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 502 results

51. How to Rub People the Right Way

Acts 4:36-37

Sermon

James Merritt

Many years ago during the Colonial era of this country, wealthy ladies were proud of their wide-board oak floors. At least once a week servants would wet-rub and then dry-rub these floors to make them shiny. It was a very simple task involving running a wet mop along the grain of the wood and then a dry mop. But sometimes a careless worker would mop across the grain and it would produce streaks on the floor. When that happened the lady of the house would scold the servant for "rubbing the floor the wrong ...

52. Come On Baby, Light My Fire

Matthew 3:11-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... in the Bible. There is a baptism of water, but there is also a baptism of fire. John baptized with water, Jesus baptized with fire; water baptism is visible, fire baptism is invisible; one baptism is wet, one baptism is dry. One may have no effect on the person being baptized, for you can go down wet and come up dry. But the other baptism always has the effect of a changed life on fire for God. Practically every Christian knows something about baptism with water, but the vast majority of Christians know ...

53. The True Feng Shui Life

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... created with the Spirit blowing over the face of the primeval, chaotic waters (Genesis 1:2). If we willingly step out of our status quos to follow Jesus, we had better anticipate getting wet. Christians are not called to be perfectly coiffed. If we are really living life in the Spirit, we should have wind-blown hair and be wet behind the ears. The reason Peter lost his nerve, the reason Peter lost his buoyancy, was not because he feared the water, but because he feared the wind. As a fisherman Peter knew ...

54. Tiny Bad Habits

Matthew 16:21-28

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... you know that this is a piece of a tree. It is cut out of the middle of the tree. Can you see the rings? These are growth rings. A tree grows one ring wider each year. If you look carefully, you can tell if the season was wet or dry (wide rings mean wet weather). Sometimes you can see scars that show the tree was struck by lightning or high winds. You may even see woodpecker holes in the bark. The stories a tree tells are many. In the far west, a high tree fell to the ground a few years ...

55. I’m Standing on His Shoulders

Illustration

Brett Blair

... makes wonderful places to play because it creates these huge sand hills and kids love to play on them. There's really nothing more fun than playing on those huge sand hills and there's nothing more dangerous. Because when the sand comes out of the river bottom, it's wet and it creates a crust on the top of the hills. You can get on the top of them and they will collapse and the sand will sink you down inside the hill. Some years ago two brothers didn't come home for dinner and their bikes were found outside ...

56. Ephesians 6:10-20

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... wood, cloth and hide-covered shields of the front-line soldiers and dipping them into water just before the battle. The shield soaked up this water and retained its wetness for quite some time. In this way when the enemy rained down flaming, pitch-covered arrows on the advancing troops, the arrows that embedded themselves in the wet shields harmlessly fizzled out, instead of engulfing the shield and its soldier in flames. The "helmet of salvation" is another military image borrowed from Isaiah 59:17. But ...

57. I'm a Leper, You're a Leper

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... isolationists.” (Be sure you take out your own anti-bacterial products). It looks like about half [or three-quarters, or a quarter] of us are isolationists. I know of one church where the pastor had to ask the people please NOT to use the Wet-Wipes after the Passing of the Peace. It was too disruptive of the liturgy that followed, and too disparaging of the liturgy that preceded it. With all this isolationist bathing in anti-bacterial products, why are we still so “germy”? Environmental scientists are ...

58. Will the Real Christian Please Stand Up?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... on the lamp and picked him back up. I noticed something when I looked into his face; there wasn’t a tear in his eye. He wasn’t wet. He wasn’t hungry. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. About that time, not even having a tooth in his head, he looked up at ... to ear. All of a sudden it hit me, he wasn’t crying, he was lying. He wasn’t hungry. He wasn’t hurting. He wasn’t wet. He just wanted me to pick him up and play with him. That is why the Bible says we lie from the time we are born. You ...

59. Am I a Real Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

60. Am I a Real Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... on the lamp and picked him back up. I noticed something when I looked into his face; there wasn't a tear in his eye. He wasn't wet. He wasn't hungry. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. About that time, not even having a tooth in his head, he looked up at me ... ear to ear. All of a sudden it hit me, he wasn't crying, he was lying. He wasn't hungry. He wasn't hurting. He wasn't wet. He just wanted me to pick him up and play with him. That is why the Bible says we lie from the time we are born. You don' ...

61. Fruitcakes, Fruit-Baskets and New Year’s Babies

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... goal, it is a beginning. Christ’s act of redemption made love possible. When we seek to be reborn in baptism that love at last becomes available. The third fruit is recreated: Everyone knows if you are “wet behind the ears” you are just getting started. It was “wet behind the ears” Ephesian community that had to be told what bad behaviors to ditch (anger, wrath, malice, slander) and what good behaviors to develop (compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience). Those who had been baptized ...

62. Seeing God In The Ordinary: Friends

John 11:1-45

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... almost every day. Dr. Robert Tuttle tells the true story of one of those little deaths and resurrections. It seems there was a nine-year-old boy sitting at his desk, and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet, and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop, because he can't possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before. He was dying on the inside because he knew when the others boys found out, he would never hear the end of it. He also knew that ...

63. Gideon: One Giant Leap

Judges 6:11-16

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... 's plan to deliver Israel completely from the Midianites, Gideon balked big time. And the famous throwing out of the fleece scene took place. First Gideon says, OK, I want the fleece wet with dew and the ground around it dry. Done. But that wasn't enough. Just to make sure, Gideon reversed it. This time Lord, I want the fleece dry and the ground wet with dew. God did as Gideon asked. And the reason God didn't just zap him and choose somebody else is the same reason God chose Abraham and Moses and Peter and ...

64. The Gift of Purpose

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... was cold, but they were closer to the waterfall than either of them had ever been before, and the view was fantastic. Mike wanted to go just one step farther onto a rock that was just a few feet nearer the rapids. But as he eased himself onto the wet rock, worn smooth from years of running water, his feet slipped and he tumbled into the foaming river. Fortunately he managed to grab a rock spur and save himself for the moment, but his grasp was weak, and he wouldn't be able to keep himself from being swept ...

65. Matthew 14:22-36

Matthew 14:22-36

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... (Job 9:8; Psalm 77:19; Isaiah 43:16). Jesus’ actions, Jesus’ authority, clearly presents his divine origins and status. The long, wet and windy night gives away to dawn as Jesus approaches the disciple’s boat. They are able to see a figure walking ... The extraordinary nature of Jesus’ water-striding appearance is down-played by the calming, comforting greeting he offers his wet, weary followers. After encouraging the disciples to “take heart” or even “be cheerful” (9:2,22), he announces his ...

66. If-By-Whiskey Speech

Illustration

... immediately recognized the phrase, meaning "calculated ambivalence," and provided the following anecdote: Fuller Warren, Florida's governor in the '50s, was running for office in a year that counties were voting their local option on permitting the sale of liquor. Asked for his position on wet-versus-dry, he would say: "If by whiskey you mean the water of life that cheers men's souls, that smooths out the tensions of the day, that gives gentle perspective to one's view of life, then put my name on the list ...

67. Called from the Water

Mark 1:4-11

Illustration

Frank Trotter

... himself to breathe slower. Then he would blindly strikeout again. At last he heard a faint voice calling from shore. He pointed his body to the sounds and followed them to safety." Today is the Sunday in the year when the church intentionally remembers that it needs to get all wet in the amazing grace-filled waters of our baptism in Jesus Christ – drenched, gloriously dripping wet, in to him to whom we are accountable and in whom we are all saved.

68. Stand by Me

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of “climate control” disappear the moment we step outside. Entering the real world means encountering the power of real weather — hot or cold, wet or dry, on fire or under water, wind whipped or bleakly be-calmed. The world of weather does not exist to please ... of these point to a personal perspective, a first-hand narrative. Mark got his story from someone who had been thoroughly wet and worried. And then wowed. Jesus quieted the wind and calmed the waves with a single rebuke, the divine directive: “ ...

69. Turning Potholes into Mud Puddles on the Bethlehem Road

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... God. A new “first fruit,” a brand new taste, of God’s love. John offered the taste of salvation. How do we step into that new life of Emanuel — of Divine “Withness?” John’s audience got wet. Then they got working. John put people “on the road” by giving them something more than being “wet-behind-the-ears.” John gave his newly cleaned out, newly stalled, newly baptized, audience a roadmap for their new relationship with God. It was not any complex roadway. It was a simple, step-by-step ...

70. Ignite: Fire and Water

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

James Merritt

... again, was baptized as a child and maybe even sprinkled as an infant. Somehow later in life, God graciously convicted you of the fact that you had never truly been saved, never truly trusted Christ and you did. Again, you have never been baptized – you just got wet. You need to take that next step of following Jesus in baptism. I want to close this series and this sermon with a question that I asked early on, “Is your Christian faith a raging fire or a dull habit?” There is a simple test to determine ...

71. Skull Hill

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus is their experience of justification. It is the moment when the truth of Jesus’ life and mission are embraced and the “rules” of success and failure in this world are once and for all turned upside down. Sanctification is all about keeping your soul wet, keeping your “clay” moist, keeping your life of faith pliable to the Potter’s touch. It is not enough just to believe and offer your life to the master potter. For if you dry up and your clay becomes hard and brittle, no creative shaping ...

72. Atheism’s Oversimplification

Illustration

C.S. Lewis

... the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, funny-photo-man-falling-rain why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too—for the argument depended on saying ...

73. A Woman Burdened with Guilt

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, to whom he forgave more.” Jesus said, “You have judged rightly.” Then Jesus turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss (of greeting), but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil (as is customary), but she has anointed my feet ...

74. Loving Made Real

John 13:1-17, John 13:31-38

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

... comfort, that was hard. Even though my wife would oversee the bath to guard a measure of dignity, there were times with my mother that required me coming in when my mother could not arise from the tub herself. Despite the best attempts to cover the wet body, there was something oddly and profoundly disquieting about holding her in such a way. The touch was too intimate. Too unknown. Over the years I have reflected about the earliest memories of my mother holding me on her lap, rocking in a chair, singing ...

75. The Well Watered Soul

Ezekiel 17:1-24, Ezekiel 47:1-12, Matthew 12:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , refreshed, reborn by God’s still waters. Jesus disciples are Madrona disciples. We are not called to be stalwarts of the status quo, or giants of normality. Jesus calls us to be a tree of Living Waters, a tree that doesn’t do normal, but has a wet-behind the ears faith –a faith willing to stand in the rain/reign and to receive the freshness and renewal that God provides as daily as God provided manna to the Hebrew people. Jesus is the healer of the withered hand and the withered heart, the withered ...

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