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 679 results

226. Lent 4

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Bulletin Aid

... others into believing that we are leading happy, spiritual, and fulfilling lives; and how completely we thus ignore our need for your grace. Forgive us, we pray, and give us a measure of the power of your vision, which penetrates to the inner spirit and sees the real person, one yearning for your forgiveness and fulfillment. In the redeeming name of Jesus we pray. Amen

227. Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17

Bulletin Aid

... empty tomb. These things we pray in your Son's name. Amen. Prayer of Confession God of tender mercies, we acknowledge with shame that our customary and cherished way of life is based on a selfish desire for status and not a consistent yearning to serve one another and others in accordance with your will and Jesus' example. Forgive us, we pray, and teach us true humility and sacrificial service. Place before us always the image of the Christ, who, despite the supernatural majesty of his divinity, submitted ...

228. Proper 17

Exodus 19:1-25, Psalm 114:1-8

Bulletin Aid

... in our captivity to sin, so that we neither seek nor even want the liberation that you can and will deliver; and we know that, as a result, we lead desperate and pointless lives. Forgive us, O God, and plant within us the seeds of discontent that will make us yearn for freedom and righteousness. Then rescue us from the evil bonds that have kept us from serving you and have numbed us to our wretchedness. In the name of the Christ we pray. Amen

229. Christian Tolerance

Romans 14:1--15:13

Bulletin Aid

... and works finally to the good of all. Call to Worship Leader: May the words of our mouths be acceptable in God's sight! People: May the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to God! Leader: Let us strive to be blameless before God! People: Let us yearn to be innocent and faultless! Collect God of all people, you have taught us to be tolerant of one another, especially in matters of faith. Instill in us your Spirit of openness: that, seeing our religious expressions as relative, we may take only our faith in ...

230. Proper 28

Matthew 25:14-30

Bulletin Aid

... , as though we were to preserve rather than to proclaim it. We worry about creeds and confessions, principles and policies, and meanwhile forget that our first task is to carry your good news to the world. Forgive us, we pray, and commission us again with our apostolic charge. Make us yearn and burn to share the message of your grace in Christ Jesus with all people everywhere. In his holy name we pray. Amen

231. Advent 2

Matthew 3:1-12

Bulletin Aid

... that became Incarnate in him who is the living word. Let it be! (source unknown) Pastor: In Christ, we do experience forgiveness. To us is the promise of a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And to us is a promise born in him. We need no longer yearn for God as an absentee landlord. Our healing no longer means a search but a surrender to him who is always and everywhere present in Spirit. Let us pray together that prayer which is most appropriately the prayer of the community of faith. Ministers: (Lord's Prayer ...

232. Leadership: the Moses Model

Numbers 27:12-23

Sermon

... , but a veneer understanding of what others have already contributed to the enterprise. Many have spent countless hours, in recent years, with their hearts, minds, souls, and strength focused on eliminating the divisions which separate Christ’s people. Our day yearns for pastoral leadership that can drink deeply in a private sanctuary with Christ and, in the next moment, be among the joys and sorrows of flesh and blood. Perhaps there is no greater need than serious ecumenical involvement by the pastors ...

233. It’s How It Ends That Matters

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

... as did St. Paul, Augustine, Luther, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, the philosopher Camus, or Ralph Vaughn Williams. Some of us may never have had an experienee of white light, of sudden confrontation, and, in fact, we may resent the fact that we have not and may yearn for a moment such as that. But it needs to be said that many on the King’s Highway will not require a detour into quicksand or a wrong turn or to delay the journey. Some of us will best serve by a quiet, unspectacular obedience that ...

234. God's Best Gift In The Worst Times (Sermon Series No. 2)

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... think so take a ride on the night shift of one of our finest: (name here the local police force). Our own war zone is drugs, handguns, poverty, and anger, an explosive mix. Tranquilizers are still the most popular prescription drugs in America as people yearn for inner tranquility and the absence of turmoil. Peace is not placing a policeman on every corner in (name city). Peace comes when Jesus Christ washes sin from human hearts. Peace is not sending American troops all over the world, though at times that ...

235. Returning: Real or Ruse?

Hosea 5:1-15

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... I lashed at my will and cried, ‘Leap now! Leap now!’ - and even as I said it, crouched for the leap, and all but leaped - and yet I did not leap - and the life to which I was accustomed held me more than the life for which I truly yearned." Our desperate need, in our returning to the Lord, is for a heart that, without deceit, calls for forgiveness. The media reported some months ago that a Park Avenue plastic surgeon, Dr. Peter Fodor, had offered a new face to Jean Harris, who is serving a fifteen-year ...

236. God Is Not Yet Finished With You

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... there is a like-human person to love. Thus, God made us in his image so that we can share love and have fellowship with him. Consequently, we are by nature religious. Like an instinct in birds and animals, like a flower turning to the sun, people yearn for God. They may not be aware of it, but they do. Instinctively, we pray. We want someone to worship and adore. Apart from God, we are dissatisfied with ourselves, feel hollow inside, and have the conviction that we are not complete. When we are detached ...

237. The Danger of Being Religious

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... we love freedom. When the American hostages were released after 444 days in Iran, a mother in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, ran out to the main street, clanging a cow bell wildly and shouting, "My Bruce is free! My Bruce is free!" Everywhere people are yearning to be free from oppression. Some flee Communism by hijacking planes, or flying over borders by balloon. Some brave the Pacific or the Caribbean to get freedom in America. False religion enslaves people. In the sixteenth century, the people in the Roman ...

238. How’s Your Appetite?

Matthew 5:6 · Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... can’t conquer him. If he fails a hundred times to shoot under par, he will return the next time with renewed courage, resolved to achieve. Failure just seems to whet his appetite for the next game. Jesus does not condemn our pleasure. He yearns for us to appropriate the same eagerness and interest and enthusiastic appetite, if you will, for his cause. The salesman will enlist artists, exploit friendship, use flattery, open his house, even let a customer talk about himself, if it will make a sale. We ...

239. Faith A New Potential for Life

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... but a righteous man, his faith in the redeeming love of Christ is substituted for the righteousness the man lacks; and he is therefore accounted righteous." By faith this person has turned his back on his sinful past and has turned his face toward his yearning for righteousness. He is now, in the sight of God, what he wills to move toward, and not his past life. Sadly, in America today, we are an uncommitted people. We are not given to integrity and righteousness (the will of God - the Christlike spirit ...

240. The Impartiality of God

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... creation to its original intention. It is certainly not a matter that God would cease to exist when and where his creation permanently estranged itself. He had existed before the creation and could again live unto himself. But there is something in his heart that yearns for his creation, a parental constraint to beget unto himself a family that will do him honor and fulfill the longing for having someone he can love and care for. Love is not love when it sits in splendid isolation and loves only in theory ...

241. Journey To The Cross IV: Jesus and Judas

Mark 14:43-52

Sermon

James W. Moore

... he was the bad guy. When he betrayed Jesus later in the movie, you expected it. And when he took his own life, you were easily convinced that it was an appropriate and fitting end for this evil character. But then, I found myself wondering about Judas. I yearned to ask him, “Judas, what is your story? Judas, what is the real truth of your story?” We are often reluctant to ask that question, aren’t we? We much prefer that people come to us… not with a story, but in simple caricature! We want to know ...

242. What Are You Going to Do About Death?

Mt 10:28 · Lk 12:4

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... if we had to. It is only that which kills the spirit which is to be feared. In the third place: A Christian is one who is not afraid of death. Only in death are our deepest dreams fulfilled. it is here that one cashes in on his God-like yearnings. God is not to be defeated. Only in life after death does Christ become ultimately victorious. Only in life after death do Christians experience the final victory. To know Christ is permanent! To know God is for keeps! We pause for a moment at the death bed of a ...

243. Forever His

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... to win. Am I then really all that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I know of myself, restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds, thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness, trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation, tossing in expectation of great events, powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance, weary and empty at praying ...

244. How Fares Your Christian Sight?

Is 6:8-10

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... earth that cannot be deemed God’s. "The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof," declares the Psalmist. On the other hand, the church has had periods of farsightedness, moments when it has seen clearly far away, but has failed to see the yearnings and strivings of its own people. The Church has at times been able to clearly identify the sinfulness resident in corporate structures and in far away places, but has failed to see the same sin tainting congregational life. It’s like a clergyman I ...

245. To Bethlehem and Beyond

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... , An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry. There is a precious story of a seven-year-old boy who stood by the crib of new newborn baby brother, and said, "Tell me quick before you forget: what is God like?" So much do we yearn for some communication from him. Tennyson was essentially right: we have no language but a cry; but we do have that, and I think God hears it. God, however, does have a language. His language is more than words and requires more than ears to hear. We don’t ...

246. The Light that Shines Within

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... , I believe, of all that happens in the inner world in a lifetime of years. There is the rosy glow of childhood, with fancies and fairies, and the slow dawning of insight, and growing pains. There is the romance of early adulthood, reachings and yearnings, the search for identity, the realization of love and struggle. There is the adventure of the creative years; then the nostalgia of advancing age. And through it all there is laughter and there are tears and the intricate criss-cross of lights and shadows ...

247. Turn On The Lights!

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... in California traumatized by this tragedy. And yes, I am praying also for O.J. Simpson. Thirdly, I am determined that this trial and verdict will not be allowed to jeopardize our progress in race relations. The majority of Americans of all races love justice and yearn for interracial peace. Most Americans cherish the dream of Dr. King that one day all persons will be judged, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. We must not forsake the dream. In fact, I challenge us to ...

248. God's Best Gift in the Worst Times

Micah 5:1-4, Micah 5:5-15

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... 20,000 young men and women to promote peace in Bosnia. Some of the streets of Memphis resemble a war zone as drugs, handguns, poverty, and anger create an explosive mix. Tranquilizers are still the most popular prescription drugs in America as people yearn for inner tranquility and the absence of turmoil. Peace is not placing a policeman on every corner in Memphis. Peace comes when Jesus Christ washes sin from human hearts. Peace is not sending American troops allover the world, though at times that may ...

249. Crossing Over

Joshua 3:1-4:24

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... change. I want people to say fifty years from now that the secret of Christ Church's vitality is that she never tires of calling people to come in humble confession to a crucified Savior and to receive him as Lord. But, you know, there is something I yearn for even more than all that. I want to hear God say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servants." Now, if your heart beats with mine, let's bring our sacrificial commitment cards to these holy places of dedication down front. It's time to cross over this ...

250. Put the Cross on Top

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . Within the hour, a large gold cross was placed center stage. Perhaps June Goldman is a prophet sent from God to ask our great denomination God's question, "Where is the cross. Have you forgotten it? Are you willing to put it back on top?" I believe that God is yearning to renew the united Methodist Church if we will just put the cross back on top. When I was just a boy of 12, I sat on the back pew in a little rural church. I listened as a college student on the way to ordained ministry preached the plain ...

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