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 1151 to 1175 of 5000 results

1151. Captive Free!

Romans 7:15-25a

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... God and concupiscence." Something is missing and something is present. We are without fear and the love of God. There is an emptiness in our hearts that we can never seem to fill. As a result, something is present in us. We are always restless, always searching and longing for someone or something in whom our hearts can rest. We are captive to this sin. There is not a moment of our lives, even from the moment of our conception, that we are not captive to the power of this sin. Therefore, the church calls it ...

1152. See What Love . . .

1 John 3:1-7

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... your worries and sit in your daddy's lap and just enjoy the comfort and the strength of his arms? Or where you could crawl up in your mother's lap and know you are completely and totally and unconditionally loved, no matter what you might do. Do you ever long for that? Do you ever wish there were a place where you could leave all your worries and fears and struggles and frustrations and mistakes and not have to carry them any more? Listen to what the Apostle John has to say to us today in his first letter ...

1153. A Child Will Be Born

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... in his formal dress. He looked down at the little girl and said in a very serious voice, “Miss Hopkins, the Prime Minister wants to see you.” The little girl was frightened as she pulled on her robe and followed the stately butler down a long, dark corridor to the Monroe Bedroom. The butler knocked on the door, and the girl heard a gruff indistinguishable response from inside. When the door opened the child saw the penetrating eyes of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, staring down at her. She was ...

1154. The Completely Accurate, but Totally Absurd Answers

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

... Where would you find a beaver that big?" grumbled Humbug. "I'm sure I don't know," he replied, "but if you did you'd certainly know what to do with him." "That's absurd," objected Milo. "That may be true," he acknowledged, "but it's completely accurate, and as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense you'll have to make it yourself." The Sadducees' question was that kind of question. It was a test. It was a trap. Jesus, though, saw this as an opportunity to set the ...

1155. Like

Romans 5:12-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... badness can be hoisted high and calibrated. Let us give up that “against” attitude for Lent. Let us celebrate Lent as a season of “like.” There is plenty in the world that is frightening, and possibly going wrong. But during Lent we have a long-distance, focused view of the ultimate “right.” Paul’s momentary diversion in Romans offers us a telescoped vision of the miracle that is to come. From Adam to Jesus. From death to eternal life. From inescapable sin to the free gift of righteousness ...

1156. All Boxed In?

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... pets died out within a few weeks or months, the cost of having compassionate five-year-olds as owners. But a few survived. An even lesser number enjoyed transplantation to more spacious living environments. Crocodiles are one of the few animals in nature that keep growing as long as they keep living. In other words, there is no limit as to how big a crocodile can grow. And they grow about a foot a year, so you know very quickly how old a crocodile is. But there is one little qualifier: a crocodile will only ...

1157. They Call It Grace

2 Peter 3:8-15

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

What do you hear in Paul's words? Grace or judgment? Law or gospel? Hope or despair? Advent is a time of waiting. Often we wonder, "How long? How long can I wait for his coming? How long can I look off to the horizon? How long can I proclaim his return?" When we see Paul's words through the filter of grace, we realize the answer is just a little bit longer. During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to Christianity. They began ...

1158. The Eyes of Faith

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... problem, over the problem, or under the problem. He went through the problem. He faced the problem with eyes of faith knowing in his heart that there were more who were for him than against him. What are these eyes of faith that the unbeliever does not have? For a long time, I thought about faith in terms of a list of doctrines or beliefs that you have to accept before becoming a part of the club or joining a church. But more recently, I've come to see faith in much more active terms. There are a lot of ...

1159. Life in The Spirit

Romans 8:22-27

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... and possibility, to help us recover that vision of the Day of Pentecost. It is in this description of the movement of the Spirit of God in our struggles that Paul's language is most powerful. He speaks of the Spirit interceding in our prayers, in our longings, in our fears, in our hopes, and in our inability to pray. In those places that are so overwhelming and scary that we can hardly articulate them — in those places, Paul emphasizes God's movement, the Spirit moving in us "with sighs too deep for words ...

1160. Flesh and Spirit

Romans 8:12-17

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... powers of the world, known as "idols" in the biblical context. Flesh, then, is a process. It is the human response to our historical existence, a response in which we cling to the idols of the world in order to ease our anxieties. This process begins in us as individuals long before we know anything about it. It is passed on to us through the culture in which we live. How does this happen? How do we end up in a place where we count on the idols of the world to bring us security rather than counting on God ...

1161. Antidote for Bad Times

James 5:13-20

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

... said the young man, "I'm sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip." The minister answered, "I know what you mean. It's the same in my business." The Bible gives us some helpful antidotes to ... prayers of your friends." The last antidote, which James offers, is "When you have sinned, confess." Alcoholics Anonymous has long recognized that repressed and unadmitted guilt leads to deeper and deeper trouble and despair. When an alcoholic keeps certain ...

1162. Hope Lifted Up

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Ken Lentz

... of the files and more earnestly did the research. They concluded that the destroyed bronze serpent had something to do with the plight of their ancestors in the wilderness. The historical records revealed that the Hebrews in the wilderness had camped for a long time at a place called Kedesh, a place about fifty miles south of the land of Canaan. The people of Moses were losing their fascination with the spectacular rescue event orchestrated by God and executed by Moses. The more the monotony and bleakness ...

1163. You Can Go Home Again

Luke 15:11-32

Illustration

Max Lucado

... was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small ...

1164. How Big of a Risk Would You Take?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... I can wade pretty far out!" (2) At six-foot-eight he might be able to do that without taking too much of a risk. I’m amazed at some of the risks young people are taking nowadays with so-called extreme sports. There was a young guy not too long ago, a skateboarder, who jumped over the Great Wall of China. He became the first person in history to clear the wall without motorized aid. Thirty-year-old Danny Way missed his first try, but then completed the jump across the 61-foot gap four times. On his last ...

1165. The Four Scents of Adventing

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... getting rid of the Thanksgiving leftovers and, by the time we’ve made turkey sandwiches, turkey casserole, and turkey soup, we realize this thing is just an overgrown chicken. So why do we bother with it? It’s the smell. Turkeys have to cook for a long time. They torture us with their smell for hours on end. Same thing goes with good barbecue. Or a big old pot roast. The smell entices and entrances over hours of cooking. There are distinctive aromas that are attached to Advent. The spicy sweet smell of ...

1166. Doing Your Own Thing

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... to modern hygiene had consequences that were as unpleasant as they were unforeseen. Wolfe describes them: “At the Haight Ashbury Free clinic there were doctors who were treating diseases no living doctor had ever encountered before, diseases that had disappeared so long ago they had never even picked up Latin names; diseases with contemporary names such as the mange, the grunge, the itch, the twitch, the thrush, the scroff, the rot.” The itching and the manginess eventually began to vex even the hippies ...

1167. How Can I Keep From Singing?

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of us, no matter how hard we try to plug them up. Sometimes we spring a “leak” that should have sprung long ago. Other times leaks spring that never should have sprung. You might call “leaks” one of the strangest political strategies of ... life?" The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go. Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was. "I will answer your question." Taking his wallet ...

1168. The Haircut

Humor Illustration

... your grades up and I've observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I'm disappointed you haven't had your hair cut." The boy said, "You know, Dad, I've been thinking about that, and I've noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair, and there's even strong evidence that Jesus had long hair." His dad replied, "Did you also notice that they walked everywhere they went?"

1169. Breaking Loose

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... and her tail wag ferociously as she watched the pups frolicking in the surf. She slowly crept up to the buried wire of the invisible electric fence. The retriever knew where she was called to be, and it was not within the safety of the yard. Her heart longed to join the puppies in the water she loved the waves where she was meant to play. Larimore wondered if she would risk the momentary shock. Was the memory of the pain she had experienced in the past too scary? As the family slowly moved down the beach ...

1170. The Tower of Siloam

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... extent that raccoon had more perspective than most of us in the United States, sadly enough, and that goes for the churches of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. People in the church failed to listen to the words of Jesus, to take the long view, or at least to take a long breath. We had no perspective. In this way we are no different than the ancients who believed that the earth was at the center of the universe. It's hard to imagine how we can continue to believe in this conceit. When the Voyager space ...

1171. Holy, Holy, Holy

John 16:12-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... and I murmur, "It is good, Lord." I see a cottontail rabbit and my tethered dogs go berserk. I whisper, "It is good, Lord." I see a midget brown bear — oh — it turns out to be a chunky marmot. He looks like he has been eating pizza all winter long and needs to go to Weight Watchers. I repeat, "It is good, Lord." I meet people — fellow hikers, neighbors, and tourists. When I hike Mount Harney, I join 80,000 climbers, walkers, and hikers, who go up every year. I say, "It is good, Lord." I see the sun ...

1172. When the Going Gets Tough ... the Tough Start Praying!

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

... to God pleading with him to intercede. At last, huddled in the dark, cold and sore from standing in the cool evening air for so long, the pastor gave a hearty "Amen" and then, "We'll open in two weeks as scheduled." This pastor felt that God hadn't let them ... as prayer. We all must pray. You never know how God is going to work. There is a story from an unknown source that I heard long ago about an old man named Sam who had three sons: Danny, Johnny, and Samuel. No one in the family ever set foot inside a ...

1173. Catholic Horses

Humor Illustration

... knew he had a winner and bet every cent he owned on the old nag. He watched dumbfounded as the old nag came in last. In a state of shock, he went to the track area where the Priest was. Confronting Him, he demanded, 'Father! What happened? All day long you blessed horses and they all won. Then in the last race, the horse you blessed lost by a mile. Now, thanks to you I've lost every cent of my savings!'. The Priest nodded wisely and with sympathy. 'Son,' he said, 'that's the problem with you Protestants ...

1174. Proper 26

Psalm 119:137-144, Isaiah 1:10-18, Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4, Luke 19:1-10, 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... Confession Yahweh — ancient “commandments” are clearly printed in our Bibles. We read them and ask what is “reasonable” and “applicable” for these times. With our minds we ask for guidance on this journey we call life. With our souls, we yearn for freedom from fears; we long to feel secure in our relationships and in our homes. We want to be happy. Reveal to us the hindrances that lurk in us and inhibit our inner peace. Open us to what is good and honest, what is just and lovely; help us walk ...

1175. The Difference a Baby Makes

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... : Dear Santa, I’m sorry, but I don’t have a chimney . . . I’ll leave the cat flap unlocked for you, but please watch out for the litter box! Jon, (aged) 4 Dear Santa, Do you have elves that help or elves that sit on the sofa all day long? Jenny, 8 Dear Santa, Mommy & Daddy says I have not been very good these past few days. How bad can I be before I lose my presents? Christian, 7 (Many adult Christians ask that question, don’t they?) Dear Santa, Did you really run over my grandma? MacKenzie, 11 Dear ...

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