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 50 of 53 results

1. We All Need Dad

Eph 6:1-4

Illustration

King Duncan

... following the Big Daddies around, yielding to their authority and learning from ...

2. Three Kinds of Givers

Luke 12:13-21

Illustration

Keith Wagner

... must squeeze it. It readily yields to pressure and the more it ...

3. Stay Awake! Routine Can Be a Blessing

Luke 12:32-40

Illustration

Wallace H. Kirby

One of the musicians who played many years for Toscanini said that the maestro had the ability to make the orchestra feel it was playing a well-known work for the first time. Each repeated playing of the score was done as if it were the premiere performance. After once recording the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, Toscanini said he had been conducting the Beethoven Ninth for over fifty years. He continued, "Now I think I finally understand it." Routine can yield its blessings if we stay awake.

4. Dial-A-Tale

Illustration

The Public Library has a system called "Dial-A-Tale." Anytime a young child wants to hear a fairy tale, he or she can call a specific number, and a voice will come on reading a short fairy tale to the listening young ear. However, the number is only one digit different from that of the Rev. Tom Erickson. Because small fingers often make mistakes, Rev. Tom gets frequent calls from children expecting a fairy tale. After several unsuccessful attempts to explain the concept of a wrong number to a small child, ...

5. Crops in Decline

Illustration

Staff

Ralph L. Woods, an ambitious farmer, unhappy about the yield of his crops, heard of a highly recommended new seed corn. He bought some and produced a crop that was so abundant that his astonished neighbors asked him to sell them a portion of the new seed. But the farmer, afraid that he would lose a profitable competitive advantage, refused. The second year, the new seed did not produce as good a crop, and when the third-year crop was still worse, it dawned upon the farmer that his prize corn was being ...

6. The Nine Tests of Confucius

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

"Man's mind," says Confucius, "is more treacherous than mounts and rivers, and more difficult to know than the sky. For with the sky you know what to expect in respect of the coming of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and the alternation of day and night. But man hides his character behind an inscrutable appearance. There are those who appear tame and self-effacing, but conceal a terrible pride. There are those who have some special ability but appear to be stupid. There are those who are compliant and ...

7. Never Give Up!

Luke 13:1-9

Illustration

Brett Blair

... and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might ...

8. Heaven Will Know

Illustration

Konosuke Matsushita

... weak, and we tend to yield to temptation when we think nobody ... is weak and prone to yield to temptation. But even if nobody ...

9. Thank God for Pain

Illustration

Dorothy Clarke Wilson

... family. As night receded, he yielded to hope and in the morning ...

10. Enter, the Conductor

Illustration

Staff

Have you at sometime watched a symphony orchestra as a performance is about to begin? The musicians sit and stand about, strumming on strings, blowing into horns, beating on drums. There is a lot of noise, but no music. Then the conductor enters. He walks to his podium and steps up onto it. His eye sweeps the scene before him - all the musicians and all their instruments. He lifts his baton, pauses there for a moment. Then he gives the downbeat. Instantly there is music, all instruments blending into one ...

11. What Is God Like?

Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 22:54-62, Luke 19:28-44

Illustration

Mark Trotter

Legend has it that during Marco Polo's celebrated trip to the Orient, he was taken before the great and fearsome ruler, Genghis Khan. Now what was Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant and adventurer, supposed to do before this mighty pagan conqueror? One false move could cost him his life. He decided to tell the story of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospels. It is said that when Marco Polo related the events of Holy Week, and described Jesus' betrayal, his trial, his scourging and crucifixion, Genghis Khan ...

12. I Am No Longer My Own

Mark 8:31-38; Rom 7:7-25

Illustration

Philip W. McLarty

In his covenant prayer, which he offered every year at midnight on New Year's Eve, John Wesley prayed, "I am no longer my own but Thine, put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt, put me to doing, put me to suffering, let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal." As disciples of Jesus Christ, we'd do ...

13. Keep Up the Pace

Illustration

Grant Lovejoy

A recent television documentary pointed out that the cheetah survives on the African plains by running down its prey. The big cat can sprint seventy miles per hour. But the cheetah cannot sustain that pace for long. Within its long, sleek body is a disproportionately small heart, which causes the cheetah to tire quickly. Unless the cheetah catches its prey in the first flurry, it must abandon the chase. Sometimes Christians seem to have the cheetah's approach to ministry. We speed into projects with great ...

14. Self-pity: The Devil's Comfort

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Self-pity weeps on the devil’s shoulder, turning to Satan for comfort. His invitation is: “Come unto me all you that are grieved, peeved, misused, and disgruntled, and I will spread on the sympathy. You will find me a never-failing source of the meanest attitudes and the most selfish sort of misery. At my altar you may feel free to fail and fall, and there to sigh and fret. There I will feed your soul on fears, and indulge your ego with envy and jealousy, bitterness and spite. There I will excuse you from ...

15. You've Got to Go Lower

Matthew 16:21-28

Illustration

Angela Akers

Pastor David Moore tells about a man who was walking through an art gallery when he came upon a picture of the Lord Jesus dying upon the cross. As he stared into the face of Christ, so full of agony, the gallery guard tapped him on the shoulder. “Lower,” the guard said. “The artist painted this picture to be appreciated from a lower position.” So the man bent down. And from this lower position he observed new beauties in the picture not previously shown. “Lower,” said the guard. “Lower still.” The man ...

16. Strong Enough to Be Gentle

Illustration

... be weakness if it meant yielding to sin. But because it stems ...

17. Struggling with Doubt, Standing on Faith

Matt 7:15-23; 28:16-20

Illustration

Donald M. Tuttle

... among us. It rests on yielding to the authority he possesses as ...

18. Change Your Tune

Illustration

Grady Nutt

... either or both partners have yielded to the tyranny of the inevitable ...

19. Knowing Temptation

Luke 4:1-13

Illustration

C. S. Lewis

... the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only ...

20. A Spirit of Unity

Illustration

Staff

... and bitterness to God and yielded to His control, the Holy Spirit ...

21. Twelve Rules for a Happy Marriage

Eph 4:20

Illustration

Ann Landers

... doing most of the talking. Yield to the wishes of the other ...

22. Submission: Yield In All Directions

Ephesians 5:21

Illustration

Stephen P. Beck

Driving down a country road, a man came to a very narrow bridge. In front of the bridge, a sign was posted: "YIELD." Seeing no oncoming cars, he continued across the bridge and to his destination. On the way back, he came to the same one-lane bridge, now from the other direction. To his surprise, he saw another YIELD sign posted. Curious, he thought, "I'm sure there was one posted on the other side." When he reached the other side of the bridge and looked back, sure enough, yield signs had been placed at ...

23. What Only God Controls

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Illustration

David E. Leininger

Janet Mathistad is a Lutheran pastor in Minot, ND. She writes: "One aspect of this text that has interested me is that even in the good soil, there was such a difference of yields. I got an insight into one answer back in 1993, when I had just married my husband, who is a farmer. That was the summer that the Mississippi River flooded, and our area of North Dakota received 13 inches of rain in June (our total average annual moisture is only 17 inches). A phenomenon happened in Todd's durum fields that he ...

24. A Mother's Influence

Illustration

Staff

I took a piece of plastic clay And idly fashioned it one day; And as my fingers pressed it still It moved and yielded at my will. I came again when days were past, The form I gave it still it bore, And as my fingers pressed it still, I could change that form no more. I took a piece of living clay, And gently formed it day by day, And molded with my power and art, A young child's soft and yielding heart. I came again when days were gone; It was a man I looked upon, He still that early impress bore, And I ...

25. The Surrendered Will

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Laid on thine altar, O my Lord, Divine, Accept my gift this day, for Jesus' sake; I have no jewels to adorn thy shrine, No world-famed sacrifice to make; And here I bring within my trembling hands This will of mine, a thing that seemeth small; Yet thou alone canst understand That when I yield Thee this, I yield Thee all!

26. Song of the Vineyard

Isaiah 5:1-7

Illustration

Larry Powell

Three observations about Isaiah’s "Song of the Vineyard": 1. It was a song. That is to say, it was a marked variation in the prophet’s manner of proclamation. Isaiah was an eloquent, forthright orator, not a balladeer. It has been suggested that the reason for this temporary departure in style may have been the circumstances at that particular time. Deuteronomy 16:13-16 describes the carnival-like atmosphere which occurred in the ancient Feast of Booths. Some commentators have surmised that Isaiah rendered ...

27. Our Hope, Our Terror

Matthew 22:1-14

Illustration

Barbara Brown Taylor

Several summers ago I spent three days on a barrier island where loggerhead turtles were laying their eggs. One night while the tide was out, I watched a huge female heave herself up on the beach to dig her nest and empty her eggs into it. Afraid of disturbing her, I left before she had finished. The next morning I returned to see if I could find the spot where her eggs lay hidden in the sand. What I found were her tracks leading in the wrong direction. Instead of heading back out to sea, she had wandered ...

28. Devout of this World

John 20:19-23

Illustration

Elizabeth Gilbert

The devout of this world perform their rituals without guarantee that anything good will ever come of it. Of course there are plenty of scriptures and plenty of priests who make plenty of promises as to what your good works will yield (or threats as to the punishments awaiting you if you lapse), but to even believe all this is an act of faith, because nobody amongst us is shown the endgame. Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying, 'Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I ...

29. Today's Man

Mark 6:30-34,53-56

Illustration

Richard Exley

Today's man is in constant danger of becoming enslaved by the very things that were suppose to make his life more convenient. Notebook computers, fax machines, pagers, and cellular phones threaten to take him hostage. No matter where he goes, his work goes with him. In truth, his time (his life) is not his own. Even if he could break free of the ever-encroaching demands of his career, his own responsibilities are enough to occupy his every waking moment, things like volunteer work at the church and civic ...

30. Show Us a Sign

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

One of the very first things we always ask for in the midst of uncertainty, disaster or trouble is: "Lord, show us a sign." In the movie Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, there's a scene where Bruce's life has fallen apart. He's gotten fired, beat up when he tried to help a homeless man holding a sign, and he's had a fight with his girlfriend whose name just happens to be Grace. He's driving along feeling sorry for himself, talking to and yelling at God. "OK, God. You want me to talk to you? Then talk ...

31. I Vow To God

Illustration

In the 1880s a young man who was an earnest Christian found employment in a pawnshop. Although he disliked the work, he did it faithfully "as unto the Lord" until a more desirable opportunity opened for him. To prepare himself for a life of Christian service, he wrote on a scrap of paper the following resolutions: "I do promise God that I will rise early every morning to have a few minutes, not less than five, in private prayer. I will endeavor to conduct myself as a humble, meek, and zealous follower of ...

32. Fine China

Illustration

The Irish Potato Famine (1846-1851) resulted in a 30 percent drop in the population of the west of Ireland. The prolonged suffering of the Irish peasantry had broken the survivors in body and spirit. John Bloomfield, the owner of Castle Caldwell in County Fermanagh, was working on the recovery of his estate when he noticed that the exteriors of his tenant farmers' small cottages had a vivid white finish. He was informed that there was a clay deposit on his property of unusually fine quality. To generate ...

33. The Final Word

Illustration

Staff

Every conscientious parent recognizes how difficult it is to exercise his God-given authority over his children. The delicate balance of being tough yet tender is not easy to maintain. Many parents intensify a rebellious spirit by being dictatorial and harsh. Others yield when their authority is tested. When a strong-willed child resists, the pressure to give in for the sake of peace and harmony can become overpowering. I am reminded of the mother who wanted to have the last word but couldn't handle the ...

34. Lincoln's Autumn 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Illustration

Staff

This is the 1863 Autumn Thanksgiving Proclamation which is the beginning of our official holiday (Note: this is not the first thanksgiving proclamation. Proclamations go back to 1777 and the Continental Congress but this is the speech from the inauguration of the Thanksgiving Holiday). The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they ...

35. Outside of Himself

Mark 3:20-30

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

As some commentators have pointed out, it appears that it was particularly Jesus' engagement with the demonic that was causing Mary and Jesus' brothers to arch their eyebrows the sharpest. It all seemed a little bizarre to them. In verse 21 they say literally that they had to get him on home because Jesus was exeste, a word meaning to stand outside of yourself. Even today we may refer to a person who is an emotional wreck as being "beside himself" with grief. The idea is that someone has taken leave of his ...

36. The Extravagance of God

Illustration

Ralph W. Seager

More sky than man can see, More seas than he can sail, More sun than he can bear to watch, More stars than he can scale. More breath than he can breathe, More yield than he can sow, More grace than he can comprehend, More love than he can know.

37. Don't Be Too Cheap with the Seed

2 Cor 9:8

Illustration

Jack Exum

A farmer was entertaining some visitors to his farm. His spread included some twenty-five hundred acres. They asked him how he planted the seed. He reached in a bin and pulled out an ear of corn. Then he proceeded to pop out the kernels one by one as he walked along, demonstrating the planting process. The farmer then said, "Do you believe that?" No, sir! was the reply. Why not? the farmer asked. "Well for one thing," one of the visitors said, "there's that big machine sitting over there." "You're right," ...

38. Personal Prayer Time

Mark 1:29-34

Illustration

Keith Wagner

... set aside this time to yield to the power of God. I ... we need to learn to yield to the power of God too ...

39. Forgetting Your Own Fatigue

2 Tim 3:10--4:8

Illustration

C. E. Montague

... their distress, he would have yielded to exhaustion and lost his own ...

40. Faith In Death

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... to despair; it was a yielding to certain hope. It was her ...

41. Legend In Your Own Mind

Illustration

Dag Hammarskjold

Around a man who has been pushed into the limelight a legend begins to grow as it does around a dead man. But a dead man is in no danger of yielding to the temptation to nourish his legend, or accept its picture as reality. I pity the man who falls in love with his image as it is drawn by public opinion during the honeymoon of publicity.

42. Accepting the Storms with Calmness

John 14:15-31

Illustration

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

A story was written some years ago about a man who had discovered an amazing inner spiritual peace. He had lost his entire fortune in the stock market crash in the 1930s. He was drinking himself to death. He decided to take his life by walking out into the ocean and swimming past the point of no return. As he came to the edge of the water, he noticed something sparkling in the sand. It was a pale, delicate shell. He stood there, completely captivated by it. Finally he picked it up. It was so delicate that ...

43. His Plan For Me

Illustration

Staff

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ And He shows me His plan for me; The plan of my life as it might have been Had He had His way, and I see How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there And I would not yield my will, Shall I see grief in my Savior's eyes; Grief though He loves me still? Oh, He'd have me rich, and I stand there poor, Stripped of all but His grace, While my memory runs like a hunted thing Down the paths I can't retrace. Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break With tears that I ...

44. For This Our Bounty

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

We thank thee for this smiling land of ours, For all the beauty and the grandeur here; We thank Thee most for freedom dearly bought By Pilgrim band and sturdy pioneer. Had they not bravely lived and so endured, This priceless gift could never have been gained. In thanks and solemn praise, we raise our hearts, And vow to keep our honor still unstained. For this our bounty, Lord, we give Thee thanks With grateful hearts as brimming as our store. Our flocks are fed, our fields have yielded well. Dear Lord, we ...

45. PLASTERER

Lev. 14:43; Daniel 5:5

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Leviticus 14:43 - "If the disease breaks out again in the house, after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it," Daniel 5:5 - "Immediately the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand; and the king saw the hand as it wrote." From early times, people have known how to secure lime for plastering walls by burning limestone until it yielded white caustic alkaline earth. The Egyptians plastered their stone ...

46. POTTER

Jer. 18:4; Rom. 9:21

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Jeremiah 18:4 - "And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do." Romans 9:21 - "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lamp one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?" The exact origin of pottery is not known, although its use is traced to Neolithic times, and probably discovered accidentally that clay could be shaped by hand and then that it could be hardened by the sun. ...

47. The Long Haul

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

David Beckett

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in America, started her practice in New York in 1851. Not only was she unable to find patients no one would even rent her a room once she mentioned that she was a doctor. After weeks of trudging the streets, she finally rented rooms from a landlady who asked no questions about what Elizabeth planned to do with them. Quaker women, who had always been receptive to the goal of equal rights, became Elizabeth's first patients. But no hospital would allow her on its ...

48. You Are What You Eat

John 6:51-58

Illustration

Brian Harner

"You are what you eat." Perhaps we use this popular saying somewhat flippantly to encourage people to eat the right thing. Food gives us the building blocks of our bodies. Meals are assimilated into our bloodstream and even into our bones. Perhaps it is no surprise that man is presented in Genesis 1 and 2 as a hungry person and the whole world is offered as his food. The command to eat of the food of this world in the creation account is second only to God's command to multiply and to have dominion over ...

49. Dial-A-Tale

Illustration

Don Baker

Pastor Don Baker relates a story of Rev. Tom Erickson: There's a public Library has a system called "Dial-A-Tale." Anytime a young child wants to hear a fairy tale, he can call the number and a voice comes on reading a short fairy tale to the listening young ear. However, the number is only one digit different from Rev. Tom Erickson. Because the small fingers often make a mistake, Tom gets frequent calls from a child listening for a fairy tale. After several unsuccessful attempts to explain a wrong number ...

50. Steer Clear

Illustration

In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident. It wasn't a technology problem like radar malfunction or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each captain was aware of the other ship's presence nearby. Both could have steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted ...

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Showing 1 to 50 of 53 results

1. We All Need Dad

Eph 6:1-4

Illustration

King Duncan

... following the Big Daddies around, yielding to their authority and learning from ...

2. Three Kinds of Givers

Luke 12:13-21

Illustration

Keith Wagner

... must squeeze it. It readily yields to pressure and the more it ...

3. Stay Awake! Routine Can Be a Blessing

Luke 12:32-40

Illustration

Wallace H. Kirby

4. Dial-A-Tale

Illustration

5. Crops in Decline

Illustration

Staff

6. The Nine Tests of Confucius

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

7. Never Give Up!

Luke 13:1-9

Illustration

Brett Blair

... and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might ...

8. Heaven Will Know

Illustration

Konosuke Matsushita

... weak, and we tend to yield to temptation when we think nobody ... is weak and prone to yield to temptation. But even if nobody ...

9. Thank God for Pain

Illustration

Dorothy Clarke Wilson

... family. As night receded, he yielded to hope and in the morning ...

10. Enter, the Conductor

Illustration

Staff

11. What Is God Like?

Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 22:54-62, Luke 19:28-44

Illustration

Mark Trotter

12. I Am No Longer My Own

Mark 8:31-38; Rom 7:7-25

Illustration

Philip W. McLarty

13. Keep Up the Pace

Illustration

Grant Lovejoy

14. Self-pity: The Devil's Comfort

Illustration

Michael P. Green

15. You've Got to Go Lower

Matthew 16:21-28

Illustration

Angela Akers

16. Strong Enough to Be Gentle

Illustration

... be weakness if it meant yielding to sin. But because it stems ...

17. Struggling with Doubt, Standing on Faith

Matt 7:15-23; 28:16-20

Illustration

Donald M. Tuttle

... among us. It rests on yielding to the authority he possesses as ...

18. Change Your Tune

Illustration

Grady Nutt

... either or both partners have yielded to the tyranny of the inevitable ...

19. Knowing Temptation

Luke 4:1-13

Illustration

C. S. Lewis

... the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only ...

20. A Spirit of Unity

Illustration

Staff

... and bitterness to God and yielded to His control, the Holy Spirit ...

21. Twelve Rules for a Happy Marriage

Eph 4:20

Illustration

Ann Landers

... doing most of the talking. Yield to the wishes of the other ...

22. Submission: Yield In All Directions

Ephesians 5:21

Illustration

Stephen P. Beck

23. What Only God Controls

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Illustration

David E. Leininger

24. A Mother's Influence

Illustration

Staff

25. The Surrendered Will

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

26. Song of the Vineyard

Isaiah 5:1-7

Illustration

Larry Powell

27. Our Hope, Our Terror

Matthew 22:1-14

Illustration

Barbara Brown Taylor

28. Devout of this World

John 20:19-23

Illustration

Elizabeth Gilbert

29. Today's Man

Mark 6:30-34,53-56

Illustration

Richard Exley

30. Show Us a Sign

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

31. I Vow To God

Illustration

32. Fine China

Illustration

33. The Final Word

Illustration

Staff

34. Lincoln's Autumn 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Illustration

Staff

35. Outside of Himself

Mark 3:20-30

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

36. The Extravagance of God

Illustration

Ralph W. Seager

37. Don't Be Too Cheap with the Seed

2 Cor 9:8

Illustration

Jack Exum

38. Personal Prayer Time

Mark 1:29-34

Illustration

Keith Wagner

... set aside this time to yield to the power of God. I ... we need to learn to yield to the power of God too ...

39. Forgetting Your Own Fatigue

2 Tim 3:10--4:8

Illustration

C. E. Montague

... their distress, he would have yielded to exhaustion and lost his own ...

40. Faith In Death

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... to despair; it was a yielding to certain hope. It was her ...

41. Legend In Your Own Mind

Illustration

Dag Hammarskjold

42. Accepting the Storms with Calmness

John 14:15-31

Illustration

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

43. His Plan For Me

Illustration

Staff

44. For This Our Bounty

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

45. PLASTERER

Lev. 14:43; Daniel 5:5

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

46. POTTER

Jer. 18:4; Rom. 9:21

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

47. The Long Haul

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

David Beckett

48. You Are What You Eat

John 6:51-58

Illustration

Brian Harner

49. Dial-A-Tale

Illustration

Don Baker

50. Steer Clear

Illustration

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