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 411 results

201. Free Living Water for All

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... changes if they were seen as "a test of the Lord's faithfulness." "Give us water to drink or else ..." -- the Israelites are ready to stone their CEO Moses! Like road rage, which boils over when a driver is provoked, the anger, blame, and disgust for suffering thirst threatens to end in the ultimate act of capital punishment -- stoning. There are no weapons more handy than stones. Stones and rocks were the Colt 45s of the day, just as handguns and assault weapons, and their insane proliferation, are the ...

202. Ten Friends Drive Us to the Promise

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... wedding. A young pastor in his first rural parish in South Dakota once had two brides show up for the one groom. Both brides-to-be, in wedding gowns, insisted on being the chosen one in marriage that very night. The young pastor, perplexed, confused, and disgusted, finally announced that there would be no wedding at all. One cannot accommodate more than one bride just as God will not tolerate any other rival. Then God says to Moses, "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the ...

203. Coming Home

Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... sacrificed for it, I didn't go across the river into the fleshpots of a Gentile country. I never did that. I stayed in the culture in which I was raised. I never questioned it. I was always faithful to it. And now, look what has happened. It's just disgusting, it's immoral, that's what this is, that my brother would be treated in such a way." Go to the parable, see what happens. The younger son returns. The father gives him the robe and the ring and the party. The older son refuses to join in the party ...

204. Dig In

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... our time an exodus from public life in our society into private life, a narrowing of our world into what is personal and manageable. Perhaps it is because we have been disappointed too many times with the failure of leadership, or we have been disgusted with the behavior of leadership, or we have been frustrated with the changes that have happened in our society, all the diversity. I can remember when we lived in homogeneous communities. At least they appeared that way, and certainly they operated that way ...

205. Lateral Thinking

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... wrote a book some years ago called, Growing Up Absurd. It made him famous. It was a book that was generally sympathetic to the youth rebellion in the 1960's. Several years after that book was published, he wrote an article in which he said, "I have learned to my disgust that a major reason why the young don't trust people over thirty is because they don't understand them, and they are too conceited to try." I liked that. I clipped that out. I saved it. It is in my file now. I was over thirty then. I was ...

206. Christmas Every Day

John 1:1-14

Drama

Matthew Powell

... saying, "Merry Christmas" so much. Storyteller 2: After it had gone on about five or six months, the little girl, whenever she came into the room in the morning and saw Little Girl: those great, ugly lumpy stockings dangling at the fireplace, and the disgusting presents around everywhere, Storyteller 2: used to just sit down and burst out crying. In eight months, she was perfectly exhausted; she couldn't even cry anymore; she just lay on the couch and rolled her eyes and panted. Storyteller 1: About the ...

207. God's Delight

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... of God on earth - the power, God's power, poured into our lives at the moment of baptism and confirmation and ordination, and then sustained daily by the living grace of God. Now, in these pre-inaugural days, the very word "power" both excites us and disgusts us. There is so much lust for power running through the fax machines and telephone lines and mailboxes of Washington that one wonders if the finite human ego can survive it all. As Christians we have always tended to frown on the word "power," and have ...

208. In Our Pastor's Success, So Is Our Own!

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... unfinished work. Why, today's pastor is like a man juggling a dozen balls well. The people of his congregation keep tossing him more balls until he's up to 64! Then he drops them all and people walk away, shaking their heads in disbelief, they spit in disgust or worse. Jesus knew the busy pace of ministry. But he had replenishing friendships that gave him breaks from his labors. A friend with a sailboat, a meal with no agenda at Mary and Martha's, a long walk in the great out-of-doors ... these were restful ...

209. The Ladder or the Wheel

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... legal right to put Jesus into a grave. According to first-century Torah interpretation, when it comes to raising the dead, the life you saved would definitely not be your own. Jesus didn't violate all these Jewish laws out of disregard for the Torah or disgust with ritual. In today's gospel text he clearly acknowledges that as part of the Torah tradition the Pharisees and scribes sit on Moses' seat. In other words, they have a deep, direct connection to God's word as given to Moses. Jesus isn't concerned ...

210. Show Me Your Passport

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... we all need each other and that they wouldn't lose face were they to accept some tangible help from others who have been the beneficiaries of their generosity in the past" (As quoted in Hector Tobar, "U.S. Response to Disaster Amazes, Disgusts World," The Seattle Times, 03 September 2005, A12). Thankfully, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped in and expressed the heartfelt thanks of the president, the United States government and all Americans for the aid that was coming our way. She said she was ...

211. Humans, Inc.

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... abuse, gang violence, and vicious murders have been a part of human history since history has been recorded. Remember Cain and Abel? And yet we continue to describe those kinds of actions as "in-human." The truth is they're completely human, essentially human, disgustingly all-too-human. I don't think it's a false claim to innocence, or a dismissing of human culpability, that causes us to declare such violence as inhuman or inhumane. Rather it seems that at some deep, soulful level we recognize that there ...

212. An Uncomfortable Comforter

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of a Christian named Xu Yonghai writing with soap as told by dc talk and The Voice of the Martyrs. "XU Yonghai looked around his 8-by-8-foot cell. A trained medical doctor, Yonghai was used to sanitized conditions, so what he saw was especially disgusting. There was no bathroom. Instead, there was a pipe in one corner form which water flowed continuously onto the concrete. Yonghai learned to use the water to wash human waste from his cell. He ate right there as well--guards slid his food under the door ...

213. Don't Be a Turkey (Thanksgiving)

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... bird’s brain! There is less excuse for human beings. Take the nine lepers Luke writes about in the lesson I read. Didn’t that group include some pretty big turkeys?! Jesus had given them a tremendous, free gift. He had healed all ten from a disgusting, painful, and unsightly skin disease. Even more important, he had made it possible for them to re-enter society and to be reunited with their families. Ten lepers were healed. But only one leper, and a Samaritan at that, came back and said "Thanks." There ...

214. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... generation that will live its entire life on the superhighway. Studies of millennial children have revealed that 65% of responding kids say they spend more time on their home computers than in front of the TV. This generation is disgusted with materialistic values, prizes community, is environmentally committed, and suspicious of institutional authorities, whether they be political, educational, religious or corporate. Diversity among some sectors of society is seen as a negative, not a positive gift; mk's ...

215. Someone to Watch over Me

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... tiny fingernail, every delicate breath, amazed you, entranced you. You are God's child. God's eternal gaze is fixed on you just like that. · With love-not judgment. · With tenderness-not sternness. · With delight-not dismay. · With pleasure-not disgust. · With anticipation-not disappointment. Throughout Luke's gospel the writer most often refers to God as "Father." The parental image Luke paints is not a stern, distant, condemning patriarch. In today's gospel text, the so-called Prodigal Son parable ...

216. True Disciples

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... unique identity was left behind. God's indictment is harsh. The details and drama of temple worship that God had painstakingly described to Moses had now become nothing more than a burden. God moans, literally, "I am weary of bearing them" (verse 14). So disgusted is the Lord with the Israelite commitment to the trappings of belief without the fire of faith that the divine declaration is: "I will hide my eyes...Even thought you make many prayers, I will not listen" (verse 15). God rejects the spilled blood ...

217. Ever Been Robbed?

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... up the block I'll spot it. But no. Sorry. They're gone. Liberated. Swiped. Lost, and usually forever. After that reality finally settles in, what's our next reaction? We start to get mad. Who would dare do such a thing to us? What kind of disgusting, lowlife snake would just take my car, purse, bike, TV, cash, jewelry, computer...whatever. We work hard to make enough money to buy these things. We deserve our stuff. What's more, to what end is our stolen stuff going? The thief probably needs money to support ...

218. What's Your Status Symbol?

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... upon his shoulder? No, instead the spirit of God descends "like a dove" (Matthew 3:16). You may not realize that a dove is not a formal species name. Technically doves are merely white pigeons. You know that favorite city-bird, responsible for all the disgusting white guano in the park on the benches, on your car, fondly known as "rats with wings." This is the status symbol that accompanies Jesus' moment of baptism. Not quite what one would expect. Peter's recitation in Acts also highlights a few other ...

219. The Good Life vs. The God Life

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . The have-nots’ world is filled with jealousy. The haves world is filled with indifference. The have-nots’ world is filled with anger. The haves world is filled with depression. The have-nots’ world is filled with despair. The haves world is filled with disgust. The have-nots’ world is filled with open rage. The haves world is filled with offended outrage. In Isaiah's text today, he introduces his listeners to the concept of an abundant life in God, or what we're calling the GodLife Relationship, a ...

220. Fear Factor

Psalm 25:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... fears. Whenever I've tuned in, the only thing I've seen is people hurling. They have good reason. The most crowd-pleasing, Nielsen-boosting activity seems to be when the "everyman" and "everywoman" participants are forced to consume large quantities of such disgusting delicacies as horse rectum, raw fish guts and pig's eyeballs. Or don't forget the wiggling, squirming, definitely still alive insects and reptiles they're forced to swallow. YUCK! This isn't the measure of a real fear factor. It's some ...

221. A New Beginning

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... cat down toward the water, it hissed and clawed his arms furiously until finally the boy let go. The liberated cat scampered across the bathroom with only the back of its head getting a little wet. As the cat ran from the room, the boy called after it in disgust, “Fine, be a [Methodist] if you want to!” A little bit of water on the top of the head certainly will not make you a Baptist. And there is the story of an old fashioned Baptist preacher who was writing an advice column, sort of like Dear Abby ...

222. Hypocrites

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... and watch ushers pass the offering plates on Sunday, knowing how those scoundrels conducted their businesses during the week, knowing the way they treated people when they weren’t all dressed up and playing church.” (1) Who could blame him for his anger and disgust? Jesus would have felt the same way. People who say one thing and act another way. Dr. Leonard Sweet, in his book, Carpe Mañana, tells of receiving a call from a highly placed woman executive in Manhattan. She wanted his advice as to whether ...

223. God's Dirty Job

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the remote? Or are there any choices everyone can agree on? In a lot of households there is one that crosses all generations. It’s on the Discovery Channel. It’s called “Dirty Jobs.” This surprising hit has host Mike Rowe taking on a new, disgusting, you-never-even-thought-of-doing-that “dirty job” each week. He has cleaned dairy farm floors. He has plucked stinging blood worms out of low tide muck. He has scrubbed out penguin enclosures (above and below the water line) at a zoo. He has slogged ...

224. How Many Legs Does a Cow Have?

John 14:1-14

Illustration

There is a story about Abraham Lincoln who was arguing with a political opponent. "How many legs does a cow have?" he asked his adversary. "Four, of course," came the disgusted reply. "That's right," agreed Lincoln. "Now suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have? "Why, five, of course," was the confidant reply. "Now, that's where you're wrong," said Lincoln. "Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

225. A Not So Simple Story of Demons and Pigs

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

... hate-filled people to hateful people. And I, for one, am quite willing to call them demonic. Over the years, I have accumulated a small list ... very small, really ... of people I would consider demonic. Not disagreeable. Not dislikable. Not even disgusting. But demonic. These people appear to be possessed by something that ... whatever its origin ... has gradually taken on a life and power of its own. Scott Peck suggests that whenever you meet such people, conventional therapies will simply not work. It ...

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