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 4426 to 4450 of 4770 results

4426. Reflecting God’s Abundant Love

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Molly F. James

... decisions based on what will make ourselves look good rather than what is best for all involved, we fail. The biggest issue here is what the Pharisee’s belief says about God. If what the Pharisee says is true, then God is capricious and vain. The Pharisee’s view is a theology of scarcity. It promotes the belief that God would not or cannot love both a Pharisee and a tax collector that God somehow loves us more when we are superior to our neighbors. No, that is not our God. Our God is a God of abundance ...

4427. The Hidden Treasure

Matthew 13:44

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... raccoons, have lived in it. The tree is vacant this year, and so I decided to take a look in it so that I could see how animals live in a tree. It took me quite a while to climb up the tree so that I could get a good view inside the hollow tree, but was it worth it! I know that I was not the first person to have climbed that tree because when I was feeling around with my hand inside I found something that I was never supposed to find. Of course maybe a pack rat took ...

4428. Saved By the Light

Isaiah 60:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... It is a symbol of a world without Christ. The sad nation of North Korea has been in the headlines in recent years. One writer has said that, if you want to really appreciate the contrast between darkness and light today, all you have to do is view nighttime satellite images of North and South Korea. South Korea is bathed in light, with its cities gleaming in the blackness, while North Korea, still primitive in so many ways, is dark. But it’s more than just the lack of visible light that makes North Korea ...

4429. Seeing God

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... your life makes sense to unbelievers, then you may need to question if your life is aligned with God’s will and God’s values. Read through the Bible, or through any biography of a great leader of God, and you’ll see that they viewed every moment of their lives as a God-opportunity. Every blessing was an opportunity to serve and glorify God, but so, then, was every heartache. Freedom provided an opportunity to serve and glorify God, but so did imprisonment. Good health and wealth provided opportunities ...

4430. Bless the World

Luke 6:20-31

Sermon

Molly F. James

... own children or grandchildren suffer, she had a choice. Her choice was to let that piece of news, that painful, horrible loss be the defining event of her life or to look around her and be grateful. If she chose the former it would be the lens through which she viewed the world and she would let tragedy define her. It would be a lens that would be a source of stress and worry. It would be an approach that would mean she would always be waiting for the other shoe to drop. It would be an approach that would ...

4431. Hosanna! Please Save Us!

Matthew 21:1-11, Matthew 26:14-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... conquer our selfish, greedy, violent human nature and work together for the sake of God’s glory. Historian Gene Smith wrote the book When the Cheering Stopped about President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following World War I. President Wilson was viewed as an international hero by the end of the war. This was the war, after all, that was fought to make the world safe for democracy and many people believed that day was at hand. In December 1918, President Wilson was greeted by cheering ...

4432. The Proof is in the Roof

Luke 5:17-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and I’m not sure when, the staircase replaced the roof as the vehicle for conspicuous decoration. Then the final removal of the roof from any significance in the west came with modernist buildings, which looked like boxes or filing cabinets. Roofs disappeared from view, and roofscapes lost their beauty and their meaning. Back to our story. Jesus welcomed the entry of the man through the roof. Neither Jesus nor the house owner seemed to care that pieces of clay and mud were falling on their heads. Neither ...

4433. The Master's Voice

Matthew 13:53-58, Mark 6:1-6, Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... you trip the trigger, it will lead to a life of imprisonment, isolation, and despair. When Jesus speaks to you, can you hear him? Or do you only see the limitations of your own small world? When Jesus speaks, he will spin your world, change your views, alter your life –if you choose to hear him. We talk a lot in our culture about “finding our own voice.” We talk little about “finding God’s voice within you.” We seldom talk about “hearing God’s voice” and listening to the Shepherd’s voice ...

4434. Scandal

Matthew 16:21-28, Matthew 17:14-23, Matthew 20:17-19, Matthew 26:1-5

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... understand. But they don’t. Perhaps they don’t want to understand. Perhaps denial is so much easier for them to bear. Is it that they don’t want to lose their rabbi, their master? Or is it something more? Has he disappointed them? Has he challenged their view of what the messiah should be? The gnawings of doubt begin to creep in, even as they claim to recognize who he is. And Jesus knows it. Did you ever try to be disciplined on a healthy diet. And everyone around you gives you a hard time, saying ...

4435. God Gives the Pharisees the Finger!

John 7:25-44, John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Mount of Olives. At daybreak, he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?’ They asked him this as a test ...

4436. Sparkle

Luke 4:31-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Jesus does not seem to come onto his radar, so much so, that at the time of his trial, Herod would pass him on, finding no crime in him. Matthew also saws that Jesus “withdrew” to Galilee (to Capernaum). He didn’t just decide on a “lake view” home; he may have been in hiding.^ *For more information, see the Book of Wisdom by Solomon, vii20, in which he receives power from God over demons; see also the Jewish Virtual Library and the Jewish Encyclopedia. Demons were said to live in graveyards and in ...

4437. The Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him," declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 31:20) Whereas last week, we looked at Jesus’ view of “defilement” in terms of foreigners, this week, Jesus talks with Jewish law keepers about what it means to be a “neighbor.” The neighbor Jesus is referring to is Samaria, physical neighbor to Judaea, but completely despised for both their alteration of ...

4438. The Infiltrator

John 10:1-21, John 10:22-42

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... they are deemed to care for? Who are the real criminals? Who are the true outsiders? Who is the real Infiltrator? The answer lies perhaps in Solomon’s Porch. Situated on the eastern side of Herod’s Temple, the elegant colonnade with its awe-inspiring view from the eastern cliff of Mt. Moriah was named after King Solomon and was built upon the sole remaining part of the original Temple from Solomon’s day. From the foundations of the Temple, Herod would build a new Temple –a larger, more expansive ...

4439. Translucent Grace

Mark 9:2-13, Luke 9:28-36, Revelation 1:9-20, Revelation 2:12-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... one of the most devoted persons in the church. Secretly, however, he was undermining the rule and reign of Christ. How? By intimidating those who did not agree with him, by making unilateral decisions, by stiff-arming anyone who wanted to serve but had differing views. The most vocal “leader” of the church, he led the church in the direction he deemed it should go, convinced that neither the pastor nor the rest of the congregation had as much sense in that regard as he had. The church followed his lead ...

4440. Sycamore Blues

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , and put a leg up into a nearby Sycamore (or Sycamine) tree, a large shade tree with abundant leaves and low-lying strong branches that grew by the side of the roadways outside of Jericho. Was he trying to stay out of sight? Or simply trying to get a better view? We can’t be entirely sure. But I can tell you that the story reminded me of one told to me by my father, who lived on a farm when he was a young boy. Whenever he found he had done something he shouldn’t have, he would crawl underneath ...

4441. Sim Lev!

Mark 13:1-31, Mark 13:32-37, Matthew 24:1-35, Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... clues will be the triggers that remind and refresh her soul of the love that she’s never lost but which is right there for her to embrace. Understanding the relationships that make her life valuable creates for her an exquisitely beautiful new view of her home and family, free of simplistic dichotomies and shadowy misunderstandings. The story? Your “dream come true” may already be in your own backyard. [Hold up the ruby slippers.] For Dorothy, the clue to her identity lies in her ruby slippers --a ...

4442. Joey and Nicky at Skull Mountain

Mark 15:42-47

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... place where criminals were crucified. His disciples would find out only in the morning when word spread. Except for Peter, who surreptitiously hung out in the High Priest Ananus’ courtyard trying to listen in. He followed from a distance, careful to keep out of view. But when he saw Jesus had been set for crucifixion, in horror, he ran to tell the others. Two of Jesus’ secret disciples were members of the Sanhedrin. They had conveniently been left out of the illegal trial, and only found out later what ...

4443. The Good Husband

Isaiah 54:1-17, Isaiah 55:1-13, Isaiah 56:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a man gives a woman a ring, it is a gift of promise, a “downpayment” on a future marriage. In the scriptures, several “arrabons” are also given to non-Jewish people, as promises of inclusion. Jesus’ mission to the gentiles is based in both his view of God’s people, and the Hebrew history, which includes a compassion even for those who have become lost from God for one reason or another. For an image exegesis on the “arrabon,” the gift of promises of something important to come (including the ...

4444. House of God

Ephesians 2:1-10, Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of Jesus! You don’t have to be alike to be in common. In fact, it’s much more beautiful to be different “in common,” to celebrate a community of difference, to live in the creative tension, the beautiful tension that comes from differing ideas, views, thoughts, and even feelings. As long as everyone worships the same Jesus! And agrees that He is Lord. That’s the only thing you need to have –Jesus Christ as your foundation! And a firm foundation can be built, some of the best foundations are ...

4445. Holy Goat!

Leviticus 16:1-34, John 20:24-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , or discouragement. These are not errors worthy of punishment. But they are a part of the human condition, which can at times, keep us locked in cycles of anxiety or depression, keep us from intimate relationships, separate us from our truth, keep us confined to a smaller view of God than what is true and available to us. Sin is anything that separates us from God. It can be a “wall” we build, a cave we hide in (or a locked room), or the false conceptions that we clothe ourselves in that keep us from ...

4446. Via Maris

Luke 4:14-30, Matthew 4:12-17, Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:23-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... not just with working class Jews but with Greek traditions and builders and Roman soldiers (centurions). For the people who lived there, the Via Maris was the “via prosus” –the way forward to good jobs, abundant living, cultural tolerance, and an exclusive view of the world outside of Israel. For Jesus, this was prime mission field –the “frontier” for his mission to the gentiles. But not just any gentiles. These were the “lost sheep of Israel” –those lost from the tribes of the north. This ...

4447. We Will Be Changed

Ezekiel 37:1-14, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... unfair names that slash us leave breaks and scars until sometimes, we can start to become defined by our brokenness instead of by the wholeness of who we truly are. Ever know someone with a limp, or a disability? People will often tell you, people view them not for their personalities, but for their disabilities. When people look at them, they don’t see George or Helen. People see wheelchair or Parkinson’s or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Or worse, they see “fear” and “different.” But we all know, no ...

4448. You Are What You Wear

Luke 24:1-12, Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... is your statement. Your dress is your address. Style is a statement about who you are and what you stand for, a form of visual and tangible identity that flags the viewer to a specific image you want to create, the way you want to be “viewed” and seen in the world. Your clothing is your credo. What you wear on the outside is an indicator of the identity you claim on the inside. As actions reveal motives, so too does your fashion reveal your feelings, your motif, your intentions, your personality, your ...

4449. The Pardoning of Jezebel

Mark 7:24-30, 1 Kings 9:10-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ” by family and friends alike. By disowned, I mean, banned by one’s entire community: family, friends, relatives –everyone. It’s a severe form of punitive judgment sentenced by the elders of the church or pastor. It’s usually based in a view of scripture that puts punishment and a lot of rules and regulations (often created by the church ordering council) before forgiveness and grace. If you know “shunning” from personal experience, you know the kind of emotional torture this kind of punitive ...

4450. Star Maker

Matthew 2:1-12, Psalm 19:1-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , Starry Night.” Today, that painting is named his “magnum opus.” He wrote in a letter prior in 1888 that the “great starlit vault of heavens is what we commonly call God.” I can’t help but believe that for the struggling artist, that star-filled nighttime view of Saint-Remy-de-Provence was for Van Gogh a sign of beauty and hope in the otherwise dark landscape of his pain-filled soul. If a painting could represent a paradox of darkness and hope, this masterpiece by Van Gogh says it all. Take a ...

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