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 276 to 300 of 3108 results

276. Without Conflict There Is No Story

Mark 6:1-13

Sermon

Ron Lavin

George Anderson wanted to write a book. He had the subject of his book in mind. The title would be Handling Troubles. He knew that if he could get a publisher, the book would help other people. He knew he could do it, but he didn't know how, so he joined a writers' group. A famous and successful author was addressing a group of novice writers at the writers' group meeting. The would-be writers, including George, hung on his every word. "There must always be conflict," the speaker said. "Conflict is the ...

277. Holy Goat!

Leviticus 16:1-34, John 20:24-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Hide and seek is everyone’s favorite game as a child. And as an adult. What irony that children play and pretend to hide, then are delighted to be discovered and come out of hiding. But adults hide for real! And for very different reasons! We may not physically hide. But can we emotionally and spiritually hide! And we have no intention of being discovered! For any number of reasons, we adults find it extremely hard to allow anyone to discover the deep reaches and recesses of our souls. We adults find it ...

278. Religious Rage

Psalm 137:1-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

Someday I may preach a series of sermons called "Bible Passages Too Hot to Handle." A preacher could get burned by getting too close to today's text. Those of you who are regulars here know that we believe it a good practice for preachers to take, as their texts, biblical passages assigned by the ecumenical lectionary. This links us with the practice of the majority of the church, it provides for continuity, and (usually) preserves you from exposure to the pet peeves and hobby horses of the preacher. But ...

279. When You Know How It Ends

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

If you are a big sports fan then you know how frustrating it is when your favorite team is playing in a different time zone. You can’t watch the game on live TV because it either takes place during your workday, or way past your bedtime. A pastor in Hawaii shares how he deals with this issue. Depending on where you live in the continental U.S., Hawaii is three to six hours behind. If it’s 10 p.m. in New York, the time is 5 p.m. in Hawaii. Because of this time difference, the Monday Night Football game is ...

280. Where's the One?

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

Jill J. Duffield

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard some variation of the following over and over again: “I’m craving some good news.” “I am longing for beauty.” “I’m tired of feeling beaten up and not good enough.” Maybe you’ve heard versions of these sentiments, too. Or maybe you have expressed them. I’m not sure why I’m hearing this from so many sources now, but I can guess it is because there is so much bad news, so much ugliness, so many people willing to be critical, pointing out flaws in themselves, their friends ...

281. The Advocate

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Ron Lavin

The Holy Spirit is called "your Advocate" in the New English Bible translation of John 15:26. Other translations may be helpful in understanding the meaning of the Holy Spirit. The King James Version uses the term "The Comforter." The Revised Standard Version and the New International Version use the term "The Counselor." The Phillips translation and the Barclay translation call the Holy Spirit "The Helper." I like the title "The Advocate" best of all. This term "The Adovcate" includes comforting, ...

282. The Open Hand

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Whenever you consider the meaning of a Bible text, it is always good to look at the context. As we consider the meaning of Jesus' words to the man with a shriveled hand, we need to look at what happened before he spoke these words. The context of Jesus' words to the man with the shriveled-up hand in Mark 3:5 is conflict with the Pharisees in the areas of fasting, the Sabbath, and worship. The reason for this conflict was the Pharisees' closed minds, hard hearts, and clenched fists. The Context In some ...

283. When Your Nets Are Empty

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

May the good Lord save me from perpetual whiners; people who can be counted on to tell you how bad everything is. You don't dare ask how they feel or how they sense the world is going unless you have an afternoon to spend listening to a catalogue of human miseries. I once knew a woman who called me if she happened to feel good, because she always felt bad the day after she felt good and wanted me to know how rotten things were about to become. But may the Lord also preserve me from perpetual optimists, ...

284. Details

Matthew 9:35-38, Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Marc Kolden

It's probably not a good idea to speed-read the Bible. You might get the overall story and you might even improve your comprehension but you would be likely to miss the little details. And in our passage today from Matthew 9-10 the details are at least as important as the story of the events themselves -- and the details may be more interesting. The story has to do with Jesus seeing all the people in need of God's blessings and commissioning the twelve disciples to do something about it. All the disciples ...

285. Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." In her novel Come and Go, Molly Snow, Mary Ann Taylor-Hall gives an account of Carrie attempting to come to grips with the loss of her eight-year-old daughter, Molly Snow. Carrie is a fiddler, but in the wake of this tragic loss she says, "The music doesn't rise up in me right now."1 In the months that followed, Carrie listens to homespun wisdom and begins the first steps of coming to grips with the absence of Molly Snow and the presence of a deep ...

286. Parking Lots and Traffic Jams

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Richard L. Thulin

I don't know how you feel about bumper stickers. We don't happen to have any on our family car, but I must admit that I enjoy looking at them. There seems to be an almost endless variety, more than enough to match any mood or occasion. Some provoke thought or laughter, others advertise, and still others attempt to persuade. I don't need to share my favorites with you. No doubt you have yours just as I have mine. The other day I saw a bumper sticker that I could not remember having seen before. I had ...

287. Three Secrets of A Life Well Lived

2 Timothy 4:6-8

Sermon

Brett Blair

Some clever person has written a fictitious letter from a pastor to a church search committee. The letter reads as follows: "I understand your church is looking for a pastor. I should like to submit my application. I am generally considered to be a good preacher. I have been a leader in most of the places I have served. I have also found time to do some writing on the side. I am over fifty years of age (no children), and while my health is not the best, I still manage to get enough work done to please my ...

288. A SERMON-DRAMA FOR EASTER

Drama

Tom Eberle

Easter Prior to the 4th century, Good Friday and Easter were celebrated as one festival in the church. This is the background for the sermon-drama for Easter. They were not observed as historical pageants as we do today, commemorating the death of Christ on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. Rather, the early church observed a festival of redemption, combining the death and resurrection of Christ within the framework of an all-night vigil, concluding with the first rays of sunlight on ...

289. The Birdies

Luke 18:15-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Children. I love children. I am feeling a little sorry for myself at the moment because this week the first of my children leaves home - David goes off to college. For him, I am excited. For me, well... I love him more than I could ever put into words, and I am going to miss him. At some time or other, you may have heard me tell of his entrance into this world. The birth made use of the LaMaze method, so I was there during the whole experience. Following his arrival, as I stood admiring him in the warming ...

290. The "E" Word

John 1:35-42

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Today is EVANGELISM SUNDAY on our Presbyterian calendar. That is a relatively new emphasis for our denomination. To be sure, Presbyterians have always SAID evangelism is important, but our action (or lack of action) spoke even louder. One stuffy Presbyterian once called Dwight L. Moody to task for relying so much on emotion to win converts during his revivals. Moody's response? He admitted that his methods were not perfect, but he concluded, "I like my way of doing it better than your way of NOT doing it ...

291. What If The Lord Really Did Come Today?

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a piece of church humor that has been around for some time now in the form of a good news ”bad news type joke. The scene is the Vatican in Rome. A cardinal rushes in to see the Pope. "Your holiness," says the cardinal excitedly, "I have some good news and some bad news." The Pope replies, "Well, give me the good news first." The cardinal responds, "I have just received word that Christ has returned to earth." "That's wonderful," replies the Pope, "but what is the bad news?" The cardinal answers ...

292. Who Is He?

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Like other great newspapers the Washington Post has a room filled with file folders. These folders contain information on famous people who are no longer alive. Each of these famous people is identified with a single vocational notation ("home run king," "motion picture star," etc.). One of these is marked "Jesus Christ." The notation is simply "martyr." Coming to grips with who Jesus is and what He means to us is the most important task we have. It has often been noted that Jesus' favorite teaching method ...

293. The Patron Saint Of All Who Are The Last To Know

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the great movie lines is found in the Paul Newman classic, Cool Hand Luke. Newman plays a prisoner in a southern work camp who never quits trying to escape. Each time he is recaptured the prison warden greets him with that famous line, "Son, what we have here, is a failure to communicate." It Is a Failure to Communicate which Is Found in the Easter Stories. It matters not if those stories are found in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John; they all illustrate failures in communication. Instead of overwhelming ...

294. Smart As A Goat

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

A farmer from Bulgaria, Mihail Janko, is convinced that his goat has a very special talent: it can discern a person's character. Janko claims that he can put pictures of people in front of the goat and the goat will show, by his behavior, whether the person in the picture is of good or bad character. Evidently, the goat head-butts pictures of “unpleasant people," but eats the pictures of pleasant people. Janko has even relied on the goat's special talent to help him choose boyfriends for his four daughters ...

295. The Difference Between Looking Good And Being Good

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

King Duncan

Is there anyone in this room who doesn't enjoy looking good? We all do--whether we admit it or not. And when we feel like we don't look good, it affects how we feel about ourselves. There was a study done by researchers at Yale University sometime back on what are often called "bad hair days." This study found that on those days when our hair just won't cooperate, we feel less smart, less capable, more embarrassed and less sociable. What was surprising to the researchers was that men, not women, were most ...

296. Finding Something Amazing To Live For

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

King Duncan

On January 1, 2002, John Guth, 32, and Jeff Teiten, 24, set up camp outside the Cinerama theater in Seattle. They announced they intended to await the public sale of tickets for Star Wars Episode I; Attack of the Clones, scheduled for release May 16, 2002. Teiten said he was actually involved in an art project which involved "waiting for something." He was keeping a log of his experience and originally wanted to await the film for two years. "I'm becoming very aware just how long an hour is," he said, and ...

297. How Free Are We?

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Mark Twain once remarked that Americans of the nineteenth century were fortunate to have “freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, and the prudence never to practice either of them!” I have a hunch that his wry comment is not limited to folks of the nineteenth century. Freedom is not really freedom unless it is exercised. Still, most of us believe ourselves to be free beings, freely able to make choices and to decide our own destinies. There is an old story of a Methodist preacher and a Calvinist preacher ...

298. Sweet-Smelling Fragrance

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Realtors tell us that an empty house is difficult to sell. Regardless of its physical beauty, a home "shows" better when it is furnished. Sellers are advised to have the home cleaned, have a fire going in the fireplace, turn on lamps, have soft music playing in the background, and place fresh flowers on tables and cabinets. The aura and smells that are presented to the customer are important. In major shopping malls the smells of baked cookies are sometimes injected into the ventilation system to lure ...

299. Still Under Construction

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Sermon

James L. Killen

People print all sorts of things on T-shirts, from advertisements to obscenities to affirmations of faith. One fellow was seen wearing a T-shirt with the words, "Christian Under Construction," printed on it. We can all appreciate what he meant by that. We can talk about the difference faith in Christ is supposed to make in our lives and about how it is supposed to work and even about the samples of the new life in Christ that we have already experienced. But, most of us know that we are not yet what God ...

300. This Is the Day

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Because this is Thanksgiving Sunday, the Sunday before the national holiday, I thought it would be appropriate that we examine that familiar phrase, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it," from the 118th psalm, which we recited this morning. Let me begin by suggesting a thesis. And that is, that we have something to do with determining the quality of the day. Now I have some reluctance to say that because I know that there are things that happen to us, forces outside of us ...

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