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 26 to 50 of 285 results

26. The First Hole

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... at its best is about loving like Jesus (invitationally, inclusively, and unconditionally), and met the most influential woman and man of my adolescent years. Grace Blanchard was 104 when she stopped teaching Sunday school. Maybe that's why I'm not especially sympathetic when our most seasoned members cite age for begging off boards, committees, and so on. Besides, the tired, tested, and true always have a lot more to offer than ecclesiastical rookies. That's why our pastor emeritus continues to be so vital ...

27. A Positive Addiction

Romans 1:1-17

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... of it will be ours. It will be you shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching not by words, but by our example by the catching force the sympathetic influence of what we do the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you. Amen. That's the enfleshment of saying, "Our vocation is to belong to Jesus." Paul Azinger, the great golf champion who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after winning the 1993 PGA ...

28. Welcoming Christ

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Frank Luchsinger

... months before had been stolen from the back seat of her parents' borrowed car and the wedding was hours away. "I was hysterical, crying, 'My dress has been stolen! We'll have to cancel the wedding!' " "We'll find you a new dress," a friend reassured. A sympathetic security guard heard the commotion and called several stores until he found a store detective at Marshall Fields and asked if he could open the store early so a young lady could shop for a dress and get to her wedding. "My heart really went out to ...

29. The Lenten Season

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... is a picture of a pretzel in a fifth century manuscript. Pretzels were a Lenten food and thus only eaten during the period as a reminder to pray more often. The Present Observance Of Lent Especially among Protestants today, people are not sympathetic with the mood or methods of Lenten observance. Each year there is a cry by someone for a shorter Lenten period, the dropping of fasting and the elimination of special Lenten services. Generally, Protestants ignore fasting as being superficial and meaningless ...

30. Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50:1-11, Psalm 118:1-29, Psalm 31:1-24, Philippians 2:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, Luke 22:66--23:25

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

... advocacy in the cause of freedom with justice. Forgive any compromise of integrity and any indifference to miscarriages of justice. Have mercy on us for the sake of Jesus Christ, your suffering servant and our Savior. Amen. PRAYER OF CONFESSION Sympathetic Parent, Suffering Servant, Consoling Spirit, forgive our apathy in the face of your identification with our sins. We are still so insensitive to the abhorrence you have to all evil. Despite your holiness you forgive our sins both deliberate and unknowing ...

31. Growing No Feathers

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... his own class. And he learned compassion, but his empathy had no outlet. He was Pharaoh's adopted grandson, which made him too close to criticize. With no outlet, one day he exploded! He murdered an Egyptian taskmaster. He killed for a slave. He was so sympathetic, he threw away everything and became an outlaw. God looks for someone who is filled with the compassion of divine will. In 430 B.C. the historian Thucydides recorded: "It was in those who recovered from the plague that the sick and the dying found ...

32. The Pure In Heart

Sermon

John A. Terry

... to ask the teacher's help with a problem she was having. The mother said, "My son has horrible eating habits. Please speak with him. He will listen to you if you tell him to stop eating foods with so much sugar." The teacher listened sympathetically and said, "Please come back in a week and make the request again." The mother agreed and returned seven days later. "My son's problem continues," she said. "I am greatly concerned about his health. He rarely eats vegetables or fruits. Please, won't you talk ...

33. Acquaintances Or Friends?

2 Samuel 16:15--17:29

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

... familiar with David. You may not be as knowledgeable about Jonathan, the eldest son of the tormented first king of Israel, Saul. He is worth knowing. Reflect on his story and a configuration of adjectives will come to mind: generous, gallant, loyal, sympathetic, valiant, magnanimous. Jonathan can be described in all those ways and more. Jonathan enters the biblical narrative in 1 Samuel 14 and there you will meet him serving on the field of battle in his father's army. Jonathan and his armor bearer ...

34. Learning to Live Without Jesus

John 16:5-16, John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

William G. Carter

... added, "I don't know how we're going to live without Jerry."1 Whether or not we know Jerry Garcia and his music, most of us know how difficult it is to say good-bye to a hero. Those of us who belong to the church can be especially sympathetic. For, in a far more profound sense, we too have lost a loved one who has been the center of our lives, the source of our joy, the wellspring of our celebration. Each week we gather in the name of a leader who is not here. And whether or not ...

35. The Pure In Heart

Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon

John A. Terry

36. John the Baptist Beheaded

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

... had many possessions. The ruler had heard the word sown; his life had borne much fruit. But in the end the lure of wealth choked out the seed that had been sown. His life yielded nothing! And, Pilate (Mark 15:1-15). Mark paints him, too, as one who is sympathetic to the plight of the Sower. "Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?" he pleaded with the crowd (15:9). No! The crowd wanted Barabbas. Pilate knew this was all wrong. It was all jealousy that led the chief priests to try to get ...

37. Proper 21

Mark 9:38-41, Esther 7:1-10, Esther 9:18-32, James 5:13-20, Mark 9:42-50

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... of the normal channels to do his work. Support staff (v. 41). "Whoever gives you a cup of cold water because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose his reward." There are many people who do not call themselves Christians, yet may be sympathetic to the gospel and the mission of the church. They may support us or work together with us on areas of common interest. They are our support staff. An ounce of prevention (vv. 42-47). Employing hyperbole, Jesus urges an ounce of prevention to obviate the ...

38. Witnesses

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Mark J. Molldrem

... bowing to an image of Caesar and proclaiming "Caesar is Lord." This is where it got difficult. Marcellus was a Christian. He recognized that to go through this ritual would be to deny his faith that "Jesus is Lord." He refused to do so. His superiors, sympathetic to his feelings, urged him repeatedly to do so. They wanted Marcellus as a trusted and worthy centurion in their ranks. They also reminded him that to refuse to bow before Caesar would invoke the death penalty. They did not want that to happen to ...

39. A Woman Of Substance · Mary Magdalene

Lk 8:1-3

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... of the Apostles are dismissed with only the notation that "they had been with Jesus." II Where or how Mary attained the means to support the Master in his mission to humanity we are never told. Unlike Salome and Joanna, there is no hint she had a sympathetic husband to underwrite her efforts in the Lord's behalf. It would seem quite logical, therefore, to surmise that, like Lydia of Thyatira, (Acts 16:14) she may have operated a business of her own providing her with a tidy income. After all, Mary came from ...

40. The March Of Death

John 14:1-4

Eulogy

Merlin L. Conrad

... of shock and alarm, but inevitably someone will be heard to say, "When it is my turn, that's the way I want to go, while I am active, with my boots on." If death comes as a result of a catastrophe -- fire, earthquake, flood -- although we are sympathetic, our reaction is one of frustration, for what could we have done to prevent it? But this is not the way death has come this time. The way death has visited us now causes us to, at least, mingle our sorrow with the reaction of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for ...

41. Where You Do Not Wish To Go

John 21:18

Illustration

John E. Sumwalt

... had AIDS. Wilma decided that everyone else who came into contact with her had a right to know, too. The word spread fast. There were many expressions of caring; phone calls, cards, letters and quiet conversations with neighbors and friends. People were horrified for her and sympathetic at the same time -- or so it seemed. She felt no sense of rejection until the following Sunday morning when she went to church. She sat in her usual pew but the people who always sat beside her, or in the pews around her, sat ...

42. Strong Faith For Weak People

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon Aid

Clement E. Lewis

... we are found out to be what we are in private as well as in public. Of one thing we can be sure: God always knows. Those among us who are strong in the faith should seek to strengthen those who are weak, through association, sympathetic conversation and service, right example, and to stand firm when great decisions are at stake. Much good can be done by abstaining from doubtful practices. Little can be accomplished by entering into argument with either social or religious fanatics. We need to remember that ...

43. Mary Has Chosen The Good Portion

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation (Genesis 2:2, 3)." Written on the first page of our Bibles and woven into the fabric of the universe is the divine provision for leisure time. The preacher's prayer falls on a sympathetic ear, "Slow me down, Lord. I'm goin' too fast. I can't see my brother when he's walking past. I miss a lot of things day by day when it comes my way. Slow me down, Lord, I'm goin' too fast." Yet, slowing down and taking time ...

44. Transfiguration

Luke 9:28-36 · Matthew 17:1-8 · Mark 9:2-8

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... . How do you know who are Christians and who are not?" "O, sir, that is easy. The Christians are the happy ones." His Countenance Was Altered. - Fanny Crosby, blinded by an illness at six weeks of age, wrote more than 6,000 gospel songs. One time a minister sympathetically remarked, "I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you." She replied quietly, "Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that ...

45. The Kindergarten Kingdom

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Erskine White

... have preached from this text six years ago, but something has happened in the meantime which makes me unable to preach that sermon today. I got children of my own. I became a father. And the experience of having children has made me far more sympathetic to the early Puritans who didn't use words like "innate goodness" to describe human nature. They used words like "total depravity." Total depravity! Jesus said we are supposed to be like children to receive the kingdom of God? I can only join with millions ...

46. Where To Go When You Grieve

Matthew 14:1-12

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... Savior cares! "I don't care" is one of the most hurtful phrases we can hear when we are in pain. But those who do care; family, friends (those who have called at your home these past days, those who have brought food, those who have called with sympathetic messages, those who have sent flowers, those who are at this service today, those who will continue to support you and help you) - all of thisis immeasurable help in your need. But think of the added glory and wonder of this: Jesus, the Divine Son of God ...

47. God Moves In Mysterious Ways

1 Kings 17:7-24

Sermon

Robert Allen

... and the only thing we can say is what William Cowper said: “God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform.” II. We Must Remember That People Matter. Elijah was touched by the grieving of the mother. I would expect that there were sympathetic tears in his eyes because of the grieving of the mother. He took the child from the mother and the Scripture says, “… he stretched himself upon the child…” An old translation says that Elijah “breathed life into the child.” Whatever it was and ...

48. The Call To Excellence

Numbers 27:12-23

Sermon

Sims Robert

... concerned about glorifying God than themselves; pastors who are willing to work 60 hours a week and count it the least they can do for the One who has done everything for them. We’ve heard much lately about “burnout” among the clergy. I am sympathetic, and understand why the burnout happens. I know pastors who have been overworked and overstressed. Under the pressure they have burned out and many have dropped out. However, let me be honest with you and say that I am far less concerned about burnout ...

49. Deaths, Our Teacher

Psalm 90:1-17

Eulogy

Allen Puffenberger

... how she neglected her own affairs to help them establish themselves during difficult economic times. And, many of you, her friends, have told me how she enriched your lives - by giving you handmade gifts, by treating you with her delicious pastries, by giving a sympathetic ear in times of trouble, and by sending thoughtful notes, not only on special occasions, but also at times when you didn't expect one - just to let you know how much she valued your friendship. And, the ministry of our church was enhanced ...

50. Three Days To See

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Helen Keller

... to me when I was a child and opened the outer world to me. I should want not merely to see the outline of her face, so that I could cherish it in my memory, but to study that face and find in it the living evidence of the sympathetic tenderness and patience with which she accomplished the difficult task of my education. I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties, and that compassion for all humanity which she has revealed to me ...

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