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 4751 to 4775 of 4944 results

4751. Close the Loopholes

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . It's a meanness that takes no joy in the presence of others. A mean spirit cannot see beyond the drive to satisfy its own needs and desires. A mean spirit hoards away happiness and labels exuberance and laughter as frivolous. The mean spirit is concerned only with keeping itself going day by day, with no time or compassion for the welfare of others. A mean spirit may do no apparent wrong, but neither does it do any spontaneous rights. A stingy spirit keeps the body of Christ on a mere subsistence ...

4752. A 24-7-365 God

Hebrews 7:23-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... propositions unless they could be "proved" according to the established Newtonian rules of modern scientific inquiry. It was this Enlightenment devotion to the documentable that kept Sagan a lifetime doubter about the existence of a personal, caring God intimately concerned with individuals and their lives. Because no one could "prove" to his satisfaction that this God existed, Sagan simply could not accept the possibility as true. Yet in his personal life, Carl Sagan reveled in his over 20-year marriage ...

4753. The Widow's Might

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... religious authorities, aren't we perhaps revealing more about our 21st-century standards than about any issues that may be behind this first-century text? Issues of salvation and practices of self-sacrifice are no longer popular or public concerns. Commitments to God and genuine devotion to an unmarketable product have become strange and suspect behaviors. For the last two centuries of "Capital is King," consumers have come to wield enormous power. In the cutthroat competitive marketplace, anyone with ...

4754. Rock-Bottom Living

1 Peter 2:2-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Instead of "rolling stones," disciples of Jesus are called to be "living stones." There has been a lot of tongue wagging going on in the media lately about "The Spoiling of America." This is not concern about water pollution or unchecked deforestation. It is about children especially our swelling population of spoiled children. - How big a collection of Power-Rangers does your 5-year-old need? - How many Super Nintendo cartridges does it take to satisfy your 9-year-old? - How much money must really be ...

4755. The Longest Journey Is the Shortest Distance

Acts 17:22-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , moved him from seeing his ministry totally in terms of the Jewish community, and he reached out to Gentiles. His third "conversion" experience led him to break with the Pharisees (Matthew 23:37-39) because of their establishment preoccupations and lack of concern for the people. 3. A sense of destiny: Throughout his spiritual journey, Jesus moved with a clear sense of destiny a focused passion of purposefulness. Jesus sought to expose and explain God's matchless love to others. As Jesus moved toward his ...

4756. Sleep Loose

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to give the Dayton community an evening of total enchantment. The final song on her latest compact disk, Love, Nancy (Sony Records), is entitled "Your Arms of Love." (A special thanks to Fourth Presbyterian's John M. Buchanan for reminding me of that song.) As far as I'm concerned, no one sings a love song better than Nancy Wison. Listen to the lyrics: Please hold me in your arms, you know the truth, I don't have the right to come and say Please hold me in your arms of love. Your arms of love, relieve the ...

4757. Dr. God

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... healing powers that immediately connected with the one in need of healing. Love Heals: There is something that long-distance as well as "hands-on" (or "energy-transfer") healing events seem to have in common the presence of love. Compassion, concern, empathy all those nonmedical elements we long for are the common components in successful healings. Without love, without specific caring, making the "healing connection" is impossible. Healers of all stripes testify to this common belief that the ability to ...

4758. The Four R's

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... unheeded through the hourglass of our lives. With rituals, these same grains of sand create a particular pattern or design that helps tell the story of our lives. The church, of course, is steeped in ritual. Protestant churches may seem rather less concerned with formalized ritual. And some denominations are taught to view rituals suspiciously, deeming them a superstitious substitution for true faith and genuine piety. But as long as a ritual reaches our hearts and speaks a message to our souls, it enriches ...

4759. Day-Timers or Begging Bowls

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , without robes or regalia, Christ appears. - Without warning, without shoes, without a home, Christ appears. - Without power, without friends, without a chance, Christ appears. - Without a name, without parents, without health, Christ appears. - Without fear, without self-concern, without guile, Christ appears. Is your faith great enough to recognize Christ when he appears before you? In the music video of Michael Jackson's pop hit "Black and White," computer imaging techniques smoothly "morph" a series ...

4760. Celebrate Your Critical Mass

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Moffatt, the executive minister of FirstUnitedMethodistChurch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, encapsulated the can-do and can-do-it-now attitude that Christ's Spirit can inject into a genuine Christ-body community. If any Christian at her church receives a call to act on an issue concerning faith, she says, "God can lay it on your heart in the morning, you can find a partner or team to help you do it by the afternoon, and you can tell us and others about it the next day." Too often our enthusiasm for organization ...

4761. Tremendous Trifles

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a large stockpile of their chosen ammunition so the "fun" could continue for a long time. After their arrest, the boys' stunned parents wept on camera, heroically apologizing for their sons' behavior but insisting they were "good kids." The oldest boy also voiced his concern about how this incident would affect his chances of getting into a good college in the fall. Consider: In Los Angeles, four buddies aged 14 to 17 decided to spend their evening having some real fun. Armed with a baseball bat, they began ...

4762. Paying Dues to God

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... We give them the worst schools, the most vile hospitals, the filthiest surroundings in the Western world. Then we study them to find out why they do not have Ôgood values.' "It isn't the values of these children or their mothers or their fathers that concern me. It is the values of a society that increasingly and unmistakably has made it clear that it does not love children and that willingly and shamefully allows the innocent to be destroyed. ... The children I have met who sing that song ("Amazing Grace ...

4763. God Is Faithful

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... faithfulness to learn? Jon Stallworthy wrote one of his greatest poems about the birth of his mentally handicapped child. Born in London, he is now Professor of English Literature at WolfsonCollege, Oxford. Jon is a graceful, fastidious and emotive poet, and his poems are much concerned with family, England and "good form." You turn to the window for the first time. I am called to the cot to see your focus shift, take tendril-hold on a shaft of sun, explore its dusty surface, climb to an eye you cannot meet ...

4764. The Secret of Living Is Giving

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... which offer us the relaxation we "deserve." So why do so many still feel that something is wrong with the way we are living? It's because a self-absorbed life ends up absorbing life. In order to experience life, we must get outside ourselves and our own concerns. Back in the 1980s, the city of Detroit recognized the faithful, quiet work of Irene Auberlin who, at the time she was honored, was 88 years old. When she was 56, this wife of a prominent executive who traveled a great deal, felt the need for new ...

4765. The Devil's I

Acts 5:27-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 's song" has only one rule of composition: The first person singular is all there is. This is what we are calling "The Devil's I." There is no first person plural ("we") in the devil's chorus, no third person singular (she or he) to be concerned with, no third person plural (they) to consider. Everything and everyone is intently focused on "I," to the exclusion of all else. Ulysses S. Grant once admitted, "I only know two tunes one is Yankee Doodle, and the other isn't." Increasingly in the USA, we know ...

4766. On Being a Hot-Fudge-Sunday Church

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... on those who seek the safety of a middling commitment is harshly doled out "because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:16). Jesus deals with the first and the last. The sinner and the saved concern God. The "so-what-er" is left to his/her own devices. Dostoyevsky observed that God loves a hot sinner better than a lukewarm abstainer. Before we can offer the Good News of the gospel to this postmodern world, we've got to get out of the middling ...

4767. One Breathwork, Many Bodyworks

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , that a group of aliens suddenly showed up on earth offering an interesting proposal. These aliens wanted to take all the African-Americans away with them because they felt they constituted a very special group within the human population. The aliens were concerned about the present conditions African-Americans were experiencing and wanted to give them special attention and care back on their home planet. What would you say to this proposal? What do you think your neighbors would say to this proposal? Try ...

4768. Heirs of the Promise

Galatians 3:23-29

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... borrowing has not been in such good faith. Yes, we've borrowed from the bank. But we've also borrowed from our planet Earth. We've borrowed from the future. And it may be pay-back time sooner than we think. In fact, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a global organization with 1575 members and 99 Nobel Prize winners, has issued a report warning that there may be as little as 10 years left fundamentally to alter human activity to avoid an irreversible environmental cataclysm. One of the reasons we have felt ...

4769. The Kingdom of God Has Come Close

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... brilliance of two gifted men, this bureaucrat confidently announced, "I saw through them." When we insist too loudly and too proudly that we know best, then greatness passes by. There are many mediocre buildings out there designed by people less concerned with "architecture" than "egotecture." 3. Rigidity: The kingdom doesn't always play by the rules we recognize. Jesus counseled his missionaries to forget about the letter of the law, the preciseness of etiquette, so that they might become flexible enough ...

4770. The Truth of Love

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... at the top of our lists when we start citing altruistic organizations. So why is Martin Marietta really returning $135 million to the Pentagon? And if $1.4 billion in overpayments was returned in 1993, how much was not returned? The unjust steward was not concerned with the truth; he was looking to insure a future roof over his head and food on his table. How much truth-telling and apparent generosity are done only for the sake of self-preservation? "Truth in advertising" is a phrase we've all learned ...

4771. On Time

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the divine schedule of events, it's a cinch that no simple human is likely to get a printed time sheet. Jesus' words to his disciples in today's gospel lesson urge them not to worry about God's sense of timing, but to be concerned about their own state of readiness. "Keep watch," "stay awake," "be prepared" is Jesus' counsel - not "worry," "stew," or "fret" about what you cannot control. The recent evolutions of the telephone demonstrate just how well we have enabled ourselves to be prepared for imprecisely ...

4772. Dream Reality

Matthew 2:19-23, Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to run and hide from hate-mongers and naysayers, daydreamers must proclaim "we can." We can make our children's lives happier; we can keep our family strong; we can help our community to join together; we can offer reassurance and support and concern. Word dreamers also dream "yes" instead of "no." "Yes" to possibilities instead of "no" to probabilities. "Yes" to risking commitment instead of the "no" of safe detachment. "Yes" to loving without guarantees instead of "no" to all but our own existence. 2 ...

4773. Christmas Surprises

Luke 1:26-38

Illustration

King Duncan

... and presented each of them with a small brass Christmas-tree ornament as a seasonal gift. They all laughed when Abramsky's father pointed out that the ornaments were stamped "Made in India." But the laughter subsided when they saw that the rabbi was quietly crying. Concerned, Abramsky's father asked the rabbi if he was offended because he'd been given a gift for a Christian holiday. He smiled, shook his head and said, "Nyet. I was shedding tears of joy to be in a wonderful country in which a Buddhist gives ...

4774. Back to the Real World

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... about a man named Maurice King. Maurice became displeased with his barber. His barber was not particularly adept with a razor. Rarely would Maurice leave this barber’s shop without a new collection of nicks and scratches. Even more disturbing, Maurice became a little concerned that his barber’s tools weren’t as sanitary as they could be. So he invented a germ-killing blue liquid that he began marketing to barber shops and hair salons. Even today, you walk into any salon or barber shop and you’ll ...

4775. The Christmas Touch

Luke 2:29-32

Illustration

Robert L. Crouch

... his faithful follower’s tender touch. He understands that the cause for which he came into our fallen world is the cause to which this frail fellow had committed his life. Since embracing the Savior as a teenager, Bill carried in his heart a concern for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. The races of the world have been equally important to him. Ever since graduating from Wheaton College, this North Carolinian walked his talk around the block and across the seas. William Franklin Graham was ...

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