Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: captured, trapped, catch, took, arrested, grabbed, taken, seized, stuck, apprehended, picked up, entangled, nabbed, jammed, abducted, acquired, got, bagged, gotten, netted, cornered, appropriated, tangled, snared, ensnared

Antonyms: free, freed, unconfined, loose, unrestrained, set free, uncuffed, emancipated, enfranchised, released, ambiguous, flaccid, let go, discharged, unbound, uncaged, unchained, unfettered, unleashed, unshackled, untied, avoided, discounted, disregarded, missed

Showing 1 to 25 of 946 results

1. When God's Dream Captures Your Heart

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... life. He says that while his friends were hiding girlie magazines under their beds, he was hiding Earl Nightingale’s message of hope and opportunity. It had captured his imagination as it has captured the imagination of hundreds of thousands of other persons over the years. (1) Have you ever had something capture your imagination? Einstein, you will remember, said “imagination is more important than knowledge.” What is imagination? It’s a mental picture of something, usually something desirable ...

2. A New Perspective

Deuteronomy 7:1-26

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... these opinions are about God. Your mind is not like a bulletin board, where you can tack up new opinions about God and maybe take down a few old ones. It’s not like that. It’s a shifting of your frame of reference, of allowing Christ to capture your frame of reference like the cloud, so that everything else is seen and felt differently. Your beliefs then will grow from this new perspective. The same things we say about being in love can be said about the relationship with God - about being in faith. It ...

3. The Strange Tactics Of God

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... as well as some profound insight into the strange ways of God. But before starting I want to lift up two enigmatic texts and peg them in the air so that they hover over our thought. Here is a verse from Psalm 78. The Psalmist is reflecting on the capture of the ark by the Philistines: He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mortals, and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe (V. 60). Here is another comment by a New Testament writer who is reflecting on ...

4. Moving Fences

2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... get out of that hell." As the Hindu hangs on his every word, Gandhi speaks with the spirit of Jesus. He says, "Go and find a Muslim boy who has no home. Take him into your home as your son, and raise him as a Muslim." If you are ever captured by the love of Christ, if you ever visualize your name written on the cross where he died, you can never be the same again. Old divisions, old hatreds, and old prejudices fade away. In every pair of eyes you catch a glimpse of Jesus, and the fences come tumbling ...

5. What Makes People Great?

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... Carlyle, "We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man without gaining something from him." The scriptures say, "These are the names of David’s heroes" (2 Samuel 23:8, NEB). and then lists more than thirty heroic soldiers. Heroes affect us in four ways. First, a hero captures our attention. One of those heroes was a man named Benaiah "who went down into a pit and killed a lion on a snowy day" (2 Samuel 23:20, NEB). Because we face problems that stalk us like lions, we admire Benaiah, whose action ...

6. Mind Games

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Sermon

James Merritt

... against the attacks of the devil so that God can use our minds for His glory and for our good. I. Learn That Satan Wants To Capture Our Mind "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh." (v.3) Paul clues us in on the ... for the mind. From the time that Satan entered into this world he has always had only one strategy to attack this world. He wants to capture, control, and corrupt the minds of men. The reason is very simple. He knows if he can get us to think wrongly he can push us ...

7. Profile Of A Savior

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... detail: "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem" (9:51). Jesus on his way to Jerusalem — which is to say, Jesus on his way to his passion and death — that is the moment that Isaiah captured in his portrait. He knows what is ahead, and yet he sets his face with determination to encounter, to endure, and to overcome all that awaits him. Congregational minister and scholar, Samuel Ralph Harlow, put the portrait in poetry: "We marvel at the purpose that held ...

8. Black Preaching: A Four-Cornered Universe

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... to search those spoken and unspoken aspects of the text in an attempt not only to help hearers make sense of the text but also to reveal how it intersects with their lives presently. If critics say the essential idea of the text is not captured because of the lack of structural exegesis, the essential mood or backdrop of the text which informs the extant or secondary truths of the texts themselves may be disclosed in ways that still help hearers grasp the fundamental truths and milieu of the scriptural ...

9. Achieving An All-In Victory - 1952

1 John 5:1-12

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... only do we see the fullness of grace and beauty. Not courage as such, but a courageous man leaping into a flood to rescue a child from drowning - that gets us. Not generosity in the abstract, but a hungry soldier sharing his last crust with a captured enemy - that captures us. Not sacrifice as a word or an idea, but sacrifice incarnated in a Man climbing on a Cross and praying for the mad men who are murdering him - that enthralls us. The one amazing thing to me about Jesus is the matchless way in which ...

10. Nothing Great Happens Without It

Luke 14: 25-35

Sermon

James Merritt

... William Hooper. The plantations of Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward were burned to the ground. These men, from South Carolina, also became prisoners of war. The farm and livestock of John Hart, of New Jersey, were destroyed. His wife died trying to avoid capture and his health was ruined. One of New York's signers, Francis Lewis, not only had his home burned to the ground, but his wife was made a prisoner of war. Shortly after her release, she died. Richard Stockton, another signer, was ...

11. A Sense of Place

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 6-10

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... to David and asked him to be their king as well. David agreed, and became the ruler of all of Israel. The rest of our reading for today tells of one of David's first acts as king of the united Hebrew tribes. He took his army and captured the city of Jerusalem, setting it up as the new capital of Israel. At that time, although Jerusalem was situated within the area controlled by the Hebrew tribes, it was occupied by a people called Jebusites. It was well fortified, which was probably why the Israelites had ...

12. Holy Waste

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... sheep.” The sheep who gave it, more surprisingly yet, is a man — a big man – a macho man. A man who is not only big in physical stature, but is big in heart and spirit and big in love. In this instance, he was big in boldness in capturing the meaning of the moment and responding to it. The letter accompanying my treasured sheep is even more treasured, It began: “As I sat in the Sanctuary at noon on Thursday listening to you speak, a particular thought occurred to me that I wanted to share with you ...

13. Don't Be Afraid

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... vision of Jesus bathed fully in light. In that moment, they were confused and afraid. Their first impulse was to build Sukkot enclosures for the light to dwell within, so that it wouldn’t overtake them. But God’s light is too big to be captured or controlled. It is an all-encompassing light –the Light that envelopes Jesus is God’s own eminent brilliance. The disciples, when faced with this brilliant, pure, encompassing light are struck for words. It is too hard for them to make sense of. While they ...

14. Saved By The Blood Of The Lamb

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

... though many throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord. Gentile or Jew, servant or free, woman or man, no more ... many the gifts, many the works, one in the Lord of all." As we celebrate the Lord's supper we hear another expression of song that captures the power of this vivid reminder of God's love. The hymn, "I Come With Joy." "I come with joy to meet my Lord, forgiven, loved and free, in awe and wonder to recall his life laid down for me, his life laid down for me ... As Christ breaks bread ...

15. Peacemaking - Active, Not Passive

Sermon

Alan Bacon Bond

... find it. (Matthew 10:34-39) "Grandma, can you be bad and good at the same time? If the duck escapes through carelessness ... the wolf is captured with careful planning. In order for peace to be made, there must be careful planning, with a full acceptance of the fact that there is going ... The price of peace with justice came high and dear during the American Civil War, and yet Julia Ward Howe movingly captured the truth and cost of God's justice in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Mine eyes have seen the ...

16. The Post Launch Slump

2 Cor 8:10-11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... tell you how it reads: Says Murphy’s law, "If anything can go wrong, it will." Murphy’s law and others like it are not laws in a scientific sense; they are not laws in the sense that the law of gravity is a law. But they do capture human moments that are repeatable among us to the point where they seem more the rule than the exception. An enterprising fellow by the name of Arthur Bloch has put laws of this kind together between two covers and the result makes interesting and delightful leisure reading.1 ...

17. Beyond Our Sight, Within Our Hearing

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

William G. Carter

... only about meeting my needs but also about rearranging my needs, giving me needs I would never have known had I not come to church.3 With no help from his disciples or us, Jesus was transfigured. We caught a glimpse of his glory, but we could not capture it. We heard an awesome voice but we could not institutionalize it. All we could do is bend our knees, point in awe, and listen for the Voice to speak. The word that best describes all this is worship. There was a congregation somewhere in the Midwest who ...

18. Where Is Your Home?

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... -old asked, "Who flushed him?" (1) Children are amazing. Last week we asked, What makes a family? On this Father's Day we ask, Where is your home? First of all, though, we want to salute our dads. It's not easy being a dad. Paul Dickson captured some of the difficulties of parenting in his little volume, THE OFFICIAL RULES AT HOME. Among others he discusses these three immutable Laws--Laws which he says are corollaries of Murphy's famous Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will. If anything can't go wrong ...

19. A Shocking Revelation

Revelation 1:9-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... spreading? And who can keep a child in safety? And who can take the sting out of tragedy? Too often we’ve sung along with that lonely voice on the radio, "Is that all there is?" Is that all there is? Think of Gamaliel Bradford. He was a writer who captured the optimism of his age. Things were going great in his life. And things were going well in his world. Religion was a thing of the past, he said. We don’t really need God anymore. He wrote a poem about it, in fact. He called it: "Exit God" "Exit ...

20. Born Again? When?

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... sitting in a sailboat, have you ever tried to make the wind blow? It cannot be done. Neither can you, by your own efforts, cause God’s grace to come upon you. While sailing, you are entirely at the mercy of the wind (along with your skill at capturing it). You may capture the wind in your sails for a time, but it can disappear suddenly, leaving you stranded in the middle of the lake, and, if you do not have a motor, too embarrassed to ask for a tow. Sailing is a humbling experience. You may use the wind ...

21. Oh, God!

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... the lad asked as he took the lid off. “Yes,” said the mother, “even in the sugar bowl.” The boy slammed down the lid and said, “Now I’ve got him.” Silly little joke, but also thought-provoking. So often people think they have captured God. They believe they know exactly what God is like. The Week magazine carried an interesting piece recently concerning people’s thoughts about God. It was based on a survey by the Gallup organization for Baylor University. Americans were asked to describe how ...

22. On the Mountainside

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... reducing The Almighty God into a domesticated house cat who will curl up beside the fire with us and purr when we pat its stomach, a warm comforter to make us feel cozy and safe at night? [3] What would it take for us to once again be captured by the vision of a God who is: Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inexpressible hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise. [4] This God, the God of Jesus' prayer, the God who is there ...

23. Remember Me

Luke 22:7-38, John 13:18-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... over the remains of the bread on the table-cloth, and then shining with an ineffable inspiration: this, this would be his hiding place. That’s where he would take refuge [ in the bread which he broke for his disciples]. That night [the soldiers] wouldn’t capture him in his entirety; they’d think they’d done so, they’d think they’d dragged him away from his companions, yet really they would scourge and crucify a ghost: he had hidden himself in that bread. Rather as in Galilee, when they wanted to ...

24. Exit and Entrance

Galatians 4:21-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... available to you through Christ and his cross. Release and reconciliation is what we see from the exit perspective of freedom and that release and reconciliation can be claimed by all of you. III Again, if you are taking notes, put down two words that capture what we see and experience when we look at freedom from the perspective of: birthright and belonging. Not only is Christ’s freedom that of release and reconciliation gives us a new vision. That new vision enables us to see our true birthright, and to ...

25. Family Resemblance

John 14:5-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... Will his son someday have the same skewed values? Have you heard the expression, “like father, like son?” Our topic today is “family resemblance.” Once, years ago, there was a band of pirates who swept through a village in China. These pirates captured all the men of the town and carried them away. One of these captured men was a Mr. Li. Mr. Li left behind him a wife and small son. Mrs. Li worked hard to provide for her son, but times were tough for a single mom. And years passed with no word of her ...

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