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 51 to 75 of 5000 results

51. Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide (Long Version)

John 3:1-36

Illustration

Staff

It is very hard these days to know who to believe. Everyone is trying to lead us to their version of truth. In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair by showing how conditioned we have become to alarmists spreading fear of everything in our environment through junk science. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "Dihydrogen ...

52. As Long As It Is Day!

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

French author Victor Hugo has a short story titled, "93." In the midst of this tale a ship at sea is caught in a terrific storm. Buffeted by the waves, the boat rocks to and fro, when suddenly the crew hears an awesome crashing sound below deck. They know what it is. A cannon they are carrying has broken loose and is smashing into the ship's sides with every list of the ship. Two brave sailors, at the risk of their lives, manage to go below and fasten it again, for they know that the heavy cannon on the ...

53. Belonging? Don’t Be Longing

John 17:6-19

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Live in the world. Be not of it. Love all in the world. Stay in it. God is here. We are here. All may share. Collect In your name we gather, Hearts and hopes we raise. Spirit, Son, and Father, Equally we praise. Amen. Prayer Of Confession Lord of glory, we come before you this day, patient in our waiting, but hopeful as well that the day will dawn when your kingdom is established and you are fully present among us. In this time of waiting we pray that your presence among us in our worship ...

54. The Long Reach of an Act of Kindness

Matthew 25:31-46

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

Alex Haley, the author of Roots tells the story of how his father had his life changed by a simple act of kindness: He was the youngest of eight children, living as a sharecropping family. Everyone in the family was needed to help with the crops. After several years of schooling the family pressed each child into service on the farm. Fortunately the boy's mother intervened on behalf of her child and was allowed to stay in school. When he was ready for college he chose the Lane Institute, working as many as ...

55. Long-Distance Conquerors

Illustration

Staff

CONQUERERS (square miles they conquered) Genghis Khan (1162-1227), 4,860,000 Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) 2,180,000 Tamerlane (1336-1405), 2,145,000 Cyrus the Great (600-529 B.C.), 2,090,000 Attila (406-453), 1,450,000 Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), 1,370,000, all of which he lost in 3 years Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) 720,000 Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030) 680,000 Francisco Pizarro (1470-1541), 480,000 Hernando Cortes (1485-1547), 315,000

56. Faith for the Long Term

John 6:55-59

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A baton such as runners carry Good morning, boys and girls. Have any of you have been to a track meet? Have any of you ever run in a relay race? I couldn't find the kind of baton runners in a real relay race carry, so you will have to use your imagination and pretend this stick is a baton. In a relay a runner begins running, carrying a baton, and he runs to a point in the race where one of his teammates is waiting and he hands the baton to his teammate and his teammate carries it to another ...

57. Jesus as Long-awaited and Rival King

Matthew 2:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The story in Matthew 2 is organized around four scriptural quotations (2:5–6, 15, 17–18, and 23) that ground Jesus’s identity as king and bringer of restoration and authorize Jesus as true king of Israel. The chapter also serves to introduce a key conflict in Matthew’s story. Jesus as Messiah-King, even in his infancy, is understood as a threat to the existing political structures represented by Herod (73–4 BC), king of Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and Near Eastern territories beyond Galilee. Herod, an ...

58. The Long Ride

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

A fellow comes up to a cab driver in New York and says, "Take me to London." The cab driver tells him there is no possible way for him to drive the cab across the Atlantic. The customer insists there is. "You'll drive me down to the pier and we'll put the taxi on a freighter and when we get off at Liverpool, you'll drive me to London and I'll pay you whatever is on the meter." The driver agrees and when they arrive in London, good to his word, the passenger pays the total on the meter and gives him a ...

Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.

Adlai Stevenson

60. The Long Road to Forgiveness

Illustration

Jim Cymbala, with Dean Merrill

One day, a woman named Amalia came to Pastor Jim Cymbala’s office at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. She began to tell him her life story. Amalia’s father had been a violent alcoholic who beat Amalia’s mother. One night, to protect her mother from another beating, Amalia traded bedrooms with her mother. That night, Amalia’s father began molesting her. Soon, the only way to keep Amalia’s father from beating her mother was to allow him to molest little Amalia. After many years of this abuse, Amalia married a young ...

61. Love at Long Site

Humor

Love at first sight is nothing special. It's when two people have been looking at each other for years that it becomes a miracle.

62. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... , God’s “lamp” is a means of scrutinizing the inner recesses of humans: “The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being” (Prov. 20:27). In his righteousness, Job has nothing to fear from such scrutiny. Indeed, he longs for the time when God’s light drove away the darkness that now threatens to engulf him. 29:4–6 The Hebrew for when I was in my prime is obscure primarily because of the uncertain meaning of the word translated “prime” (Heb. khorep), which ...

63. Poem: In Memoriam

Eulogy

Alfred Lord Tennyson

... my grief I leave thy greatness to be guess’d; What practice howsoe’er expert In fitting aptest words to things, Or voice the richest-toned that sings, Hath power to give thee as thou wert? I care not in these fading days To raise a cry that lasts not long, And round thee with the breeze of song To stir a little dust of praise. Thy leaf has perish’d in the green, And, while we breathe beneath the sun, The world which credits what is done Is cold to all that might have been. So here shall silence guard ...

64. The Family

Genesis 37:1-36

Sermon

Will Willimon

... am I and your mother and brothers to bow down to you?'' If you are going to strut in your robe before others, you at least ought to try to look humble about it. You'll be amazed by how humble I look in my gold silk and blue velvet long sleeved robe in the graduation procession into the stadium -- I'm at the head of the procession. Is it a wonder that shortly thereafter, when Daddy sent Joseph to the fields to check on his brothers, they said to one another, ''Here comes this dreamer! Now comes our chance to ...

65. A Streak of Common Sense

Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... and blows the house in. The little pig is done for. The wolf goes to the house built of twigs and repeats his request to come in. The pig refuses, so the wolf huffs and puffs and blows the house in. The second little pig is done for. A new long-range consequence had come to pass. Now we have to ask whether the two little pigs showed genuine common sense or not? Coming to the brick house the wolf calls out, is refused entrance, blows as hard as he can, but the brick house stays safe. Furious, the wolf comes ...

66. “In the Lord I Take Refuge”

Psalm 11:1-7

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... about the four faces of faith’s persona that pretty much cover the gamut of the psalmist’s world, and ours too. The first is the doubt that troubles the suppliant—doubt too is a natural part of faith. When it drives us to ask the question “How long?” it gives us, as it does the psalmist, a window into our relationship with God (13:1). As the closing lines of the poem attest (13:5–6), he deals with his doubt in the context of God’s “unfailing love” (hesed). When viewed in that setting, it ...

67. Job’s Reply to Zophar

Job 12:1--14:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... Heb. sakir, see also 14:6). On the other hand, Job may be suggesting another impossible scenario in which one who is suffering as he is might wait expectantly for restoration or renewal. If the dead man might live again, then it might be possible to wait out the long days of service in Sheol in expectation of being restored both to life and to God’s favor (see Clines, Job 1–20, pp. 330–32; Hartley, Job, pp. 236–37). In this case, the implication is that since there is no hope of the dead rising to ...

68. “I Will Sing the Lord’s Praise, for He Has Been Good to Me”

Psalm 13:1-6

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

69. Three Days To See

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Helen Keller

... for those who have eyes which really see, the dawn of each day must be a perpetually new revelation of beauty. This, according to the terms of my imagined miracle, is to be my third and last day of sight. I shall have no time to waste in regrets or longings; there is too much to see. The first day I devoted to my friends, animate and inanimate. The second revealed to me the history of man and Nature. To-day I shall spend in the workday world of the present, amid the haunts of men going about the business of ...

70. A Word of Hope for a Hard World

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... And after the slaughter of the innocents, Mary and Joseph, and their son Jesus returned to Nazareth to build new lives--lives that would change human existence as we know it. Yes, there are Herods in this world. But they cannot defeat God. How long? Not long, because “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” 1. Ortberg, John, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), pp. 77-82). 2. Scott Hoezee, http://www.calvincrc.org/sermons/2005/matt2Innocents.html. 3. Rev ...

71. “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

... he will again “go to the altar of God” (43:3), and neither the mockery of his enemies nor the surroundings of an “unfaithful nation” (43:1) can repress the joy that begins to swell up in his soul. And its source is the God whom he longs to meet, “God, my joy and my delight” (43:4). This image draws him all the more toward the sanctuary. Over against the lamentation, the anger, and the deep anguish of the psalmists’ souls runs a joy that is unspeakable, a joy whose fullness is only experienced ...

72. The Christmas Cactus

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... , "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:1-4 RSV) To these people Isaiah wrote the words of the 35th chapter, to a people wishing to go home, wishing for a way back through the long, long trail awinding through scary and barren land, to the land of Zion, the land of their dreams, where they could meet God. What they were to learn was that they needed to take that journey back in their hearts even more than they needed to return bodily. Is it not ...

73. To Bethlehem and Beyond

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... , and I was I." Yes, we know, don’t we, that the personal values are the best ones. And God knows this, too; he knew it long before we did. And when he wished to say his ultimate word, he spoke in the language of a living person, the Living Person of Jesus ... production and hearing of sounds. I heard about a fellow who, on his way home from work one evening, realized that he hadn’t for a long time told his wife how he felt about her. He made up his mind that he would do so that very night. So after the ...

74. Dim Visions And Blind Guides

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... the telephone. We of all people can ask, "Why doesn't God talk anymore?" I mean, God called Moses through a burning bush. God placed a call to Abraham through three wandering strangers. God phoned Samuel late at night in a dream. God placed a call to Jacob down a long ladder. God whispered to Elijah on Mount Horeb. We have AT&T, Sprint, MCI, CNN, and a host of other companies. It would be so easy for God to place a call or give an interview. If Jesus came "in the fullness of time," what about now? Wouldn't ...

75. On The Road Again (emmaus)

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... only once -- on my first visit to the Holy Land in 1968. That Emmaus is a village west of Jerusalem on the main road to the seacoast. But I've been to other Emmauses, too, for Emmaus is every person's town. It could have been any place, just as long as it was seven miles distance from frustration, confusion, grief and despair. They wanted to get out of town, to get away from it all in order to try to forget, to sort out their feelings and somehow find a way to start all over again. With chins dragging and ...

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