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 3976 to 4000 of 5000 results

3976. Saving Jesus' Reputation

Mark 8:31-38

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... that they're following the wrong animal. They just follow the first animal they see, no matter what it is. Aren't you glad people are not like chickens? We don't just follow the first person we see when we're born. We can think about who we want to follow, what we want to do, how we want to act. Chickens can't do that. Our Bible story today is about following Jesus. Christians are people who choose to go where Jesus would go and do what Jesus would do. You can choose to follow Jesus and live the way He ...

3977. Beloved

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . And we can tell God everything in prayer. God loves us just the way we are. We keep communication with God open every day. God wants us to live into our full potential, to be everything we can be, because God created us as good and unique with good and unique ... show God our signs of love each day too in the way we love and the way we keep our mind focused on Jesus. We know God wants the best for us. Through loving God, we grow in who we are. We learn to love ourselves, and we learn to love others better and ...

3978. On the Mountaintop

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... below. Or your mountaintop may have been less literal, like finally completing a tough assignment at work. Perhaps it was the love and beauty of your wedding day or a soaring time of worship. Perhaps it was the birth of a grandchild. You may have wanted to hold on to the excitement and emotional high of your experience - to stay on that mountaintop, so to speak, just like Peter. But listen to Jesus who said, “Get up and don’t be afraid.” Mountaintop experiences and emotions don’t last forever. A ...

3979. The Way of the Lord

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... mountain top, Peter was a rushing-in-where-angels-fear- to-tread kind of guy. But when it came to following Jesus, Peter was all in. His later denial of Jesus would be all that more devastating, perhaps most of all to himself. At this point, Peter wanted to be completely covered. Once again, Jesus corrected him: “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you” (verse 10). Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, yet still he ...

3980. Righteous, Dude!

Matthew 5:13-20

Sermon

John Jamison

... problem. So far, they had taken a lot of notes. Jesus started off with those lines we call the Beatitudes, eight things that Jesus said people needed to do if they were going to be one of his followers. In short, they all simply said that if you want to follow Jesus and be true to God, you needed to do everything exactly opposite of what the Pharisees and Sadducees did. Yeah, I think they were beginning to believe he might be becoming a problem. He had just finished warning everyone that if they did decide ...

3981. The Mountain

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

John Jamison

... . I mean, we don’t really have to go back down there, do we? Can’t we just stay?” Yes, I can’t blame Peter, and I would probably do the exact same thing. It is nice on the mountaintop. It is easier. Back down below everyone questions us or wants something from us, and we keep making all those stupid mistakes down there. But up here. It is safe here. Here, we have proof that we are right. Here we don’t have the doubts. Up here with Moses and Elijah, we aren’t afraid of anything. Here, we are ...

3982. Equipped for Our Calling

Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... t have the compassion in our hearts that compels us to speak to people face-to-face. We don’t have the courage to say, “I want to see you become a child of God.” That night after the service, the pastor met the man at the door of the church and had ... their own daughter’s experience on a church mission trip to Mexico. It had been their daughter’s first mission trip, so she wanted to be prepared. She had packed her largest suitcase with as many clothes, shoes, and cosmetics as she could stuff in it. ...

3983. The Cost of Commitment

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... throw that away, may I have it?” What do we have to believe about God to commit our entire lives to Him? We have to believe, first of all, in His goodness, in God’s unconditional love for us. If God is love, then God doesn’t want appeasement from us. He wants a relationship with us. If God is love, then His goal is not to leave our wounds and heartbreaks and challenges unredeemed. God’s goal is to work all things together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to God’s ...

3984. What Heaven Will Be Like

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... Virginia prison system for various alleged offenses, but every lawsuit was rejected. So Brock tried a new approach: he sued himself for getting drunk and committing crimes that violated his civil rights and religious beliefs. As he wrote in his legal filing, “For violating my religious beliefs, I want to pay myself 5 million dollars, but ask the state to pay it in my behalf since I can't work and am a ward of the state.” (1) That’s pretty creative, isn’t it? I got drunk and committed a crime, and I ...

3985. Wrestling with God

Genesis 32:22-31

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... in Ohio for the congregation to pray over Chera and for the pastor to anoint her. Duvall struggled with fear and anger as he got ready for church that morning. And his hip was hurting from sleeping on an unfamiliar bed the night before. He writes, “I didn’t want to go to church. I was empty. I was angry. And my hip hurt. “As we walked out, Chera looked at me and whispered, ‘God is good. God is God. And God is good at being God.’” Do you believe that? God is good . . . It is in our wrestling ...

3986. You've Got Spirit

Luke 3:15-22 · Acts 8:14-17 · Psalm 29 · Isaiah 61:1-4

Sermon

Will Willimon

... . We must have more time together." She, as it turned out, was not alone. Spirit. Spirit empowering her to be more than she could have been on her own. The days following the funeral were like a dream. Martha ate. She slept. But she wasn't living. She didn't want to live. "What have I to live for?" she asked herself quietly, in the deep recesses of her heart. ''I can't go on without him. I have no point for living, no purpose. I need him. I can't make it by myself." And then, not suddenly, but gradually ...

3987. Human Things

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... was saying in essence! God is the only source of true wisdom, prophecy, knowledge, and truth. Stop talking. Listen. And follow God’s (and my) direction! I lead, you follow. Get it Pete? God’s ways may seem uncomfortable to you, but God knows better than you do! Want to follow me? Deny your thoughts and turn to God’s thoughts! Your place is not up ahead leading the way by your own judgment and mission, your place as a disciple and my kind of leader is always behind me, in step with God’s mission and ...

3988. John the Baptist and Mrs. Nolan

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... eleven years old, she was at a service, and after the sermon they sang a hymn, and they sang and sang and sang. People started going through the congregation,” she said. “And the minister came down and took hold of my hand. ‘Little girl,’ he said, ‘do you want to go to hell?’ She said, “He scared me to death, and so I leave before all that starts.” (2) I believe I would get out of there in a hurry myself if I knew I was going to be confronted with such a distorted presentation of the Gospel ...

3989. Investment Choices

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Steve Molin

... born dumb and worked ourselves smart. And therefore, everything we have is earned and deserved. But that’s not what the parable says; the parable says they belong to the master. So the ultimate meaning of this parable can only be found when we ask this question: What does God want us to do with the blessings that he has loaned to us? And what will happen to us if we fail to do it? It’s not a simple question, and we must not take it lightly. Because God cares how we answer it. And this is what I believe ...

3990. Simeon (A Monologue)

Luke 2:22-40

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... A Messiah will come, and you shall not come to the end of your days until you have seen him.” I was dumbfounded. I wanted to ask more about this Messiah but I could not. The answer was not really there... about whether he would be a military leader or ... back and said “This is he of whom I spoke. He will save his people... from their sins.” Once again, I was dumbfounded. I wanted to call to the voice and ask for more. “…from their sins?” What about from Rome? But I couldn’t speak for a moment... ...

3991. Things That Open

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Mary Austin

... the voice speaking with Him. In Advent, we heard the prophet Isaiah call out to God, O that you would tear open the heavens and come down. (Isaiah 64:1) Now God has done that very thing. The God who was far away is now a lot closer. Mark wanted to be sure we knew that, in Jesus’ life, God is moving closer to humankind. The door is open for us, too. This same odd thing happens in Jesus’ death. The curtain in the temple — the divider between God and people — was torn in two. The division between God ...

3992. Fear of Flying

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... what? So do most of us at one time or another. And it has nothing to do with airplanes. It does, however, have to do with fear. Big fear. Deep fear. Consuming fear. Paralyzing fear. The kind that keeps you not only from doing the things you want to do but keeps you from being the person you really are. Those in recovery programs, whether from drugs or alcohol or from trauma, know the intense power that fear wields over the human psyche. Ever know someone going through grief, trauma, a dilemma; yet, when you ...

3993. We Don’t Have To Do This

Mark 8:31-38

Children's Sermon

Various Authors

... me, Satan!” Jesus then told Peter that he was not thinking about the right things. Can you imagine what Peter’s expression looked like? (Let them answer.) The next time you have to do something you don’t want to do, remember Jesus and Peter. Jesus came to earth for a special reason. Peter wanted Jesus to take the easy path. Jesus knew better. Jesus’ answer to Peter made Peter frown. Prayer: Jesus, you can see on our faces what we are thinking and feeling, and you love us whether we are happy or ...

3994. The Lord Is With Us

Luke 1:26-38, 2 Samuel 7:1-17, Romans 16:1-27

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of erotic love. We would have little sympathy for the professor who left teaching because all of her students were not geniuses. Sometimes, when I do premarital counseling, I have the future bride and groom each take a sheet of paper. I say to them, “On one side, I want you to write down three things which you love in your husband or wife to be.” Then I tell them, “Now turn the paper over and write down three things which you just despise in your fiancé.” My point: If you don't have at least three ...

3995. I Love You — If You Know What I Mean

1 John 3:16-24

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... sisters.” Some of those in the church, then and now, take that to mean brothers and sisters in the church; those who believe what we believe. Those who are not a part of our faith? Nah, those aren’t included in the command. For me to love you as God wants me to, first be a part of my group; my church, my country, my race, my social views, my status, my… it’s a long list. But I will remind us there were no lines or fences outside the empty tomb on Easter morning and no list of qualifications for ...

3996. Soul Testing Kits

John 15:1-8

Sermon

Mary Austin

... is in the home of the divine, the heart of love, the place of infinite grace. Jesus said an interesting thing about God here. He told us that this is not a God who demands, who is angry or vengeful, or who offers harsh judgment. This is a God who wants connection to humankind. This is a God who invites us to come home, and rest. Jesus told us about the life of community here, too. We are all tangled up with each other, just like vines who twist around each other and can’t be separated. As Gail O’Day ...

3997. Where's God?

John 16:12-15

Sermon

David Coffin

... or counselor to all people of faith. Those who have recently lost their jobs are not alone. The God of creation who is the word made flesh (1:14 RSV) will leave his Spirit, and is mysteriously present with all people of faith. The ancient church fathers wanted to affirm the tradition teaching of the one monotheistic God of Moses who gave us the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. Yet, this God is doing a new act of creation by experiencing life’s joys and sufferings beside us in the Son or suffering servant of ...

3998. More Than Gimmicks

John 6:24-35

Sermon

David Coffin

... was a not a great church attendee, however, my aunt was quite meticulous in her worship habits. She prayed from her devotional books often three times a day. When her health made driving impossible for her to get to mass, my uncle felt obliged to chauffeur her. He wanted to drop her off at the church then go to the local bar or tavern. One day, he dropped her off and the church custodian motioned my uncle to come into the custodian’s back room. There the custodian broke open a case of beer and they sat ...

3999. Soul Hunger

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... around him. The lesson? Seek the sustenance for your spirit that only God can provide. Then, you will find you have need for nothing else. Does he mean, we don’t need to actually eat? Of course not. Jesus fed people on that hillside for a reason. But he wants us to understand, as he instructed us in our disciple’s prayer, that all we really need to do is to rely on God for our daily sustenance. We don’t need to hoard things in endless silos. We don’t need to stuff ourselves with endless fillers. We ...

4000. Beloved

Mark 7:24-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , her language, her gender, or even her faith. She, more than Jesus’ own disciples, understands the grace and love of God, and she recognizes the attributes of YHWH and recognizes them in Jesus. She sees him more than his own contemporaries! Now, I want you to notice something here too. Jesus does not demand that she repent, that she become Jewish, that she turn away from her pagan religion, that she change anything about herself. He simply commends her faith and heals her daughter. How that must ...

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