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 76 to 100 of 635 results

76. To Be Alive

Luke 20:27-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of life. We want to know what becomes of us when life as we know it ends. Our curiosity nudges us, but our existential fear drives us. Human beings fear death often more than anything else in life. It’s part of our survival instinct. It keeps us going when things get tough; it keeps us fighting against perils, such as disease, harm, and natural disaster. Our will to survive has fueled life-long research into manifold life-sustaining solutions, caused us to rise up with immense strength against that ...

77. Peace And The Peacemakers

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

Richard Patt

... everyone is in favor of peace; very few are peacemakers. The peacemaker is willing to do one of two things, and both are painful: to live with the uprooting that making authentic peace often requires, or to subjugate willingly one's own retaliatory instincts in order to establish an atmosphere where productive negotiating can emerge. There will, for instance, be no authentic spiritual peace in a person's heart until sin is dealt with. Sin must be uprooted and cast out. Christ bore that upheaval (and pain ...

78. A New Kingdom Coming

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... as Coale in the automotive industry. Even now, the new anti-pollutant catalytic converter will itself pollute our air with dangerous quantities of sulfuric acid. Future Shock author, Alvin Toffler, is correct when he says: "Technocrats suffer from myopia. Their instinct is to think about immediate returns, immediate consequences. They are premature members of the now generation."[1] Further, says Toffler, "To plan for a more distant future does not mean to tie oneself to dogmatic programs .... It means an ...

79. On Golf, Swimming, Gardening and Lent?

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Glenn E. Ludwig

... for us as we walk our days of Lent together. In spite of what has happened to us in our pilgrimage on earth, in spite of the bad shots we have made, in spite of the times we have found ourselves in sand traps with our best efforts, the right instinct is to try again and to always keep our sights on God. For the past need not bind us: There is forgiveness and grace for that. And the future need not panic us: There is God's presence and Spirit for that. So what is called for is hunkering down ...

80. Friendship? Yes, Please!

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... wanting the trouble of a newborn infant leaves her child in a basket on the door step of three practiced bachelors. And the three men, adopting the child, soon realize that children, indeed -- people in general! -- are not at all convenient. So we instinctively avoid messy entanglements with others. Beyond convenience and privacy is yet a third value we're really into today, and that is mobility. The average American moves every three years. Life is reduced to little more than a game of musical chairs. We ...

81. Queen Of Hearts!

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... rights, not their responsibilities. Indeed! Women have a right to choose to have sex or not. They have a right to choose conception control or not. But after a child is conceived no woman has a right to murder! Where is the God-given maternal instinct today? It is crushed under the feet of the feminine self hell-bent on taking instead of giving. Hence Mother Teresa observed, "You are a destroyed nation. When you start killing your own children, what is left to destroy?" The Proverbs 31 woman has children ...

82. Miracle Three: Healing A Leper

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon Aid

Harold H. Lentz

... of Christ's day ate away the human flesh of its victims. Some years ago a book was written with the title The Hollow Man. How hollow, indeed, is that human body which has no inner soul to respond to God! Spirituality is a basic instinct of a human being, and without it we are not complete. We are like hollow men and women. Love Can Heal · Researchers working with Alzheimer's disease have discovered something which pleases but perplexes them. Sometimes a patient suffering from this disease for which there ...

83. The Agenda Factor

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Sermon

William L. Self

... do something for God. I'll build God a house as good as my own," he announced to Nathan. "I live in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent" -- very noble indeed. People who covet power and court it constantly know instinctively that every opportunity to demonstrate the power they possess must be taken. Yes, David lived well but his God did not. Could David be so powerful and his nomadic desert God live in a battered old tent? After all, the other deities in surrounding empires lived well ...

84. Working In The Family Business

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Sandra Hefter Herrma

How everyone loves a newborn baby! We cannot help but turn when we hear the distinctive cry of a very new person. And when we see new babies, we almost always go over for a look, even if we don't talk to the parents. It's instinctive, really -- an inborn guarantee that this tiny infant, dependent for its every need on the goodwill of those around it, will get what it needs. So when the baby cries, mothers who are nursing find that their bodies automatically "let down" the milk, and even if they wanted not ...

85. To Bow The Knee

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

Sandra Hefter Herrma

... a house fire they cannot escape; the father who throws himself into the lake to rescue his child from drowning; the brother who offers his own kidney for his sister. But we are all impressed when a stranger risks his life for someone else. There is no instinct to account for this, only a great, encompassing love for others. The kind of love that comes only through the Holy Spirit. As we watch the events of Holy Week unfold, we watch in amazement. Who would offer himself to such pain for us? Who would assure ...

86. Meeting Our Needs, Not Our Greeds

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

Steve Burt

... writing. Note, however, that William Least Heat Moon wasn't out to meet his greeds. He was simply doing what he believed God or the Great Spirit called him to do and to be. We in America are caught up in a culture that promotes greed. Our worst instincts are played to by advertisers needing to hawk their wares -- from luxury cars to yachts to diamonds as big as a fist. We are wooed by six commercials per break in a television show, bombarded by promises of easy no-pain credit, and seduced by beautiful faces ...

87. Come, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come!

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... at an hour known only to his Father. But how long can even the most ardent believer sustain such "red alert" readiness? A week? An Advent season? Surely not a lifetime! The prior question is: What constitutes readiness? The old Adam and old Eve think instinctively in terms of moral readiness: Live in such a way that the sudden return will find our behavioral slates clean. We have, however, lived too long and accumulated too many experiences of our moral frailty to believe we can ever be morally ready for ...

88. The Scope Of The Spirit

Sermon

John A. Stroman

How is the power of the Holy Spirit within the Christian community related to divine activity in the world as a whole? Does the wind of the Spirit that blows within the church blow elsewhere in the world? There are those who almost instinctively sense that the Spirit is moving about in all levels of human activity seeking to unlock many doors and seeking to resolve many of our human dilemmas. In John 3:8 Jesus talks about the wind (pneuma) as the Spirit and that the wind "blows where it wills." This ...

89. The Holy Spirit As The Dove Of Peace

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... think of the incongruity between the crosses and the lethal messages that passed over the wires." In war we always make some appeal to moral idealism. We have regarded war as something of a tragic necessity, justified if fought with conscientious instincts to repel an intolerable wrong. Such reasoning has produced the classic doctrine of the "just war." Most people in most wars think of their own cause as justifiable. To gain support for war, religion and nationalism are forced into a formidable alliance ...

90. The Seven Last Words Of Pilate

Sermon

Thomas Long

... . Only the one who stands before him accused can trully help him. Somewhere in his soul, he senses this. Pilate the cowardly bureaucrat believes that his salvation depends upon political finesse; Pilate the human being stares into the face of Jesus Christ and instinctively knows that "his hope is built on nothing less." Psychologist Paul Pruyser once wrote of the awkwardness that is often felt at the end of a 50-minute therapy session. The counselee feels it; the therapist feels it. There is no good way ...

91. Sermons

Sermon

John R. Bodo

... a few hours after his first appearance to Mary Magdalene. Ten were present to witness the impossible. Ten testified to the miracle of the Master's victory over death. Did they go looking for Thomas to tell him the news? Or did they wait until, led by some instinct, by some stubborn hope lodged deep below the surface of consciousness, Thomas groped his way back into that Upper Room -- to find there a circle of light and a chorus of praise? We do not know. All we do know is that, with his accustomed honesty ...

92. Mind Your Manners

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... for the kind of people in this world who aren't very kind, considerate, or Christian when it comes to others. Jerks are mannerless. If golf is an appropriate metaphor for exploring the higher issues of life, it also exposes some of our baser instincts. "Every golfer," Kathy Murphy stated in "Starter Set" (Golf Journal, July 1998), "should know and practice proper etiquette. That means knowing how to act so that other golfers can also enjoy the game and helping to respect the condition of the course." Can ...

93. A Positive Addiction

Romans 1:1-17

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... someone who has been in the trenches, survived, succeeded, and empathetically knows what makes churches grow. Moreover, nobody in our local churches is going to listen to someone who tells us how to do what she or he has never done. 3. Positive Pastoral Instincts -- Our executive presbyter must be a coach (encouraging people to be God's best for their lives and ministries) and referee (keeping people from hurting each other) rather than a ringmaster (one of those my-way-or-the-highway types). A short list ...

94. The Bread That Endures

Luke 22:7-38

Sermon

Larry R. Kalajainen

... thing is that, deep down inside, we really know that focussing on material things does not really satisfy the sharpest hungers of our souls. Not many of us are under the illusion that our deepest yearnings can be satisfied by the things we buy. We know instinctively and intuitively that when Jesus says "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word which comes from the mouth of God," he is absolutely correct. We know, too, that Frederick Buechner is correct when he writes that when we eat bread we ...

95. The Mechanics Of Prayer

Matthew 6:5-15, Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... much? 3. Does the place of prayer add or detract from your prayers? 4. If citizens stand when the President enters a room, should we stand for prayer? 5. Should a church make provision for people to kneel other than at a communion rail? 6. Why do we instinctively close our eyes when we pray? "O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day. Defend us in the same with Thy mighty power and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run ...

96. What Law is Operating Here?

Illustration

John Killinger

... , that must be identified and taught from our pulpits in the coming century. The media often understand this better than our churches, and their dramas frequently turn on the contrast between the hypocrisy of "good" Christians and the genuine kindness of instinctively well-dispositioned persons in the secular culture outside the church. This is not to say that Hollywood is a better gauge of morals than the church; however, the preacher can help to dispel the confusion parishioners feel by more consistently ...

97. Easter 3

Revelation 5:1-14, Acts 9:1-19a, John 21:1-14

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... and then jumped off the boat to swim to Jesus. Why? Was it only a case of modesty? Or was it a symbol of Peter's guilt for having sinned by his denials? When Adam and Eve sinned, they clothed themselves with fig leaves. When we do wrong, we instinctively want to cover up. 3. Third (v. 17). We can understand, can't we, why Peter was aggravated by Jesus' asking him the same question three times. Since Jesus knew all things, he knew that Peter loved him. Why then repeat the question? Was it to match the triple ...

98. Epiphany 5

1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Isaiah 6:1-13, Luke 5:1-11

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... , since they fished all night and caught not a fish, there were no fish to be caught. "But" Peter said they would obey his word. Here we see the human failure on one hand and trust on the other trust in the word of God. 3. Depart (v. 8). Instinctively Peter felt unworthy of being in Jesus' presence. The miraculous catch of fish revealed to him that Jesus was no ordinary man. He had superhuman wisdom to know where the fish were and superhuman power to bring the fish in the nets. Peter felt he was in the ...

99. Epiphany 7

1 Corinthians 15:35-58, 1 Samuel 26:1-25, Genesis 45:1-28, Luke 6:27-36

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... under control, and to see how and why Jesus, in the "Sermon on the Plain" (see today's gospel), stressed the opposite: forgive your enemies. Outline: a. We can do our worst 1. All of us are double-minded: good and evil tug for control inside. 2. Our best instincts don't always rule when opportunity arises. 3. David had reason to hate Saul, who had persecuted him; he had a chance to kill him quickly and cleanly. 4. Sooner or later someone else's fate will be "in our hands." b. We can do our best 1. David ...

100. A History Of Epiphany

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... of worship because it deals with the glory of God manifested in Jesus. The season begins with the wise men's coming to worship the newborn king. The season ends with the worship experience on Mount Transfiguration. When people see Jesus as God's Son, they instinctively fall down to worship him as Lord. 2. A Time to Witness -- Epiphany is the season of light, and light shows and reveals. The light burns so that all might see the truth and the way to God. It is the time for emphasis upon evangelism, the ...

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