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 3551 to 3575 of 5000 results

3551. Stand Up and Be Counted

Daniel 3:1-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... 13:15) These young men had made up their minds that it would be better to die for a conviction than to live by a compromise. I want to say here, it is better for a denomination to wither, dry, and die on the vine, than to live by compromising on the Word of God ... is bowing down to every god, but God, and it hates those of us in the minority who still stand for God. But I want you to remember the words of William Jennings Bryan who said: Never be afraid to stand with the minority, which is right. For the ...

3552. God Knows Exactly How You Feel

John 19:28

Sermon

James Merritt

... three hours in the depths of hell. We know that hell is a place of darkness. We know that hell is a place of desolation. But I want to remind you that hell is also a place of drought. Do you remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. The Bible ... to Jesus, and I drank Of that life-giving stream; My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, And now I live in Him.2 Raiza Santana wanted her 10 year old son, Frank, to live in freedom. So this Cuban lady built a crude raft and she and her son set out for ...

3553. When Satan Comes Out of the Closet

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... prophecy was a great concern of the early church. In the church at Thessalonica a false prophecy had caused great confusion over events that were going to take place. There is great confusion today over prophecy. Much of it is because we try to know more than God wants us to know, and we leave the solid rock of revelation, and move to the shifting sands of speculation. In this great passage, Paul lays to rest some myths about the coming day of the Lord, the day in which the world is going to end, and gives ...

3554. Winners Never Quit and Quitters Never Win (Fruit of the Spirit: Patience)

Galatians 5:22

Sermon

James Merritt

... I will be the first one to admit, if nobody else will, I need patience. I tell the Lord all the time: "Lord, I want patience, and I want it right now!" How many of you have a problem with patience? I need to be more like the little boy I heard about ... these demanding problems, that I would have never learned otherwise. I know you in a way I would have never known you otherwise." I want to tell you, the greatest lessons you will ever learn in life is not when you party during the good times, but when you ...

3555. A Trip to God's Woodshed

Hebrews 12: 5-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... 5:5) In other words Paul said: God's going to let Satan kill him so that he might go ahead and take him to heaven. I want to say it again, as plainly as I know how, if you are a child of God, you cannot sin without experiencing the rod of his ... spit on your dress, and I'm just waiting on more spit." Well when God disciplines us, we can gripe about it, complain about it, but I want to tell you that resenting it is not going to remove it. b. You Can Reject It "Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him." (v ...

3556. Dirty Dreams and Slick Schemers

Jude 1:8-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... die."7 The apostate will always attack our "bloody religion." He will deny to his death the need for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am reminded of Dwight L. Moody who started preaching and a woman wrote him a letter and said, "Dear Mr. Moody, if you want to be effective, you're going to have to leave out that blood stuff." Moody said, "I determined at that moment to preach more on the blood of Jesus Christ than ever before." We are not only a people of the book, we are a people of the blood. You ...

3557. Once Save - Always Saved

John 10:27-29

Sermon

James Merritt

... Mt. 7:15 Jesus talked about false prophets "…who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." Now if you want to ask whether or not you are a true sheep, give yourself a threefold test. First of all, do you listen to the Shepherd? Jesus ... man of salvation. But not only is the shepherd known by the sheep, but the sheep are known by the shepherd. You see if you want to know whether or not you are a sheep, let me ask you a question: Does the Shepherd know you? You can know someone ...

3558. The World's Greatest Body Builder

1 Corinthians 12:13

Sermon

James Merritt

... first blessing. The problem is that too many people are looking for a second blessing when they ought to be enjoying the first blessing. There are too many people who are looking for something that they already have. I was going out of town last week and I wanted to wear a very special set of cuff links that my wife had given me for an anniversary. They are mother of pearl cuff links with my initials on them. I got greatly irritated looking for those cuff links and Teresa asked me, "What is wrong?" I said ...

3559. Good Christian Men Rejoice

2 Corinthians 8:9

Sermon

James Merritt

... greatest surprise the human race has ever received. Christmas is a time of surprises. I heard about a lady who was preparing Christmas cookies, and there was a knock at the door. She went out to find a man in thin, gaunt, and tattered clothes. She asked him what he wanted. He said, "Ma'am, I'm looking for some odd jobs just so I could buy some Christmas gifts for my family. Do you have anything I could do for you?" She said, "Can you paint?" He said, "Well yes, in fact, I'm a pretty good painter." She said ...

3560. The Only Guide You Need

John 16:12-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... has come to guide us to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him, and to glorify Him. Do you know what the phrase "in the loop" means? It means to be really in the inner circle, in the know of what is going on. Through the Holy Spirit God wants us to be in the "glory loop." Even now the Father is glorifying the Son as the only way to be saved; the Son is glorifying the Father by seeking to reconcile us to Him; and the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son and the Father by living in us, giving ...

3561. Your Word is Your Bond

Matthew 5:33-37

Sermon

James Merritt

... when he's drunk." You see, you should take very great care to either speak the truth or not speak at all. But I don't want to be misunderstood about this matter of honesty. You should always be totally honest in what you say, but you don't always have to say ... , and you didn't have to keep it. When I was a kid we used to have a little trick that we would use when we wanted to lie—we would put our hand behind our back and we would "cross our fingers." Well, this was their way of crossing their fingers. It ...

3562. With Malice toward None, With Charity for All

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

James Merritt

... retribution. Or you can say, "If he hurts me, I'll just ignore him and have nothing to do with him." That is hardened indifference. Or you can say, "If he hurts me, I will love him and serve him." That is the way of Jesus. Just as the Father wants to turn sinners into saints, we ought to desire to turn our enemies into friends. The only way you can do that is by loving them. When Martin Luther King, Jr. began to stand up for the civil rights of black Americans, many who were full of prejudice subjected him ...

3563. Why You Should Be Afraid of Sin

Numbers 32:23

Sermon

James Merritt

... in London, England who we all know by the name "Jack the Ripper." To this very day no one knows who Jack the Ripper was. I want to ask you a question. Jack the Ripper got away with his crime, but did Jack the Ripper get away with his sin? Not on your ... sin does not come immediately, a person may say to himself, "Well, I must be getting away with this. Therefore I can do it all that I want." Well, you see, just because you can get away with a sin now doesn't mean you're going to get away with that sin later. ...

3564. Walking on the Water

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... ? How can we overcome fear? One way is to keep our eyes on Jesus. You remember the hilarious scene that is part of this story. Peter wants to walk out to meet Jesus. He even steps out of the boat. But he makes the same mistake that we so often make he takes ... through that night? He kept his eyes on Jesus. He prayed and he meditated on a Scripture verse. Philippians 3:10: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death ...

3565. Do I Really Matter To God?

Psalm 139:1-24

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... cured of her internal bleeding. Jesus was on the way to the home of a big shot, Jairus, the equivalent of a Jewish bishop. His only daughter was dying. A big crowd of people was on the road with Jesus. Suddenly Jesus stopped the parade. Why? Because he wanted to deal with a person who was at the very bottom of the social totem pole. Legend has it that this woman was a Gentile from Caesarea-Philippi. If so, she was regarded as of little or no value by the Jewish, patriarchal society. Furthermore, she was ...

3566. Barnabas Found the Way

Acts 4:35-5:16

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... soul…they had everything in common; they sold everything they had and brought it to the Apostles and there was not a needy person among them." (Acts 4:32) (A parentheses here: It's interesting that the folks who want to take the Bible "literally" never seem to want to take this passage literally. I am not suggesting we should. But I am suggesting the Bible should be taken seriously….learning the lessons of caring and compassion, sharing and generosity, so that all might have enough.) So Barnabas sells ...

3567. Keeping Shut About the Good News

Acts 3:1-10; Acts 4:13-20

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... the pattern of temple worship. To me, that says something about the importance of a commitment to worship as a regular discipline, gathering with the people of God in worship as a patterned part of my daily life. But I digress…that's not the point I want to make here. The story begins on the way to worship when John and Peter see a lame man, a man handicapped from birth. There were probably lots of them around the temple that day, a day before social welfare systems and community support. If you were ...

3568. Unlikely Election

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... the new. We become busy—devastatingly busy—turning old and new wheels by hand. Pentecost is not a lived fact with us. Hence we worship machinery instead of winning men. [3] We worship machinery instead of winning men and women to the cause of Christ. I want to be quick to say, I believe in this church of ours. I've served as an itinerant traveling preacher in the connection for more than thirty-five years and I love it. I spent seven of those years as a church bureaucrat, literally running the machinery ...

3569. Whose Side Are You On?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples something quite stark, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” What did he mean? Does it have anything to do with a teen-aged girl offering her life to save her friends? “Shoot me first.” “If anyone would come after me, he ...

3570. Precious and Privileged Children

Galatians 4:4-7

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... dawns on us the great God of the universe understands and loves us far beyond our wildest dreams. Some very fine churchgoers that I have known say such moments are far and few between. My belief is this is a problem with human perception. God is as near as we want him to be. There is no scarcity in this love that knows no bounds. There is no limit to his understanding of our lives and loved ones. We must learn to cry out more often, "Abba! Father!" It is a wonderful exercise for our vocal chords. It is the ...

3571. A Man for All Seasons

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... become weak in order that he might win them. Except before the Lord, it must have been quite a task for him to become weak for the purpose of trying to win others. As some of his writings indicate, he was surrounded on every side by those who wanted to compromise or destroy his message. There were some who even sought to obliterate the message of Christ by killing all who faithfully followed him, and we hold back because its either too hot or too cold outside! The many-sided Christian is the one in today's ...

3572. Engage Mind before Putting Mouth in Gear

James 3:1-12

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... at times are defensive. It is natural for us to "circle the wagons" and create a defensive shield around ourselves when be believe we are being attacked. Even when we know in our hearts that what the other person is saying may be true, we do not want to admit it. We defend ourselves, often with significant barbs for the person who we perceive is attacking our person. We simply cannot allow what others say to go without our response. Words are easy to use — as the expression says, "talk is cheap." Yet, in ...

3573. When Life Isn't Fair

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... one hour. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t just. But the landowner said, “Didn’t I pay you what we had agreed on? If I want to be more generous with these others is it not my right? Is it not my money to do with as I please?” Boy, that’s ... our best interest and in the interest of those we love. But there is a second question that arrives out of this parable. IF GOD WANTS TO BE GENEROUS WITH OTHERS, THEN SHOULDN’T WE REJOICE? Those who had worked in the vineyard would not have been at all dissatisfied ...

3574. When God Says No

2 Samuel 7:1-9; 16-18

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... Certainly now that David was such a powerful monarch, God would ratify his plans. At first, Nathan the prophet agreed, but later told David God had said No. David can't build me a house, said God. I never asked for a house in the past, and I don't want one now. The answer, David, is No. No's are hard to take, but they are not always the last word. In Somerset Maugham's story, "The Verger," Mr. Foreman is the caretaker of St. Peter's Anglican Church in England. He had planned always to be a church caretaker ...

3575. The 6 Words that Can Save Your Life

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... course, Paul’s path to peace may be a little more difficult to follow than it first appears. First of all, you have to realize Paul gave them in reverse order. You can mix it up any way you want. Put them in any order you want. But the most Pauline order is this one: Thankful: Anything Anxious: Nothing Prayerful: Everything. PEACE. The first and foundational direction is toward “thankfulness.” And being “thankful” in . . . what? . . . . ANYTHING . . . sometimes the words choke coming out, as being ...

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