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 1151 to 1175 of 2415 results

1151. The Fourth King In The Christmas Story

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... homes. There are people who are tyrants in the work place ” who run their offices through fear and intimidation. At times, there have even been tyrants in the church. We run into tyrants in every area of life. When our lives are centered in our own passions, when we refuse to surrender our lives to a higher authority, when we are ego-centered and not God-centered, we tend to spoil every relationship. A certain husband was having difficulty dealing with his wife. He decided to get a divorce and sought out ...

1152. Does It Make A Difference Who Jesus Is?

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Does it matter who Jesus is? Only if it matters what God is like. I was reading recently about a tribe in Africa known as the Masai, a race of strong, tall people. This particular tribe has always believed in one god, Engai. They believe Engai is passionately involved in his people's lives. But here is what the Masai believe about their god: that he loves the rich more than the poor, the healthy more than the sick, the virtuous more than the wicked. Engai favors the Masai over every other tribe, providing ...

1153. Internal Medicine

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... comes Jesus, and all he says is this: When you fast . . . When you fast . . . And he reminds us in those words that it takes real effort to keep from being swallowed up by our consumer society! Why are we "consumers"?! Isn't it because the strength of our passions is so great?! We desire, so we take! We want, and we have the wherewithal to make it happen, so we do! We're hungry, so we eat! But fasting stops us. Fasting puts the brakes on. Fasting pulls us up short. Because there is no greater craving of ...

1154. Peace, Blessed Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... is not permitted. Now some of this restlessness is of divine origin, I am convinced. This restlessness causes us to do more and be more than we would under normal circumstances. The people who have accomplished great things in this world have been driven by a passion that goes beyond the ordinary. But such restlessness exacts a price. The price is a restless heart, an uncalm spirit, sometimes a profound unhappiness. So we pray for the spirit of content that St. Paul knew when he wrote, "I have learned to be ...

1155. Sister Act

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... . One child, then another, and another. Soon he found himself waving to his mother as he came and went to and from work. Then only a phone call now and then. Then only holidays and birthdays. Soon, he joined a country club and golf became his passion after work. On his mother's 65th birthday, he went to a fashionable dress shop and purchased an expensive dress. He dropped it off and said, "Mother, happy birthday." She opened the package and looked at the dress. "Oh, Son, thank you. I appreciate so much ...

1156. Future Tense

Luke 12:54-59

Sermon

King Duncan

... had five days in which to leave their canton. The only way they would be allowed an extension would be if they signed a contract agreeing not to discuss religious matters with anyone in their village. Naturally, they wouldn't sign. Edith began to pray passionately that God would help them find another home in Switzerland. Yet obstacles kept emerging to block their way. The homes Edith found were way out of their price range. Finally, in tears, Edith prayed that she and Francis would be obedient to living in ...

1157. Sitting At God's Table

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... candy bars, until he had earned enough to go. Clifton was the only nonwhite child on the trip, but that didn't cause any problems with the other children. He and his roommate, Frank Miller, got along fine once they realized their mutual passion for water balloons. The boys spent their spare time soaking unsuspecting pedestrians who walked beneath their hotel window. But one day a chaperone took Clifton aside to talk to him. She started to explain about the MasonDixon line, the demarcation between Washington ...

1158. Getting Rid Of Fear

2 Timonty 1:6-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... Lodge did not realize that he gave Roosevelt a perfect platform from which to launch a worldwide fight for fairness and equality. She was, at first, ignored and minimized. Every place she turned she encountered barriers that would have discouraged a less passionate person. She cajoled and compromised. She pleaded and demanded. Everyone she came into contact with felt the power of her convictions. Her work on the "Bill of Human Rights" for the newly formed United Nations came to fruition after four years of ...

1159. Please Use The Servants' Entrance

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... Upper Room, we must get out of our heads those pictures of the Last Supper--where all the disciples have halos and angelic faces. As we know from other gospel accounts, the disciples came into this setting with frowns upon their faces and deep-seated passions in their hearts. They were fighting among themselves--and their quarrel did not concern piety, charity and humility, but power and prestige. Who was the greatest among them? Who was most loved by the Master? Who would have the privilege to sit on his ...

1160. Wounded, In Pain. Serving Still

Luke 22:7-38

Sermon

Siegfried S. Johnson

... know. I've been on it. It's rough. It's a spiritual slump, a famine. The fire goes out . . . We drift downward. Downward into the foggy valley of question, the misty lowland of discouragement. Motivation wanes. Desire is distant. Responsibilities are depressing. "Passion? It slips out the door . . . Enthusiasm? Are you kidding? . . . Anvil time . . . "Brought face to face with God out of the utter realization that we have nowhere else to go. Jesus in the garden. Peter with a tear-streaked face. David after ...

1161. Letters Straight From The Heart

2 Corinthians 2:12--3:6

Sermon

King Duncan

... banker bounced out of the water, punched the air, and shouted: “Carolina Panthers!" The Carolina Panthers hadn't played a single game. They weren't even a team at the time. This sports fan wasted all that antacid relief just to show how passionately HE WOULD support those Panthers should the NFL choose to park an expansion franchise in Charlotte. (8) Was this man crazy? No, he was simply communicating how much he wanted professional football in his town. He was a living letter for the Carolina ...

1162. Extreme Sports, Extreme Fashions, Extreme Faith

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... the great missionary movements that have swept through the church throughout the centuries. We have made being a Christian so convenient and so comfortable that our faith has lost its edge. A faith that demands too little will not grab hold of the passion that many people need in their lives today. "When the famous film director, Franco Zeffirelli, announced that he was planning to film the life of Christ from birth to resurrection, film stars offered their services and some traveled thousands of miles to ...

1163. Who Are Your Gentiles?

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Landon Winstead

... coffee will always be free." (2) Who are your Gentiles? Is there anyone you view with suspicion because they are somehow different from you? Call nothing that comes from God unclean. 1.From the newsletter OUR AMERICA. 2. From the video series CARPE DIEM, session #2 "Seize the Moment--With Passion," by Dr. Anthony Campolo, Word Publishing, 1994. Landon Winstead is the Associate Minister of the First Christian Church in Burkburnett, Texas.

1164. God Is Not Fair (Grumbling in the Vineyard)

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... all eternity. That is what the cross is all about. The old system of offering sacrifices for sin, even sins we may not be aware of, to an angry and vengeful God is done away with forever. Christ has borne all our sins upon the tree. This is why his passion and death were so horrific. He who knew no sin bore the sins of every person who has ever lived--your sin and my sin--on the cross of Calvary. That's not fair. We ought to pay our own way. But that's what happened. Jesus paid it all ...

1165. When the Best People Were Left Out

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... with trembling hands. We are to value all people as worthy of acceptance, and we are to introduce them to the One who died in their behalf, and in our behalf. Millions of people around the world have been inspired by Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ. Maxine Raines, director of a ministry to the homeless in Knoxville, Tennessee, knew her homeless friends couldn't afford to buy a movie ticket. So she brought the movie theater to them. With the support of her church and private donors, Raines ...

1166. People Who Inspire Us

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... clothes, the others would leap to his or her defense. As early as junior high school, Larry's love of basketball was obvious. He'd stay for hours after a game, practicing over and over the shots he'd missed during the contest. Unfortunately, he was so passionate to achieve that he was sometimes unable to control his temper under pressure. This led to a series of angry outbursts on the basketball court during his eighth-grade year. One day his coach told Larry that he'd gone too far and could no longer be ...

1167. It's A Terrible Thing To Be Rejected

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the drama, says it was because he began moving into his own story of love and hate, his parents' broken marriage, his childhood pain. He began identifying with the innocent child caught in the fateful vagaries of his parents' love. He thinks of his own passionate loves--the woman he loved and left, the one who left him. Especially the one who left him! He remembers THAT pain. It was like someone had hammered a huge iron nail in the middle of his chest. Just for a moment he could feel the traumatic ...

1168. It's A Question Of Priorities

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... it was simply a matter of priorities. And one of the secrets of success in life is to have your priorities in order. In the late 1980s and early "˜90s, Chris Spielman was an awesome linebacker for the Detroit Lions and the Buffalo Bills. Football was his passion, or so everyone thought. But in 1994, Chris Spielman gladly gave up football when his wife, Stefanie, was diagnosed with cancer. He moved into his wife's hospital room and waited on her hand and foot. He only ate what she ate, only slept when she ...

1169. As The World Turns

Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... is going nowhere. We are not having nearly the success or the joy we anticipate out of life. And Christ says to us, "Turn around." Perhaps we are in a destructive relationship, or we have acquired an unsavory habit, or we're in some trying situation that is sucking the passion for living right out of us. We know we need to change. We know we ought to start over. Where do we get the power to do what we need to do? And Christ says, "Turn around." But how? How do we make a new start? How do we make ...

1170. General Hospital

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Frank Lyman

... proved miraculously new and strangely wonderful to him. Along with his renewed vision, he put to use the creative imagination developed during his years of blindness. Fuller's visual re-engagement with the world was accomplished by a sense of awe and new passion for discovery that others seldom know. He claimed his excitement for life was intensified beyond anything that would have been possible had he always been able to see. (2) Don't you imagine that this man Jesus healed had that same excitement about ...

1171. A Tale Of Two Brothers

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Sometimes, he blames those around him for messing with his concentration. He needs some reason for why his loss is someone else's fault. (6) Now Jordan's need to win at sports might not appeal to us, but wouldn't it be grand if you and I were that passionate about winning our community and our world to Christ--so that we would go to any lengths necessary to find men and women, boys and girls, young people and old who need the love of Christ? There is no limit to what we can do in this world if Jesus ...

1172. The Defining Moment (A Sermon for New Year's)

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... in the very burning, he cares not for it--he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him." (3) Simeon lived for one thing. This was his passion--to greet the coming Messiah. In the Hollywood movie, THE TIN CUP, golf pro Roy McAvoy calls it "the defining moment." McAvoy, played by actor Kevin Costner is a happy-go-lucky, underachieving golf pro who finds himself miraculously playing in the U.S. Open. Tied for the ...

1173. The Power Of A Focused Life

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... FOCUSED THEIR LIVES TOO NARROWLY. There are choices to be made in life. In the same way that not everyone is wise to climb mountains, not everyone is cut out to be St. Paul. For example, we have no record of Paul enjoying the love of a family. His passion for the Gospel was all encompassing. There was too much travel in spreading the Good News to the Gentiles--and too much time spent in jail. Not everyone can make that kind of commitment. Not everyone is called to change the world in the same way as Paul ...

1174. Better Ignorant Than Uncaring

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... show. Judge Judy is not one to accept ignorance as a defense. Sheindlin remembers advice given by her father, which became the title of her best-selling book, Beauty Fades, Dumb Is Forever. He told her that a bright intellect, a curious mind and a passion for learning were priceless commodities. "I always thought the worst insult in the world was to be called stupid," she says. As Sheindlin became a lawyer and then a judge, she saw what happened to people who didn't use their heads. "The fallout of their ...

1175. Willing And Able

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... that cuts a little too close to home for citizens of affluent "First World" countries like ours. According to Nietzsche, the Last Man is the man who, lulled by too much comfort and affluence, becomes apathetic to the world around him. He has no passion or compassion. He rejects "religion, transcendent ideals, or (any) causes larger than his own self-interest." In fact, the Last Man's life consists of nothing more than sitting in his easy chair and watching the world go by. (2) Nietzsche may be describing ...

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