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 1626 to 1650 of 2415 results

1626. A Change of Mind

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... , Moses stood before God pleading on behalf of the people who obviously were sinning at that very moment. In addition Moses asked God, "What would the Egyptians think, that God led them to freedom just to kill them out in the desert?" In a passionate appeal, "Turn from your fierce wrath," Moses told God, "change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people." Moses wanted God to remember the covenant established with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, the promise of "descendants like the stars of heaven" as ...

1627. Hearts on Fire

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... people spending twenty hours at the church and loving every minute of it. When we were trying to be something we weren't, everyone was exhausted, but when we began living out of our gifts it was like we had energy to burn. You have never seen such passion."3 God was about to do a new thing, giving the people a new covenant, one written upon their hearts. The people will "know the Lord" acknowledging a deep trust. The new covenant will be one of radical obedience to God's commands written on the people's ...

1628. A Question of Loyalty

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... of neighbor. "I'd loved Jesus since I was eleven," she said, "but I hadn't yet surrendered my claim on my life. I was still going my own way. Those nights on the ledge, I determined to make knowing God's heart, thoughts, and purposes my passion in life." Another lesson she learned from her experience was that you cannot continue down a wrong path and remain untouched by the consequences. From now on Kathleen says, "I'm letting God lead — and following his path for my life."2 Joshua challenges us today ...

1629. Not What You Expected

Hebrews 2:10-18

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... Aulén drew attention to this theme of Hebrews, which was of enormous importance to the early church: that the significance of the life and work of Jesus is not so much to be found in a set of ideas or doctrines as in a drama, a passion story of God triumphing over the powers and principalities of this age thereby liberating humanity from the bondage of debilitating sin. We can no more separate Christ's trials and death from his life or birth than we can separate an understanding of Abe Lincoln's presidency ...

1630. By Whose Standards?

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... extent should those in the Christian community be "different" and how? To what extent should these believers expect their leaders to be like the popular "wise men" of their day, part teacher, and part first-century talk show host, enflaming the crowd's passions? These are perennial issues. Today the church has to continually ask the Sesame Street question, "How are they the same and how are they different?" In what ways should the church today be "run like a business"? To what extent should we use tools ...

1631. Dust and Ashes Wednesday

2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:13

Sermon

David O. Bales

The Passion of the Christ, is a helpful movie to consider for Ash Wednesday and Lent. Nothing's pretty about it. Our faith isn't based on pretty. Every time I finish reading a gospel, I'm horrified with the beatings, the whippings, and the humiliation Jesus suffered. It's not pretty. ...

1632. Spiritual Resuscitation

Romans 8:6-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... I've been a Christian, the more interested I am in God." I hope in your marriage you are more and more interested in your spouse, and in your family, more and more interested in your children and grandchildren. If you're too embarrassed to admit that you're passionate about God, it's okay to say you're greatly interested. The Holy Spirit can use your interest, because the more you set your mind on the Spirit, the more you become aware of the Spirit and the more the Spirit does in your life. It's our choice ...

1633. Lifestyles of the Rich and Faithful

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6). This represents Paul's "Sermon on the Amount." It may be that Paul is implementing the very first church stewardship campaign. He has a real passion for stewardship, knowing that heartfelt giving sows the seeds of an eternal harvest. Paul is collecting a love offering for the mother church in Jerusalem, which has fallen upon hard times. The church that commissioned and sent missionaries such as Paul and ...

1634. Called To Freedom

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... -indulgence. Paul writes, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." In other words, we've been set free to remain free. Self indulgence is simply another form of bondage and slavery; slavery to our passions and desires. It's slavery to the limitations of self. B. Some folks read this passage that says we're no longer bound by the Law and they go, "Whoa, cool!" They interpret it to mean that, now, they can do anything they want. They interpret ...

1635. Step By Step

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... matter what. We want them to be filled with a sense of hope and a hope filled sense of the future which will allow and challenge them to take risks. And most of all, we want them to have a desire for godliness. We want them to have a deep passion for God and the gospel. But they learn these things Step By Step, not by our lecturing, not by our dropping them off at church and Sunday School, not by our teaching but by OUR EXAMPLE, AND THE STEPS WE TAKE. You see, what we do, proves what we think ...

1636. Sitting at the Big People Table

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... because we all have a need to say thank you. Cicero said, "A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues." (3) John Henry Jowett agreed and wrote: "Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road." (4) Sitting at the big people table and sitting at God's Table, we ...

1637. At Cross Purposes

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... ugliest instrument of horror and pain ever created. The root words "crucis" and "crucio" from which we get the words cross and crucifixion both mean "torture, torment and to cause great pain." (1) We look a the cross and we see Torture and Triumph, Passion and Pain. Beauty and Beastliness, all in one. The cross is repulsive and yet it can fill us with hope. I remember reading through Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. Where he described life in a Siberian prison. At one point he was so physically ...

1638. An Unmoored Boat on an Outgoing Tide

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Julian M. Aldridge

... . He takes the easy way out. He no longer raises the questions. He is relieved when he finally admits he no longer believes. He is comforted. He leaves the ministry and begins peddling encyclopedias to poor people who need better jobs more than they need facts. He has absolutely no passion for anything except for sex, which becomes a substitute for God.

1639. Matthew 2:13-23

Matthew 2:13-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... demonstrates just how timely and necessary was this divinely orchestrated escape into Egypt. Herod realizes he has been “deceived” or “tricked” (“enepaichthe”) by the magi. This same verb is used by Matthew to describe how Jesus is “mocked” during the Passion narrative (Matthew 22:29, 31, 41). An enraged Herod, again recalling the murderous activities of Pharaoh (Exodus 1:15-22), orders the slaughter of all male children in the region of Bethlehem that by their age might qualify as the magi ...

1640. Eyewitness News

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... of Jesus Christ from the dead was never meant to be proved but experienced. As a matter of fact it cannot be proved, as no one of us was there. We have to take the word of others who were. Those early witnesses were very passionate about their testimonies. Many were to be martyred in defense of their convictions. But ultimately the resurrection is to be experienced not proved. The most convincing evidence of the Resurrection of Christ is the transformation of the people who know Jesus and believe in Him ...

1641. Mary Magdalene: An Adulteress?

John 4:1-26

Illustration

David J. McBriar

... said he was wrong. The Vatican moves slowly. 1,378 years is a long time. There's no relationship in the New Testament between the woman taken in adultery and Mary Magdalene. Mel Gibson erroneously identifies her with the adulterous woman in his famous film, The Passion. It's clear that Jesus had a fondness for women. Luke, far more than any of the other gospel writers, points that out. Women were the first evangelizers, the first to tell the good news of Jesus' resurrection to his disciples. Martha and Mary ...

1642. When to Take the Shirt off Your Back

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... one.’ But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, closed his eyes, and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before. Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could ...

1643. Matthew 28:1-10

Matthew 28:1-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... body had been sealed within it. The angel’s words first asserts the genuine death of Jesus “who was crucified” and then announces, “he has been raised.” The angel specifically adds “as he said,” reminding these women who had traveled with Jesus of his previous passion predictions (Matthew 16:21-23; 17:22-23; 20:18-19). The women are not only ordered to be the first witnesses to the empty tomb (“Come, see the place where he lay”); they are directed by the angel to announce this miracle to ...

1644. The Risen Christ

John 20:1-9

Illustration

King Duncan

1645. Will You Dance the Metanoia with Me?

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in our possessions rather than found in our place in a social world. A love affair revealed on the wacky-weird new tv program appropriately called “Taboo.” This “love affair” was between a man . . . and his car — which he smooches and hugs with all the passion usually reserved for another human being. His possession, the car, was his true and only love. Like any addict, drug use allows entry into a network of friends. But all too often, the drug itself becomes the friend. I heard a story this week ...

1646. Don’t Count the Sheep

John 10:1-10

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

... fail to notice whether they looked healthy, acted normal, and in general were becoming their best sheep selves. The late John Holt, school reformer/ educator/amateur cellist who tells this story, concludes with the observation that "What we easily forget, in our passionate twentieth-century love affair with abstract thinking, is that to make an abstraction out of some part of reality we must take some meaning out of it." (See Holt's Learning All the Time [Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley Publishing Co., 1989 ...

1647. Because I Live (Memorial Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... button. As the disciples suggested to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, wouldn’t it be nice to build three booths and just remain where we are? Why can’t our children just remain adorable infants? Why can’t our marriage remain forever like those early years of passion and discovery? If we just had a pause button... Some of us would like a rewind button and, perhaps, a delete button. If we could just go back and undo some of the things we’ve said and some of the things we’ve done. And then ...

1648. Grabbing up the Truths

John 17:1-11, Phil 3:12-17

Illustration

... . Anderson shared a legend, suggesting that in the beginning there was a valley filled with truths. And the truths were all beautiful. There were truths about every subject under the sun. There were truths about virginity and truths about passion....truths about wealth and truths about poverty....truths about thrift and truths about profligacy....truths about carefulness and truths about abandon. There were hundreds and hundreds of truths, all of them beautiful. And then the people came along, pouring into ...

1649. Make Them Thirsty

Matthew 28:16-20

Illustration

Bruce Ball

A young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he complained, "I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The manager replied, "Your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty." So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with the passion of Christ that we create a thirst in others for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1650. A Lesson from Dr. Seuss

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... 2. Letting God: Christian Meditations for Recovering Persons (Harper San Francisco, 1987). 3. http://www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com/ 4. John Gerike, http://www.goodshepherdlutheran.com/files/sermons/2006/sermon060827.pdf. 5. Gordon MacDonald, Restoring Your Spiritual Passion (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986). 6. (Harper & Row, 1976). 7. W. B. Freeman, The Little Book of Olympic Inspiration (Tulsa: Trade Life, 1996, p. 139). 8. Tommy Barnett, Adventure Yourself (Lake Mary, FL.: Creation House, 2000 ...

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