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 1409 results
51. True Love
John 3:1-21
Sermon
King Duncan
When Richard Nixon ran for President in 1968, the Vietnam War was at its height. One of Nixon's TV commercials showed a photo of an American soldier in Vietnam with the word "Love" written on his helmet. The image bothered Harry Treleavan, one of Nixon's media men. "It reminds [people] of hippies," he said. "They don't think it's the sort of thing soldiers should be writing on their helmets." About a week later, however, a letter arrived from the mother of the soldier. She said how thrilled she was to see ...
52. A Date With Destiny
Hebrews 10:19-39
Sermon
Wayne Brouwer
Some years ago an English journal ran a contest. A prize was offered for the best definition of a "friend." A friend. How would you define a friend? Thousands of replies poured in: A friend is someone "who multiplies joys, and divides grief!" said one. No, thought another; a friend is someone "who understands our silence." A third person suggested: "A friend is a volume of sympathy bound in cloth." But the publishers picked this one as the winning entry: A friend is "the one who comes in when the whole ...
Children's Sermon
King Duncan
Object: Some funny magnets and something with iron or steel in it Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have magnets on your refrigerator at home? I brought a few magnets with me today. Do you like them? What kind of magnets do you have on your refrigerator? Have you ever wondered why magnets stick to your refrigerator? Magnets will stick to anything that has iron or steel in it. Your refrigerator door probably has iron or steel in it, so it's a perfect place to stick magnets. The strange thing ...
54. Passions
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
Sermon
Frank Lyman
A mother mouse was giving her baby mice their first tour of the barn. She and the children walked from one end of the barn to the other. They were enjoying their walk until they came face to face with a large cat who seemed quite eager to pounce upon them. But, rather than succumb to cruel fate, the mother mouse drew up her face, looked the cat straight in the eye . . . and began to loudly bark like a dog! The cat was so startled that it turned tail and ran away. The mother mouse turned to her children and ...
Sermon
James Merritt
If you have any reason to wonder why this message is important, maybe this letter will show you better than I could tell you. About four years ago I got a letter from a little girl in Macon, Georgia. Here's what she wrote me: Dear Dr. Merritt, Hello! I was just wondering can you help me? My Mother wants to move to Sweden. I am supposed to go, but I don't trust her. She says I'll come back. I don't know. My Daddy lives here, Georgia, USA. He's American. He is not going. What should I do? If I say Sweden, my ...
Sermon
David T. Ball
Do you all have your compasses with you? What? You don’t have compasses? Well, I guess neither do I. How about your watch? Okay! A much better response that time. I have my watch, too — but don’t get your hopes up that I’m planning to keep a closer eye on how long my sermons are taking! I really just wanted to make a point about how much we rely on our watches in comparison to our compasses. And I doubt that very many of us have a compass that we can carry around — we may have one on our car. We know our ...
57. If, Because, Regardless
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
There's a silly story going around about two factory workers, Joe and Lester, who were talking. "I know how to get some time off from work," said Joe. "How do you think you'll do that?" asked Lester. Joe proceeded to climb up to the rafters of the factory and hang upside down by his knees. The boss walked in, saw Joe hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he was doing. "I'm a light bulb," Joe answered. "I think you need to take some time off," said the boss. So, Joe jumped down and walked ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
A cartoon, in a Saturday Evening Review, features a young boy sitting under a tree taking inventory of his relationships. “So far, I have 14 people who love me, 22 people who like me, six people who tolerate me, and I have only three enemies. I’d say that’s not bad for a little kid.” When it comes to relationships, how are you doing? We are made for community; we will never be satisfied to be self-reliant. We need one another. The friendships in the fellowship of the first century Church were so focused ...
59. The Water Witcher
Matthew 11:1-19
Drama
Arley K. Fadness
Theme: Difficulty of believing and the possiblity of doubt turned into faith Characters: Grandfather Willard Adamson Grandson Joey (eleven years old or younger) Slick (skeptic neighbor) Tone: Nurturing relationship, encouragement Setting/Props: Imaginary tool shed Paintbrushes Paint Imaginary old-fashioned well pump Cup Y-shaped stick One option that may enhance the scene would be an actual old-fashioned well pump. There are still a few of these around on abandoned farms, museums, and as decorative objects ...
60. In Times Of Need
1 Kings 17:7-24
Sermon
Carlyle Fielding Stewart
She was worn and thin, a lonely woman solemnly gathering sticks in a lonely place. The yellow sun scorched the brown earth. It was a dry and desolate place. She had no fortune. She had no prospects for the future. As a widow she had no means of income save the occasional dole of the monarchy and her religious community. After gathering the sticks, she would then go home, kindle a small fire and cook a last jar of cornmeal and oil for her son and herself. She knew that she would soon die. Food had run out. ...
Sermon
John N. Brittain
Exodus 33:12-23; Matthew 22:15-22 Without wanting to be either flippant or blasphemous, I don't think it out of line to say that there is something a little odd about the story where Moses gets to see the back side of God. This is Moses, the one who went up the mountain and brought down the tablets of the law; the one at whose uplifted rod the waters of the Red Sea parted and then came back together; Moses, the person who filled more roles than any other in the Torah -- prophet, priest, military leader, ...
62. Advent 3
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28, Isaiah 61:1-11, John 1:19-28, John 1:1-18
Sermon Aid
Russell F. Anderson
Theme For The Day: Joy and anticipation concerning what God was about to do. Isaiah promises the oil of gladness (Isaiah 61:3) as God brings the captives of Israel back to their homeland. In Thessalonians, Paul charges the church always to rejoice (v. 16). In the Gospel, John delineates his message as pointing to the One who was to follow him: the One who would be much greater than he. All of these messengers were filled with a sense of joyful expectancy. The third Sunday in Advent has in some traditions ...
Children's Sermon
Object: a walking stick. Boys and girls, do you like to take walks? Do you like to go hiking? Have you ever found a walking stick to take with you? I have one here. It helps to make your walking easier, doesn't it. Suppose I told you we were going to go on a walk and keep going for two or three days. What do you think we would need to take along, besides a walking stick? (Let them offer some suggestions.) I'm afraid, with all the things some of you are suggesting we should take, we'd need to take a van or ...
64. Playing God's Game
I Peter 3:8-15a
Children's Sermon
Object: a game like dominoes, jacks, or pick-up sticks. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to have a good time because I brought with me some games that I know all of you like to play. How many of you have ever been allowed to play a game during church and not have someone look at you with a big frown on his face? [Give them your very best look of scorn.] Well, today, I brought along some of these games that I used to play and perhaps some of you still play today. Here is one of my favorites ...
Children's Sermon
Wesley T. Runk
Object: A bridal veil, catcher’s mask, hockey stick, fireman’s hat Good morning, boys and girls. You certainly look fine this morning. How many of you wear special clothes to church and school? Many of you, almost all of you. Does your mother tell you to change your clothes when you get home from church? She does? Sometimes it seems kind of funny that we wear certain clothes to certain places, doesn’t it? For instance, if I was going to play in a ball game I would probably wear this bridal veil and if I ...
Sermon
Robert G. Tuttle
In the overcrowded conditions of our modern world loneliness has possessed us: "He’s a real Nowhere Man, Sitting in his Nowhere Land, Making all his Nowhere Plans for nobody." Such emptiness, such frustration, such loneliness depresses us. What’s to be done about it? This feeling of hopelessness has been around a long time. The ancient writer of Psalm 22 cried out: Dear God, right now I feel like a worm, not a person. I feel so used by other people. And to make it worse, I feel resented by the very same ...
Children's Sermon
King Duncan
Object: a box of matches Good morning, boys and girls. Have you ever seen your mommy or daddy light a match? Now, matches can be dangerous; they are not something to play with. But, it is pretty neat to see someone light a match. Did you know that matches were invented by accident? There was a man named John Walker who was trying make a chemical that could be used in guns. He wanted something that would explode and make a loud bang. Well, John Walker was stirring a great big vat of chemicals with a wooden ...
Sermon
Frank Lyman
You may have read about a man in California who has to be the worst bank robber in history. He went into a Bank of America in San Francisco and wrote out a stick up note on the back of a deposit slip. He got in line to present his note to the teller, but while he was in line he started thinking that maybe somebody saw him writing the stick up note. Maybe they were calling the police right now. So he decided to get out of line and go across the street to the Wells-Fargo bank. He had to wait in line there, ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
A pious woman with a rather sharp tongue, who professed to be a Christian but gossiped like an old hen--approached the rector of her church in London. She complained that the white bands which he wore with his pulpit gown were altogether too long and that this annoyed her greatly. She wanted permission to shorten them and had come armed with a pair of scissors. The pastor agreed, handed over the bands, and the woman snipped away with her scissors and then handed the garments back to the rector. He said, " ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Fred Craddock tells about a family that was taking a lovely Sunday afternoon drive, when suddenly the children began shouting, “Stop the car! There’s a kitten by the road!” The father kept on driving, but his children wouldn’t quiet down. He tried to reason with them. The kitten was probably someone’s pet. It might have a disease. The family already had too many pets. It did no good. The children insisted that a loving father would stop the car for a stray cat. So finally the father drove back to the spot ...
71. On Being a Hot-Fudge-Sunday Church
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
There is an old Southern gospel song "There Ain't No Middle Ground." It is time the church gave up trying to find safety in big middles and risked ministry on the edges. In 1890, a Wisconsin merchant named Smithson came up with a creative way to cope with his Sunday afternoon shortages of ice cream. With no Sunday deliveries but with crowds of people with a welcome day off wanting ice cream, he thought of a way to stretch his supply. He began cutting back on the amount of ice cream he scooped and added ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Do you ever feel as if you've lost the cutting edge; you're not hitting on all eight cylinders; you're swimming in mud and running in tar; you just can't get it together? I want to share with you some stories that are absolutely true. They actually happened, and I believe you will agree with me that these are people who had lost the cutting edge: An Illinois man, pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines, where the kidnapper proceeded ...
73. People Skills
Proverbs 12:26
Sermon
James Merritt
He was the first billionaire in the history of the world. At one time, the company he started, Standard Oil Company, controlled and marketed ninety-percent of the oil produced in America. We have today, Exxon, Mobil, Amoco and Chevron, because of this man's vision and ingenuity. For the vast majority of his life, he was by far and away, the richest man in the world. Even today, the name Rockefeller is associated with wealth. John D. Rockefeller, who probably never really knew exactly how much he was worth ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
Once there was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it would be a long trip to where God lived, so he packed a suitcase full of Twinkies and cans of root beer (his two favorite foods) and set off on his journey. He had only gone a few blocks when he passed an older woman, sitting on a park bench and just staring at some pigeons. She looked sad and lonely, so the boy went over and sat down next to her. He opened his suitcase, took out a package of the Twinkies and offered it to her. She gratefully ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
A little young girl walked into the bathroom one day while Mom was putting on make-up and announced, "I'm going to look just like you mommy!" "Maybe, when you grow up," Mom told her. "No mommy, tomorrow. I just put on that 'Oil of Old Lady' you always use." (1) It's pretty obvious that we all get up in the morning, get cleaned up and put on clothes. On Sundays, out of reverence for God, we try to dress in our best. When we go tot work, we dress for success. If we're single going out on a date or even ...
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