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 1176 to 1200 of 4943 results

1176. I Am the Vine

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . And those who love me, not those who are descendents of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, not those who have been circumcised, but those who love me, they are the branches. Now the disciples got that message. And we’re praying that we will get it today as we continue our series of sermons on the great claims of Jesus. Looking at this especially great claim of his, I am the true vine. I want us to lift out of that passage of scripture that we read a moment ago, three very simple words as pegs upon which to ...

1177. Shaped By The Fire

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . And because of what will take place in the life of those, who this day will confess their faith in Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives, we can no longer look at them the same. They have been changed. And they will continue to change and be perfected, just as we continue to change and be perfected under the hand of the Master Craftsman who is shaping and molding our lives through the Fire of the Holy Spirit. Today, these people come to put their lives into the hand of the Master Craftsman to be Shaped ...

1178. Room For A Savior?

Luke 2:22-33

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... left something to be desired. He stopped to ask directions along the way. The person he asked tried, but mistakenly steered him down the wrong road. The morning was pleasant and although the road seemed a little longer than the pastor had expected, he cheerfully continued on his way. Finally he arrived at a little white country church just as the Sunday School lesson was concluding. The pastor entered the church and greeted some of the people as he made his way to the pulpit. That morning he delivered a ...

1179. Joshua People: Remember, Remind and Recommit

Joshua 24:14-18, 2 Peter 1:10-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... God is still in charge. Just because times got tough doesn't mean God gave up. We need to remind ourselves and others that Jesus is still working. God will never take a vacation. As long as people seek God and even when the quit seeking God, God will continue to seek them. God in Christ is looking for people who are hurting, people who are lonely, people who are scared, people at a loss, people who are bound by addictions of every kind. And the message of Christ is this: "Come to all who are weary and heavy ...

1180. Your Face Gives You Away

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... this same glow is primarily spiritual. If you live in the presence of God, it’s going to show. Living in the presence of God doesn’t just affect how others see you, it also affects how you see them. It’s interesting that Jesus, who lived continually in the presence of God, was also the most accepting and loving man who ever lived. James Lee Burke wrote a book titled White Doves at Morning. Set in Civil War days, there is a character named Willie Burke. Burke is a white Southerner who is deeply opposed ...

1181. Luke 13:31-35

Luke 13:31-35

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... . How long is that? Until he “finishes” or “accomplishes” (“teleioo”) his work. Jesus dismisses Herod nothing more than a “fox” (“alopex”), a vulpine that symbolized craftiness and slyness in Hellenistic culture (even as it continues so today). A mere “fox” cannot interfere with or constrain the work that Jesus’ mission embodies. Luke’s readers would hear the resonance of the resurrection time frame in Jesus’ declaration that “on the third day I will finish my work” (v ...

1182. Why Should I Read The Bible? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... my power is made perfect in weakness.” What I did not know then, but have experienced now, is the powerful truth of that statement. II. The Word of God for the People of God. Thanks Be To God. The word of God is useful for instruction. “Continue in what you have learned and firmly believe, knowing from whom you have learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 3:14-15). From his mother Eunice ...

1183. Time to Get Wet

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... tell you this, but Christians are NOT water bears. If the living water we have received is not passed along to the next generation, there will be no next generation. Living water cannot be put on the shelf and saved forever. Living water must be poured out continually in order to keep the stream of the Spirit alive from one generation to the next. Just because you watered your garden last year doesn’t mean you don’t have to water it this year. Living water is not a flood that wipes out everything else ...

1184. Acts 2:1-21

Acts 2:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... is, all humanity, will receive God’s poured-out Spirit: men and women, young and old, slave and free. Luke’s text adds another “and they shall prophesy” (v.18) to Joel’s original, further emphasizing that this Spirit received is a prophetic Spirit. As Peter continues to cite Joel, the prophet’s words describe the events that will unfold in heaven and earth as the day of the Lord grows ever nearer. The Holy Spirit, whose power had been seen and heard by this crowd, is the beginning of a new age ...

1185. More Than a Book

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... repentance, but he that is coming after me is mightier than I; He will baptize with the Holy Spirit with power.” More than a book, a Bible is a revelation and encounter. No wonder Paul urged Timothy to stay in touch with his roots in the Word, “Continue in what you have learned - from childhood you have been acquainted with sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” In the Bible we meet the living God and that leads to a second point: that in the Bible ...

1186. More Than We Are

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... be even more because of Jesus Christ. Most of us want to be more than we are, don’t we? It’s true throughout life. Little children dream of the day when they will be youths; youth of the time when they will mature to adulthood; and adults continue to burn with desires, expressed and unexpressed ambitions. From cradle to crematory it’s the same story: we want to be more than we are. The question is, how can we? In the healthy sense of the word, how can we be more than we are? IN IMAGINATION IMAGINATION ...

1187. Who Will Cast the First Stone?

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to shape how we act in the present moment. Lurking within and without is the power of goodness and mercy as well as the destructive power of sin. Too often, sin prevails and we are ready to cast stones, to take the hard-line, to condemn and punish, to continue to the endless cycle of evil. III. DELIVERANCE That leads to my final point: The deliverance of Jesus. That deliverance broke the cycle of evil, and it is only that kind of action that will break the cycle of sin and evil in my life, in your life and ...

1188. Barriers to Grace

Exodus 6:28--7:7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... was obstinate toward me personally, but there seemed to be a barrier there that could not be penetrated. As far as I know that man never professed faith in Jesus Christ. I always wondered, with a deep sense of sorrow if his heart was not so hardened by his continual refusal of the gospel that he could not now respond. There is a mystery in all of this, but it’s the kind of mystery that we need to grapple with, because it has to do with our own eternal destiny. Are you hearing me? This is serious business ...

1189. Let God Be God - As if It Could Be Otherwise

Exodus 7:14-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... aluminum.” We may have learned a lot in our life, even a lot of doctrine and theology, but unfortunately most of us have never learned that there is a connection between sin and suffering. If we’ve learned it, we don’t act as though we know it. We continue blithely on our way, living life as we please to live it, giving in- to the passions and desires of our lives, forgetting that there is a day of reckoning not in terms of judgment on some final day - though that is certain but even now. There is a ...

1190. John 16:12-15

John 16:5-16

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... all truth” of the Christ event to the disciples. Just as Jesus had described himself as “the truth” (14:6), so is the Spirit that will come to the disciple community “the Spirit of truth.” The guidance that the Spirit will provide is the continued revelation of the truth of Jesus himself. While the Spirit will be a genuine new experience of the divine presence in the world, and as such will reveal new insights to the disciple community, nevertheless it is also true that the Spirit is completely ...

1191. When Nature Says No

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , when nature says “No” to some “Yes” within us. However we explain it, whatever reasons come forth, and no matter how convincing our theories, when you press the issue, God does have to at least allow things, and we can’t escape that. So, our hearts continue to hurt. So, my first word today is: Recognize that there is a tragic dimension to life, and even though you might reason about it in a satisfactory way, still all of our reasoning does not alleviate the pain of it. We simply have to live ...

1192. Characteristics of the Church, Part 2

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... even know. They walked up the subway platform, and Scooter was bleeding profusely. A Boston socialite, you know they don’t care, she took off a white mohair sweater, wrapped it around the dog, and said “Sir, do you know you dog is bleeding profusely?” The young man continued. “A college student you know they don’t care came up and said, ‘Can I help?’ He went and got a taxi. A taxi driver you know they don’t care came rushing do a picked up the bleeding dog, gave his arm to the blind man and ...

1193. The Uniting Peace of Christ

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... armies down and commune at the table of brotherhood? If that sounds radical, then these words were that radical 2000 years ago. High walls and deep hostility continue today. It continues in the Church. Dismal reality of World Wide Communion Sunday is that the table of our Lord still has restrictions on it in most denominations. The Church continues to be the most segregated eating place in America. Across society, fear has driven us to flock behind gated communities, separate the haves from the have-nots ...

1194. What is the Connection Between Church and State?

Mark 12: 14-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... office for President and presidents have been saying it ever since. There are Biblical passages etched in stone everywhere. To purge Washington of God’s name would take more tax dollars than we can afford. It would even alter our currency itself, which continues to proclaim “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Getting God out of public life is proving to be more difficult than we ever imagined. So a more recent tactic and, in my opinion, a more offensive one is to render public religious statements meaningless. Justice ...

1195. What Is the Future of United Methodism?

John 2:12-22

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . It sort of reminds me of a cartoon that I either saw or is just in my mind. On a deserted island there sits a bishop and one leader of a denominational agency where once there were many, many United Methodists living. They look at one another and continue to say, “We still don’t count numbers.” I wonder if a bishop and a general board executive will be consoled by that argument when they wake up one day to discover they are the only remaining members of this denomination. That is denial as far as I ...

1196. The Dynamics of Being a Dad

Ephesians 6:1-4, Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... it said: If fathers and mothers both take their child to church there is a 75% chance the child will grow up to be an active church participant as an adult. If fathers take their child to church alone, there is still a 50% chance the child will continue the practice as an adult. If the mother takes the child to church alone the percentage drops to 15%. If parents send their child to church, the odds drop to 9%. Dads, granddads, step-dads, male mentors—you play a vital role in the spiritual development of ...

1197. Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... themes and influences. Now you could at least sound like you had read the whole book . . . for 3 minutes. Unfortunately, relying on Cliff-Note knowledge was never enough to get you through any thorough essay exam. In today’s epistle text, the Hebrews’ author continues his sermon on steadfast faith to his spiritually wary audience. In the middle of this sermon he offers a quick Cliff Notes version of biblical history. But like the Cliff Notes of our youth, if you based your entire repertoire of biblical ...

1198. Cheering from the Stands

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... gave their lives that we might have the faith that is ours today. I would like for us to focus for a few moments on this cloud of witnesses in order that we might better understand why they can serve as such great encouragement for us. I want to continue where we left off last week so that the faith of our ancestors might motivate us to live more deeply the faith that they preserved for us. These heroes of our faith, first of all, accomplished great things not because of who they were but because of what ...

1199. Life’s Purpose Is Often Hidden!

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... . The guru of purpose-driven living, Rick Warren, and some Prosperity Gospel preachers do not seem to have heard this point. Pastor Warren makes what you and I do as Christians a bit too important in contending that a Christian's mission has eternal significance, that it continues Jesus' mission on earth.5 I think you have to get more real about life! If you are not, you are likely to rob God of the glory he deserves. You have to get real about life, what will be accomplished by all our human strivings. The ...

1200. The Porch Light's On

Isaiah 60:1-6

Sermon

Tony Everett

... a manger; a guiding star of hope; a messiah on a cross; a folded shroud in an empty tomb. That light is the glory of God's own self. In our text, Isaiah proclaims: "The glory of the Lord has risen upon you" (Isaiah 60:1). He continues that although darkness may seem to cover the earth, God promises that: "The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you" (Isaiah 60:2). For the past twenty centuries, Christians have celebrated Epiphany, the glorious good news that the light has already come ...

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