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 576 to 600 of 3108 results

576. What Are You Waiting On?

John 11:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

It is something that all of us will spend at least an hour doing every day and I mean every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. In fact, we will spend 5 years of our lifetime doing nothing but this. It is universally above everything else the one thing everybody hates to do. In fact, there is nothing that we do that is more frustrating, aggravating, irritating and feels like more of a waste of time than doing this. Can you guess what it is? It’s waiting. An hour every day we wait on something. We are put ...

577. False Teachers and Their Destruction

2 Peter 2:1-22

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

Watch Out for False Teachers Peter began this letter by speaking of the divine provision for a godly life (1:1–11). He went on to stress the divine inspiration of Scripture truths (1:12–21). Now he warns against those who are threatening the church’s spiritual well being by the way they falsely treat these matters (2:1–22). 2:1 In some respects times do not change. All prophecy, whoever gives it and in whatever circumstances, needs to be interpreted. Furthermore, just as in the period of the OT there were ...

578. A Woman Burdened with Guilt

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

Years ago a religious talk show hostess was interviewing a new believer. The new believer had come from the wrong side of the tracks--economically, socially, morally, and spiritually. As he gave his testimony, this man, who had seen it all and done it all continually thanked God for the change God had made in his life. “I can’t express,” he said, “the gratitude I feel that God has changed my life.” The talk show hostess knew where he was coming from--for she, too, had walked on life’s wild side before ...

579. Look Again

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

James L. Killen

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in ...

580. Less Is More

John 1:(1-9) 10-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

I want to share with you a simple biblical message about how to find contentment. So often our lives get out of control because we fall under the spell of a terrible myth. The myth is that more is better — the more we have, achieve, attain, or buy the happier we will be. This myth is no more powerful than during the Christmas season which has just come and gone. We saw all the ads promising utopia if we bought the perfect Christmas present. Many of us bought those presents and still no utopia. How long did ...

581. Marriage

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

The seventh chapter of Paul’s letter to Corinth is a complex and challenging series of related observations and directions that have often lost or puzzled later readers of the epistle. Paul’s statements in these verses are more often misunderstood than grasped and appreciated for what they say. The commentary that follows will focus on smaller segments of the writing in an effort to elucidate and explicate Paul’s thinking and teachings. Verse 1 states the Corinthians’ position. Verse 2 states Paul’s ...

582. I Want to Make Sense Out of My Life

John 6:24-35

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: a Rubik's Cube or some other type of puzzle (make sure you practice this a few times before you do it) Good morning, boys and girls. Have you ever played with a Rubik's Cube? It starts out as a square with four different-colored sides. But if you twist and turn it a few times, soon the colors get all jumbled up. (Jumble up the Rubik's Cube just enough that you can easily set it straight again) Now it's all mixed up, isn't it? Sometimes we can feel like our life is a Rubik's Cube. Sometimes we can ...

583. A Law Written On Our Hearts

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

King Duncan

You’ve seen her--the lady with the blindfold, a balance, and a sword. She is Lady Justice. She is supposed to represent our judicial system. Since the 15th century the blindfold has represented the idea that justice should be meted out objectively, without fear or favor, regardless of identity, money, power, or weakness. At least that’s what the lady with the blindfold is supposed to represent. For some of us that blindfold may represent the imperfection of some of those who make our laws. After all, there ...

584. Giving Up Control

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Ron Lavin

There are two stories in John 6:1-21 -- the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water during a storm on the Sea of Galilee. These two stories answer two important questions. First, when does 5 + 2 x 1 = 12? Mathematically, never. But in the story of the feeding of the 5,000, the multiplication formula works just like that: five loaves of barley bread, plus two small fish, times Jesus, the one man who is in control, equals twelve baskets of leftover bread. The key ingredient in that multiplication ...

585. Worse Than It Sounds

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

George Reed

The story of the rich man, often called Dives, and Lazarus is a heartrending tale of suffering on the part of the poor man and indifference on the part of the rich one. If that was all the story was about it would be dreadful enough but it also shows us the horrors of society when it is divided into classes. We see this clearly in the attitude of the rich man. While the rich man is comfortably situated in his luxurious home there is a beggar outside his gates who is starving to death. He is a miserable ...

586. Vendetta

2 Kings 1:1-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

You probably all know the play by Shakespeare called “Romeo and Juliet.” Even if you aren’t a Shakespeare fan, or even if you detest trying to read an older version of English, modernized versions of the play in the form of movies and references have made the story timeless. For those of you who may not know the whole story, it centers around two families, the Capulets and the Montagues. Another family, the Verona family is in different ways tied to both. But the famous feud takes place between the ...

587. The Power of the Staff

Mark 6:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

A year or so ago, when our primary activity during lockdown was to sit on the porch and watch the wildlife, I noticed a mother bird building a nest. I had never seen the process up close like this, and so fascinated, I took note of everything she was doing. In fact, I became so engrossed in Mama bird’s family that I would perch on my rocking chair each and every day, just so I could observe the entire scenario up close and personal. She gathered bits of grass, twigs, leaves, and other odds and ends and ...

588. It's A Terrible Thing To Be Rejected

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the characteristics of many Eastern cultures is a deep sensitive people are to other people's feelings. For example, one publication, the Financial Times, carried this rejection notice, written to a writer by the overly polite editor of a Chinese economic journal: "We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper," says the editor, "it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we ...

589. Jesus Casts Out Impure Spirits

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

Today we’re going to talk about casting out demons or, as Mark calls them in today’s lesson, impure spirits. It’s not a subject that we talk about very much in church anymore, even though it figures prominently in the New Testament. Maybe at the end of today’s service I will perform an exorcism and cast out a demon . . . or not. Perhaps you have someone in mind that you think could profit from such an exorcism. But enough about members of Congress . . . Some of you will remember a movie that caused quite a ...

590. Having Fun with The Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

I find it interesting that today as we commemorate the Trinity doctrine, the church assigns the Bible reading that includes Jesus' Great Commission — Jesus' mandate to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). You can't do evangelism without believing in the Trinity, proclaiming the Triune God in whose name we baptize. And to believe in the Trinity, it seems, is to be an evangelist. That's the way it's supposed to work, but it does not feel that simple when you hear these words as calling you ...

591. Traveling Forgotten Mountains

Isaiah 49:8-26

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

Larry Crabb has written a book called Moving Through Your Problems Toward Finding God. In the foreword the author writes, I have come to a place in my life where I need to know God better or I won't make it. Life at times has a way of throwing me into such blinding confusion and severe pain that I lose all hope. Joy is gone. Nothing encourages me ... The rhetoric we're all 4used to -- " just trust the Lord, pray more, get counseling, follow God's plan more carefully" -- must give way to the reality of ...

592. Overcoming Loneliness

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

In the overcrowded conditions of our modern world loneliness has possessed us: "He’s a real Nowhere Man, Sitting in his Nowhere Land, Making all his Nowhere Plans for nobody." Such emptiness, such frustration, such loneliness depresses us. What’s to be done about it? This feeling of hopelessness has been around a long time. The ancient writer of Psalm 22 cried out: Dear God, right now I feel like a worm, not a person. I feel so used by other people. And to make it worse, I feel resented by the very same ...

593. Get Up and Go

Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Matthew borrowed heavily from the Old Testament, especially from the prophet, Isaiah. That may come as a word of comfort to writers, and especially to preachers, who borrow heavily from other sources and hope nobody finds out about it. You can get in trouble doing that. In some places it is called "plagiarism." It is at the least embarrassing, and perhaps even expensive, if the material you borrowed has been copyrighted. But in Matthew's case, borrowing is not felonious, it is felicitous. Matthew, along ...

594. Out of Conflict

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

James L. Killen

Today, we are going to talk about conflict. How do you feel about conflict? I suspect that most of us don't like it. Yet, conflict is a nearly constant part of life as most of us experience it. It surrounds us in many ways in every aspect of our living. People who believe in God know that they must live through every interaction with life as an interaction with God. One of the big questions that people of faith must answer is: "How can we live through the conflict situations of our lives as interactions ...

595. Constant Companion

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Lori Wagner

If there’s anything we learned about the pandemic is that the virus wasn’t the only one. We are living in a pandemic of loneliness like we’ve never seen before. Even in our current semi-post-pandemic world, loneliness continues to plague our psyches. “Isolation, grief, and loneliness which continues even in this phase of the pandemic has “changed our brain” and will continue to do so.”[1] Although necessary, social distancing along with fear of the virus has put us into an almost continual “fight and ...

596. Parades and Crosses — The Challenge of Ministry

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

He had grown up in a fashionable suburb of a large American city, a cosmopolitan area of considerable size and sophistication. He was a winner from the time he was born; you know, one of those babies that comes into the world with a smile and a confident air that life is friendly and meant for success. Oh, yes, he did his share of crying, and as an infant and pre-schooler, he had his share of sickness. But all in all, he was the kind of boy you would expect to see in a prize-winning television commercial. ...

597. I Don't Get No Respect

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you will remember the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield who made a handsome living with the phrase — “I don’t get no respect.” “I don’t get no respect,” Rodney would say, adjusting his tie. “I tell ya when I was a kid, all I knew was rejection. My yo-yo, it never came back . . . With my dog I don’t get no respect. He keeps barking at the front door. He don’t want to go out. He wants me to leave . . .” Said Dangerfield, “I asked my old man if I could go ice-skating on the lake. He told me, ‘Wait till ...

598. Telling The Truth

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

You catch your child with his hand in the cookie jar just after you have told him, "Hands off!" But instead of a confession all you hear are excuses: "But, Dad, I thought you said I could have one." Terror strikes in your heart as you suddenly look up in your rear view mirror and see those flashing red lights. "But, officer, I'm sure I wasn't going over the speed limit!" The recent fiasco surrounding the White House has been met with such comments as, "Everyone lies about having an affair. It's no big deal ...

599. Proper 12

Colossians 2:6-23, Hosea 1:1-2:1, Luke 11:1-13, Psalm 85:1-13

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Hosea 1:2-10 God orders Hosea to marry a prostitute and have children. Hosea preached in the same eighth century to Israel (North) as did Amos. His ministry extended over a period of 38 years. Hosea lived in the final days of the northern kingdom during the reign of six kings following Jeroboam. Assyria captured Israel and deported the 10 tribes in 722 B.C. Hosea 1:2-10 is an allegory. His adulterous wife and three children symbolize the fate of Israel because of a broken relationship ...

600. Epiphany 5

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 5:17-20, Isaiah 58:1-14, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: God's Illuminating Spirit COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12) (C); Isaiah 58:7-10 (RC); Isaiah 58:5-9a (L) This passage is a dialogue between the pommeled people of Israel and God. The prophet voices the complaints of the people, as well as the Lord's response. This profound passage is from the hand of trito-Isaiah in the sixth century B.C. and the issue is fasting. The people complain that their pious acts of fasting, a sign of sorrow and supplication, are unnoticed by God. God responds ...

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