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 3551 to 3575 of 4653 results

3551. Living on Full Alert

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17. 20-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... from this fountain that will never run dry. Come you who are thirsty; there is a bountiful supply. Are you thirsty for God? Is there a yearning in your soul that no thing, no created object, no person, no pleasure, can satisfy? Are you in touch with that thirst—that vital, fundamental, spiritual need? We cannot quench that thirst by our own efforts, even though we constantly try. Only God can supply our deepest thirst for life. When will we learn? We long for significance and settle for things. We stuff ...

3552. The Power of a Helping Hand

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... on the other side. By birth and by calling, you would assume that someone paid to be righteous would stop to render assistance. Did hope rise and despair follow when the broken man watched the priest pass by, or somehow was he not surprised? If a priest touched a dead man, he was dead meat for service in the temple. He would have to go through all kinds of ritual cleansing to be reinstated. Was this unnamed, unknown nobody worth that kind of effort? The priest decides not. The Levite was a doorkeeper in the ...

3553. The Power to Belong

Acts 4:32-35

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... programs, but church is more than nice things to do. Who needs a risen Savior to conduct a ceramics class or take a ski trip? Anybody can do that. What the Church needs is a fresh vision of a risen Savior. We need the power of the resurrection to touch hearts and transform lives. We need to reclaim our message that “Jesus Saves." The Church is now the Body of Christ. You are the hands and shoulders, knees and toes of the risen Christ. That little poem I memorized as a kid is so right: “Christ has no ...

3554. Esther: The Problem of Opportunity

Esther 4:11-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . When the door closed with only the two of us, he spoke up and said, “How are you feeling?" “So, so," I said. “I know, my dad has cancer too," he continued. “I will be praying for you." The door opened and I stepped off and I stopped; I was touched. He didn't have to do that; he had troubles enough of his own. He didn't know me from Adam. Yet, in the time it takes for an elevator to climb a few floors, he seized the opportunity to care for me, a stranger. It's not a matter ...

3555. What Can Christians Learn from Muslims?

Genesis 21:1-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the University of Louisville, had been attacked on campus. When I was a patient at Vanderbilt Hospital, Asad came to see me. When I hid away to prepare for this series of sermons on world religions, I contacted Asad who graciously put me in touch with the president of his mosque for a most stimulating interview. So, what can Christians learn from Muslims? I. THE HISTORY OF ISLAM Muslims, Jews, and Christians all trace their ancestry to Abraham. In the Scripture lesson today, we recall the story of Abraham ...

3556. David: The Problem of Family

2 Samuel 18:28-33

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... That's not the way it was meant to be. If David could go from leading sheep to leading a nation, by the grace of God you can become all you were made to be. II. DAVID: A MAN OF GREAT POWER Richard Foster says, “Nothing touches us more profoundly for good or ill than power." Power can destroy or create. Such negative and positive forces of power are dramatically played out in the lives of King Saul and King David. Power makes Saul narcissistic, controlling, paranoid, vicious, depressed, and suicidal. Power ...

3557. From Laziness to Passion

Psalm 51:1-12

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... talking about the seven deadly sins and the antidotes that we might find that our lives may be set free. So, if by some chance in our snug sanctuary there might be a possibility that we, too, could use an "extreme spiritual makeover" instead of a little churchy touch up, let us consider together the sins of Christians. The one I want to tackle tonight is ACEDIA. I. ACEDIA IS SLOTH, APATHY, LAZINESS. There is a mammal about two feet long that we call a sloth. It hangs on trees upside down. It sleeps about 15 ...

3558. The Lord of All

Revelation 1:4-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... s Basilica, China's Great Wall, except for one little girl who was having trouble with her list. “There are so many, I can't just pick out seven," she lamented. “Well read me your list," requested the teacher. The little girl replied, “To see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to feel, to laugh and to love." Are these not the wonders of the world really, the wonder of life and community together? When I count my blessings at Thanksgiving, I don't thank God for my bank account which never seems to be enough ...

3559. In Prayer’s Way

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to get back to it as soon as possible. But for her shut-in, ninety year old Auntie, Elizabeth was, in all her imperfection, an answer to prayer. “I now know that her prayer was not for cookies. Her prayer was for family, for fellowship, for the touch of love and compassion to come into her life.” All of us in attendance here today are an answer to an ancient prayer. That prayer is two thousand years old. It was a prayer uttered and answered in today’s gospel lesson. In that ancient prayer Jesus ...

3560. Valuing Life Without Playing God

John 10:10-15

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... dark, secluded place separated from people, but in a home or hospital or hospice surrounded by family, friends, the church, and clergy. Love was so thick you could feel it, and hope was so real you could see it, and heaven was so close that you could touch it until at last the loved one finally closed their eyes and passed away. My friends, in my opinion that is dying with dignity. C. Life is difficult when it comes to the question of capital punishment. From a Biblical point of view it is easy to argue ...

3561. Conversion or Credentialing?

Acts 9:1-5, 10-12, 17-19

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to Himself. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth. If that is not transformation, what is? Sometimes I pray: Open my eyes Lord, I want to see Jesus To reach out and touch him, and say that I love him. Open my ears Lord, and help me to listen Open my eyes Lord, I want to see Jesus. Conversion is a new way of seeing. III. CONVERSION IS A NEW WAY OF LIVING. The rest, as they say, is history. This one life ...

3562. The Resurrection and Life

John 11:32-44

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... and that translated means “indignation, to snort with anger like a horse, to rebuke sternly, to be painfully moved." When buildings are bombed, and wars won't cease, when children are abused and tsunamis sweep over the innocent, Jesus weeps; his heart is touched with our grief. St. Joseph Catholic Church sits directly across the street from the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. Less than a year after that tragic day, the church erected a statue of Jesus weeping. When terror strikes, when evil reigns ...

3563. Living on the Easter Side of Life

Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory." Reinhold Niebuhr once said, “Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime. Therefore, we must be saved by hope." We are full of hope today. Twenty-five years ago, Trina Paulus wrote a touching parable of life called Hope for the Flowers. It's a story about Stripe, the caterpillar, who upon his birth immediately ate the leaf on which he was born. Soon Stripe climbed down the tree of his birth to explore new territory. That's when he ...

3564. By Belonging

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... to their faith because they have no place else to go." Of course they are right. You, who are needy, come. Or as I like to say, “We cannot know that God is all we need until God is all we have." Of this I am absolutely certain. When you touch the bottom, the bottom is sound. Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a Shelter in the time of storm. Then Peter gets even more specific. Not any old rock will do. Christ is the Chief Cornerstone in this text. Using this building analogy we put it to life ...

3565. Marketing or Disciplemaking?

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . Worship is not about tapestry. Worship is about transformation. Worship is not about performance. Worship is about praise to God. In genuine worship God's presence is felt, pardon for our sins is experienced, hurts are healed, hope is restored. When heaven opens and hearts are touched, people are going to do all kinds of different things. In worship the wonderful is revealed. When the awe of God fills a place, I get quiet, really quiet. I want to take off my shoes, fall on my knees. I want to hum softly ...

3566. Living in Gratitude

Philippians 4:4-8

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of the field, the critters that roam the countryside and the creatures that swim in the sea. He lived a life of gratitude. Do you? To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch heaven. A Texas business man, who had enjoyed ten years of quality life after a heart transplant, reflected on the difference this new heart made in his life. “In addition to this being a miracle of medicine," said David Saucier, “for a new heart to ...

3567. A Thousand Points of Light

Isaiah 60:1-3; 18-22

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... in apportionments to this denomination. They come from the gifts you put in the offering plates every Sunday morning. With regard to misperceptions, just this week people have told me they thought Methodists were such rigid traditionalists that they were out of touch. Then twenty-four hours later someone said to me, “You Methodists are such liberals; you just believe almost anything." I am surprised at some of the conclusions people make about us. Our connectionalism has its benefits. When I was pastor of ...

3568. Neighborly Prayer

Luke 10:25-37

Illustration

King Duncan

... his mother that he wished he could die. There was one thing that seemed to bring the boy comfort: watching "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood." The kindly, mild-mannered Mr. Rogers emphasized that all people are valuable and worthy of love. His calming demeanor and accepting message touched the boy's heart and gave him hope. One day a children's foundation set up a meeting between the boy and his hero, Mr. Rogers. Upon meeting Mr. Rogers, the boy became so nervous that he began hitting himself, and his mother had to ...

3569. The Temptation To Pass By On The Other Side

Luke 10:25-37

Illustration

Robert Beringer

... memory. He found his old logbook in the attic, and suddenly realized that it had been his bomb that had destroyed the church back in 1944. An impulse was born in his heart as he thought about that tiny town, and how the loss of their church must have touched those people. But then came the temptation to pass by on the other side. He says he thought to himself, "Come on, Ray, after all, the Nazis bombed innocent children in London and Warsaw; it was wartime; it was years ago; forget it, Ray, and get on with ...

3570. The Flood Story

Luke 10:25-37

Illustration

Carveth Mitchell

... my tithe, and said my prayers. There I was in great need of your help. Where were you when I needed you?" The Lord replied, "Where was I? I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What more do you want?" The man had failed to realize that when God touches people he takes the nearest willing hand (or rowboat or helicopter) and uses that.

3571. The King on a Donkey

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... count it as a treasure for the rest of his life? If you and I yield our gifts to Him, and lay them upon his alter, be sure of this, will sanctify all that is laid upon his altar. All that we have rendered to Him gains fragrance from His touch comes back to us ten-fold more precious because Jesus has condescended to use it.” I believe this friends. I believe it with all of my heart. The Lord has need of us, and will bless and return what we give Him. That’s the reason Jerry and I are ...

3572. When the Winds Are Against Us

Mark 6:45-56

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... couple whose marriage has gone sour. They started out together long ago, but they have moved farther and farther apart, almost without noticing it. Now it is as though they are living in two separate worlds. They wake up one day and find that they’ve lost touch with each other. They don’t know whether it is easier to go through the struggle of working their way back together again, or just to give up. They seem to run out of resources and they already feel defeated. The winds are against them. Do these ...

3573. Responding with Humor

Luke 10:38-42

Illustration

Richard Patt

By the way, don't you think Luke also included this incident in his gospel account because he found it irresistible, or perhaps more accurately, because he found a touch of humor in it? There is humor here, isn't there? We smile at the story because we see ourselves in it, or we detect someone we know who is similar to Martha. Sometimes our priorities, or frustrations, are so far off the beam that they are laughable. And along ...

3574. Be Square

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... The square halo Jesus hung out with average Joes, fisherman, and small-town citizens. Square halo Jesus ate dinner with anyone who invited him over, played with the kids, wandered into the kitchen and chatted with the women about their lives. Square halo Jesus touched lepers and calmed down the crazy. Square halo Jesus defended the destitute, trusted in divine providence and had nothing to say in his own defense. Let’s be honest: square halo people are a little like square pegs they do not fit easily into ...

3575. Not Peace but Division

Luke 12:49-53

Illustration

Brett Blair

... where they stood. There was a knight of Bethlehem Whose wealth was tears and sorrows His men at arms were little lambs His trumpeters were sparrows His castle was a wooden cross On which he hung so high His helmet was a crown of thorns Whose crest did touch the sky. Sometimes I think our reluctance to share our faith is not so much our lack of knowledge and experience in sharing it, but rather that gut feeling, we know...we know how controversial Jesus is. To say his name is to offend. My friends, Jesus ...

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