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 3926 to 3950 of 5000 results

3926. House of God

1 Kings 8:22-30

Sermon

Will Willimon

"Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven, and the highest heaven cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built." Fifty-one years ago tomorrow, Duke Chapel was dedicated in a great service of worship. Speakers hailed this Chapel as a splendid symbol of faith. President B.R. Lacy of Union Seminary in Richmond was the first to speak at the Sunday afternoon service on June2nd. Dr. Lacy noted, "Other universities have great faculties and student bodies, well-equipped laboratories, ...

3927. Life in the Future

Philippians 1:3-11

Sermon

Scott Bryte & Kimberly Miller van Driel

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the ...

3928. Last But Yet First

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

George W. Hoyer

In order to be last, you must give others a place in front of you. This is important to realize if you are interested in reaching first place. For Jesus here says, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Realize also that, given the kind of world we are part of, the people whom you must permit to go before you will be a mixed bag, indeed. You can't pick and choose, because that would mean the discards would be behind you. They would become last. They would really be taking the ...

3929. Dinner Parties With A Difference

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

Religious leaders have had varying attitudes regarding dinner parties. Take John the Baptist, for instance. It is unlikely you would ever have gotten him inside a fine house around a beautiful table of exquisite crystal and china and gourmet food. That rustic, ascetic outdoorsman probably would have thought it a waste of time and money, an unnecessary frill to the essentials of life. Many men today call themselves "meat and potatoes" men. No fancy foods for them. Just the basics. Forget all the fuss and ...

3930. Leveling the Landscape

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

The road to the manger is not an Interstate. Nor is the journey sentimental. The path is decorated neither with candy canes nor red-nosed reindeer. There are no shortcuts. The Advent journey begins in a darkness so deep you can see the stars. From there it leads by the Jordan River and its stern prophet, John. If we could only get to the babe without having to hear the Baptist cry, "Repent!" But we cannot see Jesus without first hearing John. Repentance is hard unChristmasy stuff. This strange man, dressed ...

3931. How To Treat Your Enemies

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Did you hear about the man who went into the preaching ministry, worked for seven years, then resigned to go back to medical school and become a doctor? "People," he explained, "don't want spiritual health. They just want to feel good." But after working as a physician for seven years, he again resigned, this time to go back to school. "I'm going to become a lawyer," he explained, "because, in the end, people don't want spiritual health. They don't even want physical health. They just want to get even." I ...

3932. Take Up Your Ministry

Mark 9:38-41

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

Several years ago at my previous congregation I remember a discussion I had with the church council. It was very revealing of the kind of distorted vision of ministry that is very much afoot in the church these days. I had a sudden change in my vacation plans and was going to have to be out of town for a Sunday that I had not planned on. I was having great difficulty finding another pastor to fill the pulpit. It was the summer. Many pastors are already on vacation and those who are available for pulpit ...

3933. Miracle Six: Stilling A Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon Aid

Harold H. Lentz

BACKGROUND MATERIAL Jesus sometimes got into a boat and headed for the farther shore in order to be free of the demands of the crowd who now followed him in great numbers. On this day he was weary from his work and from arguing with the scribes who constantly took issue with his pronouncements. He was on the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Gennesaret. The lake was about eight miles wide and twelve miles long, so it would take at least an hour to make the crossing. Because of his weariness Jesus lay down ...

3934. Good Guys And Bad Guys Alike

Genesis 37:1-11, 12-36

Sermon

Steve Burt

Love your enemies, Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). Is he serious? Crazy? Love our enemies? We ask, "Why would we do that?" And Jesus says, "So that you may be children of your Father in heaven." Then he gets crazier. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." What a tall order: Be perfect! The key to being perfect, as God is perfect, it would seem, is to understand that Jesus also says in his Sermon on the Mount that God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, ...

3935. The Promise Of The Spirit

Sermon

John A. Stroman

As a mainline church we have been told to the point of weariness what is wrong with us. Many articles have been written about the demise of the mainline churches with their dwindling membership and attendance. Someone has figured out mathematically that if the United Methodists continue to lose members at the present rate, the last Methodist will leave the face of the earth in the year 2037. This is a very sobering thought. The Dilemma Of Decline To borrow a line from Dickens, these are, for the mainline ...

3936. Stop Being Afraid

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Marc Kolden

Jesus' instructions to his disciples prior to their first mission continue in today's gospel reading. He has been telling them about all the dangers and hardships they may have to put up with and ends by saying (in effect), "What do you expect? A disciple is not greater than his teacher. If the world gives me a bad time, it will give you one too" (Matthew 10:24-25). So what does Jesus do? Sell them life insurance? Give them bullet-proof vests? Teach them how to diffuse conflict? Hardly. Instead he says, " ...

3937. I Saw The Risen Christ Last Week -- And It Wasn't Even Easter

John 20:10-31

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

A small boy went to his father one day and asked, "Daddy, who's the smartest, an engineer or a preacher?" The father, unsure of an answer, asked his son, "Well, who do you think is the smartest?" "I think an engineer is because he can build bridges and planes, and go into space to find planets. And a preacher talks about such an impossible thing as someone rising from the dead." He was a smart little boy with an honest answer. And we can understand his answer because we live in a world of facts and science ...

3938. Sunday Dinner

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Alex Gondola

Remember Sunday when you were growing up? Maybe a lot of your families were like mine. Sunday was a special day. Sunday dinner was a special meal. It was almost always the best meal of the week. Mom put a roast of something (roast chicken, pork, lamb, beef) in the oven to cook all morning. Then the family went off to church. When we returned around noon, the roast whatever was still cooking. But the aroma pervaded the house. And we three children couldn't wait to eat! Around one o'clock, when my sisters ...

3939. Judas, The Obscure

Drama

Peter C. Garrison

Judas' problem is that he doesn't have any excuse for the thing he does; he has reasons, but no excuses. Have you ever acted in a way you yourself couldn't understand? Dostoyevski noted: "All self-examination ends up as self-justification." But does it? Concerning Judas' problem: Is he deceiving himself or is he deceiving God? (Please read Matthew 26:14-25;Luke 22:3-6; John 6:57-71 and 10:14-18) Judas (Judas sits alone in a dark corner.) This is a confession and I tell you that from the first Judas was an ...

3940. Grapes Of Wrath Or Grace?

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

A musician in a camp meeting where I preached wrote a country-gospel song titled, "Sin Will Take You Farther Than You Want To Go and Keep You Longer Than You Want To Stay." Nineteen words is a tad long for a song title, but it does state a succinct and compelling truth: sin will get you in serious trouble. In this lesson, Ahab is king and is married to the wicked, Baal-worshipping Jezebel, and covets the vineyard belonging to a worshipper of God named Naboth. Ahab had plenty of property of his own, but he ...

3941. Lent 1

Lk 4:1-13 · Rom 10:8-13 · Deut 26:1-11 · Ps 91

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Upon entering the Promised Land the people are to present the first fruits and to rejoice in Yahweh's goodness. Deuteronomy deals with the time of King Josiah's reforms in 621 B.C. One of the reforms was the centralization of worship in Jerusalem's temple. One of the three compulsory pilgrimages to Jerusalem was the Feast of Weeks when a basket of first fruits was presented to the priest, placed before the altar, and the worshiper responded by re-telling the ...

3942. The Spreading Word

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Marc Kolden

Jesus told them a parable: Listen up, folks. A farmer went out to plant. This was many centuries ago, before modern machinery. He carried a large bag of seeds and threw them all around by hand. In those days, a farmer threw the seeds (or "sowed" them) before he plowed them under. He would come along later and turn ground over so that the seeds would be covered with soil and could grow. Therefore, he wasn't so worried where he sowed them at this point. But, of course, some of the seeds fell on the path and ...

3943. Proper 14

Genesis 37:12-36, 1 Kings 19:9-18, Jonah 2:1-10, Matthew 14:22-36, Romans 9:1-5; 10:5-15

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: How to overcome a contrary wind. The disciples faced a fiercely opposing wind on the Sea of Galilee. So too did Elijah, after his victory on Mount Carmel. Queen Jezebel was after his life. In both instances, they felt overwhelmed. Then, God came to still the storm. COMMENTARY Old Testament: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Joseph, who was given a long robe with sleeves as a sign of his father's favor, was deeply resented by his brothers. One day, Jacob sent Joseph out in the field to find his brothers and they ...

3944. Church As Redemptive Community

Acts 4:32-37

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

Some people aren't comfortable with this passage because it seems to them to be a forerunner of certain social systems which are unpopular in this country: socialism, communism, communes in general. However, let's remind ourselves that this experiment in communal living pre-dates all those unpopular living styles by many centuries. These were people who were still euphoric from the recent infusion of the Holy Spirit. Filled with love for the people around them in life, they wanted to share. They were ...

3945. The Angry Jar

Ephesians 4:31

Children's Sermon

Object: A canning jar and lid Lesson: Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. Good morning, boys and girls. Have any of you seen a lot of this kind of jar at your house lately? (Wait for show of hands.) It's that special season of the year when, if you have a large garden, you see this jar a lot! It's canning time in many parts of the country. How many of you have to help with canning? (Wait for show of hands.) Canning is usually quite a ...

3946. In Search of a Leader

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Anyone who has served on a nominating committee knows how crucial talented leadership is to any group, including the body of Christ. God, our story reminds us, shares that concern. God is unhappy with Saul’s leadership and sends Samuel on a mission to secure a replacement. Look Who Is Doing the Calling Perhaps the most salient features of this story is the fact that it is God who is doing the calling, with Samuel as his agent. Leaders in the church vary in their understanding of the call to ministry, but ...

3947. Charlie Used To Do That

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The people said, "Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as the scripture says, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " Jesus answered, "What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven." Jesus is referring to the fact that even when God gave the whole Israelite community manna the people still complained; they were not satisfied. God then gave the Hebrews quail and they continued to be dissatisfied. Later on the whole Israelite community ...

3948. Second Sunday In Advent

Sermon

David M. Oliver

Introduction to this Service: Everyone is asked to bring a candle and a candle holder with them to worship. Additional candles should be provided for those who forget or did not know. The kind of candle used at many Christmas Eve services with the paper drip guard works well. The theme of the service is that Jesus Christ is the light of the world and so are we. Jesus served as a luminary, a light, a beacon for people to find their way to a saving belief in God. Jesus was the light of the world. But Jesus ...

3949. What Shall We Say To This?

Romans 6:1-14

Eulogy

Bob Kaul

Young Man's In both of these passages from his letter to the Romans, Paul begins with a question that is probably rattling around in most of our minds this week. What then are we to say? What then are we to say about these things? What in the world has gone wrong in the world that the life of such a young man as ____________ should come to such a tragic end? What shall we say? ____________ was a person with many fine qualities; Paul would even call them "gifts of the Spirit." ____________ had the gifts of ...

3950. What a Change!

Luke 9:29

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A very dusty mirror and some glass cleaner. Good morning, boys and girls. Things have a way of changing, don't they? The weather changes, the time changes, we change our clothes and our friends and almost everything else that we can think of around us. Can you think of one thing that does not change? (Let them answer.) I guess the only thing that I can think of that does not change is God's love. I want to tell you about a time that Jesus changed and some of the disciples saw it happen. They were ...

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