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 3601 to 3625 of 5000 results

3601. Stewards of Life, Death, and Beyond

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... today is that we can be God’s stewards even after we die. It is possible for our Christian witness and influence to continue after we are physically dead. We can do that by wise estate planning now. We can remember our church in our will. This means that, long after we are dead, we continue to be a blessing and to have a part in the ministry of our church. This is taking seriously the concept of everything we have being on loan to us for a short time from God and our responsibility to return a portion ...

3602. Resurrection: Temporal to Eternal

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... had stopped to catch his breath. He had covered almost three miles without letting up. Now he rested against a bent olive tree taking deep breaths that would bring strength to his tired muscles. He still had four miles to go, and he dared not stay too long, lest the great gates of the City be fastened shut - locking him out. Despite his panting, and the pounding of his heart, the runner was joyous in the travel - elated beyond all his imaginations of past months. What he had heard earlier in the day, heard ...

3603. Resurrection: From Sin to a Second Chance

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... . I do not know why. I do not believe that God demands the death of a child in payment for a parent’s sin. I do believe that the Good Shepherd sees what we cannot see; knows what we cannot know; and sometimes makes decisions we will never understand as long as we live. David was forgiven. David went on living. I do not understand that either. He certainly didn’t deserve it. Then I think of that shepherd boy and his straying ram who caused the death of the little lamb. I can see the boy in my mind’s ...

3604. A Dead Man in a Witch’s Cave

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... a key-chain that she wanted me to have, after this critical time we had gone through together. It was engraved with my initials on one side, and on the other side ... "Ebenezer." She was reminding me, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." The key-chain has long since lost its usefulness, but I still keep the "Ebenezer" part of it - in a safe place in my desk. How often we need, literally, to raise an Ebenezer - to remind ourselves of God’s constant help. How many times we have become aware of the leadership ...

3605. A Man Who Lost His Head

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... was another factor that was in John’s background and helped to determine the kind of man he became. He spent long months out in the desert - alone. In the solitude of the desert, he learned to put things in proper perspective ... to ... t get rid of John. Time couldn’t get rid of John. He still lives. He lives forever. And we must remember to take that kind of a long look. Just a few months later, when news of the preaching of Jesus came to Herod, he cried out in anguish and remorse, "It must be John ...

3606. John Calvin, God’s Man

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... truth." Some just will not permit this salvation to take place. They refuse to allow God to choose them. They want to be left alone. Many theologians describe hell as being left alone. Because God would like to save everyone, we do not give up on anyone as long as that person is alive. Nor do we put to death people who might change their minds and allow God to select them for eternity with him. Again, we read in Ephesians: "Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make ...

3607. John Wesley: Religion of the Heart

Children's Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... today: this big red paper heart and this list of six rules. Both tell about John Wesley who was a saint who lived a long time ago. They tell how he shaped the church. He taught Christians about having a heart in their religion. This heart reminds us that we ... heart. He wants us to be loving, caring people with big hearts like this one. John Wesley was, and he taught us about it. A long time ago a house was on fire, and the ceilings and walls were about to cave in. The home was owned by Samuel and Suzanna ...

3608. Mother Teresa and the Dying Poor

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... to our Lord. My own life is so inconsistent in this area. I’ll bet yours is, too. We live "high on the hog" here in the United States, compared with others around the world. And, it does not bring the satisfaction to our lives that we all long for. Yet, this is a time when our newspaper announces 35 million are starving in Africa, with Ethiopia estimating six to seven million people in danger of dying by starvation. In a day when our military boasts it can put a strike force anywhere in the world within ...

3609. Shepherds and Bathrobes

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Thomas Long

... other to get near the newborn King, our unsteady voices searching for the correct pitch as we sing anew, "O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord." 1. Portions of this sermon previously appeared in Thomas G. Long, "Bit Parts in the Christmas Pageant," Journal for Preachers, Vol. VI, No. 1 (Advent, 1982), pp. 14-21. This material is used by permission. 2. William Sloane Coffin, "Our Resurrection, Too," in Paul H. Sherry (ed.), The Riverside Preachers (New York: The Pilgrim Press ...

3610. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

... teaching in the church literacy program among migrant workers, a time when she genuinely felt as though she was serving God. She told Willimon that, after his sermon, she had decided to leave school and to give her life to helping those people. "There was a long silence on my end of the telephone," wrote Willimon. " ‘Now look Anne,’ I said at last, ‘I was just preaching.’ " Even a sermon can be a lonely place, a place of temptation, a place of decision, a place of peril ... and a place of holiness ...

3611. Living in the Future Present

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

... wilderness, but also a looking forward to the day when God and his people, people of all nations, would again "tabernacle" together. Peter looked at the shining appearance of the glorified Jesus in the company of Moses and Elijah, and he assumed that this long-expected day had finally come. The future had arrived. "Let us build the booths," he said.1 But Peter was mistaken. The future had been seen, but it had not yet fully come The transfiguration occurs in the middle of Jesus’ ministry. There was still ...

3612. When Nothing Can Be Done

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Thomas Long

... and condescended to, but she has been persistent, and now she is speaking earnestly to the department head in charge of county social services. Her husband is dead, she tells him. She lost her job some time ago in a lay-off at the plant, bills are long overdue, and now the sheriff’s deputy has delivered a foreclosure notice on her small house. The man thumbs through her file, picks up his phone and speaks softly to someone at the other end. He cradles the receiver, knits his fingers together and says, "I ...

3613. Blind Bartimaeus - Model For Healing

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... floor of a college building where we attended class together. I have no idea how Jim managed to get there. By elevator, with the help of friends, I imagine. And he was always walking. Somehow. Painfully and precariously. I would watch him scuffing down the long corridor, fighting to keep his balance every step of the way, his uncontrollable spasms threatening to tear the limbs from his body and toss them away. Entering the classroom, he would topple into the desk next to mine. Then, with a few words I could ...

3614. All-Out Love

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... purposes, and makes us strong even while we are weak. Paul struggled with a "thorn in the flesh," a persistent, possibly life-long affliction. He asked the Lord three times to take it away. But the Lord responded, "My grace is sufficient for you, for ... attached. The recipient could be a sinner on skid row or death row, for all you care. They might survive on your old heart long enough to allow God to redeem them. The comic-cartoon, "Graffiti," may have said it best. Painted in ragged letters on an old fence ...

3615. Inevitabilities and the Last Days

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... 5 The preaching - and the practice - of the Gospel will do that for the persecuted Christian: wedge the inside brace of grace against the crushing weight of the vilest oppressor. Awe survived the war, thanks in large measure to that inside brace. One day, after a long and dangerous flight from the crush of Red Chinese army forces, he fell to his knees in a safe haven and sang with other refugees: Rock of Ages, Truth Divine Be Thy Strength Forever Mine.6 IV. Jesus speaks to the persecuted and the betrayed of ...

3616. Happiness Is ... the Kingship of Jesus

John 18:28-40

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... asks. And later in the interrogation, Jesus makes it quite clear that he does indeed consider himself a king, but that his kingship is not of this world. I. A man was thinking about the nature of Jesus’ kingship one day on his daily early-morning walk. His mile-long hike in the park gives him the opportunity he seeks to spend some time with God in prayer and meditation. A few days earlier he had spotted a penny in the road as he strode along. That find led to another, and another, until he had collected a ...

3617. Where Do Sins Go?

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... are other shadows, too, which have an enduring quality. Shadows of personal influence remain permanently etched on human lives long after the persons themselves have gone. When Marc Antony climbed that pulpit in Rome to deliver Caesar’s eulogy ... replied, "No, that is not all! Now take the bag and go back and gather up every feather you dropped." The man went away. After a long time, he came back and said, "Pastor, I can’t find all the feathers I dropped because the wind has blown them far and wide." The ...

3618. How Can We Foretell the Future?

1 Kings 2:1-12

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... life is shaped by your thoughts" (Proverbs 4:23, TEV). To a larger extent than we often realize, each of us walks into his dreams. Those dreams are the dominant concerns in our minds. As John Burroughs said: "If you have a thing in mind, it is not long before you have it in hand." How can we foretell the future? For one thing, we can check the dominant concerns in our minds, for they are the stuff out of which we build tomorrow: Isn’t it strange That princes and kings, And clowns that caper In sawdust ...

3619. Where Can We Find Wisdom?

Proverbs 2:1-22

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... years or the accumulation of knowledge. As Bertrand Russell has said: "Wisdom is a harmony of knowledge, will, and feeling, and by no means necessarily grows with the growth of knowledge." As far back as the days of Solomon in all his glory (and long before that!), wisdom was held in high esteem. God, however, gives people wisdom as he gives them precious metals; his treasure house is not the mint, but the mine. Because the quest for the best in effective living calls for an active, energetic search, the ...

3620. Will Names Never Hurt Us?

Proverbs 10:1-32

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... First, consider that bad names do hurt people. Secondly, consider that good names do help people. I First, bad names can be hurtful. Not long ago Esso, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, decided to find a name for their worldwide affiliates. They brought in a computer. They ... not brand names from anywhere in the world. Among the eight that began with the letter E and were two syllables long were the names Exxon and Enco. The night before the selection was to be made the researchers were horrified to learn ...

3621. God’s Dwelling Place

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... shall be in God and the Christ and need no formal dwelling place to help keep a faithful relationship. This process was a long time a-building. The faithful waited sometimes more patiently than others, and from time to time their waiting was rewarded. When we ... Tent of Meeting, the Sanctuary, the Tabernacle, the Temple - the once for all meeting place of God with his creation. Long years of waiting resulted in the world’s deepest love story; the waiting faithful are rewarded with life-giving empowerment ...

3622. The Remnant Year

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... determination, confident they will yet open to us rich meaning and renewing power. With this in mind we come once more to our text. In it God is working his saving power on the faithful remnant of his people. The process has been going on for a long time. Whenever the least of all the people kept the faith, whenever a tag-end of inspiration stayed vital, whenever assurance came forth in works, he saved his remnant and by his grace made out of it a new garment. Out of the remnants of covenant faithfulness ...

3623. Advent 1

1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Mark 13:32-37, Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... returned from Babylonian exile to a devastated, and therefore demoralized, Jerusalem. In this context, the prophet longs for divine intervention, though the possibility seems remote. Call to Worship Leader: Listen, people! The God ... times and places, give us the grace to be at once thankful and dissatisfied; that we may rejoice in all of our many gifts, yet long for the day when your righteousness will reign supreme. This we pray in the name of the coming Christ. Amen Prayer of Confession Almighty and ...

3624. Christmas 2

Isaiah 62:1-12, Titus 3:1-11, Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... God, we know that like the shepherds of old, we usually live our mundane lives and go about our daily business not expecting to receive a message, much less a gift, from you. Forgive us our spiritual blindness and deafness, O God, and break through them as you did long ago in ways we cannot ignore. Light the heavens with your glory; send us angels with your Gospel; make us hear again in the depths of our souls the glad tidings of the forgiveness that you have given us in the Son who is born this day. Amen

3625. Ascension Day

Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:36-49, Luke 24:50-53, Mark 16:1-20

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... we yet have an earthly mission to fulfill, we may also have a glimpse of your Kingdom and a taste of the ultimate bliss that you have promised. In the name of the ascended Christ we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession God of mercy, we confess how much we often long to be rid of this world, to leave it behind and ascend to a heavenly state of bliss. Forgive us our impatience. Impress upon us the commission of Christ. Remind us again and again that there is still work to be done on earth for your Kingdom in his ...

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