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 1 to 25 of 4959 results

1. Appetites and Desires

Romans 7:7-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... drew was an invitation to step over the line to love and be loved. Once again, these are the only two storylines that have ever been written in any lines on the sands of life or in the sands of time. But the price of this desire, the desire to love as God loves and the desire to be the beloved of God, is very high. The price of love is a broken heart. Or as Jesus put it, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” By the way, Pizarro’s raggedy remnant of men responded to his challenge and went ...

2. Desires Bring Hope

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

John G. Lynch

... feelings nor his fears. He lived only as the elder brother of the prodigal son -- enslaved to duty and resentful of his brother's deep desires. "Father Abraham," he cried out, "have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my ... the intimacy of life in the bosom of Abraham; the rich man to stop living a life that had only a full belly but no desires! The rich man says, "I am in this place of torment." He does not want his brothers to come to this place. The word indicates ...

3. Jesus, Desirous

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Frank G. Honeycutt

... particular flock many times. "Often," he says. It's a strange thing to say out loud, but Jesus failed at that. Struck out. He'll walk out of a tomb in a few days, but apparently he can't walk into our hearts without permission. "How often have I desired to gather you and you were not willing." I suspect Ulee knows exactly how Jesus feels. I suspect anyone who has loved someone deeply and knows they can't shelter them from harm's way understands the pain in Jesus' lament over the city. Jesus can do a lot ...

4. When Desire Goes Bad

1 Kings 21:1-21a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... common. And the affluence and advertising of our age encourages it. Of course, wanting is a very necessary part of being human. It is a form of energy and motivation that drives invention, discovery, mastery, improvement, and accomplishment. The fruit of healthy desire is achievement and satisfaction. But like any appetite, it needs to function with some restraint, because when it goes too far, when it becomes our primary motivation, it becomes destructive, both to us and to others. The Bible's word for ...

5. Desire Peace

Sermon

Alan Bacon Bond

... The new creation is inevitable ... and it is peaceful. There is, in Peter, and you ... and me, something which yearns for that time, beyond this earth's death. But STOP! The prophet Amos cries to us from the pages of the Old Testament a perplexing warning: Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light. Amos 5:18 Amos waves the warning flag because he knows that what we live in the interim, between now and the day of the Lord, has an impact on ...

6. Put Away Earthly Desires

Colossians 3:1-17

Bulletin Aid

Carl Hoefler

... People: With God's help we will walk away from our former sins, and become more and more like Christ! Collect Eternal God, who inspires us to change our manner of living by loving us in spite of our sinfulness: Help us to put to death our earthly desires which bring your wrath; that we may become new persons in Christ, with our hearts and minds committed to him, the source of our new being. Amen. Prayer of Confession The way of the world is full of problems, Father, but it is still an attraction that makes ...

7. Desire Obscures Knowledge

Luke 16:19-31

Illustration

John G. Lynch

Many years ago a missionary returned from India. He noted a big difference between the Jewish-Christian religious tradition and that of the Hindus. The Hindu scriptures encourage the stifling of all desire. The god Krishna says, "Kill the enemy menacing you in the form of desire. Desire obscures knowledge like dirt in a mirror."

8. A Streetcar Named Desire

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

... her and said, "Do you still have Elizabeth Taylor's Passion? With quick wit the saleslady looked at her and said, "If I did, do you think I'd be working here?" We need passion if we are going to achieve greatness. Together and individually we need passion, we need desire, we need the drive that is directed toward the right goal and given for the right God. Luke 19 records a story of this kind of passion. In this story we are going to see the fire of passion that we ought to have burning in our hearts which ...

9. The Desire for Peace

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Ramsey MacDonald, one-time prime minister of England, was discussing with another government official the possibility of lasting peace. The latter, an expert on foreign affairs, was unimpressed by the prime minister's idealistic viewpoint. He remarked cynically, "The desire for peace does not necessarily ensure it." This MacDonald admitted, saying, "Quite true. But neither does the desire for food satisfy your hunger, but at least it gets you started toward a restaurant."

10. Deepest Desire

Illustration

Philip Yancey

The psychiatrist Gerald C. May observed, “After twenty years of listening to the yearnings of people’s hearts, I am convinced that human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and most precious treasure.”

11. A Father's Desire

Luke 13:31-35

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: To communicate our Father's desire to gather and save his children. Props: One of the newborn infants of the congregation or a baby doll. Lesson: [Hold the baby in your arms.] What do I have in my arms? (response) Yes, and babies are very special. Can you tell me something that a baby needs? (response) ...

12. THE DESIRE OF YOUR HEART

Drama

Angela Akers

... I''m telling you, you watch too many movies. Don''t let Walt Disney do all your thinking for you." Woman: "Well, what''s your advice?" Genie: "I have seen many places and met many people. I granted each of them a wish, the desire of their heart. And guess where these people are today?" Woman: "Where?" Genie: "Nowhere. They''re all dead." Woman: "You''re right. You are nothing like those genies in the movies." Genie: "You want a song and dance routine, or you want the truth ...

13. The Soul's Sincere Desire

Illustration

James Montgomery

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed- The motion of a hidden fire, That trembles in the breast. Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near.

There are days when I would trade all I have For just the simple joy Of wanting it again.

Merritt Malloy

15. The Desire to Win

Matthew 13:31-35

Illustration

Staff

Legend has it that Vince Lambardi, one time coach of the Green Bay Packers said, "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." While it is true that Lombardi hated to lose, he never said that. Red Sanders the coach of UCLA said it. What Lombardi actually said was, "Winning isn't everything but wanting to win is."

16. A Defiant Response to a Dangerous Theology: Does God Desire to Wipe Us Out?

Gn 6:1-8. 9:6-17

Sermon

Illinois. Michigan. New York. Massachusetts. The rest of New England and the northeastern seaboard. Buffeted by snow. Buried in snow. Blitzed with a blizzard of snow. It is clear that God is venting his wrath and visiting his payback upon the blue states. If, at the last minute, the storm were to miraculously bypass Ohio, there are some of you….or a few of you….well, maybe two or three of you….who might actually believe that. And when the next storm misses us….by riding north of us or dipping south of us…. ...

17. Grace in the Midst of Exasperation

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... I vow to think affirming thoughts; I resolve to stop hating those who have hurt me; I swear I will stay away from pornography; I promise I will no longer go through life feeling afraid." What happens when we send such good intentions to war against our sinful desires? The result is a spiritual catastrophe -- precisely what Paul chronicles in Romans 7, beginning at verse 15: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." Verse 19 continues, "For I do not do ...

18. Selling One’s Soul

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Robert Allen

... to his advantage. He could arrange for an innocent man to be falsely charged. He could arrange for an innocent man to be found guilty. He could arrange for an innocent man to be executed. He could arrange to become the owner of the vineyard that he wanted and desired. All that is required was to ignore the laws of the land and sell his soul in order to gain what he wanted. One of the most dangerous things that can happen to us is to believe we are above the law. When we begin adopting his philosophy, the ...

19. We Fools

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Will Willimon

... the storage area. His grandfather was the first to lay the merchandise out to be seen, and touched, and the rest is history. His invention was perfect for a people who now no longer know how even to name what we want. Show us everything and we shall invent a desire for it all. The surest way to drive people like us crazy is to ask us, ''Well, what do you really want?'' We don't know other than that we want what we want and we want it now. What do you want, really? There are some religions, Buddhism comes ...

20. Freedom In Christ

Galatians 5:1-15, Galatians 5:16-26

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... which rule cruelly over any men they get into their power, as long as they see that they are in their prime and able to work; so cruelly indeed, that they force them to bring whatever they have earned by working and to spend it on their desires. But when they perceive that they are unable to work because of age, they abandon them to a wreched old age and they try to use others as their slaves.” (Economics 1.23; trans. Pomeroy, p. 111) The Jewish thinker Philo advocated circumcision for “the excision of ...

21. Trials and Temptations

James 1:1-18, James 1:19-27

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... act of giving birth. But two pieces of data resolve the problem: (1) Female imagery is sometimes applied to God in scripture (Num. 11:12; Deut. 32:8; Deut. 32:18a in the Septuagint; Pss. 7:14; 90:2; Isa. 66:13), and (2) James needed an action parallel to desire in 1:15. Regeneration language (which is very close to the Johannine tradition, e.g., John 3–13, 1 John 3:9–10) and new creation language (which is closer to Paul, e.g., 2 Cor. 5:17, Rom. 8:18–25) come together in this passage. The imagery is ...

22. The Christian and the World

James 4:1-12

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... is their enemy. Yet James leaves his readers with hope rather than dread: But he gives us more grace. James is aware of God’s judgment upon those who refuse to repent (5:1–6), but he is equally aware of the vast readiness of God to forgive. God’s desire to forgive is a precept upon which his whole book is based (5:19–20). There is reason to tremble, but trembling will be a prelude to joy if they turn to God for grace. The proof of this truth is also found in scripture: That is why Scripture says ...

23. Elephants in the Room: Sexploitation

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... fashion word! It sounds like it came out of a tent revival. What is fornication? Fornication is any sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage. So the Bible says that any sexual activity that is not within the bounds of marriage is unhealthy and not what God desires for us. Now why is that? Maybe you think that is so old fashioned and unrealistic. You don’t understand why it is such a big deal. Well, consider these reasons: In extra-marital sex we are not seeking to bond and become one flesh with the ...

24. Elihu

Job 32:1--37:24

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... we learn that to “fear God” is not to be afraid of him, but to acknowledge one’s absolute dependence on him for all life and goodness. The psalmist expressed this attitude in Psalm 73:25–26: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” The NIV turns the phrase for does he not have regard into a question in order to create a more positive divine response to the wise in heart ...

25. Listening and Doing

James 1:19-27, James 1:1-18

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

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