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 3501 to 3525 of 4971 results

3501. MegaGrace

Acts 4:32-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the first to be convinced that God's will could not be achieved with out the help of divine grace. Psalm 90 begs of Yahweh: "And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours; prosper the work of our hands for us!" (90: 17). Another psalm prays: "Teach me to do Your will, for You are ... assets. The community was rich in the spirit of grace, and could therefore find sufficient means to care for all its members. The "cheap grace" Bonhoeffer warns us against primarily focuses on the individual receiving a ...

3502. Christ the Snake

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... did it when out of school; so that, notwithstanding all the pains he had taken, it appeared to be a growing evil, and he did not know how to cure it. I told him I thought I could cure it; and added, "If you will take care of my school next week, I will take care of yours, and try;" which he readily consented to do. Accordingly, on Monday morning I went into his school without either stockings or shoes. The children looked with surprise, first at me, and then at each other. I took no notice, but kept them to ...

3503. Home Alone

Revelation 21:10, 22-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the 3 to 11 p.m. shift at the local Burger King, to work the weekend sale at Sears, or to get to their desk before the office officially opens in order to get the only available computer time. For kids this means long afternoons at day care (if they are lucky) or the solitary confinement of a latchkey existence. Mealtime is heralded by the echoing "ding" of the microwave, not the din of gathered family at the end of the day. We rarely think of families struggling for togetherness on the other end of the ...

3504. Three Wise Gifts

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is what Jesus practiced in the temple when he drove out the money-changers. Guerilla love inspired hundreds of men and women to break the law and shelter and aid runaway slaves on their journeys to freedom. Today guerilla love asks us to shake off our carefully nurtured apathy and to risk being wrong for the sake of being right. Can you risk your love and volunteer time to go and cuddle newborns with AIDS? Can you risk your money and commit funds to a struggling outreach program for drug abusers? Can you ...

3505. Prophets or Professionals?

Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... their clutches. The good ones begin by asking for you by your first name only "Is this you?" Quickly they ask some other innocuous question "And how is everyone at home today, doing all right?" Suckered into thinking you are talking to someone you actually know and care about, you respond to the caller with conversation. Before you know it, you've spent 10 minutes listening to a long-winded sales pitch. If the caller is really good, he or she then tries to make you feel guilty for taking up all his or her ...

3506. Had-To

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... for orphans and widows in their distress." "Why are you volunteering to clean up this vacant lot?" "Had-To." "Why are you taking time off work to read to children at a nearby elementary school?" "Had-To." "You don't have the time to organize a community day-care program." "Had-To." "It's a waste of time to work at passing legislation." "Had-To." "Are you feeling sick? Why did you clean up your own room?" "Had-To." "Your Alzheimer's parent/ friend/ neighbor doesn't even know you're there. Why do you bother ...

3507. A 24-7-365 God

Hebrews 7:23-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a parent knows that parenting is a 24-7-365 undertaking. It doesn't matter if your child is 6 months, 6 years, 16 years, 36 years, or 60 years old you are forever "on call," forever "available." Consider then how much more extensive is the parental care that we may receive from God who as our divine parent is in no way limited by the junctures of time and space. As every human parent and every child knows, there are some times, some experiences, which each individual must face without the support of others ...

3508. Rock-Bottom Living

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... out our love? How do we determine what is our mission together? How do we look for our mission, our future, as individuals and as a church? Joanna Macy, an educator, ecologist and author, suggests three directions: 1. Work with your passion What do you care about? What makes your heart sing? What gets you outside your self? Throw yourself into your passion without counting the cost. 2. Work with your pain Where have you been, so that you know where others have been? Where have you been broken? Claim your ...

3509. The S-factor

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a place (or a church) "where everybody knows your name"? Most of us don't even know our neighbors' names anymore. Most of us care more about what's going on in our neighbor's lawn than what's going on in our neighbor's life. Most of us don't have ... enough really close friends to fill our kitchen table, much less a whole roomful of comrades who truly care about us and are waiting for us at the end of the day. "Cheers" offered a nation a slice of the small-town spirit that ...

3510. Enemies of Promise

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... nations. On April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City testified to the violent legacy begotten by hate. That particular hatred was so intense it could not even wait to eradicate the promise within all children through a lifetime of tutelage. It blew them up in their day-care center while they were still innocent of hate. The enemy of hate devours promise, leaving only the bones - and charred remains. 4. The Enemy of Pride: Why do so few child geniuses live up to their hype? Why do so few intellectual prodigies become ...

3511. Known as the Sacrifice from the Beginning

Luke 2:22-40

Illustration

... through this holy aria, is responding as all babies do when held by weird strangers. His eyes are narrowed and fixed in frozen alarm on Simeon. He reaches desperately for his mother, every muscle arched away from the old man toward Mary. But looking carefully at the background, we see the artist's true genius. The child seems suspended above the temple altar, that place of sacrifice. As art historian John W. Dixon puts it, "This very human baby is known, from the very beginning, to be the eternal sacrifice ...

3512. Christmas Is about Finding

John 1:1-18

Illustration

... would be prohibitive, she packed several boxes of crackers, cereal and other snack-type foods into her luggage and proceeded to eat three meals a day in her room. On her last night aboard ... after counting and recounting the contents of her pocketbook with care ... she decided to splurge and take her last meal in the dining room. Expecting to be presented with the bill for such a sumptuous repast, she inquired with the waiter about its delay in coming. Taken aback by her request, he quickly regained his ...

3513. John 10:11-18

John 10:11-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... from the synagogue community so that his testimony would not disrupt their established order. In verse 11 Jesus now proclaims that he is also "the good shepherd." As the shepherd Jesus knows each and every one of his sheep by name. The daily care and safekeeping of the sheep are his responsibility. Furthermore, this responsibility extends even to the point of death. Unlike the "hired hand" (read Pharisee) who has no personal investment in the safety and well being of the sheep, the shepherd is motivated by ...

3514. Mark 9:38-50

Mark 9:38-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... class of his day. It is important to note that the merchants James cites are in no way unique or unusual in their described activities. These merchants, like business-builders everywhere, carefully plan their itineraries, their time-frames, and their profit-margins. On the surface this is no great sin, it is simply "taking care of business." But James finds a glaring fault in the business-as-usual attitude. What scandalizes James is how these merchants dwell entirely in the economic sphere. They are only ...

3515. Luke 6:17-26

Luke 6:17-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... even have been Gentiles among them. Evidently Jesus' reputation as a healer had brought many of them, and sickness knows no distinction between class or race. The concluding statements at the end of the blessings-and-curses section (verses 23 and 26) are worded in a carefully inclusive manner. The phrases focus on those doing the blessing or cursing, not the one bearing it. Both verses stipulate what "their ancestors did to the [false, v. 26] prophets." Thus Gentiles might well have been present and were ...

3516. John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

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

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... more explicable. What is the world's oldest profession? It is not what you think it is. Gardening is the world's oldest profession. The Bible's first commandment to the First Adam, God's gardener, was to "till" the garden and "care" for it. The Hebrew word for "keep" (shamar) expresses deep protection and care. It is the same word used in the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:4 ("The Lord bless you and keep you") and Cain's defensive response in Gen. 4:9 ("Am I my brother's keeper?" You bet you are!). Adam is ...

3517. Hebrews 12:1-2, 12-17

Hebrews 12:1-2, 12-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 's first of three warnings is stated here as he cautions that those who do not strive after sanctification will not see God. Verse 15 sounds another warning note, reminding this community that they are their brothers' keepers. In chapters 8-10 the writer carefully explains the promise of the new covenant. Now he urges this church to take this offered grace, to "not fail" to obtain it. The "root of bitterness" alluded to here is not any vague sense of hostility rankling in the community. This phrase comes ...

3518. Matthew 24:36-44

Matthew 24:36-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... to record these words of Jesus, he and his readers know that they are the second generation of believers - and that no parousia has yet occurred. To reconcile Jesus' prediction with temporal reality, Matthew carefully juxtaposes 24:36 with Christ's earlier words. Here Jesus himself admits that the Father alone, not the Son, not the angels, not anyone else, knows the exact time of the parousia. Thus Matthew uses Jesus' words to both heighten temporal expectations and to then effectively de-temporalize the ...

3519. Isaiah 42:1-9

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... extols the power of God and the worldwide hold that God's demand for justice has upon all creation, the prophet again softens this image of power with the pull of compassion. The omnipotent God who stretched out all the heavens is also the merciful, caring God who gently takes the servant "by the hand." The servant himself now acts as the crucial link between God's demand for justice and the divine insistence upon compassion and mercy. The servant is named as the "covenant" between God's justice and mercy ...

3520. Matthew 5:13-20

Matthew 5:13-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... "good works" that God "your Father" is glorified. It is noteworthy that 5:16 marks the first time in Matthew's gospel that Jesus refers to God as "Father." It is in acts of service - as salt, as light, as those doing "good deeds" - that God the caring, compassionate parent is given true glory. Verses 17-20 create a prose bridge from the poetic Beatitudes and the word-pictures of the salt and light images. The content of verses 17-20 is unique to Matthew's gospel except for one parallel in verse 18 (with ...

3521. Exodus 24:12-18

Exodus 24:12-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... one could view this added deliverance as further evidence of the self-centered stubbornness of the fleeing Israelites, a careful overview of the Exodus story suggests that there were thoughtful, crucial developments along their wilderness path that kept ... tabernacle-enclosed religion. The kabod which settles for a time on Mt.Sinai in 24:18 eventually takes up residence within the carefully designed structure of the tabernacle, as described in the final verses of the Exodus book - 40:34-35. What had been an ...

3522. Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... not abuse the divine name. Clearly, no human could control this sovereign God by invoking God's name wrongfully. Yet God insists that humans not even playact such control by pretending that mortal words may bind the divine. Even more revealing is the eternal God's careful concern with the passage of time and the limits of human endurance. The rhythm of days, so important in human passages, is located as a part of the divine will. A Sabbath day, a day of rest, is prescribed as an essential part of the divine ...

3523. Luke 1:26-38

Luke 1:26-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of Luke's gospel, it is evident that the saving action God is about to undertake through Mary is announced by Luke's text in much the same way as the pronouncement made to Zechariah about John the Baptist's birth. Luke begins both by carefully noting such particulars as time, place and the histories of the main actors in these dramas. The fact that the time of the announcement to Mary is presented in terms of Elizabeth's already existing pregnancy further strengthens the connection between these two events ...

3524. Isaiah 61:10-62:3

Isaiah 61:10—62:3

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... cultivated growth that springs up from a garden. The righteousness that emerges all around the Anointed One is likewise a product of both spontaneous divine growth and the nurturing care of God's promises. As this song continues into chapter 62, the tone changes significantly; now clothed in the garments of salvation, the Anointed One declares that Zion itself shall soon also enjoy salvation and be recognized in her new redeemed state by all the nations. To achieve this end, ...

3525. Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of events tells of the arrest and imprisonment of John before he completes the story of Jesus' baptism. But Luke does not want readers to think that John's arrest somehow abortively ended his ministry before its appointed time of completion. Verse 21 takes special care to make clear that all the people who wished to receive John's baptism had received it including Jesus. While Luke does not describe this event, Jesus' baptism is as much a detail here as in Matthew's or Mark's version. It is evident ...

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