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 2751 to 2775 of 5000 results

2751. This Woman Was a Fighter

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... woman was sent to him by God the Father to show him that he had come not for Jews only but for the salvation of the entire world. It’s only a theory, but the idea that he did totally empty himself and became as we are helps us better understand such utterances as his words on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). It helps us see that his agony on the cross was real and terrifying as he hung there between the two thieves. Anyway, his response to this woman who had ...

2752. Everyone Is Looking for You

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

King Duncan

... of life. When we join our life with his, we find everything we need for a complete life. What Christ gives us is not an easy-to-follow three-step plan to a more satisfying life. What he gives us is much better. He gives us himself. I understand there is a sign as you walk down the stairs toward the baggage claim area of the Memphis, Tennessee Airport. Memphis, of course, was the place singer Elvis Presley called home. On the sign in the Memphis airport is the motto of Graceland, the former home of the ...

2753. Faces of Failure: Jesus’s Family

Mark 3:20-21, 31-35

Sermon

Don Tuttle

... , and yet when he tells them he is going to Jerusalem where he “must suffer many things, be rejected [by the religious leaders] and killed” they don’t understand. These are the people who should know Jesus best, but they don’t. Of course, the best example is his family. To understand just how strange their response to Jesus is, you have to understand its context in Mark’s Gospel. The point of this Gospel is to help people see that Jesus is “the Son of God,” that he has a unique relationship ...

2754. Faces of Failure: Peter

Matthew 26 (selections)

Sermon

Don Tuttle

... about Christ, but we play dumb or we act as if we know nothing about him or the faith. It’s not that we fear persecution at the hands of the government or ridicule by folk in the public square. Failure under such circumstances might even be understandable. But we are simply too human. We are too weak, cowardly, and fragile to keep the promise even before those who lack power or status, the servant girls of our day. We simply don’t have it within us to stay with Jesus. Fortunately, Peter’s story ...

2755. Actors

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

John Jamison

... these acclaimed messiahs coming from Galilee in the years before Jesus, each of whom were eventually arrested and killed. As we begin to zoom our camera back up north to that spot on lakeshore where Jesus was speaking to a crowd on the hillside, we have to understand that this event was not a new thing. This was Galilee. The only real question most people had in their minds as they listened today was whether or not this guy was any different than the last ones. They all started out strong, promising to get ...

2756. Simple Faith?

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

John Jamison

... I doing wrong? Where has God gone? Why is God doing this to me?” Let’s see what we find if we take a fresh look at this comfortable little story. We’ll not try and harm it or pull the rug out from under anything but simply try and understand more of what was really happening on that day in the Jordan River valley. Jesus woke up that morning and rolled up his sleeping mat just as he had done for as long as he could remember in that same place. Nazareth was a fairly peaceful little town, in a ...

2757. A Time of Transition

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... that help if, while I was preaching, I were hoisted up to the roof of our church? Would that do it? Shall we hire a special effects person to add some drama to our worship? Or do you think that the Gospel story itself adds such richness to our understanding of Christ’s ministry on earth that it will stand on its own? Today’s lesson from the book of Acts would certainly lend itself to some interesting special effects. The story takes place in the first 11 verses of Acts. As most of you know, the books of ...

2758. Treasure Hidden In a Clay Jar

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... the last thing to be said. First of all, meaning and purpose are not something we find “out there.” Either you have it within or you do not. Secondly, this is a treasure that will help us keep going when the going is difficult. Finally, we need to understand that this treasure is not to be found by looking “in” so much as it is in looking “up.” When we say that happiness comes from within, we do not mean that the way to personal contentment is to begin by looking within yourself. The path begins ...

2759. Would You Take the Crown Without the Cross?

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . Jesus put it this way, “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Satan has misunderstood mankind and therefore misunderstood Jesus’ need. To be sure, he sees that he is hungry. What he does not understand is that there is another type of hunger. It is the hunger for righteousness. Jesus is feeding himself on the Word of God. Satan has challenged Jesus to feed a hungry world. What Jesus is saying is that you cannot know what is good unless you first ...

2760. The Pointer

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... hand of God (Acts 7:56). We say in the Apostles' Creed that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. Why was he standing? Hold that story in your mind for a moment as we look at another story from our time. This new story may help us understand this vision of Jesus standing. A boy genius was playing the violin in Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was such a wonderful performance that the applause was deafening as he left the stage. The stage manager said, "Great work, young man. Now, go back out on the ...

2761. Six Days to Make a Decision for Christ

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Rick McCracken-Bennett

... didn't; how much remediation was this bunch going to require? Were they able to see beneath the signs that he had performed to the deeper, richer message? When he healed the blind did they realize, for instance, that there were different kinds of blindness? Did they understand that they are sometimes blind? It was time to heat things up. Jesus began by asking an easy question. A safe question. "Who do people say that I am?" (Mark 8:27b). What are they saying out there? What do you hear as you serve food to ...

2762. Speaking Truth to Power and Hope to the Powerless

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Rick McCracken-Bennett

... Jesus told his disciples that things were going to go downhill in a big hurry, that he would be betrayed, killed, but three days later, he would rise again. That's the first thing that happened. The second thing that was going on was that the disciples didn't understand what in the world he meant, and they were afraid to ask him. It makes sense. They had been with Jesus for some time now and still there were occasions when he seemed to be speaking a different language. They weren't able to grasp what he was ...

2763. Called to Love, Not Like

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... and immeasurable. A young boy once asked for the autograph of a young lady. She obliged and wrote the following: "Yours till the ocean wears rubber pants to keep its bottom dry." The love of God is love of that duration and it is not our task to understand or to comprehend that love, but instead our joy to acquiesce in it. "We love because he first loved us," announces 1 John 4:19. Because God's love for us is this peculiar and unfathomable love, it follows that our exertions too will be in the direction ...

2764. At the Intersection of Heaven and Earth

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... Jesus’ resurrection, and I thought that might be the toughest thing God ever did. Then after thinking some more and talking to others, I decided that no one knows God really well. So now I think that the toughest thing God ever tried to do is to get us to understand who He is and that He loves us.” Out of the mouths of babes . . . Al Lindgren could simply say to his boy, “Son. I think you’re right. That is the hardest thing that God ever had to do and there was only one way he could do it.” (1 ...

2765. The Way Up Is Down!

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Franklin learned this lesson well on a visit to Cotton Mather's house. Franklin later recalled, "Mather was showing me out of the house, and there was a very low beam near the doorway. I was still talking when Mather began shouting, ‘Stoop! Stoop!' I didn't understand what he meant and promptly banged my head on the beam. Mather smiled, ‘You're young, and have the world before you. Stoop as you go through life, and you will avoid many hard thumps.' That advice has been very useful to me. I avoided many ...

2766. How Angry Are You?

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... time to pay attention to his feelings, to his anger and his fear, to his hopes and to his dreams. Yes, Jesus shows us a way to “befriend” our anger and to accept it as part of who we are, to come to know it and understand it, and then to decide what parts of it are healthy and what parts of it need to be transformed. But such “paying attention” and “befriending” takes time, sometimes alone and sometimes in community, that insures our anger will not become a weapon. As many congregations across ...

2767. Trusting Authority

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... Jewish friends down the hall was that we were eager to convert their flock. But when Sam sat down and told me he was ready to be baptized, the tears in his eyes and the passion in his heart could not be denied. He still did not “understand’’ the gospel teachings. He still did not “believe” all the tenets of Christian doctrine. All he knew was that he loved and trusted Jesus and the spiritual authority of this radical, first-century rabbi had become the center of his life. A month later, Sam knelt ...

2768. The Reception was Excellent

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... and their word was treated as law. (1) It was customary to have so much food and wine at the wedding that there would be leftovers. Running out of food or wine was considered a cardinal sin. In some instances, the offending family could even be fined. I understand that there are actual records from Jesus’ day of families being sued for running out of wine at a wedding. So, if you ran out of wine, it was more than an embarrassment. It was a serious problem. But that’s what happened at this wedding. Mary ...

2769. What to Do With Human Failing

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... reason? What is the cause/effect relationship? Was that just an accident, a serendipitous confluence of human behavior with the laws of nature or did God cause it to happen? And if God caused it, why did God do that? Without providing a comprehensive understanding, today’s gospel lesson touches on a tiny slice of causality. The topic is introduced in Luke 12:54-56. To paraphrase, Jesus said to the crowd, “Everyone knows the causes of weather. When dark clouds come from the Mediterranean Sea in the west ...

2770. From Deep Unto Deep

Luke 22:14--23:56

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... my surprise when Raymond found that verse comforting. In fact, in years to come he said he found it was that verse that did the most to get him through those terrible days of grief. As my faith has grown, I have come to understand. Raymond Gaylord, like Charley Otera, had an experience of Good Friday that was not unlike the Good Friday from the apostles’ perspective — an experience of disappointment, death, and despair. Charley gave up all hope. For thirty years, he had continued in despair. Charley ...

2771. Living Between the Times

John 17:20-26

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... beak. On the ribbon is our motto in capital letters: E PLURIBUS UNUM — “Out of many, one.” Originally, that motto was intended to express how the thirteen distinct colonies were coming together to form one nation. Over the years, we have started to broaden that understanding to include how we are one nation that has been formed by people who came from many places, who are of many races, who speak many languages, who practice many religions. We are E PLURIBUS UNUM — Out of many, we are one. The 250th ...

2772. A Point of Contact

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... his collection bag and took out a fifty-cent piece. "Please, mister," the boy pleaded, "I want to buy that pup. I'll pay you fifty cents every week until the twenty-five dollars is paid. Honest I will, mister." The farmer replied, "But, Son, you don't seem to understand. That pup will never, never be able to run or jump. That pup is going to be a cripple forever. Why in the world would you want such a useless pup as that?" The boy paused for a moment, then reached down and pulled up his pant leg, exposing ...

2773. If the Stones Cried Out

Luke 19:28-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... be obliged if he would leave us alone. “But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what he intended us to be when he made us . . . “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and ...

2774. Next Man Up

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... says in verses 22 and 23 of this passage: “I have given them the glory you gave me--the glorious unity of being one, as we are--I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one--so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.” Not our preaching, or our miracle-working or our building breath-taking cathedrals--nothing is as important as our unity in Christ. Our unity will prove to the whole world that Jesus is the Son of God, and that God ...

2775. All in the Family

Acts 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... The ability to “feel with” other people has always been the church’s greatest asset. That’s a great asset in the home as well. Some of us need to take a second look at our spouses, our children, our parents and ask ourselves, “Do I have any understanding of the experiences that have brought him or her to this place? Is there anything that I can do to make his life or her life a little easier?” In 2010 when the Texas Rangers won their playoff series, the team had a big celebration in their locker ...

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