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 726 to 750 of 1499 results

726. Jerusalem’s Siege, in Parable and Sign

Ezekiel 24:1-14, Ezekiel 24:15-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

Ezekiel 24 contains two discrete units. The first, verses 1–14, picks up on an image from 11:3: Jerusalem as a cooking pot. The parable opens with the word of the LORD came to me, and a very important date: the day when the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem began (v. 2). It closes with the oracular formula declares the Sovereign LORD (v. 14). The second unit describes the most difficult sign-act in this book. Here God forbids Ezekiel to mourn the death of his wife (vv. 15–27; for other sign-acts in Ezekiel, ...

727. Jesus’ Baptism by John

Matthew 3:1-12, Matthew 3:13-17

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: In introducing John the Baptist and narrating Jesus’ baptism, Matthew announces the restoration of God’s kingdom through Jesus’ own covenant faithfulness for all those who will repent. Understanding the Text Having narrated Jesus’ birth, Matthew fast-forwards to the events leading up to Jesus’ public ministry, including Jesus’ baptism by John (chap. 3). Matthew indicates that John the Baptist’s ministry prepares for that of Jesus (3:3; cf. Isa. 40:3) and also resonates with Jesus’ ministry, as ...

728. A New Possibility

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

James L. Killen

Something new, exciting, and promising is about to happen. God is about to put a new possibility before you. Get ready. That is a summary of what Jesus meant when he said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." That is very important, because it is the heart of the message that Jesus came to bring to you and to all people. The passage of scripture we have just read marks a turning point in the story of Jesus. It tells us about the beginning of his public ministry. What went before was ...

729. Jesus' No-Nonsense Guide to Success

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

April Yamasaki

What does success look like to you? Winning the championship over all the other teams in your sports league? Checking off every item on your to-do list? Getting that new job or promotion you were hoping for? Putting the kitchen in order after making a homemade meal from scratch? To James and John, success looked like sitting next to Jesus, each on one side of their Lord, basking in his reflected glory. Perhaps they imagined him as a king seated on a great throne with themselves as his trusted advisors on ...

730. What Gets Into Us?

John 18:1--19:42

Sermon

King Duncan

What got into Judas? That’s an appropriate question for this Good Friday service. What got into him? Can’t you imagine the other disciples asking one another and themselves that question? All this time he was one of us. We trusted him. We even made him treasurer. How could he betray the Master for 30 pieces of silver? Was it jealousy? Did someone make him feel rejected? He was an important member of the fellowship. We tried to treat him like a brother even though he was the only non-Galilean among us. What ...

731. Worse Than It Sounds

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

George Reed

The story of the rich man, often called Dives, and Lazarus is a heartrending tale of suffering on the part of the poor man and indifference on the part of the rich one. If that was all the story was about it would be dreadful enough but it also shows us the horrors of society when it is divided into classes. We see this clearly in the attitude of the rich man. While the rich man is comfortably situated in his luxurious home there is a beggar outside his gates who is starving to death. He is a miserable ...

732. Reflecting God’s Abundant Love

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Molly F. James

I lived for a portion of my childhood in Bath, Maine. There are many notable things about this small city on the Kennebec River, but is perhaps best known for its ships. In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was full of shipyards that built all kinds of wooden sailing vessels. Now it has just one shipyard, Bath Iron Works, which is a huge facility that builds destroyers and frigates for the US Navy. Much of the work is done outside, and it was great fun to watch the pieces of the ship come together like a ...

733. The Call of the Wild Within

Genesis 12:10-20, Genesis 12:1-8, Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Coming into movie theatres this week is a remake of Jack London’s famous novel, “The Call of the Wild.”The story begins with the kidnapping of Buck, a pet St. Bernard dog, owned by a wealthy family in the Santa Clara Valley, CA. Abruptly, Buck is removed from his comfortable, genteel life and thrust into the wild Canadian frontier in the midst of the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. Made to serve as a sled dog, Buck must leave behind his civilized nature and rely instead on his natural instincts to survive. For a ...

734. The Death of John the Baptist

Matthew 14:1-12, Mark 6:14-29, Luke 9:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

On the news one day a short while ago --some of you may remember this—we heard that eight young high school boys viciously attacked and gang raped an 8 year old girl, a special needs child. One by one, they took turns raping her and beating her until at last she died. The town was shocked. These were their star varsity players…their A students...their church acolytes...their beloved sons. How could this happen? It's called “peer pressure.” A similar thing happened in the case of a young college freshman, ...

735. No Fair!

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: a ruler or yardstick We love our measuring sticks. When our children are young, we measure their growth and notch little marks in the wall, as they grow taller and taller. We measure our flour and our water to make just the right bread. We measure how much money we put into the bank, so that we can save for college for our kids and our grandkids. We measure our anniversaries, our birthdays, our tenures at various positions. In fact, we measure how many years we’ve been members of this church, don’t ...

736. Because We Are Chosen

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

King Duncan

What would you do if tomorrow you found out that you had inherited an unexpected fortune? What problems would it solve for you? What problems would it create? How would a surprise inheritance affect your life? There was a wealthy bachelor from Portugal named Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara. By our standards, that’s a long name. Luis had inherited a large amount of money which he spent on motorcycles, shooting, and drinking. The rest he wasted, as the old joke goes. Being a bachelor, he didn’t have ...

737. The Invitation

Matthew 20:1-15

Sermon

Will Willimon

Jesus said that God's Kingdom is like a man who had a vineyard which needed harvesting. The man goes out into the marketplace and hires some workers agreeing to pay them one denarius a day. They go to work. Mid-morning he looks over his vineyard and sees that more workers will be needed if the job is to be done, so he goes back into the marketplace where he encounters some men still standing around whom no one has hired. Even though a third of the day is over, he asks them to go to work for telling them ...

738. The Blind See!

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

King Duncan

It seems that every week there is a news report on some new technology that is making the world more connected and safer than it was before. It’s an exciting time to be alive, isn’t it? A great example of this is an app that came out a few years ago called Be My Eyes. A blind or visually impaired person can download this app to their cell phone and enter in information on what state or country they live in and what language they speak. Sighted people who sign up to volunteer also download the app and enter ...

739. More Than a Popularity Contest

Luke 12:49-53, Luke 12:54-59

Sermon

King Duncan

How do you measure popularity? These days most people measure popularity by social media followers and likes. But that’s not always an authentic measure. There are companies that will sell large blocks of fake followers to those who want to look more popular than they really are. And this isn’t a new thing. Back in 300 B.C., a performer named Philemon hired audience members to laugh loudly at his jokes. The paid laughers were so effective that Philemon routinely beat out his competitors in local comedy ...

740. Graciousness and Grumbling

Matthew 20:1-15

Sermon

Will Willimon

Well, religion has suddenly become the burning concern of politicians. I can't remember when religion has been so important in a presidential campaign. It wasn't long ago that John Kennedy had to explain why, although he was a Catholic, his religion would not hinder him from being a good president. And a very short time ago, Jimmy Carter stood before the voters and admitted that, although he was a faithful Baptist, he would perform his presidential duties as if he were nothing at all -- or something like ...

741. Shut the Back Door!

John 10:1-10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Every churchgoer knows about the “back door” –a kind of secret exit plan people sometimes use when the service is over (especially if it went long) in order to avoid the pastor, the greeting line, or an upcoming fellowship event or congregational meeting. When I was growing up, our church had a convenient “side” door that led right from the sanctuary to the cemetery walkway to the left of the church. If the line down the aisle toward the front door where the pastor stood to greet people as they exited grew ...

742. Welcoming Jesus

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

William G. Carter

Some years ago, my wife and I landed on the mystical island of Iona. Located off the western coast of Scotland, the small island has an abbey that traces its roots back to the sixth century. The abbey has been rebuilt over the last eighty years, and it now serves as a center for conferences and spiritual retreats. We arrived on an August afternoon in time for the evening worship service. Taking our seats in the ancient stone sanctuary, we discovered we were in the midst of a Christian youth conference. ...

743. Redeem the Time

Matthew 24:36-44 · Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

"For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them away, so will be the coming of the Son of man." A man I know, a professor at a nearby university, has decided not to do any reading, writing, or speaking, until we get a total freeze on nuclear weapons. The way he sees it, the Bomb is so awful, the dangers that it poses to life on earth are so awesome, that ...

744. The View From The Mountaintop

Mark 9:2-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The transfiguration of the Lord. An important day on the calendar of the church, and one that regularly falls near another important day on the secular calendar of America, the birthday of the man who has been called America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. We have heard the old aphorism about some being born great, some achieving greatness, and some having greatness thrust upon them. Abraham Lincoln can surely lay claim to, at least, the last two of those. Lincoln has always fascinated me. Many of ...

745. Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Jesus was tempted. We know the story is there, but it isn’t our favorite, is it? Somehow it tarnishes our ideas about Jesus. Was he as wimpy as we are, almost ready to step over the edge of whatever morality we might have left, at the first offer? Ray Stedman, great twentieth-century preacher, remembered a morning at a restaurant. He was the featured speaker at a large church conference out east and was finishing his presentation notes as he ate breakfast. The eatery had unique décor, including good ...

746. God Is Like...a Comforter

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

If you were asked to name the invention that has had the greatest impact on daily life in the past century, what would you say? The electric light bulb, the automobile? You could make a strong case for either of them. I’d add another to the list: central heating. Some of you, like me, grew up in homes that had no central heating. You may remember gathering around the kitchen stove to change clothes in the morning and going up the stairs at night to a frigid bedroom. You’d crawl between icy sheets and then ...

747. Eyes Like a Hawk

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’” (1 Samuel 16:7) “Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” (Mark 8:25) “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” (Matthew 6:22) Your eyes are your soul’s window. The idea of our eyes betraying our innermost thoughts, emotions, and ...

748. A Living Memorial

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

Maundy Thursday can and should be one of the most meaningful days on the Christian calendar. It brings us face-to-face with the heart of the matter -- our sin, the estrangement from God it causes, and the cost of reconciliation. For much of the year, even faithful and good Christians can avoid facing the painful reality of sin in our lives and our need for a dramatic remedy for that sin. On this special day, we see clearly the pain and agony of what Christ faced. The suffering of Christ was essential ...

749. When Self-esteem Gets Out Of Hand

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

Once I had a friend who was offended whenever the phrase "we are miserable sinners" was used in the corporate prayer of confession. She did not feel that she was a miserable sinner. And indeed she wasn't in comparison to most of the other people in the church. She was compassionate, kind, thoughtful, and a great teacher of little children in Sunday School. Nor did she "regard others with contempt" -- or at least, not many others. I don't think she liked the phrase in an old hymn, "Would he devote that ...

750. Arise! Shine! For Your Light Has Come

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

Doubtless you remember the television commercial in which a man steps up to a bar and says: "Give me a light." After he is blasted with every possible sort of light, from fire to laser beams, he sheepishly corrects himself: "Give me a Bud Lite." This is a modern parable. Like all living beings, we look for light, but often we are willing to settle for lite beer! It is just something to get us through the night, a little pleasure in a bottle, a little truth in a can. Give me a Bud Lite! It comes to us ...

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