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 67 results

26. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... life. They refuse to sacrifice the latter for the former as boomer women did. Psychology Busters don't want to be typed or hyped. Busters are a generation crying out for definition. They hate the very thought that they even belong to a generation. Averse to generational generalizations, busters gag at the tag "busters" because it names them. If anything, they prefer "Generation X" because the name does not name them and they remain unknown. Busters prefer a letter to a name because it allows them to name ...

27. No More Camping Out

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... a little nervous. Maybe they halted or reared up; maybe they pulled in a different direction or simply bolted. Whatever took place, the cart began to shake, and old Uzzah thrust his hand out to the Ark in an attempt to steady it. Wrong move. God, it seems, was averse to having his Ark touched in any way. [His] "anger was kindled" (2 Samuel 6:7)" because Uzzah had touched the Ark, and God struck him down. He died right there beside the Ark. This made David a little angry. Have you ever been angry at God? You ...

28. Stepping Out on Faith

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... out the original one talent which he had buried in the ground? It’s sad. Some people just don’t get it. They sit on the sidelines while the world passes them by. They’re good people. Nice people. They’re just overly cautious. We sometimes call them risk averse. Well, you know how the story ends. The wealthy man is irate, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the ...

29. Clergy Playing It Safe

Mark 12:41-44

Illustration

In a book entitled Plain Talk about Churches and Money, one of the authors states: "Clergy often come to their calling with a distinct aversion to conflict and to having to deal with money issues. Our culture seems to reinforce them in that behavior. So long as clergy are cowed and anxious in the face of money and wealth, they will remain silent about the spiritual issue that touches our culture more deeply than any ...

30. Style: Some Distinctive Marks of a Methodist

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ’t. It’s not a common word in our vocabulary. But I thought about it recently when I saw a TV mini-special on all the phobias psychologists and psychiatrists are helping people deal with. A phobia is an exaggerated and persistent aversion to or dread and fear of something. Common ones that psychologists deal most frequently with are: acrophobia, the fear of high places; claustrophobia, the fear of enclosed spaces; demophobia, the fear of crowds; autophobia, the fear of self or of being alone; mysophobia ...

31. Religious Balkanization

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... as all the rest? There are dozens of other texts that say otherwise. Think of his camaraderie with the Samaritan woman in John 4. Samaritans were even more despised by the Jews than were folks from this woman's background, and Jesus showed no aversion to that woman at all. Or remember Jesus' tenderness with the Roman Centurion (Luke 7) whose servant was dying. Jesus praised the man for his faith, and treated him as a colleague and friend. II. A Teaching Moment So Jesus' initial conversation with this ...

32. Swept Clean

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . But I don't know why, because Pam never did laundry. She would rather buy new clothes than wash. You think I'm kidding don't you? I remember piles of clothes in the laundry room almost as tall as I was. My oldest son, Paul, benefited from her aversion to laundry. He received hand-me-downs that had only been worn once or twice. And he thought that was cool because my sister had great taste and liked her kids to dress in the current fashions. So, she was always buying clothes. My nieces and nephews learned ...

33. Being Two People at Once

2 Samuel 11:1-15

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... Buddhists have a theory about some of this paradox. They say that praise and criticism are both sides of the same coin. In other words, we let things outside of us, things other than the grace of the Tao or God, determine what is good for us. We become averse to criticism and addicted to praise. We must be beautiful. We must win the chess contest. We must write like T. S. Eliot. We must have Bathsheba. In a world where even something as good as religion is comfort to some and poison to others, we do come ...

34. America: Fight For Your Country

Illustration

William J. Bennett

... do with our children. Our culture seems almost dedicated to the corruption of the young. We have become inured to the cultural rot that is setting in. People are losing their capacity for shock, disgust and outrage... The ancients called our problem acedia, an aversion to spiritual things and an undue concern for the external and the worldly. Acedia also is the seventh capital sin sloth but it does not mean mere laziness. The slothful heart is stepped in the worldly and carnal, hates the spiritual and wants ...

35. At the Root of Rebellion

Illustration

Alexander Maclaren

... . Disobedience is the root of unbelief. Unbelief is the mother of further disobedience. Faith is voluntary submission within a person's own power. If faith is not exercised, the true cause lies deeper than all intellectual reasons. It lies in the moral aversion of human will and in the pride of independence, which says, "who is Lord over us? Why should we have to depend on Jesus Christ?" As faith is obedience and submission, so faith breeds obedience, but unbelief leads on to higher-handed rebellion ...

36. The Hand that Sparkles

Illustration

Source Unknown

... preaching. During a pause in the meal, Wesley's friend took the young woman's hand and called attention to the sparkling rings she wore. "What do you think of this, sir, for a Methodist hand?" The girl turned crimson. Wesley likewise was embarrassed, for his aversion to jewelry was only too well known. But with a benevolent smile, he simply said, "The hand is very beautiful." Wesley's remark both cooled the too-hot water poured by his friend, and made the foot-washing gentle. The young woman appeared at the ...

37. Doing Your Own Thing

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... showers, while not actually banned, were discouraged. In the words of author Tom Wolfe, these hippies “sought nothing less than to sweep aside all codes and restraints of the past and start out from zero.” Before long, the hippies’ aversion to modern hygiene had consequences that were as unpleasant as they were unforeseen. Wolfe describes them: “At the Haight Ashbury Free clinic there were doctors who were treating diseases no living doctor had ever encountered before, diseases that had disappeared ...

38. Cleaned and Claimed

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” (1) I don’t know how accurate that description of the 1500s is, but it certainly gives one pause for thought. Even among royalty, in the so-called “good old days,” there was an aversion to bathing. King Louis XIV of France only took three baths in his entire life. However he had the linen changed on his 73 beds three times a day. (2) So, he may not have been all that clean himself, but at least he slept on clean linens ...

39. Skull Hill

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ? For how many of us was our first “culinary” experience creating mud pies — artfully decorated mud balls, frosted and festooned with leaves, grass, and weeds? But for most of us the love of mud quickly fades as we grow up. The biggest “tell” for this dirt aversion have you ever gotten invited by a friend to come and spend an evening at their “pottery class?” Have you ever accepted? Yeah. We really don’t like mud any more after a certain age. Except. If you ever saw the weird, but romantic ...

40. Living for God

1 Peter 4:1-11

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... in his body, that is, he gave his all, including his very life, in carrying out the will of God. His followers must resolve to go to the same lengths: Arm yourselves also with the same attitude—a military metaphor; but the NT is not averse to using such language, for believers are indeed engaged in warfare, albeit in the spiritual realm. By his death, Jesus is done with sin. The meaning, of course, is not that Jesus now stopped sinning—Peter has already reminded his readers of Christ’s sinlessness ...

41. Judah Unfaithful

Malachi 2:10-16

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... hates and divorces” or “If he rejects and sends away” might be an expansive description of any divorce, perhaps esp. from the wife’s point of view. (2) Stuart (“Malachi,” p. 1343) argues that these terms together refer to “aversion divorce,” the kind that is not permitted under the law of Deut. 24:1–4. Deuteronomy permits divorce for cause (“something indecent”); Malachi condemns divorce except for cause. (3) An even narrower interpretation of condemned divorce associates it directly ...

42. Adam and Eve

Genesis 2:4-25

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... 2:25 The first human pair were naked (’arummim) and in harmony with each other, all members of the created order, and God. Completely innocent, humans were without shame. The use of this symbolism is forceful in light of the strong Israelite aversion to immodesty (cf. Gen. 9:22–23; Exod. 20:26). Additional Notes 2:5 “Shrub” (siakh) refers to bushy plants, ordinarily considered nonedible, and “plant” (’eseb) to edible vegetation (Wenham, Genesis 1–15, p. 58). 2:6 The precise meaning of ’ed ...

43. God’s Saving Righteousness and the Restoration of Israel

Romans 3:21-31

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... forgiveness of sin and justification through the finished work of Christ on the cross. Illustrating the Text God is just and justifier, holy and loving, as seen through the cross. Church History: One idea is to talk about the second-century heretic Marcion, his aversion to the Old Testament, and his splitting of God into two deities: the Old Testament god of wrath and the New Testament god of love. One could contrast this with Romans 3:21–26. As suggested above, a sermon could be preached entitled “Is ...

44. Adversity of a Righteous Man

Job 1:1-22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... résumé highlights his character more than his possessions, a stark difference from how our contemporary culture measures success and value. In his patterns of life Job demonstrates integrity, commitment to God’s moral standards, reverence for God, and an aversion to evil, which in the Old Testament wisdom literature are the essential components of the wise and righteous life. As the adversary questions God’s policy of rewarding righteousness, he also calls into question Job’s motives. Many people ...

45. “Lord, Who May Dwell in Your Sacred Tent?”

Psalm 15:1-5

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... and silently reflect on their lives in light of the ethical challenges. After reading the verses, challenge your listeners to make changes in their lives in light of these moral imperatives. Worship in Spirit and in truth. Bible: The biblical prophets have a strong aversion to worship that exists for its own sake, or for the sake of the ritual itself. Adrian Nocent comments: “There must be no acts of worship to which nothing corresponds in a man’s heart. God is fed up with rote prayers.”[16] This ...

46. Struggling With Sin

Romans 7:7-25

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... I” do what “I” hate (7:15). As God’s creature made in God’s image, “I” want to do the good that God reveals (and the law demands) and refrain from the evil that the law prohibits. Human beings, created by God, who is good and holy, feel aversion when they do the evil and impure things that the law prohibits. The voice of their guilty conscience confirms that the law is good (7:16). In 7:17–20 Paul demonstrates that in the conflict between the “I” and sin, it is sin that dominates. “I ...

47. Questions about the Resurrection and Life in the Age to Come

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... is clear. Paul writes to defend, to clarify, and to broaden his teaching concerning the resurrection (15:1–11). From the content of the statement attributed to some of the Christians at Corinth (15:12), it seems that their attitude was being shaped by a skeptical aversion similar to that of the Athenians whose attentiveness to Paul’s preaching came to an end at his mention of the “resurrection of the dead” (Acts 17:32). If this is so, then the crux of the issue was probably not a denial of the ...

48. The Day of Atonement

Leviticus 16:1-34

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... of this ritual. By the time the Priestly tradition was collected, the term would have lost that connotation. The goat is being returned to an “evil one,” in keeping with the sin it bears. Some interpreters reject that view because of the fierce aversion to idolatry in the OT, which is reflected in the very next chapter of Leviticus. Some of these interpreters connect the word with the verb meaning “to depart” and thus think of “the goat of removal” or “the goat that departs.” That view ...

49. Unlawful Sexual Relations

Leviticus 18:1-30

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... marriage because the assumption here is that the brother is living. Verse 18 indicates that rivalry would also threaten the family structure. The purpose of the prohibitions is to strengthen family structure. These incest taboos reflect a general OT aversion to such practice. Inbreeding can lead to genetic problems and so jeopardize the future of the family. The basis of the instruction here, however, seems more social than genetic. Certainly there are economic issues in the background. Competition for ...

50. The Healing of a Deaf and Mute Man

Mark 7:31-37

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... some other serious impediment. (See also note on 7:37.) 7:33 Away from the crowd is similar to 8:23, where Jesus leads the blind man away from the village before healing him. It seems to be part of Mark’s emphasis on Jesus’ aversion to the excited throngs (also 7:36). Fingers into the man’s ears.… spit and touched the man’s tongue.… Ephphatha: As indicated in the discussion above, some scholars see similarities between these actions and the practices of other ancient healers and wonder-workers ...

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