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 2851 to 2875 of 4959 results

2851. Emptying and Exalting (Part XI)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... of Lucifer (Isa. 14:12-15) and Adam (Gen. 3:1-7). Many Bible students believe that the fall of Lucifer is a description of the fall of Satan. He once was the highest of the angelic beings, close to the throne of God (Ezek. 28:11-19), but he desired to be on the throne of God! Lucifer said, `I will!'' but Jesus said, `Thy will.'' Lucifer was not satisfied to be a creature; he wanted to be the Creator! Jesus was the Creator, yet He willingly became man. Christ''s humility is a rebuke to Satan''s pride." (3 ...

2852. A Faith that Works with a Victorious Attitude

Philippians 2:12-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... very one who gives us our foundation for joy? Remember, the joy of the Lord is our strength. I hope these insights will help you to understand the thrust of what Paul is sharing in our text today. Let us continue. FIRST, LET OUR GROWTH BE A DESIRE TO REFLECT OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST AND NOT A LEGALISTIC REQUIREMENT TO MEASURE UP TO OR COMPETE WITH SOMEONE ELSE. I know there are some in this sanctuary today who may be discouraged by how unloving, how impatient, how selfish, or how uneducated they are com-pared ...

2853. The Importance of the Second Violin

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... ''s grace in its various forms. If anyone serves, he or she should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised.''" After the initial diagnosis, Dr. McQuilkin wrote, "We trusted the Lord to work a miracle in Muriel if He so desired, or to work a miracle in me if He did not." It appears the second miracle has occurred. Dr. Robertson McQuilkin was not committed up to a certain point--he was committed to the way of the CROSS. He wasn't committed to his dear wife only when it ...

2854. The Powerful Fragrance of Sharing and Caring

Philippians 4:10-20

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... WHO RAISED JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD. THIS WAS RESURRECTION POWER. THIS WAS THE REAL POWER. As we place our faith and trust in God, confidence and blessed assurance will develop in us--that God wants to build us to be the men and women of faith he desires us to be. Our thoughts and attitudes are now conditioned by the power of faith rather than fear. Our minds are now set on the spirit rather than the flesh, which results in spirit living rather then dead living. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale tells when he was ...

2855. The Temptation to Talk Transformation

James 2:14-26

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... enough faulty ones! Bishop Arthur J. Moore tells of a young man who was converted in a revival meeting in the South. Soon thereafter, he left for a period of three months to work in a lumber camp, whose moral reputation left much to be desired. His home church offered prayers regularly for his spiritual safety in that environment. On his return, they inquired as to how he had been treated in that rough situation. The newly made Christian replied that he had gotten along fine; they treated him well. "They ...

2856. The Taming of the Tongue

James 3:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... those poor little fish?" Without even looking up the fisherman replied, "Fellas, if those fish had kept their mouths shut, they wouldn't have been caught!" Are we opening our mouths for the right reasons? Do our words reflect the Spirit''s leading or our own desires? Once upon a time, a preacher visited a rural church as the guest speaker. This man had a reputation as a great orator, and he lived up to his reputation. His voice was powerful, his gestures were perfect and his logic was persuasive. His sermon ...

2857. The Telling Trademarks of Truth

James 3:13-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... shares, "the Grace of God humbles a man without degrading him--and exalts him without inflating him." When we have this wisdom and perspective from God, we can live between these two concepts. Now, arrogance and boasting are wrong because they come from an earthly desire to make us look better than we are. Years ago, a famous London newspaper ran an essay contest titled, "What is Wrong with Man." The winning essay was short and simple. It said, "I am." Signed by G.K. Chesterton. This is the beginning of ...

2858. God's Timing or Our Timing -The Tension of Time

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... . Almost everyone here knows the reality of constantly trying to play catch up--and seldom getting ahead. This stress and pressure of everyday demands do seem to lead us down the road to nowhere. However, we know that God has a better plan than a road to nowhere. God desires us to run the good race in the paths of righteousness, onward to the finish line of life--not to run in circles. Someone has written: I have only just a minute. Only sixty seconds--in it. Didn''t seek it--didn''t choose it. But it''s up ...

2859. Depression: When the Spirit Is Faint

Psalm 142:1-7

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... a source of great comfort and most beneficial to get through this part of our pilgrimage. Please turn to Psalm 42. In Psalm 42, we see that God''s servant, David, is also going through a bout with depression in verses 1-4. 1. In verse one and two: he desires to feel the power and presence of God again. 2. He longs to be back at the Temple praising God with others in divine worship. (verse two) Worship is God''s way of giving Himself back to us. 3. He cannot get beyond his feelings of loneliness and despair ...

2860. Feasting and Fasting for Lent (Part III)

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... . He told his students to be honest--he wasn''t going to mail them back to their parents. It seemed essay after essay declared they were going to college to be able to purchase a BMW, a fancy condo, big salaries; in general they desired the easy life. The students said they wanted status and security. However, in that large freshman class there were only two papers that were different and reflected a different set of priorities and purpose for their education and eventual careers. These two students said ...

2861. Thanksgiving - The Biblical Version

1 Chronicles 16:7-43

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... hands washing friends'' feet. The Pharisees could only see peanut butter. This scripture lesson teaches us that Thanksgiving must focus on God and not on ourselves and our present circumstances. REAL THANKSGIVING PUTS GOD IN THE CENTER. Dr. Charles F. Stanley said, "God desires us to live with a spirit of thanksgiving in every circumstance. He tells us: `It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to His name, O Most High; To declare His loving kindness in the morning, and His faithfulness ...

2862. Mother's Day

Proverbs 1:1-7

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... that God knew this before any of us. God looked down at Adam in the garden and said: "It is not good for man to be alone." Let me bring you back to the three stories I began this sermon with today. May our children have a desire to reflect their mother and father both physically and spiritually like the children of Bob Stamps. May our children see a healthy, happy, hopeful Christ, full of encouragement in parenthood, even when they don''t see the way for themselves. May our children never see the selfish ...

2863. Biblical Insights for Being a Christian Father

Deuteronomy 1:1-8

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... is to pass on from generation to generation in a perpetual relay. This takes time, thought and effort. It does not happen by osmosis. If you don't teach your children about their sexuality, who will? Sex is not a contact sport but an expression of God's desire for intimacy. There is no easy, push-button method of teaching your children about God, nor is there any smooth, undisturbed section of time in which to do it. What God put in Deuteronomy 6 cannot be improved upon as to when we can do this - in the ...

2864. Thanksgiving: Where Are You Looking for It?

Psalm 103:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... having a personal, ongoing relationship with God in the person of Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Lord. However, my greatest reason for thanksgiving in every season is the fact that Almighty God, the one who is AWESOME and SOVEREIGN over the entire universe -- desires to have a personal relationship with me. He wants to set up residence in my heart. When he does, like the Pilgrim, like Max Lucado, like the dear woman in Nassau, we know we are safe when we are close to our Father. Look for thanksgiving ...

2865. Just Speak the Name

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... you placing your hands to the plow and not looking back for the kingdom? As your pastor, I am committed to the biblical principles of trying to represent, by the grace of God, the very best example and picture of Jesus Christ to our community. I want and desire our church to represent what we believe to be the very best of Christianity. Listen closely to the poet who wrote about an old bridge builder: An old man, going a lone highway, Came at the evening, cold and gray, to a chasm, vast and deep and wide ...

2866. The Noteworthy Witness of a Widow

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... the widow is that the most important ingredient in giving is what it does for the giver. Dr. Paul Tournier often would say, "People need to give gifts because they need to give themselves, and all their gifts are a sign of that deep-seated and universal desire to give oneself. To give is to commit oneself." I would agree with that. I would further add "to give of ourselves prevents us from spiritual and physical death." My good friend Dr. Thomas Lane Butts tells the story in a poem format of six people who ...

2867. Placard Faith, Complex World

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... with this text and its imagery, particularly when we are sensitive to the pluralistic world in which we live and want to be respectful of other religious traditions? First, we can note that there is an understandable appeal to reductionism, to the desire to make matters simple. When people live in a culture where chocolate is in one day and out the next, where a presidential contest ends in unsettling uncertainty and where technological change occurs at a radically accelerating rate, people hunger for that ...

2868. Too Good to Be True?

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... a companioned people. There is a world of difference between loneliness and solitude. When we feel lonely, it is as though we are in this big world all by ourselves, and no one else knows or cares about what we are experiencing. Solitude, by contrast, is the desire of the soul to commune with itself, knowing all the time that we are never utterly alone. We are companioned by the risen Christ, or as another once put it, "A solitude is the audience chamber of God." There was a Scotsman who found it difficult ...

2869. He Came by Night

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... understand how it happens or not. Each of us needs to be born anew, from above. There is in each of us a spiritual nature, a higher nature if you will, which is brought to life when we reach out beyond ourselves, beyond our own immediate passions and desires, beyond our self-serving, this-world point of view. When I again asked, "How does this happen?" the second thing Jesus did was to refer to an incident in the history of my people. Centuries ago, as the people of Israel were making their way from Egypt ...

2870. The Fox

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... troubling me, because I had had a person executed who did not deserve it. I told my soldiers that I wanted to see this Jesus, so I could decide for myself who he was, but he eluded me. Some reported back to me that when townspeople told him of my desire to see him, Jesus referred to me as a fox. I didn't get to see him at that time, but his presence kept my conscience in turmoil. Anybody who has to make unpleasant decisions had better be prepared for the same. The next lesson I would offer is: "Be ...

2871. Making Compassion a Verb

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... is good in everyone, said, "All people have a capacity for compassion. If people see a child about to fall into a well, they will, without exception, experience a feeling of alarm and distress. This is not because they know the child's parents, nor out of desire for praise ... nor out of dislike for the bad reputation that would ensue if they did not go to the rescue. From this we may conclude that without compassion one would not be a human being." Mencius was right to say that compassion is a component of ...

2872. The Hillside and the Basket

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... where the best Chinese restaurant in town is so we can go eat?" It is so easy to see and not see, to hear and not hear, to become so self-absorbed in what we want that we miss what others need. So many times I speak with ministers who desire a change, a larger church. It's just not "happening" where they are. They want to move. But, open your eyes! We each pass by more hurting people, more potential ministry in a single day than any one person could do in a lifetime! There on the hillside where you ...

2873. In the Hot Seat

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... -- the shape, nature, and scope -- of his reign. Mull that over slowly. It's important. It's also almost inconceivable. Jesus tried to simplify it when his disciples got bent out of shape because James and John had the Fastest Fingers among them. He addressed their desire to share his authority in ruling and judging nations and peoples. "Are you willing to share my cup of pain and baptism into death? That's fine, as far as it goes, but it has nothing to do with seating arrangements in the Kingdom. And if ...

2874. Hanging the Law on Love

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... and working for our redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God. That wasn't pleasant, easy, or convenient for our Lord. But do we doubt that he did it out of love? As I said earlier, loving God is deliberately praying and working for what God desires and for what God names good. That's the kind of love for his Father that Jesus himself constantly showed. Now, we are still fallible, sinful human beings. We may still get angry with God, and sometimes we won't feel any exalted emotional response ...

2875. Birthing the Kingdom

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... can't act. How astonishing -- and bracing! -- it is to hear Jesus tell us: This must happen. Do not be alarmed. These are birth pangs, not just death throes. Now we must be careful here, because the last thing we want to say is that God wills and desires bloodshed, mayhem, and disaster. God isn't a sadist. And yet if we look at the model of Jesus' own passion and death, don't we see Jesus' words acted out before us? Jesus said that he must be handed over; must be betrayed, mocked, and scourged; must suffer ...

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