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 1751 to 1775 of 5000 results

1751. A Thimble Full Of Ocean

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Larry Powell

... him struggle to explain not only what had happened but also how sorry he was. Then, smiling, she said, "I was wondering when you were going to tell me because, you see, I was looking out the kitchen window when you did it. I was also wondering how long you were going to let your sister make you miserable. And now that you have told me about it and how sorry you are, of course, I forgive you." Our own reluctance to confess is outrageously inconsistent with reason in consideration of the fact that (1) each of ...

1752. On His Way

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Larry Powell

... of Job; "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further." If we have turned back in the presence of difficult questions, many of which will never be answered this side of eternity, then we have learned nothing from the Christ who dared to ride into Jerusalem on that long ago Sunday and "turned not backward." 2. "I Have Set My Face Like A Flint" The simile here is not insignificant. Pure flint is so hard and even-grained that it is sometimes used to crush other hard substances such as ore. The implication is that ...

1753. House-Building Time

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... , and, through David, the Lord has established the people in the Promised Land. These honors have already been given to David, but the prophet rehearses them again, because they are only a prelude. All this was just the beginning. By Mary’s time, David had long since become Israel’s ideal King. In spite of David’s later sinfulness and tragedies, the people looked back to King David’s time as the best of times and to David as the greatest of kings. The memory of some of his less glorious successors ...

1754. Whom Do You Sit East Of?

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... down there in the "hold," as sailors call it. So off he sails for Tarshish. We all know how far he got. It didn’t take long for things to catch up with our prophet. For the Lord "hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the ... to be done - axe a few saloons, seize an embassy, or highjack a plane - well, that good is how Jonah feels during the day-long recitation of his dirge, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." Too bad most of us don’t get many of these chances, ...

1755. How To Be Used By God

1 Samuel 16:14-23

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... in speech; a man of good presence, and the Lord was with him (1 Samuel 16:18). His training as a shepherd and as a warrior was excellent. Not only young people, but all of us would do well to continue to study and train for our tasks. "Life-long education" is a word for today. Most vocations require updating of skills and information on a regular basis. And why not learn something new from time to time? Maybe a second language or how to fix your car. Money and time spent for our "heads" are never wasted. A ...

1756. Human Nature Revisited

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... Bible writer says And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. - 2 Samuel 18:9 In the forest of Ephraim a battle was fought between David’s loyal men and Absalom’s rebels. Riding through the forest on his mule, Absalom was caught (maybe by his long hair) in the branches of a great oak tree. He was left helplessly hanging when his mule ran out from under him. David’s commander Joab found him in this situation and slew the young traitor, knowing that an enemy of the king surely had to die, even ...

1757. Paul of Tarsus

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

... to be a fool to sign on, wouldn’t you? PROTAGONIST: I wonder if it’s foolish, showing tenderness and understanding to somebody who refuses to return it. I’ve done that a time or two. You may not see any quick results, but in the long run, sometimes miracles do happen. On the other hand, if I’d just ridiculed them or written them off as hopeless cases, they’d still be the hostile, defensive people they were when I first encountered them. ANTAGONIST: You’re saying love is stronger than the tough ...

1758. Then He Went Home

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... t the same when we get home. Sometimes home looks better when we arrive after being away a long time; sometimes things look worse; usually things look different. We gain a different perspective, having moved to a ... Jesus are more contemporary than our morning newspapers. Much has changed in the past 2,000 years. The human heart remains the same. It can pump blood as long as it has not turned to stone. Jesus calls people together who are willing to repent. They are his family. The Family Of God We are born of ...

1759. Lessons From A Girl In Trouble

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

... back to life. The birth of God’s Son, our Savior, is nothing more than popular history for us until we confess it, with head and heart, as part of our faith. Until we believe it, it’s just something that happened a long, long time ago. The same is true of Jesus’ Baptism, that time long ago when God said from heaven, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." When we confess it, it stops being "just history" and becomes part of God’s good news for every day of our lives. Listen to what ...

1760. Coping with Fear, Worry, and Anxiety

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... is the image of fear - not the image of faith. We respond to the old Scotch litany: "From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties. And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!" It seems that we expect the worst, and ... so much "what I’m eating" as "what’s eating me" that’s getting me down. But what about subconscious fears? They have been with us a long time. In the book of Psalm a writer cries out, "Why art thou cast down O my soul, why art thou disquieted within me?" Like us, he ...

1761. Overcoming Loneliness

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... ... How much easier it would be if we could accept the fact that tender loving is not a weakly thing, only for infants and young lovers, if we could release our feelings, and indulge ourselves in an occasional and magical return to intimacy." This had its start a long time ago: "And the Lord said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helpmate for him" (Genesis 2:18). There is an old Swedish proverb: "Shared joy is a double joy. Shared sorrow is half a sorrow." The wisdom of Paul Tournier ...

1762. Saved!

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... I am left alone with thee; With thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day, With thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day.2 Salvation is of God. Often a repentant sinner must wrestle through long, lonely hours, pleading as Jacob did, that the old, sinful self be purged, and a new creation born afresh. By the grace of God it can happen. The gospel message has this essential thrust: Sinful, misguided, selfish human beings can be transformed. It is not our doing ...

1763. Service

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... chaplain; sing it this way: I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, O’er mountain, or plain, or sea; I’ll stay if you want me to stay, dear Lord, You can always depend on me. There can be intense feelings of thwarted goals, of unfulfilled longings in the call to ministry. Faraway places seem romantic, even exotic, and there is a thrill and sense of sacrifice. Lo! These remote spots often turn out to be no more exotic than slums in the very city in which one lives. A young man found his Peace Corps ...

1764. Spiritual Blindness

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... we have realized that our buildings, stairways, halls, doors, public facilities, trains, buses, planes, automobiles, and especially our homes must be redesigned in such a way that all people may use them. Why have we been so blind, so deaf, so unfeeling so long? Jesus Came By When Jesus passed along, going from Jericho to Jerusalem, there was a "great multitude" of those like us - people keen-eyed. Interesting, indeed, the only one who really beheld Jesus was a blind man. Bartimaeus, and only he, called out ...

1765. The Way It Works

Mark 6:1-6

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... now. JOEL: Of course we do. On the day of sacrifice. NATHAN: Yes, they are. Our sins are all forgiven on the day of sacrifice. DANIEL: Well, then, why do we need this guy telling us our sins are forgiven? NATHAN: How long? DANIEL: How long what? NATHAN: How long are your sins forgiven? DANIEL: What difference does that make? JOEL: Until the next day of atonement, I guess. DANIEL: Yeah. Next year. Our sins are forgiven every year. NATHAN: Why? JOEL: Because Moses said so. DANIEL: Yeah. Right. And God spoke ...

1766. Divorce

Mark 10:13-16, Mark 10:1-12

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... freedom. I'm leaving. I don't care if you divorce me or not. I'm leaving. You'll find someone else. HUSBAND: I found you a long Time ago and I'll be ... WIFE: Waiting? Is that what you were going to say? You'll be waiting? You'll wait until my little ... you do then you'd give me a divorce. HUSBAND: Never. WIFE: Our love will be finished. HUSBAND: Never. WIFE: It's finished now. HUSBAND: Not as long as I love you. WIFE: But how can you love me? You don't know all the terrible things I've done. HUSBAND: I don't ...

1767. Christ and Time

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... led men to realize their responsibility to treat with sympathy those who are unfortunate and need help. It is Christ who stirs the world’s conscience to sorrow over wrong and to struggle for the right. Not in vain do we sing in one of our loveliest Christmas carols: "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till he appeared and the soul found her worth." In our own personal experience the soul finds its true worth when we make the transition from B.C. to A.D. Our life ceases to be "a tale told by an ...

1768. True Freedom

John 8:31-41

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... is indeed a wonderful land in which to live." Then she added, "I should like the advantages of your way of living, but I am afraid I am not a big enough person to live in such liberty." The same ideas was expressed by an American missionary who was long imprisoned in a Japanese camp during World War II. When he was asked what he thought about during his imprisonment, he replied, "The thought that was uppermost in my mind was whether I would be worthy of freedom when I got it." As slaves to sin we are not ...

1769. Paul's Thorn In The Flesh

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... and perspiration on his brow. Softly she whispered to him, "Ole, you forgot the ice cream." Ole pulled the boat back to the water and rowed to shore. He found a grocery store nearby, bought the ice cream, and rowed back to the island. She batted long eyelashes over deep blue eyes and purred, "Ole, you forgot the chocolate syrup." Love will make a person do strange things. Ole got back into that boat and returned to the store for syrup. As he rowed back toward the island, suddenly he stopped. He sat there ...

1770. The Gifts of the Left Hand

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... word from God from that person. So his gifts are directly related to his needs. We celebrate Dr. King’s birthday this week, and we say he was more gifted that most of us could ever be. But what was his gift? Being so in tune with the human longing for dignity and justice that he could speak for it and act for it. Like Paul’s, his was a power made perfect in weakness. Dr. King knew that reconciliation often begins with the offer of our weaker, more vulnerable hand. The Gift That Completes Us If the left ...

1771. The Family Was God’s Idea

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... , and he put us in families to make that absolutely necessary; that you can’t grow up, you can’t even be alive very long without someone tending and caring. And that goes on for many years with us humans. That family that got its start in the ancient ... to what makes a good or bad world. More than an image over the breakfast table, they are special to this universe now and will be long after I am gone. Some parents must take risks. If we don’t, who will be left to listen to the young people lament, "I don ...

1772. Jerusalem, Emmaus and the Meaning of Life

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... years old ... So I sit now and enjoy nature (again he motions to the picture). There is nothing artificial about it. It’s just natural. (Long silence) (He moves his foot and winces some) Oh. My foot gets in the way these days. I sort of stumble over it. Once ... ? D-7 Oh my, it’s a beautiful sound, a quiet rushing like, as it makes its way along ... It’s a beautiful morning. (Long silence) L-8 Do you ever go outside nowadays - to be among the sights and sounds of foliage, water and sunshine, Mr. D.? D- ...

1773. When You Reach Wit’s End

Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... magic solution. I’m not thinking of that. I’ll just get some lunch and take care of your children for you for a few hours. How long since you prepared yourself a decent meal?" Well, there is scarcely a one of us, but could do as much as that - and in doing it, ... son in the war. She wanted to know how to go about adopting a D.P. child. He, of course, put in a special long-distance telephone call to reassure her and explain that he hadn’t meant for persons like her to take on an additional burden, but ...

1774. Advent 4. Won't You Let Him Into Your Christmas?

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

... Now, that’s understandable. When you have five sisters, you have to resort to every measure at your disposal. You would be interested to know a couple of more things about this true story. (1) First, to this day when that family gathers for Christmas, there are long basketball socks on the mantle for everybody, only now everybody in the family puts things in the socks for each other. Members of the family sneak into the room in the middle of the night and add something to the socks. (2) The other thing I ...

1775. When the Word Comes to the Wilderness

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

William G. Carter

... God has made the ultimate sacrifice to claim us for himself. “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” That’s the ancient promise during these days in Advent. It is a Word we can count on. We shall see the salvation of God ... as long as we pass by John the Baptist. 1. Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), pp. 4-5. 2. Walter Wangerin, Jr., Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers ...

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