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 2901 to 2925 of 5000 results

2901. The Season Of The Holy Spirit

Mark 10:46-52

Bulletin Aid

Wayne H. Keller

... In the name of the living Christ who gives sight and insight, welcome. Please close your eyes, those who choose. For centuries, God has revealed the Good News to the world. For how many years has God been revealing the Good News to you? (Pause.) For how long did we hear the Good News before we saw the Good News, identified in others, integrated within ourselves? (Pause.) Would anyone care to share how that happened? (You may want to ask two or three well before worship to share at this time.) Whatever we do ...

2902. The Season Of The Holy Spirit

Mark 13:1-31

Bulletin Aid

Wayne H. Keller

... Bible carefully. We also need to hear the words of Jesus about the end. He did not know; only God knows. None of us knows when our end will come. Maybe some of your friends and relatives have died, long before you thought they would. The Boy Scouts have a motto, "Be prepared." Jesus taught us that long before the Boy Scouts existed. Conclude with a prayer that recognizes our fears; and that God creates the church and families where we can talk about our fears, and give love and support to each other as we ...

2903. Advent 4

Luke 1:26-38, Romans 16:1-27, 2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon Aid

E. Carver McGriff

... , then express my own belief? I honor the story of Mary's virginity and understand its importance to our tradition. But I can't believe the story quite as written. There are several reasons. First, the idea of sex as being somehow sinful is outmoded and as long as it is experienced honorably and lovingly, it seems to me to be one of God's finest creations. Second, there is no mention of this tradition in Mark's Gospel, which is generally regarded as an expression of Peter's preaching. Nor is it mentioned in ...

2904. Sometimes It's Simple

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

... can see for themselves, and decide. We rarely give advice, and would rather take a beating than be caught telling anyone what they ought to do. But not John. Now and then I shock myself. Someone comes to me with a problem, and after listening for a long time to what they have to say, I find myself blurting out, "You must stop doing that!" Heavens! I may lose my counselor's license. I may have just violated the Rogerian categorical imperative. I've told someone, without shading it a bit, to cease and desist ...

2905. Mary Ponders

Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

... . Mary knew that someday she and Joseph would be parents, but their marriage had to wait until Joseph was able to provide for a family. But God doesn't operate by our calendars. If everything Mary knew said, "later," God had said, "now," and not long thereafter she had experienced in her body the change which heralded, "child on the way." Who could she even tell? Only Joseph, and he had thought about putting her away quietly, so that they might be shielded from scandal and embarrassment. Women have a way ...

2906. For All The Saints

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

... take another look at our foundations. We can never go back to old theologies and outworn sectarianisms. But we might well go back to the One who antedates old theologies and outworn sectarianisms, and who long ago, having to face a cross, sought help in the wisdom of those who had walked the road long before. Perhaps our casual unconcern belies the kind of world we are living in -- a world where Christs are crucified, and Christians are forced to make decisions which are matters of life and death, whether ...

2907. Moving At The Speed Of Light: On The Mountain

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

... appearances only partially prepared. Raising a child, attaining an advanced degree, building a business, facing a long and serious illness or recovering from a devastating accident, facing and recovering from marital difficulty or ... Christ's church, and it is a part of life for each one of us. A seminarian in his thirties has been called to County Hospital. Not long for this world is Blanche, age 57. The chaplain on duty indicates that he doesn't think she has family, but somewhere hospital records show a ...

2908. Hoofs, Paws, And Christmas Pause

Titus 2:1-15

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

... clearly every object by the light of the lamp above his head. And yet there was a presence and he sensed it. "He could not tell how he perceived the presence; only that it stood under the Christmas tree; that it wore neither butterfly wings nor wings long and sweeping. It was simply Elizabeth as he had been accustomed to see her, and so natural seemed the circumstance of her appearance that it caused no feeling of any unusual occurrence."2 And then it went away and Sidney St. John replaced on the wall the ...

2909. The Prophetic Word-- And The Living Word

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

2910. Desires Bring Hope

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

John G. Lynch

... even go to the rich man's table where he could get something to eat. His friends had to bring him there. He was afraid to go by himself. The poor man did have one thing going for him, however. The poor man had desires. Great desires. The same longings and desires the prodigal son felt. When he watched the swine he was feeding stuff themselves with corn husks, he desired to feed on them as well. This the poor man desired -- to feed on the bread that fell from the rich man's table. Then something happened to ...

2911. The Unveiled Truth

Exodus 34:29-35

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... . God condescends to come to us, to put the mighty creative Word into human speech, to enter into the silence of our lives with words of judgment and forgiveness, of promise and hope. The coming of this divine word in human form has its culmination in the incarnation. "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but these last days he has spoken to us by a Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). The sense of the last days, of the change which comes with the incarnate word, is suggested in ...

2912. Hard Questions!

1 Kings 17:7-24

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... . I have a minister friend who has had some extraordinarily traumatic and impossibly difficult times in his life. And yet, with beautiful simplicity and faith and obedience he says, "If God never answers another prayer for me, I'll serve and love and trust him anyway!" He has long since learned that it pays to count on God. No wonder Job was able to say, at last, "Though God slay me, yet will I trust him!" God's only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, would come many years later, to do the will of the Father. But ...

2913. You Can Be Beautiful

Hosea 14:1-9

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... and flourish as a garden." In the midst of squalor, he found the promise of beauty -- beauty that comes from the inside where God and people get together. We all remember in 1993 when Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat joined hands and hopes that a region too long at war might at last find peace. Admittedly Prime Minister Rabin is not exactly a Tom Cruise look-alike. And Mr. Arafat? He looks strangely like Mel Blanc with a dish towel on his head. There is no inherent physical loveliness in either of those men ...

2914. You Can Be Eternal

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... up how secure I would feel at night, dropping off to sleep watching a shaft of light beneath my bedroom door. It came from the living room where my father sat up reading The Tarbell Teacher's Guide and preparing his Sunday morning church school lesson. I knew as long as he was in the house, I was safe. For many, that is a heavenly image. For others, heaven will mean happiness, for that is what "home" meant to them. For many of us heaven means laughter. As a child, we often had more of that than anything ...

2915. You Can Be Happy

1 Chronicles 13:1-14

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... what I did; but instead you loved me and forgave me and put up with me. And there were so many things I wanted to make up to you when you returned from Vietnam; but you didn't. What a terrible and tragic lesson to learn -- that we waited too long to say or do whatever needed to be said or done. Paul said that real love remembers to "keep the main thing the main thing." Ultimately that is how happiness comes, by making certain that love is never misplaced on our list of priorities and that we never wait too ...

2916. You Can Be In Heaven Or Hell

Psalm 139:1-24

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... time you heard a tiny voice say "mama" or "dada," you suddenly understood "Paradise." In that moment God was real and you sensed something so wonderful and beautiful that earth could not have authored it. You were in heaven. Two of my dearest friends longed and planned for a baby. At last their prayers appeared to find an answer, and she became pregnant. For nine months all went well. A C-section was planned for Monday. On Sunday the baby quit moving. Delivery revealed that the umbilical chord had wrapped ...

2917. The Right Child

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... gift to each other on Christmas he sells his watch to buy her a gold hair piece for her lovely, long hair, and she sells her hair to buy him a chain for his gold watch. One of the highlights of the musical is the song he sings to her when he arrives ... home and finds her missing her long locks of hair. He sings "Your hair is gone." You simply have to hear it and see it to appreciate it, but the song consists of ...

2918. Baptism of Our Lord

Luke 3:21-38, Luke 3:1-20, Isaiah 43:1-13, Isaiah 42:1-9, Acts 8:9-25, Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... the Christ. Why was he not good enough or powerful enough to bring the Spirit to the Samaritans? Peter and John, top apostles, were sent to do the job. Is this the beginning of "apostolic succession"? 2. Samaria (v. 14). It did not take long for the Gospel to spread in strange places. Recall how despised the Samaritans were to the Jews. Remember how Jesus was criticized for his benevolent attitude to Samaritans. The Gospel is for all, even the depressed, deprived,and despised people. God shows no partiality ...

2919. Lent 4

Luke 15:11-32, 2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2, Isaiah 12:1-6, Joshua 5:1-12, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... these same impediments removed to have an abundant life. Outline: In his grace God rolls away a. The rock of reproach for sin Joshua 5:9. b. The rock of death for life Luke 24:2. 2. At last, you have arrived! (5:8-12). Need: For 40 long, tortuous years over a half million refugees wandered in a wilderness. Under new leadership, the Israelites cross the Jordan into the Promised Land of prosperity and peace. God fulfilled his promise to bring his people out of slavery in a foreign land to a land of their own ...

2920. Christmas Eve

Lk 2:1-20 · Tit 2:11-14 · Isa 9:2-7 · Ps 96

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... is the happiness that withers with the Christmas tree which is discarded soon after Christmas day. Joy is different from happiness. It is deeper because it is based on good news: a Savior is born to save us from our sins. It is a joy that remains long after the Christmas celebration is over. For this reason people who are unhappy at Christmas because of unfortunate circumstances can still have a great Christmas of joy. 4. Peace (v. 14). The Prince of Peace is born and the angels sing of peace on earth. In ...

2921. Proper 15

Luke 12:54-59, Hebrews 12:1-13, Luke 12:49-53, Isaiah 5:1-7, Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... --12:2 Surrounded by past faithful ones, we are to run the race of faith with Jesus as our model. On the basis of a long list of people of faith in chapter 11, the author of Hebrews calls upon us to run the race of faith. The faithful of the ... . Winning the race of faith. 12:1-2 Need: For the Christian, life is a matter of living by faith. In Hebrews 11, we were given a long list of people of faith. "Therefore" of our text refers to the faithful of Hebrews 11. On the basis of others' faith and in the light of ...

2922. Proper 21

1 Timothy 6:11-21, Jeremiah 32:1-44, Luke 16:19-31

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... would be bought. After a holocaust better times would come. The need for this sermon is to assure people experiencing the worst that God will bring better times. Outline: Hope when there is no hope 32:15 a. Our future is in God's hands. b. Evil cannot long endure. c. God's word promises better times. Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:6-19 1. Did you know you were ordained? (6:11-14). Need: Few church members know that they were ordained as Christians at their baptism. Lesson 2 refers to Timothy's ordination at baptism ...

2923. Christmas 1

Hebrews 2:5-18, Colossians 3:1-17, 1 Samuel 2:12-26, Luke 2:41-52

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... stand before God clothed with the perfect robe of righteousness given to us by Christ. 3. Continued (v. 26). Samuel "continued" to grow physically, spiritually, and socially. Jesus went one step further in his growth mentally. For how long does one need to grow? Each needs a continual growth as long as we live. When we stop growing, we begin to ripen, rot, and die. One never reaches the point of perfection. The Christian keeps growing in faith, grace, and godly living until death. Epistle: Colossians 3:12 ...

2924. A Dwelling Place

Psalm 23:1-6

Eulogy

Barbara G. Schmitz

... not for what is temporary, but for what is eternal? Those who believe and follow our Lord Jesus Christ, at their death, will rejoice to say with the author of Psalm 84: How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, to me!My thirsty soul desires and longs within thy courts to be;my very heart and flesh cry out; O Living God, for thee! Beside thine altars, gracious Lord, the swallows find a nest;how happy they who dwell with thee and praise thee without rest,and happy they whose hearts are set upon the ...

2925. Welcome To The Banquet

Isaiah 25:1-12

Eulogy

Barbara G. Schmitz

... toward one another. There is an old story about a fellow who visited a town. There was a large pot of stew, large enough to feed everyone in town, and the smell was delicious, but around the pot sat desperate, starving people. They all had spoons with very long handles which reached into the pot, but because the spoons were longer than their arms they couldn't get the stew into their mouths. So they went hungry. Then the man visited another town, just like the first one, again with a pot of stew big enough ...

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