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 326 to 350 of 744 results

326. The Thing about Laws

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Steven Molin

Our nation has a lot of stupid laws! For example, in North Dakota, "Beer and pretzels cannot be served at the same time in any bar or restaurant." In Alaska, "It is illegal to push a live moose out of a moving airplane." In Florida, "If an elephant is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would if it was a vehicle." And if not the most bizarre, then certainly the most obvious; In Alabama, "It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle." But did you ...

327. Love That Surpasses Knowledge

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19) Burned into my memory is the image of my father, a few days before his death, clinging to his well-worn King James Bible. It was the source of his inspiration, the place where his favorite scripture passage was ...

328. The Awesome Power of a Mustard Seed (Father's Day)

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

King Duncan

A man was out on the golf course. He spotted another man who seemingly had four caddies. “Why so many caddies?” the first man asked the second. The second golfer replied, “It’s my wife’s idea. She thinks I should spend more time with the kids.” Well, that’s one way of doing it. I suspect he’s the same Dad who was asked by his wife when they brought home their first baby to help with changing diapers. “I’m busy,” he said, “I’ll do the next one.” The next time came around and she asked again. The husband ...

329. Proper 17

Psalm 81:1, 10-16, Jeremiah 2:4-13, Luke 14:1-14, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

Call To Worship Leader: Some people look forward to Sundays as a time to relax. Some look forward to Mondays when classes begin; some look forward to Fridays when the weekend begins. Some people are always looking ahead; some frequently look to the past. What about you? People: We are “some people” who live fully in this moment, aware that the breath of life is a gift that has an ending. We want to enjoy God and one another. Leader: Are you preparing for autumn and slowing down till Advent? People: This ...

330. Rejoicing Brings Peace

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Mora Naba, a Mossi emperor in Burkina Faso, had conquered a powerful ethnic group in the south called the Kaesena. He extracted tribute from them once each year. One year, at tribute collecting time, the emperor made the mistake of sending his son, Nabiiga, a prince and his heir apparent. When the Kaesena saw Nabiiga with only a very small entourage of guardians, they overpowered the group and took the prince hostage. His kingly robes were stripped from him, and he was forced to walk around in only a ...

331. Rejoicing Brings Peace

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

Richard Gribble

332. Are You Part of the Scandal?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In many local elementary schools, every few weeks the “Lost and Found” box is emptied out and the contents are scattered down the length of the main hall. Coats, mittens, shoes, sweatshirts, gym clothes, are all laid down and spread out in the hopes that their owners will spot them and take them home. But the scene of all those empty clothes creates an eerie sensation, as if it is not the clothes that had been left behind, but that the children themselves have somehow been “lost” — zapped out of their ...

333. Hope from a Stump

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

In a radio interview, Nazi concentration camp survivor Gerta Weissman recalled an episode one spring when she and her fellow concentration camp inmates stood for roll call for hours on end, nearly collapsing with hunger and fatigue. She said, “We noticed in the corner of this bleak, horrid, gray place that the concrete had broken in a corner and a flower had poked its head through it. And you would see thousands of feet shuffle every morning to avoid stepping on that flower . . .” No wonder they were ...

334. Nicodemus: A Young Old Man

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David O. Bales

Sermon Note: This story sermon is best read with a “special” voice reserved for the scripture included in the story. Read the scripture with a lower and slower voice so that the congregation realizes that all the rest is the story is “commentary” on the scripture. When the last farmer from the most distant field arrived home to his family and the temple police were tromping their patrols around Jerusalem’s walls and the remaining member of the Sanhedrin set aside the last legal brief and blew out the seven ...

335. Soiled Faith and Watered-Down Churches

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Some of us are born with green thumbs — able to water and plant barren landscapes into lush gardens. Some of us are born with gangrene thumbs — unable even to grow a “Chia Pet.” Some people are born with the ability to take things apart and put things back together. They are handy-dandy, fixer-uppers from the get go. But in the most shallow part of the wading area of that “fixer-upper” gene pool, there are those of us who should never be allowed to handle hammers, screwdrivers, or saws. There are those ( ...

336. A Reminder to God...and to Us

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Last April a 9-year-old African-American lad named Willie was kidnapped from his driveway in Atlanta, Georgia. After the man grabbed him, Willie explained later, and threw him in the back of his car, Willie just kept “praising God” with a song he learned in Sunday school. It was a song by Hezekiah Walker titled “Every Praise.” While he was singing, Willie said, his kidnapper yelled expletives at him. “He told me, shut up you [blankety-blank] boy,” said Willie. Willie, however, kept singing until his ...

337. The World's Largest Covered Dish Lunch

John 6:1-15

Sermon

The Rev. Paul Brunner tells a wonderful story about a young man named Jeff. Jeff learned one Sunday morning that his church was holding a picnic that afternoon. He hurried home from church to pack his lunch and get to the picnic grounds. But, lo and behold, when he opened the refrigerator door, he discovered only a single piece of dried up bologna and two stale pieces of bread (one of them a heel). And to make things worse, there was barely enough mustard to color his knuckles when he tried to scrape the ...

338. A Complicated Disciple

John 18:15-27

Sermon

King Duncan

Growing Strong in the Season of Lent Luke 22: 31-34; 54-62 (Passion Sunday) or John 18:15-27 (Good Friday) It is very difficult to think of the events of Holy Week without thinking of Simon Peter’s denial of Christ. The story is well known to us all. At the last supper Jesus tells Simon Peter that before the cock crows three times, he will deny him three times. Prior to this Simon Peter has just pledged his allegiance to Christ in his normal, assertive style, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and ...

339. The Plague of Frogs

Exodus 7:25--8:15

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

8:1–15 The second plague was an army of hopping and noisy frogs. While the first plague brought death to the fish of the Nile and to the waters of the Nile itself, the second brought an overabundance of amphibious life from the waters. Frogs (tsepardeʿim) invaded the land. The Hebrew word is considered an onomatopoeia, as it sounds like the noise made by new frogs. Creation seemed out of control, with the Egyptian frog goddess Heqet (whose purpose was to assist in childbirth) running amok. Moses and Aaron ...

340. The Messianic Anointing of Jesus

Mark 14:1-11

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: Three issues dominate in this opening scene of the final events: (1) the contrast between the woman’s worshipful act and Judas’s betrayal; (2) Jesus’s recognition that her anointing constituted a fourth passion prediction; (3) the first of five discipleship failures that will run through chapter 14. Understanding the Text In the first part of the passion story (chaps. 11–12) the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authorities grows more and more severe, culminating in the diatribe of 11:28–30. ...

341. When Lazarus Leaped and Laughed

John 11:1-45

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

This gospel according to John is filled with a series of vivid verbal masterpieces of the genius, glory, and grace of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Bible scholars have long believed that each of the four New Testament gospels is targeted at a particular group. Matthew writes his gospel to the Jews. We see that in his frequent references to the Old Testament. Mark writes his gospel with the Romans as his primary target. Hence, Mark is succinct and to the point. His is the first written among the four gospels. ...

342. Which Parade Are You In?

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

A pastor was asked to speak for a certain charitable organization. After the meeting the program chairman handed the pastor a check. “Oh, I couldn’t take this,” the pastor said with some embarrassment. “I appreciate the honor of being asked to speak. You have better uses for this money. You apply it to one of those uses.” The program chairman asked, “Well, do you mind if we put it into our special fund?” The pastor replied, “Of course not. What is the special fund for?” The chairman answered, “It’s so we ...

343. In the Light of His Glory

Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Les Parrott in his book Shoulda Coulda Woulda tells an old legend about three men. Each man carried two sacks--one sack tied in front of his neck and the other sack resting on his back. When the first man was asked what was in his sacks, he said, “In the sack on my back are all the good things friends and family have done for me. That way they’re hidden from view. In the front sack are all the bad things that have happened to me and all the mistakes I’ve made. Every now and then I stop, open the front ...

344. Beyond a Friendly, Cuddly Christmas

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

King Duncan

This is the season for returns is it not? . . . Especially for returning unwanted or impractical Christmas gifts. I was reading something interesting recently about Costco, the giant members-only warehouse store. Costco is the second largest retailer in the world after Walmart. What you may not know is that Costco has one of the most generous return policies in the retail world. They will allow customers to return just about anything they buy there . . . for a full refund. As you might guess, that kind of ...

345. Daddy's Love

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

King Duncan

Some first graders were asked to draw a picture of God in their Sunday school class. Their finished products contained some interesting theology. One child depicted God in the form of a brightly colored rainbow. Another presented him as an old man coming out of the clouds. An intense little boy drew God with a remarkable resemblance to Superman. The best entry, however, came from a little girl. She said, “I didn’t know what God looked like, so I just drew a picture of my daddy.” (1) Today is Father’s Day. ...

346. Sacrifice Leads to Life

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

Richard Gribble

In the fifteenth century, a rural village in Germany was home to a family with eighteen children. The family was poor, but despite the difficulty of making ends meet, two of the boys still held a dream, namely to pursue their talent as artists. With the financial situation bleak, the two boys came up with their own solution to the problem. They agreed to toss a coin with the loser going to the local mines to work so he could support the other while he attended art school. When the first was finished with ...

347. Beneath The Shadow Of The Cross

Mark 14:1--15:47

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

It was weird. It was really weird. The sky that afternoon had taken on a ghastly, ghostly, almost haunted hue. Ever since the mid-day bells had rung it had been like the edge of night. The darkness of the day seemed to reflect the way the apostle felt. It seemed to reflect the darkness of his soul and the darkness of the event taking place. John; one of the chosen twelve; one of the inner circle of leadership; the one who always seemed closest to Jesus, stood shrouded in his own sorrow. The lump in his ...

348. Transforming Love

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

Edwin Markham's little poem has so much to say to us about the ability of love to transform. He drew a circle that shut me out -- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in.1 One of the most amazing stories to come out of the Bible is the account of Saul's life. Through this story we see a leading opponent of the church being transformed into the church's greatest advocate. In today's passage of scripture, we encounter the conversion experience of ...

349. Rich In God's Sight

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Richard Patt

The key verse of the parable Jesus tells here has a way of sending a chill down the spine. In that verse God exclaims, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you ..." (v. 20). Hearing that dramatic warning, maybe you have surmised, "Will I ever get caught in a situation where those stern words are addressed to me?" Generally we tend to feel we have our lives on the right track. We try to keep a pleasing balance between material things and the things of the spirit. But when we look objectively, we are ...

350. Judgment Day

Mark 13:1-31

Drama

Steven E. Albertin

Characters: Man and Woman Scene: The entrance to eternity. (A man sits at a desk, papers before him. Woman enters. She goes to the man and stands quietly. The man looks up.) Man: Heaven on your right -- hell on your left. Woman: (Looking at the doors, in awe) You mean that door leads to heaven ... and that one to hell? Man: That is correct. Please don't take too long. There are others waiting. Woman: But ... what do I do? Man: You go through one of them. Woman: You mean I have the choice? Man: That is ...

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