Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: night, decline, nadir

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1. Forfeiting Freedom

Luke 12:13-21

Illustration

David E. Leininger

... . Guard duty occupied his every waking hour. He was an effective guard ...

2. If I Should Die Before I Wake

Lk 11:1-13; 12:22-34; Mt 6:5-15

Illustration

Brett Blair

You're are familiar with the childhood prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep, " but I was little surprised to learn that it is a shortened version of an Old English prayer, which goes like this: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, bless the bed that I lie on. Before I lay me down to sleep, I give my soul to Christ to keep. Four corners to my bed, four angels there aspread, two to foot, and two to head, and two to carry me when I'm dead. I go by sea, I go by land, the Lord made me by his right hand. If any danger ...

3. What Is the Answer?

Matthew 1:18-25

Illustration

James W. Moore

Perhaps you have heard the one about the attractive young woman who boarded a plane in Los Angeles heading toward New York. The young woman was tired. She knew it would be a long flight, so immediately she asked the flight attendant for a pillow and a blanket. She hoped to be able to sleep most of the way to New York. Her head had just nestled into the pillow when an obnoxious man with a loud, booming voice boarded the plane... and sat down beside her. He tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Hi there. It' ...

4. Anticipating the Worst

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

When you fear that the worst will happen, your own thoughts may help to bring it about. Someone once wrote, "Fear is the wrong use of imagination. It is anticipating the worst, not the best that can happen." A salesman, driving on a lonely country road one dark and rainy night, had a flat. He opened the trunk--no lug wrench. The light from a farmhouse could be seen dimly up the road. He set out on foot through the driving rain. Surely the farmer would have a lug wrench he could borrow, he thought. Of ...

5. All In Twenty-Four Hours

Illustration

Arnold Bennett

Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions... No one can take it from you. It is not something that can be stolen. And no one receives either more or less ...

6. When Our Children Teach Us - Sermon Opener

Luke 2:41-52

Illustration

James W. Moore

Some years ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article by Dr. Paul Ruskin on the “Stages of Aging.” In the article, Dr. Ruskin described a case study he had presented to his students when teaching a class in medical school. He described the case study patient under his care like this: “The patient neither speaks nor comprehends the spoken word. Sometimes she babbles incoherently for hours on end. She is disoriented about person, place, and time. She does, however, respond to ...

7. Freedom from Worry

Mark 10:17-31

Illustration

Keith Wagner

Tony Compolo tells a story about a friend of his who had to take a bus trip across central India. He was in an old model bus which was packed with people, packages, furniture and even animals. Sitting across from Tony's friend was a tired man whose neatly wrapped packaged was sitting on the luggage rack over his head. The man kept dozing off and each time he would wake up in a panic fearing that his package had been stolen. This went on for hours. But then eventually he fell asleep. When he awoke his ...

8. Sermon Opener - When Our Children Teach Us

Luke 2:41-52

Illustration

James W. Moore

Some years ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an article by Dr. Paul Ruskin on the "Stages of Aging." In the article, Dr. Ruskin described a case study he had presented to his students when teaching a class in medical school. He described the case study patient under his care like this: "The patient neither speaks nor comprehends the spoken word. Sometimes she babbles incoherently for hours on end. She is disoriented about person, place, and time. She does, however, respond to ...

9. I Leave You Softly

Illustration

For 36 years Jeno and his wife delighted in one another. But one day Jeno suffered a stroke. For weeks he lay in the hospital, slipping in and out of a coma. Day and night his wife sat at his side. One evening, she put her head on his hand and fell asleep. Jeno awoke during the night and seeing his wife, picked up an envelope and pencil and scribbled these words: "Softly, I will leave you, for my heart would break if you should wake and see me go. So I leave you. Long before you miss me. Long before your ...

10. No Sudden Fame

Illustration

Staff

At a dinner party, a woman said to Lord Northcliffe, "It is really quite surprising Thackeray awoke one morning and found himself famous!" Lord Northcliffe answered, "When that morning dawned, Thackeray had been writing eight hours a day for fifteen years. No, Madam, the man who wakes up and finds himself famous hasn't been asleep."

11. For Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Illustration

John E. Sumwalt

... which is his home every waking hour of every day. When his ...

12. Bless the Hungry

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Staff

... whether they would survive, every waking hour was occupied with thoughts of ...

13. If I Live To Be A Hundred

Psalm 30:4-5

Illustration

John E. Sumwalt

Sam Duncan lay in the semi-darkness of his nursing home room performing the only two activities of which he still considered himself capable: watching and waiting. Although his eyesight was dim, he could still make out the steady brightening of the light of dawn through the window next to his bed. And although his hearing was too far gone to catch the rumble of the medicine cart, as it worked its way up the hall toward his room, he could sense that the time for his morning pills was near. He waited for the ...

14. Dedicated to God

Luke 1:39-45

Illustration

Mickey Anders

In his book Reaching for the Invisible God, Philip Yancey tells about a surgeon friend of his who performs delicate surgery to rebuild the human hand after a severe injury. Whenever he gets a call that there has been an accident, the doctor knows that he will be staring into a microscope and doing delicate surgery for six hours. And this can happen at all hours of the day or night. On one occasion, he was called at 3 o'clock in the morning. He was worried about being able to concentrate enough during the ...

15. Is There Any Hope?

1 Cor 15:14

Illustration

Staff

This is a long illustration and a sad story, but a remarkable story worth the read. It can be found here: https://www.ussnautilus.org/the-loss-of-uss-s-4-ss-109. On 17 December 1927, USS S-4 (SS-109), an eight-year-old S-class submarine, was running submerged just off the coast of Provincetown, MA, conducting speed and maneuverability tests between the two white buoys that marked the beginning and end of a measured nautical mile. Meanwhile, on the surface, the Coast Guard destroyer USCGC PAULDING (CG-17) ...

16. Labor Day

Illustration

King Duncan

According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was once a cruel King of Corinth. And when he died, he was eternally condemned to push a giant boulder to the top of a steep hill. The closer he got to the top, the steeper the hill became, and the harder it was to push the boulder. Every time he had almost gotten the boulder to the top of the hill, he would lose control of it. It would roll over him and down to the bottom of the hill, where he would have to start all over again. On this Labor Day weekend I hope that ...

17. Spiritual vs Material Thinking

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Archbishop William Temple once noted that spiritually minded people differ from materially minded people not in that they think about different things but in that they think about the same things differently. Now that’s a profound observation. I wonder how many persons these days are even thinking in those terms. All of us should be. The human being is spiritual. The philosopher was right. There is a God-shaped void within us all. But it’s not just a question about God. How do we love? What gives us ...

Showing 1 to 17 of 17all results

Antonyms: night, decline, nadir

Showing all results

1. Forfeiting Freedom

Luke 12:13-21

Illustration

David E. Leininger

... . Guard duty occupied his every waking hour. He was an effective guard ...

2. If I Should Die Before I Wake

Lk 11:1-13; 12:22-34; Mt 6:5-15

Illustration

Brett Blair

3. What Is the Answer?

Matthew 1:18-25

Illustration

James W. Moore

4. Anticipating the Worst

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

5. All In Twenty-Four Hours

Illustration

Arnold Bennett

6. When Our Children Teach Us - Sermon Opener

Luke 2:41-52

Illustration

James W. Moore

7. Freedom from Worry

Mark 10:17-31

Illustration

Keith Wagner

8. Sermon Opener - When Our Children Teach Us

Luke 2:41-52

Illustration

James W. Moore

9. I Leave You Softly

Illustration

10. No Sudden Fame

Illustration

Staff

11. For Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Illustration

John E. Sumwalt

... which is his home every waking hour of every day. When his ...

12. Bless the Hungry

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Staff

... whether they would survive, every waking hour was occupied with thoughts of ...

13. If I Live To Be A Hundred

Psalm 30:4-5

Illustration

John E. Sumwalt

14. Dedicated to God

Luke 1:39-45

Illustration

Mickey Anders

15. Is There Any Hope?

1 Cor 15:14

Illustration

Staff

16. Labor Day

Illustration

King Duncan

17. Spiritual vs Material Thinking

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Showing 1 to 17 of 17all results