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 399 results

201. God for Dummies

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... : You can't just wishfully long for God with your immortal soul. But this world makes it far too easy to discount the yearnings of the Spirit. After all, we've got a busy schedule, a stressful job, a houseful of kids. The psalmist knew how deep the soul’s craving for the divine could be: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the loving God. (Psalm 42:1-2) The cry of the soul must be loud enough to wake you from dreary daily routine, from ...

202. Straw Polls and Soul Quakes

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... three are gathered together, there am I in the midst.") The Holy Spirit is a "midst" kind of God – found in our mists and midst. Individuality of spirit, mind, and heart – unique and unrepeatable characters – is what the Holy Spirit both nurtures and craves. And you wonder why there are 30,000 different Christian denominations in the world today? Here I have before me a lowly, humble straw. (Pass out straws to members of your congregation as they come to church). This straw tells everything about your ...

203. The Lamb's Book of Life

John 1:29-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... potentiality for people under 5 feet 6 inches, or all those who may be especially susceptible to alcohol or drug addiction? Or perhaps those whose IQ's won't reach three digits? As the Lamb of God Jesus offers Christians the gene therapy our souls crave. This therapy reads our past and then "switches on" to change our future. The Lamb of God offers himself as a sacrifice in order to completely wipe out, obliterate the inherently faulty "genetic" makeup of our spirits. This is Christian eugenics. It's the ...

204. What's Your Status Symbol?

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Walk onto the parking lot of any car dealership and you have entered the most hallowed ground of Status-Symbol Central. Nobody loves their cars like we do in the USA. A car symbolizes first freedom for teenagers. It's a taste we seem to crave until our final days. But obviously there is far more to an automobile that simply an independent means of transportation. Look around the car lot. Do you see any Ford Warthogs? How about a Chevy Leech? A Dodge Kudzu or Pontiac Pansy-ragwort? How about a Cadillac ...

205. In Life Nothing Works but the Impossible

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . When the beam intercepted an individual, that person received what seemed to be their own personal whisper-in-the-ear message. Anyone remember the one-second dancing hot dogs that used to flash across movie screens to subliminally suggest to patrons a suddenly craving for a hot dog? It was also done with popcorn. Same idea, twenty-first century style. But this time with a “real” voice whispering a message only you can hear. More than a bit creepier, I think. Hearing messages no on else hears, even ...

206. Want to Be Happy?

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... parents, and countless times our parents will fail us. But we keep wanting to please those who love us, and those we love, to feel their love and appreciation for our entire lives. That is the primal, and primary, experience of happiness we all crave. In today’s gospel text most scholars find themselves focusing on what Jesus’ baptism at the hands of John really meant. Why did the “sinless one” need a baptism of forgiveness and repentance? What is the symbolism of this “dove” supposed to suggest ...

207. I Was There!

Matthew 26:14-16

Drama

Russell N. Gallimore

... ? Suddenly and angrily, I flung the coins [hurl hand-full of coins to the floor] at their feet and ran screaming into the night. Oh! The futility of that moment…the great urge to undo what was done…the desire to take back what was eternally given…the craving to alter an unalterable course of circumstances! Oh! The misery of it all! Out of sheer desperation, I went out and fashioned a noose [hold up rope noose] and put my head in it. I took my life! I betrayed Jesus, and he died. I betrayed myself and ...

208. Roll out the Green Carpet

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in the universe. We need to feel connected to the rest of creation. We don’t want to be alone in the world of emotions, thoughts, dreams. We want to experience life and death with other creatures. We know we human beings are “different,” but we crave a spiritual connection with the universe. So what do we do on Palm Sunday. We roll out the green carpet. Hollywood rolls out the Red Carpet for its VIPs. We roll out the Green Carpet for our Very Important Persons, Plants and Pets, and bring the animals ...

209. Living By Faith In A Time of War

Judges 6:1-40

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . The Bible says that “where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Cor. 3:17) God usually blesses the humble rather than the arrogant. He usually supports those nations that care about the oppressed and the lowly rather than those that crave power and wealth for themselves. We cannot know the future of Iraq or Afghanistan. But those two nations have an opportunity to be free that they would not have had if Saddam and the Taliban had remained in power. That opportunity was paid for with ...

210. From Selfishness to Servanthood

Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... James and John. Why? Because the other disciples wanted to ask the same thing of Jesus, but James and John beat them to it. The late great preacher J. Wallace Hamilton referred to this personal assertiveness as “the drum-major instinct.” (2) Something in us craves distinction. We like to lead the parade, to see our name in lights, to be named as the most popular or the most powerful or the most influential or the prettiest or the most handsome. The late Congressman Hale Boggs had a little dose of this ...

211. Not Bad, Just Too Busy

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... as people fight to claim one of Sony’s latest video game players, PlayStation 3? Each day the Commercial Appeal is loaded with colorful advertisements of all the latest toys, clothing styles, sports items, and technical gadgets. Children and adults get caught up in this craving for things, and we want them now! A little boy named Ryan was standing beside his father in the checkout line at a department store. Ryan asked if he could have a toy that was on display. His father said, “Christmas is a month ...

212. Taking a Necessary Step

Acts 19:1-7

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... my philosophy since a college student to try to make the good better. This was partly ambition, pure and simple. It was also the sincere recognition that God still had changes to make in me and I had better listen ... carefully. There is that ominously wholesome craving to be more and better. It likely has nothing to do with money and property. It has a great deal to do with the evolution and improvement of one's personhood. In Christian terms, this means to become more like Christ. After all, isn't that ...

213. Proclaiming Jesus Christ

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... could not give up the need to be number one. It is as though they refuse to get out from under the spotlight because that would dim their role as the one solely responsible for converting others. For those who are natural-born achievers, who crave recognition, the casualty may be quite high. Nevertheless we are not intelligent enough to know why God calls some specifically to win others, who really would rather not have the job! Actually, whether we are low-key or quite the reverse our mission is the ...

214. Birthpangs of the New Age

Romans 8:22-23

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

215. Sacred Pleasures

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... into this world, with the Spirit of Christ breathing through every activity, every gathering, and filling friends and family. Hosting big parties, with lavish spreads, flowing fountains of champagne, and being proclaimed the “consummate host,” that is a pleasantry some of us crave. But the greatest “hosting” that we are called to offer is the sacred pleasure of “a cup of cold water” — that is reaching out to the ones who are in the greatest need. A “cup of cold water” can be the difference ...

216. Dignity and Respect

Matthew 22:34-40

Illustration

King Duncan

... where it is, and anything you need is yours for the asking." We don't know what had happened between that angry man and his previous neighbor. All the man seemed to be asking for was to be treated with a little dignity and respect. That is what most people crave. Someone who does not accord dignity and respect to others does not know the Gospel.

217. Power Failures and Power Surges

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . With the election finally over and Wall Street bailed out with 1 trillion dollars of our money (or I should say our children’s and grandchildren’s money), we are free to obsess about our addiction to oil and how we are going to continue to satisfy that craving. In fact, we are so addicted to oil that we eat it. We are literally eating oil. What is chemical fertilizer that gets spread on our fruits and vegetables? We are not only powered but fed by oil. But ours is an addiction not just to oil, but ...

218. Thank You, Magic Dragon

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to reach out in love, to risk serving for another with no thought for reward, no concern for self. Thank you, "Magic Dragon." Among the most difficult challenges confounding our own attempts at servanthood is the battle with selfishness. Our egos crave recognition. We want to be patted on the back and told well done" for our sacrifices. Our own need for affirmation and approval overshadow our attempts at servanthood and undermine even the best-intended motivations. Every Christian should know two Greek ...

219. Has He Appeared to You?

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Clinebell envisions all these projections of ourselves as petals of a sunflower with our spiritual self forming the center, and the other five facets radiating from it. In order for us to experience even a modicum of the wholeness we crave, Clinebell insists that our physical, psychological, interpersonal, institutional and ecological dimensions must be nurtured from a well-tended spiritual center. Thus, no facet of our life is ever cut off from the spiritual. (See his Growth Counseling: Hope-centered ...

220. Rags and Robes

Micah 1:1-7; 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... most crucial needs confronting the homeless of America today. Rivers' told of how he found very quickly that he had not just put on the clothing of the homeless, but he had begun to put on a homeless spirit as well. What Rivers' found himself craving, more than a hamburger, a bath, a blanket or a bed, was the experience of being recognized and greeted as a worthwhile human being. Rivers described how, when encountering others on the sidewalks, a few people (all too few) felt moved to dig in their pockets ...

221. FaithRace

2 Timothy 4:6-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... The issue is not whether Christians should have ambition or not. The issue is what we have ambition for - after what foods do we hunger? The difference between Christians and nonbelievers boils down to the difference between the thoughts they think, the hungers they crave, the hopes they die for. The typical, grade-A American Christian has hungers that are so cheap, thoughts so pint-sized, hopes so timid, tepid and thin that they could all be fulfilled at a White Castle. Contrast the answer clergy used to ...

222. Toys R Us. NOT!

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... characters are intentionally off-beat in dress, language and attitudes, they are fairly representative of our consumer culture - our burying ourselves or embalming ourselves in acquisitions. Wayne and Garth are totally "toy obsessed" - although the "toys" they crave are the electronic-gizmo-gadgetry type. For these two goofball guys, happiness and fulfillment is a new cellular fax machine, computerized pizza delivery or a microchip microwave. Karma Kientzler, health and fitness director of Canyon Ranch, has ...

223. The Cost of Non-Discipleship

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... are still salvageable through the use of bootstraps or some simple attitude adjustment. Neo-orthodoxy, which flowered after the Holocaust and Hiroshima carnage of World War II, no longer wafts an alluring enough scent to the souls of today's spiritual searchers. We seem to crave a sweet, almost cloying, nostrum - one that will so mask our own soul's scent that we can detect no trace of rottenness. As of this writing the #1 book on The New York Times' self-help best seller list is Marianne Williamson's A ...

224. The World's Fittest Human

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the language of our soul. Allen is right to insist that genuine fitness begins at the molecular level. But what those of us training for godliness must recognize is that there is much more to our insides than biology and chemistry there are the cravings and callings of the soul. An untended soul sours. It grows surly. Its bile seeps out and gradually pollutes the heart, the mind and the body. Tending our soul means intentionally turning it toward God, regularly bathing it in love, and exercising it through ...

225. Just Say Know

Philippians 3:4b-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... about the most important thing a human life could experience a right relationship with God. Filled with knowledge, Paul was starving to death. Only an intimate, personal relationship a wholly different kind of "knowing" and being "known" satisfied all Paul's cravings. Everyone who deals in data knows the old maxim "knowledge is power." The corollary of that law insists that crucial knowledge like power should never be shared. In stories about organizations like the FBI or the CIA, agents are always being ...

Showing results