Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
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 51 to 75 of 1185 results
Sermon
Harold Warlick
... need to fear our own pride. We need to fear our wickedness, our lust, our deceit, our search for prestige and prominence and our own underhanded arrogance. You see, our problem is often not what we fear in life but what we do not fear. When we cease to fear what we could become and consider ourselves more important than our creator, we have lost wisdom. Our problems in life will not come from our sexuality. Our problems will not come from our heredity or our environment. Our problems will not be chemical or ...
52. Loving
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Sermon
Larry Powell
... things to all people because his name is love. His life and ministry are the supreme example of the embodiment of 1 Corinthians 13:7. Through him, we are able to do "all things." Love never ends; as for prophecy, it will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. (verse 8) Paul makes his point in the first three words, "Love never ends." It is a built-in principle of the universe that things of the world will "pass away." We know it is true of material things, but Paul ...
53. Non-Stop Praying
1 Thessalonians 5:16
Children's Sermon
Tim Carpenter
... when it's time for . . . . . . . . . . . . nothing at all? Gauge the response Some of you hesitated or didn't raise your hands in prayer. Why not? (Response) Because I said "nothing at all?" Transition: Well the Bible says this about praying. "Pray without ceasing." Repeat that with me. "Pray without ceasing." Paul reminded us to pray for everything and at all times. There's never a bad time to go to God in prayer. To thank Him for things going well. To ask Him for forgiveness when we've done wrong. To ask ...
Sermon
Carl Jech
... in the world, all the deeper miracles such as beauty, love and faith. The former U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold was thinking along similar lines when he wrote: "God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason." Conclusion Success and failure are relative things. The harlot or hustler mentality may make you a success, but ...
Sermon
Carl Jech
... notion of perfection is unattainable by one's own efforts, but at the same time to remind us that we should keep moving in the right direction! By expressing our sense of longing for the time when peace and love will reign, when hatred and wars shall cease, the hymn makes it crystal clear that life is a process of moving toward goals. Ethical standards and utopian visions help us to move in the right direction, but if we take them too seriously and too literally they can do more harm than good. Our goal ...
56. Greatness from Goodness
Amos 5:24
Illustration
Alexis de Tocqueville
... was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!" Alexis de Tocqueville - He was a political scientist, historian, and politician, best-known for "Democracy in America," 4 vol. (1835–40), a perceptive analysis of the political and social system of the United States in the early 19th ...
Sermon
Richard L. Thulin
... . In the name of the risen Christ who now lives beyond suffering, we can insist that all unnecessary suffering stop. In the name of the risen Christ who now lives beyond rejection, we can demand that rejection cease. The celebration of Corpus Christi is not a part of my liturgical tradition. I have experienced it only through reading. I am most intrigued, I suppose, with the Corpus Christi procession, which originated in the last part of the thirteenth century, and in which the eucharistic host is carried ...
58. Are You Exercising Your Faith?
Mt 4:1-11 · Phil 3:12 · Gen 32:3
Sermon
Robert Noblett
... she viewed the world. It was an integrating focus for all the spheres of her life. It was for her a source of power, of direction, of orientation, and of peace. But all this wasn’t to last. For unknown reasons, this woman ceased to be religiously healthy. She ceased to grow in faith. And the less she cared for her faith, the more that faith became a reactionary one. Over the course of time her faith became more and more dogmatic, and she grew increasingly intolerant of fresh insight and opposing viewpoint ...
59. Are You Under Arrest?
Heb 5:11-13; 10:39
Sermon
Robert Noblett
... and it is related by Random House in this fashion - "the act of stopping or slowing." There are some who have never enjoyed the hospitality of a local police department and who are nevertheless arrested in the most profound of senses! That is to say that they have ceased growing on one or more fronts. So far have they gone and no further will they go! What’s more, many so frozen go one sad step further and claim to have arrived at the plateau of truth for all times. Around their understanding of the truth ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
... you, too, can preach, but do you? You do not if you are only present to hear, if you only take it in, even if you understand what is preached. Preaching is not complete until there is a response. Martin Buber once said, "He who ceases to make a response ceases to hear the Word." In the parable, Jesus emphasized that the good soil produced fruit in various measures: one hundred, sixty, and thirty-fold. He who hears and understands the Word is expected to obey the Word, to put it into practice. A part of ...
Sermon
John R. Brokhoff
... what a tragedy that we do not take everything to the Lord in prayer. Yes, Jesus makes house calls. Our text assures us of that. Our experience confirms it. When he enters the house of our lives, his presence brings calm. "And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased." The storm was over. All were saved. The winds were like spring breezes and the waves became like ripples on a mountain lake. If you want peace of mind and calm of soul, why not ask Jesus to come into your life? He is waiting for you to ask ...
Sermon
Harold Warlick
... take place being invited to a football game. Over shrieks of protest, I was made to attend the cookout because food had been prepared for me. I soon learned to value my word more. Now that I am a minister, I see the reason for such actions. It never ceases to amaze me how people nowadays will commit themselves to something, think nothing of it, and leave you hanging in the air. Once I talked to a Catholic priest in New England who related that he had had 72 youth sign up for a chartered bus trip sponsored ...
Sermon
Leonard Mann
... me, and I know that my prayer is heard. Simple drama maybe, too simple perhaps; but, O my dear friend, it is essential truth. Small wonder, then, that millions hail the power of Jesus’ name and sing of the name that charms our fears and bids our sorrows cease. Name above every name, this one! A good, kind, quiet woman had walked humbly but joyously with her Lord from her girlhood days. Now in her mid-nineties, strength failing, she lay upon the bed from which she would never be able to lift her body again ...
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
... husband. What do you have to say about this?" Ann Landers replied, "I'd say she was a born-again Christian with birth defects." The fact of the matter is that all of us have birth defects of one sort or another. That is, none of us Christians ceases to be a sinner. We are forgiven sinners, sinners under reconstruction. Christ living in us makes us more sin-resistant, but none of us bats 1000 in terms of righteous living. We must watch ourselves closely lest we fall into sin. But what is our obligation to ...
65. One Good Word - Thanks!
Lamentations 3:1-66
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
... and see if we can affirm them from our own experience. Under each theme I will give you a thanksgiving question to write down and ponder on Thursday. FIRST, GOD'S LOVE IS CONSISTENT. Verse 22 says it so clearly: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, 'his mercies never come to an end." God is more dependable than the tides, more consistent than the sunrise. The pastor Archer Wallace says that at the request of friends he went to see an old lady in a home for incurables in a Canadian city. He ...
Sermon
Michael J. Anton
... the burdens and the challenges of life. Parents moan and groan, "My children confuse me. I don’t understand them." Children gasp a long sigh of concession to their previous thoughts that parents are out of it and will never be with it. Citizens never cease complaining about taxes and crazy spending, but their armchairs manage to stay warm and cozy. Church members don’t like what’s going on, but the pastor can’t hear them. The pastor gripes under his breath, and the church can’t hear him. Meanwhile ...
Sermon
Gordon Pratt Baker
... his foes. Rather, God’s intent is to break down and build up, to rout out and renew. Prejudice must be swept away by a purpose big enough to reform the race. In fact, this is the Almighty’s sole reason for the ruin he wreaks as he: makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire! (Psalm 46:9) The psalmist is well aware, of course, that God’s drastic actions here represent far more than the desire for an uneasy peace. The end of ...
68. Just A Whisper
Isaiah 9:1-7
Sermon
Frederick C. Edwards
... a cause can be lost in the frenzy of battle when people may begin to act irrationally. At such times people may cease thinking and lose sight of what they should do. So a rule of discipline developed that, at the point where things are ... unmistakable signal whistle to be sounded. And then, whether on a battlefield or aboard ship, as all hell seems to be breaking loose, all activity ceases. The order is that no one is to speak a word or do anything for thirty seconds. During those thirty seconds each person is ...
Sermon
Frederick C. Edwards
... should have been a routine three-month stay aboard the Soviet space station "Mir" lengthened to almost a year, and poor Sergei was stuck up there all that time. Some people say that you can never return home. Sergei Krikalev might agree. Much of what he left ceased to exist while he was gone. Sometimes we wish we could return home - home to some idealized place and time kept sacred in our memory. Sometimes we try and are disappointed. Have you ever tried going back just to see some place where you used to ...
Drama
Douglas W. Orbaker
... if you had any sense: an executioner with an excellent aim and a sharp sword. A miserable existence that ends in a blanket of night, not in agony as you quiver in the dust of his first blow, begging him to finish his task, so the pain will cease! That’s the only thing to hope for. (Flops down prostrate on his cot.) (A Roman guard enters.) Guard All right, scum. On your feet. Barabbas You’re already on your feet! Guard (He stiffens in rage, then relaxes. He speaks with contempt.) Very funny. We’ll see ...
71. Clean Light
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Sermon
William F. Dunkle
... he observed of democracy here: "not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good ... and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Yes, goodness is important. It is the foundation of civilized living. Without it people cannot live together in any social way. An Egyptian selling brass in a bazaar asked me to observe his green turban. "It means I ...
Sermon
... human suffering, but was of God. He could see that even obstacles to happiness in life - obstacles such as our physical pain, our mental anguish, our broken hearts - could become stepping-stones to victory in life. Paul could see that our suffering, without ceasing to be suffering or without ceasing to be felt as suffering, could be transformed. Paul could see that God is not divine Alka-Seltzer to be taken for an upset stomach, or even for an upset life. The God he knew - the God we know - is one who ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
... do not know but you can bet that their presence was not welcomed. And why is this? Because, as was so often the case, they were not on a fact-finding mission but a fault-finding mission. Looking for any reason to hang Jesus they cease upon a minor infraction. The disciples are faulted for not performing the religious ritual of hand washing before they ate, an “unclean” act. Now what’s going on here? What does “unclean” mean? The obvious explanation, as you might have guessed, is dirty hands. But ...
Sermon
William G. Carter
... from the AIDS virus, and millions more are at risk. In the horn of Africa, hundreds of thousands have withered to death from famine. In the Balkans, people are still uncovering unspeakable cruelties in their land. There are places in the world where Christmas cease-fires are tentative, and people from both sides of an arbitrary line will carry automatic rifles into worship. Yet here we are, gathered before red poinsettias and a big green tree. Our choirs have spent weeks tuning up for this one night. The ...
75. Old Favorite
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Sermon
Harold Warlick
... by Jesus with a few loaves of bread and some fish as a climactic illustration. The congregation contended that he had but one sermon, on tithing, which he could preach in 52 different ways in a year’s time. Sometimes we hear messages that are so familiar they cease to have an impact on us. Just as a child gets spoiled from too much attention, too much favoritism, so do some of our Scriptures get spoiled. They are so familiar they get taken for granted and rush past us. We repeat the Lord’s Prayer or the ...
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