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 1951 to 1975 of 2415 results

1951. In the Event of Power Failure

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... to live out their calling. They have incredible gifts and graces aching to be used, but they stop short because their fears paralyze them. They do not step out in faith because they fear the risk. They do not move with the heartbeat of their passion be- cause they fear the transformation. They do not listen to the voice of Christ telling them who they can be because they fear change. Does that describe you? Do you feel the power of Christ pulling you towards something incredible but fear the consequences ...

1952. I Wonder about the Miracles in the Bible

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Charley Reeb

Pre-marital counseling can be an adventure for pastors. You never know what two people filled with passion will say. I recall talking with a couple a few years ago about their upcoming nuptials. I was explaining to them the wedding ceremony. When I got to the reference of Jesus being at a wedding reception in Cana of Galilee and turning the water into wine, the soon to ...

1953. Elephants in the Room: Sexploitation

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... become one flesh with the person. It is just about fulfilling your own desires. Sex is unhealthy when it exploits another person. Take a look at what our text says next: “That each of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Okay, here is a concept! God gave us the ability to control our urges. God did not create us to be dominated by our hormones. So here we find a definition of lust. If sex as God created it is holy ...

1954. Prayer Changes Things

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... until we begin to pray for what we want. God will work things out for us. If God does not want us to have what we are asking for then God will not give it to us. God will give us some-thing better. Second, pray with passion. Jesus says, “Believe you have received it….” Wimpy prayers don’t move mountains. Remember when Jesus healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus said to her, “Never in all of Israel have I seen faith like yours.” Third, pray with faith. Did you notice the verb ...

1955. True North

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... was placed in the center of a large piece of land and a big temple was built around it. The emperor was determined to build a magnificent resting place for his wife. However, as the weeks turned into months the emperor’s grief was overshadowed by his passion for the project. He was obsessed with the construction. One day, while walking from one side of the construction site to the other, he tripped over a wooden box. In frustration he ordered that the box be thrown out. What he did not realize was that he ...

1956. Pop Verses: Proverbs 3:5-6

Proverbs 3:5-6

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... . It might make the sequel! Our last set of pop verses in this series comes from the great book of wisdom, Proverbs. Proverbs is a member of the family of books in the Bible called the Wisdom Literature. The others are Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and that passionate book of love called the Song of Solomon. Earlier this year for my devotional time each morning I did something useful with the book of Proverbs. It really edified me. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, one for each day of the month. So every day ...

1957. The Plot Against Jesus

Matthew 26:1-5

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

The Final Evening: The Passion narrative is the account of the suffering and death of Jesus. It normally includes all the events beginning with the garden scene in Gethsemane and finishing with the burial. The centrality of the cross in early Christian preaching is reflected in the major emphasis given to it in each of ...

1958. What Do You Bring to the Table?

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... separated prematurely from something that is valued highly, be that a mate or a parent or a dog or ring or job or something. Miguel Unamuno, a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, and philosopher, says in his most famous novel Abel Sánchez: The History of a Passion, "All grief comes back to this one thing. We run out of time." This is true of all of us. The golden moments "when you would have liked to have lived forever" come to an end all too soon. Therefore, one by one we all become "persons ...

1959. Smother Love

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... safe? This gospel text answers a resounding "No!" What God cares about is not my happiness or my comfort. What God is really interested in is the quality of my life. God isn't just concerned with the health of my body or the state of my mind. God is passionate about the depth of my life, the scope and zest of all that motivates and sustains me. Fear of death can turn into fear of life, making us live in a cautious, stingy way that isn't life at all. According to Jesus, the way to have abundant life is ...

1960. The Lord's Supper

Mark 14:12-26

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... of a last supper of Jesus with the Twelve was a regular part of the story of Jesus. Mark’s account contains several detailed indications of its connection with the early stages of Christianity, and it plays an important role in the total passion narrative. The story shows that the Christian fellowship represented in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper goes back to this event in the ministry of Jesus and, in effect, presents this “last supper” as the first Lord’s Supper, in which the elements ...

1961. Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial

Mark 14:27-31

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... same word is used in v. 29; 9:42–47 (see notes); 6:3 (“they took offense at him”) and 4:17 (“they quickly fall away”). It is written: The quotation is from Zech. 13:7, and the whole of Zech. 13:1–9 makes interesting background reading for the passion account, for it speaks of a time when God will provide a new cleansing from sin (13:1) and refers to a blow against “my shepherd … who is close to me” (lit., “who stands next to me”) as part of a process that leads to the creation of a new ...

1962. The Temptation of Jesus

Luke 4:1-13

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... the temptation at Jerusalem the final, climactic temptation. Moreover, when Luke says, when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time (v. 13), he surely anticipates the devil’s return on the scene near the time of Jesus’ passion in Jerusalem (see Luke 22:3, 31–32). For Luke, Jesus is engaged in combat with the devil and has, for now at least, emerged unscathed. Finally, we may inquire into the nature of Jesus’ actual experience. Does the temptation story reflect a ...

1963. Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

Luke 4:14-30

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... . This contradiction led to their outrage and the attempt to kill Jesus by throwing him down the cliff. Nevertheless, Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Whether or not Luke intends this escape to be miraculous is uncertain, for the passion of the crowd, once outside, may have abated somewhat. But what is certain is that Jesus’ ministry was far from over. Additional Notes 4:14–15 Luke makes no mention of Jesus proclaiming the kingdom of God at this point in his ministry (contrast ...

1964. Samaritan Opposition

Luke 9:51-56

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... or departure). The word heaven is not found in the Greek, but almost certainly Luke’s word translated “taken up” (lit. “going up” or “ascension”) refers to Jesus’ literal uphill climb to Jerusalem as well as his ascension to the Father following his passion (see Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9). Quite possibly Luke was familiar with the legendary account known as the Assumption [or Ascension] of Moses, in which Moses is depicted as giving his final teaching while journeying to the place where God would ...

1965. The Triumphal Entry

Luke 19:28-44

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... the Temple (vv. 45–46), and (4) a summary of Jerusalem’s reaction to Jesus’ teaching in the temple area (vv. 47–48). The journey to Jerusalem is finally concluded. Now we see Jesus presenting himself to the Jerusalem religious establishment as the first phase of passion week. But before Jesus will be arrested (22:47–53), he will have a brief teaching ministry in Jerusalem (19:47–22:46). 19:28–40 Because Jesus is hailed king in v. 38, Fitzmyer (p. 1241) refers to this part of Luke’s Gospel as ...

1966. On the Road to Emmaus

Luke 24:13-35

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... where Isa. 61:1–2 is quoted as fulfilled). Later, in answer to the question of the messengers of the imprisoned Baptist, Jesus refers to his ministry as fulfilling Scripture (7:18–23, esp. v. 22). Moreover, in his third prediction of his coming passion (18:31–33) Jesus says that “everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.” Twice in Luke 24 this theme is repeated. In the passage presently under consideration Jesus tells his confused followers that “all that ...

1967. God's Wrath Against Mankind

Romans 1:18-32

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... enemy of our wickedness. We despise anyone who fails to show indignation in the face of evil” (Der Brief an die Römer, p. 20; my translation). Dodd approaches the wrath of God from the perspective of psychology, considering it an “irrational passion of anger.” “The idea of an angry God is a first attempt to rationalize the shuddering awe which men feel before the incalculable possibilities of appalling disaster inherent in life, but it is an attempt which breaks down as the rational element ...

1968. An Illustration from Marriage

Romans 7:1-6

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... of Adam in 5:12ff. It is a gravitational force-field determined by the pull of sin and death. The law, it might be hoped, would have arrested our fall into this perilous vortex, but it was of no help. Indeed, it made matters worse, for the sinful passions were aroused by the law. True, the law judges and condemns sin, but it also exacerbates sin, for it provides the specific handles by which sin seizes us. But this is not the last word, for the Christian belongs to a different realm. Paul begins verse 6 ...

1969. Struggling with Sin

Romans 7:7-25

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... of Torah brought him perilously close, at least in the minds of his Jewish hearers, to blaspheming that gift. Statements like “law brings wrath” (4:15), “sin is not taken into account when there is no law” (5:13), and especially 7:5, “the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies” (see also 5:20), must have suggested to Paul’s Jewish contemporaries that he was equating Torah with sin. He now gives voice to this suspicion, Is the law sin?, and he retorts, Certainly not ...

1970. Life Through the Spirit

Romans 8:1-17

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... escape them by running away from them in fear but only by bearing them patiently and willingly in weakness, i.e., without lifting a finger against them. This is the lesson Christ teaches us by his example: he went confidently to meet his Passion and his death” (Lectures on Romans, p. 230). 8:14–17 The name associated with Abba-research is Joachim Jeremias. A full discussion of Jesus’ unique relationship with the Father is presented in his Prayers of Jesus, trans. J. Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress ...

1971. The Remnant of Israel

Romans 11:1-10

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... and deafness, the quotation signifies Israel’s utter inability to recognize or respond to righteousness. The second quotation in verses 9–10, taken from Psalm 69:22–23, is equally direct. Psalm 69 played a central role in the formation of the passion narratives of Jesus (Matt. 27:34, 48; Mark 15:23, 36). Paul quotes the passage where the suffering righteous man, having been subjected to every form of abuse, reproaches his tormentors. Since the early church identified the lament of Psalm 69 with ...

1972. Living Sacrifices

Romans 12:1-8

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... thing in Peter’s mind to try to dissuade Jesus from the cross, but a sharp rebuke exposed the error of his thinking (Mark 8:33). Or again, it seemed logical that if the chosen people rejected their Messiah then God would reject them, but Paul passionately disagrees (11:1–2). Only a spiritual “mind transplant” will produce an ability to test and approve what God’s will is. The renewed mind is the gift of grace to see ourselves, others, and the world from the perspective of the cross of Jesus Christ ...

1973. Paul the Minister to the Gentiles

Romans 15:14-22

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... it was addressed. 15:14 The apostle Paul is commonly thought of as a theologian—perhaps a rather forbidding one. A theologian he was, but his first calling was to be a missionary pastor to the churches he founded. Both his missionary passion and pastoral devotion surface in an opening statement laden with emphasis, I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. By goodness Paul is probably thinking not of ethics ...

1974. Apostles of Christ

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... sense to Paul’s declaration, A. Hanson (“1 Corinthians 4:13b and Lamentations 3:45,” ExpT 93 [1982], pp. 214–15) relates Paul’s terms perikatharma and peripsēma to the Hb. text of Lam. 3:45, which he also connects with Christ’s passion and death. A Paternal Appeal and Admonition Paul introduces a new metaphor, and his tone changes as he explains his motives for writing and then issues an appeal to the Corinthians. He portrays himself as a father and the congregation as his children. He refers ...

1975. Food Sacrificed to Idols

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... of the NIV can be misleading. Neither the wording nor the grammar of Paul’s Gk. gives reason to regard this verse as beginning a new segment of thought. In fact, the singsong sarcasm of v. 8 is extended in the poignant, passionate protest of this verse. 8:10 Paul’s reference to conscience (syneidēsis) is easily misunderstood by modern readers. A contemporary dictionary definition says, the sense or [awareness esp. of something within oneself] of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s ...

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