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

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151. Can You Hear It?

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... happen if we allowed God to dig out our ears! Bishop Richard Trench eloquently tells us what might happen, when he prays: Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in thy presence will avail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosoms take! What parched grounds refresh, as with a shower! We kneel and all around us seems to lower; We rise, and all the distant and the near, Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear; We kneel, how weak! We rise, how full of power.[6] A tremendous transformation ...

152. In the Event of Power Failure

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... hindrances to power. We Feel Powerless Because We Don’t Expect the Power Bishop Noah Moore told the wonderful old story of a crowd that went to the hilltop to pray for rain. Drought had devastated the area. Crops and cattle had died, and the land was parched. As the desperate crowd went up the hill, an African-American woman joined them. She had a raincoat, rain hat, rain boots, and an umbrella. She looked silly, so someone asked her, “What are you doing with all this stuff? Don’t you know it has not ...

153. The Rich Man and Lazarus

Luke 16:19-31

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... to Abraham’s side. When the rich man dies, however, there is no angelic escort. The rich man enters hell, the world of the dead (see note below). There he agonizes in pain and in desperation begs for a drop of moisture to cool his parched tongue. The agony that the rich man now experiences by far exceeds the misery that poor Lazarus had ever experienced in life, while the bliss Lazarus now enjoys far exceeds the pleasure that the rich man had ever experienced. Their roles are not only reversed; their ...

154. Exploring Canaan

Numbers 13:1-25

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

... moves of the story at hand. 13:1 Deut. 1 also recounts this expedition. Josh. 2; 7 and Judg. 18 also contain spy stories. Num. 13–14 is typical of these accounts; see Davies, Numbers, p. 131. 13:17 Negev comes from a root meaning “dry, parched” and refers to the area in southern Palestine bordering the desert. 13:21 An alternate translation of toward Lebo Hamath is “toward the entrance to Hamath.” Lebo Hamath is identified as a city close to the source of the Orontes River in the far north. The ...

155. Job’s Reply to Zophar

Job 12:1--14:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... opportunity for restoration. 14:11 Shifting metaphors, Job describes the evaporation of water from the sea and the drying up of a major river. The verse is reminiscent of Isaiah 19:5 (“The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry”), a verse that depicts God’s future judgment on the source of vitality and abundance for Egypt. The Isaiah parallel may suggest that the emphasis here is on the improbability of these occurrences. As improbable as it might be for the “sea ...

156. From the Miry Depths

Psalm 69:1-36

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... catch and retain rainwater. Being underground, they also evoked images of the grave and the underworld (cf. 40:2; 88:3–7; see Keel, Symbolism, pp. 62–73). Although the waters have come up to my neck, the psalm also confesses, my throat is parched, because he is worn out shouting aloud to God. This irony makes clear the speaker is in a “no-win” situation. Although the speaker has enemies, it is twice emphasized they are so without reason or cause. Following immediately this claim of innocence before ...

157. No One Is Righteous before God

Psalm 143:1-12

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... of mere nostalgia, but there is more here than longing for “the good old days.” The psalm directs the worshiper’s body and soul to long for something from God in the near future: I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. The object of the meditation, “all your works” and what your hands have done, is left open-ended. It could denote Yahweh’s saving acts, perhaps just celebrated in a corporate festival, or his works in creation. In 44:1 and 77:5, 11, the phrase ...

158. Holy Happiness

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... Dead Sea region — the vast stretch of desolation, knee deep in barren salt, just a hundred miles south of Nazareth. The aquamarine sparkle of that water is dazzling with a kind of deathly beauty. But it is a no man’s land where the glaring sun and parched earth destroy any inkling of life close by. This morning, when Jeremiah compares a shrub in the uninhabited salt land with a tree planted by water he is literally giving us a choice between life and death. Do we trust the dazzling desert of the world ...

159. Goals Require Preliminary Steps

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he answered, "A returned missionary." The boy looked ahead not to the years of graduate study, not to the years of separation from home and loved ones, not to the months and years in steaming jungles or parched deserts—but to the final state of recognition and acclaim. It's hard to skip the preliminaries and still reach a final goal. The musician's finger exercises, the Olympic athlete’s daily push-ups, and the Christian's daily stint in the prayer closet can't ...

160. A Vision of Beauty and Hope

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

... dead! But then I thought I was dead! Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?” “‘A great Shadow has departed,’ says Gandalf, and then he [begins to laugh] and the sound [is] like music, or like water in a parched land . . .” (4) Everything sad is going to come untrue. What a great vision. That’s the hopeful vision Isaiah saw, the hopeful vision that will be fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah comes again someday The second part of Isaiah’s vision is that Jesus the ...

161. Join in the Singing

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... it is a picture of the restoration God plans to do through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, for all humankind. And the joy on that day will be so overwhelming that everyone will burst with songs of joy. Isaiah 35:1-10 reads like this: “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the ...

162. Godstruck

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... then thousands of others begin to praise God in “wind song.” Because God’s Spirit can revive the deadest of souls, breathe life into “dead” people, resurrect people, and places –and churches. Just as in the valley of dry bones, God lifts up brokenness and parched faith and stirs up passion and determination. With the sound of the wind…you know change is coming. But not just the kinds of changes you’d expect in the course of life. But bizarre changes. The birth of the church that day when God ...

163. Massah and Meribah

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... associated with the fountain of water at the Rock of Horeb. Where Moses touched the rock with his staff, water sprung forth from below and out through the rock, a sign of God’s presence, as well as a thirst quencher for a people parched of faith in their long desert journey toward the Promised Land. The Source –YHWH, the rock of salvation (Psalm 95), is God who showed Himself “stronger” than the massah (testing) and meribah (contention), that is, the strength of the people’s outcry against God ...

164. Elisha's Bones

2 Kings 13:10-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... And God’s presence may surprise even you! Cause God has raising power! That holy, mysterious, supra-rational, super-natural, promise-filled, healing and raising power that resurrects dead churches, instills life into dead communities, gives hope to the dying, gives water to parched souls. Are you feeling burned out? Tired? Thirsty? Lifeless in your soul? God loves you. God will take what is dry in you, what is fearful and unsure in your life, and will infuse into you the breath of life –new breath that ...

165. Clear to Enter

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18, John 20:19-23, Matthew 28:1-10, Luke 24:1-12, Hebrews 10:1-18, Hebrews 10:19-39, Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Every one of your hearts is a garden relationship with God. How you cultivate that relationship, the attention you pay to it, the time you give to it will be reflected in the way your heart is revealed when the gate is opened. Jesus has come to heal your parched roots, to water your shriveling spirit, to prune back your cravings, to nourish your soul. Let Him in. He is the Gate. He is the Way. He is the Key to eternal life. The stone is rolled away. The Gate has been opened. You are invited. Come, and enter ...

166. Worship is Your Rest Stop

Genesis 1:1-2:3, Psalm 92:1-15, Luke 5:33-39, Luke 6:1-11, Galatians 3:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... gas in a strange place in the middle of nowhere with no filling station in sight for miles. Then you see that sign on the road that reads: “Rest Stop 1 Mile.” You heave a sigh of relief. Made it! You’re exhausted. You’re tired. You’re parched. Your stomach is making grumbly sounds. You can just feel those hunger pangs starting to gnaw at your peace of mind. Then that rest stop comes, and you climb out, get some refreshing water, get some kind of food in your stomach, and stretch those aching limbs ...

167. Rock of Salvation

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... run out. Usually accustomed to living by their own means, they had no idea where to find water in this wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. This was new territory. In Egypt, water had been in abundance. Here, doubt for their journey began to set in, as their parched throats and weary bodies began to ail them from the unyielding sun. They complain to Moses, who petitions God for help. God instructs Moses to take his rod (given to him by God) and to strike the rock at Mt. Horeb and to retrieve the water that ...

The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone's concern and like vampires they suck our life's blood.

Bette Davis

169. Well of Wisdom, Water of Life

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... for biblical people to either live by a body of water or create trenches and wells to access water. Lacking today’s technological and industrial innovations, the vast deserts in the biblical period were dry, barren wastelands. They were extremely hot, parched, waterless expanses that could easily render a traveler helpless within less than a day without provisions. A single water container, usually made of thick skins, wouldn’t last long in the glaring arid sun. In our scripture for today, in Genesis ...

170. Seeing Is Believing

Isaiah 9:2 · John 1:14-18

Sermon

Will Willimon

... God! For we are men and women, flesh and blood. We live here, on earth, not in some spiritual Shangri-la in the clouds. Here, with junior's spilled cereal and with a cancer that will not heal, and pain that will not go away, and with gnawing hunger and parched lips. This is where we live. And this is where, as the Bible tells Jesus' story, God meets us. Israel had always seen food as a gift of God. Thus the Jews gave thanks before meals. Israel's God is the God who gave food in the wilderness (Exod. 16 ...

171.

Psalm 143:1-12

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles