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 2326 to 2350 of 5000 results

2326. Practicing and Preaching

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Sermon

... money than about prayer, said wealth always is one of two things - dangerous or damnable. To soft-pedal stewardship is to concede the field to mammon. There are no luggage racks on hearses, goes the old adage. You can't take it with you. And why should we want do? After all, we are never more like God than when we give. Last year, in our church, the average family gave only two and one-half percent of its income to the church. Imagine what ministries we could offer if everyone gave a tithe; ten percent of ...

2327. The God Who Doesn’t Give Up

Hosea 11:1-11

Sermon

... equated the bird to the earth and advised, "You have become a powerful people and you have caught a little bird and hold it in your hands. I hope that you will find the wisdom to let it fly away." God is a parent who treats us mercifully. He also wants us to find the wisdom to treat others with compassion. The Lord does not give up easily. He looks forward to the day when his children will return, responding to his call. What a great day that will be! They will come from all over. They will come back to ...

2328. Parable of Choosing a Gift

John 15:1-17

Illustration

... key case would be good," suggested the clerk. "Let me see what you have. At least that is the right idea. It would be useful and frequently in his hands." The lady said to herself, "I want my love to be in his hands and my presence to be felt wherever he goes and I want it to be a useful love. That is what I want my gift to represent." Christmas indeed, is a time when we seek to express our love even as God seeks through the gift of Jesus to express his useful love, which endures to all generations. Love ...

2329. Life in the Community of Believers

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

... restored in ways which only worship can assure. A man said, "There has been a void in my life for many years and I have not really wanted to deal with it. I have a sense it is because I have not been in worship since I was a teenager and I am beginning to ... to gather, food to share and things to do. To be honest with you, I do not have much patience with persons who say, "I do not want to be a part of a church. It is always asking for money." Usually I find that the ones who say that are the ones who are ...

2330. The God You Worship

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

... our reconciliation to God and to one another. God does not desire our death. God desires that we might have life everlasting. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a constant reminder of the extent to which God would extend himself to show how much God loves us and wants us to have life in abundance and forever. Can any idol offer as much or do as much for you? If not, ought then the God our Lord Jesus Christ be your God? Ought not God be the One who receives our ultimate worship and more of our immediate ...

2331. Taking Risks

Mt 4:1-11 · Lk 4:1-13 · Mk 1:12-13

Children's Sermon

... highway sign such as "Reduce Speed." Good morning to you, boys and girls. Sunday really is a beautiful day no matter what the weather is outside. Even when it is cold, the church is warm, not just because the furnace is on but because you are so welcome and everybody wants you to be here. It takes a long time to get acquainted in some places but not in the church. Here everybody is your friend and you are a friend to everybody. That is the way Jesus teaches us to be. He tells us that Christians are meant to ...

2332. Proper 7

Lk 9:18-24 · Gal 3:23-29 · 1 Ki 19:9-14 · Zech 12:7-10

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... " No one is forced to take up his cross. No one must be a Christian. It is a voluntary matter expressed in the "If." If you do want to follow Jesus, there is a price to be paid. Lesson 1: 1 Kings 19:9-14 1. Came (v. 9). There is no hiding place from God ... for God. Enemies have destroyed God's altars and killed his prophets. The people have forsaken God. Elijah is jealous for God. He wants God to be adored, obeyed, and followed. Apparently he failed to bring his nation to that point. He feels he has failed God ...

2333. Proper 23

Lk 17:11-19 · 2 Tim 2:8-15 · 2 Ki 5:14-17 · Mic 1:2, 2:1-10 · Ru 1:1-19a

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... calls the whole earth to hear God's complaints against it. Judgment will come to the rich and powerful who by illegal means rob the poor of their homes and land. For this crime Yahweh will humiliate his people and send them to captivity. But, the people do not want Micah to say such harsh words, for they do not think disgrace will come to them. But, does Yahweh like to say these words of doom for his people? What he says is for the good of his people. Nevertheless God's people are rebellious and afflict the ...

2334. Deliverance by a Dream

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

... carried a story about the cancellation of a Boy Scout camp-out because a man had threatened the lives of some of the boys. The spokesman, who made the announcement, said: "We cancelled everything (several troops were to have programs at this particular camp). We don’t want to be held ransom forever, but we felt we didn’t have complete control in this case. We could have put out thousands of volunteers to help us patrol the area, but if one kid got hurt, it wouldn’t be worth it." He explained that a ...

2335. The Choice

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

... slip through our hands like dry sand. The truth is that God is living. Even if we die, God will restore us to life again. I want you to really hear that: God is alive. Even if we die, God will breathe life into us again. Jesus, the Christ, Messiah, Savior, is the ... dyings. Dying. That sounds so awful. By it I mean all those experiences we have in life where we must let go of what we may want so that God can be God. Saying "I'm sorry" is a kind of dying, and so is deciding to trust someone once again after they ...

2336. An Easier Way?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

... that the same hard way would be expected of us as disciples. "Deny yourself," he said. "Take up your own cross. Lose your life if you want to find it!" It was too much to fathom, too much to grasp. At that point even I fell into silence. I just didn't know ... has traveled the hard way before me. What's the temptation? That there must be a shortcut, an easier way than the cross. If we want to genuinely live, however, there is not. The way of the cross is the way of life - and the answer to that $64,000 question ...

2337. One Commandment is Enough!

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

... your religious works of art to enjoy, if you will, but to worship them is to break this Second Law of God! 3. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." A young wife called her mother on the phone, crying, and said she wanted to leave her husband and return home. When asked why, she said her husband had been saying dirty words to her - four-letter dirty words! The mother, trying to understand, and at the same time encourage her daughter to stay with her husband, asked, "But what kind of ...

2338. Trouble on the Mountain

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

... turned me off of the church." "The services are so dull and uninteresting." "They just don't do it like they used to." "They don't sing the 'old' familiar songs anymore." "The church is full of hypocrites." "If acting the way 'they' act is being a Christian, then I want no part of it." "You can't be a Christian and stay in my kind of business." "Preachers preach too long (or are too dull, too simple, too deep) and the services are not over by twelve noon." "It's too cold in the winter and I'm afraid of ...

2339. An Intimate Conversation and an Exclusive Covenant

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

... called himself - and really meant it - an atheist. I wondered what might have happened if he had been here a couple of months earlier during the convention of atheists held in Minneapolis right after Easter. Would he have wanted to attend? Would he have wanted to talk with some of the atheists to discover why they didn’t believe in God? Would he have wanted to share "nonexperiences of God’s presence" with them to support his lack of faith? I was sorry that he hadn’t been here at that time, because I ...

2340. The Sounds at the Summit

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

... manner, and most who heard and saw him knew that God was speaking to them. Today, God allows us to get near enough to him, through his Word and his servants, to hear what he has to say to us. He comes to us so we can comprehend what he wants us to know; we do not have to make our way to him. On October 17, 1971, my wife and I were present in St. Peter’s Basilica when Pope Paul VI "beatified" Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, a Roman Catholic martyr of Auschwitz. If I had known that Francis Gawoniczek, for ...

2341. The Housing Problem

Luke 11:14-28

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... the Jacksonville newspaper. He thought our closet was where you organized your clothes; I thought it was where you threw things you didn't want people to see. It was a happy day for both of us when we could change. House-hunting is important. Come spring you'll witness students ... from the home. The new gadgets cost a great deal and both Mom and Dad have to be employed outside the home whether they want to or not. We have "latch keys" on the outside of the door and "latch key" children on the inside of the door. ...

2342. The Most Important Decision

Mark 8:34

Children's Sermon

... to follow him, we must first stop trying to be our own boss and give our life to him. That is how we become Christians. We are followers of Jesus, and Jesus comes first. Jesus even comes first before us. We can't do the things that we want and still do the other things that Jesus asks. It doesn't work that way. We have to do the things that Jesus asks first, and then we can do the other things. To be a follower of Jesus, you must put him first and yourself second. When we elect ...

2343. Darkness and Light

John 3:20

Children's Sermon

... doesn't it? (Let them answer.) The burglar knows that he is wrong, doesn't he? (Let them answer.) He sure does. He doesn't want anyone to know that it is he who is making the robbery. Some robbers even wear masks to hide their faces so that no one will ... recognize them. (Put on the mask.) But most of all, they like to do their robbing at night. (Take out the flashlight.) They want the least amount of light that they can have. The light of day is no good for people who do wrong and evil things. If ...

2344. The Master Has Come - And Is Moved With Compassion

Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

... the highest status and took the lowest, that of a servant. He became obedient unto death on the Cross. The pain of God’s love, goes that far. It runs that deep. We hear it in Jesus identifying himself with us. Martin Luther heard it. As a young man he wanted to be a lawyer. One day he was nearly struck by lightning - and decided to become a monk. But he lived a life of fear. Then he taught a course on the Psalms at Wittenberg University. As he was preparing a lecture, he came to Psalm 22 - "My God, my ...

2345. The Life We Prize

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Various Authors

... out here to meet women and have fun. What’s your work?" I answered, "Fire insurance," the response I frequently give when I want to have some fun with an unsuspecting stranger. He questioned, "Fire insurance? Who do you work for?" "The Lord," I responded. "Who?" "The ... collected and out to the curb. By then the evening was over; I had not played a game of checkers or anything else that I wanted to do. It would have been easier to have worked in my office. I felt sorry for myself. I went in to say good night ...

2346. Two Gifts From God

1 Corinthians 14:15

Children's Sermon

... you think that you can do two things at the same time? (Let them answer.) It isn't easy to do two things at the same time, but a lot of times you must use two things to get one thing done. Let me show you what I mean. You want to sew up a hole in a pair of pajamas. I think that is a good idea and I will give you a needle to do the job. Can you sew up a hole with a needle or do you need something else? (Let them answer.) That's right, you ...

2347. A Clothes Line for Jesus

Galatians 1:7

Children's Sermon

... it? (Let them look.) The line has been perverted. It is no longer a straight line, because we have hung something on the line that does not belong there. People who use the name of Jesus, but do not believe in him, may do it only because they want to make some money. It is hard to believe that some people will do this, but there are some people who will do anything for themselves. They make themselves into bad people for doing it, but they also make Jesus look bad when honest people find that the perverters ...

2348. God's Detour Light

Galatians 1:11-24

Children's Sermon

... vacation? (Let them answer.) I brought along a sign that you are going to see several times while you are driving along a road and I want you to know what it means when you see it. (Hold up the sign.) How many of you know what the word "detour" means? (Let them ... closed, and that you must take another road for a short time until you can get back on the road that is taking you where you want to go. It means that you must change roads and go another way. Paul got a detour sign from God, only it was about his ...

2349. Someone to Imitate

Philippians 3:17

Children's Sermon

... imitate someone I do the same thing that they do. Paul knew that there were some things that Christians did and some things that they did not do. Paul was not talking about putting on their clothes in the same way or even wearing the same clothes. He did not want them all to wear their hair in the same way or walk the same way. That is not what Paul meant. He meant that they should spend time in prayer and worship. He meant that they should love one another and be ready to forgive each other. These were the ...

2350. Do It the Right Way

Philemon 1:8-9

Children's Sermon

... to stay with him and learn more about Jesus and the teachings of God. But Paul knew that if he kept him, it would make the people that he belonged to angry. Now Paul also thought that Onesimus should be free, but he wanted the people who owned him to choose to give him up rather than to force them to give him up, and so he wrote the owner, Philemon, a letter. Paul asked Philemon to consider giving the slave his freedom so that he could serve Christ. That was Paul's way ...

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