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 841 results

801. Homecoming

Hosea 14:1-3a

Sermon

Will Willimon

... Reagan years? "They're looking for their parents," said the rabbi. Having been raised by a generation so uncertain of their own values, they didn't dare attempt to pass them on to their young; now they're looking for home. And one of my theories for why you don't understand your teachers is that a majority of the Duke faculty are children of the Sixties where the main educational agenda was detachment, breaking away, cutting loose, dropping out, tuning in to the Age of Aquarius. Now we middle-aged tenured ...

802. Mutual Submission

Ephesians 5:22-33

Sermon

Will Willimon

... terms of our freedom FROM rather than our freedom TO. Duke: Freedom from Mama and Daddy's curfews, from a life in somebody else's shop, from the outmoded values of yesterday. My Freshman year I was introduced to Abraham Maslow and his theory of self-actualization. Later, I met Maslow's friends -- Carl Rogers, Erich Fromm, as well as their children -- Gail Sheehy's PASSAGES, and dozens of other books on self-assertiveness and self-improvement. Maslow believed that people -- particularly those of us who are ...

803. I Doubt It!

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Timothy W. Ayers

... what we know of Thomas. One writer suggested that Thomas was simply that downer type of personality in the group. You’ve been in meetings where the whole group is excited about an idea and one lonely soul speaks up and says, “It will never work.” That theory doesn’t ring true when you examine Thomas’ statement in John 11:16. It seems the opposite of that downer thinking. He insisted they all go with Jesus so that if he died, they all died. Not exactly an “up” statement that would lead a charge ...

804. Easter Power

Acts 14:8-18

Sermon

Will Willimon

... soap operas? Everyone, it seems, is romantically attracted to doctors. Many of the doctors I know are so dead tired after their fifteen hour work days that I can't believe they have enough energy left to be romantic! Nevertheless, there they are on TV. My theory: We believe that our doctors are powerful. Not that doctors believe that themselves. As a doctor friend told me, 'We doctors really don't do all that much healing. But the public believes that we can heal. That's the important thing. So we ask the ...

805. Meet the Rose Family

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... the fascinating part — even though we don’t share DNA with roses we can still be part of the rose family. Poet Robert Frost wrote a poem about it. It’s called, “The Rose Family.” The Rose Family The rose is a rose, And was always a rose. But the theory now goes That the apple’s a rose, And the pear is, and so’s The plum, I suppose. The dear only knows What will next prove a rose. You, of course, are a rose — But were always a rose. Robert Frost believed that you could be a member of ...

806. A Non-anxious Presence

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... who is able to be calm in the midst of other peoples’ anxiety. Unfortunately people often see this lack of anxiety on the part of the leader as a lack of caring. This week’s scripture lessons give us a perfect test of Friedman’s theories. In the Old Testament lesson the Hebrew army of Saul was afraid of Goliath and their fear paralyzed them. David entered as the non-anxious presence in the midst of their cowering, paralyzing anxiety. In Mark’s gospel lesson, the boat and those within it constitute ...

807. Feasting on Love

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... emotionally when we are confronted by isolation, when our relationships are cut off and socialization shuts down. In 1943, a psychologist by the name of Abraham Maslow in his paper on human motivation, laid out a chart called the human hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s theory tells us that our most basic human needs are physiological. We need food, water, and rest to live. When we go without food and water, our lives are threatened, and we can’t concentrate on anything much else except trying to find what we ...

808. When You Know How It Ends

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... uncertainty of an unknown future. Anytime society faces a major change or crisis—a pandemic, rising unemployment, natural disasters—people search for some sense of control. We either seek someone to blame or someone to guide us. Just look at the myths, lies and conspiracy theories that circulate on social media. We gain a sense of control when we find someone to blame for our problems. A mother asked her son what he would like for his birthday. “I'd like a little brother,” he said. “Oh my, that's ...

809. Mary's Witness

Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Sermon

King Duncan

... I could see Santa’s naughty kid list.” Mom replied, “To see if you’re on it?” The 7-year-old responded, “To see who I could have the most fun with.” (2) I think we all feel some sympathy for that mom. More proof of this theory that kids’ priorities at Christmas are different than parents’ priorities can be seen in kids’ letters to Santa Claus. Here a few examples of recent letters to Santa taken from the Internet: Dear Santa Claus, When you come to my house there will be cookies for you ...

810. For The Love of God is Creative

1 Corinthians 2:6-12 · Psalm 8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... of the basic tenets of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic beliefs is that God is the Creator and author of the universe and everything in it. All three faiths accept the creation story found in Genesis. That story acknowledges God as the Creator. Maybe the big bang theory really does describe how the universe came to be. But maybe it isn't so much physics or a physical description of how it took place as it is an emotional description of what took place. Do you remember those times in your life when you've ...

811. Which King Do We Worship?

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... sensation of seeming to take longer to make a trip than it is to return home is universal and even has an official scientific name. It is referred to as the “return trip effect” by those who research it. There are plenty of theories behind what causes the “return trip effect.” Researchers believe three things—emotions, expectations and familiarity affect our perception of how time passes. Strong emotions like fear or excitement seem to slow down our perception of time. Any parent who has heard the ...

812. Jesus Meets Our Needs

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... both here and for eternity. The text helps us understand how that occurs. Mary discovered a need (John 2:1-3). Some think that this was a family wedding and that the groom was a relative of Mary. No one knows for sure, but it is an interesting theory. There is the thought that Mary was the wedding coordinator for the occasion, because she was the one who directed the wine stewards to follow Jesus’ lead (John 2:5). Mary determined that there was a need and that something had to be done quickly so that the ...

813. The Teacher

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Will Willimon

... Wow, I thought to myself, Allan must really be a great teacher to make that stuff palatable. “It was wonderful. Couldn't understand a thing! And I am a Wellesley Graduate! Of course I just had to be here the next week when we expounded upon the various theories of the Atonement. Did I tell you that I am a Wellesley graduate?” And I thought to myself, I wonder what that woman gets from this teaching? Is it that the world has become so flat, so explained and confined, and yet she is smart enough to know ...

814. The Journey

Mark 8:27-36

Sermon

Will Willimon

... all the other vicissitudes of life which can come our way along the way. , II. A journey implies movement from here to there. Therefore, in characterizing discipleship as a journey, we are saying that it is a long process. Get ready for growth. Get ready for surprise. My theory for why the church tends to bolt down pews here is that, when you come in here on Sunday morning at 11:00, you never know where you might be located by noon! We bolt down these pews to give the illusion that things are fixed, stable ...

815. The Gift

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... . The perils of Christmas giving. There are also perils of Christmas getting. Much is required to be a good gift giver. But it also takes a good person to receive Christmas gifts in the right way. As Keillor goes on to say, ''A Christmas gift represents somebody's theory of who you are, or who they wish you were, and of course we know how to handle the wildly inappropriate gift from a stranger, but what if you see yourself as a suave dude and a swift intellect and then one year your wife--your wife--gives ...

816. Sheep and Shepherds

John 10:11-16 · Psalm 23

Sermon

Will Willimon

... reaction was understandable. You were upset, angry.” “I can't understand my reaction,” he said, “I am a college graduate.” We so want to believe that we have made progress. So now a professor at Harvard, Lawrence Kohl berg has a theory of “moral development.” Upward and onward, getting better and better each day in every way. We brought Alexander Solzhenitsyn over here from the Soviet Union is a sign of our Western moral advancement. And yet Solzhenitsyn writes, in The Gulag Archipelago, “If ...

817. Shameless!

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... it’s less a prayer than it is an outline for prayer. If Jesus was praying in an extemporaneous way, as it seems he was, he would be reticent to give them another memorized formula for reaching out to God Almighty. They already had those. If my theory is correct (and it’s not entirely my own), Jesus was giving them bullet points on prayer. He was essentially saying to them, “Think about these topics as you approach the Lord in prayer and pray through them from your heart.” It’s ironic that we have ...

818. A Last Appeal

Luke 23:33-43

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... in ancient Persia was to be given the privilege of enjoying the king’s garden. Jesus did not first ask the criminal if he believed in the Trinity, or in any other test of faith. He didn’t ask the man if he had been baptized or about his theory of the inspiration of the Bible. He simply said to the man that today he would be with Jesus in paradise. He accepted the criminal’s appeal as sincere. Jesus gave to the repentant criminal the promise that he would be with him in the afterlife, He was healing ...

819. Shiny Objects

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... stem from our identity. One of the most effective ways to derail a person is to attack their identity, who they are at their core. That’s why emotional abuse can be as devastating to a person as physical abuse. A Canadian psychiatrist named Eric Berne had a theory that most of us develop a “core story” about who we are and about our inherent worth by the time we reach five years of age. By five years old, we have developed a core story about whether or not we are loveable or competent or brave or ...

820. Why the Cross?

Hebrews 2:17-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... you like everything about the Christian faith but this particular idea of God needing a bloody execution in order to love and forgive. Let me just name the elephant in the room: What so many people have a hard time with is called the “penal substitutionary theory of atonement.” Basically, this understanding of the cross means that in order for a holy God to forgive sin, he required a blood sacrifice of a sinless person. So God sent his son as our substitute to get beat up and murdered so his wrath would ...

821. The Sawdust Trail

Colossians 3:1-4

Sermon

Dr. Ronald Love

... supply of uranium had been mined; scientists were still uncertain about the chemical properties of plutonium; production equipment had yet to be designed; acquisitions for plant sites were in abeyance; and the entire nuclear process was only a theory. Perturbed, Groves judged, “The whole endeavor was found- ed on possibilities rather than probabilities.” But it was in the midst of those possibilities that the A-bomb was created. Frequently it is “possibilities” and not “probabilities” that ...

822. A Rock Feels No Pain

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Someone has said that a sucker is born every minute. Some salesmen like to remember that as they market their goods. I became a believer in that theory when, a few years ago, people began to sell pet rocks. And people bought them. I never think about pet rocks without thinking about some lines from a Simon and Garfunkel song. It really pegs people: I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock. I ...

823. Easter Is True

Luke 24:13-35 · 1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

Will Willimon

... existed on the other side of the Atlantic. But in 1918, he was drafted by Uncle Sam. "You wouldn't believe what lies over there,'' he said. Having rejected the notion that Jesus rose from the dead, John Hick cannot tell us what happened. Theories of fears about the future, wish fulfillment of the grieving disciples, mass hysteria among Jesus' followers, explain nothing. Nor does it do any good to pick through biblical revelation and accept only that which our limited definitions of "reason" al low. This is ...

824. "The Living Room"

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... .” Any patient entering that room was under strict orders not to talk about his or her illness. Consequently the conversation was mostly story-telling. There was lots of laughter. Cousins wrote of the healing power of laughter. Some folks poked fun at his theories and referred to his conclusions as “giggling being more important than gargling.” Now I wouldn’t suggest that you quit gargling -- but we need to laugh more. It makes life more livable and we need to tell our stories to each other -- our ...

825. What Happens to Birds in the Winter?

Illustration

Staff

Fun fact. Until 1822, we had absolutely no idea what happened to birds in the winter. All we knew were there were birds in the summer and no birds in the winter. And people developed a lot of crazy theories about what would happen to the birds every fall. Some people said they would dive into lakes and hibernate under the ice. Some people thought they would burrow into the ground to hibernate while other people said the birds would transition themselves into other animals, like mice and rabbits in ...

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