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 4601 to 4625 of 4653 results

4601. Never Really Alone

Mark 14:1-15:47

Sermon

Mary Austin

... up, and you had to break it to use it. The story says that “they” scolded her. We don’t know if “they” are the disciples, or the other guests. There’s plenty to criticize here, if anyone wants to. She’s butting into a dinner party. She’s touching a man who’s not related to her. But the complaint seems to be about the money. This is an extraordinary act of love and devotion. The complainers, too, don’t see what this woman sees. Like Jesus, she, too, is alone in what she sees. There are ...

4602. Feet and Hearts

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon

Mary Austin

... closer. On this night, he gives his friends — and us — these enduring signs of his presence. In the depths of human emotion, in the worst that we can be, at our least faithful, he comes closer. Everyone is welcome at the table. Everyone is blessed with a final touch of his hands, a final gift of service. No one is left out. When we come to the communion table tonight, we take this memory into our hands so we can feel and taste the presence of Jesus. Right here. In this night of shadows, may we remember ...

4603. A Letter in Time

1 Peter 3:18-22

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... tried to make things safer, easier, or better for himself. He spent his time doing whatever he could to make life better for those around him. Jesus did not go through the day following or enforcing a long list of rules and laws. He spent his time touching those people the law said were untouchable, eating dinner with those the law said were unclean, and giving hope to those the law said were beyond hope. And he paid the price for what he did. And that is our job description as Christ’s ambassador. Easier ...

4604. A Parable in Mime

Luke 15:20-24

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

... for work around the room. He gets busy doing the tasks. Younger Son Clown comes in receives a similar list and does a task or two but then begins to daydream. He displays a detached look while unenthusiastically continuing to work. Father Clown gently touches him and reminds him of his tasks. The Younger Son Clown straightens a chair or two and then dreams on. Younger Son Clown excitedly turns to Father Clown and indicates that he wants “stuff.” (money, property, and the like) Father Clown hesitates but ...

4605. How Deep Is Down?

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Maybe it's my age, but I don't have the sense that popular music today addresses the human issues as the lyrics of songs fifteen or twenty years ago did. Glenn Yarbrough sang a ballad that touched the quick of life. How low is lonely? How deep is down? How far is away When you're in a strange town? When your breathing is the night's only sound? How low is lonely? How deep is down? Down. Down. How deep is down? How much is many? ...

4606. The Practice

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... loyalty to that human and will willingly follow the guidance of his or her human guide in any situation. Those who have relationships with animals all know the beauty of those kinds of unique relationships, mostly non-verbal. It’s a true and heart-touching gift when an animal trusts you and knows you to be a compassionate and beautiful soul. Like all valuable things in our lives, developing this kind of relationship takes time, patience, and commitment. But when we invest in connecting deeply on this kind ...

4607. What Time Is It?

Matthew 24:32-44

Sermon

Will Willimon

... funeral of her beloved husband when she asked if she could say a word to the gathered congregation: If you are going to love somebody, she said with tears in her eyes, do it today. If you are going to tell someone that they are special, that their life has touched yours, do it today. She had become wise the hard way. Jesus says, you and I can live anyway we want. We can put off life as if there were always a tomorrow. We can make it all look so secure and solid and eternal. Yet, for me, for you ...

4608. The Propriety of Praise

Psalm 84:1-12

Sermon

Will Willimon

... was improper, inappropriate, out of place. A wonderful evening can be ruined by a statement that is not false, not wrong, just out of place. As a young preacher, I was invited to a dinner-party. The host served appetizers, then excused himself to put the finishing touches on the evening's meal. No sooner had he left the room than one of the guests said something about what a great man Richard Nixon was. I, with youthful tact, said something about Nixon being a crook. With that, he grabbed his hat, his coat ...

4609. Raising Power

Mark 16:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... harbors the potential for power that we can’t really comprehend. We really have no idea what it’s capable of, let alone what it may be capable of a few years from now. The more we study science, the more we realize that we have barely touched the surface of what the human brain can do, or what we know about space, the ocean, and what lies at the center of the earth. Every new discovery both thrills and chills us because we barely can fathom the powers that lie beyond our comprehension and abilities ...

4610. The Legend of the Touchstone

John 20:1-18

Illustration

James W. Moore

Do you remember the Legend of the Touchstone? It's a great story to recall on Easter Sunday morning. According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand. Once a man sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search ...

4611. Taking the Long Way Home

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Will Willimon

... are the most responsive and enthusiastic about learning? With thirty children, there is no way he 'can help everyone. “What you say about dogs is true” this gutsy mother replies, “but even dogs are allowed to clean up the children’s crumbs.” “Touché”' says Jesus. “Stranger, for a cultured, educated, classical Greek, you are almost smart.” He heals her daughter. From here, Mark takes Jesus on a ridiculous itinerary. He says that Jesus went from Tyre to Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through ...

4612.

Psalm 80:1-19

Teach the Text

Craig C. Broyles

... to a reestablishment of the past glories just intimated. The petition of the parallel line echoes the Aaronic blessing (Num. 6.25): Make your face shine. 80:4–7 The lament bemoans the present distress with the assertion that God is its cause. These verses touch upon each sphere of the people’s life: religious (v. 4), personal (v. 5) and social (v. 6). Verse 5 in particular presents the irony of God’s actions: he who has been the “Shepherd of Israel” has made them drink tears by the bowlful ...

4613. Gifts You Can’t Return

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Mary Austin

... way, Jesus was building a wall of care around his disciples as he prepared to leave their presence. They would have to live in the world in a different way, without his daily guidance, without his wise and fiery presence, without the compassion of his touch. As Jesus talked to God about his disciples, he conveyed that he found them to be a gift from God. “You gave them to me,” Jesus said. When we read the gospels, we know that the disciples are, at different times, clueless, vengeful, self-serving ...

4614. Can I Get a Witness?

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Mary Austin

... wing anyway. When her husband died, she sent a note to my boss saying that we were going to be friends for life …and we were, until the time of her death. Of all the hundreds of hospice families I’ve known, maybe thousands, I’ve stayed in touch with only a handful …and she chose me, for some reason. Mrs. Low, with the gaps in her teeth and in her education, taught me something about faith, and trust, that I couldn’t have learned from someone with more resources. Her life, and her prayers, were a ...

4615. Schadenfreude

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... time of Jesus, they encompassed every minute portion of human social life. The “do’s” and “don’t’s” consisted of every imaginable thing: washing hands, what constituted as work, what to eat and not to eat and how to cook it, what could be touched, what would be defined as defiling, and so forth and so on! To memorize all of those purity laws alone was a monumental task in itself! The Pharisees prided themselves (with pride being an important word here) on knowing and following them all, down ...

4616. Do You Believe in Miracles?

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and others in the shade. You need to allow them to grow and flourish without trying to harvest them too early. Everything in God’s time. Some plants may wither; others may grow like weeds, depending on the soil, the weather, and many other conditions. But what God touches will bloom and grow. For Jesus, the kingdom of God, the people of God that his disciples are to heal and love in his name, will grow and flourish according to the will of God. We don’t need to force them, push them, or trick them into ...

4617. Faith on the Fringe

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... his home, followed by the growing crowd, which left him practically no room to breathe or walk. Now comes the “fringe” story. A woman, long suffering for 12 years from an undiagnosed bleeding condition, heard about Jesus. She thought to herself that if she only could touch the tassels of his cloak that she could be healed. She did. And she was. Immediately. She felt it in her body. Now interestingly, Jesus feels the power go out from him, calls her to him, and the woman comes before him. He says to her ...

4618. Breathe

John 6:56-69

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . Without God’s breath, we are just lumps of clay so to speak. With God’s breath, we become infused with life and innovation. It’s no wonder that on the day of Pentecost, when infused with Holy Spirit power, suddenly those disciples “touched” could do things they ordinarily could not do, and they felt a zeal and empowerment for God’s mission that they never had before experienced. In that moment, they transfigured from disciples to apostles. This experience of breathing in the Holy Spirit’s ...

4619. The Power of Weakness

Mark 8:27-38 · Psalm 19

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

... to proclaim Christ where the hurt is the worst, where despair is the deepest, where hope has never been born. We can’t sit under our telescope or at our desk and respond fully to Christ. We have to feel the brokenness around us. We have to be touched, even wounded by it. I had a classmate in seminary who was in the midst of despair and found himself sitting in a church, sure that no one understood what he was going through. He struggled with painful moments of doubt and uncertainty. It was his dark night ...

4620. A Responsive Prayer for Advent 1

Luke 21:26-36 · 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 · Psalm 25 · Jeremiah 33:14-16

Bulletin Aid

Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

... righteous branch. P: Christ our coming Messiah, we pray for your whole church around the world; especially we remember Christians who suffer persecution for your name’s sake. May your Holy Spirit strengthen them to bear faithful witness to you and your gospel, to touch the hearts, minds, and lives of their persecutors; that they too may come to a repentance of their sins and confess you as their Lord and Savior. The days are surely coming, says the LORD: C: Hear us and come, Jesus, our righteous branch ...

4621. God on the Move

Luke 3:1-6 · Isaiah 40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... rough exterior and allow you to be vulnerable and feel loved and loving again. For God has come not to “judge the world,” as Jesus told us, but to “save it”! When God comes into your life, your heart, your soul, you will see and know God’s healing touch! And your life will never be the same. Do you long to sail more smoothly through life’s icebergs? Do you want to find solace even in the midst of storms? Do you believe that God can restore even the most roughed up life? All you have to do is ...

4622. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... disturbing. We had a moment of that desperation in our family years ago. There was a section in one of our city parks called “Storybook Gardens.” It was a children’s village filled with scenes from nursery rhymes and fairy tales. There were animals to touch, feed, and watch, as well as playgrounds for jumping, running, and climbing. There was also a maze. It was made of four-foot fencing covered by opaque canvas, a human puzzle full of blind alleys and dead ends. Our girls ran right on into the maze ...

4623. Faces at a Funeral

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... ) reclined in an oversized lounger, barely aware of us. Her mouth hung open and she wore wrinkled skin several sizes too big over a shrinking frame. A musty afghan draped her carelessly. She couldn’t quite catch what my mom tried to tell her in a stage-whisper shout. We touched her hands and she seemed to fumble for ours with gnarled and cold fingers. I can only recall this single visit to see her, and I know I didn’t like it. At the time she was an alien to me, even though I know now that a good deal ...

4624. Seeking the Presence of God

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Bonnie Bates

... was with them. When have you felt the presence of God? It might have been in the whisper of a breeze on a cool day. It might have been in the hug of a child or grandchild. It may have been hearing a piece of music or a hymn that touched your spirit. It may have been in prayer or in contemplation. It might even have been in the moments when you gathered strength to face a challenge or to do a hard thing. In those moments, I personally say a silent or even a spoken prayer for strength, for understanding ...

4625. Doing What Matters?

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... . I am not saying we should not let people know if we are praying for them. But I am saying that we have to be honest with ourselves and answer the question if praying for them is all that we have to offer them. Prayer is wonderful, but sometimes a touch is even better. God’s care might be in providing a meal, sitting and listening, or showing that we value them enough to stop and not just go past them. It could be many things that have meaning and might give a glimpse of hope. Our role, as children of ...

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