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 801 to 825 of 1400 results

801. Mark 13:24-37

Mark 13:24-37

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... not just an individual the "Son of Man" but an entire event, an event experienced with "great power and glory." This event continues in verse 27 as the glorified Son of Man sends out his "angels," his messengers, on special mission to "gather his elect." The notion of some being the "elect" makes it clear that the Son of Man like the Old Testament Yahweh on the Day of the Lord definitely plays favorites. This text gives no other clues about who these "elect" are or about what has made them distinguishable ...

802. Mark 4:26-34

Mark 4:26-34

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... capacity for growth allows it to reach considerable size in the length of just one growing season. But no matter how large it grows, a mustard plant will never be comparable to a cedar of Lebanon. Just as Jesus failed to meet all the expected, preconceived notions of who the Messiah would be and what he would do, neither will God's kingdom arrive with an ostentatious show of strength and power. This mustard plant still offers protective shade to the creatures who seek it out but the refuge it offers is not ...

803. John 6:24-35

John 6:24-35

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... between work and faith. The Johannine use of the term used here for work ergazomai strongly suggests working or laboring, but not at all earning. This food that endures is worth every labor for it, but John qualifies this "work" theme and separates it from any notion of "earning" by stressing that the Son of Man gives the gift of eternal life. John's distinction between working and earning insures that while eternal life must be actively sought by people who desire it, in the end it is freely given by the ...

804. Mark 8:27-38

Mark 8:27-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... to Peter, to Peter's traditional view of messianic leadership, and squarely faces his confused and ignorant disciples and tragic future. Jesus declares Peter's words to be the voice of Satan i.e., the voice of disobedience and temptation to think along ordinary notions of success and triumph. The path of the messiah and the divine plan for salvation that he must carry out call for another way, a way that leads them all to Jerusalem. Having given this private revelation to his disciples, Jesus now includes ...

805. You Must Start Over!

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... religion has put God in. History proves that all religion inevitably puts God in the box of our human understandings. We end up substituting our understanding of God for God, blind to the fact that they are not the same. Just look at what has been done with the notion of being born again. It’s been boxed and sold as a litmus test for whether one is a real Christian. My experience is that when we use “born again” that way it’s evidence that we’re not. Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Let me tell you the ...

806. Hurts Can Heal

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... latest interviews on the TV talk shows. A significant number of these survivors have redefined themselves no longer as “survivors” but as “victims.” These frightened folks are finding more solace in victimhood, in helplessness, in fear, than in the light-bearing notion of deliverance, redemption, resurrection, and new life. No one loves the hurtful things that induce the most dramatic changes in our lives. Illness as a child. The death of a sibling. The divorce of parents. Failure at school or at a ...

807. Mark 8:31-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... “epitiman,” “rebuke,” was commonly used to describe the rebuking of demons (see 1:25), and suggests that Peter felt Jesus’ description of the nature of his messianic mission was utter madness. To Peter Jesus might be the Messiah, but his notion of a suffering, rejected, slain Messiah was nuts! Jesus swiftly turns Peter’s rebuke back upon him. Jesus also “rebukes” Peter and names him as “Satan,” the Adversary, the Tempter whose influence and expectations must be driven out. Rejecting God ...

808. Easter 6

Acts 10:23b-48, 1 John 4:1-6, John 15:1-17, 1 John 5:1-12

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... is considered necessary for salvation. Epistle: 1 John 5:1-6 1. Child (v. 1). Are all people the children of God? Or, are they creatures of God? According to this text, only those who believe in Jesus as the Christ are the children of God. A popular notion is that all people are God's children. By virtue of creation, being born physically, people are God's creatures. To be God's children we must, as Jesus taught, be born again spiritually. This second birth comes when we believe Jesus is Lord. The time and ...

809. The Power of Belief

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... beliefs. John Cleves Symmes was a decorated military officer who fought for America in the War of 1812. Then he retired from the military. He should have lived a fulfilling life from that day forward. Except one day he got an interesting notion in his head. He decided that the earth was hollow. Other people had postulated a hollow earth, but Symmes’ reasoning was particularly interesting. He reasoned that God would create hollow planets because, he decided, God is frugal. The Lord would not waste ...

810. Devout of this World

John 20:19-23

Illustration

Elizabeth Gilbert

... without assurance. Faith is a way of saying, 'Yes, I pre-accept the terms of the universe and I embrace in advance what I am presently incapable of understanding.' There's a reason we refer to 'leaps of faith' because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sit you down with their stacks of books and prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational ...

811. The Power of Belief

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

812. Romans 8:12-17

Romans 8:1-17

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... him with plenty of biblical examples of the Israelites as God’s children, Old Testament scripture does not speak of “adoption.” It is from Paul’s knowledge of Greek, and especially of Roman laws and traditions, that the apostle adopts this notion of adoption and adapts it to the Christian condition. Roman law strictly spelled out the equal status of adopted children with biological children. In matters of rights and inheritance, there was no distinction made between the two. Adopted children were ...

813. A God Who Hears, Cares, and Acts

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Will Willimon

... the Templeton Prize for progress in religion. He has much to say about how little threat science is to Christian belief. And yet, in his book, he also says that if the Christian faith is to be credible to modern people, we have got to get over the notion of an "interventionist God," that is a God who hears, cares, and acts for our good. Such a God, says Professor Davies, is not only an offense to reason, a rebel against the laws of nature, but also incredible to modern skeptical people. Do we really want a ...

814. The Ride of Your Life

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

It is easy for me to poke fun at liberal biblical scholars, because I am one of them. Over the years, we have tended to come at scripture with the notion that, above all else, scripture ought to make sense. So, in order to make the Bible make sense, we have tried to rationalize everything in the Bible that sounds irrational. Now I suppose the idea of a man standing in boat and rebuking waves of that magnitude borders on the ...

815. We Cannot Not Be Sinners

Mark 6:14-29

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

... to any and all, "You are a sinner," most people these days reply, "What did I do?" If sin exists at all, it is merely episodic, an occasional (and inexplicable) "lapse" from our better nature, which is at bottom "pretty good." How foreign is the notion articulated by theologian Emil Brunner. Brunner once noted that we can, in principle, avoid any particular sin. And we often do. Few if any people give in to every dark impulse. The average person, whether or not he is particularly religious, resists many ...

816. Ephesians 2:11-22

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... and ordinances” (v.15) in order to make room for the growth of something wholly new a “new humanity.” The defining essence of this new humanity is “peace,” “shalom,” “pax.” It is hard for us to appreciate just how radical a notion “shalom” was. In traditional Jewish worship a curtain divides males from females. Within the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem a separate Court of the Gentiles kept “outsiders” away and at bay from the inner courts of God’s temple. But now, this ...

817. Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... . The Christbody community of faith is being called to emulate the very life that was sacrificed for their sake. Only here in the New Testament are believers called to be “imitators of God,” perhaps because this directive is coupled with the notion of being God’s “beloved children.” For good or ill, children will imitate their parents. As “children of God,” the faith community has the perfect model of the divine parent to “imitate.” Finally, the author notes this “imitation” is to be ...

818. Full Devotion

John 6:51-58

Illustration

Edwin D. Peterman

... States pay lip service to their country and its heritage. They claim to be loyal and patriotic in every way. They say they are proud to belong to a country as great as ours. And yet at the same time they haven't the vaguest notion what the United States Constitution actually says, and they consider the Bill of Rights to be a radical, anti-American document. In other words, these people claim citizenship, but they have not internalized the basic meaning of being a citizen. They claim the privilege, but ...

819. My Mission from God

John 17:18

Sermon

James Merritt

... the band. My pastor is right in that if our country is to be saved, we must reach the young people for the Lord. I believe the Lord has shown him a far more effective manner to do it. Personally this experience helped me to better understand the notion that we need different approaches to reach different people for the Lord; Jesus doesn't care how we worship or where. He himself preached while sitting in a boat, in open fields, as well as in the temple. The Bible states that wherever and whenever we gather ...

820. God Where Are You? - The Problem of Evil

Genesis 3:1-6, Judges 6:13

Sermon

James Merritt

... 105 out of 106 felony jury trials. In his book, entitled The Five Reasons That O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder, he writes these words: When tragedies like the murders of Nicole [Brown-Simpson] and Ron [Goldman] occur they get one to thinking about the notion of God. Nicole was only thirty-five, Ron was just twenty-five, both outgoing, friendly, well liked young people who had a zest for life. Their lives were brutally extinguished by a cold-blooded murderer. How does God, if there is a God, permit such a ...

821. James 1:17-27

James 1:19-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... a law that lives, a law that leads, a word that breathes. There is nothing standardized or stilted about the message James urges the church to embrace. As James concludes the opening salvo of his letter, he adamantly testifies against the notion that God “tempts” human beings, somehow testing their moral mettle. James emphatically denies this outlook. Temptations come from within human needs and desires. Temptations do not come from God, who is not some sadistic Tempter. All that comes from God, James ...

822. Finish the Drill

Nehemiah 4:1-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... put this in his newspaper, "If you find an error, please understand it was put there on purpose. We try to publish something for everyone and some people are always looking for something to criticize." Opposition is a fact of life. Sometimes we get this idealistic notion that if we come up with ideas that are good enough and projects that are positive enough, we will escape criticism. The next time you get that in your mind, just look at the automobile that you rode to church in this morning. Did you know ...

823. Misled By Beauty

1 Samuel 15:34-35, 16:1-13

Sermon

Stan Purdum

It seems to me that the so-called "reality" television shows that have proliferated on the airwaves recently have introduced some new lows in the quality of broadcasting, and one of the more unwholesome — and dare I say even ungodly — notions they have reinforced is that what you look like is a measure of your value as a person. Two shows in particular promote this view: Extreme Makeover and Average Joe. On the first of these, Extreme Makeover, from the more than 10,000 applications the show receives ...

824. The View from Michal’s Window

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... to live up to your expectations, And you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I; If by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped. That philosophy was a useful corrective to the notion in some relationships that the other person is there to fulfill all of our so-called needs, and even, in some demanding relationships, all our whims. But Perls' lines also go too far in the direction of "I have no responsibility for how my friend, partner, coworker, spouse ...

825. The Maybe Moment

2 Samuel 11:1-15

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... resource that operates like a well; we empty it with use and refill it with rest. For the test, Baumeister divided people into two groups. One group was asked to not think about a white bear (which is almost impossible to do after the notion has been planted in your mind). The other group was given no such instruction, and allowed their minds to wander freely. Next, both groups were given some difficult anagrams to solve. The white-bear group gave up much faster than the free-thought group, which ...

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