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 726 to 750 of 4977 results

726. A Crippling Spirit

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Brett Blair

... , or some extreme case of osteoporosis. We don’t know. We are simply told that a spirit has crippled her. Jesus called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” We are told that she suddenly stood erect, and began praising God. I am not quite sure what to make of this spirit, but in some way it is responsible for this woman’s tragic circumstances. As we take a closer look at this story there are other spirits at work. Take a look at them with me. There is at work a crippling ...

727. God's Suggestion Box

Philippians 4:4-7

Children's Sermon

... answer from God. Let's look in our request box or suggestion box and see what kind of requests there are. [Reach into the box and pull out some slips with some requests written out.] Here is one that says, "God help me quit smoking." Is there anyone at your house who wants to quit smoking and may have asked God for help? Here's another one, "Dear God, give me the courage to stop watching television when I should be studying." How about this one, "Please Jesus, give me the strength to do the dishes without ...

728. The Golden Gift

Drama

... was received with mixed reactions. One reviewer called it "his pernicious book." Another more charitably wrote: "It is ... the master work of fiction of this century. There are things in it quite wonderful." In his own defense, Hugo said: "Society is to blame for tolerating prisons where innocent but unfortunate men enter to quit them hardened ruffians. Society is to blame for not acknowledging that wretched women take to the streets to prove their virtue. We can make no other teaching." One of his most ...

729. The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... mean, rather, we have not spent the time to find out what God means by power and to see in the Bible how power is employed. Today's Gospel lesson provides us with a beautiful example of how we followers of our Lord can ignore what he says quite clearly and try to impose our own agenda on him even though it contradicts his most basic teaching. Jesus has just finished describing in some detail the fate that awaited him in Jerusalem, "to be mocked and scourged and crucified." Nor was this the first time he had ...

730. The Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 14:1-4

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... after the service, and how can I get them to sing joyfully if they have just been told they are going to die?" It was never quite clear to me if I were to contradict the evidence and tell them they weren't going to die, or if I were to draw a ... the Christian point of view, of course, that is to miss the point entirely. Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters got it quite right when they started referring to their funeral services as masses of the resurrection. What more appropriate time is there than Easter ...

731. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

2 Kings 13:10-25

Sermon

... ’s attitude toward his approaching death is this: he had a passionate desire to bring about God’s will. It may be akin to that mysterious power that we call "the will to live." Some people say, "I’m tired and I’m ready to quit," while others say, "I’m angry that I have to quit; there is so much I still want to do." If this is true for an individual, is it not true on a larger scale as well? Isn’t it possible for a group of people to have a passionate desire to bring about God’s ...

732. The Cracked Crystal Ball

Jeremiah 28:1-17

Sermon

... Word of God in their little corner of the world, many years ago. But the substance of their claim is something quite contemporary. This is a matter that is of concern to every Christian. Who speaks for God today? Whom can we believe? ... who would take them away. Some believed him, others thought he was crazy, some wanted to see for themselves. Her son was one who couldn’t quite believe all this. He wanted to see for himself. He thought if it was true, then he would be prepared. He said to himself, "... the ...

733. That They May Be One

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... all of you present would answer yes. If I could ask you another question, "... and would you be willing to die for the cause of unity among Christians?" I would anticipate a very different response. It is one thing to agree to the desirability of Christian unity. It is quite another to lay down one’s life for that cause. You and I are not called upon to lay down our lives so that believers in Christ Jesus could be one. That has already been done for us. Our task is to hear this great word of our Lord and ...

734. Is Repentance Necessary?

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

... looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." Quite clearly, Jesus was saying to his disciples that repentance is necessary because it is impossible for us to save ourselves. Repentance ... the center of the target, a bull’s eye every time. Finally he caught up with the boy and said to him, "You know, you are quite a marksman! I was following you and discovered that everywhere you shot you hit right in the center of the bull’s eye. That is good ...

735. How Did It Come to This?

Jeremiah 2:1-3:5

Sermon

... years to put on. We cannot stop loving overnight, when we have loved for years. Marriages and divorces do not grow overnight. It all takes time. I well suspect that for the Hebrews, sin became an adopted lifestyle. Over time they quit praying, they quit reflecting, they became more pre-occupied with self-seeking. Then they began experimenting. With the Hebrews it was religious experimentation, but I suppose experimentation came come in many ways. There are three parables in the 15th chapter of Luke and we ...

736. God's Bandage

Matthew 5:21-26

Children's Sermon

... . Is that right? Has anyone been hurt this summer? [Let them respond ... look for leg or arm cuts.] Boy, that must have really hurt! Did you cry? I suppose if it was that serious you had to quit playing. [Now work for the answer that they had to stop what they were doing and go home to be fixed up.] If you had to quit playing because of the cut, I suppose you went home to be helped. What kind of help do you get for a cut like that? Do you ever have to use a bandage? I thought so. By ...

737. Beginning a Ministry

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

... the Gospel and organize the church after Jesus’ earthly life was terminated. Calvin Stanley, who is now ten years old, was born blind; he has congenital glaucoma and will never see. But his mother, Ethel, is a remarkable woman who accepted his blindness when he was quite young and determined to do all she could to enable him to get along on his own in the world. She has not worked since Calvin was born and has acquired the ability to be an extraordinary teacher. "Child," she once told him, "one day I ...

738. The Importance of Forgiving Others

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

... the gate of heaven, and let us in. One mighty act by Jesus - not a thousand good deeds on our part - gains us access to "the mercy seat." And Jesus doesn’t want us to forget it: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees" means something quite different than it seems to mean, doesn’t it? It has to do with forgiving those who have wronged us, bestowing upon them the gift that can never be earned or deserved - forgiveness - because forgiveness is always a gift of grace from God to us and ...

739. Pilgrimage of Faith John M. Cobb

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ " (vv. 4, 6) The story is a familiar one to us: - We remember as children the bush that did not burn. - We remember the call to Moses, how he didn’t want to go. But how finally he did. (I can recall quite clearly this text being used for a sermon on the occasion of missionaries being sent to another country.) - We remember this text for what it says about God - that here God reveals to his people his sacred name. - And we remember - I recall specifically - how this text has ...

740. The Choice

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

... the question was, "Who do you believe me to be?" Who? Someone who'll simply do what you want? Most of us would be content with that kind of Jesus, one who gives us what we want because we know what is best for us. Peter's answer was quite another story. When he replied that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God," he was going beyond, far beyond, what anyone else was saying. Everyone else knew, or thought they knew, what they wanted and needed. God was the great and eternal pharmacist who would ...

741. Don't Go Near The Water

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

... . Crucified and raised, he has been given "all authority in heaven and on earth." We have been baptized into him and each Sunday we place ourselves "at his feet" to hear his words again. We call him Lord and we know that in him God speaks. So we are not quite as amazed at his speech as were the crowds. Nonetheless, we need to focus on the authority of his word again and again. We need to hear the call to obedience. I have often wondered who could be stupid enough to build a house on sand, or, as Luke says ...

742. Communion Is Repentance

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

... very small entrance way. The main door into the church is only about three feet high. It is almost necessary to crawl in. Our guide explained, "Like the wisemen of old, when we approach the birthplace of Christ, our Lord, we do so on bended knee." It is quite fitting and proper that we kneel in the presence of our God. But the posture of the body should only be indicative of the position of the heart. Don't come to the Lord's Altar with pretense - pretending that you have no sin to turn away from, because ...

743. The Trifocal Festival

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

... the faith, I: God’s familiars II: God’s handkerchiefs I: So great a cloud of witnesses, and so diverse: II: Some old, like Polycarp; I: And some quite young, like the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem; II: Some activists like Bonhoeffer; I: And some contemplatives, like Benedict; II: Some learned, like Augustine & Aquinas; I. And some quite simple, like Francis of Assisi; II: Asians, like Toyohiko Kagawa; I: Africans, like Onesimos; II: Blacks, like Martin Luther King; I: Women, like Monica and Perpetua; II ...

744. An Intimate Conversation and an Exclusive Covenant

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

... as an intermediary. People seek first-hand religious experiences, direct contact with whatever deities they have faith in. This summer, my wife and I had the opportunity to entertain two people, a divorced mother and her fourteen-year-old son whom we got to know quite well a couple of years ago in Cambridge, England. We did all we could to make their visit to Minnesota a memorable one. The young man had grown up and changed considerably in the two-year interim. But I wondered if his religious attitude had ...

745. The End is a New Beginning

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

... until he could be taken to the hospital. As she gave him CPR, she kept saying, "Come on, Ed, (he was a man whom she knew quite well) don’t die on me now." She continued to work on him until they got him into the emergency room, but to no avail. He ... day in heaven." Some of the Israelites might have had a child-like faith like that, but most of them must have reacted quite differently. They came to the conclusion that the things Moses did not only saw them through the Exodus experience, but had also prepared ...

746. The Necessity Of Forgiveness

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... take a group of goldfish that have been swimming for their lifetime in a small fish bowl out to the lake. You can turn them loose in the lake, but they will continue to swim in small circles, the dimension of their former bowl, for quite a while without accepting the massive freedom awaiting them. Jesus called the phenomenon "saluting only your brethren." And he told it straight - "what reward is there in that?" It creates an attitude of smallness which is destructive to career, family and self. During the ...

747. Wheels Instead Of Walls

Ezekiel 1:1-28

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... ?" Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality. God does not play favorites. God can move around." J. B. Phillips once said that the most personal issue you can engage in is what you think God's like. He contends that quite a number of us have much too small an idea of God. Most people develop a great deal physically, mentally and psychologically as they grow up. They learn their job and become proficient in it. They learn to be a parent and even a grandparent. But, says ...

748. The Miracle Comes at the Breaking

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Various Authors

... of a great crowd by the miracle of what happened to crumbs of bread under his touch. This is certainly possible, even likely. It’s quite probable that these two men were part of the crowd on that special occasion, and if they were, they would no doubt have an ... became a phrase in our common speech, a popular "magic" incantation. They knew that moment as a peak of mystery, when something quite beyond them happened. Hocus pocus, indeed. But believe me, the breaking of this bread is no "hocus pocus." It is a ...

749. Epiphany 2

Psalm 40:1-17, John 1:29-34, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Isaiah 49:1-7

Sermon Aid

CSS

... Sketch Sermon, John 1:29-41 - "Testimony Time" "Testimony time" is a device that several of the television evangelists use when they develop their programs; a guest will be invited to testify to his or her experience of Jesus Christ. It is apparently quite effective, because it brings the gospel into the realm of human experience and builds up the faith by making it concrete and incarnate, in a person. In this gospel, "testimony time" it is presented in biblical perspective; John the Baptizer is the one ...

750. Lent 5

Psalm 116:1-19, John 11:38-44, John 11:17-37, John 11:1-16, Romans 8:18-27, Romans 8:1-17, Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon Aid

... Lent has not only lost its name, judica, but it has also lost its liturgical function, which was quite positive in the pre-Vatican II liturgy; it used to announce the beginning of the holiest part of ... this as certainly as he brought the children of Israel back from their captivity in Babylon. It is one thing to gain the release of a captive nation, but it is quite a different matter to raise the dead from their graves. God has the power to do just that - and he has promised he will do it for Jesus' sake. 3. ...

Showing results