Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: touch, feel, sense of touch, tactile sense, tactility, contact, using one's hands, sensation, sense, suspicion, sneaking suspicion, notion, inkling, hunch, fancy, apprehension, presentiment, premonition, foreboding, love, care, affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, warmness, emotion, sentiment, emotional state, compassion, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, understanding, concern, solicitude, solicitousness, tender-heartedness, brotherly love, sensibilities, sensitivities, self-esteem, ego, pride, opinion, belief, view, impression, intuition, instinct, estimation, guess, theory, hypothesis, thought, way of thinking, point of view, atmosphere, ambience, aura, air, mood, climate, character, overtone, undertone, tenor, spirit, quality, flavour, colour, aptitude, knack, flair, bent, talent, gift, skill, art, trick, faculty, ability, propensity, inclination, sensitive, warm, warm-hearted, tender, tender-hearted, caring, soft-hearted, sympathetic, compassionate, empathetic, responsive, receptive, intuitive, thoughtful

Antonyms: bad feeling, acrimony, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipathy, aversion, bitterness, detestation, disgust, dislike, disrelish, enmity, friction, grievances, grudges, hatred, hostility, loathing, malevolence, malice

Showing 226 to 250 of 285 results

226. The Return of the King Brings Turmoil in the Kingdom

2 Sam 19:9–20:26

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... the men of Judah pressed their claims even more forcefully than the men of Israel. The tribal unity sought by David is in serious jeopardy, despite his efforts to promote reconciliation. 20:1 a troublemaker named Sheba. The narrator leaves no room for a sympathetic view of the Benjamite rebel Sheba. He labels him a “troublemaker” (’ish beliya‘al). Abigail used this same expression to describe her husband, Nabal (1 Sam. 25:25), and Shimei falsely accused David of being such a person (2 Sam. 16:7 ...

227. The Ark Heads Home

1 Samuel 6:1-7:1

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... cart is an ad hoc form of divination designed to determine if Israel’s God really is the source of the calamity they have suffered.5 The reparation offering, in the form of golden tumors and rats, appears to be a type of sympathetic magic designed to draw off the plague and to appease the Israelite deity. Interpretive Insights 6:3 guilt offering. This refers to a reparation offering that makes compensation for offenses involving the desecration of sacred space or property.6 Certainly the Philistines ...

228. Turning Up the Pressure

Job 2:1-13

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... Socially, he is consigned to live with the outcasts among the ashes of the city dump, cut off from the honor and esteem he has previously enjoyed in the community. Emotionally, he feels abandoned even by his family. Finally, his wife, perhaps speaking from sympathetic motives, calls into question Job’s persistence in holding on to God, as she exhorts him to curse God and die. Adversity often strikes us on several fronts simultaneously. To respond to it successfully, we must trust in the Lord with all our ...

229. Job Considers a Legal Dispute with God

Job 9:1–10:22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... who is detached and incommunicative. Furthermore, what crime Joseph K. has committed is never made clear to him or the reader. Joseph K. feels totally unable to get a just hearing, a reality that leads him to despair. Even his uncle, who is initially sympathetic, grows apathetic, and an individual who is supposed to be his advocate eventually mocks him. This might be the way Job feels in chapter 9. Poetry: Saint John of the Cross (1542–91) was a Spanish mystic and a Carmelite friar and priest who ...

230. “Within Your Temple, O God, We Meditate on Your Unfailing Love”

Psalm 48:1-14

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... dwells see the beauty of “its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth” (48:2), the security of her towers and citadels, and a story to tell their children (48:12–13). When the city was destroyed by the Babylonians in the sixth century BC, the sympathetic passersby wondered if this devastated city could really have been “the joy of the whole earth” (Lam. 2:15). In this minicollection of Zion songs (Pss. 46–48) the preferred name of the city is Zion, or Mount Zion, since that is the religious name ...

231. Daniel in the Den of Lions

Daniel 6:1-28

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... the consequences—and encourages those who trust him, although sometimes through unlikely persons. Understanding the Text See the unit on 6:1–9 for a discussion of the larger context, structure, and comparisons of this chapter. Against this backdrop, the sympathetic attitude of Darius toward Daniel forms a sharp contrast with the intentionally harsh actions of Nebuchadnezzar against Daniel’s friends in Daniel 3. Yet these kings join voices in raising the question of God’s ability to deliver his ...

232. The Rise of Media, Persia, and Greece

Daniel 8:15-27

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... of evil. Moreover, the Nazi regime engulfed virtually all of Europe by 1941–42, from Morocco to Norway and from the Atlantic to the border of what was then the Soviet Union. This occurred mostly through military occupations and allegiances with sympathetic countries, but it also was tolerated by those states that chose to remain “neutral.” Although this plague of oppression lasted just over a decade (1933–45), for those living in its grip it must have seemed like an eternity. Today survivors ...

233. The Power of Persistence

Luke 11:1-13, Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... knock on the door and to call out, “Friend, lend me three loaves [the usual portion for one person]; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.” The neighbor, walked out of a sound sleep, was anything but sympathetic. He and his wife and children were asleep on their sleeping mats in their little one-room house. Maybe the baby had been teething and had just fallen asleep. At any rate, the neighbor said in effect: “What do you mean by waking me up at this hour ...

234. Take Your Job and Love It

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... having difficulty coping with a 3 year old, a 1½ year old and a new born baby. Her husband came home one day to find five dozen diapers hanging on a line in the back yard. “I saw all the white flags in the backyard,” he said sympathetically. “I take it that you have surrendered.” There are times when many of us, no matter how fulfilling our role in life, may be tempted to surrender. Some of us have occupations that are filled with drudgery with few tangible rewards. Yet most of us understand that ...

235. Rebellion of Korah and Aftermath

Numbers 16:1-50

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... The high priest’s son puts them to good use by having them hammered out as a plating on the outer altar in order to warn nonpriests not to follow the example of the rebels and share their fate (16:36–40). The people were already sympathetic to the complaints of Korah and company. So the next day, they accuse Moses and Aaron of killing the Lord’s people. Remarkably, they refuse to accept miraculous retribution on Korah and company as coming from God himself. The implication is that Moses and Aaron are ...

236. David's Lament for Saul and Jonathan

2 Samuel 1:17-27

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... (1:21), David pronounces a curse on the mountains of Gilboa, as if the terrain itself were responsible for Israel’s defeat. Out of reverence for the royal men who have been slain there, David wishes that the soil would lie barren in sympathetic mourning over the terrible catastrophe. Although David honors the memory of Saul in several verses, his greatest praise is reserved for Jonathan. Jonathan made a covenant with David, linking their families forever (1 Sam. 20:14–16), but his loyalty to Saul kept ...

237. Moab

Isaiah 15:1--16:14

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... repeated in Jeremiah 48:29–38. The judgment on Moab is marked by severity and utter frustration. An enemy will come from the north and free the refugees to migrate southward along the King’s Highway into Edom (15:1–9). Isaiah movingly and sympathetically pictures the fall of Moab’s cities: Kir, Dibon, Nebo, Medeba, Heshbon, Elealeh, and Jahaz. With the fall of these cities, ranging from the far north to the south, Moab has come to an end. The refugees clutch in their hands whatever they can ...

238. Trouble from Within

Jeremiah 40:1-6, Jeremiah 40:7--41:15

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... a return to normalcy. Terrorist tactics are detailed in 40:13–41:10. Johanan, one of the guerrillas, emerges as spokesperson for the restless remnant. We can only guess at Baalis’s motives (40:14). Did he wish for a leader in Judah sympathetic to a policy of retaliation against the Babylonians? Did he wish to forestall any consolidation of survivors? Did he have personal ambitions? Johanan’s counterplan points to the way of violence that prevailed after the loss of legitimate government. If the story ...

239. Lamenting a City in Shambles

Lamentations 1:1-22

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... disaster because of Judah’s sin. The absence of a comforter is a repeated note. 1:1–6 · A lost splendor:“How” is a literary feature of a lament or dirge (cf. 2:1; 4:1–2; Jer. 48:17). The tone is at once affectionate and sympathetic, like a pastor coming to the bereaved. The city, once prestigious, has been reduced to slave status. Jerusalem’s greatness under Solomon was world-renowned (1 Kings 10). Once this city was the hub of activity; now she is a “feeder” into the Babylonian system. Her ...

240. Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... spiritual perception is inadequate. (It may be that “night” in 3:2 is symbolic; for Nicodemus is not “of the light”; see, e.g., 1:4–5; 3:19–20; 9:4; 11:10; 13:30.) He reappears in 7:50 at a Sanhedrin meeting giving advice sympathetic to Jesus’s case. And in 19:39 his sympathies become explicit: he joins Joseph of Arimathea in burying and anointing the body of Christ. This passage introduces the first major discourse so typical of Jesus’s teaching in the Fourth Gospel. In this and other such ...

241. An Appeal to the Galatians

Galatians 4:8-20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... 12). Because of some illness, which he does not pause to detail here (perhaps his “thorn in my flesh”; see 2 Cor. 12:7), Paul’s initial visit caused him to come under obligation to the Galatians. He recalls for them their former touching and sympathetic response (4:15) to his needs and appeals to the strong personal relationship (4:14) to press them to reject those who would attempt to drive a wedge between them and their founder (4:17). He applauds them for their concern to be zealous yet immediately ...

242. Jesus Made Like His Brothers

Hebrews 2:5-18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... justice. Further, the experience of suffering temptation gained during his life in the world equipped him to help his people now in their temptations, an especially relevant point in this sermon to a people under temptation and one to which the author will return (4:15). Heroes are usually either sympathetic or strong. Christ is both, offering understanding, which misery craves, and relief, which misery craves even more.

243. The Triumphal Entry

Luke 19:28-44

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... has added (i.e., v. 41). There is nothing hateful or anti-Semitic about this pericope. To interpret it in such a way is to miss the pathos entirely. Indeed, as Tiede (p. 332) has noted, Luke’s attitude toward Jerusalem is much more sympathetic than that of the Jewish historian Josephus who, speaking of Jerusalem’s catastrophic defeat, believed that God sided with the Romans (War 6.392–413) and that “God perverted [the Jews’] judgment so that they devised for their salvation a remedy that was more ...

244. Thanksgiving

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

... or female; but the cast of this address inspires one to relate to God in the best terms of the love that is experienced in a healthy family. Moreover, relating to God as loving heavenly parent inspires Christians to relate to one another as sympathetic members of the family of faith. Indeed, because he regards God as Father, Paul regards Sosthenes as his “brother” and still other believers as his “brothers and sisters.” Paul ends this salutation with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, we see ...

245. David Anointed King over Judah

2 Samuel 2:1-7

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... to win over Jabesh Gilead. Instead we have a power struggle between Joab and Abner. Although Abner is presented as being on the losing side and the writers have no doubts about the rightness of David’s claim, nevertheless Abner is more sympathetically portrayed within these verses than is Joab. Joab is consistently more interested in victory than in the needs of individual people. Abner seems to have much more of a natural compassion. Three hundred and eighty Israelites were killed that day, the vast ...

246. Job's Reply to Eliphaz

Job 6:1–7:21

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... friends’ first glimpse of Job’s pain-ridden body, Job claims they saw something dreadful and were afraid. Rather than being driven in compassion to comfort and uphold Job, they recoil in fear and disgust. Rather than hearing his complaint with a sympathetic ear, they have sought thus far to dismantle his integrity in an attempt to retreat to the comforting world where retribution is a punishment for the guilty, and the righteous (themselves included!) can rely on blessing. Their words, Job claims here ...

247. Job's Second Reply to Bildad

Job 19:1-29

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... the tension between friendship and compassion when Job ironically says, literally: “Be gracious to me, be gracious to me. You are my friends [after all]” (emphasis added). Friendship entails compassionately taking the part of the suffering comrade and supporting him sympathetically in his trials. The friends of Job have steadfastly failed to do this. In their rush to judgment in order to shore up the shaky foundations of their retributive worldview, they have left friendship (and Job!) in the dust! Job ...

248. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... lack of vigor that renders the strength of their hands ineffective. Thus it is not so much who these men are that Job rejects, but their history of lethargic ineptitude. 30:3–7 Some commentators suggest that these verses are more sympathetic to the impoverished persons they describe than Job’s opening comments. As a result, some seek to relocate this passage to chapter 24, which also considers the poor. This seems an unnecessary dislocation. The opening verses—particularly verse 2—establish the ...

249. The Kings of the South and the North

Daniel 11:2-35

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... program of Antiochus IV. Although it was not the king who ordered the killing of Onias but a rival high priest, Menelaus, the slaying was the result of the king’s policy of selling the high priesthood to the highest bidder and to someone sympathetic to assimilation. Therefore, the biblical writer is being fair and accurate in laying the blame at the door of the Syrian monarch. Antiochus was not a man of integrity. After coming to an agreement, he would act deceitfully (11:23). Some scholars look for ...

250. The Burial of Jesus

Mark 15:42-47

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... prayed for God to establish his kingdom, meaning the kingdom of righteousness often associated with the Messiah. (See comments on 1:14–15.) Boldly: Because Jesus had been executed for treason, anyone asking for his body could have been suspected of being sympathetic to his cause. Thus, Joseph ran some personal risk in requesting that he be allowed to bury Jesus. Still, Jewish attitudes about the necessity of burying the dead were very strong (see Lane, p. 578, for references to ancient sources), and it ...

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