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 2026 to 2050 of 2173 results

2026. A Frightening Friday

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

So much happening in so little time! We are left gasping for breath. We stagger under the weight of the mighty arm of historical occurrence. You and I praise God because we know the rest of the story. Those present did not know how things would turn out. They must have been like awestruck children nearing exasperation. Those of us who have read and perhaps studied the great writers amazingly discover that Saint John tops them all. Shakespeare was truly brilliant but there is a peculiar demeanor about our ...

2027. Compassion Can Do More Than You May Think

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

A teacher was fond of asking students in his counseling classes this question: "What can you know about a perfect stranger the moment you meet?" After the students had a go at the question, the professor shared his own answer, "You can bet that the stranger has just lost something." That person has just lost a job, a promotion, a loved one, a home, a car, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, their health, their zest for living, or God forbid, the very desire to live. Whatever it is, you can bet your life on it. The ...

2028. Building God’s Kingdom: The Christian Challenge

Romans 10:8-13

Sermon

Richard Gribble

On December 26, 2004, the greatest natural disaster experienced in the world in over a century struck southern Asia. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter some 1,000 miles southwest of the island of Java, generated a tsunami that traveled outward at almost supersonic speed in all directions. It created death, destruction, dislocation, and mayhem for literally millions of people in some ten nations that border the northeast regions of the Indian Ocean. Thousands of people, tourists on vacation ...

2029. Enduring the Trials of Faith

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Richard Gribble

"In the seventh year of his reign, two days before his 65th birthday, in the presence of a full consistory of cardinals, Jean Marie Barette, Pope Gregory XVII, signed an instrument of abdication, took off the Fisherman's ring, handed his seal to the Cardinal Camerlengo and made a curt speech of farewell." So begins the power novel, The Clowns of God, the second volume of a trilogy of tales about popes and faith written by Morris West, the Australian-born novelist. In the story, the pope has seen a vision ...

2030. Jesus Rewards the Just

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Imagine picking up the Sunday paper, opening it and reading in giant letters, Jesus Christ Will Return In Two Weeks. What would we do? How would we react to this astonishing information? I think there would be two basic reactions. Some of us, out of fear, would change our lives immediately. The Lord is coming and we are not ready. We might start going to church more often, probably every day. Prayer would become a much higher priority in life. We would pray not only in the morning and evening, but many ...

2031. God Is Rock Solid

Hebrews 12:18-29

Sermon

Clayton A. Lord

The phone rang in the pastor's office. On the other end of the line, a still, small voice was asking for help. The unidentified woman didn't say much. She simply said that her world had been turned upside down and she didn't know where else to turn. Many of us can identify with that woman. We have lived it at times. One day your husband comes home and announces he wants a divorce. You get a phone call that your son has been in a car accident. Your daughter tells you she is moving in with her boyfriend and ...

2032. The Gospel Is Unchained

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

I went to the store to buy a new pair of blue jeans. The clerk asked if I wanted slim fit, easy fit, or relaxed fit, regular or faded, stone washed or acid washed, button fly or regular fly ... and that's when I started to sputter. Can't I just have a pair of blue jeans, size fourteen? Then I went to the grocery store and found 85 varieties of crackers, 285 kinds of cookies, and thirteen different kinds of raspberry jelly. Can't I just get a cookie and a cracker and a bottle of jelly any more? I am in ...

2033. What Are You Looking At?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

One of the most obvious things about the night sky is the moon, especially the full moon. The full moon transforms not only the sky, but the earth, creating a dimmer, second kind of day, casting long shadows, and providing some guidance to those who find themselves outdoors. Certainly, it is one of the things that children first notice about the sky. They can point to the moon, ask what it is, stare at it in wonder. And then, a few days later, the child can wonder - where did it go? The sun, after all, ...

2034. Room For A Savior?

Luke 2:22-33

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Years ago a young man was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He had a stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at the lunch counter, a woman came out of the ladies' rest room carrying a tiny baby. She walked up to this man and asked, "Would you hold my baby for me, I left my purse in the rest room." He did. But as the woman neared the front door of the bus station, she darted out into the crowded street and was immediately lost in the crowd. This guy couldn't believe his eyes. He rushed to the door to ...

2035. Lost? Looking For Happiness

1 Peter 2:9-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Let's see, if you followed the advice of all the Super Bowl commercials, if you're a guy, you get up, shave with your Schick Quattro, jump in your State Farm insured pickup truck with the Michellin tires and the Garmin GPS navigation system. You head to your job which you found through Career Builder, wearing a VanHuesen shirt and Izod pants. You get to the office, fire up your HP computer and get on the internet through Sprint's wireless network so you can register your company's IP address through ...

2036. Jonah: Run!

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

There's an old story that has any number of versions, but it seems while reading her Bible on a public bus, a belligerent man confronted a rather bashful Christian girl. With disdain he asked if she believed everything in the Bible. She said she did. The guy rolled his eyes and said, "If you believe EVERYTHING in the Bible, then explain to me how Jonah lived for three days in the belly of a whale!" The young woman answered, "I don't really know, but I believe he did." The guy became even more agitated. " ...

2037. CSI: Jerusalem

Luke 24:36-48

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Judy Meyers, of Johnston, Rhode Island writes that she always enjoys asking her children what they learned in their Sunday School class. When her oldest daughter was five years old, she came up to Mom after an Easter Sunday service and Mom began to quiz her. The little girl was excited and willing to tell Mom the whole story in great detail. She told of the death of Jesus on the cross and how he was buried in a tomb. Later an angel came and looked in the tomb and asked Jesus what He wanted. In the little ...

2038. On Finding Pentecostal Power

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Lord, as of old at Pentecost Thou dist thy power display, With cleansing, purifying flame Descend on us today. Power, Power, the world is full of power - military power, political power, economic power, industrial power. Our children’s Power Rangers protect our planet from evil forces. Power plants dam up our rivers in order to send us electricity. The world is full of power. But do you have the spiritual power to become all that you are created to be, and to do all that God wants you to do? That is what I ...

2039. Follow Your Failures (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

John 21:1-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Some people say life is like an ice cream cone. The moment you think you have it licked, it drips on you! Regrets? I have had a few, how about you? Mistakes? I have made my share, how about you? When it comes to faults and failures, how can we find our way through? That is what I want us to think about today on our way to Holy Communion. I. Failure is Certain We catch up with Simon Peter today, back in Galilee. He is fishing and catching nothing. The same Peter who saw the empty tomb first-hand and ...

2040. Led To Follow

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

There is a story soaring across the internet these days suggesting things might have gone better if the three wise men had been three wise women. After all, had women been in charge they would have 1) asked for directions, 2) gotten to the manger on time, 3) assisted with the birth, 4) cleaned up the place, and 5) made a casserole for the Holy Family. Of course, the author of that analogy evidently failed to read the story as recorded in the Bible. Matthew writes: After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea ...

2041. No Longer Strangers

Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Chapter Two of Ephesians is one of Paul’s clearest statements about the Cross as God’s power for redemption. In this chapter, Paul used the most dramatic image he could have used to describe the estrangement of the Gentiles, and the reconciling power of the Cross. His image was the Temple in Jerusalem. The layout of the temple painfully marked the separation of the Gentiles. Inside the temple walls were a series of courts. The innermost court was the hallowed “holy of Holies” into which the High Priest ...

2042. Style: Some Distinctive Marks of a Methodist

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Circumstances sometimes call us to do strange things — things-we would not otherwise do. Circumstances also cause us to do things we should have done but never got around to doing them before, like learning that we might have cancer, might provoke us to write a will. That’s really too serious an illustration for the story I’m about to tell. Two out-of-town visitors were walking along a street in New York City late one night. One of the pair, wary of the reputation of city streets at night, kept glancing ...

2043. Casting Out Demons

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Some of you remember Mercury Morris, a great running back for the Miami Dolphins back in their glory days when they were winning the Super Bowls. Mercury was one of the first professional athletes be caught involved in drugs. He was arrested, tried and sent to jail. Why should such a successful athlete do such a dumb thing? Why should he throw his life away? At his trial he said, “I wanted to get away from it, but the demons wouldn’t let me.” That sounds dramatic when we hear it in that fashion. I’ve ...

2044. Building Boats That Float

Genesis 6:1

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

According to an e-mail making the rounds these days, everything you need to know about life you can learn from Noah. Among his most important lessons are these: 1) Don’t miss the boat. 2) We are all in the same boat. 3) In troubled times, travel in pairs. 4) When you are stressed out, float awhile. 5) Remember, the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic by professionals. No character in the Bible gets more present-day attention than Noah. This great-grandson of Enoch and grandson of Methuselah, has ...

2045. Hearing the Questions of Children

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

David Harju, a senior at Centennial High School, took the SAT test and scored a perfect 1600 on it this Spring. How did David feel about it? “Ecstatic,” said Tennessean staff writer, Barbara Moore.[1] The Old Testament story we step into today is the life and death test of one man’s faith and obedience. Father Abraham feels directed by God to sacrifice his only son as an act of worship on Mt. Moriah. Suddenly, this boy who has brought laughter to a couple in their elder years, is surrounded by a trail of ...

2046. Jesus’ 10 Commandments

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

From Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” to The Nightmare on Elm Street’s “Freddy;” from Friday the Thirteenth’s “Jason” to Stephanie Meier’s vampire “Voltaire”, we are always creating new monsters. Why are we constantly on the lookout for bigger, scarier “bumps in the night?” Why do we keep making up monsters that are so elaborate and extraordinary, so super-powered and immortal? Maybe we need our monsters to be as unlike ourselves as possible so that we can ignore the presence of the real monsters that possess ...

2047. How Can We Stand on Holy Ground?

Psalm 24:1

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

A Sunday school teacher asked her young elementary class where God lives. After the usual answers of heaven, church, and in our hearts, Bobby spoke up and said, “God lives in the bathroom at our house." The surprised teacher asked Bobby to explain his answer. “Well," said Bobby, “every morning about 7:30 my Dad gets up, walks down the hall, beats on the bathroom door where my sister is locked inside getting ready for school. Then he screams, ‘My God are you still in there?' God lives in the bathroom at our ...

2048. Repent

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

There are nineteen more shopping days until Christmas. The big Christmas parade is past. The decorations are up. The parties are on. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. In the midst of jingle bells and Santa Claus, we find our way to church hoping to hear a few strains of “Silent Night.” Instead, we are shocked to our senses by a pit bull-type preacher shouting REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NEAR! Who is this back roads guy with no degrees, no titles, and not many clothes, whose only ...

2049. By Faith

1 Peter 1:3-9

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

One thing I have quit doing the last couple of years is cleaning gutters. Every time I mention it, Sandy immediately hires someone to do it and sends me the bill. Maybe she has heard me tell this story too many times. A certain husband was cleaning leaves off his roof when he slipped and fell. As he slid off the edge, he managed to grasp the gutter for dear life. Dangling there between the heavens above and earth below, the frightened homeowner cried out, “Can somebody up there help me?" Quick came the ...

2050. By Humbly Doing Good

1 Peter 5:6-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

The pastor of a congregation preached an unusually short sermon one Sunday. As he came to the conclusion, he offered this explanation for the brevity of it all. “We have a new dog at our house," explained the pastor. “The dog is prone to get into things and chew them up. Last night the dog got hold of my sermon and chewed up the last several pages." The congregation seemed to understand the plight of the pastor. In fact, one visitor to the church shook the preacher's hand after service and said, “If that ...

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