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. Tangible Tests

John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... we could be showing Jesus’ hands and side out front and clearly visible. We could be passing the tangible Thomas test, “Unless we see the churches putting their hands and feet and effort and resources where their mouths are, we will not believe.” Do you want growth in numbers? Don’t be shy, subtle, or stingy. Give what Thomas got from Jesus: “See my hands — go ahead, touch them. See my side — you can touch that too.” Then say, “You see, all our efforts, all our priorities are shifting from ...

2902. Goin' Down the Road

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... the crying is disruptive. I don’t mind if a teenager comes in dressed in very little because that is the style this year, or is dressed in black from head to foot, or has nose rings, or has colored their hair red and blue. I want them to be here. And most importantly, I want us to be at the soccer fields where so many are, in the bars where so many are, at the school events where so many are, under the bridge with the homeless where so many are, or volunteering for the jail ministry whether to the inmates ...

2903. Let’s Really Know Jesus

John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... so many passages in this lectionary cycle, the disciples often get Jesus’ meaning wrong. Almost 2,000 years later we continue to get it wrong. For me, that poignant phrase, “if you have really known me” keeps lingering around the edges. I don’t want to linger anymore. As much as I want to be loved and liked, and would like to take this passage and talk about how God has prepared a place for us, the passage is not about a graduation to the mansion in the sky. It is about really knowing Jesus and ...

2904. Seeing Through the Eyes of Jesus

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... image of God, who were immensely precious in God’s sight. And he saw that they were hurting. And he had compassion on them—thousands of them. When we operate from a place of compassion, we see others as God sees them. And suddenly, we want to help. We want to heal. We’ll do whatever it takes because these people are valuable to God—and that makes them valuable to us. Seeing the world as Jesus sees the world inevitably leads to acts of compassion. Often, we have thoughts of compassion, but rarely do ...

2905. Baby Steps on the Sea of Galilee

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... . But he didn’t. He didn’t make it easy for Peter then, and he doesn’t make it easy for us now. There’s a reason for that. Faith requires trust and love requires sacrifice. Every great relationship is built on trust and love. And that’s what God wants with you—a relationship. God is doing God’s part. He came in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, to show us the quality of his life. Now it’s time for us to do our part. Every faith journey, no matter how rocky, begins with getting out ...

2906. OK Boomer

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing . . .” (I Cor. 13:2) A close reading of the Gospels will reveal that Jesus intended his followers to get into action serving the world as he served the world. I don’t mean that He wanted us to keep busy just for the sake of keeping busy. I have seen churches like that. They have a terrific calendar of activities, but very few of those activities are meaningful in bringing persons closer to the kingdom of God. Jesus did not mean for us to ...

2907. Not Such a Difficult Question

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

King Duncan

... man. He laid out all sorts of arguments against the existence of God, against the divinity of Jesus. The young man was in over his head. He couldn’t answer the arguments. He felt ashamed for failing at his mission. But before he left, he said simply, “I just want you to know that I came here because I love you.” The young man went home feeling like a failure. He shut himself up in his room. A few hours later, the brilliant attorney came knocking on his door. The young man’s wife tried to turn the ...

2908. The Gospel We Preach

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... , which was a large sum of money, more than fifteen years’ wages for a laborer. But he was afraid of losing it, so rather than investing it as did the other two slaves in the story, he took it out and buried it in the yard. Then, when the master wanted his money back, the man returned it and said, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed, so I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here take what is ...

2909. Suffering Leads to Victory

1 Peter 3:18-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... the village; everyone had an excuse to keep what he or she valued most. Among the few children who had not died from hunger was a little girl named She-Who-Sits-Alone. In her tepee she said to herself. “O Great Spirit, it is my warrior doll that you want. It is the only possession I have left of my parents. The doll had a belt made of bone and beaded leggings. On its head were blue feathers matching the sky. She knew what she had to do. Later that night when everyone was asleep, She-Who-Sits-Alone crawled ...

2910. Choices

Philippians 1:12-14, 19-24

Sermon

Will Willimon

... howl at the injustice, the unfairness, distort the face into a frown, offer unsolicited cynical comments about life, turn the voice into a whine. Oh, I wanted to but you see my father never let me… I could have, if my wife had let me, but she just forbid me to… The ... 's room with solemn faces Even in the pain Grady something to celebrate, something to elicit raucous laughter even when we wanted to cry. And you could hear the Enemy, pacing the floor outside. Waiting for the people in white coats to be done ...

2911. Imagine

Revelation 21:10, 22-26

Sermon

Will Willimon

... future. "I can will what is right," says Paul, ''but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (Rom. 7:29). When will we preachers get through our little brains that one's ability to act differently ... , if that's all, there is." The world according to Peggy Lee. But it's alright with your preacher if you, want to dream a wild dream, a wild unmanaged, maladjusted, uncompromised dream of full stomachs, safe streets, loved children, peaceful Beirut. Imagine. St ...

2912. Fever Pitch

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... world locked in a kind of long-term “fight and flight” response, immersed in a perpetual level of stress that we in our generation have never before experienced. And it’s taking its toll on our psyches and our bodies. We are tired. We are burnt out. We want a break from the relentless “fever pitch” we seem to be on. How many of you now watch the news each and every day, obsessively looking for hope in the latest headlines? How many of you try to escape the realities of virus and loneliness in the ...

2913. Returning

Isaiah 40:1-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... how about you? I asked. Would you also like a Sunday School class for parents? Us? Little Janie needs Jesus, Brownies, ballet. Of course, we might be willing, from time to time, to attend some church class. But mainly, we're here for Little Janie. I wanted to say, Forget it. This is no free baby-sitting service here. Don't do church a big favor with Little Janie. Then a friend of mine, psychiatrist, when I told him about this aggravation, said, "Well, as a psychiatrist, I'm always skeptical of the reasons ...

2914. Heaven

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Will Willimon

... he was astounded to discover that we are not. He was astounded not only that there was a God, but this God was out looking for him, desired him even more than Augustine desired God. It changed his life. You could think of the whole Bible that way, if you wanted, as a love story, an account of God's yearning for us, God's determination to have a family. Each of us has one pressing question which persists throughout our lives: Do you love me? We ask it first of parents, but we know them to be stand-ins for ...

2915. Bringing Life to a Party

Luke 24:36b-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... with his holy blood and made us perfect in God’s sight. He paid for our sins to set us free from the power of death. It’s like a judge a few years ago in Fairfax County, Virginia who heard a landlord-tenant dispute for a landlord who wanted to evict a deaf couple who couldn’t afford to pay their back rent. Judge Donald McDonough was accustomed to dealing with more than 100 landlord-tenant disputes on an average Friday, so this wasn’t the first time he was called upon to pass judgment on a situation ...

2916. When Storms Hit Home

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... storm in our lives. Not just a stressful event. But an event or a season of life that is so devastating that we don’t have the strength to face it on our own. And where is Jesus? Jesus seems asleep in the stern of our boats and we want to ask, “Do you not care that we perish?” You see, everybody goes through storms at some time or another. Our storm may be a problem marriage. The American Institute of Stress has a tool called the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory that ranks certain life events in terms of ...

2917. Clean Hands

Psalm 26:1-12

Sermon

Will Willimon

... a roommate. Here is someone whom your mother might pick for your roommate, but even your mother wouldn't want to live next door to the person who wrote Psalm 26. Hell would be an entire Saturday night in ... . It is the prayer of the one for whom things have worked out right. I wanted to be captain of the team and I worked for it, and I got it. I wanted to get into Duke and I studied, and I got it. I wanted her for my wife, and I got her. I wanted the job. I showed them my Duke transcript, and I got it. It is a ...

2918. Giving Our Best

Mark 7:24-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the year he was the number one student. (6) That’s what I mean by a radical commitment. A passion burned within Sir Walter Raleigh to give his very best. Now, let’s think about our commitment to Christ. You and I are not saved by our works, I want to make that clear. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Still I wonder if we will not someday stand before the throne of God and be asked that most terrifying of all questions, “Did you do your best?” I realize that we are only human. We are not ...

2919. Harmless Hospitality

Luke 10:38-42 · 2 Kings 4:8-17

Sermon

Will Willimon

... a room called "The Prophet's Chamber" which was set aside for traveling Methodist preachers. This is where the term came from--the room which the Shunamite woman set aside for Elisha. Elisha loved the room as much as he loved her cooking. So he says to her, "I want to repay you for your hospitality. Name whatever you need, it's yours." Well, I told you she was rich. She tells Elisha thanks, but she's well fixed and doesn't need a thing. "What on earth can I give an old woman who's got everything?" Elisha ...

2920. The Good

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of the virtue of humility. As Robert Capon says, it's not a parable about the virtue of humility but a story about religious futility. It is not exhortation to adopt a humble religious stance rather than a proud one; it is a warning to drop all religious stances. I want you to give this Pharisee here all the credit you can. I know the Pharisees get a bad press in the Gospels but forget any bad thing you may have heard about Pharisees; this one is a great guy. He has never cheated on the church or his wife ...

2921. Abiding by the Word

John 6:51-58

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the message of truth for our time, we can walk with Jesus in living color in order to truly hear what he has to say to us in and here and now. We can allow his words to resonate with our current lives and our current situations. If we truly want to abide with the Word of God, the Son of the Eternal, we need first to abide by the mystery and beauty of His language, our only means to describe the indescribable and to imagine the unimaginable. Imperfect? Of course. Factual? Not meant to be. But Truth? You bet ...

2922. Holding On

Job 1:1; Job 2:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... her that she was Supergirl, telling her that she was smart, telling her to run fast in P.E. class. But to little Rosie, every single note added up to one big message: no matter how far away her father seemed to be, his heart was there with her. He wanted to be sure she knew he loved her. Staff Sgt. Philip Gray returned home in August 2020—just three days before Rosie’s eighth birthday, so he could tell her he loved her in person. (4) The greatest need that we have is to love and to be loved. In ...

2923. An Unbreakable Christmas

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... would have a new appreciation for how much we really have. Yet deep in our souls many of us are tortured by the demon of discontent. Bishop Kenneth Shamblin tells a story many parents can relate to. When Shamblin’s son, Ken Jr., was five-years old he wanted a red toy truck for Christmas. He talked about red toy trucks. He prayed for a red toy truck. He pointed out pictures of red toy trucks in catalogs. His letter to Santa was focused on only one item: a red toy truck. When Christmas morning arrived, Ken ...

2924. Beneath The Shadow Of The Cross

Mark 14:1--15:47

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Lord, not just my feet but also my hands and my head!" When Jesus was finished and described what he had done for them, he started talking about death and betrayal. He said one of the twelve, one of the chosen, one of his friends would betray him. They all wanted to know who. Jesus paused in the middle of the meal, looked right at Judas and handed him a piece of bread with which he had sopped the gravy, a portion usually reserved for the guest of honor. Judas nearly choked. He looked as if he'd seen a ghost ...

2925. Faith and Freedom

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... You can hear the anguish in his voice. I remember when our oldest son, Paul was seven. He had received an Evel Kneivel bicycle with all the trimmings, including a speedometer, for his birthday. The parsonage was at the top of a hill on a gravel road. Paul decided he wanted to see how fast he could go on that bicycle. He was paying more attention to the speedometer than he was to where he was going and he hit a deep chuck hole and wrecked. Two young women saw the wreck. One of them came to the door and told ...

Showing results