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 1551 to 1575 of 5000 results

1551. The Ministry of Unbinding

John 11:38-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... baskets, though the bread was divinely provided. Men had to fill the water pots with water, though Jesus turned it into wine. You see, he uses us as instruments to do his work. I’ve been in very few marches – I’m not the marching kind, though I love a parade. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s is one march which I think I’ll always remember. Some of us from The World Methodist Council joined in a march in Dublin, Ireland, to show our solidarity with the women of the Republic of Ireland ...

1552. How Can Jesus Save Me?

John 3:14-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... heart and knocks, but fearing He is the landlord coming to collect the rent we do not have, we ignore His knocking. All along what He really wishes and desires is that we would open the door and let Him come in. God is a God of grace, generosity, and love. He is not going to storm your life. He is going to stand at the door and knock and knock and knock and knock. Why don't you let Him come in? One of my dear friends, Peck Hickman, is the former Athletic Director of the University of Louisville. It ...

1553. Jesus’ 10 Commandments

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus showed was not just the courage of resistance. It was the courage of endurance. There will be some of us who may be called upon to show the courage of resistance, taking definitive, costly action, in order to stand up for justice, mercy, truth, and love. But every single one of us will find it necessary to offer the courage of endurance throughout our lives. The easiest way for evil to win is not through bombs or bullets, but through the slow erosion of commitment and courage to stand against the ...

1554. The Greatest Story Ever Told

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... for a while. This realization becomes the basis for his choice to live and not to die. When we are tempted to wallow in our low lostness we will be wise to touch base with our original goodness, to choose life and come home. What can we do about a loving God who welcomes his children home? We can accept His grace; we can respond to it and rejoice in it; experience it and live it to its absolute fullest. In John Grisham’s novel, The New Testament, he paints the portrait of one man’s surrender to God’s ...

1555. The Cross No One Wants To See

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Lee Griess

... child of an alcoholic knows well to do. She began pulling her brothers and sisters out of the car to safety. When they were out, she went back for her mother. Just as she had gotten her to safety, the train hit the car at sixty mph. Alice's love had saved her family, but unfortunately it cost her own. As the train smashed into the car, Alice was too close. It was thrown from the tracks right into her and she died instantly. Pastor Rouse recalls that story in telling the story of the cross. For like Alice ...

1556. Oddballs for God

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

... for us. Although we might not fit well into our culture, our sense of being highly valued by God inspires everything we do. When I was a child, my Aunt Mary was one of the shining stars in my life. So also with my two sisters. Our Aunt Mary loved us. Probably we loved her all the more because she didn't discipline us. She accepted us, listened to us, and hugged us. My sisters and I are in our fifties and sixties. Makes no difference. If we're at a family event and Aunt Mary is there, we three are attracted ...

1557. The Armor of Light

Romans 13:8-14

Drama

Larry Lange

... . It's about the grace of being granted the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's about letting our light shine before others so they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. Putting on the armor of light is about doing good works, works of love, Harry. Putting on the armor of light is not about slaying evildoers. So put that silly thing away right now. By the way, how much did that stupid get-up cost, Harry? Harry: Only $29.95 ... a month. Margaret: $29.95 a month! For how many months, Harry? Harry ...

1558. Oops! I Didn't See You

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... went to see Helen Keller he took her great bunches of geranium leaves. The leaves emitted a spicy, fresh fragrance that he knew she enjoyed. Wollcott learned one of the lessons of caring: fit the gift to the recipient. (7) That takes a very special sensitivity. Love sees and love acts. One guy was trying to be humorous. He told about a friend of his. He said, “Old George and I are great buddies. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for one another. And that’s how we’ve spend our lives doing nothing for ...

1559. Because I Live (Memorial Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... saw a tree with lots of flowers on it.” After they finished telling her where they had met God that day, she would tell them where she met God, too. (6) What a grand exercise! We meet Christ everywhere when Christ dwells within us. We can face tomorrow because Christ loves us and Christ is with us. But note one thing more. Christ says, “Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he ...

1560. The Titanium Rule

John 13:34-35

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

... it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher." The titanium rule does not focus on "doing;" it focuses on "being" and on "loving." Jesus asks his followers to "Love one another as I have loved you." Love others as the Christ who hung on the cross for our sins loved us. Love others as the God who "so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son" loved us. Love others with a love that enables you to lay down your life for them. How did Jesus put it in his Farewell Discourse (John 13, 14, 15, 16 ...

1561. Sex, Sex, and More Sex

Song of Songs 2:8-13

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... fell out again within two years. Even more recently, psychologist, Dorothy Tennov, reported that over half the subjects of her wide surveys of romance suffered emotional depression, more than 25% admitting to thoughts of suicide ... hmm.[5] But when it is right, it is right! To be in love with someone is to find your whole being tied up with the beloved, to want to be wherever he or she is, to want good things for him or her. You want to share yourself - all of yourself - and you want all of him or her in ...

1562. I’ve Got a Home in that Kingdom

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... came home and listened to mine. I remember many times begging her to play ball with me after supper, and she almost always said, "Yes." It was only when I reached parenthood myself that I realized the choices that she had made for me and the depth of the love that she had given me. This second part of finding home, in discovering that we belong to one another, is a reminder of our dependency. We are dependent upon God and upon one another. It is a truth from which our culture flees. We like to think that we ...

1563. A Plea from The Heart

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... them to respond in kind, as he says in verse 13: "In return - I speak as to children - open wide your hearts also." "Don't you love me?" I remember the power of that question to me from my mother in May 1959, when I was in the seventh grade. I was raised ... that story again as I encountered Paul's pleading to the Corinthians in chapter 6. Though he doesn't put it so bluntly - "Don't you love me?" - he asks them to open wide their hearts to him as he has opened his heart to them. He repeats it again at the ...

1564. The Messiah’s Mark

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... s reading holds the fodder for future questions. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ answer to the Scribe’s question leads to the parable of the “Good Samaritan” — and so to a completely new definition of who is the “neighbor” we are commanded to love. In Mark’s text, Jesus’ declares that the Scribe who engages Jesus with a question receives an answer, celebrates and expands on Jesus’ answer, and is declared by Jesus to be “not far from the kingdom of God.” In Mark, Jesus’ last word to ...

1565. Face to Face

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is this “face” we are called to present to the world? Throughout the gospels, Paul’s writings, and all the other epistles, there is one overwhelming “facial” quality that is extolled: love. Love God. Love neighbor. Love others and love the other. Love is patient, kind, never boastful or envious. Love rejoices in the truth. Love endures all things. Love never ends. John 5:41 reads “I do not look to men for honor.” Glory for the Jesus follower is not fame and splendor and perks and honor and ...

1566. Two Sinners

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... To whom much is given,” says the Master, “much is expected” (Lk. 12:48). This is to say that it is our job to love people and to leave judging to God. This is how we best witness for Christ by reaching out to others in the same way Christ reached ... and probably in you. God’s grace is our only hope unless we pray this day that God will help us to love other people without reservation and leave the judging to Him. 1. Craig Brian Larson, ed., Contemporary Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers, & Writers ( ...

1567. The Path of Joy

Psalm 118:1-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... or a monument; it is the crowning achievement; it is the culmination of all that has gone before. That is what Christ is to us. But, before he could become the capstone, it was necessary for him to be rejected. Then we read one of the most familiar and best loved verses in scripture: 24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success. Who could argue with such a Psalm? It speaks our language. “Save us . . . Grant us success.” And then we ...

1568. Apron Up (Mother's Day)

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... port, portal and patrol for you? Jesus has no hands but our hands. It is our safe guardians, our safe-ways, our safe-entries that make it possible for us to live our lives on the edge of everything. To “enter by the by the gate,” the port of love, the patrol of safe conduct, enters into a portal of freedom and strength. Once we enter through the safe gate we are ushered into lush pastures, to a place where each and every one of us “may have life and have it abundantly” (v.10). For many of us one ...

1569. Second Nature through Spirit Nurture

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of what it means to be a “disciple” is to teach a new generation of disciples. The whole sporting world is all about “World Cup” madness right now. In the USA we call it “soccer.” In the rest of the world it is called “football.” For those who love the sport, which seems to be all of the world with the singular exception the US, all eyes are on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as teams like Ghana and Germany, Nigeria and Argentina duke it out for a world championship. But the biggest story out of Rio ...

1570. God Writes Straight with Crooked Lines

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... this church is the story of God writing straight with some very crooked lines. The story of your life is the story of God writing straight with some very crooked lines: God can make all things, even the crooked things, “work together for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). But first you have to turn your crooked lines over to Him. Have you had that “senior moment when you’ve reset your life and reassessed who’s in charge of your life? Has that “senior moment” led you to trust your life ...

1571. The Story Worth Living

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... mold us forever. Instead there is another, greater moment in the history of this world that will change us forever if we let it. Our personal lives are our personal narratives. But beyond our personal life story is a larger “meta-narrative” . . . a big story of God’s gift of love and salvation for all life, forever and ever. This is the “big story” of the Bible. It is not a story about snakes or sex or temptation and turmoil of thought. It is more than a story of screw-ups or sadness. It is a huge ...

1572. Living to Please God

1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... s later readers who are familiar with his Corinthian correspondence, that the very “vessel” with which sexual sin might be committed, is the dwelling place of the God who forbids it (cf. 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:18f.). 4:9 The opening words of this verse, Now about brotherly love, employ the same formula (peri with the gen. case) found in 1 Corinthians, where it signals Paul’s answers to the Corinthians’ questions (cf. 1 Cor. 7:1; 8:1; 12:1; 16:1, 12; cf. also 1 Thess. 5:1). It is unlikely, however, that the ...

1573. Jesus Prays for His Disciples

John 17:1-5, John 17:6-19, John 17:20-26

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... well. The world is the enemy, the source of persecution, yet before the prayer is over, it becomes the object of a loving purpose expressed in mission. As for the disciples, they are seen in verses 9–13 as persecuted and in need of ... glory, the glory you have given me … before the creation of the world (cf. v. 5). The glory that Jesus and his loved ones share is rooted in the Father’s love for Jesus; it antedates the world and will outlast the world (v. 24). This glory will be seen at Jesus’ coming, ...

1574. The Lord Is with David

1 Samuel 18:1-30

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... ; cf. Acts 11:21). He is building his church, and the enemy will not be able to thwart his purposes (Matt. 16:18). Paul assures us that nothing can stand successfully against us, for God is always working out his purposes in and through us, and his love insulates us from harm (Rom. 8:28–39). 2. When the Lord’s chosen leaders succumb to self-focused ambition, they can fall prey to jealousy and fear and thus oppose the Lord’s purposes. The narrator also focuses on Saul’s opposition to David and paints ...

1575. “May the Net They Hid Entangle Them”

Psalm 35:1-28

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... 20), suggests a dearly beloved only daughter, whereas the masculine noun elsewhere describes Isaac as “your only son [yahid], whom you love” (Gen. 22:2). Here it refers to the psalmist’s life.12 35:19 those who hate me without reason . . . wink ... may ask the question whether we should make a distinction between interpersonal relationships, on the one hand (in which we are to love our enemies and turn the other cheek, etc.), and the behavior of those responsible for carrying out justice in society, on ...

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