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

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1. Don't Throw It Away!

Ephesians 2:4-10

Children's Sermon

Mark A. Hultquist

... have you ever noticed that a lot of things in wastebaskets can still be used to make something else? Today I brought this wastebasket filled with items we had thrown out at our house. I wondered if we could use our imaginations and come up with some ideas for reusing these things. (Show each of the items in the basket and ask the children what they thought it could be used for.) Hey, that was great! In every case, you were able to look at something that had been thrown away and thought of a new way to use ...

2. Safely Through The Waters

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (43:1-3). Isaiah takes all the old memories, stories, and metaphors of the tradition and reuses them for this new situation. The formulas are those of exodus, deliverance, and covenant; "You are mine"; "I, Yahweh, am your God"; "I am with you"; "I have redeemed you." The picture drawn is that of a new exodus -- once again leaving captivity, surviving the dangers ...

3. Saved by the Bell

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , waves of death, disease, and destruction swept through the villages of England, Scotland and Wales. The cemeteries became full. Our forebears did not have the legal scruples about grave sites that we do today. So in some places they decided to recycle the graves and reuse the space. They dug up the coffins of those that had been buried in centuries past, removed the remains to another site, and buried new bodies. As they reopened the coffins, they discovered to everyone's horror that in 2-5 percent of the ...

4. The Ultimate Identity Thief

Galatians 3:15-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... passwords are the Scriptures. Are you using God's Word as your passport to life . . . as passwords to life's perils and possibilities? Are you careful what you throw out? A lot of us are careless about what we throw away . . . relationships, ideas, things. We need to reuse and recycle more and dump less. Are you careful about who you trust? Or do you cast pearls before swine? Just as you don't give out personal information to strangers, so we must be careful how much we reveal to people who can use what we ...

5. What Happened to the Leftovers?

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... or think, Paul said. But even though Jesus transforms the tidbits into a tidal wave of nourishment, he refuses to let the leftovers be squandered. God's gifts are not to be left spoiling on the ground. God's gifts are to be used and reused, distributed to all and then gathered up to be redistributed when need resurfaced. There are no directives given about how the twelve baskets of leftovers gathered from the satisfied crowd were to stored or saved. There is no suggestion that the Jesus and his disciples ...

6. A New Hope

Jeremiah 18:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... refuses to yield to the hands of the potter, when it becomes hardened and set in its ways, the potter is left with no choice sometimes, but to just set that clay aside. He has to melt it down until it is in its liquid form again so he can reuse it. This is exactly why sometimes God lets the fire of difficult times come into our life, because we have gotten so hardened against Him that He has to melt us down so we can be shapeable and formable in His hands again. I read a story about a little ...

7. Only the Best

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Cynthia Cowen

... it breathe. Allow oxygen to enter it. 2.Clear your palette with water. 3.If using a chilled wine, the glass should be long-stemmed so that body heat will not warm the wine. If it is a red wine, use a short-stemmed glass with a wider bowl. If reusing the glass, rinse it with water and wipe it with a paper towel making sure no water is left. Never use soap! 4.Fill your glass with a small amount of wine. 5.Swirl the wine in the glass and look at its legs — the marks down the inside of ...

8. David Becomes King over Israel

1 Chronicles 11:1-3

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... term might be a euphemistic reference to the genitals and that David’s challenge to his men was to mutilate the blind and the lame. Oeming states that the Chronicler understood this reference all too well and therefore could not see his way clear to reusing this information. See M. Oeming, “Die Eroberung Jerusalems durch David in deuteronomistischer und chronistischer Darstellung (II Sam 5,6–9 und I Chron 11,4–8),” ZAW 106 (1994), pp. 404–20. 11:10–14 In the first list of chiefs of David’s ...

9. The List of the Exiles Who Returned

Nehemiah 7:4-73a

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... It simplified Nehemiah’s administrative work by providing him with a ready-made list of clans and local communities where immigrants had settled. 7:6–69 We have seen this list before. The narrator of Ezra 1–6, finding it in its present literary place, reused its evidence of early settlement in Judah to illustrate his story of the return from exile sparked by the decree of Cyrus (see the comments and notes on Ezra 2, above). Now, as readers of the canonical Ezra-Nehemiah, we encounter the list not only ...

10. Egypt

Ezekiel 29:1-21, Ezekiel 30:1-26, Ezekiel 31:1-18, Ezekiel 32:1-32

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... the daughters of mighty nations, with those who go down to the pit” (v. 18). Already this verse sets the pattern for the entire dirge, as words and phrases from elsewhere in the oracles against Egypt, and particularly from 31:15–18, are recalled and reused. The command to “wail” recalls 30:2, while the expressions “earth below” and “those who go down to the pit” recall 31:14. As in 31:15–18, Pharaoh and his allies (“the daughters of mighty nations”) are consigned to the underworld. The ...

11. Jonathan’s Faith Ignites a Victory

1 Sam 13:16–14:23

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... sends upon the Philistines and also highlights the reversal that the Lord has produced. Before the battle, the Israelites are “quaking with fear,” but when the Lord intervenes, the Philistines are overcome with terror. (“Quaking with fear” in 13:7 translates the verb harad, reused in 14:15 as a verb and in its noun form as “panic.”) 14:16 saw the army melting away. Prior to this the verb translated “melting away” appears only in Exodus 15:15 and Joshua 2:9, 24, where it describes the fear ...

12. “His Anger Lasts Only a Moment, but His Favor Lasts a Lifetime”

Psalm 30:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... in the rededication of the temple (ca. 164 BC) after Antiochus Epiphanes had desecrated it in 167 BC.[7] If the phrase “dedication of the house” belongs to a time later than David, the psalm still could be composed by David, since psalms were reused for liturgical purposes on various occasions.[8] Interpretive Insights Title A psalm. For the designation “A psalm” (mizmor), see the comments on the title for Psalm 3. 30:1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out . . . my enemies gloat over ...

13. “When We Were Overwhelmed by Our Sins, You Forgave Our Transgressions”

Psalm 65:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... Judah in 701 BC and the abundant harvest that Isaiah promised in the “third year” (Isa. 37:30) present this general time frame as a possibility.3Even if one retains the right of Davidic authorship, the psalm could have been reused in that context, as often happened. Culturally speaking, this poem points to the agrarian nature of Israelite society, so dependent on rainfall, agriculture, and husbandry. In the ancient Near East agriculture and husbandry were the foundation of society. Interpretive Insights ...

14. “The Lord Is Great!”

Psalm 70:1-5

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... , in a foreign land, humbled by defeat, demeaned by their mocking captors (see Ps. 137). The situation was urgent, and the circumstances critical: “Come quickly, Lord, to help me.” When David wrote this prayer, he was praying on his own behalf. When the editor reused the prayer in Book 2, he represented the voice of David praying for the nation. One may stress the desperation of the exile, and draw a parallel between the urgency of our own time, rising out of a growing skepticism and unbelief. Out of ...

15. “Endow the King with Your Justice, O God”

Psalm 72:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... hope of the Davidic dynasty had recovered, Book 5 was poised to celebrate its revival. In the following table the reader will see the connections between and among the last four psalms of Book 2, which may suggest more an editorial viewpoint than an authorial one. The reuse of Psalm 40:14–16 as Psalm 70 is an illustration of the reprocessing style at work in the Psalter as a whole. Teaching the Text To begin our lesson or sermon, we may observe that David, in his prophetic voice (cf. Ps. 71), prays for ...

16. The Lord’s Defeat of Judah’s Enemies

Joel 3:1-16

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... who were enslaved become slave owners (3:8), receiving honor from their oppressors. The punishment hints at the laws of lex talionis, or equal recompense for injuries received from another (Exod. 21:24; Lev. 24:18; Deut. 19:21). Joel 3:10 reuses familiar imagery from Isaiah 2:4 characteristic of an eschatological return of Messiah (cf. Mic. 4:3) in which implements of war are transformed into tools of peace (“swords into plowshares”), but Joel reverses the meaning of the expression by warning Israel ...

17. The Golden Calf

Deuteronomy 9:7-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... that its curse was carried away. Exod. 32:20 says that Moses made the people drink it, which may have similar symbolism to the drinking of the water of the curse (Num. 5:17–28). Either way, the gold of the idol was destroyed beyond any possibility of recovery and reuse. 9:25–29 On Moses as intercessor, see Miller, “Moses, My Servant”; cf. also Balentine, Prayer, pp. 135–39.

18. David Conquers Jerusalem

1 Chronicles 11:4-9

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

19. David's Mighty Men

1 Chronicles 11:10-47

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

20. Warriors Join David

1 Chronicles 12:1-22

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker