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 351 to 375 of 679 results

351. Dealing with Our Doubts

Mark 9:14-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of religious agnosticism, the pendulum is swinging these days. Religion courses, even in secular universities, are filled to overflowing. Theologian Harvey Cox’s classes at Harvard are so full they can scarcely find rooms big enough to hold them these days. There is a wistful yearning and longing across the land, across the world. There’s a God-shaped void in our hearts, and we are trying to fill it. “I believe...help my unbelief!” isn’t a bad prayer for any of us at any time. There are tides of ...

352. What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... this mess somewhere—take me to Him!” I have a hunch that that is the cry of millions of people during this Advent season, all around the world. That is why this season strikes such a deep note of nostalgia in people’s hearts. We are yearning for something without, perhaps, even knowing what we seek. The Christian faith teaches us that what we seek is Jesus. Nothing more. Nothing less. As St. Augustine put it: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in ...

353. Whose Hand Is On Your Shoulder? (Part 4)

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... . On and on, Pastor Marks preached eloquently on this subject of nothing. A few months later, Pastor Marks returned to Ancaster and announced to the assembled crowd that this time he would preach on the word "something." There is something in man that yearns to live forever. There is something in the gospel that gives us hope. There is something about the Christian’s hope and joy that the world doesn’t understand. There is something out there beyond death. Pastor Robert Morgan, commenting on this story ...

354. Brokenness and Bread

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... create a responsible community on its own power, wisdom, and performance. The problem is just too large. There will always be a hungering for that which is satisfying and complete. The Good News of the Gospel is that God has heard our cries and knows our yearning for liberation from the bondage that now shackles us. The Good News of the Gospel is that God is willing to provide the "bread" we cannot provide and make for ourselves. God has seen the failed results of our desire to live without Him. On Maundy ...

355. Your Faith: Winning or Whining?

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... like a mustard seed...." As Paul writes in the eleventh chapter, he also felt led by God to explain very concisely to the Christian followers in that time exactly what faith was. I think we can correctly assume that there must have been many questions and yearnings on exactly what faith was and how they could be more faithful. I believe Paul sets the stage for us today when he states in verse 6 that "without faith it is impossible to please God." If we were honest, how many here today would whisper secretly ...

356. Trusting the Truth

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... sinking and shifting opinions of human beings. We need the truth. In our helplessness we are sinking and we are sinking fast. However, when we reach out for a love greater than we ourselves could ever express, seek a truth deeper than we could ever articulate, yearn for beauty richer than we ourselves could ever contain--when we too cry out "Lord, save me," the God who died to make us holy does indeed transform us. We cry out for a thimbleful of help, and we receive an oceanful in return. (6) James teaches ...

357. The Lord Is My Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... images that are shared in this great testimony of faith. There is a deep spiritual hunger in America and around the world for the natural, the authentic, the pastoral, the simple, the real thing. While you and I can never return to an agricultural world, we yearn for and spend billions of dollars for the images and items which bring a certain kind of peace and renewal. The Twenty-third Psalm will always continue to be a vital part of who we are and to speak pastorally in any environment until the end ...

358. The Reality of Fear--The Power of Faith

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... the hearts and minds of the Russian people. So this man of God, propelled by faith in God, found himself passing out Bibles right smack in a midst of the uprising in Red Square. The Soviet military was in position to silence the voice of the people yearning for freedom. He took to the streets with Bibles--the military was ready with bombs and bullets. So the priest and the members of the local bible society actually climbed onto the tanks and began passing out Bibles. They passed them out to the soldiers on ...

359. Making a Difference

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... or to reflect or to pray. Sitting under a fig tree was a sign of seeking and praying for God's living presence. Now, I realize that this church looks nothing like a fig tree. But isn't that why we're here? We have come together here with the yearning to know the touch of the living God. We come to "retreat" from the chaos of the world around us so we can read scripture, reflect, and pray. I hope you will see that, despite his relative anonymity, we do have much in common with Nathaniel. We also know about ...

360. Placard Faith, Complex World

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... appeal to those who have a reductionism bent. In effect these people say: "Look, we live in a world where there is enough uncertainty and confusion and so when it comes to my faith, I want it straight and simple." John, in these verses, obliges. Sometimes we yearn for a placard faith, given our complex world. Two, we can give credit to John for being enthusiastic, even if enthusiasm can lead to excess. Each Gospel writer has his own slant on Jesus and what he was about, and John exhibits the passion of one ...

361. What Goes on When He Comes in?

Acts 19:1-22

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... need for love. Without it in one way or another, we waste away. What comfort comes when we discover that at the heart of our universe there is not emptiness or meaninglessness but love, the very thing for which we were made, the very thing for which we yearn at the center of our humanness. Listen as the scripture describes the nature of the One who created and sustains all that exists: "Love is of God ... For God is love" (1 John 4:8). His defining essence, the attribute that coordinates all that he is and ...

362. Grace in the Midst of Unanswered Prayer

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... prayers it is always wise to pray that our concept of God may expand to a dimension we have not yet known. Whenever we are suffering we are not called to put our trust in a plan; we are called to put our trust in a Person. Most of us yearn to know the specifics of God's plan. "Lord, if only I knew why this were happening, I could bear it." That is profoundly untrue. It isn't knowledge or insight that brings comfort. What comforts the heart is the absolute conviction that no matter what is happening Jesus ...

363. Look Inside and Discover Life

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... item. Typically the people complained against Moses and his brother Aaron. As the human leaders of the nation, it was natural that they were the lightning rod that would attract most of the bitterness of the people. The complaints are often a litany of yearning for their former life in Egypt, protests over the lack of food and water along the journey, and their disgust with manna. Rarely did the people complain against God. In today's lesson, however, the people complain to Moses and to God. This passage ...

364. Being Christ

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... in you.” And the prayer of Jesus in the Upper Room which we read as a part of our corporate scripture lesson today is a prayer in the setting of Jesus celebrating the last Passover with the disciples, and it’s packed with a pathos of his longing, his deep yearning for all his followers. Listen to his prayer again, “It is not for these disciples alone that I pray. But I pray for all those who their words will believe in me. May they all be one. As you Father are in me, and I in you, may they be ...

365. Participants In The Gospel

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel thus about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits ...

366. A Scream And A Laugh

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... can become slaves again. So we stay conscious of and celebrate the fact that we are no longer slaves, but free." (Ibid., p. 344) III Now, the third way Paul builds his image: we have been transferred from condemnation to forgiveness. Go back to my introductory story of the yearning of Asher Lev, and the word of his teacher, "Art is whether or not there is a scream in you wanting to get out in a special way...a scream or a laugh." Of course there is in all of us -- many screams. But there is one big scream ...

367. Called To Finish What Is Finished

Colossians 1:24--2:5, Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... has gone on in their life -- or something has not gone on in their life that should have gone on -- and so they are incomplete in terms of their identity, in terms of self-affirmation, in terms of feelings of self-worth. They ache and they yearn for another -- maybe just one person – who will reach out and touch his or her heart -- who will extend hospitality of relationship -- and cause this person to know that they are loved by Christ as well as by another human being. My friend, Mark Trotter, is ...

368. In The Beginning And The End...God

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , rich tint of the cornfields, and the wild geese sailing high;. And all over upland and lowland, the charm of the goldenrod,Some call it Autumn,And others call it God. Like tides on a crescent sea beach When the moon is new and thin, Into our hearts' high yearnings Come a welling and surging in. Come from the mystic ocean,Whose rim no foot has trod Some of us call it Longing,And others call it God. A picket frozen on duty, A mother starved for her brood, Socrates drinking the hemlock, And Jesus on the rood ...

369. Draw Nigh To God

James 4:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... world--the lust for power, the passion for control, the desire to do as we please, the insistence that things be done our way that creates strife and plays havoc in our life and in our relationships. There's a beautiful phrase there in verse 5; "He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us". James is remembering the first of the Ten Commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) and, he isalso recalling that phrase in the second Commandment, "For I the Lord your ...

370. You Can't Tell A Book By Its Cover

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that God was guiding him." I suppose there are some who feel that his effort is monumental, and some who would feel that perhaps he is even "out of his right senses." "It's nothing heroic," Steve said: "Our family) saw it as an opportunity to fulfill a yearning for service, to do something for the next generation." When we love God and one another, we get the full enrichment of what the Christian faith has to offer because one plus one is more than two! You can't experience that kind of addition in life by ...

371. From Empty Nets to Full Lives

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... deeper values. The truth is, a person can have full nets but still have an empty life. After you've sold the fish in the market and have put a share of the money in the bank, you may still feel an emptiness deeper than empty nets and a yearning more poignant than the desire for economic security. You and I know some people like that; and there are many others in this category. It is sometimes said that the miracles of Jesus are parables in action; they teach a lesson. Jesus surely used this miracle in that ...

372. Commandments of Conduct

Nehemiah 7:73b--8:18

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... walk. Here is the way to abundant life. Walk in it, and so choose life." God points the way to abundant life by means of his commandments, because he loves us and wants only good for us. Both Old Testament and New tell us that. In Deuteronomy 4:29, God yearns for his people's good: "Oh that they had such a mind as this always," he says, "to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their children for ever!" God wants it to go well with us! God wants us ...

373. A Kingdom Investment Policy

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... in saints past and present. All to raise a question: What if the teaching is true? What if it is possible to live in a radical partnership with God? What if greed and the lust for always more is a deadly sin and foretaste of a hell where yearning is forever and forever unsatisfied? What if generosity, especially to those who do not in any way deserve it, is the light of God refracted through the lens of a human soul? What if treasure in heaven, meaning an immensely valuable partnership with God, is not just ...

374. The Birth Of Jesus

Luke 2:1-7

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... : Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased. Collect In a world of turmoil and conflict, we gather, Lord, to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Let your Spirit move among us, we pray, that the peace we yearn for may begin with each one of us, and then empower us to let our lights shine to enlighten this dark world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Prayer Of Confession God of the universe, made known to us in Jesus Christ, when things seem hopeless, and the world ...

375. Big Fish

John 21:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... episode on the Sea of Tiberias as a success story. The disciples did as Jesus said and pulled in nets brimming over with fish. But, if you were to ask any of them later if this made them successful, they would have said no. Their hungry souls yearned for more than full nets. The something more is what this story is really about. When their fishing was done, the disciples came to shore and communed with Christ. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Jesus took some bread and gave it to them, and ...

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