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 1518 results

1. Daring To Trust The Roots

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... anxiously and frantically trying to drag in the Kingdom. Rather it would be up to us to witness to the activity of God today, to point to the divine branches of life through Jesus Christ that even now are growing around the world out of dead-looking stumps, nurtured by roots that are deep in the heart of God. Isaiah didn't wait around for evidence of hope in order to hope (cf. Romans 8:24-25; Hebrews 11:1). His hope came from a deep and abiding trust in God. And he knew that God would send leaders who would ...

2. Finding Our Roots

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

John M. Braaten

... were going to make it in this world, if they were going to discover what life was meant to be, they would have to set their roots in him. And what if that which was true for the disciples is also true for you and me? What if that which we cannot see ... like these that design our daily lives, and yet we talk about how free we are. We are not free at all until our life is rooted in Christ and our life flows forth from him. One pastor, in talking about biblical faith, said, "The thing about Godly faith is that it ...

3. Looking for Shoots or Roots?

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... need from the local “giving tree,” or joining KIVA.org or Heifer International, or by adopting a child from one of the international child-care services, or by putting the family on a recycle regimen, or by planting seeds that will sprout “adventitious roots,” or by getting a pound puppy instead of a “designer dog,” or by sending water filters to countries suffering from both floods and droughts, or by embracing the generations that make you most uncomfortable (they once were you or will be you ...

4. Finding Our Roots in God and Country

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 6-10

Sermon

William J. Carl, III

... the pastor said in front of a group of parishioners, "We can forgive you for the American Revolution, but I'm not sure we can ever forgive you for leaving the Methodist church to become a Presbyterian!" Yes, we have our differences, but when we look at our roots we find that we have so much more in common. We have a lot in common in adversity, but so much more in overcoming adversity, which leads to true unity. David demonstrated that as the elders anointed him king of Israel. By virtue of his office and by ...

5. Rooted and Rebooted

Psalm 126:1-6, Luke 13:31-35, 2 Samuel 15:13-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... who we were meant to be. As we celebrate Holy Communion today, as we remember those dear to us in our lives and in the church, as we recommit ourselves to the glory and service of God, above all, remember Him. For Jesus is the anointed one, the root of God’s blessing and salvation. In Him, we not only know our past, but we know we have a future. *See www.gci.org. **Many see the festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) or Feast of Ingathering as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ identity as the one who comes ...

6. Roots Near The River

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Tony Everett

... differently. "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate" (Romans 7:15). So then, what hope do we have if even Paul cannot help himself? Like the godly person described by Jeremiah, we need roots near the river -- the river of the water of life in Jesus Christ; the river of the water of baptism. Paul continues: "Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24-25). It ...

7. Grounds for Blessing

Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:1-15, Mark 4:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... soil, deep enough so that the seed can absorb water and nutrients from the ground, and fertile enough to allow the seed to put down roots. [You can use a diagram of God’s word planted in heart….as deeply and firmly as it can go.] When the Hebrew people ... sway when you sing the songs. But if you haven’t cultivated the presence of God in your heart, allowing the Spirit to put down roots to the bottom of your being, so that your life resounds with God’s voice, if you haven’t allowed God in for more ...

8. A Wandering Aramean

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

... an effort to blackmail God to give him more blessings. By rights, his picture would never make it to the mantel in the family homestead. Yet he, too, is an ancestor in faith. We are what our ancestors have left us to be: that's the message of the show Roots. But, we hope, there's more to us. We hope our story and our value as individuals doesn't come from merely adding a few more years of painful, aimless living to a common story; there's not much glory in adding one more gnarled limb to a sickly, scraggly ...

9. A Life to Die For

Acts 6:8-15; Acts 7:54-8:1

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... want to ask them, "Do you think much of what we do here seems out of date? Is the hymn language archaic, does the imagery seem antiquated?" Well, of course it is! That is just the point. We are not making this up as we go. Our faith is deeply rooted in a long tradition, reaching back two thousand years to Jesus Christ and, in fact, all the way back to the very beginning, the "Genesis" of all that exists, the creation. So we sing: How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his ...

10. Bitterness: How to Overcome What You Undergo

Hebrews 12:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... better determine the course of your bitterness and understand as quickly as you can, that bitterness promises too much and pays too little, and the price is too high. III. Defeat the Force of Your Bitterness Now in order to defeat bitterness, remember it is described as a root. A root is something that is underground. If you want to get rid of it you have to go after it, you have to find it, you have to dig it up in order to get rid of it. Everyday our bodies cleanse themselves of harmful toxins through the ...

11. The Four R's

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Apparently, this was the local version of the maxim that a good education can take you anywhere you want to go. There are another '4-R's' that will get you even further than Roanoke. These 4-R's are the key survival skills of the 21st century: roots, rituals, relationships and realities. Jesus' parable of the sower and the seeds suggests the power of these '4-R's' is such that when all are positively present, they can bring us to the very brink of the kingdom of heaven. In Jesus' parable, the sower casts ...

12. Like a Tree Planted

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... and minerals from the soil. Healthy trees bear fruit in season. Jesus urged his followers to bear fruit and to expect life experiences that would help them bear even more fruit (John 15:1-2, 4-8). The tree depends on its leaves as well as its roots. You and I can be compared to the leaves on trees, presenting ourselves in an infinite variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Oak, pine needle, weeping willow, or maple leaf, we are each unique. Even the same tree can have great variations in its individual leaves ...

13. The Problem with Signs

John 6:25-59

Sermon

King Duncan

... does not depend on signs and miracles. Faith in Christ is an inner assurance that whatever comes, God is with us. FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST IS ROOTED IN GOD'S LOVE. Do you know that God loves you? The truth of the matter is that most of us THINK that God loves ... attitude so that I can radiate the kind of cheerfulness that will make this a great day for the people I love." Christian faith is rooted in God's love and God's law. That includes God's moral law. Someone described us long ago as people who sow our wild ...

14. Doing Right When You Have Been Done Wrong

Ephesians 4:31-32

Sermon

James Merritt

... as bitterness. Bitterness is so powerful it affects the mind, the spirit, and the body. First of all, it saturates the mind. As the root of bitterness grows, you will find that it takes up more and more of the soil of your heart. I grew up fifty miles ... . In his heart he said God said to him, "I can use you again and I will use you again, but you must get rid of that root of bitterness in your heart." This young man thought "that's the one thing I cannot do." But God broke him and God enabled him to conquer ...

15. A House for Our Home and a Home for Our Faith

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... in your mind as we begin our sharing this morning as pegs upon which we can hang our thoughts. Those two words are – roots and rewards. Let’s connect those with scripture. Look again at Paul’s word to Timothy, especially that verse that begins with the ... on of hands. For God did not give us a spirit of commitity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Talk about roots. There it is. But also, rewards. Connect with that verse 13 and verse 14. Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have ...

16. Parabola

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil ... was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what ...

17. Caring for the Vineyard We Did Not Plant

Matthew 20:1-16, Joshua 24:1-27

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... where God sets us down and invites us to worship God --right in the midst of an unfamiliar commons and perhaps hostile crowd. Right in the midst of a different kind of culture from the ones we grew up with in the Church. God tells us to put down roots (deep roots) exactly where we are, not where we might choose to be, but where God has led us –in exactly that time, that place, that people, and that culture that is most foreign to us --and far from God. God tells us to be loyal to God within that culture ...

18. The Grip

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to get me in the night, my father decided, the time had come to eliminate the hardy, persistent vine. But no matter how many times he dug it out, even when he had dug deeply into the earth and thought he had removed every trace of the vine’s roots, the next spring, up it would come again to terrorize me in the night. No matter what measures he took, it just kept coming back. It took years of persistent battle to eject the self-propagating moonflower from our lawn…and our home. That is the kind of faith ...

19. Bearing Fruit

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... the rest of the field to announce to everyone who looked that "This has been plastered." "By your fruits shall all men know that you are my disciples." But how do we obtain such fruits? How can we live such winning lives? You grow good fruit by having good roots. As Jesus said on another occasion: "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good man out ...

20. The Mustard and the Cedar

Ezekiel 17:1-24, Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... great, but the mustard will flavor the feast. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” We are presented in our time with a mission field --a huge mission field, in which our fields are fallow, and faith is sparse. Or faith does not know where to place its roots. We need once more to become sowers of tiny seeds. Or planters of subtle hints, and tweets. Or imparters of vaccines of hope. Or image-makers of faith, who can impact the world with the salvation story of Jesus. For once it takes hold, it cannot be ...

21. Jesus Calls for Treen Christians

Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... reality that occupies space and time, that transforms a flat one-dimensional existence into a three-dimensional expression of love. As much of a tree is underground as aboveground. There's as much of you that's invisible as is visible. And what's invisible, your root structure that feeds and nourishes your soul, is what really shapes the visible part of you, the part of you that others can see. For you to have a vibrant three-dimensional life that others can see, you first have to create a vibrant life that ...

22. How Does Your Garden Grow?

Matthew 13:1-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... me up, Lord Jesus, fill me up," she stood up and prayed loudly, "Don't do it, Lord. He leaks!" That's what Jesus meant by The Shallow Heart. It's the soil of the soul and of the heart that is so shallow the seed really doesn't take root but is scorched in the light of every day living and the regular trials and tribulations of being faith. It's scorched and withers and dies quickly. III. The Strangled Heart And that brings us to The Strangled Heart. This is the heart that is filled with faith. It springs ...

23. Sweet Vine

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... we work within the context of many vines that make up a vineyard. Some might call that the Church. How does this happen? The scriptures for today suggest, this is not a matter of gene pool. It’s a matter of where our sense of “self” has been rooted –where we’ve drawn our DNA (Divine Nature of the Almighty) and incorporated it into our minds and hearts relationally.* “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you ...

24. Marinating in the Spirit

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... your mind didn’t kick in. That’s what Jesus says happens to a lot of us each and every time we hear the scriptures. We hear God’s message with our ears. But it doesn’t sink in. If it doesn’t sink in, it can’t take root. Simple as that. As we might say in internet language, “no connection.” Or in the midst of talking, “connection lost.” And connection is the right word I think for what Jesus is explaining to us. Because when a seed hits soil, theirs is something amazing that happens, a ...

25. The Sound of Everlasting Joy

Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... do with loss and reunion. When the shepherd found his lost sheep, he rejoiced. When the woman found her lost coin, she said, "I am so happy. Let us celebrate." When the son came home, music and festivities abounded, for the sound of everlasting joy is rooted in reunion. I don't have to spend time convincing the American people of how joyous a reunion is. In January of 1980 this whole nation was exuberant when our hostages were released from Iran. The homecoming was celebrated from one end of our country to ...

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