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 3251 to 3275 of 5000 results

3251. A Personal God in an Impersonal World

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... What could be more impersonal than childbirth in an open-air stable in a strange town? Our modern world is still an impersonal place in many ways. People living in high-rise apartments or in suburbs often do not know the names of their immediate neighbors. Lots of people want to know the number on your credit card, but very few care to know you. Just imagine, in a typical suburb, someone knocks on your door at 8:00 PM. Perhaps you look through the peep-hole and ask, "Who is it?" The voice on the other side ...

3252. Half-Price Crosses

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... to tell racist jokes. They won't find you a congenial companion anymore? Your friends who like to spend evenings at Tunica won't find you willing to make the trip anymore. And, catch this, you will follow this new lifestyle not because you have to but because you want to. And, by the way, in the process you'll have the time of your life! In verse 27 we read: "Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Crosses involve suffering and sacrifice, and no one likes to suffer or ...

3253. The Witness of the Spirit

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... "than he can doubt the shining of the sun when he stands in the full blaze of its beams." That's pretty solid confidence! Are you that sure of your salvation? Do you know for sure that if you departed this world tonight, you would be bound for heaven? God wants us all to be sure of our salvation. In I John, chapter 5, we read, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the ...

3254. Marriage: God's Idea

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... she insisted that they marry or she would break off the relationship. He agreed and they were married. Someone asked her later why she was so insistent on marriage. She replied, "A man may love his lover, but he will cherish only a wife. And I wanted to be cherished." Marriage---that life-long union between man and wife---is an institution designed and blessed by God. None other can substitute for it. Let's protect it, honor it, celebrate it, advertise it, and thank God for it. This prayer by Warren Molton ...

3255. God of Wrath and Grace

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... ticket to college. He took it. There he met a beautiful girl from a wealthy background. They married after college. He never felt good enough for her, so he tried to purchase her love with a lavish lifestyle. If she even hinted at something she wanted, he would buy it. When she wanted a larger house, he took money from the bank temporarily in order to swing the deal. Prison was a harsh wake-up call for Frank, a taste of God’s wrath. But there he heard the good news that he, just plain Frank from rural ...

3256. My Love Requires A Symbol

Malachi 3:6-18

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... it is holy money. What does the Bible mean by saying that the tithe is “holy to the Lord”? Let me explain it this way. Have you noticed that many homes have one stained glass window on the front? It is a nice decorative touch. Let’s suppose that you want to add a stained glass window to your house. You would not think of taking one of these windows from the church. Why not? Because these windows are holy to the Lord. So is the first 10 percent of your income. Now turn to the last book in the Old ...

3257. All You Need To Know About Heaven

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

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... Swiss bank is not a safe place to stash your valuables. Our real treasure should be sent ahead to heaven. We are just transients here; our real home is on the other side of death, on the Easter side of the cemetery. You are here today because you wanted to hear the people of faith declare, "He is risen!" In addition, I have told you all you need to know about heaven: there is a place for every believer; reservations are required; the route to heaven is clear; and the atmosphere is awesome! Let me close with ...

3258. Reconciliation

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

... others to see and hear. But, rather than be who and what we are, we have chosen to listen to the serpent’s trick. We want to be God - the center of everything and everyone. And God turns us out of Paradise. We spend all of our time trying to find ... . He did not even ask to be taken down from the guilty consequences of his sin. Rather, Dymas cries, "Jesus, remember me!" He simply wants to be with Jesus. Literally, his words say, "Let me not be lost from you. Remember me!" He sees in Jesus the possibility of ...

3259. Create Your Own Happiness

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Robert Allen

... . But, he didn’t do it that way at all. First, he trimmed off the small upper branches. Then, one by one, he sawed through some of the large limbs. Then, he tied a wire to the top of the tree and staked it down out in the direction he wanted the tree to fall. Finally, he sawed through the trunk and the tree safely fell out away from the house and was easily cut up into fire wood. Explaining what he was doing, the tree expert said, "We always tackle the tree a little bit at a time. That way ...

3260. I Believe In Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Robert Allen

... reasons why people pray. Sometimes we treat prayer almost as if it were magical. We try to manipulate God to get him to do what we want done. A mother sent her fifth grade boy up to bed. In a few minutes she went to make sure that he was getting in bed ... praying that God would make Tokyo the capital of France." Prayer is not a magical means by which we get God to do what we want. Prayer is an inner openness to God which allows his divine power to be released in us. Ultimately, the power of prayer is not that ...

3261. Religion In A Nutshell

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Robert Allen

... God of eternity. Belief in and love of God are the basic ingredients of any religion. Belief in and love of God form the foundation which enables you to absorb life’s most dreadful shocks. A pastor was called out to a county nursing home to see a woman who wanted to talk to a preacher. She talked with him about her life and she told about having no relatives left. When she became ill, she had no money for care, so she was placed in the county nursing home, She looked at the pastor and said, "It won’t be ...

3262. The Ultimate Christmas Gift

Psalm 85:1-13, Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Erskine White

... anthems of peace, and let the rough words of war pass from their lips no more. Make all of us instruments of Your peace, O God, sowing harmony and understanding where there is enmity and hatred, sowing justice and charity where there is deprivation and want, being peacemakers in the manner and spirit of our Savior, whose word is peace and who is our peace, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 1. One other significant approach to peace was the attempt to limit the way wars were conducted. Building upon ideas ...

3263. Merry Kurtzman

Sermon

Erskine White

... like they just had too many things to do. In fact, we remarked to each other that you Cornucopians don’t seem to celebrate Kurtzman Day so much as try to survive it. Even the children seem anxious about Kurtzman Day, wondering if they will get what they want." "Well, you do have a point there," the hotel clerk replied. "The Kurtzman season does seem to get more exhausting and more expensive all the time. We know it will be like this each year, but what can we do? After all, the Good Book says this is ...

3264. You Can Go Home Again!

Jeremiah 3:6-4:4

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... on the door until seven or eight years later. In the intervening years the guilt over what he had done continued to eat away at this man. Now he found himself in much better circumstances, and looking back realized the stupidity of what he had done. He wanted to make amends and wanted to be forgiven, and while the check was not necessary from our point of view, it was from his. He wrote a generous one. The transaction completed he asked me if I would pray with him, which I did. Then he left my study and I ...

3265. Coming Down The Mountain

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... an enlightened moment, or a time of emotional or spiritual sensitivity that seems to come to us so rarely. Such times can be the touchstones of a new awakening in us, to be recalled later with some nostalgia as bright moments never completely dimmed by time. We want to cling to them, preserve them, and recreate them if possible. But the realities of life do not allow us to continue to live at that peak level all the time. In fact those high points of our experience probably stand out in bold relief against ...

3266. Barabbas - People’s Choice or Chance of Providence?

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

... much thought to God at all for a while. Yet, something was working in my favor. When I heard the crowd chanting, "We want Barabbas, we want Barabbas," I was mighty glad to be considered the people’s choice. But later I wondered, had it been a chance of ... thought so, too. But let me tell you what a surprise we had. When Pilate asked the crowd, "Which of these two do you want me to release for you?" they all shouted out, "Away with Jesus. Give us Barabbas." I could hardly believe my ears. Pilate was ...

3267. Simon of Cyrene - Reluctant Reliever or Submissive Servant?

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

... as he is at work in your life, now. After all, that was how I met Jesus, and found in him my Savior and my Lord. Now I want to tell everyone I meet about Jesus. Oh, I was angry when I had to pick up that dirty, bloody crossbar; but a strange feeling came over ... I thought God had turned his back on me. I had been forced to go out of my way to do a dirty job I didn’t want to do when I carried that cross-bar. But now it finally dawned on me that Jesus was carrying a much heavier burden for me. For then ...

3268. Peter’s Second Sermon

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... and spirit. So did the deacons. I anointed him as the letter of James tells us. But unlike the crippled beggar in our text, or the paralyzed man in the gospels, my friend did not jump from his bed praising God. I had to confess that though I wanted his body to be healed, I could not believe our healing service would do it. I also have to confess that many fervent prayers of physical healing have been more notable for their failures than their successes. So I have become somewhat of a doubting Thomas in the ...

3269. The Ten Commandments - Part 2

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... s name is not God. God’s name, his personal name, is Yahweh. It is this name that God gives to Moses. So when the Jews want to refer to God they say Adonai not Yahweh. The English equivalent to Adonai is our word God. It is a generic term. Now, if you ... there was another dimension to this. This certainly was no emergency case. The man, most likely, had been born this way. They did not want to give Jesus an easy escape. This patient clearly could have waited until the next day. But, Jesus went on to heal the ...

3270. The Ten Commandments - Part 3

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... or quite asking for use of the camel on Saturday night. Rather, this was originally meant to be a way of honoring those who were aging in society. In other words, we are to view this commandment as children looking up, not as parents looking down. Now, I want you to visualize your parents when I ask these questions. How many times were they there for you when you needed them? How much sacrificing did they do for you? Was it from them that you first learned the good news of the gospel? This commandment comes ...

3271. Out of Doors: Nature and Supernatural

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... a church at a place in order to commemorate our Lord, but you will feel closer to him when you step back into the open air, even if it is the mottled and pungent air of the Old City. Jesus lived with nature, and he taught from it. If I want an object lesson, I have to carry it into the pulpit or trust that you and I can blend our imaginations to envision a scene. Jesus had his illustrations at first hand; the people could often reach out and touch them. "Consider the lilies of the field," Jesus said, and ...

3272. A Man Who Was a Lion-Tamer

Daniel 6:1-28

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... Can you imagine a king like that? He called in his wise men and said, "Look, I dreamed a dream last night, and I want you to interpret it for me." "All right; tell us about it," they responded. "That’s the trouble," he answered, "I don’t remember ... that? When you remember that you are made in the very image of God, and when you remember the cost of your redemption, can you help but want to be like Daniel? In the words of the hymn-writer, P. P. Bliss: Dare to be a Daniel; Dare to stand alone; Dare to have a ...

3273. Abide In Me

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

... and eat them he did. They dared him and he did it. "Just a case of simple willpower," he would say. "You can do anything you want if you just put your mind to it." And then they got him. They got him with a simple dare. "We dare you to stay alive ... what a Christian should do, then we will set about doing it. "It is just a case of simple willpower," we might say. "We can do anything we want if we just put our minds to it." I have not heard it for a while, but AVIS Rent-A-Car used to advertise by saying: "We ...

3274. When Things Don’t Work Out, What Then?

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... out as we had planned. Luke wrote this: "When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." In some way, circumstances made it clear that this was not what Christ wanted. Imagine Paul’s disappointment. He wanted to take the Good News of Christ into Asia Minor. Instead, he had to make a left-hand turn and go to Troas, a seaport city on the eastern edge of the Aegean Sea. That night in Troas, when he went to sleep, Paul found a ...

3275. Movin’ Around Room

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... him, knew that he needed movin’ around room, not in the portico, but in his heart. He confronts him with the question, "Do you want to be healed?" Having longed for years for a way out, now Jesus presents him that option - not solving his problem for him but ... of a lifetime. It is like turning a key in the lock. Being in the place of a new thing, he decides, "Yes, Lord, I do want to be healed." Then Jesus calls him to movin’ around room. "Take up your bed and walk." And from there on the man is on his ...

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