Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: beginning, start, origination, genesis, birth, dawning, dawn, emergence, inception, launch, creation, birthplace, cradle, early stages, conception, inauguration, foundation, outset, source, derivation, root, roots, provenance, etymology, descent, ancestry, parentage, pedigree, lineage, line, line of descent, heritage, extraction, background, family, stock, blood, bloodline, genealogy, beginnings

Antonyms: end, conclusion, termination

Showing 1 to 25 of 255 results

1. Finding Faith In Unlikely People

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... the will of the people, and the will of the people rests on principles, values and ideals which are divine in origin. Ultimately, man's law rests upon the law of God. Likewise medicine rests upon the power of healing which comes from God. All power is derivative power. The temptation of man is to believe he has done it all by himself, that he is sufficient unto himself, that he has originated his own power. That is why Jesus was delighted to see a man of authority have such depth of understanding. He found ...

2. Swansong as Themesong

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... of decline. At one point he made this entry: Where do you get the courage to respond to those basic conditions of human existence which are your teachers? Is it self derived? Surely when we are in the midst of it, overcome by frustration and disappointment or doubt or fear we don”t believe that any courage that we have is self derived.... Is courage derived from others? But then, if it is, who helps those who are helpers when they are in need? Or is courage from beyond you? ... You have to answer that ...

3. The Courage to Be Me

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... all my frailty and yet loves me. To believe that God forgives me and accepts me as I am is the knowledge which frees me from bondage to the anxiety which I have known so well. The courage to doubt, the courage to disclose myself, and the courage to fail derive from the knowledge that I am known fully by the God whom I cannot yet fully know. But he has offered me a relationship through Jesus Christ, so that I do not cringe in my fear, nor run from my responsibilities. It is he who gives me the courage to ...

4. The Spirit Of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... between them and they all became one. It was because of the Spirit's anointing and because they were open to the Spirit of outpouring upon them that they were all able to glorify God. This is the power of the Spirit's anointing. Anointing is derived from the Greek verb Chrio which means "anointing or oil of gladness" which corresponds with the Greek noun Chrisma which is "a pouring out, upon, or into from without." This is one meaning of the word "anointing." It is something that moves from without to ...

5. The African Foundations Of Christianity

Exodus 4:1-17

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... scholar, Robert Eisler, in his work The Messiah Jesus and John The Baptist, gives a startling description of the historical Jesus based upon the historian Josephus' account and the trial records of Pontius Pilate.11 Jesus is described as "melagchrous," which is a derivative of the Greek word "Black." Melagchrous means "Black or dark skinned." Here is further evidence of the conspiracy to remove any hint of an African presence. This may be a clue to why Schweitzer called off his quest and then left Europe to ...

6. The Seventh Sunday of Easter

John 17:1-5

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... sure to make fools of ourselves. We spoil and ruin ourselves trying to be dignified in any way other than loving service to our neighbor, to the one in need. When we look upon the ascended Lord with wounds in hands and feet and side we see his glory is derived from the splendor of sacrifice. Such was the experience of the early church. They saw him crucified and learned God was love, God is like Jesus. This will be true even in the day of judgment. The Jesus who judges is the same Christ who prays for us in ...

7. The New Covenant

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... we also receive this same Christ through the spoken word - that is through the reading, speaking, studying, and sharing of the Bible. Christ does come to us through the Scriptures in a saving sense! For this reason people sometimes ask: "If I derive the same blessing in the Sacrament that I derive from the promises of God in the gospel, do I really need the Sacrament? If I receive forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, why must I go to the Lord’s Supper to receive the forgiveness of sins?" And here ...

8. How Can We Foretell the Future?

1 Kings 2:1-12

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... who forms the habit of smoking in bed may one day make an ash out of himself. Nor is it too hard to foretell the future of the high-speed driver, the overeater, the overdrinker. We are clothed by our habits. That word habit is derived from the Latin word "habitus," meaning clothing. Our habits form the garments of our personalities. As John Dryden, the seventeenth century English writer, put it: "We first make our habits, and then our habits make us." IV Fourthly, if we want to foresee a future bright ...

9. Where Can We Find Wisdom?

Proverbs 2:1-22

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... of good news on the string. Now the letters there spelled "GOD IS NOW HERE." There has been an instructive dispute over the etymology of the word religion. Lactantius Firmianus, a Christian writer of the late third and early fourth centuries, traced the derivation of the word religion to the Latin word "religare," which means "to bind." "We are tied to God," wrote Lactantius, "and bound to him by the bonds of piety." A century later Aurelius Augustinus, better known as Augustine, the bishop of Hippo on ...

10. On the Night when He Was Betrayed

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... primary emphasis is neither on the faith nor on the love of the communicants but on the descending and pardoning love of Christ. Our prayers, offerings, sacrifices, attempts to remember and to elevate our hearts - all these are secondary and derivative. They are derived from the the great central truth: "where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation." The forgiveness of sins which the Lord bestows in the sacrament is not a general amnesty. It has a personal application to each individual ...

11. We Haven't Seen Anything Yet!

1 Corinthians 2:9

Sermon

King Duncan

... ’s Law and declare that they constitute our national spirit. We have become such a pessimistic people. Murphy’s Law, of course, goes like this: “If anything can go wrong it will. If nothing can go wrong, it will anyway.” But there were many derivatives of that Law . . . Like “The other line always moves faster.” Or “When one wishes to unlock a door but has only has one hand free, the keys are in the opposite pocket.” Or “The probability of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich falling on ...

12. When Tradition Gets in the Way

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... you might call highlights in our Christian life, but we tend to forget the enveloping tradition of the Church which sustains us in our pilgrimage. The picture Jesus gives of the Christian as a branch springing from the vine on which it depends and from which it derives its power to produce the grapes should nourish in us a sense of our dependence on the continuity of the Church which is his Body. When he says, ‘Without me you can do nothing,’ he is reminding us that we are not isolated beings adrift in ...

13. What's Your Status Symbol?

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... more from the world than from the spirit. Jesus' haunting words are sufficient condemnation: "They do all their deeds to be seen by others" (NRSV) or in the words of the NIV, "Everything they do is done for men to see" (Matthew 23:5). Do your status symbols derive from the world of the invisible or the world of the visible? Is your status symbol the size of budgets or the number of baptisms? Is your status symbol the Book of Numbers or the Book of Acts? Is your status symbol the quantity of the crowds your ...

14. The Whole Shebang in Six Words

John 11:38-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... many words? That's right. Three words. Three simple, one syllable words. In classical Christian teaching, there are three great doctrinal divisions: justification, sanctification, glorification. Each of these complex doctrines derive from a couplet of words, each beginning with the same word. Each couplet in turn derives from a biblical story, one of which is our text for this morning. Justification: Come Down First, justification. I learned the doctrine of justification from my favorite Sunday school story ...

15. Tastes Great, Less Filling - Sounds Good, Not True

Proverbs 23:29-35

Sermon

James Merritt

... 5); Isaiah pronounces judgment on those who use it (Isa. 5:11). Norman L. Geisler, in an excellent article entitled, "A Christian Perspective on Wine-drinking," says unequivocally: "God is opposed to using strong drink as a beverage."15 The other term "wine" derives from the Hebrew yah-yin. This is the most common Old Testament word used for alcoholic drink, being found one hundred and forty-one times. It is a generic term. Sometimes it is used for an intoxicating drink, and sometimes for a non-intoxicating ...

16. Fingerprints of the Soul

Romans 5:1-5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... character to suffering, endurance and hope. Suffering, that is, suffering for Christ's sake, produces endurance or perseverance or we might even say, a kind of inspired stubbornness. It is out of this crucible of stiff-necked stick-to-itiveness that character is derived. From this definition, it is easy to see how the concept of "character" has come to have a double meaning. We speak highly of those who have character; we speak dubiously about those who are characters. Without a doubt, Paul had a prickly ...

17. Kiss The Chef! Thanksgiving Day

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... Alice Walker (movie 1985), as quoted at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088939/quotes. Language slightly altered for pulpit use. 2. The New Revised Standard Version counts 213 uses of "thank" and its derivatives (64 in the New Testament of which 35 are in the letters of Paul, and 149 in the Old Testament), and 436 of "praise" and derived terms (402 of these in the Old Testament), according to BibleWorks for Windows 6.0.012d (2003). 3. Cited in The Book of Jewish Values by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin (New York: Bell ...

18. The Ministry Of Do WOP

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... merely hearers who deceive themselves." For the Doo-Wop novices amongst us, the Encyclopedia Britannica reports: "The term doo-wop is derived from the sounds made by the group as they provided harmonic background for the lead singer." Today I want to change that ... definition to deal with ministry. This is the Revised Strayhorn Version. "The term Do-WOP is derived from the ministry and actions of faithful believers as we provide harmony and ministry so others can experience the love and ...

19. Amazing Faith

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... Jesus directly. But the centurion's insight into Jesus is even more remarkable. He perceives that Jesus, like himself, is a man under authority. Just as a centurion can command soldiers and slaves because of an authority derived from elsewhere, so Jesus has an authority derived from elsewhere. Because of this authority, Jesus can simply say a word and the centurion's slave will be healed. Such depth of insight — such faith — Jesus had not encountered even among his own people. Walter Wangerin ...

20. Restarting Joy - Rejoice

Isaiah 55:10-13

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... Word Of God (Isaiah 55:11) The Holy Bible is the sacred book of Christians, and its first major division is also the sacred book for the Jews. Christians of all denominational stripes refer to it as the word of God. The English word "bible" is derived from the Greek word biblion, which means "a written volume, roll, or little book" (cf. Luke 4:17, 20; Revelation 10:9). The word came to be applied to the entire collection of Christian sacred writings.[2] Evangelicals believe it to be the final and sufficient ...

21. Good Sex

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Will Willimon

... and female, diversifying and articulating the earthling in an exciting new way. Thus, after a series of “false starts,” God at last brings to the earthling a suitable partner. Other creatures come from the dust, this one is built in an entirely new way, not derived from someone else but, in the Hebrew, “built” up from a rib. Woman is the crowning event of creation, the mature handiwork of a great artisan, the complex fulfillment of humanity. Oh, the man is fine, as far as he goes. But in the woman ...

22. Rejoice: Hints Of Heaven Are Here On Earth!

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... to European domination in the first century) didn’t have any of this Greek foolishness about perfection entailing no change. No, for the Hebrews, even God himself changes! Remember what God’s real name is? Yahweh. And what does Yahweh mean, what is it derived from? It is derived from the Hebrew phrase “I Am Who I Am,” which could also be translated, “I Will Be What I Will Be.”[3] Present and future tenses merge in Hebrew at this point. The God of the Hebrews, our God, is future-oriented. He can ...

23. Bigger, Better, Basta!

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... actualized in his vision of God’s kingdom on earth. Anytime one focuses attention on things and means and acquiring them for oneself, one is not focusing on God but self. The things one desires can easily become the things one worships, values, adores, and derives identity and value from. Rather than fulfilling us and giving us security and a sense of appreciation and peace, they provoke us to keep trying to fill our gaps with more and more things. Jesus says in fact, “one’s life isn’t determined by ...

24. Human Things

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... suffering, be killed, and then be raised. Peter wants to bypass God’s plan in favor of what he sees as a more reasonable strategy. Jesus promptly puts Peter in his place --behind Jesus, not in front of him! Peter has failed in his ability to derive his judgment/understanding/wisdom/determination of the situation at hand from God's guidance. Instead, he is leading by his own "reason." While as Paul puts it, there is neither Greek nor Jew in God's kingdom --in fact, there IS a radical difference between ...

25. A Child of God

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sermon

Ronald Love

... by the fourth Lateran Council, which convened in 1215. It was formalized at the Council of Trent, which was held from 1545 to 1563. The doctrine was reaffirmed at the Second Vatican Council, which was held from 1962 to 1965. “Consubstantiation” was derived by Martin Luther, the founder in the sixteenth century of the Protestant Reformation. It is a term commonly applied to the Lutheran, and presently most Protestant denominations, to the communion supper. The idea is that in the communion the body and ...

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