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 526 to 550 of 841 results

526. Connected to God

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

Lee Griess

... of being connected to Jesus enabled them to face persecution and suffering knowing that God was on their side. They could trust God because they knew Jesus. It is said that the wife of Albert Einstein was once asked if she understood her husband's theory of relativity. She replied, "No, but I know my husband and that's enough." The disciples knew Jesus. They knew that he could be trusted with their lives and because they were connected to him, they were connected to God. When you and I face difficulties ...

527. The Three Dimensions of Life

Genesis 6:1-22

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... is to turn control of their lives over to a higher power. The AA program includes a recognition that people have gotten the dimensions of their lives out of balance and have neglected the higher connection. One of the fascinating (but by no means the only) theories about why people abuse drugs and alcohol is that on some level, people become aware of an emptiness inside themselves and the substance abuse is a way of trying to fill that which can only be filled by God. Centuries ago, Saint Augustine put it ...

528. Captive Free!

Romans 7:15-25a

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... our deaths, that we can escape the power of this sin on our lives. We are in captivity. There is a strange irony to this original sin. Even though we are born in sin, we are not just victims only. Original sin is not just another version of the domino theory. It is not just that we are the umpteenth millionth billionth domino in a long line of dominoes that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. It is not just that they pushed over the first domino in a long line of billions of dominoes called human history ...

529. Science And The Bible

Isaiah 40:1-31

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... ) Genesis 1:24 — herpetology (study of reptiles and amphibians) Genesis 1:26 — anatomy, medicine, psychology Magnifying glasses, inexpensive, one per child (optional) Once upon a time, a young girl sat in her fifth-grade science class. The teacher talked about evolution, a theory (or guess made after studying) of how everything around us came to be. The teacher told the students that rocks and chemicals floating in space exploded and then spread out, and that some of them came to life. After a while ...

530. Help Me, I'm Lost

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

It is one of the great adventure stories of all time. A man named Thor Heyerdahl wanted to test the theory that people from South America could have settled the Polynesian Islands in the South Pacific long before Columbus sailed to the New World. So Heyerdahl took a small team of men to Peru, where they constructed a raft out of balsa logs. These logs were tied together with rope much ...

531. Just a Little Faith Will Do

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... in Bible studies trying to explain where Cain and Abel got their wives! There is much in this world that no one knows or understands. We are all somewhat like Albert Einstein’s wife. Someone once asked her if she could make sense of her husband’s theories. She replied that she understood the words, but not always the sentences. And that is the position that each of us are in, too. No matter how brilliant, or well educated, or how insightful we may be, when it comes to making sense out of life, we ...

532. The Dawn of Forever

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... . In April 2002, the well-respected Oxford University philosophy professor Richard Swineburne defended the truth of the Resurrection at a high-profile gathering of philosophy professors at Yale University. Swineburne used Bayes Theorem, a broadly accepted mathematical probability theory and tool to defend the truth of Christ's resurrection. In a New York Times interview, Swineburne said, "For someone dead for 36 hours to come to life again is, according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable. But ...

533. Step into Your 'Adjacent Possibility'

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ? Perhaps your life could be transformed? The possibility of being “beside yourself” has gone from a quaint old saying to a new general law of physics. Theoretical biologist and complexity physicist Stuart Kauffmann has proposed what he calls “Adjacent Possible Theory,” or “APT-ness.” Kauffman decrees the “adjacent possible” to be the fourth general law of physics. The idea of the “adjacent possible” suggests that at any given moment there is a space around every person (and around every ...

534. The Easter Formula

John 20:1-18

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

In April 2002, the well-respected Oxford University philosophy professor Richard Swineburne defended the truth of the Resurrection at a high-profile gathering of philosophy professors at Yale University. Swineburne used Bayes Theorem, a broadly accepted mathematical probability theory and tool to defend the truth of Christ's resurrection. In a New York Times interview, Swineburne said, "For someone dead for 36 hours to come to life again is, according to the laws of nature, extremely improbable. But if ...

535. Wrong!

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , or stupidity, or failure. Being “wrong” is the only way we can ever get closer to being right. One of my favorite and most fundamental theorems is that of “Pessimistic Meta-Induction.” This theorem basically argues that all current scientific theories will eventually be proven wrong. The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead even argued “The history of ideas is the history of mistakes.” (Adventures of Ideas [New York: Macmillan Co, 1933], 30.) Historically speaking, it is hard to argue with this ...

536. When the Caterers Weren’t Available

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... in the twentieth century, it became fashionable to find natural explanations for miracles. Albert Schweitzer wrote that each of the 5,000 people was so completely impressed in the presence of Jesus that they felt satisfied even though they were not actually filled. Another theory was that the crowd brought food with them. When a small boy offered to share his lunch, this shamed others into offering theirs as well and the first church covered-dish supper was born. [Now you know why there was so much food ...

537. The Great Inescapable Question of Eternity

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... . That is what makes the question before us in this scripture reading the great inescapable question of all eternity. Knowing the correct answer to this question is far more important than possessing any other knowledge in the world. It is more essential than understanding quantum theory, knowing how to build a space station, or how to cure some dreaded disease! When Jesus Christ asks, "Who do you say I am?" (v. 29), he is asking us the most important question we will ever be asked to answer. Answer we will ...

538. Epiphany: All about You!

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... desire to look into the eyes of another because it has really turned out to be all about me. Time magazine confirmed it. I am the person of the year. In the early 1500s, Nicholas Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who put forth a radical theory that rocked both the scientific and theological worlds. He said that the sun and not the earth was the center of the universe. The earth was just one of many small planets circling a larger heavenly body. Everyone gasped. The implications were enormous. Suddenly, we ...

539. The Width and Depth of God’s Grace

Romans 6:3-5, 1 Peter 3:18-22

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... , with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. — 1 Peter 3:18-22 Now, if you couldn't follow all that, you're not alone. This passage has been the center of controversy among Christians for hundreds of years. Over a dozen different theories have tried to explain what Peter means here, particularly when he refers to the dead Jesus making a proclamation to "spirits in prison." Many biblical scholars call this the most difficult passage to interpret in the entire New Testament. So I won't be so ...

540. Becoming Like Jesus

1 John 3:1-7

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... club. If you're in the club, we want to support you and if you're not in the club, forget it. If that's what it means to be a Christian, I'd rather not be one. Then there are Christians who want to teach alternative theories of creation that have nothing to do with science at all, in science classes. There are Christians who condemn victims of natural disasters, claiming that they suffered the destruction of a hurricane as punishment for their sins. Many Christians are quick to tell you who is going ...

541. I Love You, Too

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

... what he means by this. Lest we miss his point, he cuts to the chase and spells it out in three simple words: God is love. Of all the ways we can describe the nature of God, this is the most fundamental. God is love. It's not just a theory; it's a fact. How do we know? God became a human being and lived as one of us. He embodied compassion by his actions and his teachings. He healed the sick and touched the untouchables. He embraced those who others turned away. He spoke on behalf of those who ...

542. The Vision of God

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... , and how we envision life is essential. Our view of life will either move us closer to or farther from the true center of our gravity: the grace of God. Paul's discussion of his vision reminds us of the reality and the necessity of a vision, of a unifying theory and power of the story of our lives. Visions such as Paul's serve as anchors for him, but what about the rest of us who are rarely ever carried up into the third heaven? Most of us may not get such a striking vision as Paul got, but if ...

543. Responding to God

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... start out that way. As a boy, growing up in Germany, many people thought him to be ignorant. He failed courses in mathematics; he was very rebellious. As a boy, he showed little evidence of the ability he possessed. Yet, it was Einstein's theory of relativity and similar ideas that brought about the nuclear age in which we now live. Saint Augustine, one of the finest Christian minds and greatest saints who ever lived, was also a late-bloomer. Augustine wandered about for thirty years trying to find himself ...

544. Being Two People at Once

2 Samuel 11:1-15

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... region: guess what? He lost nationally. It nearly killed him. He still played a beautiful game of chess — but no longer knew it. Our relationship to beauty can be, like David's, fraught with difficulties brought on by the very beauty we love! Zen Buddhists have a theory about some of this paradox. They say that praise and criticism are both sides of the same coin. In other words, we let things outside of us, things other than the grace of the Tao or God, determine what is good for us. We become averse to ...

545. Finding a Better Way

Illustration

Staff

... evening he would lift weights, run sprints anything to get an edge. But the other team members were working as hard and long as he was. He realized instinctively that simply training harder would never be enough. Killy then began challenging the basic theories of racing technique. Each week he would try something different to see if he could find a better, faster way down the mountain. His experiments resulted in a new style that was almost exactly opposite the accepted technique of the time. It involved ...

546. A Positive Affliction

Illustration

James Dobson

Stephen Hawking was an astrophysicist at Cambridge University. He has advanced the general theory of relativity farther than any person since Albert Einstein. Unfortunately, Hawking was afflicted with ALS Syndrome (Lou Gehrig's disease). It took his life in 2018. AS you probably know he was confined to a wheelchair for years, where he could do little more than sit and think. Hawking lost ...

547. A Softer Side of Dad

Illustration

... watch from a one-way window outside in the hallway. The one rule is that if the child starts crying, the father cannot take him or her to the mother. He must resolve the problem himself. If the child is given to the mother when it is crying, so the theory goes, that sends the signal that the one who gives the comfort and love is the mother.

548. The Rules of Prediction

Illustration

Staff

... which direction. Nevertheless, always be precise in your forecasts because: Economists state their GNP growth projections to the nearest tenth of a percentage point to prove they have a sense of humor. Another basic law: If the facts don't conform to the theory, they must be disposed of. If you've always had doubts about the judgments of forecasters, it's quite understandable because: An economist is a man who would marry Farrah Fawcett-Majors for her money. By the same reasoning, your suspicions about the ...

549. Sinking Ships

Illustration

Staff

... now believe that a series of slits, not a giant gash, sank the Titanic. The opulent, 900-foot cruise ship sank in 1912 on its first voyage, from England to New York. Fifteen hundred people died in the worst maritime disaster of the time. The most widely held theory was that the ship hit an iceberg, which opened a huge gash in the side of the liner. But an international team of divers and scientists used sound waves to probe the wreckage, buried in the mud under two-and-a-half miles of water. Their discovery ...

550. All in the Family

Illustration

Staff

... . My grandfather is now my stepfather-in-law. My mom is my sister-in-law and my brother is my nephew. But even crazier is that I'm now married to my uncle and my own children are my cousins." From this experience, Lynn should gain profound insight into the theory of relativity.

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