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 3826 to 3850 of 5000 results

3826. The Messed Up

John 4:1-26

Sermon

James Merritt

... have messed up at one time or another. Key Take Away: Fess up to your mess up and Jesus will clean up your mess. There is no mess up that Jesus can’t clean up. For all of us, who are in this category (Shock alert! We all are!) I want to share with you how you can get out of your mess. I. We Should Understand Jesus Is Waiting To Meet Us “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his ...

3827. Everything Counts

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... is not to have money and I know what it is to have money. On the whole, it is a lot better to have money.” I want you to look at everything that you have, whether it is your money, your house, your car, your clothes, real estate, stocks, your bonds, your 401K ... he, James, my brother Richard and I, went over to Athens to see the Dawgs beat South Carolina. On the way to the stadium, he wanted to get a smoothie from Smoothie King and we all decided to get one too, and I offered to pay for all four. He pulls ...

3828. When You Reach the Rejection Hotline

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... can make in a person’s heart. There is another young woman I read about who feels a deep connection to these verses. Here is her testimony: “I am the second child of my mother . . . a single mom . . . and when she gave birth to me, she decided that she never wanted me, so just like Moses was placed in a basket and sent down a river, I was placed under a plum tree in front of my father’s house. A lady was passing by and told my paternal grandmother that I was outside under the tree. My father came and ...

3829. Planting Your Feet

Psalm 32:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

... what we need to do. When you have sinned against someone else as David did, when you go to God and get forgiveness, then you go to others that you have hurt and done wrong and you ask their forgiveness. What if they refuse to forgive you? What if they want to hold on to their grudge and bitterness? At that point, their problem is no longer your problem and never let anyone keep you on the freeway of guilt when God has put you on the exit ramp of grace. Perhaps you are one of these people and even though ...

3830. Shockproof

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

James Merritt

... a biblical responsibility to heal the relationship and to restore what has been ruptured. Now we are going to get into the nitty-gritty of the process of forgiveness itself. It is one thing to know that you need to forgive. It is one thing to know that you want to forgive, but it is an entirely different thing to get to the point where you do forgive. The secret in how to do that is found in a beautiful little book in the New Testament called “Ephesians.” [Turn to Ephesians 5] In two short verses we are ...

3831. It's Not Rocket Science

John 8:31-41

Sermon

James Merritt

... is truth and the source of truth, if His word is truth, then the study of astronomy or quantum physics, or microbiology should lead us not only into scientific truth, but truth that will square with scriptural truth.[1] That is why I have a problem with people who want to so quickly blow off the Bible when it comes to the area of science. We have heard it over and over. Let science deal with science. Let the Bible deal with things that really don’t matter and never the twain shall meet. If there is such a ...

3832. Dealing with Cantankerous People

Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Sermon

King Duncan

... most people trash. Freud, of course had a very dim view of religion. No wonder he didn’t find much good in people. I don’t want to sound like I’m blowing our trumpet, but I wish he could know some of the people I’ve come to know in this church and ... man made me just like him. I began to do things the way he did, and that accounts for what I am today.” (5) If you want to be better than you are right now, spend time in the company of someone who embodies the virtues you would like to acquire. Or be ...

3833. A Man Named Many

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... Gospel is about a man who, at one time in his life, would have been the last person in his community to find any silver lining. I want to introduce you to a most unusual man--a man named “Many.” Not Manny, with two n’s, but Many, M-a-n-y. Let me ... are yet another person. Our personalities are torn asunder by the tension of what we are, what we seem to be to the world, and how we want to be seen. Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank spoke for most of us when she said, “The trouble with me is that I am ...

3834. The Wrong Gift

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... we die a horrible death. Our trips "home" are only a pale imitation of the place we belong and merely a wayside rest stop on a restless journey to the real home of God's love and God's eternity. More than we know that is where we all truly want to go. Only in finding Jesus and the coming of God's kingdom will our desires find fulfillment and our longings be satisfied. Only then will our homesickness end. That is why this "wrong" gift of God keeps giving each year. Perhaps it is not the gift that is "wrong ...

3835. Shall We Waddle or Fly?

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... said to his teammates. “We’ll try a quick running play that will take us past the bench. As we pass the bench, I want one of you to drop out. If we can do this fast enough, the referee may not notice and we can avoid a penalty.” ... body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body . . .” Well-known retired ...

3836. Mighty Morphin Power People

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... to an inner change that is lasting and permanent. And it happens to anyone who truly comes to see Christ as he really is. This is the purpose of worship. True worship results in an ongoing change of our personality, of who we are as human beings. God wants us to have real change in our nature and personality, not just a surface change that is an exterior image. The process of transformation is the renewing of our mind. “As a person thinks in his heart, so is he,” says the writer of Proverbs (23:7). The ...

3837. A Lost Boy

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... !’ And my Daddy said, ‘Son, there’s the door, don’t let it hit you on the backside on the way out.’ I didn’t really want to go, but I was so angry that I went to my room and packed everything I could fit into my suitcase. As I went to leave, ... . The cross was God’s way of emptying Heaven’s linen closet of everything white so that it would be known for all-time that God wants us home. No matter what we’ve done, or where we’ve been--for us please just to come home. (1) Some of you have seen ...

3838. Little Savages

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Every baby starts life like a little savage—completely egotistic and self-centered. Babies want what they want, when they want it, be it a bottle, mother’s attention, or a dry diaper. Deny a baby these “wants” and he or she is seized with rage. Babies have no morals, no knowledge, no skills for survival. All children, not just certain children, are potential delinquents! If permitted to continue in the self-centered world of their infancy, where they gave free rein to every impulse and had every ...

3839. Solomon Asks for Wisdom

2 Chronicles 1:1-17

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... a reference that alludes to its Benjaminite background again (see commentary on 1 Chron. 21:28–22:1). 1:7–12 The next part of the narrative deals with the appearance of God to Solomon. The following conversation, starting with God’s introductory ask for whatever you want me to give you, leads to Solomon asking in 1:9–10 that the Lord’s promise to his father David be confirmed, as well as for wisdom and knowledge. This is done on account of the great kindness that God showed to David (as expressed ...

3840. Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam

2 Chronicles 10:1--11:4

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart” (9:23). Whereas Solomon could provide words of wisdom, Rehoboam had to go and seek wisdom. 10:16–19 The narrative now reaches its deepest point. Having heard that Rehoboam does not want to make any concession to them, the Israelites exclaim: What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David! This spells rebellion and schism. That Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was ...

3841. The Trial Before Felix

Acts 24:1-27

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... Paul began by answering the charge of treason. He had not been in Jerusalem long enough to stir up insurrection, even if he had wanted to. The twelve days (v. 11) appears to be intended as an actual figure. The shortness of the time would enable Felix to investigate ... have him acquitted (there was no way that Paul could justly be condemned). But before he would set him free, he wanted it made worth his while. The taking of bribes was forbidden by Roman law (the Lex Julia de repetundis), but provincial ...

3842. Accusations

2 Corinthians 10:1-18

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... it is probably in order to persuade and warn those members of the congregation who either remain hostile to him or may be inclined in that direction. Hence, although the reference to the Corinthians remains general (you), and positive comments about the majority are not wanting (e.g., 10:15), the appeal is obviously more specific at points. Some people refers either to the unrepentant members of the church in Corinth who follow Paul’s opponents (cf. 2:6; 11:4; 12:21) or to the opponents themselves (cf. 3 ...

3843. Identification and a Wish for Grace and Peace

Galatians 1:1-10

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... defending himself against what is likely a charge against him—that he is a people pleaser. Those who have come into his churches to teach that observance of the law is essential may have been presenting Paul’s law-free gospel as a sign of his weakness, saying that he wanted to make the gospel as palatable as possible and so to win the approval of men. Paul says to the contrary that he is a servant of Christ. This, as he makes clear at the end of the letter (6:17), is not a role that curries favor with ...

3844. The Law and the Promise

Galatians 3:15-25, Galatians 3:1-14

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... , and we are in Christ because we are believers.” 3:15 This is the first time since 1:11 that Paul addresses his readers as brothers. (This designation undoubtedly was meant to refer to both the male and female members of the Galatian churches.) He says that he wants to get at the issue at hand from the perspective of everyday life. Paul takes his example from the legal world and uses the case of a human covenant. His example turns out to be very brief, for he returns almost immediately to a discussion of ...

3845. Paul’s Longing to See the Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 2:17--3:5

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... viewed him also as the power behind the lawless rioting of Acts 17:5 and the consequent action of the magistrates (cf. Eph. 6:12). At least it is beyond any doubt that Paul longed intensely to see the Thessalonian Christians. The next verse explains why. 2:19 We wanted to come to you, he declares, for (gar) what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory …? Is it not you? In a generally prosaic letter, Paul rises here to lyrical heights. He is proud of the Thessalonians, as a parent of his ...

3846. The Family of Abraham

1 Chronicles 1:28

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... the line runs from Abraham to Isaac, and not through Ishmael and Keturah. The Chronicler uses “Israel” for “Jacob” throughout. Since the Chronicler’s great concern is to help negotiate the social identity of All-Israel in the late Persian era, this is understandable. He wanted to emphasize that the origin of this people goes back to the covenant bearer, whose name was changed from Jacob to Israel. 1:35–54 The genealogy of Esau starts in 1:35. It is clear that this list is an abridged version of ...

3847. Jonah's Anger at the Lord's Compassion

Jonah 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... . His world has crumbled around him. There is no point in being good or in obeying God (cf. Mal. 2:17; 3:14; Ps. 73:13) because God will just forgive those who do evil anyway. And without a God-given structure of justice in his world, Jonah does not want to go on living. Jonah, like Abraham, demands that the judge of all the earth do right (Gen. 18:25; cf. Job), and the judge has refused. Jonah’s attitude could be compared to that of all those who, weary of evil, ask, “Why does God permit such evil to ...

3848. Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... yields to silence (any more than Job does?). There are two senses in which he declines to do so. First, he is not keen on the idea that Yahweh’s action might have to wait a long time (it will actually wait many decades, of course), and he wants to make sure that does not happen. Rhetorically, this will be a way of reassuring his audience of that point. So as well as standing in awe, his further response, still before relating the vision, is to plead with Yahweh to make this not just something that one ...

3849. Give Thanks--For You!

Luke 19:11-27

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... , your arms, your cunning fingers, the way you move! You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel...." Pablo Casals was talking about each of you. Now I want to show you the most beautiful and marvelous thing that God ever created. (Pass the box.) I want each of you to look deep into this box so that you can see it carefully. What do you see? You see yourself, don't you? You are unique. You are a marvel. Today's lesson from the Bible is ...

3850. Ultimate Freedom

Galatians 6:14-16

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... pretend for a moment. Let's pretend that we are very small. Say about the size of a finger. And let's suppose some one put us in this box and would not let us out. We would be prisoners, wouldn't we? We would not be free. Now I want you to imagine an invisible box--an invisible box in your mind. Did you know that some of us carry invisible prisons around in our minds? Let's use some examples. Suppose somebody told you that you were stupid and you believed them and you never tried to be smart ...

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