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 4251 to 4275 of 4962 results

4251. If You Are A Disciple of Jesus Christ

Luke 6:17-26, Luke 6:12-16

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

We are blessed to have many deeply committed, very capable people on our church staff. One of them is our chief of security, Reggie Johnson. He does so much more than just keep the church campus safe. Reggie learns and remembers the names of our worshippers. In fact, he knows your children and what kind of cars you drive. When a funeral takes place, Reggie grieves with the family. If your left front tire is a bit slack, Reggie will notice and let you know. If a soccer ball is kicked over a fence, Reggie ...

4252. Jesus Gives Us Tomorrow!

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Now when he had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven." And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:50-51) The ...

4253. A Healing Presence

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I want to call you to prayer in a focused sort of way this morning. And we need to remember as we pray, because of who we are as Christians, that word of the prophet Micah, listen to him - he shall judge between many peoples. And how shall decide for strong nations far off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. That’s a dream of the kingdom, a kingdom that the Lord promises ...

4254. How To Fail Successfully

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

It's amazing what we do with funny stories. We apply them to whomever we wish. For instance, you might hear one funny story with the legendary coach Bear Bryant as the primary actor. When you hear it again, the primary actor may be Johnny Majors. I heard a marvelous story sometime ago about Thomas Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company -- in fact, he told the story on himself. Lately I've been hearing it about President Clinton. So the story goes with the new ...

4255. Look Ma, No Hands

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Jesus charged the disciples to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and only one tunic. Not even a change of clothes. When I preached this text before, I ended up preaching a sermon about St. Francis, because this is what Francis used as the first rule for his order, the Franciscans. He just took the words of Jesus' instruction to his disciples on their first missionary journey, and said, we will do this. There would be other rules ...

4256. Lord of the Dance

Mark 2:13-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

The song we have just sung, "Lord of the Dance," declares that the proper response on learning the meaning of the Gospel is to celebrate, to dance. This hymn is one of the less traditional hymns in our hymn book, written in the 1960's, which you may have guessed, when the Church began experimenting with new music. It was finally included in the 1988 hymnal. It was written by an Englishman, a man named Sydney Carter, who put the words to the arrangement of the American Shaker hymn, "Tis a Gift to be Simple ...

4257. To Be a Christian

Acts 11:19-30

Sermon

James McCormick

In the earliest days of the Christian movement, the followers of Jesus were not called Christians. They were called “followers of the way”. Jesus had said, “I am the way”, so they were followers of “the way”. The book of Acts tells us that the disciples were called Christians for the first time in Antioch. We use that term, “Christian” a lot. But what does it mean? That’s what this sermon is about. First, let’s talk about what it does not mean. It does not mean simply that you have been baptized and you ...

4258. Won't You Come Home, George Bailey?

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

This being the MotorCity, let's start with a pair of transportation tidbits. Several years ago, I told you that since the gospel makes nary a mention of camels, I was willing to speculate that the three kings drove to Bethlehem in a Honda. For tradition has it that "they were of one accord." But now I am able to offer an eyewitness report that Santa Claus (or his brother who dresses like him) drives an Audi ... a beige Audi ... a beige Audi wagon ... complete with a cell phone. For I followed Santa south ...

4259. The Love Triangle: Man-Woman-God

Psalm 127:1-5

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Many years ago, my wife Gloria and I decided to take dancing lessons at the local Arthur Murray studio. We knew a few dances already but we wanted to add to our repertoire. So, we took lessons one night per week for about six weeks. Quickly we discovered that we needed some place to practice our lessons, especially the foxtrot and the waltz. Our home did not have a room large enough for that purpose. Then we thought about a large classroom at our church. It had plenty of space. So, following our lessons, ...

4260. I Believe In Jesus Christ

Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Recently at the grocery store I noticed that even at this time of year you can buy half of lots of fruits, like watermelon and cantaloupe. This helps you judge something about the ripeness of the fruit, if not the taste. That reminds me of a woman who went to a grocery store and asked to buy half a great fruit. The clerk asked her to wait while he checked on that possibility. He went to the back of the store and said to the manager, “There is some nut here who wants to buy half a great fruit.” Then he ...

4261. Mary, Did You Know?

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the most beautiful of the modern Christmas songs was written by a man who is best known, perhaps, as a comedian. His name is Mark Lowry. Lowry is also a musician of some note. He performed for many years with the Gaither Vocal band. In 1984 he was asked to pen some words for his local church choir and he wrote a poem that began like this, “Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?” A few years later ...

4262. A New Beginning for Everyone

Exodus 35:4-29

Sermon

James Merritt

I want to take you back 3,500 years to the very first capital campaign found in the Bible. The Lord does not even wait to get the children of Israel to the promise land until He asks them to do two things: (1) Take an offering; (2) Build a building. Now there are two parts to this campaign that are extremely important. Notice who they were to give their offering to: "Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and ...

4263. Dead Man Walking

John 11:38-44, John 11:17-37, John 11:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

In 1927, an S-4 Navy submarine was accidentally rammed by a Coast Guard Cutter, sending it immediately to the bottom of the bay. The entire crew was trapped. Every effort was made to rescue them, but every effort failed. Near the end of the four day attempt, to bring these men to the surface, a diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of the vessel and heard a man tapping Morse Code from inside. This was the last question that he heard. "Is...there...any...hope?"[[1]] If there is any day of the year and ...

4264. Mary and Joseph: His Obedient Servants

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I was in Columbus, Ohio not long ago. I had wedged in a day, following a meeting in Kentucky, to visit for the first time since their marriage last summer, my daughter, Kim and her husband, John. We were coming home from dinner out in the evening and John called our attention to a striking sight. On the end wall of a church sanctuary, a giant shadow of Christ was cast. It was a unique and moving sort of thing, created by the lighting of a small statue of Christ in a garden behind the church. I had passed ...

4265. From Temple to Table

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

As the “wilderness” continues to shrink, the highly populated suburbs weirdly become the new “edges” of civilization. Why else would coyotes have become the greatest danger for small dogs and cats? Why else would deer have replaced moles, grubs, and crabgrass as the biggest landscaping challenge all over suburbia? The only thing worse than having all your flowers nipped off by marauding Bambi’s is the absolutely abhorrent smell of deer repellent. To keep deer from munching down your roses, pansies, zinnia’ ...

4266. Be Careful How You Live

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. — Ephesians 5:15-16 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Ephesians 5:19-20 Be very careful, then, how you live. In these verses of Ephesians that we have been reading the last few weeks, there is eternal wisdom for ...

4267. No Pleasing Some People

John 12:1-8

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

Secretly I'm on Judas' side on this one. You probably don't want to admit it, but so are you. He points out that 300 days' salary had just been cracked open and wasted on Jesus. Well, not wasted. Yeah, wasted. Because once that expensive perfume was used it couldn't be used again. It was a limited, one time resource. Can you imagine the good that could have been done for the poor? Try to imagine what our church could do if someone donated one year's worth of salary out of the blue! That's why I say that ...

4268. No Substitutes

Galatians 3:15-25

Sermon

King Duncan

A church organist sent the following note to his minister: “I am sorry to say that my wife died last night. Could you please find a substitute for me for the weekend?” Well, I’m certain he meant a substitute organist not a substitute wife. Speaking of substitutes, there was an award ceremony years ago for the legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio at the Lotos Club of NY. At that event, DiMaggio’s former teammate, Phil Rizzuto, told the audience that one time DiMaggio, who was wildly popular, was supposed ...

4269. A Global Celebration

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

Eureka Springs, Arkansas is the home of the Great Passion Play in the Ozarks. There is a humorous story going around about the actor who at one time played the part of Christ in this passion play. As the actor carried the cross up the hill of Golgotha a tourist began heckling him, making fun of him and shouting insults at him. Finally, the actor had taken as much as he could take. So he threw down his cross, walked over to the tourist . . . and punched him out. After the play was over, the director told ...

4270. Blessed Are the Abnormal

James 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Everyone knows the name Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh is best remembered as a troubled, but highly talented post-impressionist painter who died at the age of 37, perhaps at his own hand. His best-known work is titled, “Starry Night.” But let me tell you some things about Vincent van Gogh that you may not know. Did you know that Vincent van Gogh was drawn toward the Christian ministry at an early age? In the winter of 1878, van Gogh volunteered to move to an impoverished coal mine in the south of Belgium, a ...

4271. God and Mammon

Luke 16:16-18, Luke 16:1-15

Teach the Text

R.T. France

Big Idea: Our heavenly well-being depends on how we have handled the possessions entrusted to us here on earth. Understanding the Text Two more parables (16:1–8a, 19–31) follow the three in chapter 15. In the light of the interpretive comments on the first parable in 16:8b–9, both parables make a connection between life on earth and life in heaven, and the focus in both is on wealth and how we use it, a prominent theme in Luke that has already been given sustained attention in chapter 12 (summed up in the ...

4272. Signs of the End of the Age

Mark 13:1-31

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

Destruction and Persecutions to Come (13:1-23) 13:1–2 Chapter 13 of Mark is one of the two large sections of teaching material uninterrupted by other things, the other block of material being the parables discourse in chapter 4. The present discourse begins with a prediction by Jesus that the temple of Jerusalem will be destroyed (13:1–2). This leads to a typical Markan scene in which the disciples ask Jesus privately for the meaning of his statement (13:3–4) and Jesus gives an extensive answer to their ...

4273. Reflecting God’s Abundant Love

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Molly F. James

I lived for a portion of my childhood in Bath, Maine. There are many notable things about this small city on the Kennebec River, but is perhaps best known for its ships. In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was full of shipyards that built all kinds of wooden sailing vessels. Now it has just one shipyard, Bath Iron Works, which is a huge facility that builds destroyers and frigates for the US Navy. Much of the work is done outside, and it was great fun to watch the pieces of the ship come together like a ...

4274. Recognizing Who God Is

Job 42:7-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Series on the Book of Job, #4 Suggested video clip: "Rudy" This is the last sermon in our series on Job. Maybe you are relieved, as I am relieved. This is heavy stuff. We ended last week's service by pondering the question: What has Job learned from his encounter with the Almighty God? For an answer, I want to turn to the movie Rudy. Rudy is based on the true story of a young man named Rudy Ruettiger whose only goal in life was to play football for Notre Dame. Rudy is small and he lacks athletic ability. ...

4275. Dressed for Success?

Luke 24:36-49, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Judaism is the story of how the love we feel for another person leads to the love of G-d, and robes us in garments of light.” (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks) Prop: a white tie and white baptismal shawl / wear a clergy collar or robe that day How many here work in a business? In a school? In a hospital? Any other kinds of workplaces? [Give people time to answer.] No matter where you work, I’m guessing you have some kind of dress code. I’m wearing today my pastoral garb. While sometimes I don’t, you can be sure that ...

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