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 451 to 475 of 635 results

451. Humvee Holiness and Humble Holiness

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is good. We make judgments. That is bad. The Pharisees “judged” all those who failed to live up to their Torah standards as moral failures, inferior spiritually and unsuccessful citizens. Jesus challenged those assumptions. Jesus dared us to look beyond our instinct to “profile” and instead to seek out a relationship, a true connection, with those who did not have long enough fringes, big enough bank accounts, or normal enough looking lives. Jesus expects his disciples to give each person the grace ...

452. Still Surprised After Christmas

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... the same expression in a similar context when writing to the Romans (8:15). Meanwhile, the only other New Testament occurrence is in Mark’s account of Jesus praying in Gethsemane (14:36). Barclay notes that “the proof that we are sons comes from the instinctive cry of the heart.” The reflex is quite a different matter from the deliberate act. The latter may be a calculation; the former is what comes naturally. And this is the great evidence of our adoption: that it becomes our reflex to cry, “Abba ...

453. Prescription on a Pole

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... to which Paul refers when he tells the Ephesians that they “were dead through the trespasses and sins in which (they) once lived.” “Following the course of this world,” at first blush, sounds innocuous enough. From a young age, we show our instinct to follow the crowd. It is an essential part of fitting in wherever we happen to be. And, similarly, Paul’s later reference to being “like everyone else” seems like a harmless observation. After all, being “like everyone else” is, at times ...

454. The Story Worth Living

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and charged with a particular curse: “I will put enmity between you and woman, and between your offspring and hers: he will strike your head and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). Throughout the long history of animosity between humans and snakes, our first instinct has always been to hit the snake on the head and crush its skull. “He will strike your head.” Crushing the skull of a snake is mainly (but wrongly) seen to be the only way to assure one’s own survival and safety. Snakes are not ...

455. The Good Life

John 10:11-18

Sermon

James Merritt

... see a sheep nervously rubbing it’s hoofs together. You’ll never see a sheep sweat. You never see a sheep pacing back and forth. Sheep never worry as long as the shepherd is there. Do you know why that is? Because they are born with a natural instinct to knowing that when they have the presence of the Shepherd beside them and the protection of the Shepherd around them he can handle anything that is thrown at them. You take the biggest worry you’ve got in your life right now. Take the biggest concern in ...

456. Welcome Home

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

James Merritt

... no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” (Luke 15:18-19, ESV) The poet, Robert Frost, famously said, “Home is the place where when you have to go there they have to take you in.” Just like a pigeon, the homing instinct had kicked in on this kid and he wanted to go home. there is one door that is always open and that is the door to the Father’s house. “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw ...

457. Lost

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... the stroller out the door about two minutes ago.” The father was furious and said, “Why didn’t you stop him?” She said, “He wasn’t my kid.” The parents ran out into the mall, looked both ways and still couldn’t find him. They just instinctively turned to the right, walked up two stores and there was a toy store. They looked into the window and there were two salespeople with smiles on their faces. They just pointed. The man and wife looked to where they were pointing and there was little ...

458. Paradise Lost

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

James Merritt

... . What we read next are some of the saddest words in the Bible. Adam and Eve now know some things God never intended for them or any other human being to know. Now they know shame. Before they were naked without shame and now they are naked with shame. Instinctively, what do they do? They sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame. The rest of human history is all about making fig leaves to cover things up. Why do people lie on their resume? Why do people tell us they have degrees they don’t have and ...

459. Shockproof

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

James Merritt

... about a man that was being guided through the jungles of Burma. They came to this shallow, wide river and waded through it to the other side. When they came out of the river, numerous leeches had grabbed on to this man’s torso and his legs. His first instinct was to reach down and grab them off. The guide grabbed his hand and stopped him and told him not to tear those leeches out, because they would leave tiny pieces under the skin and infection would set in. He said, “How do you get rid of them?” The ...

460. Discipleship: Backward or Forward to God

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... Was he willing to leave the security of history and precedent to launch a new history? Was he venturesome enough to leave behind old definitions of sacred reality to discover and experience new sacred realities? More than that, scholars and lawyers have "nesting instincts." They like to work within known boundaries of custom and precedent. They like to learn the established rules of the game and then play the game profitably and well. It is only the venturesome lawyer who will leave a safe practice and run ...

461. Our Father Who Art in Heaven

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... . God is always calling people to a new future, especially in ethics and behavior. That is seen clearly in the Old Testament prophets and of course in Jesus. Prophets characteristically are lonely because they stand out against the crowd and against the "herd instinct" and "group think." "Everybody's doing it" is never a legitimate excuse for those prophets who march to the beat of a different drum. "It's always been done this way" is a slogan loathed by those challengers of official corruption, deceit, and ...

462. The Judas Goat

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The major reason for teenage suicide, drug addiction, and alcoholism is that most young people are conformists. They, like their parents, do what “everybody else” does, feeling instinctively that if most people are doing it, then “it” must be good to do. In effect, we act like sheep. In a packing house where sheep are slaughtered, the sheep walk from their large pen up a narrow ramp and turn right. In order to get the sheep to move ...

463. The Eye Needs the Finger

Illustration

Michael P. Green

When a speck of dust blows into an eye, instinctively the eye is rubbed with a finger. There is no debate with the finger about whether to help the eye. Later, after pulling down the lid, causing the eye to water, the speck is washed out. In a short time the eye is back to normal. But without the hand, including its specially functioning fingers, the irritant would have remained. Each member in the body of Christ is equally important. We all need each other.

464. The Law and the Promise

Galatians 3:15-25, Galatians 3:1-14

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... to the fact that Paul directly relates reception of the promise to the death of Christ. As Paul tends to speak personally of the death of Christ as one in which he participates or one that is for him (2:20), it may be that Paul instinctively includes himself when speaking of Christ’s death (3:13) and its consequences (3:14). Paul says that the promise comes through Christ Jesus. The Greek reads not “through Christ,” but “in Christ,” en Xristō. This verse resonates with the scriptural quote in 3:8 ...

465. The Sin and Doom of Godless Men

Jude 1:1-16

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... false teachers, betray by their attitude that they do not understand spiritual matters in general, or the role of angels in the divine scheme of things in particular (cf. 2 Pet. 2:12). All that they do understand is the result of natural instincts, on a par with unreasoning animals, brute beasts. In other words, they are simply giving rein to their sensual nature. They are devoid of spiritual discernment and are therefore living on no higher plane than the animal creation, despite any ecstatic claims they ...

466. A Call to Persevere

Jude 1:17-25

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... are in effect drawing a circle around themselves with the purpose of shutting out other people, whereas such a circle should be drawn to include others. Their false teaching is tending to split up the church membership into those who follow mere natural instincts and those who are truly spiritual. Jude’s irony is evident. The men who are setting themselves up as the spiritual élite above all the rest are themselves the unspiritual ones. They can properly be described as Pharisees in the popular sense of ...

467. Ruth Meets Boaz

Ruth 2:1-23

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... Boaz instructs Ruth to cling to his young girls, subtly moving her away from the fringes toward the center of Bethlehemite society (2:8). Now Ruth reports Boaz’s words to Naomi, repeating this word a third time (2:21). Like all patriarchs, Boaz’s instinct is to shelter those who are most vulnerable. Jacob does the same thing when he takes his family to meet Esau, carefully sheltering Rachel at the back of the caravan (Gen. 33:1–3). One Canaanite patriarch, Pabil, even tries to protect his family via ...

468. Tattenai's Letter to Darius

Ezra 5:1-17

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... satisfactory in vv. 11, 13, 15, 17. The elders’ historically weighted report will argue that this is no new project, as Tattenai seems to assume. 1 Esdras 6:9, where Tattenai reports that “a new house” was being built, reveals a good exegetical instinct. Structure: In the Aramaic papyri, the term ʾushsharnaʾ is used of material employed in the construction of a building, boat, and altar, and evidently refers to woodwork. Here it could refer to the horizontal beams of wood inserted in the stone walls ...

469. The Israelites Confess their Sins

Nehemiah 9:1-37

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... 8:13–18. The people “assembled” (REB) once more for a third public reading of the Torah and a communal response. This time their response is one of repentant confession. As soon as the festivals of joy ended (8:12, 17), it was appropriate to act on the instinct to respond to the Torah with lament in 8:9. Set in the new literary jigsaw that chapters 8–10 constitute in their present setting, Nehemiah 9 seems to be of composite origin. Verses 1–5 fit best after Ezra 10:9–15, which is dated on the ...

470. Mordecai Uncovers a Conspiracy

Esther 2:19-23

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... direct supervision of her adopted father and into the care of a foreigner with great power. Mordecai, apparently looking out for her best interests, still exercises control over her will. Later, in chapter 4, Mordecai will appeal to her against her own instincts. She will ultimately agree with him, but the nature of their relationship will change from that moment forward. 2:21–23 While Mordecai was in his position at the gate, two of the king’s officers . . . became angry and conspired to assassinate ...

471. More Proverbs of Solomon

Proverbs 28:1-28

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

... word for “fear” of God, it probably carries the same connotation. The verse is, as it were, a commentary on verse 14b, the hardened sinner. 28:15 An implicit comparison by means of juxtaposition. A tyrant’s affliction of poor subjects is compared to the instinctive roar and speed of wild beasts (cf. 29:2b). 28:16 Antithetic. The text is uncertain; see Additional Notes. The NIV understands verse 16a as a kind of continuation of verse 15. On verse 16b see 10:2. 28:17 Synthetic. The NIV supposes that ...

472. A Call to Build the House of the Lord

Haggai 1:1-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... to be warned about their enthusiasm; if they are not enthusiastic about the temple, they need to be warned about their lack of enthusiasm. The reason Israel has prophets is that there is always something that needs to be said that goes against people’s instincts. The description of the people’s houses as paneled heightens the comparison and contrast with passages such as 2 Samuel 7. Among the four other occurrences of this verb, one refers to Solomon’s temple (1 Kgs. 6:9), but two refer to Solomon’s ...

473. A Room with Locked Doors

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... or being deserted by your spouse. It may concern the safety of your children or simply looking silly in front of others. But all of us know what it is to be afraid. As humorist Dave Barry once put it, “All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears--of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark . . .” (3) Fear and anxiety are part of living. I have read somewhere that, at any given moment, there are more than 2,000 thunderstorms occurring somewhere on earth. Some of us are ...

474. Love One Another

1 John 3:11-24

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... ) who are in need (lit., “having need”). What is missing is the element of pity (lit., “closes his innards [heart] from him”). Not only do they not help the needy brother or sister, but they deliberately “shut off a feeling of compassion that the needy would instinctively arouse” (Brown, Epistles, p. 450). The three previous clauses in v. 17 all lead to the question: how can the love of God be in him? Does the author mean love for God, love from God, or God’s kind of love? It is not easy to ...

475. The Beginning

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... person to conceptualize, plan, evaluate, and anticipate. Being cognizant of what they are doing, humans bear responsibility for their deeds. Skill with words also opens the pursuit of wisdom to humans. Words then become an avenue for humans to exercise their creative instincts. 1:28–31 God empowered humans with a special blessing in which he commanded them to be fruitful and increase in order that they might fill the earth and subdue (kibbesh) it. While the human capability to reproduce is inherent in the ...

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