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 1776 to 1800 of 5000 results

1776. Home for the Holidays

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

William G. Carter

... a God who guides our lives on a path that may stand at odds with our family’s expectations. For others of us, however, we may be called to express our love of God through a renewed love of family. There are fractured relationships to rebuild, long-broken ties to restore, ungracious relatives to whom we are called to speak a forgiving word. Today gives us an opportunity to strengthen our relationships to those people who have loved us, nurtured us, and set us free. A renewed commitment to our family may be ...

1777. The Kind of People Whom God Chooses

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

William G. Carter

... over her and screamed at the headache. The headache left her, so she got up and made some soup. Jesus went to that house long before he ever mentioned a job change to Simon Peter. And there is no telling Simon would have taken it any way. Who ... not good enough to have you in my boat.” Call him, if you will, the patron saint of inadequacy. Simon Peter stands in a long biblical tradition. These days, the church still squabbles about who is good enough to serve the Lord. When that happens, I suggest we read ...

1778. Hated, Excluded, Reviled, Defamed — And Leaping For Joy

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

William G. Carter

... . Sorry, but there’s no sign-up sheet in the narthex. It is hard to hear all of this, unless we hear it as an indication of God’s agenda for human life. It’s like one of those occasions in an African-American church when the sermon is long and the service even longer. Why are the people there? They are there because if the preacher is on target, and the service is faithful to the gospel, they will break out in laughter. It is laughter over against the power of all the oppressors, and there’s nothing ...

1779. When Life Gets Hard, Christian, Rebel!

Lamentations 1:1-22

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... was the beginning of the famed Babylonian Captivity. All the symbols of power, wealth, prestige, and influence were gone. No wonder so many Hebrews were in despair and that songs of lamentation like the one we just read as today’s First Lesson were composed and long remembered. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that life’s moorings had been cut loose? Maybe it was the loss of a dear loved one, a child gone bad, a once-bright promising career destroyed by downsizing. Perhaps it has been a ...

1780. True or False?

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... charm, something to touch superstitiously, childishly to keep bad things from happening. Pretend that outside the sanctuary God doesn’t exist. Make believe that what goes on during the week is your own business. Admit no connection between in here and out there. Just as long as you’re in your place when the service starts, who cares what happened since your last visit? Kill a goat, sacrifice a lamb, give a dollar or two — and everything else will be forgotten, right? Give God a little bit and then get ...

1781. One-Fired Up Preacher!

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Jordan” (cf., 2 Kings 2:2, 4, 6). Have you ever felt brokenhearted, alone, or despondent? Elijah knew all those feelings too. Not long before, perhaps you remember, Elijah prayed to die. “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life” (1 Kings 19:4). It ... of growing a halo with times passing. He replied, “I know. And they never were!” The same is true in God’s army, the church. As long as we try to recapture what used to be or try to hold on to what we have, we miss God’s best plans for the ...

1782. The ABC Gospel

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy” (2 Kings 5:1). Some people live a long life and die without seeming to accomplish anything worth noting. Others seem to possess a charisma that takes them quickly to fame and ... eat away his exterior. Maybe yours eats away at your inner being, your soul. There is sin in your heart, perhaps a memory of long ago, and you fear that if people knew they would shut you off from the society you know. You live with the haunting ...

1783. Deformed, Disfigured, and Despised: A Marred but Magnificent Messiah

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... the Baptist confirms Jesus as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He is not attractive. “He is dark skinned, hunchbacked, with a long face and a long nose, with eyebrows above the nose so that spectators can take fright. He is a short man. He is an ugly man.” ... the man we never want to be seen with, never want to be around, never want in our company, but also the man we long for, the man whose company we seek, the one whose presence and power uplifts and enhances our reality as human persons. He was ...

1784. The Hospitable Servant: A Woman Named Lydia

Acts 16:11-15

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... of Christ as well as those not in it. Paul and his friends were overjoyed at the invitation to come into the home of Lydia. She cared enough about them that she wanted them to experience the comforts of home after being on the road so long. They were probably tired, weary, and needed rest. She invited them home because she wanted to serve those who served God’s people. There are too many spiritual nomads, aimless wanderers; too many of the spiritually homeless who have no moorings, no resting places, no ...

1785. We Interrupt This Service

John 1:1-18

Illustration

Brett Blair

... The announcements," he declared. "I just hate it when the minister spoils the mood of worship with all those dull announcements." Heads bobbed in vigorous agreement all around the room. The announcements were out of favor in that corner of Indiana, no question about it. Thomas Long said he knew what the man meant. You're soaring above the pews on Sunday, your wings catching the strong breeze of the Spirit carrying you upward from "Joy to the World" toward the choir's lofty "For Unto Us a Child is Born," and ...

1786. The Spirit Has Landed

Luke 3:1-38

Sermon

Brett Blair

... has reveled himself in Christ. That’s in the backdrop of the picture. II Second, in the forefront of this scene stands Jesus as the focus of God’s love. Let me tell you a story. At one time in our history the telegraph was the fastest means of long-distance communication. Now, the Mars rover sends messages that take ten minutes to reach earth—amazing isn’t it—but there’s a story from the early days about a young man who applied for a job as a Morse code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper ...

1787. Saving The Best Till Last

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

... a teacher and only heard a bit of his teaching? Is it the miracle that wins their devotion or something else? It seems to me that the miracle is part of it but not all of it. Something else is at work here. Think of the history of Israel. How long had they been around? At this time in history they have been around as a tribe and a nation for close to 2000 years. Think of all the things they been through: The beginnings in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Joseph and the hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt. Moses ...

1788. His Triumphal Entry

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Brett Blair

... all over the world to say good-bye to their old friend and colleague. But one person who came was shunned and ignored by virtually everyone there. Nobody would look at him much less speak to him. That person was former president Richard Nixon. Not long before, he had gone through the shame and infamy of Watergate. He was back in Washington for the first time since his resignation from the presidency. Then a very special thing happened, perhaps the only thing that could have made a difference and broken the ...

1789. His Teachings

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

Brett Blair

... can hear that in his careful answer. At times we have a duty to Rome and other times a duty to God. Money that is to go to taxes cannot go to support the church. You try to make that argument with the IRS and you won’t be around long or have money enough to help the church. At any rate, Jesus sufficiently straddled the issue that the Herodian was not able to entrap him. II Next in the crowd stepped forth the Sadducee. These were the ones, you will recall, who did not believe in the resurrection, their ...

1790. His Last Supper

Luke 22:7-38

Sermon

Brett Blair

... of the lack of use. Our spiritual life, if it is not exercised, will no longer be self-evident. Not because it is not there, rather because of the lack of use. Many of us need to have those spiritual channels cleansed and reopened. We have gone too long on our cleverness and ingenuity. We are like a sponge that has been squeezed and squeezed until you can get nothing more out of it. It is time that we reconnect with the source. [I will never forget at annual conference some years ago that the presentation ...

1791. Journey To Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-56

Sermon

Brett Blair

... to solve this dilemma and although many had been aided by research grants, no one came up with the answer. So, what chance did Farnsworth, a potato farmer with no education, have? While plowing, he imagined a different approach. He imagined dividing a screen into long rows just like the field he was plowing, using electricity to create areas of light and darkness at each point along the row. Then stacking the rows on top of each other, he imagined that they could bring to focus a picture. Bingo! The results ...

1792. Liberty And Civility

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Brett Blair

... behavior they liked. Look at chapter 5 verse 13: "Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love." Use your freedom to serve. In other words: Freedom ought to be used to pursue good. After Paul's long defense of freedom in Christ he launches into the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The message here is clear. Liberty and civility are two parts of a whole. Alexander Fraser Tytler lived at ...

1793. The Political Controversies Of Jesus

Luke 20:27-47

Sermon

Brett Blair

1794. Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... slave who ties and looses a man's sandals. We wondered about that, of course, but there was nothing he was doing that merited any action on our part, at least not at the time. So we left...and came back to report our findings to the Sanhedrin. Not long after, our attention became focused on someone who was making an even greater impact than John. In fact, word had it that many of John's disciples were deserting him to follow this new teacher...a man named Jesus, from Nazareth. I realize that it is a little ...

1795. Sight for Blind Eyes

John 9:1-12, John 9:13-34, John 9:35-41

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... others who would also approach silently, but for other reasons...pranksters who would come up as if to give you something, but instead would grab whatever was in your bowl and run off laughing loudly and taunting you to come after them. You knew the tricks though: you had learned long ago never to leave more than a few mites in your bowl at any one time - most of the money would be removed as soon as it was given and put in a pouch on the inside of your cloak. But on this particular Sabbath, it was not the ...

1796. The Apostles' Creed: Maker of Heaven and Earth

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... down, it would be pulled so close to the sun at the shallow or narrow part of that football-like orbit that we would all be burned to a crisp. If we were to slightly more than double our speed, we would be thrown far into space at the long point of the orbit and quickly freeze to death. Speaking of distance, we are approximately 93-million miles from the sun - just about right to receive neither too much nor too little heat and light to allow us to live. And our moon, while the earth tilts, wobbles, and ...

1797. The Bush Is Still Burning

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey..." This is all well and good. One wonders why it has taken God so long to notice, considering it has only been 400 years that the people have been enslaved, but that is another story. The present problem is ... the Almighty." Or, in modern English, I AM A to Z and everything in between. Then John shares a surreal vision of the Lord in a long robe and a golden sash, face as bright as the sun, head and hair snow white, eyes like a flame of fire, and a voice like ...

1798. The Ten Commandments #7: No Adultery

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... with an interest in the opposite sex. Folks still kick over the traces, of course, because sex is such a powerful drive and can cloud the judgment of the best of us - just ask you-know-who. We excuse ourselves by saying that sex is a private matter - as long as nobody else gets hurt, we do not want anyone telling us what to do. And most of us do not want to tell anybody else...unless they happen to be preachers (remember Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert?) or politicians. But is sex all that private? Ask the 80 ...

1799. Remembering the Good Old Days

Numbers 14:1-10a

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... fertile as can be, but the inhabitants are GIANTS...they will clobber us. Forget it." Scared those people to death. Scared them so bad that they wanted their old slave life back again. "Gee, the chains were not so bad...the whippings did not last all THAT long...so we had to make bricks without straw - a little hard work never hurt anybody...so some of our babies got killed - we had enough mouths to feed anyway...at least in Egypt we had more of a menu than birds and these stupid biscuits that keep falling ...

1800. Super Sunday

Deuteronomy 5:1-33

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... 1994 (the last year for which we have statistics at this moment) was just under $545. For the YEAR! Hmm. Let me tell you a Super Sunday story. (2) It seems a young Martian was studying comparative anthropology and, in preparation for a doctoral dissertation which was long overdue, made a quick flight down to earth in his flying saucer to check on the habits of the residents of the planet. He could not get too close or make any prolonged inspection because his work had to be submitted in just a few days, so ...

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