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 976 to 1000 of 1164 results

976. What Does God Expect Of You?

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Robert Allen

Ben Powers is the name of a man that may not be familiar to you today. But, several years ago, he made headlines around the world. For the last fourteen years, Ben Powers has worked for NASA. He has been working on the solid rocket motor design and is considered an expert in his field. In 1987 the ill-fated Challenger blasted off for outer space. This was a special mission which included six astronauts and one school teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The astronaunts were to carry out scientific experiments and ...

977. Living Free

Haggai 2:1-9

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Why are things not better in America? With the booming economy, the new freedoms won by the Civil Rights movement and the Feminist movement, why is there still so much poverty, inequality, and discrimination? Questions such as these that we are asking today were on the lips and in the hearts of ancient Jews around 520 B.C. Many, if not most, of these Jews in Judah (southern Israel) at that time had been exiles in Babylon during the Babylonian Captivity. Some eighteen to twenty years before they had been ...

978. Resurrection Power (Series: Living on the Resurrection Side of Life)

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Sing with all the Saints of Glory; Sing the resurrection song. Death and sorrow, earth’s dark story, To the former days belong. For over forty years now, I have been trying to preach that sermon and sing that song. Today I would like to try once more. I take for a text the words of Paul who said, “I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead.” What a worthy ...

979. Proper 9

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

The Hebrews who went down to Egypt settled there as guests of the Pharaoh. To those semi-nomadic people, the land, even though passing through a period of exceptional famine, must have seemed lush and green compared with droughtstricken Canaan and the desert which they had crossed. They were there as resident aliens, but at the time it was easy to forget that fact, because they were accorded special privileges, thanks to Joseph's position at the Pharaoh's court. However, the time came when this favorable ...

980. When God's Mind is Spoken

Judges 1:1-36

Sermon

I went to see him at the hospital where he was recuperating from a scary illness. While I visited with him, his wife made arrangements to check him out of the hospital. It took much longer than both of us had expected, so he and I had an unanticipated, but very important, conversation. He worships every Sunday. He never misses Sunday school. He reads my sermons, and those of other ministers, that are mailed to his house. For a lay person, he is theologically well informed. In fact, from time to time, he ...

981. Partners in the Impossible

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Richard Patt

"Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?" (v. 5b) A minister was making a home visit to one of the younger families in his parish. A five-year-old boy answered the front door and told the minister his mother would be there shortly. To make some conversation, the minister asked the little guy what he would like to be when he grows up. The boy immediately answered, "I’d like to be possible." "What do you mean by that?" the puzzled minister asked. "Well, you see," the boy replied, "just about ...

982. A Man Named Pain (Part 1)

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Would you be surprised if I told you that the number one best-selling book in America is a novel that tells of the sexual and financial exploits of the men and women who seek power in the beltway around Washington D. C.? That wouldn’t be surprising. Well, what if I told you that the number one selling book is a book describing how you can be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams while losing forty pounds? You wouldn’t be surprised at that either. Well, then, what if I told you that the Number 1 best-selling ...

983. Finding Fault With God

Jeremiah 2:4--3:5

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

It is never a pleasant prospect to deal with someone who has a complaint with you. As a new pastor, and a very young one at that, one of the things I struggled with most was the experience of conflict with members. I remember as if it were yesterday a significant misunderstanding that developed between the congregation's "matriarch" and me very early in my time there. I prayed about the difficulty we were having, and I knew that I needed to go to her home and ask for the opportunity to talk things out. I ...

984. The Crucifixion

Matthew 27:32-44

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

27:32–34 After the prisoner had been condemned and scourged, it was common practice to make him carry the cross beam (patibulum) to the place of execution. The upright post remained in place like a mediaeval gallows. As the procession moved through the city (taking the longest route in order to serve as a warning to as many as possible), the prisoner carried around his neck a placard indicating his crime. When the cross beam with its victim had been hoisted in place and joined to the upright, the titulus ...

985. Forgiveness Freely Given

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Erskine White

As a minister, I am continually reminded of the many burdens people bear in this life - the emotional scars, the painful memories, the gut-wrenching guilt and feelings of regret. Sometimes the stories I hear are staggering. Really, there are three kinds of people in this world: those who need to be forgiven, those who need to be forgiving of someone else, and the largest group is those who need to be both forgiven and forgiving. Forgiveness must come before healing. That's why, in our New Testament story ...

986. "If Only. . ."

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

It never should have happened to a good Jewish man. At sundown, the beginning of this day as the Jews reckon it, he gathers with his friends for the holy meal of Passover, an act quite pious and proper. By the end of this day, at tomorrow's sundown, he's dead, executed as a traitor. If he really was faithful to his religion and innocent of crime, as even Pilate admitted, how could he be tried and found guilty? And if he really was God's Son, the Messiah, as his disciples claimed, how could he die, as a ...

987. Micah’s Orders

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

On Baltimore’s near West Side, there is a winding hilly way which may have been a deer trail long before the Europeans settled in this land. Along that road stands a fine grey stone fortress, with a steeple stretching to the stars. In 1875, the members of First English Lutheran Church, who had been burned out of their church home on Park Avenue, built that fortress. I was near there a few weeks ago, returning from a visit with one of our members who worshiped in that church as a girl. From a stop light, I ...

988. Proper 12

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: Green Gospel: Matthew 13:44-52 Theme: Parable of the Kingdom: (1) Treasure hidden in a field. (2) Merchant searching for the pearl. (3) Fishing net tossed into the sea. Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration One pastor did this: After welcoming the people in the name of God, the Holy and Loving One, in whose Presence we live and move and have our existence, he quoted George Buttrick. "People do not live without worship - they die. They sink below themselves when they cease to worship One ...

989. Jesus’s Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

The temptation narrative follows Jesus’s baptism and continues the focus on the preparation of Jesus for his public ministry. On the level of Matthew’s communication with the reader, he continues to emphasize Jesus’s identity as God’s obedient Son—Jesus as Israel’s representative. God’s Spirit has descended on Jesus at his baptism. Now the Spirit leads Jesus into the desert, where he will be tempted by the devil (also referred to here as the tempter and Satan). By indicating the setting of the temptations ...

990. Streams Of Living Waters

Psalm 16:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Is your soul thirsty? If you lived in Palestine in biblical times, "thirst" would be a very real concept to you. It is no wonder that the hell discussed in the Bible is a hot and dry place, while heaven is described as a cool place with refreshing streams of water. The Bible was written in an era without air conditioners, water coolers, or refrigeration of any kind. And it was a hot, dry, desolate land in places. Folks knew how it felt to be thirsty. They were thirsty physically--and spiritually. They knew ...

991. The Seven Last Words Of Pilate

Sermon

Thomas Long

Some stories in the Bible are so essentially visual that they almost demand that we act them out to understand them. Like the rest of the Bible, such stories are intended to be read and heard, of course, but they have the added quality of being vivid, pictorial, perhaps even theatrical, and they seem to release their full power only when they are seen in action. In order to grasp their truths, we are compelled to scramble up on a stage -- at least one constructed in our imagination -- to don a costume, to ...

992. Come As You Are

John 21:1-14

Sermon

Alex Gondola

Summertime is nearly upon us, and some of the wonderful signs of summer are being seen all around. People are out jogging more. Convertibles go around with the tops down. Children go off to school wearing shorts. Golf leagues and softball leagues are getting started. For many of us, summertime is a more relaxed, casual, and playful time of year. One thing that is especially characteristic of the days of summer is a more laid-back, informal attitude towards dining. People come to picnics and cookouts, ...

993. Agur’s Message: Relying on God’s Word, Learning from His Work

Proverbs 30:1-33

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

30:1–31:31 Review · Although the final two chapters of Proverbs contain the wisdom of two more sages, from a thematic-theological standpoint they form an epilogue that corresponds to and serves to complete the prologue (Proverbs 1–9; parallels will be noted below). The words of Agur son of Jakeh and of King Lemuel are both called an “oracle,” a term otherwise applied to prophetic utterances (30:1; 31:1; cf. the opening verses of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Malachi), perhaps thereby claiming divine origin and ...

994. Cookies and Milk, a Sacramental Meal

Matthew 14:13-21

Illustration

Glenn L. Borreson

Albert Schmidt writes of being at the home of little five-year-old George after the funeral of George's seven-year-old brother, who was also his closest friend and playmate. Little George was so distraught at the gravesite that he had tried to jump into the grave himself. Now at home, he had buried himself and his grief under the bottom of the double-decker bed in their room. He wouldn't come out. He just said, "I'm here and I'm never coming out." His mother tried. Schmidt tried, talking until he was blue ...

995. Proper 20

1 Timothy 2:1-15, Jeremiah 8:4--9:26, Luke 16:1-15

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Jeremiah 8:18--9:1 Jeremiah mourns for the people. Jeremiah was frank in exposing the sins of Judah and forecasting the consequences of the people's sins. Vividly he told of coming destruction and desolation caused by their sins. In this passage Jeremiah identifies with the suffering of the people. As the weeping prophet, he weeps for the plight of his people. Epistle: 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Prayers for all people are acceptable to God who desires all to be saved. Paul urges Timothy to ...

996. The Lord's Prayer: "Our Daily Bread"

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"Give us this day our daily bread." Is that really a concern of yours? Are you truly worried about whether or not there will be food for you to eat today...or tomorrow or the next day? Probably not. We who live in America know very well that there is MORE than sufficient food for all OUR citizens - TOO much for many of us. Granted, we have a problem in getting the food properly distributed (as in Bosnia), but the food IS there. That would make it sound as though our prayer for daily bread is irrelevant. ...

997. Proper 17

Matthew 16:21-28, Romans 12:1-8, Romans 12:9-21, Jeremiah 14:1--15:21, Jeremiah 20:7-18, Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Exodus 3:1-15 Moses is called to deliver God's people from bondage in Egypt. While tending his father-in-law's sheep Moses is called by Yahweh to return to Egypt to lead out his oppressed people. First Yahweh must get Moses' attention by having a bush burn without burning up. Because God is present, Moses is ordered to remove his sandals, for he is on holy ground. Wherever God exists, the place becomes sacred. Yahweh tells Moses that he is concerned about his people in slavery and ...

998. Proper 20

Lk 16:1-13 · 1 Tim 2:1-8 · Amos 8:4-7 · Hos 11:1-11

Sermon Aid

THE LESSONS Hosea 11:1-11 Yahweh so loves his disobedient people that he cannot give them up to destruction. In one of the most moving passages in the Old Testament (Lesson 1), Israel is pictured as Yahweh's prodigal son. Hosea sees God and the nation as a loving father and his rebellious son. As a loving father Yahweh loves Israel when a child, brought him out of slavery in Egypt, and cared for him in the wilderness. He took his child in his arms, taught him to walk, and nurtured him. In spite of this, ...

999. Salvation as Personal Experience

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

Thus far we have studied Paul’s doctrine of salvation in objective terms. Salvation is the work of divine grace, centering in the atoning death of Christ on the cross and bringing about a change in the relation of mankind to God, a change described as redemption, justification, and reconciliation. We turn now to the subjective and personal aspect of salvation, to Paul’s answer to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Faith When this question was asked by the Philippian jailer, Paul replied, "Believe ...

1000. A Habit of Happy Heirs

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Thanksgiving • Thanksgiving • Thanksgiving A complete list of the things for which people today have to be thankful would be impossible, but we can identify a few items through which modern people are heirs of the goodness of God. God has been good in caring for the physical needs of people. Norman V. Pearce, a blind person, reminded in a subtle way those who have sight that for which they have to be grateful: I cannot see the moonlight on the sea,But I can hear the waves beat on the shore; I feast upon ...

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