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 4026 to 4050 of 5000 results

4026. Free At Last!

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... No, not really." he said. "You see, worry is a useless emotion. I was too busy fixing the problem to worry about it. As long as I had one card left to play, I played it." (6) Jim Lovell is a warrior. People who allow worry to overwhelm them ... front of the other. Someone calls inviting you to do something you really want to do. Suddenly you have more energy than you've had for a long time. It's not the work, it's the worry. How we look at our lives makes an enormous difference in how we handle our lives. Are ...

4027. Preparing the Way

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... year. Each knot meant that the stocking held less of Santa Claus’ bounty, so children made sure to behave like angels as Christmas drew near. (6) The threat of punishment will work for a while, as every parent knows, but it really doesn’t change behavior in the long run. God wanted more than that. A man once owned a large and expensive clock crafted in Switzerland. He kept the clock in a window, where it was seen by passersby who set their watches by it. But something was wrong with the clock. Its hands ...

4028. Praise the King with a Song of Joy

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... know the frustration of getting an annoying song stuck in our heads, so that we hum it obsessively.** And music has the power to change our mood in an instant. What song evokes memories of your first love? What’s the perfect song for driving down a long stretch of highway at night? What song best captures the mood of your teenage years? What song always puts a lump in your throat? What songs did your parents teach you when you were a kid? What’s your favorite hymn? Just thinking about those songs puts ...

4029. Why Cheerful Givers are Cheerful

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... to receive a massive infusion of food was Poland. Paderewski made a trip to America to personally thank President Herbert Hoover for the aid. To his amazement, Hoover told him he had been one of those two students at Stanford whose debt the great pianist had magnanimously forgiven so long before. One of the laws of life is that whatever we sow is what we also reap. So often we think of that law in a negative sense. If we sow bad seed we will reap a bitter harvest. But it is also true in a positive sense as ...

4030. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH

Revelation 1:1-3

Eulogy

Edward Inabinet

... to remain at his post, faithful unto death. That is the kind of faithfulness that wins the believer the crown of life. It is not salvation by works. It is, rather, reward for a job well done. Christ makes this promise to those who are willing to make a life-long commitment. ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY THAT TODAY IS A DAY OF VICTORY. What else can you call it? We know the kind of person __________________ was. We know his/her love for Christ. We know his/her love for his/her family and friends. We know his/her ...

4031. Joy In the Midst of Sorrow?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... Another daughter, Rosemary, was severely retarded all her life and would soon be gone. Mrs. Kennedy had outlived her husband long enough to have seen his rather profligate and unscrupulous life told and retold in the press. She is an old ... ...I am with many of my old acquaintances with whom I worked and prayed, and who have come here before me. Lastly, would you know how long this will continue? It is a dawn that never fades! After millions and millions of ages, it will be as fresh as it is now. Therefore, ...

4032. Confronting Hypocrisy with Humility

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

... the poet John Dryden: A man so various that he seem'd to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome. The prince liked the lines so much he looked up the rest of the poem: Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong; Was everything by starts, and nothing long: But, in the course of one revolving moon, Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon. I don't know who that person was who quoted that poem to Prince Philip but he sure got his point across. Washington needs a prophet like that, to step up and expose the abuse ...

4033. A Way Made Ready

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... himself to be love, a love that heals, and forgives, and sets the captives free! How we think about salvation changes. God doesn’t just deliver and give victory over warriors like Goliath, but over the monstrosity of sin that has towered over us for so long, leaving us trembling in its shadow! All this and more; the new creation of God springs forth in the person of Jesus. In Him all the promises of God—everything God has ever communicated to a prophet, everything He has ever planted into the heart of ...

4034. Hope in the Shadows

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... to do with a timetable for His return; or that Jesus wants to terrify His disciples into loyalty and obedience during His absence—the “Thief in the Night” effect. The significance of Mark 13 tends to end there for us. We recognize the darkness and wonder how long we will have to endure it. When will Christ return? Can we figure out how bad it is really going to get? Will we have to suffer, or will Jesus' rapture the faithful out of this horror? Sometimes we even fear the future and dread the second ...

4035. WHERE DO I GO FOR A REFILL?

Drama

Angela Akers

... into that." Waiter: "You must be pretty good if everyone wants a piece of you." Man: "I don''t know. I used to think I was pretty good. I used to be fired up to do this kind of thing. But I haven''t felt that way in a long time. Now I''m just tired. I don''t have much left to give to anybody. I feel like a badly managed bank; I just kept giving and giving without putting anything back, and now I''ve been cleaned out. Total bankruptcy." Waiter: "Sounds like you should fire your ...

4036. ONE SHRED OF SOUL

Drama

Angela Akers

... material possessions don''t really matter. All that matters is your soul. Well, excuse me, but all I''ve got are my material possessions. I''ve been messing up my body for years now. My mind''s not in much better shape. And I think I lost my soul a long time ago. "But some of the ex-potheads at the mission say that changed their lives. They were as dirty and messed up as I am, but they say they''re clean now. Even inside. So, God, if I have one shred of soul left in me, then it''s ...

4037. CHEAP WINE VS. THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

Drama

Angela Akers

... want to? Dead men don''t have taxes to pay or work to do. Dead men don''t have to listen to their wives say, `You never listen to me.'' I sometimes think it would be great to die and stay dead forever." 2: "May you get your wish." 3: "Long live death!" 2&1: "Hear, hear!" (The three men clink their glasses together as a toast) 2: "Yessirree, that''s the way to do it. Those fanatics out there think a dead man''s going to come back and save them. Save them from what? A life of toil and ...

4038. Jesus: The Life of the Party

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... which way you vote on the question, but what troubles me is the fact that some people seem shocked to even consider the idea. They believe that somehow the unmarried state is more holy than the married one. That idea began to permeate the life of the Church long about the fourth century, due in no small part to the efforts of St. Augustine, but there are records that even the bishops were married in New Testament times! (Cf. I Timothy 3:2) "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the ...

4039. To Who Can We Go?

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... a serious question. Our Scripture reading deals with a sad event in the life of our Lord. It was a time when many of the people who had first flocked to hear Him began to drift away. They had witnessed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, and as long as He fed them they were content. But when He started to talk about His own suffering and death upon a cross, the crowds began to thin out. And then, His words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood were the last straw! “When many of his disciples ...

4040. So Who Needs A Shepherd?

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... into the Church. One of the symbols of the office of bishop across the centuries has been the shepherd’s crook, that long staff with a hook on the end. And ministers are often called “pastors.” In the dictionary, one of the meanings of “pastor ... than saving people from hell. But Jesus says that God is a Good Shepherd, who seeks after the sheep “until he finds them.” I wonder: “How long is until?’ “ I have a hunch that God never gives up on any of us. I am not at all sure that all of us will ...

4041. Love Is Extravagant

John 12:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... notebooks, and her journals; and old scenes came mercilessly back to him in the vistas of mournful memory. In his long and sleepless nights, he recognized too late what she had felt and suffered under his childish irritabilities. His faults rose ... ever to him. But slowly he handed her his gift. His gift was a set of expensive tortoise-shell hair combs with jeweled edges for her lovely long hair. He had sold his gold watch to buy them for her. Each had given the other all he or she had to give. Real love cannot ...

4042. Whatever Happened to those Mansions?

John 14:1-4

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... heaven immediately?” (I have an idea that includes most of us!) This idea, if correct, means that we have an infinite number of chances with God. Jesus said that the Good Shepherd searched after the one lost sheep until He found him. I have always wondered, “How long is until?” Does this mean universalism, that God will ultimately get everybody? I have no idea. I hope so, but I simply do not know. I only know that, because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have no desire to put any limitations ...

4043. The Saint Who Played Second Fiddle

John 1:35-42

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the Baptist. Andrew became curious. He asked his friend John, who was one of the sons in the fishing company of “Zebedee and Sons,” if he would like to go with him to hear this new preacher. So, off they went to the Jordan. To make a long story short, the two young fishermen were so impressed by John the Baptist that they became his followers. Then one day John the Baptist pointed his followers toward another preacher, a man named Jesus of Nazareth, and said that this Jesus was “the Lamb of God who ...

4044. It Costs to Belong

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the first martyr among the twelve. (It is interesting that the word “martyr” originally meant simply “witness,” but very early in the life of the Church it became synonymous with dying for one’s witness.) James didn’t live long, but he lived deeply. This is a reminder that it really doesn’t matter how long we live, it is how much we live. It doesn’t matter so much how many years we put into our lives, but how much life we put into our years. The Bible says that Methuselah lived 969 years ...

4045. The Saint without a Name

Luke 6:12-16

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... that people would become less and less religious. Just the opposite has occurred. Our problem is not that we are not religious, but that we may be far too religious. We seem to be attracted to every new religious fad and fashion to come down the pike. Long ago theologian Paul Tillich observed that our major problem is not atheism, “no God,” but idolatry: too many gods, false gods. What we need more than anything else is a perception of the one true God, the God who has revealed Himself on the stage of ...

4046. Good Old What’s-His-Name

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... So this last of the original twelve we are considering was a man who had three names! What shall we make of that? II. IT OCCURS TO ME THAT GOD, TOO, HAS THREE NAMES! We have heard the distinctively Christian way of speaking of God for so long that perhaps we have come to take it for granted, but it is really a remarkable statement of faith. We talk of God as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” This is not merely theological mumbo-jumbo designed by theologians to confuse and befuddle the unwary layperson. It ...

4047. Afraid of Sanity

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... daily papers are full of it. And we think the madman among the tombs was crazy! What about those who asked Jesus to leave the neighborhood? What about us? One can only wonder who was really in need of exorcism on that day by the seaside so long ago. The poor, demented demoniac, or the pious people of the village who begged Jesus to get out of town? As Prof. Straton says in the bulletin quotation: “They were not insane by ancient or modern standards, but they were suffering from a terrible malady that has ...

4048. Dealing with Our Doubts

Mark 9:14-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... agnosticism, the pendulum is swinging these days. Religion courses, even in secular universities, are filled to overflowing. Theologian Harvey Cox’s classes at Harvard are so full they can scarcely find rooms big enough to hold them these days. There is a wistful yearning and longing across the land, across the world. There’s a God-shaped void in our hearts, and we are trying to fill it. “I believe...help my unbelief!” isn’t a bad prayer for any of us at any time. There are tides of the spirit ...

4049. Opposite the Treasury

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... index to our characters. There was a historian who said that he could never get a clue to the character of the Duke of Wellington until he saw the man’s checkbook stubs. They told the story of his life. And they tell our story as well. Long ago I came to realize that people’s giving is not commensurate with their income: it is commensurate with their commitment. Which for most of us is pretty poor. It has been calculated that if the average church member were on welfare and tithed, churches the size ...

4050. On the Singing of Hymns

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... as a tempest in a teapot. The hymns which we now sing are not sacrosanct. Some of us can remember what a battle the 1968 hymnal had in replacing the 1935 version! Hymn-changing and tampering with “the original words” is not a new pastime. It has a long and honorable history. John Wesley did not like the line “Thy saints have dwelt secure” in the hymn “Our God, our help in ages past,” thinking that was too Calvinistic, and so he re-wrote the line to read: “Still may we dwell secure.” And he ...

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