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 4501 to 4525 of 4943 results

4501. As Long As It Is Day!

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... of their ship is more dangerous to them than the storm on the outside. So it is with people. Problems within are often much more destructive to us than the problems without. Today, God's word would take us "below decks" to look inside ourselves concerning the whole matter of forgiveness. Everybody's In Debt! In the text, Jesus tells us of a king who decides to settle accounts with his servants. One man is brought before him who owes 10,000 talents. The modern equivalent would be about ten million dollars ...

4502. What If the End Is Near?

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... in his work. I believe he still asks us to take our lights and put them in dark places. But I also believe he doesn't usually ask us to do it alone. In the text, ten people were asked to provide light. As far as God's work is concerned today it is still a community project. He calls groups of us together to be the light of the world! What task does God have for you? For us? What does the Lord want us to do? According to the Bible, he is calling us to repent of our sins ...

4503. True Reformation

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified!" That is the truth; not circumcision and rules about food. At the time of what is called the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the problem again was a loss of focus on Christ. The western church had become so concerned with the human response to God's grace, with the need for people to do good works and the difficulties of living a holy life, that many Christians no longer felt that they could trust completely, with 100 percent assurance, in Jesus Christ, for ...

4504. Faith's Curious Dynamic

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... because you won't see him as often. * Or you are pleased to see your daughter becoming a responsible young woman but are sad because you won't have the little girl around the house any longer. * Or maybe you are eager to get married and start a family, but concerned that once you do, you won't be able to pursue every whim or opportunity that comes along. * Imagine what it is like to be one of those people waiting for a heart transplant. On the one hand, you are hoping for a heart to become available, but on ...

4505. The Process of Love

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... alone. I'll go to sleep now." Still the woman rattled on. "Oh, I do hope it is not raining in Baltimore!" I thought to myself, "Lady, who cares?" On and on, she talked. So finally I sat up and politely inquired, "Why are you flying to Baltimore and so concerned with the weather?" That's when she told me her husband was dead, his casket was in the jet's storage, and his graveside funeral would be in Baltimore. So she was hoping for good weather. I asked God to give me strength to listen to her for an hour ...

4506. Predictable Surprises

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of the Matthean community. These were first-century Christians struggling to establish their identity and learning about faithfulness as the years since Jesus' crucifixion continued to slip by. Apocalypticism can be defined as the learning and lore of sages and scholars concerning the consummation of time, the coming Day of the Lord, the return of the Son of Man. Apocalypticism wasn't new to first-century religious communities. But expecting the eschaton had also become a pitfall and a pratfall for some of ...

4507. Three Ways to Know a Saint

Sermon

King Duncan

... what constitutes a saint. And I doubt that we could get together on a list of the top ten saints, especially if we omitted the original twelve Apostles. What is it that makes a saint in the first place? Is it personal virtue and discipline? Or is it concern for the poor and the outcast? Is a saint pious and austere? Or is a saint merry and outgoing? We have had examples throughout history of both. St. Peter of Alcantara was a Franciscan monk of the early sixteenth century. For almost 40 years, he slept no ...

4508. Prime Time Waiting

2 Peter 3:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the talker to reveal more or say what they really need to say, without cutting off any directions the dialogue may take. The listener learns to make comments back to the speaker that confirm what is being said and that affirm the feelings and concerns being voiced by the speaker. Skilled active listeners can gently lead the speaker towards the heart of what may be troubling them, and can help others discover what it is they really want to say. Bad active listeners end up sounding like parrots - pointlessly ...

4509. Trip Questions

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the other side [of the road. Finally a man of another race came by. He got down form his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy . . . Jesus ended up saying this was the good man, because he had the capacity to project the 'I' into the 'thou' and be concerned about his brother. . . He did not ask the question, 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' He reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'" If you don't stop to help, who will? And what ...

4510. A High FLOSS Church

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... today's epistle text Paul argues that there's so much that unites believers, that ties the church community together, that to argue over our differences isn't only pointless but is theologically wrong. From the twenty-first century Paul's first century concerns about diet and day observances may seem obscure and meaningless. But the rituals and rites that set groups apart, that kept one part of a community from sitting down at table with another part of the community, were serious, identifying, and divisive ...

4511. Gross Personality Disorder

Romans 12:9-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... other day its one bumper sticker caught my eye. Instead of touting some political agenda or declaring some constitutional right, this plain little sticker read simply: "I hope that you reach your destination safely." At first I though, "How nice!" What an other-focused, concerned message to have as your car's logo. But as traffic started up and we all began to pull forward, I realized the profound minimalization of that message. "I hope you reach your destination safely" easily can be edited to read "I'm ...

4512. Live and Learn

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... God's people. Jesus' declaration "It's not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" depicts a household image that this woman instantly recognizes. She knows that ALL who reside in a householder's home are his responsibility and his concern. If Jesus refers to the Canaanite woman, to all he people, as mere house dogs in God's household, to her that means they're indeed part of the family. She hears inclusion, not exclusion, for house dogs are a welcomed part of the household. A householder ...

4513. God Will Take Care of You

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... found are barley loaves, the cheapest, coarsest kind of bread made - in other words, the bread of the poor. But this simple sustenance is what kept people going. In Jesus' day the daily bread was the difference between a full belly and clutching hunger. The disciples' concern for the crowd's need for bread, for simple basic food at the end of a long day, was realistic and sensible. Out there at night in that deserted place all would go hungry. Yet Jesus' reply to the disciples demand that he send the crowds ...

4514. Why Not a Christian Live 8 for the Environment?

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 's Summit on Poverty" than it was a musical event - should remind the church of her activist heritage. Yet in the 21st century it seems that the church has lost its interest in the "service unites" slogan. Indeed, it seems we're increasingly concerned with heightening the "doctrine divides" distinctions . . . all in the name of truth. We've grown so enamored of itemizing the numbers of doctrinal issues Christians DISAGREE about that we have grown indifferent to all that unites us. No one was more aware of ...

4515. Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... all those carefully acquired things can vanish. If things were the only measure of our lives' value, that value could easily be obliterated. Today's epistle lesson addresses the church in Ephesians with a prayer of thanksgiving. But the text is far more concerned with precisely detailing what God has done for believers than it is with itemizing the good characteristics of these Ephesians. The value of the lives of these faithful followers isn't found in the good deeds they have accumulated, but in what God ...

4516. Celebrity Culture

Psalm 95:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... at Meribah and Massah, and reminds all who worship that God demands and deserves faithfulness. As God's own protected sheep we're expected to return the comfort of God's eternal presence with our own day-by-day faith in God's care and concern for us. That first generation's petulant impatience with God stranded them in the wilderness. It was a true wilderness, for they were locked outside of what God called "my rest." This rest was defined by the next generation of Israel as the promised land ...

4517. Soren's Heart

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... wide. These words were a blessing and protection for the person who wore them. These silver scrolls "preserve the earliest known citations of texts also found in the Hebrew Bible and that they provide us with the earliest examples of confessional statements concerning Yahweh" (John Noble Wilford, "Solving a Riddle Written in Silver," The New York Times, 28 September 2004, F1.). (You may want to pass out little amulets this morning with this prayer on it to remind your people to pray without ceasing.) In ...

4518. Quarterback 101

Jeremiah 32:1-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... once again stand tall and strong and secure. There are two distinct types, two unique roles people of faith can play in the world. Leaders can be priests. Or leaders can be prophets. A priest reaches out to where people are, attending to their daily needs, immediate concerns, day-to-day challenges. A prophet reaches out to where people aren't, but where they need to go in order to bring God's kingdom into this world. Priests can have a rough time of it when they tell it like it is - forcing individuals and ...

4519. The FUD Club: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... cherry-picking verses first from the opening lines of the letter (vv.1-5), then landing on the concluding remarks of this first section (vv.13-17). This edited reading of 2:1-17, however, does succeed in focusing on the author’s primary concern throughout this letter—-namely, that wrong and disturbing teachings about the “day of the Lord” and “the lawless one” were circulating in the community, and that the faithful must return to genuine apostolic truth. What is “The Day of the Lord?” After ...

4520. An Uncomfortable Comforter

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... until the eighteenth century, long after Durer's death, Sir Walter Scott was one of the first novelists to use it this new way when he wrote, 'Let it freeze without, we are comfortable within.' Later meanings of the word were almost exclusively concerned with contentment, often of a thermal variety: 'comforter' in secular Victorian England no longer referred to the Redeemer, but to a long woolen scarf; today it describes a quilted bed coverlet." (Witold Rybczynski, Home: A Short History of an Idea [New York ...

4521. If the Shoe Fits, Wear It

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... appear to have significantly different shoe needs. But not since Ferdinand and Imelda fled the Philippines leaving its economy in tatters and a closet stuffed with over 4,000 shoes has footwear been the focus of so much attention and concern. Now we have people smuggling explosives on airplanes in their shoes. Shoes have become the secret weapons of terrorists. The newest security response to this threat – searching traveler's shoes at airports – even revealed some new information to me. My beloved ...

4522. Let the River Flow

Colossians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , talks about several of the most popular approaches to spirituality today. Crabb's synopsis explores several models for living in today's culture. Let's examine 4 of these concepts. 1. Do what is right approach – which is a moralistic model that concerns itself with actions more than intentions. 2. Fix what is wrong approach – which offers a therapeutic model that assumes we can both pinpoint our shortcomings and then correctly address them. 3. Get what is missing approach – which is added by one of ...

4523. Missing the Mark

1 Samuel 8:1-22

Sermon

Charles Allo

... might be. After I broke up with Candice, I drove away and immediately every value that made that decision was immediately weighed and counted in my heart. My values of fear and control outweighed the inner competing desires of relationship and peace spent from knowledge given by God concerning the situation. I rejected what I knew to be, to what I held to be. My life caught up to the underlying fears that I held within. It was only a matter of time. I ended what could be for the fear of what might be. It is ...

4524. Set Life Free

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... – these are the reasons gardeners sow in the first place. Jesus, the sower in today's parable, likewise sows to reap. Those that offer just enough room in their heart and soul to let the word lodge and start to sprout, but who show no interest or concern to nurture it along, will not be able to sustain the new shoot of life. It will wither away from neglect. Only those seeds that find their way into deep fertile soil, only those seeds whose roots spread out and stalks grow tall towards the sun, will ...

4525. Straw Polls and Soul Quakes

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , and is ostentatious, young in spirit. · The Straw Spooner uses a straw as a spoon to consume foam/whipped cream off top of beverage, and is expressive, outgoing, and sensual. · The Straw Maintainer uses a straw so lipstick won't smudge. They're concerned with appearance. Self-love, a bit narcissistic. · The Straw Twister is vigorous in expression, and animated. · The Straw Refuser will not, under any circumstances, use a straw, and is a bit of a maverick. This is a masculine trait. · The Straw Multi ...

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