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 3251 to 3275 of 3285 results

3251. Daniel Interprets the Dream

Daniel 2:24-49

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... is true and its interpretation is trustworthy (2:45). Similarly, the heavenly being later tells Daniel, “The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true” (8:26). God’s word does not fail. This theme of God’s ability to predict the future accurately when the pagan diviners fail predominates in Isaiah 40–55 (Second Isaiah) as well. Israel’s God “foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners” (Isa. 44:25) but “fulfills the predictions of his messengers ...

3252. The Dream is Fulfilled

Daniel 4:28-37

Understanding Series

William Nelson

... God above who gave him the power to rule. Deuteronomy warns the wealthy not to “become proud” and “forget the LORD”; not to take credit for their possessions (Deut. 8:10–18); “but remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deut. 8:18). Jesus tells of a man who acquires great wealth and boasts that he will now “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19; cf. Dan. 4:4, where Nebuchadnezzar is “contented and prosperous”). But it is not ...

3253. The Case of the Hardened Heart

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ’s “true” and what’s not, as they’ve been taught. They also, although they come from varied backgrounds, are seasoned men, not tempted by fancy or anything out of their current line of “vision.” Why does Jesus so often speak of the ability to “see” and “hear” differently? Confirmation bias is what keeps people from seeing Jesus as who he is and his mission as different than what they’d like to believe and hope for. The people themselves, after he had “fed” them both physically ...

3254. Bread and Call

John 6:35, 41-51

Sermon

David Coffin

... tools around the house because Anthony would take such tools and disassemble the kitchen toaster, the old television set with many tubes, or the doorknobs in all the rooms. We knew he was going to be a mechanic of some sort, because he had a natural ability to use tools and fix objects. We knew he would not be an electrician because he stuck the screwdriver into the wall socket and was thrown across the room with the electric shock. For Anthony, he only needed to be able to read well enough to decipher ...

3255. Lord To Whom Shall We Go?

John 6:56-69

Sermon

David Coffin

... ladder in his field. He was able to retire early. He also found another mate who had also experienced a divorce with her children. They now have a blended family. It is new life for this family indeed. The new middle-aged man’s skills and abilities in his vocation remained valid despite any unfortunate past messy marital problems. His daughter eventually went onto the university, got a job and is married with a child. Life does go on! When our best efforts are rejected, we can take a page out of the ...

3256. Risky Business

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... need in the church. We are counter-cultural. It’s in our nature. Despite our worst inclinations, we are committed to loving, including, healing, and making a difference in people’s lives. That involves risk taking. Human nature is complex. We have the ability within ourselves to be at our worst or our best. But unless we risk venturing out into the “wilds of the world,” we may fail to experience the worst, but we will never experience the heart-wrenching, amazing, and spectacular rewards that come ...

3257. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Mark 9:30-37 · Proverbs 31:10-31 · Psalm 1

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

... . Serving has costs, it takes time and energy; it requires us to use our minds, our hearts, and our hands. And yet… and yet… responding to the Holy Spirit’s call to serve also has rewards. You may discover that you have interests and abilities you didn’t realize. You will make new friends and deepen existing friendships. You will learn — I insist on that! — and you will be given opportunities to respond to Christ’s call, to Christ’s sacrifice. Something he told us about openly and plainly ...

3258. What's In a Name?

Mark 10:2-16 · Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 · Psalm 8

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

... glory… pioneer of salvation… sanctifier…. Hold onto as many of them as help you understand how good God is to us, in sending part of Godself to turn us around, wash us and make us new. Celebrate God’s love for you. It is a love that is beyond our ability to understand. Amen.

3259. The Tale of the Widow and the Wolves

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... give. He is saying that those with enough means should give. Those who can’t give should be embraced just the same as part of the community body and not made to feel ashamed. Their presence and membership (whether Temple or Church) should never depend on their ability to give. For every person of God is a gift. Every person of God has gifts to offer. How does your church welcome into your fold the foreigner, the weak, the poor, the infirm? The answer will reveal the character of your faith: a theology of ...

3260. The Voice of Truth

John 18:33-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... philosophy of Aristotle, to which the Roman leader would subscribe, truth reflects “what is” in the world. Aristotle suggests that we encounter two forms of truth: 1) theoretical truth means understanding the world’s basic principles and 2) practical truth is about the ability to make ethical decisions based on those principles. Neither ascribes truth to a higher power. If you were alive in the 1940s or 50s, you may have still encountered a bit of this kind of thinking when you took science class. You ...

3261. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... down on a sheet of paper: the gains and the losses, what he could make and what he could lose. Then he wrote down a category that Maurice Boyd would never forget: integrity. Integrity - what did it matter if he gained the cash to pay the rent, but lost his ability to teach his children right from wrong? What did it matter if he gained the dignity of a job but lost it each morning when he looked at himself in the mirror and knew that the only one reason he could go off to work instead of someone else was ...

3262. Scandal

Luke 22:14-23:56

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... living our lives out of grace, love, and courage, and even dying well, would we be able to do the same. He called Jesus’ work “recapitulation,” a replaying of human identity done right. What we observe most of Jesus on this Good Friday is his ability to die with courage and dignity, just as he had lived. When we see Jesus we buck up, and we get our act together, and we recover the best of our humanity. Of course, later theologians would further emphasize that exemplary character of Jesus’ life and ...

3263. We Live in Hope

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Sermon

Bonnie Bates

... (at least so that he could see and touch her) were not answered. How do you explain to a child that his mother was, in fact, raised from the dead but not to walk on the earth, but to be with God in heaven? Complex questions that are beyond my ability to explain to a nine-year old. He is eighteen now and still has more questions than answers, including whether or not there is a God. His confusion is not solitary. He understands there is one larger and more powerful than he, but does not view God in the ways ...

3264. Who Is This Jesus?

John 2:1-11

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... show that the things happening were a part of a logical sequence, something that was planned, and that made sense because those were things that were important to his Greek-influenced readers. The Greeks believed in many gods, each one with its unique abilities, powers, and benefits. There was Dionysus, the god of wine and everlasting life. There was Zeus, Nike, Bia, and Zelos, the gods of power. There was Aletheia, the spirit of truth and truthfulness. And there were many more. For example, Dionysus, the ...

3265. Going Home – Part One: Which Me Will It Be?

Luke 4:14-21

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... back? We are told that when the sabbath day came, Jesus did as he had always done and went to the Nazareth synagogue. He might have raised a few eyebrows when he opened the scroll and began reading, but it was not unheard of for a visitor with the ability to read the old scrolls to be asked to do so. In my mind, there were more than a few elbow pokes along with smiles saying, “I taught him to read,” or something similar. He read words from the prophet Isaiah, describing the one that God would send and ...

3266. Doing What Matters?

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... who was hurting, who had lost their job, or were maybe afraid of losing their home, or were worried about their children, if you truly wanted to show God’s care for that person, what could you do? Now, I imagine there are few of us here who have the ability to turn water into wine, and most of us don’t know the secrets of where the fish are hiding. But there are many other things we could do if we wanted to care for someone in need. If we are honest with ourselves, there are probably some things we ...

3267. Courage to Break

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... promised to take. He will need to be able to wrestle with his inner “demons” who question his mission, who taunt him when he becomes hungry, weary, and tired, who question the success of his path and call him a fool, who undermine his confidence and ability to make a difference in a world of difficult people and cultures, who want nothing to do with him. Jesus’ wilderness time is a time of deep inner struggle, of personal tumult, self-questioning, self-doubt, and the agony of wondering if he’s truly ...

3268. Famine of the Heart

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... beat. The heartbeat of resurrection! Who in the story suffers from famine of the heart? The second brother also. He may have grown up following every rule, obeying every law, following every direction, remaining loyal to the household….but without the ability to celebrate his brother’s win, without the desire to embrace his brother’s repentance and resurrection, his heart remains sadly quiet. You see, for Jesus, not all death is physical; not all resurrections are merely of the body. The first “son ...

3269. Memento Vivere

John 12:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... dumped the entire jar over Jesus’ feet, so much so, that the entire house was thick with the heavy perfume and would be for weeks or months to come. An “extravagant” cost! And now her “extravagant impulse” had “robbed” their ministry treasury of their ability to “give to the poor”! You can also hear the sarcastic sneer from John as he asserts Judas’ deceit (in parentheses in the midst of this story), making sure we the readers know that Judas actually had no interest in the poor at all ...

3270. Faith and Fury

Luke 19:28-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . Most of us feel our stress levels rising. For many, that stress reaction is palpable. We can feel the cortisol flooding into our body, as our amygdala, the “ancient” and reactive (fight or flight) part of our brains kicks in. When this happens, our ability to react with intention goes out the window, and we simply “stress out!” Many of us today, the author asserts, in fact live in a state of constant “fight or flight,” reacting to a culture that frustrates us, relationships that we don’t ...

3271. The Turning Point

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... out of ugliness, victory out of betrayal, forgiveness out of the unforgivable, and restorative life out of certain death. It means to rely on that miraculous power of God and to have faith that whatever we cannot do or accomplish on our own, that God has the ability to do it! God’s enactment of victory in the resurrection and eternal life of Jesus is only the first step in God’s amazing plan to redeem every one of us and grant us brand new starts. So today, as you contemplate your own past –your ...

3272. Motives Matter

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... well. He went through them himself in his wilderness experience and likely struggled at other times as well, when challenged by Peter, likely in prayer, and certainly in the Garden of Gethsemane. One of his great gifts to humanity we see in his ability to overcome even his survival motivations in favor of empathy, compassion, sacrifice for the greater good, love, and devotion to God’s master plan to redeem and heal humanity –a “salvation of salience” in the human creature so to speak. Jesus spends ...

3273. Getters of Things Done

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... real story, we could call the “Story of the Lawyer and the Rabbi”. You will recall, I think, that the Samaritan parable was not told in a vacuum. It was, in fact, told in response to a question by a lawyer, a wordsmith who was testing Jesus’ ability as a rabbi, also a wordsmith. “Who,” the lawyer asked, “is my neighbor?” Jesus answered with the parable, which we won’t go over in detail, here. Just the bare bones: A man was traveling on a dangerous road where he was set upon by robbers who ...

3274. For Someone Who Will Be Terribly Missed

Isaiah 43:1-5 · Job 19:23-27

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

... upon our souls. There would be the memory and the mark of someone who exuded compassion, who exuded kindness like no one else could. Someone whom you couldn’t help but love. Talking with Coz and Betty Ann at the wake yesterday afternoon, they spoke about Tessie’s ability to get someone to come in to cover a shift. All the calls the night supervisor had made yielded no takers. No one wished to do it. Tessie struck gold on the first call and it had to do with this simple truth: “How could you say “no ...

3275. For Someone Who Played a Background Role In a Successful Life

Mark 1:1-8 · John 1:6-9

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

... . She, in a very quiet and unassuming way, nurtured the good and helped unravel the gifts and talents of each and every member of her family. Be it the lunch that was always ready when any of the boys, whenever Kathy came home from school. Be it her ability to sweet talk their father out of whatever punishment he thought necessary for whatever deed they may have done. Be it the faith in God she transmitted or the good that shined forth from her life. Be it the way she stretched the milk money and the food ...

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