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 3501 to 3525 of 4959 results

3501. Am I a Real Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... . "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47) "The Philippian jailer said to the Apostle Paul, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30) "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Roman 10:13) "God desires all men to be saved". (I Timothy 2:4) Now, all of that raises the question, What do you need to be saved from? In one word, the answer is – Sin. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23 ...

3502. The Great Divide

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

James Merritt

... in this parable. I. We Are All Divided By A Spiritual Decision "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores." (vv.19-21) Now on the outside the difference between these two men is very obvious. The first man is rich. He was dressed in purple, which ...

3503. Hotline to Heaven

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... publicly even when He was dying on the cross. The Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost during a public prayer meeting. Prayer ought to be a part of every corporate worship service and every spiritual meeting. Jesus was not condemning public prayers, He was condemning the desire to be seen praying publicly. There's a story of a young lawyer who had just opened up a brand new office. He was seated behind his shiny new desk, eagerly awaiting his first client. Soon he heard footsteps in the hall and then a hand ...

3504. The King and His Kingdom

Matthew 6:33

Sermon

James Merritt

... . A loyal subject always wants to do whatever the king would have him to do. There is no higher calling in life than to find out what your King wants done, and then to do it. But it also means to seek the government of the King. A loyal subject desires to be controlled by the king, to be governed by the king, to be ruled by the king. But you may be saying, "Sounds like to me you're talking about slavery." Well, I want to tell you that the greatest liberty in the world is found when you are ...

3505. Never Give Up On God

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... very quickly how dependent he or she is on God. One cancer cell can tell a young bodybuilder how dependent he is on God. That is one reason we must ask because it expresses our dependence. But the next step is seeking. "Seek, and you will find." Seeking expresses our desire. You see, there are times that we need to pray even when we do not know what to pray for, or how to pray. Seeking is a deeper level of praying than just asking. When you ask, you know what you are asking for, but when you are seeking ...

3506. Minority Report

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... that Christians have problems just like non-Christians. There are the prosperities of life; the tendency to make this world your home, and care everything about the world that is here and nothing about the world to come. Then there are the pleasures of life; the desire to make sure that you live in comfort and ease and not count the cost of following Jesus Christ. Jesus here is describing people that probably makes up most of the church today who are trying to hold Jesus with one hand and the world with ...

3507. The Man Who Couldn't Hear - Sermon Starter

Mark 7:31-37

Illustration

Brett Blair

... The idea was to let people know they were in the vicinity, and also rouse the curiosity of the people. Coming out of their houses they would want to know what the peddler was selling. It might be something they lacked and needed, or simply something they desired. What do you lack? We may have sight and hearing, but what do we lack? Take an honest inventory of yourself. Have you found contentment? Are you close enough to God to receive his guidance and strength? Have you secured peace of heart and peace of ...

3508. The Crashing Brick

Mark 7:31-37

Illustration

Robert Salzgeber

... been completely forgotten. My friend decided to attend this particular workshop because he happened to live in an area where there were many reservations. His attitude at the time was that he simply wanted to learn more about the issue. He did not necessarily desire to do anything about the problem. Then, right smack in the middle of the seminar, a well-known member of the American Indian Movement entered the room where they were gathered and threw a brick in the center of the meeting table. The crashing ...

3509. The Passion of the Christ – The Rest of the Story

Matthew 27:45-56

Sermon

James Merritt

... the New Testament, but also from history. An ancient decree of Claudius Caesar, who reigned from 41 – 54 AD was found by archeologists in Nazara, it reads, "It is my pleasure that graves and tombs remain perpetually undisturbed…in case of violation I desire that the offender be sentenced to capital punishment on charge of violation of sepulcher." Historians believe that the unusual step decreeing the death penalty simply for robbing a grave was a reaction to the uproar caused by the empty tomb of Jesus ...

3510. Houston We Have a Problem

Nehemiah 1:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... you ever come to in your life is God's way of forcing you to focus on Him. IV. Stand As A Resource In The Situation "O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king's cupbearer. (vs. 11) Now there is a surprising twist to the story. Nehemiah waits to the last minute to tell us ...

3511. Law and Order

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

James Merritt

... book and practically apply this book. How will we know whether or not Cross Pointe is becoming what God wants it to become? I'll tell you how. When the people who make up Cross Pointe put God's Word above man made tradition. God's will above their personal desires and God's vision above there own preferences. When that happens we will be happy and we will be blessedblest because we will be a church of law and order.

3512. With The End In Mind

Philippians 3:7-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... occasions, I have met and even spent a little time with two Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. The truth is I don't know either President personally and neither one knows me personally. Paul says in verse 10 his number one desire is - "That I may know Him." (Philippians 3:10, NASB) That is kind of strange when you think that when Paul wrote this he had met Jesus Christ almost thirty years earlier. What did he mean when he said, "I may know Him?" What he meant was he ...

3513. I’m Movin’ On

Philippians 3:12-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked Him how to be saved, Jesus said, "One thing you lack." When Martha was arguing with Mary over what was really important in life, Jesus said to Martha, "One thing is needed." David said in Psalm 27:4, "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek." Now what was the one thing Paul was seeking? "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (v.14) The word for goal is skopos which means "to look at." We get our word ...

3514. In God We Trust

Proverbs 3:5-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... , your marital life, you are to acknowledge God. The word "acknowledge" literally means to "recognize" or "to see". Simply put, in every part of your life you are to be looking for God. You ought to think about every decision in these terms. What does He want? What does He desire? What would be the wise thing to do - whether we are going to play or pray, to work or to worship. Are we going to on vacation or to our vocation? We are to acknowledge the Lord. To make this as simple as I can, here is what that ...

3515. You Can Know What to Do With Your Life

Proverbs 3:5-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... acknowledge" literally means "to recognize" or "to see". Think of it this way, "In all your ways recognize or see God." Simply put, in every part of your life you are to be looking for God. You put every decision in these terms: "What does He want? What does He desire? What would be the wise thing to do?" To make this as simple as I can, here is what this really means. Always keep God in mind. Acknowledge the Lord, see the Lord, recognize the Lord, and look for the Lord in all your ways. That means in your ...

3516. The Dark Side Arrives

Sermon

James Merritt

... adults"; "I want you just like you want me"; "Nobody will ever know – it is just fooling around." In this case, Solomon takes the woman and says she basically has two weapons: her lips and her looks. That is why he goes on to say in 6:25, "Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her eyelids." (Proverbs 6:25, NASB) The dark side knows how to dress. It knows how to put on its very best face to lure you into its trap. One of the greatest weapons the dark side uses is ...

3517. The Driver’s Seat

Proverbs 16:4

Sermon

James Merritt

... to go to the top of the ladder. They want the corner office, the Mercedes-Benz, the million dollar mansion and they never understand that self-worth and net-worth are two different things. Some people are driven by goals. They have such a desire for approval, popularity, being well liked or being accepted that they wind up letting someone else control the agenda of their lives. The point is - every life is driven by something. Every church is driven by something. Many churches are driven by tradition. The ...

3518. The Power of Purpose

Proverbs 16:4

Sermon

James Merritt

... the Bible inside out, who have even taught and lead small groups that turned out to be extremely spiritually immature. Spiritual maturity is not a matter of the head. It is a matter of the heart. The more people see Jesus Christ in your life and a desire to bring glory to God through your actions, the more spiritually mature you are. IV. We Give Through Ministry "God has given gifts to each of you from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so God's generosity can flow through you." (I Peter ...

3519. Misled By Beauty

1 Samuel 15:34-35, 16:1-13

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... him. Screwtape writes, "Our aim is to guide each sex away from those members of the [opposite sex] with whom spiritually helpful, happy, and fertile marriages are most likely."3 Screwtape goes on to advise Wormwood in the value of "directing the[ir] desires ... to something which does exist — making the role of the eye ... more and more important and at the same time making its demands more and more impossible."4 In other words, mislead humans into building an impossible vision of the other person based ...

3520. The God of War and Peace

1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... Old Testament is Yahweh-Shalom — translated as "The Lord Send Peace" in Judges (6:24). Admittedly, that name does not appear as often as Lord of hosts, but it is there. The reality we discover in the Bible is that though God's preference and desire is for peace, he deems that it cannot ultimately be attained while sin runs in the human heart. God still reveals himself in grace, mercy, and joy, but his justice requires that sometimes he reveal himself also in judgment. In the Old Testament, at least, that ...

3521. A Sense of Place

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 6-10

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... as the columnist pointed out, the downtown is "not the center of commerce anymore for people who live here ... there are few downtown stores that serve day-to-day needs. There's no grocery downtown anymore, no drugstore, no department store."2 In terms of a desire to preserve the character and appeal of the downtown, I can certainly sympathize with that columnist. But in terms of the churches moving out to where most of the people live, it's hard to fault them. Commitment to Christ is not limited to where a ...

3522. The View from Michal’s Window

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... there are some questions we ought to ask ourselves when we are inclined to scold someone for actions that don't measure up to our expectations. The first is: What will a diatribe accomplish? Answer: Probably not much that's helpful. Harangues seldom bring desired results. The old saying about catching more flies with honey than with vinegar applies here, but I am more moved by the biblical principle of loving my neighbor. That often means trying to see things from the other person's point of view — see ...

3523. April Love

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... Alfred Tennyson's poem, "Locksley Hall." 2. The study was initiated by Rutgers anthropologist Helen Fisher and reported in her book, Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004). Cited in "Molecules of Desire," The Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2004, W8. 3. There is a 2003 movie actually titled Dopamine. The Yahoo movie site describes it as follows: "Dopamine, named after the natural amphetamine our bodies produce when we're falling in love, is a romantic ...

3524. If You Really Want to Be Number One

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... So, the disciples were human just like you and I are human. Who doesn’t want to stand out? Some of the greatest people who have ever lived were also among the most ambitious. It is said that Michelangelo prayed: “Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.” Abraham Lincoln often said to himself as a boy studying by the pine log fire at night: “I will study and get ready and perhaps my chance will come.” And, indeed, it did come. Having an African-American president reminds us ...

3525. Mastering the Virtue of Humility

Mark 9:33-37

Illustration

Our Daily Bread

... time he thought he was making significant progress, he would be so pleased with himself that he became proud. Humility is an elusive virtue. Even Jesus' disciples struggled with it. When Jesus learned that they had been arguing about who was the greatest, He responded, "If anyone desires to be first, he should be last of all and servant of all" (Mk. 9:35). Then He took a little child in His arms and indicated that we need to humbly serve others as if we were serving Christ. If a news reporter were to talk ...

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