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 4776 to 4800 of 5000 results

4776. Hope That God Is Nearby

Isaiah 7:1-25

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... believed. When my mother was dying, Ivan called to see if he could help in any way. I asked him to pray for me. After a long pause on the phone, he said he would. That day the God who was nowhere became the God who is now here. B. God Is Out ... to keep looking down. If God moves from nowhere to now here, some of us will have to step off our race tracks and roller coasters long enough to see. D. God Is Now Here Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and give birth ...

4777. Hope That Hangs In There

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... thing he asks is this “What are you doing here? You are not alone; there are 600 faithful on your side. Get up and get out of here.” Do you ever feel like Elijah? Nobody understands. Nobody cares. I am all alone facing this difficulty. Stop complaining long enough to listen. There is another Voice in the wilderness. It is God coming to get you, to lead you to higher ground. God is in the desert. Somebody wrote this prayer that I think is worth sharing: Lord, I need to keep things in perspective, I get ...

4778. Winning the War Over Fear (Series: Winning the Wars of Daily Life)

Luke 12:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... roofs (Luke 12:2-3). An Afghan woman explained to the Chicago Tribune why she kept wearing her burka, her full body clothing, even though she was no longer required to dress that way. Her explanation was straightforward and simple. “We have lived in the darkness so long we are now afraid of the light.” I suspect a lot of people could say that. Any time fear forces you to hiddenness, the devil is managing to hold you hostage. There is no room in the Christian life for closed door deals, under the table ...

4779. This Is the Day!

Psalm 118:1-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... , stand tall, keep [your] heads up, shoulders back, keep moving, running, looking up, demonstrating [your] pride, dignity, and defiance.” (1) Posture produces performance. You can affect your attitude by the way you stand. If you slump your shoulders and look at the floor long enough, you will get depressed. Fred Chisolm, a dynamic salesman, wrote a book a few years ago in which he said that if you keep your eyes above shoulder level, you will never get depressed. [You’ll trip over a few things, but you ...

4780. Cast All Your Anxiety on Him

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

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... yourself. If God had trouble handling children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you? (1) Today is Mother's Day. A day we celebrate the Christian ideal of Mothers and the ChristianHome. I gave up doing long flowery sermons about the virtues of motherhood a long time ago. When I was young and naive, I hoped all other families were like Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver. But in reality, they're more like the Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond and The Osbornes than ...

4781. What Difference Does It Make?

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... and tickling everybody we meet would go over very well. They might actually come and put us in one of those jackets with the buckles and really long sleeves and lock us in a rubber room. However, we are supposed to figure out how to show that love to everyone we meet. The love ... if nobody is going to follow them. Our whole economy and advertising industry co-opted most of the Commandments a long time ago. We've gotten rid of the first four about our relationship with God because obviously owning stuff, power ...

4782. Easter Heart Burn

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... that he told the man he was too busy right then. Instead of inviting him in, the priest gave the man some money, it was quite a bit more than he normally gave, because he felt guilty, but then went back to his Bible study. He said, it wasn't long afterwards, that he priest realized that he had been just like the disciples the Road to Emmaus. He said, "Christ knocked at my door. I saw Him, I heard Him, I talked to Him, and I failed to recognize Him." (1) You see, we can encounter the Risen Christ wherever ...

4783. Eye Opening Faith

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... could heal a man who was born blind and give him back his sight. It was that opening that helped that village hear the Word of God and bring them "Eye Opening Faith," like the unnamed man born blind in today's Scripture. The Passage containing the full story is long, verses 1-49. I want to focus on just the first portion, verse 1-11, but I encourage you to read the entire passage in context. John 9:1-11 (NRSV) [1] As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. [2] His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who ...

4784. The Short List

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... by his doctor that he had rabies. The doctor also had to inform the man that he had waited so long to go the doctor that nothing could be done about his condition. The man looked devastated but before the doctor could ... was going to be the biggest dinner, biggest civil reception ever. I told him I was sorry, but I was going to be tied up that night. There was a long pause. And then the caller said, 'By any chance would you have Red Skelton's phone number?'" (9) It's an honor to serve God. It's an honor ...

4785. Another Road

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... simply says they were wise men from the East. It doesn't even say there were three of them. There could have been two, there could have been twenty. All we know is they brought three gifts; Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. They were from the East. And they traveled a long way, following a star, to find this baby who would be King. What we do know for sure is that God met them in the midst of the circumstances of their life. God met them where they were. But notice, God didn't leave them there. II. The Road ...

4786. Hope in a Plain Brown Wrapper

Luke 1:47-55

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... saw anything wrapped in butcher paper, we knew we were in for treat. That meant Dad was either going to barbecue or better yet, they had visited the lunch meat counter and brought home a bunch of fresh sliced lunch meat. But if we pulled out a long brown paper bread sack, we knew immediately that Mom and Dad had gone to one of the Jewish Delicatessens and inside was a fresh loaf of sliced Jewish rye. And that meant that somewhere there was a package wrapped in a slightly different color butcher paper. And ...

4787. Guard the Good Treasure

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... that authentic life so that the children and youth of the church see what it means to be a Christian. We're called to model for them, a sincere and authentic faith. Remember what you've learned and who you are. II. Rekindle A. Then Paul goes into a long description of the faith which Timothy already knows, so why rehearse it again? Paul reminds Timothy of the essence of his belief system so that he can rekindle that faith in Timothy. Sort of like fanning the embers of a fire so it won't go out. As parents ...

4788. John 5:1-9

John 5:1-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... are weak. His faith is tied both to the limitations of his body and his conviction that only the first person into the stirred up water will be healed. Those two limitations have held him back from healing for almost four decades. Forty years is a long time. Jesus’ response is as definitive as the man’s had been defensive. As is characteristic of Jesus’ healing methods, the one who seeks healing is commanded first of all to take action. In this case Jesus commands the man whose problem is some sort of ...

4789. Condition Yellow Christians

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... A Condition Yellow Christian kneels by his side, call 911, stays with him until the EMTs arrive. A child wandering alone in a mall in tears is wrong. A Condition Yellow Christian takes the child by the hand, finds a security person, stays with the child as long as it takes. Condition Yellow keeps you alert to your environment as well. An empty lot that attracts drug dealers and refuse is wrong. A Condition Yellow church shows up with a clean-up crew and garbage bags, and maybe later with seeds and soil for ...

4790. Power for Today

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... Gary Nelson. Gary is an outstanding preacher, says Mark, but it wasn’t always so. As the youth pastor at a large church early in his ministry Gary wasn’t often allowed in the pulpit, but when he was, he would preach long, dull sermons filled with Greek explications of long, tedious texts. One humid Pentecost Sunday Gary was assigned to preach on the Holy Spirit. With the solemnness that only a young pastor can feel, Gary began with the opening verses of Genesis, then he paused in the Psalms, then the ...

4791. More Than We Are - Graduation

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... with desires, expressed and unexpressed ambitions. From cradle to crematory, it’s the same story: we want to be more than we are. It is true of all of us. We have our ambitions, our goals, our desires. They are more than we are, yet, when we realize them, the longing is still there: we want to be more than we are I’m glad we’re that way. It adds so much spice to life. That person who is dead to desire, dull in perception, insensitive to mystery, that person is not very much alive. No vision and you ...

4792. A Priesthood of Believers

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... me that he had met me three years ago when I spoke at a Religious Emphasis Week there at Ole Miss. As he talked I faintly remembered, and the more he talked the clearer the story came. The young man had had neurological problems, which back then had caused long lapses of memory, stuttering speech, and inadequate motor control. He told me what it had meant to him for me to give him an hour of my time three years ago that he had written to me afterward and shared some poetry with me and I had responded by ...

4793. Dealing with Stress Creatively

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

... is help… and there is comfort… there is healing… there is peace for our troubled souls. Jesus shared the “good news” with us a long time ago when He said: “Come to me all of you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Come ... ? Where’s the zest? Where’s the enthusiasm? Where’s the excitement? For these people the celebration of life faded and died long ago… and now life for them is drudgery… they cope, they withstand, they persist, they bear up… but surely God meant life ...

4794. Is It Okay To Laugh In Church?

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

James W. Moore

... his sick friend in an attic bedroom, and began the conversation with, “Well, George, they’ll sure have a job getting your coffin down the stairs.” Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t get caught in the tragic notion that Christianity is solemn and sad and sullen and long-faced. No matter what happens… we can rejoice always. The poet reminds us why when he says: “I am not sure the earth is round Nor that the sky is really blue. The tale of why the apples fall May or may not be true I do not know ...

4795. On the Road with the Rich Young Ruler

Luke 18:18-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

... Memphis. I ran the 400 yard dash and the 220. (Back then, we ran yards, instead of meters.) I also did some field events like the long jump and the high jump, but I really got a kick out of being on the sprint relay teams. There was something very special to ... world. I like the feel of the sun on my face and the cool rain. I love the faces of my wife and children. I’ve lived here a long time and I love this place. I don’t want to die.’ But he does die to this world and then he is born into the next. And ...

4796. On the Road with Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

James W. Moore

... ve heard this story before, haven’t we? It’s a modern-day version of The Parable of the Prodigal Son… a story Jesus told long ago to show us how loving and gracious and forgiving God is! When we turn to Him in penitence… When we say to Him, “I’ ... they didn’t change the wedding to June, he not only would not attend, but he would never speak to either one of them again as long as he lived. His daughter left in tears. The next day, the dad showed up in my office, told me what had happened and then ...

4797. On the Road with the Hemorrhaging Woman

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

James W. Moore

... But Jesus knows that is was a special touch. How perceptive He was! He begins to look around. The woman had not expected to be found out. But now she fearfully steps forward and she tells Jesus… * That she has had this bleeding for so long… over 12 years; * And that she had tried everything… doctors, medicines, magic, wives tales, superstitions,… but to no avail… no improvement… in fact she has only gotten worse. * She tells Jesus that she has heard about Him and His power to heal… and that ...

4798. The Church: The Dwelling Place of Wonder

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... moments at a time in front of the portrait. The Curator of the Museum noticed him, and when his curiosity got the best of him, went over, tapped the little man on the shoulder and asked why he stood so long before that picture. The old man, with obvious irritation, turned on the Curator and said, “Hush, young man! Can’t you see I’m listening to the music!” Karsh watched Casals play his cello and presented a picture. The old man, looking at that picutre could hear the music. The ...

4799. Discipline and Means of Grace

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... went far in the Christian life because they surrendered to God and resolved to cooperate with Him rather than fight and question Him throughout their entire lives. There will likely be a time in our Christian journeys when, like Jacob, we will wrestle with God all night long. That night may last for months or even years. But there must eventually come a dawn when we say, “OK, God, You win. You’ve broken me and I’m yours. No more fighting. No more complaining. Lead me where you will. Not my will but ...

4800. One to Take the Place of Jesus

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... they built the church, they drove 4500 wooden pilings into the wet, spongy ground for the foundation. The wooden pilings will not rot as long as they are under water, but if the air gets to them, they will begin to decay and the church would fall in. So ... very personal faith it was. He said: “I did not realize how deep my faith is. I felt that I was a person of faith for a long time, but I had never had it tested. I felt very strongly the presence of the Holy Spirit when I was in the midst of torture…every ...

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