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 276 to 300 of 376 results

276. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve

Matthew 9:35-38, Matthew 10:1-42

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... discourse’s audience to include more explicitly Matthew’s readers. Reviewing the entire Mission Discourse, Jesus’ quite specific instructions in 10:5–15 (e.g., do not go to the Gentiles; take no bag for the journey) keep the Twelve more keenly in mind as the recipients of these words. However, even the second-person pronouns (which are plurals throughout) begin to draw the reader into Jesus’ teachings, especially as the chapter proceeds without narrative interruption (e.g., 10:19–20). As Jesus ...

277. Eschatological Discourse: Being Prepared for Jesus’ Return

Matthew 24:36-51, Matthew 25:1-13

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... being slandered for their allegiance to Jesus, has multiple admonitions to be alert and sober. The first occurs within an exhortation to hope in the grace that will be given at Jesus’ coming (1 Pet. 1:13). Here, as in Matthew, preparation is tied to keen anticipation of what is to come—grace (1 Peter) and joy (Matt. 25:1–13). A second reference comes in 1 Peter 4:7, where the purpose is to encourage prayer (similar connection at Col. 4:2). The final admonition to watchfulness comes at the end ...

278. John the Baptist

Luke 3:1-20

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... to John (7:33–34; 9:7–9, 19; 11:1; 20:1–8), and Jesus himself will emphasize the pivotal importance of John’s ministry (7:24–28). Here the scene is set for that later linkage. Historical and Cultural Background In 3:1–2 Luke is keen to set the story of Jesus in its wider historical context within Roman and Jewish history. The date that he describes is probably AD 28/29 (depending on how the beginning of Tiberius’s reign is calculated). The “Herod” who is now tetrarch of Galilee (and Perea ...

279. Lord of the Sabbath and Appointing the Twelve

Luke 6:12-16, Luke 6:1-11

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... will later describe Peter and John as “unschooled, ordinary men” (Acts 4:13). Nor were the Twelve an altogether compatible group: Simon “the Zealot” was not necessarily a committed freedom fighter (the later meaning of “zealot”), but he was at least a keen nationalist and upholder of the law (the meaning of “zealot” in Acts 21:20; 22:3; Gal. 1:14), which would have made him an uncomfortable colleague for Levi/Matthew the tax collector. Teaching the Text This passage introduces two important ...

280. Rejecting or Responding to Jesus

Luke 10:1-24

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... of Jesus have a privilege denied to even the holiest of the saints of Israel, that of being present at the realization of the fulfillment to which the prophets and kings could only look forward. Compare 1 Peter 1:10–12 (where even the angels are keen to get a look in!); Hebrews 11:39–40. Theological Insights Luke 10:22 (= Matt. 11:27) is perhaps the highest point in the Synoptic Gospels’ presentation of the status of Jesus, the Son of God. Often described as a “Johannine moment,” this verse has ...

281. The Risen Jesus Revealed

Luke 24:13-35

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... Galilean disciples, the church in Acts will emerge. Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know? From the disciples’ point of view, the execution of Jesus dominated their recent experience. Others in the crowded city at festival time may not have been so keenly aware of it. It was the events recorded in Acts 2–5 that would bring Jesus’s name more fully into public notice some weeks later. 24:19–21 a prophet . . . we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. This ...

282. Leadership and Servanthood

1 Corinthians 4:1-21, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... the world’s wisdom foolish (3:19). 3:21 no more boasting about human leaders! Christian faith is not about human leaders, who are mere mortals, but about God (1:31; Gal. 6:14). When Christians follow God and his wisdom, they will become keenly aware that both their human leaders (Paul, Apollos, Cephas) and their victory over their human concerns (world, life, death, present, future) have been granted as gifts from God (3:22). All this belongs to Christians already since they belong to Christ and Christ ...

283. Marriage, Sexual Intimacy, and Spiritual Devotion

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... . Those who call the one who reconciled the world unto himself Lord should submit to one another and find reconciliation. Nothing less will evidence Christ’s power and presence. That is the principle among Christians as taught by Christ. Paul’s keen awareness of the specific situation in Corinth, however, and his obvious change of tone in these verses, from directives to pastoral guidance, gives this command a softer edge. As verses 8–9 and 12–15 show, special circumstances must be considered ...

284. Many Parts, One Body

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... various body parts, now exhibited in the Museum of Ancient Corinth, give further evidence to the significance of Paul’s description. Connected to the temple of Asclepius (the god of healing), these terra-cotta models of afflicted body parts show, if nothing else, a keen awareness of the significance individual parts have for the well-being of the whole body. The illustrative force of 12:12–30 seems obvious, but it would be a mistake to reduce Paul’s body metaphor to a mere illustration. Verse 12’s ...

285. Spiritual Gifts and Spiritual Growth

1 Corinthians 14:1-25

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... , the Spirit must also give the ability to translate the tongue into intelligible language (14:13). The finesse of Paul’s rhetoric allows him to simultaneously dismiss the claims of those who considered themselves spiritually superior because of their tongue speaking and to promote a keen awareness of the importance of the Spirit’s gifts for Christ’s body (cf. 1 Thess. 5:19; Eph. 4:29–30). 14:6 if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be . . . ? To prove his point with even greater ...

286. Last Encouragement and Final Greeting

1 Corinthians 16:19-24, 1 Corinthians 16:5-18

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... did between the cities of their business, it would have been rather understandable if they had remained aloof and become only loosely involved in the local groups of Christian believers. The temptation to consider each place temporary, however, was overcome by the keen awareness of their position as disciples (clients) of their Lord (patron), Christ. Since Christ had appointed them for service in his household, they were not free to put that on hold while traveling or while waiting for the next place in ...

287. Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

Job 6:1–7:21

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... Job says is a positive example of how we should handle pain in our lives, he does help us to think through how to respond to God and to others in times of adversity. Job’s opening words in this speech express the weight of his despair. He keenly feels the pain of his great adversity, and he is open and vocal in stating how he feels. In this, Job follows the pattern of lament psalms, in which the psalmists give voice to their feelings as they pour their hearts out before the Lord. In imprecatory psalms ...

288. Job Feels under Attack by God

Job 16:1-17:16

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... “Where then is my hope?” Job frames the right question, but he does not as yet know the right answer. That answer will come to Job only when Yahweh finally speaks to him in chapters 38–41. 17:16 Will we descend together into the dust? Job is feeling the keen sting of grief from the loss of his family, and he realizes that death cannot give his children back to him. As in 3:17–19 and 7:9 (cf. Ps. 6:5), death is viewed as a shadowy and joyless semi-existence in which the dead are trapped. Job ...

289. Job Hears the Whispers of God’s Works

Job 26:1--31:40

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... ). They use fire to crack open the subterranean rock in order to expose its ore and gemstones (28:5). 28:7–11 No bird of prey knows that hidden path. It is hard to imagine seeing better or farther than a falcon, but humans surpass even the keen-sighted birds of prey as they search for wealth. None of the four kinds of wild animals cited in verses 7–8 has gone to the lengths that humans have in their attempt to find wisdom. Although humans seek throughout the whole world in their diligent search, they ...

290. Yahweh Speaks as the Master Teacher

Job 38:1--41:34

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... us that his knowledge is infinite while ours is finite. Television: Perry Mason. In the old television series Perry Mason, based on the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, the title character (played by Raymond Burr) was renowned for his keen ability to use questions during his cross-examination to destroy the legal argument presented by the prosecuting attorney. His skillful interrogations illustrate Yahweh’s approach to Job, bringing in a right perspective. Art: William Blake. The fourteenth engraving in ...

291. “Lord, Our Lord, How Majestic Is Your Name in All the Earth!”

Psalm 9:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... stars (8:3), the beasts, fish, and birds (8:7–8), and finally, humanity as the culmination of the works of creation (8:4–6). In Genesis these are concluded with God’s deputizing humanity to subdue and rule over creation (Gen. 1:28), something the psalmist is keenly aware of (Ps. 8:6). Even though he does not use the term “image” of God, he is conscious of the general concept and seems to allude to it with the words, “You have made him a little lower than God” (8:5 NASB). Humanity was made in ...

292. “The Lord Looks Down . . . to See If There Are Any Who Understand”

Psalm 14:1-7

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... is the spiritual malady that marks every generation of human history—and we have good reason to believe it is—the denial of God is common to every age, even though it assumes different forms. It goes without saying that this vacuum of faith is more keenly discerned by men and women of faith. When the psalmist looked at the behavior of the naysayers, he recognized that their disavowal of God’s existence had a direct correlation to the moral decline of his day. The deniers were, so to speak, not holding ...

293. “As the Deer Pants for Streams of Water, So My Soul Pants for You, My God”

Psalm 42:1-11, Psalm 43:1-5

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... no resolution to his dilemma, except in hope that God will in time resolve it. The suppliant’s prayer for vindication against an “unfaithful nation” (43:1; see the comments on this verse) implies that, given his location in the northern kingdom, he keenly feels Israel’s unfaithfulness. One possibility is that the psalmist’s absence from Jerusalem was due to exile related to David’s flight from Absalom (but David fled in the opposite direction from Mount Hermon). Psalm 43 may very well have been ...

294. “You Laugh at Them, Lord; You Scoff at All Those Nations”

Psalm 59:1-17

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... others use their words to hurt or destroy them. God’s presence at the point of the pen Quote: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Teilhard de Chardin was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who was also trained as a naturalist. He was well known for his keen powers of observation, and his thoughts about God were deeply influenced by insights gained from the world around him. He wrote, “We know we are Christians when we are attuned to God’s presence ‘at the point of my pen, my pick, my paint-brush, my ...

295. God Subjugates Judah under Babylon

Daniel 1:1-21

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... (34:15–22). God lovingly demonstrates his care for faithful servants. God’s work behind the scenes is ever present. Quote: Theology of the Old Testament, by Walther Eichrodt. Eichrodt, one of the most famous Old Testament theologians of the twentieth century, has keenly observed: The man [or woman] who knows God hears his step in the tramp of daily events, discerns him near at hand to help, and hears his answer to the appeal of prayer in a hundred happenings outwardly small and insignificant, where ...

296. Nabuchadnezzar’s Dream and Daniel's Interpretation

Daniel 2:1-23, Daniel 2:24-49

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... ; Rev. 14:8). This applies to the spiritual inauguration of God’s kingdom at Jesus’s first coming and still foreshadows its full establishment at his return.4 Teaching the Text 1. God’s work in human history. There will always be a keen interest in knowing the future, whether distant or near. Moreover, God can and will reveal such details in time—although perhaps not in our lifetime. This passage contains a partial and more general revelation of some of those details. Admonish your listeners to look ...

297. Jephthah

Jud 10:6–11:40

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... with the Ammonites in 10:7 as people into whose hands the Lord has sold Israel perhaps anticipates also the Samson cycle. In the narrative featuring Jephthah, however, the focus is on the Ammonites. In addition, although the Ammonite oppression seems to be most keenly felt by the tribes east of the Jordan, 10:9 makes it clear that the western and southern tribes, such as Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, are also affected, so that the crisis is justifiably presented as national. This time, not only is Israel ...

298. A Useless Vine

Ezekiel 15:1-8

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of 587/6 BC—will consume them. It is not unusual for Israel to be referred to as a vine, and even as a choice vine. Both Isaiah (5:1–7) and Jeremiah (2:21) speak of God as a vinedresser who experiences keen disappointment over his vine’s failure to bring forth good fruit. Ezekiel, however, goes further than either Isaiah or Jeremiah. He suggests that a vine by its very nature is useless. For Ezekiel, uselessness is a congenital condition. He fails to see any future for the ...

299. The Second Coming and Reception

Zechariah 12:1-9, Zechariah 12:10-14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... to the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. This most likely refers to the tradition of mourning for the death of Josiah in battle with Pharaoh Necho in the plains of Megiddo (2 Chron. 35:22–25). The loss of Josiah was keenly felt, particularly by the godly of the land, his death being a catastrophe. Thus the mourning of Israel described here is compared to that associated with great personal loss and terrible national catastrophe. The mourning is individualized to stress the fact that this is ...

300. Jesus Before Pilate

Matthew 27:11-26

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... is presumably less versed in the religious nature of Jewish messianic hopes. So both charges imply sedition. They fear that this Jesus may be preparing to lead a rebellion against Rome, which both the Jerusalem elite and Rome (Pilate) would have been keen on suppressing. While Jesus acknowledges his kingship when asked by Pilate (27:11), he does not defend himself when the Jerusalem authorities bring charges against him (27:12–14). Pilate offers to release one prisoner (according to his custom; 27:15) and ...

Showing results