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 26 to 50 of 215 results

26. A Little Effort

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

Brett Blair

Apathy is the opposite of Faith: Some years ago in South America, a crew of Peruvian Sailors, headed up the Amazon river came upon a strange sight. It was like a scene from ... mouth of the Amazon river, anchored for days, too far from land to see the coast, but not too far from the mouth of the River, they had fresh water in abundance. Apathy had over taken them and they had quit. They were resigned to die when all that was needed was to lower their bucket. A small effort would have made all the difference.

27. Liberty And Civility

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . These nations have progressed through the following sequence": From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back to bondage. You know as well as I that our nation has lost, in the last 20 years, a great deal of its gentleness, it's kindness, it's civility. Children are increasingly belligerent ...

28. A Colt Is Not A Horse

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... than by Henry Sloane Coffin who identified these ills as religious intolerance (the Pharisees), commercial privilege (the Sadducees), political expediency (Pontius Pilate), pleasure loving irresponsibility (Herod Antipas), unfaithfulness (Judas), mob spirit (the crowds), militarism (the soldiers) and public apathy. Those are our ills and so we sing, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" The Cross reveals the reality of sin. Evil's reality is evident in that the only ones who were with Jesus when ...

29. How To Be Truly Wealthy

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... of great prosperity and peace too. Author Walker Percy clears up the mystery when he points out that hard times often bring out the best in people, like courage, determination, and a sense of humor. But prosperity and abundance often lead to misplaced priorities, boredom, and apathy. (7) Comedian Joan Rivers jokes, “People say money is not the key to happiness, but I have always figured that if you have enough money, you can have a key made.” (8) But if money is not the answer, then what is? Do we want ...

30. The Day Is Not For Sleeping

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . So, in the verses that we are focusing on -- verses five and six -- he calls us "not sleep as do others, but to watch and be sober." So, we are using the term as Paul used it in this particular section -- apathy, drowsiness, dumbness, as opposed to alertness, watchfulness, wakefulness, and we are sounding the warning that "the day is not for sleeping." Christians are to be awake. I. Register first this truth. It's easy to fall asleep -- at every level of our life. For instance, it's easy to go ...

31. Say What?

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to express their opinion. Thirty-five percent said yes, 33 percent said no and 32 percent were undecided. One listener, aghast at the large number of undecideds, protested, "It's this sort of apathy that's ruining America." The only problem with all these responses was that the radio station had never posed any question. It's not apathy that is getting most of us in trouble _ it is shooting our mouths off and shouting our lungs out over things that we know nothing about. It appears that the disciples may ...

32. Times Were Hard

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Illustration

Trace Haythorn

... asking, "Why even bother when nothing seems to change?" Kind of hard to figure out the time referenced, isn't it? While this description is meant to refer to Matthew's community, they could be referring to today in any town or city in America. The pervasive apathy of our age, the sense that nothing can improve and to bother trying to make things better is a fool's errand, the despair that makes us resign our hearts to a belief that poverty, hunger and homelessness have no real answers. Such matters are left ...

33. Jesus Rescues Us

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... that obscures the light. Many times we think that we can defeat these manifest forms of evil by our own merits or efforts. But, as all twelve-step programs suggest, we must give our lives over to God, realizing that we cannot solve these problems alone. Apathy and indifference are major problems in our world. How often have we heard or even said ourselves, "I don't want to get involved. It is not my responsibility." Too often, as well, we hear people say that there are no differences in our options; that ...

34. When All Is Said and Done

Acts 16:9-15

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... easier it becomes for bad habits to creep in and cause us to make the wrong decision. Helen Keller once said, “Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for the worst evil of all — the apathy of human beings.”[3] However, many of us don’t see our apathy; we just see our excuses. We say, “I would develop my gifts more thoroughly, but my friends and family don’t support me. I would pursue a healthier job but I need the money and security of my present one. I would ...

35. Age of Civilization

Illustration

Dennis and Barbara Rainey

... average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back to bondage.

36. It's Okay to Cry

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... populated with the “nones and dones” (as the non-church and de-churched are now called). Increasing apathy toward Jesus, mission, evangelism, and discipleship among those in church and in the world. Meanwhile, the world ... is our trust in the midst of grief. God will not be without a witness. So we cry our own tears of lament, tears for the violence, the apathy, the poverty, the degradations of our world. We cry for those we cannot move, we cannot save, who refuse to listen, who push God away. We cry ...

37. Metathesiophobia

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and intermarriage. Whether it is Jesus or a personal relationship or a community, the message is the same. Put down roots! Sow seeds! Invest and grow! Engage! In fact, Jesus parables illustrate the difference between hoarding and engaging OR between apathy and engagement. In a sense apathy is a form of hoarding or stasis. To engage is to be alert, prepared, busy about the work that needs to be done, open to new relationships, busy cultivating current ones, tilling and keeping the covenant, and bearing its ...

38. Fertilize Your Faith

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , not anger, is the opposite of love, though frustrated anger can lead to apathy. Complacency, not passion, is the opposite of discipleship, though frustrated passion can lead to complacency. Complacency is the bane of today’s denominational Church.The western, American,denominational church is undergoing, as my colleague Len Sweet puts it, a “reproduction problem.”[1] It is failing to reproduce disciples of Christ ...

39. The Compassionate Healings

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... ambivalent word. When someone says: 'I will take care of him!' it is more likely an announcement of an impending attack than of a tender compassion..." Real care is not ambiguous. Real care excludes indifference (as in "I don't care.") ... It is the opposite of apathy.1 To care means to suffer with the other person. That's what the woman with a bad theology saw -- Jesus cared. Jesus entered into her suffering. He communed with her. Nouwen puts it this way: To care means first of all to empty our own cup ...

40. Seeing With New Eyes

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Tony Everett

... smaller nation in its path. Directly on the northern borders of Judah, northern Israel was about to fall to the Assyrian onslaught. Judah itself was paying tribute to Assyria in a desperate attempt to prevent its own destruction. Social corruption and religious apathy were rampant. Political leadership was in disarray. Finally, King Uzziah, the symbolic representative of the rule of the Lord, had just died. The very identity of the Hebrews as the people of God was in jeopardy. Indeed, the entire nation had ...

41. When Wisdom Cries Out

Proverbs 8:1-36

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... and silence. If wisdom cries out anywhere, it cries out in the church, in the practice of spirituality, in the undaunted explication of pure, unsullied truth, in the need for religious and spiritual leaders to break free from the spell of fear and apathy cast upon them by society and culture like the shadows of Babylon. Needed today is a theology of wisdom and truth, rooted in the wisdom and truth of Christ, which embraces but transcends the ephemeral, fluctuating truths of the marketplace and imparts its ...

42. How Long Will You Limp? (Because God Is Tired Of The Bull)

1 Kings 18:16-46

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... form the new nation state from the twelve tribes, and gave them the strength and wisdom to build the temple for God's glory. God is a God of action who would manifest God's power, presence, and majesty within human history. This was not a god of inertia and apathy, a god of lethargy and antipathy. This God promised to act and make good on his promises. Elijah knew God's promise to Moses that "I will be with you." God would act in time and space, and his faith in God buoyed Elijah's conviction that God would ...

43. A Tale Of Two Cities

Amos 7:1-9, Amos 7:10-17

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... of directors of the nation. Amos was concerned about doing God's will, and this would require boldness, tenacity, and courage to bring the word of truth to the political powers of his times. The concern is not to maintain the current corruption and apathy, but to transform the hearts, minds, and souls of the nation and to retrieve those time-honored principles which consolidated Israel's power as a nation and made it a formidable adversary. Just as we can never manage ourselves into the kingdom, we can ...

44. Is This The Season To Seek Salvation

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

James McLemore

... we need a season of salvation. In our streets, we have seen a season of violence and death; the death that once was prevalent among the old is now prevalent among the young. Maybe we need a season of salvation. Even in our churches, we have seen a season of apathy and despair. We no longer are winning the battle against sin and the war against evil. We're not winning the battle, and we are losing the war. Maybe, just maybe, we need a season of salvation. The book of Jeremiah tells a tale of the seasons of a ...

45. Proper 10

Luke 10:25-37, Colossians 1:1-14, Amos 7:10-17, Psalm 82:1-8

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... C. Rationalizing Our Behavior D. Letting the Samaritan Do It 3. Pass on the Other Side. (vv. 31-32) How do we pass on the other side, not physically but spiritually? A. Insulation. Refusing to see the need. Refusing to enter the lives of those in need. B. Apathy. It is none of my business. I have too many things to do already. I don't have the energy, skills, resources.... C. Aloofness. That is social gospel. That is works righteousness. 4. Showed Him Mercy. (v. 37) A. He Responded at Risk. The thieves may ...

46. God's Most Unmistakable Message

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Don M. Aycock

... . The crowd in Jesus' day was the one that wanted him dead. It wanted blood. Their killer instincts were aroused, instincts like a pack of hunting dogs on the trail of game. "Crucify him, crucify him!" They did not care about justice. Their apathy drove the spikes while neglect held him down. The seventh and final group was the soldiers. They squelched their individual consciences simply to do as robots and perform as programmed. Some government officials break the law, and defend themselves with the plea ...

47. A Parade That Gets Ugly

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Glenn E. Ludwig

... he hangs -- "The King of the Jews" -- to be mocked, to be scorned, to die. That scene is replayed over and over and over again -- rejection, disappointment, crucifixion. Listen! It's happening again! Another rejection of God -- this time the hammer is called "apathy." "God? Jesus? So what? Who cares?" "What difference does it all make?" "Life is a __________ and then you die." "Religion is just a crutch for the weak." "Crucify him!" Pound -- nail into flesh. But there is more. What about our rationalization ...

48. Whispers From A Dream

Daniel 7:1-14, Daniel 7:15-28

Sermon

Thomas G. Rogers

... speaking to us. Like Tishra and Moshi, we too live in a "fallen world." We may not battle evil in the form of a ruler like Antiochus Epiphanes, but we certainly battle evil in a myriad of other forms. We struggle against injustice, cruelty, violence, apathy and abuse. We battle the evil of a fallen creation that manifests itself in broken health -- in injury, sickness and death. Even in the 20th century, it is still quite easy for God's saints to get overwhelmed. Pastors' offices are frequented by saints ...

49. The Pastor Who Created A Monster

Haggai 1:1-15, Haggai 2:1-9

Sermon

Thomas G. Rogers

... people how they would accomplish the goal in front of them. Even though the goal seemed difficult or impossible to the people, the prophet now came with a word of God telling them why they should not sit on their hands -- why they should move from apathy to action. People who thought that the goal before them was unreasonable and utterly impossible heard this word of the Lord spoken directly to them: 'Take courage, all you people ... for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts' (Haggai 2:4)." After another ...

50. You Can Be Like Children

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... occur in our homes. But, does it ever happen to anyone we know? When the topic is child abuse, sins of omission are almost as serious as sins of commission. Knowing of a child who is being abused and doing nothing to stop it is, by our very apathy, an act of participation in the abuse. Children need and deserve the very best we have to offer in protection, nurture, education, role modeling, in the allotment of our time, in the sharing of our faith and in the generous provision of our love. "And Jesus took ...

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