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

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4751. Choice, Chance, or the Hand of God?

Genesis 50:15-21

Sermon

Will Willimon

... planned it that way. I'm talking about the amazing resilience of God's purposes for us. God's intent for the world isn't stumped by our plans. Presbyterian though I am not, I do believe in a kind of predestination -- but only in the backward view. While I don't believe that everything that happens in this world happens because God wants it that way -- there are still too many murderous brothers to believe that -- I do believe that sometimes, looking back on your life, the twists and turns, it is amazing how ...

4752. The Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Have you ever waited for someone or something until you just didn't think you could wait anymore? Whether we are waiting for a letter, waiting for a repairman to arrive, or we are the repairman waiting to be paid, waiting gets to us. Waiting is a miserable experience. If we are waiting for a phone call, we pace the floor, wring our hands, and end up taking our frustrations out on the phone itself: "Ring, you stupid phone!" The more important the thing we are waiting for, and the longer we have to wait, the ...

4753. Filling Moses’ Shoes

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

What will they do now? Moses has died, and nobody even knows where he has been buried. Moses is the one who led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and all along the way in the wilderness. Now he is dead, and what will happen next? Maybe Moses' burial place was kept a secret so that the people wouldn't hang around his grave wringing their hands over the loss of their leader. The people have no time for self-pity. They are still on the wrong side of the Jordan. The journey is not yet complete. They are on ...

4754. Preaching to a Stone

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

I'm going to confess a trade secret. We preachers often wonder just how much good our preaching does. We all appreciate the compliments at the end of the service, especially when someone says that he or she really needed a particular sermon we have preached. At those moments, we begin to believe that our work and struggle have paid off. We wonder, though, about the compliments we receive at the end of the service. A friend of mine noted wryly that he has had parishioners compliment his sermons even on ...

4755. Strong Medicine

Judges 4:1-7

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

We get only a sip from the book of Judges. A sip may be all we want; a big gulp of the book might be more than we could take. So, the lectionary committee measures out a small spoonful of this book, seven verses, and gives us a sip once every three years. The committee must be afraid that all of the blood and gore would turn our stomachs and all of the sex would distract us. So, the bottle marked "Judges" has a sticker from the committee that reads, "Caution, do not exceed recommended dosage." For our part ...

4756. A Peek at the Resurrection

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

As the movie Contact opens, the audience sees a precocious girl named Eleanor learning how to use a ham radio. Nicknamed "Sparks" by her father, she has reached a man in Florida, and is excited that her radio lets her speak with someone so far away. In a later scene she asks her father wistfully if she can call her deceased mother on the radio. He responds sadly that no antenna is big enough. As the movie progresses, the audience learns that Sparks' beloved father died of a heart attack when she was nine ...

4757. Healing the Pain from the Past

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

A pastor friend and his wife once adopted a young cat that bounced up to his parsonage looking hungry and friendless. From the beginning of the relationship, the cat readily came to them and blissfully stroked her whiskers against their outstretched hands. She was comfortable with people. My friends were quite willing to provide for the cat's few needs: food, fresh water, a potent flea collar, and some affection. For the most part, the cat stayed outside, springing up to greet them when they returned from ...

4758. Passing and Failing

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

School might be tolerable if we could do away with tests. We would still have the awkward social situations and homework, but getting rid of tests would surely help. After all, who needs the late nights, the sweaty palms, or the mental blocks? What do you do if you've studied hard, but the teacher asks a question about the one part of the assignment you didn't understand? Then, we have to deal with the fist in the pit of the stomach when we get the grades back. For some people, the tests don't end until ...

4759. Pentecost! Slow ... and Sure!

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Have you ever noticed how we preachers often promote the early church as if it were the ideal? "Why, they did a miracle a day in the early church." "When they had a prayer meeting, everyone came!" " They spoke in Greek then!" (As if it were some sort of superior language!) On and on we can go browbeating ourselves by comparison. Yet, when one really studies the Bible, he discovers that early believers weren't perfect either. Moses had his temper. Noah got drunk. David fell into adultery. Peter couldn't ...

4760. What Is Success?

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Erma Bombeck wrote, "I can't remember the name of the man who spoke at my high school commencement, but I remember what he said. He told us the future of the world rested on our shoulders and he charged us with finding our destiny and fulfilling it. He went on to say we alone must cure disease, hunger and poverty throughout the world, and above all, we must find success. "I glanced over at Jack, the class deficient who couldn't even find his parents after they parked the car, and I got an uneasy feeling. ...

4761. How to Motivate People

Matthew 10:1-42, Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

A few years ago a fellow took me on a tour of his sock manufacturing plant. He showed me the loading dock where raw materials were unloaded, the washing machines, fluffers, twisters, looms, finishers, and packagers. In all, I found out there were over 150 different steps taken to manufacture one pair of socks! Well, that set me to thinking about the church and the making of disciples. How many steps are there from conversion to discipleship? Let's look and see. The text reports an incident near the ...

4762. Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired?

Matthew 9:35-10:8

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

"Heal the sick," Jesus commanded (Matthew 10:8). His orders leave our knees knocking and us feeling inadequate. In Edward Albee's play, The Death of Bessie Smith, a character rages, "I'm sick! Sick of everything in this fly-ridden world! I am sick of waking up, I am tired of the truth, I am tired of lying about the truth, tired of my skin! I want out, I want off this world!" Now, that, my friend, is desperate sickness! And perhaps today, as you read this, you find yourself ill. My question is, "Would you ...

4763. God, the Enemy

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Do you remember when Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, was executed? As the time of his execution drew near, McVeigh gave a handwritten statement to the warden, intending it to take the place of any verbal comment. In that statement, McVeigh quoted a section of the poem "Invictus," which is Latin for "unconquered." That poem, by nineteenth-century British poet William Ernest Henley (18491903), reads, in part, "I am the master of my fate: I am the ...

4764. In Our Pastor's Success, So Is Our Own!

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Did you hear about the farm boy who always wondered what would happen if he twisted the tail on the mule? One day he tried it. And now they say about him, he's not as pretty as he used to be, but he's a whole lot wiser. When I was a young man, I wondered what my life would be like if I became a pastor in answer to God's call. Now, thirty years later, I'm not as pretty as I used to be, but I am a lot wiser. Ministry is not for cowards, the lazy, the easily discouraged, the thin-skinned, or those without ...

4765. Try This on For Size!

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

One church has an organ that many sweated, sacrificed, and slaved to buy. Its cost was astounding! But when one hears its tone, sits under the influence of its quality, one begins to believe it was worth it all. It is a special musical instrument. It will serve God and man for many decades. But what will happen when something goes wrong with this musical instrument? Who will be called in to repair it? Perhaps there is one of you who tinkers with old organs and antique pianos. Would we allow him to fix the ...

4766. The Garden Is Doing Fine?

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Remember the nursery rhyme about little contrary Mary? It asks the question, "Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" This parable of Jesus asks the church the same question. It's all about seed and four different soils that receive it. It's a parable of how different people respond to the gospel. Stolen Seed Jesus said, "A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trodden underfoot. And the birds of the air devoured it." Anyone who has ever planted a ...

4767. Two Harvests

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

All of the Bible is inspired. But just as some parts of a turkey have more meat on them, so some parts of the Bible are meatier than others. For example, the genealogies of Leviticus versus the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 13 is one of the meatier portions of the scriptures. It is unique as an identifiable sermon of Christ Jesus, a series of seven, maybe eight parables that seem to be prophetic, to foretell the history of ministry ahead of time. The parable of the wheat and the tares is the second in Jesus ...

4768. An Unsung Hero

2 Tim 1:16-18, 4:19

Illustration

Stephen M. Crotts

One unsung hero of the Bible is Onesiphorus. He is forever known as a minister to the minister, the one who kept the Apostle Paul on his feet. In 2 Timothy 1:15-18, Paul confided, "You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me - may the Lord grant him to find mercy ...

4769. Being Graceful Salt

Matthew 5:13-16

Illustration

John P. Jewell

A pastor tells the story of how he and his wife decided to have the church council and the husbands and wives of the council members over to dinner. It was quite an undertaking, but then this pastor and his wife wanted to be salt and light for the leaders of their church. When it came time for dinner, everyone was seated and the pastor's wife asked her four year old daughter if she would like to say grace. The girl replied that she didn't know what to say and the mom said, "Just say what I say, honey." ...

4770. A Great Commission

Matthew 28:16-20

Illustration

Stephen M. Crotts

Pastor Stephen Crotts tells an amazing story. In the fall of 1971, he says, I visited Leo Tolstoy's home in Moscow. There, tied in bundles and stacked against the wall, were his handwritten manuscripts for all of his great novels - War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection. For an hour I leafed through the mountain of paper, observing the man's handwriting, his strikeovers, and even the doodles he made in the margins. Then says Reverend Crotts, an elderly Russian woman, the curator of the museum, ...

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