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 1400 results

726. Body Sculpting and Self Shaping

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Spirit - we are to grow our own body, that is the body God gave us; we are to grow our own soul, the soul God gave us. Different natures will have different needs, different personalities different carriages, because God created each one of us to be an original. The notion that with the right effort and willpower you can have the body you want to have denies that God is our sculptor. God is the shaper. We are not our own. When we surrender to the Master Potter, we are being "shaped" by God. Romans 9:20-21 ...

727. Stand Together or Fall Apart

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to remain faithful to the image of community as ordained by Jesus and practiced with varying degrees of success by the early church, there is one more model we may turn to for guidance. So obvious that it may be overlooked, the uniquely Christian notion of a triune God, the doctrine of the Trinity itself, serves as an illustration of how we must remain united in community. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit stand together in a unified relationship, untainted by any struggles for superiority. The power and comfort ...

728. Minding Your Heart

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... closed down his mind for a time so that he could listen to the desires of his heart undisturbed. Had David engaged his mind he would have had to examine the ramifications of his actions, and he would have run headlong into covenantal notions of integrity, respect, honor, loyalty and commitment. But driven by an uncontrolled heart, David acted upon his desire, impugning his relationship with his God, his country, and his people. For good or ill, heart-controlled behavior still dominates our actions in a ...

729. Love Is for Nothing

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... not earn some reward for being loving and faithful. What we do accomplish by this love and faith is to enter into a relationship with the Holy, which makes us complete beings, sons and daughters of God. Francis Baur, O.F.M., has examined our faulty notions of the usefulness of the love that engenders faith and has come up with a provocative insight. Baur observes that when we ask "What is love for?" we are asking a loaded question. The very phrasing of that question reveals a gross misconception about love ...

730. The Ultimate Athlete

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Paul's image into that of an athlete, we can allow for great physical combat and yet still feel great respect if not awe for the perpetrators of these actions. Such a transference is not completely based on a capricious notion of acceptable versus unacceptable violence. A closer look reminds us that there is a truly spiritual aspect to athletics which is much easier to access theologically than any spiritual side to soldiering. The similarities between warfare and organized athletic competition have ...

731. Protecting Your Valuables

James 3:13-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Beverly Hills) or more philosophically (truth, wisdom, and loyalty). On the other hand the word "value" now has a pleasing cash-register ring to it. We use the word "value" to describe a deal, a bargain, even "a steal." Increasingly it is this consumerist notion of "value" which is influencing the way in which we use and understand this term. The noun "value" is a very old English word deriving from Latin valere meaning "to be strong, be of value." The word has meant the "worth" or "worthiness" of someone ...

732. Are You a Crazy Dog?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Crazy Dog," Jesus was constantly standing conventional practices and perspectives on their heads. Of course, it was in his genes. If ever there were a race of Crazy Dogs, it was the Jews. They began with Abraham and Sarah, two "crazies" who had the ridiculous notion that although they were in their nineties, God was calling them to leave their home, wander off to new territory, and was about to make them new parents - first of a son and ultimately of an entire nation. Whenever the Jews confronted obstacles ...

733. Interior Decorations

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and without. Without Law and Order, our nation cannot survive. We shall restore law and order." If you had voted for this politician running on the law-and-order ticket, you would have voted for Adolph Hitler in 1933. One of the greatest mistakes going is the notion that just because something is legal it is moral, or that just because something is immoral, it should be illegal. Joseph broke the religious law in not turning in Mary. What he did was illegal; but what he did was just. Justice is not the same ...

734. When a Church Should Go to Hell

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Most of us spend considerable time and energy trying to make our lives as safe and secure as possible. We want to be able to sit back and count our blessings - such as our jobs, our homes, our net worth. Jesus turns our notion of a blessed existence upside down, finding strength in vulnerability and warning us about the dangers of contented complacency. A blessed existence involves being sent to hell. The "Ritual of Friendship," or "Passing the Peace" or whatever else that period of enforced sociability ...

735. Aged to Perfection - The Third Age

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , elderescence, and, some add cutely, obsolescence. In every stage of senescence, however, there can be renascence. Social scientists Bernice L. Neugarten and Dail A. Neugarten even argue that the concept of "the fluid life cycle" must replace the conventional notion of developmental life "stages" or "passages": "All across adulthood, age has become a poor predictor of the timing of life events, just as it is a poor predictor of health, work status, family status, interests, preoccupations and needs ...

736. Scissors, Paper, Rock

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... leadership." But what does that really translate into for most of us? Someone who will make all our hard decisions for us, relieving us of any responsibility for their outcome? Someone who will not hesitate to flex our technological, financial and military muscles? God's notion of a "strong leader" has always been a bit different. In Moses, God picks a man who has been forced to flee from the authorities and has been relegated to herding sheep in the wilderness. At the time of his call, Moses is given no ...

737. Help Wanted: Only Shunammites Need Apply

2 Kings 4:8-37

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... t be met. Likewise, the silent understandings of an extended family used to mean that someone's uncle's cousin's nephew's son might appear on your doorstep and - after a bit of genealogical figuring - be welcomed into that spare room downstairs. In fact the whole notion of having more bedrooms than family members to fill them is a Shunammite holdover. The "American dreamhouse" always has a guest room. While we wait for that dream to come true, we make do with hide-a-beds, bunk beds or at least sleeping bags ...

738. The Cost of Non-Discipleship

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... and weary congregation about "the cost of discipleship?" We intimate that people must be prepared to give up something of great value in order to "buy into" the Christian system of salvation, as if it were some kind of heavenly time-share condominium. This whole notion of the "cost of discipleship" needs re-examination. The lifestyle that costs us our very lives is, in fact, non-discipleship - as Jesus pointed out when he revealed that "those who want to save their life will lose it" (Luke 9:24). It is in ...

739. Pit and Rock

Colossians 1:11-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... sense of belonging and connectedness to a host of ancestors we can never know personally, recalling our spiritual lineage - from the days of Abraham to the day-before-yesterday - gives us a sense of peace and perspective as we strive to remain faithful. The notion of a "pit and rock" genealogy does not sound very glamorous. Indeed it sounds suspiciously like we may be spiritually on par with dry holes and coal dust. But for Paul and the psalmist, Isaiah and the Foot family, the strength derived from this ...

740. Three Wise Gifts

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... life. Forever. So pay a compliment. Say something nice you've been meaning to say to someone. Tell them that you think they're a good, talented person; that you value their friendship; that you admire their ability; that they make you happy... It's a notion that you'll never regret. (Mike McGrath, "In Memoriam," in Robert Rodale's Save Three Lives, (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991), xvi-xvii.) Guerilla Love: Amy Grant calls this kind of love "Love of Another Kind." And it's only this "love of another ...

741. Five Steps to Takeoff

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... come near" (v.15), he follows it with the command to "repent." Before anything else can happen, even before he urges listeners to "believe in the good news," Jesus preaches repentance. Jesus knows that our sins and shortcomings, prejudices and preconceived notions can effectively block us from making any headway in our search for God's kingdom. Sometimes, like the airplane chocks, these can be seemingly ridiculously small matters of attitude or style that appear utterly insignificant to others. But in our ...

742. A Say-so Spirituality

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... from God." They are two losers trying to run a successful series of scams. It is easy for us to laugh at the prospect of such out-of-it dipsticks as Ackroyd's and Belushi's Jake and Elwood being on "a mission from God." The whole notion is hilarious. The problem is that when we consider the possibility of someone's really being on a genuine mission from God, we still tend to cringe and giggle. Is that excessively exalted language for the activities of someone we might actually know? Is someone like that ...

743. Mazing Grace or Amazing Grace

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... a lot of trouble. That is why Isaiah, and all believers, have counted on the fact that God is a God with two natures. We demand a God of justice - but we all need a God of mercy. Even so, we are just self-centered enough to find the notion of a God who is merciful to those who truly deserve judgment a bit disturbing. We want God's mercy for ourselves - but not necessarily for anybody else. Theologians since before Isaiah and after today have struggled and will struggle to unite these two seemingly opposing ...

744. A Bill of Rights

Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... be gathered a large crowd of those who take extreme offense at our presumption. As Jesus revealed in the text for today, taking a stand ensures the presence of opposition even enemies. But for too long, the church has avoided discussing the notion that categories like "right" and "wrong" are valid. In fact, they are God-designed ways of organizing our lives and developing our character. By trying to play amidst the ever-shifting sands of cultural rules and cultural relativism, the church has greatly ...

745. Tremendous Trifles

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... standards of acceptable behavior slip lower and lower, until we can talk ourselves into almost anything, as long as it is to our own benefit. The poet/diplomat James Russell Lowell encapsulated this tendency when he penned— In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing. (As quoted in Charles Mankin, "The Meaning of the Ten Commandments for Today," Restoration Quarterly 34 [No. 4, 1992], 239.) One way we ...

746. A Match Made in Heaven

Isaiah 61:1—62:12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ?). God also had the outrageous audacity to suggest that men and women should commit themselves to celebrating these differences by establishing a sacred marriage covenant between them. That concept of covenant so pleased God that it led to God's craziest notion yet. God established a sacred covenant, an eternal promise of faithfulness, between the Creator and the creation. Having initially kept heaven and earth at safe distances from each other, God bridged that chasm with God's own promise to remain in ...

747. The Devil's Sermon

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... system. Choice is not a reason for living. The Bible does not say, "and now abides faith, hope, love and choice, but the greatest of these" is ... choice. No, as Christians, we live to love, we live to serve, we don't live to make choices.... The whole notion of "choice" language is a smoke screen to get us away from dealing with "sin." You and I have been given the most amazing power in the universe - the power to choose, the power to become. Now we can choose to become in one of two directions: We have ...

748. The Truth of Love

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of amputations that Jesus suggests in Matthew 5:29-30. Is it permissible to allegorize today's Lukan passage? Paul himself resorts to allegory in Galatians 4:24. Discuss the meaning of parable. If you are bold, you may want to develop the notion of myth. What passages of Scripture are inaccessible without using myth as a component of biblical exegesis? Turn to the advertising world for examples. Few people take the extravagant claims of Madison Avenue literally. What is it that we are to understand when ...

749. Do Not Grow Weary in Well-Doing

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... their own to occupy them, they interfered with everyone else's lives. Their stupid theology and annoying presence made it hard for the faithful Thessalonians to continue doing their own work in the community and made it very difficult to correct these wrong notions and get these wrong-thinkers back into the working heart of the church. Little wonder Paul worried about the faithful growing "weary in doing what is right." As Christians, we must be actively engaged in "causal time" - that is, in making use of ...

750. A Sad Misunderstanding of Time

Illustration

Thomas Long

... letter from a "white brother in Texas" who wrote, "... It is possible you are in too great a religious hurry ... The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Dr. King replied that such an attitude stemmed from a sad misunderstanding of time, the notion that time itself cures all ills. Time, King argued, could be used for good or for evil. Human progress, he said, is not inevitable, but rather ... “... it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this ...

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