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 276 to 300 of 428 results

276. Where Have You Been?

Humor Illustration

... like the story about the mountaineer who had been gone from home for over a week and when he came back home his clothes were torn, his shoes were worn thin, and it was obvious that he was exhausted. His wife put her hands on her hips and said with suspicion, "Where in tarnation have you been?" "I went out in the woods to check the still," replied the mountain man, "and a giant bear stepped out in front of me. I took off running ahead of him and finally lost him. I never ran so fast in my life!" "But ...

277. The Word Became Flesh

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Illustration

Joel D. Kline

... during the Christmas season, a truth we would do well to carry into the new year—that ours is a creating God who continues to act in human life, bringing light into our darkness, hope into our despair, life into our brokenness, love into our fear and suspicion and dread. And perhaps it is only when life is at its toughest, when that light seems most elusive, that faith begins to make sense at all. For it is faith that empowers us, when immersed in darkness, to trust in the presence of the light.

278. I Am Baptized!

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... of a time in 1960, when he participated in a Lutheran worship service in East Berlin, only a short time before the Berlin Wall was constructed. There were not many people present for the worship service, because church attendance was viewed with suspicion by the state. The East German Republic had developed secular alternatives to replace all of the rituals of the church. Nonetheless, a young couple came to the worship service and presented their child for baptism. Brown was amazed, and wondered why this ...

279. Divine Dynamite

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... for that early church and would do them again for us if we were the least bit open to the prospect. "You will receive power ... dynamite." The Spirit of God blasts through our world and blows down the comfortable walls we hide behind — walls of suspicion, walls of selfrighteousness, walls of fear. God's Spirit blows us right out into the dusty, threatening streets where we have no idea what we might find. The Spirit of God does not always waft gently into our lives; sometimes we are confronted with a ...

280. A Faith That Matters Between Sundays

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... that much difference between Protestants and Catholics!" What are the differences? Well, there are some, although not nearly so many now as in generations past. When many of us were coming up, Protestants and Catholics eyed each other with, at best, suspicion, and, at worst, thinly disguised disdain. Not so now, fortunately. The world is smaller now; it is much more religiously diverse, and as 9/11 made all too plain, much more dangerous because of religion. The differences between Protestant and Catholic ...

281. Running the Race

Philippians 3:4-11, 2 Timothy 4:7

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... race that we loved to run has become the burden we cannot bear. The innocent bending of the rules has become a cancer destroying not only the joy of competition but our relationships with our friends, our neighbors, and our fellow competitors. Infected with distrust, suspicion, jealousy, and even hatred, friendly competition has become a war. Some of us like to compete because we like to win. We are proud of the fact that we do it fair and square. We can point to our great successes and manifold victories ...

282. Meal of Death

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... table, just like our families at home, to share some good fellowship and a little bit of food. When the people of this congregation built this church, they were too Christian to have just a small table in their sanctuary. They had a strong suspicion that there was something more going on here than simply table fellowship. It looks like a table, but its sheer size and dominating presence indicates that there is something big and powerful associated with that table. There is something about this table that ...

283. Heaven on Earth

Revelation 21:1-6

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... or whatever you call them always keep their distance. They are suspicious of the donors and the donors are suspicious of them. You sense their shame. You sense the mistrust of those handing out the food, but that day something amazing happened. The wall of suspicion crumbled. That bag of food touched them with what John in Revelation would call the love of the lamb. For a short time, this ministry of Christian compassion and charity was able to bring a little heaven to earth. I recently heard a story about ...

284. Trumpet Medley

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... a date. Meanwhile, let us also imagine that, living in that same house with the girl is her middle-aged father, whose doctor recently ordered a certain battery of medical tests. Those test results will serve to confirm or refute the doctor's grim suspicions and the father's worst fears. The doctor has promised to call with the results sometime this afternoon. When the telephone rings in that house, what happens? The teenage girl and her father hear the same sound. It is the same pitch and decibel level ...

285. Are You Part of the Scandal?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that Hitler’s Holocaust from 1933 to 1945 was much worse than we ever imagined, with thousands more concentration camps up and running in areas of Europe under Hitler’s control than we ever thought even possible. The suspicion now is that the numbers of Jews killed may be far more than the 6 million we thought. (See Eric Lichtblau, “The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking,” New York Times Sunday Review, 01 March 2013: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/02 ...

286. Nicodemus: A Young Old Man

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David O. Bales

... ; but, if he can’t detect the deeper intent, the question behind the statement, the fear behind the face, then depart quickly to arrive home before the wind blows more bitterly. If Jesus can’t sense the searing heart problem, Nicodemus will dismiss his suspicions about the man’s powers. He’ll return, almost relieved, to his sad, old world, yielding to his original faith as threadbare as it is, assuming that faith can’t do much more for anyone. Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no ...

287. Peace Be With You

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... we find peace of mind? Some of you may be familiar with a study Duke University did on this very subject years ago. They listed eight keys to emotional and mental stability. I find them quite helpful: The first key is, “Get rid of suspicion and resentment.” Nursing a grudge is a major factor in unhappiness. The second is, “Don’t live in the past.” An unwholesome preoccupation with old mistakes and failures leads to depression. The third key is, “Don’t waste time and energy fighting conditions ...

288. The Life of Your Table?

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... cultures. In case you’ve forgotten it is a fable that focuses on the ingenuity of some weary travelers who arrive at a small village with nothing. No food, no money, nothing. All they have is a large cooking pot. The travelers are met with suspicion and surliness everywhere they go. No doors are opened to them. No invitations of hospitality are extended. The travelers then build a fire in the commons of the village square. They fill their cauldron, their big pot with water and one large stone, and place ...

289. A Prayer for Persecuted Christians Everywhere

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all the Jews from Spain. Both groups were basically given a “thumbs up or thumbs down” choice: Convert, leave or die. The Jews who “converted” were dubbed “conversos” and were subject to suspicion and scrutiny for centuries. The Muslims who “converted” were dubbed “Moriscus,” and they too were held at arms’ length within the Christian community for centuries. Not surprisingly both conversos and Moriscus’ had secret underground networks to keep ...

290. A Family Celebration - Maundy Thursday

John 13:18-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... is both charming and quite natural. The Lord’s Supper is an event quite unique to the Christian community. As such, it is poorly understood by many people. “This is my body, this is my blood.” No wonder the early Christians were viewed with suspicion by their neighbors. They eat their founder’s flesh? They drink his blood? Taken literally, this would be cause for alarm. And it was alarming to those on the outside looking in. The Lord’s Supper is still a deep mystery to the casual observer ...

291. When You Drop the Ball, What Next?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , instantly transforming him from an asset into a threat. It cost him the sense of astonishment and awe that had surrounded his words and works in the local synagogues. The more he succeeded, the more he failed, and the more he was viewed with suspicion and alarm. When Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth, this turning tide slapped him in the face. Mark’s gospel gives us another glimpse into a Sabbath synagogue service in Mark 6:1-6. Standing in the most familiar of home territory, preaching ...

292. The Big "W"

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... who eat everything and anything - toss them a bit of anything, meat, cauliflower, mushrooms, shoe leather - and it will be snapped out of the sky and scarfed down without hesitation. Then there are the dogs that approach every tidbit offered to them with suspicion. They stop, they sniff, they consider, and then they finally — tentatively — accept the goodie offered to them. The spoiled doggie message being sent here is that the gift you offer is accepted with the attitude that “I am doing you a favor ...

Suspicion enters by the door through which love and trust exit.

Traditional

294. The Apostles Persecuted

Acts 5:17-42

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... to appease the council. Already sensitive to blame for their part in Jesus’ death and suspecting that the apostles were deliberately attempting to bring them into public disrepute, they heard this blunt accusation (v. 30) only as confirmation of their suspicions, and it inflamed them all the more against the apostles. Luke graphically describes them as “being sawn asunder (in heart).” Their immediate reaction was to pass sentence of death upon the apostles, perhaps on the pretext of blasphemy, but ...

295. Simon the Sorcerer

Acts 8:9-25

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... no further condemnation of him, and the request for prayer on his behalf does not rule out the possibility that he also prayed for himself. Nor must we allow the later stories of Simon as the arch-heretic to color our interpretation. But for all that, the suspicion remains that he was more concerned to escape punishment than he was to turn to the Lord (cf. 1 Sam. 24:16; 26:21). 8:25 The story ends with a summary statement from which we learn that the apostles gave further instruction to the believers (for ...

296. In Corinth

Acts 18:1-17

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... (see note on 13:7). Prosperity returned to the revived city and with it its reputation for evil, though it must be questioned whether is was really any worse than any other port city of the eastern Mediterranean. There is a suspicion that Athenian propaganda had something to do with the name Corinth had for licentiousness: the fruits of commerce are often envied by those dedicated to culture. Nevertheless, Corinth was undeniably a rip-roaring town where “none but the tough could survive” (Horace ...

297. The Shipwreck

Acts 27:27-44

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... starboard tack (approximately one and a half miles per hour), he concluded that “a ship, starting late in the evening … would, by midnight on the 14th, be less than three miles from the entrance of Saint Paul’s Bay” (pp. 120–24). 27:28 The suspicions of the sailors were confirmed when they took soundings—the measurements of 120 and 90 feet (20 and 15 fathoms) correspond well with soundings taken off Point Koura at the approach to Saint Paul’s Bay. The man casting the lead would have shouted ...

298. Paul's Concern for the Corinthians

2 Corinthians 12:11-21

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... notion that he will exploit the Corinthians (7:2). Since one of his objectives in coming to Corinth is to complete the collection for Jerusalem (chs. 8–9), Paul feels he must reassure the church of his honest intentions, especially in light of their suspicions about him with regard to money. He wants the Corinthians themselves, not their possessions (cf. Phil. 4:17). This is in contrast to Paul’s opponents in Corinth (cf. 11:20). For Paul, relationships are more important than resources, and he wants to ...

299. Unity in the Body of Christ

Ephesians 4:1-16

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... longer be …) when the body of Christ has attained its goal of unity and maturity in Christ. 4:15 From the negative, the apostle returns to the positive direction that the church is to take. A divided church is characterized by rivalry, suspicion, hatred, pride, selfishness, lack of direction, and so forth (cf. Phil. 2:2–4). Instead, he pleads that the church should be characterized by the qualities of truth and love (speaking the truth in love). Literally, the phrase should be translated “truthing in ...

300. Warning Against False Teachers of the Law

1 Timothy 1:1-11

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

... is specifically giving the reason for Timothy’s involvement, namely, to arouse the love which comes from a pure heart. The false teachers are involved in speculations (v. 4) and meaningless talk (v. 6) that are full of deception (4:1–2) and lead to quarrels and suspicions (6:4–5). The purpose of ordering them to stop is to bring the church back to the proper result of “God’s work, based on faith,” namely, their loving one another. (Note how often faith and love appear together in the PE as the ...

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