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 426 to 450 of 1164 results

426. God Knows Exactly How You Feel

John 19:28

Sermon

James Merritt

One of the most powerful pieces of prose that I have read in a long time is a little playlet entitled: "The Long Silence." Listen to it: "At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God's throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them, but some groups near the front talked heatedly not with cringing shame, but with belligerence. ‘Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?' snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed ...

427. Proper 4

2 Corinthians 4:1-18, 1 Samuel 3:1--4:1, Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20) Samuel was a special gift of Yahweh to his mother, Hannah, who was barren for many years. She went to the tabernacle and fervently prayed for a child. If the child was a male, she promised to give him back to the Lord. After weaning him, she took him to Eli, the high priest, to be a servant in the temple. Three times Samuel mistook Yahweh's call for Eli's. Upon Eli's direction, Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." Then Yahweh disclosed to ...

428. Playing to the Right Audience

Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

It was an incredible military breakthrough. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Commander Joe Rochefort broke the Japanese codes. From an intelligence base on Oahu, he predicted an attack on Midway Island for June 3, 1942. Because of Rochefort's skill, the United States surprised the Japanese Navy with its first defeat in 350 years. Four carriers were lost, one cruiser, 2500 men, 322 aircraft, and the best of their pilots. The tide turned in the Pacific; Japan never recovered momentum. Commander ...

429. Let’s Climb a Mountain

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

James W. Robinson

How would you like to climb a mountain? Right now. Too tired? Completely exhausted after a week of commuting to the office or working around the house? What if you could take the hike without leaving your seat? Don’t scoff! It can be done. No leg work is required. All you need do is exercise your imagination. So, off we go, up the Sermon on the Mount, crossing the ridge to a lookout that offers us a view of the loftiest peaks of the Mount. Those peaks have a name. Collectively, they are known as the ...

430. What Gets Into Us?

John 18:1--19:42

Sermon

King Duncan

What got into Judas? That’s an appropriate question for this Good Friday service. What got into him? Can’t you imagine the other disciples asking one another and themselves that question? All this time he was one of us. We trusted him. We even made him treasurer. How could he betray the Master for 30 pieces of silver? Was it jealousy? Did someone make him feel rejected? He was an important member of the fellowship. We tried to treat him like a brother even though he was the only non-Galilean among us. What ...

431. Coping When It Seems Impossible

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

No problem! No sweat! My life is under control. My family is under control. My business is under control. My Nation is under control. My world is under control. No sweat! How stupid can we get? Help! I need help! Our world is not coping well. We tremble on the brink of suicide. Self-trust dismisses God’s authority. In some cases entire nations fail the most fundamental test of helping their own citizens cope with materialism run amok. Perhaps the most complete expression of a totally materialistic ...

432. You Can Be Well Fed

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

I used to serve as pastor to a delightful young woman who was a physiologist. A committed health nut, she probably weighed all of 90 pounds soaking wet. She ran about five miles per day and actually seemed to enjoy counting fat grams. Though a truly charming young lady, she was not much of a realist. I note that because one of her goals was to make me as skinny as she was. Following a trip to a church conference at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, I made the mistake of telling her that I had stopped at the ...

433. COMMAND TO SHARE

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Ewart E. Turner

There were giants in those days: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea. Which one of these did Jesus nominate to be the greatest born of women? Not one. In stead he singled out a hairy, harassed desert preacher - John the Baptizer. Why? The clue is found in the fragment of the Baptizer’s teaching which Luke preserved for posterity. It revealed John as the pioneer of sharing. Not only was this John preaching a God of revolutionary morality, based on sharing with the ...

434. Finding Plenty in the Midst of Scarcity

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

For the past six weeks or so, our staff and a host of volunteers have been in the business of hosting conferences and conventions. Your new and newly renovated facilities are being put to good use. When you invite 800 or a 1,000 people to be your guests, the bigger question than where are we going to meet is the question of where are we going to eat? While we have contributed to the restaurant businesses of Brentwood this summer, we have also fed a host of people out of this facility. Eight hundred people ...

435. The Christmas Promise: God With Us

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

James W. Moore

G. K. Chesterton, the noted British poet and theologian, was a brilliant man who could think deep thoughts and express them well. However, he was also extremely absent-minded, and over the years he became rather notorious for getting lost. He would just absolutely forget where he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to be doing. On one such occasion, he sent a telegram to his wife which carried these words: “Honey, seems I’m lost again. Presently, I am at Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?” As ...

436. The Glorious Company

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

Harmless fun some call it. Others suggest it is never harmless or funny to joke about evil, even if we know that the witches and gremlins, devils and werewolves who roam our streets are the little children of our neighborhood, and the glaring faces in our windows are no more than hollowed-out pumpkins whose candles will not even last the evening. While there are some October Scrooges who bemoan the knocks at the door, there are many more who pile up the fruits and candies, turn on the lights and wait by ...

437. Like a Butterfly

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

King Duncan

This is that day in the church year when we celebrate Christ’s transfiguration. Here’s something for you to think about. Did you know that the Greek word translated as “transfiguration” is the word “metamor-phothe,” from which we get the word “metamorphosis”? I’ll bet I could invite one of our children up here and he or she could tell us about metamorphosis. A dictionary defines metamorphosis as “a transformation, a complete change of appearance and form.” The best example we have of metamorphosis is the ...

438. With Jesus No Mission Is Impossible

John 6:1-14

Sermon

James Merritt

I heard about a young preacher who was going to preach his very first sermon, and he was going to preach from the text that I will be preaching on this morning. As he introduced it he said, "I want to talk to you about how Jesus fed five men with five thousand loaves of bread and two thousand fish." Well, there was a man in the church that loved to intimidate preachers and he jumped up and said, "Great day, that's no miracle, I could do that!" This young preacher was just shattered and couldn't even preach ...

439. Wrestling With God

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

King Duncan

If Jacob were alive today, I am certain that he would be a Yuppie. The three-piece suit, BMW and condo at the beach would certainly all be among his possessions. For you see, Jacob was a born competitor. Any corporation would be delighted to employ him. He came out of the womb with his hand grasping his brother Esau's ankle seeking to be the first born because the first born received a greater portion of the inheritance. That is how he got his name, "Jacob," which means one who strives. You know the story ...

440. The Peace Of Christ In A Chaotic World

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Brett Blair

One of the best newspaper cartoons of all time is Calvin and Hobbes. One day Calvin and Hobbes come marching into the living room early one morning. His mother is seated there in her favorite chair. She is sipping her morning coffee. She looks up at young Calvin. She is amused and amazed at how he is dressed. Calvin’s head is encased in a large space helmet. A cape is draped around his neck, across his shoulders, down his back and is dragging on the floor. One hand is holding a flashlight and the other a ...

441. Whatever became of Kingdomtide?

John 16:17-33

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

I wonder whatever became of Kingdomtide. Kingdomtide used to be listed on the liturgical calendar of the old Methodist, and now United Methodist, Church as the period between Pentecost and Advent. It began on the last Sunday of August which has traditionally been designated as the “Festival of Christ the King.” During Kingdomtide clergy got to wear green stoles symbolizing the growth of the Kingdom of God in the world. After all, our Lord did teach us to pray: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth ...

442. Epiphany 4

Psalm 15:1-5, Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The Testament texts are a call for us to act in accordance with the reality that we know is true. Micah 6:1-8 makes this point through a legal confrontation between God and Israel, while Psalm 37:1-11 presents a series of wisdom sayings that are meant to bring the reality of God more clearly into focus by encouraging us to adopt the moral way of life. Micah 6:1-8 - "Controversy in the Congregation" Setting. Micah 6:1-8 uses the imagery of dispute as the setting for the prophetic oracle ...

443. Lent 1

Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 5:12-21, Matthew 4:1-11, Genesis 2:4-25, Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The structure of the church year determines, in all three years of the lectionary, that this Sunday is, in part, a "pattern" Sunday; it shows that Lent is a forty-day retreat by the faithful, "patterned" after Jesus' solitary sojourn in the wilderness immediately after he had been baptized in the Jordan. As a spiritual journey, Lent is observed in public and in private, in corporate worship and in individual devotions and actions. But, in the use of the Gospel for the Day, again in all ...

444. No One Left Behind

2 Kings 7:3-20

Sermon

James Merritt

"No One Left Behind" - that is a universal creed that is shared by every firefighter, soldier and law enforcement person in America. Whenever they go out on a mission to fight fire, to fight crime or to fire an enemy of our nation, they are determined that when it comes to their own there will be "No One Left Behind." I don't know where this motto originated, but it could have come from the story we will study today. The Kingdom of David, which then was passed on to his son, Solomon, was known as the ...

445. I Am the Bread of Life

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

It is absurd to apologize for mystery. Keep that sentence in your mind now because I will be coming back to it in the sermon today, and may be coming back to again and again in this series of sermons which we begin this morning. It is absurd to apologize for mystery. Now a story. Some of you movies buffs will remember an Italian film of a few years ago entitled Le Dolce Vita. As that movie opens, a helicopter is flying rather slowly and not very high above the earth. Slung from the helicopter is a kind of ...

446. Do Not Forget the Lord

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

Not by Bread Alone: Like chapter 7, this chapter is also very skillfully organized in a loose chiastic fashion, with the same “in and out” pattern as in chapter 7. A The land sworn to the forefathers; command given today (v. 1) B Wilderness as place of humbling, testing, and provision (vv. 2–6) C A good land (vv. 7–9) D You will eat and be satisfied (v. 10) E Bless the LORD; Do not forget (v. 11) D′ You will eat and be satisfied (v. 12a) C′ A good land (vv. 12b–14) B′ Wilderness as place of humbling, ...

447. Good News, Bad News, Good News

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Thomas Long

I forget now whether it was a famous football coach, a former president, or a positive-thinking teacher who put on his wall the motto, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" -- probably all three of them. In any case, I am aware of the fact that there are some people who pride themselves on being able to get motivated in tough situationns, to face head-on the tough issues. "Give it to me straight, Doc," they say to the surgeon, "I can handle it." They sign up for courses from the roughest ...

448. Christ the King

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: Green Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46 Theme: Basis for the last judgment. Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration One pastor began this way: As people entered the sanctuary, each was given a picture in which some people were enjoying the bountiful harvest and some were not. Some were getting well-fed, others were going hungry and thirsty, which is also the cause for millions of deaths. Ask the congregation to share the pictures with each other; then ask for their response verbally. Pastor: "We ...

449. What Things Are Perfect Joy

John 14:23-29; Gal 6:14

Illustration

St. Francis of Assisi

How St. Francis, Walking One Day with Brother Leo, Explained to Him What Things Are Perfect Joy. One day in winter, as St. Francis was going with Brother Leo from Perugia to St. Mary of the Angels, and was suffering greatly from the cold, he called to Brother Leo, who was walking on before him, and said to him: "Brother Leo, if it were to please God that the Friars Minor should give, in all lands, a great example of holiness and edification, write down, and note carefully, that this would not be perfect ...

450. Tempter and Tempted

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Dean Lueking

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are ...

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