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 2126 to 2150 of 5000 results

2126. A Chance To Be Made Whole

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A young man and woman had been dating for a long time. One starlit evening, the young man called up his sweetheart to ask her to go on a ride with him. He said he had something very special to share with her. He picked her up in his much loved antique sports car and drove out to the park. There they had a lovely candle and starlight picnic. For some reason, the young man did not talk much. He seemed distracted. The young woman noticed all of this and was too excited to talk much, herself. She'd been ...

2127. A Chance To Hear

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Three retirees, each with hearing loss, were taking a walk one fine March day. One of them remarked to the other, "Windy, ain't it?" "No," the second man replied, "It's Thursday." And the third man chimed in, "So am I, let's stop and get a Coke." Hearing loss is really no laughing matter, I know. For the past couple of years my family has been making fun of the things I thought I'd heard. Well, about five months ago I finally had my hearing tested and now I wear hearing aids. The difference for me was ...

2128. Being A View Master

Romans 2:9-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

There's an old Peanuts comic, Charlie Brown is busy with a woodworking project one day when Lucy comes by and asks: "How's the birdhouse coming along, Charlie Brown?" He replies, "Well, I'm a lousy carpenter. I can't nail straight. I can't saw straight and I always split the wood. I'm nervous, I lack confidence, I'm stupid, I have poor taste and absolutely no sense of design." And then in the last frame he concludes, "So, all things considered, it's coming along OKAY!" (1) Nobody would ever claim that ...

2129. CSI: Jerusalem

Luke 24:36-48

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Judy Meyers, of Johnston, Rhode Island writes that she always enjoys asking her children what they learned in their Sunday School class. When her oldest daughter was five years old, she came up to Mom after an Easter Sunday service and Mom began to quiz her. The little girl was excited and willing to tell Mom the whole story in great detail. She told of the death of Jesus on the cross and how he was buried in a tomb. Later an angel came and looked in the tomb and asked Jesus what He wanted. In the little ...

2130. Cross Eyed: Triumph

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Mark was three years old when his pet lizard died. Since it was her grandson's first brush with death, Grandma suggested that Mark and an older boy in the family hold a "funeral" for the lizard. Grandma explained what a funeral was: a ceremony where you say a prayer, sing a song, and bury your loved one. Grandma even provided a shoe box and a burial place in the backyard. The boys thought it was a great idea, so they all proceeded to the backyard. Taking the lead, the older boy said a prayer. Then he ...

2131. Cross Eyed: Promise

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

The regulations of a certain hospital required that a wheelchair be provided for patients being discharged. A particular student nurse found an elderly gentleman, already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet. The gentleman insisted, over and over again, that he didn't need her help in leaving the hospital. After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly got into the wheelchair and let the nurse wheel him to the elevator. On the way down she asked him if his wife was meeting him. ...

2132. Amazing Authority

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Maybe you've heard the story about the High School teacher who injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. It was form fitted, fit under his shirt and wasn't noticeable at all. The first day of school he still had the cast on. He looked at his class roster and realized he'd been assigned to the toughest students in school. He walked into the classroom, which was already rowdy and noisy. All the students were talking and laughing and either acted like he wasn't there ...

2133. Thanks for the Memories

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

When I was the student pastor in Woodlawn, Kentucky, the biggest Sunday of the year was not Easter, not even Christmas. The crowning Sunday of the year was Memorial Day. The church owned a little cemetery and people came from near and far to remember their ancestors, eat fried chicken, and tell tall tales. It was such an important day of the year that I was never allowed to preach the sermon. We always had a guest preacher from Louisville or Lexington. My, how times have changed. Who uses Memorial Day any ...

2134. Getting Real

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Sometime back there was a brief news report about a youth director of a local church who was fired because he had duct taped one of the unruly boys to the wall of the gym and left him there. The pictures you see are of kids and adults who consented to being duct taped to the wall not for punishment purposes but as fund raisers. The Darwin awards came out this week and the winner was James Elliot. When his 38-calibre revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, ...

2135. Guard the Good Treasure

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Do you like Optical Illusions? I do. I think we're probably all familiar with the work of M.C. Escher and his pencil drawings like "Relativity" and "Waterfall." There are any number of famous optical illusions. So, I've picked a few to show you this morning. I hope they don't make your head hurt or your eyes go bonkers on you. These are some of the more interesting ones I've found. So, what's with the optical illusions? Well, there are a lot of people who live their faith like optical illusions. They aren' ...

2136. Love and Obey (Mother's Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Greetings on this Mother’s Day. Someone has made a list of nine things a Mother would never say. See if your Mom would ever say these things: 1. “How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far back?” Anybody? 2. “Yeah, I used to skip school a lot, too.” 3. “Just leave all the lights on . . . it makes the house look more cheery.” 4. “Let me smell that shirt Yeah, it’s good for another week.” 5. “Go ahead and keep that stray dog, honey. I’ll be glad to feed and walk him every day.” 6. “Well, if Timmy’s mom ...

2137. Our Common Life in Christ

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

It glows with light and power today as we turn to verses 1 through 4 of the second chapter of this Philippian letter. “If then our common life in Christ yields any thing to stir the heart, any loving consolation, any sharing of the Spirit, any warmth of affection or compassion, fill up my cup of happiness by thinking and feeling alike with the same love for one another, the same turn of mind, and a common care must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you, but you must humbly reckon others ...

2138. Dealing with Stress Creatively

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

One Sunday morning, a mother said to her ten-year-old son: “Billy, I’m not feeling well enough to go to church today, but I do want you to go on as usual… and then you can tell me all about it.” Obediently, Billy carried out his mom’s wish. When he returned home, his mother asked: “Well, Billy, how was church?” “Fine,” Billy responded. “Where did you sit?” Mom asked. “O, I think I sat in about the same place we always sit.” Billy’s answer was just vague enough to make mothers suspicious. “What was the ...

2139. On the Road with the Rich Young Ruler

Luke 18:18-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

Let me begin with three true stories. The thread that runs through them and links them together will be obvious. (1) The first story comes from the Winter Olympics of 2006. It was one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history,… but it was not the memory that Lindsey Jacobellis had dreamed of, hoped for and wanted. She was way ahead in the snow-board cross finals… so far ahead that some say she could have crawled across the finish line and won the Gold Medal. But, she got carried away… caught up in ...

2140. Christ's Chosen People: Privilege

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Back in 1981, the attention of the world was focused on the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. My wife, an almost hopeless romantic, (I really praise God for that) became tremendously involved in that event. We were traveling when the wedding took place, and I remember she stayed up almost all night in a hotel room where we were, watching the live television presentation. She also read all the newspaper accounts, and she even gave our two daughters beautiful color picture albums that recaptured this ...

2141. There Is a Price for Everything

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Have you ever had something backfire on you, making you feel as though you had spit into the wind? Leo Buscaglia tells about a man who was driving his car on a narrow, winding country road. He came to a hairpin curve and accidentally crossed the center dividing line a bit. A woman driving in the opposite way had to swerve to avoid hitting him. As they passed, she yelled out her window, “Pig!” Why that - that so-and-so the man thought. Instantaneously, he shouted back, “Sow! Then he rounded the curve and ...

2142. He Presented Himself Alive

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Robert Lewis Stephenson, on one of his voyages to the South Seas, told about a terrific storm that frightened all the passengers. One man finally went out on deck and watched the captain pace the bridge, calm and undisturbed. He came back to the cabin where the passengers were huddled together and said to them: “I have seen the captain’s face, and all is well.” It was that kind of word that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary carried back to the disciples on that first Easter morning. How remarkable that, in ...

2143. Fish or Cut Bait

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

You may have heard the story about the fisherman who had a fantastic reputation for his ability to catch fish. Everyday he would go out in his boat and bring back an incredibly large number of fish, and his reputation spread far and wide. One day a stranger came to the camp and wanted to go fishing with him. The fisherman said, “Come back to tomorrow morning at 4:30, and we’ll go. The stranger was back the next morning, and two men got into the boat. The stranger was puzzled at what he saw. All the ...

2144. The World Is Our Parish

John 3:16-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

It has been said that life is a little bit like buttoning up a coat. It is hard to come out right if you start wrong. The buttonhole principle can be applied to our religion too. The first basic buttonhole principle of Christian faith is this: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life. Martin Luther said John 3:16 is the gospel in miniature. Evangelical fans at professional football games put it on banners for all the ...

2145. The Fellowship of Kindred Minds

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

A cartoon, in a Saturday Evening Review, features a young boy sitting under a tree taking inventory of his relationships. “So far, I have 14 people who love me, 22 people who like me, six people who tolerate me, and I have only three enemies. I’d say that’s not bad for a little kid.” When it comes to relationships, how are you doing? We are made for community; we will never be satisfied to be self-reliant. We need one another. The friendships in the fellowship of the first century Church were so focused ...

2146. Daniel: The Problem of Power

Daniel 6:10-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

It was a large, impressive waiting room stocked with the latest magazines and furnished with the finest of furniture. On this particular day the place was packed with people waiting to see one of several physicians. In one corner of that waiting room, there sat an elderly lady crying. At first, she cried quietly, but as the hopes and fears of all years gushed forward she began to weep openly. There was a little boy sitting across the room playing with toys he found in his mother's purse. As the elderly ...

2147. Ezekiel: The Problem of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached about daughters prophesying, young men seeing visions, and old men dreaming dreams. The Church was born not on what was, but what can be when the Holy Spirit fills the hearts of the faithful. Maybe it is still true that dreams and visions more than facts and functions shape the future of our faith. One of the most visionary prophets of the Old Testament was a priest named Ezekiel. He lived about 2,600 years ago. He witnessed the terrible siege of Jerusalem by the ...

2148. Ruth: The Problem of Grief

Ruth 1:1-8, 16-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

It's a love story that would make Danielle Steele blush. It's full of sex and seduction. It has dead ends and new beginnings. It deals with grief and explores commitment. It's the story of Ruth. It takes place during the period of Judges. You can read it in about 15 minutes. But before you dig in let me glean a lesson or two about life that is worth taking with you. The Book of Ruth teaches us that: I. LIFE IS FILLED WITH DETOURS DETOUR AHEAD—don't you hate that sign when you are traveling somewhere? They' ...

2149. Make Disciples—Intentionally

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

It was a clear crisp autumn afternoon. I was on an airplane headed for a preaching mission in Centerville, Kansas. As I got settled into my seat, a big muscular man wedged his way into the seat beside me. The man took a quick glance at a magazine, then turned to me and said, “What do you do?" For most people that must be a simple question. For me it is a temptation to tease rather than answer. So sometimes I say, “I bury people." This guarantees moments of silence. Sometimes I say, “I stand up and make 20- ...

2150. The Broken Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 11:17-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king's horses and all the king's men, Couldn't put Humpty together again. Who is Humpty Dumpty anyway? He appears to be some egghead with scrambled brains, a nerd, a dork, a geek. But let's not be too quick to judge. Many think he was King Richard III, the hunchbacked monarch who rode a horse named Wall. In the Battle of Bosworth Field, King Richard fell from his horse and his body was hacked to pieces by the enemy. Maybe the resilience ...

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