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 1201 to 1225 of 1570 results

1201. On Being Faithful and Focused

Hebrews 11:1, 32 – 12:2

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... spiritual disciplines I try to practice. I can give a lot easier than I can pray. Then, I made a discovery. I discovered the process of breath prayers. There are other forms of prayer. Breath prayers are the words that come to our lips that express the hunger of our hearts. They are simple words. “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Or, simplified, “Lord, have mercy." This prayer gets me through the day. For years, when I awaken, the first prayer on my lips is, “Help me, Lord. Help me ...

1202. Facing Our Fears with Faith

Matthew 10: 27-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... it about humanity that loves to live on that daring edge of life that is just one step beyond absolute and total fright? Isn't it interesting? There is something about fear that energizes. In a well-defined, computer-controlled world, there remains this child-like hunger of living wonderfully dangerous. I think it is inherent in us. I learn most of my lessons from my children and, now, my grandchild. Last month, I took my two year old grandson to the zoo. He was so excited about going that he talked without ...

1203. Fulfilling the Vision

Acts 2:14-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... we woke up that tragic day to discover that “making it" is not everything and self-sufficiency is severely limited. “Sometimes we need to go where they always know your name and sometimes you need to be where they are always glad you came." We hunger for community. And if you want to know where community happens here, it happens in the group life of this church. It happens in Sunday School, Bible Studies, Disciple Bible Study groups, and in the fellowship groups that make up this congregation. If you ...

1204. When It’s Time to Seek Direction

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... know it or not, have recognized it or not, that is why you are here today. It may not be in your conscious mind at all, but somewhere in the depths of your soul, weaving together in the formation of your life, is the deep, deep, deep hunger for God. Ann Sullivan approached her deaf and blind student Helen Keller saying, “Today I am going to teach you about God.” Ms. Keller signed back, “Good, I have been thinking about Him for a long time.” Ex-Beatle George Harrison in an interview shortly before ...

1205. Dreaming Impossible Dreams

Genesis 37:2-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of the Hallelujah Chorus, “And He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.”? Dreamers never lose their divine focus. Dreamers are the people who discover strength even in the midst of their weaknesses. Paul says in II Corinthians 12, “I have known hunger and thirst and often gone without food. I have been cold and naked, in danger at sea and in danger in the city. Besides everything else, I was given this thorn in the flesh which torments me. But for Christ’s sake I delight ...

1206. Finding Answers to Family Feuds

Genesis 25: 21-34

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... is the boys themselves who close the deal, scheming, tricking, blaming, charging, wanting it now. Esau said, “I’m feeling faint.” “Aw” said Jacob, “no you ain’t.” “Poppa’s blessing,” Esau cried, “Is mine by rights, but I’ll have died Of hunger first. For pity’s sake- My birthright for your lentils, Jake.” “Your birthright?” Jacob murmured. “Sold! Dig in before the stuff gets cold.” That day a deal was made that would hurt two boys as long as they lived. Feuds have a way ...

1207. Will I Really Live Forever?

John 11:18-27, 39-45

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... not our tinkering with the cloning of human beings, as controversial as it is, a human attempt “for the perishable to take on the imperishable and the mortal to be clothed in immortality”? Is not this reaching of our soul into the unknown a God-hunger for immortality? Immortality. Nature sings of it. All nature sings and round us rings a resurrection. Maybe it is Nashville, Tennessee, maybe I have better eyes than I used to have, maybe it is just that way. Didn’t Spring just happen overnight this week ...

1208. Why Join a Church?

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... keep at it. When one goose falls, is wounded or becomes ill, at least two others will fly to the ground, swoop down and stay with it until it is restored to the flock. Why join a church? We join a church because deep in the human soul is a hunger and a need to belong. It is inherent in creation, and a church provides the community for it. II. WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND In the second place, I think people join a church because there is a deep need to understand. I had been in that first congregation at the ...

1209. Convening A Construction Crew: Nobody Builds Alone

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... pleased mayor said to the world, since 9/11, the people of New York have learned to be a community. Can we employ in everyday life the principles we’ve learned in an emergency? It is a paradox that we have both a hunger for and a cultural inclination against community. Since 1950, supportive social connections and informal networks of people have weakened. Eye-to-eye interactions are waning in an age of “loose connections,” say sociologists. People visit less, belong to fewer groups, and more often ...

1210. Engaging the Master Designer

Psalm 139: 1-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... in the dark, but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide and seek with us. He is not remote; he is near. For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17, The Message). It has been said that Americans are incurably religious. There are hungers in our souls that no success can satisfy, no accomplishment can quench, no achievement can abate. We are made by God and for God and our souls are forever restless until they make peace with God. So if you want to build a life that really matters, it makes ...

1211. What Would Jesus Say About the Marginalized?

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... kind trying to extend the hand of generosity to those around the world. I believe Christians want to hear the cry of the needy and do something about the plight of the poor. I believe Christians care that 8.5 million people in America experienced hunger last year including 3 million children. I'm not talking about the world, I'm talking about yours and my fellow citizens of the United States of America. I know believers are more generous to all charities than any sub group of Americans. While legislators ...

1212. My Country, Is It of Thee?

Psalm 9:9-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... generation to generation has been in proportion to its ability to care for the least of its members. There is an old parody of Jesus' parable concerning the least of these which goes something like this: I was hungry and you formed a committee to discuss my hunger. I was thirsty and you debated the ethics of certain drinks. I was a stranger and you called the welcome wagon. I was naked and you questioned my morality. I was sick and you made health care unaffordable. I was in prison and you voted for capital ...

1213. Finding Our Reason For Being

Luke 4:14-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... that will soon be serving living bread and everlasting water in worship services thanks to the $250,000 sent from you to purchase a building. Perovo is a better place because you had a dream. One of our teenagers thought she ought to do something about hunger in Nashville. So she single handedly organized a food drive for Nashville Rescue Mission. She gave you empty grocery bags and told her story to community businesses. She collected 2700 pounds of food and $2,000. That’s what God will do for a dream. I ...

1214. Come to the Party

Luke 14:15-23

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... a hill to climb. It took more energy than you had in reserve. I have never felt so empty as I have felt these last few months. Illness takes from us every ounce of physical, spiritual, and emotional strength we possess. Empty is a frightening word. It is a hunger that gnaws at the soul. It is an estrangement that leaves us far from home. It is a tiredness that leaves us lifeless. When I have felt most lifeless, I have rolled up in blankets made by your loving hands and prayed: “Fill my cup Lord, I lift it ...

1215. The Power of a Vision

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... cleaning up your act, pulling yourself together, improving your performance. Transformation is new creation; it’s more than change. It is coming to life at our deepest center where our inner selves awaken to new possibilities and we begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Spiritual transformation involves at least four things: In the first place, spiritual transformation unites us with our best selves. Do you know the struggle inside? The division of the world is only a reflection of the struggle ...

1216. The Road of Joy

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... him room as “heaven and nature sings." In every other religion of the world, human kind is searching for God. They climb mountains, observe rituals, pursue meditations, in hope they will somehow be able to connect to the Divine and satisfy their spiritual hunger. Christianity is different. In Christianity God pursues us. He is the good Shepherd in search of the one lost sheep. He is the loving Father waiting with open arms for the prodigal to come home. He is the God of the universe reducing himself ...

1217. David: The Problem of Family

2 Samuel 18:28-33

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... patient, humble, free, joyful, and visionary. Anthony Mayo at Harvard Business School back at the turn of the 21st century did a study on “What Makes a Good Leader?" There were the expected characteristics like vision and integrity, perseverance and courage, hunger for innovation and a willingness to take risks. But Mayo discovered something else. He discovered great leaders like Henry Ford, Esteé Lauder, and Bill Gates of the last century “had an innate ability to read the forces that shaped the times ...

1218. From Greed to Generosity

Mark 10:17-27

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... us the book Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. That was not his best book, not the book I liked the best. It was a less popular title, When All You've Ever Wanted is Not Enough. In it he said, “Money and power do not satisfy that unnamable hunger of the soul. Even the rich and the powerful find themselves yearning for something more. They know something the rest of us have yet to discover. “If we have it all, we still won't be happy." Somebody needs to write a new book. Not on how to be happy ...

1219. Love

John 15:9-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... lines. This person, too, is looking for love in all the wrong places and crying out for help. This person is Keith Miller himself, a best-selling author of Christian books and church renewal expert who traveled around the country telling others how to be Christian. The hunger to love and be loved is no respecter of persons or reputations. It may be the cry of a prostitute or a pastor, a teacher or a movie star, a CEO or a sports hero. Since Jesus understands that, he tells his disciples, “As the Father ...

1220. By Believing

1 Peter 1:13-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... us that vengeance belongs to God. When we are alone it reminds us we are not forsaken by God. When we are anxious it reminds us to consider the birds of air. The Bible says: “Come hell or high water, come affliction or hardship, come persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril or sword; come whatever may, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord. We need an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll. In an age of relativism where you ...

1221. Be Silent

Luke 1:11-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of Holies where God is so real you can touch, feel, and taste him. He gets the privilege to celebrate that high priestly function. There, while burning incense to kill the smell of sin, Old Zechariah slipped in another prayer—a prayer of the heart, the hunger of the soul—a haunting question of a lifetime. He'd prayed it thousands of times before. It was the prayer of every Jewish man. It was a question really. “Why, O God, have Elizabeth and I remained childless?" That's when it happened. Zechariah ...

1222. The Joyful Provider

John 2:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Sabbath wouldn't you help it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep? In John's gospel we don't have a temptation story. That's in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus' first encounter is not with Satan in the wilderness where he is tempted from hunger to turn stones into bread, but with his mother at a wedding in Cana of Galilee where he is challenged to change water into wine. Here in the midst of Lent, on this little Easter, paint me a smiling Jesus. I've seen plenty of pictures of Him on a ...

1223. Making the Most of Small Beginnings

Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... searches high and low for that which lasts for eternity and gives ultimate meaning. He comes upon a singing brook, with deep meadows and wonderful fruit trees. But even as he ate the fruit, it turned to dust, for no feeding of the flesh could still his deepest hunger. Riding on, he saw a home, its opened door a promised welcome and in the door there was a beautiful woman, her eyes innocent and kind. Surely the love of a woman and the sweet shelter of home are my heart's desire, reasoned the knight; “But ...

1224. Conversion or Credentialing?

Acts 9:1-5, 10-12, 17-19

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to God. No, no it was not always an easy road. As Paul writes in II Corinthians Chapter 12, “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I have known hunger and thirst. I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. But when I am weak, I have discovered that I am strong in the Lord." Lee Strobel who converted to Christianity as an adult says ...

1225. Sharing God’s Blessings

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... summer of 386, while in a garden praying, Augustine underwent a profound personal conversion to Christianity, abandoned his career in rhetoric, gave up any ideas of marriage and devoted himself to religion, celibacy and the priesthood. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Persecution is a problem. I do not like being talked about, lied about, judged without reason, criticized without understanding. I like to please people. I have high needs for recognition ...

Showing results