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 117 results

1. The Little Boat

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... , Mike's mother, who was on shore, had waded out to where the boy was. She grabbed his extended hands and started to pull. It was a four-hundred pound alligator pulling in one direction and a one-hundred pound mother pulling in the other. The flippers which were distasteful to the alligator caused him to let go. The mother won the tug of war. Today, Mike's only evidence of the horrifying event is scars on his head and feet from the alligator bites and scars on his wrists where his mother's nails had dug in ...

2. The Jericho Road: Where the Action Is

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... , he can look upon him as a psychological oddity, he can join in the general public resentment, or he can befriend him. When Jesus met despised Zacchaeus, he became his friend and brought about his transformation. There was action on the Jericho Road, much of it crude and distasteful. Jesus did not isolate himself from the scene of action; he moved into its anguish and redeemed it. I said earlier that I was a bit let down when I made my own first visit to the Jericho Road. Some of it was all right: as we ...

3. Of Rubble and Trouble

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... higher levels, is not to lay out a vision of what might be along with a plan for accomplishment. Rather, it is to attack and attack and attack your opponents for real or imagined shortcomings. The electorate says it finds the so-called "attack ads" distasteful, but we continue to see them (and we will again next year) because they actually work - they convince people how to vote. Once someone is in office, the nastiness continues - here in Guilford County this week we have been treated to hearing a County ...

4. Anywhere Goes

Romans 14:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... from ourselves. But this is not a healthy environment for a body of Christ. In order to remain fit, we've got to stretch and grow, reaching out to and welcoming all God's children home to Christ even those we dislike and find distasteful. While walking along a street with one of his disciples, a sage met his rival. The sage politely greeted his rival, but the man arrogantly disregarded the greeting. The sage's young disciple was furious, condemning the ostentatious behavior of the rival sage. Waiting ...

5. Surviving the Big One

Matthew 18:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... fall of every year that I love confrontation, especially when it takes place in Athens, Georgia. I like it for three reasons: 1) I’m not in it; 2) I get to watch it; 3) Most of the time my side wins it! Seriously, I know that confrontation is distasteful, but I also realize that repairing relationships is just like changing a dirty diaper. You are not going to clean the mess up until you get messy with it. The things we learn about God is He draws a straight line often with a crooked pencil. One of the ...

6. Judgment and Hope

Isaiah 66:1-24

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... problem is “solved” by not reading the passage at all. Verse 24 closes the book called Isaiah as it began in 1:2, with a chilling challenge designed to make people turn from the way of rebellion. While the book comes to a close with this distasteful picture, the aim is that the lives of readers may not close there but be driven back to the restoration of verses 19–23. Whereas most prophetic books close with a promise of restoration, Isaiah thus parallels Hosea 14:9, which sets before people the choice ...

7. Close Calls

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... time, Mike's mother, who was on shore, had waded out to where the boy was. She grabbed his extended hands and started to pull. It was a 400-pound alligator pulling in one direction and a 100-pound mother pulling in the other. The flippers, which were distasteful to the alligator, caused him to let go. The determined mother won the tug-of-war. Today, Mike's only evidence of the horrifying event is scars on his head and feet from the alligator bites and scars on his wrists where his mother's nails had dug ...

8. The Tale of the Widow and the Wolves

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Jerusalem Temple. Interestingly, the Court of Women houses the Treasury, in which receptacles invite the offerings of the faithful. This is the only place in the Temple in which women can enter –in order to pray or give their offerings. Jesus describes with distaste the Temple scribes, who monitor and encourage peoples’ monetary gifts, as those who like to be treated like royalty. They dress in long robes, like to be given high respect, take the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at ...

9. Love And Money

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

William G. Carter

... bill, the rising cost of church school curricula, and mission projects worthy of our support. Those are worthy topics of conversation. That's usually where the conversation remains with the list of the good services the church provides. Any actual mention of money seems distasteful. A few years ago, an interchange of letters appeared in a nationally syndicated newspaper column. Dear Abby: We are not overly religious people, but we do like to go to church once in a while. It seems to me that every time we ...

10. Mary Ponders

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

... longer I chewed the chewier it became -- and the larger. I finally ended up with distended jaws, not knowing what to do with this now sizeable mouthful of rubber bands. Chewed-on anger only makes it larger, harder to swallow and more distasteful. There are those whose inner conversations are fixated on dreams, fantasies, what-ifs. But the gossamer webs of night disappear with the sunrise. As we get older our private soliloquies tend to turn back to days long gone, victories once won, opportunities missed ...

11. Sow's Ears And Silk Purses

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

... start out slowly. Providing bread to feed the multitudes, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and raising the dead would follow later as he got on to it. Water to wine, as far as miracles go, was a piece of cake. Not only is that reading distasteful, but it misses the point the writer of this gospel was seeking to make. One need not trust the historicity of the event to see the point. This may have been a story circulated in the early church to give evidence that Jesus was indeed powerful. It would ...

12. Miracle Nine: Healing A Deaf-Mute

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Sermon Aid

Harold H. Lentz

... that in some cases his words were falling on "deaf" ears. If we are in need of healing of spiritual deafness, Christ is waiting to heal us, just as he did long ago in the performance of his miracles. Using Spittle To Cure · Spitting is somewhat distasteful in modern society. People find a person who spits in public to be revolting. But in Christ's time a special, healing power was attached to human spittle. So-called health cures come and go. This one has disappeared. But different cures are "peddled" for ...

13. Failure Is Not Final

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

William L. Self

... following one of Peter's brilliant confessions that "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." He had been praised for that statement and he was feeling good about himself. Then Jesus began to tell his followers about the days and events to come -- all very distasteful -- and Peter took his first steps into the valley of Achor (Matthew 16:16, 21-23). He heard words coming at him from Jesus that cut like a whip across his face. All who heard it were shocked: "Out of my way, Satan!" But wait, Peter was ...

14. Promises Kept In Unusual Way

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

... he'll have you out by noon, we like to be able to depend on it. It is a wonderful thing to be able to take someone's word and count on it. And it is precisely the lack of integrity in current politics that makes the political scene so distasteful to many of us. There doesn't seem to be a politician alive who can keep his or her word. They will tell us anything to get elected. Once they are in office, they seem to do whatever they please and forget the promises they made during the election campaign ...

15. Week Four Of Lent

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... amount of motivation on our part to meet the challenge because a reward we desire will be ours. When people on the outside challenge us, however, it generally means that we must change or do something that may not be to our liking. It may even be distasteful. We are many times challenged by the words and ideals of others. In the 1930s and '40s Mohandas Gandhi challenged the British government to allow home rule in the land of India. Gandhi's ideas and his non-violent method were not popular with many, both ...

16. Make A Choice

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Robert Beringer

... this issue, because he tried as hard as anyone in history to avoid having to make a decision about this troublesome Jesus of Nazareth. Accepting Jesus as the Son of God was preposterous for this Roman, but crucifying a seemingly innocent man was equally distasteful. Why, wondered Pilate, did he have to do anything with Jesus? Why couldn't he just wash his hands of the whole disturbing affair? But even though Pilate was the powerful Roman Governor, and Jesus but a humble carpenter from Galilee, Pilate stood ...

17. Don't Sell Your Inheritance for Cabbage Soup

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... was also his father's heir. Esau was to receive twice the inheritance of his brother as well as the mantle of clan leadership. Jacob, on the other hand, didn't like hunting and fishing. He thought putting worms on hooks and skinning rabbits a distasteful labor. Instead, he liked to stay home and help his mother around the tent. Consequently, Jacob was the favorite of his mother, Rebekah. She expressed that favoritism regularly. She even helped Jacob trick Isaac on the old man's death bed and warned him when ...

18. The Seven Last Words Of Pilate

Sermon

Thomas Long

... and jailed. While they were there, the jailers did everything possible to make them miserable and to break their spirits. They tried to deprive them of sleep with noise and light during the nights. They intentionally oversalted their food to make it distasteful. They gradually took away their mattresses, one by one, hoping to create conflict over the remaining ones. Eventually the strategies seemed to be taking hold. Morale in the jail cells was beginning to sag. One of the jailed leaders, looking around ...

19. Sermons

Sermon

John R. Bodo

... : to Martha and to most of us who find it easy sympathetically to identify with her. We have among us several million alcoholics who have escaped from responsibility -- into a tragic prison of their own making. We are aware, more dimly but with far greater distaste and fear, of hundreds of thousands of drug addicts in similar flight. And we all wonder from time to time how many of our tens of thousands of highway deaths are really accidental. Unconscious desire to get away from it all is likely to play ...

20. Mary Ponders

Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

21. Children Of God

1 John 3:1

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... . "What else?" As I pause, the children are silent, so I prompt them with an additional question: "Do your parents ever expect you to do anything?" "Oh yes!" the children answer. "Like what?" I ask. "Clean my room," Brian says with a look of distaste. "What else?" "Clean the dishes!" "Do my chores!" "Do the laundry!" "Do the laundry?" I repeat in questioning surprise. "Gee, I like that one. Maybe I should have had children!" Laughter ripples through the sanctuary with my words. "Take care of pets!" "Mow the ...

22. God Was A Child Too

Luke 2:41-52

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... query, about half of the children raise their hands. "Well, one of the things that happens in school is that every so often you get a grade card, don't you?" Several children nod their affirmation; some of them roll their eyes as an expression of their distaste for grade reports. "I was thinking about that this morning because I know grades are coming up soon for those of you who are in school. So, I brought something else to show you this morning: a very, very old grade card -- mine, from the first grade ...

23. Epiphany 3

Mark 1:14-20, Jonah 3:1-10, Jeremiah 3:6-4:4, 1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... . Jonah attempted to flee from the Lord but to no avail. He was swallowed by the fish and then spit out. Then God came to him again with the charge to go on a mission to Nineveh and proclaim his message. Jeremiah also tried to turn his back on the distasteful mission God gave to him. Yet the message burned in his heart so hotly he had to speak. If the Hound of Heaven wants us to carry his message he has a way of being convincing. Change of heart? It doesn't seem that Jonah really had a change of ...

24. What Are You Doing With The Rest Of Your Life?

1 Peter 4:1-11

Sermon

Clement E. Lewis

... right with God, and that I have taken the steps necessary to assure my spiritual salvation. 2. Seek to establish reconciliation between myself and those who may have been hurt in our life relationships. 3. Do that which I have been putting off because it seemed too hard or distasteful to me. 4. Make sure that my temporal affairs are all in order so that no one will be imposed upon because of my neglecting to do so. If you knew that you had only a week to live, what would you do with each of those seven days ...

25. Know What Time It Is!

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... the scenes stands a grace-full God who offers hope and help for sinners carrying their crosses. When Jesus as God's anointed King bids us take up our cross and follow him we need to hear his invitation, not as an onerous command to do the distasteful, but as a word of permission to live in our sinful humanity. Furthermore, (and this is the great surprise of the kingdom) the King not only gives us permission to live our lives with all their sinful limitations and weaknesses, but he gives us permission to ...

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