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 751 to 775 of 1249 results

751. Doorkeepers, Lampkeepers and Wisdomkeepers

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... for God and the gospel in history have been those who remained faithful to the tradition while being open to innovation and technology - Luther, Wesley, Moody, Fuller, Sheen, Graham. Third, Glacier Man was prepared for the unexpected and was ready to both adopt and adapt when confronted with new challenges. Glacier Man carried with him wood-tipped arrows for birds, stone-tipped ones for larger game, and pitch so that new arrows and weapons could be improvised when necessary. There was flexibility in his ...

752. FaithRace

2 Timothy 4:6-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you more than others?" This is our groove. When we are in it, addressing our best reflections and research to these subjects, we feel strong, confident and can stretch for the finish line. When we try to fit into someone else's niche, when we adopt someone else's questions, the groove becomes a grave. Our sprint slows down; our spirit stalls. Ambition: In the argot of athletics, this means "desire." A struggling young surgeon, when asked how many operations he could perform in a single day, put it another ...

753. The Family Ideal, Not Idol

Genesis 12:1-4a

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Like all systems of idolatry, the family as idol is easily manipulated to serve our own selfish purposes. At the same time that incidents of horrendous child abuse are on the rise, there appears a new growth industry in the field of contested adoptions. Baby Jessica, Baby Richard, Baby "M," all became innocent victims on the altar of family idolatry. Reclaiming a lost possession, a thing - an object, not a subject, a family member, not a child - became the center of all those custody disputes. - When we ...

754. Get Real

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... trying. Start trusting. Can you trust the divine spirit dynamic within you? Here is an interactive experiment in preaching I tried last summer during a sermon at the "Prayer and Bible Conference Week" at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, that I would encourage you to adopt and adapt. Or you can simply use it as an illustration. I broke off my sermon and went out into the congregation with the microphone, asking for volunteers. A woman suddenly stood up and said, "I'll volunteer." I asked her, "Do you trust ...

755. The Five Habits of Highly Spiritual Leaders

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in faithfulness, both individually and as a community, is a byproduct of marinating one's life in the Word of God. The first Gentile Christians struggling to maintain their identity and survive in a hostile culture must have learned successfully to adopt these "five habits" for they obviously inspired another generation to join them. The church is always dependent on the current generation to bring in the next succession of believers the church is always just one generation away from extinction. Just as ...

756. Call the Tribe of Issachar Together

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Network, are businesses slowly moving from planning to preparedness. Unfortunately, one of the slowest and most awkward of these behemoths is the church itself. The "mainline" denominations have found themselves relegated to a "sideline" position in postmodern life because they have adopted dreams like those of any other "big institution." The church increasingly seems irrelevant because it has lost sight of the signs of the times or chosen to ignore them. God will not be without a witness. It is God's ...

757. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... story. So it is that while this week's epistle text speaks explicitly of resurrection, we must keep in mind the miracle of conversion sealed by baptism that Paul has already experienced. Paul begins to discuss the mystery of the resurrection by adopting a diatribe style. Whether he is addressing an actual band of nay-sayers and disbelievers, or whether he uses this form to allow a more forceful starting position, is unclear. Whatever the actual situation, the diatribe style enables Paul to pose the ...

758. John 17:20-26

John 17:20-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... mainstream by carefully isolating and identifying them as "Jews," setting up an outsider/insider dichotomy. Finally the disgruntled slave owners make their own quasi-religious appeal, accusing Paul and Silas of "advocating customs not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe." It is a masterful argument, fabricating a case against the two on the grounds of safety, citizenship and religion - and it accomplishes its purpose completely. Paul and Silas are stripped, beaten and thrown into prison. But if the ...

759. Hebrews 13:1-8

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... a the author endorses has its roots in a distinctly Christian lineage. Christian love stems from the fact that since all Christians are in Christ, belonging to Christ equally, then they all belong to each other. Christian phil¡a is the celebration of the equitable adoption of all into the body of Christ. We all are truly brothers and sisters and as such we must love each other. Verse 2 promotes a kind of logical outgrowth of this commitment to familial mutual love. Christian phil¡a is to be extended even ...

760. Philemon 1:1-20

Philemon 1:1-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... in Christ for all eternity. The whole incongruity between Christianity and slavery rears up at us in this one sentence. Certainly Paul opens a can of worms here by stressing the kinship and equality that Philemon and Onesimus now hold in common through their adoption into Christ. But Paul does not go on to recommend that Philemon take any specific course of action. Unlike the next section of his letter (vv.17-20), Paul's intentions here in verses 15-16 remain ambiguous. Paul does spell out exactly what ...

761. John 20:19-31

John 20:19-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... heard the Nazarene craftsman. The new mission of the disciples as Spirit-filled proclaimers of Christ's resurrection is immediately put to the test. Their first witnessing experience is before one of their own Thomas. But rather than being an "easy sell," Thomas adopts a hard-liner attitude refusing to believe unless he, too, sees the risen Jesus. Earlier in John's gospel, Thomas had been depicted as fiercely loyal to Jesus, even recklessly zealous for Jesus (see John 11:16). The contrast makes his current ...

762. 1 Peter 1:17-23

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that has been paid already for their sake. 1 Peter's reference to "ancestors" plays two ways in the text to its first-century readers. Asia Minor, Gentile Christians may see this as an allusion both to their personal lineage and to their "adopted" kinship with the Hebrews through their faith relationship. Many of those 1 Peter was addressing had probably been brought to the cities in this region as slaves. Like the early Hebrews, many of them, over the years, had experienced "ransom" from their existence ...

763. 1 Peter 2:2-10

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... that true Christians would never imitate or inculcate. Somewhat surprisingly, the text does not follow up this list of vices with a corresponding list of virtues. Instead, 1 Peter depends on an image to convey the best attitude novice Christians could possibly adopt the image of an innocent, trusting infant. 1 Peter 1:3 introduced this image by speaking about the believers' "new birth into a living hope." As "newborn infants," that is, as brand new members of the Christian community of faith, 1 Peter ...

764. Acts 2:1-21

Acts 2:1-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The Luke/Acts sequence of events following Jesus' resurrection has been adopted by the church both theologically and liturgically. Although John's gospel declares that Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into his disciples Easter evening (John 20:22), Luke separates the gift of the Spirit from the day of Jesus' resurrection and the time of his ascension. Not until 50 days after ...

765. Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... good as dead." Verse 11 has gone through some extensive revisions in the past few translations. While the RSV adheres to a translation that praises Sarah's faithfulness as well as Abraham's in the event of this miraculous fertility, the NRSV has adopted a translation that is probably grammatically correct, even if it is rather disappointedly one-sided in its focus. Based on the vocabulary the author uses here (katabolen spermatos, to cast or lay down seed), it seems his focus remains firmly upon Abraham and ...

766. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

767. John 17:20-26

John 17:20-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

768. Hebrews 13:1-8

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

769. Philemon 1:1-20

Philemon 1:1-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

770. 1 Timothy 1:12-17

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... unfamiliar vocabulary. There are 176 words used in these pastorals that are not found in any other of Paul's writings. Perhaps even more doubt-inspiring is the absence of certain terms that are Pauline trademarks - cross, crucify, freedom, son and adoption (Oden, 13). Oden and the others arguing for Pauline authorship point out that these letters were written late in Paul's career, when the issues needing his attention had somewhat shifted. The focus of these letters is on issues confronting particular ...

771. Ephesians 1:3-14

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... this generalized function the "letter" was intended to serve. The language of election or predestination seems to seep throughout the first few verses of today's text. The Pauline writer speaks confidently of how God "chose us in Christ" (v.4) and "destined us for adoption ... according to ... his will" (v.5) as is "freely bestowed on us" (v.6) the gift of grace. But we must be careful not to read church history back into this language. Nowhere in Ephesians is the notion of "election" used to suggest that ...

772. Jeremiah 31:7-14

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Anyone who has ever pored over the book of Jeremiah knows that it is not exactly what you would call a "cheery read." The English language has even adopted the term "jeremiad" to describe any excessively woeful, wrathful, bad-news-bearing message or messenger. Jeremiah is renowned as a prophet of doom and gloom. He berates the people for a litany of sins and bad behavior. He preaches constantly about the divine judgment and destruction that awaits them because ...

773. Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus by an articulate, Torah-toting, Scripture-quoting devil. Mark's short form of this confrontation is elongated and elaborated by both Luke and Matthew, suggesting that the shared source of these two gospel writers held this longer version, which each then adopted and adapted to fit his own gospel form. Luke opens by affirming the coherency between Jesus' experience at his baptism and his journey into the wilderness. The Holy Spirit, which comes upon Jesus at his baptism, now fills Jesus. Its guiding ...

774. Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

775. Acts 16:16-34

Acts 16:16-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... "Jews," a twofold oddness. Furthermore, the girl's owners suggest that civil unrest may result from the preachments of Paul and Silas, which incite the good Roman citizens of this colony to embrace customs "that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe" (v.21). This accusation, coupling fear of difference with fear of civil unrest, is enough to prompt both the ruling magistrates and the crowd to take fierce action. The lictors, court enforcement officers who carried bundles of rods with them to ...

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