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 3751 to 3775 of 4455 results

3751. God's Salvation Is For All People

Titus 2:1-15

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

Call To Worship Leader: Sing a new song to the Lord! People: Sing to the Lord, and praise him! Leader: Proclaim every day the Good News that he has saved us. People: Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples. Collect We lift our voices in praise to you, Almighty God, for you have sent your Son into the world for our salvation. We rejoice in the knowledge that the Lord is king, and that he will rule the peoples of the world with justice and fairness. Thanks be to you, O God! Amen. ...

3752. View from the Mountaintop

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Mountains fascinate us. They tower majestically against the horizon, strong and immovable. Looking up at them from the ground is a magnificent delight, as we try to take in their imposing vastness and mystery. If we accept their defiant invitation to climb them, we are rewarded by a spectacular view. Climbing a mountain makes us feel like giants peering over entire cities lying beneath us. Many of us have our favorite memories of a mountaintop view. One of the joys of visiting Virginia in autumn is the ...

3753. Spiritual Calisthenics

Romans 5:1-8

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship Sisters and Brothers, take your rest from God's appointed labors. In God we find our true home. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Collect Blessed be the Lord forever and ever. Blessed be the Lord forever and ever. Blessed be the Lord forever and ever. Amen and Amen. Prayer Of Confession - Statement Of Faith Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in ...

3754. The Incarnation: What and Why?

Hebrews 2:10-18

Sermon

James L. Killen

We have just remembered again the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus. We have been reminded of the miracle of the virgin birth. Most of us have been satisfied just to remember and wonder and enjoy. But there is a meaning behind that event that we need to know. Christian scripture and tradition tell us that, in the birth of Jesus, an aspect of God's own being took flesh to dwell among us as one of us. One of our favorite Christmas carols has us singing, "Veiled in flesh the God-head see; hail incarnate ...

3755. Light Is as Light Does

Ephesians 5:8-14

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

If you saw the movie, Forrest Gump a few years back, you will remember how Forrest always had a quote from his mama to sum up just about any situation that a person might find himself or herself in. And if Forrest were to comment on this text from Ephesians, he might have this to say: "It's like my mama always used to say, 'Light is as light does.' " Light is as light does. And what light does is shine out of the darkness. What light does is to make darkness disappear. Light and darkness cannot exist in ...

3756. King of the Mountain

1 Peter 3:13-22

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

In a large stone cathedral in Europe there was a grand, magnificent pipe organ. On a particular Saturday afternoon, the sexton was making one final check of the choir and organ loft high in the balcony at the back of the church. As he was making his inspection, he was startled to hear footsteps echoing up the stone stairway behind him. He thought the doors were all locked and that no one else was in the church. He turned to see a man in slightly tattered traveling clothes coming toward him. "Excuse me, sir ...

3757. Slaves of a Different Master

Romans 6:12-23

Sermon

William G. Carter

Earlier this week somebody asked what the sermon was about. I said, "I'm preaching about slavery." That was a good way to stop a conversation. Slavery. In Romans 6, Paul talks about slavery. It was an established institution of his time. There is no evidence that he tried to reform it. One of his letters was written to a slave owner named Philemon. During one of his vacations in jail, Paul met a runaway slave named Onesimus. They got to talking, and Onesimus became a Christian. When his sentence was up, ...

3758. Say What?

1 John 3:5-6

Sermon

Rick Brand

Say what? Saint Paul never thought he got to the place where the power of sin was completely gone in his life. Saint Augustine never preached that once you received the power of Christ into your life all sin was gone. Martin Luther, from whom we get all these Reformation slogans, preached "always sinner; always justified." So what does this mean? "Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who ...

3759. In the Darkness of Despair, There Is the Light of Hope

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

A student at The University of Georgia got a job as a disc jockey at a little radio station in Commerce, Georgia. He also got a room at a hotel in town and commuted to school, which was not far away. Sometimes at night, he would crawl out of his window and sit on the roof of the hotel. He would look out over that little town. One night when he was up there, he wrote a song called “City Lights.” The rest is country music history. His name was Bill Anderson. An Episcopalian minister in Boston worked himself ...

3760. Completing The Master's Work

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Classical music provides some significant examples of great musical compositions that were never finished by their creators. A perennial favorite with many, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, never completed his magnificent Requiem Mass. Franz Schubert, who like Mozart, lived only a short life but produced over 600 works of music, wrote only two movements of his Eighth Symphony. Orchestras today still play this great composition, known appropriately as the Unfinished Symphony. Living in the latter nineteenth and ...

3761. How to Motivate People

Matthew 10:1-42, Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

A few years ago a fellow took me on a tour of his sock manufacturing plant. He showed me the loading dock where raw materials were unloaded, the washing machines, fluffers, twisters, looms, finishers, and packagers. In all, I found out there were over 150 different steps taken to manufacture one pair of socks! Well, that set me to thinking about the church and the making of disciples. How many steps are there from conversion to discipleship? Let's look and see. The text reports an incident near the ...

3762. Thanks Be to God

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Once upon a time there was a woodcutter who spent the majority of every day in the woods. He knew every trail and basically every inch of the forest. One day the woodcutter was preparing to fell a tree when he heard a cooing sound not far away. He followed the sound and found two white doves that were caught in a wooden trap. He felt sorry for the birds and thus opened the trap door and allowed them to fly to freedom. He then returned to his job of felling the tree and forgot all about the birds. As the ...

3763. More Power to You!

Romans 1:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Well, we've done it again. We've made it safely through another high alert weekend, with official government warnings about credible terrorist threats. The highest ranking military officers in the world's most powerful armed-forces (ours) are candidly admitting on national TV that they have no way to really defend against a suicidally-committed homicide-bomber. It seems that all our standing armies, all our military hardware, all our advanced weapon's systems cannot protect us from a single-minded, ...

3764. Obstacles as Popsicles

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Lake Junaluska is a conference center for United Methodists in the mountains of North Carolina. The first thing any visitor notices is the giant cross on top of a hill. When it's illuminated at night, it shines for miles, a beacon that draws Christians from the southeast and from all over North America every summer. A few years ago, I went to bed one night at Lake Junaluska with the resolve to climb the hill early the next morning as both physical exercise and spiritual pilgrimage. When I got on my jogging ...

3765. Greeting and Meeting Jesus

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

We've all dreamed of someday striking it rich. Come on, you can admit it. Anyone NOT dreamed of somehow, someway someday hitting the big one. It may be secretly buying a lottery ticket every day. It may be having a garage filled with a host of home-made gadgets and inventions that hopefully will be the next big thing. Whatever it may be, the quest for a quick way out of a quicksand world beckons us all. Imagine never having to worry about paying this month's bills or next month's bills. Imagine not only ...

3766. Death by Chocolate

Hebrews 9:11-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

"Death by Chocolate." Just the words put moisture in your mouth. [If you can bring out here some parishioner's recipe of Death by Chocolate, and tease them with its deliciousness, so much the better.] Almost every upscale, elegant restaurant seems to offer their own version of this extra rich, extra decadent, extra artery-clogging delight they dub Death by Chocolate. For committed chocoholics this dessert offers the ultimate attempt to sweeten the bitterest reality life offers all of us the plain and ...

3767. What's Left Is Right

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Party games. Just the phrase gives me the shivers. [You may want to get out some party games here and help people relive their horror. You could get some volunteers to do a quick party-game in front of everyone.] Whether played at a child's birthday or an after-hours office shindig, party games are designed to make us look ridiculous and act silly. The rationale seems to be as follows: now that we've been silly together, the ice is broken, people can get comfortable, and we can begin enjoying one another ...

3768. Blue Highway Blessings

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

One of our nation's unsung heroes died recently at age 84 in Edmonds, Washington. His memorial service was conducted not at a church, but at a store: REI, the flagship outdoors store in Seattle, Washington. Ira Spring made his life's work being on the road. Whatever his destination may have been each day, he was working. His real goal was to pay attention and fully participate in every step along the way. Spring was a hiker, which he called the cheap man's sport. Spring was responsible for finding, ...

3769. Attics, Basements, Closets

Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

[An inventory of things accumulating in one of your closets or a drawer stuffed with all sorts of interesting items . . . these visuals would greatly enhance your preaching of this sermon.] Grace to you and peace, sisters and brothers. From the one who is . . . the one who was . . . and the one who is to come. Good morning, saints. [Wait for a good morning.] Good morning, sinners. [Wait for a LOUDER good morning.] We're all here. And all we are is here. And I'm delighted YOU'RE here. Icons are not having ...

3770. What Is That in Your Hand?

Exodus 4:1-17

Sermon

James McCormick

The dominant figure of the Old Testament is Moses. He stands head and shoulders above all others in the history of Israel. He is Moses, the deliverer, the one who led the Hebrew people out of Egyptian captivity. He is Moses, the law-giver, the one who came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the law. He called the people into covenant with God, and led them through the wilderness to the land of promise. There is no doubt about it: Moses towers above all others in the Old Testament! And yet, when we ...

3771. Are You Getting Hymns Out of Your Lions?

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

If there were one word everyone could agree on to describe twenty-first century living, it would surely be stressful. Anyone here this morning want to deny that we face a host of stress-inducing factors in this world? How about terrorism. How about war? How about avian flu? How about global warming, or diminishing resources, vanishing species, increasing Population, or WMD's? Not to mention the Islamic Republic of Iran with a head of state who's on record wanting to nuke Israel out of existence? And that's ...

3772. Which End Is Up?

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Exegesis: Ephesians 3:1-12 The epistle text for this week can be read with two different agendas in mind. On one hand the focus is on establishing apostolic tradition. In the first century there was a necessary concern with creating a continuity of tradition and authority for the fledgling Christian church. Hence Paul’s apostolic authority, his priority of leadership, is part of these verses’ testimony. Especially since these Ephesians probably had not known Paul’s preaching personally, it is an imperative ...

3773. Proper 24

Exodus 33:12-23, Matthew 22:15-22, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Psalm 99:1-9

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS Exodus 33:12-23 is an extended petition of Moses for God to accompany Israel on their wilderness travels. Psalm 99 is a song of praise that celebrates the power of God. Exodus 33:12-23 - "The Power of Petition: Part 2" Setting. See the commentary from last week for an overview of the three-part structure of Exodus 19-34, which is (1) revelation and covenant Exodus 19-31), (2) the breaking of covenant and threat of destruction Exodus 32 -33), and (3) covenant renewal (Exodus 34). The ...

3774. Just Do It

Romans 12:1-2

Sermon

James W. Moore

A well-dressed businessman was walking down the street one morning when all of a sudden, a beggar stopped him and asked him if he had a dollar or two he could spare. The businessman said: “Look, if you are down on your luck, I’ll be glad to help you, but first let me ask you something. You look like you are in pretty, good health… why don’t you get a job?”- The beggar answered: “O, I have a job! Actually, I’m an author. In fact, you may have seen one of my books. It was a Best-Seller entitled “500 Ways to ...

3775. The Road to Emmaus - Sermon Starter

Luke 24:13-35

Illustration

Brett Blair

A friend shared with me a beautiful legend about a king who decided to set aside a special day to honor his greatest subject. When the big day arrived, there was a large gathering in the palace courtyard. Four finalists were brought forward, and from these four, the king would select the winner. The first person presented was a wealthy philanthropist. The king was told that this man was highly deserving of the honor because of his humanitarian efforts. He had given much of his wealth to the poor. The ...

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