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 428 results

76. Advent's "Invisible" Man

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... he had not known her, but he still kept her as his very own, married her, and took care of his family. Joseph was under enormous pressure. In a culture that valued the sanctity of virginity before marriage, he would immediately come under great suspicion by those around him. Many thought that both he and Mary had broken their premarital vows, that they had been as one too soon, and the evidence was immediately forthcoming. She was pregnant with child and the conditions under which Mary received the gift ...

77. It's Performance That Counts

Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Larry Goodpaster

... question all our grand professions which are not backed up with gracious actions. Lip service and verbal affirmations matter little if they are not fleshed out in one’s daily life. I have no definitive word, nor do I have a text to prove my suspicions. But my hunch is that nothing disappoints our Lord more than a church building filled with people who make great promises, but who then fail to allow those promises to affect their conduct. Now I realize that we are treading on uncomfortable ground at this ...

78. Doing Our Homework

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Larry Goodpaster

... in ministry, and the long-time faithful remnant rise up in protest. There is a sense of uncomfortableness as the new way confronts the old line. Whenever those who are “set in their ways” encounter those who call “those ways” into question, there is suspicion, mistrust and perhaps even anger or hostility. Our text for today gives us a glimpse of that growing conflict between the scribes and pharisees on the one hand, and Jesus on the other. It is the religious establishment versus God’s new way of ...

79. The Dreamer Within You

Joel 2:18-27, Joel 2:28-32

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... always clear at first. In our new congregation we had little more than a vague idea where our dream would lead us. We had a mere handful of people. Our financial resources were modest. We lacked basic equipment and supplies. We were viewed with suspicion as unwanted competitors by some churches in the area. Nonetheless, we moved ahead and steadily the dream took shape. We realized that other people in our community were in transition, and we began to appeal to people looking for a new start in life. Some ...

80. How To Hear A Sermon

Micah 1:1-7

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... and the corruption that prevailed. He was especially angry with the large landowners who were seeking to buy the property around his hometown, namely the small farms that meant so much to his people. The Word that he had received from the Lord confirmed his own suspicion that what they were doing was not right. As I read and reread “the wailing cry” of the prophet I said to myself he was a prophet in the mold of our contemporary country singer Willie Nelson. Do not Willie’s songs have a wailing sound ...

81. Wedding: Love and Fear

1 John 4:1-6

Sermon Aid

Charles E. Wolfe

... out of desire for the good of the other. Fear is a shrinking away because of expected punishment. We cannot approach and hide in fear at the same time — to God, to the spouse, or to the brothers and sisters in Christ. Fear breeds suspicion and isolation and therefore hinders the growth of love. Either the fear or the love must win. The “fear” of this verse is related to what is variously translated as “torment” or “punishment” or “judgment.” The word originally means to cut back the growth ...

82. One Flock, One Shepherd

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... ! On the Emmaus Road, in the upper room, in the garden, along Lake Galilee. All sorts of persons worshiping in different ways still sense his presence. Let’s try in every way possible to extend our hand in fellowship to all God’s families. If there is any suspicion, let it not be from our side. We can make a grand witness of the way God would have his family join hands. When we are baptized, we are adopted by God into a great fellowship. It’s called the Communion or Fellowship of Saints. I always tell ...

83. Just Who Do You Think You Are?

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... ? Most of us read the Bible in order to get information that helps us understand our lives in relation to God. We often read the Bible to find stories about God that will help us understand God a little better. We read the Bible to confirm our suspicions and to encourage our faith in a God who cares, a God who hears our prayers and responds to those prayers. The way we choose to live out our faith usually determines the church or denomination with which we choose to affiliate. In Garrison Keillor’s best ...

84. WHAT IS MAN?

Sermon

Larry Powell

... valuables, went to the person in charge of securities and said, "I want to put my valuables in your safe because I don't like the looks of the Jap in my stateroom." "Very good, sir," came the reply, "he brought this down just a short while ago." Suspicion and distrust do not seek virtue; they seek justification. The "Desiderata" does not encourage us to ignore the wrong and be oblivious to flim-flam; it says, do not allow these things to blind us to what virtue there is. Jesus made the same appeal long ago ...

85. In Quest of a Treasure

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Larry Powell

... sheep, but if Keller is correct, sheep and people apparently require about the same things for security. (a) Free from fear. Do we confess Christ with our lips while maintaining our fear or uncertainty about specific circumstances, the future, or the unknown? Suspicion, cautious pessimism, or calculation prevent one from being able to "lie down" securely in the Lord, inasmuch as we have refused to entrust our affairs into his keeping. To pray about a matter and then lie awake worrying about whether or not ...

86. Hope

1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:14-21

Illustration

... fruit. Told that she could not do it, it became the thing that she desired to do the most. So one day she pried it open and peeked inside. Suddenly out flew swarms of insects that began attacking them. Both lovers were stung with the poison of suspicion, hatred, fear and malice. Now the once happy couple began to argue. Epimetheus became bitter and Pandora wept with a broken heart. But in the midst of the quarreling, they heard a tiny voice cry out: Let me out, to sooth your pain. Fearfully they opened the ...

87. Faith, Hope, and Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Brett Blair

88. Six Nails of the Cross III: The Nail of Envy

Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... that he would take the place of the Emperor Caesar. Envy, envy, envy. In all of us this envy exists and its persistence drives us mad. Relentlessly we pound the nail into the flesh of Christ and make him die. We know that we are wrong, that our suspicions are false, but we need to save our face. How many times have you heard the remorseful comments that go something like this: "Maybe he was right this time but he challenges me so many times about things that he doesn't know anything about," or the daughter ...

89. Never Cry Uncle - Malchus

Matthew 26:47-56

Drama

Thomas Blowers

... about the kind of world we lived in: the harsh realities of angry forces reaching out to strike down every individual who got in the way, the harsh truth of how Jesus and I had been caught in the middle of the world's hostile push and shove. My worst suspicions had been proved. The great nightmare which is the truth about the world had overtaken me, had finally and decisively overtaken Jesus and me. And in a strange sort of way, he and I had become brothers. Well, I knew I was near to fainting and for a few ...

90. Speak From Personal Experience

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... are sick and tired of experts. They are blaming the so-called "experts" for our present social unrest and political scandal and economic uncertainty. This is why anything that speaks of too much glamor, Madison Avenue polish, and expertise may well be regarded with suspicion by the average person. Usually, when a local church wants to do something in the area of evangelism, they think in terms of getting a good preacher or evangelist to fill their pulpit for a week. And the crowds gather in response to the ...

91. An Everyday Theology

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... need the rich theological heritage of yesterday. Confident of their ability to preach and theologize out of their own narrow experiences and education, Outier says, "They already knew what they didn’t need to know." Even today there are some prejudice and suspicion toward all forms of theology that ground themselves in human learning and scholarly wisdom. But we need to remember that the gospel might not have survived if it had not used learned styles and terms. When the first Christians hit Gentile soil ...

92. Watching Jesus

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... could deflate the disturbing attractions of this prophet from Nazareth. I So they watched Jesus. They watched him for many different reasons. But few of them really saw him. This is obvious from the scriptural record. Many of them watched and had their suspicions confirmed: this Jesus is dangerous! It eventually came to where Pharisees and Chief Priests collaborated in his death. They watched Jesus, but they never really saw him. Let’s make the point that many of those who watched Jesus, but never really ...

93. How to Stay on Top of It

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... seemed to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown, the sense of being on top of it needs careful cultivation. I suspect that there are many like myself who have a problem here, for statistics on this ulcered, hypertensive generation seem to bear out that suspicion. Children of the heavenly Father are bombarded in this anxious age as everybody is. We are caught up in the tensions and the stresses life imposes, and the prospect of the third millennium ahead for those who can endure that long are not as bright ...

94. The Season of the Spirit

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

... are presidential commissions charged with restoring quality to life in these United States. Not too long ago a college professor made a well-known speech on the topic, "Generation Without a Future." In it he pointed out that many young people today have a deep suspicion that they will never grow up because there are too many forces at work which spell destruction. A half-million young people at Woodstock sing with enthusiasm, "We're All Gonna Die!" The poverty level in America is at its worst in the unseen ...

95. A Criminal, A Cross, and the Christ

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Thomas C. Short

... into a tanning tent and stole some skins. They stored them for a while, and then Etaus tried to sell some of them to a dealer. He was chosen as the "seller" of the skins because the dealers knew his father, and therefore he would arouse the least suspicion from the buyer. Their plan worked well. The buyer was glad to see Etaus and to do business with him. Obviously, he thought that Etaus was helping his father by handling some of his skins for him. With money in hand, the thieves waited some time before ...

96. The Promise and the Task

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... through the visits of overseas Christians to us and through correspondence and sharing of our blessings. With Hope for the Completion This is the most direct way I know of for Christians to bring the ascension power to bear in such a way as to heal the dangerous suspicions and alienations that keep us apart. We do not see through the cloud that surrounded him at his ascension. Yet he is not on the other side of that cloud; he is on our side. His word, his promise, his task - as we enter into all these we ...

97. Helping People Fall Down

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

... , in the end, mean nothing but disappointment. We live in a world with many people seeking satisfaction in freewheeling sexual experiences, for example, wherever a partner is available. Commitment has no part of the affair. But notice the lack of trust, the suspicion, the hurt to others, and now, the danger of being party to life-threatening disease. Yet, even with the risks of AIDS - contracting it or spreading it - many folks are not willing to change their lifestyle. It's like risking suicide because ...

98. The Call to be Holy in Love

Leviticus 19:1-37

Sermon

... together with mutual concern and respect. There is no care for one another by treating each other justly and honestly. No one acts to restore another's property and freedom. No one loves one's neighbor as oneself. Mr. Poppovich's neighborhood is filled with suspicion, anger, and hatred. The result of such drastic brokenness of community is death. For us, as for ancient Israel in today's Old Testament lesson, living together in community is to result in life rather than death. God's people are to be holy ...

99. Promise or Threat?

Matthew 24:1-35

Sermon

... bulletins on radio and television describing the deteriorating state of affairs throughout the world. Wars and conflict, threats and upheavals as people fight for scarce resources. Your impression is that virtually all of the institutions of your society are under attack or suspicion and many are being transformed to serve more effectively the new government. Early Sunday morning there is a knock at your door. You answer and are confronted by a grim-faced official who announces that you will have to go with ...

100. Responding to What We Hear and See

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Joe Pennel

... , not doubt, is the great word of the church. As I stand here every Sunday morning and look into your up-lifted faces, you look so proper, so content, so believing. You seem to be so certain, so full of faith, and so free of doubt. But, I have a suspicion that the way you look is not the way you are. Beneath the skins of many of you there is planted the seed of honest doubt. Perhaps you do not share these feelings with anyone; but your doubts are there, and they are real. Your worship does not express your ...

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