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 3376 to 3400 of 4961 results

3376. Victim or Visionary

John 19:28-37

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

And again another scripture says, "They shall look upon him whom they have pierced." - John 19:37 On the cross, our Lord must have looked at the faces of his executioners and experienced the sharp frustration which comes from being subject to principalities and powers beyond one’s capacity to shape or control. For a time, he must have felt like a helpless victim of cruel, cosmic circumstance. You and I, then, should not have too much trouble empathizing with the crucified Jesus. We, too, are beset by ...

3377. Peter’s Second Sermon

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

It has been pointed out - many times! - that no aspect of worship has been so generally and ecumenically roasted as preaching!1 The many jokes about preachers and sermons rank next to, maybe slightly ahead of, jokes about mothers-in-law. Being a preacher and teacher of preachers, I have heard my share of funny stories about bad sermons. Like the one where the student preacher, who just finished preaching his masterpiece, piously asked the professor, "With what prayer should I begin my sermon?" The ...

3378. Saved!

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

"Then who can be saved?" (v. 26) We have a sublime vignette before us, a scene in the ministry of Jesus which reveals not only secrets about people, life and values, but the nature of salvation itself. Unhappily, we frequently fail to understand, miss the point, strain at the gnat, and swallow the camel in attempting an explanation. An Honest Soul Our young man is transparently honest. (I call him young because he sounds like a student.) Like Jesus, we love him, and his good qualities are abundant. At ...

3379. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Busy week. Lots of news. Including coverage of religious events two days in a row. First the respectful and dignified coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II, and then a play-by-play commentary on the blessing of Prince Charles' civil marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, now to be known as Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Cornwall. Prince Rainer of Monaco died after a long illness, the man who made his tiny Mediterranean nation of Monaco famous for something other than being a sunny place for shady ...

3380. Choose Life!

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

The ability to make concise and accurate decisions is one of the great secrets of successful living. Those of you who are sports fans will appreciate the story of a college football team whose starting quarterback was injured. The number two quarterback had not even dressed out due to illness. This left only a freshman quarterback who also did their punting but had absolutely no game experience as a college quarterback. The coach had to throw him into the fray, however. It was first down, but the ball was ...

3381. Ultimate Freedom

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

King Duncan

The battle cry in our society over the past two decades has been freedomfreedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom from discrimination, political freedom, economic freedom, sexual freedom. We want to be free! This is that week in our life as a nation when we celebrate our freedom. For Christians, however, every Sunday morning worship service ought to be a celebration of freedom. Maybe we should replace our Call to Worship with a fireworks display and our organ with a brass band. There is no greater ...

3382. What Do We Need For Christmas?

Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20

Sermon

King Duncan

The story is told of a female college sophomore who decided it was about time she experienced her first official date. Her roommate, who was a knowledgeable junior, asked whether she preferred Southern boys or Northern boys. Since she was from South Dakota she was unaware of such nuances in the male gender and asked what the difference was. Her worldly-wise roommate answered, "Southern boys are more romantic. They will take you walking in the moonlight and whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Northern boys ...

3383. The Benefits Of Trusting Christ

Romans 10:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

"I have good news and bad news," the defense lawyer says to his client. "What's the bad news?"asks his client. The lawyer says, "Your blood matches the DNA found at the murder scene." "No!" cries the client. "What's the good news?" "Well," the lawyer says, "your cholesterol is down to 140." (1) Good news, bad news. The world is filled with bad news. Too much bad news everywhere you look. Bad news in the world. Bad news in the nation. Bad news in individual homes and lives. Pastor Doug Sabin tells about a ...

3384. Making Compassion a Verb

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

David G. Rogne

The Superintendent of Schools was having a bad year. Some contentious issues were being dealt with by the school board. One Sunday, during the coffee hour after church, I heard the Superintendent say in a particularly loud voice, "For crying out loud, it's my day of rest, too!" Someone had approached him about a concern in the school district, and he felt that there was no place he could go to get away from it. I learned right then not to approach people about business matters when they are not on duty. ...

3385. You Had Better Get It Right

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

James Merritt

Even little children understand that there are some things you had better get right and understand to be true, or you can get yourself into big trouble. For example: I came across a little document entitled "Great truths about life that little children have learned." Here are some of them: No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats. When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair. If your sister hits you don't hit her back; they always catch the second person. Never ask your three- ...

3386. It’s All About Him

John 4:19-24

Sermon

James Merritt

The man who wrote "The Heart of Worship" is Matt Redmon, a worship leader in England. His pastor was trying to teach his church the real meaning of worship, and to show that worship is more than music. He did not allow any singing in their services for a period of time, while they learned to worship the Lord in other ways. During that time God moved on his heart to write this classic song. Listen one more time to these words: I'm coming back to the heart of worship, And it's all about you, It's all about ...

3387. What Happens When You're Not Prepared for What Happens

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

How do you handle what happens when you're not prepared for what happens? Well, sometimes not all that well. I would like to call your attention to a movie, Cheaper By The Dozen, starring Steve Martin. There are numerous scenes in this movie that illustrate how one father tries to take care of things while his wife is away. This movie is about a father who has just gotten his dream job of coaching football at his college alma mater. But this job change calls for him, his wife, their twelve children — yes, ...

3388. Building God’s Kingdom: The Christian Challenge

Romans 10:8-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

On December 26, 2004, the greatest natural disaster experienced in the world in over a century struck southern Asia. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter some 1,000 miles southwest of the island of Java, generated a tsunami that traveled outward at almost supersonic speed in all directions. It created death, destruction, dislocation, and mayhem for literally millions of people in some ten nations that border the northeast regions of the Indian Ocean. Thousands of people, tourists on vacation ...

3389. Good News about Hair

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

King Duncan

Today we’re going to talk about hair. That’s a universal subject, isn’t? All of us have hair well at least most of us. A balding man once asked his barber, “Why do you charge me full price for cutting my hair? There’s so little of it.” “Actually I don’t charge you that much,” said the barber. “But I do have to tack on a finder’s fee.” A little boy was looking through the family album and asked his mother: “Who’s this guy on the beach with you with all the muscles and curly hair?” “That’s your father,” said ...

3390. Love - The Basic Christian Call

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

During the 56 years of his life, Adolf Hitler did incredible harm and was responsible for the death of millions of people. Yet in all of the horror that he unleashed, there were pinpoints of light and nobility. One German soldier, Private Joseph Schultz, was one of those pinpoints. Schultz was sent to Yugoslavia shortly after the Germans invaded that country. He was a loyal, young, German soldier on patrol. One day the sergeant called out eight names, his among them. They thought they were going on a ...

3391. Finding Fault With God

Jeremiah 2:4--3:5

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

It is never a pleasant prospect to deal with someone who has a complaint with you. As a new pastor, and a very young one at that, one of the things I struggled with most was the experience of conflict with members. I remember as if it were yesterday a significant misunderstanding that developed between the congregation's "matriarch" and me very early in my time there. I prayed about the difficulty we were having, and I knew that I needed to go to her home and ask for the opportunity to talk things out. I ...

3392. The Knot: Tied

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

There are two topics a pastor can talk about that are guaranteed to generate emails, letters, phone calls, discussion, and debate. Those topics are money and marriage. I knew that this series we are doing on marriage would generate a lot of interest, reveal a lot of anguish, and strike a lot of nerves. There is an old joke about marriage that goes like this: “Marriage is like a deck of cards. In the beginning all you need is two hearts and a diamond. At the end you wish you had a club and a spade!” ...

3393. Moving On Up

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

King Duncan

A quick way to start a fight among sports fans is to ask who is the greatest. For example, since this is football season, who is the greater football quarterback, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning? Among golfers you might ask, how would Jack Nicolaus have done against Tiger Woods? To go back a few years, how about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird? I was reading recently about a Larry Bird fan named Eric Torpy. Let me tell you just how much Torpy admires Larry Bird. In 2005 when Torpy was sentenced to 30 years in ...

3394. Correcting Cephas

Galatians 2:11-21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The incident related in this section (2:11–14) indicates that in spite of the basic agreement reached at the Jerusalem council, certain ambiguities continued to exist. The incident at Antioch is significant, for it moves us on to the next logical step in Paul’s argument regarding his authority on the matters troubling the Galatians. We need to take careful note of the situation as Paul has developed it. The authorities in Jerusalem had recognized Paul’s equal status relative to them, but in Paul’s view ...

3395. Little Start, Big Finish

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

The kingdom of God is a pretty big deal in the Bible. In the New Testament alone it is mentioned 72 times. In the gospels, it’s the subject Jesus talks about more than any other. (The second-place winner is money.) And yet, despite the fact that Jesus talks about it a great deal, we Christians tend to be rather unclear about what exactly is meant by this four word phrase: The kingdom of God. There are a number of reasons for our lack of clarity. The most obvious is that we don’t understand the concept of “ ...

3396. I Need

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

My lovely bride and I used to laugh about our youngest daughter’s use of the phrase, “I need…” It seems as though she never simply wanted things — she “needed” things. At one point in her life, these two words became her mantra. “I need this dress. I need a car. I need to go out tonight. I need…” I don’t mean to pick on her, because I’m sure most other parents go through a similar stage with each of their teenagers. They all need something. Interestingly enough, their actual needs are already being met (in ...

3397. Altered Expectations

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

We’ve talked a little these past weeks about family Christmas traditions, how different families have different rituals or things they just do every year because that’s what they’ve always done. Well, churches have Christmas traditions, too, don’t they? One of Snow Creek’s Christmas traditions, for example, is the annual Christmas program. The church I grew up in had a Christmas program every year, too. They called it a Christmas PAGEANT, and the centerpiece of the Christmas pageant was a reenactment of ...

3398. Lent 5

Jn 8:1-11; 12:1-8 · Lk 20:9-19 · Isa 43:16-21 · Php 3:8-14

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Isaiah 43:16-21 Yahweh promises to do a new thing for his people in exile. The "new thing" (v. 19) Yahweh promises is a new exodus from bondage in Babylon. The "former things" (v. 18) refer to the exodus from Egypt. As in the first exodus, Yahweh will make a way through the wilderness and provide water as the people cross six hundred miles of desert from Babylon to Jerusalem. A third exodus is the sacrifice of Christ who redeemed us from the bondage of sin and who now provides food and water in ...

3399. When God Speaks

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Young Ben's family was quite active in a church that emphasizes a personal commitment to Christ. Even though he was quite young, Ben had heard more than one sermon about the importance of surrendering one's life to Christ. And so, one morning as the family sat around the kitchen table eating Cheerios, little Ben announced that he, too, was ready to give his life to Christ. He then got up from the table and went upstairs. His mother and father looked at each other and then decided to follow Ben. They ...

3400. A Victory For The Angels

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

Baseball, which used to be America's pastime, finally hit a home run this past week--a truly outstanding World Series. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate the drama. In fact, with a little imagination, we can envision a conflict of biblical proportions--the Angels against the Giants. The Angels were characterized as a group of no-names, re-treads, journeymen ballplayers while the Giants had their very own Goliath--Barry Bonds, already a baseball legend. The Angels were so close to losing. ...

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