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 2526 to 2550 of 4959 results

2526. The Temple of the Lord

John 2:12-25

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

... ! Collect O God, in the cross You moved us from believing that the temple building was the only place of worship to accepting that our hearts and lives are Your temple of true worship. We praise You, Lord. In Christ we pray. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Lord, so often we desire to be a part of Your family but don't really want to accept our crosses. We would carry Your name but not always be willing to live as You taught us. We would be Your followers but we shrink away when we think of the price we might be ...

2527. Why Must We Carry A Cross?

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Brett Blair

... to be obeyed. During the dark days of World War II, England had a great deal of difficulty keeping men in the coal mines. It was a thankless kind of Job, totally lacking in any glory. Most chose to join the various military services. They desired something that could give them more social acceptance and recognition. Something was needed to motivate these men in the work that they were doing so that they would remain in the mines. With this in mind, Winston Churchill delivered a speech one day to thousands ...

2528. The Whip of War

John 2:12-25

Sermon

Brett Blair

... also to let the world know that there is a God in Israel” (2 Sam 17:45-46). Why did God use war to accomplish his will? It is because our world is a world, which is governed by the aggressive use of force. God could have, if he so desired, gone in and changed the heart of Goliath. But he did not because he will not violate our created ability to choose freely. We are not his computers we are his children. Some of these children choose to live lives of destruction, others lives of peace. God will bring ...

2529. The Kingdom And The Seed

Mark 4:4-20; 30-32

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... , dramatic starters, and "hotheads" are all like rocky ground. The Word gains no real rootage. There is no endurance. Some people are like thorny ground. The Word falls into seemingly good soil, but "the cares of this world, the delight in riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the Word, and it proves fruitless" (4:19). Thorns and weeds choke off good beginnings in faith. Some people, Jesus says, are like good soil. The intention of Jesus is to encourage all people to really hear ...

2530. The Jamie Farr Connection

Joshua 24:1-27

Sermon

... unifying force. Biblical examples do their work economically, not permitting the listeners to go their own way because the instances have been needlessly stretched out in the telling. The vision and the memory and the presence of the crucified and risen Christ enkindle the desire to choose a better way. Go in any restaurant in town, Read any local paper, Visit any area mall, And soon you will see his picture - The wavy black hair barely under control, The wide crooked smile more gentle than silly, The huge ...

2531. Memories

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... guides us to know Jesus. People believed in Jesus only because of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah’s words apply to Jesus: There was nothing in him that appeared unusual. "He had no form of comeliness that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2). Even when Jesus did his miracles and shared his majestic teachings, the people weren’t impressed. "He’s just the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary his wife," they said. There was no halo around the Lord’s head when he ministered ...

2532. Overcoming Loneliness

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... me?" He answers, "I see the possibilities of beautiful womanhood. I see the potential of a life committed to God." "But don’t you see," she insists, "the ugliness, the greed, and things even worse than that?" Jesus answers, "I see far below the surface a real desire for goodness, and a hatred of all that is ugly in life." But she continues, "I have broken my good resolutions; I have lost my chance; my ideals are gone; my faith is no longer meaningful." Jesus looks at her tenderly and whispers, "The Son of ...

2533. Faith As Healing Energy

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... our Assurance? Where is our Certainty? No wonder so many of us are sick! There is no realized certainty to unify our mental and physical functions. Emotionally we are disintegrating. No wonder our bodies are breaking down. We have been giving our "desires and whims priority over the truth," and nothing real sustains us. Smith continues, "Standard man is a man of faith; and negative secularity is a strange and sometimes fierce asceticism directed against the spirit, which it can suppress but cannot eliminate ...

2534. Service

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... , whatever the form, is discipline. Out of discipline comes growth. A sad realization that comes to teachers is seeing a student matriculate at college, graduate or professional school - especially divinity school - fulfill all requirements, and even receive the desired degree, yet remain essentially unchanged. That student may have acquired knowledge, but has there been growth? Has the academic experience been solely a matter of the head - the heart left untouched? Is the graduate a larger person, mature ...

2535. And It Came To Pass

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... God. I believe that from the fulfillment of the will of God there can follow nothing but that which is good for me and for all men. I believe that the will of God is that every man should love his fellow men, and should act toward others as he desires that they should act toward him. I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love. I believe that this growth in love will contribute more than any other force to establish the Kingdom of God on earth - To replace a social life ...

2536. Twenty-First Century Reformation

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... sale of Indulgences. His church door was, in reality, the university bulletin board where all announcements were affixed. As a professor he was calling for a debate; he was willing to take on all challengers: Out of love for the faith and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those ...

2537. Called to Be Saints

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... starving, thirsty person is anxious to find food and drink. Mercy is a rare, yet absolutely essential, virtue. Mercy comes from the Late Latin root merces, meaning "God’s gratuitous compassion; reward." It is love extended, not out of necessity, but given through the desire to help. No thanks are expected. I shall never forget the man who stopped and helped me get my car battery jumped. We were miles from Cheyenne, and the vastness of Wyoming was becoming increasingly vast. He did not need to stop. Clara ...

2538. The Marriage of Adam and Eve

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

... have happened there), but with our own - the story that is most familiar. There is not a one of us who has not played the lead role - whether we are married now, or whether we are not, or whether we are yet to be or not to be. The desire to be God was Adam’s fall, and Eve’s and it is ours - both with marriage and without it, although the ugliness of "personal rights insistence" probably breaks loose in no more tender place than marriage. Now the purposes of marriage have been fouled - a way to "legalize ...

2539. Man, Where Are You?

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

... it. That’s what the fall is all about. The concept of temptation has been loaded with the baggage of misunderstanding. We think of Satan’s tempting lures as opportunities for peccadilloes that make life interesting and exciting. We associate temptation with the passionate desire to get involved with the forbidden, pluck the fruit, kick over traces and go out to do what we were not supposed to do. It certainly involves all that - the sins of greed and lust and hatred, with their promises of better things ...

2540. The Good Shepherd - Sermon Starter

John 10:1-21

Illustration

Brett Blair

... of the heritage of Christ. This picture comes more clearly into focus in the New Testament. Jesus once told a story about a shepherd who had 100 sheep, but one of them went astray. In our way of thinking a 99% return on our investment would be most desirable, but not this shepherd. He left the 99 to go in search of that one lost sheep. Later, when Jesus was speaking to a great throng of people, Mark tells us that he had compassion upon them because they were "as sheep without a shepherd." Throughout the ...

2541. Are You Pentecostal?

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... churches that are together, in one accord can accomplish much, no church can be truly Pentecostal, if it does not pray. And it seems to me that much of the church has lapsed into a weekly routine of Sunday morning sermons and Sunday school. We have lost our desire to dedicate ourselves to prayer expecting the Holy Spirit to move in our presence and change lives. A poem by an unknown author speaks of this: I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day; I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t ...

2542. Slim Pickings

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... to Worship God calls us to do our part by being givers according to the money, things, and talents that we have. God is the source of encouragement that empowers us to finish with enthusiasm what we have begun. Collect We want our ventures to reflect our desire to be better Christians. We want to be more loving, more giving, and more like Jesus. Amen. Prayer of Confession What can we do, O God, those times we sense the plethora of need yet are caught in droopy enthusiasm? Help us accept that abundance of ...

2543. Contradiction

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... around us make lesser choices. Let us garner strength from God for the journey through our own human contradictions. Collect We look to you, O God, who has the power to keep us from wavering from our ideals. We ask you to awaken within us the desire and the choice to improve the way we live. For the sake of Christ. Amen. Prayer of Confession We are filled with contradictions, God. We are less scrupulous than we could be. We put personal matters before work. We scheme at the expense of others and ourselves ...

2544. Lent 3

John 4:1-26

Bulletin Aid

C. David Godshall

... cared for every need of your people making their way to the promised land, there were those who turned from you and mocked your goodness for them. People: There are times when we forget all your blessings for us, and pursue our own pleasures and desires. Pastor: There are times when we figure that we must not be so bad, as others have happen to them what we suspect could justly happen to us. Assistant: Persecution and disaster do not always seek out evil people, but frequently afflict the righteous. People ...

2545. Christ and Time

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... done. We do not have to grope for God, hoping that we might find him. In his Son he has already come down to us. W. H. Auden, one of the greatest of contemporary poets, has expressed it beautifully: "Because of his visitation, we may no longer desire God as if he were lacking. Our redemption is no longer a question of pursuit but of surrender to him who is always and everywhere present. Therefore at every moment we pray that following him we may depart from our anxiety into his peace." Kierkegaard tells a ...

2546. Counting the Cost

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... . How, then, can we become real Christians, authentic loyal disciples of Christ? How can the saltness of flabby, insipid, ineffective Christians be restored? There are those who answer: we must try harder to obey Christ’s teaching. But how are we to overcome our own desires and ambitions when they are in conflict with Christ’s teaching? There are others who say that the church should hold before us the perfect life of Christ and say: here is your example, here is the true life, live like that. But is it ...

2547. The Word of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... about the cross, directly or indirectly, throughout the year. But during Lent, and especially on Good Friday, we try to keep silent and let the cross speak its word to us. We are not commissioned to trim and hew the cross to suit our desires, much less to approach it with maudlin sentimentality, weeping with the daughters of Jerusalem over the innocent Sufferer. Nor are we allowed to be mere spectators of Jesus’ suffering and death. When the cross speaks, it reveals our own involvement both in its tragedy ...

2548. The Fulfilled Promise

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... human rights. Millions have never heard the gospel of Christ. The churches are full of nominal or lukewarm members whose real god is their own success and happiness. Religiosity has become popular but much of it caters only to the self-centered desires of unregenerate human nature. People are willing to accept Christ only if he sanctions their own traditional attitudes but refuse to submit to the complete reconstruction of life which he demands. The world is heaving with a vast social revolution but many ...

2549. As We Remember - Memorial Day

1 Chronicles 11:10-25

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... " their loved one looks as he lies peacefully in the corrosion-defying bronze coffin amid the flowers. The Christian view of death has none of this evasion. It is in accord with the scientific fact that when we die we are really dead. Our hopes and desires cannot change this fact. Man does not differ from the rest of creation by having a soul that cannot die. The difference lies in his having been created to have his existence in relationship to God, and the tragedy of life is that he no longer exists ...

2550. True Freedom

John 8:31-41

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... league because he could not get the ball over the plate. Just so, lack of control keeps us in the bush league of life. This is what prompts Wordsworth to say in his Ode to Duty: "Me this unchartered freedom tires, I feel the weight of chance desires, I supplicate for thy control." Living a loose life is not freedom. It is slavery to sin. It is the "bondage of corruption." It is not enough to say: to be free you must be yourself. The question is, which self? The self that drifts foolishly toward inevitable ...

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