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 926 to 950 of 1838 results

926. Forgiven!

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... the love God has for us. Someone has said that a person who knows himself to be a sinner avoids church like an overweight person avoids the scales. But, if we could tell that sinner, "you are forgiven," a barrier will be taken away. I once read about a very bitter man who was sick of soul, mind and body. He was in the hospital, in wretched condition, not because his body had been invaded by a virus or a germ, but because of the anger and the contempt and self-pity in his soul. Finally one day, when he was ...

927. The Secret Of His Success

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... said to her, "Marian, grace must come before greatness. Why don’t you think about this failure a little and pray about it a lot?" Later, Marian Anderson, who helped many another young singer survive the kind of despair she tasted in that first bitter defeat, said, "Whatever is in my voice, faith has put it there. Faith and my mother’s words: grace must come before greatness." (3) Grace does come before greatness-crucifixion before coronation. Paul had such great influence in the world because he totally ...

928. Lost In America

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... by Willie’s inclination toward dreaming all the wrong dreams. Those who loved him most suffered the most. Throughout the play Miller, however, gives us hints of how Willie’s life could have turned out the man Willie could have been. For example, he was a bitter failure as a salesman, and yet Willie was not completely without merit. He loved to work with his hands. His one masterpiece was the house steps that he had built himself. What if Willie had pursued a vocation in which he could have used the ...

929. Victory on a Broken Knee

2 Timothy 4:6-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... pick he came upon a rich vein of gold. Later he would learn that another man had once worked that claim. This man had invested many years of his life searching for gold. He also had begun with high hopes and great dreams. But those hopes dissipated into bitter disappointment when he labored and was not rewarded. It became harder day by day to sustain that dream, to swing the pick and lift the shovel without evidence of progress. And so he quit--just a few feet from striking it rich. (1) Think of it! If he ...

930. Marriage In Heaven? No. Heaven In Marriage? Yes.

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... more. A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE REQUIRES A LIFELONG COMMITMENT. For many of us that is the primary source of stability in our lives. R. W. Dale, a shy, sensitive man was among the greatest preachers of his own or any time. Yet he found himself the target of bitter hostility, hated for saying what he believed. And one day somebody asked him how he managed to survive. Dale replied very simply, "I am happy at home." It is said that when Thomas Hardy died, his heart was removed from his body. His body was buried ...

931. United We Stand, Divided We Fall

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... red horsehair couch whose rich color Cedric fancied would brighten the front of the church." The huge chair featured massive curved arms and dark mahogany legs, each carved like the claw of a lion. Time passed, and that couch became the subject of a bitter debate between members of the Clyde family who wanted to keep the couch where it was and newer members who thought the couch did not belong in the sanctuary. This debate sparked tension between the established members and the newer families who had moved ...

932. Meeting Jesus Along The Way

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... several hymns." The hymn she remembered that night went something like, "Sweet beautiful words of Jesus, They are the only truth, They are light for the heart..." The words of this old hymn comforted this lady. They took her pain and bitterness away. In their place she experienced joy and gratitude.(3) Our faith is strengthened when we remember what we have already learned. The stories, the hymns, the prayers. In them we find Jesus. Cleopas and his companion remembered Jesus ™ teachings. They certainly ...

933. Are You Strong Enough To Forgive?

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... thing happened. Jerry prayed for the first time in years. "God, please forgive men like these ” like I'm doing now," he prayed, "because they are in part responsible for bringing me to You and Your Son." Jerry Levin learned to forgive his captors. The hostile, bitter men who were holding him had actually done God's work. God had used his imprisonment to get Jerry's attention. After all, he thought, why else would a middle-aged grandfather be sitting in his underwear in a bare room in Lebanon, chained to a ...

934. A Cross In A Cradle

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... would pierce Mary's soul. What would happen next? What happened next was an old woman named Anna. Anna had been widowed for many years. She spent all of her time at the Temple, fasting and praying. Anna was a remarkable woman. In all her years she had not grown bitter and she had never given up hope. There at the Temple Anna saw Mary, and Joseph holding the baby Jesus. At that moment she came up to the young family, and began to praise God. Anna knew in an instant that this infant was the one she had spent ...

935. Why Are You Troubled?

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

King Duncan

... needed Him? You've been there, haven't you? We all have. Cousin Hannah was living through one of those winters when every known calamity descends on a family: like illness, accidents, and hunger. She was a buoyant soul, but when her mother broke her hip, Hannah expressed her bitterness in a manner that has since become a family legend. She said: "I know the Lord won't send me more trouble than I have strength to bear, but I do wish He didn't have quite such a good opinion of me!" (2) That's exactly where ...

936. Sleeping Through A Tornado

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... times. In the next year, 1835, Tongans climbed into canoes and sailed 500 miles to the west to share the gospel with their neighbors on Fiji. A year later they journeyed another 300 miles north by sea to Samoa to witness the gospel to their former bitter enemies. (5) The believers in this small village in Tonga had been transformed by the power of the Spirit. They had been transformed for service and they became a channel of blessing to others. Such was the experience of Simon Peter. And the same thing can ...

937. Who Is He?

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... an inspiration to so many, felt her whole world collapse when she became a quadriplegic from a diving accident at the age of seventeen. She found her condition impossible to reconcile with a loving God. And for three years after the accident she was bitter and questioning. One night, one of Joni's closest friends was sitting with her and trying to help her through her despair. Something must have inspired her that evening, because all at once she said, "Joni, Jesus knows exactly how you feel ” you aren ...

938. What Is True And Who Can You Trust?

John 18:28-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... 're not. Offenses occur, but nobody talks about them. Doubts about the other's integrity creep in, but they're never dealt with. In time such relationships deteriorate. The secret agendas of hurt and misunderstanding lead to detachment, distrust, and bitterness. Feelings of love begin to die. It's the story of too many marriages, family relationships, and friendships. Peck says the only antidote to pseudocommunity is chaos ” Bill Hybels calls it "the tunnel of chaos," where hurts are unburied, hostilities ...

939. People Who Dread Christmas

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

King Duncan

... , "I have something here that will comfort you." He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended with Malachi. There was no Gospel and no promise of hope and salvation, and he could only bow his head and weep with her in bitter despair. Two days later he stood beside her coffin and conducted the funeral service. There was no message of consolation, no hope of heaven. (5) Christmas really is a sad joke without Christ. We can put up lights and sing carols and attend services, but if Christ ...

940. What Are You Sitting On?

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

King Duncan

... to make you rich?" Not at all. Let's approach the question from the other side. Do you believe it is God's will for His children to live in squalor and poverty, ignorance and fear? Do you believe it is God's will for His children to live cold, bitter lives of defeat? None of us believe that. If that were true, why would Jeremiah have written, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord...."? Blessed means happy. It means contented, at peace with yourself. That is God's will for your life and mine. If we are ...

941. The Secrets Of His Success

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... tells us they "could not speak a kind word to him." The final straw was his telling them his strange dream of sheaves of wheat. In his dream his brothers' sheaves were bowing to his. "Do you really expect to rule over us?" they asked with bitterness. And they plotted how they might rid themselves of this arrogant dreamer. At first his brothers schemed to kill him, but finally they decided to sell him into slavery to some Midianite traders who were passing by. Then they took Joseph's colorful designer jacket ...

942. On Knowing What's Best For Your Kids

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... which blossomed wonderfully ” until a frost came and killed all the blossoms. The young fellow did not go to church the next Sunday, nor the next, nor the next, nor the next. His pastor went to see him to inquire about his absence. The young fellow exclaimed with bitterness in his voice, "I'm never coming again. Do you think I can worship a God who cares for me so little that he would let a frost kill all my peaches?" The old minister looked at him a few moments in silence, then said kindly, "God loves ...

943. A Journey To A New Life

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... eleven-year-old daughter Lizbet to do right. Unfortunately, they had no choice but to teach Lizbet to lie. You see, the Martinez family lived in Cuba. They were members of Castro's Communist Party. But inside their home, these devoted parents complained bitterly about the political situation that was destroying their country. And so, when Lizbet was old enough to attend school, her parents sat her down and explained the facts of life to her. She was never to publicly criticize the Communist system. She was ...

944. The Cross We Do Not Want To See

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... compare with the grief of knowing how little impact his suffering and death would have on the mass of humanity. Most men and women would pass him by ” unseeing ” uncaring ” having not a clue in the world that he was dying for them. Yet he drank from the bitter cup ” and he did it for you and me. Pastor Wayne Rouse tells about a friend of his wife, a friend named Alice Rangal. Alice grew up with Rouse's wife in Cozad, Nebraska. Alice's mother and grandmother had a reputation for being the "worst of ...

945. Found Of God

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... years Asimov had suffered occasionally from the fearful pain of kidney stones and the day on which he appeared on television with his wiseguy crack about God finding him, he had his worst (and last) attack. He wrote later: "There's no use trying to describe the bitter, unrelenting pain one experiences in such an attack. All I could do was clutch my abdomen, stagger about, and gasp, All right, God. You've found me. Now let me go.'" (1) Perhaps the man we've come to know as "Doubting Thomas" prayed that same ...

946. A Cup Of Cold Water

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... for Doris to leave, she held Cherie tightly against her. The girl's mother said, "Doris has lost her father, and she needs the doll more than you do. Let Doris have it. God will return it to you." The woman told how hurt she was and how she wept bitterly. As time passed and Cherie was not returned, she lost her faith in God. The times were terrible. The Nazis came and the woman's family was forced to flee Estonia. She learned that the house of Doris's family had been bombed by the Luftwaffe and they were ...

947. A Prize Is Waiting For You!

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

King Duncan

... whose life God reigns is joy. Now you and I have met people who claim to have been born again, who claim to have experienced God's grace in their lives, who will tell you they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, but they are angry and bitter and lacking in both compassion and love. It is not ours to judge, but one has to wonder if they have confused a particular kind of emotional experience with the surrender of one's life to God. Where God is, there is light. Where God is, there is love. Where ...

948. Pardon Me, But Do You Know God?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

... a suffocating, legalistic dish towel religion. Many Christians have one, too. (3) Just because you keep all the rules and the regulations of religion does not mean you know God. There are many people who live within the letter of the law who have hearts heavy with bitterness and hatred. Living by the law does not mean you know God. NEITHER DOES BELONGING TO THE CHURCH MEAN YOU KNOW GOD. I love the church. I believe in the church. Some of my greatest experiences have been in church. I can relate to some of ...

949. Who? Me Worry?

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... . I was in the hospital hooked up to intravenous tubes and to a catheter; I was strapped to a smelly canvas Stryker frame that was both confining and claustrophobic. The darkness in my heart was as dreary as the hospital walls that surrounded me. In my bitterness, in my anger and resentment in my suffering, I felt as if it were impossible to thank God. I thought I could never thank God again. "Another year passed, and my heart had time to mellow. Thanksgiving, 1968, came. My spirit had begun to soften and ...

950. A Misplaced Holy Day

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... to approach it. Legends told that the precious trees were guarded by winged serpents. Frankincense represented Jesus' priestly role, and his role as an offering for the world. And they presented him myrrh. The word myrrh comes from the Hebrew mar, meaning "bitter." The ancient Egyptians used this resin in embalming, and hence its connection with solemn occasions. Was this a strange gift for an Infant King? Not for one destined to die for his people. (3) The Magi represent the first Gentile worshipers of ...

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