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 5000 results

2001. Did You Know...That You Can Be Perfect?

1 John 3:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... him. Finally, he got to where he couldn't take it any longer and he looked at the kids and said, "You can say whatever you want to, all I know is my parents chose me, yours couldn't help having you." Then we are also married into the family of God through ... Jesus Christ. There is a very simple test to determine whether or not you really believe that Jesus Christ is coming again. If you do, you want to live in such a way that when He does come, He will find you being for Him what you ought to be, doing for Him ...

2002. God's Christmas Tree

1 Peter 2:24

Sermon

James Merritt

... the Christ tree. A tree represents life. A tree takes carbon-dioxide out of the air and through a process known as photosynthesis it produces oxygen which gives us the ability to live. Likewise, the cross, "the Christ tree" gives us the spiritual oxygen that we need to live. I want to say it again. When you look at the life of Jesus, it is all about the tree. He was born in a manger made from a tree. He was a carpenter. He worked with trees. He died, literally, on a tree for our sins. Every time you look at ...

2003. What Do I Do - When I Don't Know What To Do?

2 Kings 4:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... for the door. He was stopped at the entrance by a security guard who denied him entry. He looked at the guard and said," Look, all I want to do is go in there and get a glass of water." The guard said, "Sir, I am sorry, but you have to have a tie ... -inch frying pan!" Here was a man who rather than get a bigger skillet was willing to settle for smaller fish. I believe so often God wants to give us twelve-inch blessings, but all we have is eight-inch faith and that is why so often we take matters into our own ...

2004. Honor Graduate

Exodus 20:12

Sermon

James Merritt

... dad and he was making very poor grades, he was disrespectful at home, he was lazy and he said, "Dad, I have found the car that I want. It is only a couple of years old. It is just like new and the owner said you could buy it for me for only $15, ... agreed to his daughter's plan and hung up the phone. He turned to his wife and said, "Okay, they're coming for Thanksgiving. What do you want me to do to get them here for Christmas?" Let me leave you with this thought. The best way to train your kids to honor their ...

2005. Focus on the Finish

Hebrews 12:1-2

Sermon

James Merritt

... a way that you may obtain it." Now the Lord is not just looking for runners in this race, He is looking for winners. Everyday He wants you to strap on your running shoes; put on your running clothes; toe the mark and run your race to win. We learn in this ... and was forced out of the race. I will never forget what Mary Decker said at the news conference. She said, "I was right where I wanted to be in the race until I tripped." You see Satan has a threefold strategy for you as you run your race. First, he will ...

2006. God's Christmas List

John 3:16

Sermon

James Merritt

... are in hell today, because they rejected the love of God are still loved by God? That is because God's love is based on His character and God is love. Human love may have its limits, but God will never stop loving you. Every Christmas that rolls around, I want to remind you that you are in God's continual love. You cannot go where God does not love you. You cannot act in such a way that God will quit loving you. You cannot reach the limit of His love, because His love is absolutely unlimited. You can never ...

2007. Which Door Should I Take?

John 10:7-9

Sermon

James Merritt

... t live. Jesus didn't put you on this earth just to take up space, live a few years and die without any impact whatsoever. He wants every one of us to live a life of significance, a life of importance and a life of influence that never ends. Jack London, the ... you find security and that is when you find significance and that is when you find satisfaction. There is one other door that I want to share with you that Jesus felt was His most important door and that is the door of your heart. In Revelation 3:20, ...

2008. God Where Are You? - The Problem of Evil

Genesis 3:1-6, Judges 6:13

Sermon

James Merritt

... acts of freedom. He made evil possible. We make evil actual. [[4]] In that sense, God is pro-choice. The only way that God could create a world with free will is to also create a world with a potential for evil and suffering. God loves us so much and wants us to love Him so much, that rather than make us into robots, He made us into real people with real choices that can either be choices for good or choices for bad. All of this leads still to another question. III. What Purpose Do Evil And Suffering Serve ...

2009. Lasting Impression

Luke 3:34-38, Matthew 1:5, 16

Sermon

James Merritt

... human being - fully man so that He can identify with who we are, but fully God so that He could change us into what He wants us to be. Even His very birth tells us that every single person on this planet is included in God's love. III. Everyone Is ... Testament is the story of a family - the family of Jesus. I think that is why more than any other time of the year, families want to be together at Christmas. The big question this Christmas is, "Whose family are you in?" God became a part of our family so that ...

2010. The King and His Kingdom

Matthew 6:33

Sermon

James Merritt

... right, I will seek the Lord." You must seek Him first. King Jesus is not interested in being the first runner-up in your beauty contest. He is not interested in being Vice President in your corporation. He is not interested in being second in command of your army. He wants to be the King on the throne of your heart, not a co-partner in a duplex. But we are also, as we seek the King, to seek the kingdom. Now when you truly seek the King and His kingdom, you are really seeking for three things. First of all ...

2011. Smooth Out Your Day

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... to get you down. You can "smooth out your day" and find life to be "shockingly refreshing", but there is one condition. You must be where you need to be in relation to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ must be where He needs to be in relation to you. I want you to listen to these words of Jesus that we are going to study today, which are as refreshing as enjoying a cool breeze, sitting under an umbrella at the ocean and drinking cold lemonade. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give ...

2012. One Step at a Time

Nehemiah 2:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... it as a matter between him and God. That is a very difficult lesson for us to learn because praying and waiting goes hand in hand. I want you to remember that waiting time is never wasting time. Many times the first thing you need to do when you face a problem is simply ... . Looking back, had you told me it would be a five year wait, I might have given up immediately. That is exactly why God wants to teach us to wait, because when God delays at least in our minds and God forces us to wait, He is building into ...

2013. Finish the Drill

Nehemiah 4:1-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... up is criticism. Regardless of what you do, you are going to be criticized so you. You might as well be criticized for doing what God wants you to do. That is exactly what the hero of this story, Nehemiah faced in this fourth chapter as he shows us how to "Finish ... can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him." That is exactly what Nehemiah was able to do. I want to give you now three practical steps on how to deal with opposition and how to handle criticism. A. Be Prayerful "Hear, O ...

2014. A Clear and Present Danger

Nehemiah 5:1-19

Sermon

James Merritt

... Hebrews 6:10 says, "God is always fair. He will remember how you helped his people in the past and how you are still helping them. You belong to God and he won't forget the love you have shown his people. (Hebrews 6:10, CEV) Now I want to leave this message with two very practical applications for all of you who are Cross Pointers all ready and those who of you are thinking about becoming Cross Pointers. We can build these walls called Cross Pointe if we stay together. We can handle anything on the outside ...

2015. A Frightening Friday

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... us at one time? It is so imposing and it stretches us to limits that give us a glimpse of our immortal souls. We want to shout for everything to wait a minute or two, indeed, a year or two! Call in the wise men and women; let them brood ... difference? Is it that God liked Peter a lot better than Judas? Needless to say, that is a stretch and mostly for those who want to do endless dialogue dynamics for the sake of exploring all possibilities. Perhaps the best way to understand his problem is to note ...

2016. How Not to Become Distracted

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

... her place at Jesus' feet and listen to what he had to say. To put it mildly, Martha is rather put out about all of this. She wants Jesus to side with her. "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to ... yard to do in a day!" he would say. I would stand my ground and tell my grandfather I was glad to mow it, but I didn't want to spend parts of three days doing it. That was just too much intrusion into my life. So as I was mowing one day with my grandfather ...

2017. Do Not Be Quickly Shaken

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... shocking, say, "Tell me more." Don't say, "You are doing what?" The person who makes such a confession is trying to trust you. You will not be trusted if you freak out. Likewise, ministers can't be trusted if they are only telling people what they want to hear. If a person makes you uncomfortable — and still seems to love you — you have begun to understand what the letter to Timothy is talking about. We are all shook up, and we are not shaken. It is a "both/and." As clergy and congregations, we ...

2018. When Desire Goes Bad

1 Kings 21:1-21a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... . And if our daughter faced tough competition to make the cheerleading squad, we'd try to help and encourage her. We wouldn't set out to ruin or kill the competing cheerleader or her mother. We figure there's plenty to go around, so we just want to be included in the bounty. Where we do connect with covetousness is when we feel shortchanged. Do you envy someone else their good looks, or their good grades, or their good income, or their good fortune? Those feelings are quite normal and certainly not wrong ...

2019. The Sign of God

Amos 7:7-17

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... that was not being helped.” Kopits didn't set out to treat this population. He simply became an orthopedic surgeon because that field interested him. But after a patient with dwarfism came to him, and Kopits was able to help, others began to come as well. Here's what I want you to hear: Kopits has helped many of these little people, but he refuses to take all the credit. He says, "Always I have felt that I was being taken by the hand. If you can say nothing else about me, you can say that I am a man who ...

2020. Deliverance through Thanksgiving

Psalm 50:1-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... word questions and I allow the word to ask me questions, and then out of that reflection, in that moment I form the prayer that I want to offer to God in response to his word. Two or three weeks ago I was doing this with the Psalms, and I came to this ... it is mine. What does a God like this, an omnipotent God who created and owns the whole universe; what does a God like this want? What does a God like this require of us? There it is. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Listen. Listen. God’s ...

2021. The Wonder of It All

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... demands, so that we’re never easy in our comfort, never satisfied in our knowledge, never adequate in our love. He will not let us be. He will not let us be, this strange haunting presence always reliving his life in us. There’s no escape. But who would want to escape anyway? His name is Emanuel – God with us. Jesus, saving his people from their sins. And that’s the wonder of it all. Will you sing it? Will you sing it not just with your lips, but with your life, this Christmas? The wonder of it all ...

2022. Putting Ourselves into the Picture

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , one of the greatest books in the Bible. And during these next Sundays, we’re going to preach through this great book. And I want to begin with a sermon that purposes two things – one, it suggests a key for getting into the bag. And two, it provides some specific ... people multiplied and grew strong. And go on with verse 21, and because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Now I want you to hear this. God honors our commitment, and takes over at the point of our obedience to work his might works. Now ...

2023. A Bethany Blessing

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... accepted Christ for themselves. It may have been the altar rail or the lake or just a picnic table at summer camp. But I want you to think about those sacred spaces and sacred places in your life. For me, it's hard to nail down just a few. ... sign of blessing. You may have to move around a bit but I'd like everyone to be touching someone else for this blessing. Now, I want you to pray a prayer of blessing on your friends, families, neighbors, and members of the church with me. I'll pray and you repeat. As ...

2024. Plenty Of Room

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... off the horse and then he's bowled over by an over excited cowgirl, Jessie, who keeps hollering, "It's you. It's you. I can't believe it's really you. The Prospector said you'd come" Jessie then says, "Holy mother of Abraham Lincoln, the Prospector will want to meet you." Jessie and the horse, whose name happens to be Bullseye, bring out the Prospector, in mint condition, still in his original box. Woody is confused by all of this but can't understand how they know his name and asks "Hey, how do you know my ...

2025. Joshua People Always Look Forward With Hope

Joshua 1:1-9

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... week that Carmen was on that trip. In a daily journal she kept, which she shared with me through Piano and Bob and Marty Wells, I want to share a little of what she wrote. "In this village as well as many of the other of the 3,000 distribution sites moms walked ... someone who had died from Malaria. Many do not even name their children until they are a few years old because they do not want to become attached to them in case they are to die. That is when it sunk in why we had been treated like celebrities… ...

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