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 476 to 500 of 1164 results

476. Shipwrecked on Malta

Acts 27:1-12, Acts 27:13-26, Acts 27:27-44

Sermon Aid

CSS

Festus was a good administrator. Once the decision had been made to send Paul to Rome, he acted quickly. Yet it was a peculiar transferral. Agrippa and Festus are reported to have concluded that Paul had done nothing that was likely to undermine the security of the Roman Empire or otherwise be of interest to the high courts at Rome. They must have attached some bill of complaint to the military orders under which Paul was transported, but its contents are not known. The official charges against Paul never ...

477. On Staying Awake

Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

"Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes ..." Perhaps this sermon need not be preached. The necessity of wakefulness may already be widely recognized as we gather for worship. We arrive tired, we endure preaching that is often supernaturally dull, and the atmosphere of quietness soon dispatches even the most faithful. This is not a modern problem. Our Puritan ancestors gave a high importance to staying awake. During their long services the ushers roamed the congregation with a ...

478. Finding Common Ground

Galatians 3:15-25

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

After visiting six different countries the past two weeks, I found myself humming the tune of Lee Greenwood’s song as I touched back down in the U.S.A. a couple of days ago. While we were treated well everywhere we went, I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. The Apostle Paul was proud to be a Christian for Christ had set him free. Spiritual freedom was on his mind when he wrote this little letter to the churches in the region of Galatia. Some might call this letter in the Bible a ...

479. The Explosive Power Of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

You remember the Smothers Brothers? Several years ago, they did a routine on TV that went something like this. Dick asked, "What's wrong Tommy? You seem despondent." Tom replied, "I am! I'm worried about the state of American society!" Dick said, "Well what bothers you about it? Are you worried about poverty and hunger?" "Oh, no, that doesn't really bother me." "I see. Well are you concerned about the possibility of war?" "No, that's not a worry of mine." "Are you upset about the use of illegal drugs by ...

480. When the Pressure Is On

John 6:1-14

Sermon

James Merritt

Is there anybody here under pressure? Do you ever feel like you live in a pressure cooker? Did you know that it takes longer to cook food at high altitudes, because at high altitudes the air pressure is much lower than in the lower plains? Because of that the boiling point of water is lower, and therefore it takes much longer to cook food. But in a pressure cooker high pressures are built up within the vessel, which raises the boiling point of water, and food can be cooked within minutes. In fact, the ...

481. Parabola

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

[This is an interactive sermon. In order to preach this well, you need to allow your congregants to take part, answer questions, imagine themselves as part of the story.] Prop: ostrich egg I have here an egg. [You can pass around the egg.] This egg belongs to an ostrich. Let me tell you a story about the ostrich, who one day took her eyes off of the place in the sand where she buried her eggs. Lo and behold, when she finally remembered where she had hid them, a predator had come in the night and stolen her ...

482. Proper 6

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

Barrenness is not a modern phenomenon; it has plagued people from time immemorial. Everyone knows of the problem facing Abraham and Sarah. Abraham, chosen by God to be the father of a great nation, made the discovery his wife was barren. His off-spring, which were to be as numerous as the grains of sand, were not forthcoming. It was not until Abraham was 100 and Sarah was ninety that an Angel arrived to make the startling pronouncement Sarah was to give birth to a son. The whole idea seemed so ridiculous ...

483. Proper 13 & Pentecost 11

Matthew 14:13-21, Nehemiah 9:1-37, Exodus 12:1-30, Romans 8:28-39, Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE With one more Sunday remaining in August, the preacher may find more of a practical preaching clue in the approach of the fall season than a theological theme in the church year. For now, the latter part of August emphasizes a kind of homiletical eschatology; in many congregations, one has been preaching primarily to the faithful few during the summer months, and soon summer will be over. Attendance will increase in the next few weeks and one's preaching may have to be somewhat different ...

484. Praying With Tears in Your Eyes

Hebrews 1:1-14

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. (Hebrews 5:7) When you finish your prayers, are there tears in your eyes? Usually we "say" our prayers, not "cry" them. We associate prayer with peace, calm, and strength. We may feel weepy when we begin our prayers, but we expect to be comforted by the end of them. Because there are very seldom tears in our eyes when we pray, our ...

485. The Word Of The Lord Came To The Prophet Haggai

Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.... -- Haggai 1:1 Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set out to rebuild the house of God in ...

486. Salvation

Psalm 118:1-29

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"...the salvation of your souls." That IS what we are here about, isn't it? People come to churches, synagogues, temples and mosques because, in some sense this issue may be said to be the ultimate concern of all religion. Salvation. In a very real sense, our Bible is a book of salvation from beginning to end. Some simplify it by saying, "Jesus and I, bye and bye, in the sky, when I die." A minister was preaching and during the course of his sermon asked, "Who wants to go to heaven?" Everyone held up their ...

487. Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." And he said to them, "When you pray, say: "Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation." And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me ...

488. His Death

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Brett Blair

We are continuing our Lenten series on the Passion of the Christ, the last week of the life of Jesus. We are nearing Easter. On the first Sunday of Lent we looked at the events of Sunday when he enters Jerusalem on the donkey fulfilling the Messianic prophecy of Zechariah. It was a day of celebration. On Monday Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, curses the fig tree, and clears the Temple of the moneychangers. It is a day of emotions. Tuesday was the day of teaching, a day of critics questions. Wednesday was the ...

489. Our Lord's Abundant Table

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

Charles Swindol tells a funny story about a nine-year-old named Danny who came bursting out of Sunday school like a wild stallion. His eyes were darting in every direction as he tried to locate either mom or dad. Finally, after a quick search, he grabbed his Daddy by the leg and yelled, "Man, that story of Moses and all those people crossing the Red Sea was great!" His father looked down, smiled, and asked the boy to tell him about it. "Well, the Israelites got out of Egypt, but Pharaoh and his army chased ...

490. Good Friday: The Three Crosses

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

The Cross. It struck fear in the hearts of the world. It was Rome’s means of controlling the people. According to Roman custom, the penalty of crucifixion was always preceded by scourging; after this preliminary punishment, the condemned person had to carry the cross, or at least the transverse beam of it, to the place of execution, exposed to the jibes and insults of the people. On arrival at the place of execution the cross was uplifted. Soon the sufferer, entirely naked, was bound to it with cords. He ...

491. Easter 4

John 10:22-42, Acts 13:13-52, Numbers 27:12-23, Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Good Shepherd Sunday fell on the Second Sunday after Easter in the classic calendar and lectionary; it now occurs on the Fourth Sunday of Easter (or, in the older scheme, on the Third Sunday after Easter). Accordingly, the traditional gospel (John 10:11-16) is retained, specifically in Year/Cycle B of the contemporary lectionaries, but John 10 is also employed as the Gospel in Years/Cycles A and C. Last Sunday's theme emphasized that Jesus Christ was the Paschal Lamb, who was sacrificed at ...

492. When Fisherman do Strange Things

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Mark Trotter

If I were to name the year 1989, I wonder if you would know the significance of it. I imagine most people would think back to something that happened personally to them that year, something that touched their life in a dramatic way, like a birth or death in the family. We wouldn't forget that. But in 1989, during the season of Advent, you will remember, the Communist empire crumbled, the Cold War ended, and the Berlin wall came down. I have a piece of that wall. Our children gave it to us after a trip to ...

493. The Way of a Saint

Revelation 7:9-17 · Luke 6:20-31

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

The way of a saint has never been easy. In today’s lesson from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking to people who knew what it was to be rejected, persecuted, discriminated against, held down. And the interesting thing is that he calls them “blessed.” Listen to his words: Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate ...

494. Led To Follow

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

There is a story soaring across the internet these days suggesting things might have gone better if the three wise men had been three wise women. After all, had women been in charge they would have 1) asked for directions, 2) gotten to the manger on time, 3) assisted with the birth, 4) cleaned up the place, and 5) made a casserole for the Holy Family. Of course, the author of that analogy evidently failed to read the story as recorded in the Bible. Matthew writes: After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea ...

495. Jesus' Temptation

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

As a young man, Jesus was led into the wilderness. There, the devil met him and tempted him. It is a tradition in the church to begin the forty days of Lent with Jesus' forty days of testing in the wilderness. It is fitting that we recall this story in a university chapel because (don't you agree?) it is at the beginning of your life, when one is a young adult, that one is most preoccupied with, "Who am I?" The who-am-I identity question is behind this strange, shadowy meeting with the devil in the ...

496. Training Session

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

The recruiting of the twelve disciples is now complete. Jesus has chosen a group of unlikely candidates - fishermen, tax collectors, unsophisticated Galileans, and others - to communicate the good news to the world that he is the Messiah. Training these people for their task is the second phase of this operation. Jesus takes the disciples away from the crowds for an educational retreat on the side of a nearby mountain. Their three-year training session begins with a lecture by their teacher and master, ...

497. The Heart of an Intimate Matter

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

Convictions and opinions are not the same, are they? Someone has said, “Opinions are many, convictions are few; opinions change often, convictions rarely do.” Opinions live on the surface; convictions go deep. Opinions thrive around the gossipy edges; convictions live near the center of life. One way to tell the difference is to ask, What would you make a sacrifice for- of real money, of significant time, of patient suffering, even of life if necessary? The more you would pay, the closer you move to the ...

498. The Savior Life Diet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Alex Gondola

"The two biggest sellers in any bookstore are the cookbooks and the diet books. The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food and the diet books tell you how not to eat any of it." So observed Sixty Minutes commentator Andy Rooney (quoted by Fred Lyon in "The Savior Life Diet," Lectionary Homiletics, August, 1997, p. 21). I made a trip to the discount bookstore this past week to see if Andy Rooney was right. I discovered he was at least partly right. There were lots and lots of cookbooks there. I stopped ...

499. I am the Man Who Has Seen Affliction

Lamentations 3:1-66

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

Man of Affliction: Chapter 3 constitutes a new and complete poem. Like the two chapters that precede it, it is marked by a complete acrostic. Unlike the previous chapters where each verse started with a successive letter of the alphabet, in chapter 3 each letter repeats at the start of three verses before going on to the next letter. Thus, there are sixty-six verses, not twenty-two verses. However, since the verses are shorter in chapter 3, the overall length of the chapters is approximately the same. The ...

500. The Bread We Daily Need

Luke 11:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

At a small dinner party in the home of a member, a pastor was invited to ask the blessing for the meal. Turning to the talkative six year old in the house, the pastor suggested she might like to do the blessing instead. The outgoing youngster now suddenly shy replied, “I wouldn’t know what to say!” “Just say what you hear your Mommy say,” said the pastor assuredly. With that the little girl folded her hands, bowed her head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?” Give us this ...

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