Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
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
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1. Why Didn't You Tell Us This Before?
Matthew 16:13-20
Illustration
Russell F. Metcalfe
A couple of years ago Rev. Martin Copenhaver, of Wellesley Congregational Church, preached on this same passage. He had been to a pastor's seminar where Michael Greene from Britain, a scholar of the history of evangelism, had challenged a group of pastors with "When is the last time you told your congregation what Jesus means to YOU?" Later Pastor Copenhaver wrote in his study "As a pastor I talk a good deal about Jesus, but do I say what Jesus means to me?" He decided he would try to do just that. In his ...
2. Are You Swapping Heaven?
Matthew 3:1-12
Illustration
King Duncan
Let me tell you a legend about a beautiful swan that alighted one day by the banks of the water in which a crane was wading about seeking snails. For a few moments the crane viewed the swan in stupid wonder and then inquired: "Where do you come from?" "I come from heaven!" replied the swan. "And where is heaven?" asked the crane. "Heaven!" said the swan, "Heaven! have you never heard of heaven?" And the beautiful bird went on to describe the grandeur of the Eternal City. She told of streets of gold, and ...
3. The Creeping Vine
1 Cor 1:23
Illustration
Michael P. Green
The story is told of a small English village that had a tiny chapel whose stone walls were covered by traditional ivy. Over an arch was originally inscribed the words: we preach christ crucified. There had been a generation of godly men who did precisely that: they preached Christ crucified. But times changed. The ivy grew and pretty soon covered the last word. The inscription now read: we preach christ. Other men came and they did preach Christ: Christ the example, Christ the humanitarian, Christ the ...
4. Coasting Along?
Matthew 14:22-33
Illustration
Leonard Sweet
In the 1970s, when the gasoline shortage was at its height, any possible proposal for increasing the miles per gallon ratio was taken up with enthusiasm. One popular but not terribly effective scheme was to tuck your own car right up behind any large truck barreling down the highway. The conventional wisdom was that the tremendous draft created by the truck would help drag your own vehicle along thereby reducing the air friction on it and thus increasing your own gas mileage. Following in the wake of the ...
5. Parable of the Road Map
1 Samuel 15:1-35
Illustration
"Mother, what is this?" said Ralph holding up the road map. "That is a map of our state," said his mother. "What is a map? What is it for?" "Well a map shows where we live and these road numbers are marked on the map and on the roads as you drive along and if people follow the right numbers, they can get where they want to go." "How does it work?" asked Ralph. "Our town is on this route number 14 and if you are in another town, you watch for that number as you drive along the road and it brings you safely ...
6. The End of the World
John 20:1-18
Illustration
Donald Dotterer
There is a beautiful valley in Switzerland which is deeply hidden in that mountain range known as the Alps. That valley is completely surrounded by steep mountain walls. If one enters this valley, that person will move along the only road until it ends at the base of a steep wall of rock. The Swiss call this place the "End of the World." However, if one is willing to go climbing by foot, Swiss guides will show a determined hiker the path that leads up and over that mountain barrier. Reflecting upon this ...
7. Acting Bulletproof
Luke 13:1-9
Illustration
John R. Steward
Most people think of AIDS as being transmitted sexually or through intravenous drug use. There are few actual cases of anyone contracting the virus in other ways. However, there is the case of two brothers. One of the brothers had advanced symptoms of AIDS. The other brother was not infected at all with the deadly disease. Then one day the two brothers got into a very violent fight. The infected brother continuously smashed his head against his brother's head. Both men bled a great deal into each other's ...
8. The Reality of the Resurrection - Sermon Starter
Luke 24:36-49
Illustration
Brett Blair
100 years ago few people thought it possible that man could fly. No one except the two sons of Rev. Milton Wright who at 10:35 on the morning of Dec. 17 1903 made their first successful flight of 175 feet in a airplane driven by a four cylinder combustion engine. Today we fly much more sophisticated crafts around the moons of Jupiter. It was very hard to believe 100 years ago today but the evidence of that first flight is all around us today. 200 years ago the borders of the United States stretched from ...
9. Looking Down the Barrel
Illustration
In 1832, Abraham Lincoln returned from New Orleans to New Salem, Illinois. On credit, Lincoln bought an interest in a general store with William Berry. After a year or so of trying to make a go of it, they found themselves more in debt. On the front porch of his little country store in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln and Berry, his partner, stood. Business was all gone, and Berry asked, "How much longer can we keep this going?" Lincoln answered, "It looks as if our business has just about winked out." Then he ...
10. No One Completes the Journey Solo
John 6:1-21
Illustration
John E. Harnish
The migration of the monarch butterfly is an amazing story, a lovely little creature who blesses our gardens and forests in the summer. Every autumn, millions of monarchs from all over the eastern United States and Canada migrate thousands of miles to a small handful of sites in Mexico where they rest for the winter. Then in the spring, they begin their return trip to the north. The amazing thing is that no individual monarch ever makes the trip to Mexico and back. A butterfly that leaves the Adirondack ...
11. The Difference between Belief and Faith
Luke 17:1-10
Illustration
King Duncan
Can you picture this scene? We are sitting on bleachers under the big top having a wonderful time laughing at the clowns, watching lions and tigers jump at the crack of a whip, and gazing in awe as the acrobats perform. We are caught up in the excitement of the circus and join in with the crowd in thunderous applause after each act. The acrobats perform high above us in what seems to us as death-defying feats. Each feat seems greater than the previous one. "Ahhs" can be heard in unison after each act. ...
12. The Legend of the Touchstone
John 20:1-18
Illustration
James W. Moore
Do you remember the Legend of the Touchstone? It's a great story to recall on Easter Sunday morning. According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand. Once a man sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search of ...
13. Reduced In Value
Illustration
Staff
Two theological students were walking along a street in the Whitechapel district of London, a section where old and used clothing is sold. "What a fitting illustration all this makes!" said one of the students as he pointed to a suit of clothes hanging on a rack by a window. A sign on it read: SLIGHTLY SOILED GREATLY REDUCED IN PRICE. "That's it exactly," he continued. "We get soiled by gazing at a vulgar picture, reading a course book, or allowing ourselves a little indulgence in dishonest or lustful ...
14. HOW TO KNOW THE WILL OF GOD
Illustration
John H. Krahn
How often has each of us struggled over an important decision? We considered the variety of alternatives; often we discussed the decision with our family and friends. Sometimes we prayed over it and sought God’s direction. "What would God want me to do?" we asked ourselves. Unfortunately, there is much confusion about the subject of the will of God. The words, "It is the will of God," are used too freely. A catastrophe happens and people say glibly, "It’s his will." We sometimes do inappropriate things and ...
15. Song of the Vineyard
Isaiah 5:1-7
Illustration
Larry Powell
Three observations about Isaiah’s "Song of the Vineyard": 1. It was a song. That is to say, it was a marked variation in the prophet’s manner of proclamation. Isaiah was an eloquent, forthright orator, not a balladeer. It has been suggested that the reason for this temporary departure in style may have been the circumstances at that particular time. Deuteronomy 16:13-16 describes the carnival-like atmosphere which occurred in the ancient Feast of Booths. Some commentators have surmised that Isaiah rendered ...
16. Daring Words
Mark 1:9-13
Illustration
Larry Powell
The Gospel according to Mark, commonly accepted to be the earliest of the synoptics, relates that Jesus began his Galilean ministry by 1. making an announcement, 2. extending an invitation, and 3. issuing a command. It would be pressing the matter entirely too far to even remotely suggest that the sequence of events was intentional, yet there is a certain familiarity about the sequence itself. As a matter of fact, the three ingredients, broadly categorized above, probably bear a striking resemblance to the ...
17. In the Wrong Place?
Mark 1:1-8
Illustration
King Duncan
Many years ago a pastor was invited to preach at a nearby country church he had never been to before. As he set out he was uncertain which road to take since most rural roads are not clearly marked and the directions he had been given left something to be desired. He stopped to ask directions along the way. The person he asked tried, but mistakenly steered him down the wrong road. The morning was pleasant and although the road seemed a little longer than the pastor had expected, he cheerfully continued on ...
18. LIVE-SAVING STATIONS
Mark 1:14-20
Illustration
Mickey Anders
On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. ...
19. Show Us a Sign
Matthew 24:36-44
Illustration
Billy D. Strayhorn
One of the very first things we always ask for in the midst of uncertainty, disaster or trouble is: "Lord, show us a sign." In the movie Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, there's a scene where Bruce's life has fallen apart. He's gotten fired, beat up when he tried to help a homeless man holding a sign, and he's had a fight with his girlfriend whose name just happens to be Grace. He's driving along feeling sorry for himself, talking to and yelling at God. "OK, God. You want me to talk to you? Then talk ...
20. Don't Let It Get You
Illustration
Imagine that you are a world-class concert pianist at the peak of your career, someone who has spent years studying and practicing to develop your art. Your fingers respond instantly to your mental commands, flitting along the keyboard with grace and speed. Then one day you feel a stiffness that wasn't there before. You go to a doctor, tests are done, and the diagnosis comes back: Arthritis. Your fingers are destined to become wooden and crippled. From the heights of success and acclaim you will plunge to ...
21. Handicap's Triumphs
Illustration
Editor James S. Hewett
John Bartel was a healthy, athletic, twenty-year-old young man who was gradually taking full charge of the family dairy farm with all its multiple duties. It was a beautiful spring day in the lusciously green Fraser Valley, British Columbia. The grass was just right for filling the huge silos for winter feed. John was busily unloading the heavy fodder into the silage cutter and blower when a large bunch momentarily stopped the conveyer belt. By sheer habit, John stepped on the guilty bunch to get it moving ...
22. A Fist and a Kiss
Luke 22:47-53
Illustration
John E. Sumwalt
Once in Damascus years ago, when I was strolling along the street called Straight -- wondering whether it is truly the most ancient street in the world that has served continuously as a marketplace -- I watched as a man who was riding slowly through the crowd on a bicycle with a basket of oranges precariously balanced on the handlebars was bumped by a porter so bent with a heavy burden that he had not seen him. The burden dropped, the oranges were scattered and a bitter altercation broke out between the ...
23. Excess Bolts
Illustration
One day E.H. Harriman, the railroad magnate, was walking along the tracks with an assistant. Looking at a track bolt, he turned to the other man and asked, "Why does so much of the bolt protrude beyond the nut?" "I don't really know," said the assistant. "Except that it is the size we've always used." "Why should we use a bolt of such length that a part of it is utterly useless?" asked Harriman. "Well, when you come right down to it, there is no reason." The two continued walking along the track for a ...
24. For Freedom
Galatians 5:1-15
Illustration
John E. Sumwalt
It is the Fourth of July. An old veteran puts on his medals and makes his way to the park where Independence Day celebrations have already begun. He is greeted by the inviting aroma of hamburgers and bratwurst cooking on portable grills, and the sounds of happy voices floating out over the grass on a warm summer breeze. The park is full of picnickers gathered around tables and sitting on blankets under the trees. Children are playing on the swings and slides, and chasing each other around the merry-go- ...
25. COURIER
2 Chron 30:6; Esther 3:13
Illustration
Stephen Stewart
Have you ever stopped and really thought about the fantastic task of moving the mails? Or considered the weary mailman plodding along through all kinds of weather? Well, perhaps, having lived through the postal strike here in America, you are somewhat more aware of these citizens who are responsible for getting our mail to us. I’m sure that the people in England are even more aware of their dependence on the mails, since their strike lasted much longer than ours. We all know jokes based on the mailman’s ...
26. God Is Not Far Away
Luke 21:5-38
Illustration
Keith Wagner
What anxious people need more than anything is peace, especially peace of mind. On Black Friday I went into one of those fancy stores that sells watches. The store was crowded and I could barely make my way to the counter. I was on a mission. I had a watch that needed a battery. I was certain that the last thing any clerk wanted to do on the busiest shopping day of the year was to install a new battery in a watch. Much to my surprise the man said he would be glad to put in a new battery. I could leave it ...
27. Memorization of the Bible
Illustration
Jack Kuhatschek
While studying in the Holy Lands, a seminary professor of mine met a man who claimed to have memorized the Old Testament in Hebrew! Needless to say, the astonished professor asked for a demonstration. A few days later they sat together in the man's home. "Where shall we begin?" asked the man. "Psalm 1," replied my professor, who was an avid student of the psalms. Beginning with Psalm 1:1, the man began to recite from memory, while my professor followed along in his Hebrew Bible. For two hours the man ...
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