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 2926 to 2950 of 5000 results

2926. For the Love of God Is . . .

1 John 5:3-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Mister, would you mind driving in front of my house?" The young man smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride in a big automobile. But he was wrong again. "Will you stop right where those ... and told the salesman that she would rely on the free service covered under the warranty. The salesman said, "Look lady, if you want something for free, you gotta pay for it." Generally speaking, that's very true, sad but true. But in relation to God that ...

2927. Devour And Conquer

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... especially vulnerable population. In that society they did not work outside the home, so they depended upon financial support from a male relative — a spouse, a child, or another relative. Why did she give? Was it out of a sense of obligation or because she wanted to give, and wanted to be part of something larger than herself? The average life span at that time was 25-35 years, but that did not signify how long a person lived. Many died much younger. Disease took many at a very young age. Women could be ...

2928. Going Into Labor

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... was quickly apparent that its path regularly intersected the orbit of the earth. There was only a tiny chance it might actually hit our planet. And if it did, it was large enough to do some real damage. Even when that tiny chance turned out to be zero, scientists wanted to keep an eye on it, because in going by the earth its orbit might be changed just a smidge, increasing the odds it would hit us on its next pass. There was a lot of anticipation when it passed within 17, 200 miles of the earth on February ...

2929. Understanding What God Expects of Us

Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)

Sermon

King Duncan

... Cymbala asked him about his life, he also reached for the money clip he keeps in his back pocket. He was ready to hand over some money and send David on his way. But when David saw the money, he stopped Pastor Cymbala. He said, “I don’t want your money. I want this Jesus . . . the One you were talking about, because I’m not going to make it. I’m going to die on the street.” Pastor Cymbala was so struck by David’s words that he began to weep. He realized that, instead of ministering to David as ...

2930. A Caring Woman

Acts 9:36-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... job in the world, and this world would be in a horrible shape without their love and sacrifice and perseverance. Of course it is not easy to be a Mom. In a TikTok video, a woman named Nicole DeRoy explains one of the challenges of motherhood. She says, “My kids wanted to know what it was like being a mom, so I woke them up at 2:00 a.m. to let them know my sock came off.” Another mom on Twitter wrote, “Parenting is 70% me yelling, 20% asking the kids why they’re yelling, & 10% trying to find where ...

2931. Radical Love is Godly (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 3:21-23 · 1 John 4:7-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... answer GOD IS ONE—with that we can agree. God is one. Our Jewish friends might reply GOD IS HOLY—and with that we can, likewise, agree for God is holy. Centuries ago the Apostle John answered the question this way “God is love!” That’s what I want us to think about today as we prepare for this baptismal renewal and Holy Communion today. When Jesus was about 30-years-old, he traveled to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin John. In the midst of that experience a voice came to Jesus from ...

2932. Finding Your Place

Romans 12:1-12

Sermon

Will Willimon

... here? How much of our souls would we sell, to be accepted, to be promised a place, to huddle with others in the heap? I want to be known, but not to stick out too far. Not to be left by the herd as it moves on to graze in greener pastures. ... thirty news, the advertisements—guidance on how to be one of the boys, one of the girls, our kind of people, just like us. I want to be accredited, approved, sanctioned, blessed by the stately crowd. And, as Becker notes, the less I think of myself, the more I need the ...

2933. How to Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... us, it is terrifying! You can almost hear the theme song from “Jaws” or “Psycho” playing in the background. Nothing makes Christians want to run and hide as fast as being asked to pray aloud. Why? Because most Christians will claim they aren’t “good” ... prayer that doesn’t align with the truth of God’s word, you’re going to end up disillusioned and hurting. But Jesus does want us to come to God expecting good things because God loves us enough to give us what we need. In verses 5-8, Jesus ...

2934. Spirit Signs

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... at Babel! In order for God to get God’s message through, God first needed to divide and separate the strongholds! Sometimes in our faith we believe that the best way to carry on in life is to be absolutely sure of everything we know about Jesus, what God wants, and what the Holy Spirit “should” back us up on. But the truth is, Jesus came to shake up everything we thought we knew and to challenge us to the very bones on what we thought we could be absolutely sure of. He messed with people’s heads and ...

2935. Persistence And Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... preacher of the Amistad Chapel at the national headquarters of the United Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio. The Reverend Doctor Janet Ross sang all the spirituals with an emotional exude that you just knew was authentic. One song I recall very well was “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me.” I have Janet’s permission to quote from the following email: “There always are multiple layers going on in my head when I sing spirituals. First of all, I’m always aware that I’m singing music from the African ...

2936. Close! But No Cigar!

John 3:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... Buckingham Palace and entered Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom. The Queen was still asleep. Can you imagine her surprise when she realized the man standing over her bed was not a member of her staff? Fagan reassured her that he wasn’t there to hurt her, that he just wanted to talk to her. It amazes me that the Queen kept her cool. She sat up and listened to Fagan as he told her about how hard it was to support his four children after his wife had left him. Amazingly, Fagan’s break-in had set off numerous ...

2937. A Life-changing Question

John 9:1-41

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... lead to this point of pain and evil.” (4) The disciples were trying to think their way back to a starting point that explains why the blind man’s story had to lead to this point of pain. They blamed it on the presence of sin; Jesus wanted them to understand the nature of God. The disciples were asking, “What separates us from God?” The question they should have been asking is, “What restores us to God?” In his life, death and resurrection, Jesus came to show us what restores us to God. That’s ...

2938. The Most Important Question

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... doors and attempt to wave the owl out; “Come on; come on!” The owl continued to stare at me. Then I remembered that the porch lights were not on, so I turned them on, and the owl just stared at me. Suddenly, another owl swooped down just outside the porch, wanting to free its friend and bring it home -- but it couldn’t find its way into the porch. I finally gave up. As I was walking up the stairs to bed, I thought, “Now, this will preach! The only way I could free that owl and bring it home is ...

2939. Brace Yourself!

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

John Jamison

... a part of the kingdom of God, they needed to be different. They needed to be like salt that changes everything it touches. They needed to be like light that removes darkness from the world. Then he told them what it meant to be different. He said that if you want to be a part of the kingdom of God, you needed to be more righteous than the Pharisees and Sadducees. To serve God, you had to be different than them. He had just made that simple and clear statement as we read today’s passage from Matthew. Every ...

2940. The Hedge

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... .” While all of that most likely feels complicated to the average person or even the average investor, we can understand hedging another way. Hedging is a way to blur clarity or definition, a way to “get around” nailing ourselves down or doing something we don’t want to do. We can avoid listening to someone’s advice when we don’t like their answer to our question. We can avoid doing our chores, when we find something that we’d like to be doing more. We can avoid talking about issues we don’t ...

2941. Converts Or Disciples?

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

William G. Carter

... used to be twelve, but Judas fell away. Now there are eleven. Among these eleven, some worship and some doubt; I will bet for a few of them, it was a good dose of both. Then Jesus gave his commission to his church. He told them what he wanted them to do, after he said a word about himself. “All authority has been given to me,” he said. He had the authority of heaven, the authority of earth. In speaking of Jesus Christ, authority is one of Matthew’s favorite words. “Exousia” is the word in Greek ...

2942. House of God

1 Kings 8:22-30

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , the latest fad to ride through town. Jesus told a story about a fool who built his house upon the sand. A collapsible chase lounge on the sand is house enough for many of us. A young person recently told an interviewer in Time: My parents are Jewish. But they wanted me to make up my own mind about religion so they sent me to a Unitarian Sunday School until I was twelve. Then, for awhile I went to a large Catholic church with my best friend. I got turned on to Buddhism my first year in college. Now I find ...

2943. Failure

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Will Willimon

... over. The roaring stadium was now silent, empty of fans, a forlorn place of crushed popcorn boxes and drink cups, trampled programs, spent confetti. The coach entered a sullen, utterly quiet locker room. Helmets were down on the floor, jerseys pulled off and piled in a washbin. "I just want you guys to know that I am real proud of the way you played this afternoon," he said. "Real proud. We didn't win, but we did prove to a lot of people what we could do. It was a moral victory." On the way out that evening ...

2944. A Good Name

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

... one of our own graduates and benefactors was found guilty of stock market fraud. An article in the Duke Chronicle quoted one of us as saying of this unfortunate young man's years at Duke, "He was always ambitious and didn't care what it took to get where he wanted." And when we read of his conviction, I think a chill went down our collective spines, for we know that we are here because, we are also ambitious. How are you going to get on in the world? So, here we are another Sunday in the Chapel, again in ...

2945. One Tough Master?

Matthew 25:14-28

Sermon

Will Willimon

... . Master, I knew you to be the sort of man who expected to harvest in much the same way as you sow. Then Jesus said, "When the seed came up, there were weeds mixed in with the wheat." Remember that story? And the servants came and said, "Master, you want us to try to pull up those weeds out of the wheat?" He said, "Naw, just let 'em grow together. We'll sort it all out later." Who is this master? And moving from sloppy farming to outrageous shepherding, Jesus said, "The good shepherd will lay down his life ...

2946. God's GPS

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... of love to protect us? (4) In his book No Matter What, No Matter Where, author Larry Libby tells a story about his father-in-law, Bob, and an unusual experience he had on a hunting trip. There are many large farms and ranches in north-central California where Bob wanted to hunt, and he asked permission from a few landowners to be allowed to hunt on the wild outskirts of their property. One rancher agreed to let Bob hunt on his land, but he insisted that he ride with Bob so he could show him around. Bob was ...

2947. No Other Gods

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... why it is so difficult to confront and conquer our idolatry. It is almost as if Jesus knew our dilemma when he said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9: 23) Joshua also knew that ... a whisper that I might not be accused. “You asked for my eyes to see the pain of poverty. I closed them, for I did not want to see. “You asked for my life that you might work through me. I gave a small part, that I might not get ‘too involved.’ “ ...

2948. Avoiding the “F” Word

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... inside of yourself. Can you identify any hurts that are still festering within? Anger you are still holding onto? Pain that has not healed? Let Jesus help you to let it all go. God will deal with whoever hurt you in God’s own time and way. But God wants for you a release for your pain, your anger, your resentment, and your stuckness within, so that you may live the life you were intended to live and carry out the mission you have been given as a disciple of Jesus. Today and always, may your faith provide ...

2949. We're On the Move Now!

Sermon

Ronald Love

... then an active Christian. The man said he owed his conversion to Wesley. To this remark he replied, “Oh no, my friend, not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin!” We do not want to regret the sort of life we are living. And we certainly don’t want to live a licentious life thinking we can make a death bed confession. Even though the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the air is cool, we must remember that the days for Christ return have “grown short.” This ...

2950. The Glory of God

Romans 11:33-36, Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... the chapel if God is going to love even our roommates who slept in? Is this any way to run a world? Forget the mysteries, we want answers! Across the narrow lines of our petty religion, our puny notions of what can and can't be, our standards of good and right ... . Unfortunately, it usually isn't professors who mess up our answers, it's life itself, it's Jesus himself. What is good? What does God want me to do with my life? How do I find meaning in my work? Who IS Jesus? This morning, you may be like Peter and ...

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