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 3276 to 3300 of 4770 results

3276. The Hungry Monkey

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

Sermon

Tony Everett

During a meeting of the parish stewardship committee, members viewed a thirty-second video clip taken in the monkey house of a local zoo. The zookeeper placed some "monkey delicacies" (banana bits, lettuce, and others) into a plastic container with a very tiny opening. Then she put the bottle on a table and left the room. Soon, one of the ...

3277. Losers, Weepers

Isaiah 49:8-16a

Sermon

Tony Everett

... be very difficult for them to see God acting in their present situation. It would be nearly impossible for them to believe God's promises in the future. Losers! Weepers! Hopeless, helpless, forsaken, forgotten losers — all of them — all of us. However, even if we view life through the eyes of a forgotten loser, God does not forget us. Here is the good news, friends. Pay attention to God's reply to Zion's complaint: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion to the child of her womb ...

3278. Sleeping through the Alarm

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... , learn how to rend our hearts and look past the carefully constructed numbness of our lives. Forget, for a moment, any impulses toward defensiveness. Let go of the temptation to retreat into ideology or rigid orthodoxy. Dispel the smog of our own narrowly held points of view and pose the questions that beg the asking. What things are we doing that we need to stop doing? If we lift the veil of our own unconsciousness, the answers are right there, waiting, yearning for us to embrace them. How are we, as the ...

3279. Can These Bones Live?

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... . Everywhere. As we read Ezekiel, this type of photo comes to mind. It’s one thing to witness piles of bones everywhere. It’s quite another to call to mind the life that those bones once supported. In our biblical passage today, the Lord brings Ezekiel out to view the wasteland. And it is not some distant glance, but an intimate tour of the valley. "He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley; and they were very dry." It is as though the Lord needed Ezekiel to see, not just the ...

3280. To Be Passed Over

Exodus 12:1-4 (5-10) 11-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... we to understand this holy presence that requires sacrifice? It seems to make no sense. For twenty-first-century North Americans, sacrifice is an unfamiliar thing. Few people living in the United States today have been asked to sacrifice much of anything. We tend to view it as something unpleasant and to be avoided. But it is a concept that we ought to rediscover. To sacrifice is to give up something of importance to someone (or something) that is greater than you. A parent who forgoes a job promotion in ...

3281. Preaching Peace By Jesus Christ ...

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... or judgment. Instead, he says, "I get it." God accepts everyone who stands in awe of him and who does the right things. Wow. That alone had to catch some attention. Then, as now, there aren't a lot of people who can hold an expansive view of things in their hearts as they try to share their experiences of the holy. Most folks, regardless of their tradition, have a need to get everyone to see it their way. Peter withholds the shaking of the finger and the scowling, scolding demeanor. Instead, he says ...

3282. Being a Witness

Acts 2:14, 22-32

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... you as a witness." So much for my meeting. This experience, though, gave me pause as I was pouring over this scripture in preparation for today's sermon. My word was important, but not because I was a pastor. They didn't even know my profession. My point of view wasn't sought after because I was eloquent. They sure didn't want my two cents' worth because I was some sort of collision expert. No, they wanted me to share with them because I was there. I was, in the words of the police officer, a "witness." Isn ...

3283. Martyrdom Chic

Acts 7:55-60

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... to him, even more important than "longevity." In this age of pop psychology and out-of-control world affairs, we must construct a new vision of what it means to go all the way for our faith. In a time where the concept of self-giving love is viewed as unhealthy by the therapeutic community, we step with clarity into lives of self-giving love. In a day when the notion of martyrdom snaps our attention to the evening news to see the shattered lives of a sacrifice that can only bring only more death, we must ...

3284. Whosoever Will

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... , but in the medieval church, that message became obscured. Its revival was part of the great Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As you probably recall, that reformation began in 1517, with work of a monk named Martin Luther, and his views unleashed a wave of change across the church. As earthshaking as Luther's reformation turned out to be, however, it was still fairly conservative compared to some of what came afterward. So for a few moments, I want to take you through a ...

3285. To Say Elohim

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... gods, the author of Genesis, declared that THE Supreme Being (singular!) created the heavens and the earth. As the curtain opened on the creation of the world there was only one Actor on stage: Elohim. He was center stage then and he is yet today, though in our view of things, we sometimes imagine him as backstage or in the wings or not there at all. But to make the declaration that God was not only there when the curtain went up but actually is the whole show is a starting point of faith. To say, "Elohim ...

3286. God, What Are You Up To?

Genesis 12:1-9

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... big with mercy, and shall break With blessings on your head. We may have questions for God, but he has one for us, too. It is "Will you trust me?" As we've said, we don't always know what God's purposes are, but we have a clear enough view from the Bible and the teachings of Jesus to understand some of them. Aligning ourselves with those things about him that we do understand and trusting him for the ones we don't is a big part of what the Christian life is all about. Amen. 1. www.joanofarcadia.com ...

3287. Choosing to Love

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... telling us that Isaac loved Rebekah, says, "so Isaac was comforted after the death of his mother." One way to read that is that Rebekah helped to fill a void in Isaac's life left by the passing of his mother, Sarah. And there's nothing wrong with that. Another view is that Isaac realized his primary loyalty on earth now was to his new family rather than his old one. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). That's how ...

3288. The Ladder from Our House

Genesis 28:10-19a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... -racking. He had to deal with people at their worst: those who were drunk and threatening, those who stole, parents who beat their children, spouses who attacked one another, kids in crime and so forth. All of this made him even harder in his spirit. He viewed compassion and tenderness and love as signs of weakness. He became a tough, cold-hearted man. He drank a great deal, but the alcohol did not assuage the terrible turmoil in his inner man and he contemplated suicide. He could find no ladder out of the ...

3289. Living on the Edge

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... to his ancestors. Maybe at that moment Moses wasn't feeling any one of those emotions, but rather a combination of relief, joy, and disappointment. For the last time he would climb the mountain to speak with God. From the top of the mountain, Moses could see a panoramic view he could never have imagined. On one side, as far as his eye could see was sand, the desert where he had spent the last forty years of his life. But on the other side, as far as he could see were palm trees with green grass, animals ...

3290. Forward March

Joshua 3:1-17

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... the people experienced some dread and apprehension. Our faith always calls us forward — into the future. There are times when we reminisce about the good old days when the church was filled with people, including plenty of children and youth. We view pictures of the past almost in disbelief seeing all the children and youth. It is sad walking past empty classrooms Sunday after Sunday that were once filled with children. Still, we cannot rest on our past accomplishments because our faith leads ...

3291. A Vision of Hope

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... one shepherd, my servant David and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd." The people fondly remembered the reign of King David as the good old days to which they longed to return. David's reign brought about many positive changes and was viewed by many as an almost idyllic time. It had been nearly 400 years since the time of David. The promise that God would send a new leader, a new shepherd in the line of David, filled the people with expectant hope. The new shepherd would love and ...

3292. Dare to Be Different

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... Landers used to exhort her readers, we must wake up and smell the coffee! It is here that Paul emphasized his whole point: The real issue was not what foods were to be eaten or what special days were to be observed, but how each group of Christians viewed the other. As long as each group did what they did "for the Lord," they should be respected — or at least tolerated — by the other. How one group lives is not as important as why they live. Neither group can live for themselves; both must do what they ...

3293. Headed in the Right Direction

Romans 15:4-13

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... have always jumbled up the Luke and Matthew birth narratives, overlaying Christmas and Epiphany with angels, animals, and kings all standing in one tableau. They have a point. But Paul's conclusion to Romans reminds us that as Christians we need to keep everything in view all the time: past, present, and future; God's truth and God's mercy; the old prophecy and the ultimate fulfillment; Christ's birth and his resurrection. When we see things in too much isolation, it is easy to forget where we are. And then ...

3294. Small-Minded Christians in a Big World

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... to every great reformer in the history of the church: "In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity." As one denominational (UCC) statement makes clear, "The unity that we seek requires neither an uncritical acceptance of any point of view, nor rigid formulation of doctrine. It does require mutual understanding and agreement as to which aspects of the Christian faith and life are essential." You and I may disagree on points of Christian doctrine. I obviously think that I am right ...

3295. With Our Own Eyes

2 Peter 1:16-21

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... past week, they are really reporting their guilt because they "know they should have been." Interestingly, we find the opposite in places like the United Kingdom and Scandinavia where not only is church attendance not culturally expected but is almost viewed as aberrant. There, folks tend to under-report their religious activity. It seems to me that the final factor is that many churches today have deliberately veered away from biblical or confessional teaching. For years I, in chorus with other teachers ...

3296. In the Balance

Romans 5:12-19

Sermon

David O. Bales

... shared one character. From that perspective you can think of all of humanity as Adam's tribe. We're affected by, and implicated in, Adam's behavior. Today, as we explain human behavior, we're heavier on the concepts of heredity and environment, but the Bible's view of group solidarity says that our being in the original tribe of Adam predisposes us to who we are and what we do. Some individuals and even congregations get it into their minds that the Bible's top concept is sin. Paul's explanations about Adam ...

3297. Humility: We Know It When We See It

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... state. Despite the flurry given to glamour and wealth, the attraction of Abraham Lincoln, a common man, is still with us today. To know that someone is common, without affectations, like one of us, yet not mediocre, a person we can identify with, and yet still view with respect, awe, or love — that grips us. In this world where sham is bought and sold, and where, if we're honest, we're not always what we present ourselves to be, genuinely humble people can get our attention. When we see sincerely humble ...

3298. Life in the Resurrection Zone

Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon

David O. Bales

... a similar task as we struggle to follow Jesus. All this is because of the primary Christian conviction that Jesus was dead and is now alive and that changes everything. Jesus is really alive. Jesus shows us what's real. He becomes the lens through which we view life. All of existence must now be compared to and measured by Jesus. All of life is relative to Jesus. He is the prime meridian, connecting all poles of life, and all of life is oriented around him. We even write our calendars as AD —anno Domini ...

3299. Oddballs for God

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

... culture around them, they don't understand the Christian faith. We need to learn that we are different for God's sake, as difficult as that is to get used to. Peter reminds us of how we must think of our faith, as opposed to how the world around views us, whether it be at the bowling alley, at work, or in a university classroom. Because of Jesus, we've been yanked out of one culture and world-system into another. We need to maintain our new identity by remembering why we are this way. We endure this strange ...

3300. Rock Bottom

1 Peter 3:13-22

Sermon

David O. Bales

... the source of our hope. Notice that Peter doesn't mention our faith or our love but he mentions our hope. "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you." Hope is how we view tomorrow. For Peter, hope almost defines you as a Christian. Hope means you anticipate God's grace even more tomorrow no matter the circumstances. A question to ask a congregation is if it has any hope: "Do church members picture any specific future for this congregation ...

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