Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: contest, tournament, match, game, round, heat, fixture, event, meet, encounter, rivalry, competitiveness, vying, contesting, opposition, contention, conflict, feuding, battling, fighting, struggling, strife, war, opposing side, other side, other team, field, enemy, foe

Showing 1 to 25 of 676 results

1. Competition In The Kingdom?

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... played among us. We need to prepare for our Lord's coming in this Lenten season by confessing our sin. Of course, leadership positions in the church and the temptation to play power games with them may not be everybody's hang-up. Yet the competition game which occurred that day among Jesus' disciples points to a dynamic which has broad implications for us in late 20th century American society. One prominent social analyst put it well. As a description of the modern American mind-set, he wrote: "Today men ...

2. Competition and Success

Luke 22:54-62

Illustration

... lined up for the 100 yard dash. The gun sounded and the race was off. But only a few yards into the race, one of the children fell and began to cry. For some reason these challenged children did not understand the world's concept of competition and getting ahead and taking advantage when a competitor was down. The other eight children stopped running and came back to their fallen comrade. A young girl with Down's Syndrome kissed him and brushed him off. The children lifted him up together, arm in arm ...

3. Competitive Kids

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Erskine White

Do we learn from children how not to be so competitive - how to be happy with our own gifts and achievements and not to be so obsessed with what the next person has? Well, consider the plight of poor Charlie Brown (in Peanuts), who is walking with his friends on the way to school one morning. It is "show and tell ...

4. Christian Values Christian Competition

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Bulletin Aid

Call to Worship Leader: Paul wrote to Timothy, "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ....If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules." Men: An athlete who cheats doesn’t always get caught, but what has he proved? Perhaps he has proved that he can run half the course in less time than the others can run the full course. His trophy is meaningless. Women: A Christian can cheat by being strong on his own instead ...

5. Campaign Competition

Humor Illustration

A politician doesn't always say exactly what he means: My opponent deserves to be kicked upside the head by a jackass...and frankly, I'd like to be the one to do it! I have reiterated over again what I have said before. (New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner) I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue. (Former President Richard Nixon, on Watergate) Don't quote what he says. Say what he means! (Campaign aide of Sen. Barry Goldwater, during the 1964 presidential campaign) I'm not indecisive? ...

6. Reflecting God’s Abundant Love

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Molly F. James

... all the times we have been like the tax collector! But what about the times we are like the Pharisee? What about the times in which we are guilty of comparing ourselves to others? What about the times in which we fall prey to believing that life is a competition, and we must do better than those around us? It is much harder to admit the times when we have gotten on our high horses and been self-centered like the Pharisee. It is harder to admit how much time we spend comparing ourselves to our neighbors. Who ...

7. Driven to Complete

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... we are to being “Number 1.” But someone is always going to outrun us, outrank us, out-perform us. The greatest athlete on earth may have a lousy marriage. The richest person in the world may be in poor health. Someone always has something we want. The competition never ends. There’s a story of a man who had just sat down at his favorite restaurant and ordered his favorite milkshake. By the time the milkshake was placed in front of him, he needed to use the restroom. So he grabbed a pen and wrote on ...

8. Blind Ambition

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... days early is worth it to me and my husband,” she said before the birth. “It will mean a lot in school if my child has the necessary skills and maturity of other children his age.” (1) We can understand that. We live in a competitive world. That’s the nature of our society. They’re not playing football games all over our nation every weekend this fall just for the exercise. Winning is important to us. Pride is important to us. Prestige. Two archaeologists, a Greek and Egyptian, were arguing over ...

9. Running the Race

Philippians 3:4-11, 2 Timothy 4:7

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... being a criminal. He is in grave danger of losing his life. He looks more like a loser than a winner, more like a weakling than a champion. Nevertheless, he is confident and certain of victory. He is not the least bit worried or fearful of defeat. Athletic competition appeals to so many because after the final gun has sounded and some have enjoyed "the thrill of victory" and others have suffered "the agony of defeat," we can always walk away from it. Unlike the rest of life, it is "only a game." It was only ...

10. It's Hard To Be Number Two

John 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... sergeant. But for his vanity, Himmler might have escaped but he could not bear being only a private. (5) What difference does it make if you are a private or a sergeant? For some people it makes all the difference in the world. We have a competitive part of our nature that does not enjoy being number 2. And let's admit something else. IT TAKES A VERY SPECIAL PERSON NOT TO BE THREATENED WHEN SOMEONE COMES ALONG WHO SHINES A LITTLE BRIGHTER. John the Baptist could have reacted entirely differently when Jesus ...

11. Look Who Is Standing at the Door

James 4:1-12; 5:1-12

Sermon

James L. Killen

... is not recognized by him. He once worked for his company. He had received a commendation for his work two weeks before he was laid off as a part of the company's program of downsizing. He was told that the company had to get lean and mean to meet competition. He doesn't think his former boss looks too lean. He has lots of bad feelings. He is hoping to find a new job that will get him back on some company's ladder. But, right now, he is just hoping for a generous tip. The woman who is collecting ...

12. Blessed Among Women

Luke 1:39-56

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

... . I have often wondered where Jesus got his view of the world. How is it he identified with the poor, and had such a difficult time with the mighty? Why was he so unmasculine in his rejection of the sword, of violence as the way of the future, of competition as the source of power and wealth? Where did he get the idea that was to be the lynchpin of his life; that abundance did not lie in doing well but in doing good? Where did he come upon the notion that God demanded compassion, gentleness, humility; that ...

13. A VIP Seat

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... ’t come to stop the party. In fact, the opposite is true. He saw life as a party, and he wanted to invite everyone in. We are the only thing standing in the way of knowing the unquenchable joy of the kingdom of God. Life is not a competition; it is a celebration. And the best way we can experience this truth is by living with the humility, joy and love that Jesus showed to the world. 1. “The Strange Rituals Of Super-Rich Partying Exposed” by Ollie A. Williams, Forbes.com, August 16, 2020, https://www ...

14. Wrestling with God

Genesis 32:22-31

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... The World Gravy Wrestling Championship is a charity event that raises funds for the East Lancashire Hospice. (2) In case you’re envious of the Brits for getting all the good wrestling competitions, Barnesville, Minnesota, is home to a mashed potato wrestling competition every year during its Potato Days Festival. The competition takes place in the parking lot of the Assumption Catholic Church in Barnesville. A pool is set up and filled with potato flakes and water. Competitors get two three-minute rounds ...

15. Redrawing The Landscape

Multiple Scriptures

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... 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 our hair on end: five hundred thousand to one million elderly are abused in this country every year. The most severe cases of violence seen by ...

16. Prayer

Matthew 13:1-23

Bulletin Aid

... among thorns That's me And my friends! I hear God's word I want to believe To follow Jesus But there's so much competition! Competition for my time - Work Committees School activities Community involvement Some time Just for me. Competition for my attention - TV Books Newspapers Spouse Children Friends Competition for my commitment Family Career Clubs Lodges Causes Organizations So much competition That God's Word God's Kingdom Is "choked out" of my life. Those things are all good All important So how do I ...

17. Winners, Losers and the Gospel

Mt 16:25

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... . We compete for fun, for mates, for titles, for jobs, for money, for grades, for admittance to schools, for just about everything. In ways subtle and not so subtle, we move to have the edge on other people. From one angle of vision it can be said that competition is only an expression of the way it is and has to be. If you have one job and twenty-five applicants, there is no way you can divide the job twenty-five ways so that everyone wins. Very obviously a church, for example, cannot call twenty-five ...

18. Live and Learn

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , neurology, sculpting, piano. Called the "Development of Talent Project," the findings revealed that at least ten to seventeen years were required. "For example, in a study of the winners of the Chopin International Piano Competition, the Tchaikovsky International Competition, and the Van Cliburn International Quadrennial Piano Competition, the ultimate competitive forums for pianists, it was found that pianists worked 17.14 years from the day they began taking piano lessons to the day they won a major ...

19. The Imperishable Dream

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... there are winners and there are loser. There are real, undeniable consequences at the end of the day. Paul uses language in today's epistle text that is as instantly familiar and powerful to us as it was for his Corinthian audience. The drama of athletic competition, the quest for the prize, the victor's wreath, was as recognizable an image in the first century as it is in the twenty-first century. It's why we're still competing in the Olympic games after all these centuries. We can't know whether ...

20. Christ’s Twin

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... research was destroyed and experiments contaminated. Turnover soared above 75 percent, and worse, a tragic if unmeasurable loss of valuable research resulted. (4) Win at any cost is not a healthy motivation in any endeavor. Don’t get me wrong. There is a place for competition in society. But sometimes there is a better way. Some of you may remember the man who is credited with making Japan a modern industrial giant. His name was W. Edwards Deming. He died some years back, but he lectured into his 90s in ...

21. Seeing the Truth of Jesus

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... want to settle for being Steve 2. He argued that 0 comes before 1, so he wanted his name tag to read Steve 0. And since no one wanted to argue with this “logic,” Steve Jobs was assigned the employee name tag Steve 0. (1) Was Steve Jobs competitive? I guess you could say that. A woman named Kathy tells about the day she gave birth to her first child. Coincidentally, one of Kathy’s colleagues was at the same hospital giving birth that day too. Kathy and her husband had prepared for this day with natural ...

22. Badger or Bonobo?

Mark 9:38-50

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a woman found dead after being mauled by a badger when her car broke down.[2] While these may be extreme instances, you may want to consider going the opposite way if you see a badger cross your path. Badgers are relentlessly territorial. Their competitive, aggressive nature makes them one of nature’s least favorite critters to encounter. Then again, humans can be pretty territorial too. I for one have difficulty tolerating any large spider or insect-like creature that dares step foot into my house. I don ...

23. Wrestling In A Title Bout

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

Mark Clark

... foolishly to the foot, "I have no need of you." Usually it isn't until we've cut someone off from the fellowship that we realize how we've impoverished the whole community of faith. Like Jacob, who fled for his life after outwitting his brother, our competitiveness destroys relationships. The Jacob within us is a manipulator. We all know how to make those devious moves, don't we? Take for example the old "foot in the door" approach. Some of us are experts at this ploy from an early age. The goal is to ...

24. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... but only one receives the prize?" he can be assured that his audience knows well the circumstances he is describing. He focuses attention from the pack of runners down to a single competitor, the winner who receives the prize. Prizes varied in these athletic competitions. While some offered monetary prizes, or even a cut in taxes, others offered only the symbolic prize of the winner's wreath. The well-known wreath of the Olympia games was a crown of olive branches, while the crown received by winners of the ...

25. Responding to God's Love

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... in every aspect — the athletic field, the boardroom, our social life. There are certainly times and situations where we absolutely need to put our best foot forward, whether that is the competitive market of employment, entrance to institutions of education, or sports. However, the tendency is to “run over” the competition with little concern, feeling that it is the survival of the fittest is indeed strong. Social Darwinism is indeed alive and well. Another challenge to universal love is our desire to ...

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