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 3901 to 3925 of 5000 results

3901. Good News about Death

John 11:38-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... ’t know that it’s easy to be brave when you know there’s no sting involved. (3) Christ has taken the sting out of death. Wrote St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The death of a loved one crushes us, but we can bear up under its weight. Why? Because Christ is the Lord of life and death. Death has no dominion. Though we are dead, we shall rise again. Just as Lazarus was raised from the dead, so are those who are in Christ resurrected to ...

3902. Braveheart

John 20:24-29

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... a letter to the man and said that he had faced his own doubts and that faith was not always easy. He wrote, "I am convinced that there is a God. That no matter what happens to me, there is a purpose for it and behind that purpose stands a loving, caring God." Dravecky had come to know the same Lord who came back for Thomas. The same Resurrected Jesus who stood before all the disciples and said, "Peace be with you, Thomas. Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop ...

3903. Better Than a Spanking

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... strange unreasonable brand of reasoning and more or less stumbled out the door of my study. In a week or so, he was back at his usual place in the second pew. The baptizers had done their work.” (8) “A voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” That was the voice of God at Jesus’ baptism. But it could have been our baptism. We are part of God’s family. As such we are part of God’s kingdom, God’s ongoing plan to redeem the world. We belong to God ...

3904. How Great Is Your Faith

Matthew 15:21-28, Matthew 15:1-20

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... all we had was this passage, we'd think Jesus flunked political correctness 101. First he ignores the woman. Then he tells her she's not the right kind of people and then he calls her a dog. That doesn't sound like the Jesus we all know and love, does it? What's going on? Scholars have tried to explain away or soften this seeming inconsistency in Jesus' character. Most of the scholars I've read seem to want to look at this passage as unrelated to the one before. They see the argument with the Pharisees as ...

3905. Be A Barnabas

Acts 4:33-37

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... about how we feel. It isn't about our comfort. It's about Good News that God has for people who don't know God's love. It's Good News. That means it's encouraging news. And if anything, what we learn from Barnabas is that we can all be Sons ... it works. They're called Barnabas Cards. One of the things Paul writes in Hebrews is "And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds." Hebrews 10:25. And that's exactly what these cards are designed to do. And here's how they work. Suppose the ...

3906. Resurrected Place (Series: Living on the Resurrection Side of Life)

John 14:1-4

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of heaven does not lie in the building materials, the chandeliers, the 20 rooms and 10 bath houses with driveways of pearl and streets of gold. Some of you live in that kind of luxury now. What makes heaven, heaven, is that friends will be there we have loved long ago, peace like a river around us will flow. We will be in the presence of God and the company of one another. Separations will be ended. Pain will disappear. The Place prepared is in the presence of Jesus. “That where I am, there you shall be ...

3907. Follow Your Failures (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

John 21:1-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . Temptations are strong. Temptations are bound to come along. II. Grace is Available The Bible that calls us all sinners goes to great lengths to convince us that we are still savable. Is that not what the whole drama of salvation history means? “God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” Why? Because you are worth it. “Where sin abounds, grace super abounds.” Why? Because you deserve to be set free. Max Lucado tells the story about his 4-year-old, Jenna. Jenna confessed that she wrote on ...

3908. Any Favorites?

John 10:22-30

Illustration

Donald B. Strobe

... the one who is farthest away until he comes home." Jesus said, "That is what God is like. God is a Divine Parent whose love never stops, a Parent whose love will never give up. You may stop loving God, but God will never stop loving you. You may run away from God, but you will soon find that your legs are too short. You can't get away from God. And that is not a threat, but a promise! God is out on every road where people, like sheep, get themselves lost, earnestly and tenderly ...

3909. Catch of the Day

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . A kingdom which doesn't have any physical borders, but a kingdom that lives in the heart. A kingdom with a King who moves us to do what is right simply because we know it's right. A kingdom in which the King moves us to love one another because we have experienced His love for us. A Kingdom filled with people whose purpose is to honor God with their lives. That's the Vision Jesus had. And that's the Vision that captured Peter, James, John and Andrew. I wonder what that Vision would look like? J. Edwin Orr ...

3910. A Lie

John 13:34-35

Illustration

Philip Gulley

... in order to excuse their hatred. After all, if we can't help but hate, if hate is a feeling we simply cannot help, then hatred is never our fault, is it? But we can help it. Hatred is a choice. We choose to hate, just as we choose to love. Oh, I know, there are people out there who believe love isn't a choice, that love is primarily an emotion, a feeling, a stirring in the loins. These are the same people who stay married for six months, then divorce. These are the people who ...

3911. Live in the Light

John 14:15-31

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

... the sun light all day not fail to give off warmth and heat at night? Can a Christian who has lived in the sunlight of God's love not fail to give off warmth and love? No. That is why you have to have first things first. You don't say to others, "Start loving each other. Be nice. Be nice. Be nice." No, no, no. First, we need to live in the sunlight of God's love. We need to bake in the sunlight of God's compassion. We need to absorb God's light into us. And then…we start to give ...

3912. Living While You Wait

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to and leaving ourselves present and future in the safe hands of God. IV That leads to the final signal for living while we wait: Attitudes produce action. In verses 8 and 9, Paul provides a kind of catalog of virtues “Whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report - then he adds, “Meditate on these things.” Paul knew that to a marked degree, we are what we think. The body of evidence to confirm that truth grows almost daily. Have we learned the lesson for ourselves? We are what we think ...

3913. Where Do We Grow from Here?

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... effort on my part to prove myself to others, a desire to be accepted by them. At a particularly crucial time, an aspect of the Gospel became very real to me, and I gained a whole new lease on life. When you really accept the acceptance of God, when his love and forgiveness really come alive in your life, you no longer have to prove yourself to others. That was one of the most liberating, exciting times of my life. I could then stand eye to eye with the world: all that is beautiful, or ugly, or good or evil ...

3914. A Priesthood of Believers

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a P.S. to his letter that climaxed my joy “I think you could make it now as a preacher in Mississippi.” It was my turn now. I wrote Ben a letter. I told him a lot of things but it all added up to this “Ben, I love you and God loves you.” ( Days of the Soul pp 111—113) No matter what our gift or gifts we can function at these two levels of desperate need. One, non-judgmental listening. And two, helping others to understand, accept and maybe change their feelings, knowing this we can over come our ...

3915. Let Everything That Breathes Praise the Lord

Psalm 150:1-6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... impact and shape how we live on Monday and the rest of the week. Our praise of God must be translated into daily life, by loving involvement with God’s people. We could spend a lot of time talking about it and we could talk about that in a lot of ... your door, but I come Mr. Johnson because I do not come alone. Your tables become an altar where the cup is shared. Love absorbs spilled sins like thirsty napkins and on your neutral ground, God becomes incarnate. Without the flutter of angel wings.” You see, ...

3916. Lessons from the Ordinances

Exodus 21:2-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ’s no justifying of any of that, and even in the Old Testament, we move beyond that understanding of life, and of course when we get to the New Testament, the understanding is boldly communicated in the life and death of Jesus - an ultimate law of love that writes clearly the one big lesson of compassion for the poor and oppressed. Even here in this primitive civilization of ancient Israel in the midst of what to us is an unenlightened callousness, there is a concern for the poor and the oppressed. Even ...

3917. It's Tough to Be God

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... lost children to be found. That reaches a pinnacle thousands of years later on Calvary. That’s how much it took, that’s how much love, that’s how much sacrifice, that’s how much shed blood it took for God’s children to be found - God’s Son, our ... ’m gonna be. And I said, “Son, you can be that if you choose, but God has greater dreams for you than that, because God loves you. Then Roderick said, “When I was going to grammar school, I made me up a daddy - do you want to hear about my daddy?” ...

3918. Three Wise Women

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... And so it was. Jesse had a son, David, who became the King, and that King was the forefather of Jesus. But also Ruth. Don’t forget Ruth —— she was a foremother of Jesus. What does Ruth teach us? Two things. We’ve already mentioned one – God’s all embracing love is given to all persons. God can find his servants among those whom we least expect. Go’d grace is not a respecter of persons. If a Moabite women can be a fore-mother of Jesus, anyone of us, no matter who we are, from where we’ve come ...

3919. Turning Evil Into Good

Genesis 45:1-8a, 50:19-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... one day how Romans 8:28, from which that statement comes, is really written. “In all things, God is at work for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose." It is not things that work out; it is God who works things out. Let me say ... I was supported and would not sink. I was held together and would not fall apart. I was accepted and could not be rejected. I was loved and would not be despised. I was in hell and God was there for me." God is for us. That in itself is redemptive. God ...

3920. Finding Answers to Family Feuds

Genesis 25: 21-34

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . What can we do? We can form healthy family systems. Ben Stein writes in The Wall Street Journal, “The things that concern me most are no longer down-sizing, Dow Jones, trade balance, or movie stars. What I am most interested in is getting my eight-year old son Tommy lovingly to bed in time to wake up refreshed the next morning. What I am really worried about is to make sure I am firm enough with him to give him a sense of boundaries without being so strict that I scare him to death. What I am praying to ...

3921. Soaring with Christ

Matthew 28:1-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... take care of my creation? He put us in this world with all kinds of people and then dared to say to us, will you love other people like I have loved you? Who could ever be bored with a mission like that? I am pleading with you today not to set your beliefs to match ... to talk about praying; now I pray. I used to tell my patients that I cared, but now I care. I used to tell my family, I love you, but now I go home at night and we sit by the fireplace and I tell my boys the dreams I have for them even though ...

3922. The One in Whom We Glory

John 12:12-19

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... is forever. Robert Baker said, “As I grow older, I care less what people think about me and more about what God thinks of me. I expect to be with Him much longer than I will be with you." To paraphrase Irving Berlin's famous love song: God is loving you...always. With a love that's true...always. When the things you've planned, need a helping hand God will understand...always. Days may not be fair...always. That's when God is there...always. Not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year ...

3923. Can the Rich Be Saved?

Mark 10:17-27

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of the blue Caleb said, “Poppy, you are getting really, really, really, really old.” He could have left out one or two of the ‘reallys.’ He was rich and he was young and he was a ruler; he had power and position. Whether we admit it or not, we all love power. Tony Campolo says, “I was traveling on a main thoroughfare in Philadelphia when I had a flat tire. I was stuck on the highway, not even a place to pull off. So I proceeded to get out and fix my tire. A few minutes later I heard the traffic ...

3924. Follow

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Idols are anything or any body that gets what God deserves. Idol worship is to value something or someone in a way that hinders the love and trust we have in God. Did you hear about the gentleman who walked into the card shop on Valentine's Day and asked the ... clerk to help him find a very special valentine. “Here's a good one," said the clerk. It read, “To the one and only love of my life." “That's perfect," said the man, “I'll take four of them." Our problem is that we have too many ultimate ...

3925. The Road of Joy

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the wrong questions we are likely to keep getting the wrong answers. As long as we continue to know nothing definite about God we are free to be the captains of our fate and the masters of our soul. But we do know something definite about God. God is love; God is just; God is merciful. God is revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Let us live truthful lives. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them with truth." Let us walk in the light of Christ. Let us live in full disclosure. Let us speak the right truth, at ...

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