Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: captured, trapped, catch, took, arrested, grabbed, taken, seized, stuck, apprehended, picked up, entangled, nabbed, jammed, abducted, acquired, got, bagged, gotten, netted, cornered, appropriated, tangled, snared, ensnared

Antonyms: free, freed, unconfined, loose, unrestrained, set free, uncuffed, emancipated, enfranchised, released, ambiguous, flaccid, let go, discharged, unbound, uncaged, unchained, unfettered, unleashed, unshackled, untied, avoided, discounted, disregarded, missed

Showing 1 to 25 of 112 results

1. Tangled Up in the Vines

John 15:1-8

Sermon

John Jamison

This passage from John is one that has created great comfort for many people, and at the same time has created profound pain and suffering for others. It has pulled us together and brutally split us apart. This simple story of a vine, growing in a vineyard, both heals and destroys. Many who read this story see it as a reason to turn away from the biblical story. Let’s begin by recognizing what was going on when Jesus first told this story of the vine. It will help us to remember that stories about a vine ...

2. All Dressed Up

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... Paul talks about. And the Church sends us on many adventures. Till one day we find ourselves led into the very palaces of God! It's a wonderful story! And it's happening to you and to me right now! But here's the thing: we're still traveling with Tangle. We haven't yet arrived at the palace. And what we need to help us along is the clothing that the church can give. The belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. The shoes of the Gospel of Peace and the shield of faith. Pieces of clothing number ...

3. A Continuing Presence

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Larry Powell

... gathering more and more on the side of condemnation instead of glorification. Jesus had said, "Let not your hearts be troubled," but the disciples clearly discerned that his heart was troubled. The light would eventually be turned up on it all. The tainted truth, the tangled truth, which required sorting out from the confusion would all come into focus for them: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth." The Spirit ...

4. Good News for Exiles

Psalm 137:1-9, 2 Chronicles 36:15-23, Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

... into the Pit, you’re an exile. You don’t have to go off to a Babylon to be an exile. You can be one right at home: right in your own head; right in your own body; right in your own heart. Exile is the experience of all who tangle with God’s Law. The demand of God’s Law condemns us to exile - an experience that is seering, painful, debilitating, and crushing - because we know just how far away from God we are. The church, in its wisdom, knows that this can happen in the life of the Christian ...

5. A Happy Ending

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Brett Blair

... as the shawls were completed and turned over, that they were able to see the fullness of their own creation. Life can be like that, concluded Ernest Gordon. So often the events of our lives seem like the shawls did to the Paisley weavers, simply a tangled mass of disconnected threads. Certainly the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus must have appeared like that to the disciples. But as the disciples looked back upon that event and as we look back on our personal lives, we can see God’s design in the ...

6. Hissing in the Garden

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... , call the foreman." He had her read it aloud, and she did. He had her say it a second time, and she did. In less than an hour, he happened to be walking by her station, and there were threads tangled out on the floor, in all directions. Her production was completely stopped, and the threads were in a tangled mess. He said, "I asked you to read the sign and do what it said." She said, "I am a new employee and I wanted to do my best to untangle it myself." He answered, "Your best is calling the foreman ...

7. Falling Short

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... . Very often, that individual is crazy." The Nigerians have a word for times like these, which is wazu-wazu, things gone nuts and layered, scattered and messed up, the way a house looks after a large dinner party or weekend of guests. It is a good word, meaning the swampy tangle of our strange land, where it is pretty hard to sing the Lord's song. Thus we pick up one piece of the house at a time, room by room, slowly. We sing a short song, not the big song of victory over our enemies, but a simple song. We ...

8. Breaking Through

Acts 2:1-21 · John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... your way out of it, digging yourself a deeper and deeper hole. Maybe you did something wrong and instead of admitting your mistake, you tried to hide it or cover it up, trapping yourself in more and more lies until you feel all bound up in the tangles of your deed. Maybe you sent out invitations to an event and forgot to invite someone whose feelings were deeply hurt, and instead of saying you forgot, you made up an elaborate story about how they were overlooked, only to have it backfire on your later when ...

9. Walking Through A Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... quiet waters were now in a turbulent storm, fearful for their lives. Those experienced workmen of a calm Galilee now faced something very different. And that makes it our story, too! At one time or another, all of us are afloat on a troubled sea. Worry. Uncertainty. Tangled troubles. Fear. We want the Master to wake up! We want him to quiet the churning waters that are all around us. We want him to solve our problems! We're seasick with worry, with pain, with tension, with fear. "Wake up, Jesus. We're in ...

10. Step Eleven - Spirituality

Mt 26:36-46 · 1 Thess 5:12-22 · Ps 25:1-15

Sermon

John A. Terry

... in, and there would be the net to catch hold of it. The more it struggles to get out, the more it becomes entangled. The plea is for God to help get us out of this tangled net. Maybe we got caught up on the way to the drinking place, or somewhere else we may have gone out of habit, probably innocently. But we got tangled up, and the more we struggled on our own, the worse it got. The psalmist is trying to strike a deal with God to get him out of what he has gotten caught in. Recall Jacob ...

11. No Longer Spectators - But Participants!

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... losing the battle until the mighty, risen Christ burst our bonds and set us free! In a textile factory where threads are made into fabric, there is a sign above the machines which reads, "If the threads become tangled, call the foreman." A new employee found the threads on her machine badly tangled. Frantically she tried to untangle them. The foreman came by and said, "Why didn’t you call for me?" She replied, "I was just trying to do my best by myself." He chided her, saying, "Doing your best includes ...

12. I Knew You’d Come

John 6:16-24

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

... cry out, "Lord, save me." Faith begins at that moment when we give up and God takes over. Pastor Ralph Wallace6 tells of a woman working in the cotton mills of North Carolina. Above the looms was a sign, "If the thread tangles call the foreman." The threads of her loom began to tangle, but all she could think of was solving the problem herself and getting back to work as soon as possible. She was working piece-work and time was money. The more she tried to untangle the threads the more they became entwined ...

13. The Good News of the Cross

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... God. We DENY Him, we DEFY Him, we IGNORE Him, and, deep in our hearts, deep in the recesses of where we really live, we HATE Him, because we don't want God to be God! We want to be our own god. One cannot think very far in this tangled human situation without asking some questions about God. How does God feel looking down upon this spinning earth and this sinning human race? Does the world seem utterly hopeless to Him after all of the centuries of striving? How does He feel when He hears the thunder of guns ...

14. Destined To Have A Great Year

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... his sons [and daughters] through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will . . . ." I choose to believe that all things work together for good for those who love God. I choose to believe along with Corrie ten Boom that though we can only see the tangled, confused underside of life, God is weaving a beautiful pattern that will only be revealed to us in another realm, in another time. That is how I choose to interpret life. That is what the life of faith is about and I have observed that people who ...

15. Jesus, Where Are You?

John 12:20-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... , he saw that he had bailed out and was in the ocean. The radio communication from the pilot circling helplessly overhead while his friend struggled in the water stabbed the hearts of the control tower team as they listened. "My wing man is tangled in his parachute. Have you notified the helicopter?" he said desperately. "He's floating, but having a difficult time getting his life raft inflated. Have you commissioned the helicopter?" Minutes later they heard another message: "He's still not inflated. He's ...

16. The God of Lost Sheep

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... thicket. "On the other side of the thicket lie greener pastures, and the rest of the flock is already there. But what is so striking about the picture is a detail one almost misses at first glance. Amidst the tangled brush to the left of the lamb, you can barely make out the figure of a man, his shepherd’s crook ready to reach out should the striving creature be unable to move any more. In his eyes are all the tension that Love always feels when a loved one ...

17. At War with Myself

Romans 7:15-25a

Sermon

William G. Carter

... !" A lot of people don't like the Apostle Paul. They think he ought to act more like a twenty-first century person. But the truth is, he understands us better that we understand ourselves. He knows that to be human is to find yourself in one tangled mess after another. Sometimes the mess is of our own making. Sometimes it comes from our own rebellion. Sometimes our best efforts are corrupted by the power of sin. Today he simply holds up a mirror and invites us to look at ourselves. Paul speaks about his own ...

18. Obstacles as Popsicles

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... care, even in the midst of the horrors of the holocaust. How did she ever deal with it? "She pulled out of her purse a piece of needlework she was finishing. She held up the backside for the camera to see. She asked, 'What is this?' It looked like a tangle of loose threads. Then she turned it over and showed me the front side. It was a beautiful, gold crown on a rich, blue background. She then concluded, 'Our loving Father in heaven is preparing a crown for all who trust him. Sometimes all we see are the ...

19. The Spin Zone

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... :16-18, NASB) You notice it wasn't just Uriah who died, but other soldiers died as well. A lot of innocent people paid the price for David's sin on that battlefield which is why sin is so terrible. It never hurts just one person. The problem with the tangled web of deception is that it always gets untangled. I have said this so many times that I wish I didn't have to go repeat it. You cannot win the game of sin. If only David had remembered what his son, Solomon, wrote many years later. "He who conceals ...

20. Altar Your Presence

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... and around all the pews and the choir loft and then at some point asking everyone to hold on like branches and grapes on a vine. But then there was the trip and tangle factor. I thought about stringing lots of little Xmas twinkle lights and plugging them in as we held them. But again there was the tripping and tangling factor which added the whole shock factor. I thought about getting those pop beads that kids make jewelry out of and giving two to everybody, one to keep as a reminder of our connectedness ...

21. Believe

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... with a possibility. Will Rogers wanted to become a circus cowboy. He finally got an opportunity to perform on stage in New York City. But Will got so nervous in front of that big audience that he got tangled up in his own rope. Everybody started laughing. Instead of panicking, Will commented, “Well, getting tangled up in a rope ain’t so bad, unless it’s around your neck.” Everybody laughed again. Then he made another comment, and they laughed some more. Suddenly a new career for Will Rogers was born ...

22. A Lesson Learned from a Snake

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... make restitution for his sin. That is important to us. Many of us want to be half converted. We want to see Christ as hope but not as holiness. We want to be set free from guilt--without changing--so we still wear the chains of slavery. We are still tangled in a prison of cellophane. We see now what Jesus saw in Zacchaeus. We also see what Zacchaeus surely saw in Jesus. What did the crowd see? That is the third thing we want to deal with. That crowd of people who had gathered mostly out of curiosity to see ...

23. A Living Memorial

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... shock Kansas City. Jim had killed his wife and then himself. One of Kansas City's greatest sports heroes had fallen. And why? Because he was convinced that he was all alone in his own troubled world with no one to help lead him out of the tangled maze of financial and personal problems which beset him. For days the Kansas City papers were filled with quotes from friends and teammates and coaches. All were saying that if they had only known Jim had been so discouraged, they would have tried to help. If they ...

24. Anybody Listening?

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

William G. Carter

... let the kingdom's music drown out all other competing noises. What does it mean to get ready? It means to prepare for God in Christ to speak a word that could rearrange our lives. The Risen Lord speaks to us in the thick of our messy circumstances and tangled commitments, and he calls us to pick up a cross and get in step behind him, regardless of the cost. This is risky business for anyone with ears to hear. That's why so many people tune out. But if somebody should listen, and if God should get through ...

25. Love And Money

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

William G. Carter

... freedom. Jesus did not command the man to become destitute, nor to take on the burden of voluntary poverty. Neither did he compel him to empty his pockets. Rather he summoned the man to cut all ties to the things of the world which enslave and tangle. He invited the man to become free: free from having to possess things; free from determining his importance by the size of his bank account; free from the invisible entanglements of wealth; free from the quiet, deadly grip of materialism. What does it mean to ...

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