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 4626 to 4650 of 5000 results

4626. Marriage 101

Ephesians 5:22-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... submit to their husbands because God has placed the husband as the head of the wife. God knows that no society can long exist without order. Every organization that is effective and efficient must have one head. Anything with no head is dead and anything ... her. Often the wife would follow the husband all the way to the car where once again he would hug her and give her a long passionate kiss. Well this lady next door watched this for several days; called her husband over to the window and said, "I want you to ...

4627. Who's Number One?

Exodus 20:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... kind of clout? That kind of authority? That kind of power? After all, there are only ten of them - one for each finger. They are not very long. You can recite all of them in less than a minute. They are so simple the Bible in Exodus 34:28 simply calls them "The Ten ... is worded, "You shall have no other gods before Me." (Exodus 20:3, NASB) That doesn't mean it is okay to worship other gods as long as you put God first. When God says, "Before Me", He is not just asking to be put at the top of the list or the ...

4628. Liar, Liar

Exodus 20:16

Sermon

James Merritt

... and teach our families the importance of honesty, integrity, doing what you say you will do and telling the truth. Do you want what is good for your family? Do you want your kids to live a life that is long and good and prosperous? Listen to these verses. "Do any of you want to live a life that is long and good? Then watch your tongue! Keep your lips from telling lies!" (Psalms 34:12-13, NLT) You are never more like the devil when you lie and never more like God when you tell the truth. The family you ...

4629. The Clone Zone: The Bible and Cloning

Genesis 1:26-28

Sermon

James Merritt

... isn't new. Because the genes in the embryo precisely match those of the donor; the donor is copying himself; repeating his own development from the moment of his conception. Now this was the issue that President Bush had to address and face not long after becoming President. He stated, and rightly so, that the effort to use stem cells obtained from adult neuro cells that are already in existence, or from bone marrow, or from live birth umbilical cords, and placental blood raises no moral problems at all ...

4630. A Cure for the Workaholic

Genesis 2:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... workaholic. If your work provides you more happiness and excitement than anything else in your life - you are probably a workaholic. If long work hours have hurt your family relationships - you are probably a workaholic. The United States has now become the world leader ... paying job, but if you ever retire from a paying job, you ought to use some of that extra time to work for God for free. As long as you have a breath in your body, there is always a work that God has for you to do. At the same time that God ...

4631. The Last Breath – The Fear of Death

Hebrews 9:27-28

Sermon

James Merritt

... cannot cancel it. There is an old legend of a merchant in Baghdad, who one day sent his servant to the market. Before very long, the servant came running back to his master with a white face shaking and said, "Down in the marketplace, I just bumped into a woman ... Must Attend So many people ask the question, "What happens after I die?" That is a very deep question and calls for a very long answer, but I can tell you one thing that I know happens and that is judgment. Verse 27 goes on to say, "It is ...

4632. Focus on the Finish

Hebrews 12:1-2

Sermon

James Merritt

... you and He is waiting for you. Have you ever thought about the fact that not every race allows the competitors to see the finish line? If you've ever watched sculling in the Olympics you've seen those long sleek beautiful shells and those men who are synchronizing their rowing as they pull those long oars through the water propelling that boat in the race. Now think about it. Those men have their backs to the finish line. So how do they finish so strong? How do they pace themselves? How do they know ...

4633. A New Hope

Jeremiah 18:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... for your life. Benjamin Franklin was addressing the Constitutional Convention, June 28th, 1786 when he said this, "I have lived Sir, a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men ... has become. It is never too late to begin again. It is never too late to start over. You can always start over with God as long as you are willing to for God is always willing to start over with you. You may be thinking, "I've really messed up my life", ...

4634. God's Christmas List

John 3:16

Sermon

James Merritt

... on it that simply said, "From, Jack." She finally walked up to him after about a week or so and said, "Why do you keep sending me roses?" Without even looking her in the eye, he said, "Would you go out with me?" She quickly said, "Yes." It wasn't long after that they were married. For every day they were married, Jack Benny had a rose delivered to his wife, but then Jack Benny died. The day after his funeral, the doorbell rang and it was the delivery man from the florist shop standing there with a rose. Mrs ...

4635. Don't Be Afraid Of The Light

John 8:12

Sermon

James Merritt

... the value of light until you understand the reality of darkness. Many of you can appreciate something that happened to me not too long ago. I was sitting at my computer late one night at home. It was very stormy outside and all of a sudden our power ... black rock full of holes and craters, but let that moon get properly positioned to the sun and that moon will shine and glow all night long. That is all that God wants you to do - to simply let the light of His son shine through you and show it to a world ...

4636. No Need to Worry

John 10:11-18; 27-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... Sheep never worry. If you go look at any sheep you will never see a worried sheep. You will never see a sheep nervously rubbing its hoofs together. You never see a sheep sweat. You will never see a sheep pacing back and forth. Sheep don't worry as long as the shepherd is around. They never worry about their security. Why? No matter what else is going on around them, if they have the presence and the protection of the shepherd they know he can handle anything that is thrown at them. Let me ask you a question ...

4637. Dead Man Walking

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

Sermon

James Merritt

... the first of the three foundational statements in this story. "Lazarus is dead." (John 11:14, NASB) That, quite frankly, is one of the most devastating statements you will ever hear in your life about someone that matters anything to you at all. I will never forget as long as I live, the phone call I received at 4:00am on a Tuesday morning, December 8th, 1998. It was the voice of my mother and her first words were, "Your daddy is dead." Even that very phrase sounds cold. We try to use other terminology such ...

4638. Heaven: One Way And One Way Only

John 14:1-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... say about religion is that it is a good thing for all of us to have. It doesn't matter what you believe - as long as you believe in something." [[3]] Bill O'Reilly unwittingly exposes the first myth about religion that we have to dismiss and that ... own righteousness, first of all you are building a toll road. You have to pay your way as you go along and you will run out of road long before you get to Heaven. Second, the road is going the wrong way. If you try to be good enough for God, you will wind up not ...

4639. My Mission from God

John 17:18

Sermon

James Merritt

... , but looked me in the eye and stated he was still preaching the Word of God. After he left, I told my wife that if she saw any snakes or someone passing out poison Kool-Aid, we were going for the exits. Frankly, I didn't care for the music, longing for more traditional gospel songs, but the young people did seem to enjoy it. True to his word, the pastor preached a dynamic message about knowing God and how it is the single most important thing in all of our lives. He closed by telling them how to know Jesus ...

4640. God's Christmas Gift

Luke 2:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... your heart into a manger and you allow Jesus to be born anew into your life. It was a perfect Christmas for a little girl named Jessica. She got every gift she wanted. Her favorite cousins were there to share the holiday. She had eaten food all day long. As her mother tucked her in for bed, she looked up and smiled and said, "Mom, I sure hope Mary and Joseph have another baby next year." [[2]] Christmas is not about gifts. It is about the gift - God’s Christmas Gift. Would you unwrap that gift tonight ...

4641. The Masterpiece

Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-28

Sermon

James Merritt

... by that marriage was going to result ultimately in the birth of the Jewish Messiah and the King – Jesus Christ. "So what" you say? Long before you and I were born, God was overseeing the future of who we would be as well. Think about it, you didn't ... says: "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things planned for us long ago." (Eph. 2:10 NLT) God wants you to be a masterpiece of His grace by living for His glory and expressing His goodness to others ...

4642. Broken Pieces

Matthew 1:3, 5, 6

Sermon

James Merritt

... thing every single person on this earth has - we all have family trees, genealogies, ancestors and if we live long enough descendants, but family trees represent more than babies and bloodlines. They represent a mosaic. Remember the definition of ... and then had (what he thought) was a secret one night stand with her that no one would ever discover. It didn't stay secret very long, because she became pregnant. Bathsheba really didn't have to go when the king asked her to come and she really didn't have to ...

4643. Joseph – The Promise Believed

Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... , but not so. Instead, He supernaturally guides and in fact, forces Joseph to go to Nazareth. Nazareth was about 55 miles north of Jerusalem and it was inhabited largely by people who were noted for their crude and violent ways. In fact, the term "Nazarene" had long been a term of condescension and was used to describe for lack of a better term a "Jewish redneck". That is why Nathaniel once asked Philip this question, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46) Nazareth was a nothing city. It was ...

4644. Standard Building Codes

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... heart is where the core of the problem of adultery begins. That is why Jesus did something no one else had ever done concerning adultery – He goes to the heart of the problem, because the problem with adultery is in the heart. In other words, Jesus said long before adultery takes place in the bed, it has already been visualized in the head. That is one of the ways you can assure a lasting, loving marriage and assure that you stay out of sexual immorality is to guard your heart. Maintain pure thoughts. Don ...

4645. Don’t Be a Hypocrite

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

James Merritt

... are times I have heard pray and I just wanted to say after about fifteen minutes, "Knock it off!" Think about how many times even in our own prayers, even sometimes in private are standardized, routine, monotonous, no spontaneity, no spirit initiated prayer, prayers that are long, prayers that are wordy and we use the same repetitions over and over. I heard a pastor say something one time that really, really got me to thinking. He said there are four phrases that we use in our praying that we ought to quit ...

4646. Which Flowers Are Real?

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Illustration

Brooks Ramsey

... room next to his flowers. As he came in, the queen of Sheba is reported to have said, "Solomon, you are the wisest man in the world. Tell me without touching these flowers, which are real and which are artificial." It is said that Solomon studied the flowers for a long time and spoke nothing, until finally he said, "Open the windows and let the bees come in." There are ways to tell the artificial from the real—let the bees come in; they will know where the real is. If we live with the authentic Jesus ...

4647. How to Make Heaven Happy

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... kind of head-butting does to the ability of that sheep to think at all? Did you know that two male sheep will butt heads for as long as 20 minutes until one will finally back down? If you've ever seen this on television they say you can hear the sound of these two ... his life. You may not think this is a big thing, but let me tell you why it is. I was in Calcutta, India not too long ago, and I went to Mother Teresa's Mission to the dying and to the starving, and I thought about a question she was asked one ...

4648. The Weakest Link

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... big for his spiritual britches. C. S. Lewis once said: "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course as long as you are looking down you can't see anything that's above you." This Pharisee had fooled himself about himself. He said, "God, I ... a feast he was having. When they all got there they saw his own chair richly decorated, placed at one end of the long table. He told them to seat themselves according to how important they thought they were in his sight; then he left the room. ...

4649. Who Wants To Be a Millionaire

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

James Merritt

... rich they were. Because most clothing was made by wool, it could be eaten by moths and clothing didn't last very long. Another source of wealth was grain or food. That's why Jesus spoke about what "rust could destroy." The word rust there literally ... may like to gamble you might like to dance; You may be the heavyweight champion of the world, You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls; But you're gonna have to serve somebody... May be a construction worker, working on a home Might be living in a ...

4650. God and the Minimum Wage

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... last." The last lesson is this: The blessings of heaven are not based on the length of time that you serve God. If that were true nobody would want to be a martyr. Nobody would ever want to sacrifice their life for the gospel because you want to live as long as you can to accumulate as much heavenly blessing as you could. I can assure you that because of grace no one ever gets less than they deserve. In fact, we'll always get more than we deserve. The next time you buy a product from Borden, remember the ...

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