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 751 to 775 of 4339 results

751. Five Grains of Corn

Psalm 111:1-10

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... service. Standing on the beach at Melbourne, in Nevil Shute’s novel, On The Beach, one of the last remaining inhabitants of an earth completely saturated by radiation says, "Maybe we’ve been too silly to deserve a world like this." The other character replies, "That’s absolutely and precisely right." The implications are profound. Men are not blessed merely for themselves, but to equip them for greater service to God and man, in building foundations that endure. We are aware of the sad spectre of ...

752. Life: Sacred or Stupid?

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... our prices have remained the same." You know, it’s a strange thing that nobody, no matter how hard they have tried, has ever been able to commercialize Easter. It just doesn’t lend itself to commercialization - never has, never will. One of Ernest Poole’s characters in one of his poetic novels says: "History is just news from the graveyard." Well, I’ll agree with him at one point. I’ll agree that all of history is shaped by the news from one graveyard, one garden outside of Jerusalem in about the ...

753. Justification and Reconciliation

Romans 3:21-31

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

... upholds the law by preserving its true function to expose and aggravate sin, to accuse and condemn the sinner, and to drive him to despair of his effort to earn God’s favor by obeying the law. Paul denies the right to moralize the law, to tone down its true character as terrifying agent of divine wrath, to transform it into a gentle guide for holy living, to make it a way of salvation, a rival of the gospel. The law is "holy and just and good," for it is the revelation of the holy will of God, but no man ...

754. Blinding Specks

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... indeed, we ourselves have most likely been guilty of it. So perhaps it would be helpful for us to give some consideration to these blinding specks. Stimulants To Ego Consider, for instance, the stimulation they may provide for one’s ego. Boris Pasternak has one of his characters describing another. He says of her, "She’s a bit affected. There is something she doesn’t like about herself. That’s why she talks such a lot and why she makes herself sillier than she is. It’s as if she were in a hurry to ...

755. The Art of Living Until

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... an empty phrase when Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). This Faith called Christian is not merely isolated spurts of believing this or that, but it is a long-term confidence in the dependability of God, and in the eternal character of right and truth and beauty. And this: confidence is our strength for living; it is our faith for both working and resting. In our working we can know that every good effort becomes a part of an ultimate victory. In our resting we can know there is ...

756. Your Image of Tomorrow

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... but generally we don’t know it at the time. John knew that he was, and he was willing to be. He was content to draw aside the curtain, focus the spotlight upon Another, and then step back into the shadows. There are dimensions of greatness in the character of anyone who can do that as gracefully and graciously as did John. In the story of Adam Bede, George Eliot describes a certain conceited person as being "like the cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow." I’ve known, as you probably have ...

757. Saints With Crooked Haloes

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... up, took a look at him, and said, "Boy, it'd be a lot easier to have another one than to clean you up." I'm so glad that God doesn't feel that way about us. God is in the business of taking the most soiled, unlikely characters and transforming them into effective representatives of Jesus Christ. God seems to delight in producing saints with crooked haloes. We need to change some of our ideas about sainthood. We tend to think of a saint as a person of enormous faith, incredible virtue, and unblemished moral ...

758. The Way I See It

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

... stools or chairs, so arranged that there is the illusion of isolation, each from the others. Always use any available levels. Actors, use your stools: stand by, sit or lean on them at will. Avoid eye contact with the other players. Freeze when not speaking. Characters are the FATHER, MOTHER, daughter ELIZABETH in her early thirties, and RONNIE the nearly 19-year-old son. You may wish to age-cast this skit. By all means divide the audience into small groups and let them talk about what they saw and heard ...

759. Measure of Success

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

... : the rich man, MR. MAGNATE, and the young reporter, which part may be played by either boy or girl. The other characters are heard but not seen: Henry, the cousin; Mr. Magnate as a boy, Phillip; his Mother. Look in old family albums or junk stores for old photographs of the 1910-1915 vintage, as suggested in the script. Show with an opaque projector. However, if you wish to make the scenes ...

760. Well, What Did You Expect?

Acts 12:1-19a

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... praying for understanding and humility, a person praying for the strength to overcome that temptation - all of these are, you see, sharing in what God’s purposes are for us. When we are praying for a quality that will make us a more complete and mature and godly character, then we are actually praying "Thy will be done." Our Christian faith is not that God WAS the Creater, it is that God IS the Creater, and to man alone He has given the power to share in his own creation. When we pray for that which makes ...

761. Our Father Who Art on Earth

Proverbs 1:8-19

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... where it is most important that we maintain the dignity of our position, we become sloppy in our speech, in our dress, in our manners, in our character. A young girl told me some time ago that she loved to visit her father at his office. I asked her why. She told me, "Oh, down ... the dignity of his opinion by giving dignity to other opinions not by destroying them. Thirdly, Certainly our moral character also speaks much louder to our children than what we say about morality. Many children today are glad to ...

762. Chapter I

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... out of living. He gave them in an attempt to help us understand the principles by which we have to relate to him, and to each other, in order to wring all of the juice out of it that life, at its best, has in it. To understand this positive character of them, we have to keep in mind that the Commandments are not based upon a relationship founded on force, but on one built firmly on love. The tablets with the Commandments on them were not slapped into Moses’ hand by a beady-eyed God, holding a big fist ...

763. Chapter V

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... blown in a dizzy circle, and don’t know where they are! Many of the basic directions for living have been set by God. And that Divine Wind is one you can trust when you look for the principles by which to build a life. The shaping of the character of every child needs the concern of the parent. Left to himself a child often will develop into a terror that nobody, including you, can stand to have around. Like any growing thing, its shaping will be done by outward, as well as inner forces. Be certain that ...

764. Wearing the Ashes

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... my life around and grow in my discipleship. When we wear the ashes, God’s judgment turns to mercy. As with the Ninevites, the Old Testament is not embarassed to say that God changes his mind. God’s character is not changing, but as our response to him changes, his course of action changes, in keeping with his character as a God of mercy. Let’s use Lent like the Ninevites used Jonah’s call of God’s judgment. To see ourselves as we are before God, to realize our guilt before the cross, to be free ...

765. God of Wrath and Grace

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... on the grace of God. But Methodists did not always avoid the subject of God’s wrath. John Wesley’s original invitation to membership in Methodism was simple: “Come all who wish to flee the wrath to come.” Of course, if we minimize one side of God’s character, our witness is whop-sided, and we do not declare the full counsel of God. St. Paul in Romans 11:22 urged us to “Note then the kindness and severity of God.” Somewhere I heard about an indulgent mother who was trying to get her 5 year old ...

766. The Hardest Thing That God Could Ask

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , Abraham would have descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky, and his descendants would be God's special people, a blessing to the whole world. Verse 1 tells us that God "tested" Abraham. Does it seem strange to you that God tests people? If our faith and character are worth anything, they can stand the tests. God tests us but He does not tempt us. In James 1:131 we read, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me. ' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone." In James 1 ...

767. Rediscovering Our Spiritual Dimension

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... frequently the aims and ends for which we live have length and breadth, but no height. Moreover, since the means we adopt to reach these ends are generally faulty, we can be blind to the further fact that the nature of the means influences almost invariably the character of the ends, and hence there has been poured into our common life an unwholesome quality that has tended to mar and discolor much of what we plan or create or produce. Years ago, when I was a young lad, I was given a picture book depicting ...

768. Genes of Joash

2 Kings 12:1-21

Illustration

Larry Powell

... for him secretly for six years. Joash became king at age seven, served well until the death of Jehoiada, then came under the influence of the wicked princes of Judah. Jehoiada, a priest who had educated Joash and made a positive influence upon his character. Zechariah, a prophet and son of Jehoiada, whom Joash had killed for spreading the truth. Some commentators suggest that Joash was the product of bad genes. There is a case for this claim insofar as his greatgrandfather was King Ahab (who sponsored Baal ...

769. Eternally Interceding

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Illustration

Larry Powell

... which had been fashioned from their own jewelry. It had been remarked that the people were just out of slavery ... they were tired of waiting on Moses to return to them ... they wanted to celebrate somehow and thank somebody. Not yet understanding the character of Moses’ God, they manufactured their own god to enable them to focus their celebration upon something. I believe the observation is correct inasmuch as we see latter-day versions of similar behavior, i.e., persons who want to celebrate life but ...

770. Appointment in Jerusalem

Luke 19:28-44

Illustration

Larry Powell

... on stage recite a script, robots manuever as they are programmed, and puppets are manipulated by someone jerking on a string. Real people make decisions. Jesus did not go to Jerusalem simply because it had been written down for him to do so centuries before ... a character reading his lines, being jerked around by a cosmic puppeteer. How primitive it is to reduce Jesus to a wind-up messiah or a "throw-away" person by insisting that he had no mind of his own regarding his own ministry. He chose to go to ...

771. Song of a Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... not want" (Psalm 23:1). The psalmist knows a personal shepherd. He claims the Almighty’s hovering care for his own. Thus, he can face the twilight years with thanksgiving and in peace since, out of his long experience, he is confident of five truths concerning the character of the divine Redeemer. A God Who Guides In the first place, the author of the Twenty-third Psalm is on familiar terms with a God who guides. he makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters; he restores my ...

772. Song of an Evangelist

Psalm 103:1-22

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... but likewise elicits the spirited response of the congregation to the overtures of the Almighty. A Portrait of God At this point the psalmist makes another striking discovery. He cannot think of God’s grace without seeing it is an intimation of God’s character. Here is a Deity who shares the human scene. For here is a Lord whose heart beats as one with our’s. God’s love is an endless love, his patience inexhaustible. Slow to anger, God harbors nothing against his own. Neither will he continually ...

773. Is There Life After Christmas?

Luke 2:21-40, Isaiah 12:1-6

Sermon

Erskine White

... , nor is it a mystery to God or anyone else which choice we make. Our values, our priorities and our lifestyles all reveal to God and the world the content of our hearts and the character of our souls. What will we try to do with our lives, and who or what will we try to serve? How often we end up like a character named Mathilde in Guy de Maupassant’s story, The Necklace - the story of a woman who was married to an ordinary citizen but who wanted more than anything to hobnob with French high society. One ...

774. Dual Citizenship II - What Do We Owe To God?

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... Jesus' parables are always nameless? We don't have a name for the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son. Ah, but here in Luke 16 we have an exception. Not the rich man. Though he was known far and wide on earth, he has no name in this parable. The character with the name is the poor man Lazarus. Don't you get the message-- God knows the names that most people on earth don't care to know...the names of the sick and destitute, the kind that sleep on our park benches. There is no indication in the story ...

775. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

... nothing that appears thereafter can take that reality away. "For in Christ Jesus," writes Paul in Galatians, "you are all children of God, through faith. For as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:26-27). Doc is a character in John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday. A Ph.D from the University of Chicago, Doc now earns his living selling marine specimens he has collected from the tidal pools near his home in Monterey. He has a good life, but when he reflects deeply, Doc is ...

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