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 51 to 75 of 313 results

51. Woes and Judgments

Isaiah 5:8-30

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... for people’s personalities that is equivalent to the one the grave provides for their bodies, and, like the grave, it is a corporate one. Sometimes in Middle Eastern thinking Death was an individual deity. Here it is simply personified as a person whose appetite matches the revellers’ but exceeds it in danger. In turn, verse 17 links with the first woe and pictures animals able to enjoy the fruits of the land’s desolation. In between (vv. 15–16), the theme reverts to one that dominated chapters 2 ...

52. The Attitude of Youth

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... wrinkles the soul. Worry, self-doubt, fear, and anxiety—these are the culprits that bow the head and break the spirit. Whether seventeen or seventy, there exists in the heart of every person who loves life the thrill of a new challenge, the insatiable appetite for what is coming next. You are as young as your faith and as old as your doubts. So long as your heart receives from your head messages that reflect beauty, courage, joy, and excitement, you are young. When your thinking becomes clouded with ...

53. Who is That Crouching at Your Door?

Genesis 4:1-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in and surrender to God. And it’s at the core of human nature. It’s stimulated by the eye, and desires of the gaze. The gaze here is not the feminist concept of the “male gaze” which stares hungrily at the female figure, although there is an appetite of envy recognizable in that. But the gaze here in the story of Cain and Abel comes from desiring God’s gaze of favor. In fact, the true Hebrew translation of God’s pleasure in Abel’s offering is that God “gazed upon it.” He did not gaze ...

Society is composed of two great classes: those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners.

Nicolas de Chamfort

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there is without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Edmund Burke

56. The Most Important Thing

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... a gracious host. She said, “Yes, what do you have?” He opened his refrigerator door, stared in for a few seconds, then said, “I have pickle juice or water.” (1) What a choice! I’m guessing they drank the water. A journalist with Bon Appetit magazine asked readers to submit examples of their worst dinner party experiences. Another woman named Bea Stein wrote about how the candles on her patio table fell over and set the whole table on fire. Erica Johnson had 50 guests coming over for brunch when ...

57. The Narrow Door

Luke 13:22-30

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... , will trip you up. PRISCILLA: There are some people who begin the race and drop out, of course. RAHAB: Naturally. I see them. They make a good showing, but when you get past the first easy miles, that's when training takes over. Some people make their appetites their gods, and think they can run the race on willpower or their reputations or something, I don't know. Well, they don't make it. PRISCILLA: What do you think of when you're running? RAHAB: Well, you can't think about earthly things. My trainer ...

58. Telling The Truth

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... blessings? The deadly spectres of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases and abortion and shattered marriages and broken families signal that this freedom has been more a curse than a blessing. The supposed freedom has only revealed how much we still are enslaved to our selfish appetites. Paul's impassioned lament suddenly sounds very contemporary: "The good that I want to do, I do not do. And the evil I do not want to do is what I do." And Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits ...

59. The Waiting Place

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

William L. Self

... as surely as the oppressed. When I walked out of prison, I knew my mission to liberate the oppressor and the oppressed."3 The waiting place prepares us for the angel chorus announcing his birth. Without the waiting place, our hearts are not sensitive and our appetites are not ready. Welcome to God's waiting place. It is the necessary place of preparation. Christmas is God's response to the cry of our hearts. It is Jesus Christ, God's future, taking hold of our hearts -- hearts that have confessed that they ...

60. Lighting A Fire In A Cold Room

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... 's eyes, much too large for the small face that housed them. He appeared to stare right through things and people. Father Dominic sprinted everywhere he went, as if life had left him behind and he was desperately trying to catch up. One day he explained his insatiable appetite for rushing through time. "I was caught in France as a young man during the World War II German occupation," he began. "One winter I had no wood to light a fire and the cold weather broke my health. The room was dark and so cold, so ...

61. A Ransom Paid

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Sandra Hefter Herrma

... hope were given to us by Jesus the Christ, but he intended that our gratitude should go to God. The point of the sacrifice was to show us how much God loves us, not how much God demands of us, nor that God is bloodthirsty, and needed to have his appetite slaked. The point of the sacrifice was to show us just how far God was willing to go to bring us home -- not just down to his last cent, but down to his willingness to suffer as we suffer, to die as we die. What more could God do to ...

62. You Can Be Less Worried

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... two siblings had revealed that their marriages were in jeopardy. A very sensitive and loving young woman, she wrestled with that information day and night. It overwhelmed her as she hurt for her brother and sister, wanting to help but not knowing how. Her appetite diminished. Her sleep patterns became erratic. Finally she phoned. As we conversed, an insight surfaced from within the young woman's soul. It came quickly, much as one flips a switch and light floods a formerly darkened room. "I guess there is a ...

63. Life's Loose Threads and The Tie That Binds

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... along the corridors of a nursing home. In fact, it is almost a paradigm of elemental poignancy that we never fully achieve all to which we aspire; that our reach inevitably exceeds our grasp; that we are able to stave off hunger but not appetite. When the final pattern is knit, the concluding stitch sown, and everything we've attempted to weave from the tapestry of life at last unfurled, there will invariably remain a few loose threads left dangling. Even the Scriptures, I think, bear witness to the dictum ...

64. Moving At The Speed Of Light: In Corinth Or Cana?

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

... marriage. In Corinth, it is the I that counts, and this I can become the instrument of dissection to the we. Does this mean that we have to give up the hope of having joy and satisfaction in the marital bond? Must we so subjugate our desires, appetites, interests, and dreams that they become functionally nonexistent? Maybe yes and maybe no. Learn where the best wine is to be found, and when you find the best wine, sip it. Rick was a young man showing some musical promise. He had a creative sensitivity far ...

65. Lent 2

Luke 13:31-35, Psalm 27:1-14

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... seek God's face...Wait for the Lord... Take courage... Be strong. PRAYER OF CONFESSION Creating Spirit, hear our confession. We are often forgetful of who we are and in whose likeness we are created. We regret the imbalance in our lives that too often allows our appetites to run away with us, so that we seem to live for eating and drinking and love-making. Our minds are too busy with plans to get ahead and satisfy bodily desires to the exclusion of the refreshment of the spirit, the exercise of the mind ...

66. A Birth Bringing a Blessing

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... the night sky and sang this glorious news to the shepherds. Then they told the shepherds what sign to look for. Lord, we need to be told what signs to look for too! So often our thoughts are dominated by: strained travel schedules, over-indulgent appetites, and the frenzy of decorating and baking, shopping and entertaining. The mother of our Lord had the right idea. When she heard the report of the shepherds, she pondered what it meant in her heart. Lord, help us to realize that the pace we maintain ...

67. Too Soon, Monsieurs, Too Soon?

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

... specific, it is the midpoint, situated as a middle pier between Jesus' baptism at the beginning and his resurrection at the end, and one of its major purposes is to evoke the memory of the first and, at the same time, to whet the appetite for the second. Indeed, according to Matthew's halftime report, Jesus' ministry is not faring well. The transfiguration occurs in a season of gloom. Jesus has been labeled a blasphemer, accused of demon possession, doubted by his friend and colleague in kingdom work John ...

68. Epiphany 8

Mt 6:24-34 · 1 Cor 4:1-13 · Is 49:8-18 · Ps 131

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... their needs would be eliminated but that they would be satisfied. What satisfaction would food provide if we never experienced hunger? Without hunger, we would not be inclined to eat. Those who have witnessed a loved one die of cancer know that the absence of appetite is often a sign that the end of life is near. The hunger and thirst is the driving force of physical existence. Likewise, God has placed within our souls a hunger and thirst for God. That drive is good because it causes us to seek spiritual ...

69. Proper 10

Genesis 25:19-34, Isaiah 55:1-13, Romans 8:18-27, Romans 8:1-17, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... . Sermon Angle: Jacob was a cunning man who understood his brother's weaknesses. He prepared a pot of stew, knowing that his brother would sell his birthright in exchange for some hearty food. How many people are so driven by their immediate physical appetites that they would be willing to sacrifice their souls to satisfy them? 2. Sermon Title: God Uses Stinkers Too. Sermon Angle: Sometimes God uses people of exceptional holiness to accomplish his will, but sometimes he uses stinkers. Jacob was a schemer, a ...

70. A Taste Of Life

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

William G. Carter

... with meager portions of bread and wine. The sacrament did not mend his body. Neither did it set him free from weakness and confinement. But it did give him a taste of Christ's presence. And that taste was sufficient to sustain his appetite. 1. Johann Heerman, "Ah, Holy Jesus," The Presbyterian Hymnal (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 93. 2. B. A. Gerrish, Grace and Gratitude: The Eucharistic Theology of John Calvin (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 134. 3. As quoted in Gerrish, Grace ...

71. A Song Sung Blue

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... . Pardon me, if that’s in order, but I choose to differ with this ill-founded contention. I differ if we are talking about bona fide grief and disappointment, legitimate lamenting if you will, and not about chronic complaining and a regularly fed appetite for a discontented spirit. They are not the same thing. Grief is something through which we must pass; with chronic complaining we have taken up a residence. We hear a great deal in our day about positive Christianity, but please understand that ...

72. The Ultimate Mystery

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Lee Griess

... of the cross our failure before God, our own shortcoming to live as God wishes that we live, we cannot understand the cross. For the cross confronts us with our sinfulness. Here at the cross is revealed the whole vile catalog of sins. Every wrong appetite, every evil desire, every wrong action or unwholesome thought is brought together there that day. James Russell Lowell tells of a painting in Brussels in which God is about to create the world and an angel is depicted as attempting to hold back the arm ...

73. Proper 13

John 6:25-59, Psalm 51:1-19

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... the Good News! In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. EXHORTATION Be humble always, and gentle, and patient too. Be forbearing with one another and charitable. PRAYER OF THE DAY Giver of good things, Gift of God, Spirit of the self-giver, give us an appetite for the eternal life that we may not be satisfied with what perishes but devote our lives to the pursuit of spiritual excellence. Amen. PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING Giver of all patience, Child of our humanity, renewing Spirit, we turn from our complaints about ...

74. Proper 15

1 Kings 2:1-12, Psalm 111:1-10, Ephesians 4:17--5:21, John 6:25-59, 1 Kings 3:1-15

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... of me." Friends, believe the Good News! In Jesus, Christ, we are forgiven. EXHORTATION Be most careful how you conduct yourselves: like sensible people, not thoughtlessly. Use the present opportunity to the full, for these are evil days. PRAYER OF THE DAY Whet our appetite, Giver of life, for the bread of life, Jesus Christ, that through our faith in him and our reception of him we may have life eternal, living with him day by day and raised by him on the last day. Amen. PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING Founder ...

75. Two Doors; One Choice

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... obey me then I will love you and let you come into my house." Jesus, by contrast, portrays GOd as a parent who accepts us as we are. Accepted, that is! Not simply forgiven. There is no reason to assume that just because the prodigal came home he lost his appetite for good food and fine wine, nor his appreciation for beautiful women. He was not forgiven. He was accepted for who he was, a lad who had to go into the far country to find himself. For this kind of salvation, the wide door of living by righteous ...

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