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 826 to 850 of 1164 results

826. Miscellaneous Laws

Deut 23:15–25:19

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

With 23:15 we enter into a discussion of the implications of the eighth commandment, relating to theft. Five laws (23:15–25) are given in the second-person singular, perhaps highlighting the importance of individual responsibility within the covenant community. Even the rules on divorce (24:1–4) and kidnapping (24:7) represent a metaphorical and real theft of life. Other ancient Near Eastern countries required the extradition of runaway slaves, but Israel did not, for it would imply a covenant relationship ...

827. If There is A God, Why Is There Suffering In the World?

Jeremiah 12:1, Romans 8:18-28

Sermon

Charley Reeb

I conclude our series with most challenging question of all. I am sure it has been on many of our minds the last few months and weeks as we have seen the devastation that Hurricane Matthew has caused. Out of that suffering comes the granddaddy of all questions: “If there is a God then why do people suffer?” Another way people ask this question is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” In theological circles it is called the theodicy question. The process of the question goes like this: If God can’t ...

828. Sheep Just Wanna Have Fun

John 10:1-21, Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Earlier this month in some parks, farms, and yards of the UK, British sheep have been experiencing a new sense of freedom. Even as parks and open spaces are shut down due to coronavirus, and people are secluded in their homes, sheep have taken to roaming about the newly open spaces. But rather than wandering aimlessly through the fields, it seems, sheep have been seeking out children’s playgrounds, and have begun [wait for it] to play! It appears, their favorite activity is to take turns riding the “ ...

829. Begging Bartimaeus

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

The sermon today is from the Gospel of Mark, the 10th chapter, verses 51 and 52. "And Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to him, ‘Master, let me receive my sight.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ " Jericho is about as far away from Jerusalem as a twenty minute drive. It’s a mere fifteen miles. That’s pretty close, unless you’re walking as Jesus was. For him it was a day away, at most. A good walker could cover it in four or ...

830. Obeying God Rather Than Men

Acts 5:17-42

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

How many times have we borne witness to this scene? Men and women of the Gospel attacked by their enemies for preaching the resurrected Christ? How many times have we seen this inevitable and inimitable skirmish between the horizontal and the vertical, the spiritual and the carnal, the things of man and the things of God? How many times have we seen this scene within and without the church, where servants of the Lord who have confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that ...

831. Paths of Righteousness

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Eric Ritz

We are continuing in our study of the 23rd Psalm and we shall begin where we left off last Sunday. Now we examine the words, "In the Paths of Righteousness." Righteousness is a good word. It is strong, clear and concise. Righteousness is a noun, therefore it is able to stand up in any room and say what it is! That is what nouns are, that is what nouns do. If you want definitions, nouns can give you definitions. (1) Now, the word "Righteousness" is a good word, but we have allowed someone to hijack it, ...

832. On Defeating the Devil

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

At every baptism in the Lutheran church an old question is asked. A question used at countless baptisms all over the world. A question that is almost as old as the church itself. Just before water is splashed in the threefold name, I look at parents and sponsors and sometimes adult candidates across the pool and ask: Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? To tell you the truth, I've been waiting for somebody to laugh at the question. Who really believes in the devil ...

833. The Master's Voice

Matthew 13:53-58, Mark 6:1-6, Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: The King’s Speech [use a clip from the movie near the conclusion in which the king is grateful to have been freed] Being “voiceless” has been the cause of many a revolution. Slavery, women’s suffrage, child abuse, human trafficking —the progress of history is the story of the voiceless finding a voice and struggling to be free. The stifled voice will find a way to be heard. Those who have difficulty “finding” their voice, after many years of not “speaking,” will be freed by the act of speaking. ...

834. Shame on You

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

A sense of guilt and shame can sometimes be spiritually healthy. Dogs are great at guilt. The moment you walk into the house, a dog will telegraph to you with its whole body the sin it has committed. The eyes squint and dart this way and that. The ears are flattened. The head is lowered. The tail trails. Pathetically ingratiating behavior usually accompanies all this - desperate little hand licks, half-hearted tail wags, general obeisance. When you discover the actual crime - a mistake on the rug, a broken ...

835. Do You Have The Glory?

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

"I wanted more than mere fortune," a young Italian wrote in his diary. "I wanted fame. I wanted love. I wanted my name to ring around the world. I shall never go home until I can go home somebody." And he did go home somebodybut not where it counted the most. Only 18 years of age this young Italian immigrated to America and changed his name. At first he worked as a gardener and cabaret dancer before heading to Hollywood. After years as a bit player, he hit it big in 1921 and went on to star in such films ...

836. From Crumbs to Half a Loaf

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Harold Warlick

On a Boy Scout camping trip, the little group of scouts hiked up a mountainside and made camp for supper. They discovered that they were low on water. They had barely enough water to make a little stew. Two boys were sent to find water and fill the canteens while the others stayed and cooked supper. Unfortunately the two seekers were over three miles from camp when they finally located some water. The other boys gave up on them and ate all the stew. When the two returned to camp they were extremely hungry ...

837. The Discipleship Question: Do You Wish To Go Away?

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

John C. Purdy, a staff member of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., has written a challenging book entitled Returning God's Call: The Challenge of Christian Living. In it, Purdy suggests that we need a new metaphor for the Christian life. He points out the inadequacy of the old metaphors such as "a soldier in God's army," "a scholar in the school of Christ," "a traveler a long the Christian way," "a citizen of the commonwealth; "and a member of Christ's body." Each of these metaphors has served us well in the ...

838. Don't Look Back, Remember Lot's Wife

Genesis 19:24-26

Sermon

James W. Moore

When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I was a sprinter on the Memphis Tech High School track team. Back then, tenth grade was the first year of high school, so I was a real rookie on the track team. I had been running: - The one hundred yard dash. - I was also running on the sprint relay teams. - In addition, I was doing the long jump and the high jump. One day in a practice track meet, the coach suddenly decided to try me in the two hundred and twenty yard dash. I had never run this event before, ...

839. The Joyful Provider

John 2:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

The season of Lent has arrived. It's time to repent and believe the Gospel. We are encouraged to remember that we are mortal, as if our bodies would ever let us forget. Lent is a 40-day period of self-examination and self-denial — except for Sundays. Tucked into these forty days are six “little Easters" — days to remember that God in Jesus Christ gives us the victory over sin, over death, over all that destroys our relationship with Him. So this First Sunday of Lent, I invite you not to the wilderness of ...

840. The Hospitable Servant: A Woman Named Lydia

Acts 16:11-15

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

One of the great problems of our time particularly in some clergy circles is the myopic, antiquated, sexist, provincial, and prejudiced view that some pastors and congregations have regarding women in the church. This problem is particularly acute in regards to female clergy and those strong, anointed, and gifted women of God whom God has appointed and anointed for service and who also pose a threat to the fragile egos of those “true believers” who deem them unfit and unworthy to be true servants of God. ...

841. Living In ‘Oddville’ With ‘Peculiar’ People

Romans 12:1-2, 19-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

As that little game show opening points out, we have a hard time distinguishing who's a Christian and who isn't. It seems that Christians have developed the ability to blend in so well with the rest of society that it's hard to distinguish us from the rest of the world. In the John 15:19, Jesus says, "If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own....you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world...." Eugene Peterson's The Message might make that a little clearer ...

842. The Teacher

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Will Willimon

Do you know Sybil Vann? Elizabeth Tripp? Mary Wilds? You ought to. They are very powerful people. And I know that many of you are here because you want power. Sybil Vann, Elizabeth Tripp, Mary Wilds could teach you power mongers a thing or two about it. Last week, buying aspirin at supermarket, I almost reached for a bottle of expensive aspirin, then I remembered what Elizabeth Tripp taught us in her science class: ''People, aspirin is aspirin. It's that simple. The only difference in aspirin is in the ...

843. Lifting the Burden of Guilt

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

"There is a cancerous strain eating away at the average American," writes C. Neil Strait.1 He continues, "It is a strain brought on by too much work and too little play; too much hatred and too little love; too much fear and too little faith. The overbalance has infected life with a strain that eats away at the energies of life like a dreadful disease. The strain that besets a lot of people is more a strain of conscience than any other single factor. Because there is a war with conscience, there is a war ...

844. Lent 2

Luke 13:31-35

Bulletin Aid

Jack Brownlee

ORDER OF SERVICE Opening Words L: Let us worship our Creator, the God of Love. P: God continually preserves and sustains us. L: We have been forgiven to embrace new life. P: Through Jesus Christ we have received the full love of God. Hymn "How Firm A Foundation" Prayer Of Confession Unto thee, O Lord do I lift up my soul. I put my trust in thee, O God. Show thy paths, teach thy ways, lead in thy truth; remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies. Do not remember my sin. Take from me my self justification. Center ...

845. Why We Do What We Do

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

Mike Ripski

A troubled 19-year old, estranged from family and having bounced around for years in foster homes and group homes, dumped by a girlfriend, and a day earlier having been fired from his job, goes into Omaha’s Westroads Mall with an assault rifle and guns down holiday shoppers and employees. Then kills himself. In a suicide note he writes that he will no longer be a burden to anyone. And that he would be famous. (“Thoughts on Solitude,” by Wendy M. Wright, in Weavings, XXIII:6, p.9) No longer be a burden to ...

846. The Lord, Not Idols

Isaiah 44:6-23

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

The Restoration of a Blind and Deaf Servant, II: After Job and his “friends” have spent chapter after chapter arguing with God and with each other as to the meaning of the calamities that have come to Job, God appears and puts Job in his place at some length (Job 38:1–40:2). Job submits, and might have expected this was the end of the story. Instead, as one imagines Job’s groan, God starts again (Job 40:6). There is a parallel dynamic in the new beginning here at Isaiah 43:22. It seems that 42:18–43:21 ...

847. Never Underestimate the Power of a Cold Cup of Water - Sermon Starter

Matt 10:40-42

Illustration

Brett Blair

Now I would like to stop the world for just one minute and ask you to think back. Think back with me to the first century. Think about those 50 years after Jesus' death and what it must been like for Jesus' disciples. Before the last one died their efforts had brought 500,000 men, women, and children into the ranks of the church. But what they had to suffer in order to accomplish this task is seldom discussed. We like the outcome of their discipleship but we don't want to hear the cost of discipleship. So ...

848. Favoritism Forbidden

James 2:1-13, James 2:14-26

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

Prejudice and the Poor In chapter 2 James expands upon the theme of worldliness and the care of widows. Worldliness shows up not only as personal ambition but also in a church’s paying regard to someone’s worldly power and position rather than dealing only on the basis of that person’s spiritual position in Christ. This issue, in turn, leads to the statement of the need for generosity and to a warning against a complacent orthodoxy that stops short of gospel obedience (2:14–26). 2:1 My brothers recognizes ...

849. Faith and Deeds

James 2:14-26, James 2:1-13

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

850. Advent 1

Mark 13:32-37, Mark 13:1-31, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 63:16b-17; 64:1-8 This pericope comes from the third section of Isaiah (chapters 56-66). It was written by an unknown author(s) in the period of 540-500 B.C. The Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile. The exiles find a pathetic situation: Jerusalem is desolate and the temple has been burned to the ground. This passage is a lament and a cry for God to come and help them. The people are despondent and are impatient for God to come and do something about their ...

Showing results