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 426 to 450 of 666 results

426. The Most Powerful Word

John 13:31-35

Illustration

Margaret Guenther

... given us to each other as brother and sister. We glared at each other and marveled at her naiveté. The idea of loving somebody because we were supposed to boggled our minds. We have cheapened love by using the word carelessly. We have confused the sentimentality of the Hallmark card with the deep, dark mystery of love that is manifested for us in the incarnate Christ. Yes, love can be warm, enfolding and sheltering. Yes, love can feel good. But love can also be strong and difficult. It can be an impossible ...

427. A Guide for Growth

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... about the Christian walk. Recall verse 2 of Ephesians 5: “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given him self for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God We need that – desperately – not the mushy kind of sentiment that often goes under that name, not the sensuous sex neurosis of the Playboy variety, not the coddling, indulgencies of undisciplined, irresponsible relationships. But discerning love – love that grows richer and richer in knowledge and insight. The kind of love Jesus defined ...

428. On the Road with Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

James W. Moore

... was trying to figure out how to apologize when… Ali McGraw interrupted him and said those words that became the marketing theme for that movie. She said to him: “Love means never having to say ‘I’m sorry’!” Now, that sounds great… has a nice, sentimental ring to it… and evidently it drew people to the box office, but there’s only one thing wrong with it… It’s just not true! That phrase “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”… ranks right up there with “sticks and stones ...

429. Being and Doing as the People of God

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... psychologist had his notebook with all the notes he had taken on the books and articles written by Altheiser, Hamilton, and others. The self- styled atheist was equipped with a strong ego of “the man come of age” who had no need for the sentimental religion of which he had once been a professional proponent. The three minister all rather defensive and uncertain had put on their buckles of truth and their great shields of faith were well polished and obviously displayed. The discussion went on for about ...

430. One to Take the Place of Jesus

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... is only one test of love, and that test is obedience. It was by his obedience that Jesus showed his love of God; and it is by our obedience that we must show our love to Jesus. C.K. Barrett says: ‘John never allowed love to devolve into a sentiment or emotion. Its expression is always moral and is revealed in obedience.’ We know all too well how in life there are those who protest their love in words, and who use the outward actions of love, but who, at the same time, bring pain and heartbreak to those ...

431. The Gospel Through the Person

Galatians 4:8-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the person and the personal, that limitations do not have to limit us – and now a third lesson. III Paul showed us that we can be tough yet tender. Paul loved the Galatians. He saw them as his spiritual children. This was no surface bond, no sentimental affection. It was the kind of love that was tender, but tough. Integrity was preserved in the honesty of an open and trusting relationship. Try to feel the depth of that relationship. “If it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and ...

432. The World Is Our Parish

John 3:16-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... more endure, the saints and angels song." Let us never forget even in our anger and our fear, that God himself, by his very nature, is a God of love. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son," says the Text. This love of God is not sentimental, but sacrificial. This love of God is not mushy, but masterful. This love of God is not easy; it is astounding. Sometimes critics of religion say, “Get real." Sometimes I say in response, "How real do you want us to get?" The Son of God was beaten like a ...

433. Facing Our Fears with Faith

Matthew 10: 27-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... morning when I climb the steps to this pulpit, I'm still scared to death. I am not afraid of you and I am not really afraid of failing. I fear disappointing God, of making Good News, simply boring news, of turning salvation into sentimentality, and somehow making spiritual transformation some trivial pursuit of churchology. Sometimes our inadequacies leave us afraid. Sometimes we are Suspicious about the Future. It is a wild and weary world, at times. In my profession, I stand beside a lot of nervous grooms ...

434. Furnishing It with Love

1 John 4:7-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms? I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms. IV. LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER The love of which I speak is neither the erotic passion of sex nor the sentimental ties of family. Christian love is the determination to do good, and not good only, but the highest good possible. Christians coined a word for it. They called it agape. We can aspire to that kind of love because we have been loved in that sort of way. I ...

435. Encountering Incomparable Riches

Ephesians 2:4-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . Life is God's precious gift to us. The Choice is Ours. The love of God is such that he will not force himself upon us. That's why I cannot believe in the doctrine of universalism—the notion that the grace of God saves everyone. Grace is not sentimental. It is not cheap. It is resistible. While it is the will of God for all to be saved, our freedom is such that we can choose our own destiny. Which will it be for you? Deal or no deal? Repentance or resistance? Salvation or stubbornness? III. CONSIDER THE ...

436. Loving Our Enemies, Christian or Crazy?

Matthew 5:43-47

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... nervous about this sermon. You sent me emails warning me not to go soft on sin, weak on wrong, passive about the problems of our day. I appreciate that, but it also tells me how little we understand the nature of Christian love making; it's something as sentimental as Valentine candy, or the smell of Mother's Day flowers, or apple pie, or the 4th of July. Jesus resisted evil with all his might and taught his disciples to do likewise. On the day evil nailed Him to a cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them ...

437. Every Man Our Neighbor

Luke 10:25-37

Illustration

John Wesley

Let us go and do likewise, regarding every man as our neighbor who needs our assistance. Let us renounce that bigotry and party-zeal which would contract our hearts into an insensibility for all the human race, but a small number whose sentiments and practices are so much our own, that our love to them is but self-love reflected. With an honest openness of mind, let us always remember the kindred between man and man; and cultivate that happy instinct whereby, in the original constitution of our nature, God ...

438. Leaping Where You Cannot Look

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... gone! Who among you is ready to step into their legacy and defend freedom? Who is prepared to take the place of our ancestors and become great, in the name of God, and this great nation once again?” Former President Adams was expressing the same sentiment as the writer of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews cites his ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and later in this same chapter Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Rahab and Gideon and all the great heroes of the Bible who stepped forward when the times demanded ...

439. and Forgiveness Come Easy When You’re Filled with The Spirit

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... heart of the person who did us wrong.3 It's like we have to do something first in order for God to bless us or before God gets involved in forgiving. Forgiveness, like life itself, is a burden, if Reverend Warren is correct. I understand the sentiments of Rick Warren here to stress the importance and value of forgiveness, but I wonder what happened to the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, I wonder what happened to Christian freedom and the joy of living. Remember Jesus' emphases. He linked the Holy Spirit ...

440. Sick People Like Us Will Always Need The (Divine) Doctor

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... can get better," the most influential preachers in America say. What do you think? I'll tell you what it does to me. It lays guilt on me, and yet the American in me who wants to do for myself and improve myself likes it. In a way, those are sentiments not unlike the Pharisees expressed in the confrontation with Jesus. The desire to suppress the seedy side of our human nature, to act as if we were not really that bad, or at least that we could get better, is part of the baggage you and I carry as a ...

441. A Match Made in Heaven

Genesis 29:15-28

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... interesting faces that I get to see is the face of the bride's father. In our tradition, there is that moment, just after the procession, when the father of the bride stands in the front, situated between his daughter and her husband-to-be. I am just sentimental enough that I always find that picture to be a very lovely and poignant one. "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" That is the picture with which our Old Testament reading ends. Laban gave Jacob his daughter, Rachel, to be Jacob's wife ...

442. Football Versus Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... . When you love someone, you love that person all the time, the way God loves us. Even if the person makes a mistake, you love that person anyway, because God wants us to love all the time. The differences between love and football aren’t just sentiments made up by greeting card companies. They’re found in the Bible! Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, wrote about love in a very famous set of verses that you’ve probably heard read at a wedding. (Show the card stock with the printed scripture ...

443. Delicate Repentance

Matthew 3:1-12

Illustration

Henry Ward Beecher

When a man undertakes to repent toward his fellowmen, it is repenting straight up a precipice; when he repents toward law, it is repenting into the crocodile's jaws; when he repents toward public sentiment, it is throwing himself into a thicket of brambles and thorns; but when he repents toward God, he repents toward all love and delicacy. God receives the soul as the sea the bather, to return it again, purer and whiter than he took it.

444. Peace and Goodwill: Changing Our Attitudes

Matthew 3:1-12

Illustration

King Duncan

... . "Sergeant," he replied, "you'd get a bullet through your head the moment you stepped over the stone wall onto the plain." "Yes, sir," answered Kirkland, "I know that, but if you let me, I'm willing to try it." The General responded, "The sentiment which prompts you is so noble that I will not refuse your request. God protect you. You may go." Quickly the South Carolinian hurdled the wall and immediately exposed himself to the fire of every Yankee sharpshooter in that sector. Kirkland walked calmly toward ...

445. Was There No Other Way?

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

King Duncan

... TO PAY. Think of Stephen as the stones rip his flesh, and Peter as he dies crucified upside down. Many of the followers of Jesus were burned as torches in Nero’s gardens or torn apart by wild animals in the gladiator’s arena. Only a soft, sentimental unrealistic faith would conjure the supposition that there was any other way for Jesus but the way of the cross. This is a hard world. The affluence and security of our land shelter us from that truth. Many people through the ages have given their lives for ...

446. Because I Live (Memorial Day)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me . . .” (emphasis added). The love we have in Christ is not a sentimental, mushy feel-good experience that says we are free to do our own thing. Love for Christ is expressed through obeying his commands. We are soldiers in Christ’s army in the war against every form of sin and injustice. That is what gives our lives meaning and purpose ...

447. When Words Are Not Enough

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... I lived in London, I was working with a friend, Alan Power, on a film about people living rough in the area around Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Station. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song — sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads — and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet." This was not ultimately used in the film and I was given all the unused sections of tape, including this one. When I played it at ...

448. When the Impossible Becomes Imminently Possible!

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... , that king was saying that he did not want to be bothered with his own son. "Send him away!" How far different that is from the King of kings who never tires of us and always has time for us! Too many men in our generation echo the sentiments of that earthly king when it comes to providing spiritual leadership for their children: "Leave it to my wife," they say. In a similar way, thousands who call themselves friends of the church do a naked nothing to support Christ's work through the church. They forfeit ...

449. I’ve Got a Home in that Kingdom

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... we can take care of ourselves. Paul talked about this power of love, this mutuality, this connectedness in his first letter to the Corinthians, in his famous "love" chapter (1 Corinthians 13). I used to understand the love of this thirteenth chapter as sweet and sentimental and often unrealistic. I've come to learn, however, that this kind of loving is a harsh taskmaster that requires us, and indeed will motivate us, to go into places in ourselves and in the world where we never imagined that we could or ...

450. Jesus Prepared the Way

Illustration

Staff

George McDonald wrote to his sorrowing wife when their daughter died. He began by telling her that she wouldn't find consolation in lovely but empty sentiments that he called "pleasant fancies of a half-held creed." He then pointed out that the Great Shepherd had gone before and prepared the way for their daughter. McDonald reminded her that they were both moving along day by day toward that same destination. In closing, he said, "We seek ...

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