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 1201 to 1225 of 1838 results

1201. Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... mid-30s. Things started to go better. Jesus became a good luck charm that warded off bad experiences. Bill was on a high he thought would last forever. But it didn't. His wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He dropped out of church, bitterly deciding that Jesus had abandoned him. So as Jesus ministered to his grief through the love and support of a church family, he didn't know it. He had that blindfold thing going. What preconceived idea of Jesus is blocking you from recognizing Jesus in your ...

1202. Remember Your Baptism

Acts 19:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -filled body of Christ, that gets this work underway, everyday. The Holy Spirit is like manna. It cannot be hoarded or saved-up for another day. “Saved-up” Spirit doesn’t become better, or richer, or more potent. Unshared Spirit grows stale, hardened, even bitter and worm-eaten. So why do so many of us fail to spend the Holy Spirit we’ve been given, stretching it across our homes, stringing it through our communities, scattering it across our land? Maybe it’s because we have forgotten our baptism ...

1203. Learning to Love Ourselves

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

James McCormick

... made to be good! Now, that means accepting limitations as well as strengths. It means refusing to waste time saying, “If only this…wouldn’t it be nice if that…” Instead, we become like the man who lost his leg in the war. For awhile he was bitter and hopeless, spending his days saying, “If only this had not happened.” But one day something happened to turn everything around and the change in him was dramatic. A friend asked him what happened, and he replied, “I decided to be a one legged man ...

1204. Exodus 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1-7

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... army was practically still sinking into the sea when the people ceased singing Yahweh's praises and began bemoaning their hard circumstances instead. When drinking water grew scarce in the wilderness of Shur, and the waters of Marah were found to be "bitter" and undrinkable, the people immediately turned on Moses, crying "What shall we drink?" (Exodus 15:24). Moses went directly to the Lord for an answer, and Yahweh provided the means for making the water sweet (v.25). The second confrontation came shortly ...

1205. Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a later addition to the text, the people demonstrate remarkable cognizance of all God has done for them. Yet their promise to serve appears to be based only on a sense of tit-for-tat God does good things for us so we will serve him. Joshua's bitter response to these sweet-sounding words still shocks readers today think how stunned the Israelites must have been as he threw these words in their faces: "You cannot serve the Lord for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions ...

1206. Mark 8:27-38

Mark 8:27-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and a literal readiness to suffer a martyr's death on a cross for the sake of the gospel. In both cases the challenging mandate Jesus offers his followers is to "deny themselves." In verses 35-37 Jesus reveals the sweet center within this apparently bitter pill his disciples must swallow. Once again, however, Jesus' description defies the common standards of reason and expectation. It is in "losing" one's life that followers will find the saved life they long for. A life lost for Jesus' sake is in reality a ...

1207. Mark 10:35-45

Mark 10:35-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... verses 38-39. When Jesus asks them whether they will be able to "drink the cup" or "be baptized with the baptism" that he himself will experience, they blithely assert, "We are able." "The cup," whether the poignant cup Jesus passes at the Last Supper (14:22f) or the bitter cup he begs God to remove from him in the garden (14:36), is completely unknown to the disciples at this time. The "baptism" Jesus refers to, like the cup, is also a symbol of his dying to this life so that he will be raised into eternal ...

1208. A Demon Speaks Out in Church

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... out in the woods with his cousins picking berries. His Uncle A. J. came up to them and said, “Don’t eat those; they’re poisonous. They’ll kill you.” Stephens’ cousins threw their berries on the ground, but Steve had already eaten several handfuls of them. They were bitter, but they didn’t taste that bad. He now faced a quandary: Does he tell his uncle that he’s already eaten a bunch of berries so he can rush him to the hospital to get his stomach pumped, or does he just die? He wasn’t sure ...

1209. Was It Really Necessary?

John 19:17-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... not see the destructiveness of sin. A totally innocent man hangs on that cross. A young man. We are always touched by the tragic death of a young person whether by disease or accident or murder. Jesus was only 33 when he died upon Calvary. Falsely accused, bitterly reviled and yet guilty of no wrong. A healer and helper, a lover of little children, and a liberator of people imprisoned by their own sin and guilt, a man who knew God intimately enough to address him as “Abba,” Daddy, and yet never lost his ...

1210. Where a Cross Should Be Worn

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... of the world, or of the condition of someone you love, or if you have ever despaired over your own life and what you have made of it you can take heart in this. God has been where you are. The cross is the symbol of hatred and scorn and bitterness and fear and rejection and hurt and despair. But it is not the last word on these emotions. The empty tomb is God’s last victorious word on our lives. But none of it would have been possible without the cross. In one of his books pastor Tony Evans points ...

1211. Healing and Wholeness to Many

Mark 1:29-39

Illustration

Urban Legend

... read ..CRUNCH, MUNCH..."and I can't recite the Scriptures in the original Greek ...CRUNCH, MUNCH ..." I don't know nothin' about Niebuhr and Heidegger ...CRUNCH, MUNCH...He finished the apple. "All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate, was it bitter or sweet?" Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: "I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven't tasted your apple." The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up ...

1212. Jesus' Good News of a New World · Part 2

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... of our heart and its relationship with our eyesight. In Jesus’ day “heart” referred to the sum or a person’s interior life – mind and will. Jesus was saying that the purer our heart is the better our vision will be. If our heart is muddied with bitterness, resentment, anger, prejudice, vindictiveness, greed, self-righteous pride, arrogance – then we won’t be able to see God and what God is up to in the world. If we can’t see what God is up to, we can’t join it, cooperate with it, become a ...

1213. Memories of Home: The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... to make the pain of unacceptability to go away is to seek whatever promises escape from it. Escape as from prison. Free of the confines of expectations that can never be met. Home is where his heart is and where he doesn’t want to be. Home is bitter rather than sweet. The Younger Son creates for himself a world in which everything he thinks will satisfy can be had by becoming homeless, disconnected. No one will tell him what to do. No one will measure him by his Big Brother’s yardstick. No one will make ...

1214. The Miracle Fruit

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is a person. God’s truth is cognitive dissonance. God’s truth is Jesus. Jesus is “The Miracle Fruit.” Jesus, “The Miracle Fruit,” creates a whole new ecosystem in your life that can bring a blessing out of every curse, sweetness our of every bitterness, wine out of vinegar, success out of suffering, a fruit out of every pit: and the “fruits” of “The Miracle Fruit” are these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal.5:22 NRSV).

1215. Epiphany 6

2 Kings 5:1-27, 1 Corinthians 9:1-27, Mark 1:40-45

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... v. 2). Here is the heroine of the story involving top generals, kings and prophets. It was the witness of a "little maid" that started the ball rolling leading to Naaman's cure. The little girl was a slave, a captive in a foreign land. She could have been bitter, hateful and resentful. She could have rejoiced that her master would soon be dead or banished as a leper. We rejoice in her compassion, in her faith in God, and in her testimony to her faith. 2. Angry (v. 11). Naaman was an angry, sick man. He felt ...

1216. Epiphany 7

Isaiah 43:14-28, Mark 2:1-12, 2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... God gets weary of us – a. He sends judgment vv. 22-24. b. He forgives and forgets v. 25. c. He gives us another chance vv. 18-21. 3. When life gets impossible (43:18-25). Need: What do you do when the bottom of life drops out? Collapse? Turn bitter? Commit suicide? In this Lesson God tells us what to do when we are in the depths of defeat and despair. Outline: When life gets impossible – a. Forget the past v. 18. b. Forgive the present v. 25. c. Face the future with God v. 19. Epistle: 2 Corinthians 1 ...

1217. John 20:1-18

John 20:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Easter always begins in the dark. In every gospel account, those who come first to the tomb travel in pre-dawn gloom to reach Jesus’ burial site. The journey that reveals the greatest light begins far down a tunnel of darkness. The bleak, bitter, post-crucifixion Sabbath endured by the disciples concluded at sundown. In order to reach Jesus’ borrowed tomb, and prepare him for a final burial, the women followers of Jesus started out even before daybreak. As do all the gospels, John’s text declares ...

1218. A Life of Trust

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... was that some people are like that lobster. At some time in their lives they find themselves left high and dry among the rocks. Life has been cruel to them, as it is to all of us at one time or another. And they give up. They become bitter. What they do not realize is that trust is something that develops as you confront your difficulties with God’s help. When you confront your fears, you become better able to trust in your own abilities. You learn to trust others. And you discover that there are those ...

1219. Proper 20

Psalm 1:1-6, Proverbs 31:10-31, Mark 9:30-37, James 3:13-18

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... the church, we declare our need of the wisdom that is from above, pure, peace-loving, considerate, open to reason. We can be devious rather than straightforward, hypocritical rather than sincere, unforgiving rather than merciful, cruel rather than kind. Forgive the bitter jealousy that leads to quarreling, the selfish ambition that destroys those who are in the way, the ungoverned passions that lead to disorder and evil of every kind. Temper your justice with mercy for the sake of your obedient Son, Jesus ...

1220. Proper 6

Galatians 2:11-21, 1 Kings 21:1-29, Psalm 5:1-12, Luke 7:36-50

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... of love. Receive our gifts of vocation and avocation. All we have we owe to you, through Jesus Christ, our love, our Lord. Amen. PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND COMMEMORATION O God, you have taught us how good it is to follow the promptings of your Spirit and how bitter is the grief of failing to know and do what is good. Forgive our failures and renew our resolve to be obedient to your call to serve you in all the activities of our daily life. You have created the church to be the guardian of the truth ...

1221. Proper 11

Psalm 52:1-9, Amos 8:1-12, Luke 10:38-42, Colossians 1:15-28

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... , bless all known to us or unknown that have done us good; those who have helped us by their patience and good advice, by kindnesses great or small, and by their prayers for us. If there are any whom we judge to have wronged us, remove all bitterness from our hearts and theirs that we may be reconciled as your children. Guard the innocent beset by temptation. Encourage those who are in danger of losing their faith and giving up the good fight. Have mercy on habitual criminals and those who are victims of ...

1222. Proper 13

Colossians 3:1-17, Hosea 11:1-11, Psalm 107:1-43, Luke 12:13-21

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... the intangibles of the Spirit that make the church strong to do your work and accomplish your will in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen. PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION AND COMMEMORATION O God, you have taught us how good it is to follow the promptings of your Spirit and how bitter is the grief of failing to know and do what is good. Forgive our failures and renew our resolve to be obedient to your call to serve you in all the activities of our daily life. You have created the church to be the guardian of the truth ...

1223. Epiphany 6

Psalm 1:1-6, Jeremiah 17:5-10, Luke 6:17-26, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. People:And also with you. Leader:Come and put your confidence in God. People:We will put our confidence in God and will not be disappointed. INVOCATION Trustworthy God, recall us from any bitterness and frustration in our experience with people who are not trustworthy. In our worship remind us of your promises that are positive and healing through the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen. PRAYER OF CONFESSION Despite your warnings through prophets and psalmists, God ...

1224. God Is Like a Shepherd

John 10:1-21

Illustration

Frederick Buechner

... wouldn't 'own' them, as he put it. He always called them in at the end of the day so the wild dogs wouldn't get them. I've seen him wade through snow up to his knees with a bale of hay in each hand to feed them on bitter cold winter evenings, shaking it out and putting it in the manger. I've stood with him in their shed with a forty watt bulb hanging down from the low ceiling to light up their timid, greedy, foolish, half holy faces as they pushed and butted each other to get ...

1225. Proper 12

Genesis 28:10-22, Psalm 139:1-24, Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43, Romans 8:12-25

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... sorrowing, especially those who have requested our supplications on their behalf or for one dear to them. Heal their injuries, cure their diseases, restore them to health and strength, that they may rejoice in your mercy. Have compassion on those who in grief and bitterness eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with their drink. Lift up those who are depressed and others who have no sense of their own dignity in your sight. Bring peace of mind to the disturbed and freedom to the addicted. God of creation ...

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