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 951 to 975 of 1065 results

951. A New Name

Isaiah 62:1-5

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

Let's play a game. I am going to say a name and you think about that person. What emotions does the name bring to mind? What nostalgic feature? What accomplishments do you remember about them or what negatives have they produced in your thinking? Abraham Lincoln Eve Tommy Dorsey Joan of Arc Paul the apostle Amelia Earhart Mohammad Ali Albert Einstein Mary the Mother of Jesus Osama bin Laden Mother Teresa Now think of the names of people in your life who have influenced you parents grandparents other ...

952. The Winning Word

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

Tom Barnard tells of his great love for sports stories, especially where an athlete survives an ugly situation and is honored for his or her lifetime achievements. One of those celebrations occurred on baseball's opening day, 2008. It happened to William Joseph "Bill" Buckner, a former major league baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and the Boston Red Sox. Accompanied by a loud, standing ovation prior to the start of the Red Sox home opener ...

953. A Marriage Made In Heaven

Hosea 1:2-10

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

This is wedding season, and with the privilege of presiding at the weddings of many couples over the years, I have had the opportunity to hear how these people came to meet one another. Lately, internet dating networks have yielded more and more lasting relationships, but the majority of couples have met through the intervention of friends or family. Once in a while a couple will meet in church, and once in a great while one or the other of them will say something like, "The Lord led me to _____________ ...

954. Earth, Wind, and Fire

Joel 2:23-32

Sermon

R. Kevin Mohr

While serving as a missionary to Madagascar with my family in the 1980s and 90s, I witnessed at least two locust swarms. On one level I was fascinated by the spectacle of a good portion of the sky suddenly becoming black with a thick cloud of locusts. There was something eerily beautiful about the shimmering light that managed to pass through the swarm to the ground as the insects passed overhead. Even a small swarm may cover several square miles of sky and weigh thousands of tons. Locusts eat the ...

955. Surprise in a Graveyard

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

On February, 27, 1991, at the height of Desert Storm, Ruth Dillow received a very sad message from the Pentagon. It stated that her son, Clayton Carpenter, Private 1st Class, had stepped on a mine in Kuwait and was dead. Ruth Dillow later wrote, “I can’t begin to describe my grief and shock. It was almost more than I could bear. For 3 days I wept. For 3 days I expressed anger and loss. For 3 days people tried to comfort me, to no avail because the loss was too great.” Every parent here can relate to her ...

956. Just-Say-The-Word Disciples

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How many of you here this morning came from “the wrong side of the tracks?” [Draw out some stories about being from “the wrong side”] Did the “wrong side of town” have a name? [I was born on a street known as “Hungry Hill”] Guess what? Every one of us here has come from the “wrong side of the tracks” at one time or other. Whether you grew up on a swanky estate, a ritzy mansion, a standard suburban “splanch” (split level ranch), a shanty in the woods or a slum in the city, you were on the “wrong side of the ...

957. Between a Rock and a Hard Rock Thrower

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

As a kid were you ever convinced that you HAD to be adopted? I mean, really: how could you be related to your big-mouthed brother when you are so reserved and quiet? . . . Your math genius parents could never have produced your brain — a brain that can’t add up anything without using fingers and toes. . . . How can you be related when you can play almost any musical instrument and your sister is completely tone deaf? As our personalities develop, as our individual quirks and oddities, likes and dislikes, ...

958. Stargazing, Naval Gazing, and Other Waiting Games

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Tony Everett

Hurry up and wait! Hurry up and wait! Anyone who has spent time in the military has heard this and lived this as a part of their daily routine. Rapid flurries of activity are followed by long periods of waiting in line. Waiting seems to be part of life in every context. We wait in lines at grocery stores, department stores, banks, athletic events, concerts, motor vehicle offices, and government agencies. It seems like time passes with the speed of light on our way there and at the pace of a slug after we ...

959. Will this Be on the Test?

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Tony Everett

What do you think might be the most common questions teachers in all grade levels hear from their students? You are correct if you were thinking of something to do with passing examinations. Will this be on the test? What do we have to know to pass the test? What happens if we fail? Do we get another chance? Beginning soon after birth (some folks might say soon after conception) children are measured and compared to arbitrary standards of physical, mental, social, and even emotional well being. Parents and ...

960. Outpouring and Indwelling

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Springtime is the season of uncontained optimism. As the days grow longer, and the sun grows stronger, it feels time to do something outrageous. We dig into the earth, carefully plow and pulverize hard clods into fine loam. We remove the weeds and grasses. We add extra nutrients to enrich the prepared soil. Then into that lush, fertile mixture we gently deposit . . . dried up, shriveled, little (sometimes downright tiny), seemingly completely dead bits of matter. We call them “seeds.” Nothing looks less “ ...

961. Family Re:Union - Great Expectations

Ephesians 5:22-33

Sermon

James Merritt

There are a lot of things in life you can buy that will help you get ahead in life. They are for sale and if you’ve got the money to buy them they will return a dividend and many times a big one. For example, you can buy education and no one denies the value of having a degree. Even in this day and age it helps to have education to get ahead. You can buy knowledge. In many fields including ministry, sometimes hiring an outside consultant can bring a fresh set of eyes to an old set of problems and get a new ...

962. First Thing

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

James Merritt

Have you ever been so worried about anything at any time in your life that you couldn’t sleep? I don’t mean just for a day or two, but I mean weeks or maybe even months. If you have, listen to this true story. A man I know was dealing with a problem related to his ministry that so obsessed him and so worried him that for over a month, he was going on about 3 ½ - 4 hours of sleep a night. Different friends and coworkers would comment to him jokingly that they would get an email from him at 11:30-12am and ...

963. God Will Provide the Resources

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a time-honored story about a pastor and his wife who decided to invite the church council and their spouses over for dinner. It was quite an undertaking, but this devoted couple wanted to be a good example for the leaders of their church. When it came time for dinner, everyone was seated and the pastor’s wife asked their little four-year-old girl if she would say grace. The girl said, “I don’t know what to say.” Her mother said, “Honey, just say what I say.” Everyone bowed their heads and the ...

964. Five Mission Killers

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Although autumn does not officially start until September 22, we all know that this weekend, Labor Day Weekend, signals the end of summer. The "holiday" season is over. It is time to "get back to work" Tuesday morning. And we all, all generations, know it — whether we are in kindergarten class or on a corporate totem pole. After Labor Day it is "business as usual." No more holidays. Holidays used to be "holy days," times to mark the moment by calendar days which paid special attention to historic ...

965. Waiting in Life's Waiting Rooms

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The season of Advent is a “waiting game.” Everyone is “waiting” for something. *Students anxiously wait for finals to be over and the start of Christmas break. *Some employees have the big wait, as they hold their breath and learn whether or not there will be a Christmas bonus. *Retailers count the days til they can count the bottom line from the season’s buying frenzy. *Kids of all ages can’t wait to open up the brightly wrapped presents starting to appear under the tree. Everyone is waiting . . . for the ...

966. The Law of Unintended Consequences

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

Anyone who has ever worked with complex systems is familiar with the law of unintended consequences. You attempt something beneficial but it leads to something else unforeseen that is terrible. For example, a couple of decades ago, the fashionable mantra among environmentalists was, “Save the trees! Use plastic instead of paper!” Today New York City alone goes through more than 5 billion plastic bags each year, which pollute the seas and highways, and endanger fish and wildlife. The law of unintended ...

967. Reliable Witness

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

King Duncan

A little girl asked her mother, “Mom, how did the human race appear?” The mother answered, “Well, first God made Adam and Eve and then they had children, and so on . . .” Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, “Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.” The confused girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said we developed from monkeys?” The mother answered ...

968. A Man Named Many

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

In Ogden Nash’s poem, “The Outcome of Mr. MacLeod’s Gratitude,” he tells of a wife who was always complaining . . . and a husband who conversely managed to be grateful for everything. What a combination--one always complaining and the other always grateful. The last stanza of the poem goes like this: So she tired of her husband’s cheery note And she stuffed a tea-tray down his throat. He remarked from the floor, where they found him reclining, “I’m just a MacLeod with a silver lining!” I hope you have ...

969. Demons, Pigs, and the Economy

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Garasenes asked him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear; so he got into the boat and returned. — Luke 8:37 In polite society we have not wanted to talk much of demons and the demonic. In our liberal, educated culture, we believe that sin was due mostly to ignorance and that evil could be eradicated by education. In our psychologically enlightened times we have avoided the more ancient religious and mythological language of devils ...

970. Two Kinds of People

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Some wag has said that there are basically two kinds of people in the world: those who divide people into two kinds of people and those who do not. Jeremiah says in our text for the day that there are indeed two kinds of people. One kind he calls cursed; the other he calls blessed. The life of the cursed he compares to a low bush in the desert, inhabiting a parched and desolate wilderness. The life of the blessed, on the other hand, he compares to a tree planted by the waters--that spreads her roots out by ...

971. The Impact of Divorce

Illustration

Michael P. Green

Dissolving a marriage is not like dissolving a business partnership, or even like deserting from the army. Indeed, many psychologists have stated that it is second in emotional impact only to the death of a spouse.

972. Paul and Silas In Prison

Acts 16:16-40

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

See introduction to the previous section. 16:16–17 The missionaries appear to have gone week by week to the place of prayer for a number of weeks, and as they did so, they were followed on several occasions by a demented slave girl whose shouting made them the center of public attention. The force of the Greek of verse 17 is that she “kept on following” and “kept on shouting” about them. Luke describes her in a curious way (not apparent in NIV): She had “a spirit,” he says, “a python” (v. 16). The word “ ...

973. Identification and a Wish for Grace and Peace

Galatians 1:1-10

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

1:1 As in all of his letters Paul begins by identifying himself as the sender. In ancient times a letter typically began with the writer’s self-identification, and the opening commonly continued by naming the addressees and wishing them good health. In Paul’s letters, this typical wish is replaced by a wish for grace and peace. In the opening of Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches, as in most of his other letters, Paul identifies himself as an apostle (cf. Rom. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; and, if ...

974. Final Greetings

Colossians 4:7-18

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

4:7–8 Two of the individuals mentioned in this list are personal emissaries of Paul to the Colossian church. Tychicus is singled out and commended as a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant. Paul’s association with him goes back to Ephesus (Acts 20:4), where it appears Tychicus may have spent some time as a church leader (2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12). Paul dispatches Tychicus to Colossae as a personal messenger and probably as the bearer of this letter and anticipates that his coming will ...

975. Paul's Ministry in Thessalonica

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

In the thanksgiving, Paul incidentally touched on their ministry in Thessalonica, but he now speaks of that ministry more directly, defending his own and his colleagues’ conduct against Jewish slanders. The matters touched on include: (1) the circumstances of their coming to Thessalonica and their motives in being there (2:1–6); (2) their conduct towards the Thessalonians (2:7–12); and (3) the response of the Thessalonians to their message and the ensuing hardship caused by that response (2:13–16). Because ...

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