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 801 to 825 of 975 results

801. The Weak and the Strong

Romans 14:1--15:13

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... of the believer is itself spoken of as evil and blasphemed. The weak may thereby attribute to Satan what is actually of God, and this borders on the sin against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:23–30). 14:17–18 The direct admonition of the foregoing verses now yields to a positive formulation of the gospel. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (v. 17). The kingdom of God is a rare expression in Paul (occurring some 10 times), which ...

802. Food Sacrificed to Idols

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... of love as the hallmark of Christian character and community. For now, he makes a play on the imagery of “increase” by saying that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up in order to expose the difference between that which yields arrogance or pride and that which produces positive, constructive results. 8:2 Paul remarks that knowledge is of no value in itself. Knowledge for mere self-aggrandizement reveals a deeper ignorance, and preoccupation with self-glorifying knowledge is pretentious. Paul ...

803. The Rights of an Apostle

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... serves the commander; the vinedresser plants a vineyard; and the flock-herd tends a flock. In each instance some natural benefit is derived from the activity. Thus, from the by-product of the activities—warfare produced victory and booty; vineyards yielded fruit; flocks brought milk—the ones responsibly engaged in the activities educed an advantage without harm to the enterprise. In other words, Paul sees nothing wrong with taking support from the Corinthians, yet he refrains from enjoying the natural ...

804. The Lord's Supper

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... an evangelistic cast, for one was not merely receiving the elements for one’s own sake (or the sake of the community). The believers gave themselves to the celebration as a means of proclaiming the death of the Lord, a death that yielded mysterious salvific benefits for all who heard and believed the proclamation. Note, the Supper is not presented as a means of strengthening believers so that they could proclaim the Lord’s death; rather, participation in the Supper is understood to be that proclamation ...

805. Orderly Worship

1 Corinthians 14:26-40

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... that the whole church is to be involved in discerning the message(s) of the prophets. 14:30–31 Curiously from what Paul writes in these verses, some prophecy is recognized to be more urgent than other prophecy, since at times one speaker is to yield to another. The prophets are assumed to be in control of their minds and their actions to the point of responsibility. Exactly how this process would have worked in practice is lost to later readers of the letter, although in other ancient Christian literature ...

806. The Throne in Heaven

Revelation 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... has things under control. John is summoned into heaven, the setting of his visions. It is a place entered only by angelic invitation and through the door of a prophetic trance (I was in the Spirit). John’s vision constitutes a religious experience and therefore yields spiritual power for the seer and spiritual edification for those with an ear to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Heaven is home to God, and before Christ’s heavenly enthronement (cf. Rev. 5) also to the Evil One (12:7). In ...

807. The Seals

Revelation 6:1-17

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

The judgment of God against a fallen world is one yield of the death and exaltation of Christ. The breaking of the seals, which opens the scroll and declares God’s decree of salvation, occurs as an essential part of Christ’s entrance into the heavenly throneroom. The seal judgments, and the trumpet judgments that follow, do not depict a sequence ...

808. The Three Angels

Revelation 14:6-13

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... to the eternal gospel is to fear God … give God glory … and worship God. The call to repentance is not made in a vacuum; it is issued in the light of God’s vindication of the exalted Christ. Further, it is issued in the confidence that the positive yield of responding to the gospel is salvation from those evils that undermine the creator’s good intentions for all creation. The worship of God, to whom glory is given rather than to the beast (cf. 13:8, 15; cf. Rom. 1:18–23), is “the fruit in ...

809. The Fall of Babylon

Revelation 18:1-24

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... by its visage, for this angel had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. The glory of the angel’s coming is in stark contrast with the gloom of its message. Yet, John’s most critical theological point is embedded within this contrast: the yield of Babylon’s gloom is God’s glory. The gospel is that the Lord has triumphed over the likes of Babylon and that God has liberated the Lamb’s faithful from Babylon’s evils to serve God forever. 18:2–3 The great angel’s dirge ...

810. The Rider on the White Horse

Revelation 19:11-21

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... within the heavenly realm at Christ’s exaltation and what has been constantly predicted by the seer in Revelation are now envisioned as a concrete reality. The conclusion to God’s judgment of the anti-Christian kingdom and its ruling elite yields to God’s final and full redemption of the Christian kingdom and its ruling priesthood, which has been created for earth by Christ (cf. 5:10). John’s theological point resists any teaching that spiritualizes the revelation of God’s salvation within ...

811. The New Jerusalem

Revelation 21:1-27

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... program, since it speaks of restoration as an intimate relationship. In this sense, John refers to the two eschatological cities, old Babylon and new Jerusalem, as metaphors of human existence. “Babylon” denotes the world of human actions and attitudes, which yield a manner of life at odds with God’s intentions for a good creation. Finally, then, unbelief is a decision against God’s good intentions for humanity; Babylon’s self-destruction symbolizes sin’s effect on the unbelieving world ...

812. David Spares Saul's Life

1 Samuel 24:1-22

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... 54 [1992], pp. 29–38) introduces an interesting parallel between Saul’s attempts to kill David and Jonathan—his sons—and Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. He posits a son-slaying “succession myth.” “A structural analysis of the Genesis and Samuel narratives would yield the following basic scheme that we might term a succession myth: 1) God’s demands impinge on the movement from one generation to the next. 2) The father attempts to kill the son. 3) The son is obedient. 4) The son does not die ...

813. David's Lament for Saul and Jonathan

2 Samuel 1:17-27

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... be mocked (1 Sam. 31:4); that mockery should take place in Philistia after his death added to David’s sadness. The mourning of the nation was such that the land itself must share it (v. 21). It was unthinkable that the mountains of Gilboa carry on yielding crops as if nothing had happened when the prime of Israel’s manhood had been slain on their slopes. In verse 22 the poem focuses on the fact that both Saul and Jonathan died bravely. Their weapons had been used to good effect before they were stopped ...

814. Eliphaz

Job 4:1-5:27

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... 19 Job should accept God’s discipline because, although painful, it leads ultimately to restoration. Eliphaz promises divine healing and protection. All that stands in the way of retribution, he seems to say, is Job’s unwillingness to admit his wrong and yield to God’s disciplinary punishment. If Job would submit, then God’s protection would firmly surround him as it did before his suffering began. From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will befall you. Numerical admonitions such ...

815. Eliphaz's Second Speech to Job

Job 15:1-35

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... his time the wicked receives judgment for his sins so that his branches will not flourish. The verse is an almost exact negation of Psalm 1:3, where a tree metaphor describes the righteous: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” The vocabulary is quite different, but the sentiments quite parallel (in a negative fashion). Like a vine, the wicked puts forth grapes that are stripped off before they ripen ...

816. Eliphaz's Third Speech to Job

Job 22:1-30

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... :34, as did Bildad (18:15) and Zophar (20:26). Job, however, never employs fire imagery in this way. Submit and Be at Peace 22:21–22 Submit. The opening imperative of verse 21 (Heb. hasken) is variously translated “Submit” (NIV), “Yield” (NASB), “Make peace” (NJB), or “Agree” (RSV). According to Clines, “this is the language one uses for friends who have fallen out with one another” rather than repentance or submission. [D. J. A. Clines graciously provided the author with an electronic ...

817. Elihu

Job 32:1--37:24

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... means “covers the roots of the sea.” The most popular options are to read the verb kissah as meaning the opposite, “uncover” (Gordis, Job, pp. 421–22; Hartley, Job, p. 476), or to render kissah as the noun kisso, “his throne,” yielding the translation: “the roots of the sea are his throne” (Pope, Job, p. 237). The NIV has chosen to consider “lightning” as the subject of kissah, “cover,” and to understand the illuminating effect over the surface of the “sea.” It remains ...

818. The Lord Speaks

Job 38:1--41:34

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... depict the habitat and habit of behemoth. The hills bring him their produce. The hippo leaves the river at night and ranges up to six miles in search of vegetation. The verb rendered “bring” more literally means “raise up,” so that NRSV reads “the mountains yield food.” Since behemoth is an herbivore, the wild animals play nearby and have no reason to fear him as predator. Under the lotus plants he lies. During the day the hippo populates the pools of the rivers, keeping moist and out of the sun ...

819. Blessed Are Those Who Meditate on the Lord’s Instruction

Psalm 1:1-6

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... because it is planted (lit. “transplanted”) by streams (lit. “[irrigation] channels”) of water. This word choice implies that the tree is able to transcend natural circumstances, but not because of its natural or inherent abilities. The phrase, which yields its fruit in season (lit. “in its time”), is a simple image illustrating a profound truth: while believers may be able to sustain spiritual life through times of adversity, they may be productive only at certain times, whose determination ...

820. Zion’s Divine Defender

Psalm 48:1-14

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... the whole earth because of its inherent qualities. The mountains around it are, in fact, higher (cf. 125:1–2), and it would probably go unnoticed were it not for the temple and its resident, the Great King. This geographical observation yields an important theological point, namely that Yahweh’s choice (including his choice of people) is not determined by the inherent qualities of what he is choosing. The mountain and its city are to enjoy international acclaim solely because their patron deity (every ...

821. Praise to the God of Zion as Creator and God of Agricultural Fertility

Psalm 65:1-13

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... enrich it abundantly: This verse balances—poetically and conceptually—Yahweh’s direct intervention in the sustaining of creation. It also hints at the notion of natural law: “The divine stream is full of water; you prepare its grain, for thus you establish it (i.e., the land)” (lit.). The land yields grain because Yahweh established it to do so.

822.

Psalm 85:1-13

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... as agricultural produce (Ps. 72:3, 7; Isa. 32:15–17; cf. also Ps. 36:5–6; Hos. 2:19–23). These relational attributes are mentioned in explicit connection with agricultural production: The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest (cf. Ps. 67:6). For worshipers of Yahweh the religious-social world and the natural world are not distinct, because one God superintends both. How humans act has direct bearing on the natural ecosystem. But the psalm climaxes not with a fruitful ...

823. The Incomparable God of Condescension and Exaltation

Psalm 113:1-9

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... servants. Perhaps we should envisage a Levitical choir singing the prescribed words of the psalm on behalf of a congregation. In Jewish tradition, Psalms 113–118 form “the Hallel” to be sung at Passover (cf. Mark 14:26; Matt. 26:30). The psalm yields no conclusive signs of being either pre- or postexilic. 113:1–3 The psalm’s structure consists of three strophes with three Hebrew lines each. The psalm opens and closes with “hallelujah,” “Yah” being a shortened form of the divine name. The ...

824. The Maker of Heaven and Earth Praised and Invoked to Bless Israel

Psalm 115:1-18

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... be fair to expect a liturgical song to nuance its statements and detail each logical inference as though it were a theological treatise. The psalm nowhere actually equates the gods with their idols. But it does claim that “trust” directed toward idols yields no observable or sensory effects. This approach is consistent with that of other OT passages. In the contest between Yahweh and the gods, the issue is not metaphysical but practical; it focuses on a deity’s effectiveness, not its existence per se ...

825. Peace for Jerusalem, the City of Pilgrims

Psalm 122:1-9

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... (84:9; 132:1–18, esp. vv. 11–12, which also mention the Davidic dynasty’s “throne” and their need to keep legal statutes). According to Psalm 72, the Davidic king was to be the supreme human judge in the land. His exercise of judgment was to yield “peace” (Hb. šālôm, “prosperity” in the NIV of vv. 3, 7). This connection helps us to understand in Psalm 122 the transition from judgment to peace in verses 6–8. 122:6–9 As the psalm makes this move, we can see there is no peace without ...

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