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 651 to 675 of 1838 results

651. Encounters With Christ VI: Jesus and Caiaphas

Matthew 26:57-68

Sermon

James W. Moore

... to the cross. If the guilt can be laid upon any one person then that one… is not Judas or Pilate… but Caiaphas. To my mind Judas misunderstood, and Pilate… was frightened, but in Caiaphas there is cool, calculated cunning. There is bitter, implacable hatred. No hot impulse swayed Caiaphas, no grievous misunderstanding, no mere sudden fear. Here is the cold, deadly, clever brain. It is strange that in modern sermons we hear so much about Peter’s alleged denial and Judas’ alleged wickedness, but ...

652. A Pilgrim Recounts

Psalm 107:1-43

Drama

Edward G. Hunter

... craftsmen, artisans, carpenters, printers and clothmakers. But, we must have been sturdy souls, for we lost but one of our group to death during that arduous journey. We finally arrived at what is now called Cape Cod Bay on November 11, 1620. It was a bitter cold day, and it was snowing hard. We dropped anchor for the first time since we left England. Several men (including myself) rowed to shore and scouted around. The terrain was frozen and so rocky we knew we would be unable to construct any habitation ...

653. Mary Of Nazareth

Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20, Ephesians 1:15-23

Drama

Lynda Pujad

... person the soldiers were to capture. Blood ran cold in the veins of the disciples and myself. No one knew what to do as Jesus was taken away. Tremendous pain began to burn inside me. It did not let up, but only increased its fury through the bitter and lonely night. Alone in the darkness, Jesus had three private, illegal trials with the Pharisees, all accompanied with beatings. I was helpless to do anything. During the early morning he was sent to Pilate accused of the crime of claiming to be God's son ...

654. Monologue: Hagar

Genesis 16:1-16

Drama

Lynda Pujad

... I had never been born. I wished I had never had a healthy and intelligent son only to have him perish near me. All I wanted to do was die and get it over with. There was no hope for me. I didn't even have the energy to be bitter about the unfairness that life had given me. While I lay listening to the crying of my dying son, an angel from heaven spoke to me. I knew it was an angel and I knew it was from God. I'm sure if an angel visits or speaks to you ...

655. Six Nails of the Cross V: The Nail of Hatred

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... you are not of the world, but I choose out of the world, therefore the world hates you." "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil agains you falsely on my account." Anger, resentment, bitterness; show ostentation; power, conflict, hatred ring out like a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal; the harsh sound of metal against metal; the hammer against the nail-disrupting, bleeding, destroying human relationships. But the power that heals, that reconciles, that blesses us ...

656. Let Me See Your Hands

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Robert Allen

... hands are so ugly." The little boy looked up at his mother with a smile on his face and said, "Mama, your hands aren't ugly, they're beautiful." A poet, looking at the hands of Jesus, wrote: They nailed those beautiful, blessed hands To the cruel, bitter cross, And there in agony untold, He bore our shame and loss. Beautiful hands of Jesus! I hope someday to see. Those wonderful, loving, nail-scarred hands That were pierced on Calvary. It is the hands of Jesus which remind us that the cross of Calvary was ...

When somebody you have wronged forgives you, you are spared the dull and self-diminishing throb of a guilty conscience. When you forgive someone who has wronged you, you are spared the dismal corrosion of bitterness and wounded pride for both parties. Forgiveness means the freedom again to be at peace inside your own skin and to be glad in each other's presence.

Frederick Buechner

658. The Agony of Sin

Lamentations 1:1-22

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

... us to experience a taste of the price we must pay for sin. Lord, give us the wisdom and strength to be faithful servants. In Christ we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession Lord, so often as we have experienced the emptiness of sinful life we have become bitter and hateful instead of repenting and returning to You. Too often, Lord, we have even vented our anger and shown our resentment over the discomfort we feel by seeking after our own gods. Forgive us, Lord, and lead us again to a life of faith and repentance ...

659. Don't Just Stand There! - Get Involved!

Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Dr. John Thompson Peters

... love. As you go, the shapes, the lights, the shadows of the things you have prepared will come to you, yes, inveterately, inevitably as bees to their hives, and there in your mind and spirit they will leave with you their distilled essence, sweet as honey or bitter as gall ..." Cleverness may select skillful words to cast a veil about you, and circumspection may never sleep, yet you will not be hid. No. As year adds to year, that fact of yours, which once lay smooth in your baby crib, like an unwritten page ...

660. One's Perspective Can Make All The Difference

Acts 9:1-19a

Illustration

Douglas J. Deuel

... his glasses. The teacher asked him why he was thankful to have to wear glasses. Very quickly he answered, "Because they keep the boys from hitting me and the girls from kissing me." Perspective can make a huge difference, can't it? Saul began by seeing the Christians as his bitter enemies. But after his encounter with Jesus, his perspective changed. By the time Ananias came to him, Saul was praying. He humbly awaited word from Jesus on what he was to do.

661. Tell Me About the Spitfires!

Luke 10:38-42

Illustration

John G. Lynch

... Tell me about Spitfires." He was the only one who actually listened to him -- even if it was just for a few minutes! In today's gospel lesson Jesus needs somebody to listen. He has just begun his journey to Jerusalem where he knows he will travel the bitter road of the cross and he will experience the loneliness of being denied, abandoned, and betrayed by his disciples. Martha may think her tasks have a high level of importance and at another time she would be right but not now. Now, it is time to sit and ...

662. Life's Third Dimension

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

... more than an accumulation of years, more than a linked chain of happenings. He wants you to be concerned, not merely about how long life is, but how broad and how deep. In this story Jesus told, those workers who labored so long for what they got bitterly resented the fact that others got the same for working only a short, short while. To the vineyard owner they said, "You have made them equal to us." On that score those complaining workers were essentially right, only it was not the vineyard owner who made ...

663. Watching Jesus

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... part of this story is that some who watched did see Jesus. We have already said that the Pharisees ignored or turned against him. This was a profound disappointment to Jesus, and while the gospel portrait of the Pharisees may be colored by later bitterness and conflict between the Pharisees and the early church, the negative image seemed grounded in real history: the Pharisees rejected Jesus and his message. But were there any of them who watched Jesus and really saw him? Were there any that saw Jesus among ...

664. On Having "The Right Stuff"

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... marriage and a good family are filled with commitments and loyalties that often become painful and sacrificial. Alan Alda is known for his role of "Hawkeye" on the TV program M*A*S*H*, portraying a carefree, anti-establishment young surgeon in the bitter Korean War years. But the real-life Alan Alda is quite serious about the old-fashioned virtues of commitment and fidelity as they apply to marriage. "Alan Alda is practically the only popular celebrity who is routinely asked about fidelity because it is ...

665. Mission to Unbelievers

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... Lichtenberger, on his wife’s arm, shuffling along the icy walk. It was a refreshment of faith for John Coburn: "All I could do was rejoice in them." Quite likely, Bishop Lichtenberger never knew what he meant to John Coburn’s spirit that bitter, winter day. As unforced as this witness must be, it cannot be taken lightly by any who are concerned to witness to the faith by the quality of our lives. Personal integrity, humbleness, an affirming spirit, honesty, faithfulness to commitment to marriage and ...

666. The Witness and the Witnesses

John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

... had closed his eustachian tubes temporarily; he would get his hearing back in six months or so, with treatment. Eiseley went deaf in the fall of the year; he didn’t regain his hearing until March: The months of winter passed, along with bitter disappointment. I wrote in silence, dreaming of digging days under the badlands sun. I wrote only to entertain myself, to keep the shadow back of me. Finally, while waiting for supper one late March evening, a soft sputtering purr seemed to emanate from somewhere ...

667. Tomb for Sale

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

George Bass

... of summer as John went off to college and Mike enlisted in the army. Five years went by before they saw each other; Mike was in a wheel-chair, paralyzed from the waist down after being wounded during his second tour of duty in Vietnam. John says, "He was bitter. He cried a lot. He wouldn’t talk much about what he had seen in Vietnam, but he cried that everyone was guilty - the lowest private to the highest general, and every civilian who slept peaceably in his bed at night and let the war continue for one ...

668. Lord, I Believe - Or Do I?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... noticed previously. She said nothing to her friends about it, but her fingers constantly moved over it as she worried and she prayed about it. As a week went by, the nodule exploded with growth. Immediate attention was required. After surgery, when pathology had given the bitter word, she cried out as I walked into her room, "They said it’s cancer. I don’t want to die." Emmie did not die, for by a miracle that never made the headlines Emmie found her healing, not only freedom from the carcinoma, but the ...

669. The Gospel of the Little Man

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

... of our impressive peers, or on the applause meter of public acclaim, when self becomes the center of existence, the cost of being tall in Christ is much too high. The treasure of the living word is worthless in our sight, and life pursues its bitter and relentless course to tragedy. It is simply fact that when our universe is built around ourselves, it cannot get any smaller. Life quickly loses equilibrium and everything becomes disjointed. "The half of my goods I give to the poor," Zacchaeus said. "And if ...

670. Jesus and the Rascal

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... them with the same wisdom and foresight with which the crooked steward handled his calamity. We are not to let them rob us of our trust in God’s power and love. For example, when Leland Stanford lost his son, he did not handle the calamity with bitterness and resignation. Out of his heartache he built a school for other boys. It has become one of America’s great universities. He handled his calamity with wisdom and foresight. He did not let his sorrow rob him of his trust in God’s power and love ...

671. Everybody Pray!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

... his adult life. St. Matthew tells us that on this occasion Jesus went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. He further points out that the woman who approached Jesus there was a Canaan ite woman. Not only was she a Gentile, she was from the stock of a bitter ancestral enemy of the Jews. The Jews despised any Canaanite. The net result of this relationship was this: in the eyes of Jesus or any other Jew she was a most unorthodox soul. There was little if any reason to consider her worthy of God's attention and ...

672. Born Naked With A Cross

Sermon

... for Jesus." At the very beginning of his letter, James says, "Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials." One winter day, St. Francis was explaining to his brothers what joy was, as they walked to a village and suffered from the bitter cold. He said that perfect joy was neither in living an example of holiness, nor in performing miracles, nor in knowledge of all things, nor in ability to preach so well that unbelievers would be converted. They asked him, then, wherein was joy. He said ...

673. Table For Talkers

Luke 22:7-38

Sermon

... through conversation. A banquet of friends buzzes like a beehive. Did you notice it or maybe you were too busy talking to have heard it? A dinner is a miserable occasion when two or more people sit down and eat their meal in a cold, bitter silence, because there is nothing for them to communicate. This dinner conversation need not be pleasantries or chit-chat, but it can be talk of substance. This was the case with the conversation at Martin Luther's dinner table. Invariably he had professors and students ...

674. If Only We could Be Loyal ...

Hosea 4:1-19, Hosea 6:1--7:16

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... . She and her husband separated, and it may all end in divorce. In her loneliness she has taken a lover, but that relationship promises no permanence. The father who abandoned her tried to enter her life again, but she would not allow it, because of the bitterness she had carried all through childhood and into her young adult years. I looked at my watch and realized that two hours had gone by. It was time for Jackie to leave. That’s when I asked her why she had come to me. "Because you represent ...

675. Proper 6

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

... these two show that though the Hebrews regarded the Edomites as about the closest of their kinspeople, there was, nevertheless, an intense rivalry that existed between these two peoples. As a result, throughout much of their history, there was a bitter struggle between these two tribes. All of this started, according to the ancient storyteller in Genesis, in the rivalry which began between their competitive twin ancestors. Fredrick Buechner, in a book called, Telling the Truth, speaks of the Message as ...

Showing results