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 2801 to 2825 of 5000 results

2801. Going For the Gold

Philippians 3:4-14

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more" (Philippians 3:4 RSV), he modestly says. "A Hebrew born of Hebrews ..." (Philippians 3:5 RSV). He cared about his faith, he knew what was involved with being a good Jew through years and years of study and wanted to be the best Jew that any Jew could possibly be. Religion mattered to him. Good for him! One wonders how much religion matters to us these days. The numbers paint a rather poor picture. Almost 70% of American adults have their names on the rolls of ...

2802. Dinner With Jesus

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... none! I have to admit that I probably went into this tax-collecting business for more than just the money. In a way, I probably wanted to get back at some of my wonderful neighbors, the ones who taunted me and bullied me when I was growing up. If I ... something actually good and without even being forced. Jesus didn't make me do what I did. But somehow, just eating with him made me want to do right. That's when he said what he did ... about seeking and saving the lost. I was lost ... lost in my own interests ...

2803. Rich Man, Poor Man

James 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... treat ALL persons with love and respect, and to be servant to all. This is how we best show our love for Christ. Pastor Alex Steveson tells an intriguing story that brings this point home: Once upon a time there was a squire who longed to be a knight. He wanted to serve his king and be the most honorable and noble knight who ever lived. At his knighting he was so overcome by dedication that he made a special oath. He vowed to bow his knees and lift his arms in homage to his king and his king alone. This ...

2804. Did You Come Here to Die?

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... Peter in the eye and said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Then Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” This passage ought to make us a bit uncomfortable. Jesus came to die to die for us. That ...

2805. Proper 4

1 Kings 18:20-21 (22-29) 30-39, Psalm 96:1-13, Luke 7:1-10, Galatians 1:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... ! The Old Testament poet invites us to sing to God — a new song! With the sky overhead and the earth suspended mysteriously in its place among the planets, it is easy for us to be awed and to sing and dance our praise. People: We certainly do not want to bore God with repetitious songs or old dances. Leader: Let’s try some new songs, some new words, and some new rituals. People: Hmm, we’re not sure we are comfortable enough to do that. Leader: How are you willing to stretch your faith and to honor ...

2806. Proper 14

Psalm 33:12-22, Isaiah 1:1, 10-20, Luke 12:32-40, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... God’s hand, The sea’s dark deep and far-off land. And I am yours! I rest in you. Great Spirit, come, and rest in me. Prayer Of Thanksgiving Investing God — we thank you for making your home, your investment in us and in the Universe. We want to be loyal in the use of our riches — money, time, and talent. Multiply what we have to share so that others may have what they need to be well nourished. Amen. Intercessory Prayers Creating Spirit — summer is here with its heat and harvests. We’re aware of ...

2807. Proper 16

Psalm 71:1-6, Isaiah 58:9b-14, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Luke 13:10-17, Hebrews 12:18-29

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... ends of earth are in God’s hand, The sea’s dark deep and far-off land. And I am yours! I rest in you. Great Spirit, come, and rest in me. Prayer Of Thanksgiving Holy One — we are grateful for money to make our way in the world. We want to use it to make clean water and good foods available to all people. Thank you for the moral and ethical courage to stand straight and to follow the teachings of Jesus. And when we forget, help us to encourage each other. Amen. Intercessory Prayers God of Body and Mind ...

2808. Proper 18

Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, Jeremiah 18:1-11, Luke 14:25-35, Philemon 1-21

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... staying with us wherever we go! In light and in darkness, we feel your watchfulness. During this hour, we diligently listen for your voice and intently pay attention to our inward responses. Amen. Call To Confession Our human inclination is to do what we want when we want for the purpose we want. Then we tend to hide from the truth if it is not to our liking. The psalmist indicates that we cannot hide from Holy Mystery. For the next few moments, we invite the Spirit to examine us and reveal to each of us ...

2809. No More Tears

John 11:17-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... the story. A man named Lazarus was sick. He was the brother of Mary and Martha. They lived in the village of Bethany. They were friends of Jesus. So when these two sisters realized that Lazarus was near death, they sent word to the Master. They wanted him to intervene, to save their brother. For some reason, Jesus and his disciples did not immediately heed their summons. They stayed two more days where they were and then they returned to Judea, which was a two-day journey. This is important. We are told ...

2810. Don’t Compromise Your Beliefs

Galatians 1:1-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... the challenges and problems of daily life, but the Christian life, while not always easy, has the answers we seek. G. K. Chesterton had it right in 1910 when he opined of society's "less than positive attitude": "The Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." Let us continue on the road we have chosen, the one that leads to Christ. May we never compromise who we are or what we believe. If we can stand strong, then when Christ calls us we will hear ...

2811. Enemies of the Cross

Philippians 3:17 - 4:1

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... word. It is an invitation to a party where we will receive a gift and enjoy a blessing. This is no burden. This is no demand we have to meet or else. On the contrary, this is a get to, a privilege, an honor, a blessing that we will surely want to make our own. When we do, we discover that we get to live our lives differently. Paul uses an interesting image to portray that here. He reminds us that even though we live in this world, "our citizenship is in heaven." When our life has been changed by the ...

2812. All in God’s Time

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... families keeping vigil at the deathbed of their loved ones, the poor who are longing to flee from their ghetto of deprivation, the widows and widowers and divorced who are still trying to fill the emptiness in their lives ... all who find it so difficult to wait. We want God to act now! And when he doesn't, we often find it necessary to take matters into our own hands. We get angry. We abuse our children, our spouse, our neighbor. We lose our tempers. We become violent. Or worse yet, we give up ... as all ...

2813. Restarting Joy - Rejoice

Isaiah 55:10-13

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... in the heart of a human being, and put the desire in that heart so deeply, that he or she will truly be hungry and thirsty for 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; they will see the sparkle in my eyes; they will feel the sunrise in my life; they will hear me ...

2814. Heisman In The Hudson

Isaiah 43:16-21

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... man, "but I'm going to do even more and even better next year." It is an unimaginable scene. It is the job applicant, who tears up the resume that everyone fawns over, saying, "You ain't seen nothing yet." It is the much-recruited high school senior, who wants to disown his sterling GPA and board scores, confident that his achievements in college will eclipse them. And it is the God of Israel, who says, "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing" (vv. 18 ...

2815. Can you Hear “The Voice?”

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -agitated. Somehow he is getting food. Somewhere he is offered shelter. But his identity has shrunk to “the man on the mat.” He is no longer a son, or a father, or a husband, or a pious man. His identity is that of an invalid. Does he, truly, want to be “healed” of that long-held self-identity? We all have “voices” in our heads that tell us good things and accuse us of bad things. We all have voices in our heads that encourage us to greatness or implode us to destruction. In this week’s gospel ...

2816. Two Sinners

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... about this family by walking over to the television set and drawing his finger across the top of that set and displaying to all in the home the layer of dust that was on his finger. Then he shook his head somberly in disapproval. The young pastor wanted to sink through the floor. All the good intentions he had for showing the grace of Jesus Christ was completely undone by his ungracious layman. We need to understand that there were two sinners at Simon’s table that night, one a prostitute and the other a ...

2817. The Narrow Door

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... his or her best to attaining that goal. A few years ago Karen Phelps, a distance runner, wrote these challenging words, “On this particular day, I didn’t feel like running at all, but I made myself because running is a sport you have to practice every day. I wanted to win races, so I had a set plan for training. Run daily, even if you don’t feel like it. Run daily, even if you sometimes have to skip fun and pleasure. Run daily, even in bad weather even if people think you’re weird. Run daily, even ...

2818. A Faith that Leaves a Legacy

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

King Duncan

... reason he had just passed the banner of the gospel over to Timothy the reason he had just given Timothy the awesome charge of preaching the Word of God to a lost and dying world. Note how Paul encourages Timothy even in discussing his own coming death. He wants Timothy to look ahead to the end of his own life and to be able to bear the same testimony. Paul begins by expressing his view of death. “For I am . . . being poured out like a drink offering,” he writes, “and the time for my departure is near ...

2819. A Faith that Will Transform You

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... the lost.” It makes no difference if your home is a mansion or a rescue mission if your skin is black, brown, yellow or white. It doesn’t even matter if you are a saint or a sinner, if your heart is empty, and you will let him, Jesus wants to come in and make his home there. Years ago, a broken, unkempt homeless man found his way into one of our country’s greatest churches Marble Collegiate Church, Fifth Avenue at Twenty-ninth Street, New York City. This great church would later be made famous by the ...

2820. Jesus Tempted In Us

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... Costilla. I’m intrigued by this painting. Hidalgo was leader in the Mexican war for independence from Spain; but, by the time people wanted a portrait of him, he was dead. Half a century later Joaquin Ramirez painted a picture of him but used his own brother’ ... showing up, instead, as our true brother, trying to free us to live for God. Jesus isn’t always what we expect or what we want, but Jesus our true brother brings God to us and us to God. We see in this morning’s text how Jesus is our true ...

2821. Dancing for Joy (Thanksgiving)

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... from Joshua. In an attempt to keep up his son’s spirits, Guido convinces him that the camp is just a game, in which the first person to get 1,000 points wins a tank. He tells him that if he cries, he loses points. If he complains that he wants his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points. Quiet boys, he tells him, who hide from the camp guards earn points. First one to 1,000 wins. Under the most tragic circumstances, Guido brings joy into his son’s life by turning their awful circumstances ...

2822. Be Reconciled With God

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... what’ll happen in the future. Why don’t we make arrangements about when . . . you know . . . when . . . you pass on?” The mother didn’t say anything. She just sat there staring ahead. “I mean, Mom,” he continued, “like . . . how do you want to finally go? Do you want to be buried? Cremated?” There was yet another long pause. Then the mother looked up and said, “Son, why don’t you surprise me?” Death is a difficult subject. We would prefer to disguise it, ignore it, pretend it doesn’t ...

2823. Will this Be on the Test?

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Tony Everett

... live. Second, God gave them the freedom to wander around and to share in the garden’s abundance. Third, God gave Adam and Eve the gift of each other… the gift of human relationship. Fourth, God gave them a specific and very limited command of obedience; eat anything you want here, but if you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will die. And, God’s fifth and final gift to Adam and Eve in our text is a gift of vocation that brings meaning and purpose to life… caring for God’s garden ...

2824. Ignite: Set On Fire!

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... (Acts 2:11, ESV) In other words, everybody was witnessing. The only explanation for it is that everyone was using the might of God. They were simply letting the power of the Holy Spirit speak through them. There are 6,909 languages that exist in the world today. God wants Jesus Christ to be proclaimed in every one of the them. This is the promise of Pentecost. If you are in Christ, then the Spirit is in you and Jesus will come out of you. In other words, when the spark of the Holy Spirit meets the kindling ...

2825. Do You Believe In Miracles?

Matthew 15:29-39

Sermon

James Merritt

... Why?” he told the doctor that his daughter had been prayed for and anointed and he was believing God for a miracle and he wanted one more CAT scan done before surgery was performed. The doctor did everything he could to talk him out of it. They had already ... and it is not His physical miracles, or His natural miracles, or even His supernatural miracles. It is His spiritual miracles. I want to show you something that I had never really noticed before until God showed me this as I prepared this message. When ...

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