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 2551 to 2575 of 5000 results

2551. Words That Wound, Words That Heal

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

... one for whom they are intended. Or they can bring joy, celebration, healing. Consider the difference between the two statements, ‘I love you; I hate you.' Words can wound and words can heal." This lesson is particularly poignant for our day. We spend ... help dimly seeing there, and drawing out into the light all the beautiful things that no one else had looked quite far enough to find. I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life not a tavern, but a temple, out of the works of my ...

2552. The Place beyond Punishment

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... a mess. Listen first to the Life Of Pi interpretation of Jesus. You will recall that this is a great interfaith book about a young man who manages to befriend Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, much to the horror of his very secular parents. Pi both loves each religion and hates each religion. Listen to his interpretation of the death of Jesus and remember that his father is really a zookeeper: And what a story ... humanity sins but God pays the price? What? I tried to imagine father saying to me, "Piscine ...

2553. The Reluctant Celebrity

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... No, her desire was to draw people’s attention to her Lord and Savior. Christ had touched her life and she wanted to share his love with others. She had a story to tell and she told it. That’s the way things ought to happen. I wish we were more ... already given up his life to save not only this boy, but each of us as well. His actions of healing, his actions of sacrificial love validate the kingdom he proclaimed. His message was not of a God who is remote from our needs and concerns. His message was of a ...

2554. Amazing Faith

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... . He approaches Jesus for healing. Despite his protestations of worthiness, his Jewish friends know he is a noble man. He is humble. He loves his slave. He respects the Jewish people and their faith so much that he builds a synagogue for them. He does not ... David. And beneath it, in rough lettering, this message: I believe in the Sun — even when it does not shine. I believe in love — even when it is not shown. I believe in God — even when he does not speak.4 Faith always believes in the future. A ...

2555. What If the Disciples Had Email and One of the Disciples Was a Woman?

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

... he said and what he did. We could hardly contain ourselves. I hope this will help you better understand why I'm going to continue to follow Jesus and why I believe he is the Messiah, the one who was to come into the world to set us free. Your loving daughter, Priscilla From: Mom&Dad@jerusalem.org To: Priscilla@galilee.net Dear Priscilla, Your father doesn't know I'm sending this email so please don't mention it in anything you write back to us. I just wanted you to know that I fully approve of what you're ...

2556. Advent 4

Luke 1:47-55 or Psalm 80:1-7, Micah 5:2-5a, Luke 1:39-45, Hebrews 10:5-10

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... pray that God will keep us safe in a topsy-turvy world. Like Zechariah, we name our children, encouraging them to use their talents for God. Leader: Ring the bells! Clap your hands! Our hearts rejoice. People: We make a circle and light candles! We sing of love! Leader: Listening for truth and passing it along with joy is an awesome task. We have received the good news that God, the Holy One, comes to us in unexpected forms. We receive the divine and invite holiness to be at home in us! (Light two purple ...

2557. What Does the Bible Really Say about Divorce?

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... not by the Master, then who dares condemn the divorced person? If the tragedy of divorce has happened in your life, don’t listen to the legalistic Pharisee who would kick you when you are down. Divorce is not God’s plan for God’s children, but divorced people are loved by God just as much as the purest saint. But let’s get back to Jesus main point. Marriage is a gift from God. It is not intended to be a burden but a blessing. It can be the most wonderful thing that happens to us if our hearts are ...

2558. God’s Chain Reaction

Romans 5:1-5

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... no longer physically with us. But he sent the Holy Spirit to be with us to the very end of the age, no matter what sufferings and trials we may go through. This kind of hope will never disappoint us! The hope of eternal life, the hope in God's love, the hope in the Holy Spirit's presence — through faith in Jesus, this hope is ours today. When we place our faith in Jesus, there is a divine chain reaction that leads to peace and grace and hope. Even when we suffer there can be a divine chain reaction that ...

2559. Killing What Is Already Dead

Colossians 3:1-11

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... out clothes (v. 9). We put on the new clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Colossians goes on to tell us to show love and to let peace reign in our hearts (vv. 14-15). The reason to strip off the old clothes of lust and anger is ... we have been unable to build this kind of self, full of kindness and compassion. We may have to make small steps to become more loving and more peaceful, but God can get us there. God can work in us, making us into a self we never imagined. God is ...

2560. Restarting Joy - Rejoice

Isaiah 55:10-13

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... it. Only then does it take on meaning. You have to seek that. You have to want it. And I guess beyond that, I want to love it so much, and I want to say "change me," that without holding it up and admonishing people to read it, they will watch my life ... it. Only then does it take on meaning. You have to seek that. You have to want it. And I guess beyond that, I want to love it so much, and I want to say "change me," that without holding it up and admonishing people to read it, they will watch my life ...

2561. Finding Fault With God

Jeremiah 2:4--3:5

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But he loves you! He loves you! ... But I want you to know something, this is sincere, I want you to know, when it comes to believing in God, I ... laid down his life, then we may be allowed to journey alongside them from despair to hope. We may be given the opportunity to love them as they are and where they are and watch as God does the transformational work in their lives in God's time. You ...

2562. When We Don't Know God

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... know Jesus. How can you and I come to know God today? Just say yes to Him. Then seek to live as Jesus lived. Some of you are familiar with a delightful song from the 1970s, the chorus of which goes like this, “To see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly day by day.” The song is from the musical, Godspell. In the musical, which is based upon the Gospel of Matthew, the cast acts out the parable of the unforgiving servant. To refresh your memory, a servant owes an enormous debt ...

2563. Kintsugi Vessels

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... tattoos-marking our flesh in an attempt to trademark our uniqueness. [If you can bring a couple of “patch boxes” to showcase, so much the better.] There are only two stories: the desire to be loved and the desire to love. All who live those two stories, all who love, know the price of love — a broken heart. If you love, your heart will break. But the promise of the gospel is that those broken cracks, in all of us bruised, battered, broken people, are the places where the true power of the Spirit is ...

2564. John 13:31-35

John 13:31-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... by commanding that God’s people “shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus’ declaration, however, explicitly insists that attitude become action: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (vv.34-35). In 13:15 Jesus had “set an example” of doing, as he washed his disciple’s feet and commanded them to “do ...

2565. What the Trinity Does

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... able to regard every person as a brother or sister in Christ and not as a threat. That kind of growth rarely comes without struggle. It is part of what Paul would regard as our war with God. But when we are able to enlarge our ability to love, there comes with it great peace. Jesus, the bridge-builder between God and humanity and between people and their neighbors, brings us that peace. I read about an old saint who was dying. He was visited by a friend who asked him, “Have you made your peace with God ...

2566. Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... debtors’ parable. But at the heart of this parable of “The Good Samaritan” is NOT a lesson about WHO is my neighbor (the lawyer’s question). It is about how to BE a neighbor. Jesus’ answer to his lawyer interrogator is the same both times. DO. ACT. Love is the ultimate verb. We are not to spend our lives determining who is our neighbor. We are to spend our lives BEING the neighbor to all those we encounter. “Won’t you be, won’t you be, won’t you be . . . my neighbor?” COMMENTARY Everyone ...

2567. Putting the World Back Together

John 20:1-9

Sermon

David O. Bales

... war. As he got off the train in Tokyo an American man handed him a pamphlet. He put it in his pocket and later read of how Jake had been found by the resurrected Christ in a Japanese prison and how Jake now was sharing God’s love with the Japanese. Mitsuo Fuchida then bought a book about Jake. Mitsuo Fuchida had been pondering some unexplainably gracious actions by other Christians in Japan. He wanted to know more about Christianity. He bought a Bible and put off reading it; but, when he started, he read ...

2568. The Faith of a Saint

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... those committed to serving Christ. It is the one thing in life you can count on. He will not forget you or forsake you. But this is not the end of Christ’s message to us for All Saints’ Day. Christ continues: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who ...

2569. Ring Those Bells

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... have made it possible to be reborn as redeemed sons and daughters of God. We have hope, we have faith in the promise of new life, a life where frailty and failure, suffering and sin, have all been wiped away by the lineaments and linens of God’s love. Whether you call it Christian “hope,” as Peter did, or Christian “faith,” as Paul did — it is not a wish to escape to the future or the dream of an afterlife. Christians “hope” is the fuel that gets us through everyday not as a chore, but as a ...

2570. Envision: The Great Commission

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

James Merritt

... what could happen in our church if every real estate broker, airline pilot, lawyer, homemaker, CEO, business owner, manager, or salesman said “I love my job, because I realize I am in the people business. They may pay me to do their work, but my job is ... am here to see others who need God, to seek others without God, and to share with them so they can know God.” I love the way Bill Hybels puts it. We need to become “seed sowing fools” sowing the Gospel of Christ everywhere that we can. I am going to ...

2571. All In: Skin In the Game

Malachi 3:6-18

Sermon

James Merritt

... a blessing until there is no more need.” (Malachi 3:10, ESV) Do you know what giving is? Giving is a test that God loves to prove He can pass. I am going to ask some of you, beginning today to make history. You’ve got the incredible opportunity ... line. When you fail to give God’s money to God’s ministry you fail to have God’s favor on your finances. Everybody who loves God, everybody who wants to follow Jesus Christ, everybody who wants the favor and blessing of God on their life needs to be “all- ...

2572. What's It Take to Be A Saint? (All Saint's Day)

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... is and what God expects out of us. And in his research he discovered the God he always hoped existed a God of love and acceptance and forgiveness. (5) There are still far too many religious people who have a god who plays havoc with their lives ... and you say ‘wonderful!’” That’s what we want out of God. Tell us that we are wonderful. Tell us that we are accepted, forgiven, loved. But don’t tell us that our robes are dirty. Don’t tell us there are some changes that need to be made in our life ...

2573. While It Was Still Dark

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... don’t rise from their graves, do they? John tells us, “She came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!’” Can you hear ... ) And this made this strong king cry. Without Easter, what else is there to do when we contemplate the loss of someone we love but to cry? Without Easter, there is no hope of being reunited with them. There is a beautiful story about comedienne Gracie Allen ...

2574. You Are God's Child

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... then we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” You need to know that you are not simply the child of an impersonal universe. You are the child of a loving God who watched over you from the day you were born. That insightful writer Kurt Vonnegut, put it so beautifully in one of his poems: “God made mud . . . God got lonesome . . . So God said to some of the mud, ‘Sit up!’ ‘See all I’ve made,’ said God ...

2575. What Kind of King Is This?

John 18:28-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... who they were, or how much or how little they deserved it, he looked at people through very special eyes--the eyes of love and compassion. There is a story about a member of the British royal family. Many years ago the Prince of Wales visited India. ... second is, Jesus Christ is a great Savior!” (5) He is a great Savior. Why? Because he was first a great lover. Because of his love for you and me he laid down his life on the cross of Calvary. That is why we celebrate the reign of Christ on this last ...

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