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 776 to 800 of 4972 results

776. In the Event of Power Failure

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). The migratory plover is a marvelous bird. It spends its summers in the far arctic regions of the north and its winters in South America. When migrating, it makes a non-stop flight that covers a distance of 10,000 to 12,000 miles. Included in the long journey is a 2,500-mile flight over nothing but ocean. As the plover flies, it never veers from its course more than a half mile unless driven by the wind or interrupted ...

777. The Cost of Discipleship

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

James L. Killen

... in the way that I want him to. He didn't take the suggestions that Satan made to him during his time of temptation. He has stayed true to the strategies of love and the way of the suffering servant. That is exactly what I want him to do. Now stop arguing and listen to him. The implications of that, for those who could understand, might have been: "Jesus is doing what needs to be done and if you really want to follow him, you need to come to terms with the necessity of the cross, his and yours." When the ...

778. Mission Possible!

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... looking up into heaven. Did you hear what Jesus said? Go and be witnesses!” I know many Christians who are looking up instead of looking out. Jesus is telling us today, “Stop looking up; look out! I’m out there, waiting on you to help me change people with my love. Be my witnesses. Stop looking up! Look out! I am out here in the world with those who are suffering and I need for you to be my hands and feet! Will you help me?” Perhaps you are thinking, “Yeah, but sharing faith is so personal.” You ...

779. Why Are Christians So Judgmental?

Matthew 6:2, 5, 16, Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... afternoon, he came in and looked very sad. He went to the bar and ordered only two beers. The bartender said, “I’m sorry. Did you lose one of your brothers?” He said, “No, my brothers are fine. My wife and I just joined the Baptist church and I stopped drinking. But my brothers don’t have a problem with it!” Hypocrisy comes in many forms, but what is it exactly? Quite simply, hypocrisy is the contrast between what we profess and how we behave. I hear about it all the time. As I get out into the ...

780. Rat Poison

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... the spirit of forgiveness blowing through my bones. My voice became kinder. I still didn't really like her, and I didn't think she was a good teacher, but something changed when I saw that she was scared and hurt and vulnerable. When we allow our enemy to stop being our enemy, the rules change. Nobody knows how to act anymore. It is a quiet revolution like a fist slowly uncurling. What we gain is the chance to live again, free from the poison that has been killing us. God knows we need lots of practice in ...

781. Talented People

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... new sailor was commanded to take the watch in the crow's nest, high up the mast. After climbing about halfway up the mast he stopped. He was frozen in fear, not able to finish climbing up, and too proud to slink back down and admit in front of the ... we have been fortunate enough to have rendered service in the past to God or humanity, then our call is to continue and not to stop. That same lady called me subsequently and told me that she wasn't getting as much out of her relationship to our church as she ...

782. God's Wrath Against Mankind

Romans 1:18-32

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... is probably not truth in general (although suppressing truth in any form is bad enough), but the truth of God. “Sin is always an assault upon the truth,” says Cranfield (Romans, vol. 1, p. 112). God’s wrath burns against perverting the truth, for once people stop believing in the truth, as G. K. Chesterton once said, they do not believe in nothing, they believe in anything! Sacrificing the truth of God leads to the denial of reality (v. 20), a lie (v. 25), a depraved mind (v. 28), and the approval of ...

783. Job Speaks

Job 3:1-26

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... curse days—possibly professional practitioners like Balaam in Numbers 22–24—to direct their curses on that day. Their cursing is related to their ability to rouse Leviathan, the sea monster associated with the threat of destructive chaos. While the reference to Leviathan may stop short of a quest for undoing the order of all creation (Clines, Job 1–20, p. 87), it does conjure images of creation. Job hopes for the morning stars to become dark and depicts the day as waiting in vain for the coming of ...

784. Job’s Reply to Zophar

Job 12:1--14:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... –26). While this is a rough limit to human life, there have always been those who exceeded the limit as well as those cut short before reaching it. 14:6 The verb let alone (Heb. khdl) is taken variously as “stop; desist” (meaning that God should stop punishing him); or “leave [someone] alone.” The difference is negligible. Another verb with the same root consonants would give the meaning “become fat; have success.” Those who suggest this latter verb take this verse to say that God should look ...

785. Faith and Deeds

James 2:14-26, James 2:1-13

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... Abraham, he who took the wayfarers into his house, gave them food and drink, and went with them to bring them on their way?… for the slaughtering knife is set upon his throat.” [Then God in response acknowledges Abraham’s righteousness by ordering him to stop.] Second is the “now I know” statement of Genesis 22:12; Abraham had a lived-out faith that had resulted in righteous actions that in turn were declared right by God. 2:22 James continues: You see. Surely the point of the passages cited was ...

786. Later Opposition Under Xerxes and Artaxerxes

Ezra 4:6-24

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... retrieved it, together with a copy of the original letter (v. 11). The king, taking the scary letter at face value, verified Jerusalem’s history of rebellion. He equated this with verification of the present charge and judged it expedient to stop forthwith further rebuilding of the capital. The narrator deduced that, armed with this imperial warrant, the local officials procured military backing and enforced the order authorized by Artaxerxes (v. 23). Nehemiah 1:3 may suggest that work done thus far on ...

787. In Search of Heroes

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... his programs years ago, legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey told the thrilling story of a man named Ray Blankenship. It seems that one summer morning as Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window and saw something that made his heart nearly stop. A small girl had fallen into a rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his home and was rapidly being swept downstream. Blankenship knew that not far away the drainage ditch disappeared beneath the road and then emptied into the main culvert. If he ...

788. Excuses! Excuses!

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... at their tasks as they are at making excuses for not tackling their tasks in the first place. Legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel said he could never stand to have what he called, a “pebble-picker” in his final lineup. A pebble-picker is the short-stop who, when he misses a grounder, looks around on the infield and always finds a pebble and holds it up as an excuse for his error. (1) Of course, nowadays we have psychiatrists who will give us a scientific name for our excuse-making. “For example ...

789. A Law Written On Our Hearts

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... steam train runs by here every morning. I think old Mr. Simpson has been doing that for about 5 years now. (6) We don’t know for certain that old Mr. Simpson abided by all the laws of his community. I suspect he did. But we know he didn’t stop there. He followed the example of the Master. He had the most important law of all written on his heart. It is the law of love. “A new command I give you,” said Jesus, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” 1 Collected ...

790. Tangled Up in the Vines

John 15:1-8

Sermon

John Jamison

... the vines. But the vineyard failed. The owner said, “When I expected it to yield domestic grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” He then tore down the protective wall and hedge, let the vineyard become overgrown with briars, and commanded the clouds to stop raining on it. That last detail makes it clear that the owner being described was God, and the vineyard of wild grapes was the people of Israel. Isaiah used familiar language to make his point, attempting to call the nation back from the destruction ...

791. From Fear to Overflowing Joy

John 20:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... , who wrote this hymn. The people in the congregation as well as the German soldiers grew up singing this hymn. The people sang a verse, and then went on to the next verse, waiting for the bullets. They truly expected that rifle fire would stop their singing. But the bullets didn’t come. Finally, looking around at the German soldiers surrounding them, they were astonished to see guns lowered and every hardened Nazi face, streaming with tears. The soldiers, one by one, two by two, slowly turned and climbed ...

792. When I AM Speaks, You'd Better Listen

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... Jesus' name. Amen." From that point on, for the rest of his life, "Hap" never drank a drop of liquor. As he looked back on his former life, he said, "One drink was always too much and a thousand were not enough." If you complimented him about his decision to stop drinking, "Hap" would always say, "Not me, God." In terms of our text, "Hap" made the transition from "I am in charge of my life" to "I AM is in charge of my life." To put it another way, Jesus became the nourishment "Hap" needed for life, the food ...

793. Searching for Happiness

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... except one. I’ll let you guess what that was. As I read his litany of despair, I couldn’t help but see many people today who are chasing happiness in a similar fashion--knowledge, alcohol, sensual pleasure, work, accumulation of wealth, sex. “Who wants to stop you?” said the father of the young man leaving home. “I’m going with you!” St. Paul saw the same emptiness in many of the people in his time, even among early Christian believers. And so he wrote: “Be very careful, then, how you live ...

794. The Light Still Shines

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... with hope and good cheer. Even though his body was frail his spirit was in great shape. On one occasion he complained about the harsh and uncouth hymn texts of his day. Someone challenged him to write a better one. So he did. In fact, he didn’t stop with one hymn. He wrote over 600 hymns--mostly hymns of praise. When his health finally broke in 1748 and he went to be with God, he left one of the most remarkable collections of hymns that the world has ever known. His name? Isaac Watts. His contribution ...

795. Trusting Authority

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... connection and purpose in life. Yet despite this background, there Matsui sat every week being a good father to his son. He would lean forward and listen more intently to the scripture and the sermon than anyone else in the congregation. Finally one day, I found the courage to stop Matsui at the door and I asked if he would like to sit down and talk about his faith and about the church. He was somewhat startled, but agreed. A week later we met in my study. He told me his story. In just the past few months ...

796. In the Light of His Glory

Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... what was important to us. They finally find a way to view these tapes. They grow excited with anticipation. One of the videotapes contains a scene in which three women move into the foreground. They are pushing carts of some kind. The three of them stop and reverently pick up some mysterious white circular rolls. Their eyes glaze in ecstasy as they handle the rolls. A stern male figure arrives, clad in a white uniform. He resembles a guard, or perhaps an officer of some kind--definitely a figure invested ...

797. What to Give Up for Lent

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... God. Keep in mind that our relationship to God is not dissimilar to a small but ornery child’s relationship to a loving, patient parent. “Jimmy, how many times do I have to tell you not to stand on the furniture?” “If you kids don’t stop fighting I am going to stop this car. I get so tired of your misbehaving.” Children test parents and parents grow so weary of it. In that same way, as God’s children, we test the limits and God must get so tired of it. We claim Christ as the Prince of Peace ...

798. The Child on the Freeway

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... of wind, and a sickening muffled sound. Quickly they turned and saw the child had fallen out of the car and was tumbling along the freeway. Panic! The mother slammed on the brakes and pulled the car to a wrenching stop, jumped out and ran full speed back toward the child. When they arrived at her motionless body, they noticed something strange. All of the traffic was stopped, lined up like a parking lot just behind her body. The child had not been hit by a car. In fact, the car that would have hit her was ...

799. All in the Family

Acts 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... to symbolize the Holy Spirit. However, as in most children’s programs, not everything went smoothly. One little boy became upset when he realized he had forgotten his flame. Not having a piece of cardboard to carry, he ran up and down the aisle flapping his arms, then stopped and announced for all to hear, “I’ve lost my flame!” A little girl ran up to him and tore off a piece of her flame and handed it to him. “No, you haven’t,” she said. “Take this.” When she saw the boy’s happiness at ...

800. Lying By the Side of the Road

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... the circumstances of why he was bent over that car and was weeping. On the way to work that morning the woman who had been driving that car had a heart attack and had fallen outside the car there by the busy expressway, and this man happened along and stopped to render help. Being a paramedic he gave her emergency treatment and for some 20 or 30 minutes, he was able to keep her alive. But after 25 or 30 minutes she died in spite of all the emergency treatment he was able to give. But the reason for ...

Showing results