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 3776 to 3800 of 5000 results

3776. Yes! (Easter Sunday)

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... Yes, Yes, Yes.” Yes is what Easter is about. God’s yes to humanity, as God grants to us the gift of immortality. God’s yes to Jesus and all Jesus taught us about the meaning of life. God’s yes to the victory of life over death, love over hate, faith over fear, hope over despair. Everything about Easter says, “Yes, Yes, Yes.” Recently I read a hilarious story about a six-year-old boy named David who was taking a walk one day with his grandmother. They decided to detour through the local graveyard ...

3777. The Gospel According to Johan

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

... to go until he was forced to go. Jesus, however, came to do the "will of his father." Jonah spent three days in the stomach of a great fish because of his disobedience. Jesus spent three days in a tomb of earth and death as an act of obedient love. Not only did the people of Nineveh repent, but the king also repented and joined his subjects by putting on mourning clothes and sitting in ashes. The king then called for a fast and admonished all of his subjects to turn from their evil and wickedness. How did ...

3778. Death Leads to Life

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... all corners of the world." The third tree viewed the valley from its mountaintop and said, "I don't want to be made into anything. I just want to remain here and grow tall so I can remind people to raise their eyes and think of God in heaven who loves them so much." Years passed and the trees grew tall and mighty. Then one day three woodcutters climbed the mountain in order to harvest some trees. As they cut down the first tree one of the men said, "We will make this one into a manger." The tree shook its ...

3779. Martyrs, Monsters, and Miracles

Acts 9:19b-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... he was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences. How does it happen--a supposedly nice man turns out to be a monster? I have no answer. But I do have an answer for a similar question: How can a monster become a new man or woman of love, even one fashioned into the image of Christ? Chapter eight of Acts begins right after the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. It begins with these words: "And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the ...

3780. A Converting Presence

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... working in us. We don’t convert people, the spirit converts people. We’re not saved by our own moral self-improvement, nor by refining our belief system, nor by doing and being better and better. We are saved by the grace of God. By allowing God’s power of love to work radically within our lives. And the spirit moves as he wills. We don’t control the spirit. Like the wind, we hear the sound of it and we see the sign of it, but we don’t know from whence it comes or whither it goes. The indwelling ...

3781. Gethsemane: Prelude To The Cross

Mark 14:32-42

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... his free arm he raked the sleeve of his work— shirt across his eyes. It was the first time I ever seen him cry. The only time.” (Don Shelby, “Cross-Examined: Do we need Proof Or Are We Afraid?”). That’s a Daddy - a pig-sticking Daddy who loved his son and felt his son’s pain along with his own, when what had to be done was devastating to both. So the big lesson of Gethsemane is this: “If you can call God Father, everything becomes bearable. Time and again we will not understand, but always we ...

3782. A Scream And A Laugh

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... be connected with God, to have the veil of the temple rent in twain from top to bottom in order that we can enter the Holy of Holies and be with God. A longing for the certainty that our sins are forgiven, and that we are accepted by God, and loved eternally. That's what Paul is saying here. In every letter, Paul sang the joy of this experience: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) The Cross is our proof that God has accepted us and no power in the universe ...

3783. The Secret: Christ In You

Colossians 1:24--2:5

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... divine commission, a commission granted to me for your benefit and for a special purpose: that I might fully declare God's Word -- that sacred mystery which up till now has been hidden in every age and every generation, but which is now as clear as daylight to those who love God. They are those to whom God has planned to give a vision of the full wonder and splendor of his secret plan for the sons of men. And the secret is simply this: Christ in you! Yes, Christ in you bringing with him the hope of all the ...

3784. The Ministry Of Making Many Rich

1 Timothy 6:11-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... God was upon them to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, to recover the sight of the blind and to set free those who are bruised...to make others rich by sharing the good news of salvation and by letting them know by our love, care, and attention that they are important, that they mean something to God. So, there it is — the ministry of making many rich. The Christian Walk is a walk of generosity, because we come to know that all of life is gift — that the call of the Christian ...

3785. God Is Like A Mother

Isaiah 66:1-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the energy that is hers, she does it even though her head and her body is bloodied. It's a graphic picture of the protecting love of a mother hen, and Jesus says that's what He wanted to do for Jerusalem. He wanted to gather the children of Jerusalem unto ... comforted her saying, "Everything is all right, Honey. You know I wouldn't leave you out here all alone. You know how much I love you. You knew I would come, didn't you? As Rufus Jones saw that young mother coming to rescue her daughter, he remembered that ...

3786. Blessed Are Those Who Are Awake

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... was creative and fulfilling. The community of faith of which I was a part was alive and vibrant. I was a part of the lives of many people, and they were a part of mine. It was the kind of congregation that most ministers dream of serving. I loved my people; I felt loved; I was secure; I had meaning. I was “on top” and life had never been more thrilling. “Then, out of the blue, came a letter from the Editor of The Upper Room, inquiring if I would be interested in coming to the staff of The Upper Room ...

3787. Come To The Party!

Luke 14:15-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and then sneered as he answered, "No you don't. There's no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. I'd join a church like that!" (Tony Campolo, The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Word Publishing) Well, wouldn't we all? Wouldn't we all love to join a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning? Does that sound too radical for you? Well, that's what Jesus was talking about. In the earlier part of chapter 14, Jesus told another parable -- similar to this one and He closed that ...

3788. Gratitude Takes Practice

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... life. We can get so used to the familiar things of life that we never really see them as the gifts of God they are: life, love, friends, beauty, work and worship. We begin to take sunsets and sunrises, moon shadows and butterflies, a friend's smile, our child's face and loaf ... children laugh ever again?Do I never want to feel the warmth of another creature next to me?Do I really want to hurt people who love me?Do I want to leave a permanent hole in the life of my family?Do I have more to say to those close to ...

3789. The Grace Question: Are You A Teacher...and Yet Do Not Understand?

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... was getting dressed. Removing the shoe, she found a wad of paper inside. Slowly, she unfolded the paper and a quarter fell out. Spreading the paper out in front of her, she found a note written on it in Richard's 7-year-old scrawl. "I done it for love." Love is a matter of grace. It's always gift. And we could go on and on: The most important things that are ours are ours because of grace. III. Now a final word. Not only our salvation, but the Christian life -- the whole of the Christian life -- is grace ...

3790. The Wholeness Question: Do You Want To Be Made Well?

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... man's will. Over those long years of being an invalid, long years of disappointment and apparent hopelessness, the man's will had been numbed. So Jesus addresses that essential point of who we are: Our will. Many of you read Bernie Segall's book, Peace, Love and Healing. I recommend it to all of you, but I especially wish every doctor in the congregation would read it. Dr. Segall described an older man who had cancer and had a remarkable recovery. In talking about that man's recovery, Dr.Segall said, "John ...

3791. Adopted! (New)

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... three girls, her heart had gone out to this sad little boy from the very first day of school. It broke her heart when he introduced himself by saying, "I'm Jeremy, and I don't have a family. I never will because I'm too old for anybody to love me." At the end of the school year, after the adoption was finalized, Jeremy proudly announced to his principal, "When school started I was nobody. Now I'm a Carter." (2) St. Paul wanted a way to describe to the Christians at Ephesus what it meant to belong to God ...

3792. Salvation Oracle

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... At every baptism the Christian name of the person is pronounced, and that person becomes God's child. No longer does the baptized person belong to the world. No, he or she belongs to God, and the promise is that nothing can snatch the baptized person out of the loving hand of God who has claimed her or him. To be sure, evil may come and tribulations may abound in a baptized person's life. As our text says in verse 2, we may "walk through the fire" of trial and suffering, we may be almost overwhelmed by the ...

3793. Imitators of God

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... : “Once you were no people, but now you are God’s people, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” And, since Peter is rooted in the Old Testament, he begins to apply title after title on this “no people” who had been loved into redemptive being by the grace of God. He calls them a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. There should not be even a hint of strangeness in this notion for a seminary which has grown out of the soil of the Methodist holiness tradition ...

3794. Standing In the Gap: The Work of Intercession

2 Chronicles 7:11-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... been driven to their knees because of their children—the urgent need of their children? Then there is the lesson of willing love. As already indicated, hospitality was a big issue in the culture of Jesus. So a visitor could feel that he could knock ... energy and resources that we pray. It is when we know how utterly insufficient we are to meet the needs of those persons we love that we begin to do the hard work of intercession. Then there is this fourth dimension to the picture. We call it importunity. Now ...

3795. How To Please God

Hebrews 13:1-25

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... forget to do good and to help one another. People: These are the sacrifices that please God. All: Praise be to God! Collect Eternal and Everlasting God, we know that you are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and that we can depend on your never-changing love revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to you, O God; may our lips show forth your praise. Individually and collectively as a church, we offer up ourselves to be used by you for the building of your kingdom and the spreading of your gospel of ...

3796. The Seven Delightful Blessings of the Word of God in the Believer's Life

Psalm 119:169-176

Sermon

Michael Milton

... for your journey. I was reminded of one form of sustenance on a recent trip with my son. We rode up to the SmokeyMountains and went fly fishing. While on this trip, I came across a big sign that advertised cat-head biscuits. Some of you know how much I love cat-heads. A cat-head biscuit is just a really big biscuit. The thought of a big, hot, fluffy, cat-head biscuit, with a slight brown crust on the top and creamy white on the interior and a large smear of real butter melting in the middle, was just too ...

3797. The One Who Came Still Comes; The One Who Spoke Still Speaks

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Michael Milton

... things to come to you, my beloved. He employs human beings and circumstances to come into your life. The Scriptures are clear. You did not choose me, but I chose you… (John 15:16, NIV). And that golden text for the Christian life: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). I think of Paul who is in prison in Rome, and it would seem to us that the gospel would never be able to go forth. But Paul would write, I ...

3798. What's in It for Me?

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Michael Milton

... divested of the “one thing.” We must also divest ourselves, of what Jesus called “one thing.” Jesus looked at the young man and loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing.” The thing keeping him from God was his wealth. Jesus went on to teach ... God met every need as we packed up and went to seminary. I gave up that job, that home, that beautiful community that I loved so much, but God gave back more than a hundredfold. He has given us freedom, beautiful family members in the body of Christ. He ...

3799. Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... be slaves to bad religion. We can be slaves to sin. But it need not be. Christ has come to set us free. What is freedom to St. Paul? It is life lived in the Spirit of Christ. He writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self‑control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit ...

3800. Discipline

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... frustration; it has no real goal of helping the child learn and grow. It’s a lot easier to ignore a child than it is to lovingly help that child grow into a responsible human being. Discipline is a means of helping a child be all he or she can be. The writer ... brutalized her. She was a committed Christian person, and tried everything to be the kind of wife a husband would love and cherish. One Sunday, her pastor preached a sermon on forgiveness and emphasized Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount ...

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