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 4959 results

1126. Updating Some Ancient Laws

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... but whatever name you give it, it is destructive, and as commentator contends, it’s a form of stupidity. Oooh, that hurts, doesn’t it -stupidity! Think about it. On what do we base our coveting? What cause us to desire what other folks have that we don’t, or on what ground to be base our almost insatiable desire for more, on what do we have it at all? Listen now. We are operating out of two illusions. One, we convince ourselves that all of us have a sort of cosmic right for an equal share of the good ...

1127. Lessons from Rephidim - Being the Lord's Intercessor

Exodus 17:8-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Fosdick has a chapter entitled, “Prayer us a Battle ground”. He reminds us that prayer has often been the place where people reconquer faith and reestablish confidence in God and themselves. It’s a battlefield where struggles for right desire are fought, because there in prayer all desires are known and from God no secrets are hidden. Prayer is also the battle field where the issue between two conflicting motives that most master human life - the praise of the world on the one side and the approval ...

1128. Taking the Shape of Christ

Galatians 4:8-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... way of suffering and the cross. This is the way it must be with you and me. To position ourselves as Christians we must begin with clarity of purpose. Are we really ready for Christ to be formal in us? Is that something we desire? How deeply do we desire it? II. COMPASSION AND CONCERN From that clarity of purpose, that positioning it’s obvious that the primary dynamic of Jesus’ life was his compassion and concern for others. Let me read you Matthew’s gospel, which I believe is a typical expression of ...

1129. The Shared Life of the People of God

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to make a good showing in the flesh, these try to compel you to be circumcised, only lest they suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross Of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails ...

1130. In the House of the Lord

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... marriages witnesses to his own self-centered efforts to control and determine destiny and his narrow focus on his own selfish desires. Now with a deep experience of God’s grace and a commitment to the graceful providence of God, his whole ... another psalm he talks of dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, and in yet another he employs the noble word, “one thing have I desire the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of ...

1131. Knowing When To Run

Genesis 39:1-2, 6b-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... laid eyes on him and said come to bed with me." This goes on for days. It is all about lust, but not much about love. It is all about intensity and desire, but hardly anything about intimacy. Lust dehumanizes persons turning people into things to acquire, prizes to win, objects to control. Intensity empowers the desire, but it lacks the common ground of intimacy. “What's love got to do with it?" we might ask out of this Old Testament episode and we might rightfully say, “Absolutely nothing." The ...

1132. How Can Jesus Save Me?

John 3:14-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... word “love" to Allah. Aristotle once said it would be eccentric for anyone to assume that Zeus loved them. The Bible reveals God's reckless desire to get His family back. So, the Cross stands as a symbol of how far God will go to claim His own; that somehow God ... fearing He is the landlord coming to collect the rent we do not have, we ignore His knocking. All along what He really wishes and desires is that we would open the door and let Him come in. God is a God of grace, generosity, and love. He is not ...

1133. Finding Answers to Family Feuds

Genesis 25: 21-34

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... plan of salvation, by grace and grace alone, he picks up this story from the Old Testament. He has God saying in verse 15: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and compassion on whom I have compassion. Therefore, reasons Paul, our salvation does not depend on our desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. Furthermore, Paul reasons that, if God can take a heel like Jacob and make him the father of Israel, he ought to be able to do something good with the sorts and likes of you and me. I say to you today, no ...

1134. Is There More Than One Way to Heaven?

John 4:19-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... you would have them do unto you." The Hindus say, “The sum of duty is to do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you." And the Islam religion says, “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." So, we are wise in this pluralistic world to preserve, promote and affirm goodness in every form. There are many things we can proclaim together and many places we should be working together. However, are all religions alike? The answer to ...

1135. The Constant God in a Changing World

Psalm 48:1, 9-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to scare us out of hell than to invite us to heaven. Now I find myself rejoicing that God will give the final answer. God knows the whole truth and nothing but the truth. While we see through a glass darkly and make judgments subjectively, God knows all our desires and from Him no secrets are hidden. God cares—we do not stand before a stranger. We do not stand in the presence of an angry God, but in the face of a loving God, “who gave his only Son that we should not perish but have everlasting life ...

1136. Crying Out of the Depths

Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Psalm 130. Most likely Hezekiah did. David did write Psalm 51. Here is what he said, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. For I know my transgression and my sin is always before me." If you have ever betrayed your best, stooped to the desires of the flesh, stepped on the gas of your own moral energy only to find it severely lacking in the time of need, and are still conscientious enough to feel bad about it, you, like David, can cry out to the Lord. “Out of the depths, I cry to ...

1137. Believe

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Christian gospel is that God is with us. He is in our very midst, closer than the air we breathe, deeper than the desires of our hearts. When we walk through the valley of grief, dig through the despair of divorce, deal with the pains of prodigal ... to sing. He just stands there. He takes Mary home as his wife, but has no union with her. He takes cold showers to cool his desire and if he doubts, it’s sealed between God and him in the privacy of that carpenter shop. Let me tell you what being obedient did. It ...

1138. The New Road

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... conclusions about the will of God. There is a will of God. Life has a purpose. The will of God can be known. The desire to please God pleases God. Everything does not happen for a reason. Some things just happen. God is at work for good in all ... weather, everybody talks about it, not many people do anything about it. Integrity is: Long-term good taking charge of short-term desire, being sexually pure in the heat of passion, business ethics under the pressure of making a living, believing goodness to be worth ...

1139. The Compassionate Christ

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... , Your thorns may have some roses too. The Lord of great compassion loves you yet, And He will never fail to see you through. It is the Lord of great compassion that I would like us to consider today. To have compassion is to suffer with another, with a desire to help. It is to feel with your heart and the will to act upon these feelings. In our story today, Jesus is filled with compassion. Let's take a look. I. THE NEED FOR COMPASSION As Jesus travels the hills of Galilee preaching the kingdom of God, a ...

1140. From Pride to Humility

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... and some sense of affirmation to make it through the day, we ought to be able to go home and find those kinds of things. Self-respect is one thing. Self-infatuation is another. Pride is somehow this deep inner part of ourselves that always has the desire to be better than others. It germinates in the swamps of comparison and competition. So, two men went to church one day. Two men went to pray. One says to himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even ...

1141. Keeping Company with the Weary

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... this land of the free and the home of the brave. Is it not the hunger of every human heart to breathe free? Is that not the desire of all of us? Did you hear the weird story about a young man who joined the military on the spur of the moment without the slightest notion ... my idea of a vacation is a trip to the dentist. I just can't wait to sit in that chair and relax." Paul said, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. Who will rescue me from ...

1142. Three Basic Attitudes about Life

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... picture life going on without us, therefore we must find some way to live forever says Krauthammer. It’s perfectly human to desire this, still it is at heart a selfish goal. The lawyer suspects that Jesus has some special insight on how to evade the ... . No healthy person wants to die. But, if this is the sum total of our faith, we are a long way from the abundant life Christ desires for each of us. I say this realizing that this may be the reason most people come to religion. What’s in it for me? We want ...

1143. Heart Religion

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... It has been defined as “the accursed love of having.” It also has been defined as “the spirit which snatches at that which is not right to take,” or “the baneful appetite for that which belongs to others.” It’s not the desire for money and things alone, it includes the desire for power, the insatiable lust of the flesh. . . it’s lust for having which is in the heart of the man who see happiness in things instead of God. Closely akin to coveting is another one of the defilements of the heart ...

1144. Leaping Where You Cannot Look

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... which you would choose. Would you rather be able to fly or be able to become invisible? My guess is that when we were children most of us longed for these gifts. We wanted to be invisible particularly when we had done something wrong. And who hasn’t desired to be able to fly like Superman? So, which would you choose, and what would you do with your newfound powers? Would you be a superhero or would you be super‑selfish? What John Hodgman found surprised him. No matter which power the people he talked to ...

1145. God’s Weather Report

Matthew 5:38-48

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... to be set right may have to wait for the dominion of God. We can work for change now, but peacefully. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has taught us to resist what we feel. Jesus has taught us to resist our lust, our greed, our anger, our desire for security. We resist these things because we wait for God's blessings to come, for the dominion of God. Now Jesus teaches us maybe the hardest thing of all: to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek. Jesus calls us to this teaching because of who God ...

1146. Strong in God’s Name

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Lee Griess

... to shift back and forth on the bottom of the hull until it had completely worn the metal away. It rubbed a hole in the boat and sprung a leak that, left unattended, would have sunk the boat. Temptation is like that. It is the wedge of the devil's desires that seeks to wear us down. Its constant rubbing hopes to wear us out. It is the shifting back and forth of sin that threatens to take us under. But there is good news today. There is hope in dealing with temptation. There is help for those who battle with ...

1147. With a Firm Foundation, Application Is Second Nature

Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... is another wrinkle to the agenda of the author of the gospel of Matthew. Its author seems to have been identified with a community of Christians which was still very much in dialogue with the church's Jewish roots. But while maintaining this continuity, while still desiring to affirm that the message of Jesus did not nullify God's law (5:17-19), the author of Matthew still sought to distinguish the gospel of the kingdom from rabbinic thinking.4 We can see this at several points in the gospel. For example ...

1148. Religious Balkanization

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... . Unfortunately, what they lost in the process was a need for grace. If they could define their own needs and then fulfill those needs through a particular set of actions, there was no longer any room for grace. Leo Tolstoy wrote a brilliant little story about such desires and the quests they lead us on. He told of a man who had found favor with the governing powers of his society in a Russia now historied, and was allowed to select a parcel of ground as his own possession. The only limitation on this field ...

1149. A Match Made in Heaven

Genesis 29:15-28

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... to negotiate. "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel." The Bible reports that Jacob loved Rachel, and as the story unfolds we discover that Rachel was the one true love of Jacob's life. She was the sole object of his desire for years before they were married. Even though there was another woman, Leah, to whom he was married for many more years, and though he produced offspring with two other women, besides, and though he had many children and grandchildren; we see evidence, even ...

1150. Forward March

Joshua 3:1-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... setbacks along the way would be an understatement. The people complained about not having enough food and water. Along the way there were some who desired to return to the land of slavery — where life was not great but at least they had daily meals and a bed to sleep in ... The church continued to march forward hoping in time that some of the skeptics would change their minds when they saw the desired results. A new energy and enthusiasm was born in that small church.2 In what new direction is God leading us? ...

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