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 4276 to 4300 of 4963 results

4276. The Laughter Of Faith

Genesis 17:1-27, Genesis 18:1-15, Genesis 21:1-7

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

... Hebrews understands the story. Sarah's laughter has turned from the laughter of unbelief to the laughter of belief. She has heard the promise. She has conceived. She has given birth. She has believed it all. And she has laughed about it all. As Sarah is our witness, what better response can be given to this promise-making, promise-keeping Lord?

4277. Proper 19

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... an answer to the criticism of the scribes and Pharisees in v. 2 to the effect that Jesus "accepts" sinners. The parables indicate that God not only accepts sinners, but goes out of the way to seek them out and restore them, and that repentance is a response to that gracious divine initiative. The "until" (as opposed to "if") in vv. 4 and 8 suggests that God's pursuit in recovery of the lost is relentless. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive Let Me Be Yours Forever Oh, Sing ...

4278. Proper 26

Luke 19:1-10

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... and this narrative in particular point to God's grace, which breaks through human sin and guilt "to seek and to save the lost." Likewise, Zacchaeus' resulting act of extraordinary restitution to those he had wronged reflects the proper place of works as a gracious response to that prior divine grace. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns Love Divine, All Loves Excelling Wake, Awake, For Night Is Flying Lord Of Light If You But Trust In God To Guide You Before You, Lord, We Bow All Creatures Of Our God And ...

4279. Proper 27

Luke 20:27-40

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note Jesus' response here to the resurrection-denying Sadducees underscores the limitations of their collective religious imagination, which simply failed (1) to comprehend the radically different character of the new age that Jesus was announcing and (2) to discern the logical (and eschatological!) implications for believers in the "God of the living." Liturgical ...

4280. Proper 5

Luke 7:11-17

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... as prophet and connecting him to old Testament prophetic tradition. Here as there, however, the point is not merely to raise or reinforce the status of the one in that position, but to show the presence and power of God at work in him and his activity. The response of the people (v. 16), after all, is to glorify God. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns Jesus Sinners Will Receive Oh, For A Thousand Tongues To Sing Even As We Live Each Day Oh, Sing, My Soul, Your Maker's Praise From God Can Nothing Move Me ...

4281. Proper 8

Luke 9:51-56

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

... by the Samaritans (v. 53), Jesus issues some sobering statements on discipleship en route (vv. 57-62). Taken together they bespeak a very demanding prospect for his followers: rootlessness coupled with a radical readjustment of priorities, with claims that supersede even urgent familial responsibilities. Liturgical Color Green Suggested Hymns Even As We Live Each Day O God Of Mercy, God Of Light O God, Send Heralds When All Your Mercies, O My God O Jesus, I Have Promised! Forth In Thy Name O Lord, I Go ...

4282. When God Asks The Unreasonable

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... for the sake of the children. I decided I wanted my freedom." Children are a gift from God, but unlike many other gifts, they are not intended for our amusement. Children cannot be treated as toys or used as vents for our anger. We have a responsibility for those lives. Parental joy emanates from seeing children learn and grow. Their lives are not ours for the taking. Indeed, we sacrifice too many of our children. We no longer believe that the Lord God who created and sustains the world calls us to place ...

4283. What Do You Say To A Burning Bush?

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Steve Burt

... . I'm God. And I know, Moses, that you're a murderer and a fugitive. I know all about you. I'm God -- the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. I created you and all this mess. I take full responsibility. Now sit down, take off your shoes, Moses, and spend some time with me, will ya?" Holiness doesn't depend on the place's purity or the person's purity; it depends on the presence of God. After sitting a while, Moses is asked by his new-found friend God ...

4284. How Blest Are Those Who Know Their Need Of God

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... an astounding promise: "Because I love you, I will assume the impossibly steep cost of securing your final future, and I give that future to you freely, as a gift, now." Such a magnanimous and magnificent gift -- free and unearned -- engenders the free response of faith, love, trust and gratitude. And when that promise becomes part of us, an integral part of our identity, a working assumption underlying and undergirding our every act; when the promised future is something we can count on and eagerly await ...

4285. Running Around The Empty Tomb

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Thomas Long

According to the Gospel of John, the very earliest response to the event of the resurrection was not praise, stark terror, ecstatic dancing, paralyzed fear, unbridled joy, speechless astonishment, or exultant song -- but running. Yes, running. In the early morning hours of the first day of the week, as it begins to crack across human consciousness that something utterly unexpected ...

4286. God Deep In The Flesh

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Marc Kolden

... , transcendent, perhaps wrathful or judgmental, holy and unchanging, and so forth. Such a generic God is regularly invoked by everyone from politicians to witnesses in a courtroom, from those reciting the pledge of allegiance to those using profanity, from our response to someone who sneezes to the subject of highly abstract philosophical speculation. But such a god "up there" somewhere, largely unknown and increasingly irrelevant, is quite unlike the God of the Bible, the God whom we know above all in ...

4287. The Man From Galilee II: The Transformation Of His Call

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... followed Jesus. Without hesitation they followed Jesus and became His disciples. The three of them walked further along the northern shore of the lake until they came to other fishermen, James and John. Jesus called them also to become disciples. They made the same response as the first two, and they also followed Jesus immediately. The lives of those fishermen were never the same. It was true of all those men and women, young people and children who came under the influence of the life of Jesus. The call ...

4288. The Man From Galilee VI: The Tragedy Of His Victory

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... they had been away on a month-long trip, and I asked them how it went. He said, "It was fine. And while we were gone we did not hear a preacher anywhere as good as you are." I straightened up a bit and was trying to think of some response when he said, "We didn't hear any preacher at all. We didn't go to church." Just so many in Jerusalem were saying to Jesus, "We never heard anyone like you." Jesus had no trouble drawing a crowd. But it was not verbal support that He needed. Still today ...

4289. Gluttony - Living By Bread And The Word Of God

Mark 6:30-44, 1 Timothy 4:1-16

Sermon

R. Curtis Fussell

... because food can be seen as a way to make us feel happy. Eating can become a way for us to avoid or solve our problems. You can use food to divert your attention away from problems, instead of trusting in God and taking up a life of responsibility for your problems. Again, as in so many things, the problem is not the food itself; the problem is in the way we misuse food to numb ourselves to our problems, misusing food to fill our emptiness, looking to food to satisfy our loneliness. One reason food becomes ...

4290. Deadly Sins - A Matter Of Sutton's Law

Romans 7:14-25

Sermon

R. Curtis Fussell

... to others looks great on paper, but things aren't what they seem. I know how that happens with me. There have been times when my wife has reviewed one of my sermons, and then she makes the comment, "Great sermon, too bad you don't live it."9 My response has been, "Now come on, wait a minute." But it's true. We can talk the talk, we can know what's right and good and true, look great on paper, but do we live it? Sigmund Freud once said, "I have found little that is good about human beings ...

4291. Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

... . When his family tried to comfort him he refused to be comforted (Genesis 37:34). King David was able to move beyond the death of one child (2 Samuel 12:20-23), but the death of Absalom brought weeping and mourning so deep that he could not fulfill his responsibilities. He even cried out that he wished he had died in Absalom's place (2 Samuel 18:31-19:4). When Lazarus died and Jesus was with his sisters and other mourners, Jesus was so moved and disturbed that even he cried (John 11:33-34). In scripture ...

4292. Understanding The Holy Trinity

John 16:5-16

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... only a creature of God and not God, he could not reveal God nor redeem the world. Then the worship of Jesus as a creature would be idolatry. Athanasius, a bishop for 47 years in Alexandria, defended the concept of God as Trinity and is largely responsible for the defeat of Arius' views. A Council of 150 Eastern bishops condemned Arianism at Constantinople in 381. Since this was a Council of the East only, the entire church met in 451 at Chalcedon to confirm the Nicene Creed, which defeated the theology of ...

4293. Walked Away Without a Word

Illustration

John R. Brokhoff

Simon Wiesenthal spent many years searching for Nazi war criminals who were responsible for the holocaust. When he was a prisoner in a Nazi forced-labor camp, he was ordered to visit an SS trooper who was wounded and dying in a hospital. Knowing he was going to die, he wanted to clear his conscience by confessing his sins of shooting and burning ...

4294. It's Your Funeral

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

... "; the person's hobbies and membership in organizations; and maybe a word about the circumstances of his or her death. The Witness is more personal. We may speak of the deceased's courage or love or sense of humor or friendship or sense of responsibility or contributions to the community. In the sermon, we would speak about the promise of eternal life and the promise that those who mourn shall be comforted. These three sections can be divided among three speakers; perhaps a partner or a coworker could do ...

4295. Advent 2

Matthew 3:1-12, Isaiah 11:1-16, Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... off their problems on to others; it's not their fault because they are simply victims. This is not to deny that there are legitimate victims but to make the point that this rationalization has been gravely abused. People are loathe to accept responsibility for their own actions. This is a problem because there is no growth, no change, without honest self-awareness. Dr. John Brokhoff, who for years was professor of Homiletics at Chandler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia, tells how a man responded to ...

4296. Advent 4

Mt 1:18-25 · Rom 1:1-7 · Isa 7:10-17 · Ps 80

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... bliss. Instead, he's handed the embarrassment of a pregnant fianc‚ and the thankless job of caring for another's child. Come on, folks, let's hear it once for Joseph the Just, who humbly obeyed the message from God and faithfully discharged his responsibility as husband and father, rather than sluff it off as a bad dream. PREACHING POSSIBILITIES Lesson 1: Isaiah 7:10-17 Sermon Title: Sign Language. Sermon Angle: Since God is spirit, which cannot be apprehended through our senses, we must rely on signs ...

4297. Ascension

Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:36-49, Luke 24:50-53, Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... destiny. Ten years ago, Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop in that country made an ironic comment, which I recently heard on the radio. This is the sense of what he had to say. I'm 51 years of age and most people would say that I'm a reasonably responsible individual. Yet, I cannot vote. At the same time, a 19-year-old young man can vote simply because he's white. He shared how demeaning it was to be treated like children. The elderly and the infirm were given the privilege of being the first to exercise ...

4298. Ash Wednesday

Mt 6:1-6, 16-21 · 2 Cor 5:20 - 6:10 · Joel 2:1-2, 12-19 · Ps 51 · Ps 103

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... rend open our hearts to God so that he might fill us with his Spirit for the accomplishment of his will. Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20--6:10 Ambassadors. Paul pleads with the Corinthians: "So we are ambassadors for Christ ..." (v. 20a). It was the responsibility of the ambassador from Rome to bring the far-flung peoples of the empire into the Roman family of nations, by presenting the terms of peace. Paul conceives of his ambassadorship as having a much greater purpose, to bring people into the family of God ...

4299. Baptism of The Lord

Mt 3:13-17 ·Acts 10:34-48 · Is 42:1-9

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... is really about. The ancient Hebrews were no exception. They had long held that they were the chosen people but had lost sight of the purpose of that election. They were more tuned in to the privilege of their position rather than their responsibilities. The prophet of second Isaiah proclaimed powerfully that the Jews were favored by God, but that their privilege rested in being the Lord's servants. This servanthood was to be exercised with great humility and gentleness. "A bruised reed he shall not break ...

4300. The Honor Of A Limp

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

... Peck. In his book The Road Less Traveled, the first three printed words are these: "Life is difficult." Peck goes on to say that a quality life, a life that makes a difference, a life that has significance, demands personal sacrifice, the acceptance of responsibility, and a determined will. It is indeed a "road less traveled." Our story of Jacob at the Jabbok River provides a similar piece of advice: life is difficult and it is not generous to those who are timid and undetermined. Jacob, wrestling for a ...

Showing results