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 76 to 100 of 313 results

76. The Conversion of Saul

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... upstairs rooms reserved for dignitaries? Did Franklin D. Roosevelt have a mistress and did John F. Kennedy have extramarital affairs? Has the passion gone from the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Di? Will Elizabeth Taylor marry yet again? Insatiable is our appetite for singularities in noteworthy people. So, since we know how vastly important Saul is to our Christian faith, we latch onto Luke's accounts with ready interest. Let us be aware that this is the first of three accounts of the conversion ...

77. What Does It Mean To Love?

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

George Johnson

... that makes tithing very difficult. That is, we have homes, cars, clothes, sports and long range goals that make it difficult to live on the 90 percent. So we may take from the 10 percent that belongs to God for our lifestyle, to meet our obligations and appetites, to fulfill our goals. The Bible says that is stealing from God. It is the failure to love that leads us to steal what does not belong to us. Of course, parents who steal may find that their children will also learn to steal. Tithing is not ...

78. Everything Except God

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... to ask Coles to come to the house. She talked to him at the kitchen table and inquired about what kind of questions he was asking her daughter. He explained that it was important to learn how she was handling stress. He queried her about her appetite, her sleeping habits and other relevant matters. Ruby’s mother replied: “You’re a doctor and I shouldn’t be asking you questions… But my husband and I were talking the other night, and we decided that you asked our daughter about everything except God ...

79. Watching The Eyes

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

John Jamison

... He started talking, and shouting, and waving his arms, and every time someone would try to laugh at him and go back to their coconut cream pie, he would walk right over and slam a fist on their table, or just stand and stare at the pie eater until their appetite simply disappeared. All this without missing a beat of his sermon. And what a sermon it was. He started out, "Some of you folks are from around here, aren't you? Born and raised right here? Well, that don't count for one blasted thing in God's book ...

80. New (Testament) Math

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... mouths be "politically correct," lest we run afoul of some group somewhere. Lord knows, we preachers step on enough toes as it is. Our modern society seems to be obsessed with political correctness. We are equally obsessed with mathematics. We seem to have an insatiable appetite for statistics and numbers. Farmers talk about bushels per acre and price per bushel. We measure the rainfall we get down the hundredth of an inch and can tell within a drop or two if Snow Creek got more or less rain than Figsboro ...

81. The Elders

Drama

William Grimbol

... knows. He knows me too well not to. He gets angry and defensive about him because he knows. RACHEL: Could I go with you next time you ... you sneak off? RUTH: (Grinning broadly) You sure can. DAVID: (Entering exhausted) A walk can sure work up an appetite. RUTH: My God. DAVID: That is better. Now you have your priorities straight. NATHAN: You can't possibly be hungry. DAVID: Better eat than argue. RUTH: I'll get you a little something ... and I do mean little. DAVID: Tyrant! RACHEL: I'll help you Ruth ...

82. The Ultimate Question

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their god is their belly, their glory is in the shameful, their mind is set on earthly things, their end is destruction. (Philippians 3:18-19) The means of life for the gratification of the sensate appetite and the end is destruction. The fact that distinguishes our day from any previous time is obviously our mastery over the scientific means of life. One after another, the forces of the universe, from the power of steam to the unbelievable power of the fission ...

83. Living Passionately

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... be saying that today! So often I feel like the Word of God is being proclaimed to the same audience to which many of our radio and television commercials are addressed - people with sluggish livers, nervous headachy depression, sagging appetites, loss of pep and energy, tired blood, limp, lethargic, lusterless, languid, and lifeless. But there are other words: Consecration! Concentration! Devotion! Commitment! Single-Mindedness! Passion! Do we even have these words in our vocabulary anymore? A couple of ...

84. Partners With the Eternal

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

"Bring them ... to me." - Matthew 14:18 One of the best known stories of Jesus concerns the feeding of five thousand persons. To assuage the appetites of that many people all at one time and place would be quite an achievement anytime, anywhere. But the achievement is infinitely great when it is accomplished with five loaves of bread and two small fish. I am sure a great many restauranteurs and homemakers would like to know how ...

85. Finding Life!

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

... come alive to anything but what is physical, the primitive biological drives that can, and sometimes do, drive us into the abyss - an infantile compulsion to reach and grasp and hold, an adolescent engrossment with the sex urge, an animal response to the demands of appetite in general. This is really not living; it is a denial of life, or an evasion, or an attempt at substitution. Unless we are alive at the spiritual level, the rest of life, at the end, is mostly frustration. One man, dying, said, "I have ...

86. God Is Good But Not Easy

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... who was far more musically gifted than he himself. Mozart could write better music casually than Salieri could write under the discipline of great struggle. Like the fisherman who plays with the hungry fish only to finally hook it because it is a victim of its own appetite, Salieri felt lured on and "hooked" by God. In his own mind, he saw himself as a pawn that had been used and sacrificed by a laughing God who played carelessly with people in the game of life. He felt his emptiness as Adam and Eve had ...

87. A Taste of God's Tomorrow

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Glenn L. Borreson

... you with this, but ..."; and before they could complete their apology, Jesus stretched out his hand and drew them close with a care which made them weep with joy. It was the King of the Universe who had touched them. In that moment their appetites were whetted. They wanted more and they received more. Here was compassion they never saw before. Here was no flashy healer out to make the headlines, using hurting people as stepping-stones to his glory. Here was no politician who would find them worthy only ...

88. The Primacy of Human Relationships

Matthew 5:33-37

Sermon

Joe Pennel

... believe that not being truthful will gain us some advantage in life. It is not easy because speaking the truth will, in some situations, bring opposition and rejection. It is not easy because truth is often slippery, error is subtle, and there is a human appetite for illusion. It is not easy because we have to decide with less than perfect knowledge. But, nothing should be of higher value to the Christian than to see the triumph of truth. We should pray passionately that it will prevail. And, we are called ...

89. Bound for Glory

1 Samuel 25:1-44

Sermon

... to the beast Nabal. She ordered five of her prettiest servants to saddle up the donkeys with 200 fig cakes, 200 loaves of bread fresh from the bakery, and ten whole cooked sheep - enough to provide a lamb chop dinner fit for even the kingly appetite of David. Tradition has it that these maidens wore low-cut blouses with skirts split up to the waist, heavy makeup, and gossamer-thin veils over their stately heads. Abigail and her party met David as he was leading his camel-mounted band licketysplit down ...

90. Do You Have the Great Pearl?

Matthew 13:47-52, Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... of wealth his aim. He toils into the late hours in order to get more of this passing treasure. He neglects his wife, his children, his health, his Bible, his God, and his prayer life just to have more time to acquire material things. But the appetite for earthly wealth keeps growing with the eating. He can’t seem to fill his bottomless bag. In the end he finds that he has forfeited the pearl of great price for an accumulation of trinkets. Another man, of hedonistic persuasion, believes that his happiness ...

91. Stuffed Bodies and Skinny Souls!

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... for forgiveness and renewal of the covenant. Through maintaining the covenant, our souls are continually nourished. All that has been said about God’s feeding our souls depends on whether we are spiritually hungry and thirsty. If we are not hungry and have no appetite, we neglect eating. Right? So we must ask ourselves: Do we hunger and thirst after righteousness and spiritual food? Are we desperate enough to say with a Psalmist, "As the heart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee"? Or ...

92. Born to Play Second Fiddle

Luke 1:57-66

Sermon

George Bass

... he turned to the Word of God for comfort and enlightenment. Michelangelo’s spiritual struggles led him to reject the relative luxury he could have enjoyed in the sixteenth century and to live more like a medieval monk - or like John the Baptist; he denied his appetites and rejected even the simplest pleasures in order to do his work to the glory of God. In 1517, the year that Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Michelangelo recorded for posterity three menus he used in his ...

93. Do I Dare Be Different?

Matthew 5:10; 10:1-42

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... for principles the world doesn’t like to be reminded of, and you may be left out of some circles." But blessed are you when you show that you hunger and thirst to be all that the faith asks of you, for you will experience the satisfaction that only an appetite for the things of God can give. The world says, "You have to learn to operate and live and work among people who are not quite as efficient as you, who can’t or don’t do things quite as well as you, so brush them aside. Be on your ...

94. Pardon for Sin

Romans 5:12-21

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... . Another is a fanatic; we are an enthusiast. Others exaggerate; we just dramatize. Others loaf a lot; we know how to relax and take care of ourselves. The other fellow is a pessimist; we’re stark realists. Others are gluttons; we have good appetites. Others are spendthrifts; we’re just generous. Said the poet: Stubbornness we deprecate, But firmness we condone, The former is our neighbor’s trait. The latter is our own. How easy to rationalize our wrong doings - to blame someone else - "I can’t ...

95. PASS THE SALT

Illustration

John H. Krahn

... and becoming tasteless. "Pass the salt," Jesus said, in effect, to them. Today’s Christian should pass the salt to an increasingly tasteless world. What the world needs is an ever-expanding number of salty characters - salty Christians who stimulate the spiritual appetites of everyone who comes into contact with them. Jesus Christ was no passive patsy. He engendered strong opinion during his lifetime. He was the salt of the earth, and people’s lives changed as they encountered his. Pass the salt! For ...

96. Blessed Are The Focused - Father's Day

Proverbs 4:1-27

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... daughter's relationship with me?" Often I think about my late father whom we called "papa." I recall some wonderful family vacation experiences. However, we caused Papa considerable stress. When we stopped at a restaurant we kids were like a swarm of locusts. Our appetites ravaged papa's budget. One Sunday morning we were somewhere in Delaware, returning from a trip to New York. When it was about 10:30 AM Papa proposed that we find a Methodist church and attend worship. Mama was none too thrilled by the ...

97. The Waiting Game

Sermon

James Bjorge

... I could make the adjustment." In vocation as well as faith there must be a newness that challenges. Waiting for Christ to come again can get mighty tedious unless we see him coming in little ways in the daily round. These little teasers of faith whet our appetite for the great banquet when the Bridegroom and his Bride, the Church, cross the threshold into the Eternal Kingdom. The second trap that lures the waiter is the one of timetables. We presume to work out the time of the Lord’s coming and then build ...

98. THE RECEPTIONIST

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

... because I had no shoes ... until I saw a man who had no feet. Well, what’s the difference? You go a while without any shoes, and pretty soon you’re going to freeze your feet off. Three cheers for poverty, it sharpens the appetite. GRACE But we had shoes. And we always had SOME money. We sterilized telephones. SETH I suppose that’s something like castrating cats. GRACE I think there’s a different procedure involved, actually. You put rubbing alcohol on the mouthpiece. SETH Of the cat. GRACE ...

99. Worn Out? Tired? Weary?

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... And weariness of spirit comes NOT from bearing the burdens of the world. It comes from bearing the burden of SELF, this burden that ultimately becomes too heavy for any one of us to carry. It is weariness of spirit that saps your zest, your enthusiasm, your appetite for life. It dams up all of the energies and turns them in upon yourself. When you are weary in spirit, you begin to magnify the trifles of life, and you forget the universe. Weary in trying to escape the burden of yourself, you seek the escape ...

100. Christmas Is for -

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... saucer-sized eyes that just seem to grow larger with each additional package put under the tree. Those eyes that fairly sparkle and dance in the reflection of reds and greens and oranges radiating from the tree. Christmas would not be the same without those appetites that are too small for green beans and carrots but bottomless pits when it comes to Christmas goodies. And Christmas would be so different if we couldn’t listen to tiny tots struggling with Away in a Manger and shouting out Rudolf in the ...

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