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 1451 to 1475 of 3108 results

1451. Preachers, All!

Acts 2:1-13, Acts 2:14-41, Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Will Willimon

Someone has said the church is somewhat like a football huddle, the huddle that players go into at a football game. ''You know that something important is being said there, but you can't understand a word of it, and all you can see is their rear-ends." But in fairness to the church, we must admit that it isn't easy to be understood by the world, after all, what we are talking about, in this huddle called church, is God. That's hard to talk about. I vividly remember as a pastor, sitting with a group of lay- ...

1452. The Most Important Thing

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

King Duncan

If you’ve ever hosted an event at your house—a Super Bowl party, a holiday meal, a book club meeting—you know that there are a hundred little details that need to be taken care of before the guests arrive. And one or two details could make the difference between a great event and a hosting nightmare. So it takes a certain spiritual gift and an inner fortitude to be a good host. Not everyone is cut out for this job. A woman wrote to a humor website to share the story of visiting her son at his first-ever ...

1453. What's a Human Book?

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever wanted to trade lives with someone else for a day or two? I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Freaky Friday series of movies. The first one came out in 1976. Since then, three more versions of the movie have been made. Freaky Friday is about a mother and daughter who wake up one morning to discover they have magically traded lives. For one day, mother and daughter get a rare opportunity to see life through the other’s eyes. In the span of that one day, they each develop a sense of ...

1454. Lose the Cape

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Charley Reeb

When I was in college, I went to a friend’s house for a pool party. I remember it being pretty tame by college standards. The parents were home! However, the dad of the house had a great personality. We told jokes, laughed and carried on. Later in the evening, we were sitting by the pool and the father asked me what my major was. I told him it was religion. He laughed and said, “Yeah, right.” I said, “No, I’m serious. It is religion.” He asked, “Why religion?” I told him I planned on being a preacher. He ...

1455. Master Teacher

Matthew 15:10-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

The Christian Testament scriptures are the most fascinating set of inspired and brilliant stories we can possibly read and learn from. The scriptures are amazing. But too often, we miss the best parts. This can happen when we read either from habit and read over clues that we’ve never noticed before or when we don’t see the entire picture and have a hard time imagining what’s happening in real-time. I like to employ two “clues” or “helps” therefore when reading scripture. These can deepen our understanding ...

1456. The View From The Mountaintop

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The transfiguration of the Lord. An important day on the calendar of the church, and one that regularly falls near another important day on the secular calendar of America, the birthday of the man who has been called America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. We have heard the old aphorism about some being born great, some achieving greatness, and some having greatness thrust upon them. Abraham Lincoln can surely lay claim to, at least, the last two of those. Lincoln has always fascinated me. Many of ...

1457. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Jesus was tempted. We know the story is there, but it isn’t our favorite, is it? Somehow it tarnishes our ideas about Jesus. Was he as wimpy as we are, almost ready to step over the edge of whatever morality we might have left, at the first offer? Ray Stedman, great twentieth-century preacher, remembered a morning at a restaurant. He was the featured speaker at a large church conference out east and was finishing his presentation notes as he ate breakfast. The eatery had unique décor, including good ...

1458. Famine of the Heart

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

We humans are a competitive species. Make no mistake, when it comes down to it, we aren’t a whole lot different than many others in the “animal kingdom.” Lions, hyenas, wolves, crocodiles, orca whales, gorillas, and even ants (small but fierce warriors) all exhibit extremely competitive behavior toward each other, vying for food, mates, territory, and dominance. But human beings are for most part the only ones who make great attempts to rise above/override our baser instincts in the name of the greater ...

1459. Strength for The Journey

John 16:12-15

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-14) Today is Trinity Sunday. Founded by Pope Pius X in 1911, it is the only feast day on the church calendar that does not celebrate a person or an event, but rather a doctrine, and some say, a reality. Trinity Sunday is ...

1460. Do We REALLY Know What Time It Is?

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Heather Sugden

Years ago, I was staying in a hotel near the airport in anticipation of an early morning flight the next day. The hotel had an alarm clock in the room, and, being an independent type, I decided to set the alarm myself rather than bother the staff member at the front desk for a wake-up call. This was before the days of wide spread cell phones, when nightstands in hotels often had clock radios with built-in alarms. This episode happened so long ago, in fact, that a person needed to talk with another human ...

1461. God Is Like...a Friend

2 Corinthians 5:16-20

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

It’s time for class to begin. You troop in with the rest of your classmates, you get out your notebook and pencil, and you look up front where your teacher stands ready to get started. “All right, class,” she says, “let’s review. What have we learned so far about Benjamin Franklin?” Remember those days? Some of us here this morning are still students, so this scenario is all too familiar. For most of us, though, being asked to review what we’ve learned is something that doesn’t happen much anymore. But ...

1462. Choices

Luke 10:38-42

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

She was elected to high office some time ago. Let's call her Beverly Washington. She was the first woman Lieutenant Governor ever elected in her state. Such a first brought much deserved media attention. There were many demands for photo opportunities and interviews. Beverly Washington had never experienced the limelight quite like this before. One of the interviews with Lt. Governor Washington was conducted by a much younger woman who was obviously taken with the Lt. Governor's success. "I see you have a ...

1463. Factions

Luke 20:9-19

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

Theme: Christ is the head of the Church and must be honored and obeyed. Summary: Christ's body, the Church, doesn't reject Him, but does something just about as bad -- rejecting His leadership in running the Church. A local church bickers over a new decision the pastor has made and learns they must be obedient to Christ as head of the Church. Playing Time: 4 minutes Setting: The church Props: None Costumes: Costume pieces to indicate the time period -- a mixture of contemporary and twelfth century. Time: ...

1464. Lent 3

Luke 13:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Psalm 63:1-11, Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

The Barren Fruit Tree At first reading it may not be apparent as to why the two parts of the passage from Luke are considered together. A question about the wickedness of persons who suffer from accidents leads into a parable about a barren fig tree. A closer examination will show why the two parts belong together and the important distinction Jesus makes in terms of ethical behavior and its outcome. Jesus is faced with a question about the link between the results of disasters and wickedness. He does not ...

1465. Failure Is Not Final

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

William L. Self

We are offered wonderful news from the Bible on this eighth Sunday of Epiphany. God has a way of bringing us the very personal lives of his chosen people. We are God's chosen whether we fit the profile of the clergy or as laity -- or, as my family would say, normal people. The story told in Hosea is one of great personal pain and suffering and brokenheartedness on the part of this prophet of God. His beloved wife Gomer leaves his home and hearth for a life of infidelity. She pursues other lovers but soon ...

1466. Gomer, God's "Yet"

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Sermon

Richard L. Sheffield

For everybody who assumed that everybody in the Bible is nice, the message this morning is that everybody in the Bible is real, and God loved them anyway! Our subject this morning is Gomer. Not Gomer, Ohio, but the not-so-nice wife of the Prophet Hosea. I have never preached about Gomer before. And, quite honestly, I probably would not be preaching about her now, except that I have to. The CSS Publishing Company, here in Lima, has asked me to publish a book of sermons next spring on the Old Testament ...

1467. The Backside Of God

Sermon

John N. Brittain

Exodus 33:12-23; Matthew 22:15-22 Without wanting to be either flippant or blasphemous, I don't think it out of line to say that there is something a little odd about the story where Moses gets to see the back side of God. This is Moses, the one who went up the mountain and brought down the tablets of the law; the one at whose uplifted rod the waters of the Red Sea parted and then came back together; Moses, the person who filled more roles than any other in the Torah -- prophet, priest, military leader, ...

1468. Meeting Jesus At The Well

John 4:1-26

Sermon

John N. Brittain

The familiar story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well is loaded with meaning. It is a pattern for considering our meetings with Jesus at various times in our lives. The story begins with Jesus asking this woman to perform a simple task, well within her ability: to get him a drink from the well. She did, after all, have the equipment. But she didn't want to do it and was able to provide some good reasons why she shouldn't. Every day of our lives, Jesus Christ asks us to do specific ...

1469. A Positive Addiction

Romans 1:1-17

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

I am not ashamed of the gospel.... - Romans 1:16 You've probably heard about the first group of Scots to hit shore building the First Presbyterian Church and the second group of Scots building the Second Presbyterian Church across the street. Proving ecumenism and even denominational unity to be a myth, it's not uncommon in many parts of America to find Presbyterian churches within spitting distance of each other. That's always the case where the Presbyterian population is dense. That's a taste of the ...

1470. Defining The Mission

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

One of the marvelous gifts I have been given is the capacity to tell at a glance what somebody is like. I have no trouble seeing a person for the first time and identifying all her faults. What is more, in a split second I can tell you what she ought to be doing. Like one of Gilbert and Sullivan's characters: Of everybody's weaknesses I know a thing or two, I can tell a woman's age in half a minute; and I do! But you know, sometimes I'm wrong! Two businessmen were traveling by train to an important ...

1471. When Life Seems Out Of Control

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

During the week he was always dressed in a dark suit, a white shirt, and an expensive tie. On Saturday mornings he wore blue jeans and a flannel shirt. He was a vice president of a large corporation. He was a very successful corporate executive, but on Saturdays he was just another guy. At least that's what his neighbors thought. As he pushed his two-year-old lawn mower out into the sun one Saturday morning, he cheerfully greeted his neighbor as she was pulling out of her driveway next door. Then he bent ...

1472. You Can Be In Heaven Or Hell

Psalm 139:1-24

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

Heaven and hell are real. Anyone who has ever been married is aware of that because in marriage one experiences a little bit of both. On the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, Billy and Ruth Graham were interviewed from their home in Montreat, North Carolina. The interviewer was Joan Lunden of the television show Good Morning, America. Ms. Lunden asked Mrs. Graham: "In all your 50 years together, did you ever even once consider divorce?" Mrs. Graham replied: "Divorce, no; murder, yes." In most ...

1473. Epiphany 6

Jeremiah 17:5-10, Luke 6:17-26, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Jeremiah 17:5-10 The heart of a human determines good or bad conduct. Biblical scholars are not agreed whether this pericope is by Jeremiah because the material is wisdom rather than prophetic literature. Corresponding to the Gospel lesson, the passage gives the woes (curses) and beatitudes (blessed) of those who do or do not trust Yahweh. It is a contrast of the shrub in the desert and the tree by the riverside. Verses 8-10 consist of a proverb with theological interpretation. ...

1474. Proper 15

Luke 12:54-59, Hebrews 12:1-13, Luke 12:49-53, Isaiah 5:1-7, Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Isaiah 5:1-7 God's vineyard yields wild grapes. Chapter 5 closes a series of oracles beginning with chapter 1. Today's lesson is a parable of a vineyard. Yahweh planted it and did everything to make it grow and be fruitful. But, the grapes turned out to be wild, that is, sour and bitter. What more could he have done for his vineyard? Nothing. Therefore, the vineyard will be destroyed. Lesson 2: Hebrews 11:29--12:2 Surrounded by past faithful ones, we are to run the race of faith with ...

1475. What A Friend He Had In Judas

Matthew 26:47-56

Sermon

Thomas Long

Tourists who travel to faraway places will often attempt to learn a few useful phrases in the language of the land where they are going. They will practice typical traveler's lingo like "My name is Sarah. What's your name?" or "I am from St. Louis in the United States" or "Waiter, would you please bring our check?" or "Excuse me. I'm lost ... can you show me the way to the Hotel Pierre?" or "Thank you very much." One of the real tests of knowing another language, however, is cursing. If we don't know what ...

Showing results