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 476 to 500 of 622 results

476. An Unsaved Life

Illustration

Charles Ryrie

... or to the opposite of our weapons of spiritual warfare (2 Corinthians 10:4). But the word flesh also has a metaphorical sense when it refers to our disposition to sin and to oppose or omit God in our lives. The flesh is characterized by works that include lusts and passions (Galatians 5:19-24; I John 2:16); it can enslave (Romans 7:25); and in it is nothing good (Romans 7:18). Based on this meaning of the word flesh, to be carnal means to be characterized by things that belong to the unsaved life (Ephesians ...

477. The Leftovers of Life

Illustration

Unknown

Leftovers are such humble things, We would not serve to a guest, And yet we serve them to our Lord Who deserve the very best. We give to Him leftover time, Stray minutes here and there. Leftover cash we give to Him, Such few coins as we can spare. We give our youth unto the world, To hatred, lust and strife; Then in declining years we give To him the remnant of our life.

478. Pay the Penalty

Hedonism

Illustration

When a terrible plague came to ancient Athens, people there committed every horrible crime and engaged in every lustful pleasure they could because they believed that life was short and they would never have to pay any penalty. In one of the world's most famous poems, the Latin poet Catullus wrote, "Let us live and let us love, and let us value the tales of austere old men ...

479. A Compliment to Freedom

Illustration

Lieghton Ford

... the eternal loss of being a real person. In hell the mathematician who lived for his science can't add two and two. The concert pianist who worshiped himself through his art can't play a simple scale. The man who lived for sex goes on in eternal lust, with no body to exploit. The woman who made a god out of fashion has a thousand dresses but no mirror! Hell is eternal desire eternally unfulfilled. But there's another side. G.K. Chesterton once remarked, "Hell is God's great compliment to the reality of ...

480. Monster Rehab

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... monster Jesus sought to slay among his disciples — the eternal human quest to try and make ourselves “godlike.” Ever since Adam and Eve’s fruit picking expedition, “godlikeness” has been the most monstrous desire that has driven us. We lust for the best seats. We crave titles and entitlement. King, prince, duke and earl, have been replaced by CEO, CFO. COO, President, Senator, Rock Star, Celebrity — but they all reflect the same desire for distinction. Power, prestige, prerogative, recognition ...

481. Lick to Death

Illustration

Chris T. Zwingelberg

... his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!" It is a fearful thing that people can be "consumed by their own lusts." Only God's grace keeps us from the wolf's fate.

482. Reduced In Value

Illustration

Staff

... on a rack by a window. A sign on it read: SLIGHTLY SOILED GREATLY REDUCED IN PRICE. "That's it exactly," he continued. "We get soiled by gazing at a vulgar picture, reading a course book, or allowing ourselves a little indulgence in dishonest or lustful thoughts; and so when the time comes for our character to be appraised, we are greatly reduced in value. Our purity, our strength is gone. We are just part and parcel of the general, shopworn stock of the world." Yes, continual slight deviations from the ...

483. Top Temptations

Illustration

Staff

A survey of Discipleship Journal readers ranked areas of greatest spiritual challenge: Materialism. Pride. Self-centeredness. Laziness. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness. (Tie) Sexual lust. Envy. Gluttony. Lying. Survey respondents noted temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God (81 percent) and when they were physically tired (57 percent). Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent), avoiding compromising situations (76 percent), Bible study (66 percent), and being ...

484. 2020 Vision

Illustration

Staff

... of adultery, homosexuality, or sex before marriage, either directly or by implication. 3) Reflect a negative attitude toward the sacredness of the family and fidelity in marriage. 4) Minimize the seriousness of such sins as murder, violence, dishonesty, greed, lust, profanity, and immorality. The 39,000 member American Academy of Pediatrics says too much TV watching by your children can turn them violent, aggressive or overweight and possibly all three. In their statement on kids and TV, the pediatricians ...

485. Temptation: Don't Swim In the Canal

Illustration

Charles Swindoll

... to swim, in case I was tempted," he replied. Too many of us expect to sin and excite sin. The remedy for such dangerous action is found in Romans 13:14, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Whenever we play with temptation, it is easy to drift into great danger. A woman was bathing in the Gulf of Mexico. She was enjoying the comfort of relaxing on an inflated cushion that kept her afloat. When she realized that she had been swept about a ...

486. The Missing Figure in the Nativity Scene

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... way for the Lord unless you rid yourself of sin. That’s true for us as well as it was for the people who heard John preach. If you have difficulty getting into the Christmas Spirit, look into your heart and see if the problem could be greed, or lust, or anger, or resentment, or guilt. Sin always robs us of our joy regardless of the season. Evangelist Franklin Graham tells about a woman named Tia Ana who discovered the joy that comes to those who have been washed of their sins. Ana grew up in the capital ...

487. Punny Headlines

Humor Illustration

... Rates Lower Than Normal At Mobil Park Ends Spraying Dutch For Elm Disease Man Minus Ear Waives Hearing Chef Throws His Heart Into Helping Feed Needy Church Retains Homosexual Bar Man Is Found Guilty Of Murdering Wife After Brief Deliberation Woman Inherits Antique Lust From Mother-In-Law She Never Met Here's How You Can Lick Doberman's Leg Sores Woman Survives Period Trapped In Car In River Slain Minister Recalled New Autos To Hit 5 Million Tuna Biting Off Washington Coast Genetic Engineering Splits ...

488. The Business Of The Church

Galatians 1:1-12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... ecclesiastical nose out of slavery, he argued, "It is not the distinctive province of the church to build asylums for the needy or insane, to organize societies for the improvement of the penal code, or for the arresting of the progress of intemperance, gambling, or lust."[1] Ironically, a South Carolina orphanage (that is still in operation today) was established in Thornwell's honor not many years after his death in 1862. It is hard to imagine that kind of thinking in our own day, but in Thornwell's it ...

489. The Golf Shot That Destroyed an Airforce

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... on a pilot who lost control of his plane and thereby destroyed the Air Force of an African nation. (3) Do you understand that life sometimes works that way particularly when it comes to harboring sin in our life? Those simple vices like greed and envy and lust and sloth and anger can very quickly get out of hand. And sometimes the consequences of a sinful action are far out of proportion to the original action. There was a crash several years ago of an Aeroflot jet in Siberia. All 75 people aboard the jet ...

490. What Does the Bible Really Say about Divorce?

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... fall. That’s why we have forgiveness. That’s why we have grace. Does Jesus condemn divorced people? Is it adultery if a divorced person remarries? Well, even if you take it literally that it is adultery, remember that Jesus said that even to look upon a woman with lust in your heart is adultery (Matthew 5:28). Jesus wanted us to focus on the condition of a person’s heart, not a legalistic approach to life. And listen again to his words in John 8 to the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery ...

491. All in God’s Time

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... world is riddled with violence that so often strikes the innocent, when we find ourselves the victims of injustice and oppression, it takes a lot of faith to still trust God. It takes a lot of faith to trust his time schedule, to curb our own impatience, and lust for revenge. It takes a lot of faith not to be anxious and worried when you lose your job or the company is losing money. It takes a lot faith to trust the promises of God when so much in life seems to contradict them. To risk ostracism, ridicule ...

492. How Rich Is Rich?

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... with money is a constant battle for all of us. We have to figure out what money means for our Christian faith. As many people point out, the passage does not say that money itself is bad for us. The real trouble comes from inside us, in our greed, our lust for money. The way the passage puts it is that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." This is a well-known phrase from this passage, but some of the other things it says about greed may actually be more interesting and instructive. It says ...

493. A Resume of Righteousness

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... his epitaph comes to us from outside the borders of the promised land because of his own sin and failure. David symbolizes both a golden age past and a messianic age to come, yet the biblical author does not protect his reputation from the lust, the deviousness, the foolishness, or the pettiness he exhibited along the way. While Solomon is remembered for his splendor, his fingerprints are left forever on the tragic division of the kingdom after his death. Likewise in the stories of Jacob or Elijah, of ...

494. When We Are Tempted

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... grasps the reins, and, exerting almost superhuman effort, he succeeds in swerving the horses to one side, thus saving his own life and those of his animals. Plato says the moral of the story is this: the fiery steeds are the appetites, desires, lusts, and passions to which the heart of the human inclines from youth. The driver is the wisdom, understanding, and intelligence with which God has endowed human life that we might rule over our appetites and desires and have dominion over our self-destructive ...

495. The Dirt on Jesus

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... are still “stuff.” Richard Meier, in his first collection of poetry entitled Misadventure (2012), has a poem called “Sky Sports” in which the gods “who can see feelings” watch us on our planet splatting each other paint-ball-style with projected envy, greed, lust, etc., marveling all the while “at this deft/gift of ours for shifting misery/that makes such great viewing.” In today’s gospel text parable Jesus makes it all too clear how “life” and “stuff” are not one and the same. The ...

496. Suffered under (Saint) Pontius Pilate

John 18:28-40

Sermon

David O. Bales

... . Romans wouldn’t be anywhere unless for their own self-serving reasons, which sometimes take five, ten, or twenty years to manifest themselves. Rome wants what is euphemistically called “taxes,” but which is really tribute from conquered and submissive nations. They lust for the resources of their conquered provinces or at least use the province to buffer the Empire from enemies who might halt tax income. If the Roman Empire has a national anthem, it’s “Keep That Tribute Coming.” If people in ...

497. When We No Longer Recognize Ourselves

Psalm 51:1-19

Sermon

King Duncan

... everything that David did. But then one evening, when King David was supposed to be on the battlefield with his men, he chose to stay home instead. That night, he caught a glimpse of a beautiful woman named Bathsheba as she bathed on her roof. And David’s lust for her drove him to commit adultery then murder, to cover up his sins. After arranging for the death of Bathsheba’s husband, David marries her and has a child with her. And he thinks that he has escaped the consequences of his sin. But one day ...

498. Hitting the Boss Key

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. To be a human being is to be tempted tempted to anger, tempted to lust, tempted to sloth, tempted to stubbornness, tempted to vengeance, and the list goes on and on. How do you say no to the tempter? “Impulse control” we call it in children, and it is the most important virtue they can acquire. But how do we learn to ...

499. Can These Bones Live Again?

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... becomes the vehicle by which his people escape slavery and he becomes the one by whom God’s law is transmitted to humanity. Never say that any person or any situation is hopeless. Then there was David, a man after God’s own heart. But he gave into lust and adultery and deceit and, ultimately, murder. He paid a terrible price, his family paid a terrible price, but God never gave up on David. We read his psalms and we know he discovered God’s grace in his life, and from his lineage came the Messiah. In ...

500. The Insanity of Profanity

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... and said, “Grandpa, I am so excited. I learned a word at school today that’s worth a half a dollar.” But it is also a ridiculous sin. When any other sin you commit you at least get something in return. If you commit adultery, you at least fulfill your lust. If you steal, you at least get that which you stole. But in profanity, you get nothing in return except the judgment of God. If you get a flat tire and curse the tire, that doesn’t put air into the tire. If you stub your toe in the dark ...

Showing results