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 3076 to 3100 of 3128 results

3076. The Grip

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... don’t get their own way, they disagree with a decision the pastor makes, or they don’t like the music, they simply fall away. Or it may be that they face a tragedy or crisis in their lives, and they have no true spiritual and emotional resources to handle it, as their faith remains grounded only in tradition and not in true relationship. Third, Jesus explains that seeds that fall into thorny ground likewise have trouble maintaining faith. In this case, people may like what they hear, but the lures of ...

3077. Speak the Word of Forgiveness

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... imagine the parents’ desperation and despair -- the pain and powerlessness, and, of course, the guilt and feelings of failure. In a long-distance telephone conversation, the mother was sobbing as she shared her grief and guilt with me. You could almost feel the emotional pain throbbing through the telephone receiver. I knew that she was taking the burden of guilt upon herself. Clearly and with conviction, I said, “In the name of Christ, you are forgiven.” I could feel the quiet come over her, and even ...

3078. The Reckoning

Matthew 14:13-21, Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... .” Often, we read passages of scriptures as isolated instances or events and forget that these recounted stories are a piece of a much larger narration of someone’s life –and struggles. Jacob has had a huge learning curve in his life, a huge bout of emotional and spiritual growth before this moment on the hillside. Remember the story of Jacob and Esau, in which Jacob “cheats” Esau out of his first-born right to be the covenant carrier of the family? Although it may have been his mom’s idea (lots ...

3079. Fearful, But Not Afraid

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

William G. Carter

... I am with you always, even to the end.”(Matthew 28:20) Years ago, a mission team from our congregation went to Haiti to learn more about a literacy clinic that our church was supporting. It was a challenging trip, and our volunteers were stretched emotionally and physically. At the end, they purchased a wood carving as a gift for the leader who had inspired the trip. It portrayed Jesus with his arms around the twelve disciples, all of them portrayed by the artist in various stages of anxiety and disbelief ...

3080. The Contestant

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , the winds cease, the waves still, and all is calm. Now, those who know how scripture is written (and acknowledge the way that it was originally told as an oral story) know that often “weather” is used as a metaphor to represent the inner turmoil or emotional feelings of the characters in the stories. Just as in the story of Jonah, Peter is experiencing inner fear, turmoil, chaos, and insecurity, and he is trying to stand up to it all with bravado on his own rather than trusting in Jesus and relying on ...

3081. Hark, The Herald... What?

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Oh yes, the student was in Indonesia. Amazing! Another was from a lady, somewhere in the US, I have no idea where. She wrote: My fifty-year-old mother died in July from cancer and complications from cancer. Needless to say, I have been very overwhelmed with emotions, one of which was my anger with God, and why he chose my mother at this particular stage of our lives, young and starting out, growing families, etc. I could not understand his reasoning, but had no choice to accept it, although I did not truly ...

3082. Living In The “In Between” Time

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

Ronald Love

... sleeping beside his daughter at the hospital. In support of his daughter, Still shaved his head bald and said that he would grow his hair back only when Leah did. Spending so much time at the hospital, Still saw many other parents suffering emotionally for their children. Also, he could not avoid the trauma that the children were experiencing. Still began a campaign to raise awareness and support on his Instagram account. Soon he had a half million followers. Eventually Still had to retire from football ...

3083. Template for Reconciliation

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Steve Molin

... , before you approach that one who hurt you. In the intervening days, pray that God will give you clear motives and an honest desire to reconcile, forgive, and to recognize your own contribution to the conflict. Then be prepared to bring all of this emotion and compassion into that conversation. You may discover that the division was not a black and white issue, as you had assumed, but a milieu of feelings, perceptions and misinformation that each of you held. And trust that God will not only restore your ...

3084. Imperfect Pastors

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... woman who attended the service was displeased, claiming “There was no heart and no soul.” A young Lutheran pastor who brought his youth group said he was “positively surprised how well it worked.” But he also said he missed any sense of emotion or spirituality. A woman who studies ethics in technology said she thinks artificial intelligence could be used to bring religious services to people who couldn’t otherwise access them. However, she said, “The challenge that I see is that AI is very human ...

3085. Walk the Talk

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of “real.” God’s answer: Jesus. Jesus – God in human form. Fully human. What a unique experiment that must have been for God to experience first-hand what it felt like to be God’s own creation, to experience our limitations, the way our minds and emotions worked, to experience that which held us back from connecting with God, that which lured us toward seeing the world itself as our only truth. It’s no mistake then that Jesus spent his time on earth trying to teach us, mostly through stories and ...

3086. Taking the High Way to Heaven

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... get to heaven, like we’re “Jack going up the beanstalk!” But we mean that Jesus allows us to become connected to God in a new and redeeming way, a spiritually healthy and healing way.” In him, we receive “salvation” (ultimate spiritual, emotional, and physical health and wholeness). When John the Baptist announces that the Messiah will come, he encourages us to “clear” and “make way” our spiritual pathway to God, because the messiah will be appearing in our midst, and we need to be aware ...

3087. We Need Another Miracle

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... hill. I’ll be darned if I’m going to miss it this time!”[12] Indeed. And, yes, Lord, we need another miracle. Amen. 1. Shoba Sreenivasan, “Do you Believe in Miracles?” Psychology Today (blog) December 15, 2017, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/emotional-nourishment/201712/do-you- believe-in-miracles. 2. David E. Leininger, God of Justice: A Look at the Ten Commandments for the 21st Century, (Lima, OH: CSS Publishing, 2007), 41. 3. Hamlet. 1.5, 167-168. 4. Dictionary.com, s.v. “miracle (n ...

3088. Fear of Flying

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... from trauma, know the intense power that fear wields over the human psyche. Ever know someone going through grief, trauma, a dilemma; yet, when you ask how that person is, you get: “I’m fine.” “Fine” is our code word for “I’m going to stay in my emotionally safe place, so I don’t need to face my pain.” “I’m going to refuse to feel it, refuse to acknowledge it, refuse to talk about it, and definitely refuse to let it out of that deeply buried place where I’ve locked it in.” “I’m ...

3089. Faith In Death

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Not long ago I visited a woman who fought a raging battle with cancer. I'd seen her gritted-teeth stubbornness, had watched her refuse to be emotionally beaten down by this energy-sucking attack on her body, had witnessed a beautiful woman refusing to be humiliated by this force that ravaged her physical appearance. Today there was something different about her. Subtle, but distinctly different. "How are you?" I asked. Immediately she responded, "I'm praying, and ...

3090. The Practice

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... this mission will be. He knows what Jesus as a human being is going to have to go through in order to fulfill that mission. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require the utmost patience, compassion, endurance, support, intuition, empathy, and emotional and spiritual strength. He will be opposed, trashed, defied, threatened. He will be faced with trying to explain the love of God to those who have been trained in the past by rules or harsh treatment or influenced by status and power. He will need ...

3091. The Christian Mother

John 15:9-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... love is a feeling, it's something that happens naturally between two people or between parents and their children. Our lesson should remind us that love is something that must be worked at daily. In our self-centered society there are parents who neglect the emotional, spiritual and social needs of their children. It is not just because Mom and Dad both work. Rather is because Mom and Dad live in a world that is centered around their needs, their priorities, their goals. Love is a commandment. We who have ...

3092. I Love You — If You Know What I Mean

1 John 3:16-24

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... what ‘tough love’ is all about? I think John would point out that the idea of ‘tough love’ is something we created, not God. Receiving God’s love was pretty much the opposite of tough. That was it. Loving a brother or sister doesn’t mean we are emotionally ‘in love’ with them. It means we value them as fellow children of God and will help them when they have a need. But one Bible version of John’s passage says we should show pity for the suffering. Isn’t showing pity an action? I think ...

3093. Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?

John 10:11-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . Every person with potential to be the creature God meant him or her to be. And in the face of wolves, within ourselves or within the world, we are also those sheep, every person rejected from the “pack,” every person helpless emotionally, spiritually, or physically, or without power or status to protect themselves, every person suffering from their own weaknesses or desires, every person caught in the snares of sin, every person sidelined by the aggression of others, every person unable to stand up ...

3094.

Psalm 112:1-10

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... . As is typical of Hebrew parallelism, the second line is more specific. It provides a concrete example of such character: he finds great delight in his commands. “Fearing” and “delighting” may strike us as incongruous—even ambivalent—attitudes and emotions, but according to biblical psychology they define a healthy person. This “fear” is not trepidation or dread; it is awe and reverence. And this “delight” is not self-indulgence or amusement; it is joy. The parallelism of “the LORD ...

3095.

Psalm 150:1-6

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... bulk of the remaining calls to praise list the musical instruments that are to accompany the singing. The praise of God is not simply contemplation, confession, and prostration—it is also music, and so engages the mind, voice, body, and heart. It captures the emotions and the brain, both left and right brain. And these observations on praise have implications not only for humans but also for our understanding of God. He too is pleased with, even enjoys, music. It is no accident that the book of Praises ...

3096. “I Will Sing the Lord’s Praise, for He Has Been Good to Me”

Psalm 13:1-6

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... of 13:1a into two (so pointed in the MT). The single question is found also in Psalms 79:5 and 89:46 (89:47 MT). The question “how long?” (‘ad-’anah) occurs four times in 13:1–2, suggesting the urgency and emotional intensity of the psalmist’s situation. The word “forever” (netsah) probably means “utterly,”8 and the expression “hide your face” (the opposite of Num. 6:26) here denotes God’s displeasure. This expression occurs in the ancient Near Eastern literature also in that sense ...

3097. Pleasures Are Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

... , wealth, and extravagance to their extremes. This section records an experiment: a project that involves engaging in particular behaviors, recording the results, and analyzing them. Results include both the physical outcomes (for example, ownership of possessions) and emotional responses (such as joy and hatred). The analysis consists of reflection on the meaning, value, and permanence of those results. The project, then, has a philosophical purpose, although it involves physical as well as mental endeavor ...

3098. Wisdom and Folly are Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 2:12-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

3099. Toil is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 2:17-26

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

3100. The Art of Restoration

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... most cherished and astounding (and expensive!) pieces of art in the world today. Why are we talking so much about the art of restoration? Because this is the way that God sees us! Yes, we can become broken. Yes, we can become dulled by years of emotional debris and pain. Yes, we can cover over our authentic selves and our innocence with defenses and difficulties. Yes, we can feel often that we are worthless due to our mistakes and failures. But God never sees us that way. God sees in us only our potential ...

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