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 1176 to 1200 of 4947 results

1176. Are You a Crazy Dog?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... inside-out, or playing a pots-and-pans symphony from midnight to six in the morning. Being a Crazy Dog also meant taking more self-risking steps - daring to be seen as foolish or weak or strange - for the sake of others and for your own sense of well-being. Brian Bowne Walker in his book The Crazy Dog Guide to Lifetime Happiness (New York: Dell, 1991), suggests participating in such silly activities as taking a few hours to follow your dog around doing exactly what he/she does (well, almost exactly!). On ...

1177. Gutsy Joy

Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 's presence - of a people blessed to be able to freely worship God's presence on such a day. It is the very existence of this presence that must move the people beyond the experience of judgment and on to an open-mouthed, awe-stricken, exuberant sense of joy. Acknowledging this joy reveals the total picture of humanity. We are not half-empty, but half-full. While it is true that we are flawed and fractured and thus may never be able to remain filled and satisfied for very long, we can nevertheless return ...

1178. What's Your Drink?

Isaiah 43:16-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... drinker joyful. As Psalm 104:15 states, wine "was made to gladden the human heart." Finally, the cumulative effect of the first drink's side-affects is a better disposition towards congenial fellowship. Mixing and mingling is easier and an empathetic sense of interest and concern for others is often demonstrated by those "in their cups." But as Lloyd-Jones, a teetotaler himself points out, the problem with alcohol is that the good feelings it evokes are not transforming. They are merely transitory. While ...

1179. Settle for an F

Hebrews 13:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . In an attempt to establish another scriptural bulwark against divorce, some have defined the Hebrew dabaq as "an unyielding sense of permanence." But the term dabaq is used to describe the kind of relationship individual clods of dirt have to ... ; Ruth 1:14-16.) A covenant requires a faithfulness that enables "cleaving" whether you feel like it or not, whether it makes sense or not on any given day. It means fidelity and intimate involvement, commitment to another, sometimes at great personal cost (think of ...

1180. Rags and Robes

Micah 1:1-7; 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the more luxurious car, the extravagant vacation, the bigger house - can't we lie awake a night or two trying to figure out how we might care for our homeless, feed our hungry, provide protection for the poor at our gates? How might we return a sense of dignity, a modicum of decency to the lives of those who are suffering exile from their homes, their families, their dreams? Lex Rivers' experience suggests that while we may not be able to single-handedly end poverty or evict homelessness from our list of ...

1181. Toys R Us. NOT!

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... quoted in Jane O'Reilly, "Faxed to the Max," Lears 5 [April 1992], 58.) These "metal people" are not just wedded, but welded to their toys. They find their identity in "toys" - in the "things" surrounding them. But metal people can have no sense of stability, confidence or peace in their souls. How could they, when the most precious things in their lives are always becoming outmoded and outclassed by the next generation of technological goodies? Metal people must replace their "gods" on a regular basis - a ...

1182. Tabloid Testaments?

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is a major part of all those so-called "news magazines" that attract viewers like flies. All of us can confess that we find the tabloid spirit within ourselves. Aren't we more prone to rag on a colleague than brag about him/her? In a real sense, crucifixion is not just a historical event, it is something we do to each other daily. We crucify one another when we "cut each other down to size," when we "drag people down into the mud," when we "castrate one another psychologically and emotionally." In the ...

1183. Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... his identity. Here the tempter offers a seductive gift to Jesus, but only if he will give up his identity and acknowledge the devil's preeminence. The temptation to political power must have surely been enticing to one who possessed such a clear sense of righteousness and justice as did Jesus. How compassionately and judiciously Jesus would have wielded the unlimited worldly authority the devil dangled in front of him. Jesus might momentarily have believed the myopia of his own vision for a better world, as ...

1184. Psalm 1

Psalm 1

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... are driven away by the winds of judgment. There is little doubt that the psalmist has in mind the shadowy nether world of Sheol as the ultimate destination for all worthless chaff. Verse 5 returns to the images of verse 1 if the definitive, locative sense is what is being used in that first set of images. As he had described assemblies and councils of the wicked, the psalmist now refers to gathered scenes of judgment and congregations of the righteous. Because the wicked have been dealt with as so much ...

1185. Hebrews 12:18-29

Hebrews 12:18-29

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... even a beast. Only Moses was allowed to actually ascend to the heights. The writer skillfully uses a number of traditional sounds and images associated with God's majesty and power. But here they all carry a dark and foreboding sense darkness encircling, gloom engulfing, fire blazing, tempests blowing and trumpets blaring. Little wonder that the writer records that, in response to this experience of hostile weather, deafening noises and terrifying darkness, the Israelites begged that "not another word be ...

1186. Luke 18:9-14

Luke 18:9-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... 1 guided the creation of a Torah-believing community - especially during this time of nation-less Diaspora Judaism. Only by carefully separating themselves from those who did not follow or honor the Torah could the covenant community be preserved. A sense of spiritual differentness and distinctness which was morally superior to all its pagan surroundings was applauded and honored. The reason Jesus and the Pharisees seemed to butt heads on so many issues may rest in their different notions about how best ...

1187. Mark 8:27-38

Mark 8:27-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... pagan relationships and acquaintances. Jesus' insistence that a potential disciple must not only deny all old familiar ties but must be prepared to suffer horribly because of their identity as a disciple is unprecedented. After two millennia of "cross" imagery, our senses are not as shocked by this reference as Jesus' listeners must have been. The pain, brutality and degradation of a death by crucifixion including the spirit-stripping practice of making the condemned "take up his cross" on this final death ...

1188. Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)

Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... a shift away from God and toward political alliances, Isaiah left the court, never again to speak in the council of Ahaz. It was at this time that Isaiah set about to record how he came to be a prophet and, in a sense, to justify his lack of success in calling his people to repentance. Not much is known about Isaiah's background. However, through his writings, pronouncements and experiences, certain insinuations emerge. For instance, it appears that Isaiah was a part of the privileged class within Jerusalem ...

1189. Luke 5:1-11

Luke 5:1-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... with the "act-now-think-later" Peter that the gospels present. His admission of sin need not be seen as further evidence that this account was originally taken from a post-Resurrection confession by Peter. The terminology Luke employs expresses a general, moral sense of unworthiness and fear which would naturally be felt by all who find themselves in the presence of divinity. Note, also, that in Peter's outburst, he no longer addresses Jesus as "master" but instead switches to kyrios or "Lord" a term that ...

1190. Luke 6:17-26

Luke 6:17-26

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

1191. Revelation 21:1-6

Revelation 21:1-6

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... what God creates anew is creation as it was intended to be, before sin came into the world. The strange-sounding demand that "the sea was no more" is not as common an image in this type of prophetic pronouncement, but it makes sense in the world of this new creation. In much ancient Near Eastern creation literature the roiling, unfathomable waters of the sea are identified with the untamed, disruptive powers of chaos. The sea harbored monsters and demonic forces that constantly threatened human existence ...

1192. Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... 1995], 77-78.) For the writer of Hebrews, immersed in ancient apocalypticism and Jewish cultus, it is the invisible heavenly world that is real. The visible earthly world is temporal. Or as Kittel puts it, "Faith is the reality of what is hoped for in exactly the sense in which Jesus is called the [representation] of the reality of the transcendent God in 1:3. The one formulation is as paradoxical as the other to the degree that the presence of the divine reality is found in the one case in the obedience of ...

1193. 1 Peter 1:17-23

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... of awe and wonder at God's power that makes it possible for Peter to offer his most comforting words to this "exile band of believers living at great distances from other believers. Because of God's strength, we are able to experience a sense of calm and confidence, trust and reliance, in this powerful, uncontrollable mystery that is God (see verse 21). 1 Peter next reminds the diaspora communities how their lives have been "ransomed" by the miracle of God's redemptive work. Although most of those 1 Peter ...

1194. How Is It Possible?

John 1:43-51

Illustration

Brett Blair

... , to be happy. At first blush, it seems like a reasonable statement, and, probably, we'd be proud to have that young man as a member of this congregation. But Doug Brouwer is not proud; rather, he has a sense of failure—"a sense of institutional failure, that the church had let someone down; and a sense of personal failure that as minister he had let that young man down. Here's what Brouwer writes: ‘How is it possible for someone to grow up in a church like mine, go through all of the grades of our ...

1195. Poor Relations

James 2:1-13

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... it be that we are challenged by the poor, because they remind us that, if we’d been born in different circumstances or suffered different experiences, we’d be like them? Could it be that despite our claim to not being able to relate to the poor, we have a sense that we share more in common than we want to admit? My first Christmas Eve here three years ago was on Saturday night. Our son, Michael, and I agreed to stay the night with our Room in the Inn guests. I was going to be here anyway after the 11 ...

1196. Framing Values – Part Two

Daniel 1:1-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... talk to teenagers. For just a moment, I want you to look into the heart of a teenager with me. Gallup recently surveyed 500 teenagers and asked them, "What one thing would you rate as the most important thing in your life?" More important than a sense of accomplishment, good physical health, or good self image - the number one answer was this - 9 out of 10 teenagers said, "A good family life is most important to me." I can say today that whatever language teens use, they are telling us some very revealing ...

1197. Here I Am To Worship

John 4:24

Sermon

James Merritt

... you just spend time with God. Matthew 6:6 says, "Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace." (Matthew 6:6, MSG) There is one other thing you can do to direct you attention to God and that is to develop the habit of being in constant conversation with God. The Bible says, in Psalm 105:4, "Worship Him continually" (Psalm 105:4, TEV) What that ...

1198. A Hearing Heart

1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... really true and when it is calculated merely to "work the system"? Those are quite legitimate examples of where we need to be savvy, but we don't necessarily have to be spiritually minded people to possess it. To some degree, it is a part of common sense. Spiritual discernment, however, goes beyond that. It is the ability to tell the difference between, in some cases, good and evil, and in other cases, what is God's will and what is not. In either circumstance, however, it grows out of a hearing heart. Its ...

1199. First Things First

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

... . Did he not say when they asked, "When did we see you hungry and thirsty and naked and in prison?" those awesome words: "In as much as you did it not to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it not to me"? I repeat, in a sense Christ has returned already, and he is now exactly where he spent his life — among those who need him the most. To join him there and do what we can for these struggling brothers and sisters, this is our true calling as Christians, not to speculate about the future. Here ...

1200. So, Are You The Messiah?

John 10:22-30

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

... for? Some of us have believed virtually all our lives that heaven or eternal life is built into the very fabric of our Christian existence. To be a Christian is to acknowledge and profess the reality of life after death with our blessed Lord. It does not make any sense to us to espouse a religion that says heaven is all right but we can take it or leave it. As we go about our witnessing, there is the firm pledge of heaven. As we pastors preach our sermons and celebrate Holy Communion, there is our Savior's ...

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