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 701 to 725 of 1199 results

701. You're Fired!

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... has so transformed, so re-formed them that they are no less than a new creation and that everything old has passed away (verse 17). God sent Christ to "fire" our old way of life. Everything old our old self, our old sins, our old failures, our old hatreds, our old insecurities, our old fears, our old distrusting nature, our old suspicions, our old alienations, our old despair all of this is fired by the redeeming, re-creating act of Christ. Christ doesn't say "You're Fired!" to our old way of life with a ...

702. Which Will It Be - the Silvered Cross or the Slivered Cross?

Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . We're surrounded by crosses. Yet how many times do you think about what that cross really signifies, really represents? For Christians to understand what the cross means to them and their faith, perhaps we might compare it with some more recent, tangible symbols of hatred, cruelty, and human failure. For a Christian to wear a cross is tantamount to a Jew wearing a Nazi swastika around their neck, or for a resident of Japan to wear the symbol of a mushroom cloud. Who would not be shocked to see such ...

703. Set in the Dark Places

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... on. But wait a minute. Hasn't Satan already been defeated? Haven't the powers of sin and death already been destroyed? Try and let Satan blow it out . . . (At this point blow out your "magic candle" and watch it come back.) Let the powers of evil and hatred have their best shot at your candle (blow even harder). Can you trust the light of Christ? Sure, the flame wavers, flickers, dims, even appears to go out sometimes. But can you trust that the light is more powerful than any of Satan's huffing and puffing ...

704. All God's Children Can Dance

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you.' " What's keeping your soul cringing in the corner instead of joining in the dance? What hidden weights keep your feet fixed to the floor? What's making a slave of you, and keeping you out of "Joy's Way?" Is it a lie? Is it fear? Is it hatred? Is it unforgiveness? Is it sex? Is it money? Is it despair? Whatever it is that's making a slave of you, remember this: God is standing in the shadows. God sees it. And God wants you to know that you're loved, you're forgiven, and God doesn't ...

705. Not What We Expected

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... the messianic age goes far beyond vanquishing one’s enemies. It speaks of a world where evil and violence themselves have been forever rooted out. It’s a vision of the world that exists in the mind of God. This is where creation is headed. No more war. No more hatred. No more tears. No more pain. Can you see it? Can you taste it? If you can’t sense a new world coming, maybe it is because the bright lights of this world obscure the heavenly light of God’s promise. Maybe if we lived in a harsher world ...

706. The Ultimate Blasphemy

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... image of God as the spray of blood on a bombed out mosque wall. It's blasphemy to call for the death and destruction of life. It's blasphemy to create an atmosphere of fear and terror. It's blasphemy to take away the innocence of childhood with lullabies of hatred and violence. It's blasphemy to read God's word but not to live God's word. It's blasphemy to pass the time and not redeem the time.

707. The Day of the Lord

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... to repentance on this Ash Wednesday, and that repentance involves, says our Joel text, a rending of our hearts (v. 13). For it is in our hearts that our sin lies, is it not? In our inner beings, where we nurse our grudges and hatreds, where our desires and lusts lie, where we fashion our self-will, heedless of the will of God. What comes out of a person, Jesus teaches, is what defiles him or her — “evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy ...

708. The Spread of Sin

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... of Cain and Abel, brother is set against brother, and Cain slays Abel. The result is that Cain becomes a fugitive and a wanderer on the face of the earth, cut off from all community (Genesis 4:1-14), and Cain is intended as the symbol of the hatred and dissension within our families. The sin spreads farther until we get the account of Lamech’s terrible sword of vengeance, in Genesis 4:23-24, and he is the symbol of our violence and warfare that we wreak throughout the earth. That results in the story of ...

709. Cha-cha-cha Christians: The Dance that Advances

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... redemption of the world, the hope for a new future, in the form of a man on a cross. Instead of a tragic ending, do you see a new beginning? Instead of death claiming Jesus, do you see Jesus defeating death, and re-claiming life? Instead of seeing hatred and despair winning out, do you see the victory of love and hope? Your legs are made for dancing, not for sitting, not for balancing, but for dancing. Will you dance the Cha-Cha-Cha? Will you be open to the Charge, the Challenge, and the Chance of divine ...

710. Proper 12

Genesis 29:15-30, Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52, Romans 8:28-39, Psalm 105:1-45

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... victim in the confrontation of the tricksters is Leah. When God does enter the story in v. 31, it is only she that merits divine attention, for Leah was a pawn in a trick that was not her choosing, and she is now condemned to a life of hatred. Genesis 29:31 reads, "When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb." This verse indicates whom God was watching during Laban's trick through the motif of divine blessing. Blessing has been a unifying motif throughout the Jacob stories. Jacob stole Isaac's ...

711. Changed Lives - The Woman at the Well

John 4:1-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... and women conversing. The Samaritan woman is surprised, and somewhat rude. She says to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Can’t we all get along? If there was some way to remove blind hatred from human relationships, we could solve most of the world’s problems. Jews and Arabs, militant Islamists and the people of the West. Even in our own land. Blacks and whites, Anglos and Latinos, straight and gay. The list goes on and on. Sociologist and evangelical ...

712. Prison Break

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Holloway “Dear Lord, I did wrong----I thought it was right. You forgave me. I tried again----I made it worse. You forgave me. I resented your will----I bitterly fought. You still forgave me. Although others despised me, they can’t understand. I live with their hatred but I continue on and I gain strength, because----you forgave me. Pray for young people in prison. Pray of the victims of crime and their families. God of justice and compassion, we pray for all who bear the wounds of crime that they may be ...

713. Memorial Day in May

Illustration

King Duncan

... extraordinary. They marched down the streets of what was left of their town to a cemetery. There they decorated the graves of the soldiers. All the soldiers Union as well as Confederate. The mothers and daughters and widows had buried their dead. Now they buried their hatred. The time for healing had come. It was the first Memorial Day. Have you ever wondered why Memorial Day is marked in May? Its date doesn't recall some historic battle. Or the start of some war. Or the signing of an armistice. Why, then ...

714. What's Holding You Together?

Matthew 7:21-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . But you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. (Phil. 4:13). Animations, Illustrations, Illuminations, Ruminations, Applications “We humans cannot live by the bread of our own efforts. The forces of Love and Life within us are swamped by the powers of Hatred and Destruction. If Life and Love are to win in any of us, it will only be by that Word which proceeds from the mouth of God. Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle! Sing the winning of the fray. Now above the cross, the trophy ...

715. Tax Collectors of the Roman World

Matthew 9:9-13

Illustration

Brett Blair

... fleece their own countrymen, but they also did their best to swindle the government, and they made a flourishing income by taking bribes from rich people who wished to avoid taxes which they should have paid. Every country hates its tax-gatherers, but the hatred of the Jews for them was doubly violent. The Jews were fanatical nationalists. But what roused the Jews more than anything else was their religious conviction that God alone was king, and that to pay any taxes to any mortal ruler was an infringement ...

716. Learning Mercy

Illustration

J. Scott Miller

... to meet his Maker. "No, that's okay," she responds. "I'll stay through the execution." "But why?" Gary wants to know. "I'm only getting what I deserve." "Because," she replies, "the last face I want you to see before you die is not one of hatred and vengeance, but one of love and mercy." The next morning, Gary is strapped into place while Sister Helen and the victims' parents watch through the window of an adjacent room. Within a matter of minutes, the last lethal dose is injected and Gary is pronounced ...

717. A Not So Simple Story of Demons and Pigs

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

... choice. Which is why addicts eventually use words like "helpless" and "powerless." But whereas some become possessed by an evil substance, others appear to be possessed by an evil posture ... or an evil attitude. I have met people who seem to be possessed by hatred. I suppose they start out entertaining hateful feelings, only to become those feelings. Over a period of time, they go from being hate-filled people to hateful people. And I, for one, am quite willing to call them demonic. Over the years, I have ...

718. America in the Mirror

2 Kings 17:5-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... to turn our back on the Republican Party. b. Revival Involves a Renewal of Holiness You see, when you turn from sin, you turn toward God; when you turn from disobedience, you turn to obedience; when you renew your love for God, you will also renew your hatred for sin. I want to remind us this morning that judgment begins at the house of God. If judgment begins at the house of God, so should repentance. We should never expect America to get right until the church gets right. c. A Revival of Righteousness Not ...

719. The World Needs Less Mother Goose More Mother Teresa

Isaiah 58:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... less Mother Goose glamour and more Mother Teresa grime. The forces of evil are rampant. Like Mother Teresa, you and I are in the good and evil business. You are going out there to battle evil . . . evil forces of ignorance, poverty, racism, substance abuse, hatred. It’s not about feeling good and happy-clappy highs. Like those worshipers in today’s text, we are attracted to the goosebumps, but what happens when the goosebumpiness diminishes and the bumpiness is all that’s left? How did we get this way ...

720. God Is Pro-Life

Exodus 20:13

Sermon

James Merritt

... Do you have any bitterness in your heart toward another human being? Is there any unresolved anger you have toward a brother or sister in Christ? You may call it bitterness, but God calls it murder. You may call it anger, God calls it murder. You may call it hatred, but God galls it murder. The sainted apostle John said in I Jn. 3:15, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." If your heart is headquarters for hate; if your soul is a harbor for ...

721. The Sword of the Lord

Hebrews 4:12-13

Sermon

James Merritt

... centuries the enemies of God have tried to kill the Bible, and at times they thought they had "buried" the Bible. But this corpse has a habit of coming back to life and outliving the pallbearers. Despised and torn in pieces by infidels decried; The thunderbolts of hatred, the haughty cynics pride; All these have railed against it in this and other lands; Yet dynasties have fallen and still the Bible stands. You think about a book that is 2000 years old and yet it is still the world's all-time best selling ...

722. God Knows Exactly How You Feel

John 19:28

Sermon

James Merritt

... across the plain there were hundreds of such groups; each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He permitted in his world; how lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light; where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said. So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most: a Jew, a negro, a person from ...

723. God Really Cares

Matthew 27:46

Sermon

James Merritt

... fact of human existence. When we examine the moments, acts, and statements of all kinds of people not only the grief and ecstasy of the greatest poets, but also the huge unhappiness of the average soul is evidenced by the innumerable strident words of abuse, hatred, contempt, mistrust, and scorn that forever grate upon our ears, as the man swarm passes us in the streets we find, I think, that they are all suffering from the same thing. The final cause of their complaint is loneliness.1 Of all the ranges ...

724. The Agony of Defeat

2 Samuel 11-12, 1 Kings 15:5

Sermon

James Merritt

... he stopped, turned around and looked right at him. As he stared at Eichmann, this Jewish man suddenly began to sob uncontrollably, and then a moment later, fell to the floor in a dead faint. Wallace asked Dinur what happened. Was he overcome by his hatred? Fear? Terrible memories? Dinur said, "It was none of those things." He told Mike Wallace that when he looked into the eyes of that murderer and saw just an ordinary human being, he understood that Eichmann was not the godlike SS officer who had sent ...

725. Like a Good Neighbor, Jesus Is There

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

James Merritt

... would go to the temple and thank God he had not been born a woman, a Gentile, or a Samaritan. Many Pharisees prayed that the Samaritans would be excluded from the resurrection. Even a Gentile could become a Jewish proselyte, but not a Samaritan. The hatred was so great that in order to avoid contact with Samaritans, when traveling from Judah to Galilee, or vice versa, instead of simply going north or south and traveling through Samaria, a Jew would proceed eastward across the Jordan river, and then go north ...

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