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 676 to 700 of 754 results

676. The Secret Of Our Confidence

2 Timothy 1:11-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Hear we are on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and I wonder if you feel very thankful. Some would reply, “Brother Bill, some of us are more thankful than others. It depends on one’s circumstances.” You know, it’s easy to celebrate Thanksgiving when your family is healthy, your income is ample, your stocks are ascending, your favorite team is headed to a bowl game, your sinuses have overcome the Memphis grunge, and your aches and pains are minimal. But that kind of thanksgiving can be awfully superficial. ...

677. Philippians 2:1-11

Philippians 2:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Although this week’s epistle reading begins at Philippians 2:1, it is part of Paul’s larger exhortatory section, beginning at 1:27 and continuing through 2:18. The text read today is the apostle’s continuation of the directive first expressed in 1:27, where he challenged the Philippians to conduct themselves in such a way to create a community that reflects Christ himself. A community of faith united in their actions and attitudes will stand firm against the outside forces that oppose Christ and will be ...

678. Obedience Is a Means

Matthew 21:28-32

Illustration

Martha Thatcher

Whenever I take the opportunity to actively love God in personal obedience, I end up sensing a new tenderness in my heart toward Him and a stronger resolve to obey again next time. Obedience is not an end, but a means - a means to express our love to God, and a means to increase our love for God. It is a catalyst in the process of loving God and becoming more like Jesus.

679. Blue Christmas

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Just for the fun of it, we are beginning each of our Advent messages by recalling a Christmas song. Some of these songs are secular, some are sacred. Our song for this Sunday is several decades old. It was first sung by a young rock-and-roller named Elvis Presley. I don’t know if you remember him or not. Of course Elvis sang, “I’ll have a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas without you.” I hope I put in a sufficient number of “blue, blues,” in case there is a die hard Presley fan in the room. However, I felt ...

680. Beware: Hypocrites on Premises

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

David T. Ball

Whenever I happen to be in a conversation with someone about why they don't go to church, it seems like the reason that they almost always give is that they can't stand all the hypocrites. I don't take this personally -- they aren't saying that all churchgoers are hypocrites -- just that there are usually too many hypocrites for their liking. I guess their reaction is understandable. Who would want to go to a church filled with people who don't practice what they preach? That would, at the very least, be ...

681. Keeper of the Springs

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

Peter Marshall

Once upon a time, a certain town grew up at the foot of a mountain range. It was sheltered in the lee of the protecting heights, so that the wind that shuddered at the doors and flung handfuls of sleet against the window panes was a wind whose fury was spent. High up in the hills, a strange and quiet forest dweller took it upon himself to be the Keeper of the Springs. He patrolled the hills and wherever he found a spring, he cleaned its brown pool of silt and fallen leaves, of mud and mold and took away ...

682. Gutsy Joy

Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

However many your fears and failures; however many times you must pick yourself up from the hurts and pains of life and go on; however difficult it is to get through each day - the joy of the Lord can be yours. A cartoonist successfully divided the entire human race into two types with one telling illustration. The cartoon pictured two women at a well. Each has a bucket with which to draw water. One woman, looking sad and bitter, remarks, "Life is terrible. Every time I fill this bucket up, it is empty ...

683. Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus was unrelenting in his forward thinking. Consider how much time he spent teaching about the kingdom of God, which was both now and not-yet. What pleasures from God are being poisoned in our lives because we cannot escape a life of constant regret - the "if onlys," "wrong turns," "yes-buts," and "sour notes" of woulda/coulda/shoulda thinking? We've all done it: enraged or insulted, frightened or confused at someone or some situation, we have stood there sputtering and fuming or have fled in tears and ...

684. What Jesus Wants for Chrismas (Part 1)

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

What might we consider giving to Jesus at Christmas? In a season of gift-giving, the giver of every good and perfect gift often gets left out. What might our gift be? What is the "perfect gift" for Jesus? Every year, all of us get caught up in making Christmas "wish lists." Children's lists are typically very long and densely populated with plastic (Power Rangers/Barbies), fur (puppies/kittens) and microchips (computer/video games). Teenagers often add gas guzzlers and machines that emit very high decibels ...

685. The Christmas Touch

Luke 2:29-32

Illustration

Robert L. Crouch

Let me tell about a man who in my book was a "light for revelation" as Simeon put it. When he was alive his parents called him Billy Frank. His wife called him Bill. His face was drawn by the gravitational pull of years. The wrinkles on his brow betrayed a life of hard work and stress. His legs were weak. So, too, his arms. His hands trembled involuntarily. His voice, once strong, grew tired. He grew old gracefully. For most of his 82 years, this man touched the world by holding before it the Christ of ...

686. Mark 6:30-44

Mark 6:30-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Of all Jesus' miracles, only this feeding of the 5000 is recorded in all four gospels. Obviously this story, and the complementary feeding of the 4000 (found in two gospels), were favorites of the early church. Perhaps part of the reason for their popularity is that the feeding miracles communicate on so many different levels. If we focus on Jesus we see the image of a compassionate good shepherd. Shift our gaze to the disciples and the text becomes yet another example of their failure to understand Jesus ...

687. Philippians 4:49

Philippians 4:49

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's Epistle reading begins with one of Paul's most jubilant phrases: "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice." Having finished a brief reprimand (philippic) to some of the believers at Philippi, Paul now feels free to return to the theme of joy and thanksgiving that permeates this letter. The tenor of verses 4-7 differs so substantially from both the preceding and following thoughts that this section has often been used as evidence of the fragmentary nature of the Philippians ...

688. Isaiah 11:1-10

Isaiah 11:1-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The first 39 chapters of the Book of Isaiah are commonly referred to as the work of "First Isaiah," a prophet whose writings are generally thought to be primarily concerned with judgment. But as this week's text reveals, there is far more to First Isaiah's message than a cry for judgment and punishment. Despite its several authors, the book of Isaiah presents a coherent picture of God's promise of salvation - the divine determination to loose sin's grip on this well-loved but fatally-flawed creation. With ...

689. Mark 6:30-44

Mark 6:30-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

690. Philippians 4:49

Philippians 4:49

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

691. 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's words in 3:14-17 erect a strong, protective fence around the first tender shoots of the Christian faith communities. Planting his faith firmly in the rich soil of Scripture and tradition, Paul offers Timothy sure guidelines and positive perimeters as protection against wrong ideas and dangerous theologies. Focusing on the strength and faithfulness that come from tradition and Scripture, Paul urges Timothy to remember the sound teaching he has received from his devoted teachers and family members. ...

692. 1 Peter 1:17-23

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Hope, joy, optimism and exuberance characterize the epistle of 1 Peter. Writing to those Jew and Gentile Christians who made their homes in the extreme northern reaches of Asia Minor, this Petrine author seeks to blow gentle breezes of love and joy into the midst of the far-flung faithful. Yet all these good tidings are celebrations of an eschatological future, not a humanly conceived time. Thus 1 Peter also spends as much time discussing suffering - both Christ's and his followers - as it does rejoicing. ...

693. John 10:11-18

John 10:11-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Instead of the synoptic gospels' familiar parables, John's gospel presents his readers with a number of dramatic "I am" statements in which Jesus speaks about himself and the reality of the kingdom. These "I am" declarations are neither an actual parable nor simply an allegory, although elements of both make up these utterances. When Jesus makes his declarative "I am" statements, he is offering a kind of "symbolic discourse" (see C.K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, 2nd ed., [Philadelphia: ...

694. Mark 10:17-31

Mark 10:17-31

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

It seems that as Jesus comes closer to Jerusalem, he hits closer to home with some of the most discomforting and disheartening judgments anyone could hear. Last week Jesus spoke about divorce messing around in our regions of relationships, loyalty and integrity. This week Jesus really gets personal moving from marriage to money. His message is so startling and discouraging that he frightens one potential convert away and strikes doubt and despair into the hearts of his own disciples. In verse 17, the ...

695. The Comforts of "Thy Rod and Thy Staff": Rulership or Relationship

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The new geographic “center“ of Christianity has shifted slightly. Anyone want to guess where the global geographic center of Christianity is now located? No, it’s not Vatican City. No it’s not some football stadium sized sanctuary in Texas. No, it’s not in South Korea, South Africa, or Southern Jerusalem. The wonderfully revealing new global center-point for Christianity, the new center of gravity for the Christian religion, is . . . Timbuktu. That’s right, Timbuktu in Mali. Can anyone locate Timbuktu on ...

696. The Regenerating Work of the Spirit

John 3:1-21; Acts 2:1-41

Illustration

Phil Newton

John Tennant, a contemporary of Jonathan Edwards, and who died faithfully preaching the gospel when he was twenty-five, identified eleven evidences of the regenerating work of the Spirit. I will adapt these for our attention [edits in brackets]. The understanding is renewed…a light from on high shines into it, whereby its natural darkness is in some measure dissipated, so that it [has] new apprehension of things. He has a new assent, his understanding being enlightened to perceive the precious truths of ...

697. Epiphany 7

Genesis 45:1-28, Psalm 37:1-40, Luke 6:27-38, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter—Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40 First Lesson—Rather than blame his brothers for their ill treatment of him, Joseph shows how it is providential that he has come to a position of power that can save them from famine. Genesis 45:3-11, 15 Second Lesson—Paul’s explanations of resurrection are taken from nature and Scripture. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50 Gospel—Jesus describes the magnanimity of spirit that he expects in his disciples. Luke 6:27-38 CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus ...

698. Lent 2

Genesis 12:1-8, Psalm 121:1-8, John 3:1-17, Romans 4:1-25

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter - Psalms 121:1-8 First Lesson - Abraham's response to God's election is readiness to leave the past behind and begin the journey of faith. Genesis 12:1-4a Second Lesson - To be children of Abraham is to know the salvation possible through faith in God's grace, not perfect obedience. Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 Gospel - Rebirth by the Spirit is as mysterious as the source of the winds. John 3:1-17 CALL TO WORSHIP Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. People: And also with you ...

699. Use It or Lose It

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

James Merritt

(Following video clip of Brewster's millions) That indeed is a great and unique story—having to spend $30 million in 30 days in order to get $300 million. Now can you imagine having to spend $30 million in 30 days? I know most men are sitting there thinking to themselves: For my wife that would be no problem. At first you may think that this is just pure Hollywood. But, quite frankly, that clip is closer to reality than you think. We all have gifts from God that are far more valuable than $30 million or $ ...

700. The Wisdom of the Wise Men

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I heard a story recently about this negative barber that had a customer in his chair and he said to him, “I hear you’re going to Europe; you shouldn’t do that. The weather is going to be bad in Rome, there is bombing and there’s strife and strikes in London. You think you’re going to get to see the Pope, but he won’t give you an audience, you just shouldn’t go.” About a month later, the same man was in the chair, and the barber said to him, “You didn’t take my advice; you went to Europe after all. And I ...

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