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 326 to 350 of 376 results

326. The World Hates the Disciples

John 15:18--16:4

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... the promise that he will send the Spirit to the disciples from the Father (v. 26). Even more than in the first discourse, the Spirit’s presence with the disciples is promised especially in situations of persecution, when they would feel Jesus’ absence most keenly. To this extent the Spirit’s function is the same as it is in the synoptic Gospels: to enable the disciples to stand firm under hostile questioning and to testify faithfully about Jesus to their persecutors (vv. 26–27; cf. Mark 13:11; Matt ...

327. Wives and Husbands

1 Peter 3:1-7

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... that women are simply tools for men to use! That would be contrary to the spirit of the whole verse. Hinder: The verb enkoptein, to block, is used of making a road impassable by means of barricades or potholes. The rabbis were keenly aware of the possibility of prayer being hindered. “Whenever you find a dwelling mentioned, Satan becomes active [by the Hebrew word for dwelling the rabbis understood to live in tranquillity]. Wherever you find contentment, Satan brings accusations [so as to disturb it ...

328. The Fall of Man

Genesis 3:1-24

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... supply of food in the garden and had to work the stubborn soil for a seasonal harvest of food that too often was hardly sufficient for the needs of their family. Having to toil in order to live in a harsher environment, the first couple keenly felt the sting of these penalties in daily living. That is, outside the garden the couple continually experienced a foretaste of death. God’s manner of executing this penalty illustrates his character. God acted in mercy, allowing the humans to continue to live. God ...

329. Jeroboam Rebels Against Solomon

1 Kings 11:26-40

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... quite good at playing the snake, if not quite so convincing as the dove (1 Kgs. 2). As far as wisdom in administration is concerned (1 Kgs. 4–5), the NT is plainly in favor of it (e.g., Acts 6:3). Yet the NT is, like the Solomon story, keenly aware of the inadequacies of and dangers inherent in a wisdom that is simply “from below.” The NT authors know that it can express itself as idle words and empty philosophy, if not as outright apostasy and “freedom” from God’s law (e.g., Rom. 1:21–25; Col ...

330. Solomon's Death

1 Kings 11:41-43

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

331. Elijah on Mount Carmel

1 Kings 18:16-46

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... , would be able to respond to shouts, no matter what he was doing. But he would be most unlikely in any event to be travelling or busy (i.e., attending to bodily functions, relieving himself), much less having a lunchtime snooze. The humor is keen, if basic. 18:29 Their frantic prophesying: The kind of condition apparently in view is also well-attested outside Palestine. The most interesting example from the point of view of this passage is given by the Egyptian traveller Wen-Amon (around 1100 B.C.), who ...

332. Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

Isaiah 37:1-13

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... . 37:5–7 The word of Yahweh now comes, for Hezekiah’s instinct was the right one. It rather sounds as if Isaiah knew what had been going on. If he had not been there listening on the wall, presumably there would have been a line of people keen to report events to him. He has therefore had a chance to listen to God about the matter. His response is twofold, corresponding to the two issues raised by the Assyrian and by Hezekiah’s message. First is Yahweh’s characteristic do not be afraid (see 7:4 ...

333. True Fasting

Isaiah 58:1-14

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... off the hook with its repeated seem, which is not present in the Hebrew (contrast NRSV, though its “as if” has something of the same effect). The word “seem” suggests that the people were insincere. The prophet does not say that. They were keenly committed people. The trouble was that they were blindly so. As happened in chapter 56 (where tsedaqah and mishpat recur, though with different meaning), the prophet thus begins with a general challenge but then particularizes it in a way that may surprise ...

334. Jesus' No-Nonsense Guide to Discipleship

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... once told me that Sunday morning was the highlight of her week. "I love gathering together," she said. "That's when I feel I can praise God the best." Another values his few moments of quiet time before starting work. Another senses God's presence most keenly when she's sorting through donated clothes in the basement of the local thrift store. As Bartimaeus came to Jesus, he discovered that Jesus had a question for him: "What do you want?" Here was his big opportunity. Bartimaeus did not ask for money the ...

335. Sacrificial Love and Hedonism

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Jesus said: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Many years ago, college president William Banowski interviewed Hugh Hefner. He wrote of this encounter: I was made keenly aware of the universal appeal of Jesus during one of my conversations with Hugh Hefner in Chicago. As we talked, Mr. Hefner surprised me by saying, "If Christ were here today and had to choose between being on the staff of one of the joy-killing, pleasure-denying churches, he ...

336. The Power of Hypocrisy

Illustration

R. C. Sproul

... an "opiate for the masses" that could be explained totally in terms of economics. Today there are billions of people in the world who live under the system invented by this embittered man. His name, of course, is Karl Marx. The influence of this father's hypocrisy is still being keenly felt around the world.

We hate the hypocrite more keenly than the mere liar because the hypocrite adds to his lie the lacquer of flattery, which we are gullible enough to accept as tribute to our merit.

Paul Eldridge

338. Proclaim the Gospel

Illustration

Karl Barth

... living, it must ask itself whether it is serving this commission or whether it is a purpose in itself. If the second is the case, then as a rule it begins to smack of the "sacred," to affect piety, to play the priest and to mumble. Anyone with a keen nose will smell it and find it dreadful! Christianity is not "sacred"; rather there breathes in it the fresh air of the Spirit. Otherwise it is not Christianity. For it is an out-and-out "worldly" thing open to all humanity: "Go into all the world and proclaim ...

339. The Passion of Envy

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

What we have not poisons what we have… Our urge to acquire things is due less to the passion to possess them than to the vanity of feeling superior to those who envy our possession of them…Envy transmutes other people's base metals into gold… Our envy is the yeast that swells the fortune of others… No form of hatred is as keen as envy. It magnifies the importance of our enemy—and belittles our own.

340. A Hall of Fame Dad

John 16:12-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... me think that Joseph must have been a very special kind of dad. We center much of our attention on his mother, Mary, but Joseph surely combined those very special qualities of strength and gentleness that we associate with Jesus. Jesus had a very keen knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures. In the Jewish home it was the father who had the primary responsibility for his son’s religious instruction. Of course we know that Jesus had a unique relationship with God. Still, I have to believe that Joseph ...

341. Reading the Last Chapter First

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... the heart and mind of God. Pastor A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Jesus does not offer an opinion, for He never uttered opinions. He never guessed; He knew, and He knows. His words are not as Solomon’s were, the sum of sound wisdom or the results of keen observation. He spoke out of the fullness of the Godhead, and His words are very Truth itself.” Why is that important in this moment? Because Jesus had just warned his disciples that he was going to face a brutal, shameful and public death, and that as his ...

342. The Order of the Magi

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Y2K] would be a crisis without precedent in human history." Robert Metcalfe (the inventor of Ethernet) wrote an article for Infoworld in December 1995 in which he predicted, "I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse." Andrew Keen thought that Knol, Google's Wikipedia competitor, would end up on top. Google shut down Knol back in April 2012. Sometimes, we can know THAT something big is going to happen, but not exactly how it will play out. And in Year ...

343. Formed by the Potter's Loving Hand

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15, John 8:48-59, John 9:1-12

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a combination of both? Perhaps scent and intuition are somehow bound within the complexity of our sensory bodies and intuitive minds. Of course, we all know the power of scent. Even as well-developed as we are as human beings, we still have a keen sense of smell that provokes in us not just like or dislike of one scent or another. Smell stirs memory. Smell influences mood. So, when we approach someone and get an uncomfortable, unexplainable feeling….are we sensing something about that person’s emotions ...

344. God Has Not Forgotten You

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... down roots into what feels like a very different culture than what had been before, where Christianity and the church had the home court advantage. Like the man sitting in the port, waiting for his ship to come in, our eyes are focused on the past so keenly, that we miss every opportunity we have in the present. In the time our elderly gentleman spent waiting, he could have built his own ship. In the time we in the church have spent lamenting and complaining, we could have planted an entire vineyard of God ...

345. The Wind Came

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... toward one another and a concern for each person’s well-being. Christ’s disciples, when they received that great outpouring of spiritual joy and grace were not split up into various contending factions, each seeking to protect his own position and power. They still had keen remembrance of our Lord’s earnest supplication when he prayed, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I ...

346. Our Strange, Strong Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... with overt immediacy, sometimes surreptitiously. In the wakeful hours of the night, in tears that will not go away, in churning stomach and half-held breath, desolation is an easy companion, abandonment an easy fear. Sometimes I have known the Holy Spirit’s presence keenly at a time most needed: a sense of uncanny calm in the midst of threatening chaos; a centeredness that kept me anchored to something beyond myself when all around me life tossed and heaved. Sometimes I have only known of the Spirit’s ...

347. A Dirt Story

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... pulpit.] None of us like to be reminded that we are made out of dirt. And, yet, you could construe our lesson for today to be telling us that we are just that—dirt. But before you get offended, give me the opportunity to explain. Jesus was a keen observer of the world around him. His observations resulted in many of the parables that he told. That is certainly true in today’s parable. It is a simple parable yet it appears in all three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—which suggests that it is ...

We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired by glory.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ratio To the ecstasy.

Emily Dickinson

The keen spirit seizes the prompt occasion.

Hannah Moore

Showing results

Antonyms: aversion, distaste, apathy, dislike, hatred, antipathy, disgust, disregard, abhorrence, acrimony, wet, animosity, animus, antagonism, bad feeling, bitterness, be averse to, detestation

Showing 326 to 350 of 376 results

326. The World Hates the Disciples

John 15:18--16:4

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

327. Wives and Husbands

1 Peter 3:1-7

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

328. The Fall of Man

Genesis 3:1-24

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

329. Jeroboam Rebels Against Solomon

1 Kings 11:26-40

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

330. Solomon's Death

1 Kings 11:41-43

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

331. Elijah on Mount Carmel

1 Kings 18:16-46

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

332. Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

Isaiah 37:1-13

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

333. True Fasting

Isaiah 58:1-14

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

334. Jesus' No-Nonsense Guide to Discipleship

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

April Yamasaki

335. Sacrificial Love and Hedonism

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

336. The Power of Hypocrisy

Illustration

R. C. Sproul

We hate the hypocrite more keenly than the mere liar because the hypocrite adds to his lie the lacquer of flattery, which we are gullible enough to accept as tribute to our merit.

Paul Eldridge

338. Proclaim the Gospel

Illustration

Karl Barth

339. The Passion of Envy

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

340. A Hall of Fame Dad

John 16:12-15

Sermon

King Duncan

341. Reading the Last Chapter First