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 2001 to 2025 of 3108 results

2001. Our God Is an Awesome God

Psalm 139:1-18

Sermon

James Merritt

Robert Wells wrote a book entitled: Is A Blue Whale The Biggest Thing There Is? It is a children's book to help little ones see just how big the universe really is. The largest animal on earth is the blue whale. Just the flippers on its tail are bigger than most animals on earth. But a blue whale isn't anywhere near as big as a mountain. If you could put one hundred blue whales inside of a huge jar, you could put millions of those whale jars inside a Hallowed-Out Mount Everest. But Mount Everest isn't ...

2002. How to Rub People the Right Way

Acts 4:36-37

Sermon

James Merritt

Many years ago during the Colonial era of this country, wealthy ladies were proud of their wide-board oak floors. At least once a week servants would wet-rub and then dry-rub these floors to make them shiny. It was a very simple task involving running a wet mop along the grain of the wood and then a dry mop. But sometimes a careless worker would mop across the grain and it would produce streaks on the floor. When that happened the lady of the house would scold the servant for "rubbing the floor the wrong ...

2003. Why You Should Come Clean With God

Psalm 139:23-24

Sermon

James Merritt

I want to begin by asking you a question. Who is sitting in your seat? Now I know you think I’ve lost my mind because you just said “I am.” Well, let me ask you a follow-up question: Which “you” is sitting in your seat? You say, “What do you mean?” Well, there are actually three people in your seat. There is the person that you think you are, there is the person others think you are, and there is the person God knows you are. When I was a boy one of my heroes was someone very familiar to all of you. I’m ...

2004. A Ticket for All

Matthew 15:21-28

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: An admission ticket. Boys and girls, what if you were going to McDonald's or Burger King or wherever you like to eat and saw a sign that said, "Brown people only"? And you watched lots of other boys and girls going in and eating and having a good time, but you could not go in because your skin was white. You would feel bad, wouldn't you? There was a time when this was true in certain parts of our country. White people could go into nice restaurants, but people with dark skin could not. That's silly ...

2005. Breaking down Barriers

Matthew 15: (1-10) 21-28

Illustration

John Tucker

C.S. Lewis once wrote an essay entitled The Inner Ring. He says in the article that in any playground or office or church there are little groups or rings of people who are on the "inside". And those who aren't: those who don't get picked at playtime, those who stand on their own in the lunchroom. Lewis says that the existence of such rings is not necessarily bad. We're finite beings, and we can only have deeply intimate friendships with a limited number of people. But he says that the desire to gain ...

2006. Sending Good Messages

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The scenes I am about to describe happen thousands of times per day across America, with many variations. The setting may be the office of a pastor or counselor. Or these words could be spoken to a best friend over coffee or out jogging. First, the voice of a wife: “You’ve heard of the great stone face? Well, I married it. All I ever see of Bob at breakfast is a hand groping for his coffee from behind the morning paper.” Then we hear from a husband: “My wife is a really attractive person, until she opens ...

2007. When Seeing is Not Believing

John 20:19-31

Sermon

John E. Harnish

And the story of Easter day continues. John says, "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week..." Imagine...just hours later, really, it is the evening of the day of Resurrection, the evening of the day which began in a garden, the evening of the day when Mary saw the Lord, the evening of the first day of the week. The doors are shut. The disciples are scared to death, and Jesus comes and stands among them and he says, "Peace be with you." He says it three times here, you notice. My guess is ...

2008. Are You a Taker or a Giver?

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

It was quite a picture — on the front of the New York Times magazine. There were the "Little Big People" as the cover article names them — "little big people" who are precocious, even out of control, with affluent parents who have only themselves to blame. The picture shows a yuppie- dressed eight- or nine-year-old boy, stylish, cool with his own cellular phone in hand. In the center is a modishly over-dressed twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl, stylish, sexy, and eating high priced Chinese take-out food. ...

2009. Floating on Your Back

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Peter Hiett in his book Eternity Now! tells a wonderful story about a little girl named Mary who, against all odds, survived a hurricane. In October 1991, weather fronts over New England combined with the remains of a hurricane coming up the eastern seaboard to form what has become known as the Perfect Storm. A small boat, the Andrea Gail, carrying a father named John and his six‑year‑old daughter named Mary were caught in the storm. John had not checked the weather report when he and Mary sailed off the ...

2010. It’s About God

John 3:14-21

Sermon

David T. Ball

I don’t know how many foreign films you’ve seen — subtitled in English, so that you hear the foreign language and read the dialogue at the same time. I’ve seen a few, and for the most part I’ve been impressed by how well the English subtitles seem to flow. They must have translators who are pretty good at expressing in English what is being said in another language. But sometimes the subtitles seem stilted, using a phrase in a way that’s not quite right. And sometimes the way things get expressed in ...

2011. Keeper of the Springs

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

Peter Marshall

Once upon a time, a certain town grew up at the foot of a mountain range. It was sheltered in the lee of the protecting heights, so that the wind that shuddered at the doors and flung handfuls of sleet against the window panes was a wind whose fury was spent. High up in the hills, a strange and quiet forest dweller took it upon himself to be the Keeper of the Springs. He patrolled the hills and wherever he found a spring, he cleaned its brown pool of silt and fallen leaves, of mud and mold and took away ...

2012. Heresies of the Heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Un-Christ-like attitudes, not doctrinal creativity, make up the heresies gnawing at the heart of the Church today. In order to avoid complete cardiac collapse, we must address this heart disease and work to eradicate it. In this complex, open-ended, multiple-choice age we rarely dwell on the established doctrinal foundations of our faith. Even less do we seriously entertain the notion of genuinely heretical views undermining the sanctity of those foundations. In its past the Church has been inflamed by " ...

2013. Gutsy Joy

Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

However many your fears and failures; however many times you must pick yourself up from the hurts and pains of life and go on; however difficult it is to get through each day - the joy of the Lord can be yours. A cartoonist successfully divided the entire human race into two types with one telling illustration. The cartoon pictured two women at a well. Each has a bucket with which to draw water. One woman, looking sad and bitter, remarks, "Life is terrible. Every time I fill this bucket up, it is empty ...

2014. Home Alone

Revelation 21:10, 22-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

To refer to a group of people as "homeless" one must believe in "home." Might that be part of our problem? Have we lost our concept of "home," if not our "home" itself? It is time to go home again and find that our home is in God. The runaway smash movie of the 1990-91 holiday season was a farcical comedy entitled Home Alone. The plot of the movie whirled around the adventures of a young boy who is accidentally left home alone when his family flies off for a European vacation. While his frantic parents ...

2015. Three Wise Gifts

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Three gifts, if given this Christmastide, will do nothing less than heal the world. Two thousand years ago, gold, frankincense and myrrh were worth (in today's equivalents), six hundred, five hundred and four thousand dollars per pound, respectively. A similar gift today (frankincense and myrrh have declined in value, gold has increased) would set a 20th century king back six thousand dollars for the gold, but only fifteen dollars apiece for frankincense and myrrh. The Magi celebrated the Christ child with ...

2016. The Widow's Might

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How do you measure life? In worldly weights and measures like dollars and cents, or using spiritual scales of love, service and friendship? In our local supermarket, there are several different candy counters. A big display of all the old favorites greets you just as you turn your cart into the first aisle. At the opposite end of the store is half a wall of bulk candy big packages for big families or big sweet tooths. There are racks of typical "movie candies" at the video rental desk. Finally, there is ...

2017. Stone Testaments

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Mark the milestones in your life journey. [Note: This is an interactive, experiential, participatory sermon. You will need to arrange ahead of time for a flower or stone for every person, which is given to them with their bulletins. And you will need a musician, preferably a cellist, who will be a secret partner with you for this experience. The fewer the people who know what you are going to do, the better. The element of surprise is key to the narrative.] Have you ever had this experience? You arrive ...

2018. Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

All three of the synoptic gospels agree that Jesus experienced a period of temptation; all three give us similar versions of the incident. In addition, Hebrews 4:15 also testifies to Jesus' temptation episode. The author of Hebrews used the temptation narrative to show that Jesus, like us, faced threats to his own fragile humanity. Luke, however, has a different agenda. Seeking to address both the Jewish and Christian worlds, Luke's explicit reference to Jesus' "40 days" of temptation would surely ring a ...

2019. Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Now that Luke's rendition of the parable of the "Prodigal Son" has become so well-known and well-loved by the church, it is hard for us to imagine the kind of shock waves this story would have sent through the "large crowds" (Luke 14:25) that were following Jesus and listening to him preach and teach. In fact, as Luke sets the scene for this parable, it seems Jesus may purposely be testing the boiling point of the increasingly disturbed scribes and Pharisees who were keeping a close eye on Jesus' growing ...

2020. Learning to Love Ourselves

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

James McCormick

She was a beautiful Scandinavian girl. She had come to the hotel room of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Trobisch for counseling, just one day after they had given a lecture at one of the universities of northern Europe. As they talked about her problems, one basic issue kept coming up – one that seemed to be at the root at all her problems. She could not love herself! In fact, she hated herself so much that she was only a step away from ending her own life. She had been raised in a very religious home. Her parents ...

2021. Mark 12:38-44

Mark 12:38-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Once Jesus enters Jerusalem and the temple, Jesus' run-ins with the religious authorities are constant. Today's gospel text demonstrates why all those who held traditional positions of religious power found Jesus' presence and preachings so disturbing. In the text immediately preceding this week's reading, Jesus questions the scribe's theology. He challenges their image of a powerful royal Davidic Messiah with his own observation that the expected Messiah will be a much different kind of "Lord" than a ...

2022. Out of Nazareth

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Are you tired of the “10 Best” or “10 Worst” lists yet? For some reason, January is the month for every “10 Best” and “10 Worst” list imaginable. January editions of every magazine, plot lines on tabloid TV, even articles in “serious” news coverage finds it mandatory to include a feature on some “Ten Worst” or the “Ten Best.” The ten best movies, the ten worst videos, the ten best books, the ten worst dressed, the ten best trends, the ten worst investments, the ten best colleges, the ten worst places to ...

2023. Too Good Not to Be True

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

King Duncan

A company once hired a recent immigrant and put him to work in the mail room. To the foreman’s shock, the guy was a whiz. He stood in front of the sorting racks and shuffled the letters into slots with amazing speed. The foreman had never seen anything like it. At the end of the day, the foreman shook the new man’s hand, thanked him and said, “I’ve never seen anyone who could sort mail as fast as you.” The new immigrant smiled and said, “You think I’m good now you wait until I can read English.” (1) Well, ...

2024. Afraid No More

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

There are many things in life you and I may not understand. For some people, it’s modern art. A young woman goes to her first show at an art gallery. She studies the paintings carefully. One is a huge canvas that has black with yellow blobs of paint splattered all over it. The next painting is a murky gray color that has drips of purple paint streaked across it. She walks over to the artist and says, “I don’t understand your paintings.” “I paint what I feel inside me,” explains the artist. She looks at the ...

2025. Excellence in Giving

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

In today’s lesson Paul talks about “excellence in giving.” It’s tough to talk about giving when the country is going through uncertain times. I don’t know how you felt as you watched the stock market meltdown last fall. For some people it was a very helpless feeling. Some of you watched the money in your retirement accounts slowly disappear. One guy said he took a kind of Zen attitude towards it all. He started off with $50,000 Zen he had $40,000, Zen he had $30,000, Zen he had... Another man said his ...

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