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 4576 to 4600 of 4947 results

4576. Other Voices

John 10:11-18

Illustration

John M. Braaten

... they don't know where they are or where they are going. That can be more than a little frightening; it leads to despair, to hopelessness. And when someone is "sick" they will follow anyone who will promise a moment of happiness, a brief feeling of peace or forgetfulness, a sense that they are someone. But the call of Jesus the Good Shepherd is, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." There is no better way, no greater truth, no happier life. Our Lord reaches out to us in love that we might follow him.

4577. Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... Gamliel, one of the premier scholars of his day. Nicodemus was an educated man, yet his education had not brought him ultimate fulfillment. Master, something is wrong. I have been to the very best church affiliated schools, yet my heart is heavy. I need a sense of direction. I am confused. Which way do I turn? There are educated people out there today that are not looking for more theories--they are looking for what John Wesley called the religion of the warmed heart. Jesus said: Nicodemus, you must be born ...

4578. Slim Pickings

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... finish with enthusiasm what we have begun. Collect We want our ventures to reflect our desire to be better Christians. We want to be more loving, more giving, and more like Jesus. Amen. Prayer of Confession What can we do, O God, those times we sense the plethora of need yet are caught in droopy enthusiasm? Help us accept that abundance of spirit fluctuates and needs our patience just as our tangible resources at times slip into a spell of slim pickings. Help us to continue stretching our soul, our talents ...

4579. Little Ado

Mark 6:1-6

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... and expertise appear worthless, wasted. Then, when human hope wilts, it is time to remember God's hope for us. Come, let us worship the God of hope. Collect Let your awareness of our value, O gracious One, be a contagious lure that invites us to rediscover our sense of worth and validity. Let your faith in us empower our fortitude and rekindle our daring. Amen. Prayer of Confession Dear God, when we do our best but are not appreciated, help us to give up and let go and move on. Keep us from wasting more ado ...

4580. Growing Up

Ephesians 4:1-16

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... speaking to each other in a manner that champions each of us and encourages a graceful way of being the church together. Collect: In response to your generosity, O God, we hope to lead lives worthy of our calling. In reply to your calling for a sense of oneness in your church, we reach toward a goal of unity of faith. Through your Spirit. Amen. Prayer of Confession: We recognize, gracious God, that the maturing of our spiritual nature is an ongoing process of growth. We ask for courage and strength as we ...

4581. What?

John 6:56-69

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... to you wanting to take you into our lives. We want to receive nourishment and sustenance as rich as the food that builds and rebuilds the cells of our bodies. Be life to us, O God. Amen. Prayer of Confession Some teachings just do not make any sense, God. We think we comprehend you, then realize we are trying to take your words literally and that is not what you meant at all. We become discouraged and move closer to disbelief. Your symbols and parables and metaphors are at once confusing yet clear as they ...

4582. Christmas Every Day

John 1:1-18

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... Is Christ expressed. Is it a beatific smile? A holy light upon your brow? Oh, no! I felt his presence while You laughed just now. For me ‘twas not the truth you taught, To you so clear, to me so dim, But when you came to me you brought A sense of him. And from your eyes he beckons me And from your heart his love is shed, Till I lose sight of you - and see The Christ instead."

4583. Christ and Time

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... concept of time with a purpose, fulfilled time, God’s time. "When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son." The New Testament in its original Greek uses two different words for two concepts of time. One is chronos, time in its ordinary sense of sequence and duration. But there is another kind of time, for which the New Testament uses the word kairos, time which cannot be measured by clocks or calendars but by the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Thus when our Lord began his ministry, he announced ...

4584. His Baptism and Ours

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... the mother of John, as a kinswoman of Mary, the mother of Jesus. John knew the character of him who had grown up "in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." And now when Jesus asks him for baptism, John has something still more than the sense of reverence that one feels in the presence of a person of spiritual power. He had begun to feel, although he was still uncertain and hesitant, that this Jesus was none other than the one who was to come, the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. John ...

4585. The Word of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... look into our own hearts, we find that "we were there when they crucified the Lord." Consider first the judge who condemned Jesus to death, the man who remains pilloried in the creed: "crucified under Pontius Pilate." He is not a wicked man. He has a sense of Roman justice. He affirms Jesus’ innocence and tries to wash his hands clean of the guilt of condemning an innocent man to death. But he is a superficial man. "What is truth?" he says, implying that he is not interested in such abstractions but only ...

4586. The Fulfilled Promise

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... not many, therefore saints, meaning Christian believers, are to be found only in the one universal communion of saints. This is the great truth being rediscovered in the present ecumenical century. Such is the message of Pentecost. It imbues the church with a high sense of destiny as it discloses the vital role entrusted to the church in the fulfillment of God’s purpose. It supplants our morbid brooding over what is wrong with the church with a positive affirmation of what is right with the church when it ...

4587. The Dynamic Word

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... green and red lights, robots that automatically reach for the morning newapaper, the cigarette, the television dial. But the hollowness within is compensated by frenzied but meaningless activity on the surface. Kierkegaard’s description of the man who lives only by the physical senses fits many modern men: He sticks his finger into existence and it smells of nothing. Driven by a demonic pursuit of the joy of living, supported only by himself, he dances over the abyss as a stone skimmed over the surface of ...

4588. The Priesthood of All Believers

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... Kierkegaard sourged the state church of his homeland. A man well fed and well groomed, cultured and refined, enjoying the prestige he has sought all his life, gets up to preach on the text, "God chose what is low and despised in the world," and no one has sense enough to laugh at the inconsistency of it. The man himself has never suffered but he makes a fair living by speaking about the sufferings of Christ and the apostles. Yet no one calls him to task for his dishonesty. We must not say more than we are ...

4589. As We Remember - Memorial Day

1 Chronicles 11:10-25

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... price of a willingness to make so great a sacrifice, it was too costly a drink to be enjoyed selfishly. The only use worthy of it was to pour it out as a thank-offering to the Lord. This sensitivity to sacrifices made for us and this sense of obligation to make consecrated use of the results of the sacrifices constitute the right spirit for celebrating Memorial Day. No one has expressed this spirit so concisely and yet so eloquently as Lincoln did at Gettysburg. Three thoughts from his address deserve to be ...

4590. Christian Thanksgiving

Philippians 1:1-7

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... observe this day with reverence and with humility. Let us renew the spirit of the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving, lonely in an inscrutable wilderness, facing the dark unknown with a faith born of their dedication to God and a fortitude drawn from their sense that all men were brothers. Let us renew that spirit by offering our thanks for uncovenanted mercies, beyond our desert or merit, and by resolving to meet the responsibilities placed upon us. Let us renew that spirit by sharing the abundance of this ...

4591. Dealing With The Dividing Walls

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

James W. Moore

... and the opposite of compassion… that kind of pride is destructive and divisive. Let me show you what I mean. One evening some years ago, a minister visited a couple in their home. They had expressed some interest in joining the church, but my minister friend sensed an uneasiness. He could feel the tension and the stress in that home. Suddenly the woman turned to her husband and said, “I’m going to tell him the truth. I’m going to tell him about our family.” She went on: “This is killing me ...

4592. When Jesus Speaks Your Name

John 20:10-18

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... were absent. A complete honesty that needed few words was there. Such an encounter has a way of: shattering assumptions, preconceptions, prejudices - so that they fall in pieces at one’s feet. revealing totally new possibilities; new horizons. providing one with a new sense of who he is, and what the meaning of his existence is. An encounter is not to be confused with the process of identification - a gradual copying and assimilation of another’s style of life. Nor is it a mere transference of past ...

4593. Dying to Become

2 Corinthians 5:17

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... by changing from dreaming to waking, or changing to an altogether different level of consciousness. Examples of first-order changes abound. A common occurrence of human behavior is a man who falls in love and marries a woman upon whom he can be dependent. In some sense, his wife takes over at the point where he leaves his mother’s care. At first, everything is rosy because his dependency needs are being met. But the time comes when he begins to resent his wife’s dominance, and he attempts to resolve his ...

4594. Thomas Didymus: An Honest Skeptic

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... there are references to being blind, being deaf, having a hardened heart. It is still a danger when it comes to understanding, comprehending, accepting, experiencing God the Father as God whose Word is his Son. From now on one cannot rely only on the five senses, one must rely on the knowledge which comes to the spirit through faith. Easter day has come and gone; are you like Thomas, the doubter who said he could not accept such nonsense about resurrection? Saint Paul said the Christian belief in the Living ...

4595. On Loneliness

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... of this is true also. "Thou hast made us for one another, and our hearts are restless until they find satisfying relationships with other people, as well as with Thee." God has put within us a need for other people, and to a large extent the sense of fulfillment we find in life is found through our close relationships with others. There is a kind of incompleteness within us, a hunger that reaches out to make contact with other people. Until we find this, we feel an emptiness and barrenness in our lives ...

4596. The Courage to Be Me

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... the dynamics of Christian faith and grace. DONALD C. HOUTS (see biographical note preceding Smart, Wise, and Foolish) relates this courage to three common debilitating fears in his sermon The Courage to Be Me: The fears of doubt, self-disclosure, and failure. There is a sense in which vitality in human life is a product of the tension between fear and faith. If all were certain, then our concept of faith would lose its meaning. But each of us is subject to the mysteries of the unknown, the limitations of ...

4597. The Family Was God’s Idea

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... , I think we need only to look at the adopted child. Every once in awhile, we will meet a child and we will say, "My, you look just exactly like your mother." "Well, I don’t know why, because I’m adopted." And yet, we sense somehow that even physiologically, certainly characterologically, the flavor of a family comes through to a child. And the family exists for that child and for that parent in the relation to that child more profoundly than any blood ties could ever make possible. Negatively, we ...

4598. Conflict and Hope: One in the Spirit

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... from drawing back in timidity, frees us from avoiding conflict, and enables us in all things to be faithful. In like manner, it delivers us from bickering, from disharmony, from factions, from divisions, and brings us together in the unity of faith. It is in this sense that we are encouraged and enabled to move forward in the work of the gospel, knowing that the "gates of Hell shall not prevail against us," and by this conflict which is worthy of the gospel, which is marked by no fear, and which manifests ...

4599. When You Reach Wit’s End

Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... homely way. He said that one night he lay awake a long time, worrying desperately about circumstances he could not control, problems he could not solve, and difficulties he could not manage. Finally, in his distraction, he heard the voice of God speaking through his own common sense. And this is what it said: "Quayle, you to to sleep. I’ll sit up the rest of the night. I’ll take charge of all the things you can’t handle." The testimony of our fathers in the faith is that when everything else goes, God ...

4600. Strategy

Ruth 4:13-22, Ruth 3:1-18

Bulletin Aid

Dallas A. Brauninger

... was rewarded by Naomi's wise guidance for doing what was practical for survival in their day. Like the women of the neighborhood who named Ruth's baby, let us bring to others the supportive nurture of nearby women. Let us build a sense of encouraging community within the neighborhood that is this church. Collect Gracious God, we bring to you hearts willing to help. Bring to us the insight that can strengthen in those we know the commitments holding their daily lives together. Amen. Prayer of Confession ...

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