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 1126 to 1150 of 1838 results

1126. Not Always A Saint

Luke 24:13-35

Illustration

Brett Blair

... the convictions of his heart. Here's the quote: "One day, under deep conviction: I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain fig-tree, giving full vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out…So was I weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting and oft repeating, "Take up and read; Take up and read." Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were ...

1127. Trouble of the Heart

John 14:1-4

Illustration

Phil Newton

... bolts or locks can keep it out. Partly from inward causes and partly from outward, partly from the body and partly from the mind, partly from what we love and partly from what we fear, the journey of life is full of trouble. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find the world a vale of tears.

1128. Would You Make a Good Witness? (Ascension Day)

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” If that is true in the business world, how much more is that true about those who represent Christ? “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” A bitter, broken young man we’ll call Bob was a patient in a drug and alcohol treatment center. However, he wouldn’t get into the spirit of the treatment which the center offered him. He held the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous in disdain because it spoke of ...

1129. The First Fruits of the Spirit

2 Peter 1:1-11

Illustration

Jane Shepherd

... of God's creation? Are we gentle with the environment, with each other, and with ourselves? Joy: Do we look joyous to the outsider? Do we feel joy inside? True joy in being a child of God should be able to override all unhappiness and bitterness we feel, and should be reflected in our total involvement in our worship. Kindness: This action word can be directed outwardly or inwardly. Do we show compassion and generosity to others and ourselves? Patience: How many of us are willing to let others (and ...

1130. I Will Remember No More

Matthew 9:9-13,18-26; Hebrews 10:17

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

... claimed that she wanted to interview for a job. But as soon as she entered his office, Maria made her intent clear. She was the secretary to the Communist Party in Ecuador. She denounced everything having to do with God or with Jesus Christ. Her bitterness overwhelmed Palau. But he listened respectfully and replied gently to everything Maria said. Soon, Maria was telling him her life story. It was a tale of pain and suffering and sin. And she ended it all with one question, "Supposing there is a God. Would ...

1131. Isaiah 58:1-10

Isaiah 58:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... were filled with corrupt officials. Taxes were staggeringly high and unfairly crippling those who were already struggling. Extensive indebtedness had forced many to lose their land and indenture themselves to work off their debts. Religious groups were also bitterly fragmented, with various factions fighting for supremacy in the religious courts and priority within the temple culture. Despite all the public prayers, all the elaborate fasts and all the religious rituals that made up popular religion, the ...

1132. The Truth about Truth

John 8:31-32

Sermon

James Merritt

... soldiers on the streets, Roman tax collectors in their offices, and a Roman coin with the image of Caesar stamped on it. There are some of you here this morning in bondage, but you don't want to admit it. There are some of you in bondage to booze and bitterness. There are some of you lash to lust. Some of you are in the jail of jealousy. Some of you are in the prison of pride. There is only one key that will unlock the door of your heart and set you free, and that is the key of truth ...

1133. God Really Cares

Matthew 27:46

Sermon

James Merritt

... don't miss this next statement. Jesus took on the cross what you will have to take for all eternity if you don't take Jesus. This series has been entitled Famous Last Words. It is said that in His dying moments Foltaire, the French philosopher, atheist, and a bitter foe of the Christian faith, cried out: "I am abandoned by God!" Well, I have wonderful news. You don't have to be. A sailor came to the captain of a ship, and said: "Sir, my little dog has fallen overboard. Will you stop and turn the ship around ...

1134. Out With the Old - In With the New

Philippians 3:12-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... what has happened in the past. You see, our problem is we remember what God forgets; and then we forget what God wants us to remember. I read a story years ago about General Robert E. Lee, who visited a lady in Virginia after the Civil War. She was extremely bitter toward the North and she took him out to her front yard and showed him the scarred remains of one of her prized trees; a tree that evidently had gone back all the way to the Revolutionary War. During a raid all of the limbs had been shot off by ...

1135. Putting Mom in Heartbreak Hotel

1 Kings 2:5-6

Sermon

James Merritt

... what caused it, and I think he had even forgotten what the problem was. But he was still holding the grudge even though he had forgotten what caused the grudge. Everybody in the church knew that these two deacons were on the outs and hated each other, and were bitter toward one another. But then the deacon that was holding the grudge got sick. He was on his deathbed and was about to die. Some of his fellow deacons called on him and said, "Look dear brother, you are about to die. You don't want to go out ...

1136. A Deserter in God's Army

1 Timothy 4:9-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... of Men Who Might Have Been is east of Used to Be; And all the Men Who Might Have Been are carried passage free. I've seen it pass, their boat of glass and drift along the years; With all the Men Who Might Have Been past shoals of bitter sneers. By Gosh! it makes a fellow sigh to see the Good Ship Alibi— With all those Men Who Might Have Been and cargoes of careers! One of the most frustrating, mysterious, indeed discouraging facts every pastor has to face is the problem of the backslider; people who have ...

1137. Confronting a Christless Culture

2 Timothy 3:1-17

Sermon

James Merritt

... sensation.1 Ours is a culture that can best be described in two words chaos and crisis. That should not be surprising, because any culture without Christ will ultimately wind up in both chaos and crisis. The nasty 90s are now reaping the bitter fruit of the seeds that were sown in the sinful 60s of spiritual liberalism, secular humanism, and social relativism. John Underwood, former Senior Editor for Sports Illustrated, and a feature writer for the Miami Herald, wrote, "Civilizations do not give out, they ...

1138. Nobody's Perfect--Except Jesus

Hebrews 4:15-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... I Jn. 3:5) Peter, critical Peter, fault-finding Peter, negative Peter, said that Jesus was "a Lamb without blemish, and without spot...who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth." (I Pet. 1:19; 2:22) His best friends could not convict him of sin. His bitter foes could not convict him of sin. Pilate's wife said, "Have nothing to do with that just Man." (Mt. 27:19) Pilate said, "I find no fault in Him at all." (Jn. 18:38) Judas said, "I have betrayed innocent blood." (Mt. 27:4) The thief on the ...

1139. It Is Right To Fight When You Fight For Right

Jude 1:3-4

Sermon

James Merritt

... , wherever else everyone else heads, whoever else everybody else may listen to, I am going with Jesus and the Word of God. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said that the greatest compliment ever given to him was not spoken by a friend, but by one of his most bitter enemies, and here is what that enemy said: "Here is a man who has not moved an inch forward in all his ministry. At the close of the Nineteenth Century, he is still teaching the theology of the First Century, and is still proclaiming doctrine current ...

1140. Don't Forget to Remember

Jude 1:5-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... . Now evaporation only takes out fresh water. So the solemnity and the mineral content of the water are constantly increasing. The water is 27% mineral, and because of that it is impossible to sink in its waters, which are not only salty but bitter. It is estimated these waters contain about 45 billion tons of valuable chemicals such as sodium, chlorine, sulfur, potassium, magnesium, and bromine. At the southern tip of the Dead Sea there is a massive processing plant which extracts these minerals from the ...

1141. Don't Believe the Lie about the Truth

John 8:32

Sermon

James Merritt

... word "absolute" literally means, "to set free from." That is the purpose of truth—to set us free. There are many of you listening to this message right now in chains and shackles, but you don't want to admit it. Some of you are in bondage to booze and bitterness. Some of you are lashed to lust. Some of you are locked in the jail of jealousy and the prison of pride. There is only one key that will unlock the door of your heart and set you free, and that is the key of truth. You see there are ...

1142. Don't Get Too Big For Your Spiritual Britches

Judges 16:20

Sermon

James Merritt

... me?" She said, "Yes." He said, "Good Lord, how I have wronged that woman through the years!" But then he broke the vow of appearance. He allowed his hair to be cut. When he lost his hair he lost his strength. Now it may surprise you that he reached this bitter end, but it really should not because as you study his life, it's easy to see that it was only a matter of time until he hit rock bottom. III. How His Life Stopped Samson meets a dame named Delilah. I call her a dame because she certainly was ...

1143. America: You Are Too Young to Die

Psalm 80:1-19

Sermon

James Merritt

... capitol. Do you know why America has been so productive, so prosperous, so powerful? Not because of our goodness, but because of God's goodness. II. Restore Us to Your Grace Israel had forgotten God and turned her back on God, and because of this she bore bitter fruit. a. There Was No Response to Her Supplication "O Lord God of hosts, how long will You be angry against the prayer of Your people?" (v.4) Oh, they were praying, but God was not listening. Do you know that prayer from a sinful rebellious people ...

1144. What Church Is All About

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

James Merritt

... changes a person's taste so that everything eaten tastes sweet and pleasant. In fact, even sour fruit, if eaten not too long after the "taste berry", becomes sweet and delicious. Gratitude is the "taste berry" of Christianity, and it can help to make even the most bitter sweet. b. A Spirit Of Adoration We are also to "Enter into His courts with praise." (v.4) Praise is the flip side of the coin of thanksgiving. When you read the book of the Revelation you find that the hallways of heaven are filled with the ...

1145. Team Work is Dream Work

Psalm 133:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

... for the family. When that dew would come, there would be great rejoicing in that household. There is nothing sweeter than when the dew of heaven's grace, God's power, and the Spirit's unity falls on a church. Some of you have been involved in the bitterness of a church divided, and you know what it is to rejoice in the blessing of a church united. You see the dew makes the land green, it makes it fertile, it makes it fruitful, it increases productivity. Dew gives the land its greatest potential to do what ...

1146. Love: The Happiness of a Godly Family

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... stronger because what he really did was give him a bear hug and kissed him over and over and over. Jacob and Esau were two grown men, brothers, who had had a falling-out; they had become mortal enemies, but they reconciled. After many years of being apart in bitterness and anger, when they came back together we read in Gen. 33:4, "But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him." Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers. He had kept his identity hidden from them when ...

1147. What Is A Christian?

Acts 11:26

Sermon

James Merritt

... . The only way you will get away from suffering with Jesus is to simply get away from Jesus. But then you will suffer even more. You think about this. When Peter denied the Lord Jesus three times, what does the Bible say he did. He went out and wept bitterly. He was absolutely miserable. Yet, over in the book of Acts when he stood for Christ and decided to suffer with Christ, and was imprisoned and beaten, the Bible says that when he was released in Acts 5:41 he and the others "departed from the presence of ...

1148. Why?

Job 3:11-12, 16, 20, 23

Sermon

James Merritt

... ?" (v.11) "Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?" (v.12) "Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light?" (v.16) "Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul?" (v.20) "Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?" (v.23) Now what Job is really asking is this: "Why did God allow this to happen?" He was saying in effect: "God where are you?" Now we hit ...

1149. What Excites God

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

James Merritt

... other man who perhaps has ever lived in the history of the world, outside of Jesus Himself; a man who had avoided the seduction of money and sensuality that had caved in the empire of Jim Bakker. Here was another man who had received unbelievable anger and bitterness from a public whose trust he had betrayed. But the greater point is this: The grace of Dr. Graham's forgiveness was only an outflow of the grace he himself has enjoyed, and that each one of us enjoys when we, too, come to Jesus for forgiveness ...

1150. The Most Exciting Moment of Your Life

1 Cor 5:1-13, Rev 21:1-27, Rev 6:1-17, Heb 12:14-29, Rev 22:7-21, Phil 1:12-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... listen to that verse carefully. The moment after you die, you will be absolutely perfect. The diamond of your heart will be polished perfectly with all the flaws removed. Now think about that. That means there will be no more sin, no more battles with bitterness, lust, anger, jealousy, anymore. Have you ever known a perfect person? One preacher asked that question in the middle of his sermon and a man in the back row actually raised his hand and said, "I do." The preacher said, "Did you understand what I ...

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