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 4801 to 4825 of 4963 results

4801. If Only We could Be Loyal ...

Hosea 4:1-19, Hosea 6:1--7:16

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... reaction to Hosea’s prophecy can be a humbling experience. It is difficult to swallow our pride, crying out, "We, too, have gone our own way and forgotten God. If only we had been loyal!" To promise to follow Christ is a tremendous responsibility, but only keeping that promise offers hope and happiness. As in a happy marriage relationship, our covenant of committed love with God should grow and mature with each passing day and year. Unfortunately, many married couples, like Jackie and her husband, take ...

4802. If Only We Could Remember ...

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... She commits adultery. Hosea tells us that she has one love affair after another. She rejects her husband. She thinks that a more exciting life can be found elsewhere. So she seeks entertainment without discrimination. She grows tired of her obligations, her responsibilities, her promises. She gives her allegiance to other men, men who use her and who, when they have finished using her, discard her. She goes from lover to lover, from allegiance to allegiance. Hosea pleads with Gomer to give up her adulterous ...

4803. Proper 17 * Pentecost 15 * Ordinary Time 22

Matthew 16:21-28

Bulletin Aid

"Get behind me, Satan!" Sounds like an easy thing to say Glib Facetious Kind of like "The Devil made me do it!" Sometimes I think it's a cop-out It doesn't take my responsibility seriously! It would be fine If I could - Seriously - Blame my temptations on the Devil - Or somebody else - But they are mine! My choices to make For good or bad And they are hard choices! (If they weren't They wouldn't be tempting! And I wouldn't risk making ...

4804. Prayer

Matthew 22:1-14

Bulletin Aid

... our friendship Our worthiness. Of course, invitations have obligations attached - To reply promptly To dress appropriately To bring a gift And they sometimes have ulterior motives! Political or business overtones - Social obligations - or ambitions! Invitations differ - And so do my responses! An invitation to the wedding of a friend Is one thing - To a Tupperware party is another! To dinner at the White House is yet a third!! I weigh invitations carefully - Do I really like the people? Am I comfortable ...

4805. Proper 6

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

... feet of clay. However, when one is thinking about the concept of "being chosen," one can come to two points of view. People can be, and often are, chosen for privilege, honor, position, and/or reward. On the other hand, people can be chosen for responsibility, devotion, service, even suffering. Sometimes it takes a long time to find out which one is chosen for. In this particular passage of Scripture, neither of the main characters is so clearly honorable one can decide which is going to be the hero. Both ...

4806. In Turning to God

John 18:1-11

Bulletin Aid

... than we can possibly imagine: Both men have been called by Christ. Both have been with Our Lord for three years. Both men have been extremely close to Him. Peter acts as their spokesman, while Judas acts as their treasurer; both have positions of respect and responsibility. And no one can doubt that both of them have made tremendous sacrifices. It is now to these two men, two people who are so alike - and yet in the end will be different - that Our Lord addresses His remarks. As they are all seated, Our ...

4807. Life Turned Upside Down

Luke 14:1-14

Illustration

Robert Oppenheimer was the one man responsible for the development for the atomic bomb the United States used against Japan at the close of World War II. He was born in 1904 in New York City, and showed an early interest in science. He entered Harvard at 18 and graduated 3 years later with honors. He continued ...

4808. How to Stay Humble in a Haughty World

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Brett Blair

... gave her interviewer a puzzled look, and said, "I don't remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts." I think Mother Teresa would point to this story in Luke to justify that response. Jesus is saying in essence, don’t do things that bring you the honor of men, do things for which God will honor you. Thomas Carlyle, the British historian, put it succinctly, “Show me the man you honor and I will know what kind of man you ...

4809. Thanks, Lord

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

... great miracles of healing and health. Jesus seems to have indicated this when he sent the lepers for their cleansing treatment from the priests. Thanksgiving Ten lepers were healed, but only one of them returned to give thanks to Christ. Obviously, this was a response that impressed Jesus very much. He was glad that this person had returned to give thanks. He mentioned the other nine, but he did not dwell on them. Hopefully, we won’t either. The positive side of the picture is the one who did return ...

4810. The Violence Within, The Violence Without

Zephaniah 3:1-20

Sermon

... of this - Pharisee of the Pharisees, Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law perfect. Because his zeal did not know love, he violated the name of God Almighty in the name of God Almighty. What shall we say to all this? Nothing! The first response is silence. Be silent before the Lord God. The noise of religion and solemn assemblies must cease as well as the violence of the non-religious world. So pervasive is this violence inside and outside religion that Paul Tournier calls it "our endemic disease." It ...

4811. My dear friends, let us play.

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... to be taught!" Or, if not educated, at least entertained. Churches not built like lecture halls often end up looking like theaters. We speak of the "auditorium," and our comment after service is, "I enjoyed that." In many congregations, applause is becoming a standard response to the work of the choir, as though the choir is intended to sing to the people rather than to God. The performance pattern dominates our worship, whether in singing or in preaching, and we forget it is God who is the spectator, while ...

4812. Was I Baptized Right?

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Kendall K. McCabe

... weren't "baptized right." Maybe the question does need asking. At least, there are times when it seems an appropriate question to me. I think of those persons who don't approve of sending money overseas for missions. They don't trust the agencies given responsibility for its administration. They believe in the Reader's Digest and the republic for which it stands. They are quick to tell you that charity begins at home for those who deserve it - people who have jobs. When I encounter church members who think ...

4813. The Third Sunday in Lent

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... . When pressed, by Jesus, to confront the fact, she sought refuge in the third obstacle, the theological cover-up. Theological debate becomes an excuse not make a commitment, because attention is centered on the externals of worship rather than the heart of worship, our response to a loving God. How sad for those who want all the theological issues decided before they can agree to serve God! Only in serving can answers begin to be found; more accurately, it is only in serving that we come to realize what ...

4814. When God Says "Go"

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

... we're his messengers, empowered by his spirit, working for his kingdom. The priesthood of all believers is how Luther put it. When God sends us as his representatives, we enter into a partnership with him. We needn't be self-conscious and afraid of that responsibility, as were Moses, Isaiah, and the rest. In this partnership, our Lord is the senior member. It's his Word, and not our words, which bears the burden of proof. That's why God can afford to choose, as his servants, fishermen and shepherds, truck ...

4815. God in a Glimpse

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

... who have not seen and yet believe." And the heart of this blessing is that God himself will advance the faith-building if we can only say the initial, "My Lord and my God." As St. Mark puts it: "0 God, I believe; help thou my unbelief." Part of the responsibility for faith lies with you. We are like those Greeks to whom Paul preached - we haven't seen God so clearly that believing in him is easy and automatic. But we do see enough evidence of him and we have heard enough people who do believe that we, too ...

4816. The Cracked Crystal Ball

Jeremiah 28:1-17

Sermon

... of beef cattle. A mother cow, out on the range, is asked by her young ones, "Why have men come to drive away some of the cattle? Where are they going?" The young are excited and curious, wanting to go along, not wanting to be left out. In response to their repeated questions, she tells them what she has heard passed down from her great grandmother. She tells them about the train, the iron bars of the railroad, the long trip of the cattle squeezed into box cars, the unloading at the stock yards, and about ...

4817. Tempter and Tempted

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... word, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Of course humans need food. But Jesus saw that the Tempter was choosing the grounds on which to posit the matter of what comes first in our existence. His response puts first and foremost the living God, who speaks to his creation and offers the word of truth and grace for us all. All temptation aims to obscure that central truth, that God has the first claim upon our hearts. It is not our job, not food or ...

4818. Let God Be God

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... and know constant victory. We're mashed flat sometimes, and it is very humbling. We need safeguarding against a unitarianism of the Holy Spirit, and stretching to the work of the Father and the Son as well as to the Holy Spirit. Best Seen on Our Knees Our best response to the truth of the living God comes not in talking about him, but in responding to him - with love and gratitude and humility. Do you want to see the living God? Look for him in the lives of his people. See him in the beauty of his creation ...

4819. A Moment of Brightness

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... I take Wallis seriously, because I respect him as a committed Christian who speaks from within the tradition he criticizes. We all need that counsel, since so much of our pilgrimage is down from the mountain and squarely in the middle of routine duties and responsibilities of our discipleship. But having said that, let us heed the moment of brightness our Lord received from his Father, and welcome such moments of brightness as he may be pleased to grant as we travel from heights to depths and on to our goal ...

4820. My Brother's Keeper

Genesis 4:1-26

Illustration

... not live alone. The supplying of our food, clothing, and basic needs of our spiritual and physical lives is all a part of a larger scene. Millions of people are involved. Some, who seem to stand still, may brag of their stability and their freedom from responsibility in world-wide crisis; but we all are involved in the forces and the messages that go forth to others. We may breed confidence or fear, love or hate, kindness or selfishness. We dare not commit the sin of Cain, who arrogantly asked the question ...

4821. Wellspring for the Soul

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... loss in hearing such words. Nor is it so strange that she would want to turn the conversation away from her past marriages. She cannot make connections at any point with what Jesus wanted her to understand and to receive from him. His words and her responses kept going back and forth at different levels altogether. Where can we begin to find ourselves in this text? Surely the evangelist does not mean to simply leave us as observers of a strange conversation a very long time ago. How can the word come forth ...

4822. The Resurrection of the Body

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... of the Christian’s way of life because we know that the body is not a toy to be consumed by lust, but a work of honor to be highly regarded and truly respected. It is nonsense to despise the Christian hope as a way of escaping the present responsibilities of caring for the urgent needs of people. That is a misuse of the true biblical meaning of the resurrection hope. God has treated our physical creation with infinite care from the start to the eternal future of our lives. He sent his own Son in the flesh ...

4823. Believing Is Seeing

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... generous portions of the prophet Jeremiah, and even more abundant reference to our Lord’s decisive victory over all the principalities and powers by his resurrection, Hatfield challenged us all to do away with mindless consumerism in the better interests of responsible stewardship of the earth. With the Easter hope as his ground, he gave us reasons to hope that under God we can find our security not in multiplying nuclear warheads but in strengthening the moral fabric of our personal and public life ...

4824. The Emmaus Stranger

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... the Holy Book. Because he has made himself known to us in grace and mercy, the Bible is no longer about far away places and strange sounding names. It speaks to us because he speaks to us through it. It is his Word that reaches our hearts and makes us responsive to his grace and guidance for the living of the truth day by day. We know Christ Jesus as the Savior and the reigning Lord as he comes to us through the Holy Supper. At Emmaus, he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to the disciples ...

4825. L’Chaim!

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... Jesus speaks of his messianic mission as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. The Pharisees threw the blind man out of the temple when he kept on insisting that his sight was returned to him by Jesus and that he now believed in him. The response Jesus made is centered on his concern not simply to have his claims accepted, but to be known and believed as the giver of life with God and to be followed for the sake of the nurture of that life. It’s not just survival that God brings us ...

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