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 651 to 675 of 679 results

651. Returning

Isaiah 40:1-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... what recently smoothed way has beckoned you back? Think. What road is God building toward you today? Those words spoken not to you, but you heard them as if spoken only for you. That face from the past. That vaguely felt, but gnawing, sense of yearning. That echo evoked from deep within the soul's memory upon hearing again a carol not heard since childhood. That coincidence which might not have been merely coincidental. I wonder. "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a ...

652. Heaven

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Will Willimon

... was astounded not only that there was a God, but this God was out looking for him, desired him even more than Augustine desired God. It changed his life. You could think of the whole Bible that way, if you wanted, as a love story, an account of God's yearning for us, God's determination to have a family. Each of us has one pressing question which persists throughout our lives: Do you love me? We ask it first of parents, but we know them to be stand-ins for some larger presence by whom we want to be loved ...

653. Homecoming

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , our restless homeless hearts, desire, still, that we desire a home, that we are unsettled with present arrangements, is God's doing as much as our own. The psalmist says that even a sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest, hence we are right to yearn for home in the House of the Lord. Every little home which I inhabit, however briefly, is at least an intimation that I am meant, eventually, for home. Maybe I am pone to love these little earthly, transient habitations too much but at least I may not ...

654. The Days Are Coming

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... day of judgment, will you be able to support the weight of the whole?” (3) We have an innate need for justice, don’t we? We want to see bad guys punished and good guys rewarded. There is something built into the very fabric of our being that yearns for justice. Until the Messiah comes, what is our role in creating justice? Because it is all too easy for us to turn a blind eye to injustice, even to benefit from it. Rev. Thomas G. Long writes, “Righteousness is not a sweet virtue that everybody in the ...

655. Seeking Jesus

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

King Duncan

... them to church and they really enjoyed it. Michelle just rolled her eyes. She had no interest in church. But Johnny and Cameron continued to talk about enjoying church, and Michelle discovered that some of her new friends at work were also Christians. A strange yearning started growing in her. What was so exciting about church? She tried hard to avoid the subject. But she was starting to sense a hunger, an ache, a need that nothing else could fill. One Sunday morning, Michelle picked a random church out of ...

656. Ordering Up A Set Of False Gods On Amazon

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Sermon

Mary Austin

... no supportive community around them. They had to drive fifty miles to the nearest synagogue for the holy days. God seemed frightening and far away. A deep loneliness settled into Ron Levin. He longed for a closer God than the distant God he knew. He remembered, “I yearned for a God whom I could get close to, put my arms around, and cry with in the deep-sea darkness of my childhood….God Will Punish You was written large in our daily lives.” Neither college nor work filled the empty hole within him. He ...

657. To Love

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... feel love but to act lovingly to each other and those outside of our immediate circles. To give others what we would love for ourselves. To gift others what we would love to receive. To give others not our waste but our best. To love others in ways we yearn to be loved. This is the kind of love Jesus advocated. This is the kind of love Jesus knew would change the world. Today, go out in love. Do love. Be love. [1] For more on the shema within the Torah, see thetorah.com/article/love_your_neighbor. [2] Paul ...

658. A Fruitful Life

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... name was Ms. Larissa. Dante went on to play the piano for his whole life, and he loved it. He will never forget his first teacher. I love you. Dante.” (9) Don’t you want to have such a powerful, positive impact on others? God placed that yearning in us, to live with a sense of mission and purpose. To live lovingly and boldly and joyfully for the sake others. To live lives that reflect God’s character and love. We were made for this. Anything less leads to a fruitless, ineffective life, severed from ...

659. Long View — Long Haul

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... we’re not called to be Jesus. We are called to be fully ourselves, and it’s the discovery of that core reality that I hope will be a piece of our Lenten Journey together. Can we make the commitment to take this precious time to listen for God’s yearning for our lives? Jesus stepped away to listen for God’s voice. My friend also took a break so she could open her heart to God’s claim on her life. You see, sometimes preparing for the long haul means pacing oneself. Indeed that can be the case. It ...

660. Giving It All Up For Jesus And What’s Ahead

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... , in place of the righteousness we think we achieve by being good, God instead gives us his own righteousness through Christ! Since we have nothing left but Christ, now that we know that what we bring to the table is useless waste, Paul speaks of how we Christians yearn to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection, the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him (v.10). Now this is not to say that we become like Christ by imitating him. No, what Paul wanted to say that Christ made us his own (v.14 ...

661. The Teacher

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Will Willimon

... what that woman gets from this teaching? Is it that the world has become so flat, so explained and confined, and yet she is smart enough to know better? There is more going on out there and in here than our merely modern explanations allow and she yearns to hear more. · I know that things happen to you which you cannot explain. This world confuses. I know that sometimes the most confusing thing in your world is you. We need a teacher. Marilyn Monroe has become a kind of icon of our time. Arthur Miller ...

662. Partners with the Divine

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... purpose is important. This is not only true of human interaction, it’s also true of our partnership with God. I know. Some of you are saying, “What? Partnership? With God? How does that work?” Well, it works in much the same way that a human partnership does. God yearns for a partnership with us and invites us to be so close that, as this passage from John indicates, we are in and of one another. Wow. I hear the cynic in me saying, “I’m not sure I want to be that close to anyone, even if it is ...

663. All Dressed Up

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... aware of who you are in Christ. Be alert to the world around you and those who need your love and care. Pay attention to the Head Chef of the world, and pay attention to his direction and blueprint for mission. Be quick to respond to the hurting faces and yearning hearts of those who need to be nourished and fed with the body and blood that is Jesus. Today, if you are celebrating Holy Communion, I invite you as you come forward or as you partake at your seats to imagine as you consume the body and blood of ...

664. Lose the Cape

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... pews? As a Christian, have you ever thought about the kind of impression you make on others? What words would people use to describe you? These are good questions to ask as we begin Advent. Many folks who don’t go to church or claim a religion are yearning for the light and joy of the season. When they don’t find it in the commercialization of Christmas, will they find it in those of us who claim to follow Christ and celebrate his birth? The apostle Paul gave the following appeal: It is now the moment ...

665. The Best Seat in the House

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... kind of emptiness within. People often attempt to inflate a poor self-image by immersing themselves in positions of glitter and grandeur. The “sparkle” tends to keep them from feeling their deep-seated emotions of loneliness, hopelessness, and despair. A yearning for status. A fascination with celebrity. A longing for attention. Those who obsessively post on social media to gain the strokes that keep them feeling temporarily sated day to day. These are not characteristics of assertiveness, although the ...

666. Into the Light

John 1:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... through the ground and lean toward the light. We too as created beings need the light. We need physical light. But we also need the Light of God, our sustenance and our source. Somewhere deep inside of us, we know and remember our Creator and yearn for his blessing, identity, acceptance, and love. We long to be called his own. Today, we celebrate the greatest Creation God has ever expressed: the birth of Jesus –God’s own entry into his own created world. How completely awesome is that! How strange and ...

667. The Most Important Question

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... could give us power over death! Jesus claimed that he could give us power to live forever with him. Have you ever feared death? Have you ever wondered what is on the other side? Have you ever longed to live in a world that has been healed? Have you ever yearned to have a body that is no longer in pain? Jesus claimed that if we follow him, we don’t have to fear death. It is simply the threshold to a glorious life with him forever. Jesus claimed to be God, to forgive sins, and to give us eternal life ...

668. The Sawdust Trail

Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon

Dr. Ronald Love

... was selected to oversee the Manhattan Project. The purpose of this project was to develop the world’s first atomic bomb. Even though the assignment came with a promotion to brigadier general, Groves was disappointed with the appointment. Yearning for overseas duty, he was disgruntled by the prospect of filling a trivial administrative position in Washing- ton DC. Besides, the project held little promise for success. Groves, utterly frustrated, realized: an inadequate supply of uranium had been mined ...

669. Revising The Agenda

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

William G. Carter

... stewardship, and the source of our helpfulness to our neighbors. Denying ourselves in this context means we hold back because we have put God’s purposes before our own. It’s the kind of spiritual discipline, says Calvin, that “erases from our minds the yearning to possess, the desire for power, and the desire for the favor of others.” True self-denial “uproots ambition and all craving for human glory.” Why? Because it means we choose to put God’s ways before our own pursuits. We choose to ...

670. Will God Be With Us?

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... , ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” Do you hear the deepest yearning of Moses’ heart? In his opinion, there is no blessing that compares to knowing God and God’s ways. Do we believe that too? Clinical psychologist Larry Crabb writes in his book Shattered Dreams, “The highest dream we could ever dream, the wish that if granted would ...

671. Wrapped in a Cloud

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... impossible. To be sure, all those who encounter God also encounter that dynamic feeling of impossibility and irrational joy, peace, wellness, and hope for newness and change. As Christians, if we strive for God encounters, whether in worship, prayer, study, or meditation, we all yearn for at least a moment to have our “heads in the clouds.”[1] Clouds for us feel like “out of reach” places for us. Unless you are a pilot, we satisfy ourselves with staring at them from the earth below. In a sense, God ...

672. Fever!

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... within jobs, homes, churches, and relationships. When you feel anxious on a “soul level,” everything in life can feel ephemeral, unstable, unsure, and troubled. In contemplating what felt like the fragileness of life, people expeditiously wanted change. Like Jonah, they yearned in a sense to “run away” from the tenuousness of life, from the leering shadow of death which suddenly felt too close for comfort. They longed to pursue new avenues of pleasure, to seek ways to feel better about life, to ...

673. Vengeance: Human and Divine

Matthew 13:1-9 · Isaiah 44:6-8 · Psalm 1-12, 17-18, 23-24

Sermon

Will Willimon

... in the human heart. Perhaps we don’t engage in child abuse, maybe we have never bashed anyone's head in, maybe we don't support the death penalty (maybe we do), but in many lesser ways we do assault people--with words. We nurse affronts, lick our wounds and yearn for the day when they will get what we know they deserve. Your husband leaves you for another woman, your mother-in-law refuses to accept you as a daughter. your boss gives your job to someone else, the professor gives you a C when you know you ...

674. Come and Rest

Matthew 5:3-10 · Matthew 11:28-30

Eulogy

George Reed

... on old Jewish prayer book, “Though the longing within us seems more than we can bear, we know that our grief is according to our blessing. The sorrow of separation is the inevitable price of days and years of precious love; tears are the tender tribute of yearning affection for those who have passed away but cannot be forgotten.” Mourning is not something to avoid but to accept as the price of having someone to love. As we enter into our grief, shed our tears, and remember the life of our loved ones, we ...

675. Many Rooms

John 14:1-14, 18-19, 25-27

Eulogy

George Reed

... a word of comfort. Jesus had compassion on his disciples that day and he has compassion on us today. The words he spoke to John and Peter and the rest he now speaks to us. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Oh, how our troubled hearts yearn to be comforted. We seek some word of consolation but how can we still our troubled hearts? Jesus says, “Believe in God, believe also in me.” Ah, there is our answer, the source of our comfort. We look beyond the human and the earthly and turn our attention ...

Showing results