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 1 to 25 of 606 results

1. Acquired Taste

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... was not a “spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power, and of love, and of self discipline”(v.7). Timothy was called to give up a notion of faith that earned him universal approval and unqualified triumphs wherever he went. Timothy had to acquire a taste for a faith that saw suffering and rejection, even imprisonment and death, as expressions of his “holy calling” and in full accordance with God’s “own purpose and grace.” If you do the right thing and in return are offered praise and ...

2. Acquiring Grace

Mark 10:17-31

Illustration

Brett Blair

... A story is told out of the orient of a young Buddhist monk who sat outside his temple two thousand years ago, hands clasped in prayer. He looked very pious and he chanted 'Amita Buddha' all day. Day after day he intoned these words, believing that he was acquiring grace. One day the head priest of the temple sat next to him and began rubbing a piece of brick against a stone. Day after day he rubbed one against the other. This went on week after week until the young monk could no longer contain his curiosity ...

3. Greed - Putting Things In Their Proper Perspective

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

R. Curtis Fussell

... guess is he would say, "It's all wrong. It's a terrible lie." Greed. Greed is never satisfied with "that's enough." No, greed says more is always better, because you can never have enough. Greed sees life not as a gift from God, but as a race to acquire, to get more, to have a bigger house, a bigger bank account, a fancier car, a bigger career position. Greed means we have to accumulate as much as we can, have more exciting vacations, more luxurious clothing. But with greed, as Mr. Atwater learned, "You can ...

4. Living to Please God

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... room for complacency. The urgency of the appeal is verified by the doubling of the verbs (cf. 3:2, “to strengthen and encourage”): We ask you and urge you … to do this more and more (cf. 4:10). Erōtaō, used in classical Greek only of asking a question, acquired by this time the additional sense of making a request (cf. 5:12; 2 Thess. 2:1). But “request” is too weak a term, and so the other is added parakaleō, see disc. on 3:2). Added also is the phrase, in the Lord Jesus, which puts the appeal ...

5. Who is That Crouching at Your Door?

Genesis 4:1-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . Whenever reading the Hebrew scriptures, it’s so important to look up key words, and also names. In the case of this story, the names Kayin and Hevel have much to tell. Kayin means acquisition/possession. And his character in the story reflects this name. He wants to “acquire” (kanah) God’s grace and love and favorable “gaze.” As a tiller of the soil, he is also attached to the land in a way that his brother is now. He is a creature of the earth, the ground. And he is closer to his human-like ...

6. Proper 13

Luke 11:1-13, Hosea 11:1-11, Colossians 3:1-17, Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... his life just because he was successful in managing them. 2. Christian Economics. Some would consider Christian economics to be an oxymoron, a contradiction of terms. Jesus does not condemn wealth or money as such. It is not wrong to have wealth. What is wrong is when acquiring or holding on to material goods becomes the primary goal of life. The New Testament is aware of how money can become the ultimate measure of a person's worth. The pursuit of profits as the main motivation of a business or a choice of ...

7. Proverbs of Solomon

Proberbs 10:1--22:16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... broadcasting odious scandal (cf. same verb in Gen. 34:30; Exod. 5:21) and suffer the consequences (13:5b, 6b). Wealth and poverty are examined in 13:7–11. Wealth can be feigned (13:7) or life-saving (13:8a) and can rapidly disappear if acquired dishonestly rather than through sustained effort (13:11). Those living in poverty, in contrast, cannot respond to a painful rebuke (13:8b; cf. 13:1b), much less a death threat. Verse 9 affirms that the righteous shine more brightly than the wicked, whom God will ...

8. Moving At The Speed Of Light: At The Jordan

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

... Willie Horton against Dukakis on the crime issue and suggested that Bush's opponent, riding in a tank with that small odd helmet, "looked like a squirrel." In the Life article, Atwater reminds us what the 1980s were about -- acquiring wealth, prestige, and power. "I acquired more than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty." Toward the end, Lee Atwater discovered something: "My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart and a lot ...

9. From Rejection To Redemption

Ruth 3:1-18

Sermon

Zan W. Holmes

... the African-American church tradition that "the Lord can make a way out of no way!" Another witness comes to mind. Mary McCloud Bethune was born on a farm July 10, 1875, near Mayesville, South Carolina. She was the fifteenth child of former slaves, yet she acquired a passion for education that would help redeem the lives of poor and oppressed blacks. In 1904 she moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, and took $1.50 and opened a school, which at its inception had four little black girls and her son as its student ...

10. Chapter X

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... . We get to loving something someone else has, something other than we have, and we want more, and more and more. And it is amazing how much we will sacrifice to try to fill our lives full of these things we crave. Men will give up almost anything to acquire what they think they want. We will work at jobs we hate because they pay higher wages. We will moonlight at two, maybe three jobs to make payments on houses we can’t afford and are miserable living in while we are doing it! We often keep our nerves ...

11. Be Careful How You Live

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

Brett Blair

... , friends, church, and neighbors. Paul then offers three admonitions. I The first? Be wise. Paul says, be careful how you live not as unwise but wise, making the most of every opportunity. Wisdom. It is a virtue that has gone out of our vocabulary. Wisdom, to acquire it, takes too much time, too many failures, too many hard knocks, too much listening, too much being still and watching. You cannot download wisdom from some third party vendor, so we prefer to move and do without. But Paul warns that if we are ...

12. God, The Venture Capitalist?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... God's The text reminds us that all true ownership belongs to God. Psalm 24:1 puts it bluntly, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." A lawyer in Louisiana in the years past was asked to do a title search for a piece of land being acquired by a U.S. Army base. He ran the search back to 1803 and sent the title in. The base commander was not satisfied and asked the lawyer to run the title search back still further. In complying, the attorney wrote, "Said parcel of land was purchased in 1803 by ...

13. What If You Truly Were Born Again?

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:48-50). When you experience a new birth, you acquire a new family. St. Paul describes that new family. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). It sounds to me like every child of God is our ...

14. Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 13:1-25

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

... :34–36; 8:8–9; 9:14–16). See Additional Notes. 13:21–22 Antithetic. Both sayings illustrate the traditional doctrine of reward and punishment. According to verse 22, the good (must) prosper and can leave a legacy to descendants. Even if sinners acquire some wealth, this cannot remain with their progeny; it is bound to end up with the righteous. Catchwords for both verses are righteous and sinner. 13:23 The Hebrew is difficult and probably corrupt. Literally: much food—tillage of the poor; and (but ...

15. The Death of Sarah

Genesis 23:1-20

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... open to dealing with him by using the pronoun us. They responded first with a general offer of the choicest of their tombs for burying his deceased. Skillfully, they spoke to his major concern while at the same time avoiding his request to acquire his own property. They did not yet indicate whether they would permit Abraham to take full ownership of the land. 23:7–9 Abraham stood up. Since negotiations were usually conducted while sitting, his standing indicated his eagerness to persuade the Hittites to ...

16. God Subjugates Judah under Babylon

Daniel 1:1-21

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... 8, 15; 12:8). Finally, the mention of Cyrus (1:21) anticipates the historical markers in the following Aramaic (6:28) and Hebrew (10:1) sections, alluding to the exile’s end. Historical and Cultural Background In contrast to instructional wisdom acquired through learning and experience (Proverbs), Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts (mostly the latter) speak of mantic or prophetic wisdom, which is given to Daniel alone in this narrative.1The exercise of this kind of wisdom was the work of diviners in decoding ...

17. Wisdom’s Final Appeals

Proverbs 8:1-36

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... origin and earliest activities. Although God is the subject of all verbs in verses 22–29, wisdom’s close association with him is emphasized repeatedly. A number of interpretive difficulties are found in this section. God’s first action is to create/bring forth or to acquire/possess wisdom. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew verb qanah can be used to express both of these activities. Elsewhere in Proverbs (cf. 1:5; 4:5, 7; see commentary on 4:1–27) and in the majority of its Old Testament occurrences ...

18. Fulfilled, Or Just Full?

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... 've found it impossible to use my sports car, my golf cart, my swimming pool, my hot-tub, my RV, my speedboat, and my vacation home all at once! And often, just when we're really enjoying one thing, something else is wearing out or breaking down! Does acquiring more and more things fill the emptiness inside? I wonder. It seems to me that often all it creates is a temporary satisfaction, followed by a hunger for "more." That reminds me of the question once put to a class of college students by a professor of ...

19. What "They" Say

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Larry Powell

... , "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" We take notice of the fact that the young man did not inquire about how to get closer to God or how to be saved, or how to honor Christ. He was interested in eternal life, something else he could acquire. It is ironic that if he had asked how to embrace the will of God in his life, Jesus could have spoken to him of peace and security. Instead, Jesus' reply caused him great distress; "... sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have ...

20. Black Preaching: A Four-Cornered Universe

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... lives of African-Americans has been progress, the discovery and cultivation of those human and material resources which improve the economic and spiritual condition of our people. An underlying theme of much black sermonizing is the need for change and acquiring the courage to change with God's help. The elements of transfiguration and transformation are not only manifested in how black people proactively change their lives and communities after hearing the sermon, but how they respond to the message while ...

21. Redrawing The Landscape

Multiple Scriptures

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... rooms in hospitals on Saturday night are victims of either domestic violence or violence among friends. All of us compete with one another for honors and recognition, and if we do not get them we become angry. We compete for power, and if we do not acquire it, more anger is generated. Fathers and sons compete with one another, and daughters and mothers compete with each other. We live in a competitive democracy. And should people my age tend to get smug and say "we're past that state," let me also turn ...

22. A Sign Of Divine Protection

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Walter Kimbrough

... the nation would validate that there are legitimate grounds for the fear. So, families invest additional dollars seeking to protect their investment. All that they do and all that they spend seem inadequate in eliminating the fear of losing all of their acquired goods. There is no divine protection plan that works without fail. Even in our prosperity, we are the oppressed. Obviously, there is a lesson to be learned from the text. James Cone insists that, “throughout the entire history of Israel, to know ...

23. If You Had But One Request

1 Kings 3:1-15

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... mind of Christ and wisdom will be yours. He is wisdom because he is the personification of truth and the very Son of God. To have truth is to have wisdom. Daily we should pray, "Come into my mind, Lord Jesus. Come into my mind to stay." Another way to acquire wisdom is to receive the Holy Spirit. He is God who abides in us. Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit will guide us into truth. He is the one who will enlighten us so that we will have good judgment and common sense. Stupidity is being in the dark ...

24. The Circus and My Faith

Ps 139 · Mt 22:37

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... to life beyond the grave. Years ago Carl Jung sounded a note of chronic tentativeness that is wholly appropriate to the pilgrimage of faith. Declared Jung, I have often made mistakes and have often had to wipe the slate clean of previous knowledge in order to acquire what is most pertinent.3 I am glad our faith is farflung in its concerns, wideranging in its impact. The circus reminded me of this. But there is more. There was a particular person in the circus family who impressed me greatly and that person ...

25. In The Nick of Time

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

... the New York firm wrote him that he hadn’t gone back far enough. In due time they received this letter: Gentlemen: Please be advised that in the year 1803 the United States of America acquired the territory of Louisiana from the Republic of France by purchase. The Republic of France in turn acquired title from the Spanish Crown by Conquest; the Spanish Crown having obtained it by the virtue of one Christopher Columbus, a Genoese Sailor, who had been authorized to embark by Isabella, Queen of Spain, who ...

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