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 3951 to 3975 of 5000 results

3951. It's No Fun to Move

Ruth 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... absurd for them to follow her, “Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?” she asked them. Finally, Orpah decided that her mother-in-law was right. It would be best for her to remain in her own country. Ruth, however, still wanted to stay with Naomi. Ruth loved Naomi deeply. It was in this context that Ruth spoke some of the most famous words in all of literature: “Where you go, I will go,” she told Naomi, “your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” The story ...

3952. Hope Rises

Mark 9:30-37, 42

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... still don’t get it. So, when Jesus asks them what they are talking about, they don’t answer him. But of course, he knows exactly what they are up to. Ever notice that? You can’t hide anything from Jesus! So Jesus does what he always does when he wants his message to get through. He teaches by example. I call this a Jesus Teachable Moment. He makes them all sit down where they are, all twelve of his inner posse. Then he calls up a child from among them. Now I love this, because it’s clear that some ...

3953. For The Love of God Is Empowering

Matthew 22:36 -40 · John 4:1-32

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... they can't quite focus on it long enough to see just how beautiful it really is. In part it's because they don't want to believe that they are of value to anyone. Or they can't believe they are of value, especially to God. They simply haven't ... actually love her without asking for anything in return. She thought she had found that in every one of her five relationships, but they all wanted something from her. All Jesus asked for was a drink of water and then he offered her the water of life. And she saw that ...

3954. Divine Divestment

Mark 10:17-27

Sermon

Will Willimon

... into your Kingdom," asked the young man who has been very successful at getting to the top of this world's kingdom. Jesus responds, ''You want to get into this Kingdom? Simple. All you have to do to get in God's Kingdom is to obey all of the Commandments. Don' ... these rich people to get into my Kingdom as to shove a camel through the eye of a needle." That hard! Can you see why I wanted Rick Lischer to preach on this text and not me? Let's face it, by the standards of that day, by the standards of this ...

3955. The Richest Family in Church

Luke 4:14-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... it tells us so much about God’s heart, about God’s character. When you have good news to tell, who do you want to share it with? You want to share it with those most affected by that news and in this case, it is the poor. Think about our society. How ... the special offering money. The children even protested when their mother woke them up for church the next Sunday. They didn’t want to go. But Mrs. Ogan insisted. That morning, there was a missionary visiting the church. He spoke of his work in Africa, ...

3956. The Favorite

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... away or revealed to be a false direction. I think all of us at one time or another have put Jesus, yes even Jesus, on one of our own pedestals. We’ve imagined God sitting upon our own Babels. Every time we pray for a specific outcome that we want for ourselves. Every time we imagine that our plans and actions must be condoned and succeeded by God. Every time we strategize and ask God to fulfill our strategies and wishes. Every time we insist that our way of seeing things is God’s way of seeing the world ...

3957. Hanging Around Jesus Changes You

Philippians 3:17 — 4:1

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... us about life. It goes against the grain of our desire for instant gratification. After all, we’ve been taught to follow our dreams, to let nothing get in the way of personal goals.[1] This is what the prosperity gospel of today is all about. We want prosperity because things are not that good in America today. A CNN/Money e-Trade 2016 poll found that more than half of us (56%) think things will be worse in America for our children. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that nearly 1 ...

3958. The Limping Body Of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sermon

Mary Austin

... need to appreciate the musicians. Paul was addressing the whole community of the church in this passage. It isn’t meant for a few individuals in their faith lives, but for the whole community. But in real life, the engineers wanted the poets to think like engineers. The cooks wanted everyone to sit down and eat together, and the math wizards couldn’t be bothered with food. The extroverts thought the introverts should just speak up and say what’s on their minds, and the introverts wished the extroverts ...

3959. Mountaintop Moments

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... after one has passed, in which we say everything we saved in our hearts and never expressed while that person was alive. We want to remember these thoughts…last. Why do we do this? There’s a name for this phenomenon. It’s called “peak end bias.” ... with God have been seared into our hearts and minds as memories and knowledge of a truth that goes beyond our comprehension. Want to strengthen your faith? Wipe away your doubts? Cultivate mountaintop moments with God. Put aside time in your day to spend ...

3960. Jesus In Ministry — Us In Ministry

Luke 4:14-21

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... member with paid dues to be a part of the crew. A few of the volunteers were still manning the boats, but because of the size and number they had to be augmented with professionals hired by the membership. Most of the life-saving members didn’t want the responsibility of going out to sea to rescue people. “Why bother?” was their motto. A luxury cruiser was wrecked not far from the station and the crews went out and brought back the half-drowned people. The problem was they were wet, dirty, messy, and ...

3961. Treasures from the Past

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Mary Austin

... , she can hardly fathom a life so different from her own sheltered life in America. As a result of her mother’s hard work, and her faith and determination, Adrienne attended and graduated from Yale. As an adult, she wanted to know her mother’s story. She finally asked for the details she hadn’t wanted to know as a child. Her mother told her all about the flight from Vietnam, and the dangerous time in the refugee camp, and then her journey to America. She never felt her mother’s suffering, she says ...

3962. The Lonely Prophet

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a

Sermon

King Duncan

... every building on the farm property. Dr. Jordan recognized the voices of some of the men from the local church. The next day, a reporter from the local newspaper showed up to find Dr. Jordan hoeing up the ashes from the burned buildings. The reporter said he wanted to do a story on the fire. Dr. Jordan recognized his voice. He was one of the Klansmen who had helped to destroy the farm. The man kept asking questions, trying to provoke some anger or self-pity from Dr. Jordan. Finally, the reporter said, “Dr ...

3963. Christianity: A Worldly Religion That Makes Sure That Even Animals Matter

Revelation 5:11-14

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... Psalm 68:27 where the term is applied to the sense in which the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin, though the smallest of the tribes, is to lead others.) Yes, that’s our status as rulers of the earth. We humans are not given license by God to do whatever we want with the earth and other creatures. We have not been commissioned to exploit it and them. After all, some of them are going to heaven too. They and the whole earth have been saved. No, all the Genesis account in the Bible says is that in relation to the ...

3964. Greater Works Than These?

John 14:8-17

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... love? God is not does with us, sisters and brothers! On this Pentecost Sunday as we are filled with the Spirit, let us join Jesus in the joyful work of self-giving, self-sacrificial love. Let us lay down the burdens of what the culture tells us we want and let us pick up the liberating hope that comes as we live our lives for the sake of others. Indeed, as we give ourselves, the same redemption we received from the cross will be offered and received by countless others and we will indeed do greater things ...

3965. Greater Works Than These?

John 14:8-17

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

3966. Unconditional Commitment

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... long hours in terrible conditions in the midst of a dangerous Covid shut down. Think of the teachers who went back into the schools, or the ones who administered the first tests. We commit to what means a great deal to us. When we are serious about what we want to do, we will find no excuses for not doing it. We leap into dangerous situations all the time, when we are committed to the mission and purpose of what we are doing. We all know this. No one commits to a semi-marriage. No one commits to partial ...

3967. High Anxiety

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... stock in our positions of power or the things that need to be done for our “ministries” and our buildings that we lose the focus of discipleship completely. That focus must always be Jesus. We aren’t “the Church” in order to fulfill our lists of things we want to do. We are here to be in joyful and loving relationship with our Savior and Lord. We are here to sit at his feet and listen to his Word, to engage with him intimately and peacefully, and to revel in his life-giving presence. When that is ...

3968. Much Love. Hope Sent.

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... changes both your future and your past. Think about that for a second: repentance changes both your future and your past. He says, “If you repent properly, what God promises is that He will change who you are. It’s a question of identity.” And I want to paraphrase his main point here. He says that in Judaism, “What God promises to those who sincerely repent is the opportunity to say, ‘I am no longer that person who sinned . . . I am a fundamentally different person. It’s as if I am a newborn ...

3969. What We Learn from Love

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... them there. The prisoners began making more noise, trying to drown out the singing that preceded Corrie’s talk. But then Corrie stepped up to the microphone and began her story, “When I was alone in a cell for four months—” And the men quieted down. Suddenly, they wanted to hear her story. She had been a prisoner too. She was one of them. (2) I don’t know why you came through these church doors this morning. But I hope before you leave here, you hear the story of a God who loved you enough to take ...

3970. The Potter's Secret

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... until it became hard and leathery. At that point, he would fire it in the kiln. Once “tried” by fire, the piece would become invincible. If the potter didn’t like the piece that he was making, if it didn’t come out the way he intended, or if he wanted to re-form it differently, he could simply de-form it, re-knead it, or re-water it, and the clay would be good as new. You see, that’s the “secret” of clay. It can always be remade. No matter how hard it gets, whether it cracks into a ...

3971. He Loves You Anyway

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... Jesus to see him. These Bible verses tell us that Zacchaeus ran ahead of the crowd. It’s reasonable to assume he could have gotten close enough to talk to Jesus or touch him. Instead, he climbed up a sycamore-fig tree. He wanted to see Jesus, but I don’t think he wanted Jesus to see him. There are a lot of people who feel that they are unacceptable to God. That’s the first insight we get from today’s story. There are many people who feel that they are unacceptable to God. Maybe you feel that way ...

3972. Do You See Lazarus On Your Doorstep?

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... , what does that say about all of the other Sodoms and Gomorrahs?[5] We can agree with Bell when he stated that the dominant theme of the Bible is healing and restoration. God judges in order to discipline, correct, and eventually restore. We don’t want to give up on the Lazarus on our doorstep or anyone else. God’s compassionate grace continually seeks us. Amen. [1]. Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske, Howard Hughes: The Untold Story (New York: A Dutton Book, Penguin Group, 1996), 339. [2]. Keith ...

3973. Two Contrasting Prayers

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... the depth and breadth of myself to a sacred context — is my own journey as a survivor of incest abuse. So when I sing ‘I want Jesus to walk with me all along my life’s journey” it is a prayer from the depths of my soul asking Jesus to walk ... choose to walk this journey with Jesus — not just by myself and not chasing someone else’s approval, I choose Jesus (and you probably don’t want me to get started about why and how much I love Jesus.) “And I sing it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of ...

3974. Listen

Mark 9:2-9

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... that. These are ear plugs. What you do is put these in your ears, and they block out noises around you. (Demonstrate) You don't want to push them in too hard. See, with these in my ears I can barely hear anything around me. I can't hear the air ... we learn about Jesus from our mommies and daddies, or our pastor, that's another way of listening to Jesus. But sometimes, we just don't want to listen to Jesus, do we? It's like we've got ear plugs in that keep us from listening to Jesus' voice. What would Jesus ...

3975. Shiny Objects

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... to drop what we are doing to chase a new trend, a new challenge, a new priority. You feel overwhelmed or you just don’t want to persevere in the face of a challenge? Then don’t. Pick some new challenge or project. Change course. This becomes an easy way ... love into action and do good works. We worship and serve God when we do good works for others. This is the purpose the devil wants us to reject. That is the devil’s ultimate goal, to make us reject God’s will for our lives. To chase after some easier ...

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