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 1326 to 1350 of 4490 results

1326. The Importance of Unity

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Hubert Beck

Sometimes want to cry when hear non-Christians say that they have rejected the church because of its divisions. They may mean denominational divisions on occasion, and that is bad enough. But more frequently they mean the internal strife that characterizes all too many congregations. For it is, after all, on the local level that most people encounter the church, and when they see discord and argumentation marking a congregation, they want nothing to do with that. I want to cry because the very body of ...

1327. Jesus Makes House Calls

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Pentecost XII Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were ...

1328. Moving Fences

2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

During World War II a Protestant chaplain with the American troops in Italy became a friend of a local Roman Catholic priest. In time, the chaplain moved on with his unit and was killed in combat. The priest heard of his death, and knowing that the chaplain had no close family back in the States, he asked the military authorities if the chaplain could be buried in the cemetery behind his church. Permission was granted. But the priest ran into a problem with his own church authorities. They were sympathetic ...

1329. Running a Marathon

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Almost 20,000 runners competed in the 1986 New York Marathon. I don't know who won, but I do know who finished last. His name is Bob Wieland. While the winner completed the race in just over 2 hours, Bob Wieland finished in four days, two hours, forty-eight minutes, and seventeen seconds. Why is that remarkable? Because Bob ran with his arms. Seventeen years earlier while serving in Vietnam, Bob's legs were blown off in battle. So, when Bob competes, he sits on a 15 pound saddle, covers his fists with pads ...

1330. A Time to Dance

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

My maternal grandfather was a railroad engineer and a Presbyterian elder. During the 1930s he had three teenaged children. It was his custom on many Saturday nights to invite all the local teenagers into his large living room for a dance. He would hire a little three-piece band and roll back the rugs. Grandfather was thrilled that the teenaged girls would invite him to dance and then would break in on each other. Some of the other elders at the church did not share Grandfather's enthusiasm for those dances ...

1331. Surrender

Luke 23:44-49

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the Temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying in a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this, he breathed his last. Luke 23:44-46 By this time, after hanging on the cross for over six hours, the pain Jesus experienced had progressed to the point of dull numbness. By now, the voices had grown faint in his ears. The light grew ...

1332. Reviving Our Moral Responsibility

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Donald Macleod

Some years ago I spent several weeks during the summer indexing and classifying the Scripture texts in all the volumes of published sermons on my study shelves. Many interesting trends and preferences emerged from this tabulation; for example, among some 4,000 printed sermons only two preachers had ever done a sermon from the Book of Chronicles. And little wonder, someone might very well say. Here is an Old Testament book which in 65 chapters attempts an accounting of a confused and confusing mishmash of ...

1333. Song of a Prophet

Psalm 46:1-11

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the Forty-sixth Psalm is not only a student of Israel’s prophets; he stands in their ranks as one among them in his own right. What they have preached he sings, and songs have a way of lingering in the heart long after sermons are forgotten. Indeed, this one gives rise in the Sixteenth Century to Martin Luther’s marching song of the Reformation, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Political circumstances in Israel at the time of the poet’s writing are not clear. Some see the Psalm as associated ...

1334. Hector’s Case Against Christmas

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Erskine White

"In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee named Nazareth." (v. 26) I am going to begin the Advent season this year by telling you a part of the Christmas story which is unknown to most people because it was left out of the modern Bible. Of course, ministers have known about this for many years, but we have kept it secret because we didn’t want to shake anyone’s faith. But in this age of full and complete disclosure, I have finally decided to break with my fellow clergy’s ...

1335. The Scandal Of Redeeming Love

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

It seems that we have developed a tabloid mentality. That is to say, we seem to have developed an overzealous fascination for information about the private lives of public people. The real or supposed exploits of actors and actresses, politicians, entertainers, athletes or business moguls appear in lurid headlines on papers and magazines that are more interested in sensation than news. Photographers stalk the rich or famous to catch an image of an unguarded moment. Fact blended with fiction becomes the ...

1336. Paul - Persecutor, but Participant

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

Did you notice something different this week? If you have been present for the Lenten services during the past six weeks, you know that this is the first week you did not sing that song, "Were You There, When They Crucified My Lord?" And I cannot say that I was there, either. No, I did not see them nail him to the tree, and I was not with Jesus and the apostles on that night when he was betrayed, that night when he met with them and broke bread with them around a table in the upper room. In fact, in the ...

1337. Blessed With Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

This week two thoughts were foremost in my mind. One thought was quite normal for a preacher as well as a basic necessity. What shall I emphasize Sunday morning when I am using for my text the words of Jesus which he spoke on his last night upon earth to his disciples? "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you ..." The other thought was quite different. I remembered that 31 years ago last Wednesday I was ordained into the ministry at the fiftieth anniversary of Trinity Church. After my father gave ...

1338. When the Guest Becomes the Host

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

George Bass

One of my vivid memories of a trip to the Holy Land some years ago is of a visit - not at night, but during the day - to the upper room of a typical house in Jerusalem; it was supposed to be like the house where Jesus ate his last passover meal with his disciples. The room and its ambiance were not especially impressive; only the fact that it was an "upper room" made the connection with Holy Thursday and the Last Supper. There was no dining table, no preparations for a meal, and, of course, no people ...

1339. Twenty-First Century Reformation

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (v. 36) On October 31, 1517, the eve of All-Saints’ Day, at high noon, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. (We acknowledge that some scholars consider the story to be a pious legend.) It is easy to over-dramatize the event, but one cannot be unmindful of those hammer blows which echoed around the world. The Reformation had begun! Precisely, what was Luther doing? Existentially, he was listing 95 reasons ...

1340. On the Night when He Was Betrayed

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

There is a unique beauty and tenderness about the hour of sunset. The sun impresses its memory upon a darkening world by tinting the western sky with its most original and harmonious colors. The last hour of the day is its most beautiful and memorable. So it is in human relations. The tender beauty of sunset glows from the hour of farewell. We say goodbye to those who are not so intimate but reserve the last precious moments to those nearest our hearts. And after all else is forgotten we remember the ...

1341. What Is Truly Important

Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

David E. Leininger

What is truly important? That is a question we all have to deal with at some point or points in our lives. Over these past several weeks, more than a few folks in this part of the country have confronted it. In the face of the oncoming fury of one hurricane after another, evacuations from coastal communities, decisions come. On TV the other night, there was an interview with a husband and wife who moved to their new retirement home on one of the Carolina barrier islands just six weeks ago - in that six ...

1342. Doing Battle with Demons

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

David E. Leininger

A familiar story. One wag says it is the only one in scripture that deals with "deviled ham." Yuck, yuck. The narrative builds around the sensitivities of Jewish piety. Pigs were the personification of uncleanness.(1) They were easily associated with Gentile uncleanness. Tombs were also a source of uncleanness, and in Jewish areas they were whitewashed so that one might not come in contact with a tomb accidentally.(2) A man with no clothes on would be an outcast since nakedness was shameful.(3) Unclean! ...

1343. Who Could Forget That?

Mark 14:32-42

Sermon

King Duncan

A mother and her young daughter were driving to the zoo during Lent. On their way, the little girl began counting out loud the crosses on various church steeples. "Mom," she asked, interrupting her counting, "how many times did Jesus die?" "One time, dear," her mother answered. "Then why are there so many crosses?" the little girl asked. "To help us remember how much Jesus loved us," her mother replied, "He died on a cross for us." "Well," the child responded, "how could we forget something like THAT?" (1 ...

1344. Mentor, Mediator, Master

1 Timothy 2:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

When Karen Morse of Henniker, New Hampshire was about to graduate from high school in 1984, she revealed a startling fact she could not read or write at even the most basic level! Karen was in the National Honor Society, in "Who ™s Who in American High Schools," was class president, and was student council president. She was known as a superb orator and a model student. Yet, Karen-a severe dyslexic had developed elaborate ruses through 12 years of school to cover the fact that she couldn ™t even read ...

1345. How Do You Get To Heaven?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

The school bus was filled with children discussing various topics as children often do. Suddenly waxing serious, A.J. asked the group, "Where is heaven? I don't know." The group gave it some serious thought, but none of them seemed willing to answer. However, as it always works with kids of any age, one young man rose to his feet, turned to A.J. and began to address the group in response to the question of the hour. "That's easy," said Matthew. "The way you get to heaven is to go to the North Pole, put it ...

1346. How Do You Act In The Presence Of The Queen?

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Associated Press, Dateline, Washington, D.C.: A woman in our nation's capitol welcomed Queen Elizabeth II into her home in a warm and beautiful way. She gave her a hug. This simple act made headlines around the world because British protocol forbids commoners from touching a monarch. The queen, accompanied by first lady Barbara Bush and Washington Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon, visited 67-year-old retiree Alice Frazier's home in an area formerly plagued by drugs and crime but now rehabilitated. It was on this ...

1347. Jesus Prays For Us

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

In Yakima, Washington, sometime back a dying man made a strange request. On his deathbed, Grant Flory said to his family: "Get me to the Mustangs' playoffs. No matter what." He was referring to his old high school team, The Prosser Mustangs. So in early December, when the Mustangs played in Seattle's Kingdome, Flory's cremated remains were in attendance. His son Dwight approached the stadium gate wearing a camera bag that contained his father's urn. He was stopped by a guard who asked what was in the bag ...

1348. Responding Instead Of Reacting

Jeremiah 28:1-17

Sermon

Dr. B. Bruce Humphrey

Will Rodgers had a reputation that he could make anyone laugh. President Calvin Coolidge had a reputation that he never laughed at anything. Finally, Will Rodgers was invited to the White House. People wondered what would happen. Both men's reputations were at stake. It is said that Will Rodgers came through the reception line and was introduced to the President. "President Coolidge, this is Will Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers, this is President Calvin Coolidge." Will Rodgers leaned forward and said, "I'm sorry, I ...

1349. Entitlements

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you read about that Arab sheik out in California who has a limousine that is 66 Â½ feet long? True story. It's a white Lincoln Town Car that can carry 36 passengers. It's in two pieces with a hitch in the middle like a tractortrailer so it can bend around corners. It has five axles. A normal Town Car is 18 feet long; most city buses are only 40 feet but this baby is 66 Â½ feet long. It has two fax machines, cellular telephones, TV sets, love seats and a microwave. It's going to get a satellite ...

1350. I Smell Bread

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Mebane Pridgen McMahon

(Communion) Notes: For effect, I had many bread machines throughout the sanctuary and as the worship concluded, the hot fresh bread was ready. It was true. I smelled bread. Rev. Mebane Pridgen McMahon How many of you remember the popular sitcom of the 1970s called MASH? If you do, then you recall that it was about a group of doctors and nurses trying to make sense of their assignment to the 4077 Mash unit during the Korean War. In one particular episode, Major Winchester, who often protects himself from ...

Showing results