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 976 to 1000 of 1838 results

976. How Did You Do On The Test?

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... friends, Terry wrote, ". . . I am not afraid to die, but I don't want to die without you knowing that I am well and in good spirits. Try not to be too sad. I have done my best and can die with a clear conscience. Also try not to be bitter against my captors. They have suffered much in their lives. I love you all. God bless and goodbye. -- Terry." Terry gave the letter to his captors for mailing. Quite naturally, they read it. Then, they pulled him to his feet and pressed the muzzle of a gun against his ...

977. Taking Charge

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... Some people move away from God. It happens to some parents when their children leave home. We look around here at church and they are gone. It happens to some people when a marriage comes apart. Sometimes when there is a significant failure of any kind in people's lives, bitterness sets in and the sense of God's presence becomes a distant memory. If something like that is going on in your life, I'm asking you to come back home. I'm asking you to take charge of your life and to get off the bus that is taking ...

978. What Do You Really Know?

John 16:5-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... : She didn't have her car keys, the house was locked, and they were out in the cold. Pamela's mind raced as she considered her different options. Her words betrayed the frustration she felt as she thought about the three of them struggling to stay warm in the bitter cold. Then she heard a little voice from the back seat: "Mommy, why don't we pray about it?" "Keely," Pamela said, "there's no way God can do anything." After all, she thought to herself, she was the one who had locked the keys in the house. She ...

979. About Christ

Colossians 1:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... equation, 1 cross + 3 nails = 4given. Nicholas Green was seven years old when he was shot in the head and killed by highway robbers while visiting Italy with his family in 1994. It would have been understandable for Nicholas's parents to be outraged and bitter. But instead, to honor their son's life and assure that his death was not in vain, they donated his organs to Italian children. As shocked as the world was by the violent and tragic death of the young boy, his parents' compassion, generosity and ...

980. Why Just Once A Year?

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... to say that what others had meant for evil in his life, God had used for good. (Genesis 50: 20) When we reach into our "grab bag" of memories, we have a choice as to what we pull out. We can pull out memories of hardship, failure, disappointment, and bitterness. Or we can filter all these memories through God's promise of redemptive love, knowing that He can use even our worst moments to mature us and bring us joy. From a young age, singer Tony Bennett found security in the love of his family. Tony's father ...

981. Do Not Disturb

Isaiah 11:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... 's heart. In that moment, says the author, God spoke to him. God said, "How often have you forgotten the value of the gift that I gave you? I gave the most precious thing I had. I gave my heart. I gave my son." The author wept all the more bitterly as he realized what God was teaching him through this. He went and retrieved the box, and now he proudly has it as his own. "Never again will it be a silly little taco box," he says. (2) It is so easy for us to forget who we are and ...

982. Playing Church Or Playing Jesus

Leviticus 19:1-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... church or playing Jesus? George Bernard Shaw saw the difference. Shaw was that brilliant but caustic British writer who when asked about his religion replied, "I'm an atheist, thank God." Shaw in his attitude was somewhat ambiguous but never ambivalent. He bitterly attacked the church in some of its hypocritical stances. Yet, throughout his writing, it is evidentthat Shaw saw what a potent and powerful force Christian faith could be if it were lived out with integrity and passion. For example, listen to ...

983. Sarah Laughed

Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... want to take a walk but she did anyway. Later he said to her, "I'm glad you decided to take a walk with me." She replied curtly, "I didn't decide. You're bigger than I am." Don't you suppose that many people feel that same kind of bitterness toward God? With clenched fist and a snarl on their lips they accept life with resentment and with a cold sullen cynicism that says, "I didn't decide. You're bigger than I am." The determining factor in life is not our situation but how we deal with that situation ...

984. The Other Woman

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... . In the midst of this celebration something unsettling took place. Sarah saw her son Isaac playing with Ishmael, Abraham's other son by the slave woman, Hagar. It should not surprise us that Hagar and Sarah didn't get along. There was deep resentment and bitterness on Sarah's part. Hagar was the "other woman" in Sarah's life. The depiction in scripture is that Abraham had no further interest in Hagar once her role was accomplished. But Sarah could not put the fact that Hagar bore Abraham a son out ...

985. Another Great Love Story

Genesis 29:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... is a purpose to the plan. He is to find a wife there who will be of his own people. This is very important. The brother who stayed home with Mom and Dad, Esau, did not honor his birthright. He married women who were outside his faith. They made life bitter for Jacob and Rebekah. Jacob the striver, though his life got off to a rocky start, actually lives his life much closer to the family's hopes and dreams, for he married within the desires of his mother and father. You can't always judge how a young person ...

986. When You Are Uncertain About Your Salvation

1 Kings 3:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... that George Mathison must have known. When he began to grow blind, the girl to whom he was engaged turned him down flat. She didn't want to marry a blind man, or a man in danger of becoming blind. Now, many people in this situation would have been very bitter and angry, but instead George sat down and wrote a great hymn that begins like this: "O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee." Our acceptance by God does not depend on our feeling. It depends only upon the truth of what Christ ...

987. An Empty Cup

Job 23:1--24:25

Sermon

King Duncan

... best way for Satan to thwart God's purposes is to break our spirits. As a broken jar spills its contents and becomes empty, so a broken person is drained of all resources, of all hope. Out of this emptiness, Job cries out to God. "Even today my complaint is bitter," he says, "his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what he would answer me, and ...

988. Receiving Christ

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... getting to know his new companions well as they talked around fires, heating up their scraps of food in old tin cans. He had something to express about the God who took on human flesh. And Mario discovered that all of them, even the most bitter and hardened, had a longing for home, affection, and security. After winter arrived, Mario informed the gang that he’d found a place for them to stay, the abandoned ruins of the church of Saint Gennaro. Slowly he transformed the structure into a home and started ...

989. First Things First

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... not really important to you. Where would you begin? St. Paul is in Rome under house arrest. And he is writing a letter to friends in the church at Philippi, a church that he and Silas founded about ten years earlier. Philippi held both fond and bitter memories for Paul. At Philippi Paul and Silas were flogged and imprisoned. They succeeded in starting a church, but at great cost to themselves. Now it is ten years later. Paul is chained to a Roman guard day and night. He does not know when the unpredictable ...

990. What Would Bill Do?

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Your letters are passed from cell to cell till they literally fall to pieces.” (4) This man’s letters were appreciated by the prisoners. He was helping. But the person he ended up helping most of all was himself. You’ve heard it said that tough times can make us bitter or they can make us better. You and I have a choice to make. We’re going to hit rough spots in our life. They do not have to defeat us. Don’t give up on God. Don’t give up on serving others. Ask what Paul would do. Even ...

991. Why Cheerful Givers are Cheerful

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... at Stanford whose debt the great pianist had magnanimously forgiven so long before. One of the laws of life is that whatever we sow is what we also reap. So often we think of that law in a negative sense. If we sow bad seed we will reap a bitter harvest. But it is also true in a positive sense as well. If we sow seeds of kindness and love and generosity, we will reap kindness and love and generosity. Paul takes it even further to say, "He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will ...

992. Forgiveness: Human and Divine

Matthew 6:12-15

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... pride, if we are truly going to be able to forgive. We must be willing to bear in our own spirit and our own body the pain that others inflict upon us. We must bear it without retribution even as Christ bore our transgressions, our sin, our bitterness, our hatred without retribution on the cross. Forgiveness isn't just putting up with wrong; it isn''t that flippant remark, "Well it doesn't matter." No, it is identifying with another person in her selfishness and guilt, in her vindictiveness and all the mean ...

993. Joy In the Midst of Sorrow?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... , but soon its true nature is revealed. It is sad because it separates man from his maker and the source of true joy. Sin brings an incredible loneliness when we who were made for fellowship with God do not walk or talk with Him. Sin bears bitter fruit. It leads to cynicism, suspicion, hard feelings, loneliness, disappointment with ourselves and with other people. But a Christian can have a joy that never fails because it comes from One who never fails us. He promises that His joy will be full and complete ...

994. Things That Cannot be Taken Away

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... we have hope, we are of all men most to be pitied." Christ Jesus rose from the dead and he has prepared a place for his people in heaven. He will take us home. Love is the third anchor. Love is our shield and help against useless regret, guilt, bitterness or resentment. It is God''s gift also. He sets His love abroad in the hearts of His followers through His Holy Spirit. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Entrust your future with all its unknowns, all the joys and sorrows it may ...

995. The Gift of Me

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... and startling new possibilities, would we give ourselves to His purpose? Would we give the Lord the gift of ourselves? Or would we clamor about the impossibilities? We can never break from the grip of the past, from the shame held over us, from the bitterness that eats at our hearts. It is impossible. Why bother? We can never overcome the habits and broken life patterns that plague us. We have tried repeated New Year’s resolutions, but found too often failure in the pursuit of freedom. It is impossible to ...

996. Jesus, Our Hope

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... know taxation without representation is galling. Taxation without representation is oppression and tyranny. The families who go back to their ancestral homes to register so they can pay taxes are an oppressed people, who live with cruel taskmasters and know the bitterness of Roman rule. Can anybody say, “Egypt” all over again? So this is Christmas. Day by day, week after week, year upon year, decade following decade, century fading into century; for 400 years there has been no voice of a prophet. The ...

997. Grace Is Not a Blue-eyed Blond

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... have wasted no money. They have sponsored no extravagances. They have never voted for a liberal cause.’ They have never endorsed any harebrained scheme.’ “But,” says he, “they can become increasingly overcautious and rigid, chronically unhappy individuals, bitter, insecure, and often suicidal.” He contrasts such persons with those whose attitude toward life is “yes” rather than “no,” and tells a charming story about President Thomas Jefferson and a group of companions who were riding ...

998. Jesus and the Divorced Evangelist

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... their offer was rejected. This happened around the fifth century before Christ, and so when Jesus came upon the scene, the Jewish-Samaritan quarrel had been going on for many centuries. And yet, as in the Middle East today and in Northern Ireland, it smoldered as bitterly as ever. But Jesus would have none of it. He even made a hated Samaritan the hero of one of His little stories, called “parables”! And when He wanted to travel to Galilee, he went through Samaria. Most Jews would not have done that ...

999. God Doesn’t Take Vacations

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... for an alternating cycle of labor and rest. During the French Revolution the revolutionaries were so anxious to do away with everything that smacked of religion, they abolished Sunday as a day of rest. But they soon put it back, for they discovered from bitter experience that people were not created to work all of the time. They put it back - not for religious reasons, but for health reasons. Folks fall apart when they never have respite from their labors. So the Fourth Commandment is good: it says that ...

1000. Believing Thomas

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ! That was the last straw! When the disciples gathered in the Upper Room that first Easter evening he could not bring himself to come. What hope was there? Where was God when the persons he had loved most in life died? There was reason for his bitterness and skepticism. There usually is. There are a lot of people who have doubts because of tragic experiences they have had, especially the loss of a loved one. Others doubt for less serious reasons, however. I know some who doubt because God didn’t get them ...

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