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 117 results

26. Who Is Your King?

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Erskine White

... their authority or their right to be priests. Instead, He attacks the corruption they have allowed to flourish in the temple, which is God’s house, a house of prayer. How can the priests defend what the moneychangers are doing? What can be more distasteful than unseemly profit made in the name of religion, in Jesus’ day or in our own? And Jesus is also careful when He condemns the lawyers, scribes and Pharisees - He quotes the law and prophets at them. How can they defend themselves when everything ...

27. Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-13, Psalm 104:1-35, Joel 2:28-32, Genesis 11:1-9, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, John 16:5-16, John 20:19-23, John 15:18--16:4

Sermon Aid

George Bass

... the answer that he might give them. Or it could simply be that they didn't want to face up to the fact that he would not be with them any longer. If they didn't ask the question, perhaps they would not have to face up to a very distasteful answer. Jesus told them, nevertheless, that he was going away for good; he was returning to the Father. Now that was something to think about. Jesus didn't simply say, "They are going to crucify me and put me to death." He said, "I go to the Father." He would ...

28. Proper 27

Psalm 17:1-15, Psalm 9:1-20, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17, Zechariah 7:1-14, 1 Chronicles 29:10-20, Job 19:1-29, Luke 20:27-40

Sermon Aid

George Bass

... The Day The old Common Service Book collect made a subtle connection between the end of Pentecost and the beginning of Advent on this Sunday; it occurred in the "stir up" theme of the collect which, incidentally, sounds rather un-Lutheran (Lutherans have a distaste for good works and rewards from God): "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord ...

29. The Pitfalls Of Practicing Piety

Matthew 6:19-24, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

John M. Braaten

... bring; Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress; Helpless, look to thee for grace; Foul, I to the mountain fly; Wash me, Savior, or I die." Not that piety is bad. It is the practice of piety, its rote rehearsal which is so distasteful to Jesus. Those who practice piety do good for the recognition it gives them. True piety, on the other hand, seeks to honor God for the wonder of creation and the greater wonder of Jesus Christ. The practice of piety centers on the deed, while true piety seeks ...

30. Loving

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Larry Powell

... expression while he or she is passing on the latest tidbit. Frequently, it is reported in an almost delightful manner. Paul reminds us that love does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. That which seeks to discover only the bad or distasteful has bade farewell to love long ago. The critic, forever scrutinizing for mistakes, rejoices in that which is wrong. Genuinely constructive criticism is only possible with a third eye, the eye of love. And even then, it must focus for the other two. Someone ...

31. The Impossibility of Neutrality

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Robert Allen

... folded and whispered about what a nuisance Jesus was, coming to Jerusalem in such a manner during this holy season. And there were the Romans who watched to see if Jesus was a threat to their authority. Accepting Jesus was preposterous, crucifying him was distasteful. They simply wished to side-step any decision having to do with Jesus. Just as those who were present when Jesus marched into Jerusalem found it difficult to remain neutral about Jesus, so do we. Human nature being what it is, Jesus is still ...

32. Museum or Mission?

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... have churchly meaning that ought to be noticed as we contemplate museum or mission. III Let’s move on to another museum-or-mission juncture. It is the area of ideology. Now among pragmatic, practical-minded Americans, there is a certain distaste and fear of ideology; it seems something reserved for those on the extremes of the right or the left. Nor are Ideologists credited with having everyday usefulness. Perhaps not. My guess is that neither Michael Harrington nor William Buckley, Jr., could ...

33. Of Preachers and Preaching

Micah 1:8-16

Sermon

... and frustrated preacher of whom I know must have taken his cue from Micah. What the people of his congregation needed, he declared, was to be weaned from their baby food diet of sweet pap and made to chew on some tough beefsteak, or maybe even some distasteful shoe leather. While we are thinking of Micah’s experience, however, let us look at that of Jesus as described in the Gospel for today. Jesus was not exactly preaching, but it is not stretching a point too much to see a similarity in the response of ...

34. The Yoke of Christ

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

... to themselves for the first time, often with pain, that they have a problem they cannot handle by themselves and they need help from the outside. Or the painful process of reviewing and verbalizing to the counselor just what the malady is that has been so distasteful to look at, that they have carried around with themselves and repressed for years. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who suffered for our sins and died for us on the cross, now lovingly invites us to choose a lighter load. He gives us the courage ...

35. Repentance

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

... instructed to seal the slip of paper in a small envelope provided by the church, and to address it back to themselves. The envelopes would be returned to each person just before the New Year. After the service, a man approached me with some distaste for my request. He labeled the exercise "slick" and "manipulative". "And besides that," he said, "I do not need to repent of anything. What does repentance mean anyway?" For many, repentance is a word that belongs to yesterday. It is equated with sackcloth and ...

36. Proper 8

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon Aid

... IV. Bulletin Cover and Symbols You may want to include this statement at the end of the order of worship: "To take up the cross of Christ is no great action done once and for all; it consists in the continual practice of small duties [responses] [some of] which are distasteful to us [while others bring extreme joy]." V. Miscellaneous Details (Assignments): Ushers Banners Greeters Posters Candlelighters Flowers Hosts/Hostess Name-tags

37. Pentecost 27

Matthew 24:1-35

Sermon Aid

... of the Word Consider this: You may want to use this quote of John Henry Newman. "To take up the Cross of Christ is no great action done once for all time; it consists in the continual practice of small duties [some of] which are distasteful to us [and some of which bring extreme joy]."( source unknown) Stewardship Thought Try this: Build on the stewardship of response, spoken in the negative. "Whenever a person believes that what he/she gives is between him/herself and God, we are washing our hands ...

38. On Being a Beautiful Christian

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... virtues without a supporting spirit and, thus, they make solid morality unpopular. Gerald Johnson wrote a biography of Woodrow Wilson. Listen to a few excerpts: "Woodrow Wilson had a way of rubbing people the wrong way ... He had an unusual share of the more distasteful virtues ... He had the unhappy faculty of being right in the most irritating sort of way."2 Awkward goodness! Woodrow Wilson was a man of brilliance and of unique world vision. He had much to do with establishing the League of Nations. If ...

39. The Gospel According to Christ’s Enemies

John 11:1-16

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

... one by one and kiss her skeleton hand. In this season of Lent, when we are confronted with the crucifix used as an object of devotion and meditation, we are sometimes repulsed by the gory event it depicts. Such concentration on the crucifixion seems as distasteful as King Pedro’s demand to kiss the skeleton hand of his dead queen. Christianity is the faith of the resurrection. Why, then, do we have to have this constant reminder of the gory death our Lord endured on the cross? Such a negative reaction ...

40. Significance in Life

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

... any dull lull in here." Well, that was quite a claim. I thought I ought to investigate, so I went in. What did I see? A picture of human happiness? The customers were sitting along on the bar stools staring at themselves in the bar mirror with obvious distaste. The bartenders were looking back at them with the same expression. If that wasn’t a dull lull, then I don’t know what a dull lull is. I wonder sometimes with the millions of bar stools in the country whether anyone has ever found happiness on one ...

41. WIZARD

Deut. 18:11

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... life because she granted Saul’s request. Leviticus as well as Deuteronomy specifically stated that the practitioners of the art of necromancy, as well as their clients, were subject to the death penalty. There is, to most of us, something inherently distasteful and frightening in the thought of trying to establish communication with the dead, and yet spiritualism and the spiritualist cult leaders are very popular. Perhaps you know of someone who has gone to a seance, or you have consulted an ouija board ...

42. The Scandal Of Redeeming Love

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... . Shunned by the Jewish community, the tax collectors had only themselves with whom to associate. Of course Jesus was roundly criticized by the righteous Pharisees and scribes for eating with tax collectors and sinners. In fact, these persons were not just distasteful for what they did, but were considered culticly unclean. In other words, they were unfit for God’s community. For Jesus to sit at table with such people, in the Pharisees’ view, was to defile himself. The human tendency is to divide ...

43. Enduring

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... those who perish instantly in that blast. Unnerving, is it not? Is this passage in Mark to be looked upon as a first century document, relating exclusively to that remote period of history? It would be cheering to think so. Don’t we usually attempt to push distastefulness aside: go to a movie, watch TV, turn to the bottle? Yes, drugs have become a way out. It is all in a futile attempt to avoid hideous realization that Armageddon may be at hand. John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is not a pretty picture ...

44. Bad News from a Good Man!

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... oil production in western Pennsylvania, Rockefeller built his first petroleum refinery near Cleveland, Ohio. His name became synonymous with wealth. Rockefeller bought out his competitors or forced them out of business through tactics that many people considered ruthless and distasteful. He became, far and away, the wealthiest man in the world. Children followed him wherever he walked, clamoring for the dimes he carried around in his pocket as throwaways. Many institutions benefited from his gifts. He did a ...

45. The Good Samaritan: A New Look at an Old Story

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... question back to the lawyer: "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" And the answer, "The one who had mercy on him." Amazing, isn't it? The concept of a GOOD Samaritan is so distasteful that the lawyer cannot bring himself to even speak the name. Perhaps the answer to that question we raised earlier, "Why a Samaritan?", is that Jesus did not want his hearers to identify with this generous care-giver. As attractive and winsome is the behavior of this ...

46. Destined To Have A Great Year

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... was awful. Mixed into a cake, however, it was wonderful. That is the faith-filled way of looking at life. We do not let setbacks, however painful they may be, defeat us or destroy us. We affirm that God IS awesome, that somehow God will take the distasteful baking soda that comes to all our lives and somehow blend it with some flour and sugar and some shortening, and out of it all will come something splendid. William Sydnor learned that lesson and he counts it as one of the richest secrets of life. He ...

47. Good Reasons For Not Cheating

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... willow trees transmit a warning to other willows from as far away as two hundred feet. When caterpillars are attacking, the trees emit a chemical signal that travels on the wind. This enables distant trees to prepare their protectionphenol in the leaveswhich is distasteful t.the catepillars. This advance warning of an attack amazes scientists: The individual trees have the ability to behave in a way that benefits not just themselves but the whole species. (2) Are we not a higher form of species than willow ...

48. Out Of Our Control

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... know. So one day I thought I'd go into the kitchen and see what wonderful ingredients she used. First she sifted some flourthis didn't appeal to me at all, for it was dry and unappetizing. Next she added a cup of sour milk. Now the batter looked very distasteful. Then, to make matters worse, she put in a raw egg. By this time I was not too sure whether I liked chocolate cake or not. I left just as she was popping it into the oven. Much to my surprise, that evening her masterpiece was as delicious as any ...

49. Four Ways To Defeat Stress

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... whom you can share support and knowledge. If your job is important to you, find out what you need to do to excel in your responsibilities. Cut out time-wasters, make lists each day, do first those things that are most important regardless of how distasteful they may be. You will be amazed how much stress you can remove from your life. THE FINAL ELEMENT IN OUR STRESS REDUCTION WORKSHOP IS COMPANIONSHIP. We assume that Jesus spent so much time with his disciples because he wanted to train them to continue ...

50. The Difference Between God And Santa

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... asks from us. WHAT GOD WANTS IS THAT WE PASS ON HIS LOVE TO OTHERS. From 1979 to 1981, the Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was a hotbed of inmate protests. One of these, which was dubbed, "the dirty protest," was particularly distasteful. Prisoners refused to bathe, change their clothes, or use the bathroom facilities. The stench in the prison was so overwhelming that some guards fainted from it. No one from the outside world dared visit the prison. On Christmas Eve 1980, a retired schoolteacher ...

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