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 3126 to 3150 of 4961 results

3126. The Incredibility of the Gospel

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I don’t know how it is with you but I can recall occasions when a text of Scripture grabbed my imagination, gripped my mind, buried its way into my soul, and became a part of my being. In many instances, I can relive the setting when that happened and it energizes my life. Our Scripture lesson for this message is such a case. I may have told some of you the story. It was Senior Recognition Day at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, 1958, and I was graduating. The dean had invited Dow Kirkpatrick ...

3127. Saved by the Bell

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It's one of the most powerful images in the history of Christianity: Jesus on the cross, flanked on either side by two thieves. Or if you were a first-century gawker at Golgotha, here are three criminals lifted up for humiliation on three crosses. In the final hours of their lives, these three criminals formed a community of the dying. They entered into relationships with each other, shared intimacies, and conversed with each other about matters of life and death. If you listen carefully to this dialog of ...

3128. The Great Depression

Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

I’m beginning a six-week series of messages that I am entitling “Dealing with Feelings.” I’m going to begin today with the most dominant destructive debilitating feeling of all. Have you ever awakened in the morning and somehow you just knew it was going to be a bad day? Somebody with a great sense of humor described a few clues to let us know that it’s “going to be a bad day” when: You wake up face down on the pavement. You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on hold. Your birthday cake collapses ...

3129. Can The Church Count On Me?

1 Chronicles 29:3

Sermon

James Merritt

An article came out not too many years ago entitled, "What The World Needs Now" and it reported the results of a Gallup Poll which reported the seven basic needs the average American said he or she had. Here they are: The need for shelter and food The need to believe life is meaningful and has a purpose The need for a sense of community and deeper relationships The need to be appreciated and respected The need to be listened to and to be heard The need to feel one is growing in their faith The need for ...

3130. Gratitude: A State of Mind

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

John Wayne Clarke

Today's Gospel Reading reminds us once again that Jesus' journey has a destination. He is moving, slowly but surely, toward the holy city. Today we watch and listen as Jesus comes into Bethany, and his journey toward Jerusalem comes ever closer. Geographically, Jesus is probably somewhere between Samaria and Galilee. The miracle that happens here is not in keeping with his other miracles. The miracle has an unusual skew to it. We have learned to expect Jesus to heal someone and for that healing to happen ...

3131. Proper 4

Lk 7:1-10 · Gal 1:1-10 · 1 Ki 8:22-23, 41-43 · Ps 96

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 41-43 At the dedication of the temple Solomon prays that Yahweh will hear the prayers of foreigners. Hearing of the glory of God and the splendor of Solomon's temple, non-Jews come from distant places such as the Queen of Sheba from Ethiopia and Naaman from Syria to pray in the temple at Jerusalem. The temple made provision for Gentiles to worship in a court of nations located in the outer precincts of the temple. Solomon prays that Yahweh will hear the prayers of ...

3132. Mystery of the Unlikely

Luke 1:39-55

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

In the year 1870 the Methodists in Indiana were having their Annual Conference. At one point, the president of the college where they were meeting said, "I think we live in a very exciting age." The presiding bishop said "What do you see in our future?" The college president responded, "I believe we are coming into a time of great inventions. I believe, for example, that men will fly through the air like birds." The Bishop was indignant and said, "That's heresy! The Bible says that flight is reserved for ...

3133. The Question that Will Change Your Life

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you noticed there are all kinds of questions? There are silly questions and there are great questions. There was a comedian who was riding a subway into work. He had finished reading the morning paper and was saving it to bring to his friends at work. “How do you save a newspaper on the subway?” he asks. You sit on it. A new commuter came on the subway, saw the newspaper that the comedian was sitting on and asked, “Are you reading that paper?” The comedian stood up, turned the page, sat down on the ...

3134. A Reminder to God...and to Us

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Last April a 9-year-old African-American lad named Willie was kidnapped from his driveway in Atlanta, Georgia. After the man grabbed him, Willie explained later, and threw him in the back of his car, Willie just kept “praising God” with a song he learned in Sunday school. It was a song by Hezekiah Walker titled “Every Praise.” While he was singing, Willie said, his kidnapper yelled expletives at him. “He told me, shut up you [blankety-blank] boy,” said Willie. Willie, however, kept singing until his ...

3135. No Longer Strangers

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to draw your attention to the 19th verse of today’s lesson from Ephesians. We read, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household . . .” “No longer foreigners and strangers.” Reflect on those words for just a moment. I have heard it said that a child is born untrusting. Perhaps that is why life begins with a cry. The infant is apart from its mother for the first time. It has become a separate human being. But also ...

3136. Eyes Set on Jerusalem

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that airlines have crazy rules? And the way they set airfares sometimes defies comprehension. One man tells about wanting to go on vacation. He couldn’t decide whether to go to Salt Lake City or Denver. He wanted to visit Denver, but money was tight so he decided to let the amount of the fare make his decision for him. He called one airline and asked what the fare was to Denver. “Airfare to Denver is $300 per person,” said the reservation agent. Then he asked, “What about Salt Lake ...

3137. While This House Lies In Ruins

Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. Then the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn ...

3138. Beaten Up, But Still Standing

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

King Duncan

Pat Kelly, a major league outfielder in the '70s, was a born-again Christian. One day Pat said to his manager, Earl Weaver, "Aren't you glad I walk with the Lord, Earl?" Weaver replied, "I'd rather you walked with the bases loaded." When one football coach was asked about his offensive team's execution he replied, "I'm all for it." Sports are popular because they are a metaphor for our life experience. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you feel like the champion of the world. Sometimes you just feel ...

3139. Not All of This Is Me

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

It was certainly a treat for four-year-old Tara to go shopping with her grandfather one day at the mall. Tara had many things to tell her grandfather as they went from store to store. At one point, as Tara was high upon her grandfather's shoulders, a family friend stopped to talk with them. "My, you are getting to be such a big girl," the friend remarked. With the innocence that only a child can muster she replied, "Not all of this is me!" Sometimes children are our greatest teachers without even knowing ...

3140. Christmas 1

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

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Hannah gives her first child, Samuel, to the service of Yahweh under the high priest, Eli, at Shiloh where Samuel grew physically and spiritually. Samuel was the answer to Hannah's prayer for a child. When she weaned him, she took him to Eli at Shiloh to serve Yahweh permanently. Each year when Hannah came to worship, she brought Samuel a handmade robe. The little lad, wearing a linen apron-like vestment, an ephod, ministered to Yahweh. In this service Samuel ...

3141. Proper 8

Mark 5:21-43

Drama

Dallas A. Brauninger

WHAT'S HAPPENING? By interjecting the story of the woman who suffered from hemorrhages into the middle of the story of Jairus' sick daughter, the writers suggest these two miracles are designed to be studied together. First Point Of Action As a crowd gathers around Jesus, who had just crossed the water, Jairus, a synagogue official, comes to Jesus and begs him to save his sick daughter. Jesus goes with him, the crowd following and pressing in on him as he goes. Second Point Of Action In the middle of this ...

3142. Advent 4

Psalm 80:1-19, Micah 5:1-4, Hebrews 10:1-18, Luke 1:39-45

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Thirty-five years ago, a liturgical scholar, Edward T. Horn, III, said: "The Fourth and last Sunday in Advent has been an 'orphan' for centuries so far as its true nature is concerned. In contemporary America it is often called 'Christmas Sunday,' an intrusion from nonliturgical Protestantism of Puritan background which, having divorced all religious observances from Christmas, sought to salve its conscience by transferring these observances to the previous Sunday." He concludes: "As a ...

3143. Proper 13

Luke 12:13-21, Psalm 49:1-20, Ecclesiastes 2:17-26, 2 Kings 13:10-25, Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Liturgical purists might call this "skin them alive" Sunday, according to the long-standing tradition that St. Bartholomew, whose day may be celebrated near this Sunday, depending on the lectionary followed and calendar year, was actually skinned while alive. Of course, that is only conjecture and the truth is that no one knows for certain when he died, or how, or where. In iconography, St. Bartholomew is represented by a skinning knife and a book, and sometimes he is pictured holding a ...

3144. Who Keeps Getting in My Way?

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

Some years ago, ten doctors were appointed by the United States Government to meet together and draw up ten laws of public health, which were to be given to the American people to serve as a guide for good health. After twelve days of extensive debate, they found that they could not agree on the laws because of their diverse areas of concern: one was a cancer specialist, one a heart surgeon, one a psychiatrist, and so on. Also, they were from different sections of the country and were concerned that some ...

3145. I Affirm

Acts 27:13-26

Sermon

TEXT: "Wherefore, sirs, be of good courage, for I believe in God." Acts 27:25 There are two ways to interpret the extraordinary story of adventure at sea which is described in chapter 27 of Acts. We can look at the courage and the faith of Paul. He had been arrested after preaching for several years as a Christian evangel. When he was threatened with death he appealed as a Roman citizen for his trial to be held in the city of Rome which was his right as a citizen. Escorted by heavy guard, he was taken from ...

3146. Growing in Faith

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Rally Day. Sunday School is back. A Sunday School teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother," she asked "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill."(1) Good answer. Most people will agree that education is important and that religious education is equally important. It was ...

3147. How Do You Get To Heaven?

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

Martin Sparkman of McLean, VA tells about a friend of his son's whose grandmother died. Everyone tried to explain to this six-year-old what happened to his grandmother. The usual explanations were given. "Your grandmother," they said, "has gone to be with Jesus in heaven." Not having seen her leave and having no concept of travel without a car, his question should not have come as a surprise. Out of profound innocence he asked, "Did they build a road to heaven?" Good question. Is there a road to Heaven? ...

3148. Leave Your Stuff Behind

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Loren Isley is one of my favorite writers. He is a distinguished anthropologist and essayist. What makes his writing so gripping to me is that he has the eye of an artist and the soul of a poet. He sees beyond the surface and he has that rare double gift which enables him to enter deeply into an experience and then share that experience with us in the kind of way that enables us to vicariously experience what he himself has experienced. In one of his poignant vignettes from boyhood, he shared a moment of ...

3149. The Gifted

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Sermon

William G. Carter

If you ask me, a sermon should say only one thing. Some of us grew up listening to sermons with three points, and wondered, "What's the point?" The business of worship, the activity of preaching, is too important to be pointless. Each sermon needs to make a statement, to declare one thing that is vital for our faith, our hope, and our life, in the world. So lest you miss it this morning, there's only one thing I want to say today. This sermon has one point to make, one claim that I want to lay upon our ...

3150. God Never Gives Up on Anyone

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

The name Robert Stroud is not one commonly heard in ordinary conversation, but this man's contribution to humanity will live on in the minds of many under a different title, "The Birdman of Alcatraz." By nature, Robert Stroud was not a congenial man. As a youth he was always getting into fights, disagreements, and various altercations. When he was only nineteen he killed a man in a barroom brawl, was convicted of second-degree murder, and was sentenced to the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, ...

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