Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
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 1426 to 1450 of 4957 results
Sermon
Mark Trotter
... are being changed to gold. The place is packed now. The pastor is advertising this because, he says, he wants to attract crowds. I don't know what you are going to do with a gold tooth. It's difficult to liquidate that asset. Nevertheless they are claiming that's what is happening. Although the newspaper article said that none of this has been authenticated. So I wouldn't go up there, if I were you. But the crowds are growing. That is what Jesus is concerned about. Crowds are attracted to miracles, even if ...
1427. Have You Heard?
Matthew 4:12-23
Sermon
Mark Trotter
... experience a transcendent presence in nature, this mystery that is greater than ourselves and is revealed in the beauty of nature. But that is not the way God revealed himself in the Bible. The Bible is not a book of nature poetry. It is a book of history. The claim of the Bible is that the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and the God of Jesus, speaks to us more in events, historical events, than through nature. He speaks to us in conscience, rather than in sunsets. But it is still a lovely hymn, and I ...
1428. Epiphany 7
Matthew 5:43-48, Matthew 5:33-37, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23, Leviticus 19:1-37
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... a church is inadequate and untrustworthy. To have a foundation of Christ is to look at the Christian and the church as a building project or a process. No Christian or church is ready-made: it is constantly in the making, in the building. Therefore, no one can claim to have arrived, or to be finished, or perfect. 2. Temple (v. 16). If the church can be compared to a building, the individual life can be likened to a temple. A temple is the housing for God. It is the physical container for the Spirit of God ...
1429. Easter 5
Acts 7:54--8:1a, 1 Peter 2:4-12, John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14, Acts 17:1-9, Acts 17:10-15
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... his people in heaven. It is a place large enough for all believers in God and Christ - "many rooms." The nature of heaven is given - it is being with Christ - "Where I am you may be also" (v. 3). 2. One way. Unapologetically Jesus makes the claim of absolute uniqueness. He is the way, truth, and life. He emphasizes this by adding that no one comes to God except by him. Pluralists will have trouble with verse 6. How then shall we consider non-Christian religions? What does this verse mean to the evangelism ...
1430. Proper 9
Gen 24:1-67, Zech 9:9-13, Rom 7:7-25; 8:1-17, Mt 11:1-19, 25-30
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... and simple in giving it to people who could understand and accept it. 2. Knowledge of God (v. 27). Jesus frankly and flatly says he has everything of God and knows everything about God. And he alone has this truth - "no one knows except...." Here is a man making a claim that leads us to say he is insane or divine. Which is it? A Christian is one who says the latter. Jesus can say this because he shares the deity. If he alone knows the Father, he alone can reveal the Father to us. Why then do we look to ...
1431. All Saints Day
Revelation 7:9-17, 1 John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... the question of identity? Who are we? Do we understand ourselves? John removes all questions and doubts about our identity when he claims that we are the children of God. Yes, we are sinners, but now God's recommended sinners are made into God's ... that God is our Father and we are his children. What does this mean or imply? What are the privileges and responsibilities of this claim? Something very important is involved in being a child of God. Outline: If God is our Father - a. He knows, cares, and provides ...
1432. Christ the King
Psalm 100:1-5, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34, Matthew 25:31-46, Ezekiel 34:1-31
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... weak." d. Feed you who are strong - "I will feed them with justice." Epistle: Ephesians 1:15-23 1. No Greater One (1:15-23). Need: In this passage, Paul makes the claim that there is no one, yes, no one, greater than Jesus. In today's religious climate, this may be hard to swallow. Many today would consider this claim to be outrageous bigotry. The trend today is to be tolerant of other religions in terms of pluralism and universalism. The truth of Christ's uniqueness needs to be proclaimed boldly. Outline ...
1433. Proper 15
John 6:25-59, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, Deuteronomy 8:1-20
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
... side of the lake that they came not for spiritual but for more physical food. He identifies himself as the Bread of Life. If they will come to him, they will never hunger nor thirst. The religious leaders objected to his claim, for his statement implied that he was more than a human. Jesus defends his claim by saying that he is the living bread from heaven and whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life. By such eating he will be with them and they will be in him. This union deals with the ...
1434. The Cry for Help
Matthew 15:21-28
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... man and woman. None of us has, because of the family we were born into or our genes or our hard work, any prior claim on God. Jesus uses far sharper language for some of the religious leaders of his own people than he does for any Gentile - ... if he helped her but instead she simply repeats her plea for help. Perhaps I am a dog but even the dogs get fed. I have no claim on God but appeal entirely to the divine mercy. Jesus does give her what she asks because, as he says, "Great is your faith!" How she may ...
1435. History: His Story
Matthew 21:33-46
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... to the insane asylum? He walked in the front door and immediately met a man with his hand in his coat who claimed to be Napoleon. "Who told you you were Napoleon?" the visitor inquired. "God did," the man testified. Whereupon a man in the other room said rather ... angrily, "No, I didn't either!" History is like that. Humans are mad! They claim to be more than they are and in the end, they become less than they were. Put here to be creatures, we try to ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... to steer those in whom he entrusted the care of the first generation of believers away from obsessing out over the exact day, the precise moment, when he would return as the triumphant Son of Man to claim his kingdom. That's not the role, not the mindset, not the heart-set that Jesus wants his followers to claim. Instead Jesus insists that no one, not one human being, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son, is privy to the divine timetable for the coming eschaton. Only the one who determined when the ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... his life. In the first part of his life, as he describes it, Paul wasn't just a nominal member of Jewish faith and culture. He was a stellar, singular example of religious and social purity. Socially a member of the tribe of Benjamin, he could claim royal roots (albeit with the ill-fated Saul). Religiously as a Pharisee he was a learned, observant, extraordinarily pious Jew. Not only that but Paul could boast he had actively worked on behalf of protecting the purity of Judaism by being a persecutor of the ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... , hesed and hasnea are the qualities God expects of God's own people. God has a higher standard for us. Just as Micah spoke to the covenant community of Israel then, Micah speaks just as directly to the covenant community called the church today. The church claims to live in a covenant relationship with God through the gift of Jesus the Christ. Through Jesus, the only one who could wholly fulfill the qualities of mishpat, hesed, and hasnea in a human life, the door to a right relationship with God has once ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... other common Anglo-sounding name. The voice, however, has that lilting, musical rise and fall to it that clearly indicates the speaker's native language is one of the dialects of India or southeast Asia. Immediately your ear knows that while this voice might be claiming to be Roger from Bank of America, he's one of the thousands of outsourced workers calling you up from a huge office in Calcutta or New Delhi or Bangkok. Despite a familiar-sounding name, our ear instantly picks up on the dissonance between ...
1440. Come Back
Luke 21:5-38
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... Maybe some of you remember it. A woman from Douglas County, Georgia went on vacation to Greece for 2? weeks. When she returned home, she saw the lights on and a strange car in her driveway. She called police, who confronted the imposter but the imposter claimed that she was renting the home. Here as a stranger who literally took over the home owner's identity. She wore her clothes. She changed the utilities over into her own name. She replaced carpet and repainted rooms with colors she liked. She took down ...
1441. Yellow Lights
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... burgers are pseudonyms for brains, guts and lard, thymus glands, and road kill. No matter how delicious they sound, they are still going to result in a plateful of fear factor food! The Thessalonian Christian church was facing false claims and fearing their own future because of those claims. Those who whispered that the day of the Lord had already come were trying to convince the faithful that in fact the gathering of believers had already occurred and that they had been left behind to suffer with the ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... on the imminence of the parousia may have “unsettled” them, but they can stand on a foundation that cannot be shaken—-the “tradition” (“paradosis”) of Paul’s teachings. This tradition, unlike the scurrilous rumors bandied about by mischief-makers, can claim clear apostolic roots (as the first person declaration of v. 5 reminded them). Paul himself had hand-delivered the truth to them “when I was with you.” It is these “traditions,” the “paradosis” of Paul, to which the community ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... Yet we expose ourselves to higher and higher personal doses of radiation each year through our electronic gadgets and technological lifestyles. There's no escaping poisons in our world. Advertisers' claim we can keep our homes and lives clean and free from the poisonous toxins that make us sick or smelly or unsightly. The claim is an illusion. Poisons, toxins, bacteria, viruses – they're everywhere – inside and outside our bodies at all times. Consider a statistic no one wants to talk about: 42% of men ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... duck it might have been. – Kenneth Kaufman, Level Land. You and I are like Peabody Hotel ducks that have been adopted into a free-flying family of geese. We are adopted sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. Are you willing to claim your new birthright? Are you willing to take flight? Concluding Moves When attendance is taken, you barely nod your head that you're present. When God takes your attendance, you stand up, raise your hand, and say, "Here I am, Choose me." How many are ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... protested that "I don't have that gift." To which Wesley replied, "Gift or no, you WILL teach the children." As someone has said: "God doesn't ask if we're able. God asks if we're available." Or as someone else has put it (and many people have claimed the phrase): "God doesn't call the equipped, God equips the called." Or in a variant form, "God doesn't call the qualified; God qualifies the called." All one has to do is read the Scriptures to see how spiritually incorrect the Spirit is. In the prophet call ...
Sermon
James McCormick
... a trip around the world and saw first-hand the impact of Jesus’ life. He returned an enthusiastic spokesman for Christian missions. His name is Henry Van Dusen, and he wrote a book entitled, “For the Healing of the Nations.” He made a startling claim in his book. He claimed that no-one had to tell him when he left a village where Christ was not known and entered one in which Christ was known. He said that he could see the difference by looking at the people, observing their behavior, sensing their ...
Sermon
James McCormick
... that includes you as it includes me. Jesus never glossed over the sinful woman’s behavior. He never excused it. He never approved of it. But, he did say to the mob that they were not to punish her unless they could claim sinless perfection. Of course, no human being can claim such perfection. Each of us is in need of the love and forgiveness of God. Our relative moral superiority or inferiority begins to pale into insignificance when seen in the light of our common need for God’s mercy. So, we are ...
Sermon
James McCormick
... has eluded us. There are no concepts large enough. There are no words expressive enough. We cannot fully understand it, nor adequately express it, but we have experienced the power of it, haven’t we? Somehow God Himself meets us there at the cross, forgives us, and claims us as His own. And whenever we receive that experience in faith, and embrace it, we are never again the same. There is something, isn’t there, about that man on the cross! What I am about to say does not express all the meaning of the ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... dancing because we see the power of God’s love, the redemption of the world, the hope for a new future, in the form of a man on a cross. Instead of a tragic ending, do you see a new beginning? Instead of death claiming Jesus, do you see Jesus defeating death, and re-claiming life? Instead of seeing hatred and despair winning out, do you see the victory of love and hope? Your legs are made for dancing, not for sitting, not for balancing, but for dancing. Will you dance the Cha-Cha-Cha? Will you be open ...
1450. Advent 4
Psalm 80:1-19, Isaiah 7:1-25, Romans 1:1-17, Matthew 1:18-25
Sermon Aid
Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe
... While the news for us these days may be that God is the one who accomplishes God's purposes, not us, at the same time, we should see that we are called into the operation of God's promise-keeping at the first level, for not all claims about God will wash with scripture, which serves to guide our thinking about God. Paul does not assume that the Romans are passive listeners with empty heads. Rather, he assumes a congregation that cares enough to be informed and involved with the good news. Second, the gospel ...
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