Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: thirstiness, dryness, parched, craving, strong desire, longing, yearning, avidity, hunger, voracity, keenness, eagerness, lust, appetite, passion, love, crave, want, covet, desire, hunger for/after, lust for/after, hanker for/after, have one's heart set on

Antonyms: aversion, distaste, apathy, dislike, hatred, antipathy, disgust, disregard, abhorrence, acrimony, wet, animosity, animus, antagonism, bad feeling, bitterness, be averse to, detestation

Showing 226 to 250 of 483 results

226. The God Who Must Be Pursued

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

Arnold Palmer once played a series of exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia. The king was so impressed that he proposed, in good Middle Eastern fashion, to honor his guest with a gift. Palmer resisted, "It really isn't necessary, Your Highness. I'm honored to have been invited." And, in good Middle Eastern fashion, his highness persisted, "I would be deeply upset," replied the king, "if you would not allow me to give you a gift." Palmer thought for a moment, "All right. How about a golf club? That would be a ...

227. A Prophecy Against Gog

Ezekiel 38:1-39:29

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

Gog of Magog: Both Gog and his kingdom, Magog, are a mystery. Apart from Ezekiel 38–39, the name “Gog” appears in the Old Testament only in 1 Chronicles 5:4, where Gog is a descendant of Reuben—clearly not the foreign ruler Ezekiel describes. Magog appears in Genesis 10:2//1 Chronicles 1:5 as second in the list of nations descended from Japheth, youngest son of Noah, whose descendants populate the lands north of Israel. These texts group Magog with other nations in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), ...

228. A Shepherd Who Became a Sovereign

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

In the beginning, God created his world and his people. Mankind fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. God worked out a plan of salvation. To institute that plan, he selected a man and determined that through that one man, he would build a nation - a nation to accomplish his redemptive purpose. That man was Abraham. Through the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God was building a chosen people. During Joseph’s lifetime, God preserved his people in a desperate time of famine by taking them down into the ...

229. The House on The Rock

Lk 6:12-49 · Mt 5:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18) Props: river stones (rocks) passed out among the people at the beginning of the service or beginning of the sermon OR small tools (such as small hammer, nails, concrete trowel) OR bricks Setting: Consider holding your service outdoors on the lawn today. One option may be to read the entirety of Jesus’ sermon (scriptures ...

230. 2 Boys at Doc's

Luke 15:25-32

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

Setting: Medical doctor’s examining room Characters: Nurse Nelson Dr. Bone Brake Brother One Brother Two (Nurse Nelson ushers two brothers in for their exam. He/She gives each a sheet to wear.) (As Doctor Bone Brake enters the room Nurse Nelson begins to speak.) NURSE NELSON: Doctor Bone Brake, I have two brothers who have come for their physical. Boys be seated. You over here and you over there. DOC: Hello fellows. It’s good to see you. How are you? BROTHER ONE: I’m fine. Don’t really need this ...

231. I Am the Good Shepherd

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Sometimes in human relationships, the more we know a person, the more we love them. Now that’s true, not because the more we know people, the greater they become in our eyes, because oftentimes as we know people, we begin to discover their weaknesses, their failures and faults, their shams and their shames. Now unlike our knowing other people, the more we know Jesus, the greater he becomes, and the more we love him. Napoleon was once visiting with a group of cynics and these skeptics concluded that Jesus ...

232. Hitting the Boss Key

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

“Lead me not into temptation,” sang country artist Lari White a few years back, “I already know the road all too well; Lead me not into temptation / I can find it all by myself.” It’s a chorus that makes us silently chuckle, but after a few moments of reflection, we understand that this is, at heart, a sobering statement of the human condition: “Lead me not into temptation; I can find it all by myself.” A certain man was visiting his psychiatrist. Among the many questions the doctor asked was, “Are you ...

233. The Second Census

Numbers 26:1-65

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: God’s plans triumph over human frailties. Understanding the Text Thirty-eight and a half years after Israel had been condemned to wilderness wanderings, and shortly “after the plague” (Num. 26:1) of Numbers 25, Israel takes another census. As a result of the plague, the old generation is now gone (Num. 26:63–65). Only Moses, Caleb, and Joshua have survived to be part of this census. Thus, this genealogy marks the death of the old and the birth of the new generation. The old, rebellious generation ...

234. WWF: Smack Down In The Wilderness

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A kindergarten teacher was suddenly taken ill and a replacement was hastily found. The substitute teacher was at a loss as to what to do with the children. She decided to tell them stories. And always, at the end of each story, she would say, "And the moral of that story is..." After dozens of stories, the children had sat through dozens of morals. The regular teacher recovered from her illness and returned to her class. One of her students greeted her with a smile and said, "Teacher, I'm sure glad you're ...

235. The Trial Before Felix

Acts 24:1-27

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

Paul’s removal to Caesarea began a two-year imprisonment in that city. During these years he stated his case (and therefore the case for the gospel) before two governors and a king, thus further fulfilling the ministry to which he had been called (9:15). These were days of high drama as well as of tedious confinement, but through it all Paul maintained his unswerving purpose to serve Christ and the gospel. 24:1 The first of the two governors to hear Paul’s case was Antonius Felix, the brother of Pallas, ...

236. The Messed Up

John 4:1-26

Sermon

James Merritt

In 2006, Alitalia Airlines, the official airline of Italy, made a slight mistake on its website regarding international airfare from Toronto, Canada, to the island of Cyprus. They advertised business-class seats for $39. It was supposed to be $3900, but somebody left two zeros. Two thousand tickets were immediately snapped up and it cost the airline $7.7 million. Somebody messed up. In 1990, 75 million phone calls across the United States went unanswered after a single switch at one of AT&T’s Switching ...

237. Judas

Luke 22:1-6

Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

Remorse or Repentance? Were you there? Is that what you people were just singing? Is that what you’ve been thinking? Was I there? Of course I was. Do you have to ask that? My name is Judas, the son of Simon. There are not many people who know anything about Jesus Christ who do not know something about me, too. Yes, I was one of the twelve whom Jesus chose to be his apostles. Almost 2,000 years have passed since I lived and died, but people still remember me. They recall that I used a kiss as the sign to ...

238. Will The Real Messiah Please Stand Up?

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

William L. Self

In the early days of television a popular game show, To Tell the Truth, held the attention of the American audience. A panel of interesting and colorful experts was in place, along with an engaging host. They were presented with three contestants, each claiming to be a famous person or a person who had accomplished an unusual feat. The identity of the real person was known only to the host. After a period of questioning by the panel when the panel and everyone else had been given a chance to vote for their ...

239. “O Absalom, My Son, My Son!”

2 Sam 18:1–19:8

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: The Lord’s discipline, once decreed, is inescapable and just; it often brings great sorrow in its wake. Understanding the Text As the previous episode came to an end, David was in serious danger. But the preceding episode made it clear that David was not alone and that the Lord, while using Absalom as an instrument in his discipline of David, is going to bring about Absalom’s defeat (17:14). This episode tells how that happens. The Lord halts Absalom’s coup in its tracks, but in the process David ...

240. Life’s Purpose Is Often Hidden!

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Life is a messy affair. Our purpose is often hidden. We have a parable today that originally may have tried to explore these mysteries — the parable of the weeds in the field. But once again the explanation that Mathew provided of this parable is probably not original, not something Jesus himself taught. No, it is more likely, New Testament scholars increasingly agree, that Jesus' original point in the parable was to affirm the messiness, hiddenness, of life in a context where sectarian sentiments were ...

241. Escape from the Island of Spiritual Sloth

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

I was noodling around on the internet not long ago, doing some research on the "Seven Deadly Sins," and came upon what has surely been an overlooked theological resource in explaining the mysteries of what Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, called "a classification of the normal perils of the soul in the ordinary conditions of life." There is quite a bit of material out there referring to the deadly list of seven but by far the most intriguing theological website was one I discovered titled, "The ...

242. Job's Third Reply to Eliphaz

Job 23:1--24:25

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Taking God to Court 23:1 One can hardly call Job’s words in chapters 23 and 24 a response to Eliphaz’s third speech. Job takes no notice of his friend or his argument, but he begins instead to consider the feasibility and benefit of bringing God to court so he might hope to find just resolution to his complaint. In chapter 23 Job reflects, at first confidently but ultimately with increasing terror, on the difficulty of locating God and securing his presence for the legal proceedings. 23:2 Job says, my ...

243. Illusion Or Reality?

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Back in the mid 1970s to early 1980s hypnosis was viewed as a major cure for many of society's ills. If you had a problem with being overweight, smoking cigarettes, drinking too much, or being a juvenile delinquent, many professional hypnotists would, for a hefty fee, offer their services to hypnotize your problems away. The church I pastored in Texas at the time contained among its members some overweight women with a passion for improving their bodies. These women had apparently tried everything they ...

244. Secret Savior

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

"For the sake of His great name the LORD will not reject His people, because the LORD was pleased to make you His own." (1 Samuel 12:22) They call him (or her) “Benny” for the $100 bills that bear the photo of his namesake Benjamin Franklin. In Salem, Oregon, a mysterious philanthropist has been placing $100 bills (Bennys) inside of packages of diapers and cereal boxes, clothing and toilet paper. Each of the bills contains a simple signature –“Benny.” The unknown giver has been donating money well over the ...

245. What to Wear to the War

Ephesians 6:13-17

Sermon

James Merritt

Just a few years ago I had the privilege of taking my youngest son, Joshua, to Boston, Massachusetts to spend a couple of days there to see the Boston Red Sox play and to tour the city. It was a beautiful time with my son as we saw the USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides," we walked the campus of Harvard University. But then we went on an historical walk through the city and came to the old North Church. It was there my imagination took me back to the year 1775, when a man by the name of Paul Revere ...

246. Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

Our "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude concerning God is evidence that we do not always fully appreciate who he is. You may have watched Marlin Perkins of TV's "Wild Kingdom." This wonderful animal lover and trainer has been trying to get people on a first-name basis with animals for most of his seventy-seven years. His wife, Carol, gave this account: "When Marlin and I were dating, I wanted him so badly that I never let him know how little I knew about animals. Soon after our marriage we went to the Belgian ...

247. Mind Games

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Sermon

James Merritt

(After a video of Hershel Walker) Oh, those were the glory days! Now there is something most of you probably missed in seeing that video. You thought the focus was on Hershel Walker, but the key to what you just saw was the offensive line. Not even Hershel Walker, the greatest college running back who ever lived, who happened to play for the greatest college football team, at the greatest university in history, cannot run one yard unless he has an offensive line opening the holes. There is an old football ...

248. If Your Life Were A Movie

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

King Duncan

It is said that film maker Walt Disney was a ruthless film editor. He would cut any scene from a movie that interfered in any way with the flow of the story. No matter how beautiful, or funny, or brilliant a scene was, if it didn't fit, it was discarded. Ward Kimball, one of the animators for Snow White, worked nearly eight months on a 4-1/2 minute sequence in which the dwarves made soup for Snow White. It was a humorous scene in which the dwarves wreaked havoc in the kitchen as they tried to make soup. ...

249. A Man Who Was a Lion-Tamer

Daniel 6:1-28

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

In our consideration of the favorite men of the Bible, we have looked at them in chronological order, trying to retell the story of God’s redemption of his fallen creatures. We have followed God’s chosen people (through Abraham) into the land of promise (Moses) and have seen the building of a mighty kingdom (David). Then came the division of the nation - between the north and the south - and the captivity of God’s people. During this time, the great prophets of Israel appeared. Their primary purpose was to ...

250. I Believe In The Holy Spirit

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

A few years ago in the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, a float stalled. Frustrations increased quickly because other floats could not move, and this event was televised around the world. Mechanics quickly descended upon the stalled float, searching all over for the problem. Finally, someone had the presence of mind to check on the fuel level of the vehicle. It was empty, out of gas. This became even more embarrassing when the crowd realized that the float’s sponsor was one of the major oil companies. (1) Did ...

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