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 1451 to 1475 of 4944 results

1451. On Your Mark, Get Set, Hope!

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Remember when? Remember when: Visions of sugar plums danced in your head, Silent night was an exciting night, Away in a manger didn’t seem so far away, Remember when you couldn’t wait for Christmas? Life has a way of turning our hopes and dreams into obligations and responsibilities. The child within us gives way to the adult that is out daily earning a living, fulfilling roles, meeting the deadlines of life. Maybe here in December it’s time to visit that child again, the child that lives within. The ...

1452. If, Because, Regardless

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

There's a silly story going around about two factory workers, Joe and Lester, who were talking. "I know how to get some time off from work," said Joe. "How do you think you'll do that?" asked Lester. Joe proceeded to climb up to the rafters of the factory and hang upside down by his knees. The boss walked in, saw Joe hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he was doing. "I'm a light bulb," Joe answered. "I think you need to take some time off," said the boss. So, Joe jumped down and walked ...

1453. Household of Faith

II Timothy 1:3-7

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

As speaker and author, Tony Campolo, tells the story, it happened during a sophisticated academic gathering at the University of Pennsylvania which neither he nor his wife wanted to attend. During their mixing among the faculty, a sociology professor came up to Mrs. Campolo and said, “What do you do for a living?" Mrs. Campolo, feeling the compelling task of raising children, gave this reply, “I am socializing two homosapiens into the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they ...

1454. The Down Side of Christmas

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

‘Twas the day after Christmas When all through the place There were arguments and depression— Even mom had a long face. The stockings hung empty; And the house was a mess. The clothes didn't fit; Dad was under stress. The family was irritable; The children were not pleased. The instructions for the swing set Were written in Chinese. The bells no longer jingled; And no carolers came around. The sink was stacked with dishes; And the tree was turning brown. The stores were full of people Returning things that ...

1455. What Is Our City?

Acts 4:32-35

Sermon

Ken Lentz

In the text from Acts 4, we get a glimpse of life in the Christian community after the resurrection event. The text offers some answers to the question of T. S. Eliot: When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city? Do you huddle close together because you love each other? What will you answer? "We all dwell together To make money from each other"? or "This is a community"?1 What makes the church community different from other communities? In the first place, we read that "... the apostles gave ...

1456. No Confidence in the Flesh

Philippians 3:1-11

Understanding Series

F. F. Bruce

First Conclusion: Call to Rejoice “With this communication about Epaphroditus now the epistle seems to be at an end” (Ewald, ad loc.). If so, nothing remains but a final word of greeting. The reader is therefore prepared for Finally. 3:1 Finally: the natural inference from this phrase (drawn by most commentators) is that Paul is on the point of finishing his letter. If the letter be regarded as a unity, it must be assumed that something suddenly occurred to him which prompted the warning of verse 2 with ...

1457. Jesus Proclaims Judgment on the Temple and the Nation

Mark 13:1-31

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: God’s judgment will soon fall on the temple and the land and bring devastation. However, God’s people must not be carried away by false teaching and false rumors but rather should endure patiently in the midst of the persecution. Understanding the Text The extensive discourse of chapter 13, known as the Olivet Discourse, develops the basic theme in passion week thus far: the fruitlessness (fig tree) and guilt (clearing of the temple) of the Jewish leadership, leading to the curse upon the nation ...

1458. Jesus’s Manifesto

Luke 4:14-30

Teach the Text

R.T. France

Big Idea: Back in Nazareth, Jesus sets out on his mission of deliverance, but his own townspeople in Nazareth reject him because of his vision for the salvation of all people everywhere, which includes the Gentiles. Understanding the Text Jesus’s return from the wilderness area marks the beginning of his public ministry, which will be focused in his home province of Galilee until he sets off for Jerusalem in 9:51. Mark and Matthew record a single visit to Nazareth, which they place later in their ...

1459. Yahweh Speaks as the Master Teacher

Job 38:1--41:34

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

Big Idea: Yahweh poses questions about the physical world to demonstrate that Job’s knowledge is too limited to explain how God works in his world. Understanding the Text Throughout the speeches in chapters 3–37, the various human speakers claim to know what Yahweh thinks about Job’s situation, but in chapter 38 Yahweh finally breaks his silence and speaks for himself. Yahweh addresses Job in 38:1–40:2, focusing on his design for the world (38:2), and then Job replies briefly in 40:3–5. Yahweh resumes ...

1460. What Can I Get By With?

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A son at college was seeking to apply pressure for more money from his dad. In a letter home he wrote: “I can’t understand why you call yourself a loving father when you haven’t sent me a check for three weeks. What kind of love do you call that?” The father wrote back, “That’s unremitting love!” [1] We smile at that. Some of us may even chuckle, though not out loud, because we have all been there. But who has ever really defined love that way? Unremitting. We usually think of it in completely opposite ...

1461. The Gate to Grace, Goodness, and Glory

John 10:1-10

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

A pastor friend who lived in an apartment complex in San Francisco tells about the time that he and his wife parked their brand new Honda Accord under cover in the secured parking area next to their apartment complex. The next day they decided to celebrate the purchase of that new car by going out to breakfast together. Not only would they enjoy eating out together, it would give them another opportunity to drive their new automobile. Leaving the apartment building, they greeted the guard on duty at the ...

1462. Job's Reply to Bildad

Job 9:1–10:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

How Can a Mortal Be Righteous before God?: Job’s response to Bildad’s speech moves the discussion in a new direction. Up to this point in the book Job has largely been addressing the extremity of his suffering and raising the agonizing question as to how a righteous person can be allowed to suffer so horrendously. Now, however, in response to Bildad’s suggestion that the resolution of Job’s suffering lies in his willingness to “look to God and plead with the Almighty” (8:5), Job begins to consider the ...

1463. Daniel in the Den of Lions

Daniel 6:1-28

Understanding Series

William Nelson

The Lion's Pit: In this familiar chapter, Daniel’s enemies conspire to get him thrown into the lions’ pit for making petitions to his God. Just as we wonder where Daniel is in chapter 3, so we wonder where Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) are in chapter 6, for there is no mention of them. We can be sure that they, like Daniel, would have continued their daily prayers in spite of the threat of being devoured by wild animals, yet there is no explanation for their absence. This ...

1464. True Fasting

Isaiah 58:1-14

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Critique of the Community: While there are positive notes throughout 56:9–59:8, the dominant tone is confrontational, and even the positive notes incorporate barbed comment. The way the passages speak of shalom, which occurs six times (57:2, 19, 21; 59:8), sums up this point. This distinctive concentration of references finds its closest parallel in Zechariah 8, which again belongs to the same period as Isaiah 56–66. Admittedly there are no specific indications of a particular context here, and the ...

1465. God with Skin On

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

As we gather here this holy night, we come from a variety of religious backgrounds. For some of you I’m sure the more familiar word during The Lord’s Prayer is “trespasses.” You will especially appreciate an internet story about the little boy who was sent to bed early on Christmas Eve. His boisterous excitement was getting in the way of all the hectic, last minute preparations his parents were trying to make, and they needed to get rid of him. A few minutes later his father overheard the child saying his ...

1466. Grabbing the Bull by the Horns

Luke 9:11b-17

Sermon

King Duncan

In his book Soul Keeping, John Ortberg tells about riding a mechanical bull at a street fair. The bull operator explained that the bull had twelve levels of difficulty, and that Pastor Ortberg’s best bet for not getting bucked off was to shift his center of gravity to match the bull’s movements. Ortberg climbed up on this mechanical bull and he held on as tight as he could. The bull started to sway and buck, and Ortberg focused on moving his center of gravity with the swaying of the bull. He thought he was ...

1467. Seat of Power

Mark 10:35-45, Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Animation: Ring and/or Ruby Slippers and/or a Ladder “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” (James and John…according to Mark) How many times have we said this to God? “Lord, we want you to do whatever we ask!” We humans are creatures that want our way. We want what we want and we generally want it “now.” We like to be independent. We are self-assured. And we are ambitious. And ambition is a squirrelly thing. It means that if someone won’t give us our way, we will strive to get whatever we ...

1468. Immersed

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Washed in the blood of Jesus. That’s what our early hymns proclaim. We are washed in the blood of the Lamb, the blood of sacrifice, the blood of salvation, the cleansing blood of the messiah Jesus. For most of us today that sounds like a rather strange concept. But then, when you think about it, so is partaking of the “body and blood” of Jesus as we celebrate what we know as Holy Communion. In fact, this was a strange concept in the early church as well! Early Christians were in fact often called out for ...

1469. Mary's Song

Luke 1:46-47, 52

Sermon

Will Willimon

I suspect that many of you are anxious for me to get off my chest quickly whatever it is that I want to say, to get out of the pulpit, so you can get on with the beautiful music of Christmas. We have restrained ourselves throughout the Sundays of Advent, confined ourselves to slow-moving, somewhat somber hymns of hope, anticipation, expectancy. "Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel." Anticipation has become fulfillment. Now, we are at last ready to sing of Christmas. There are Sundays when ...

1470. Impetuous Faith

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Remember in school that one kid, the “kiss up,” the “butter up,” the “brown nose,” the suck up”? The kid who always raised his or her hand for every question, who always volunteered to help the teacher, who loved to be the class leader, who wanted every time to be chosen first for good behavior? Yup, that’s the one. Every class had one. Every job often has one. Throughout life, you’ll always encounter those who crave special attention, who obsess over being first at everything, who seem to need extra pets ...

1471. Seeds

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

William G. Carter

I am always astonished at the tenacity of vegetation. The dandelion pops up overnight, blossoms in a burst of yellow, then explodes in a puff and scatters across the yard. There’s a vine that wraps itself around the back fence. Every year it gets snipped down to the soil, but every year it returns and grows taller. It’s well planted. Or there’s the blade of grass that pokes its head out of the crack in the driveway – how did the seed get there? A good seed, given the right conditions, can grow just about ...

1472. Let's Go Fishing

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

An old-timer sat on the river bank, obviously awaiting a nibble, though the fishing season had not officially opened. A uniformed officer stood behind him quietly for several minutes. “You the game warden?” the old-timer inquired. “Yup.” Unruffled, the old man began to move the fishing pole from side to side. Finally, he lifted the line out of the water. Pointing to a minnow wriggling on the end of the line, he said, “Just teaching him how to swim.”[1] Mark Twain once spent a pleasant three weeks in the ...

1473. Taking the Long Way Home

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Will Willimon

“Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.” Mark 7:31 Durham is one of the toughest places on earth to find your way around in. Bisected by a freeway and this campus, a downtown full of one way streets (all one way in the wrong direction) -- am I now on Chapel Hill Street, Chapel Hill Road, or simply the main road to Chapel Hill? The things that Cornwallis Road does are positively criminal. Where are we? Where are we in ...

1474. An Extremely Odd Couple

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

There are only two characters in this short parable which Jesus told to his disciples. One is a man; the other, a woman. But what an odd pair they are. It is difficult to imagine a more striking contrast between two people than that between the judge and the widow. Neither is named, but their very titles suggest the contrast. "Judge" calls to mind authority, power, representative of the law, dispenser of justice. "Widow" in the culture of Jesus' time suggests helplessness, humility, poverty, vulnerability ...

1475. Proper 15

Luke 12:54-59, Hebrews 12:1-13, Luke 12:49-53, Isaiah 5:1-7, Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Isaiah 5:1-7 God's vineyard yields wild grapes. Chapter 5 closes a series of oracles beginning with chapter 1. Today's lesson is a parable of a vineyard. Yahweh planted it and did everything to make it grow and be fruitful. But, the grapes turned out to be wild, that is, sour and bitter. What more could he have done for his vineyard? Nothing. Therefore, the vineyard will be destroyed. Lesson 2: Hebrews 11:29--12:2 Surrounded by past faithful ones, we are to run the race of faith with ...

Showing results