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 3726 to 3750 of 4959 results

3726. Epiphany 4, Ordinary Time 4

Psalm 15:1-5, Micah 6:1-8, Matthew 5:1-12, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Blessed are you who do this to remember me.” Send now your Spirit to this bread and cup, that in receiving your life given for us, our strivings and all our desires would be made new. May we hunger and thirst for your righteousness, and by the power of your Holy Spirit may we be remade in the strength of your love. All honor and glory is yours, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever. All: Amen. Benediction ...

3727. Epiphany 5, Ordinary Time 5

Psalm 112:1-10, Isaiah 58:1-9a, Matthew 5:13-16, 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... Leader: Gracious and holy God, All: we confess that we have run after the gods of our own making, that we have set ourselves above others, and that we have used the gifts you have given us for our own glory. Turn us from burdens of our selfish desires, our searching for power, and our appetites for opulence, so that we would seek to know you, crucified and risen, and to live out your merciful will. Leader: God our Father hears the prayers of his people and is merciful to them in their weakness, so that your ...

3728. Epiphany 9, Ordinary Time 9

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, Psalm 31:1-5, Matthew 7:15-23

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... Leader: O Lord, O God of truth, All: we confess to you that we have been ashamed of the gospel and of the life of holiness to which you have called us. We confess that we have sought our own righteousness, not yours. We confess that we have desired to make others in our image and likeness, so that they would honor us and our accomplishments, and by so doing, we have dishonored you. For the foolishness of our pride and the imprudence of our actions we seek your forgiveness. Leader: All have sinned and fall ...

3729. Lent 1

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Psalm 32:1-11, Matthew 4:1-11, Romans 5:12-19

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... . But you alone, O Lord, shine brighter than them all. Hold us close, that we might love you as you love us, fully, completely, and eternally. In the name of Christ. All: Amen. Offertory Prayer/Confession Of Faith Leader: To live out your word, O Yahweh, is our desire. In lifting up these gifts we say to the world: All: There is one God, creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all things. Leader: In lifting up these gifts we say to the world: All: You make all life holy. Leader: As we release what we have clung ...

3730. Proper 16, Pentecost 14, Ordinary Time 21

Psalm 138:1-8, Isaiah 51:1-6, Matthew 16:13-20, Romans 12:1-8

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... prayer. Students, staff, and teachers are invited to come forward and are encircled by the congregation. The pastor and three lay leaders may speak the blessings. Leader: We thank you, God in heaven, that you have created in us a holy inquisitiveness and a desire for learning. I: Bless our children and our teenagers as they begin a new school year. May they complete the tasks that will be set before them. May they gain a sense of mastery and purpose. May they develop new friendships. May they witness ...

3731. Proper 17/ Pentecost 15/ Ordinary Time 22

Matthew 16:21-28

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

Additional Readings: Jeremiah 15:15-21; Psalm 26:1-8; Romans 12:9-21 Prayer Of The Day Leader: O Jesus our Savior, turn our eyes toward you, that we would only seek your goodness. Open our mouths, that we would only speak that which you desire. Unclench our fists, so that we would trust you to make all things right, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. All: Amen. Gospel Litany Leader: Saving, losing, All: our lives are always in motion. Leader: Losing, ...

3732. Proper 18, Pentecost 16, Ordinary Time 23

Psalm 119:33-40, Ezekiel 33:7-11, Matthew 18:15-20, Romans 13:8-14

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... dimension and an inner one. There is what our families, neighbors, and colleagues feel when we act inappropriately, and then there are the intentions, the motives, and the fears that lie deep in our hearts. All: God sees them all; God hears them all; and God desires to set us free from every manner of evil. Leader: Let us confess our sins, now, in God’s presence. Silence for prayer and confession Leader: The God of love hears every prayer and sets you free to live in his name. As a called and ordained ...

3733. The Irrational Season

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... new, glitzy, and brightly-lit. Yet we want everything old-shoe, old-school, and comfortable. Walker Percy put it like this: “We don’t coincide with ourselves.” Human beings are an interwoven mare’s nest of conflicting needs and wants, dreams and desires. There is no “one thing” that we want. There is only “everything” that we want. And that is why at Advent we prepare for and give thanks for the “everything for everyone” that arrived with the Incarnation. We give “reason” a rest. We ...

3734. Santa Claus

Illustration

Charles L. Allen

... tells us that he was a young man of considerable wealth who gave himself to the work of the Lord and generously bestowed his worldly goods upon those whose needs were greater than his own. Usually he preferred to receive no credit for his benevolences, desiring rather to make his visits to the homes of the poor and unfortunate under the cloak of darkness so that no one would know who he was. This venerated man, we are further told, suffered tortures and imprisonment when the Emperor Diocletian was striving ...

3735. Playing the Blame Game

John 9:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... If you have a hurt of any kind, or a need of any kind, whether it is physical or mental or emotional or financial or whatever it may be don’t sit around wondering who is to blame. Don’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Focus on God’s desire for healing. Do what you can to bring healing. Focus on it, expect it. At, least believe that God wants to heal your heart, your attitude, your feelings about your hurt or need. Put yourself in a frame of mind to receive whatever healing God may have for you ...

3736. Man Is Never Satisfied

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Illustration

John W. Rilling

... , when asked to sketch a picture of man as he really is, Blake drew a picture of a child standing on the topmost rung of a ladder reaching for the moon and crying impatiently, "I want, I want!" Blake felt that man is a creature of unfulfilled desires. He never is satisfied. "Man never is, but always to be blest." And so life is a series of rungs - infancy succeeded by youth and maturity or perhaps we should say adulthood: yesterday an infant dropping the toy in hand for the pretty bauble beyond his reach ...

3737. Matthew 6:24-34

Matthew 6:25-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... pagan universe of “Gentiles” a myriad of competitive, combative gods and goddesses may or may not occasionally turn their attention to the mere mortals of this earth. No wonder striving after earthly things is constantly on the minds and ruling the desires of those who live without knowledge of the one “heavenly Father.” For Jesus’ Jewish audience the goal of life was more than a struggle for physical necessities. What God’s children were to “strive” for, first and foremost, must be “the ...

3738. Life’s Three Guides on the Pilgrim Way

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Whenever the hug of a small child melts our soul, we can be assured that a guide from above has visited us. Whenever the glory of creation astounds our eyes, we can be assured that a guide from above has visited us. Whenever the love for life overcomes the personal desire to protect our own life, we can be assured that God has sent a guide from above to help us. All night, all day, angels watchin’ over me, my Lord. All night, all day, angels watchin’ over me.

3739. The Strong Timber Is Tested

Matthew 4:1-11

Illustration

Lee Griess

... all around us here." "I know," he said, "but I need strong timber and it grows only on the highest elevations, where the trees are tested and toughened by the weather around them. The higher up you go, the stronger the timber grows." And that is what God desires for us — that through the winds of trial and the storms of temptation we would grow strong and live on a higher level — strong to resist the devil's urging, strong to serve God, and strong as we stand together in faith and service to one another ...

3740. The Price of Giving In to Sin

Matt 4:1-11; Mark 1:9-13; Luke 4:1-13

Illustration

Ronald Meredith

... fluttered a feeble response. The urge to fly to take their place in the sky for which God made them was sounding in their feathered breasts, but they never raised from the water. The matter had been settled long ago. The corn of the barnyard was too tempting! Now their desire to fly only made them uncomfortable. Temptation is always enjoyed at the price of losing the capacity for flight.

3741. John 4:5-42

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the Jews and their “kissing cousins,” the Samaritans. That long-established lack of love between Jews and Samaritans is the underlying landscape of today’s gospel text. Jesus left Judea and started back towards Galilee using the more-traveled, but less-desirable route that passed through Samaritan lands. John’s text insists that Jesus “had to go through Samaria,” a mandate that ignores the TransJordan route and suggests to some scholars that this was a missional, not a geographical choice. If so ...

3742. Caught in the Fence

Matt 23:11-12

Illustration

Keith Wagner

... in the fence. They panicked and brayed uncontrollably at being unable to free themselves. The cartoonist wisely described the situation with one word: "Discontent." Like the mules, when we focus on what we don't have we become blinded to the blessings that surround us. There is nothing wrong with desiring something, but to think that life is greater in someone else's pasture will result in our being trapped. We have new life when we live with humility.

3743. The Five-a-Day Rule

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the spiritual and sugar high of Easter Sunday is wearing off. Hence the colloquial designation of this week as “Low Sunday.” After the “high” of Easter, we come back to the everydayness of life. It is when we are most “low” in energy, in desire, in hope that we start to entertain the most doubts about ourselves, our lives, our choices and our faith. With Spring Break lines behind them and a long time until summer vacation, even the most serious student can start to doubt the value of slogging ...

3744. Will You Dance the Metanoia with Me?

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a wrong direction. Somehow we are have gotten on the wrong track. What no one can agree upon is what the right track is. As people of faith we ask this question: How do we get “turned around?” How can we get our lives on track with what God desires for us? Jesus offered himself as a three-step “dance” to take us in that right direction. Jesus offered himself as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” When we 180 our lives around in the act of “metanoia,” when we genuinely repent and do an about ...

3745. 1 Peter 2: 2-10

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... an image of weakness into an image of eager new beginnings. Unlike Paul’s use of “milk” as a metaphor for the diet of spiritually immature believers (1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:12-14), Peter uses an infants instinctually strong desire for milk as a template to illustrate the natural urge of a “newborn” Christian for the nourishment of “pure spiritual milk.” Those who have heard and accepted the gospel message are offered the “rebirth” of salvation and those who have experienced the ...

3746. Family Resemblance

John 14:5-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... his father. Before he left the shop, however, he held up the mirror for one more look. In the mirror staring back at him this time he saw not only his own face, but the face of his friend. It was amazing in the six months of association and the desire to please his new-found friend he had grown to look like his friend, who was indeed his father. (2) Jesus says in our lesson for today, “When you have seen me, you have seen my father.” And that is often true, isn’t it? Children often resemble their ...

3747. When We Glimpse Paradise

John 14:1-4

Illustration

Robert Allen

... longer unhappy or uncomfortable. He had grown accustomed to his environment and came to think of his chains as friends. One day a bird perched on the crevice of the ledge above and began to sing. It was the sweetest music he had ever heard. Suddenly, the desire to see the outside world overwhelmed him. He grabbed the walls of his cell, and began climbing and struggling up the wall so that he could look out of the little window. In that moment, he saw a world that he had forgotten. There was a crystal blue ...

3748. A Lesson from Dr. Seuss

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... with God’s will for wholeness and health. It means choosing daily, with God’s help, attitudes and actions that bring God glory. Olympic swim coach Daniel F. Chambliss put it like this: “Great accomplishments, we often assume, require heroic motivation: an intense desire to be the best, an inner strength beyond all measure, some special love of school, of family, of country. Some one of these must, we think, drive the superlative athlete . . . In fact,” he says, “world class athletes get to the top ...

3749. The Parable of the Soil

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in the year. Before we become “dust” we are first “dirt.” Being “sacred soil” is the greatest investment we can make in our future — in the future of Jesus’ kingdom of heaven. In January 2009 Matthew West wrote a song about Christian complacency and his desire to, as he put it, "break free from the average, ordinary, lukewarm Christian life.” West said he wrote the song after being "tired of that constant settling for a stale faith. God is a God of passion. His true plan for our lives is ...

3750. Will They Grow? God Only Knows.

Matthew 13:1-23

Illustration

Johnny Dean

... camp was a little praise chorus I had taught them, "Lord, You Are." Do you know it? It's a quiet, beautiful hymn of praise. Lord, you are more precious than silver; Lord, you are more costly than gold. Lord, you are more beautiful than diamonds. Nothing I desire compares to you. Now, you can call me a dreamer, or call me a cockeyed optimist. You can say I was grabbing at straws, trying desperately to see something positive coming from that difficult week. But I think I saw a few sprouts that day. Will they ...

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