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 2601 to 2625 of 5000 results

2601. Zophar Rejects Job’s Complaints

Job 11:1-20

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... s three friends are increasingly insensitive in what they say to Job. As the third speaker, Zophar takes the retribution principle to its logical conclusion, and he uses it to dismiss Job’s complaints as invalid. Instead of truly feeling Job’s pain and understanding his thinking, Zophar responds to him with impersonal, abstract reasoning. As a result, he proves to be of little comfort to his friend. Zophar, then, is an example of how not to minister to a friend in great need. Although Zophar heard what ...

2602. Job’s Hope against Hope

Job 19:1-29

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... refuse to answer his complaints. Job calls out for God’s justice, but all he has received from God is silence. From Job’s perspective, it seems as though God has sent his armies to besiege him as an enemy. All of this is beyond what Job can understand. It does not fit the theological system of retribution that Job previously held as true. It makes no sense to him that God would treat him as though he were wicked, when Job knows in his heart that he is innocent before God. As Job describes his treatment ...

2603. “You Are My Son; Today I Have Become Your Father”

Psalm 2:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... our lives as we follow his direction. The Lord reigns! Music: Christ’s resurrection is proof of God’s sovereign reign. While the historical sense of Psalm 2:7 seems to reference the founding of the Davidic dynasty, in Acts 13:33 Paul understands it to extend ultimately to the resurrection of Christ, proof positive of God’s sovereignty. J. S. Bach wrote a cantata titled Heaven Laughs, and Earth Rejoices. The laughter of heaven concentrated its countless decibels in the empty tomb, echoed up and down ...

2604. “The Heavens Declare the Glory of God”

Psalm 19:1-14

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... The commands . . . light to the eyes. The word “precepts” (piqqudim) carries the meaning of “regulations” (see, e.g., Ps. 103:18). These precepts are morally right and bring joy to the heart. The Lord’s “commands” (sg. “commandment,” mitswah) illuminate one’s understanding (“eyes”) just as the sun illuminates the world. 19:9 The fear of the Lord is pure . . . The decrees of the Lord are firm . . . righteous. Now David turns to the human response to God’s law and describes it as ...

2605. “The Lord Is My Shepherd, I Lack Nothing”

Psalm 23:1-6

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... Shepherd and the lamb (23:1–4) 2. The divine Shepherd and the king (23:5–6) Historical and Cultural Background Proposed dates for this psalm have ranged from David’s time to the exile. Delitzsch locates it in the period of Absalom’s rebellion.[4] Understandably, the thought of David’s trust in God being so personal and confident in so troubled a time is certainly attractive. However, the connections are tenuous at best. Perhaps the end of David’s life is more probable. It makes a lot of sense to ...

2606. “Show Me Your Ways, Lord”

Psalm 25:1-22

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... students (also Ps. 32:8; Prov. 4:11). See verse 12 for a similar statement (“He will instruct them in the ways”). 25:10 loving and faithful . . . toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. The covenant context is critical for understanding this psalm. The Lord’s ways are a reflection of his “loving” (hesed) and “faithful” (’emet) nature, and this divine character shapes the covenant he has made with Israel and the relationship he has with the keepers of the covenant. The same two ...

2607. “Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”

Psalm 31:1-24

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... a spirit of reliance and responsibility? First, we must rediscover the source of our trust. The psalmist finds it in God, who is his rock and fortress, one he can depend on to “lead and guide” him (31:3)—that implies trust. Second, we have to understand the nature of our source, and our suppliant knows that the God he trusts is strong and reliable (31:1–3). Third, we need a mutually trusting relationship with the source of trust. The psalmist’s confession of trust and confession of God (“You are ...

2608. “Blessed Are Those Who Have Regard for the Weak; the Lord Delivers Them”

Psalm 41:1-13

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... and effect” perspective on faith. That is, they expect bad things to happen when they have been bad, and good things to happen when they have been good. But as we see with David, that is simply not the case. We need to broaden our understanding of biblical faith to recognize that our circumstances do not always yield to a “cause and effect” explanation, but the psalmist reminds us that the Lord delivers us in times of trouble (41:1). God is ever present. Personal Stories: Abba’s Child, by Brennan ...

2609. “As the Deer Pants for Streams of Water, So My Soul Pants for You, My God”

Psalm 42:1-11, Psalm 43:1-5

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... enigmatic term maskil (a Hiphil participle of the verb skl) occurs in the headings of thirteen psalms (Pss. 32; 42; 44; 45; 52; 53; 54; 55; 74; 78; 88; 89; 142).6It occurs internally in Psalm 14:2/53:2, where it means “to act wisely” (NIV: “understand”). The other internal occurrence is 47:7, where it designates, as in the thirteen headings above, a type of psalm. Kraus proposes that, in view of its use as a type of psalm, and based on 2 Chronicles 30:22, which describes Levitical activity with this ...

2610. “Why Do You Boast of Evil, You Mighty Hero?”

Psalm 52:1-9

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... love”) as hamas (“violence”).2 52:2 your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor. The RSV makes the last phrase of verse 1, “all day long,” the beginning of this verse, although it makes sense where it stands in 52:1 if we understand the sentence as suggested above. The word “destruction” appears again in verse 7 (see the comments on 52:6–7, below). Like a “sharpened razor,” the tongue has the power to do evil or to do good. 52:3 You love evil rather than good.The ...

2611. “In Your Heart You Devise Injustice”

Psalm 58:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... represent the history of human conduct (“even from birth,” “from the womb,” 58:3). Sadly, their evil inclination has been generated in their inner being (58:2), leaving little hope that their social behavior is only a temporary departure from the ethical norm. If we understand the subject of 58:1 to be the “gods,” then the wicked of verse 3 are the earthlings who carry on the evil work of the gods. This poem thus moves from the idea of the gods who activate injustice in the world, to the human ...

2612. “Your Love Is Better Than Life”

Psalm 63:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... : “Your love [hesed] is better than life,” and because of that, he will praise the Lord. He would prefer to die rather than to live without God’s love (cf. Phil. 1:21). In the totality of biblical revelation, the love of God is the sine qua non for understanding God, so much so that John can equate God with love and write: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Then begins a section of praise (63:4–6) that flows naturally out of the statement of verse 3, thus suggesting that the statement of verse 3 is the ...

2613. “They Will Proclaim the Works of God and Ponder What He Has Done”

Psalm 64:1-10

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... we should not turn the biblical message of justice into a story of Christ dying for the principles of justice as established by our society. Rather, he died for our sins that have violated God and our neighbor, and a good starting place for understanding what that means is the Ten Commandments. It is God’s standard of justice, not ours, for which Christ has given his life, although the two standards overlap at significant points. Illustrating the Text Our sharpshooter God Bible: Psalm 64 gives us one of ...

2614. “Come and See What God Has Done”

Psalm 66:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... person different and unique. And we praise him by being what God created us to be as we live in obedience to his design and purpose. God’s care of the world and of each person at the same time Quote: Augustine. It is difficult for us to understand how God can care for the world he made and care as passionately for each individual who makes up that world. While Augustine provides no explanation for this phenomenon, he recognizes the truth when he prays: “O omnipotent Good, you who care for each one of us ...

2615. “When You Ascended on High, You Took Many Captives”

Psalm 68:1-35

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... at the story line of our lives than at the individual episodes. John Newton was evidently looking at that long perspective when he wrote: “’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”14Indeed, at times it is hard to understand the individual episodes of life in isolation without looking at the long perspective. We know this in many facets of our lives—business, education, marriage, and so on—because we are able to see the parts in light of the whole. In a similar way ...

2616. “Endow the King with Your Justice, O God”

Psalm 72:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... conscious that it is time to think about their own legacy and how they will transfer it to the coming generation (see “Teaching the Text” in the unit on Ps. 71). If, as we have explained in our discussion of Psalm 71 (see the introduction to “Understanding the Text” in that unit), this conclusion to Book 2 is at the same time a “foreword” to Book 3, reflecting the political and social conditions of the Babylonian exile, then this is all the more reason to stress the need of the older generation ...

2617. Daniel’s Final Revelation

Daniel 10:1--11:1

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... 10:5–6 a man dressed in linen. A comparison of these verses to Ezekiel 1:4–28 and Revelation 1:13–16[7] raises questions about the identity of this “man.” Some scholars see here a preincarnate visitation of Jesus,[8] while most understand the theophany as involving “Gabriel, the man” who appears in Daniel’s other visions (cf. 8:16; 9:21).[9] This is suggested by the angel’s assuring words, Daniel’s reaction, and the context of the final visions (see the sidebar “Nondivine, Heavenly ...

2618. Take Your Job and Love It

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... tempted to surrender. Some of us have occupations that are filled with drudgery with few tangible rewards. Yet most of us understand that work is important in our lives even beyond the financial necessity. For many of us work is essential to our self ... time monotonously picking coal down there in those dark tunnels. The miner picked up a piece of coal and said, “I don’t think you understand. This is not just a lump of coal. This is light and heat and power. Perhaps it will light a city, or it may warm ...

2619. The Greatest Gift

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” What is Luke saying to us in this beautiful story? First of all he’s saying that God took upon himself human flesh. That is a truth too great for human understanding, and yet somehow we know that it is true. The God of the sun, the moon, the stars and of all creation became a tiny babe in a manger. The inaccessible Deity of all that lives and moves has its being . . . emptied himself and become one of us. Walter ...

2620. Ezra Reads the Law

Neh 7:73b–8:18

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... because now, in 445, the people call on him to lead in making the word of the Lord the moral basis of their community. The initiative for this revival comes from the people, both men and women, young people and children (“all who were able to understand,” 8:2). We have seen the emphasis on “the people” throughout Ezra-Nehemiah; it is significant that the word “people” is used twelve times in this section (8:1–12). Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable ...

2621. Bildad

Job 8:1-22

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... , Job is a “blustering wind.” Bildad likely is not being sarcastic but is acknowledging the destructive force of Job’s howling words. There is order, a God-ordained order, by which life operates. Bildad’s rhetorical questions in Job 8:3 flow out from that understanding, which Bildad will develop later in Job 26:5–14. God does not pervert justice; he does not pervert doing what is right. The combination of the Hebrew words in parallelism and the concepts they have in mind is at the very core of God ...

2622. The Lord Speaks

Job 38:1--41:34

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... into silence? 38:1–38: God · God appears out of the storm to confront Job. God will be doing the talking now, the accumulative effect of which is overwhelming. The rhetorical “Who?” “Where?” “Have you?” “If you know, tell me,” pound at Job. Does Job truly understand the cosmos: earth’s structure (38:4–7); the forces of the sea (38:8–11); dawn (38:12–15); the depths of the sea and the gates of death (38:16–18); light and darkness (38:19–21); storm (38:22–30); the movement of ...

2623. The Preparation of Daniel and His Friends

Daniel 1:1-21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... and drink were symbolically dedicated to the gods. Daniel humbly asks for permission not to eat the royal diet. The court official shows favor and sympathy to Daniel, even though he fears the wrath of the king. Again Daniel responds with courtesy and understanding regarding the official’s predicament. He requests a test period, during which the power of God’s presence could be made evident in the physical well-being of Daniel and his friends. The youths will eat only vegetables and drink only water for ...

2624. Jesus Predicts His Death

Matthew 16:21-28

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... prediction, Peter rebukes him, denying that execution will be Jesus’s lot (16:22). Peter’s response demonstrates two things. First, he has not heard Jesus’s prediction of being “raised to life” in any meaningful way. This is understandable from the perspective of first-century Jewish expectations. Though a majority of first-century Jews would have believed in bodily resurrection, they would not have conceived of resurrection as a series of individual resurrections. Instead, Jewish hopes focused on ...

2625. Jesus Predicts His Death

Mark 8:31--9:1

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... is so contrary to the disciples’ expectations that, as he repeatedly touched the blind man in 8:22–26, he will repeat it three times (8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34) “on the way” to Jerusalem (8:27). At last Peter and the disciples understand—and “rebuke [Jesus]” (8:32). Never was it heard in Israel that the Messiah would suffer, or by suffering expiate the sins of Israel. It is important to recall that the one figure in the Old Testament associated with suffering—the Suffering Servant of Isaiah ...

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