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 3051 to 3075 of 4959 results
Sermon
Thomas A. Pilgrim
... from Christmas with you. In the darkness of uncertainty, let the light of wonder shine on you. It will fill your life with joy and wonder. 1. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Once To Every Man (New York: Atheneum, 1978), p. 85. 2. Donald J. Shelby, “King Of The Nations, Their Desire And Cornerstone,” Santa Monica Sermons, December 4 (Santa Monica, California: First United Methodist Church, 1983), p. 7.
Sermon
Thomas A. Pilgrim
... , “So everything will be back to normal again.” His response to that was, “Mama, I don’t want things to get back to normal again.” On this second Sunday after Christmas, we have the thought in our minds that Christmas is over. There is often the urge, the desire, to pack everything up and get it out of the way. But, sometimes, I think we rush away from it too quickly, do too good a job at cleaning up after it, and in that we run the risk of removing it from our lives. What if after Christmas ...
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
... criticizing and prophetic energizing - both of which appear in abundance in the Hebrew Scriptures. Prophetic criticizing takes a laser-sharp look at the world and lifts up all the blatant sin and selfishness of the world. Prophetic criticizing proclaims God's dream and desire for creation and then attacks each one of us in the heart of our apathy and our greed. Prophetic criticizing drops bombs of honest judgment and leaves us writhing in the ashes of guilt and failure, with radical repentance the only hope ...
3054. Call Waiting
John 1:29-42
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
... with a group of junior highs in a Congregational church in Newton, Massachusetts, that I began to receive the answer to that all-important question. Those adolescents painfully reminded me of myself - with my restless energy, my peripatetic mind, my mercurial sense of self-esteem, my desire to be good and to see good and to do good in the world. What was I looking for? I was looking for a balanced life - where truth and passion could give voice to the God in me and the God in others - where justice could ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... that is often littered with hurdles, potholes, and other obstacles. Some people are in pain — sometimes physical but more often psychological. Others are alienated from family, friends, church, or society. Many live on the fringes of society, not because of their own desires, but through the attitude and conduct of others. We are called to be the Ragman, the Christ, and shoulder their burdens and share their pain. Let us, therefore, during this sacred and blessed Holy Week take some extra time in our very ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... resurrection as Jesus' greatest triumph, Saint John sees the suffering Christ as the epitome of the Christian call. Jesus not only goes to the cross willingly, as depicted by the synoptic evangelists, he finds his greatest exaltation in his willingness to sacrifice his own desires and needs for the betterment of all. Jesus finds his glory in being cut down for all. If we wish to be true disciples, then we must follow, fully. If we believe that Jesus' death is salvific, then to follow his lead will assist ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
... not feel comfortable doing nothing, just being. It is difficult to accept the moment. However, if we empty ourselves somewhat, then we can make room for God and God's works. In order to make room we must have the hope that God can fill our needs and desires. I have often questioned why the apostles were running to the tomb. After all, Jesus had died, was there any need to run? They must have had the hope that Jesus' promise, namely that he would rise, was true, and, thus, they ran to find the resurrected ...
3058. What Is Success?
Matthew 7:24-29
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... to look to Christ and his words in the Bible and see if we can learn what success is. In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus told the parable of the wise and foolish builders. In this story both men decided to build a house, both men worked at it, both desired to succeed. Furthermore, both of them heard the word of God, finished their work, moved into their buildings and both suffered through a severe storm. The trouble is, while one heard the word and was careful to do it, the other only heard the word but did not do it ...
3059. How to Motivate People
Matthew 10:1-42, Matthew 9:18-26
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... not just a select few. Jesus showed Matthew and those gathered with him how important they were to God. He Chose Now here is a key principle to establish in discipling. Christ wouldn't allow people to choose him. Instead he chose them. He selected those "whom he desired." The question is, why? Think for a moment. Aren't there a lot of people who want to be with you, people who constantly make demands on your time, but who aren't really all that interested in your gospel? Oh, they like you because you are a ...
3060. The Cry for Help
Matthew 15:21-28
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... us," says the First Letter of John, "for God is greater than our hearts." The simple truth is that God really does love all people and finally doesn't make any distinction between Jews and Canaanites, between those who appear to be righteous externally and those who don't. God "desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" - and not just "everyone" as an abstraction but you and you and you. God's salvation is there for the asking, for all who ask it in faith.
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... world to which Jesus Christ came was a divided world - rich against poor, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, male and female, Greek and barbarian. Other religious leaders entered this arena and compounded the problem with strict caste systems, classes of desirables and undesirables, infidels and faithfuls. Jesus Christ, however, was the only religious leader tall enough to see over all the fences we have erected to divide ourselves. At his birth, wise men and shepherds, animals, the rich and poor, male and ...
3062. How to Love God
Matthew 22:34-46
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... the command were bound to the wrist and forehead of faithful Jews so they'd not forget it. "You shall love the Lord your God." That is what God wants from us. Love - the most intimate and warm, creative and committed of human acts - this is God's desire of us. In inviting our affections, God provides us in scripture with a really memorable picture of our love relationship. Often God refers to himself in Christ as the groom and people of faith and love as his bride (the book of Hosea; Revelation 19:7-9 ...
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... . Highly contagious. Wrapped in rags. Made to dwell apart. Ten different stories of life interrupted. Careers ruined. Families broken. Dreams shattered. Then came Jesus. He healed them all, and pell-mell they began to rush back into the city. Each had an agenda, a thirsty desire to pick up the life they'd had to abandon. One man, seeing he was healed, returned to fall at Jesus' feet to give gratitude. The other nine? They were "no shows." Perhaps they felt lucky. Or maybe they were just plain impolite. Or ...
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
... carefully and see what happened. He saw God high and lifted up. He saw his own sin -- especially his ugly tongue. He saw his redemption so lovingly and fearfully provided by God, and he saw what God had for him to do." "But what about your tastes? Your desires? Your personal preferences?" "Listen, I don't go to church asking, 'Do I like it?' I go asking, 'Does God like it?' You see, worship is not all about me. It's all about God." Conclusion: Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Two men. The same ...
3065. Redundant Love
Matthew 22:34-40
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... ? Jesus cut through all the redundancy, even cutting to the very heart and soul and mind of faith, when he proposed that The Greatest Commandment wasn't really a commandment at all: it was an invitation to a love relationship with God. The greatest desire, the greatest attribute, the greatest goal of all God's redundancy is love. But Jesus wouldn't allow us to isolate or atomize this love. Jesus made it poignantly personal: love means loving the neighbor as one loves oneself. It's easy to love humanity ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (verse 8). Just fitting in, fulfilling the letter of the law, was no longer Paul's identity. Fitting in was no longer the reason for his existence. Instead faith in Christ (verse 9) and the overwhelming desire to know Christ (verse 10) so transformed Paul's life that his entire perspective changed. Instead of proclaiming his past, extolling the exactness with which he had fit in, Paul now focuses on forgetting what lies behind for it's loss. Locked in a ...
3067. A Cubed Community
Matthew 18:15-20
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... to the people of Israel. First, the ark; then the ark of the covenant (Exodus 36-37); then the Temple (1 Kings 6). All are described down to the last detail, the last "cubit." Part of the reason for the divine detailing of the blueprints was the desire for God's "space" to take on three dimensions, length, depth, and breadth first in the minds of the people, and then on the landscape of Israel. It is this three-dimensional detailing of the lives of God's people that keeps the scriptures as alive today ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... this truth: the state of creation is intimately linked to the state of human actions and attitudes. Poisonous attitudes begat a poisoned environment. The rage of war leaves behind ravaged, savaged land. No ecosystem can remain in balance as long as the desires of humanity are imbalanced. Paul links together the fall of Adam and the consequent fall of creation with a poignant description. All creation groans, as he puts it, to be brought back into its God-created condition, its perfect relationship with ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... have any interest in happiness because happiness CAN be bought. McDonald's got it right in its kid-oriented package called a Happy Meal. Happiness is a cheap, momentary, easily purchased and easily discarded feeling rooted in the fulfillment of selfish desires. In today's epistle text Peter is concerned with spelling out the most basic building blocks of Christian faith. Today's passage enumerates what makes the way of Christ distinct, unique, and worth the hardships a 1st century confessing Christian was ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... in Hebrews 5:13-14: "When God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself saying, 'I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you." And again in Hebrews 6:17-18: "In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement." The blind man didn't ...
3071. Yellow Lights
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... of dishes were merely appetizers." When we stuff ourselves on appetizers in life, we save no room for the true meal. Appetizers were never intended to satiate our appetite, but to stimulate our appetite for the main course. Appetizers are good and tasty. And fulfilled desires, like appetizers, do satisfy some of our needs. But we must never mistake them for the meat that nourishes our souls. Hear God's wisdom for us: 'Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... sold by the check-out stand in that particular aisle. Whether it's the gum aisle, the candy aisle, the cough drop aisle, or the battery aisle, cajoling, whining, nagging, begging, even out-right crying and screaming is sure to break out as the desired goody is passed. The child knows that if they beg, moan, screech, or scream long and loud enough, there's a good chance that the adult-in-charge may cave in - either out of embarrassment, or exhaustion, or because some primitive survival gene suddenly takes ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... Let feeding the hungry get under your skin; Let forgiveness of those who have wronged you get under your skin; Let a thirst for justice get under your skin; Let the needs of your children, your spouse, your parents, your church, your community, get under your skin; Let a desire for God's grace and goodness get under your skin; Let a hunger for things of the Spirit get under your skin. Our skin-deep society costs a lot of cash. It's not just the plastic surgeons who are getting rich on $10,000 face-lifts or ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... for the anticipated reaction to come about. To achieve such perfect stirring, of course, the chemist has to depend upon engineered mixers, stirrers, and swirlers. Human chemists can't maintain the consistency and duration needed to achieve the results they desire. Communities striving to bring a sourdough spirituality to spongy, tangy, ripeness must depend upon other than their own resources. To bring about the perfect mixing needed to fully leaven the members of the body of Christ, Jesus left behind the ...
3075. Deep Faith
Acts 17:16-34
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... full buses and then detonate themselves into oblivion. · They're the pedophile priests who transform the house of God into a house of horrors. · They're the children who start gang fights with other children over the color of their handkerchief or over the desire for a new pair of sneakers. · They're the teenagers who walk armed to the teeth into their school and blow teachers and classmates away. · They're the corporate executives who milk stock sales for huge profits and then watch from the safety of ...
Showing results