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 251 to 275 of 426 results

251. Two for the Price of One

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... on the basis of observable human resources. We give up too soon! We don’t open our minds and hearts to the immense possibilities of Another who has the last word. When we do this, we not only bog down ourselves, we drag others down with us. Jesus disregarded this word about the daughter being dead, and that there was no use for him to go on. He pressed on to Jairus’ house. When He got there, the house was full of people and they were weeping and wailing in great tumult. Jesus said to them, “Why ...

252. Luke 10:1-11; 16-20

Luke 11:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and purpose will result in healing and wholeness or judgment on “that day” is up to each local population of witnesses to that word. The lectionary reading skips over the further words of judgment Jesus utters against those regions who choose to disregard and dismiss the message of the kingdom (vvs. 12-15). Instead it jumps ahead to the return of the seventy (seventy-two) after their initial missionary journey. Luke’s text itself does not offer any specifics about the experiences and events Jesus ...

253. A Little Theology at Christmas

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... that even the greatest reprobate would admire. But arriving at these characteristics (like arriving at my ideal weight) takes some effort, and this could be considered the negative part of this message: "training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions...." Impiety, a disregard for God and God's will for our lives, is easier than it sounds in our world. Those of us who struggle every year with the proper way to celebrate Christmas — how much of what is too much, when does Christ really get ...

254. Yes, You

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sermon

David O. Bales

... were done yesterday, and one result is that slowly over the centuries Christians come to consider their pastors as more holy than others. This is why, in worship every Sunday, God summons us to leap across the centuries to the Bible. We don't disregard the insights and influences of our mothers and fathers in the faith, but we make sure that the Bible is our authority, not the traditions that have grown up, promoting pastors to a higher holiness and demoting everyone else to a lesser Christian existence ...

255. Righting Wrong

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Larry Lange

... -attended potluck and showed up just before the meeting was scheduled to begin and was very anxious to leave, because he had to be back home with his son since his wife was leaving town for a business trip of her own. The president disregarded the pastor's advice to consider and approve the reports from all twenty of the boards and committees all at once. Instead, the president marched the anxious group of 120 members of the congregation uncomfortably crammed in the church basement through a tedious process ...

256. Luke 14:25-33

Luke 14:25-35

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... cost of discipleship, the requirement for those who would follow him, is complete, unqualified commitment. Full steam ahead. No looking back. Jesus’ banquet advice must have been shell-shocking to his dining companions: he told the religious establishment to disregard the carefully plotted rules of patronage and reciprocity. But his words to this mixed crowd of ordinary men and women is even more stunning. In a world where kinship relations identified and defined everything about a person, where family ...

257. Heroes of Faith

Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Let's look at this passage through the words; WITNESSES, WEIGHT, WORK AND WINNER. I. Witnesses A. First, Paul says "we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." And that ...

258. Luke 6:20-31

Luke 6:17-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... taken by those who take Jesus’ kingdom as their model offer love, blessing, and prayer as the acceptable response to those enemy advances. The carefully calibrated “tit-for-tat” equations of reciprocity that governed first-century social relationships were completely disregarded by Jesus’ kingdom bookkeeping. It is further evidence of love for enemy in action that has Jesus insist that his listeners offer a second cheek, coat and a shirt, giving to all without exception and expecting nothing back in ...

259. 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

It is hard to be a long-distance disciplinarian. No doubt that is the reason so many kids happily pick far-away destinations for their first away-from-home schools or jobs. Parental power plays are much easier to disregard when they get delivered digitally instead of “in your face.” College students quickly learn that they can ignore their alarm clock and sleep through classes. But they also will learn the consequences of that behavior when they flunk out. “Ditching” work is as easy as it used to ...

260. John 4:5-42

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... racially suspect. Typically Samaritans were Jews who had escaped the Assyrian exile and inter-married with the local Canaanite population. But on top of being racially suspect, they were deemed theologically stunted. Samaritans accepted only the Pentateuch as scripture, disregarding the other Old Testament books. For Jew and Samaritan both, there is no mistaking the significance of Jesus’ midday resting spot. Jacob gave this site over to his beloved Joseph (Genesis 48:22). For centuries the well had ...

261. God's Day Off

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , of course, would respect that little haunt of peace where one may sit on a quiet sunny afternoon and meditate, but many others would not. The borough council has even appointed a stalwart guardian who assumes a fiercesome demeanor, especially to little boys who disregard the notices; and as a resident, I would support the appointment of this friend, and I would support the maintenance of the fences and the signs. You see, I want the park preserved.[3] Sunday is our little park ... our place apart in the ...

262. Jesus and Divorce

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Rabbi Akiba even went to the length of saying that it meant if a man found a woman who was "fairer" in his eyes than his wife was. Given the way human nature goes, you can imagine which school of thought was most popular. In line with this general disregard for women in the ancient world, if a woman were divorced, she did not have many options. There were no "Want Ads" to scour. She could go back home to her parents or move in with some other relative. If that was not possible, she might be forced to ...

263. Living Upside Down

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... is a story told of the child, Jesus. When he was five years old, Jesus was playing by a brook in the soft clay of its banks. Out of the clay he fashioned twelve sparrows. It was the sabbath when he did this, and an old Jew, observing this disregard for the rules, reported it to Jesus' father. Joseph came and found his son by the brook and scolded him for breaking the sabbath law. But Jesus clapped his hands together and the sparrows took flight and flew away chirping. For those of us who are willing to see ...

264. The Inconcealable Christ!

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... his presence in their lives. Nor can we. He has no secret service disciples. Indeed, he commissions us to go and tell the things that he has done. He is the inconcealable Christ! One day everybody will recognize Jesus. For now it is possible to blindly and arrogantly disregard all the evidence of who he is and what he has done but this time will end, and may, indeed, end sooner than we think. At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess ...

265. The Great Inescapable Question of Eternity

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... insults at Jesus: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" (Luke 23:39). What this bad man does not seem to realize is that even in the face of death, his impenitent, irate ranting acknowledges that Jesus is the very Lord he has chosen heretofore to disregard! The thief on the other side of Jesus has not necessarily walked with or watched Jesus before, but he is seeing Jesus now as one under the worst kind of scorn and pain that Rome's evil forces can inflict. This thief's cry from the cross affirms ...

266. The Faithfulness of God

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... high point of God's faithfulness was the promise of a Messiah and to make a permanent house for David in the world. God's promise to the Hebrew king was fulfilled in Jesus. Despite all failures, lack of faithfulness, and at times utter disregard for God, the Lord remained faithful to the end. God remains faithful to us despite our many transgressions and failures. Advent is the time for us to renew our commitment and faithfulness to God. We must be faithful to others and ourselves and thereby demonstrate ...

267. You Are in Good Hands with God

Isaiah 40:21-31

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... , mighty in power, not one is missing" (v. 26). In other words, God is with the Hebrews in their exile. They might not understand at the time, but God will not abandon the people. If the Hebrews believed that the Lord was hidden, that God had disregarded the people's plight, the prophet assures them this is not true. Isaiah states, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable ...

268. Living to Please God

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... an equally unpresentable medical student. In the ER they encountered the on-call medical resident and his student, both neatly attired in clean white lab coats. The medical resident said to his student, “You can always tell the surgeons by their absolute disregard for appearance.” Two evenings later, the same young surgical resident was at a banquet when called to the ER for yet another emergency. He was stitching away on his patient this time wearing a tuxedo from the banquet when he encountered that ...

269. Inerrancy of the Bible

2 Tim 3:16

Illustration

James Packer

... Bible a procedure which expresses faith in the reality and veracity of the God who speaks to us in and through what it says and who requires us to heed every word that proceeds from his mouth. This procedure requires us not to deny, disregard, or arbitrarily relativize anything that the writers teach or to discount any of the practical implications for worship and service which their teaching carries or to cut the knot of any problem of Bible harmony, factual or theological, by allowing ourselves to assume ...

270. A Million-Dollar Typo

Illustration

Source Unknown

... mistake loomed larger when McLean Industries, parent firm of U.S. Lines, sold the ships for $67 million. In a settlement approved later by a federal court, McLean agreed to give Prudential the proceeds from the sale of the ships minus $11 million. That was the price McLean demanded for disregarding the missing zeros.

271. Influence from Without

Illustration

F.B. Meyer

... them for God and mankind. Such reasoning has a good deal of force in the first stages of decline. A strong protest may arrest error and stop the gangrene. But as time advances, and the whole body becomes diseased; when the protests have been disregarded, and the arguments trampled underfoot; when the majority have clearly taken up their position against the truth we have no alternative but to come out and be separate. The place from which we can exert the strongest influence for good is not from within ...

272. The Calm Before the Storm

Illustration

Staff

... storm had passed away, and the boats started out for the fishing ground. Forty-one boats left the harbor that day. Before they started, the harbor-master hoisted the storm signal, and warned them of the coming tempest. He begged of them not to go; but they disregarded his warning, and away they went. They saw no sign of the coming storm. In a few hours, however, it swept down on that coast, and very few of those fishermen returned. There were five or six men in each boat, and nearly all were lost in that ...

273. Doing Your Own Thing

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... in the very beginning of our Bible, this is the attitude that got humanity in trouble in the first place. To state things even more emphatically, you could make a case that this is the very definition of sin doing your own thing with total disregard for God’s purpose for your life. St. Paul ran into this sort of attitude more than two thousand years ago. Conversion to Christianity was a great liberation to many who had felt enslaved by the Jewish Law. They felt gloriously free when they became Christians ...

274. How Can I Know God's Will?

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... . About 14% of people rely on their parents’ advice and values when making a decision. And a full 25% of adults, 1 out of every 4 people, rely simply on their “feelings” to be their moral guide in a sticky situation. (3) Friends, you can’t disregard your feelings, but they are a poor guide to knowing the will of God. People are continually being led into bad decisions by their feelings. Pray and study that you will discover the mind of Christ. That way you’re more apt to make better decisions ...

275. When Others Serve Your Head on a Platter

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... part of Herod was self-absorbed, self-obsessed, and self-concerned. Yet John the Baptist’s courageous message of repentance and forgiveness fascinated the ruthless ruler. Jewish by birth, the Herodian dynasty ruled according to the whims of Rome and flagrantly disregarded Torah mandates that interfered with their political ambitions. Still Herod Antipas could hear the ring of truth and the clarity of John’s call to repentance in the Baptist’s words. John the Baptist’s words flew in the face of ...

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