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 176 to 200 of 609 results

176. With What Shall I Come?

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

James Bjorge

... deliver? Being just at home is sorely needed today. Is it just if a man takes privileges which he would not allow his wife? Is it just if a man is married more to his job than to his mate and family? The vows specifically state ... to love and to cherish ... We speak of not being able to do justice to a job because of the lack of time. In some areas we have got to take time to do justice. What about family worship? Occasionally a baby snow causes parents to stay home from church since nobody ought to be ...

177. ATHLETE

1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 2:5

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... the world. Carvings made in ancient Egypt and other lands show men in a variety of athletic sports and games. But athletics had their real beginnings in ancient Greece. Among the Greeks, the fullest possible development of both body and mind was a cherished ideal. The Greeks’ admiration for beautifully developed bodies set them apart from all other peoples. A large part of every boy’s education was conducted in the gymnasium, where he learned to wrestle, run, jump, and throw the discus and the javelin ...

178. BANNER MAKER

Song of Songs 6:1-13

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... whether it remains alive in our hearts. Still it is there. The area in which I live is populated in large part by officers stationed at a nearby air base, and the flag flies proudly from many homes. Many a bereaved mother or widow or child cherishes the flag that was draped over the coffin of a dead patriot. Most of us remember when the flags were remade to include Hawaii and Alaska. The flag manufacturers worked overtime then! But, even though there is no immediate prospect for again revising our flag to ...

179. Written On God's Hand

Isaiah 49:8-26

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... suffering for their individual and national sins. Right on the edge of despair, the people of Israel cried out, "The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me." Have you ever felt that way? Maybe the husband or wife who promised to love and cherish you until death did not keep faith. Perhaps the son or daughter in whom you invested so much of yourself shows little appreciation. Perhaps the boss who painted such a rosy picture of your prospects with the company sold you down the river when the merger ...

180. The Kingdom of Heaven

Matthew 20:1-16

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

... who will be least in God's Kingdom? Leader: Jesus taught the first would be last and the last would be first. People: Then would the least be made great and the greatest brought low? Leader: To God, each of us is as a lost sheep, to be saved and cherished. All: Blessed be the name of the Lord! Collect O God, You are so merciful and gracious to us as You extend to us the offer to enter Your Kingdom whether we come to You early or late in the day. Help us to share Your Love, Lord. In Christ ...

181. The Flight From Light

Isaiah 60:1-22, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Erskine White

... we are wounded by the families we ourselves raise, wounded by spouses and children even in the most loving of homes. We are wounded at work and in the world by faceless alienation, wounded almost daily by betrayals large and small. We are wounded as dreams die and cherished life goals are adjusted to fit reality. We want our wounds healed, but when we come face to face with the cause of our pain, we avert our eyes and deny what we see. When the prescription for ending our soul’s distress is placed in our ...

182. Resurrection: From Slave to Child

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... faithful blessing we leave now to share the Good News of the family of faith (Psalm 111). Study Suggestions for Chapter Seven Group Builder In a small group ask each person to share his or her answers to the question, "What is one freedom that you especially cherish?" This may be a political freedom, such as freedom of speech. It may be a freedom that has been the result of discipline, such as the freedom to play the piano, or the freedom from a former bad habit. It may be a freedom that one experiences ...

183. Francis of Assisi: a Faith for Every Day

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... compatible with normal life. Francis received the gift of the stigmata (the five wounds of Christ) in 1224. His generosity, his simple faith, his passionate devotion to God and people, his love of nature, and his deep humility have made him one of the most cherished saints in modern times. Let’s see what this holy man has to teach us in our day. He certainly holds for us a model of a Christ-like attitude toward wealth and poverty. A fourteenth century document tells how Francis was elected "King of the ...

184. They Also Serve Who Wait

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Thomas Long

... come. The God who came to Simeon and Anna will come to us, too, violating our expectations even as he comes to meet our deepest needs. Until He comes, like Anna and Simeon, we do what we can . and wait. 1. Joseph Berger, "A Man Battles to Save Cherished Synagogue," The New York Times (July 21, 1986), section B, p. 3. 2. Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1977), pp. 435-6. 3. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in Why We Can’t Wait ...

185. Hot Tubs and Fishing Trips

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Thomas Long

... , live in our homes more lovingly. But in whatever form, it has come and will continue to come, the summons to forsake being our "own person" and to become Christ’s. And when we hear it, we can be sure that the One who loves us best, and cherishes our life most fully, has come near, and, in the deepest of all ways, we have been called for. 1. Cyra McFadden, The Serial: A Year in the Life of Mann County (New York: The New American Library, 1977), p. 314. 2. Herb Gardner, A Thousand Clowns; Thieves ...

186. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

... the accompaniment of a quietly humming refrigerator, or a few minutes watching the fire die in the fireplace, the house silent after all others have gone to bed. There is nothing more tempting than a lonely place. We all seek such places, guard them, and cherish them. "And in the morning a great while before day, Jesus rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed." Occasionally, in my preaching classes, I ask my students to preach a sermon from any text of their choice from the first chapter ...

187. When Things Don’t Work Out, What Then?

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... great dream, but things did not work out that way. It fell to his son Solomon to build that magnificent Temple. Again, the Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Rome: "I would like to see you on my way to Spain" (Romans 15:24, TEV). Paul had cherished plans to go to Spain, but he never reached there. He ended up, instead, in a jail cell in Rome. When we face this question of what to do when things don’t work out, we are dealing with a problem that human beings have had to face over the ...

188. Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Philippians 2:1-11

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... majesty, but of heavenly power and promise. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession Merciful God, we confess that we are so fond of glory and glamour and glitter that we often fail to see the deep spiritual implications of even our most cherished beliefs, or to acknowledge the human cost at which they were purchased. Forgive us our distraction. Help us to see in the events of this Holy Week that Christ’s spiritual triumph comes, as it must, cloaked in human sacrifice and tragedy. In the name ...

189. Proper 8

2 Samuel 6:1-23, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Mark 5:21-43

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... your nature; that, even as we are comforted by the depths of your mercy and love, we may be impressed as well with the dimensions of your power. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession Almighty and all-merciful God, we confess to you our tendency to cherish our image of you as a friend, and to forget your role and status as Sovereign of the universe. Forgive us, we pray, and fill us with an appropriate sense of awe and fear at your power and majesty; that we may worship you for who you are, not ...

190. Focused Light

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... recorded briefly in only one Gospel and never again mentioned as such in New Testament writings. But the lovely tale of Bethlehem’s Star, of adoring wise men, of fabulous gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, strange as it all may be, is surely cherished Christian folklore indeed. It has been told and retold through all the ages as Christians have celebrated our Lord’s Nativity. We decorate homes, hearths, altars, and Yule trees with the Star. It inspires our hymnody and is acted out in our pagentry ...

191. Heaven on Earth

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Richard Patt

... never judge a book by its cover, that heaven on earth - all of God’s best gifts to us - is sometimes found in the least likely places! III But perhaps saddest of all, we sometimes write off even ourselves as ever becoming noble persons of God and cherished souls of heaven. Sometimes we do not see ourselves as candidates for God’s forgiveness, mercy, and love. Oh, it’s true, no one knows our fears and prejudices, our hates and inner nastiness, the way we know it ourselves. But, oh yes, there is one who ...

192. Give Me Jesus!

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Richard Patt

... us here. Is it not this clear and simple one? God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) And maybe a close second in popularity would be these cherished words: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want ..." Very basic, very simple. Give me Jesus! You can have all the rest. Give me Jesus! One of the most influential Christian theologians of this century was a man named Karl Barth. Most seminary students ...

193. A King - A Kingdom

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... . Modern jets fly over it daily and Astronauts gaze down on it as it slowly crumbles into dust. It is a pity Shih Huang Ti could not have embodied the philosophy taken from The Chinese Classics in Shu Ching, The Book of History: The people should be cherished, And not looked down upon. The people are the root of a country; The root firm, the country is tranquil ... When the palace is wild of lust, And the country is wild for hunting; When spirits are liked, and music is the delight; When there are lofty ...

194. The Reality Of The Resurrection

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Brett Blair

... of Christ's people are like old Tarisio? In our very love of the church we fail to give the glad tidings to the world; in our zeal for the truth we forget to publish it. When shall we all learn that the Good News needs not just to be cherished, but needs to be told? Don't bury God's Good News of Easter at the bottom of a rickety old bureau. Let the people hear the great sound of the music: He is Risen! It’s amazing isn’t it that the story of the resurrection is now in ...

195. As We Remember - Memorial Day

1 Chronicles 11:10-25

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." A word must be spoken, finally, about another aspect of Memorial Day. It has become a day when we remember not only our soldiers but also all our loved ones who are no longer with us. To many it ...

196. God’s Wounded Healers

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... (to repeat) is like the Grand Canyon - a deep incision in the surface of our existence, which has become an inexhaustible source of beauty and self-understanding. The Christian way of life does not take away our loneliness; it protects and cherishes it as a precious gift. The painful awareness of loneliness is an invitation to transcend our limitations, and look beyond the boundaries of our existence. The awareness of loneliness might be a gift we must protect and guard, because our loneliness reveals ...

197. Letting Go

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... the Director and a Staff Counselor with the Pastoral Care and Counseling Institute of Durham-Chapel Hill, Inc. His sermon Letting Go was preached at a chapel service in the divinity school. In it he speaks pastorally and artistically of the necessity of surrendering our cherished and familiar ways of being in order to be open to the new life and freedom for the future that the Christian faith calls us to. Freedom Lord, I want to be free free to love black, brown, red, yellow Even white ... even white. Free ...

198. A New Perspective

Deuteronomy 7:1-26

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... obliterate all the joys of yesterday and tomorrow? O my God, treasure me, I pray. Help me to honor all the gifts of your presence, in light and in darkness, in bliss and in grief. Sustain me, Lord, that my grounding in you be renewed and cherished. When you are depressed, other people can point out all the positive things about your life and your world, but that all feels totally irrelevant, because you are in a frame of reference where that just doesn’t matter. People have sometimes tried to tell their ...

199. When Jesus Speaks Your Name

John 20:10-18

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... up, or around. You look behind to see who is addressing you. You are surprised, if you are not expecting someone. And perhaps you shudder inwardly, if you wish you had not been found by this particular person. OR, you light up with joy when someone you cherish speaks your name after a separation of a day, a month or a year. When someone speaks your name, you become aware of his presence - and you also become conscious of yourself as being met - as being valued or prized or hated or sneered at. Sometimes you ...

200. How to Profit from Prophets

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... of God. But the great biblical prophets move beyond those enticing and troubling words of false prophecy to give us a profit more enduring, more important, more successful in the long sweep of history. Both the ancient world and the modern cherish wisdom, wealth, offspring, and power, says Abraham Heschel in his excellent book, The Prophets. There is deep in our hearts, says Heschel, "the temptation to worship the imposing, the illustrious and the ostentatious" (p. 8). However, the luminous and explosive ...

Showing results