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 376 to 400 of 495 results

376. Just Too Busy

Humor Illustration

... is a classic story of a boy, a boss, and a bind: The head of a telegraph company took a nice long trip in the dead of winter. Waiting at his bus station one freezing day, he entered the station's telegraph office in hopes of finding some warmth. Unfortunately, the young telegrapher had neglected to build a fire in the fireplace. "Young man," he scolded, "are you just too lazy to build a fire this morning?" "Sir," said the telegrapher, "I'm too busy sending telegrams to build a fire just now." The older man ...

377. An Ironic Reward

Humor Illustration

... and dragged him off the bus." Jerry was shocked. "You got a commendation for throwing a poor drunk off the bus and into a snowbank?" "No, no," Matt replied. "On my next run I noticed the drunk was still lying in the snow so I dragged him back into the warmth of the bus. Someone saw me do that and phoned it in."

378. Christmas Light: His Name Is Jesus

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Illustration

Walter W. Harms

... the roofs, candy canes, lighted trees-flickering, following, static lights, even on the front of the pickup parked in the drive way with its glowing wreath. As we begin to think about this message, the shadows of the not-so-late afternoon are cutting down on the warmth and the strength of the sun. It is almost winter, almost cold - almost. We would like to think that the lights of trees, the outdoor displays, would do away with the darkness that surrounds us. It seems for a while to cause us to want to be ...

379. Let Your Diamond-Light Shine

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... for your behavior:] I am trying to see if you sparkle more this week than last week. How many of you [or, “it looks like some of you”] celebrated Valentine’s Day with a little bit of “bling!?” The holiday that elevates the warmth of our love and the softness of our hearts also pushes us to do so with something cold and hard — a diamond. Diamonds, we are continually reminded, are forever. That’s why they are worthy of a significant financial investment. Diamonds are expensive because ...

380. Let Your Diamond Light Shine

2 Cor. 4:3-6; 5:1-10

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

... this explanation for your behavior:] I am trying to see if you sparkle more this week than last week. How many of you [or, "it looks like some of you"] celebrated Valentine's Day with a little bit of "bling!?" The holiday that elevates the warmth of our love and the softness of our hearts also pushes us to do so with something cold and hard — a diamond. Diamonds, we are continually reminded, are forever. That's why they are worthy of a significant financial investment. Diamonds are expensive because they ...

381. Celebrate the Small Stuff

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ? Because change is infinitesimal. It’s just as hard to “see” the infinitesimal changes in things like diminishing air quality, or global temperature changes, or the loss of natural resources. A slight elevation in CO2, a degree of added warmth, a dip in oil output — none of those are dramatic. In fact, most are glacial in their gradualness. But infinitesimal doesn’t mean ineffectual, or fantastical, or chimerical. Infinitesimal change often means radical change, even life-altering, revolutionary ...

382. Holy Smokes! God Is Here

John 6:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... now his future, he came to say a very brief prayer: “Jesus, I’m sorry. Please help me.” And with those words, he saw a pinprick of light a great distance away‑‑and then, just as suddenly as the light appeared, it was with him, and he was filled with warmth, and love and joy‑‑and he knew he was with Jesus. He wanted nothing more than to stay there, but Jesus told him he must return to earth. When the man said he could not go back and be as he was before, Jesus assured him he would not be ...

383. Forgive as You Have Been Forgiven

Luke 6:27-38

Sermon

Cynthia Cowen

... and then continued Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. — 1 John 4:11 (NLT) In the stillness of the night, God came to that place and sat among those campers. As the fire bathed them with its warmth, his closeness bathed them in love. They were quiet, basking in the moment. Then they joined their voices as one singing a familiar camp song, "Be ye kind, one unto another; tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you ... Do ...

384. Proper 5

1 Kings 17:8-24, Psalm 30:1-12; 146:1-10, Luke 7:11-17, Galatians 1:11-24

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... for the ways you are among us, blessing us in multiple ways. Thank you for this money; multiply it to pay our bills and feed the hungry. Amen. Intercessory Prayers Life-Giving Spirit — how quickly the beauty of spring turns into the heat of summer! Global warmth is in our backyards! Fresh water is beyond our grasp! We pray for gentle rains to refresh the land and our own souls. We also recognize the pain and loss of people whose homes and crops have been destroyed by the violence of storms. Awaken in ...

385. Proper 24

Genesis 32:22-32, Psalm 119:97-104, Jeremiah 31-27-34, Luke 18:1-8, 2 Timothy 3:14--4:5

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... in relationship to you; we recognize that peace is energy, generosity, and responsibility. Enter the human realm again and let peace overtake greed; let peace expand in America to include jobs for everyone that pays for shelter, food, and clothing; let peace weave its warmth and beauty to provide for people in every country and in every camp; let peace surround children of every color and language. God of Sanity — our world seems so huge and yet so small. The issues out there are mountainous. So are our ...

386. But…!

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... Claus bringing gifts. And he wanted to know why a rabbit brings eggs. Wouldn't a chicken do that? He was all confused. Whatever the confusion that might be in the symbols and rituals of Easter, it is our rite of spring that celebrates the return of life and warmth after the death and cold of a long winter. The fact that the Resurrection Of Our Lord is the only festival of the church year that is set by the cycle of nature (Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the ...

387. The Good Works We Leave Behind

Acts 9:36-43

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... Tabitha, get up," Peter said, and the dead woman opened her eyes. Then she sat up. And then, next thing you know, Peter is leading her out to present her to her astonished friends and loved ones. Can we even fathom the scene that ensued? All of the warmth of the people's grief now combined with their joy and surprise at the sight of Tabitha alive to form an uncommon sort of welcome and embrace. Have tears of sadness ever turned more quickly and completely into tears of joy? The gathered mourners, who not so ...

388. A King Like No Other

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... with me in paradise.” In the musical Godspell, after Christ’s resurrection, Mary Magdalene didn’t want to let go of Jesus. She sang to him, “Where are you going? Where are you going? Can you take me with you? For my hand is cold, and needs warmth. Where are you going? Far beyond where the horizon lies . . . And the land sinks into mellow blueness/ Oh please, take me with you . . .” And that is the refrain sung through the ages by everyone who loves Jesus. What kind of king is he? He’s the kind ...

389. Let It Go

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... given us two-brains for a reason, and wants us to be whole human beings. If we dwell only in our left brain, that is a very cold place indeed. Our left brain is our place of cold rationality. Our right brain is our place of hot relationality. Warmth comes from bringing the hot and the cold together, the warm place where we feel ourselves open to the mystery and creativity of the Holy Spirit. Jesus challenges Nicodemus to be born anew, of water and wind, to let go of all the status he has attained through ...

390. Great Balls of Fire!

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... longer confined to the check-out counter. Now every item the shopper selected brought a painful static electric wake-up shock. Our ancestors took one giant technological step after a thunderstorm. Lightning ignited a fire — a fire that offered both light and warmth to the cold darkness of night. It gave our ancestors an idea. Figuring out how to keep a fire going, without the thunder and lightning, was the beginning of human civilization. Taming “fire” was the first great human achievement. In 1957 a ...

391. Breaking News: A World Gone Wild

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... . The immediate calls of an earthquake is a fault beneath the earth’s crust. The immediate calls of a tornado is an unstable atmospheric condition combined with warm moist air. The immediate calls of a hurricane is when a large air mass is heated and fueled by the warmth of the ocean. The ultimate cause of all things is God. The Bible makes that plain over and over and over. Who sent the plagues of Egypt and the hail and the darkness that drove a nation to its knees? Who caused the sun to stand still so ...

392. Love Sender

John 3:1-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... ’t deserve it. God doesn’t love you because you love Him back. As you are going to see, He doesn’t even love you because He sent Jesus to die for you. He sent Jesus to die for you, because He loves you. When you feel the sun’s warmth on your face it is God’s way of telling you He loves you. When you feel a cool mist of rain falling on you it is God’s way of saying He loves you. When you enjoy the beauty of a full moon on a clear night, it is ...

393. Poem: The First Spring Day

Eulogy

Christina Georgina Rossetti

... and spirit will find out their Spring, Or if the world alone will bud and sing: Sing, hope, to me; Sweet notes, my hope, soft notes for memory. The sap will surely quicken soon or late, The tardiest bird will twitter to a mate; So Spring must dawn again with warmth and bloom, Or in this world, or in the world to come: Sing, voice of Spring, Till I too blossom and rejoice and sing.

394. A Cry in the Dark

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... the icy claws of death. The voice shouted "Yes!" against the "No" of defeat and the gray "I don't know" of the moment. At that exact second, "a light was lit in a distant farmhouse." Like a beacon it called attention to itself. It spoke of life, warmth, family, and love. Frankl said that in that moment he began to believe. And in that moment he began to live again. Advent often reminds us of our similar need. The grayness of our bleak days is stifling. The loneliness of the moment overwhelms us. Is there a ...

395. Essential To Our Nature

Genesis 2:4-25, Genesis 3:1-24

Illustration

Abraham Kuyper

... life and beauty. Deprived of them, it remains not what it is; its nature loses its soundness, and this causes decay, mildew, and poisonous gases, which soon destroy it. “So of human nature: in Paradise, Adam was like the blooming plant, flourishing in the warmth and brightness of the Lord’s presence. By sin, he fled from that presence. The result was not merely the loss of light and heat, but since these were essential to his nature, that nature languished, drooped and withered. The mildew of corruption ...

396. The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers

Acts 15:22-35

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... but they had also been “handed over” to the care of God’s grace, 14:26; cf. 2 Tim. 1:12. For “the name,” see note on 2:38). The sufferings of the two missionaries in the course of their recent journey were evidently well known. Notice the warmth of the expression our dear friends Barnabas and Paul (v. 25; cf. the shaking of hands in Gal. 2:9; see disc. on v. 12 for the order of the names). Third, they authorized Judas and Silas, as representing the church in Jerusalem, to speak in support of what ...

397. Eutychus Raised from the Dead at Troas

Acts 20:7-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... Paul preached a sermon. He used “discussion” as the most convenient means of dealing with any difficulties they had (see disc. on 17:2). 20:8–10 The upstairs room where they were meeting was probably crowded (see note on 14:27), and what with the warmth of the crowd, the fumes of the lamps, and length of Paul’s sermon, a boy named Eutychus (the term rendered young man suggests that he was between eight and fourteen years old) got sleepier and sleepier, until he finally went sound asleep and fell to ...

398. Final Instructions

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... 6:19; Colossians 4:3f. (cf. also Heb. 13:18). See also 2 Corinthians 1:11 and Philippians 1:19 for the acknowledgement that others were praying for him. If his request shows an awareness of the weakness of his humanity, his calling the Thessalonians brothers evinces its warmth. See the discussion on 1:4 for this address as a measure of his affection for the Thessalonians. 5:26 The instruction Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss means, “Give them all a kiss from me” (cf. Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 ...

399. Trials and Temptations

James 1:1-18, James 1:19-27

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... and tests of commitment is wealth and how one uses it. There is no need to fear the rich—their end is at hand. 1:2 James addresses his readers as brothers, which means that he considers them members of the church in good standing. There is a warmth in his address that continues throughout the letter despite his criticism of them. He is one with his readers and shares their weaknesses, as he will show more graphically in 3:1–2. The readers are to consider it pure joy when they suffer trials of many kinds ...

400. Remember, O Lord, What Has Happened to Us

Lamentations 5:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

... of their husbands; they have become like widows in that their husbands have been deported to Babylon. In actuality probably both scenarios happened. Before the siege and conquest the staples of life were free—water to drink and wood with which to cook and provide warmth in the cold. Once the siege began there was limited water, only that which was stored within the riverless city of Jerusalem. Wood was on the hills surrounding the city, but not much could be found in the city walls. Those who pursue them ...

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