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 126 to 150 of 1185 results

126. Good Fruit

Illustration

Michael P. Green

One year the peaches were especially abundant. The fruit was big and juicy, and it was one of the best crops in memory. While harvesting the crop, a picker noticed a limb that had fallen from a tree. Its fruit was rotten and shriveled. Because the limb was detached from the tree, it was no longer producing the good fruit that it should. The same is true of the Christian who ceases to abide in Christ—he ceases to produce good fruit.

127. Gideon

Judges 6:1-40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... will be with you (’ehyeh; Exod. 3:12). And, as implied in the story of Moses, despite this assurance, Gideon requested a sign (v. 17; Exod. 3:12), in this case, the acceptance of his offering (v. 18). The Israelites had fallen so deeply into apostasy that they had ceased to sacrifice to the Lord; they even had forgotten how to do it properly. This accepted offering would be a sign of the Lord’s acceptance of Israel and a renewal of the covenant, as it was later revealed to be (see Judg. 6:24). So Gideon ...

128. Comfort for God's People

Isaiah 40:1-31

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... day, Yahweh had declared “You are not my people, and I am not your God” (Hos. 1:9). The covenant relationship is over. (We might prefer to think of it as suspended, but Hosea’s formulation is more shocking than that.) It ceased for Ephraim in 721 B.C. and it ceased for Judah in 587 B.C. Now Yahweh reverses the declaration and speaks in a way that presupposes that the relationship still holds after all. The words “my people” and “your God” can still be uttered. To judge from the parallelism of ...

129. Tyre, Sidon—and Israel

Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:1-36, Ezekiel 28:1-19, Ezekiel 28:20-26

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... date from the time of David, and Tyre founded the great north African city of Carthage in 814 B.C. However, in the Persian period, Carthage and Sidon eclipsed Tyre as a seaport. Well before its fall to Alexander in 332 B.C., Tyre had already ceased to be the dominant commercial power Ezekiel’s oracles describe (see esp. 27:12–25). We can easily understand why Ezekiel would have issued enough oracles against Egypt to gather into a collection (Ezek. 29–32), but why did he single out Tyre? What about ...

130. Jesus Takes the Initiative

Luke 21:5-38, Luke 21:1-4, Luke 20:41-47

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... the temple had become (19:45–46). Since then it has been the scene of his teaching, and its authorities have been his chief opponents. But to speak of its total destruction goes far beyond anything that he has said or done so far. The temple has ceased to be the focus of God’s rule, and it is now dispensable. This prediction echoes prophetic predictions of the destruction of Solomon’s temple, which had led to the imprisonment of Jeremiah and the death of Uriah (Jer. 26:1–23). Jesus’s words about ...

131. Message to Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... has diminished. Their lack of love for people would have been a sure indicator of a deeper spiritual problem. In God’s kingdom, truth and love are woven together. Truth without love becomes little more than a cold demonstration of power, and love without truth ceases to be genuine love; both are relational disasters. 2:5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Jesus now commands the church to remember, to repent, and to return to their first works. The sequence is ...

132. Holy Days and Festivals

Le 22:17–23:22

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... moves on to holy days and festivals used by God to instill in Israel a sense of being a holy people in proper relationship with himself. Interpretive Insights 23:3 sabbath. The Hebrew word shabbat is from a root meaning “to cease, stop, rest.” On the Sabbath work ceases, and one begins a period of rest. “Day of sabbath rest” should read instead, “a Sabbath of complete rest” (HCSB). As on the Day of Atonement (vv. 28, 31), no work whatsoever is allowed. Lesser holy days are less rigorous; on ...

133. “God Is Our Refuge and Strength, an Ever-Present Help in Trouble”

Psalm 46:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... God’s mighty acts in nature, performed by the Creator God, Abraham and Jacob’s God, Israel invites the nations to “come and see” what the Lord has done in their history. 46:9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth . . . he burns the shields with fire.The general declaration of causing wars to cease means there are no limits on God’s power and realm. Then the psalmist breaks it down into specific images: “he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,” and “he burns the shields with fire ...

134. Apostasy with the Baal of Peor

Numbers 25:1-18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... –15). No doubt their intention is sexual. Phinehas, son of the new high priest, puts a quick end to the openly high-handed offense by dispatching the couple with his spear. God accepts this act of retribution as expiation for Israel, and the plague abruptly ceases (25:7–8; cf. v. 13). This is not substitutionary atonement that benefits the wrongdoers, but expiation in the basic sense of purging them from the community (cf. Lev. 16:10; 2 Sam. 21:3–6). The Lord rewards the loyal zeal of Phinehas—which ...

135. Moab

Isaiah 15:1--16:14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... has overtaken them. Still, Isaiah laments the fall of Moab (16:6–12). He grieves over the ruined vineyards, fields, and orchards. The songs of joy at harvest time have been changed into songs of mourning. The produce once exported to other nations has ceased. Moab’s gods are unable to rescue her. The date of Moab’s doom is given: “within three years” (16:13–14; literally “the years of a hireling”). The beginning of Moab’s disasters may have come in the Assyrian campaigns. Moab came to ...

136. Can You Hear It?

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... television, cell phones, CDs, and mindless chatter in order to drown out their wounded cries for God. But we must come to terms with the fact that our need for God does not die nor does God die when we cease to believe in him or turn away from him. But we begin to die the very moment our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance of God.[4] This is why we need Isaiah’s experience. The text expresses it well for us, but our English language does not do it justice. When Isaiah says, “God wakens my ...

137. Job's Reply to Bildad

Job 9:1–10:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... Job immediately does what he says he cannot: he determines to speak out freely in the following verses (10:1–2). In light of this context, the translation that appeals most to me is: “But it is not so with me with myself.” The sense here is that Job has ceased to fear the consequences of divine power and wrath. As he comes to admit in 10:1, “ I loathe my very life.” In other words, death holds no fear. He has seen the worst life has to offer, so he has no more to lose. Job has moved clearly in ...

138. Saul's Jealousy of David

1 Samuel 18:1-30

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... failed. David’s remarkable successes continued, and, although in one sense this bolstered Saul’s position, it also confirmed the impression that God’s hand was definitely on David. The people loved David because he led them in their campaigns, perhaps because Saul had ceased to take part in military activity. The approval came not just from David’s own tribe but from across the whole nation, all Israel and Judah; this reinforced Saul’s fear that the support of the populace, as well as that of the ...

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral (or A pile of rocks ceases to be a pile a rocks when someone has a cathedral in mind).

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret.

Aphra Behn

No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.

Calvin Coolidge

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

Dag Hammarsk

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

Dag Hammarskjold

I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me.

Erica Jong

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

George Bernard Shaw

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

John Ruskin

There seems to be a terrible misunderstanding on the part of a great many people to the effect that when you cease to believe you may cease to behave.

Louis Kronenberger

When you cease to dream you cease to live.

Malcolm Forbes

For we must share, if we would keep, that blessing from above; Ceasing to give, we cease to have; such is the law of love.

Richard C. Trench

He who ceases to pray ceases to prosper.

Sir William Gurney Benham

Showing results

Showing 126 to 150 of 1185 results

126. Good Fruit

Illustration

Michael P. Green

127. Gideon

Judges 6:1-40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

128. Comfort for God's People

Isaiah 40:1-31

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

129. Tyre, Sidon—and Israel

Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:1-36, Ezekiel 28:1-19, Ezekiel 28:20-26

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

130. Jesus Takes the Initiative

Luke 21:5-38, Luke 21:1-4, Luke 20:41-47

Teach the Text

R.T. France

131. Message to Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

132. Holy Days and Festivals

Le 22:17–23:22

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

133. “God Is Our Refuge and Strength, an Ever-Present Help in Trouble”

Psalm 46:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

134. Apostasy with the Baal of Peor

Numbers 25:1-18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

135. Moab

Isaiah 15:1--16:14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

136. Can You Hear It?

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Charley Reeb

137. Job's Reply to Bildad

Job 9:1–10:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

138. Saul's Jealousy of David

1 Samuel 18:1-30

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret.

I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me.

Erica Jong

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

George Bernard Shaw

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light.

John Ruskin

There seems to be a terrible misunderstanding on the part of a great many people to the effect that when you cease to believe you may cease to behave.

Louis Kronenberger

When you cease to dream you cease to live.

Malcolm Forbes

For we must share, if we would keep, that blessing from above; Ceasing to give, we cease to have; such is the law of love.

Richard C. Trench

He who ceases to pray ceases to prosper.

Sir William Gurney Benham

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