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 2001 to 2025 of 2173 results
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
How many of you here this morning have flown on a plane this past week? Anyone here been this week on a bus or a subway or a train? How many of you this week entered a public building and had to push or pull open the door? Let me try this: anyone recently ridden an escalator or taken a stairway, and held the handrail? How many of you have pushed a grocery cart this week? I think we got just about everybody, and some of you we got multiple times. All of these actions, just normal everyday living, put you up ...
2002. Epiphany 8
Mark 2:18-22, 2 Corinthians 2:12--3:6, Psalm 103:1-22, Hosea 2:2-23
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
COMMENTARY Old Testament: Hosea 2:14-20 Hosea was an eighth century prophet in Israel (Northern Kingdom). At this time the popular religion was Baal, a sensuous religion involving infertility rites and cultic prostitution. Hosea used this analogy of sex and marriage to call Israel back to Yahweh. As Yahweh made a covenant at Sinai in the wilderness, Israel is invited to come again into a wilderness where there is no competition from false gods such as Baal to make a new covenant, a new marriage. This new ...
Sermon
King Duncan
One day, Marlene Nance’s little daughter, Emma, was playing with her paper dolls. These were special paper dolls. They were all Bible characters. Suddenly Emma realized that the Jesus paper doll was missing. Marlene and Emma looked all over the house, but they couldn’t find Jesus anywhere. Later that afternoon, Emma came running to her mother with some good news. She had found Jesus! He was in one of her Daddy’s magazine. Emma proudly held out her new Jesus. Marlene gasped as she took the picture from Emma ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Why were you put on this earth? What should be your greatest goal in life? What is the single greatest achievement you could obtain on this earth? What is the secret to eternal life? The answer to all of these questions is the same. It is found in two words - Knowing God. That is what God wants from you and for you more than anything else in your life. God said in Hosea 6:6, "I'd rather for you to be faithful and to know Me than to offer sacrifices." (Hosea 6:6, CEV) More than your time, more than your ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Easter, without question, is the greatest event that has ever happened that is the focal point of all history. Every time you write down a date you are using the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the reference point. When you write down the year 2003, you mean 2,003 years from what? Well, you obviously mean 2,003 years from the very event that we are celebrating today—the fact that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. But we still have to ask the question—Why is Easter so special? Why do over one billion ...
Sermon
James Merritt
James Dobson tells the true story of a little toddler named Frankie. He was a handful to say the least. One day he pulled a chair over to the front window of his house, and carefully placed it inside the drapes. He was standing there staring out at the world when his mother came looking for him. She spied his little white legs protruding beneath the drapes, and quietly slipped in behind him to see what he was doing. She got there just to hear him say to himself in very somber terms, "I've got to get out of ...
Sermon
James Merritt
I had graduated from college and thought that I wanted to go to seminary, but I began to have doubts about whether or not that really was what I should do. Even if it was what I wanted to do, I had been going to school non-stop for sixteen years and I was burned out. Quite frankly, I was at a crossroads in my life where I didn't know what to do. Should I go on to seminary or not? Was I really called into the ministry or not? If I didn't go to the seminary, in the meantime, what was I going to do? For the ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Last week we introduced a series of messages that I am calling - fear factor. I am dealing with fears that are common to all of us that many of us will face at some time in our life. Today, I am dealing with the fear of loneliness. If you have ever been lonely or felt lonely, you know it is one of the most terrible feelings in the world. Celine Dion re-did a classic song a few years ago entitled, "All By Myself". The lyrics themselves are haunting. Here is just a part of it. Livin' alone I think of all the ...
Sermon
James Merritt
It is probably the most well known Bible verse in the world. It has probably been preached on more by the greatest evangelist of modern times, Billy Graham, than any other single verse. Of course, I am referring to John 3:16. There may be some of you who do not know it, so here is what it says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NASB) I want you particularly to pay attention to three key words in ...
Sermon
James Merritt
I am wondering right now how many frustrated people are in this building, or maybe watching by television, whose memories hearken back to parents that you could never totally please. Most every one of us in this room knows someone that is driven to succeed to the nth degree, because they are haunted by the ghost of unrealistic expectations that one or both parents placed on them. There are others in this room who live in perpetual sadness because of a parent that never showed them the affection and the ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Put together one very run-down house, a needy family who deserves a better place to live, several opinionated designers, one week and what do you get? The answer is - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It is not only a fascinating show to watch, but it will touch even the hardest of hearts. Each episode features a race against time on a project that would ordinarily take somewhere between 3-4 months to achieve. A team of designers, contractors, and several hundred workers have just 7 days to totally rebuild ...
Sermon
James Merritt
I have to admit it and I can't hide it. One of my favorite characters in fiction and one of my all time favorite movies is Robin Hood. Whether it is the version with Errol Flynn (who you baby-boomers will remember) or the version with Kevin Costner (who some of the younger generation will remember), I really loved the action, the swashbuckling fights, the romance, and the legendary archery skill that is displayed. Let's face it - they are fun movies and Robin Hood is a fun character. When you think of ...
2013. Here Today Gone Tomorrow
Genesis 5:21-24, Hebrews 11:5
Sermon
James Merritt
Someone has called the fifth chapter of Genesis "a desert of death". You could almost see the caskets and the graves. You can almost hear the widows weeping in the background. You can almost smell the stench of death that arises from this chapter, because over and over we read these words, "and he died." The last words of verse 5 read, "and he died." Verse 8 says, "and he died." Verse 11 says, "and he died." Verse 14 says, "and he died." Verse 17 says, "and he died." Verse 20 says, "and he died." Yet right ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Whether it is the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, a tsunami that wipes out 150,000 people in a day, or the massive starvation of millions of children around the world, you cannot deny the reality of evil. On the other hand, we saw last week how science itself has proved with certainty that the world is not eternal. The universe had a beginning. The only feasible option to explain the origin of the universe is a transcendent creator. DNA itself is a compelling ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Our Extreme Home Makeover is moving right along, but there is one thing we have not yet mentioned and that is – building codes. As you know, before you can occupy a home, it has to meet standard building codes. Building codes are developed by people who are actively involved in the construction industry. Their purpose is, "To provide minimum standards for the protection of life, limb, property and environment and for the safety and welfare of the consumer, general public and the owners and occupants of ...
2016. James 1:17-27
James 1:19-27
Sweet
Leonard Sweet
Among Protestants the Letter of James rarely gets a lot of playing time. In seminary students learn that Martin Luther, who fought to have the Bible available in the vernacular so everyone could read it for themselves, dismissed James as “an epistle of straw” — although whenever a professor quoted that, I always was reminded how the baby Jesus came to Earth cradled in straw. Why did Luther have trouble with the Epistle of James? First, the name of Jesus only appears twice in the entire letter (1:1; 2:1). ...
2017. Fault-Finding
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 
Illustration
J. David Hoke
Shakespeare said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? I'm sure it would. You see, the truth is that the thing is what it is, not what someone calls it. Names are assigned to us, based on our outward circumstances by ourselves and other people. "Sinner, Failure, Stupid, Dummy, Unclean" all are names which label us. But what we are called, either by others or by ourselves does not determine who we are. It might ...
Sermon
James Merritt
One of the most fun trips I have ever taken in my life was years ago when my wife and three sons went out west to Colorado, and spent a week in a part of the country we had never been in before. We did everything from horseback riding to white water rafting, to just exploring the great outdoors. But one of the highlights for me, strangely enough, was driving up to a top of one of the Rocky Mountains and standing on what is called by some, "The Continental Divide," and others "The Great Divide." Geologists ...
Sermon
James Merritt
A little five-year-old girl was watching her mother in fascination as she was rubbing cold cream on her face. She said, "Mother, why do you do that?" The mother replied, "To make myself beautiful." Well, to the little girl's amazement, in just a minute the mother began removing the cream with a tissue she had just put on. The girl said, "What's the matter, giving up already?" I sometimes believe that God looks at our puny prayer lives and asks the question: "Are you giving up already?" Believe it or not, ...
Sermon
James Merritt
"Houston, we have a problem." They are the most famous words ever uttered in the history of space travel. One single sentence, five small words, but they signal what could have been the greatest disaster in the history of NASA. It was April 13, 1970; astronauts Jim Lovell, John Swigert, and Fred Haise were in the lunar module - Apollo 13. They were two hundred thousand miles from Earth, 5/6th of the way to the moon, 55 hours into their flight when disaster struck. A mysterious explosion rocked the ship and ...
2021. In God We Trust
Proverbs 3:5-6
Sermon
James Merritt
At first glance, I thought it was a great victory. The past week a Federal Appeals Court ruled that the phrase "In God We Trust" on a government building, does not violate the separation of church and state. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, ruled on May 13th that the national motto may remain on the facade of a county government building in Lexington, North Carolina. Then listen to what the court has to say and I am quoting Judge Robert King. "The Fourth Circuit has ' ...
Sermon
James Merritt
As we left our story last week in galaxies beyond, we found Darth Vader kneeling before the hologrammed image of the Emperor pledging his loyalty to his evil master. In the meantime, the battle between the forces of light and darkness has intensified and the Jedi are gaining ground. The young, but powerful Jedi leader, Luke Skywalker, must be stopped and the Emperor is making a visit to insure his demise. Every day, in every way, when you walk out the door of your home, Satan is going to try to turn you to ...
2023. The God of War and Peace
1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) 32-49
Sermon
Stan Purdum
The United Methodists came out with their most recent hymnbook in 1989. Three years before that, while the hymnal committee was deciding which hymns from the previous book would be included in the new one and which would be deleted, they concluded that "Onward Christian Soldiers" should be omitted. The committee voted to delete it, feeling that the hymn was overly militaristic and thus was inconsistent with the church's goal of eradicating war and establishing world peace. The announcement of this decision ...
Sermon
Stan Purdum
It's a bit odd that the lectionary committee placed this reading from the Song of Solomon in late summer, for it seems like a springtime text. Springtime, according to the poet Tennyson, is that time when "a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,"1 but I guess summer love is pretty exciting, too. Some recent research, however, suggests that what actually may be going on in the young man may have more to do chemical molecules than with seasonal madness. The researchers recruited a bunch of ...
Sermon
Gary L. Carver
Repentance is relationship. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story titled, The Birthmark. It is a story about a man who married a very beautiful woman who had a birthmark on her left cheek. She had always thought of it as a beauty spot, but her husband saw the birthmark to be a sign of imperfection, a flaw. It began wearing on him so much that all he could see was that birthmark. He could not see her beauty, her graciousness, or her great personality. He could only focus on what he perceived to be a flaw ...
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