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 3126 to 3150 of 4959 results
3126. The Gift of Newness
2 Corinthians 5:17-20
Sermon
James McCormick
... Let me pull it all together now and say it one more time, and I will close with this. Years ago, a minister by the name of Allen Chalmers was assigned to a parish in a run down area known as “Hell’s Kitchen”. It was not a desirable assignment. Often he would go to the YMCA to play handball. There he met a young boy whom he called “Butch”. They became good friends, so that Butch began to call Allen Chalmers “Doc”. Periodically, Allen Chalmers would invite Butch to church, but Butch would always ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... she went back to the medicine man and said she too now wanted to have a baby, but he told her it was too late. Her fear of what others might say about her, her unwillingness to risk the unexpected had prevented her from her deepest‑most desire. (3) I laughed when I first read this story. A small baby can turn the most dignified adult into what might look to all the rest of the world like they have taken leave of their senses--saying such things as “kitchey, kitchey koo” and making distorted faces ...
3128. Attempting to Hear the Ocean in a Seashell
Acts 2:1-21
Illustration
Larry Powell
... in the presence of the very thing he was seeking, he was oblivious to the actuality. Some people have difficulty in recognizing that they have caught up to what they have been chasing, or are in the presence of the object of their desire. Such persons, in their extreme forms, are always running but never arriving, always searching but never discovering, always looking but never seeing, always measuring but the numbers are forever wrong. It would be unfair to describe Phillip and the other disciples as ...
3129. The 3 Rs of a Holy Life
2 Corinthians 13:1-14
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... Devil, no antithesis to God’s creative power in the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a). This Devil doesn’t make an appearance until the second creation story, the tale of the serpent and the forbidden fruit and the draw-down of desire. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit so that they might become “like God,” knowing good from evil. Willful disobedience, a passion for power, seeking to de-throne God, this was the origin of the Devil. Our own irrationalities, hatreds, fears, and despairs bring ...
3130. Feeling Like…
Matthew 28:16-20
Illustration
Paul van Dine
... about life wrapped up in that. For there is a difference between knowing we are supposed to do something, and ‘feeling like" doing it. There is a difference between a sense of obligation and a sense of generosity. There is a difference between obedience and desire. One of those weighs us down, while the other lifts us up. Christianity says to us, you do not know God, if you know Him only as a sense of authority over your life. Furthermore, you do not know God, if you merely believe intellectually ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... to think! Do you remember the story of Pinocchio the wooden puppet that wanted to be a real boy. It was to Pinocchio that Jiminy Cricket sang that wondrous hymn of hope: “When you wish upon a star / Makes no difference who you are /Anything your heart desires / Will come to you . . .” (5) That’s part of our cultural psyche. Your dreams can come true. All you have to do is to believe and work really, really hard. But the truth of the matter is that Abraham wasn’t a positive thinker, in the strict ...
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... is an activity which fully engages the individual. “Learning” is a discipline practiced in community. Torah is never “learned’ alone, only in partnership. Jesus joins this challenge to another comment, a condensed citation of Hosea 6:6: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offering.” The Pharisees held in contempt the very “tax collectors and sinners” with whom Jesus was eating because they were deemed ritually impure. For the Pharisees this ...
3133. What Does A Father Do?
Ephesians 6:1-4
Illustration
Erma Bombeck
... decisions and stand by them. When he is wrong and makes a mistake, he will admit it. He sets the tone for how family members treat one another, members of the opposite sex and people who are different than they are. By example, he can instill a desire to give something back to the community when its needs are greater than theirs. But mostly, a good father involves himself in his kids' lives. The more responsibility he has for a child, the harder it is to walk out of his life. A father has the potential ...
3134. Hospitality versus Entertaining
Matthew 10:40-42
Illustration
Karen Mains
Karen Mains distinguishes between Hospitality and Entertaining: Entertaining says, "I want to impress you with my home, my clever decorating, my cooking." Hospitality, seeking to minister, says, "This home is a gift from my Master. I use it as he desires."Hospitality aims to serve. Entertaining puts things before people. "As soon as I get the house finished, the living room decorated, my house cleaning done--then I will start inviting people." Hospitality puts people first. "No furniture--we'll eat on the ...
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
... ” vs. “mind” or “flesh” vs. “spirit.” For Paul’s argument it is this Greek notion of dualism within the individual that gives power to his punch. Although at least a portion of his “mind” recognizes the goodness of God’s law and genuinely desires to do “what is right,” the “flesh” in which he dwells is so thoroughly infiltrated by sin that a life of rightness will never be realized. This inability to do the right, to embody the goodness of God, is so perfectly predictable that ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... to be pro-abortion. Here are two people. One believes that a person should be allowed to rape a woman. Another believes it's wrong to rape a woman, but believes a person should have the right to choose to rape a woman if he desires. What effectively is the difference between those two positions? The answer is: none. Pro-choice people vote the same as pro-abortion people. Both oppose legal protection for unborn children. Both are willing for children to die by abortion for whatever reason. Incidentally, to ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... it must not sit silently and watch those community standards be under-mined; and Whereas, gay rights issues have been a recent focus of policy decisions from the federal to state and local levels of government; and Whereas, the Board of Commissioners desires to establish a public policy, which will be forwarded to appropriate elected officials on behalf of the community; and Whereas, the Board of Commissioners makes the following findings a fact: that the traditional family structure is in accord with those ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... ; who do not hesitate to take chances; who will not lose their individuality in a crowd; who will be as honest in small things as in great things; who will make no compromise with wrong; whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires; who will not say they do it "because everybody else does it"; who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity; who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning, and hardheadedness, are the best qualities ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... , it is honeybaked, but flattery is lying just the same. You ask what is flattery? Flattery is what you will say to a person's face that you would never say behind his back. It is not sincere praise for another person, it's rather the desire that the other person will ultimately praise you. There is nothing wrong with honoring someone unto honor is due. But whenever you praise another person it should be deserved, it should be honest, it should be accurate, and it should be sincere. Now I realize that ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... or woman in the US today would have lots of problems according to Lousig Nont and Associates, a pre-employment testing firm located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Out of 7,443 people that tested for honesty in 1993, 52% were ranked as low desirability for employment because they admitted to stealing, or thinking about stealing regularly, or said they would steal if they thought they had a good enough reason.[1] A growing position within larger companies is "Vice President for Lost Prevention," with the testing of ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... of students were surveyed and asked questions about the God they were going to serve. The findings were incredible. Given a bare choice between two statements about God, 80.3% of the seminarians preferred the statement: "God's love includes all people; His desire is that all should know Him" to the statement: "God is holy; evil will not triumph." Only 18.5% indicated a preference for the second statement, and only 1.1% indicated that they affirm both statements equally. Now though some students did not ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... in a bread pan makes you a biscuit. It would not matter if Billy Graham were your father, and Joan of Arc were your mother. Neither pedigree nor parentage makes a person a Christian. The second birth is "not of the will of the flesh." It is not of human desire. It has nothing to do with the fervency of your feelings. You were not born because you wanted to be; you were born because God wanted you to be. What is true physically is true spiritually. You don't decide when you are born again; you don't decide ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... a hand except one little guy named Derrick. When the teacher asked him why he didn't want to go to heaven, he said, "I'm sorry Mrs. Smith, but my Mommy told me to come home right after church."1 Well, like that little boy, heaven is still a desire and a dream for most Americans. 77% of Americans believe in heaven, and 76% of Americans believe their chances of getting there are "good or excellent."2 Now there are still some people who either don't believe in heaven or don't care to go there even if there ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... how we feel, but He was thirsty so that we might drink from Him the living waters of salvation and never be thirsty again. It is not coincidental that the last chapter of the Bible gives the last invitation and says, "Let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17) [1] John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL.: Intervarsity Press, 1986) pp. 336-337. 2 James Montgomery Boyce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervon, 1979) p. 217.
Sermon
James Merritt
... the rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked how to be saved, Jesus said, "One thing you lack." When Martha was arguing with Mary over what was really important in life, Jesus said to Martha, "One thing is needed." David said in Psalm 27:4, "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek." What was the one thing Paul was seeking? "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (v.14) The word for "goal" is skopos, which means "to look at." (We get our word ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... sex is dirty, but saying that sex is dangerous. In chapter seven he paints a portrait of the three steps to sexual catastrophe. You're going to find here a young man who was susceptible, an immoral woman who was available, and illicit sex that was desirable. When you have that combination remember that bad things are not only possible, but probable. a. Foolish Exposure "For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, and saw among the simple, I perceive among the youths, a young man devoid of ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... to be pro-abortion. Here are two people. One believes that a person should be allowed to rape a woman. Another believes it's wrong to rape a woman, but believes a person should have the right to choose to rape a woman if he desires. What effectively is the difference between those two positions? The answer is: none. Pro-choice people vote the same as pro-abortion people. Both oppose legal protection for unborn children. Both are willing for children to die by abortion for whatever reason. Incidentally, to ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... slave went to work in the fields, or was going to cook a meal, he would put on an apron. Peter is saying that we need to tie on the apron of humility, the humility of a slave. You see, a slave has no will of his own. He only desires to do the will of his master. His whole life is summed up in two words: submission and service. A slave has two duties: to determine the master's will and to do the master's work. That requires humility. We read here that humility is God's highway to ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... go to our country. But finally, we are to go to the continents. Jesus ended by saying that we are to go "to the end of the earth." That is, we are to saturate every place with the gospel of grace that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our desire should be that every nation would have printed on their currency, "In God We Trust." So we are to be His witnesses anywhere and we are to be His witnesses everywhere. Billy Graham tells the story of General Douglas MacArthur, who was talking to the Emperor of Japan ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... message to emphasize what I want you to hear—first of all, everybody needs somebody, and secondly, somebody is needed by everybody. Loners live lonely lives. There is an interesting verse in Proverbs that says, "A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment. (18:1) Eugene Peterson translates this verse, "Loners who care only for themselves, spit on the common good." One of the most fascinating things you'll find about serial killers, is that the vast majority of them ...
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