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 2415 results

226. Whom Shall We Obey?

Acts 5:17-42

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... The disciples understood their role as Christ's witnesses. The cause of Christ relied on their willingness to carry the message out into the world. The degree of success for the kingdom of God will be determined by the degree of commitment and passion of his witnesses. Are we currently fulfilling Christ's expectations for his witnesses? Confirmation The final experience is one of confirmation. When we face confrontation by a world that is hostile to the message of Christ, we are compelled to choose between ...

227. Make A Choice

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... those same people cry, ''Crucify him''? Certainly that is a part of the Holy Week story. But then it struck me that Palm/Passion Sunday's real purpose is to remind us of the necessity of making a choice ... making a decision about Jesus Christ, and Christ ... me and my house, we will serve the Lord!'' 1. Those Who Rejected Jesus Christ Let's consider those who on that first Palm/Passion Sunday chose not to accept Jesus as the Christ. For many people, both then and now, Jesus is simply not the kind of Messiah ...

228. The Darkest Hour

Drama

Pamela Urfer

... Friday skits have been arranged as a series. Cycle "A" covers John 18:1-12, Cycle "B" covers John 18:13-40, and Cycle "C" covers John 19:1-30. Each skit is complete in itself, but the three may be strung together to cover the entire Passion in one presentation. Or they may be spread throughout the service, one skit during each of the three hours. In order to maintain the ease of preparation inherent in Readers' Theater, there will be only one Reader, the NARRATOR. All other characters will mime the words ...

229. A Love Feast

John 13:1-17, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... that Jesus broke bread and shared a cup with these disciples. And that at the end of it all he told them to do all these things in his memory. But do we get it? Do we put ourselves in the story? Does it cease to be history and become passion for us as well? When we obey Jesus and do these things in memory of him, we take our place in the drama of his death and resurrection. Suddenly the question asked by the hymn, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" becomes no longer a rhetorical question. It ...

230. Loving Jesus, Hating The Church

John 9:35-41

Sermon

Thomas Long

... claim to be a fervent believer. If people are to be taken at their word, virtually everyone in the general population has a passionate and abiding faith in God. Ironically, though, it is also increasingly difficult to find many out there who express this passionate and abiding faith in God by regularly showing up for worship at God's house. There is evidently a huge volume of passionate and abiding faith sleeping in on Sunday mornings. In America, as one wag put it, "People would be equally shocked to hear ...

231. Proper 19

James 3:1-12, Proverbs 1:20-33, Mark 8:31--9:1, Mark 8:27-30

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... by their own devices; when they call for help on the day of trouble, it will not be granted to them. However, those who listen to the voice of wisdom will dwell secure. Lesson 1: Isaiah 50:5-9a (RC); Isaiah 50:4-9 (E) (See Sunday Of The Passion) Lesson 2: James 3:1-12 (C) Chapter 3 revolves around the subject of true wisdom. James warns that not many should seek to become teachers, because they will be judged by a stricter standard than others. Perhaps as an act of self-confession James confesses that "we ...

232. Proper 20

Proverbs 31:10-31, Mark 9:30-37, James 3:13-18; 4:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... that we have two basic friendship choices -- we can either be friends with the world or with God. We can't have it both ways. Gospel: Mark 9:30-37 Tuning out the teacher (vv. 30-32). Jesus was trying to explain to his disciples his coming passion and death but they didn't understand. They were tuning out their teacher. We tend to tune out the teacher when the lesson is unpleasant or contrary to our cherished hopes and dreams. Blind ambition (vv. 33-34). Ambition can be blind; those possessed of this malady ...

233. Obedience

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

... at this time in his life? Did he feel like celebrating? Did he feel like weeping? Were the palms or was the passion most on his mind? In the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there are conversations of Jesus recorded before Holy Week, ... it celebrates the triumphal entry of Jesus in our hearts. Every week is holy when it is lived under the shadow of the cross. From palms to passion, from joy to sorrow, every week of our lives can be wrapped in the love of God, when we live each day of the week in the ...

234. A Scholar · Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... away with him. Yet here he was sharing a quiet rendezvous with its third-ranking member. He who "knew what was in man" (John 2:25) was confident that Nicodemus would not betray him. So the midnight meeting attested the scholar's character as much as his passion for truth. For another thing, we see here not the high-powered official whom many must have both hated and envied for the post he held, nor the pundit whose reputation preceded him wherever he went, but the man -- the sincere, down-to-earth, cautious ...

235. Lent 2

Philippians 3:12-4:1, Jeremiah 26:1-24, Genesis 15:1-18, Luke 13:31-35, Psalm 27:1-14, Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon Aid

George Bass

... Third Sunday of the Year (A) and the Seventh Sunday of Easter (also, A), highlighting the "light" theme of the gospel and, especially, the passion motif ("For in the days of trouble he shall keep me safe in his shelter") which belongs to Holy Week. Psalm 42:1-7 ... he hung on the cross and cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Verses 1 1-13 tend to intensify the "passion" theme (for example, "While my bones are being broken, my enemies mock me to my face; all day long they mock me and say to me ...

236. Proper 16

Luke 13:22-30, Isaiah 28:1-29, Isaiah 66:1-24, Jeremiah 28:1-17, Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon Aid

George Bass

... under attack from the forces of secularism, materialism and indifference. When combined with "a mighty fortress," it is often used as a preaching text for Reformation Sunday. Psalm 117 (RC, L) - Here is a psalm which Christians can say or sing with even more vigor and passion than the pilgrims who went up to Jerusalem and worshiped God in the temple. That all the nations of the world might praise God for the things he has done for Israel can really only become a reality when people hear the gospel of Jesus ...

237. Hang Time: A Good Friday Sermon

Matthew 27:45-56

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... , Savior and Liberator, Jesus Christ. It is a time where all Christians should take spiritual inventory in their lives; a time of discarding those things which hurt us and holding on to those things which help us. Lent is a time of remembering the passion, suffering, and resurrection of Christ. As heirs of his kingdom, we become co-participants in the struggle for love, justice, and truth as we are crucified and resurrected in the daily experiences of our lives. It is interesting that a season of suffering ...

238. Illusion Or Reality?

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... actually live in. The Illusion Of The Crowd One of the graphic illusions played out in our world as it heads toward its twenty-first century is that of religion as a herd phenomenon. We live in the age of the Mega-Church. We seem to have as much a passion for programs as we do for life itself. From children's ministries to senior adult trips, we seem to demand special programs that assure us that from birth to grave we will be part of a herd. One spring I had an opportunity to teach for a few days in ...

239. The Crowing of a Rooster

Matthew 26:31-35, Matthew 26:69-75

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... my little rooster by the cottonwood tree. My little rooster goes cock-a-doodle-do, Dee-doodle, dee-doodle, dee-doodle-dee-do. Have you ever thought of the sound of a rooster crowing as one of those unique, yet ordinary, sounds associated with the passion of Christ? Have you ever thought that something so commonplace as the crowing of a rooster might have significance for us? The importance of this sound originated on Thursday evening of Holy Week, just as Jesus and his disciples left the upper room where ...

240. The Darkest Hour

Drama

Pamela Urfer

241. Pentecost, The Exciting Birth of a Church

Acts 2:1-13

Illustration

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... Pentecost marks the beginning of a new spiritual movement in Christ; a movement birthed through the fires of the Holy Spirit; a movement steeped in the spirit of hope, renewal, and spiritual transformation. It is a movement where souls are on fire with the passion of the Holy Spirit and the Church today more than ever needs to recapture that spirit. If the Church is to survive the next millennium it must recapture some of the praise and enthusiasm it had two millennia ago. The spiritual energy and vitality ...

242. The Two Washings

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... , to accept forgiveness, to welcome the Gospel as our one true treasure and the only power which holds us to God and to one another. To Wash One Another’s Feet Our Lord did go on to a further word to us about this second washing we find in the passion story. "If I, then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." Being washed, we have washing to do. Being served, we are called and sustained in the ...

243. The God You Worship

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

... about money and to take some offering? Would he see something non-material and sense the drive for financial success or for social prominence? Would he learn about the Cowboys or the Dallas Mavericks? All of these represent something we adore. An idol, according to Webster, is "an object of passionate devotion." That simply means that anything or anyone to whom we give passionate devotion can become for us an idol or a god. Would you want to argue with me that there are not people in Dallas who are more ...

244. Paul’s Midnight Ride

Acts 22:30--23:11

Sermon Aid

... by them." He sent a contingent of soldiers sprinting down into the Court of the Gentiles to rescue Paul once again from a vicious crowd and to bring him to the safety of the Antonia barracks. Paul’s words were not merely an attempt to stir up the passions of the crowd. They really got to the heart of the conflict between Jews and Christians over the divinity of Jesus. When he said he was really on trial "in respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead," he was affirming the Messianic teaching on ...

245. What Do You See?

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... is this Suffering Servant?" Some have said it is the nation of Israel, others suggest it is the prophet himself, some say it is an early martyr, and still others believe it is the expected Messiah. No matter, it still applies sweetly and accurately to the Passion of Jesus. I, personally, simply cannot read these words in Isaiah 52 and 53 without feeling a certainty that it is a nearly perfect picture of our dying Savior. Look at these words again. What do you see? See a Spectacle of Suffering Humanity has a ...

246. Anne Sullivan

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Carroll Gunkel

... have to. But the Greek language has given us yet another word for love, a word which has become synonymous with the Christian Gospel ... it is the word "agape." Agape is love which is neither required by ties of family nor by the desires of passion. It is love which is given without a price-tag attached. It is love which expects nothing in return. It is selfless love. Anne Sullivan epitomized agape. Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the meaning of agape. Anne Sullivan met the Master who was agape incarnate ...

247. One Thing

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... sky. To serve the present age My calling to fulfill; O may it all my powers engage To do my Master’s will. Paul’s passion for doing God’s will now as the best way to prepare for tomorrow never impressed me very personally until a few months ago when ... toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" is the way Paul expressed it. The burning passion of Paul’s heart was to be like Jesus. What a bold ambition! What a glorious aspiration! Certainly, it would not he easy. Granted ...

248. The Call of the Trumpet

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

George Bass

... also brought face to face with God’s loving action to make things right between him and us through Jesus Christ. The Cross confronts us with the One who made himself poor to the point of suffering and death so that all people might be rich toward God. In his passion and agony, Jesus lavishly poured out his love and life so that we all might live. The Cross is no grudging hand-out to the poor of the earth! And Lent won’t let us forget that. That’s one reason that Lent has to be a time of prayer ...

249. On His Way

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Larry Powell

... been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be put to shame. (Isaiah 50:5-7) When the pieces are fitted properly and in order, it is not that there is tragedy in the triumph of the procession of Passion Sunday, but rather triumph in the tragedy. Two phrases in this brief portion of Isaiah’s Servant Song became especially incarnate in Christ and are indicative of the kind of spirit which enabled him to ride triumphantly into the holy city one last time. 1. "I Turned ...

250. When A Grain Of Wheat Falls

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Brett Blair

... new disciples. No time left for miracles to convince the people. No time left for debates with the religious leaders. No time left, the Passion is upon him. The grain of wheat has left the stalk making its descent to the soil below, its death a certainty, its ... you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can. This is the meaning of the Passion. The crucifixion of Jesus is God's conduct toward us; it is the rule for our conduct toward one another as lives as long as we ...

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