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 51 to 75 of 609 results

51. Garden of Love

John 20:10-18, Song of Songs 4:1-16, Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... allow God to lure your heart with God’s Voice and Breath, you enter into a kind of holy of holies, a resurrection moment, where time stops and life moves within God’s own continuum. God’s Song is a wedding song, and you are His beloved and cherished Bride. “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (2:16). Each Passover, in the Jewish tradition, the Song of Songs is read. Why? Because the Song of Songs is the most intimate and true vision of God’s exquisite, deep, passionate, and powerful love ...

52. Plucked from the Blaze

Zechariah 3:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... will, upon his heart –and an immense gratitude to God for saving his life. He knew from a young age, that his story was part of a larger story. And in that larger story, God saves us for a purpose. Susanna, his mother, both cherished and fostered that awareness of “chosenness” in him and reminded him of his place in God’s larger story. John’s passion for the Methodist movement was unparalleled. It was Spirit driven, fiery, and unrelenting. With the sacrifice of Jesus tattooed upon his heart, he ...

It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that's what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Alice Walker

54. Missing!

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , it cost a good amount of money and it holds relational and sentimental value for you. You may be overjoyed at finding a family heirloom that has been missing for years and has only just been recovered. Your child may cry rivers of tears on the loss of a cherished stuffed bear or rabbit. But all of these pale in comparison to losing someone dear to you. Think about it. How many of you can recall the sense of panic when you’re in a store, look around, and the child who was behind you one second ago has ...

55. Glimpses of Eternity

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Will Willimon

... us over, write some slogan across the sky in neon. More often, God quietly courts us, teases, pulls back the curtain between today and eternity for only a peek. And when such a glimpse is given you, on a mountaintop in Judea or in a Sunday pew in Duke Chapel, cherish it, but don't even try to capture it for it is a gift, a glimpse, a fleeting, blessed, gift of revelation. Peter wanted his glimpse to go on forever. You also have had times when you wished the choir would go on singing, even were sad to see ...

56. The New Family

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Will Willimon

... families. During the last presidential election, protection for and funding in behalf of the family became a major political concern. Family was the one issue a politician could be for without stepping on anyone's toes. Indeed it is difficult to imagine a more cherished human arrangement than the family. We would die for our families, even kill for them. Most of us are not violent by nature. And yet when asked, "If your family were threatened, your children, would you kill someone if it were necessary to ...

57. Trouble in the Vineyard

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... thinking? We need to focus on our relationship with God, our role in God’s mission, and understand in the depths of our hearts that our worth comes from knowing we are God’s cherished child. We are no better or greater than any other, but we are of great value to God, each and every one of us. When we know we are loved and cherished by God, we don’t need to be envious of others and what they receive. We are free to celebrate with our neighbors their good things and feel good and happy about God’s ...

58. That Mountaintop Moment

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in which his “heart was warmed” and his spirit touched by God in an emotional and spiritual way, his faith remained an intellectual endeavor. Only after his “spiritual awakening” did the movement called Methodism take off. We love a good adrenaline rush. We cherish those lovely feel-good hormones we get from running a marathon or falling in love. But these are nothing compared to a true, life-changing God encounter with our divine creator. Today, I invite you to step outside of your comfort zone and ...

59. The Unmasking of Nazareth

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... an open and revealed heart. It may be a damaged heart. It may be a suffering heart. It may be a heart oozing with pain, guilt, sin, or shame. But God cherishes an authentic heart. For God cannot repair what is not revealed as broken. On this day of Holy Communion, we come to Christ’s table with broken hearts –hearts that have undergone years of hiding, pain, loneliness, and suffering. Hearts that have endured doubt, fear, disappointment, and disillusionment. Hearts that ...

60. The Main Thing

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... with anyone. First, we commit ourselves to having that relationship. That is, we make a commitment; we decide to be in the relationship. One of the things I point out to a couple who come to me to be married is that when they take their vow to love, cherish, honor, and keep their spouse, they do not say “I do.” They say, “I will.” That is, they make a decision and a commitment to be in the relationship regardless of what may come. When they say, “I will,” they are saying that they will love and ...

61. Eternally Yours

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and preserve it. If we value food, we become a foodie. If we value books, we accumulate a library full of them. If we value our health, we will change our behavior to optimize it, particularly if it’s threatened. When something or someone we cherish becomes threatened, we do anything to protect our valued belongings. Jesus’ lesson for the Pharisees and scribes that day as told by Luke in today’s scripture was not about the employment someone had or what Pharisaic rule they had broken. Jesus saw right ...

62. Witnesses For The Lord

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... rescue workers was a desire to go home and hug their own children. To think that our children are vulnerable to a bomb as they play in a day care center is disturbing.2 The senseless and random deaths of so many innocent people violates what we cherish most -- security, the sanctity of life, and an order about life that makes sense. It reminds us of just how low humans are able to stoop in their cruelty towards others. It confronts us with the harsh realities of sin and human depravation. It compels us to ...

63. Arc Of The Covenant

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... years ago. You have a good relationship, but she has not touched, caressed, or stroked you since the wedding night. She still says she loves you! Would you start to doubt her love? Of course. Probably nine years and eleven months and 29 days ago? God cherishes us continually like a newlywed. He touches and caresses us, his bride, in the holy meal so we have no doubt that he is for us! What a sign! How wonderful! Baptism. Holy Communion. Noah's rainbow. All signs of God's faithfulness. What are some other ...

64. Something Old, Something New

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... an external dictator. No, he is our friend! Why did God promise this and then fulfill it with Jesus and his Spirit? Because God is patient. Another word is long-suffering. He "suffers long" in our unfaithfulness and our looking for love in all the wrong places. He cherishes his creation even though they spurn him. He never lost his love -- either his feelings of love or his commitment to love us. How different from us! God not only says he still loves us and wants us, but proves it by doing what only he can ...

65. All The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

... patterns in our lives, to see our lives as truly worthy of joy and purpose. It's not easy to let go of the past until you can take hold of the future. Easter brings that future to us. The disciples were prepared to live in cherished yesterday. They would have remembered their teacher's words, and when they saw one another they would have recalled old times and recounted the dear and favorite stories with laughter and poignancy and tears. They'd have honored his memory and made visits to his grave ...

66. God Works Wanders

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

... reflective, about our lives. We're used to following our too familiar patterns, even though sometimes we've stood back and looked at our lives and realized our actions made no sense at all. We have been protecting that which hurts us, putting at risk what we cherish most. Not all our lives are so imperiled, but those which are must be challenged to make this Lent a time of courageous pilgrimage. It's a pilgrimage to new life in Christ, our own Easter. Those among us whose lives are more whole need to deepen ...

67. Now, Even Now....

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

... is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation." This is our holy carpe diem, a real "seize the day"! You see, we wear more than one cross on our foreheads tonight. We don't only wear the ashes of our mortality. The second is the invisible but cherished and life-giving cross placed on our foreheads at baptism. "You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever." We don't live in the past, but we remember, repent and are reconciled. We don't live in the future, but we ...

68. Toward A More Sensuous Christianity

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... was a lay movement reacting against the intellectualism, formalism, and spiritlessness of the established church. Now we are the established church and we have allowed ourselves to become intellectual, formal and spiritless. What these early Methodists came to cherish was not theories of atonement, doctrines, creeds about Christian theology and the Holy Spirit, but the experience of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Therefore, this new Pentecostal movement is nothing more than the old Pentecostal movement ...

69. Two-and-a-Half Cheers For Hypocrites

Matthew 6:1-2, Matthew 6:5-6, Matthew 6:16

Sermon

Thomas Long

... kind of attention they really need, but it is the attention they are sure they can get. Just so, hypocrites have lost sight of the blessing of the divine parent they have at home, lost sight of the God who sees in secret, who cherishes in the divine heart, who graciously rewards beyond measure. Therefore, they are condemned to parade around in front of the only audience they have left to impress -- other people. Jesus' harsh reprimand of hypocrisy, then, is intended to reclaim, not to destroy. Indeed, Jesus ...

70. Sermons

Sermon

John R. Bodo

... war zone. But, at just one remove, death is likely to be quite real to us at any age. Right now someone who means much to you may be walking in death's shadow. Or perhaps someone very close to you has just died, robbing you of a cherished, taken-for-granted presence, leaving you baffled, resentful, frightened. Yes, it is hard to be an Easter Christian, a Resurrection Christian, all year round. The closer the threat, the greater the fear, the harder it is to hold on to the Easter faith and the more inclined ...

71. Words, Words, Word

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... carefully craft their speeches for maximum squirm-out-ability. Advertisers try to sell us "new and improved" versions of the same old thing. Contracts are tossed aside, promises not kept, marriage vows broken, laws ignored or avoided. Even "I love you," that precious, cherished statement, has become as common and as cheap as a bumper sticker reading "I Love New York." But, words have meaning. Words are important. Especially the eternal Word of God. Jesus is God's Word, come to show us God in the life ...

72. Wedding: Deciding To Love (for a marriage after divorce)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Derl G. Keefer

... of love you have discovered with one another. We thank God for new beginnings. (Bride) and (Groom), you already know that love is more than feeling happy when you are together; more than holding hands in the moonlight; more than whispering sweet words and promising to cherish each other forever. Those things are all great! I hope you are experiencing all of them often as you are with one another, because romance and happiness go a long way in a marriage. But they are like the topping on a dessert: light and ...

73. Wedding: To Join Your Paths (for a widowed/divorced, older couple)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Derl G. Keefer

... in those moments when love does show through as it was meant to be. I pray that you will have many such moments, (Bride) and (Groom). They will be the building blocks for your love to continue to grow. This love you have for each other is truly a gift! Cherish the gift. Nurture it with all the time and tender care you can give it. And give thanks always to the Giver, for it is God who made you and will give you all the faith, hope, and love you need to carry out the commitment you are making to ...

74. Gifts of Lent II: Mary Gives Her Perfume

Matthew 26:6-13

Drama

Donald Neidigk

... of perfume worth hundreds of dollars, and poured it over the head of your Son. We confess, Lord, that like Judas, we think it wasteful. We'd much rather spend the money on necessities, namely ourselves. Change our values, Lord, that your Son and his kingdom might be our most cherished treasure. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

75. Silly Love Songs

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... about love that transforms people. Romantic love between two persons, who count the number of days they have been together, is exhilarating to watch. A sure sign of being in love is day-dreaming of the other person, being consumed with thoughts of the cherished one, wanting to spend each waking moment with the other, seemingly wasting time strolling in the park hand in hand. Being in love changes a person. Knowing that you are loved is a transforming experience as well. Margaret was the kind of girl whose ...

Showing results

Showing 51 to 75 of 609 results

51. Garden of Love

John 20:10-18, Song of Songs 4:1-16, Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

52. Plucked from the Blaze

Zechariah 3:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that's what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Alice Walker

54. Missing!

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

55. Glimpses of Eternity

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Will Willimon

56. The New Family

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon