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 1576 to 1600 of 1967 results
Sermon
The year - 1979. The place - New Orleans. There's no joy in this town today. Mighty Mardi Gras has struck out. The police are on strike! Parades are canceled. Visitors are not visiting, citizens not celebrating. No one laughs, no one revels, no one is even tipsy, let alone drunk. Is this any way to begin Lent - somber and sober? Businessmen are giving up their profits for Lent because of lack of customers. Families are tightening their belts, picking at meager meals, afraid, without police, to venture to ...
1577. God’s Safety Net
Matthew 25:31-46
Sermon
D. Wayne Burkette
Political jargon over the last decade has given us a new understanding of an old term. The term is ‘safety net.’ My first recollection of a safety net was at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus when it was still performing under the big top. Who could forget those daring acrobats balanced on the trapeze or high wire and, under them, a net. When the act was finished they would fall gracefully from their lofty perch into the open arms of the net, a kind of tease, I suppose, a hint of the ...
1578. Easter 6
Psalm 66:1-20, Acts 17:16-34, 1 Peter 3:8-22, John 14:15-31
Sermon Aid
THEOLOGICAL CLUE This Sunday, as the Fifth Sunday after Easter, was known as Rogate Sunday, or Rogation Sunday, which signaled the approach to the three special days of supplication and prayer that preceded the Ascension of our Lord. In most non-Roman Churches, this Sunday became a day for prayers that had, in the minds of most people, only a limited connection with Easter; Rogation Day was a time given over to particular and pointed prayers for the fields that had been planted in the hope of an abundant ...
Sermon
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall want." "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." The bad shepherd; the good shepherd. A miserly master and a merciful master. A Scrooge and a singer of songs. An old farmer and a young warrior. A Prince and a Pauper. A farmer and a fugitive. Nabal and David. Two faces staring at us across the centuries. The April fool is Nabal. Owner of three thousand sheep and three thousand goats. Married to the prettiest girl in town. Owner of rich pasture lands a few miles south of ...
Sermon
And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, saying, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us in the wilderness? There is neither bread nor water, and we’ve had it with this stupid manna."1 And the Lord sent deadly serpents among the people, and they began biting the people, and many of the sons of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said to him, "We have sinned because we spoke against the Lord and against you. So now, pray to the Lord that ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know--Him being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. ...
Sermon
Robert G. Tuttle
The Scripture for this ninth Sunday after Pentecost is very strange. I quote from the NEB: "In the same way the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us, and God who searches our inmost beings knows what the Spirit means, because he pleads for God’s own people in God’s own way." Let’s face it, our hope lies in a dimension beyond the human. If we do not acknowledge the supernatural, we are ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
The usher, showing me the way to the pastor’s study, wore a big, bright, round button on his lapel which read: "I love you - Is that O.K.?" I didn’t know him, he only knew that I was the visiting preacher in the pulpit that day, so, after re-reading his button, I said; "Yes, I think it’s O.K." His reaction was immediate: he ducked his head, blushed to his ears, and in a choked voice said: "Ah, oh, uh, well, that’s good." Why would anybody wear a button that said that to everybody? "Easy love" - we say we ...
Sermon
Michael J. Anton
Most of us have probably either heard it or said it about a fellow Christian: "Boy, he really knows his Bible." Sometimes an extra line is added, "He knows the Bible better than most preachers." I suppose that extra line could make pastors a bit defensive, sort of like "them’s fightin’ words." But on this National Bible Sunday there is something much more important than arguing over who may know the Bible the best. Because there is something more important than simply knowing Bible facts or being able to ...
1585. Back in the Swing
2 Samuel 12:1-31
Sermon
Roger Prescott
Introduction Because the David story ascends the height of human aspiration and plumbs the depths of human anguish, it has outlived the political circumstances from which it came. The prophet Nathan’s final prediction was to come true. David and Bathsheba’s son, conceived out of wedlock, died in infancy. It is clear that the child was very precious to David. It became sick, and ... David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the ground. - 2 Samuel 12:16 ...
Sermon
Alton F. Wedel
[While the following sermon may be adapted to the usual solo style of the parish parson, it could also be used in the more dramatic form. The copy indicates a role for seven resonant voices, strategically placed at various locations in the church, not visible to the congregation. The lines should be carefully rehearsed so that they are spoken with effective accent, and in a manner that flows with the body of the sermon.] If Jesus Christ had won his case, he would have lost the world. He lost his case and ...
Sermon
James W. Moore
It happened almost twenty years ago. I had been here at St. Luke’s for only a few months. It was a beautiful spring day. The phone rang in our home on a Sunday afternoon. I answered and a young man on the other end of the line said he needed to tell me something and then ask me a question. The words came in a rush of emotion. He told me that a month ago, he was in our church and he felt God touching his heart and urging him to come down front to be baptized and to join the church. “It was so powerful,” he ...
Sermon
James W. Moore
It happened almost twenty years ago. I had been here at St. Luke’s for only a few months. It was a beautiful spring day. The phone rang in our home on a Sunday afternoon. I answered and a young man on the other end of the line said he needed to tell me something and then ask me a question. The words came in a rush of emotion. He told me that a month ago, he was in our church and he felt God touching his heart and urging him to come down front to be baptized and to join the church. “It was so powerful,” he ...
1589. Power
Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8
Sermon
David E. Leininger
The Baptism of the Lord. In a former congregation of mine, a Sunday School teacher told me of an incident that happened there some years ago. Two of the young girls in her class - both about nine years old - came to her and said they wanted to be baptized. She was understandably pleased at their desire and told them to go home and talk to their parents about it, then appropriate arrangements could be made. A week later the girls came back with the sad news that the parents thought they should wait until ...
1590. Head's Up!
Luke 21:5-38
Sermon
David E. Leininger
Wait a minute! Christmas is coming. What about Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, All is bright?" Instead we hear "...nations will be in anguish...the roaring and tossing of the sea...People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world...the heavenly bodies will be shaken." Ho, ho, ho! Where is Santa when we need him? So why in the world would the church choose a Gospel lesson such as this to begin Advent and our preparation for the coming of the Christ child? Good reason. The ...
Sermon
King Duncan
The Toronto Star invited teachers to submit excuses they had received from their students. They received these examples: A student explaining why he was late: "I was kidnapped by aliens and interrogated for three hours." Another student, telling why he had failed to turn in his essay: "The bus driver read it and liked it so much he kept it to show to his passengers." Another: "I got mugged on the way to school. I offered him my money, my watch, and my penknife but all he wanted was my essay." Mike, a 14- ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Peter Godwin was a bit of an oddity in the African village where he grew up. Though a British citizen, Peter and his family had moved to Rhodesia when he was just a child. His mother, a missionary doctor, was assigned to start a vaccination program. Under her supervision thousands of people were inoculated against tuberculosis, smallpox, and other diseases. For some diseases, a shot was needed, but for others the vaccination was much more pleasant. It only involved putting a small dose of medicine on a ...
Sermon
Siegfried S. Johnson
And you (Peter), when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. -- Luke 22:32b Jonathan Meigs sought to win the hand of the girl he loved. Her father, a stern Quaker, coldly rejected Jonathan. Beneath expectations. Entirely unsuitable. Told he was unworthy, Jonathan mounted his horse and left. Heart shattered. Not far away, he heard his love's voice. "Return! Jonathan! Return!" Jonathan never forgot that day, the day the simple word "return" overcame an awful sense of rejection. So sweet was the ...
1594. Scamming God
Matthew 6:1-4
Sermon
King Duncan
An Italian newspaper recently carried a story about a young couple in Milan who seemed particularly devoted in their worship. The priest at a cathedral there reported that the pair spent an hour or more on a regular basis sitting before a statue of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, he assumed they were praying. Turns out, this young couple was recharging their cell phone. They had noticed a stray electric cable sticking out of the wall behind the statue of the Virgin Mary. Whenever their phone's power supply ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Just outside Knoxville, Tennessee, in the town of Alcoa there is a very unusual stone house called Millennium Manor. The house was built over a nine-year period from June 1937 to December 1946, by William Andrew Nicholson and his wife Fair. The Manor was built using Roman architecture. This was important because it was built to last a thousand years--thus the name Millennium Manor. The Nicholsons did all the work on the house themselves, without the aid of machines, a remarkable feat, since both were small ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
A pastor was asked by a dear parishioner to attend a meeting of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) with him. It was the meeting that was considered an open meeting where people give testimonies and celebrate their anniversary of being sober. The church member gave his testimony. He shared how his life was in a shambles. He had almost killed himself and another person driving under the influence of alcohol. As part of his sentence and probation he was required to attend weekly meetings of AA. He said that when he ...
1597. Good News!
Isaiah 61:1-11
Sermon
Curtis Lewis
For a period of time there was an emphasis on good news/bad news stories. In good news/bad news stories, details keep turning from triumph to tragedy and back again. One such story which was related quite frequently was about two friends who were avid baseball fans. These two friends made a pact that whoever died first would come back and let the other know if there was baseball in heaven. The first one died and came back and contacted his friend and said, "Hey, man, I have great news for you! The good ...
1598. First Light
Isaiah 9:1-7
Sermon
Curtis Lewis
Have you ever seen the aurora borealis? That may not be a familiar term to you, and you may be asking yourself, "Is that a country?" "Is it some kind of strange animal that is nearly extinct that I have somehow missed?" Some of you already know what the aurora borealis is; for those who don't, they are called the northern lights. The northern lights occur in the far northern regions. Recently, while driving in an isolated northern area of the United States, I saw a brilliant display of colored lights that ...
Sermon
William G. Carter
If you ever find yourself on the corner of 56th Street and Lexington Avenue in New York City, stop in to see the baptismal font at St. Peter's Lutheran Church. Not long ago, a small group of tourists went for a visit. We were astonished by what we saw. The font is off to the left, by the main entrance into the sanctuary. That in itself is appropriate, for baptism is the entry into the Christian life. We are brought into the church when we are baptized, so the people in St. Peter's put the font right by the ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Good morning, saints! Good morning, sinners! We're all here. And all that we are is here. The month of September is still warm and green, even though late in the month autumn officially begins. October is marked by cooler temperatures. But the shameless displays of gaudy, glorious colors dull the impact of the real changes that are creeping up on us. November can no longer disguise the grey-on-grey that cloaks the Pacific Northwest. We are a part of the country that embodies the word "watershed." The ...
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