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 251 to 275 of 622 results

251. Controlling Our Cravings

Luke 12:13-21, Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... TO WHICH WE HAVE NO RIGHT. Remember, this was King David's grievous failing. One night his eyes fell upon a beautiful woman and he wanted her. Bathsheba was another man's wife but that did not stop David. He committed murder and adultery in order to satisfy his lust and covetousness. One day a man asked a favor of Jesus: "Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But Jesus did not do as the man asked. Instead, he gave him a warning, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed or ...

252. Last Ditch Stand

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

... can. I have. Now. NANCY: [hurt, embarrassed] Think of Rod! JOHN: I am. Believe me, Rodney, I am! ROD: [ill at ease] Dr. Whitney, I appreciate your concern, but - JOHN: Do you? Then if you continue to see Nancy, you’ll have to stop smoking. NANCY: You’re lust picking on Rod! Some of your friends smoke! JOHN: I know. They will all be told they aren’t welcome anymore unless they stop smoking. HELEN: John, you can’t do that! JOHN: Yes, I can. ROD: [angry] Aren’t you taking a lot on yourself? JOHN: Yes ...

253. How Do You Like Yourself?

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... portrait away. But always with a terrible kind of fascination, he used to sneak off to the room where it was hidden and covered and uncover it and take a look. The constant changes in the picture, the ravages of age and self-indulgence and lust and self-centeredness and sin all began to show on the portrait, which finally ended up to depic a leering devil. The whole thing, of course, drove Dorian Gray insane. Keep running away from yourself long enough and you head straight for a nervous breakdown, which ...

254. Picking A Winner, Claiming A Treasure

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... to pay for it. For example, when a young man is smitten by love, he doesn't have to be persuaded to lay aside his little black book containing the names and phone numbers of other girls. If he has trouble doing that, he may be smitten by lust rather than love. If love is real, he counts all other romantic relationships as worthless compared to knowing his beloved. He becomes like Jacob of the Old Testament who had to serve seven years to obtain Rachel, and the years "seemed to him but a few days because ...

255. The Forbidden Anger

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... wrath." All of that sounds good when one is cool and collected, sitting peacefully in a worship service. But there is a problem here. The Sermon on the Mount asks the impossible of us humans. We are told to forgive our enemies seventy times seven times. Every lustful thought is labeled as sinful. Almost all divorce is outlawed. When someone does us wrong, we are labeled as sinful if we get angry; we are told to turn the other cheek. We are commanded to "be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect." It is ...

256. A Terrific Trade

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , actually to be sin for our sakes, so that in Christ we might be made good with the goodness of God." Let's suppose that I am wearing a coat that reveals the state of my soul. Every commandment I ever broke, every needy person I ever ignored, every lustful thought I ever had, every profanity I ever uttered...all have left dirty marks on my coat. What a filthy garment it is! I must wear the coat and no cleaner on earth can remove its stains, stains, and smudges. Let's suppose that Jesus approaches me. I try ...

257. When The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... hope to prevail. Education alone will not defeat racism. Reason alone will not eliminate casinos in Tunica or sexually oriented businesses in Memphis, because money is involved. Money causes people to justify almost anything. Will power alone cannot stand up against red-hot lust or greed or prejudice or resentment. Only be being Christ-transformed and Holy Spirit-filled can we hope to prevail. According to a story I heard, there was a Jewish lady named Mrs. Rosenberg who some years ago tried to get a room ...

258. All You Need To Know About Heaven

John 14:5-14, John 14:1-4

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... right. Every day is spent helping others, and it's great fun. The glory of God is so pervasive that you can hardly restrain a song, and even I will have a glorious baritone voice. Banished from this paradise are worry and grief and jealousy and frustration and lust and anger. You go to bed thinking that life can't get any better than this. But in the morning, it is! Now, if some cynic tells you that thinking about heaven is escapist or hopelessly sentimental, tell that person this: Only when I have my long ...

259. Victory

John 19:28-37

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

... imagine. When I hear these words, I think about Mary Magdalene. Hearing these words, she knew well their meanings in her life. She remembered well what it meant to live a life outside the will of the Father. She had sold herself as if she were a slave of lust. But one evening, one of her customers, perhaps, spoke of a man of God by the name of Jesus. Somewhere she heard and saw this Jesus for herself. The more she heard and saw, the more disturbing her life became. But somehow, in what she heard and saw, it ...

260. Decisive Battles With Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Robert Allen

... I can take the vow to become a priest." Bishop Sheen smiled and asked, "What’s the problem?" The young man said, "Bishop, I just don’t know if I can take the vow of celibacy and become a priest. I thought seminary would free me from the fantasies and lust which come into my heart and mind. But, now I am close to ordination as a priest in the church and those desires that used to tempt me are still tempting." Again, Bishop Sheen smiled and said, "Well, I have been a priest for over half a century and I ...

261. Judas

Luke 22:1-6

Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

... think he called you to be his follower because you have never lied or cursed or gossiped or cheated anyone? Do you think he wanted you to be his own because you have never had a greedy thought, or never cheated on your income tax, or never catered to the lusts of your own body? If you do, you’re only kidding yourselves. You are all sinners just as I was. You don’t deserve God’s favor any more than I did. It is the same God, who in mercy and love calls you, as it was who called me ...

262. Courageous Preaching

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... not our own backyard represent one of the largest and most challenging mission fields for the church? There are probably many reasons for this growing disenchantment with the church (I suspect that many people are simply bored with us!) but our growing lust for comfort and pleasure seems to be a major contributing factor to our growing amnesia. Martin Marty tells us that "the God killers today are not Marx, Freud and Darwin ... but high rise apartments, long weekends and mobility." There is little question ...

263. The Path of Dignity

Drama

William Grimbol

... ... to seek first after the Kingdom of God. Dignity emerges in full regal splendor, only in those risk taking lives that pick up crosses ... that wear crowns of thorns ... that taste the vinegar. In a world which revels in the easy life ... which lusts after recreation without re-creation ... which passions for the right to be immune to the pains and problems of our lives ... dignity is in danger of becoming a word which is obsolete. The righteous life, the life which pursues peace and justice and equality ...

264. A Man Whose Dreams Came True

Genesis 37:1-11

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... , Joseph became the chief steward, managing the business affairs of Pharaoh’s captain. Dreams vs. Allurement Potiphar liked this young man. So did many other people - including Potiphar’s wife! And so Joseph faced another problem, temptation - in this case, the lust of the flesh. Every dreamer confronts various temptations somewhere in his experience. Sooner or later, a vital choice must he made: right or wrong, good or evil, moral or immoral, truth or falsehood. And the final decision is made alone ...

265. A Shepherd Who Became a Sovereign

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... shouted that the man who had taken the pet ewe lamb should restore it fourfold (2 Samuel 12:6; see also Exodus 22:1 and Luke 19:8). He thus had sentenced himself - to a fourfold judgment: 1) the innocent baby, the fruit of his adulterous lust, became sick and died; 2) Amnon, one of David’s sons, lured his sister, Tamar, into his bedroom, forced himself upon her, and stole her virtue; 3) another son, Absalom, sought revenge by having his brother, Amnon, murdered; 4) then Absalom rose in rebellion against ...

266. A Man Who Was a Lion-Tamer

Daniel 6:1-28

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... , indicates this particular ability of Daniel’s to interpret dreams and visions (ch. 5). King Belshazzar (Daniel ministered during the reigns of several kings) had gathered together the lords and nobles from around his kingdom. They were enjoying a lustful, drunken feast of revelry and debauchery. At the height of the carousing, wishing to impress the princes and nobles, Beishazzar ordered his servants to the treasure house, commanding them to bring forth the gold and silver vessels which had been ...

267. John Wesley: Religion of the Heart

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... preacher’s kid" seemed cold, cruel, and intellectual. Then came May 24, 1738. Early in the morning he read in his Bible: "In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). A little later in the morning, Scripture came alive again as he read: "You are not far from the kingdom of God." In the afternoon, he stopped by St. Paul’s and ...

268. What Is God Like?

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Edward Chinn

... life as a heartfelt experience, as well as an historical fact. As believers in a heavenly Father, who has not been perplexed and pained at evil? There are the natural evils of cyclones, cancer, birth defects, earthquakes. There are the moral evils of pride, anger, lust, indifference, envy, greed, and gluttony. An old Greek philosopher, Epicurus, stated the problem well when he asked, "Is Deity willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able to prevent evil, but not willing? Then he is ...

269. Everybody a Cinderella

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... down beyond the slave that has encased us, and touches that inner dignity and worth, bringing it to new life. Love is the only gift that makes us able to live well in a world that does not make sense, that is illogical. Where avarice, envy, lust, and stupidity profit far beyond the virtues of honesty, justice, and humble service, how can virtue win the day? Love makes us feel triumphant in spite of the victories of evil. Love gives a divine sanction to override evil’s victories. Winning the battle of life ...

270. Which Self Are You?

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... economy of this world, has imbedded in a woman that which makes it possible for her to endure things which a man couldn’t possibly face. And so, she’s usually the tower of strength, she who we would think would be devastated. But there is also the lustful self, the greedy self, the foolish self, the proud self, the assertive self. These, we know, can be on the throne, and yet we separate ourselves from them. We hate our foolish self, but every man ought to live his real self and believe in it. Charles ...

271. The Good News of the Cross

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... of striving? How does He feel when He hears the thunder of guns and sees men hunt each other down like animals and blast each other into the tangled messes of blood-seared flesh? How does He feel when He sees His beautiful earth defaced by human greed, lust and passion? What is the feeling in the heart of God? Anger? Disgust? Pity? If you have seen the play, "Green Pastures," you remember that scene in which God looks down upon the earth, with His hands clasped behind His back, and He is torn between His ...

272. Focused Light

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... the "good news of peace." He sees its reflection in Cornelius. Here in God’s gospel of light all the old dark recesses of hate and suspicion and fear are illuminated, then vanquished. Wet, bloody boundaries between humans dry up and disappear. Secret lusts, closeted passions, hidden and suppressed appetites all surface as the searching brightness of Christ’s love bears in upon human lives. Nothing can long withstand the sharp surgery of God’s grace. The gospel of peace makes a difference in our lives ...

273. Blessed With Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

... by their own rules. They, by their own choice, have closed the avenue to heavenly peace. Isn’t it strange that we are tempted to look for peace every place but where it is found? Some people seek the psychiatrist’s couch, others try medicine, John Barleycorn, lustful pursuits, or emotional flings. But we never will achieve peace within ourselves until we place our lives in God’s hands and live according to his will and laws. God’s peace comes to us as his gift when we seek to live in harmony with ...

274. Do Not Let Him Find You Sleeping

Luke 12:32-40; Mark 13:1-37

Illustration

Brett Blair

... , opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof." I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away." Had Christ come before that fateful day ...

275. Love - A Christian Imperative

John 15:1-17

Sermon

George Bass

... . Through his death and resurrection, Christ does really make us into new creatures, and that because we abide in his love. Love - at the tree and tomb - has released us from those enemies that have made godly love impossible: fear, hatred, selfishness, lust, sin, and death have been defeated by Christ, and that makes it really possible for us to "abide in his love." Helmut Thielicke once wrote: "The Easter faith, then, is not just an upward glance to satisfy my curiosity about the mysterious hereafter ...

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