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 2415 results

476. The Commitment Question: Will You Lay Down Your Life For Me?

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... question -- will you lay down you life for me? The question not only pierces the shallow thinking of Peter, it is the commitment question for all of us. It is relevant for us today, especially relevant as we are moving rapidly toward Holy Week and the vivid memory of Jesus' passion and death: "Will you lay down you life for me?" I'd like for us to come at the question a step at a time in order to capture the full meaning of it and struggle with integrity for an answer. In my struggle with it, I've shaped ...

477. What God Has Joined Together

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... , Zach!" Then he turned to their little girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half). He kissed her and held her close. He handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, "I’ve saved the best for last!" and preceded to give his wife a long, passionate kiss. "I love you so much!" He said to his wife softly. Hargrove interrupted this idyllic scene to ask, "Wow! How long have you two been married?" "Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those," the man replied, as he gazed into his wife’s face ...

478. My Prayer For You: Barefoot Days of the Soul

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of Paul’s intercession: “That you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (v. 19). This is the ultimate expression of barefoot days of the soul. Yet how many of us claim it? Why is it that we barely, if at all, get beyond the passion and death of Jesus? Why do we stand back, refusing to move on to Resurrection and Pentecost? Read the New Testament. Christians are promised fire, not a feeble flicker; light, blazing, not dim – like that of a city set upon a hill; joy, not momentary happiness ...

479. If You Get Too Close to the Cross, You Will End Up Carrying It

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Listen: “If you get too close to the cross you will end up carrying it.” Let me say that again. “If you get too close to the cross you will end up carrying it.” This liturgical season of Lent is the occasion when we Christians rehearse the passion, suffering and death of our Lord Jesus. We who follow Jesus ought always to live in the shadow of the cross. Yet also there are specific times when we walk the Via Dolorosa as we deliberately choose a cross – or we have thrust upon us a cross not of our ...

480. If I Have Not Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... than human. In his book, The Surrender and the Singing, Ray Ashford wrote, “I once watched a man murder a beautiful and intelligent woman. It wasn’t, mind you, a crime of passion in which he took her life with a knife or gun in a single explosive moment of blinding rage. It was, rather, a crime absolutely devoid of passion, a murder within the law and over a long period of time, four and half decades. It was murder by indifference and neglect.” What a stinging indictment: murder by indifference and ...

481. Homesick For a Future: New Life for the New Millenium

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... shared in word and relationship through Tammy and her coworkers. In one of her email notes, Tammy said, “My one goal is just to abide in Jesus, and to nurture these kids with His love, to encourage them to give all to Him and to disciple them to be passionate, abandoned lovers of God!” It doesn’t surprise me that miracles are happening in that house of grace. I saw Tammy walk by faith all the years she was here on this campus. She walks by faith now. She is responding in faith to that cry of Nicholas ...

482. To Live Is to Dance

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... gospel in every nook and cranny of the world. But if we don’t respond to that, there’s every reason for us to have fear of that judgment. I close with this. In 1980, Jeri and I attended the Passion Play at Ober Amigal. It was a rare experience of that once each decade presentation of the passion and death of our Lord by the people of that little small German village. A story of another man experiencing the drama is forever etched in my mind. He went backstage at the conclusion of the drama to meet Mr ...

483. Stick to the Knitting

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... world, according to that idea of the good life, is called holy and righteous. In the Greek religion, the gods were characterized by one word, "apathy." The good life in ancient Greece was one that was detached, one that avoided the extremes of passion, because passion, feeling, loving, caring, reaching out to other people, always leads to disappointment and to pain, and eventually to sorrow. You love somebody, and someday you may get hurt. So the Greeks said, don't get involved. We have the word "stoic" in ...

484. Letting Go

Acts 7:55-60

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... was a doctor. But he also had other talents and the itch to write. So he determined to let go of his ambition of a life of medicine and pursue a career as a writer. He says in his 1988 autobiography, Travels, he relates that he was following his passion. That's admirable. There are enough people trapped in jobs and occupations they don't like. Find what you like, what you want to do, and find some way to make that your life's work. Crichton says at that time society gave doctors a lot of respect, and ...

485. Preaching to a Stone

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... worship of the Lord and an understanding of their identity. Now that the long journey is over and the battles have been won, the passion might fade out. Joshua knows he won't be around to provide leadership, so he has to preach the sermon of his life to ... with the stone might have sounded, maybe what we need is a big stone to be a witness against us. When we start to lose our passion, when doubts start to cloud our minds, when we wander off the path, we need a giant boulder to remind us of who we are, and ...

486. A Radical Faith

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... was a typical person of his age. He was preoccupied with saving his soul and had the courage and commitment to that dilemma in his life by leaving this world, sacrificing all of that, and entering into the cloister. Luther did that with passion, as he did all things in his life with passion. He sought to love God with his whole heart, mind, soul and strength, expecting in doing that, that the result would be that he would feel close to God. But it didn't work that way. It had the opposite effect on him ...

487. Proper 14

Genesis 37:1-11, Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Kings 19:9-18, Jonah 2:1-10, Romans 9:1-29, Romans 9:30--10:21, Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... says he would be glad to be cut off from Christ to get them to come to Christ. George Whitefield had a similar passion for winning people to Christ. Once he even told a non-Christian that he was willing to go with him to jail or even to ... hell, but he was unwilling to go to heaven without him. This concern for the lost, this love for the sinner, this passion for the non-Christian are the taproots of evangelism. In a time when Christians are prone to seek Jews as Christian converts, this passage ...

488. Swept Away!

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... sisters react very differently to the emotional impoverishment of their childhood. Codi becomes a drifter, unable to find roots in work or love or relationship - suspicious of the world - scared of passion - cynical about this crapshoot called life. But Hallie makes a different choice. Somehow she is able to embrace life and discover passion and decide in the unfinished world of which she is a part that she can and must make a difference. She ends up going to Central America as an agricultural specialist ...

489. Eleven Plus One

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... they all might have driven buses to "bring in the sheep." 1. Simon Peter ("Bubba, the Rock"): Chevy truck, most likely an S-10 Extended Cab, 4x4 with lots of extras. Simon Peter was arguably the most interesting of the apostles: impulsive, passionate, eager, courageous, outspoken, a man of the earth. At the same time, he was "blundering, clumsy, inappropriate, irrelevant, lacking the finer spiritual instincts" and capable of extreme fright. Quick to ask for forgiveness and quick to sin. He had the capacity ...

490. Can You Smell the Perfume?

John 12:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Easter Vigil. In John's Gospel the anointing story inaugurates the final sequence of events in Jesus' life; in Mark's Gospel the story inaugurates the final days of Jesus' life. For Mark, Jesus' Passion begins with a story featuring one of the last kindnesses Jesus received while on this earth. Mark's Passion begins with a woman anointing Jesus' body, a woman who is presented as a model disciple. Mark ends with more women anointing Jesus' dead body for burial (16:1). Picture the scene. The disciples ...

491. Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

James McCormick

... preference. I’m a strawberry man myself. But I do think that those who prefer other flavors should have access to them, as long as I get some strawberry too. Interestingly enough, the Apostle Paul had the same problem in the first century. Paul was passionate about the unity of the Christian community, our oneness in Christ. In one of his magnificent statements, he said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female – you are all one in Christ Jesus ...

492. Baptism of the Lord

Psalm 29:1-11, Isaiah 42:1-9, Acts 10:23b-48, Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon Aid

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

... and even the prophet himself. For such a reality to take root required that Israel also embody the qualities of the servant. The same holds true for the Church today. We have reinterpreted the eschatological vision of "Second Isaiah" in the light of the passion of Jesus, but in doing this we are assuming the obligation of embodying the qualities of the servant. Thus we celebrate today the commissioning of both Jesus and ourselves as his Church. Psalm 29 - "Celebrating the Power of God" Setting. Psalm 29 is ...

493. Easter 4

Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23:1-6, 1 Peter 2:13-25, John 10:1-21

Sermon Aid

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

... . Nevertheless, while we may not want simply to return to the past to experience its glory and to repeat its mistakes, we can learn much about life in the Christian community during the best of times. Notice that the life of faith was the passion of all the people remembered here. Indeed, faith focused the life of these people with one another, so that they gave themselves to what they had in common, not what distinguished them from one another. In this context, the members of the community accomplished ...

494. Easter Vigil

Genesis 1:1-2:3, Romans 6:1-14, Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon Aid

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

... . First, we learn of the events at the tomb (28:1-7); then, the women leave to tell the disciples (28:8); and finally Jesus appears and speaks to them along the way (28:9-10). Significance. The nuance that Matthew brings to his account of the Passion narrative is seen in the subtle way in which he modifies the telling of the story in comparison to Mark's version of the events. Clearly, Matthew heightens the divine elements of the narrative. Mark had a young man at the tomb, and from the clothing mentioned ...

495. Proper 20

Exodus 16:1-36, Matthew 20:1-16, Philippians 1:12-30, Psalm 105:1-45

Sermon Aid

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

... And, the parable in Matthew spins a telling story about who God really is and who we all too often are. Philippians 1:21-30 - "Another Way of Looking at Life" Setting. We first encountered Philippians as the epistle lesson for the Liturgy of the Passion in Year A. The following discussion of setting is in part a repetition of the entry for the Sixth Sunday in Lent. The Philippian congregation was the first European church founded by Paul, and it was one with which he maintained a very positive relationship ...

496. God's Dirty Job

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... upon my face. Here is one of the questions I suspect we will be asked at Judgment Day: “Show me your hands.” If our hands are clean and dry, rather than wet, stained, and dirty, then we should fear to hear, “Depart from me.” Are we afraid to passionately engage with others because we are concerned about keeping our hands clean? Do we think we are better than God, who got dirty hands when scooping us out of the dust and clay and breathing into us the breath of life? God wants to use your hands to ...

497. How to Live a Sizzle-When-It-Drizzles Life

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... s raining. Don’t spend your time complaining about the drizzles . . . Give the rain some meaning and purpose. Leonardo Boff says that while there is no meaning in suffering, “we can endow it with meaning.” Leonardo Boff, Passion of Christ, Passion of the world: The Facts, Their Interpretation, and Their Meaning Yesterday and Today (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1977), 107. “In When Faith is Tested: Pastoral Response to Suffering and Tragic Death, Jeffrey Zurheide presents five possible frameworks from which ...

498. If You're Not Loving You're Not Living (Fruit of the Spirit: Love)

Galatians 5:22

Sermon

James Merritt

... God with all our heart, soul, and mind, that was simply a way of saying that our hearts ought to be on fire burning with a passionate blazing love for our Lord and our God. Dr. Vance Havner once said, "The church has no greater need today than to fall in love with ... to, you will have a hunger for the word of God, you will have a desire for the house of God, and you will have a passion for the people of God. II. There Is an Outward Love That Will Be Exercised Now Jesus goes on to say, "You shall love your ...

499. Never Let Them See You Sweat (Fruit of the Spirit: Self-Control)

Galatians 5:23

Sermon

James Merritt

... speaks in v.20 of "idolatry." Then you can categorize the rest of those characteristics under iniquity. That is the danger of self-confidence. II. The Demand for Self-Crucifixion Paul says in v.24, "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." Now that is the result of self-control. You see, there is only one way to bring self under control—it must die. It only can die by crucifixion. But I want to warn you that self dies hard. Someone has well said: "The last enemy ...

500. What Are You Looking For?

Acts 1:1-13

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... ." Then he turned to us young, green-as-grass, would-be preachers and said: "I hope you all will speak a good word for Jesus Christ." And he went on to make a passionate speech on behalf of senior citizens and the need to build the new wing at Chelsea Retirement Home. Ninety years old and still discovering meaning in his passion for others, his witness for Jesus Christ. The messengers in white seem to be saying, "What do you think you are doing standing around gazing up into the sky? You've got work ...

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