidden by the Mosaic law (Acts 10:28), “which outrage common decency” (Barclay). 4:4 Plunge (lit. “run together ...

529. To Elders and Young Men

1 Peter 5:1-11

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... themes of honoring and joyful celebration, rather than any reference to a symbol of the autocratic rule of a king. That will never fade away (amarantinos): unfading, unlike the garlands of flowers and leaves awarded at the Greek games—which were in any case competitive, a thought alien to the message of 1 Peter. A parallel notion is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls: “All who walk in the ways of the spirit of truth [receive] eternal blessings and everlasting joy in the life everlasting, and a crown of ...

530. Eastern Tribes Return Home

Joshua 22:1-34

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... threaten the unity of the tribes. Oblivious to the implications such an altar would present to the western tribes, they naïvely build a large, striking altar on the Canaan side of the Jordan. The western tribes interpret that altar as one providing eastern competition for Shiloh and gather for war. In their minds the altar violates the command for one center for worship (Deut. 12:5). The ten tribes send Phinehas, son of Eleazer the priest, with ten chiefs of the western tribes, to negotiate a peaceful ...

531. Naomi and Ruth

Ruth 1:1-22

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... the death of Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, is difficult to overemphasize. One could even argue that in many ways it is the book’s primary conflict. Like other patriarchal stories, everything that follows is a reaction to it, directly or indirectly. Jacob’s competition with Esau, for example, remains muted and embryonic until Isaac dies (Gen. 27:1–39). The concern underlying Joseph’s revelation to his brothers is summed up in a single question, “My father . . . is he still alive?” (Gen. 45:3, my ...

532. Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed

Zechariah 12:1-9

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... first, in order to honor Judah equally with the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. This relative chronology of rescue begins, logically, in Judah, whose leaders set the fire. The concern to equalize honor, however, hints at competition between Judah and Jerusalem. Such honor or glory (tifʾaret) is associated with high rank or fame. Esther 1:4 is another example of this usage. 12:8 Extravagant reassurance of protection for Jerusalem follows: the LORD will shield those who live ...

533. Jesus, Peter, and the Beloved Disciple

John 21:15-25

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... question to Peter, Do you truly love me more than these? (v. 15), presupposes that all seven disciples love Jesus—as evidenced by the fact that Jesus has just revealed himself to them (v. 14). The purpose of the question is not to set Peter in competition with the other disciples (cf. Mark 14:29) but simply to single him out from the rest and examine his love in particular. The question marks a transition from the appearance narrative to the last half of the chapter, a transition that Peter’s impetuous ...

534. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

... 3:4 If an orthodox pedigree and upbringing, followed by high personal attainment in the religious and moral realm, ensured a good standing in the presence of God (as was implied by the people against whom Paul’s warning is directed), Paul need fear no competition. There is a close affinity between his words here and 2 Corinthians 11:21ff., where (“speaking as a fool”) he lists things in which he might boast, if boasting were appropriate, and then dismisses the idea of boasting in such things as utter ...

535. Going to War

Deuteronomy 20:1-20

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... this theological assumption that undergirds the chapter and determines its selection of contents. 20:5–9 Certainly, this faith assumption is required to justify what is prescribed here. There is no attempt to match force with force. There is no competitive arms race. The whole spirit of this chapter is actually antimilitaristic. Faced with superior technology and superior numbers (an army, [lit. a people] greater than yours, v. 1), Israel’s response was to announce coolly several exemptions that would ...

536. Hoshea Last King of Israel

2 Kings 17:1-6

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... of irony in 2 Kings 17:25–33. It is not a passage meant to be taken at face value. The authors are simply setting up a particular point of view in order to demolish it—rather in the manner of a participant in a debating competition. The tone of the passage is best caught, in fact, if the reader mentally supplies quotation marks to the words “worship” and “worshiped” in the NIV translation of verses 28 and 32–33. For we are certainly not to regard the “worship” described in these verses ...

537. Sermon on the Mount: Allegiance and Trust

Matthew 6:19-24, Matthew 6:25-34

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (6:20) reflects an allegiance to the “kingdom of heaven,” Matthew’s favorite expression for God’s kingdom (4:17). The motif of treasure communicates specifically how material possessions and wealth can be powerful competition to allegiance to God. In fact, according to Jesus, it is not possible to live in service to both God and money (6:24). 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The reference to a person’s ...

538. Jesus Is the Example of Service for His Followers

Matthew 20:17-19, Matthew 20:20-28

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... ). 20:24 they were indignant with the two brothers. Given the frequent misunderstanding of the disciples and their preoccupation with status across this section of Matthew, it is likely that their indignation with James and John has something to do with competition for these “greatest” positions in the coming kingdom. Rivalry, not altruism, is most likely the motivation. 20:25 You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. Matthew has been evoking the status consciousness of the Greco ...

539. Prophetic Actions—The Temple Condemned and the Fig Tree Cursed

Mark 11:12-19

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... other, Roman coins. One problem was bringing such coins into the temple itself. The Sanhedrin had set up a money exchange on the Mount of Olives, but Caiaphas and the Sadducees had placed one in the temple complex (more convenient to travelers) in direct competition. The mercenary nature of this was obvious, and many felt with Jesus that this desecrated the temple. There was also great need for sacrificial animals and birds (John 2:14 mentions cattle and sheep as well). Doves were the sacrifice of the poor ...

540. Jesus’s Fallible Followers

Luke 9:51-56, Luke 9:46-50, Luke 9:37-45

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... of God. Jesus’s teaching in these verses is strikingly countercultural to contemporary values. He calls for self-sacrifice instead of self-exaltation, humility and dependence on God as the key to greatness, and collaboration with others instead of competition. Consider situations today where these principles can be applied in order to challenge accepted conventional values. Are there other areas of current concern where similar subversive thinking and action are needed? In our society today, who are the ...

541. “Unless You Repent . . .”

Luke 13:10-17, Luke 13:1-9

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... the Arctic Ocean had melted and broken up, pieces of it moving southward along the Labrador Current toward the popular transatlantic ship route that the Titanic traveled. It was also the time of the Industrial Revolution, when shipbuilders competitively began making their liners bigger and faster, setting travel records between Southampton in England and the United States. In hindsight, the elements appear well placed for that fateful night. The Marconi wireless telegraph (1897) was beginning to appear on ...

542. Christian Maturity

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... from God (9:11; 2 Cor. 1:12; 10:4; Rom. 15:27).[5] The Corinthians were infantile because their thinking had not been transformed by the Spirit but remained merely human (sarkikos). jealousy and quarreling. The Corinthian culture excelled in competition, and the followers (called disciples) of the various orators spent much of their time ridiculing rival teachers and attempting to create jealousy and strife.[6] Paul picks up these two words precisely because they perfectly compare the Christians who claim ...

543. Leadership and Servanthood

1 Corinthians 4:1-21, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... purposes. By choosing a first-class conditional sentence here, Paul shows he expects the “if” statement to be a reality. In other words, he is not speaking hypothetically but gives direct reference to those causing the church divisions. Clique-creating competition and self-promotion may find approval among Corinthian philosophers, but these things defile God’s sanctuary. God, of course, does not allow such blasphemy (cf. Acts 5:1–11). 3:18 become “fools” so that you may become wise. Paul ...

544. Consider Others Higher Than Yourself

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... reigns supreme and Christians often consider their faith a personal and private matter, it proves easy to conclude that each person is solely responsible for his or her own faith. Paul faced a similar reality in a new and competitive Corinth, where the newly wealthy among people who did not historically belong to the “noble” families claimed rights and personal privileges. Parading privileges deemed necessary for social promotion became the norm. Paul rejects such individualism among Christians. He ...

545. The Celebration of the Great Multitude in Heaven

Revelation 7:9-17

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... up in the United States have become accustomed to living as citizens of the world’s greatest superpower. Our military might is second to none; our economic and political systems remain the world standard. We also live in an extremely competitive culture, where our most popular sport imitates (and often supersedes) Christian worship.4These are the kinds of deep cultural commitments confronted by Revelation 7:9–17. The great multitude have won a victory all right, but they have triumphed and conquered ...

546. The Lord Guides, Encourages, and Protects David

1 Samuel 23:1-29

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... book, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board (2004). The film recounts the dramatic story of Bethany, who was born and raised on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Naturally gifted, she was a talented surfer, winning competitions and obtaining endorsements even when she was a preteen. At the age of thirteen, in 2003, her promising future seemed over when a fifteen-foot tiger shark bit off her left arm below the shoulder in an attack soon picked up by the press nationwide ...

547. God Subjugates Judah under Babylon

Daniel 1:1-21

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... 2012 “The Year of the Outspoken Christian Athlete.”10At the top of the list were Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, the Masters golf champion Bubba Watson, and the first American gymnast to win Olympic gold medals in both the individual all-around and team competitions, Gabby Douglas. Each used his or her position on the world stage to give glory to God by acknowledging publicly their relationship with Christ. They thanked God for his grace in making them successful. We need to be wise in how we use ...

548. The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace

Daniel 3:1-30

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... indicates that the egos of two persons are so inflated or so incompatible that both of them residing in the same town is impossible. Trying to embrace the one true God and false deities at the same time tears apart the hosting heart. God jealously refuses competition for worship. Resist the temptation to value other persons and things so highly that they get in the way of exclusive, wholehearted worship of God. God uses tests to bring him glory and to refine his people. Film: The Lord of the Rings. In J. R ...

549. What To Do While Waiting for the Judgment?

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Look at labor and industry in our nation. We have the genius and the productive powers unequaled in the history of civilization—yet our whole industrial and productive system is in trouble. Not only are we in trouble in this nation because our industry is not competitive with systems around the world, there is a graver problem that is a moral issue. In a world that desperately needs a lifting of its material standards of living, we ought to have a field day. Strangely enough, we stumble and often miss our ...

550. Our Most Common Sin

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... can you tell me when the next train leaves for Chicago?” The four-star General responded, “I don’t know, Madam, but should a woman in your condition be traveling?” Self-righteousness leads us to establish worth and judgment on the basis of comparison and competition. It does not take into account the obstacles others may have faced and overcome. It doesn’t take into account our indebtedness to others for all that we have and are, and thus it separates us from our brothers and sisters in the human ...

Showing results