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 4226 to 4250 of 5000 results

4226. Struggles, Death, and Christ

Philippians 1:21-30

Sermon

Jeff Wedge

... is unfair because we don't often hear much about the Christian attitude toward this life. And Christians, starting with the disciples and Paul, frequently seem to have put up with this life, but consistently looked forward expectantly to life with Christ. The goal is not a long life, or a full life, or a complete life. The Christian goal in this life is to live a faithful life, which is a prelude to our promised life with Christ. And that faithful life can be understood as the second part of Paul's attitude ...

4227. Worthy of God

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

Sermon

Rick Brand

... crazy, frenetic dance of doing. Deep down, I was more than ready to move away from the heart-hardening existence of constant demands - more money, more sales, more projects. I wanted out of the harshness that this lifestyle was inflicting on my weary body, mind, and spirit. I longed to dance again in step with the ebb and flow of life and the rhythm of the Creator. I just had to learn to trust that God would meet my needs if I followed my soul's urging. Trusting that I was created for more than a mediocre ...

4228. Living in Denial

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... much easier. Our story today is about a man who had learned to do just that. You know the story well. There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury. At his gate lay a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs came and licked Lazarus’ sores. The time came when Lazarus died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side in heaven. The rich man also died. In hell, where he was in torment, the rich man looked up ...

4229. A Tale of Two Dancers

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... who is a dissenter, a doubter. It turns out that Michal was right. David is hailed by the historians as a humble servant of God. They said that is why God blessed David, that is why God chose David, because of his humility. But it will not take long for history to reveal that David succumbed to the temptations of power. The temptation of power is to believe that God's favor exempts you from God's law. As the author of II Samuel put it, in this most ominous beginning of the 11th chapter, "It happened, late ...

4230. All Your Facilities Intact

Acts 17:16-34, Colossians 1:15-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... quality. So it occurred to me, maybe the soul that responds to the presence of the holy is like that. No matter what your IQ is, no matter if you be John, or Michael, or Mozart, or Oppenheimer, you are a human being, so you have a soul. The soul longs for wholeness and beauty, oneness and harmony, "that we would seek after God so that we might find him." That is why we have a soul. When the sense of music inside of us is fulfilled, it is called harmony. In religion, when the sense of the holy is fulfilled ...

4231. Body Language

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the river where no one goes to find some respectable trout. As we were fishing down stream, I came around a corner of the canyon and seventy-five feet ahead of me I saw a mountain lion drinking from the river. It must have been six feet long, and a tail that looked equally as long. I ducked back behind the wall and started waving to Amy to inform her of this. She didn't see me. So I stepped out and looked again. He was now turned and staring right at me. I stared back at him. I'd like to ...

4232. Called to Freedom

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... were fleeing the cloisters now in waves. They came to Wittenberg to ask Luther, "Now what do we do?" Luther ran, therefore, something like a marriage bureau. Then in 1523, he, himself, got married. It was a great scandal, fueling salacious rumors, which continued long after Luther's death, about why he began the Reformation in the first place. He married Katherine Von Bora, an ex-nun. She escaped from her nunnery twice. The first time they caught her and brought her back. Then she escaped again and went ...

4233. Coming Home

Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... you could call the righteous person's suspicion of conversion. You notice that in a lot of mainline church people. It is manifested as a kind of elitism. We don't do that. It's not our style. But along with it, I suspect there is a kind of longing. And often a resentment that what they lay claim to, I have never experienced. I wonder if you've noticed than John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, was like that. He was raised in the Church. He was a good Anglican, he became an Anglican priest. He ...

4234. Get Lost

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... is the way it is. And what these three teachings say is, if you want to find life, you've got to lose yourself. Now for a long time I felt that I just couldn't preach that. I mean, it was unhealthy to preach that. The wisdom of the world is that we should ... on the ship so as to intentionally avoid seeing him. You see, she couldn't get outside of herself, and outside of her sorrow, long enough to comfort a little boy who had need. She said, "I have my own problems." One night the ship was torpedoed, and began ...

4235. He's Back

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... Isaiah was talking about, crying the in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord." Jesus is the Lord John was preparing us to receive. John even looks the part. He came from the wilderness. He was a desert ascetic, like a hermit or a monk. He had long hair. He wore animal skins for clothing. He ate locusts and wild honey. John, they said, is obviously the voice crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." They were sure of that. John is the voice preparing us for the Messiah. Except John ...

4236. Let Us Pray

James 5:13-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... groups, and refuse to deal with any resolutions at all." He concluded with this. "What a spectacle, the bishops saying by our actions that our primary agenda is prayer and Bible study. We would send a message to the Church that the Church has been longing to hear for a long time." We should pray first of all, because we know what will happen when we pray. We will change. Both as individuals, and as a church, we will change. We will be renewed as individuals, and as a church. The second reason we should pray ...

4237. Lord of the Dance

Mark 2:13-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... worship, so it is an appropriate setting. I also chose it because it was requested that we sing it. I had not selected it for a long time, because the last time I did, it was requested that we never sing that hymn again. But I just want you to know that I ... be ready, spiritually awakened, for the joy of Easter. So on Maundy Thursday I didn't eat anything. I just drank water all day long. The only problem was, I had to preach on Maundy Thursday night. Which I did. About half way through my sermon I realized I ...

4238. Poor Mary

Luke 1:39-45

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... Sheed, a Catholic writer, has a poignant illustration of this. He said one day he was driving through Sag Harbor on Long Island. He saw three hopelessly homely looking girls, who in no way could be considered to be attractive. He also overheard ... matter who we are. We are precious. A man in the hospital is being treated for cancer. He is estranged from the Church. He has this long list of things he can name for you in his indictment. He doesn't like the Church in its present institutional form. But he is in ...

4239. Pre-Game Analysis

I Corinthians 9:19-27

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... professional football. I tell you, something unprecedented is happening here. Some say, well it is just entertainment, fun and games. It may be just a game, but it is a special kind of game. It's called a "spectator" sport. Spectator games have a long history. They have always been the stage for rehearsing the moral and spiritual values of a culture. It began in Greece, thousands of years ago. The people in Greece were divided into cities, city-states they were called, in order to defend themselves against ...

4240. The Light of the World

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... Resurrection of our Lord. Years ago there appeared a story in the newspaper in Galveston, Texas. It was about a woman and her parakeet, whose name was Chippie. It seems that the woman was cleaning Chippie's bird cage with a canister vacuum cleaner, the kind with a long metal tube, on which you can put attachments at the end. Only to clean his cage, she took the attachments off. She was cleaning the bottom of the bird cage when the phone rang. She reached over to get the phone, and as she did, she heard the ...

4241. The Lonesome Valley

Matthew 21:1-11; 26:36-46, 69-27:1,15-26

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... ! Don't go there!" Peter knows what Jerusalem means. Jerusalem is the center of power that has been trying to do Jesus in. As long as Jesus stays in Galilee, in his own country, among his own people, then he is relatively safe. But for him to go to ... this has never happened before, at least not to the degree that it has happened to me. "Exceptionalism." I like that cartoon I saw a long time ago showing a huge desk, a huge CEO sitting behind the desk, in a huge leather chair. Standing meekly in front of the ...

4242. This Is a Test

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , this extraordinarily gifted player, who had difficulty sharing anything with anybody else, and he said, "Butch, the game is forty minutes long. If you divide that between two teams, it means that each team has the ball about twenty minutes. There are five ... a book that would be a help to other people as they try to make their way through that same dark valley. He said that there is a long period when the loss is almost more than you can bear. It is like you are at the end of the rope, and you have to tie a ...

4243. Try to Be Nice

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... . But thank you anyway." Then, because he is Paul, an apostle, he writes a little homily. That is what is in the second chapter. The first chapter is really greetings, why he is writing the letter. The second chapter is this little homily. It is just a few verses long, but it is a masterpiece. In fact, it is one of the benchmarks of Christian theology. You will recognize it. Have this mind in you which you saw in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to ...

4244. Where's Your Spirit?

Acts 19:1-7

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... about the meaning of each of those acts. First, we have been baptized by water. That means that by God's grace we have been forgiven, and given a new beginning in our life. Now that bothers a lot of people, and it did me, too, for a long time, that we baptize babies with that understanding of baptism. Little babies have not sinned. Nor do I believe that there is some taint transmitted by genetics that has to be removed by the miracle of holy water. I don't believe that. Nevertheless, when we baptize, in ...

4245. In the Darkness of Despair, There Is the Light of Hope

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... shines brightest in despair. Listen to what Isaiah wrote, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” This was their hope for the present and for the future. It really does not take much light to shine in the darkness. A little light goes a long way. When I was in the Army, we went for night training. We stood on a little hill there in the darkness. We looked far down into the valley. Suddenly, a person out there struck a match. We could see clearly that little light shining far away in ...

4246. The Problem Is Not Faith

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... years ago from cancer. She was a very lively, outgoing person, says Father Dear, who worked in two big parishes in Long Island, New York, and was very involved in many good causes, including the struggle to abolish the death penalty and ... work our way to heaven. That is already taken care of because of what Christ did on the cross. But our salvation came about because once long ago the Lord of all the universe was willing to take upon Himself the role of a servant. Now God calls us to service. Not because it ...

4247. Hoodoo McFiggin's Christmas

Luke 2:1-14

Drama

Matthew Powell

... face crack up with pleasure. He waited a few minutes until his intense joy subsided. Then he tried again. This time, the package was long and hard. It resisted the touch and had a sort of funnel shape. Hoodoo: It's a toy pistol! Narrator: said the boy, ... his toothbrush and passed on. The next packet was much larger and evidently contained something soft and bulky. It had been too long to go into the stocking and was tied outside. Hoodoo: I wonder what this is, Narrator: Hoodoo mused, half afraid to open ...

4248. Home For The Holidays

John 1:1-14

Drama

Matthew Powell

4249. Advent 1

Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 24:36-44, Romans 13:8-14

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... 1: Isaiah 2:1-5 1. Peace In Our Time? 2:1-5. Need: The world is ever in pursuit of peace. Each succeeding decade makes peace a greater necessity because of the sophistication and proliferation of advanced weaponry. The world longs for peace, and fears the coming of the next war. This longing for peace is exhibited by the words of verse 4 carved on the outside wall of the United Nations building in New York City. Why has this dream of world peace not been realized? Lesson 1 gives the conditions for peace ...

4250. Christmas 1

Isaiah 63:7--64:12, Colossians 3:1-17, Colossians 3:18-4:1, Galatians 3:15-25, Hebrews 2:5-18, Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... their children. 1. Honor to the father - v. 2. 2. Mother's rights recognized - v. 2. 3. Care for them in their old age - v. 12. b. What children will receive for their obedience - 1. Made happy by their future children - v. 5. 2. Long life - cf. "Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long...." 3. God's rewards - vv. 5, 14. Lesson 2: Hebrews 2:10-18 (C) 1. Any Good In Suffering? 2:10-18 Need: Can there be any good in suffering? Is our pain all in vain? All of us have or will suffer ...

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