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 3626 to 3650 of 4959 results

3626. Give Yourself

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ourselves to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and then we move intentionally into discipleship and into stewardship as we are led. Now there’s an implicit judgment here, and I want to share it as plainly as I can. To spend more on ourselves and our selfish wants and desires than we give to Christ and His Church is a sign that we are not yet fully committed to the Lord. Let me put it another way. To hold back in our commitment, to hold back in making that leap of faith that responds to the Lord’s command ...

3627. Style: Some Distinctive Marks of a Methodist

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... style. First, one of the real confusions in the Methodist Church today is a misunderstanding and a misapplication of Wesley’s concept of the catholic spirit. We interpret that to mean “theological pluralism” and such a pluralism is projected as both acceptable and desirable of what it means to be a Christian within the Methodist tradition. Taken to an extreme as it has been done and is being done, there is a fallacy to this concept. The way it is projected suggests that we allow a United Methodist ...

3628. There Is a Price for Everything, Part 2

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... caring parent or child, without it costing. You can’t be a genuine friend to another person without some price being exacted. The cost includes time given in attention to others, energy spent for the other’s well-being, sacrifice of our wants and desires for the health and wholeness of the other. Emotional involvement that often tears us to pieces. THERE IS A PRICE FOR RELATIONSHIP. Tagore, the poet of India, tells a memorable story from his life which illustrates this. His servant did not come to work ...

3629. A Sunday Kind of Love

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... sight, I want a Sunday kind of love. I want a love that's on the square, Can't seem to find somebody to care, I'm on a lonely road that leads me nowhere, I need a Sunday kind of love. What makes a “Sunday love” so special, so desirable, so yearned for? It’s the kind of love you find in church on Sunday morning. It’s the kind of love you find preached about on Sunday morning. It’s the kind of Trinity Love that we celebrate this Trinity Sunday. A Sunday Love is a Love Triangle. Not ...

3630. Lessons from the Ordinances

Exodus 21:2-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... who enter into the storms of life. The storms are all around us that call for us to have compassion for the poor and the oppressed. As those storms rage, we ask, “Lord, is it you?” “Is it you, in the people that are fleeing Latin America and desiring sanctuary in this country?” “Is it you in the tent cities of immigrants on our borders?” “Is it you in our alcoholic parents?” “Is it you in the middle of the housing projects and of our city?” “Is it you in the middle of the poverty of ...

3631. Just When We Think We're Safest, There's a Sunset Touch

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... living and 33 years in the Christian life to learn the real meaning of Jesus’ word in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” I have been a very ambitious man, and I have abhorred the mediocre. Always within me has been the desire to excel. In living this way I have been impatient and anxious, inattentive and often unkind. My goals have been long distance and compulsive. In consequence I have given less than my best to the person in front of me, because I was thinking way ahead to ...

3632. Lean Thine Arm on the Windowsill of Heaven (Growing Old Gracefully)

Psalm 90:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , something that will demand commitment, energy and imagination. Again, this is a problem that plagues us throughout our life. The perverted notion about contentment. Now there is a contentment we need - the contentment that frees us from the clamor of drives and desires which make us slaves to things and possessions, to potential fame. The contentment that frees us from being the servant of our appetites and ambitions, The contentment that lets us be at peace with ourselves in the face of all the external ...

3633. Why Jesus Didn't Perform Funerals

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... them “came back to life,” so to speak. “They regained the ability to move, speak, interact, and live a normal life. Each patient reacted to this new life differently. One patient became fearful and disoriented. Another patient developed an insatiable desire for new experiences. He wanted to read great books, study the detail in a flower, write his autobiography, dance all night. This particular patient announced, ‘I feel saved, resurrected, reborn.’ Sadly, the L-Dopa lost its potency over the next ...

3634. Pastoral Prayer

Illustration

Brett Blair

... and prayers are ever with them help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice. Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts. Give us strength, too strength in ...

3635. When God Seems Far Off

Psalm 10:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... final truth the psalmist would teach us is this: Be strengthened in your faith, even in the feeling that God is afar off. Listen to verses 16 - 18: The Lord is king for ever and ever; the nations shall perish from his land. 0 Lord, thou wilt hear the desire of the meek; thou wilt strengthen their heart, thou wilt incline thy ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. Keep in mind that this word is set against the complaint that the poor ...

3636. When You Want to Run Away

Psalm 11:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to all. The degree of severity is known only by each one of us as we probe the secret feelings of our hearts. Just answer me. Is there any here today who has not been tempted? In whom the urge has not welled up with an almost irresistible power — the desire to run away, to throw in the towel, to forfeit the game, to drop out, to escape? If you say that’s not your case, then you may sleep for the rest of the service, but not easily. I absolve you of the sin of lying, and I’ll speak ...

3637. The Shepherd Lord

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... can learn from Joy even though our lot will never be so painfully tragic. Jesus will not be content to be a shepherd, or even a good Shepherd. He wants you to say of Him, “My Shepherd.” You jay do that when you will. Nothing can prevent it – if you desire it. Do you wonder if you are one of His sheep? Look to Him and see if you’d like Him to be your Shepherd. If so – and if you will say my Shepherd, He will lead you around every tangled corner, through every dark valley, over every weary mountain ...

3638. Led by the Spirit, Tempted by the Devil

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and worship Satan. It was the temptation to settle for the temporary, for us as for Jesus. It is the struggle as to whether the end justifies the means. How luring the temptation. Our intentions are so righteous, our aim so high, our ultimate desire so holy so we can cut the corner here, shave back at this point. When someone is being slandered, one malicious like are being told. Give in a little, stay quite. The operational dynamic is compromise. We settle for the temporary – convincing ourselves that ...

3639. The Measure You Give Is the Measure You Get

Mark 4:21-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... by his father sixty years before. They composed a line of a prize-winning poem his father had written at Oxford: “High Failure Towering o’er Low Success.” What does that mean? That is, failure in pursuit of some high goal is more to be desired than success in small endeavors. “Too often we’re tempted by the effortless and easy thing. At such moments, we need to raise our sights. Think big, attempt something difficult even if we do not quite bring it off.” (Charles M. Crow, “Sermons on the ...

3640. Emmanuel - God with Us

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Wesley, the prolific hymn writer who set Methodism to music rose to his greatest height of glory in expressing the message of Christmas. We sing it, but do we pay attention to the words. Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the ever—lasting Lord: Long-desired, beyond him come, Finding here his humble home. Veiled in flesh, the God-head see Hail the Incarnate Deity! Pleased as men with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. God, instead if keeping his distance, has come to dwell with us in the form of ...

3641. Fish or Cut Bait

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . They were neither learned nor wealthy. They were fishermen - that is to say they were ordinary people. “No one ever believed in the ordinary as Jesus did. Once George Bernard Shaw said, ‘I’ve never had any feeling for the working classes, except the desire to abolish them and replace them by sensible people.” Once in a fit of temper, Carlyle declared there were 27 millions of people in England — mostly fools! Jesus did not feel like that. Lincoln took his cue from Jesus when he said, “God must ...

3642. Casting Out Demons

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... guide to human behavior to the good life. Reason, we have seen, is open to the highest bidder, and human life may not be as innocent as we thought it was in 1900. Depth psychology has shown that we are controlled as much by irrational desires as we are rational ideas. Whatever the language, we are realizing that there “hosts of wickedness” that invade human life. Whether you call them demons or not, there is something that possesses us and turns us into demoniacs. People who are inhuman and who degrade ...

3643. Judas, A Person Like Us

Mark 14:43-52

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that. So, undoubtedly, ambition was a factor in Judas’ life. He’s a person like us, isn’t he? Covetousness and greed, jealousy and ambition - none of these is foreign to us. But, these were not what drove Judas to his tragic end. His core sin was his desire to control — to take things into his own hands. Look at Judas with this factor as a backdrop. Judas was a Jewish nationalist in whom burned the fires of longing for the Messiah to come and raise the forces of God’s people and lead them to ...

3644. Facing Our Fears with Faith

Matthew 10: 27-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... known. What I say to you in the dark, tell it in the light and whatever you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. There is an invocation in the old Order of Sunday Service that states: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. God goes for full disclosure. The light is shining ...

3645. Why Doesn’t God Do Away With Evil?

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... embody it. Where is God in the midst of evil? God is making a good delivery. We pray it every Sunday. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. What did you want God to do when you prayed that prayer? What entered your mind? What do you desire from that prayer? What comes to mind when you hear a good delivery? A good delivery is bringing a newborn child into the world. A tied baseball game at the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded, two outs and the pitcher throws in a strike,— that is a ...

3646. Building Boats That Float

Genesis 6:1

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... that there is never a burden that he does not carry, never a sorrow that he does not share. Whether the days may be sunny or dreary, God is always there. Noah walked with God. When everybody else was walking alone, chasing their own desires, following their own dreams, doing their own thing, Noah walked with God. Lee Strobel opens his book, The Case for Faith, by describing an interview he had with Charles Templeton. A half- century ago Billy Graham and Charles Templeton were traveling the world preaching ...

3647. Hearing the Questions of Children

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the word sacrifice a few months ago, one of our members came to me and said, “Howard, you have a lot of nerve to be talking about sacrifice in Brentwood, Tennessee. In reflection, it seems children understood it best. Of course, the sacrifice God desires most is not an animal, but us. St. Paul concludes his treatise on the righteousness of Abraham in Romans 12:1 by saying “I appeal to you brothers and sisters to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God which is your spiritual ...

3648. Why Do People Suffer?

John 9:1-7

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... by someone in power, being mistreated by a parent, spouse or boss, it is not your fault. Find refuge and seek justice. It is not your sin; it is the sin of another that is causing your pain. As David discovered, albeit late, in the 51st Psalm of Confession, God desires truth and wisdom in the inner most parts of our beings. Some suffering is a result of other people's bad choices. All suffering is not the result of my sin or someone else's sin. It does not have a logical conclusion to it. It is at these two ...

3649. Jesus’ 10 Commandments

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of Mexico. We are possessed by a life style lubricated by more and more oil. We will do anything to keep the grease coming. We are possessed by a greed that puts profits before protecting people and the planet. We are possessed by an insatiable desire for “more stuff” — and the cost of that “stuff” is increasingly deadly. When Jesus banished the evil spirits from the Gerasene demoniac, he filled the man with a new identity and a new mission. Long before Saul became Paul on the Damascus Road, Jesus ...

3650. What Would Jesus Say About Materialism?

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... what it was that he wanted, he just said, “I need something,” because I am in the store. Is that human nature or is the American marketing imbedded so into a three-year old’s mind that wants quickly become needs driven by gnawing desires for something that is impossible to describe? Someone said we are a country of expanding wealth, but sinking spirits. Makeovers do not make us beautiful people. Exotic vacations do not give us peace of mind. Big houses do not guarantee happy families. Expensive gifts ...

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