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 651 to 675 of 1249 results

651. The Book that Changes Lives

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

King Duncan

... do through his word. Does this make sense to you? The Bible not only provides us with a structure for our lives, but when we wrestle with the Word prayerfully the Bible actually shapes our lives, if we will let it. I want to encourage you to adopt a personal discipline, if you have not already done so, of encountering God in his word each day. Many of you will be helped with this task by participating in a Bible study group. It’s amazing how much more meaning we discover, when we study Scripture together ...

652. Being A Man of God

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and talk about ministry. Again, wouldn’t it be something if that would be a part of the pattern of our ministry? “Only a lay person” is a phrase that should never be found on our lips. It is irreverent and demeaning. It denies that God has adopted, called, empowered, and gifted all Christians to receive the incredible privilege of being co-laborers of God, lovers of one another, and those who share God’s love with the world. This is our identity. This does not mean there are to be no leaders set ...

653. Equipping the Whole People of God: Penultimate Questions

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and talk about ministry. Again, wouldn’t it be something if that would be a part of the pattern of our ministry? “Only a lay person” is a phrase that should never be found on our lips. It is irreverent and demeaning. It denies that God has adopted, called, empowered, and gifted all Christians to receive the incredible privilege of being co-laborers of God, lovers of one another, and those who share God’s love with the world. This is our identity. Again, we must state the fact that this does not mean ...

654. Samaria and Our Spiritual Journey

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Mother was sitting quietly, kind of old and small-looking. Suddenly she jumped into the conversation. “I first experienced the love of God,” she said, “in the orphanage.” Mother was an orphan. We have no idea who her biological parents were. She was adopted from the orphanage at age 15. “Someone was reading from the Bible,” she continued. “They read, ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.’ My father and my mother did forsake me,” she said, ”and the ...

655. Let Not Thy Will Roar, When Thy Power Can But Whisper

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , Believing In Myself, Prentice Hall, 1991) Now that’s a word on which we can reflect for a long time. It is a graphic word designating for me common extremes to which we go in responding to life and seeking to cope. One extreme is to adopt a victim mentality; the other is a pretension to strength and sufficiency. The two stances are portrayed in our Scripture lessons from the Psalms and Proverbs. Look at them. The psalmist’s complaint is forthright. He clearly sees himself the victim and he paints a ...

656. Power For Christian Living: Am I On My Own?

Romans 3:3-5

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... new life in Christ: “For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Col 3:3). It is by “God’s grace alone and through faith alone, because of Christ alone” that God declares us just, remits our sins, and adopts us as His children. But this is not complete salvation. Justifying grace issues in sanctifying grace – the process of our being restored and conformed to God’s image. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, offers this distinction. Justification is “what God does for us ...

657. Peacemaking and Self Control

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... and after a candidate of the left or right has taken this tact, it is impossible to retake the high moral ground from which to lead with vision. Separating issues from people is a form of wisdom. Christians who enter politics must not adopt these tactics, and if they do, fellow believers should hold them accountable. Who will elevate the national discourse? Who will be a statesman or stateswoman? Name calling only polarizes and divides, and Jesus is against it! At a minimum, no Christian should participate ...

658. Getting Your Politics Right

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... piety consisting of the National Motto and our Pledge of Allegiance and Civic Oaths has value as glue to hold us together around a cluster of ideals and mutual respect under a sacred canopy of vague monotheism, but this nation has never officially adopted the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation or made a statement on the authority of Scripture or the two natures of Jesus Christ. Our national Scriptures are functionally not the Bible but the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill ...

659. A Kingdom Investment Policy

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... where moths eat holes in the fabrics and where mold rots the grain, and where thieves break in and steal your jewelry; lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where none of that happens because everything stays new and forever uncorrupted. Make a more secure investment! Adopt a kingdom of God investment policy!” In the company of Jesus we learn the joy of kingdom generosity and the truth of his teaching. Not that we don’t work or own or manage wisely, only that we don’t trust in stuff for security ...

660. To Live Is to Dance

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the excitement of sharing his faith with others. Then, with a large measure of sadness, he told me about during those first years, he fell into the trap of seeking to pattern his life after some superstar type Christian whom he loved and appreciated. Even adopting their vocabulary and their communication style. Now that’s a common story. Too often we try to imitate other persons whom we set up as examples of Christian living and we squash, we squash our own unique gifts. Steve Miller had a marvelous image ...

661. Joy in the Journey

119:129-136

Sermon

Michael Milton

... statutes (Psalm 119:135). We ought to focus on grace because grace is how we are saved. In fact, grace is not only how we are saved, but it is also how we continue to relate to God and to each other. Grace is the power that leads to our adoption as sons, and grace keeps us in that relationship. The reason so many of us are concerned about grace is that for too long in evangelical Christianity it seemed that right moral living was the way we related to God. It seemed that this gave us our standing before God ...

662. How Is Your Memory?

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... hour. If we are people without a memory, then we are nobody. So they make it up. They fake it. They invent who they are. Incidentally, there is a popular phrase now, you probably know. "Re-inventing yourself." I know that politicians have now adopted that same phrase, and talk about "re-inventing America." It comes out of a post-modern consciousness that says that history is something that you create from your own situation. Therefore, every group in the world, every race, every class, every age gender has ...

663. How Moses Handled Stress

Numbers 11:4-35

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... Bible. "Covenantal relationships" are based on common vision and mutual trust, rather than "contractual relationships," which are based on imposed expectations, rewards and punishments. This could be called "the biblical model of organization." But ironically, the slowest institution to adopt that biblical model has been the Church. You all know that the Church is one of the oldest hierarchical institutions in the world. But you ' also ought to know that it didn't start out that way. It became hierarchical ...

664. Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Surely this isn’t the meaning of life. Let me tell you the meaning to life. Love God. Serve God faithfully. Love your neighbor. Find meaningful avenues of service to others. That’s it. That’s the meaning of life. It’s a simple formula, but adopt it as the driving philosophy of your life and you will enrich your life immeasurably. Perhaps for the first time in your life, you will discover true freedom. 1. Lucy Yang, My America, edited by Hugh Downs (New York: Scribner, 2002), p. 260. 2. D. James ...

665. The Way to Happy Endings

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Sermon

James L. Killen

... your hand. Here is your chance to get on the good side of your wife. Lots of us believe that God has led us to happy endings for other important stories in our lives. One couple went through a long and torturous process of finding a baby to adopt. But when it was all over, they said they sincerely believed that God had led them to exactly the right baby for them. A person went through a long struggle with a potentially fatal illness and emerged alive and well. He and his whole family are convinced that ...

666. Surprised by God

Genesis 28:10-19a

Sermon

James L. Killen

... of the whole creation as it reaches out to come into relationship with God. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now, and not only the creation but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" (Romans 8:22-25). Are you feeling that ...

667. A Deliverer Is Born

Exodus 1:1-22, 2:1-10

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... taker and went against Pharaoh's killing frenzy. Pharaoh's daughter, unnamed and unlike her murderous father, is overcome with compassion as she approaches the Nile River for a bath. She takes pity on the child and orders him to be pulled out of the water. She adopts the child as her own, although a princess, she does not do the actual tending of the baby. He then becomes a prince in the palace. The child's sister, Miriam, waits and watches the child in the basket from the shadows. At the proper time Miriam ...

668. Healing the Pain from the Past

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

A pastor friend and his wife once adopted a young cat that bounced up to his parsonage looking hungry and friendless. From the beginning of the relationship, the cat readily came to them and blissfully stroked her whiskers against their outstretched hands. She was comfortable with people. My friends were quite willing to provide for the cat's ...

669. Expectancy

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

... of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also ..." (Romans 8:11). And, "... we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23). Clearly, our salvation is something that is still going on, something we can hope for and anticipate and reach out toward. But our scripture lesson for today comes from a part of the letter in which Paul is ...

670. With a Song in Your Heart

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

James L. Killen

... good and loving plan for the whole creation and he is working to bring it to fulfillment. God is working to draw all things together into a harmonious unity. There is a place for us in that plan. God chose us before the foundation of the world to be adopted as God's children. He has provided for our redemption, the forgiving of our sins, and he is at work to make us holy and blameless before him in love. We who have believed, who have set our hopes on Christ, have claimed our inheritance and are privileged ...

671. Someone Is Trying to Get Through

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

James L. Killen

... you live in. To see how that might work, let's go back to the story of Peter and Cornelius. Cornelius was an interesting person. He was a high officer in the Roman army of occupation sent to govern the troublesome people of Palestine. But Cornelius had actually adopted the religion of the people he was sent to govern and he practiced it quite devoutly. He had probably been raised in the Roman version of the Greek religion that had many gods, all of whom had some very human failings, and all of whom could be ...

672. How Does It Work?

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

Sermon

James L. Killen

... that we are loved is a pivotal part of the life of the Spirit. In Romans (8:14-17) and in Galatians (4:6-7) he speaks of the Spirit of God witnessing with our spirits and enabling us to call God "Abba," Father, and knowing that we have been adopted as children of God. Once we know that God loves us, we can experience God's love coming through to us in all sorts of real-life experiences, from the love that is shared in our families to the gift of a new sunrise. And knowing that we are loved ...

673. Temptation of the Palms

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... a future that would be beneficial to them. Is that any different than what we do today? Individuals use other individuals just to get what they want. Governments use other governments and even their own citizens to bring about the ends they desire. And we have adopted the philosophy that the ends do indeed justify the means, as long as the ends are in our favor. Jesus didn’t give in to that philosophy ... or did he? For Jesus, the means to the end that he wanted to achieve was the path to Calvary ...

674. A Name Not Taken in Vain

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Sermon

William G. Carter

... . In my father's case, it may have been a post-adolescent lapse that needed to be completed. Either way, Christian baptism is the moment when God's name is imputed to us. The God who creates us is revealed as the personal God who adopts us into the holy family called church. As a single Parent, God devotes great resources to our welfare, surrounds us with unconditional and self-giving love, and always gives us plenty of freedom to respond to such gracious initiatives. Through faithful memory, I recall what ...

675. Is There Anything I Can Do?

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... John the Baptist's instruction for preparing for the coming of the Christ. She identified with the poor. She reduced her living so that she would live like the poor. Then she followed Paul's advice to the Philippians. She prepared her inner life. She adopted a mystic's discipline, which she called "waiting on God." She found different ways of waiting. One of the ways of waiting she found was to read poetry. She read particularly the poetry of George Herbert, the 17th century Anglican priest. She said that ...

Showing results

Showing 651 to 675 of 1249 results

651. The Book that Changes Lives

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

King Duncan

652. Being A Man of God

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

653. Equipping the Whole People of God: Penultimate Questions

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and talk about ministry. Again, wouldn’t it be something if that would be a part of the pattern of our ministry? “Only a lay person” is a phrase that should never be found on our lips. It is irreverent and demeaning. It denies that God has adopted, called, empowered, and gifted all Christians to receive the incredible privilege of being co-laborers of God, lovers of one another, and those who share God’s love with the world. This is our identity. Again, we must state the fact that this does not mean ...

654. Samaria and Our Spiritual Journey

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

655. Let Not Thy Will Roar, When Thy Power Can But Whisper

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

656. Power For Christian Living: Am I On My Own?

Romans 3:3-5

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

657. Peacemaking and Self Control