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 3176 to 3200 of 4653 results

3176. Spiritual Focus and Peripheral Vision

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is more to be revealed. Jesus was a master at achieving the most amazing focus through peripheral vision. He brought into focus the smallest and the least alongside the cosmic and divine. In the midst of serving an anxious, pressing crowd, he could feel the touch of the hemorrhaging woman and focus on her needs. In the midst of teaching his chosen disciples, he could connect with the tiny children running underfoot and focus on their needs. In the midst of preaching to and healing a huge throng of people ...

3177. Drawing Lines

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... facing a warning not to step over the line. (In its original usage, "trespass" meant a sidestep, a lapse or a deviation.) The lines we draw around what is "ours" and what is others' varies from situation to situation. When people trespass against us by touching a "tender spot" where we are vulnerable to offense, even if the intrusion is accidental or ignorant or takes the form of a harmless joke, we begin to defend "our space." When the neighbor's dog does something inside our fence, we know exactly where ...

3178. Fan the Flames

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... out, in relationship to others. Jesus knew it was easy to love the idea of "humanity," but very difficult to love a given individual. Contrary to what we may sometimes feel, it is our contact with others that fuels our faith. It is as though each person who touches us brings a log to throw on the fire. The more we reach out to others in love, the higher the flames of faith can climb. 3. A Self-Disciplined Lifestyle: Even those who acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit and who encounter others with a ...

3179. Faith in God to Deliver

Luke 2:22-40

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

... with the letter, opened it. This is what it said: "Dear God, my name is Jimmy. I am six years old. My father is dead and my mother is having a hard time raising me and my sister. Would you please send us $500? Love, Jimmy." The postal employee was touched. He showed the letter to his fellow workers. All decided to kick in a few dollars each. They were able to raise $300 which they sent to the family. A couple of weeks later they received a second letter from Jimmy, addressed again to God. It said: "Dear God ...

3180. John 20:1-18

John 20:1-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... . Who saw what first, the number of angels sighted at the tomb, Jesus' appearance, all vary from book to book. Unlike Paul's accounts, however, all the gospels are interested in the details that surrounded this miraculous event, each adding their own personal touches to the story to make it come alive for new readers. In John, the fragile emotional state of Jesus' followers is used to give a tender poignancy to the narrative. John begins by bringing a grieving Mary Magdalene to the tomb even before ...

3181. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Although their words are not recorded, James and John Apparently also opened their eyes and saw that their lives too were lacking something far more significant than effective fishing skills. By pointing out weaknesses in the "professional" portion of their lives, Jesus touched the heart of these men, bringing the revealing light of his presence to all the disabled and disabling aspects of their lives. Jesus then gives Simon a new vision for his life. The failing, flailing life of a fourth-rate fisherman is ...

3182. Luke 6:17-26

Luke 6:17-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... "unclean spirits" also experienced a complete withdrawal of those troubling presences from their lives. Given the power of Jesus' preaching, teaching and healing, it is not surprising that the large diverse crowd was suddenly possessed by a single desire - to touch Jesus and experience the presence of his power with their own fingertips. In the midst of this melee, Jesus suddenly begins to speak - apparently settling the crowd down and successfully shifting the focus of his work from healing to teaching ...

3183. John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... a gardener. It is tremendously significant that Mary does not recognize him until Jesus names her, immediately after which she gasps in recognition "Rabboni!" It is also terribly important that Jesus carries with him into eternity the scars of his humanity, including his wounded side which he invites Thomas to touch as proof he is the Second Adam.

3184. Acts 9:1-20

Acts 9:1-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... make the source of Ananias' healing ability clear, Ananias himself knows better than to take credit for such a miracle. The Holy Spirit, Jesus' presence here on earth, is the source of this healing and thus will fill Saul at the moment of Ananias' touch. The entire community at Damascus is apparently as accepting and trusting of Saul as was Ananias. This former enemy is immediately baptized into the family of faith and then sits down to eat a meal with them. It is not unreasonable to conjecture that this ...

3185. Luke 10:25-37

Luke 10:25-37

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... conduct religious duties in the temple. The beaten man, who is described as appearing "half-dead," was likely lying unconscious and bleeding alongside the road. Since he might have already been dead, the priest and Levite would not be able to touch him - coming into physical contact with a corpse would render them ritually unclean and thus incapable of performing their official duties. However reasonable this explanation may appear, it is still only an excuse - not a justification. Steven Hoyer and Patrice ...

3186. 2 Kings 5:1-15ab

2 Kings 5:1-15ab

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... hearing of Naaman's arrival, Elisha simply sends out some anonymous messenger to deliver his message to the Aramean. Until now Naaman has been remarkably flexible and amiable, willingly traveling out to the prophet's remote outpost to ask for the healing touch. But Elisha's apparently impersonal response to Naaman's presence propels this mighty warrior into a pouting huff. First Naaman is put out because this scruffy desert prophet does not even formally welcome him to his home or acknowledge the Aramean's ...

3187. Colossians 1:11-20

Colossians 1:11-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... by a particularly catchy jingle with clever lyrics? Consider how much of our hard-earned money we are willing to plunk down because we crave a "sound" environment. No matter how chronologically distant their composition, the power of song reaches out to touch us through the Psalms. Psalm 95 is identified as a "call to worship and obedience," a designation that shortchanges its complexity. Historically, this was one of the psalms celebrating Yahweh's enthronement. Psalm 95, like Psalms 24 and 68, was a ...

3188. 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... heard disturbing reports about the extent to which bickering and backbiting have begun to threaten the stability of the Corinthian community. Scholars posit that "Chloe's people" (v. 11) refers to a group of Ephesian Christians who had kept in close touch with all that was happening in Corinth. As Paul describes the conflicting loyalties that were fraying the community, he uses proper names to distinguish one group from another. It is speculative to conclude that these groups were theological parties within ...

3189. Exodus 24:12-18

Exodus 24:12-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... - alization of a worship relationship. The simple covenant promise that Moses had been able to represent to the people by himself begins to formalize into a complex hierarchy of relationships and symbolic rituals that will serve to keep the people in touch with God. While Moses remains the central authority figure for the Israelites until his death, the beginnings of a religious pecking order are discernable in Exodus 24. This focus on levels of authority has led scholars to determine that at least ...

3190. Matthew 14:13-21

Matthew 14:13-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... power practiced by human despots such as Herod. Mark's version of this miracle also seems to suggest it as a demonstration of messianic authority but here Jesus' tactics are more directly threatening to the cruel rulers in power. While Jesus' healing compassion and touch are the focus of Matthew's text, the disciples themselves seem doubtful of the need for crowd concern, only crowd control. In verse 15 they counsel Jesus to order the people back to the surrounding villages so that they can get food for ...

3191. Joshua 3:7-17

Joshua 3:7-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and drawn-out narrative at this point. The details of the people's physical arrangements are described. The seasonal conditions of the Jordan's waters (it is the time of the annual floods) are presented. As Joshua had promised, the moment the priests' feet touch the waters, miraculous events begin to occur. If Joshua did not care to describe the engineering details that cause the Jordan's waters to halt, the narrator here has no such qualms. The geography of the entire area affected by the ark's being ...

3192. Luke 10:25-37

Luke 10:25-37

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and obedient professions of his day a priest and a Levite. Some scholars have tried to excuse the blatantly self-centered and uncaring responses the injured man evokes from these two other travelers by suggesting that it was fear of ritual contamination by touching someone dead that kept the priest and the Levite from helping the gravely hurt man. Indeed, to avoid any semblance of contamination, they even cross to the other side of the road. But that is precisely the point. Jesus clearly used persons we ...

3193. Luke 12:13-21

Luke 12:13-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... come from Luke's own personal "L" source for they appear in none of the other gospels. There are similar stories found in the Gospel of Thomas though there they are lacking in some of the unique Lukan literary flourishes and theological touches. The dialogue in verses 13 and 14 has been the subject of considerable debate among biblical scholars. There are some, most notably Rudolf Bultmann, who have contended that because this exchange between Jesus and the man seeking his inheritance stands rather ...

3194. Hebrews 12:18-29

Hebrews 12:18-29

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... To make the differences between the old and new covenants as extreme as possible, the writer creates his unique version of the events on Sinai by piecing together various statements and descriptions. First, he alludes to God's command that none should come close and touch the holy mountain not even a beast. Only Moses was allowed to actually ascend to the heights. The writer skillfully uses a number of traditional sounds and images associated with God's majesty and power. But here they all carry a dark and ...

3195. Luke 16:19-31

Luke 16:19-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... . While many literary and linguistic techniques have been employed in exploring this intriguing possibility, there is insufficient evidence to make any real connection. By giving readers the poor man's name, Lazarus (Hebrew Eleazar - or "God has helped"), we feel in touch with his identity more fully than that of the nameless rich man. Indeed, it seems a few ancient manuscripts tried to "correct" this oversight by naming the rich man as well. In the oldest extant "naming" manuscript, he is referred to ...

3196. 2 Kings 2:1-12a

2 Kings 2:1-12a

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... his family before departing to follow the famous prophet. Elijah seems to be at peace with the time having come for him to leave the site of his long and arduous career. If Elijah is sensitive to the approaching end of his ministry, he is apparently less in touch with the Lord's plans for his successor Elisha. In verses 2, 4, and 6 Elijah attempts to persuade Elisha to leave him and allow him to make the last of his wanderings on his own. Each time Elisha refuses. Likewise at their stops in Bethel and in ...

3197. John 20:1-18

John 20:1-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

3198. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

3199. John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

Sweet

Leonard Sweet