Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: practice, custom, pattern, routine, style, convention, policy, wont, way, manner, mode, norm, tradition, matter of course, rule, usage, mannerism, quirk, characteristic gesture, characteristic, foible, trick, disposition, temperament, character, nature, make-up, constitution, frame of mind, bent, addiction, dependence, dependency, craving, fixation, compulsion, obsession, weakness, garment, outfit, robe, costume, uniform, attire, dress, garb, clothes, clothing, garments

Antonyms: disinclined, dislike, antipathy, aversion, demur, disfavor, resistance, displeasure, dissatisfaction, distaste, hesitance, indisposition, objection, opposition, reluctance, repugnance, hatred, unwillingness

Showing 1 to 25 of 696 results

1. Elephants in the Room: Addiction

Romans 7:15-22

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:15, 18-19) This passage is one of the most controversial writings in the New Testament. We don’t know if Paul was addict, but he is admitting to feeling powerless over his impulses. Those who do not like Paul’s honesty have tried to explain this passage away by saying, “Well, Paul wrote this before he became a Christian.” Wrong. Just a casual study of this passage shows us that Paul is speaking ...

2. Addiction Free

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... has ever before faced it. The de-tox program of Christ's church is not a 10-Step Program or a 12-Step Program. The glory and wonder of our message is a true one-step wonder. Jesus accomplished it all on the cross. The ultimate answer to an addiction-free life is found in the redemptive love of Christ, the merciful overflowing measure of God's love. End your sermon with a demonstration: Fill a glass full to the brim with milk. Fill an adjoining glass of the same size with popcorn. Fill a third glass of the ...

3. A Positive Addiction

Romans 1:1-17

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... us so preoccupied that we didn't have a keen interest in simply "knowing God" which should be every Christian's highest goal. I learned a painful lesson: To maintain integrity I must put first things first. When Jesus is the first priority or most positive addiction in our lives, our lives are better. When our personal relationship with Jesus controls our behavior, we are whole, happy, joyful, and secure. It's like he said: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the ...

4. Addicted to Hurry

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... exhausted. Our Lord does not want us to live life this way. He said, “I have come that you might have life in all of its abundance.” He didn’t say, “I have come that you might experience stress in all of its abundance.” I want to focus on our addiction to hurry and show us how we can slow down, enjoy life, and still get everything done. I remember when I was living in Orlando I went to the store one day to buy a swimsuit for my vacation. We were leaving that very day and I was rushing around ...

5. Bacon Grease And Abounding Grace

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... tearing you down. Only you know if it's time to admit it to yourself and to bring it to Jesus. 1. Jeffrey Zaslow, Tell Me All About It (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990), p. 92. 2. Anne Wilson Schaef, When Society Becomes An Addict (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987), p. 24. Cited in Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits (New York: Harper & Row, 1990). 3. The Associated Press. 4. MONDAY FODDER 5. Pamela Grim, M.D. Just Here Trying To Save a Few Lives (New York: Warner ...

6. Thank God We're Free at Last

Romans 6:12-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... can be a terrible master. Some of you are familiar with the so-called Darwin Awards, given to people who lose their lives doing something incredibly stupid. So often these tragedies are linked to drug or alcohol addiction. For example, in May of 2004 the manager of an apartment house in Austria was surprised to find the legs of a corpse sticking out of a window of one of his apartments. Police entered the apartment and found the deceased man’s head soaking in a sink full of ...

7. A Time for Opportunity

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

... despair. Rescued by what he calls “the grace of God,” Ryan turned his car around and drove home. (2) There is something about modern life that seems to encourage additions of all sorts. Dateline NBC carried several reports on the effects of gambling addiction. One report focused on the vulnerability of women to video poker machines located in places women are likely to frequent. One woman put her family into bankruptcy and lost her husband and two children. Another left her 10-month-old infant in a car ...

8. A Lesson from Dr. Seuss

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... an extra event to help your team then others will say you ‘have’ dedication. But it is only the doing of those little things, all taken together, that makes that dedication. Great [athletes] aren’t made in the long run; they are made every day.” (7) Positive addiction. Servants of God. Or, as Dr. Seuss says, “You’ll look up and down streets. Look ’em over with care. About some you will say, ‘I don’t choose to go there.’ With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re ...

9. Building Trust

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

David Coffin

... for commitments, and ignoring the alarm clock, those words are like annoying dead insects on the car windshield. How can trust ever be rebuilt again? There are only a small group of people the family member dares confide in as to how deeply and painfully this addiction battle has unraveled the family routines and schedules. In fact, this family member has to go to their doctor to get medication so they do not grind their teeth at night in anger, as they take natural herbs to fall asleep at night. Where is ...

10. The Grateful Samaritan

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... called to him from afar. And what did Jesus do when these 10 lepers called to him? You know what he did. He heard their prayer and he healed them. That's who Jesus is. You and I may be able to close our hearts to the drunk or the addict, but Jesus couldn't. Maybe that ought to say something to us. Clyde Best, Jr. of Redwood City, California is a maintenance instructor for United Airlines. Often on his way to work Clyde will stop at a doughnut shop and get doughnuts for his students. There is usually a ...

11. The Doubting Sum

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

... input. I have a sign in my office which reads: "If you keep on doing what you’ve always been doing, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always gotten." Now that may not sound too startling, but think about it a moment. Let us apply it to an addiction, an old, worn out habit that no longer works, and see what it means. I know a young man who has been "trying to quit smoking" cigarettes for years. He hates them. He knows they affect his wind and he wants to jog every day. And he simply hates to ...

12. When Being Good Is Bad For You Or Breaking The Chains Of Co-dependency

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Ziggy is looking at a greeting card display. One section is labeled "Get Well"; the other, "Get Real". That's our need. We're not going to get well until we get real. Many of us are not well because we have given in to co-dependency. Our addiction is "helping others", but too often our help doesn't really help. "As Christians we are called to "love one another", to serve one another and to give ourselves to and for others. That does not mean "covering up" for others, doing for others what those others need ...

13. Look At Your Fixations!

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Carl Jech

... close human relationships, but our best approaches to this love are limited. Even those who are closest to us and who care about us the most cannot be as close and dependable as God can be. Call it total commitment, call it love, call it an addiction, call it a fixation. Such an understanding of and relationship with God is beyond criticism! It puts our whole life in proper perspective. When we fix our eye on God alone, all other fixations are diminished. They lose their power to control or to destroy us ...

14. The Scariest Drug on the Market

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... things he had as he lay trapped and about to be crushed to death, he thought of the nickel he had just given to the poor missionaries. As he thought of this he became so small he easily crawled out from under the car. (2) The love of money is addictive. THE SECOND DANGER OF THIS DRUG IS THAT IT IS DEADENING. Just as novocaine dulls the nerves in the mouth so that the dentist can work on our teeth, just as alcohol dulls the senses so we feel we are having more fun than we really are, so money deadens ...

15. God Enjoys AND Enjoins Us

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... deep of the true living water that is Jesus Christ. The cure for alcoholism is to dry out. The cure for churchism is to water up. Christ is the living water, the real thing. We may all drink deeply of Christ without fear of becoming addicted to some artificial stimulant. As a full participant in the banquet of the kingdom we will both enjoy the presence of God and will experience the fulfillment that comes from participating in the procession of that kingdom. God enjoys us and first, and foremost, wants ...

16. God's GPS

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... shot in which she looks skeletal and sickly, and one of her 2021 college graduation in which she looks healthy and confident. This post has been shared thousands of times on social media. She hopes that the message of her life will help others who are trapped by addiction. In another social media post, she wrote, “I did not live my life in vain, it was all meant to help bring others to a new place in their path. It is not me . . . On my own I destroy my life. I had some help. Divine intervention.” (8 ...

17. Trying To Grasp The Meaning Of It All

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... torture," he recalls. After six months of self-experimentation, Dan finally found a concoction that enabled him to kick his habit. The alleged cure was a muddy-brown syrup, later named Heantos. After he announced his breakthrough in 1989, Dan was immediately besieged by addicts. Since then, he says, some 4,000 patients have been treated, and most of them have been cured. Now, the U.N. is funding a study of Heantos' effectiveness, which will be overseen by the Johns Hopkins medical center. The brew will be ...

18. Freedom Faith Brings

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... intellectual freedom; we have a free press. Yet, America is still in bondage in bondage to sin. We have sex addicts, drug addicts, gambling addicts, alcohol addicts, porno addicts, and worst of all, we are a nation full of sin addicts. Jesus said in Jn. 8:34, "I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." It is our addiction to sin that feeds all of the other addictions. Until America gets spiritual freedom, she will never be totally free. Galatians has been called the Magna Carta of the Christian ...

19. Big Spender

1 Kings 10:14-29, 1 Kings 11:1-13, Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... an “identity” problem. As Jesus might say, they are not seeking their “bread” in their relationship with God. They lost their way and have detached somehow with God in a way that has caused their identity to suffer. As a result, they have developed “addictions” that made them feel they could fill that void, feel that kind of peace, get that high, rid themselves of that anxiety simply by seeking out the kinds of “fillers” that delude the spirit for a while into thinking all is okay. It’s ...

20. Step One - Honesty

Luke 8:26-39 · Proverbs 23:29-35

Sermon

John A. Terry

... in the book of Ecclesiasticus or The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach. It is a Holy writing that was written a century or two before the birth of Christ and is considered by some as a Scripture. Remember this was written before the understanding that addiction to alcohol and drugs may be genetic. This passage does not take that into account, but it does give theological understanding to God's purpose in creating wine. Do not aim to be valiant over wine, for wine has destroyed many. Fire and water prove the ...

21. A Society Out Of Control

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... with pornography, etc. the doctor noted that many of those with severe problems in these areas had themselves been sexually abused as children. Indeed, those who have been abused as children are more likely to experience problems not only with sexual addiction, but drug addiction and other forms of socially unacceptable behavior as well. Phil Donahue asked at the end of that program if the problems we are facing as a society are not likely to grow greater rather than diminish because of the breakup of ...

22. The Heart of an Intimate Matter

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... embraces lust as the normal mode of relationship between men and women, we are producing fewer and fewer who are capable of faithful marriage. That is a predictor of cultural disaster ahead. An estimated eight to ten percent of men in our country are already sex addicts.13 They are predatory. Keep porn out of your homes. Cut off the cable if you have to. Don’t wink at in your teenage sons, or increasingly your daughters. Monitor their diet of media. Don’t let them sleep over with boyfriends or fiances ...

23. Pastor, Don't Talk About That!

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... as a follower of Jesus Christ. Take care of that wonderful body God has given you. Parents, let me ask you what kind of example you are setting? Much is at stake here. Of course, there are many other moral issues besides alcohol and drug addiction. One of the challenges faced by young people today is instability in the home and conflicting messages concerning sexuality in society. Are we not to raise our voices about the decline in sexual values and about what that means to the ability of young adults ...

24. Holy Week

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... the same question. Can we see and believe or are our lives too cluttered to receive God? We are all busy people; we are addicted to many things. Some of us are addicted to work; some are addicted to school. Some people are addicted to pleasure. Some, unfortunately, are addicted to themselves. At times we are so busy that our priorities get messed up. Sometimes our addictions come ahead of our God. It cannot be this way, if we are to see and believe! We might not feel comfortable doing nothing, just ...

25. How Does One Follow Jesus During The Threat Of War?

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

George Johnson

... as well as their potential. To be poor in spirit is like the first step in the 12-step program, which is to recognize one's powerlessness over one's addiction. It may be our addiction to wealth and privilege. It may be our addiction to racism or sexism. It may be our addiction to a war economy. The first step is to recognize one's addiction and seek help. Blessed are the poor in spirit, who sense their brokenness and need for help. This is not a time for rattling swords, but for soul searching and ...

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