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 2076 to 2100 of 3108 results

2076. Jonah: The Problem of Mercy

Jonah 4:1-11

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Rual Perkins was a long time friend of mine. I buried him last July. Unlike me, Dr. Perkins knew how to use a hammer as well as pastor a church. He could stretch a board and extend a dollar further than any man I've known. Back in the late 1970's, Dr. Perkins and I took on a challenge to build a Spiritual Life Center for the Conference. Like most church projects, we were big on ideas and short on cash. So the project was stressful to say the least. When Dr. Perkins got under stress, he would say, “Oh Mercy ...

2077. The Power to Be Saved

Acts 4:5-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

In the church of my childhood, the opportunity to get saved came once a year at the annual Revival Meeting. Skilled evangelists came to the protracted meetings loaded with all kinds of bait to reel in the least and the lost. Being a sensitive teenager, I was always fair game, so I usually got saved about once a year. Over the years I've expressed my share of cynicism about such manipulative evangelism. But I have not come to criticize but to connect. It would be easy to strike up a strong debate right here ...

2078. By Believing

1 Peter 1:13-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

While researching the sermon for today, I ran across a web site entitled, “I Used to Believe." Among its entries were these: 1. I used to believe that God was always watching me so I danced around when I brushed my teeth so God would not get bored. 2. I used to believe that God lived in the church, and the reason bad things happened was that God woke up grumpy from sleeping on the hard pews. 3. I used to believe that Communion was served during church because the service was so long that everyone needed a ...

2079. The Loving Friend

John 4:1-15

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

With apologies to Carole King, I'd like to describe my friendship with Jesus Christ in a paraphrase of a popular song: When you're down and troubled And you need someone to care And nothing, no nothing, is going right, Close your eyes and think of him And soon he will be there To brighten up even your darkest night. You just call out his name And you know wherever he is He'll come running, to see you again. Winter, spring, summer or fall All you've got to do is call And he'll be there, yes he will. You've ...

2080. Heart Religion

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

One day a man by the name of Kirk was having a particularly difficult time. Everything was going wrong for him and nothing was going right. And when he went to bed that night, he laid there in the dark. And he thought about all of the horrible things that had happened to him. And you know, the more he thought about it the more upset he became. He blurted out into the darkness, “Why me God? Why have you done this to me?” But there was no answer and all he heard was the silence. So he blurted out again, this ...

2081. Hope to Carry On

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Lee Griess

It is perhaps one of the most compelling narratives in all of the scriptures. So fascinating is this scene, in fact, that the gospel writer Luke includes it in detail near the end of his gospel writing. It is a story known well and beloved in the church — the story of two disciples walking down a dusty road to the village of Emmaus, the evening of that first Easter day. Their talk centers around the crucified, dead Jesus. Their words come out slowly, almost painfully, as they trudge their way along, their ...

2082. Why We Need the Pledge of Allegiance

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

When I was in high school, a new music teacher came to town. He was fresh out of college and full of ambition. But here he was, stuck in a very rural community where people didn't put up with (as they called it) "long-haired music," either from the Beatles or Beethoven. Still, he was determined to teach us good music. We were going to sing selections from Handel's Messiah for our Christmas concert. Most of us had never heard of George Frideric Handel, and when we first tried to sight-read through the ...

2083. Masks

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

There are going to be a lot of people running around out there with masks on this week. People pretending to be something they're not — or maybe trying on something that in part they are, or want to be. (put on mask)1 Masks are interesting things. We all wear them, you know, and not just on Halloween. We put on the brave smiling mask when our hearts are breaking. We put on a gruff mask to keep people at a distance. We put on a wild and crazy mask to get attention or to avoid responsibility. We put on an " ...

2084. No Room for Gloom

Isaiah 9:1-4

Sermon

Tony Everett

Baseball Hall of Fame catcher, Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, once remarked, "The future ain't what it used to be." Yogi might have been describing Isaiah's message in our text today. On the one hand, things looked pretty bleak for God's people. A few years before that was written, the mighty Assyrian army under Tiglath-pileser III, had ravaged the land and absorbed the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali into one Assyrian Province (1 Kings 15:29). After the Assyrians took over, many people had begun to worship pagan ...

2085. A Change of Mind

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

While it has been suggested that idle hands are the playthings of the devil — the same may be true of our minds. Without a clear sense of who we are and whose we are, we have the tendency to wander into some barren wilderness. Sometimes our slip is gradual, we do one small thing that is questionable and before we realize it we are in deep trouble. There are other times when it is obvious that we have strayed in a big way, and whether we like it or not, there are consequences to our actions. Without a clear ...

2086. Hearts on Fire

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

Writer, Anne Lamott, tells of her struggle in getting her teenage son, Sam, to go to church with her. "Why do I make him go?" she reflects and then writes, "We live in bewildering, drastic times, and a little spiritual guidance never killed anyone. I think it's a fair compromise that every other week he has to come to the place that has been the tap for me: I want him to see the people who loved me when I felt most unlovable, who have loved him since I first told them that I was pregnant, even though he ...

2087. All About Me?

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-31

Sermon

John N. Brittain

Since we all know that one of life's cardinal rules in the twenty-first century is that "it's all about me," I am sort of reluctant to admit this: The Bible is not all about me. Not that I am not there in plenty of places. I am there with Adam pointing the finger at Eve, trying to pass off the blame for my sin to someone else. I am there with Cain, feeling resentment toward someone who is obviously doing better than I and ignoring God's warnings about sin trying to ensnare me, and there I am right ...

2088. A Big Enough Reason

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

David O. Bales

Peter writes to Christian slaves. In the late first century AD, when the Christian church spread from Palestine into the larger Roman Empire, a greater and greater percentage of the church was slaves. In the ancient world slaves were any color. Masters thought up excuses why it was allowable to enslave another, but at least they didn't create the most laughable and tragic excuses, reasoning that it was okay to enslave a person of a different color. Slaves were a legal commodity, bought and sold. Some were ...

2089. What'll You Have?

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A woman went into a restaurant and ordered the breakfast special, "I want my pancakes well done," she said. "You need to cook them all the way through and golden brown on both sides. Use the light syrup because the regular syrup is too sweet. Make the bacon crisp and thin, not oily or soggy and put it on a separate plate. The eggs must be over-easy, not broken or runny." "And would you like butter or margarine?" asked the waitress. The woman answered, "Oh, it doesn't matter; I'm not that picky." (1) A ...

2090. Act Quickly - Catch It Early

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may be familiar with the Darwin Awards. People are nominated for the Darwin Awards when they do something really stupid that costs them their lives. The reason that they are called the Darwin Awards is that by offing themselves in such an absurd way, it is suggested that these misguided folks have inadvertently improved the gene pool for rest of humanity. It’s a cynical view of life, but it has led to a collection of stories that are both true and bizarre. For example, there is the story of a ...

2091. When the Caterers Weren’t Available

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Today’s lesson is on one of Jesus’ best known miracles, the feeding of the 5,000. Of course, as someone has noted, if Jesus were alive today, he wouldn’t be allowed to get away with half the miracles he performed. It’s not just that we live in such a skeptical, rationalist age. It’s all the red tape as well. Here are a few examples. Turning water into wine. This would provoke immediate protests from the alcoholic beverage industry, who would argue that it was unfair competition, amounting to a monopoly. It ...

2092. Don't Be Afraid

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that fear can cause people to do some really stupid things? When that terrible earthquake and tsunami hit Japan last spring, it reminded me of a Serbian man named Lucas who was a victim of a giant tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean a couple of years ago. Lucas, aged 30, was nowhere near where the tsunami hit. He was safely at home in Serbia at the time. However, he was watching television and he was so shocked when he saw the tsunami footage on TV that he jumped ...

2093. Gifts For The Christ Child

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The three wise men. "They opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense (or frankincense, from the King James Version) and of myrrh" (Luke 2:11b). Simple words, but if we analyze them carefully (as an email that my wife forwarded to me attests), we discover an important, yet often-overlooked, theological fact: There is no mention of wrapping paper. If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so: "And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the ...

2094. Transitions

2 Kings 2:1-12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

This is one of those passages that has its roots deep in the mythology of ancient Israel. It is at least a little bit familiar to us because this is where the film Chariots of Fire gets its name, and this is where we find the origin of the expression, "passing on the mantle of leadership." The story also gives us one of the earliest uses of the term "Father" as a title for a religious leader (if you have ever wondered where that designation in some churches came from). The story is one of transition. ...

2095. The Thoughts of Our Hearts

Luke 2:22-40

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

Luke wrote his gospel to a man we know only by name. He addresses him as "most excellent Theophilus." The gospel of Luke, unlike other gospels, was written for a person who was high in the Roman government — written during a time of religious persecution; and it was the hope of Luke that this would be read by those outside the faith so that they might learn that they had nothing to fear from the Christians. So Luke, a Gentile himself, wrote his gospel to be read mainly by other Gentiles. If that is so, on ...

2096. Fred and Barney

John 10:11-18

Sermon

John Smylie

I grew up in the suburbs, in a community outside of lower Manhattan. There were no sheep in our neighborhood. In fact, there were no farms. In southern New Jersey, there were farms that grew wonderful corn and tomatoes. In fact some might be amused to know that the slogan on New Jersey's license plate has been, "The Garden State." It is amusing, because so many of us who live in this fine country have only had the experience of New Jersey that can be found along the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State ...

2097. When the Impossible Becomes Imminently Possible!

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Apart from the resurrection, this miracle of the feeding of the multitude alone excites all the gospel writers so that none of them feels the gospel story is complete without it. An exciting missionary adventure is crushed by John the Baptist's death, and Jesus and his disciples retired across Galilee. It was the backdrop for an incredibly timeless human story. Of all the gospel writers, only John writes, "He [Jesus] himself knew what he was going to do" (John 6:6 NRSV). The New International Version ...

2098. Words That Wound, Words That Heal

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

Often we fail to recognize the power of our speech, our language, the words we use. A public speaker once began his address by commanding his audience to "stand up." Then he said, "Turn and face the back of the church ... now turn and face me." Finally he commanded them to "sit down." "The point I am making," he explained, "is that words have power. They can make things happen. They can be bullets which penetrate the heart, wounding the one for whom they are intended. Or they can bring joy, celebration, ...

2099. A Christmas Program

Luke 2:21-40

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

Narration: We begin our Christmas worship and pageant tonight with the wondrous images of Luke, chapter 2, dancing in our eyes and warming our hearts. We gather to worship. We gather to honor. We gather to celebrate the birthday of Jesus at Bethlehem, the Messiah, our Christ. Christmas Puppet Play (skit provided below) Narration: Jesus Christ is the gift of gifts. How amazing when the prophets Isaiah, Micah, and others foretold of the coming of the one who would bring deliverance to the people of Israel. ...

2100. The Need for Transformation

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

The Bishop of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was known to be a great evangelist and preacher who would reach out to unbelievers, scoffers, and cynics. He liked to tell the story of a young man who, many years earlier, stood outside the cathedral and almost on a daily basis would shout derogatory slogans at people entering the church to worship. He would call them fools and all kinds of names. The people tried to ignore him but it was quite difficult. One day, the cathedral's rector went outside to confront ...

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