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 4201 to 4225 of 5000 results

4201. A Fool and His Money

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... in their teens and twenties now are writing autobiographies that are filled with self-indulgence and self-congratulations, all reflecting the common assumption of our time, that this is my life, no one else’s, and I can do with it what I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. Both assumptions are wrong, according to the Bible. The Bible continues to be an affront to us. It maintains what you do affects other people. Immediately, your family. Then, your friends and neighbors. Then, this society and ...

4202. Lighten Up

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . Impressed by that, Bliss wrote: Brightly beams our Father's mercy From his lighthouse evermore; But to us he gives the keeping Of the lights along the shore. Dark the night of sin has settled, Loud the angry billows roar; Eager eyes are watching, longing, For the lights along the shore. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother! Some poor seaman, tempest-tossed, Trying now to make the harbor, In the darkness may be lost. Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave! Some poor fainting, struggling ...

4203. You Are Somebody!

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

King Duncan

... the civil rights movement. Thurman attributed much of his own sense of dignity and vocation to his grandmother, a former slave. His grandmother repeated to Howard a message she had heard in worship. Over and over she told him, “You are somebody!” Professor Tom Long tells about an occasion in the 1950s when Thurman and his family were traveling through the South. They stopped to rest a few moments at a park along the highway. His daughters spotted a swing set on a playground in the park and pulled their ...

4204. The Perfect Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... praying in church has been honed and polished over the years, but it is essentially the same prayer Jesus taught his disciples long ago. One message is not enough to do justice to the Lord’s Prayer, of course, but perhaps for just a few ... s creation, that God’s love, God’s compassion, God’s holiness will permeate the heart of every person on this planet. We are obviously a long way from that, but that is the goal. That is the plan. Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom every time we pray. THUS, THE ...

4205. By Faith

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... the kind of person for whom everything always seemed to go wrong. If Judy went skiing, she would fall and fracture a leg or an arm. If she were walking down a country lane on a bright summer day and paused to lean on the end of a long picketed fence--it would topple, falling to the ground in one sweeping motion. Something always went wrong for Judy. One day she decided to bake bread. She took out the recipe and carefully gathered all the ingredients it called for, then followed it, step by step. There was ...

4206. Divine Dinner Party Decorum

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... the table we hear the stories that bind us together as immediate family, larger community, even as a nation. We are told what is expected of us. We learn the family secrets that are to be shared with no one outside our circle. Table conversation has a long history laden with religious, social, and psychological meaning.1 Is it any wonder that as the family of God we gather for worship around the table? Second, notice that the meal mentioned in Luke 14 takes place at the home of a Pharisee. This was a very ...

4207. Loch Ness, Locusts, and Bread

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... manager is now obsessed with making this customer satisfied with his meal, so he goes to the bakery, and orders a six-foot-long loaf of bread. The next day, the waitress and the manager cut the loaf in half, butter each half, and lay it out right next to his ... bowl of soup. The old man sits down, and devours the soup, and both halves of the six-foot-long loaf of bread. The manager asks in the usual way: "How was your meal today, sir?" The old man replies: "It wass goot as usual, but ...

4208. Oskar’s Cruelty

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... see the one that has opened for us." Can these bones live? Of course! More doors open for us all the time. Hope and joy can spring from loss and pain -- it only takes a willingness to step away from the apparent loss and grow with the situation -- take the long view of life. Ezekiel has a message of hope for people who have lost all grounds of hope. There is a God who can achieve the impossible. But the human end of it is to continue in the knowledge of that God. Can these bones live? O Lord, thou knowest ...

4209. Some Things Ought Not to Happen

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

James L. Killen

... a disadvantaged race. He probably thought he was just doing what other people from the advantaged race had been doing for a long time and he may have felt that, when he was taken to task for it, he was a victim of racism. The ... are caught up in the conflict, it is hard to see anything in any way except from the perspective of the conflict. And, many of us have long since stopped living with any real consciousness of a higher power. But conversions can happen. Paul spoke of dying to sin and being raised to a ...

4210. The Way to Happy Endings

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Sermon

James L. Killen

... and torturous process of finding a baby to adopt. But when it was all over, they said they sincerely believed that God had led them to exactly the right baby for them. A person went through a long struggle with a potentially fatal illness and emerged alive and well. He and his whole family are convinced that God has healed him. That is a happy way of thinking. There is just one problem with it. Some people who have lived through stories that did not have happy endings ...

4211. Out of Conflict

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

James L. Killen

... with aching hearts the conflicts like the ones that have gone on in the land where Jesus lived. We hurt for the people who have been hurt by them. We tremble when we realize how easily we could be drawn into a similar kind of "no win" conflict. As long as things like that are going on in the world, it is hard for us to feel at peace. Perhaps the most painful conflicts are those that arise between us and other people who are important to us, in our families or communities or companies or churches, between ...

4212. Grace for a Complaining People

Exodus 16:2-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... The tamarix gallica mannifera does so and grows in the Peninsula of the Sinai. The exudation is dirty yellow in color, but white when it falls on the ground or stone. It melts in the heat of the sun and its season is six to ten weeks long with June being the height of the season. This food of grace -- manna -- becomes the food on which the Israelites would mainly subsist during the forty years' sojourn in the wilderness. A modern experience of manna is told in the following way: "In 1932, a white substance ...

4213. Filling Moses’ Shoes

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... ? Moses had the triumphant experience of leading the people out of Egypt. That part of the mission was certainly uplifting. Getting out of a bad place is a great relief. Getting out of the hospital, even if we face a long rehab, is a great feeling. Getting started on a long journey or process is exciting. Some people go back to school in their twenties, thirties, forties, and even fifties or sixties. It's a great experience to start some daring new adventure. Some people decide to tackle a social issue ...

4214. Strong Medicine

Judges 4:1-7

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... punishment for any sins the people had committed. It was time for some freedom, peace, and prosperity again. Deborah comes to the rescue. Deborah is a prophetess and judge in Israel. She is one of two heroines in this story, along with Jael. Long before Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena the Warrior Princess, Lara Croft, or even Charlie's Angels, Israel had women champions. Deborah is the voice of inspiration, the motivational speaker who lights a fire under Barak, the soldier. Deborah inspires Barak to go to ...

4215. Healing the Pain from the Past

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... in a panic. Some mean-spirited person had used a broom to abuse the cat, and the fear hadn't gone away, even in a trusting relationship. A sweet cat carried an emotional scar from the past. The past often intrudes into our present. Something happened long ago, but the emotional scars still ache today. Often, these emotional scars come from some authority figure who treated us badly. Maybe a teacher didn't know how to mix in fairness with discipline. We look back on tirades of that teacher and still wince at ...

4216. More than You Can Count

Revelation 7:9-17

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... of witnesses. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Lord, how glorious is the sight of the communion of saints, even when glimpsed as through a glass darkly in our faulty memory. You alone can make us worthy to stand in that number. Just the thought of those innumerable saints fills us with longing. Even more we long for you. Forgive us our sins. Perfect us in your love. Amen. Hymns "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder" "We've A Story To Tell To The Nations" "Look, You Saints, The Sight Is Glorious"

4217. Get AaMap, Ask for Directions

1 Samuel 16:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... Of Confession The word "repentance" implies a complete turn around in direction. If we are going the wrong direction we cannot fix things by continuing that way. We must stop, turn around, and work our way back. Lord, we're turning around. For some of us it may be a long journey back to your arms. Run to us, bridge the gap, beckon us home. Amen. Hymns "Lord, I Am Fondly, Earnestly ...

4218. No Time for Napping

Matthew 25:1-13

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

... , awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14) Collect Tell us in a parable, or tell us plainly. Write it in large words, Lord, that we might read while moving fast, or speak to us quietly in the still of the long night. We want to hear your holy word today. We want to understand. May we comprehend with the help of your Spirit. Amen. (reminiscent of Habakkuk 2) Prayer Of Confession Lord, we are only human. We spend your blessings as swiftly as they arrive, trusting that you ...

4219. A Gift for You

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

James L. Killen

... the prelude to a symphony might. He introduces himself and explains that he has been called to be an apostle, that is, a missionary, to the non-Jewish people of the world. Then he introduces the gospel he preaches, good news about the saving work of God, begun long ago and coming into focus in the life of Jesus Christ, through whom, he said, he had received grace and responsibility to share that grace with the Gentiles, and to bring them to faith. Then he tells who the message is for. It is for those in ...

4220. Different

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon

James L. Killen

... life. The "meeting" lasted several hours. Before it was over, Bill was able to deal honestly with the fact that his life was disintegrating and to enter into the new possibility that his friends were trying to share with him. Bill had been a church member for a long time, but he had never moved his faith to the center of his life. He did that as he knelt with the three other men in the conference room of a bank and prayed. In the months that followed the meeting, everything changed for Bill. The three men ...

4221. Still Under Construction

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Sermon

James L. Killen

... over it." But he knew that he would not have to do it alone. God was working in his life and God would help him to get over his bad experience and to move on to wholeness. Then the pastor thought for another minute and added that he had long since stopped thinking of himself as climbing some kind of a spiritual ladder. That was no longer important to him. But, even in his old age, he was still looking forward to the future expectantly, believing that God still had more to show him, believing that God would ...

4222. Remembering Jesus

2 Peter 1:16-21

Sermon

James L. Killen

... , and an ability to cope no matter what is going on in the world around us. We share the memory that once, a long time ago, there was a young teacher who was totally committed to the loving purpose of God for the world. He came healing the ... what he did, what he said, what happened concerning him. If, to be honest, you really don't know the story, or if it has been a long time since you read it, you would do well to read it again. Each of the first four books of the New Testament - Matthew, Mark, Luke, ...

4223. After Good Friday

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... are promises that are made voluntarily and accepted of one's own accord. Down through history God has made covenants with his people. God made a covenant with the first people in the Garden of Eden when he told Adam and Eve they could live there forever as long as they obeyed him. Of course, the first two people with whom God ever made a deal broke that first covenant. And thus began a history of disobedience. God made a covenant with Noah after God flooded the earth. He told Noah that he would never again ...

4224. A Holy-wood Ending

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... on life. A man had just had his annual physical exam and was waiting for the doctor's initial report. After a few minutes the doctor came in carrying the man's charts and said: "There's no reason why you can't live a completely normal life ... as long as you don't try to enjoy it." If we believe the story of Jesus, and the ending that God wrote, then there is no reason why we cannot even rejoice in our sufferings. When we are able to accept illness and injury, hardship and struggle, contempt and injustice ...

4225. Doing Well and Doing Good

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... world that states that people should do well by doing good. This translates into a rationale for doing works of charity and for being generous to employees, customers, and communities. The reason for these good deeds is to engender good feeling and, in the long run, to make more money, in other words, to do well. By being good to employees, costs for recruitment and training and replacement will be greatly reduced. By being good to customers, there will be loyalty and an increased willingness to spend money ...

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