Sermon and Worship Resources

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

Showing 1 to 25 of 31 results

1. “Love Your Enemies”

Luke 6:27-38

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... 5:40), this more valuable outer garment was legally protected from confiscation (Exod. 22:26–27). Yet, not only are disciples to forgo their rights to claim compensation; they are even to offer voluntarily more than their opponent demands. 6:30 Give to everyone who ... us to follow literally such guidelines as these? loving enemies (6:27–28, 35) not standing up to abuse and exploitation, but rather forgoing our rights (6:29) never refusing a request (6:30) not trying to get back what is due to us (6:30, ...

2. Personal Rights and Christian Testimony

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... the strong he says, “Your rights are irrelevant—your greater commission is to imitate the Christ who gave up his rights in order to make salvation possible for others.” 2. Paul’s focus is the community of Christ followers. His emphasis on forgoing personal rights centers on every Christian’s responsibility for the whole community of faith. In Paul’s thinking, all questions of rights are communal. The task of Christ’s community is to exemplify Christ. That is done by taking care of the weakest ...

3. Unfinished Journeys

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Erskine White

... wants to call a church into the fullness and faithfulness of Christian community. When is that task ever done? A parent or teacher wants to instill in every youngster a love of learning. When is that job ever completely finished? A person decides to forgo a "conventional" career which offers more pay and recognition, and chooses instead a more idealistic line of work. They choose to help the hungry or the dispossesed. They are moved to bring a measure of reform and justice to a fallen world; they value ...

4. Wedding: Five Cs Spell Marriage

John 2:1-11

Sermon Aid

Hollis A. Miller

... kindness of spirit, which he showed toward others. Be considerate and thoughtful of each other. The third word is communication. My, how many marriages have broken down simply because the couple has ceased to talk with each other. This is all-important. When we forgo prayer and a time of daily communion with God, we find ourselves drawing further away from him. The same is true with human beings. We need to talk, to communicate, in order to maintain a closeness of feeling and relationship together. I know ...

5. Are You a GOT TO or a GET TO Christian?

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , it can lead us toward the true meaning of sacrifice, if we let it. But why place such an emphasis on food? Does anyone really think it's spiritually better to eat dark chocolate (no milk) during Lent than it is to eat milk chocolate? Some people forgo steaks or fried chicken, but then manage to eat their weight in forms of seafood that are allowed during the fast, such as shrimp or clams. The bottom line is that our appetites do matter. St. Paul warned the early church to avoid the sinful ways of ...

6. Fear Factor

Psalm 25:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... was all my neighbors safely tucked inside their tightly sealed living rooms while my plastic wrap floated down the middle of the street, like some tangled, transparent kite tail. The duct tape part of the government's recommendation gave me comfort. Maybe I could just forgo the plastic wrap entirely and rely on reams and reams of overlapping duct tape to do the job. (Editor's note: [1]See Red Green's uses for the "Handy Man's secret weapon.) After all, duct tape is widely recognized as the most universally ...

7. Speak Up for Forgiveness

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , perhaps this action can be as simple as invoking the mandate "kiss and make up." For Philemon, the relative simplicity of the initial action he must take, welcoming Onesimus back without punishment, has long-reaching ramifications. Forgiving Onesimus and forgoing his punishment surely will set in motion a whole new standard of master/slave expectations. To help facilitate this new behavior, Wanagerin's final step in the process of forgiveness is to establish or re-establish a covenant between ourself ...

8. Proper 15

Genesis 45:1-28, Psalm 133:1-3, Matthew 15:1-20, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter - Psalms 133:1-3 First Lesson - Joseph forgoes vengeance for forgiveness and largesse. Genesis 45:1-15 Second Lesson - Paul praises the wideness of God's mercy. Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 Gospel - Jesus teaches that purity has more to do with the heart than with the hands, with the spirit than with the external. Matthew 15: ...

9. Workaholics Anonymous

Genesis 2:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... the week that God deserves our undivided attention and nothing should compete with that or for that from the outside world. Let me ask you some questions. Do you have enough courage to close down your lap-tops for a day? Do you have enough boldness to forgo checking email for twenty-four hours? Do you have the discipline to let a few messages wait on your cell phones for a day? Would that kind of commitment for twenty-four hours make any difference in your week? In your work? In your worship? In your walk ...

10. A Cure for the Workaholic

Genesis 2:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... of the week, when God deserves our undivided attention. Nothing should compete with that, or for that, from the outside world. Let me just ask you some questions. Do you have enough courage to close down your laptop for one day? Do you have enough boldness to forgo checking your email for twenty-four hours? Do you have the discipline to let a few messages to wait on your cell phones for an entire day? Would that kind of commitment for twenty-four hours make any difference in your week? In your work? In your ...

11. The Gospel Is Unchained

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... a seven-point scale which has statements like, "When shopping, I have a hard time finding clothing I love" or "Whenever I watch television, I channel surf." Maximizers feel worse about a given unit of loss than about a corresponding unit of gain. Forgoing alternatives or "Opportunity costs" in economist's terms means that people program themselves to be acutely aware of what we are not getting. "Satisficers" instead program themselves to see how full our glass is rather than how empty it is. When the writer ...

12. To Be Passed Over

Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... much of anything. We tend to view it as something unpleasant and to be avoided. But it is a concept that we ought to rediscover. To sacrifice is to give up something of importance to someone (or something) that is greater than you. A parent who forgoes a job promotion in order to keep children in the good school they are attending makes a sacrifice. A spouse or partner who scrimps and saves so that the other can attend school makes a sacrifice. We also understand this in times of war when a soldier ...

13. Get the Monkey off Your Back

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... this time the only impetus to pull the trigger was . . . money. The experiment instructed subjects: “Either administer a painful electric shock to a person in another room and make one British pound (about $1.50), or spare the person the shock and forgo the money.” Although initially 64% of the participants claimed they would never electrocute another person, as the ante went up their resolve went down. As the money reward for administering a shock went up, so did the number of people — er, humanzees ...

14. All in God’s Time

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... , the willingness to wait, to wait out our own anger and the anger of those with whom we are in conflict. Forgiveness requires the willingness to withhold judgment, getting even, and extracting our "pound of flesh." Forgiveness means that we must be willing to forgo the impatient race of our time for the gentle flow of God's time. It means to be patient enough to forgive one another, to never stop forgiving, to withhold cutting off the brother, to resist lashing out in righteous wrath, because you never ...

15. Birthdays and Marriages

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Stephen P. McCutchan

... easily when the voice of class differences suggest that certain people should go to one church while others would be more comfortable in another church. All across this world we repeatedly witness Christians succumbing to their respective national pressures to forgo authentic communion with brothers and sisters in other lands that differ ideologically. We wait in frustration while national church structures tell us the time is not right to heal the shameful divisions of Christians in this land. Too ...

16. Nehemiah Helps the Poor

Nehemiah 5:1-19

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... ) that he had urged his fellow creditors to respect in verse 9. He had a higher master to report to, like Jehoshaphat’s judges in 2 Chronicles 19:6–7 and the slave owners in Ephesians 6:9. He spelled out what it meant to forgo the food allowance. The expenses of hospitality that went with the job were enormously high, as he regularly wined and dined both local dignitaries and officials and foreign visitors on imperial business. No Scrooge, he entertained well, out of his own (obviously deep) pocket. He ...

17. Why the Chimes Ring

Isaiah 35:1-10, Mark 12:41-44

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... small boys who start out toward church on Christmas Eve to offer their gifts to the Christ child. On their way to church they stumble across the nearly frozen form of an old woman who has no one to help her. The older boy, Pedro, decides to forgo the eagerly anticipated pageantry of the Christmas Eve celebration in order to warm and comfort the woman they have discovered. So he sends his offering of a piece of silver to church by his younger brother. At the church, members of the village are gathered to see ...

18. Community Discourse: Care for Others in the Kingdom

Matthew 18:1-9, Matthew 18:10-14, Matthew 18:15-20

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... (2013), Pope Francis distinguished himself as a “different kind of pope.” This was signaled, first, by his choice of papal name, embracing the name of the humble, often homeless St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis has demonstrated an unusual willingness to forgo titles of honor and the bubble of dignified distance that usually surrounded his predecessors. This was captured well in October 2013, as Francis spoke about family in St. Peter’s Square. In the middle of this official event, a young boy came ...

19. “Weak and Strong” Should Get Along

Romans 14:1--15:13

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... comfortable with the responsible use of alcoholic beverages, or who feel free to wear to church whatever they want, or who prefer seeker-friendly worship. But when worshiping with believers who feel uncomfortable with the preceding matters, the strong may need to forgo having a glass of wine, or to dress differently, or to add a more traditional touch to worship. My father died because of alcoholism. Consequently, I do not drink any alcoholic beverages. Some of my ministerial colleagues, on the other hand ...

20. Message to Thyatira

Revelation 2:18-29

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... the true people of God and their prophetic leaders (e.g., Jezebel vs. Elijah). The Bible constantly emphasizes the importance of knowing and doing the truth. The principle of delayed gratification comes into play as God’s people are called to forgo the pleasures and material securities afforded by compromise and hold out for eternal privileges and responsibilities. Teaching the Text 1. We should play to the only audience that really matters. The pressure on believers in Thyatira came primarily from the ...

21. The Aaronic Blessing

Numbers 6:22-27

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... . And yet he remains holy: “He does not leave the guilty unpunished.” The strict requirements of the law show God’s holiness. But there is a tension between God’s holiness and God’s grace. It is God’s gracious character that allows him to forgive and forgo sending calamity when people repent (2 Chron. 30:9; Joel 2:13), even though strict holiness and justice would not allow that. It is only by God’s grace that sinful human beings can have any hope of a relationship with the holy God. It is God ...

22. Law of Vows

Numbers 30:1-16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... annul it, she will be automatically forgiven (30:5, 8, 12). This is the only instance of such automatic forgiveness in the Israelite religious system. This legislation shows the high priority that God places on harmony in the home. He is willing to forgo his right to what women vow in order to preserve peace. Notice that God worked with the patriarchal culture as it was rather than engaging in social engineering (cf. Num. 27:1–11, regarding female inheritance). Numbers 30 does not deal with the problem ...

23. Oracles of Judgment against Jerusalem and the Nations

Zephaniah 3:1-20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... is a disregard of God’s commands. In an indirect way Zephaniah warns Josiah not to trust the officials and religious leaders of Jerusalem. If he is to break away from the perverse pattern set by his father and grandfather, he has to be willing to forgo the counsel of those in power and return to Yahweh. Yahweh’s nature is radically different from that of the wicked leaders of Jerusalem. He is righteous, just, and faithful. Since he is unique in these qualities, he alone is qualified to judge his people ...

24. The Antichrists Are Coming! They Deny Jesus Came in the Flesh

1 John 4:1-6

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... divine emperor” or to confess Caesar as Lord and God (note the direct challenge in John 20:28), the refusal to participate may have borne negative consequences. This was especially a problem for a metropolis such as Ephesus if non-Jewish civic leaders began forgoing cultural festivals in honor of the emperor and pagan gods as a result of their newfound Christian faith. Not only would Christian leaders be put on trial now and then (Antipas, according to tradition, was roasted to death in a kettle [Rev. 2 ...

25. A Shrewd Christian?

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

George Reed

... created us with minds that can reason and think things out and we should use those God-given powers for good. As Galileo Galilei stated, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” Jesus and Galileo seem to be on the same page here. If God didn’t want us to think, God would not have created us with that power. The Episcopal church in America ran an ad some time ago that contained the line, “You don’t ...

Showing results