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 26 to 50 of 679 results

26. A Vision of Freedom

Isaiah 65:17-25

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... drugs, victims of domestic violence, and war. Are they free? We need to think about freedom in a new way. We need a new vision of freedom that will help us to appreciate how we are not free yet. We need this new vision to make us yearn for true freedom. And with that yearning, by the grace of God, we may be enabled to live in that freedom and be instruments of God to achieve it. Our text today from the Old Testament has that vision. Let us hear its words again; the Lord God speaks through the text, and he ...

27. Building a Nation

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... the Gospel, Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Who can read those words without being reminded of the words that grace our Statue of Liberty? "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door." These words grew out of the history and heritage of a Jewish woman named Emma Lazarus. When France was about ...

28. A Deliverer Is Born

Exodus 1:1-22, 2:1-10

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... years ago, "Joe Louis, save me; save me, Joe Louis." Joe Louis, the then heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was his only model of strength and power and salvation. I want to be saved, and safe, from whatever would threaten me or my family. I yearn for hope and purpose. My hope is not built on my stocks and bonds, my government's military, on human structures, and institutions. My hope and salvation is Christ and him crucified. One Sunday morning, Rocky O'Daniel was crossing the bridge over the Bad ...

29. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ; an abandoning of dogmatism, a focus on the arts, and diversity. As their play-with, make-up, drop-in, hang-out, fight-out TV shows reveal (NBC's Friends and Seinfeld, MTV's The Real World, ABC's Ellen), busters prize relationships and yearn for community. Unlike TV shows for workaholic boomers (e.g. ABC's Murphy Brown), which take place at the office, buster shows revolve around the home. Less driven by careerism, materialism, and consumerism than their parents, and rejecting their parents' culture where ...

30. Secret Revealed

Romans 16:25-27

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... of the millions over the centuries who wanted — sometimes in agony — what you and I have. What shall we do with so great a salvation? Our answer should be just as clear as God's explicit revelation. Summary And Conclusion The culmination of ages of yearning is now at hand. The great and often unfathomable streams of human experience and God's omnipotence seem to come to a unique intersection in time and space. The forces and energies of all that "was, is, and shall be" have brought to humankind the ...

31. Where Is Love?

Hebrews 9:1-28

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

... thirsting for God "as the deer pants for the water" (to use the psalmist's words). We have, in fact, been created with the capacity for just such a thirst. As an infant instinctively knows to suckle its mother for life-giving milk, so, also, do human beings yearn to be near to the heart of another, and ultimately to be "near to the heart of God" (to quote another songwriter). Yet, as we look around us, and look within ourselves, we recognize that so many of us are still thirsting, and perhaps in our more ...

32. If Your Sense of Purpose Ever Becomes a Burden, Remember Your Value

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... perceive your purpose in life, your call to serve your neighbors, not as burden, but as opportunities to flourish and thrive. When you begin to see yourself as God sees you, then just as you matter to him, he will matter a little more to you. You will yearn for him. That will make it easier to see him, just as Matthew's audience was called by Jesus in our gospel lesson to see him, in the wandering preachers and followers of the law, to see them as righteous people, as prophets, not as the uneducated, lower ...

33. The Living Advent Wreath (Hope: Purple Candle of the Moon)

Isaiah 40:1-31

Drama

Frank Ramirez

... am! Pilgrim, I am glad you have returned. Pilgrim: I had to. Thanks to you, I have faith. I have faith that even as winter approaches, the sun will return. Faith: (sings) Faith is the hub at the heart of the flower While in the autumn she yearns Sweetly for spring and her nurturing shower. Faith I am. Snow abounds. Burn. Sunshine will always return. Guide: And you remember what I said about faith? Pilgrim: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Yes, I remember. I have ...

34. The Living Advent Wreath (Trust: Purple Candle of the Magi)

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7, Isaiah 61:1-11

Drama

Frank Ramirez

... bulbs only, waiting for the spring, but all of creation, waiting for our king to appear. Pilgrim: You have taught me faith, though you gave me nothing for my bag. Faith: (sings) Faith is the hub at the heart of the flower While in the autumn she yearns Sweetly for spring and her nurturing shower. Faith I am. Snow abounds. Burn. Sunshine will always return. Pilgrim: And though all seems dark, yet even at night there is the moon to cast blue shadows upon the earth itself, which is a thing of story. That gives ...

35. Body

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (v. 53). Hence, the conception in 2 Corinthians 5:2 coincides to a certain extent with that in 1 Corinthians 15. In 2 Corinthians 5:2, however, Paul is not concerned with the resurrection of all believers; he yearns to be clothed himself. As we have suggested (p. 102), Paul is open to the charge of fraud, since his body does not show any visible signs of having been transformed as a consequence of his heavenly ascents. His opponents could at least expect ...

36. Job Hears the Whispers of God’s Works

Job 26:1--31:40

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... in the face of threats and adversity. He declares, On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. (Ps. 63:6–7) Through remembering, the psalmist moves from yearning to confident trust in God. Remembering God, who is his help and who he has powerfully experienced in the past (63:2–3), leads to confidence even in the face of murderous threats. This theme of remembering God’s past faithfulness is integral to God’s ...

37. “As the Deer Pants for Streams of Water, So My Soul Pants for You, My God”

Psalm 42:1-11, Psalm 43:1-5

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... a hint of the origin, or most likely the adaptation, of the Elohistic Psalter. Here the soulful longing of David for the temple and encounter with God has, in an editorial way, been planted firmly in the hearts of the Levites by this powerful liturgy of yearning to see God’s face. Behind the king himself (Ps. 41), it was only reasonable that the priestly/Levitical officiants longed too for the temple and the awesome presence of God and that this longing be represented in the Psalter. Psalm 84, a key psalm ...

38. I Wonder about The End of the World

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... . At this moment in time, God’s Kingdom both is and is not yet. We see bright glimpses of it, but it is not yet complete. Paul’s words above express our deep yearning for God’s Kingdom to come and reign in all of its fullness. Are We Left Behind? Since most Christians yearn for the reign of God, you will find these deep yearnings expressed through many different views and opinions as to how and when the world will end and God’s complete reign will begin. We don’t have to look very far to find ...

39. Job's Second Reply to Bildad

Job 19:1-29

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... extreme suffering and physical deterioration (boils, etc.) so that Job’s hope to “see God” is an intense desire expressed against almost impossible odds. The end of verse 27—where he concludes his hopeful declaration with the poignant expression, how my heart yearns within me!—affirms that this “seeing” is bound up with Job’s earnest desire. It seems more consistent that Job would be expressing in these verses his heartfelt desire that even though he has come so close to death and has almost ...

The best antidote I have found is to yearn for something. As long as you yearn, you can't congeal: there is a forward motion to yearning.

Gail Godwin

41. No Shortcut To Glory

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

William L. Self

... Lee sang, "Is that all there is?" We need more than this. To experience this mystery we must do hard labor and forget instant formulas and religious microwaves. We must be willing to depart from the god we created in our own image. We yearn for the Mount of Transfiguration and for Elijah, Moses, and Jesus, but we settle for the slough of despondency because we want instant experience. Again, we ask the question: How does one encounter authentic spiritual experience? This is not easy to answer, but there ...

42. The Christmas Cactus

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... dreams all come true, Till the day when I'll be goin' down That long, long trail with you. I've always found this song, which I understand comes from WWI days, to be a very emotional one for me. I think it's because it deals with the deepest yearnings in everyone's heart. It speaks of seeking after comfort and joy and fulfillment in those deep parts of our being, where we are still children, and where sitting on the lap of an adult in a big stuffed chair is still both possible and desirable. The journey to ...

43. Sometimes Goodbye Is Hello

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

... sometimes still wish he were with us, as he was then. I loved the song I learned in Sunday School that expressed my fond yearning, as I listened to all the Bible stories of the days "... when Jesus was here among men, how he called the little children like ... has its sting. And how much more the loss of loved ones. Whenever we lose someone we love, there's an emptiness in our hearts, a yearning that will last as long as we live. We know by faith that time will pass and healing will come but the pain until then ...

44. The Christian Journey I: The Path

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... fishermen were gullible Gusses who would just as well have followed some lunatic looking for a spaceship behind a comet. The yearning was no less than that felt by people today who are searching anywhere for meaning in life, calling psychic hotlines and ... it may be a church camp or retreat, a special youth rally or a revival at church. But there comes that moment when the yearning and the thinking and the listening come together and we hear Jesus saying, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." For ...

45. Prayers for Epiphany

Bulletin Aid

Rolland R. Reece

... , we sense he is right. Strange as it seems we are now convinced that he alone has secured peace and joy for us. What kind of man is he who would give up all that our culture claims as joy to possess finally the joy for which we all yearn? Therefore, increase, O God, our understanding of your Son; but more than understanding, grant us the courage to follow the dictates of our hearts as we respond to his death. Empowered by that event we shall exchange good for evil. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ ...

46. Lent 4

Luke 15:11-32, 2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2, Isaiah 12:1-6, Joshua 5:1-12, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... 20. b. Is a reconciliation possible? vv. 18, 21. c. Who effects the reconciliation today? v. 20. 2. Do you want to be a new person? (5:17). Need: There are many who do not like themselves as they are. They are disgusted with their failures, selfishness, and excuses. They yearn to be different, to be lovable, and to be a loving person who gets joy out of life. Here is good news for those who want to be new people. Outline: How to become a new person a. Be in Christ "If anyone is in Christ ..." b. Forsake the ...

47. A Sheep Of Your Own Flock

Psalm 23:1-6

Eulogy

Barbara G. Schmitz

... he has laid down his life for them by his death on the cross. In the Gospel of John, verse 7, Jesus says, "I am the door of the sheep. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture." Jesus yearns to be your shepherd. Jesus yearns for you to know his voice and be known by him. Jesus the good shepherd invites you to follow him. In verse 16 he adds, "I have other sheep that do not yet belong to the fold. I must also bring them, and they will listen to ...

48. Come, O Blessed Of My Father

John 5:16-30

Eulogy

Barbara G. Schmitz

... , a strong tower to all who put their trust in him. He is not dead, but alive, and having overcome the grave and sorrow, Christ yearns to hold us and bind up our wounds. Secondly, as we heard in the Gospel of John, "The hour is coming, and is now here, ... today. He desires to comfort and hold us. He desires to pronounce the blessing upon us: "Come, O blessed of my Father ...;" and he yearns to live within us and bring us out of death into life. Let us pray: Merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is ...

49. How Unexpected Can Christmas Be?

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

... with being lazy. City highways are designed to take traffic over and around the out-of-sight, out-of-mind poor. Neighborhoods are closing their hearts and doors to centers where AIDS patients can spend their final days in dignity. And people of all kinds are still yearning for a center to their lives that will bring more hope and meaning than we have been able to find elsewhere. It will be easier to celebrate Christmas than to celebrate the coming of the Lord. We know that the coming of the Lord into our ...

50. How Long Should We Stay?

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

... instructions about what to do and not do. Worship is much deeper than that, much more compelling. In worship we express our love for God, and in turn we experience that same love and it shapes us into new people. As we yearn to be heard by God in worship, we are drawn to those in our community who yearn to be heard by us. When we dare to say that our worship is done in the presence of God, we begin to recognize that all of life is lived in that holy presence. Sunday after Sunday, in word, song, and act ...

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