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 201 to 225 of 313 results

201. Discipline and Means of Grace

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a dawn when we say, “OK, God, You win. You’ve broken me and I’m yours. No more fighting. No more complaining. Lead me where you will. Not my will but Thine be done.” The Biggest Block The biggest block to our surrender is not our appetites and wayward desires, but our addiction to running our own lives. Surrender would be easy if it allowed us to merely sacrifice a few leaves, a few choice sins. But God wants more. God’s ax hits the trunk. Pascal, who knew the heartrending call of surrender, wrote ...

202. Let God Be God - As if It Could Be Otherwise

Exodus 7:14-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of a world that has lost any sense of the sacredness of sexuality and the preciousness of persons. People use each other, then cast each other aside almost as casually as throwing away the wrapper of a candy bar that has temporarily satisfied our appetite. Then the lives that are conceived as a result of our selfish passions don’t fit into our lives; they interrupt our plans; they would be a constant bother, a burdensome responsibility - so we abort new life. I believe the next few decades are going ...

203. The Gospel of Marah

Exodus 15:22-27

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I delight in hearing a great sermon. I relish reading the creative writing, of other preachers. I have a sort of insatiable appetite for preachers. I heard recently of a man who was telling of his surgery. A lot of people like to tell about their operations, though not many people like to hear about them. This fellow said that when the doctor sewed him up after surgery, he left the sponge inside. ...

204. Fresh Every Morning - A Token and a Truth

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... them bread from heaven to eat.” But listen to Jesus - listen to his revealing word: “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my father gives you the true bread from heaven. (verses 22-23) Their spiritual appetites had been whetted, and they said, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And then came Jesus’ remarkable and revealing claim, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (verse 35 ...

205. Lean Thine Arm on the Windowsill of Heaven (Growing Old Gracefully)

Psalm 90:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... notion about contentment. Now there is a contentment we need - the contentment that frees us from the clamor of drives and desires which make us slaves to things and possessions, to potential fame. The contentment that frees us from being the servant of our appetites and ambitions, The contentment that lets us be at peace with ourselves in the face of all the external pressures that move in upon us - the contentment that breaks us free from an obsession with influence and power - a contentment that cuts us ...

206. The Power to Resist Temptation

I Corinthians 10:13-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... good of another. It is a lot easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. Greed—the need to get, to have, to hold. Money, power, prestige, perks. Gluttony—addictions to eating and drinking. Appetites that go unrestrained. Anger—rage, resentment, bitterness. Getting even instead of getting over. Sloth—apathy, despondency, “I don't care" attitude about all of life. Lust—love distorted by turning people into things and using them for selfish gain. Pride—superiority ...

207. Does Christmas Make Any Difference?

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... have wounded any soul today, If I have caused one foot to go astray, If I have walked in my own willful way, Dear Lord, forgive. II. THE CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS MAKES NEW LIFE POSSIBLE “This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears.” In a Tom Wilson cartoon, Ziggy is visiting with the lending officer at the mortgage department. When the agent asks how she can help, Ziggy replies “Actually I am looking for a new ...

208. Heart Religion

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the heart that Paul mentions. It comes from two Greek words meaning “to have more”. It has been defined as “the accursed love of having.” It also has been defined as “the spirit which snatches at that which is not right to take,” or “the baneful appetite for that which belongs to others.” It’s not the desire for money and things alone, it includes the desire for power, the insatiable lust of the flesh. . . it’s lust for having which is in the heart of the man who see happiness in things ...

209. Personal Politics

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... that he was the big brother, and to him fell the lot of caring for those kids. So Ralph and Jane took the three into their home, and Jane started all over again — clothes to buy and clean and mend; groceries to stock for voracious appetites; nighttime cuddling with scared and lonely little ones; Christmases and birthdays to plan for ... Jane's life settled right back into its old routine for another decade. Ralph was well established in his career, and at the height of his business skills. So he traveled ...

210. The Land Where Our Fathers Had Lived

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... dreadful pit, but in what they did next. "Then they sat down to eat." It is a portrait of indifference and complacency. While their little brother cried out for mercy, they were filling their stomachs. Most of us find that our appetites are diminished by unpleasantness, tension, or strife, but not these boys. Nothing wrong with their stomachs; just something terribly wrong with their hearts. Then, providentially, Joseph's life was spared by the arrival of a caravan. Judah reasoned with his brothers: "What ...

211. Spiritual Resuscitation

Romans 8:6-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... of the family was, but I did my chores as quickly as possible so I could join the rest of the neighborhood boys in our field for a baseball game. As I was dashing through the house and yard doing my jobs, I worked up an early appetite and thought I should prepare some nutritious morsel before the ordeal of a baseball game. In the refrigerator I found frankfurters. Not hotdogs. These were the fat — literally fat, I'm sure — tubes of meat strung together. You bought them at a butcher's shop, and these ...

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

When we hate our enemies we give them power over us - power over our sleep, our appetites, our happiness. They would dance with joy if they knew how much they were worrying us. Our hate is not hurting them at all, but it is turning our days & our nights into hellish turmoil.

Dale Carnegie

213. Epiphany 3, Ordinary Time 3

Psalm 27:1, 4-9, Isaiah 9:1-4, Matthew 4:12-17, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... , strife, All: anger, violence, hatred; Leader: we confess to you, O God, All: our schemes, our willful rebellion, our hidden hostilities toward your children. Leader: We confess to you, O God, All: our lack of trust in your presence, our need to control, our insatiable appetite for praise. Leader: We confess to you, O God, All: our fear of speaking the truth in love, our self-hatred, our moments of utter despair when we no longer believe you are at work in us. Leader: Come and hear us now, that what ...

214. Epiphany 5, Ordinary Time 5

Psalm 112:1-10, Isaiah 58:1-9a, Matthew 5:13-16, 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

... confess that we have run after the gods of our own making, that we have set ourselves above others, and that we have used the gifts you have given us for our own glory. Turn us from burdens of our selfish desires, our searching for power, and our appetites for opulence, so that we would seek to know you, crucified and risen, and to live out your merciful will. Leader: God our Father hears the prayers of his people and is merciful to them in their weakness, so that your faith would not rest on human wisdom ...

215. Beatitudes as a Song

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Eugene H. Peterson

... most dear to you. 5. “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. 6. “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. 7. “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for. 8. “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart ...

216. A Community of Practice, Not a Community of Perfection

Romans 7:7-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... life?” They have recently published the results of their study, and Graeme Wood in The Atlantic (April 2011) summarized the summary. Are you ready? “If anything the rich stare into the abyss a bit more starkly than the rest of us. The truly wealthy know that appetites for material indulgence are rarely sated. No yacht is so super, nor any wine so expensive, that it can soothe the soul or guarantee that one’s children won’t grow up to be creeps.” (As quoted in “It’s Not Easy Being Filthy Rich ...

217. Soul Bread!

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... to stop for a Starbucks. To those who have been truly hungry or thirsty, however, these words mean everything. There are no worse human pains than the pangs of true hunger and or true thirst. The craving for food and water are the two most powerful natural appetites for us. Jesus understands hunger. Luke records, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end ...

218. Tough Talk for Tentative Disciples

John 6:56-69

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... would lead them out of Rome's bondage in ways that they imagine it ought to happen. They give no thought about what they themselves might do to make that come to pass. Having seen Jesus miraculously provide food and enough to spare for their fleshly appetites, they want more signs and wonders, something they can report to their friends, an experience that would allow them to say, "I was there!" Look around you. See what is happening in some areas of the church. There are those who leave the church because ...

219. Jesus Christ Is Precious

Illustration

Staff

John Newton was a rough, dirty sailor with a foul mouth and an appetite for rotten living. He hated life and life hated him. He was captain of a slave ship. Then someone placed in his hands a copy of Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ. He also had the gift of a good mother who told him about the Savior when he ...

220. A Slave to Food

Illustration

Dave Wilkenson

... ready answer: "My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills." Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn't released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year. . . a prisoner of his own appetite.

221. Lick to Death

Illustration

Chris T. Zwingelberg

... in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!" It is a fearful thing that people can be "consumed by their own lusts." Only God's grace keeps us from the wolf's fate.

222. A Lack of TLC

Illustration

Charles Sell

... , ages 3 months to 3 years old. Nurses changed diapers and fed and bathed the children. But there was little time to hold, cuddle, and talk to them as a mother would. After three months many of them showed signs of abnormality. Besides a loss of appetite and being unable to sleep well, many of the children lay with a vacant expression in their eyes. After five months, serious deterioration set in. They lay whimpering, with troubled and twisted faces. Often, when a doctor or nurse would pick up an infant, it ...

223. Pleasingly Plump

Humor Illustration

An unknown poet has put to paper a paraphrase that strikes home. He writes: My appetite is my shepherd, I always want. It maketh me sit down and stuff myself. It leadeth me to my refrigerator repeatedly. Sometimes during the night. It leadeth me in the path of Burger King for a Whopper. It destroyeth my shape. Yea, though I knoweth I gaineth, I will not ...

224. The 4 Spiritual Flaws

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... be used to fulfill their political cravings for a new national identity and freedom. John reveals this hunger in yet another aside into Jesus' personal insight. The well-fed crowd hasn't experienced any spiritual fulfillment. Instead this meal has whetted their appetite for political power. For dessert they are planning to "force" Jesus into the role of "king." The crowd's "logic" isn't really flawed. If Moses, who miraculously fed the people in the wilderness, could deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt ...

225. John 6:1-21

John 6:1-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

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