Synonyms: financial gain, gain, return(s), payback, dividend, interest, yield, surplus, excess, advantage, benefit, value, use, good, avail, worth, usefulness, be beneficial to, be of benefit to, be advantageous to, be of advantage to, be of use to, be of value to, do someone good, help, be helpful to, be of service to, serve, assist, aid, stand someone in good stead, further the interests of, advance, promote, make money, make a killing, make a profit
Antonyms: loss, disadvantage, debt, lack, need, payment, resource, want
Showing 1 to 25 of 1253 results
1. Thanksgiving Means Giving
1 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... physically present with these people. We welcomed the opportunity. However, Paul’s concept of presence as an action of thanksgiving requires more of us. Being an excellent judge of human character, Paul realized that to be present to people we know, like, or perceive can be of advantage to us is not difficult at all. He realized the need, and so must we, to move beyond being present simply to those we like, but in an act of thanksgiving, to be present to those we know and possibly do not like. I suspect ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
In mid-August the basketball team of Georgetown University, the “Hoyas,” set out on a ten day “good will tour” of China. They played various Chinese teams in an effort to foster good feelings between the USA and China. The basketball games were a kind of “visual aid” to accompany vice-president Joe Biden’s concurrent visit with Chinese political leaders. On August 18 the “Hoyas” played against the “Bayi Rockets” of Shanghai at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Arena. Unfortunately all the “good will” went “ ...
Children's Sermon
Object: A lever or a wrench and, depending upon which you use, some very heavy weight or a bolt fastened too tightly for a child to unscrew with his fingers. Good morning, boys and girls. I was looking over some ideas in my Bible this week to see what special thing I could tell you. Did you know that the Bible is more than just one book? It is a whole library of books, for there are 66 books in the Bible. Some of the books are very long, while others may only be one page long. The Bible is a very important ...
Children's Sermon
Object: None or measuring tape Good morning, boys and girls. Let's do an experiment today. Let's all stand up and line up for a minute. (Do it with them.) Now we have short people and tall people and thick people and thin people and boy people and girl people. None of us are exactly the same as anybody else, are we! Now let's all sit down again and think about this for a minute. If you are the tallest one, you might think you have a special advantage over short people. You can reach things some of them ...
Bulletin Aid
Exegetical note: Paul's heart-felt expression of "anguish" and "sorrow" for his fellow Jews over their rejection of the Christ in spite of their many advantages (enumerated in v. 4) may well be universalized to include those of every age and place who, despite their God-given advantages, yet reject God's most exceptional acts of grace and mercy. Call to Worship Leader: Sisters and brothers, let us worship the God of Israel! People: LET US LIFT OUR VOICES TO THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB! Leader: Let ...
6. The Advantage
Illustration
Staff
Former pro basketball star Bill Bradley tells that at the age of 15 he attended a summer basketball camp that was run by Easy Ed Macauley, a former college and pro star. "Just remember that if you're not working at your game to the utmost of your ability," Macauley told his assembled campers, "there will be someone out there somewhere with equal ability who will be working to the utmost of his ability. And one day you'll play each other, and he'll have the advantage."
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
The logical follow-up to the preceding section is the question, “What advantage, then, is there is being a Jew?” (v. 1). Although ultimately Jews have no advantage, if we understand Paul rightly, they operate in the short run with a favorable handicap, for “they have been entrusted with the very words of God” (v. 2). God’s revelation does not happen just anywhere. Humanity cannot conjure up God whenever and wherever it will. God must be known where he makes himself known—within Israel. “Salvation is from ...
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
With devastating finality Paul now concludes the long discussion of the guilt of humanity which began in 1:18. The passage falls into three parts: a summation of the argument of 3:1–8 (v. 9); a series of proof texts from the OT on the moral failure of humanity (vv. 10–18); and a conclusion that the law is powerless to save (vv. 19–20). Paul enters the final round against his fellow Jews who suppose that the advantage of the law (3:2) secures favor with God. Since 2:1 he has attacked Jewish presumption to ...
Sermon
James L. Killen
Some things that happen in our world just ought not to happen. A mother decides that she does not want her newborn baby, so she wraps it in a blanket and leaves it beside a rural road. Fortunately, the baby is found by someone passing by before it dies but the ants have already begun to bite it. A community puts its trust in a man and elects him to public office. Then he uses his position to enrich himself by taking bribes and favoring the businesses of his friends. Famines occur in impoverished parts of ...
10. Correcting Cephas
Galatians 2:11-21
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
The incident related in this section (2:11–14) indicates that in spite of the basic agreement reached at the Jerusalem council, certain ambiguities continued to exist. The incident at Antioch is significant, for it moves us on to the next logical step in Paul’s argument regarding his authority on the matters troubling the Galatians. We need to take careful note of the situation as Paul has developed it. The authorities in Jerusalem had recognized Paul’s equal status relative to them, but in Paul’s view ...
11. What Is Your Name?
Genesis 32:22-32
Sermon
Mike Ripski
Sometimes things don’t work out the way they should. Then, again, maybe they do. Esau and Jacob This seems especially true with regard to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was born first, hairy, ruddy, red complexioned. Thus he was named Esau. Esau relied on his brawn rather than his brain. Had his name been based on who he was instead of how he looked, his name should have been "Easy-Going," "Laid Back," or even "Slow." His was not a Type-A personality. He had no desire to be his class’ President and ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Many of you have seen the award-winning motion picture from the 1970s, The Godfather. A chilling film, it is about an aging patriarch of an organized crime family who transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son, Michael. We see as the film goes along what this responsibility and the power that goes with it does to Michael’s soul. The closing scene of The Godfather is particularly memorable. No, it is not the horse’s head discovered by a Hollywood producer in his bed. What an awful ...
Teach the Text
C. Marvin Pate
Big Idea: God’s faithfulness is actually demonstrated through the covenantal curses on Israel. Understanding the Text In Romans 2 Paul showed that Israel’s attempt to obey the law is, ironically, the reason that they are still in exile and under divine judgment. Romans 3:1–8 therefore anticipates, in diatribe fashion, three Jewish objections to that notion: (1) there is no advantage to having the law, (2) God has broken his promise, and (3) God is unfair to punish Israel (see table 1). Historical and ...
14. Proverbs of Solomon
Proberbs 10:1--22:16
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
10:1–29:27 Review · Proverbial Collections: Advanced Instruction in Wisdom: If one views Proverbs 1–9 as a basic introduction to proverbial wisdom, then chapters 10–29 serve as the advanced course. Or, to express it differently, the prologue presents and commends wisdom, while the collections that follow illustrate the scope and variety of situations in which wisdom is advantageous (without absolutely guaranteeing success) if employed properly and in a timely manner. Proverbs 1–9 also gives the reader a ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
Life has a way of presenting us with defining moments. I re- member facing a defining moment in my ministry. I went to see a man in the hospital who was dying. He was not active in the church I pastored, but I knew who he was. When I entered his hospital room, his whole family was standing in a semi-circle around his bed. They greeted me, and then the man told his family that he wanted a moment alone with me. So they left us alone. As soon as his family had left, he began to cry. I sat by his bed and began ...
Sermon
Larry Powell
Senator William Proximire (D-Wisconsin) regularly delights the general public by awarding his now-famous "Golden Fleece Award" to some government committee or agency which, because of some redundant high-dollar project, has achieved recognition for excelling in flagrant, wasteful, unnecessary spending. Senator Proximire gets our attention because he illuminates a subject of interest to us all: how money is spent. We do not like to spend more than we have to and have little tolerance for irresponsible, ...
Sermon
King Duncan
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] A famous news anchor tells about attending a revival as a boy in his home town of Bloomington, Texas. It was a spectacular extravaganza the whole town attended. The tent was open, the floor was sawdust ...
Sermon
King Duncan
We are told that being tall gives you an advantage in our culture, particularly if you are a male. For example, taller men earn more money on average than their shorter counterparts. If you’re six-feet-two or taller, you’re likely to start a new job at a salary 12.4 percent higher than someone under six feet. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not fair, but that is the way it is. Each extra inch of height is worth an extra $600 a year on average. In 1987 they did a survey of 1,200 MBAs. Average salary of those ...
19. The Coming of the Lord
1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11
Understanding Series
David J. Williams
Although the formula, “Now about …” (peri de), which sometimes appears to have marked Paul’s answers to questions (see disc. on 4:9) does not occur, 4:13–18 is probably his answer to a question about the fate of deceased believers. From the teaching the missionaries gave while they were still with them, the Thessalonians would have known the general eschatological scenario that Paul unfolds in these verses, but at least some of them were still unsure where the Christian dead fitted into it. They may have ...
Understanding Series
F. F. Bruce
Call for Mutual Consideration Paul’s concern for unity of mind and mutual consideration among the members of the Philippian church need not imply that there was an atmosphere of dissension there. The fact that two members are singled out by name and urged to agree in 4:2 could suggest (unless 4:2 belongs to an originally separate letter) that theirs was an exceptional case of conflict. We do not know what Epaphroditus had told Paul about the state of the church, but at this time Paul found sufficient ...
Understanding Series
William Nelson
The Final Revelation--The Body: We enter now into the body of the last main revelation of the book of Daniel. There has been some progression in the visions of the book from a more general scope, encompassing larger blocks of history, to a more narrow focus on shorter periods of time. So, for example, Daniel 2 spans four and a half centuries by outlining the four human empires of Babylonia, Media, Persia, and Greece, which are swept away by the fifth—the eternal kingdom of God. Aside from the fact that the ...
22. A Child of God
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Sermon
Ronald Love
Perry Noble of NewSpring Church, the worship leader of 32,000, the largest church in South Carolina with multiple campuses, caused a theological stir with his Christmas Eve sermon in 2016, proclaiming that the Ten Commandments were not commandments, but only “promises” since the word for “commandments” is not in the Hebrew lexicon. Having this epiphany, he wrote a revolutionary sermon in ten minutes transforming “you shalt not” to “you are free …” Reputable theologians challenged the irrefutable pastor ...
Sermon Aid
Harold H. Lentz
Background Material This is the last miracle which Mark records. It concludes Mark's thrilling reports of the wondrous blessing which Christ bestowed upon the blind, the sick, the deaf, and even the dead. This particular miracle was reported by other Evangelists, who do not name the beggar. It is Mark alone who furnishes the name of Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus. It is somewhat curious how Mark had this information. Did he ask the man's name at the time of the miracle? Was the man a familiar ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
Paul, the greatest missionary of the Christian era, once remarked that God doesn't always use the wisest, strongest and most moral people to bring his message. Instead God uses the foolish, the weak and the lowly -- just to prove a point (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). That truth certainly holds when it comes to those chosen by God as the patriarchs of ancient Israel. Consider our scripture lesson for this morning which concerns the brothers Jacob and Esau, children of Isaac. With very little reading between the ...
25. Advent 3
John 1:1-18, John 1:19-28, Isaiah 61:1-11, Isaiah 65:17-25, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
Sermon Aid
E. Carver McGriff
COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 61:1-11 How dear this passage is to Christian hearts, echoed as it was from the lips of Jesus (Luke 4:17-19). These words are, in many ways, as timely today as they were to those disappointed people returning to Israel from their long exile. Excited, they were filled with high expectations when they began to arrive. But social and political disappointments quickly followed. Bone-weary, discouraged, deprived of hope, they trudged in thousands to their fields, probably ...
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