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 126 to 150 of 483 results

126. Make Up Your Mind!

1 Kings 18:16-46

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Why hasn’t Hollywood made this into a major motion picture epic? 1 Kings 18 is surely one of the most dramatic accounts in all literature and one of the most significant historical records in the Bible. Its message and natural application are timeless. William Penn said, “Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” In our Scripture reading for today the people of Israel came together to decide no less a question than who would govern their personal and national lives, who would be their ...

127. Proper 26

Joshua 3:1-4:24, Matthew 23:1-39, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS Joshua 3:7-17 is the story of how Israel entered the promised land of Canaan by crossing the Jordan River on dry ground. Psalm 107:33-43 is both praise and reflection on the salvific power of God. Joshua 3:7-17 - "Crossing Over the Jordan" Setting. The primary story of the salvation history of Israel separates into three parts. It begins with the liberating experience of escape from Egypt, then it moves to the wilderness stories where Israel is presented as following God on a journey, ...

128. What Goes on When He Comes in?

Acts 19:1-22

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

As we grapple with the meaning of our first text for today, Acts chapter 19, how appropriate is the oft-used phrase, "We only get one chance to make a first impression." Unquestionably the disciples of John the Baptist, whom Paul met early in his visit to Ephesus, seemed to lack some evidence of God's Spirit in their lives. Their "first impression" was spiritually deficient! Christian scholars throughout the centuries have sought to determine what Paul sensed in these disciples that caused him to question ...

129. The Vision of the Great Prostitute

Revelation 17:1-18

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

Big Idea: John is astonished when he receives the vision of Babylon the Great, the mother of the prostitutes, in all her power, opulence, and adulterous depravity. Understanding the Text At the conclusion of the bowl judgments, Babylon the Great is split into three parts and is made to drink the full cup of God’s wrath (16:19). Now one of the seven angels from chapter 16 invites John to witness in greater detail the judgment God will bring on the harlot. As a result, the judgment of Babylon the Great in 17 ...

130. Baptism And Self-Esteem

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

Every once in awhile I am surprised by a film which offers a message that I never expected. When I checked out Brubaker, an old Robert Redford film from the late '70s, from my local video store I expected some romantic adventure from one of Hollywood's biggest stars. That's not at all what I got. Instead I saw a wonderful and thought-provoking portrayal of human nature. Brubaker turned out to be a spellbinding film about the futile attempt of an enlightened prison warden to reform a hopelessly corrupt ...

131. The Evangelism Of Emphasis - 1946

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

Emphasis on evangelism is essential to vital Christianity. The evangelization of the world is its main business. But this means vastly more than a matter of additional church members. It is, above all else, a matter of transformed, empowered personalities. Evangelism means preaching the gospel to secure conversions. The essence of the gospel that the Christian Church is supposed to proclaim is simply this: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; they are become new ...

132. The Place beyond Revenge

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Sermon

Donna Schaper

A custom is begun! Because of the vengeance that the king took against Haman for Esther, the Jews are to remember their salvation. On the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month they are to send gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor. Oh, God, help me to understand violence! Help me to understand vengeance. I am pretty good at the other sins, like lust and greed, pride and gossip, but violence I just don't understand. I also don't really understand the tribalism that is beyond it. Is that ...

133. Cross Choices

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

R. Kevin Mohr

A man once told his friends of a system he had invented to preserve domestic peace. “The day we married ten years ago,” he said, “we decided that all important decisions should be made by me. Small decisions were left to my wife.” When his friends asked him how it had worked out, he replied, “Perfectly, there hasn’t been a single hitch in the entire ten years. Of course,” he added, “no important decision has come up yet.” The challenge of human existence is that life is made up of decisions, insignificant ...

134. For The Love Of What?

Psalm 137:1-9, John 2:12-25

Sermon

Erskine White

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? (Psalm 137:4) I want you to try and picture the ancient Israelites in this 137th Psalm. They have been captured and taken against their will to exile in Babylon. They are cut off from the familiar places and familiar faces of home. Worse than that, they are surrounded by false gods and pagan values. Somehow, they must try to keep the faith and pass it on the midst of a hostile culture. The Israelites in exile are broken-hearted. We're told in the Psalm ...

135. The Exorcism of a Child Develops a Humble Model for Faith

Mark 9:14-32

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: This event is another fulcrum in the book, as three primary Markan themes coalesce: (1) the power and compassion of Christ, (2) demonic conflict, and (3) discipleship failure. Understanding the Text This is a classic example of the mountaintop/valley experience. The innermost circle of disciples experienced the glory of God in Jesus, as great a spiritual “high” as anyone in history has known. Now they are about to join the rest of the Twelve as they descend into the valley and face one of the ...

136. Here's Mud In Your Eye

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

"Just the facts, ma'am!" That phrase, often attributed to Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet fame, even though it did not originate with him, goes straight to the point. Now here is another "just the facts personality": Julius Caesar was admired for his ability to make uncluttered summations of his great achievements. In a few words Caesar could lay bare the story of his accomplishments. Perhaps none of his statements is any better known than that famous terse tricolon that has followed Caesar since his quick ...

137. Finding Faith In Unlikely People

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

One of the continuing delights of life is the joy of the unexpected. Highly scheduled as we are, and rigorously regimented, occasionally we are extraordinarily pleased with interruption and variation. When out-of-town friends turn up unannounced, rather than having scheduled themselves weeks in advance, we experience a certain excitement. How pleasant to have a business deal grow into undreamed proportions. What joy in having a surprise verdict from judge and jury. What a thrill to see surgery and ...

138. Good Soldiers, Bad Wars

Joshua 11:1-23, Matthew 8:5-13

Sermon

Erskine White

It has become commonplace for the church to talk about peace in recent years; indeed, dozens of church statements have been issued for the purpose of condemning war. And this is entirely appropriate, since Christ has charged His people to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) in a world which is weary of war. But amid all the verbiage of ecclesiastical pronouncements, the church has been nearly silent about soldiers! It's as if we have nothing to say to the people who risk and give their lives. The soldiers seem ...

139. “Lucky” Is The Saddest Word

Jeremiah 20:7-18

Sermon

Keith Hammer

I race off to the convenience mart a few blocks from my home to pick up some milk for cereal for breakfast. I hurriedly go to the dairy case and snatch two plastic gallon jugs and turn for the checkout to pay for them. Suddenly I am confronted by “The Machine.” “The Machine” in this case isn’t a machine at all. It’s a huge display which overpowers everything else near the checkout, telling me that I can get all of the tickets for all of the state lottery games now at this store. All I have to do is hand ...

140. Building On A Firm Foundation

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you are familiar with the off-beat humor of Jack Handey. I have a list of "Deep Thoughts" allegedly written by young people, ages four to fifteen, who were asked to write their thoughts in Jack Handey's style. Some of them are hilarious in a bizarre kind of way. Here's one by a youngster aged 10: My young brother asked me what happens after we die. I told him we get buried under a bunch of dirt and worms eat our bodies. I guess I should have told him the truth--that most of us go to Hell and burn ...

141. Security Concerns

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Security has become big business in our world. Burglar and smoke alarms are wired directly from private homes to police and fire stations. Automobiles give forth major noises in the parking lots of shopping malls because some owner has inadvertently pushed the wrong button on a key pad. High school students walk through metal detectors to enter their school buildings. Even business phones and credit cards are "protected" by a user's password or "PIN" number. So pervasive is the concern for security that a ...

142. The True Olympians

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

What image are you going to take away from the Beijing 2008 Olympics? Is it Michael Phelps with his history-breaking breastplate of gold medals draped across his chest? Is it the first-ever gold/silver finish in women’s gymnastics? Is it the pictures of athletes who, unlike me and you with our bellies and bulges and barnacles, represent the peak of human perfectibility? Is it being part of the largest electronic crowd ever watching a sporting event, the USA vs. China basketball game? Is it the snapshots of ...

143. Zophar's Second Speech to Job

Job 20:1-29

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Rejection of Discipline 20:1–3 Zophar, in his second (and final!) speech, makes little attempt to respond to the words Job has just spoken. After an initial angry reaction to what he perceives as Job’s attempts to “discipline” (NIV rebuke, at the beginning of v. 3) an already established group of sages, he launches into a traditional wisdom discourse on the fate of the wicked. His obvious assumption is that Job is firmly entrenched in this category and has little, if any, chance of avoiding a similar fate ...

144. Bart and Homer, Father and Sons

1 Samuel 20:24-42

Sermon

John E. Harnish

The statistics abound and the statistics are not good: One of the chief predictors of youth crime is the role of the father in the home. Seventy percent of adolescents charged with murder and seventy percent of long-term prison inmates are from fatherless homes. Children who live absent their biological father are at least two to three times more likely to be poor, use drugs, be victims of child abuse and to engage in criminal behavior. Twenty-four million children live absent their biological fathers and ...

145. Reuben: I'm Not A Sandwich

Genesis 37:12-36

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

THEME: Reuben is one of the forgotten characters of the Bible -- the one who, by normal processes, should have received the birthright as the firstborn son of Israel. He tells of the common experience of feeling like a second-class son, because Israel favored Joseph. He shares family events, as well as his inner soul. SETTING FOR THE SERMON MONOLOGUE: Most persons have heard the story of Joseph and his brothers. Many people have heard the story over and over. They have rarely, if ever, heard the ...

146. The Temptation of Jesus

Matthew 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

4:1 The baptism of Jesus, which culminated with the voice from heaven declaring divine approval, is followed immediately (Mark 1:12 has “at once”) by a time of temptation. The parallel account in Luke indicates that Jesus was tempted by Satan throughout a forty-day period (Luke 4:22). Matthew describes the dramatic conclusion of this period (“after [Jesus fasted] forty days and forty nights … the tempter came to him,” vv. 2–3). It is not at all uncommon for temptation to follow closely our times of ...

147. Peace, Blessed Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

A man went to his doctor to find out why he had been having such severe headaches. The doctor ran some tests and after a few hours called the man into his office. "I have terrible news," he told the patient. "Your condition is terminal." "Oh no!" the man wailed. "How long do I have?" "Ten," began the doctor. "Ten what?" the patient interrupted. "Days? Months? Years?" "Nine," said the doctor, "eight, seven, six . . ." There is a man who was having a bad day. There is a man living in panic, not peace. True ...

148. God’s Covenant with Noah

Genesis 9:1-17

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

God’s Blessing on Noah and His Offspring: After the great deluge God gives to Noah and his sons the same blessing he gave to humans at their creation (1:28), empowering them to prosper and to replenish the earth. Further, we learn that humans continue to bear the image of God; each person possesses intrinsic value.Yet God introduces three drastic changes. First, God grants humans permission to eat meat. Second, dread of humans henceforth characterizes the way animals respond to humans. Third, God also ...

149. The Genealogy of Jesus

Matthew 1:1-17

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

The Birth of Jesus: Genealogical records were important to the Jewish people of Jesus’ day. They were maintained by the Sanhedrin and used to ensure purity of descent. Josephus, the famous Jewish historian who served in the court of Rome, began his autobiography by listing his ancestral pedigree. Similarly, Matthew opens his Gospel by tracing the lineage of Jesus. It has often been noted that, from David forward, the Lucan genealogy has forty-one generations traced through Nathan rather than twenty-six ...

150. Ollie, Ollie, All In Free!

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Steven Molin

It is probably not theologically advisable to begin a sermon with a complaint, but I am going to defy that advice. I have a complaint, and it is this: Nobody plays the good, old, childhood games anymore! When leaves turn color, and temperatures turn cool, my thoughts turn to outdoor games we played as children. Remember those days? All the children in the neighborhood would gather in an empty field somewhere, and we would choose up sides, or decide who was "it" and then the game would begin. It might have ...

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