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 2476 to 2500 of 2699 results

2476. Who Owns the Cloud: Google or God?

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... is a celebration of lights, like ours. They will be lighting each candle in a menorah, a nine branched candle holder. They will be celebrating an event that took place before Christ. This event occurred during a time of Roman oppression, when after an impressive fight to recapture the temple at Jerusalem, the Jewish people wanted to relight the menorah at the altar and to keep it going 24 hours a day. They had no candles though. So they used the purest olive oil. Unfortunately, they only had enough ...

2477. Telling the Truth

Luke 3:7-18

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... a highway in the desert of your broken promises and your broken dreams. I continue to cringe at each story recounting the number of people executed in the United States since the death penalty, over 1,350, since it was re-instituted in the 1980s. I was impressed to learn that the European Union has totally banned the death penalty. And I was horrified to learn that the four nations with the highest death penalty numbers in the world are China, Iran, Vietnam and yes, the good old US of A. What kind of brutal ...

2478. Patterns of Possibility

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... me so. But today’s episode was only the beginning of Jesus’ strange relationship with his family. Years later, when he arrived back in Nazareth to preach his first sermon, he embarrassed mom and dad by preaching not a warm safe message to impress the neighbors, but a prophetic, scary message, that made everyone mad. Then, at his first miracle — you know, where he changed water into wine at a cousin’s wedding — Jesus sharply rebuked Mary in front of the entire family. And a few weeks later ...

2479. Trusting Authority

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... all that the centurion has heard, from the stories of all the people who have been healed and transformed by Jesus, this Roman soldier trusts the authority of Jesus more than his own. He sends Jesus a message, begging him to come and heal a much loved servant. Impressed by such blind trust, Jesus sets off for the centurion’s house only to be stopped by another messenger. The centurion is so confident in Jesus’ power to heal that he says: “You do not need to come to my house. Just speak the word and I ...

2480. When God's Dream Captures Your Heart

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... God planted a dream in the heart of a righteous Jewish man named Nehemiah. Nehemiah lived in the capital city of Susa in Persia which today is called Iran. Nehemiah was the royal cup-bearer to Artaxerxes, King of Persia. The title of cup-bearer doesn’t sound impressive, but a cup-bearer was an officer of high rank in royal courts. His duty was to serve the drinks at the royal table. You see, there was a constant fear in royal courts of plots against the monarch. A person who served as cup-bearer to the ...

2481. A Remedy for Rejection

Luke 4:22-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. Then he began his lesson by saying, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” To this point, people were impressed. Jesus spoke with authority. There was something about the way he presented himself that captured their attention. “All spoke well of him,” Luke tells us, “and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son ...

2482. Good-Bye Mardi Gras, Hello Lent

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... who puts on a costume and pretends to be something or someone he or she is not. The directive not to be a hypocrite is to say, “Don’t practice your faith as though you are playing a role in a movie. Don’t be the person you think will impress others. Be the person God calls you to be.” Jesus uses the same term a few verses later. “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they might be seen by ...

2483. What to Do With Human Failing

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did. (vv. 1-5) Obviously, Jesus was not impressed by the argument that the best way to identify sinners was to see who got killed by a falling tower or by Pontius Pilate. (To paraphrase) “No, I tell you,” Jesus said, “there is no cause/effect relationship between being one of the worst sinners in ...

2484. Blago and Radnan, Two Lost Sons

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... a happy tune? In heaven, there is more rejoicing over one repentant sinner than over a multitude of the righteous who have no need of repentance” (vv. 3-10). Frankly, I don’t think the scribes and Pharisees would have been particularly impressed by Jesus’ response to their grumbling. Certainly they would have noted the obvious problems with these stories. It would be a terrible mistake for that woman to tell neighbors about replenishing her household stack of silver coins. Common sense dictates that ...

2485. From His Arrest to His Crucifixion and Burial

John 18:1--19:42

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... set Jesus free. The Roman governor pointed out that he had a custom of releasing a prisoner as his contribution to the celebration of the Jewish Passover. Pilate offered to release the one they called “King of the Jews.” At this point, one gets the impression this story just might have a happy ending. But that was not to be. The crowd responded to Pilate’s offer of freedom for Jesus by shouting “Give us Barabbas!” Jesus was then condemned to death. We know where this is headed. Under the regular ...

2486. Be Ready for the Possibility of the Resurrection

John 20:1-18

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... had not abandoned her and sooner or later, she would see the evidence of God’s presence. Frankly, her faith did not bear fruit easily or quickly. It did not happen when the stone was rolled away or when she realized the grave was empty. She was not impressed by the conversation with angels or by the sight of Jesus standing in the garden. For whatever reason, only when she heard Jesus speak her name did she grasp the significance of what was happening. It was as if a little corner of the drab reality of ...

2487. Red Alert

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

The story is told in Russia about the late Premier Leonid Brezhnev, who wanted to impress his old mother from the Ukraine. First, he showed her through his sumptuous apartment in Moscow. She said nothing. Then he drove her in his chauffeured black limousine out to his dacha in Usovo, showed her the marble reception rooms, and treated her to a fine lunch of caviar and ...

2488. Father at the Game

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... be a great inspiration on the bench. He'll never be able to play, but I'll leave him on the team to encourage the others. As the season went on, Lou began to develop a tremendous admiration and love for this boy. One of the things that especially impressed him was the manner with which the boy obviously cared for his father. Whenever the father would come for a visit to the campus the boy and his father would always be seen walking together, arm in arm, an obvious indication of an exceptional bond of love ...

2489. Theories about God's Existence

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. To them in their piano-world came the music of the instrument, filling all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music—though invisible to them—above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see. Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of ...

2490. No Need for Words

Illustration

Stanley Mooneyham

When you know who you are, you don't have to impress anyone. When Jesus was taken before the high priest, who asked, "What do you have to say for yourself?" Jesus was silent. Wrong question. When the high priest then asked Him if He was the Son of God, Jesus said, "I am." Right question. Before Pilate, who asked, "Are you ...

2491. The Rag Doll

Illustration

Randy Spencer

... as the hair was nearly gone, the eyes were missing, and the clothes were soiled and torn. But, missing all these parts, it was still what it had always been, just itself. We are, too often, like the high-tech dolls of my daughter. We try to impress others with skills, talent, education, speech, or mannerisms when what they want is someone just being themselves. Within every man lies the innate desire to be loved and accepted. Don't try to be something or someone that you are not. Just be yourself. Love is ...

2492. Love That Absorbs Suffering

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... came out of the bell tower, Cromwell demanded to know why the bell was not ringing. His soldiers went to investigate and found the young woman cut and bleeding from being knocked back and forth against the great bell. They brought her down and, the story goes, Cromwell was so impressed with her willingness to suffer in this way on behalf of someone she loved that he dismissed the soldier saying, "Curfew shall not ring tonight."

2493. Money Magnates

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... a presidential cabinet member, personally a very wealthy man. Jesse Livermore was the greatest bear on Wall Street in his generation. Leon Fraser was the president of the International Bank of Settlements. Ivan Krueger headed the largest monopoly. Quite an impressive group of people! Let's look at the same group later in life. Charles Schwab died penniless. Richard Whitney spent the rest of his life serving a sentence in Sing Sing Prison. Arthur Cutton, that great wheat speculator, became insolvent. Albert ...

2494. How About Your Lasting Impact

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... : I have been married for thirty years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals—mostly of my wife's cooking. Suddenly I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet, I received nourishment from every one of them. I have the distinct impression that without them I would have starved to death long ago. Sincerely..."

2495. Real Power

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Billy Graham was speaking in the San Jose area, and on the closing day cold this story. It seems there was a strong man who traveled with a circus. One of his most impressive stunts was to take an orange and squeeze every last drop of juice out of it. Then he would offer one thousand dollars to anyone who could manage to squeeze as much as one additional drop from it. He went from town to town making his offer, but no one ...

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Will Rogers

2497. The Flag and the Cross

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... folded and handed to the survivors. It's true. A nation cannot die for someone; it is powerless to do so; indeed it must not die. A nation survives, and the removal of the flag from the casket symbolizes that, though all its citizens die; the nation continues. I am impressed that the symbol of our faith is the cross of Jesus, who died for men and women of all nations so that they may have life. A nation will finally say its farewell to us all, but the Savior will not.

2498. All in the Family

Acts 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... our own power? The crisis in the church and the home today is not only one of communication but also one of commitment. Evangelist James Robinson once told of seeing a television interview with members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. He was impressed by their creed. He says, “Do you know what they kept holding up as their great supreme virtue? They kept saying: ‘We’re a family. We’re together. We live together, fight together, die together. We stick together.’” You would think that the ...

2499. Are You Suffering from FOMO?

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... were at the coolest new restaurant in town, or you could post pictures of yourself at a much-desired vacation spot. Now everybody felt this instant pressure to do more, to search for some new and amazing experience or adventure that they could impress their friends with. And a new issue arose, one that counselors called “decision paralysis.” Suddenly, people were so overwhelmed by their options and so driven by the Fear of Missing Out that they literally couldn’t make a decision, couldn’t commit to ...

2500. A Prayer to a Good, Good Father

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... came across the story of a family at breakfast. Each repeated a verse from the Bible as they went around the table. Then, joining hands, they said the Lord’s Prayer together, and the father closed the time with a brief prayer of his own. A guest was much impressed with what he saw. Several months later, he met up with the oldest son who was away at college. He asked the boy what he missed most from home. The boy hesitated a moment, then answered, “I miss most the hand clasp at the breakfast table. If I ...

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