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 3701 to 3725 of 4962 results

3701. Positive Faith

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

The teacher of a junior high class was trying to illustrate the word miracle. "Young people," he said, "Suppose I stood on the roof of a 10-story building, lost my balance and fell off. Then all of a sudden, in midair, a whirlwind swept me up and brought me safely to the ground. Now what word would you use to describe this?" After a long silence a boy raised his hand and asked, "Luck?" "True, true," replied the teacher. "It could be luck. But that's not the word I wanted. I'll repeat the story. There I am ...

3702. The Present

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

A man was traveling from Indianapolis, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois. He didn't realize that Indianapolis is on Eastern Standard Time and Chicago is on Central Standard Time. He inquired at the Indianapolis airport about a plane to Chicago. “The next flight leaves at 1:00 p.m.," a ticket agent said, “and arrives in Chicago at 1:01 p.m." “Would you repeat that, please?" the startled traveler asked. “The next flight leaves at 1:00 p.m.," the ticket agent repeated, “and arrives in Chicago at 1:01 p.m. Do you ...

3703. A Prophet Among Them

Ezekiel 2:1-3:15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A couple of years ago I was smitten in my heart by a word I heard in the ordination service of the Free Methodist Church. It was verses 4 and 5 of Ezekiel 2. Listen to it: “The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them. ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’ And whether they listen – for they are a rebellious house – they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (NIV) Get the setting in mind. Ezekiel is sharing his personal story of God coming to him in a vision, and ...

3704. God's Dirty Job

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Do you ever have family TV night? How do you battle for control of the remote? Or are there any choices everyone can agree on? In a lot of households there is one that crosses all generations. It’s on the Discovery Channel. It’s called “Dirty Jobs.” This surprising hit has host Mike Rowe taking on a new, disgusting, you-never-even-thought-of-doing-that “dirty job” each week. He has cleaned dairy farm floors. He has plucked stinging blood worms out of low tide muck. He has scrubbed out penguin enclosures ( ...

3705. A Song for Tomorrow

Psalm 1:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

It occurred to me the other day just how much God loves music. Think about this – the only art of earth that we take to heaven is music. I don't know what all we are going to do in heaven, but if you sing or play an instrument already I know one of the things you are going to be doing. Even if you don't sing and you don't play, you are going to learn very quickly - perhaps to do both. The Bible makes it very plain there is always music in heaven. Of all the arts and crafts that human kind has learned over ...

3706. Ministering When You Are Not Welcome

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

Jesus knew what to do all the time, and he knew how to go about it. He knew how to serve God in good times and in bad. In these scriptures from Luke, we continue to follow Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. But for now, the apparent destination of the trip has receded to the background. Something else has caught our attention. For one thing, Jesus' message of announcing the coming of the kingdom of God is being met with increasing curiosity. There is, at the same time, growing hostility to what Jesus has to ...

3707. The Difference between Knowing and Doing

Galatians 2:15-21

Sermon

John Jamison

It is difficult to be the church. What we have been asked to do here is not easy. Jesus' directive to love one another sounds like it should be a fairly straightforward thing to do. Now, I don't want to shock anyone here this morning, but I do have to admit that there have been times in our history that there have been disagreements in the church; disagreements about what it means to love one another. Some of those disagreements are over what it really means to love, and some of those disagreements are ...

3708. Your King Comes

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

King Duncan

Belle Starr was one of the few women outlaws in the Old West, and so she gained widespread notoriety. One day, Judge Isaac Parker was attempting to try a case, but he couldn’t get the courtroom’s attention. Even the members of the jury had wandered from the jury box to stare out the courtroom windows. What was the source of all the excitement? Outlaw Belle Starr was riding by on her horse, and everyone in town wanted to catch a glimpse of her. The judge had to call a five-minute recess to deal with the ...

3709. Be A Barnabas

Acts 4:33-37

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Years ago, in Reader's Digest, I remember reading about a soldier, Corporal Jones, who after his tour of duty overseas was sent to a stateside induction center where he advised new recruits about their government benefits, especially GI insurance. It didn't take long for him to have the best sales record, not just in the area, but in the national, almost 100%. His officers in his chain of command were amazed. Rather than ask him how he did it, one of the officers stood in the back of the room one day and ...

3710. Characteristics of the Church

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

In one of his novels, William Faulkner wrote, “That which is destroying the church is not the outward groping of those with in it, or the inward groping of those without, but the professionals who control it and have removed the bells from its steeples.” (quoted by Dr. Lovitt H. Weems, Jr., at his Inaugural Address as President of St. Paul’s School of Theology, December 11, 1985.) I don’t know everything that Faulkner meant by that. He may have been talking about the fact that the professionals within the ...

3711. Being Open to the Impossible

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There is an old story about Albert Einstein. He was going around the country from university to university on the lecture circuit, giving lectures on his theory of relativity. He traveled by chauffer-driven limousine. One day, after they had been on the road for awhile, Einstein’s chauffeur said to him, “Dr. Einstein, I’ve heard you deliver that lecture on relativity so many times that I’ll bet that I could deliver it myself.” “Very well,” the good Doctor responded, “I’ll give you that opportunity tonight ...

3712. Tears, Perfume and Forgiveness

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

There was a certain young woman who was nervous about meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time. As she checked out her appearance one last time, she noticed that her shoes looked dingy. So she gave them a fast swipe with the paper towel she had used to blot the bacon she had for breakfast. Arriving at the impressive home of her potential in-laws, she was greeted by the parents and their much-beloved, but rotten-tempered, poodle, Cleo. Well, the dog got a whiff of the bacon grease on the young ...

3713. God’s Most Troubling Promise

Romans 8:28

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that life is full of challenges? Have you noticed that, sooner or later, all of us are going to have some pretty steep mountains to climb? I heard about a woman named Jill whose car was unreliable. She called her friend John for a ride every time her car broke down. One day John got yet another one of those calls. “What happened this time?” he asked. “My brakes went out,” Jill said. “Can you come and get me?” “Where are you?” John asked. “I’m in the drugstore,” Jill responded. “And ...

3714. When The Baker Becomes the Bread!

John 6:51-58

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

A story is told of a well-to-do man of a former generation who on his brisk early morning walk would daily meet a workingman on his way to the factory. One day as they passed each other, the wealthy man added to his usual nod-of-the-head greeting these words of complaint, "I have no choice but to make this walk early each morning to get a stomach for my meat." The workingman responded, "And I must walk this early each morning to get meat for my stomach!" The reality is that neither man was truly satisfied ...

3715. Sons of God

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

3:26 The basis upon which Paul makes the previous statement in verse 25 is his conviction that the Galatians are all sons of God by virtue of their being in Christ Jesus. Paul continues to work with the metaphor of inheritance to underscore that all of his readers are inheritors of God’s promise. Paul emphasizes that the Galatians already are “sons” or inheritors of God’s promise. (Paul’s use of “sons” is meant not to exclude the female members of the Galatian churches, but to work with the inheritance ...

3716. A Woman Burdened with Guilt

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

Years ago a religious talk show hostess was interviewing a new believer. The new believer had come from the wrong side of the tracks--economically, socially, morally, and spiritually. As he gave his testimony, this man, who had seen it all and done it all continually thanked God for the change God had made in his life. “I can’t express,” he said, “the gratitude I feel that God has changed my life.” The talk show hostess knew where he was coming from--for she, too, had walked on life’s wild side before ...

3717. The Guilt Offering

Leviticus 5:14--6:7

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

Big Idea: The guilt offering shows how to repent. Understanding the Text Leviticus 1:1–6:7 is addressed to the laity, giving them instructions about five types of sacrifices. It is organized around those that the layperson could voluntarily choose to offer (burnt, grain, and fellowship offerings), followed by those that the layperson must offer whenever certain offenses have occurred (sin and guilt offerings). The guilt offering is meant to address offenses against holy things, whether done by directly ...

3718. “Taste and See That the Lord Is Good”

Psalm 34:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: Having experienced God’s goodness, we invite others to “taste and see that the Lord is good” and thus experience the assuagement of their fears. Understanding the Text In addition to being an alphabetic acrostic,[1] Psalm 34 shares at least three other features with Psalm 25, another acrostic: (1) the waw (the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet) is missing from both poems; (2) each closes with a supernumerary verse beginning with the Hebrew letter pe; and (3) the same verb begins each of these ...

3719. The Baby or the Window?

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

King Duncan

It was one of those terrible summertime scenarios you read about from time to time. It was early September in San Antonio, Texas. The thermometer stood at 99 degrees. A woman accidentally locked her 10-month-old niece inside a parked car. Quite frantically she and her sister, the baby’s mother, ran around the auto in near hysteria. A by-stander tried to help. He attempted to unlock the car with a clothes hanger. Soon the infant was turning purple and had foam on her mouth. It was becoming a life-or-death ...

3720. Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

The Nature of Enthusiasm This section addresses a new topic, namely, spiritual gifts (or the spiritual gifts of the spiritual ones). The modern reader of this passage may miss simple elements of Paul’s discussion because of the distance between the worldviews of the first century and the present day. No matter what one thinks about such matters at the turn of the twenty-first century, from what Paul wrote, it is clear that he assumed the reality of extraordinary spiritual experiences and understood that ...

3721. Proper 11

Amos 8:1-14, Luke 10:38-42, Colossians 1:21-28

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Amos 8:1-12 Yahweh shows Amos a basket of summer fruit. Because of Israel's wickedness, judgment will come upon the people. The basket contains summer fruit to indicate the end is near. Among the catastrophies that will happen to Israel is not a famine of physical food but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. Lesson 2: Colossians 1:21-28 Through the cross Christ reconciled those once estranged that they might be blameless before God, and Paul explains the purpose of his sufferings ...

3722. I Am The Way, The Truth, And The Life

Sermon

Ronald Lavin

Simon Peter said, "Lord, we do not know where you are going"...Thomas said, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." -- John 13:36--14:6 (J.B.) ____________ Have you ever gotten lost or felt anxious because of the absence of someone on whom you depended? That's what the apostles felt one day, shortly before the death of Jesus, as the Master talked with them in the upper room where the Lord's supper was instituted. The ...

3723. Proper 20

Proverbs 31:10-31, Mark 9:30-37, James 3:13-18; 4:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: A warning against selfish ambition, which fractures community. Rather, Jesus teaches us to receive the kingdom like a child and find our joy in Christ-like service. COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Proverbs 31:10-31 (C) This description of a more than capable wife contrasts with the position of women in most of the societies of the Middle East. In many cultures women were almost considered property. In this description, she is able to purchase property on her own and she has her own business. Four traits seem ...

3724. Proper 11

Colossians 1:15-23, Luke 10:38-42, Genesis 18:16-33, Colossians 1:24--2:5, Psalm 15:1-5

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Depending on the lectionary followed and the calendar year used in this cycle, this Sun-day could very well fall near August 6. Liturgical "old-timers" in some churches will remember that August 6 is, or was, the date for celebrating the Transfiguration of Our Lord. The Book of Common Prayer continues a practice formerly followed by Lutheran books of worship: Namely, that the Transfiguration is observed on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany by the use of the readings for the ...

3725. Where is the Nearest Sycamore Tree?

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Theologian John Killinger has written that Zaccheus is just about the only person in the New Testament who is singled out for comment on the basis of his physical appearance, the fact that he was small in stature. Whenever I read this passage of scripture, I can’t help but think about the song about short people that was popular a few years ago, remember? Maybe that’s part of the appeal of this story, because so many of us are not happy with our physical appearance. How else could you explain the immense ...

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