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 1426 to 1450 of 2415 results

1426. The Longest Journey Is the Shortest Distance

Acts 17:22-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... " experience led him to break with the Pharisees (Matthew 23:37-39) because of their establishment preoccupations and lack of concern for the people. 3. A sense of destiny: Throughout his spiritual journey, Jesus moved with a clear sense of destiny a focused passion of purposefulness. Jesus sought to expose and explain God's matchless love to others. As Jesus moved toward his own personal destiny toward the cross his message was not about himself, but was about the plan for our salvation. The closer Jesus ...

1427. Do You Look Good On Wood?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... his identity as the Messiah with the stunning prediction of how he would be violently killed by his enemies. It is a message that still makes all of us recoil with horror just as Peter did. For post-Easter Christians, however, it is easier to read Jesus' passion predictions than it was for his disciples to hear them. Unlike them, we tend to focus on the bottom line the Resurrection. For most of us out in the pews today, the much more difficult message to hear in this text is the challenge Jesus extends to ...

1428. Say What?

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... may have behaved with surprising wisdom after witnessing the Transfiguration/epiphany event on the mountaintop. They did not understand what they had seen. They were amazed and awestruck at what they had heard. They were confused. Consider how disturbing Jesus' first passion prediction (Luke 9:21-27) must have been to the hearts of his disciples. They had just returned from their first missionary excursion flushed with success (Luke 9:1-6). Jesus had miraculously fed a crowd of five thousand, and Peter ...

1429. Easter Dreams

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... " (those born between 1964 and 1983) put it this way: "I had a dream." Writing to his church's newsletter, this young man expressed the despair, cynicism and pessimism of his "buster generation" by speaking about the "death of idealism, of passion and dreaming ... of transforming vision." He spoke of an almost ubiquitous death of dreaming among his peers (as referenced by Sharon Dawn Johnson, "Vision in Mission," The Gospel and Our Culture 5 [September 1993]: 5). Because the Good Friday nightmare was ...

1430. The Five Adjectives of a Noun Christian

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... full in the face and have decided to go for broke. 4. They'll know we are Christians ... because we're "too much." I want to be a "too-much" Christian. The religious establishment of Jesus' day found him "too much for them." "Too much" passion; "too much" compassion; "too much" forgiveness; "too much" giving, etc. To "turn things around," Jesus taught that we must turn things upside down. Jesus turned the values of the world upside down and inside out. People will find us "too much" for them. Why? Because ...

1431. 2 Samuel 12:1-14

2 Samuel 12:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... evokes a spontaneous and heartfelt response. When David condemns the pitiless behavior of the rich man in verse 5, therefore, we should not see David as a ruler pronouncing what he thinks to be an actual sentence of judgment. Rather, it is a passionate and compassionate outburst from a man of great integrity. Nathan's parable shakes David out of his fixation on Bathsheba and forces him to consider the plight of others. With this swell of outrage, however, Nathan has prodded David into convicting himself and ...

1432. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... :5-16, and all of chapter 8 are from his final letter to the church, while 2:14-7:4 and chapters 9-13 are taken from that crucial third letter. Thus it is well to keep in mind that this week's text owes its intensity to Paul's passionate plea for his continuing authority as an apostle for Christ. The Lectionary reading for this week has, unfortunately, hacked off the accepted beginning and ending of this unit. Most scholars see Paul's thought beginning at 5:14 (though some back up even further to 5:11) and ...

1433. Luke 9:51-62

Luke 9:51-62

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... based on political zealotry. Even as verse 51 reminds readers that this journey was undertaken because the time "for him to be taken up" was near, verse 55 foreshadows the attitude with which Jesus will confront his accusers in the upcoming passion play - there is no place for retaliatory anger, for "getting even." Determined to reach his goal of Jerusalem, Jesus simply accepts the Samaritans' rejection and moves along. Verses 57-62 encapsulate three encounters with would-be followers of Jesus. In each ...

1434. Colossians 3:1-11

Colossians 3:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... many commandments and prohibitions in the law as the body has members. The vices or negatives sketch out to the reader what a Christian is not. First, individual traits (v.5), typically identified as "pagan" in character, are listed: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed. The writer follows these with five more negatives (verse 8) that are evils that emerge when humans live in community with one another: anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language. The double-listing of five virtues ...

1435. John 11:1-45

John 11:1-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus - a connection which reveals a part of Jesus' selfhood the gospel writer had not yet developed in any way. Up until now, Jesus' emotional life has been virtually ignored. Although we have seen him tired, we have not seen Jesus express great sorrow or passion or anger in any of the situations he has faced. Now the veil lifts from the emotional life of Jesus. It falls away in the revelation that Jesus "loved" Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary (v. 3, 5). Some scholars posit that the emphasis ...

1436. 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... demonstrates a believer's humility before God and utter trust in the conviction that "he cares for you." 1 Peter then calls his audience to "discipline" themselves. This disciplined or "clear-headed" stance keeps believers free from any mental confusion or momentary passions. Their hearts and minds are trained on God. Along with this disciplined stance, 1 Peter urges them to "keep alert," a military term used to describe a soldier's attentiveness during his time on watch duty. The military image sets up 1 ...

1437. Matthew 21:23-32

Matthew 21:23-32

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... it is not new for Jesus to be challenged about in whose authority he preaches, teaches and heals, the context of today's gospel lesson makes this particular confrontation much more dangerous. Jesus has now entered Jerusalem, the scene of all the passion events he has predicted. Furthermore, Jesus' entrance into the HolyCity and the holy temple has not been unobtrusive. First, he enters Jerusalem amidst an enthusiastic crowd chanting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name ...

1438. 2 Samuel 12:1-14

2 Samuel 12:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

1439. 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

1440. Luke 9:51-62

Luke 9:51-62

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

1441. Colossians 3:1-11

Colossians 3:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

1442. Mark 9:2-9

Mark 9:2-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the magic of the moment by building shelters for the transfigured Jesus and his two comrades, Moses and Elijah. Jesus' own testimony about the suffering and death that immediately precede this narrative denies the possibility of a glorified Jesus without the passion events. However, it may be that we give Peter less credit than he deserves. The term used here skene or "booths" refers primarily to those structures built during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot the festival of booths. Originally an agricultural ...

1443. John 12:20-33

John 12:20-33

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and death that loom in his future. But now is not the time to draw back or try to sidestep the messianic future. Somes scholars suggest that these "Greeks" are also a kind of final temptation to Jesus before he heads down the passion path. Might these Greeks not represent the lure of a Gentile mission that Jesus could turn toward at this time, instead of continuing his clashing mission among "the Jews" and its tragic outcome? There is little textual evidence for this tempting interpretation, however ...

1444. Mark 11:1-11

Mark 11:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

All four of the gospels give some version of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem before the passion scenarios begin to play themselves out. While the basic thrust of the story presented by each gospel writer is the same, each narrative embellishes, tones down and picks up on different currents that ripple under the main flow of the outline. It is ironic and as such, ultimately helpful to ...

1445. Mark 16:1-8

Mark 16:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... prediction that the Resurrected One will be continually involved in the disciples' mission: "He is going ahead of you." Fourth is the promise of a personal experience: "You will see him." In Mark 14:28, Jesus had rather awkwardly interjected into the third passion prediction that "after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." Typically, this same information is passed on almost verbatim by the angelic messenger, for in Mark, events always occur just "as he told you." Since everything else Jesus ...

1446. John 20:19-31

John 20:19-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... had long promised it to his disciples (see the Farewell Discourse 14:27-28), the Johannine Jesus never greets his disciples with this salutation of "Peace" until after the Resurrection has been accomplished. For John, this "peace" is intimately connected to Jesus' passion. According to John's theology, the Holy Spirit is a shalom-Spirit. Close communion with God, which only the Holy Spirit makes possible, can bring true peace, the peace of Christ, to the believer. Thus Jesus could bestow neither his peace ...

1447. Mark 10:17-31

Mark 10:17-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... I do to inherit eternal life?" This scene stands squarely in the midst of the Markan discussions of what it means to be a disciple in the shadow of the cross. Immediately following this pericope, Jesus will articulate for the third time his own passion prediction to the faithful, but yet uncomprehending disciples. Preceding today's gospel text, Jesus declares that the proper attitude to "receive the kingdom of God" is to be as a "little child" (10:15). Between this demand for a childlike demeanor and the ...

1448. Mark 10:35-45

Mark 10:35-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's gospel text details the disciples' third and most blatantly wrong-headed response to Jesus' third and most graphic passion prediction. If ever there were showcase examples of selective hearing, James and John's response to Jesus' revelation in 10:33-34 takes the prize. How can we comprehend the fact that Jesus' one precision prediction of the Jerusalem horror is followed by such self-serving bickering? It's possible ...

1449. 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and Epistolary Conventions: The Example of Timothy and Titus," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1992, 642-643.) The literary evidence we have, both from Paul's hand and testimonies of others, suggests that he could be a somewhat passionate and prickly personality. It made sense for such a man to send a carefully composed correspondence with a trusted, respected representative when situations seemed precarious or delicate. There is no explicit evidence in the Thessalonian correspondence that details ...

1450. Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... 's conclusion to Jesus' triumph over the Devil's temptations is more ominous than in either Mark or Matthew. Instead of disappearing without comment, the Devil departs only "until an opportune time." This moment arrives in 22:3, when Satan returns to enter Judas Iscariot and begin the cycle of passion events.

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