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 101 to 125 of 4977 results

101. The Power Of God Helps Us Keep The Faith

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

Call To Worship If you have ever felt that God has forgotten you, and left you to face life's problems alone; if you have ever tried to carry out God's will for your life, but did not feel adequate to the task; then welcome to this time of worship. May each of us experience a renewal of our faith, a reminder of God's constant love and presence, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Collect Eternal God, you know our needs and concerns. We know that you stand ready to hear our prayers whenever we turn to you. We ...

102. Keeping the Christian Faith

Matthew 6:25-34

Illustration

Michael B. Brown

A French prince in the Middle Ages was asked if he were faithful to his wife. He answered: "Yes ...frequently." The line is humorous but the point of the story is anything but. Sometimes in life it is all too difficult to find someone to trust, someone to believe in. Even spouses, parents and dearest of friends can let us down. But the Christian faith teaches that when all the others have come and gone, God remains constant -- "the same yesterday, today and forever." God is always in our corner, always as ...

103. The Moon Keeps Shining

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Illustration

The story is told of a judge who had been frequently ridiculed by a conceited lawyer. When asked by a friend why he didn't rebuke his assailant, he replied, "In our town lives a widow who has a dog. And whenever the moon shines, it goes outside and barks all night." Having said that, the magistrate shifted the conversation to another subject. Finally someone asked, "But Judge, what about the dog and the moon?" "Oh," he replied, "the moon went on shining - that's all."

104. Service Keeps Us Alive

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in 109 A.D. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow. Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, "This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor." They did; they laid modern ...

105. Keeping Perspective

Illustration

Staff

The following illustration, which appears to have it's origins in the mid 90's, is an urban legend and though this purports to be an "actual" event, it is not. In fact the legend is so ubiquitous that even Wikipedia covered it's veracity. No version of this story has ever been corroborated. The best use of this legend would be to introduce it as such. Here is the common version. “This is the transcript of an ACTUAL radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of ...

106. Keeping It Fresh

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 9:14-17

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

Usually the orthodox rabbis of Europe boasted distinguished rabbinical genealogies, but Rabbi Yechiel of Ostrowce was an exception. He was the son of a simple baker and he inherited some of the forthright qualities of a man of the people. Once, when a number of rabbis had gathered at some festivity, each began to boast of his eminent rabbinical ancestors. When Rabbi Yechiel's turn came, he replied gravely, "In my family, I'm the first eminent ancestor. His colleagues were shocked by this piece of impudence ...

107. Promises You Can Keep

Illustration

Staff

A number of years ago the Douglas Aircraft company was competing with Boeing to sell Eastern Airlines its first big jets. War hero Eddie Rickenbacker, the head of Eastern Airlines, reportedly told Donald Douglas that the specifications and claims made by Douglas's company for the DC-8 were close to Boeing's on everything except noise suppression. Rickenbacker then gave Douglas one last chance to out-promise Boeing on this feature. After consulting with his engineers, Douglas reported that he didn't feel he ...

108. Keep You Mouth Shut

Illustration

Staff

Kondraty Ryleyev was sentenced to be hanged for his part in an unsuccessful uprising against the Russian czar Nicholas I in December 1825. But the rope broke and Ryleyev, bruised and battered, fell to the ground, got up, and said, "In Russia they do not know how to do anything properly, not even how to make a rope." An accident of this sort usually resulted in a pardon, so a messenger was sent to the czar to know his pleasure. Nicholas asked, "What did he say?" "Sire, he said that in Russia they do not ...

109. Keep Up the Pace

Illustration

Grant Lovejoy

A recent television documentary pointed out that the cheetah survives on the African plains by running down its prey. The big cat can sprint seventy miles per hour. But the cheetah cannot sustain that pace for long. Within its long, sleek body is a disproportionately small heart, which causes the cheetah to tire quickly. Unless the cheetah catches its prey in the first flurry, it must abandon the chase. Sometimes Christians seem to have the cheetah's approach to ministry. We speed into projects with great ...

110. Keep In Touch

Humor Illustration

Sometimes we feel temporarily out of touch with God. We are like Jimmy Carter's phone in the conversation between Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin. Begin was talking with Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office when he noticed the three phones on Carter's desk. One was platinum, one was red, and one was gold. Begin joked, "What are those phones really for?" "Well," Carter said. "The platinum connects me to my brother Billy in the Plains. It's my way of looking out for him. The red phone has a direct line to Russia ...

God's world can be experienced only in wonder. The Christian should be struck by wonder about his own being. We ought to have a sense of wonder about the world, about one another, about all of humanity.

Karl Barth

112. Keeping the Sabbath Holy

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

Observe the Sabbath: God now directs Jeremiah to issue a challenge concerning the Sabbath. To many modern readers, Sabbath observance may seem almost trivial in relationship to the other charges God through Jeremiah levels at Judah: murder, child sacrifice, idolatry. However, the Sabbath was considered the sign of the Mosaic covenant (Exod. 31:13, 17). In a sense it was the pinnacle of the law during the Old Testament period. It was established at creation (Gen. 2:1–3) and mandated as the fourth ...

113. Keeping the Sabbath Holy

Jeremiah 17:19-27

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The people are exhorted to observe the Sabbath (17:19–27; Sabbath laws are given in Exodus 20:8–11; 23:12; 34:21; Num. 15:32–36). “Be careful” is a frequent admonition in Deuteronomy. The instruction is to desist from public trading and from work generally. Reform and renewal start with specifics. Some have suggested that of the Ten Commandments Jeremiah singled out the fourth because it was the easiest to observe; besides, it was a tangible sign of the covenant (Exod. 31:16–17). As with God’s instructions ...

It's easy enough to have a clear conscience—all it takes is a fuzzy memory.

James S. Hewett

115. Keep Digging

Illustration

Robert V. Ozment

One day, in the midst of writing a book, Dr. A.J. Cronin convinced himself that he was a failure. He told himself that his efforts were wasted, that even the thought that he could write anything worth reading was sheer futility. He took his manuscript and cast it into a trash barrel. Later, while walking, he came upon Angus, an old farmer who approved of Cronin’s work as an author. Angus was digging in a bog, trying to rescue it from the swamp. When Cronin told him that he had given up the idea of writing ...

116. Gifts That Keep Giving

Illustration

Charles Swindoll

Some gifts you can give this Christmas are beyond monetary value: Mend a quarrel, dismiss suspicion, tell someone, "I love you." Give something away anonymously. Forgive someone who has treated you wrong. Turn away wrath with a soft answer. Visit someone in a nursing home. Apologize if you were wrong. Be especially kind to someone with whom you work. Give as God gave to you in Christ, without obligation, or announcement, or reservation, or hypocrisy.

117. Promises to Keep

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

The Days of Our Loves, Herod Style If you like those soap opera type stories of dysfunctional families or maybe royal palace intrigue, you need look no further than the New Testament, the histories of Josephus, and the lives of the Herod Family. Herod the Great was the patriarch of this particular and peculiar family and, as you may recall, he ruled Palestine from about 36 BCE to 4 BCE. History records that he was, quite literally, an evil genius. He was a great builder who was responsible for rebuilding ...

118. Keep the Goal In Sight

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Do you remember Florence Chadwick? She tried to swim the English Channel some years ago and she almost made it. In fact, she asked to be taken out of the water just a few hundred yards from the shore she was trying to reach. The people who had watched her courageous attempts asked her, “Why couldn’t you make it? You had swum for miles. Why didn’t you make those last few yards?” She answered, “I could have made it but a fog bank moved in and I couldn’t see the shore. If I could have seen the shore, I would ...

119. When Is Being Right Wrong?

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Rick Brand

... and before long the law begins to reveal our failures. There is a book by two professors of theology in New England on the theology of baseball, and one of them says that in baseball, there is no grace. Baseball is all law and rules. We have the rules. We keep all these statistics. We know the score and we know the results we want. It is all law. What will you do this time at bat? The batter comes to the plate with the intention of getting a hit. We celebrate and honor and reward highly anyone who can get ...

120. Sermons

Sermon

John R. Bodo

... could let him try, just for a day. And whenever I realize that I am inwardly "playing God," questioning God's competence, disapproving God's action or lack of action, I try to imagine what a mess I would make if I had to govern the universe. It helps to keep in mind that "universe" means "one verse." All we know, all we can know, is just one stanza of the endless, cosmic song about the power of God and the wisdom of God. And while all is not right with the world, far from it, the Scriptures proclaim with a ...

121. When Tragedy Strikes

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

James W. Moore

... learned hard, last Sunday – is that you can never be sure that you'll ever see someone again in this lifetime. So it's best to keep up to date in all of your relationships. If you need to say, "I love you," say it. If you need to say, "I'm sorry ... 't that sad? Isn't that pitiful? Once I almost told her… The point is clear: Life can be so fragile… and we need to keep up to date on our relationships. Jerry Eckles did that very well. He was a relational person who related in a wonderful and wholesome way ...

122. Who's Number One?

Exodus 20:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... calls them "The Ten Words." Yet as simple and short as they are, most of us don't know them and you obviously can't keep commandments that you don't know. A Gallup Poll a few years ago revealed that while 85% of Americans believe that the Ten Commandments are ... primarily a God of love, who wants us to love Him and share His love with others. Jesus himself said, "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me." (John 14:21, NASB) If that is true, you can't separate the law of God from the ...

123. The Power of the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... The Story. As many of you know who love to read, if you have no friction, you have no story. But if a story remains in friction, it can’t move forward. Scripture allows Jesus and will allow YOU to get back on the right track. God’s voice keeps you moving in the right directions. God’s voice in the wilderness calls you continually back into faith even in the midst of conflict. For all of us as Christians, Jesus the anointed one, brings us too out of our times of conflict and into the promised land of ...

124. Joy in the Journey

119:129-136

Sermon

Michael Milton

... kept? What power can overcome all other powers? It is the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where shall we access His Spirit? In prayer through the Word. We must not treat the Word like a lucky rabbit’s foot. That is not what this means. Some of us keep the Bible on a table, like an ornament or a holy trinket, to drive away evil spirits. The devil laughs at such things. We need it, not just on a table, but written on our hearts. That happens through careful listening to God in it. Are there unholy habits ...

125. Is Sunday Just a Fun Day?

Exodus 20:7-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... we to work like God worked, but we are to quit working and rest just as God did. Somebody once made this observation about work: "Keep your eye on the ball, your shoulder to the wheel, your ear to the ground, and your nose to the grindstone. Now try to work ... be the presence of worship. Remember it is not only a day of rest, it is a day of remembrance: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." You beware of the barrenness of a busy life that majors in work and minors in worship. We are not only to stop ...

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