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 601 to 625 of 633 results

601. Winner And Still Champion

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me (9:36-37). What Jesus was doing was acting out a parable. Perhaps this child was part of the Simon and Andrew’s household. The text uses the Greek word agkale that refers to a bent arm. Jesus took the child in his arms and embraced him. This child might have been trying to behave and stay out of the way of the important grownups. Suddenly he found himself at the center of attention. This child, at the bottom of the food chain, was raised ...

602. Beneath The Shadow Of The Cross

Mark 14:1--15:47

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Peter's place, shod in shoes of shame having denied our Lord simply by not speaking up or by not acting. John couldn't stand it so he looked down. When he dared look up again, Peter was already retreating into the pre-dawn darkness, his shoulders bent and stooped with the burden of his faithlessness, fear and sorrow. That was when John heard the loud raucous laughter, laughter filled with cynicism, mockery and belittlement. We can be so cruel to each other cant' we? We can be so cruel to the weak ones, the ...

603. Giving It All Up For Jesus And What’s Ahead

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... . Thus, for example, should anyone persuade himself that he has made sufficiently great progress, reckoning that he has done enough, he will become indolent... or, if any one looks back with a feeling of regret for the situation that he has abandoned, he cannot apply the whole bent of his mind to what he is engaged in.[4] It is essential that we not get preoccupied with ourselves, or we will take our focus off Christ! The answer to all this? When you give yourself up, you wind up having your focus on Christ ...

604. Temptation

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

... to pervert really good acts like sex, food, money, or knowledge. Lord, have mercy. Jesus refused the tempting offers of Satan, casting himself upon God, rejecting all false security. Alas, our encounters with the Great Tempter, are less certain. I lie. So do you. Lord, have mercy. My back is bent by all my bowing and stooping at the altars of the false gods of delusion. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. And he does. 1. Harper's Magazine, October 1994, pp. 8-11.

605. The Journey

Mark 8:27-36

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of people who are always breathlessly trying to catch up, always just one step behind Jesus as he moves on to somewhere else. I love the way Mark begins his gospel with the calling of Jesus' disciples. A couple of the disciples were at work one day, bent over their nets, working on them. (Tony Campollo says that the disciples seemed to be the worst fishermen in the world--they are always mending their nets!) At any rate, while they are working, they see this strange figure up on the road above them, calling ...

606. I’ve Come To Bring Fire

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... and interpreted the scripture. All the signs were right in front of them. Jesus, himself, should have been the final sign, but they ignored him. They regarded him as a blasphemer and a false prophet. Instead of opening their hearts to the Lord, they were hell-bent on opposing him at every turn. He was a threat to their status — to their prominence. They couldn’t have someone like him showing them up. The promised Messiah hadn’t shown up for centuries. Why should they think he had arrived on the scene ...

607. Get the Grinch

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... me. I had a hat and headphones on, listening to music. When he recognized me, he wanted to show me all that he could do on the jungle gym. So I watched. Then he came up to me and said, “I want to tell you a secret.” I listened. I bent down and he whispered, “Do you have a girlfriend?” I said, “Sure, I do! She happens to be my wife.” I finished visiting and continued on my walk around the park with my headphones on. When I came back around to the jungle gym again I saw the young boy ...

608. The Foreigner

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... him not merely as a Samaritan but as a fully equal child of God. Who had the greater restoration? The Samaritan. The dirtier the image, the more stunning the restoration. We all need healing by Jesus. All fall short of the glory of God and are sullied and bent by sin. Some of us will take God’s healing for granted. Those who have experienced the most difficulty in the world, the most bias, the most abuse, the most loneliness, the most rejection will cherish God’s gift the most. Why do you want to be ...

609. Why the Cross?

Hebrews 2:17-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... you relate? Maybe you have friends who say something similar to you when you talk about church. Or maybe you are not a Christian and think, “That is why I am not a Christian! I just don’t get the whole sin and guilt thing. Why are Christians so bent on making people miserable? I also don’t get the bloody cross. Why was that necessary for God to love us?” Many people can accept Jesus as a great teacher, healer, and lover of sinners. Many people can take Jesus as the forgiver and encourager. And many ...

610. Facing Death

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... . Jesus pointed out how he had always taught out in the open where the high priest or anyone could hear his teaching. He answered the high priest with a question of his own: “Why do you ask me?” (John 18:21). While the high priest seemed bent on interrogating Jesus, he found that Jesus began interrogating him. When Jesus was taken to Pilate for further questioning, Jesus confronted him as well. To Pilate’s first question, Jesus responded, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me ...

611. The Hedge

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... brought about by her husband for less than truthful reasons. In those days, a husband could divorce his wife for adultery by presenting a certificate and bringing her to trial. Whether or not she was guilty or innocent was determined by the council, but the rules bent always toward the man’s favor. Often, he would manufacture a charge in order to divorce a woman he simply no longer wanted to be married to. Because a woman had no livelihood on her own, this charge would sentence her to life of poverty on ...

612. People of the Rolled Stone

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... unbelievable. But it was enough to shock them out of their gloom. Peter and John took off running. From a distance they could see the stone had been rolled away. That surprised them and spurred them on. John was the first one there. He skidded to a stop and bent down to look in. What he saw really surprised him. The tomb really WAS empty. True to character, Peter barged right on past John. He didn't even bother to bend down and look. But for John, that glance into the empty tomb was the biggest surprise of ...

613. With Challenge And Invitation

John 10:1-10

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... questioned his parents to confirm that their son had actually been born blind. Then they questioned the man again, and when they were not satisfied with his answers, they put him out of the synagogue. In the course of their investigation, the Pharisees seemed bent on discrediting Jesus. Some bluntly said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath” (John 9:16). Some said, “We know that this man is a sinner”’ (John 9:24). Others added to the confusion and insisted, “We know ...

614. What Heaven Will Be Like

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... are slaves to desires that separate us from God, that oppose God’s holiness and God’s purposes. In 1939, Charles Laughton starred as Quasimodo in the movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In order to look the part, Laughton strapped himself into a harness that bent and distorted his back. The first few days that he wore the harness, it didn’t affect him much. But after weeks of wearing it, he discovered when he took it off at night that he was having a harder time standing up straight. His spine ...

615. Good News/Bad News

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... Jesus dying upon the cross. As he stared into the face of Christ, so full of agony, the gallery guard tapped him on the shoulder. “Lower,” the guard said. “The artist painted this picture to be appreciated from a lower position.” So the man bent down. And from this lower position he observed new beauties in the picture not previously shown. “Lower,” said the guard. “Lower still.” The man knelt down on one knee and looked up into the face of Christ. The new vantage point yielded new beauties ...

616. A Violent Week

Mark 14:1-2 · Luke 22:14-23:56

Sermon

Will Willimon

... violence done to Jesus. Even more tragic is that I am numb to the violence of those who follow Jesus. Let us read this story with bitter recognition that, in countless ways, we contemporary Christians have traded places with those Roman and Jewish officials, so bent on the capital punishment of Jesus. We Christians have come a long way since the Gospel of Mark was written, so adept are we now at justifying and explaining our violent ways. We are not only nuclear numb, we are Gospel numb. The story ending ...

617. A Woman Dancing

Exodus 15:20, 21

Sermon

Will Willimon

... and called, we find sister Miriam with many sisters dancing. They slap their tambourines and swirl with abandonment. "When I think about how I almost didn't get over," sings the Spiritual. How they dance, these slave women whose bodies ought to be exhausted and bent from too much work and too much bowing before the tyrant. The tambourines have brought them to their feet and, tired as they are, they cannot be still. They do not tire because they have within them the most energizing force in the world -- hope ...

618. Love And Boundaries

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

William G. Carter

... heaven and earth.” Her insight was remarkable. Thus far in this gospel, Jesus’ own disciples have not learned such theologically sound faith. Neither have they put their theology into liturgical practice. The text says the woman literally “worshiped” Jesus. Her uncommon insights bent her knees in prayer. She knew right doctrine and knelt in right worship. So why didn’t Jesus heal her daughter? Did his love have boundaries? Was it because she was a native of a foreign country? I hate to bring this ...

619. You've Got to Go Lower

Matthew 16:21-28

Illustration

Angela Akers

620. Click to Unfriend

Hebrews 10:16-25

Sermon

John B. Jamison

... thorns. The crown would be made slightly smaller than the prisoner’s head and forced to fit down over the forehead. It was late afternoon when the doors to the Antonia Fortress opened and Mary saw the soldiers come out. She saw Jesus. He was moving slowly, bent under the weight of the large piece of wood he was dragging. She could see the blood running down his face from the crown and more dried on the back of the blanket covering his back. She followed them through the crowded streets and listened to the ...

621. A Piccolo in the Tuba Section

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... have been a piccolo trying to play in the tuba section. Can you imagine anything more pitiful than a piccolo trying to playing a tuba section?” Well, that's what we try to do when we seek to conform rather than make a creative response to life. When I am bent on conforming I am saying I have nothing unique to offer. I am putting my very being and the work of God in my life by not giving expression to what He has given me. No wonder St. Paul urged us, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you ...

622. Growing Into Our Scars

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Mary Austin

... of the school. And she ran after him. Kyle was fast. His older brothers were track stars at the high school. Fortunately, she had on tennis shoes for the field trip. “Kyle took a sharp left and began walking through a dilapidated strip mall. [Getting tired,] he bent over with his hands on his knees, [trying] to catch his breath. That is when he saw me. I must have looked ridiculous — the front of my lightweight blouse soaked with sweat, my once-styled hair now plastered to the side of my beet red face ...

623. The Christian Mother

John 15:9-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... said the Lord, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself...." The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed. "But tough!" said the Lord excitedly. "You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure." Finally the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told you you were trying to put too much into this model." "It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear." "What's it for?" asked the angel. The Lord answered ...

624. The Kings of the South and the North

Daniel 11:2-35

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... army, but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him. [26] Ptolemy’s advisors Eulaeus and Lenaeus will try to destroy him; his army will be swept away, and many will fall in battle. [27] Antiochus and Ptolemy, with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail, because an end will still come at the appointed time. [28] Antiochus Epiphanes will return to Syria with great wealth, but his heart will be set against Judea. Teaching the ...

625. A Basket of Ripe Fruit

Amos 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... used to measure out a standard portion of grain. They added to the size of the “shekel” (see the RSV), which weighed about 11.5 grams, and which was placed on a balance scale to determine how much silver was owed for the grain. And they even bent the balance scale out of shape in their own favor—the verb ʿût has the meaning “to bend” or “to distort,” verse 5. All such dishonest practices were specifically forbidden in Israel’s law (Lev. 19:35–36; Deut. 25:13–16; cf. Mic. 6:10–11 ...

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