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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4951. Death Shall Be No More

Isaiah 25:1-12

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

... , in the "attics of our minds" there is the true person. Death may at last reveal the finished product. One author used the analogy of two men who attend the symphony. One has learned to understand and appreciate good music. The other has pedestrian tastes, caring nothing for the beauty of the classics. So at the concert, the former sits transfixed by beauty, time racing past, while the other fellow fidgits in misery, wondering if this will ever end. So, in the presence of sheer perfect love, those who have ...

4952. Times Of Refreshing

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

... from a source beyond us. One poet caught the flavor of this: There flickered once within my heart emotion I called "love." I felt it for another and it seemed born from above.But time eroded what I felt, my "self" got in the way. My "needs" cried out "take care of me," and joy dimmed day by day. I thought, "There must be more than this, I've spoiled what seemed so true And now I'm where I was before, Oh God, what did I do?" My selfishness has ruined what had blessed my life, until I learned that ...

4953. On Not Being First

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

... to be successful -- provided that we do so in totally ethical ways and with sensitivity to the feelings of others. But therein lies a problem: for me to win (in the traditional sense), you have to lose. I think Jesus would tell us that God simply doesn't care one way or the other what honors we receive, how successful we are as the world measures those things. The Persian poet knew this: The worldly hope men set their hearts upon Turns ashes or it prospers; and anon, Like snow upon the desert's dusty face ...

4954. Standing Firm

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

... than their pastor, were all the members so intensely loyal to him. The answer was unanimous. Dr. Tittle loved his people, deeply. He was always there for them, never personally critical, always ready to visit the hospital, to receive them in counselling, to marry the young and caringly bury the dead. And his door was always open to those who wished to visit in order to debate the issues, and they always left feeling they had been heard. In that there is a great lesson to be learned by any of us, pastors and ...

4955. Wind -- Word -- Spirit -- Community

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... they may live." The prophet invokes the mysterious, animating spirit of the whole of creation. And hear what happens. "I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude." Mark carefully the yoking of speech and spirit. Here is the affirmation being voiced. The biblical phrase, to stand before God, means to assume our fully human posture. This is the language of relationship. This is what Pentecost is all about, living in relationship ...

4956. The Strange Tactics Of God

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... the Ark of old, The Bible in our van, We go to test the truth of God Against the fraud of man.-- John Greenleaf Whittier, "The Kansas Emigrants" When the Israelites entered Canaan and became a settled people, they set up shrines. The ark was deposited and tenderly cared for in the Shrine at Shiloh. What was in the ark? We do not know. The ark was the throne of Israel's invisible God. Wherever the ark was, there God was fully present. When the ark was raised and carried, there God marched with his people ...

4957. A Habitat For Humanity

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... preference. None of the children selected the first scene. One out of three selected the second scene. Seventy-two percent of the boys and sixty-nine percent of the girls selected the third scene. These children were expressing a universal preference. We want a caring community around us. But here is the paradox. While we want community we tend to be more comfortable with people just like our selves. There dwells also within us a fear of diversity. This is a contradiction we can observe in our own national ...

4958. Saul, The Tormented King

1 Samuel 8:1-22

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... the troubled king by playing the lyre and serving as his armor-bearer. We remember also the story of David's slaying of Goliath with a sling shot. While there is some doubt as to just who slayed Goliath, David is credited in this carefully embroidered account. David eventually became a captain in Saul's army and performed with exceptional success. One day the broody Saul heard some maidens singing in the street. "Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands." Saul's jealousy and fear compounded ...

4959. When Saints Go Marching Forth

1 Samuel 15:1-35

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... a tremendous job in forging a nation out of a loose confederation of tribes. The child called by God is now the respected spiritual leader of an infant nation. His words are heeded as the words of God. The little acolyte has come a long way. How carefully did you listen to the first reading today? Samuel is out looking for another king to succeed Saul. There has been a painful parting of the ways between Saul and Samuel. "Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel ...

4960. Acquaintances Or Friends?

2 Samuel 16:15--17:29

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... or are we just casual acquaintances? Do we nourish this relationship by interacting with his words? Do we sustain it through prayer, silent or spoken? Are we there for him the way he is and always will be for us? "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our cares and griefs to bear." Do we share the griefs that weighed upon him? Do we share the imperatives that sent him into a ministry of compassion and conviction? Each gospel writer in his own way tells us that friendship with God is not a possibility bound by ...

4961. Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go for Us?

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... of a transcendent order of reality. And this is precisely what has gone into eclipse in our urban culture in this century. Someone has said the mission of the church is to keep alive the rumor that there is a God: a God who sees, and knows, and cares, and judges. With the eclipse of a sense of the transcendent in our culture has come the absence of a sense of personal and collective accountability. The cry "mea culpa!" seems to belong to yesterday. Today we make mistakes in judgment. I recall being in a ...

4962. Lasting Impressions

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... is its own reward as John Croyle discovered in his own life. Living a life full of integrity in harmony with God is its own reward. "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold." Living in harmony with God, caring for others comes naturally and gives us that long sought after sense of peace of mind. ____________ 1. Robert Schuller, Power Thoughts, (New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1993), pp. 152-154.

4963. Between The Parentheses

Revelation 1:4-8

Sermon

William G. Carter

... destination. Through the grace of Christ our king, we trust that the God who gave us birth will complete and finish our lives. Daily problems can blur our vision. When caught up in neighborhood scandals or shady deals, we may forget the One who made us. When a day care center blows up in Oklahoma City, we think, "What's this world coming to?" Listen: every day is full of enough hassles and horrors to shake up the strongest soul. Each one of us needs a place to stand and a promise to cling to. Some days all ...

4964. Invitation To Community

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

William G. Carter

... not competitors. Jesus was doing something more than confronting the reality of divorce. He was attacking a human trait that disrupts the life of a community. He called it "hardness of heart," a deadly condition of the soul when compassion freezes, when care collapses, when love turns to stone. This hardness of heart makes single people feel like they are not welcome in a congregation full of couples. One church, for instance, announced the formation of a new fellowship group in their worship bulletin. The ...

4965. It Is Blessed To Receive

Sermon

William G. Carter

... to despise her. You praise my self-sacrifice, Spoon River,In rearing Irene and Mary,Orphans of my older sister!And you censure Irene and MaryFor their contempt for me!But praise not my self-sacrifice,And censure not their contempt;I reared them, I cared for them, true enough! -- But I poisoned my benefactions With constant reminders of their dependence.4 All through their lives, under the guise of generosity, Constance said, "Girls, I took you in when your mother died, and I never want you to forget it." As ...

4966. The Final Questions

John 6:60-71

Sermon

George W. Hoyer

... to be friend and savior? It is amazing, isn't it? Amazing that we believe what he taught. You have heard people say, "I wish I could have a faith like yours. I wish I could be as sure as you seem to be that there is a God who cares, a God who will see one through evil and trouble, who promises a happy life after death." We're all in this exam together. We can talk to each other during the test. Most of us began to believe when we were infants. Before we knew it, we believed. Before ...

4967. A Taste Of Life

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

William G. Carter

... , Price writes, Perhaps as intensely as any mystic, in the slow eating that one morning, I experienced again the almost overwhelming force which has always felt to me like God's presence. Whether the force would confirm my healing or go on devastating me, for the moment I barely cared. No prior taste in my old life had meant as much as this new chance at a washed and clarified view of my fate -- and that from the hands of a strange young minister in a room which didn't belong to me.4 It was only a taste ...

4968. Water Won't Quench The Fire

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

William G. Carter

... teaching career at Princeton Theological Seminary, he moved to a small apartment in a retirement community. To pass the time, he continued to write articles and read books. He also volunteered to deliver mail. One day he was delivering letters in the health care clinic attached to the community. A black woman attendant was playing "Amazing Grace" on the piano in the social room. She did not seem to be a schooled musician for the notes, rhythms, and variations were very much her own. She played in ...

4969. Can Christians Dance?

Sermon

William G. Carter

... be a holy and pious occasion; isn't that right? Most people have learned the three rules about worship, namely, "Sit up, shut up, and pay up." But along came Jesus, ready to help a crinkled-up man do the fox-trot. It broke all the rules anyone cared to remember. Which is more lawful: to tend to someone in need, or to keep the Sabbath rules? Which is more expedient: to save someone's withered life, or to squelch a troublemaker? As Jesus made his decision to heal, the Rule Keepers decided to kill. According ...

4970. A Voice Crying In The Wilderness

John 1:1-18, John 1:19-28

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... lonely, and the forgotten. Talk to administrators of nursing homes and let them tell you about how some of their residents have been abandoned. No one ever comes to see them. The nursing home staff is their entire family. What an important role care givers provide in today's society. What about those partners in marriage who best describe their relationship as a "cold war"? Feeling, love, and emotion have evaporated, leaving merely a skeleton of an existence. What about that sobbing suicidal teenager who is ...

4971. Pass It On

John 1:43-51

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... . As the program approached she was confident, but her mother was nervous. When the little girl saw all of the people the night of the program she became nervous and forgot her lines. Her mother, who was seated in the front row, tried to prompt her. Carefully and slowly the mother's lips formed the words, "I am the light of the world." The little girl straightened and with a loud, confident voice announced, "My mother is the light of the world." In a real sense, so are we all. Commitment To Discipleship ...

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