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 4876 to 4900 of 4963 results

4876. The Family Reunion

Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

Glenn L. Borreson

... events as people you've never seen before, all claiming to be your relatives, while your spouse hunches over the picnic basket muttering, "Never would have married him if I'd been to one of these before the wedding." That is perhaps a Bombeck-style response which picks up on a certain truth to these gatherings: there are always some disappointments amidst the delights. It was actually today's gospel, which got me to thinking about family reunions (just to assure you I'm not merely "shootin' the breeze" on ...

4877. Easter 3

Luke 24:13-35, Acts 2:14a, 36-41, 1 Peter 1:17-23

Bulletin Aid

... name of Jesus. People: We believe in Jesus; and are convinced he will forgive us, and enable us by the Holy Spirit to be Christian disciples. Collect Almighty God, who gives your Holy Spirit to those who repent and are baptized: Make faith a genuine response in our hearts; that, by true repentance, and a sincere acceptance of baptism, we may receive the gift of your Holy Spirit. In our Savior's name we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession Many facts prevent us from believing the truth about ourselves, Father ...

4878. First Sunday After Pentecost

Deuteronomy 4:32-40, 2 Corinthians 13:1-10, 2 Corinthians 13:11-14, Matthew 28:16-20

Bulletin Aid

... us with your Holy Spirit to respond in obedience to your will that we may experience the fullness of life to which you would save us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession We have experienced your revelation and redemption, O God; but our response lacks the obedience which you desire. Forgive us when we forget your love and ignore your presence with a life of indifference and independence. Give us a clear understanding of the ways in which you give yourself to us for our benefit, that we may ...

4879. Proper 4

Matthew 7:24-29, Matthew 7:15-23, Romans 3:21-31, Genesis 12:1-8

Bulletin Aid

... to respond to your bidding; that life may become a fountain of joy for us, as well as as mission to bring joy to others. In our Savior's name we pray. Amen. Prayer of Confession You have called us to be your people, O God, but we fear the responsibility required of us. Forgive us when we are not willing to venture in faith with you. Lead us in a life of blessing that will help us reveal your love to our world. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen. Hymns "Be Thou My Vision" "Guide Me, Oh Thou ...

4880. Teachers Without Chalkboards

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

... decide that the "Church" is somewhere else or is someone else. It is too easy for us to identify individuals or groups who have special teaching interests or skills and conclude that the assignment is theirs. The noun "Church" does not pinpoint the responsibility as does the pronoun "you." It is the pronoun "you" that Jesus uses in the Great Commission. Jesus' immediate audience was the disciples, but the promise he made about his continuing presence extends far beyond that group of eleven. That is to say ...

4881. Ready or Not

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

... about Jesus' words. It is a little like one of the first sermons I preached after my ordination. As part of a midweek Lenten series I spoke about suffering. One elderly gentleman thanked me for the sermon as he left the church. Anxious for a more specific response, I asked him what he really thought about what I had said. With kindness in his eyes and a slightly harder squeeze of my hand he suggested, "You'll learn." I gathered that he referred to suffering rather than to preaching. He affirmed what I had ...

4882. Light Shines

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

... places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them. (Isaiah 42:16, RSV) Surely the darkness permeates our world and our life. I know the gnawing fear in my gut of rising prices, of the pressures of my job, of family responsibilities. I am afraid, at times, of how I am being judged in my job performance by others. I am fearful of terrorists. I am depressed, at times, by the seeming inability of our political leaders to get us out of the mess. But then I run into words of ...

4883. The Call for Justice

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

... and saved the people. Why are they now not living faithfully as God's people? A voice responds to God's controversy against the people. The voice questions what it is God requires and lists cultic and religious acts that may be performed. But the response to the question states clearly what God requires. God does not require things but persons. God has shown us what is required: the people of God doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with their God. Our God requires that we give ourselves as an ...

4884. And You Thought God Didn't Care!

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... them I AM WHO I AM has sent you." It makes such a difference in whose name we go, or whose name we use when we speak to others on that one's behalf. When I was a child, my older brother would say, "Pick up your toys," and my response might be, "Who said so?" But when he would reply, "Mother said so," all I could say was "Oh." Or, on the job, when ordered to do this or that, you ask, "Who says so?" When you are told, "The Boss says so," you have little to say in return ...

4885. So Soon We Forget!

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

... how great and good God has been to them. They were not too different from us, were they? The mercies of God to us are unending, new every morning, and still we doubt he will handle our present difficulty for us. We grumble over the Christian responsibility which sets guidelines for our conduct. We chafe under the yoke we must bear. We look at others, the non-Christians, and see what they can do. They live seemingly without guilt. We grumble that the way of following Christ is too arduous, the demands are ...

4886. Is God With You, Or Not?

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

... at Rephidim. There is no water, and they want water! They demand of Moses, "Give us water," and accuse him, "You brought us out of Egypt. Why? To kill us with thirst?" Moses, too, is caught on a bad day; he is crotchety, cranky, and cantankerous, and, in response to their complaints, asked, "Why are you putting God to the test?" Then he turns and frantically prays to God, "What am I going to do with these people? They are ready to stone me to death!" God, as usual, was merciful, gracious, and good to them ...

4887. Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

... their places at the chancel rail, there was an eighty-two-year-old man. He reached for a wafer and dropped it, and had to get another. Then, taking the cup from the pastor, he dropped it also, spilling the wine. In exasperation and frustration, his automatic response at that altar, receiving the body and the blood of our Lord, was to whisper, "God damn!" Our Lord deserves better. As the Jews come to the holy mount to meet God they are enjoined not to come too close. A boundary was marked around the mountain ...

4888. Trouble on the Mountain

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

... who, until Moses returned, had an influential position, so he yielded to their request to make them a god. (He was much like a vacillating Pilate who, when his position was threatened by Jesus, called for a wash basin and tried to wash his hands of any responsibility.) Aaron compounded his crime and tried to diminish the seriousness of it by proclaiming a "fast to the Lord." It was all a bumbling attempt to save his own face and whitewash his sin by putting God's name to it, sort of as an afterthought. His ...

4889. Communion Is Rejoicing In Christ's Return

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

... reveal that information to us. He wants us to live by faith, not sight or guesswork. He simply wants us to take him at his word, trusting him to return when he determines the time to be right. Not knowing when he will come gives us the privilege and responsibility of living in constant preparedness for the coming of our Lord. We are to live each day as if we expect Christ to return in the very next moment. Even though we cannot predict Christ's second coming, we can expect it without doubt! Our Lord will do ...

4890. Mi Casa, Su Casa

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... : bitter and often bloody struggles in Central America and the Philippines over the question of land reform; landlords beaten and properties angrily or carelessly trashed in every major American city; tenants freezing to death in unheated homes and owners claiming no responsibility to provide more than the law demands. And - for our part, at least - how often is our relationship with God like that of haughty tenant and landlord? Callous and careless, we poison God’s air, trash God’s streams, toxify God ...

4891. The Divine-Human Nexus

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

... sympathy that regards only the other person’s good." Such a spontaneous sympathy is clearly not a part of the natural person, the homo incurvatus in sei, the man curved in on himself, the woman curved in on herself. Such a spontaneous sympathy is the natural response of the person who is a new being in Christ. We feed because we have been fed - with the very body and blood of Christ; we clothe because we have been clothed - with Christ’s own robes of righteousness; we befriend because we have been ...

4892. The Love God Wants

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

... a life of social action and humanistic thought. The love God wants includes both. Finally, the two great Commandments as Jesus identifies them present us with an impossible possibility. That is, the kind of love they command is at once our practical duty and responsibility and an ideal beyond our reach. To love God completely and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is a mission impossible. The moment we become self-conscious of our love, either for God or neighbor, we lose that essential sponteneity and ...

4893. The Dimensions of the Decalogue

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

... . Thus, the Word of the Lord could be announced to people - most of whom have some relationship to the church - so that they would hear the demands of God in the law and his mercy in Jesus Christ. The other dimension of the Law shapes our response to the Gospel by spelling out the attitudes toward, and relationships with, all the other people of the world. It mirrors our actions toward those closest to us. Those are our parents, our spouses, our families. It calls for respect and fidelity in these familial ...

4894. The Penalty for Betraying God’s Trust

Numbers 27:12-23

Sermon

... of the congregation: Through Baptism God has made these new sisters and brothers members of the priesthood we all share in Christ Jesus, that we may proclaim the praise of God and bear his creative and redeeming Word to all the world. The congregation makes this response: We welcome you into the Lord’s family. We receive you as fellow members of the body of Christ, children of the same heavenly Father, and workers with us in the Kingdom of God. Baptism is a type of ordination service for all who receive ...

4895. Round Trip to Bethlehem

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

... a glimpse of the difficult situation in which Ruth could have found herself. But she was ready to pay any price to stay with Naomi, and that is the stuff of which true Christian fidelity is made. On one level, of course, Ruth’s beautiful response to Naomi represents the qualities of love, self-sacrifice, and fidelity that people ought to strive for in family relationships. On another level, there is a picture of the kind of a loving and faithful relationship we should have with God. Two men lived next ...

4896. The Beginning of a New Life

Ruth 2:1-23

Sermon

... reasons that had brought them to the town, but that part of the story cannot be dwelt upon. Ruth made a statement to Boaz by going into his fields as a gleaner, and he met the woman about whom he had heard so much. You see, the key to his response, in which he told her to stay in his fields, close to the reapers and also offered her protection from the young men, was her self-sacrificing love on behalf of Naomi. When Ruth asked why she had found favor in his eyes, Boaz answered, "All that you have done ...

4897. Judgment and Justice

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

... another woman, married and with a six-year-old daughter - had ever been inside a Christian church. Unlike the people who could not understand what the preacher was saying, both of these young women found the sermon extremely interesting. The Gospel struck a responsive chord in their hearts and minds. They asked the tour leader, a missionary who had been born in China and had served there, about the Gospel, about Christ, and about the Christian faith. He obtained New Testaments for them and, later, copies of ...

4898. What the End Will Be Like

Zephaniah 1:4-13

Sermon

... in The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eiseley is titled "The Ultimate Snow." Eiseley left behind an unfinished novel, The Snow Wolf, when he died in 1977. He wrote: The great white wolf howled until her ululations echoed against the stars. She waited, but there was no response from the ravine, from thicket, from the far-off mountains. Her mate tried in his turn to break the silence and intuitively to awake the pack. There was silence for the simple reason there was no pack to answer ... They could not know but a ...

4899. Prayer

Matthew 5:1-12

Bulletin Aid

David MacKinnon

... presence) 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (pray for those who have lost loved ones and friends, those hurt, all of us) 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (pray that God would direct our responses as individuals and as a nation, pray specifically for our President and governmental leaders) 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (pray that as a nation we would pursue righteousness, leaving fear, hate, revenge and ...

4900. Launching a Mayflower

Illustration

... the people that every time of worship is of paramount importance. Standing in their pulpit that day, this is what he said: "Every assembly is a time big with destiny. Every Sunday men and women go forth from their tryst with God to face nameless responsibilities. Before the week is out, some may have launched their Mayflower and embraced a God-given adventure." In our assembly here today, neither you nor I can know what Mayflowers may be launched before another week goes by. In this hour, we are here ...

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