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 2626 to 2650 of 5000 results

2626. “On the Way” to Jerusalem

Mark 9:33-37, Mark 9:38-41

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... Jesus assumes the role and authority of a rabbi. “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (9:35). At no point does the way of Jesus part more sharply from the world than in its understanding of greatness. Jesus redefines greatness in terms of giving rather than getting, and no vocation affords the opportunity of giving more than that of a servant. The most basic meaning of “servant” (Greek diakonos) is “waiting tables,” a posture Jesus himself assumes (Luke 22 ...

2627. The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy

John 16:17-33

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... little while” (16:16–19), which indicates the disciples’ worry about the interval between departure and return. Their concern is understandable, since in 16:10 Jesus said that they would see him no more; however, a time of “seeing him” (16:17 ... disciples are not yet equipped—and need to be—can be seen in verses 29–33. They think they understand clearly (16:25, 29) and have full belief. But this cannot be theirs until the Spirit is on them. In fact, they will flee when the crisis of the cross is ...

2628. Righteousness Through Faith

Romans 3:21-31

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... hilastērion as “propitiation,” a term that describes the elimination of God’s punitive wrath; others translate it as “expiation,” which emphasizes the removal of sin. The concepts of propitiation and expiation proceed from a more general Hellenistic understanding of the term hilastērion, which may well have been how Paul’s sentence would have been understood by new Gentile converts who heard this passage read in the congregation. Paul emphasizes the consequences of Jesus’s death for ...

2629. Imitating Christ’s Humility

Philippians 2:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... in order to comment on the character of the Philippians and remind them of the character of Christ. These four remarks all begin with the word “if,” but this does not mean that Paul doubts that they are true. It is better to understand the “if” as meaning “since.” Paul knows the Philippian congregation well. He knows these statements are true about this congregation, but he phrases them as “if” in order to catch their attention. With these remarks, Paul is telling the Philippians to pay ...

2630. Afraid of Hope

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... -- set a materialistic three-step test: He said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands (step 1), put my finger in the mark of the nails (step 2), and my hand in his side (step 3), I will not believe" (v. 25). Please understand, Thomas was no atheist. He was a momentary agnostic. He was, I suspect, thinking, "I saw Jesus' body, lifeless and limp, on that cross. I watched him buried in a tomb. I saw the stone rolled across the opening. I just cannot believe it. Dead people do not rise ...

2631. New Year's Resolutions

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

James L. Killen

... about sex, we are likely to think of it as a matter of warm sentimental emotion. We can't see how that could equip us to cope with the tough realities of life in the real world. If we study our Bibles, we find a much different and more substantial understanding of what love is. Let's look at the best known verse in the whole New Testament: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3:16). What does the word ...

2632. Come and See

John 1:29-42

Sermon

James L. Killen

... theologians to do. It is their job. But we can only get so far by listening to them. In fact, the great biblical witnesses are actually stories the early Christians told to try to tell about experiences they had that changed their lives. We can only really understand the witnesses if we allow them to lead us into similar experiences. When you finally come to experience yourself as one who has been forgiven and accepted by God in spite of all of the wrongness in your life, you may be able to remember the Old ...

2633. Humanity Reaching Out

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

James L. Killen

... turn him aside from the humanity God had sent him to represent or from the loving purpose of God that he had been sent to serve. Read the story. It started in the time after his baptism when he went away to pray his way through to an understanding of his mission and had to deal with the tempter. It continued in every way imaginable until he knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died, coping with every mortal motive within him to keep from running away and saving his own life. Ultimately ...

2634. Fix It, Daddy

John 11:17-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... one day die. It is difficult to let go of someone we love, but sooner or later we all have to accept the inevitable. We are grateful for this story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the grave. It demonstrates Jesus’ love and his power over death. But the mature Christian understands that death is part of God’s plan, as is life. We pray to hold on to our loved ones, but we trust a loving God to care for our loved ones whether in life or in death. Nevertheless, it is a thrilling story. First of all, we have a ...

2635. A Vexing Vision

Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... us, or that sibling who wounded us as they were intended to be. Could it be that our hearts would be transformed as radically as Paul’s was on the Damascus road? It is my conviction that if we looked at others through the eyes of Christ we would understand anew that Jesus died for the whole world, not just for people we think he should have died for. We would see that even our most evil enemy was destined to be a child of the King. Then the power of reconciliation would be a totally new experience for ...

2636. Love without Limits

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... I used to believe that way too until God got a hold of me and showed me that his love was not limited to a set of rules or laws.” Peter continued with a compelling testimony of how God had stretched his boundaries and threw out his understanding of what was clean and not clean, dissolving his pre-conceived notions about who could be saved. What’s more is that God not only revealed this radical truth to Peter through a vision, but God wanted Peter to experience its reality. So God created an opportunity ...

2637. Good to Great

Ezekiel 45:3-5

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... world. And the church needs money to do that.” We need to realize that we purchase things with God’s money. We are wearing shirts and driving cars with God’s money. We support movie theaters and shopping malls with God’s money. Is it so hard to understand that God just wants a little of it back to support his church? Now we have had a good year financially, but this church is capable of so much more! In fact, and this may be difficult to hear, a significant percentage of members of this church don ...

2638. I Wonder Why My Prayers Go Unanswered?

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... if we ask, seek, and knock, we will receive an answer” (Luke 11:9-10)? Yes. That is what he said, and his words are true, but we must first understand what prayer is before we can understand the truth and power of Jesus’ words. Prayer is one of the most misunderstood and misused practices of our faith, and until we understand the nature of prayer all of our barking and praying for an answer will leave us frustrated. Our wondering about unanswered prayer is often about a misunderstanding about the nature ...

2639. I Wonder about the Miracles in the Bible

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... to discover that she was laughing with the nurses and enjoying the hospital meat loaf! She saw me and said, “I have been healed!” I asked, “What happened to the tumor?” “Oh, the tumor is still there,” she replied. I was a bit confused. Helping me to understand, she said, “Pastor, I am enjoying every moment as a gift, and I am on my way to heaven to be with my Savior. Why shouldn’t I be happy?” That day I witnessed a miracle. Miss Thompson also experienced a miracle. She had no idea that ...

2640. I Wonder if God Exists

Genesis 1:1-5

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... are in conflict over the nature of God and how God operates in the world? What kind of God are we to believe in? How are we to know what this “higher power” is like? Enter Jesus Christ. Because we are limited and finite human beings who can never fully understand and know God on our own, we need God to come down to our level and exemplify his nature. This is what God does in Jesus Christ. In Christ, God demonstrates for us what he is like and proves his redeeming love toward us by dying on a cross. The ...

2641. Elephants in the Room: Anxiety

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... to each fear the worst thing that could happen. I think you will find when you reflect on the “worst case scenario” that, with God’s help, you can handle it. 2. Understand Your Fears A lot of times we fear things we don’t understand. This is why fear is often the beginning of wisdom. So may your fear motivate you to gain understanding! For centuries, people were terrified by the sun’s eclipse. But now we are not afraid because we know what it is (Hamilton, p. 107). Fear has motivated people to go ...

2642. Elephants in the Room: Addiction

Romans 7:15-22

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... ) Addiction is quite a monster! Paul Knew the Monster! You may be surprised to know that the Bible addresses the problem of addiction. In fact, the Apostle Paul admitted to having addictive tendencies. See if the following words don’t sound like someone who struggles with addiction: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do ...

2643. Three Things You Can Count On

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... is the thing — if the church’s main task is to reach those outside of it then it would be wise for me to get the pulse of those outside the church bubble. How can we be effective at reaching others with the gospel if we don’t seek to understand what they do, where they live, how they hurt, and what their hang-ups are about religion? One of the things I decided to do during my time away was not to tell the people I met that I was a preacher. All kinds of baggage and transference surfaces when ...

2644. A Light In the Darkness

John 1:1-6, 19-28

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... world from afar with an-gels surrounding him singing the Hallelujah chorus. God be-came flesh in the midst of our ugly and messy lives. Advent means there is no place so dark, dirty, or ugly that God will not go to be with us, to love us, to understand us, to comfort us, to save us, and to redeem us! Only the Christian faith dares to claim that God emptied himself completely and went through the entire human experience. God gets down beside us to feel our pain and to heal our lives. Isaiah 40:11 (NIV) says ...

2645. The Beatitudes

Matthew 5:1-12

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... at the end of this age. Blessed also are those who mourn—who are filled with deep regret for their own waywardness and for the evil so prevalent in the world. Those who mourn are not simply those who have gone through difficult times but those who understand that all the suffering in the world stems from the sinful and self-destructive human tendency to act as if God did not exist. Those who “know what sorrow means” (Phillips) are to be comforted by God himself (they will be comforted is a Semitic ...

2646. The Man With Leprosy

Matthew 8:1-4

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... was a creation of Mark, who felt it necessary to explain why Jesus was not more widely recognized as the Messiah during his earthly ministry. It is far better to accept it as historical and understand it as Jesus’ precaution against the rapid rise of a movement that did not understand the nature of his messiahship. Popular excitement would arouse Roman opposition and make it even more difficult to carry out a messianic ministry that was not national and militaristic but universal and sacrificial. Jesus ...

2647. Jesus and John the Baptist

Matthew 11:1-19

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... new order who stands on the threshold of the promised coming age. Schweizer correctly notes that the point is not so much that John is Elijah as it is that with John the crucial turning point in history has arrived (p. 263). Those with insight will understand. He who has ears that can hear should listen carefully. 11:16–19 Jesus searches for a way to illustrate Israel’s lack of acceptance of the kingdom. To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces who refuse ...

2648. Clean and Unclean

Matthew 15:1-20

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... is not understood is the enigmatic saying in verse 11. Parables have a way of concealing their truth from outsiders but yielding it to those who will press for an explanation (cf. Mark 4:34). Jesus responds, “Are you, like them, still without understanding?” (the pronoun hymeis is emphatic, and the adverbial accusative akmēn places the stress at the beginning of the sentence). Whatever enters the mouth travels through the stomach and then out of the body into the drain (aphedrōn). It is what comes ...

2649. What Do You Bring to the Table?

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... we fly we are well aware of the fact that you cannot simply go out and buy a ticket and get on an airplane anymore. Nowadays, because of all the skyjacking and dangers, there is an elaborate system of surveillance before you get near an aircraft. Understandably, the authorities want to know what you are bringing with you to the plane. And so your own person and everything you are carrying is carefully examined. As I found myself thinking about our communion, I wondered what it would be like if there were ...

2650. Jesus Heals a Paralytic

Mark 2:1-12

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... of these themes. Additional Notes 2:1 Home: The phrase in Greek implies that Jesus used a residence in Capernaum as a home base for his travels. 2:2 The word: Probably here the term means the message described in 1:14–15, and we are to understand that Jesus was elaborating upon this summary. 2:4 An opening in the roof is literally “they dug through the roof,” perhaps reflecting Palestinian peasant homes in which walls and roof were made of sun-baked earth. Luke 5:19 describes a tile roof, reflecting ...

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