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 2051 to 2075 of 2415 results

2051. How To Be Truly Happy

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... is right. “People who need people ARE the luckiest people in the world.” Studies show such people live longer and are healthier and happier. Happiness is living a purposeful life. Happiness is being people oriented. Finally, happiness is to be found in a passion for God. The great evangelist/missionary/writer E. Stanley Jones counted himself to be one of the happiest people alive. He once wrote: “I gasp in surprise and wonder. Life is working and working with rhythm and joy. How did it all happen? I ...

2052. A Child of the Resurrection

Luke 20:27-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... it God’s “job” to love you? It’s definitely God’s nature to love you. Jesus says in this passage today that those who believe in him are children of God. Loving parents have an overwhelming need to protect and provide for their children. Loving parents are passionate about giving their children the best life possible. If we are God’s children, and if God is eternally alive, then God’s plan is for us to be eternally alive with Him. We have a God who is the Creator of life, the Giver of life. To ...

2053. A Healthy Church

Illustration

Kevin Harney

... a positive impact on the world. It will grow small, inward, and unhealthy. This kind of church does not honor Jesus and bring glory to God. This is not a church ruled by a servant spirit. Now imagine a church in which every single person has a passion to serve others. Think about what God could do through a group of people who are committed to sacrificial ministry to each other. These people know that the Holy Spirit has given each of them unique abilities (spiritual gifts) that are to be used for building ...

2054. Jesus Destroys the Power of Sin

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... heinous crimes imaginable against the Greek people. “By the time I came to the institute for a summer session, Alexander Papaderos had become a living legend. One look at him and you saw his strength and intensity ‑‑ energy, physical power, courage, intelligence, passion, and vivacity radiated from this person. And to speak to him, to shake his hand, to be in a room with him when he spoke, was to experience his extraordinary electric humanity. Few men live up to their reputations when you get close ...

2055. Hosanna! Please Save Us!

Matthew 21:1-11, Matthew 26:14-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... miracles. And Judas still betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Betrayal by someone you think to be a friend is one of the most hurtful experiences in life. William Tyndale was a Catholic priest in the early 1500s in London who had a passion for translating the New Testament from the Greek language into the English language, so that the common man and woman could read the goods news of Jesus Christ for themselves. But the bishop of London refused to let Tyndale make a translation. So William Tyndale ...

2056. Should We Wash One Another's Feet?

John 13:31-38, John 13:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... , I just lost it. I grabbed his face, burying my head into his shoulder, grieving, “Yes, it is you.” “Judas’ eyes filled with tears in that moment. Then he pried my hand off his face and pushed me away. But, yes, folks,” Marchiano concludes, “Jesus was passionate for even this guy . . .” (5) It’s easy to demonize Judas, but friends, the heart that beat in Judas is the same heart that beats in us. None of us is spiritually superior to any other. We are all sinners saved by grace. We are to ...

2057. The Sign of Jonah

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Moses was a murderer, he recycled his rage and hatred and became the greatest leader in Israel's history. Jacob was a thief and a rogue. He recycled his cunning and became the father of the nation. David was an adulterer. He recycled his passion and became the greatest of the kings. Peter was a boastful, swearing fisherman. He recycled his pride and became the rock upon which Christ built his church. Mary Magdalene recycled her love and became a saint. Zaccheus, a tax collector recycled his miserliness and ...

2058. Broken Yet Sincere

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... bears that broken heart even now. Jesus bears that broken heart still today. “Love one another as I have loved you,” he bids us. Jesus bears the wounds of our disobedience, our disbelief, our doubt. As God’s church, may we love with the passion of an artist who picks up the pieces of the broken hearts of this world, and invites Jesus’ golden, shining, enduring love to fill, patch, heal, mend lives into beautiful, sincere images of God’s glory. May your eyes be opened, your doubts swayed, your ...

2059. Lost in the Wonder of God

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... wherever in the world I live or go. I will always be a “mountain boy” in my heart. [You can tell your own story here about how place matters to your soul.] Love for mountain culture is not for the weak of body or soul: be prepared for passionate disappointment. But being a “mountain boy” means I carry an identity so deep in my soul that nothing could extract it without taking away a large chunk of what makes me “me.” And there’s a feeling that I get when I drive through mountains and hear wind ...

2060. The Cure

Luke 4:31-37, Luke 4:38-44

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... recognize Jesus that day. And he actually has to try to curtail the feverish joy that erupts from the many who are healed and made one with God that day, so that his identity as the messiah won’t get out too soon. It’s an uncontrollable passion that YOU too will have to serve God and others when the hand of Jesus rests upon you. A Pentecost Church is a possessed church, not a processed church but a possessed church. We are taught to “trust the process.” We are more trusting, more comfortable, with ...

2061. The House on The Rock

Lk 6:12-49 · Mt 5:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... friends misunderstand, Thou Who knowest all about me, Stand by me (stand by me). Building your life around Jesus takes commitment. No matter how much others urge you, you can’t build your house without personal investment and commitment. It requires your time, your energy, your passion, your creativity. A Rock of Ages house is not a house built once a week in a nod-to-God hour. It takes initiative, industry, practice, patience, and a lot of friends who pick you up when you get tired, hold you up when you ...

2062. Seat of Power

Mark 10:35-45, Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , and our hearts that must lean to that “right” hand (Romans 8:34, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 10:12-13, 1 Peter 3:21-22). We are saved by Christ’s authority in heaven, not by our own. Our seats in the heavenly kingdom are not about prestige, but about passion. The scriptures use this language of right and left also to illustrate how we need to walk in the “ways” of God, of Moses, of David, and now of Jesus. “Be strong and do not turn to the right or to the left” is the message (Joshua 1:7, 23 ...

2063. Dry As Toast

Matthew 12:15-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... so do you. Stretch out your hand. And in that moment, you too will not just be restored but redeemed. When the man with the withered hand reaches out his hand, not only his hand is healed but his faith, his place in the community, his relationship with God, his passion for God’s mission, his very life is saved. You can be that man. You can be that woman. You can have that strength. YOU too can be one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So I say to all of you today, “stretch out your hand ...

2064. Are You a Lemming or a Lassie?

Luke 12:13-21, Luke 12:22-34, Luke 12:35-48, Luke 12:49-53, Luke 12:54-59

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... from life-threatening disasters, Lassie always seemed to instinctively know the right things to do, the right ways to go, and always knew how to get home again no matter how far away their adventures would take her. She loved her master with a fierce passion and devotion. And the dog seemed to have a heart of gold toward every living thing. These were the television shows that pulled on our heart-strings and brought forth tears each and every time the loyal dog put herself into a threatening situation in ...

2065. Surely, Surely

Luke 1:1-4, Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... for himself the change going on in his society in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection. He has witnessed the birth of the early church, the willingness of hundreds to die attesting to the truth of Jesus birth, life, death, and resurrection, the passion of people like Paul and Timothy for the person of Jesus, those so sure of the truth of God’s salvation, that they had willingly walked away from everything to worship Jesus. The Greek word we translate as “martyr” means literally “witness.” Luke ...

2066. She Waits

Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:50-53, Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... understood only in the context of relationship. But that relationship, or covenant, is not the legalistic, moralistic, rule-based, kind of relationship sometimes depicted. But the covenant between God and humankind is depicted most as a “marriage.” It is a highly passionate, loving pursuit of God with God’s creation. Divine and creature. That pursuit culminates in the stories of scripture as a betrothal, and then a marriage. At some points in scripture, we see this metaphor as a sub-story (as in Hosea ...

2067. Lazarus Rising

John 11:1-16, John 11:17-37, John 11:38-44, John 11:45-57, John 12:1-11, John 12:12-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... control they still have left. It’s been a delicate tightrope walk for the Pharisees and priests. They have kept themselves in power, and in a good standard of living, by assuring the Romans that they would keep the people at bay and keep passions under control. As long as things remained calm, the Romans would let them alone. And they had. Until Jesus. And his sidekick, Lazarus….began filling the people’s heads with dangerous ideas. You see, the Pharisees didn’t understand what Jesus was about. But ...

2068. Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Ezekiel 37:15-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... hearts and minds are touched, changed, renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit –if we allow Him to change us. Only change can save a dry-bones church. Only change can save a dying people. Only change can transfigure a declining church into a passionate, living power of God’s glory in a surprised world. (Metaphors: valley, bones, dry, wind/breath/ruach/spirit, quake/shake/change/re-form, adam/earth, heart) *For more on the theme of God’s primal voice/wind/breath/spirit/fire/wind-song/baptism/shofar/ram ...

2069. Deep Faith

Genesis 6:1-8:22, Genesis 5:1-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... with mountain ranges and valleys, foliage and creatures that roamed its vegetation. And yet, it was foreign, strange, an unknown, sometimes murky place, where anything could happen. To dive that deep was at huge risk. But Cousteau loved every moment with a passion that was contagious. He described it like this: “In the deep space of the sea I have found my moon.” One of those he inspired, contemporary film director James Cameron, also explores undersea worlds and dove to even deeper sites, including the ...

2070. House of God

Ephesians 2:1-10, Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ” environment, but you also may not see much creativity happening! Nothing much new! Nothing interesting to carry the relationship forward. Nothing to challenge the senses, or your thoughts, or your brain, or your sensibilities. Nothing to keep interest and passion and conversation …going. And where there is no challenge and no conversation between differing opinions, there is no creative tension. No interaction of opposites. As the Puritans used to say in the early days of USAmerica, “the sparks are ...

2071. The Raising of Paul

Acts 14:8-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... is the awareness of Jesus in their midst. Sight is restored, ears are opened, the door to faith that had been closed, the gate to the kingdom has been opened to those who had not known differently. Paul’s mission to the gentiles is so passionate perhaps, because he realizes, these people know no better. Only in being fed the “good news” of Christ can this door be opened before them, and they may enter in. What a beautiful metaphor for proclamation! And in this, Jesus “raises” up a church! Because ...

2072. One Stone Faith

1 Sam. Chapters 16-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , no face-guard, no army. He faced the enemy with the tools of the shepherd –a sling, five stones of the Torah out of which only one was needed, and an attitude of deep and abiding faith in the strength of God that triumphs. David’s passion is of the Shepherd defending the sheep, not of the Invader looking for spoils. He is the protector and defender of God’s honor, and Israel’s young son, the “Shepherd” of Israel, born of Bethlehem. He comes to the battle front with shepherd’s staff, shepherd ...

2073. The Promise of Dreams

Genesis 37:1-11, Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Listen to what your dreams are telling you. Your subconscious knows and can teach you from your places of darkness what you cannot face or recognize in the light of day.” Similarly, the movie Shadowlands, a memoir of C. S. Lewis, chronicles how his passionate-less and ordinary life becomes a vivid and extraordinary place of dreams after he meets and falls in love with the USAmerican poet, Joy Gresham. Or more recently, in the movie “The Mountain Between us,” Ben Bass says near the end of the movie ...

2074. All In

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in Revelation. Light is a metaphor of sight, of revealing. In Light, we experience the inexplicable God in a tangible kind of way, and we attribute to God all of those qualities that go with burning –power, unpredictability, uncontrollable passion, purity, love and heat, intensity, the ability to consume, blinding unknowability. The light and the mountain metaphor combined (which also suggests the place where God dwells “on high” and where the light is purer and more intense, uninhibited by cloud ...

2075. "Salt and Swaddle"

Luke 2:1-20 · 1 Samuel 16:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in life again, who pined for the honor of Israel, who lay awake at night watching the stars and the weather as they watched their flocks, looking for the signs of scripture. Lowly shepherds served God with the least of possessions but the greatest of passions----a loyal and faithful heart, a heart that trusted in God’s promises. It was those with heart, the heart of a Shepherd, that God chose then and God chooses today, again and again and again. Shepherds believed the messiah would be a shepherd king ...

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