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 801 to 825 of 5000 results

801. Colorizing Jesus

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Carl Jech

... charm. Such an emphasis can lead to the wrong type of Christ-centeredness, in which all theological meaning goes by the wayside and nothing is left but an icon, an idol. Soon we resort to saying, Forget what it means to believe in Jesus - just as long as you have him." Fundamentally we do not have Jesus as a lucky charm, but rather as a symbol of the unconditional grace and love of God. The reason it is important to stress the historicity of Jesus is that the historical Jesus provides the framework for ...

802. Jail House Joy

Acts 16:16-40

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... the spirit to sing in jail? To answer this question, we need to examine what happened to Paul and Silas before they were jailed and what happened to them during and after their imprisonment. To do this, we need to look at the total text. It is a long and an involved story. It possesses all of the elements of an afternoon television soap opera; there is a slave girl with a touch of insanity, who is a soothsayer; there are con-men, who exploit her; there is racial prejudice; there is an imprisonment; there is ...

803. The Bridge

John 1:1-18, Matthew 2:1-12, Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7, Luke 1:26-38, Genesis 3:1-24

Drama

H. J. Hizer

... m not sure this idea about a bridge will really work. Three: Right! We could start a "Zap a week" program. If we zap'em long enough and hard enough they'll get the message. Four: No, wait a minute -- thunderbolts make big holes -- they're too hard on the ... some rest. Take three weeks -- or even a month. Five: Well, it might be more than a month. Three: Gosh, Lord, can you afford such a long trip? Five: I can afford it -- but you might say that it's a pretty high price to pay. Four: When will you be back, Lord ...

804. The Stewardship of Money in the Modern Church

2 Corinthians 9:11, 12

Sermon

Dr. John Thompson Peters

... purpose of God, either in furthering that will and purpose or opposing it. Only when the Church understands this broad principle can she begin to see her tremendous role in ministering to our world's great need - "One more revival is needed," said Horace Bushnell, a long time ago, "the revival of the money power for the purposes of God." When the church properly understands this, she will rise up with boldness to proclaim that she has a word to speak, an important word, about the use to which men devote all ...

805. Don't Just Stand There! - Get Involved!

Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Dr. John Thompson Peters

... 's hand - once and for all - and to leap forward in faith. This is little enough for a cause you are committed to. In that Scottish classic, The Faith that Rebels, we have set forth for us the call to involve ourselves: "We are to go into the age-long war against all sin and all tragedy of circumstance as well, in firm faith that our Father wills to make an end of them all. That, alone, is the full Christian idea of God, which sets the standard for all Christian living and prayer. We are, therefore, to wage ...

806. Talk! Talk! Talk!

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... matter whether anything worthwhile or intelligent is being said, just so everyone is talking. A New York columnist set out one time not long ago to prove that no one really listened to what anyone said at a cocktail party and, when he was invited to such ... usual problem. You see, he walks in his sleep." A man says that he didn't speak to his wife for three days. It took him that long to interrupt her. And in the face of all of this, in the face of this, there is the warning of our Lord Jesus Christ that we ...

807. Take Up Your Cross

Luke 8:1-15

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... kinds of foreigners, people whose customs are strange to us, in Samaria. That is the land of our enemies. Can't we go the long way around and avoid all of the trouble?" Now, of course, this is a highly exaggerated account of the beginning of the fourth ... greater, is the only one that leads to life. All other roads may promise smoother riding, but they are dead-end trails. Going the long way around may seem like the safe, sane, and sensible thing to do at the moment, but "There is a way which seems right ...

808. Filled With God's Spirit

Acts 2:4

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... with clothes. Sure we can. The basket will also take food, or it will even take trash. You see, a basket needs to be filled. A long time ago the disciples of Jesus were sitting in a room when they heard a noise like a great wind and they ran outside. The disciples ... . I'll stretch out the tape so we can see how far it is from here to there. It's exactly four feet and three inches long. How great it is when the tape measure shares itself with us. That's just the way it is with people. If you don't share ...

809. Getting The Facts

1 Corinthians 15:3

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... ever heard of someone making a "big splash"? That generally means that they have made some big news, really big news. You know, a long time ago Moses made a big splash when he came down from the mountain and told people all about receiving the ten commandments from ... .It not only happens once, but it stays with you forever. Love is not just one big splash. It stays around for a long time, as long a time as you do and then even longer. That's what we like about Jesus' love -- it is with us forever. JESUS' ...

810. The Role of the Father (Father's Day)

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

... empties from his pockets at the end of a day...yet small enough to cup a child's face in his hands." And then God molded long, slim legs and broad shoulders. And the angel nearly had a heart attack. "Boy, this is the end of the week, all right," she clucked. " ... is crying, so the theory goes, that sends the signal that the one who gives the comfort and love is the mother. I have long thought that we have not given Joseph, Jesus’ father, his due in the church. There is so much of an effort to venerate Mary, ...

811. The Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Brett Blair

... to Jericho. We can surmise that this man was probably a Jew because this was a road going right through the heart of Judea. He had probably been up to Jerusalem to worship and now he’s going back to the City of Palm Trees. It was a very long serpentine road starting at Jerusalem, the highest point, 2,500 miles above sea level, and going straight down to Jericho, nearly 800 feet below Sea Level. The lowest place on the face of the earth not covered by water--the deepest city in the world. The Jericho Road ...

812. Building Barns, Postponing Life

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... not put our trust in the promise of materialism; if we do we will be sadly disappointed. Jesus might have asked, “How much barn does a man need?” We might ask today, How much storage space does a man need? The only resource that can possibly address our deepest longing is God. It is God that will be our rock and our sanity and our security; not a mutual fund. When the doctor calls you in one day and says: It is cancer. It is God that will offer you the peace and calm that you so desperately seek. The ...

813. The Lord's People Together

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

... for birthdays and weddings and the various happy milestones we pass along the way. And when sorrow comes - when there is grief or pain - we usually do not move through these times alone. People we know and love stand with us in our losses, sit with us through long, dark nights of loneliness or dread. It is a compliment to our humanity, I think, that in our joys we invite others to come and share them, and in our sorrows the others come and help us bear them. And, of course, for many other reasons and in ...

814. Faith Bridges the Gap

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

... whom it was said, "Neither could he believe in God." Beckman went so far as to say, "I was never a believer in Jesus Christ or God, ‘cause I never saw nothin’ he’s done. You can crawl on your hands and knees and cry your eyes out all day long, but no burden’s lifted. How can they prove to me there’s a God?" Jim Jones became his god, converted him so that he even begged for the Temple. Beckman was struck by a cable, seriously injured and lay close to death, but someone placed a picture of Jones ...

815. Tomb for Sale

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

George Bass

... something as monumental as this has happened to us, doesn’t it? Ide Ward was going on 120 years of age when he died early in 1982; a doctor said he died "just of old age," but George Will of the Washington Post called his long life a "triumph of the spirit."3 Will says, "Aging, like a lot of other common things (life, love, memory, the existence of the universe, the infield fly rule), remains a mystery. But many gerontologists believe that, absent disease or imprudent living, an individual ages according ...

816. Lord, I Believe - Or Do I?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... had made his nerves raw with her pest-like pleading, he yielded, settled in her favor, vindicated her. Is God like that? And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Two caveats as an aside may be in order here. First, with a hint at humor, this is not designed to tell us how to ...

817. Everybody Pray!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

... from where they had breakfast - their little four-year-old boy exclaimed in bewilderment, "We've been riding in the car all day long, and here we are, back at this place again!" We can understand the child's confusion. But for too many of us, this ... lives in the late afternoon hours of his life. His little room is a somber sort of place. He is filled with pride about a job and career long ended, but still vivid in his memory. When I visit him he says, "I pray a lot. It does me good. I come to the Lord with ...

818. The Golden Gift

Drama

... looks at me?" Without thinking I said, "Sire, you behold a good man, and I a great one. Each of us may profit by it." A slight smile came to his face. He shook my hand and, without saying a word, went in to see the cardinal. It was not long after this that I learned that I had been appointed bishop of Devereaux. Apparently, he had asked the cardinal who I was, and, well - ARLETTE: Oh, Uncle. You have told that story many times, but that is the first time he shook your hand. BISHOP: As I recall, he extended ...

819. Proper 6

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

... of their progenitors ever saw the light of day. The Hebrew stories of their past were, in the beginning, short stories - concise tales of faith and daring, of defeat or triumph, of God's mercy or punishment. Today, some of these anecdotes seem fairly long to us, but they are really a series of short tales which ultimately became strung together. In these stories, the narrator is trying to depict human character, and often the dominant trait in one individual is offset by a contrasting trait in another. Such ...

820. God Is Good But Not Easy

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... the outstanding composer of his time. His desire to be the greatest composer of his era was so all consuming that he went to God for help and struck a bargain with his God. For years he had watched this God whose picture was painted on the church walls. Longingly he had stared into those "Dealer eyes" of this God who was anxious to make a deal and strike a bargain. This was the only God Salieri knew and at age sixteen he approached this God to make his request, to offer his promise and do business with the ...

821. Good Friday

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... power of evil, sin, and death. With his capacity for tragedy, Jesus comes with power into the tragedies of the lives of others. There are sore places to which the human heart comes and in which it may have to stay for a long, long time. We have all dwelt in some of them if we have lived very long at all. But the good news is Christ has power to enter those places defensively. He can bring us breathing space when we think we are making our last gasp. He can share with his people the very energies by which he ...

822. God's Passion

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

... loves a lover." As Father Capon puts it: "The grandest - and the final - imagery the Bible uses for God's love is precisely that of lover and beloved, bridegroom and bride. It is the marriage of Christ and the church which is the last act of the long love affair between God and creation." (Capon, p. 39) "A love affair between God and creation." This is what the early church knew, and what gave it such vitality. And if that seems distant and foreign, remember the marriage is 2000 years old now. Like all old ...

823. God in a Glimpse

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

... they might feel after him and find him." Our souls thirst because there is a God who can quench that thirst, We could only have longings because there is a God who can satisfy them. If you struggle to believe in a God you cannot see, look at the evidence of ... King, Jr. and Mother Teresa, he built into giants. And not only famous people evidence his touch. What about your neighbor who endures long hours and low pay as a social worker because he or she feels called by God to help others? What about the choir ...

824. The Cracked Crystal Ball

Jeremiah 28:1-17

Sermon

... the fruits, the prophet, like the home-run ball hit by the Detroit Tigers, and described in the words of radio announcer, Ernie Harwell, has "long gone." There may be an easier way to detect a false prophet in our time. The false prophet is one who will: Tell us what ... likes to hear a prophecy of subjection or servitude. Yet Jeremiah saw this as God’s will. That view goes a long way toward explaining Jeremiah’s seemingly unpatriotic and defeatist attitude in the years that followed. 2. Tell Us What We Want ...

825. Wellspring for the Soul

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... see of parched desert land. It does not surprise me that this text tells of one who was no doubt in her middle years of life - or maybe beyond. Much is written about the problem of stagnating seasons of life, when the well runs dry on the inside. Not so long ago a wife came in to speak to me of her puzzlement over her husband who has just seemed to have lost his grip on life. Whai disturbs her most is not just his outward indifference to the marriage, the family, the job. It is his inner listlessness of ...

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