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 357 results

51. Seek Good, Not Evil (That You May Live)

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

Paul W. F. Harms

... of a new program in niceness. It is a seeking after life itself, as God describes and designs that life. To live, to be alive means to seek good, not evil, to establish justice, to uphold righteousness, rather than cast it down; to be exacting in charity rather than in covetousness. That's but a partial description of what it means to be alive. That is certainly what it meant to be alive for the people of Amos' time. The textual phrase is, "And the Lord God of hosts will be with you." That there is to be no ...

52. An Encounter With Two Old Friends

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

... s book as a member of his household, to live within the shelter of his mercy, to know that my name has been bound together with the strong name, what more can we ask? To know that he has re-created us in his image, what better image could we covet? God cares for us, and that can only mean that we care, too. God forgives, and, that can only mean that we forgive - forgive ourselves and others. God defends us, and that means that we need not defend ourselves. He justifies in mercy, and that can only mean that ...

53. A Glory Revealed in Liberty

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... job. Even here people could have the illusion they were experiencing life. She knew this from personal experience. Somehow, she was chosen to work in the commandant’s office. This was a coveted job because it involved only light work. Occasionally, she got some time "off." She would go out in the sunlight of a spring day and enjoy the grass and the trees, which surrounded the office compound. By simply looking up and away from the camp behind her, she could feel, ...

54. Justification and Reconciliation

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

... that by it he is led into sinning."13 Far from being an incentive to do God’s will, the law "revives sin" (Romans 7:9) and "increases the trespass" (Romans 5:20). As an example, Paul says, the commandment "You shall not covet" only "wrought in me all kinds of covetousness" (Romans 7:8). Human nature is such that the fruit of the forbidden tree tastes sweetest. In the sharp contrast which Paul draws between law and grace, law has a purely negative function. "Why the law?" he asks, and answers, "because of ...

55. Hindering Riches

Matthew 19:16-30

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... no. You see, I’m on the other side. I know what you’re talking about, what you’re leading up to. I’m on the side of adversity."4 A lot of people would take the opposite side. They would choose prosperity, not adversity. Adversity is not to be coveted, of course; it can have the wrong kind of influence, just as prosperity can. But it may not be as likely to. Prosperity may give one the wrong interests, and if it does, it will be a hindrance to entrance into the kingdom of God. If one is dominated by ...

56. The Problem With The Big Ten

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... the tenth commandments are concerned with moral duties. "Honor your father and mother . . . You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or his maidservant . . . or anything that is your neighbor's." In other words, the first section deals with our personal relationship with God, and the second section our relationships with ...

57. Love Is Not Easy

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... his friends. So Paul could write, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "˜Do not commit adultery,' "˜Do not murder,' "˜Do not steal,' "˜Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up," says St. Paul, "in this one rule: "˜Love your neighbor as yourself . . . '" Is such love possible in this world? Yes, it is. A number of years ago, the USS Pueblo, a ship from the ...

58. The Tenacity of Trouble

James 4:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... with their selfish passions and pursuits. This should not be in the Christian community. When you deal with conflict, you must some how stop the vicious cycle, and replace it with something greater. James knew he must expose the passions of jealousy, materialism and covetousness--and replace them with a God-focused perspective. This is why Paul also taught in the famous love chapter that love is NOT self-seeking, arrogant or rude, it is not boastful--it does not keep a record of wrongs. Now let us jump ...

59. Suffering in Sin

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... David with his sin in what was a masterful sermon. After arousing David's anger with the story of the rich man who stole the poor man's little lamb, Nathan whirled on David and accused him, "You are the man!" David deserved death for his lustful coveting and adultery with Bathsheba, for his robbery of her, for his deceitfulness and finally murder of Uriah. And David recognizes his sin (2 Samuel 12:13); that is at least a first step in his repentance. But sin does not go unpunished by God, and it always ...

60. Ten Friends Drive Us to the Promise

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... have the dreadful potential to maim and hurt. The promise of the Eighth Commandment is Jesus' intention that the truth be spoken always in love. Commandments Nine and Ten, "You shall not covet," deal with inward feelings, thoughts, and disposition. They protect against the wandering eye and greedy heart. Coveting leads to other egregious sins. On the mountain and for the Israelites, Moses becomes the great mediator between a Holy, Awesome, Commandment-giving Yahweh and the ragtag people of Israel. At the ...

61. Proper 22

Exodus 20:1-21, Matthew 21:33-46, Philippians 3:1-11, Psalm 19:1-14

Sermon Aid

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

... mercy. Minister: You shall not steal. Be honest in all that you do and care for those in need. All: Amen. Lord, have mercy. Minister: You shall not be a false witness. Let everyone speak the truth. All: Amen. Lord, have mercy. Minister: You shall not covet anything which belongs to your neighbor. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus: It is more blessed to give than to receive. Love your neighbor as yourself, for love is the fulfilling of the law. All: Amen. Lord, have mercy. This should be followed by a ...

62. Mark 10:17-31

Mark 10:17-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... for this man in verse 19, he subtly altered the list. "You shall not defraud" or "rob" is a fairly unique interpretation of the tenth commandment prohibiting covetousness. For a man of many possessions or much land (the more usual translation of ktemata pollan which is here "great wealth"), to defraud was more tempting than to covet. As this would-be disciple slips away "grieving," the text now shifts its focus to an astonishing dialogue between Jesus and his disciples over his nontraditional views ...

63. Luke 12:13-21

Luke 12:13-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... or "sir," retaining the aloofness of the Greek anthrope in Jesus' response. Jesus clearly rejects the role of judge in such disputes. He has not come to settle matters of inheritances. Indeed, such matters will truly be settled only when the basic issues of greed and covetousness have been addressed. With this in mind, Jesus then continues with a warning against greed, saying to "them," i.e., the crowd of people: "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the ...

64. God and the Minimum Wage

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... right to complain because they got exactly what they had bargained for. Immediately they screamed out, "Unfair!" You see they had made a fatal mistake. They were comparing what someone else had gotten with what they got. When you start comparing you start coveting. When you start coveting you start complaining. The danger comes when you take your eyes off of the Lord. Because when you begin to watch others you won't be satisfied with what God gives you; you'll always want what someone else has. Now we see ...

65. One Lord, One Table

Exodus 20:1-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. [13] You shall not murder. [14] You shall not commit adultery. [15] You shall not steal. [16] You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. [17] You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. [18] When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid ...

66. What Difference Does It Make?

John 14:15-21

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . Advertisers want to steal customers. They may not out and out lie, but they sure bend the truth to the point of breaking. And the whole idea of advertising is to make you want to possess something that you don't have that someone else does. That's covetousness. The point I'm trying to make is that it doesn't make any difference where the Commandments are displayed. The most important place for them to be displayed is in the lives of those who claim this kinship with Jesus. It makes a difference to you ...

67. From Greed to Generosity

Mark 10:17-27

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . He had a whole life to look forward to. He was a ruler. He had power and prestige. He spoke and things happened. He was a ruler. He was righteous. When Jesus said keep the commandments, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't bear false witness, don't covet your neighbor's possessions, this man responds in Verse 20: “Teacher I have kept all these since my youth." Could you say that? I couldn't. He was young; he was rich; he was righteous; he had it all going for him and yet in the midst of all of ...

68. A Blessing in Disguise

Genesis 32:22-31

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... to go hunting, prepare a meal, and then bring it to his father. Then, after eating the meal, Isaac would give Esau his blessing. Rebecca overheard the plan, and she immediately put a plan of her own into action. Eager for her preferred son to receive the coveted blessing, Rebecca arranged for Jacob to disguise himself as Esau, and then to carry in a meal she prepared for Isaac to eat. Because Isaac was old and blind, the disguise did not have to pass the sight test; only the touch and smell test. (Rebecca ...

69. A Little Theology at Christmas

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened ...

70. Just Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... this is not the cry of the underpaid, because no one is underpaid in the parable. This is the cry of the ungrateful. They had made the fatal mistake of comparing what they got with what someone else had. When you start comparing you start coveting. When you start coveting you start complaining. Instead of being grateful for what God has given you, you will start grumbling about what God has given someone else. Now we see why the owner paid the men in reverse order. If he had paid the first workers first and ...

71. Living as Children of Light

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... be sure and the “let no one deceive you with empty words” (5:6) suggest that there was a serious moral threat at the time. Immorality, impurity, and greed exclude people from the inheritance that God has prepared for them. Greed, or covetousness (pleonexia), is equated with idolatry because sexual passions can become objects that dominate one’s life and destroy one’s relationship to God. A similar statement occurs in Colossians 3:5 in the context of “putting off” immoral practices. Even though ...

72. Possessions and Choice in the New Kingdom Community

Mark 10:17-31

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... first commandment to promise long life (Exod. 20:12) and so becomes a good conclusion. The interesting one here is the command not to “defraud,” replacing the tenth commandment not to “covet,” probably because a wealthy person like this man may well have gained his wealth at the expense of others (a type of coveting). 10:21 One thing you lack. The man believes that he has been faithful in keeping the commandments assiduously from his earliest days. This was not so much arrogance or hypocrisy, for ...

73. Adam, the Law, and the Curse of the Covenant

Romans 5:12-21

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... broken. 3. The law that Adam broke was the Torah before it was inscribed by Moses. Romans 7:7–12 will forcefully make that point, for it was a common assumption in Second Temple Judaism that the commandment that Adam and Eve broke was the command not to covet (to have the knowledge of good and evil and thus be like God), and that such a command summarized the entire Torah. James Dunn puts it this way: “Thus the commandment Adam received (‘You shall not eat of it,’ Gen. 2:17) could be seen not as an ...

74. Ten Commandments and the People’s Response

Exodus 20:1-21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... biblical as well as contemporary illustrations demonstrate these consequences, both on the level of individuals and in terms of systemic and ideological shaping of truth. Tenth Commandment · Finally, the tenth commandment, against coveting (20:17), completes the circle created by this comprehensive statement of ethics. Coveting means an insatiable craving to serve oneself at any cost, a clear violation of the first two commandments. It is the heart attitude that surfaces in acts of murder, adultery, theft ...

75. Submit Yourselves to God

James 4:1-12

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... verse 2 depends entirely on how we punctuate the verse. (The earliest copies of the New Testament had no punctuation at all.) Some versions (KJV and HCSB, for instance) separate the relevant words into three separate sentences: 1. You want something but do not get it. 2. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. 3. You quarrel and fight. However, most contemporary versions (including the NIV and ESV) divide this material into two sentences: 1. You desire and do not have; so you kill. 2. And you ...

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