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 1913 results

1176. Actors

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

John Jamison

Whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets.... We can almost see the people in the crowd leaning forward as they try to hear these things Jesus was saying that afternoon on the hillside. He had been talking for a while now, and although he started out talking about things that were theological, he was now getting to things that actually made sense to everyone. It was nice to hear him say how the poor are actually blessed, and the weak ...

1177. Zeal!

John 2:13-22

Sermon

John Jamison

Have you ever had one of those times when you had just had enough? One of those times that you have held your breath, you have turned away, maybe many times, because you just don’t like what you see going on, but then finally come to the point that you just can’t turn away one more time? You’ve had enough, and you decide you just can’t be silent any longer. So you do something fairly dramatic. Looking back on it, it may not have been all that smart, but you had had enough and you did it. Can you remember ...

1178. Searching for Happiness

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Many people today spend their lives in a desperate search for happiness, for pleasure, for fun. Many people in our society are simply bored. They mope around, fantasizing about some secret joy that lies out there somewhere. “I’m looking for adventure, excitement, and beautiful women,” said the young man to his father as he was leaving home. “And don’t try to stop me!” “Who wants to stop you?” said his father. “I’m going with you!” The ironic thing about seeking such pleasure, however, is how little joy it ...

1179. Hard and Soft Hearts

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

Probably one of the most frustrating responsibilities I have as a parish pastor is officiating at weddings. I would rather do a funeral than perform a wedding. It's not because I am filled with a great sense of morbidity. It's not that I delight in other people's suffering. Rather, it has to do with how receptive people are to ministry. At the time of death, people are much more receptive to facing the ultimate issues of life. They have a far greater sense of their need for the gospel. They have just ...

1180. Patterns of Possibility

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

A few years ago I revisited the places of my childhood. Sim and I piled the kids into the car and traveled to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where I was born, and then to Erie, Pennsylvania, where I lived from the age of five until the age of twelve. Together the four of us explored what Sim fondly called the Seven Sacred Susie Sightings: the house where I was born, the two elementary schools I attended, the park by the zoo where I flew up from Brownie Scouts to Girl Scouts, and the beach on Lake Erie where I spent ...

1181. A Strange, New Math

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Glenn E. Ludwig

We have a wonderful mystery to contemplate this morning, and it is summarized in a strange formula. It's not really all that complicated, but it is worthy of reflection for it has implications for our lives together. Here is the formula, an equation, really: 1 + 1 + 1 = One. Rather strange math, isn't it? Well, it's God's math, so let's see how it works. That strange formula really comes from the gospel text for today. For the past several weeks during this Easter season, our gospel readings have come from ...

1182. How To Be Truly Happy

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Is there anybody in this world who is truly happy? There was a Peanuts cartoon years ago in which Lucy asked Charlie Brown if he has ever known anybody who was really happy. Before she could finish her sentence, however, Snoopy the precocious beagle came dancing on tip-toe into the frame, his nose high in the air. He danced and bounced his way across two frames of the cartoon strip. Finally, in the last frame, Lucy finished her sentence, “Have you ever known anybody who was really happy and was still in ...

1183. You Are My Beloved

Mark 1:10-11

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

"And just as He was coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens torn apart and the spirit descending like a dove on Him. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved: with you I am well pleased.' " Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I tell you a tale of a little village in an isolated land where the people shared a boundless sense of happiness. The people in this village showed only one unusual feature about their life together. They had a custom -- a delightful custom -- of giving fuzzies to ...

1184. Blessed

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

We hear it all the time. We hear it in church, in interviews with sports and movie stars, and we hear it a whole lot around the Fourth of July. “I’ve been blessed.” “We’ve been so blessed.” But what does it mean? What does it mean to be blessed? Usually we associate it with plentitude. It means that we have a lot of something: money, property, talent. Certainly, in that sense things haven’t changed much over the past 2,000 years. Ask any first-century Jew who the blessed people were in their community and ...

1185. The Death of John the Baptist

Matthew 14:1-12, Mark 6:14-29, Luke 9:1-9

Sermon

Lori Wagner

On the news one day a short while ago --some of you may remember this—we heard that eight young high school boys viciously attacked and gang raped an 8 year old girl, a special needs child. One by one, they took turns raping her and beating her until at last she died. The town was shocked. These were their star varsity players…their A students...their church acolytes...their beloved sons. How could this happen? It's called “peer pressure.” A similar thing happened in the case of a young college freshman, ...

1186. Lazarus

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Animation: a skunk (if you dare) or a stuffed animal that looks like a skunk [don’t show them what’s in the cage until they come up to see] I have here a friend I’ve brought with me today. He’s here in this cage, and I’m going to take him out for a bit. Come on up some of you. Here he is. His name is Sandy. [Take the skunk out of the cage ….make sure it’s a de-fumed one J….and hold him out to those gathered] What! You are backing away. You don’t want to hold this skunk? [Walk down the aisles with him ...

1187. Oh That Cookie Jar Goodness!

Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) Prop: If you can find one, a “lie detector” device could also serve as an interesting opening (in reference to the movie, “Meet the Parents”) Has anyone had one of those mothers or grandmothers….or maybe a father or grandfather who just seems to know your next move? You’re going for the cookie jar when you hear a voice clear from the other ...

1188. The Raising of Paul

Acts 14:8-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop: you may want to bring a prop of a human brain or have people put their hands on their heads as you explain the parts of the brain Did you ever hear people speak about the wonders of the human mind? We don’t use even a fraction of what our brains are capable of. When you think of it this way, we house in our own persons a valuable untapped resource of brain power, enough capable of solving all of the problems in the world, if only we knew how to tap into it. So say some theorists. But we also know ...

1189. Mercy Me!

Romans 14:1--15:13, Luke 6:27-36, Luke 6:37-42, Luke 6:43-45

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“My yoke is easy, my burden light.” --Jesus What burdens are you carrying this morning? How heavy is your heart? How weighed down is your spirit? Most of the time, when we think about that question, we think of the burdens of responsibility we carry or the weight of grief, the sandbags of unfair treatment levied against us, or hardships, such as unemployment, or health, or broken relationships. Certainly, those burdens of despair and sorrow can weigh heavily upon our hearts. But other kinds of burdens can ...

1190. Sweet Vine

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

The season is nearing for planting. Those of you who plant gardens or farms know that it’s vitally important to plant well, tend well, and prune well for the best yield and the best crops. Grapes can be especially finicky to manage. There are many vineyards. But only a selection of grapes yield the best wines. Why? For those of you who aren’t growers…. let’s come at this another way. In today’s world, our young people are killing their peers at an alarming rate. While many are quick to blame parents, ...

1191. Metathesiophobia

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

We all have fears. No one is immune to fear. It’s only when fear overwhelms us and dictates our life that it becomes what we call a “phobia.” Some have arachnophobia, fear of spiders. Others have agoraphobia, fear of public places. Still others may have claustrophobia, fear of small spaces. Many people have some form of aerophobia, fear of flying. One of the biggest phobias in the world? Glossophobia. Have you heard of it? It’s the fear of public speaking. We keep coming up with new phobias all the time. ...

1192. The Wild Within

Luke 4:1-13, Mark 1:9-13, Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Then as the Lord our God commanded us, we set out…through all that vast and dreadful desert that you have seen…” (Deuteronomy 1:19) When writing and thinking, your imagination is your “wild place.” It’s that disorderly place of imaginative dreaming in which we let our mind roam the wilderness of images, a wide open range teeming with randomness of thoughts, synthesis of uncommon ideas, mines of raw intuition, then swirling it all up into a mind tornado that can forge any number of new directions, creative ...

1193. Fake News vs. Fantastic Good News

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

King Duncan

Early in 1761 two small earthquakes hit London, England. Soon afterwards, a rumor spread through the city that a well-known psychic had predicted a massive earthquake would occur on April 5 of that year. Gullible people were alarmed. Citizens of London began leaving the city, moving to other cities nearby or setting up camps in the outlying rural areas. And then they waited for the big one to hit. And, of course, it never did. (1) Such rumors or faulty predictions have spread in this country from time to ...

1194. A Robot in the Pulpit

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Here’s something for you to chew on this morning: A poll taken by the Center for the Governance of Change in the United Kingdom revealed that 25% of European citizens believe that robots and artificial intelligence algorithms would do a better job of making policy decisions than politicians would. [I’m tempted to throw in my two cents worth, but I will refrain]. In Germany and the Netherlands, the figures are even higher. According to this poll, citizens throughout Europe are so disillusioned by their ...

1195. Apostles of Hope

John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

If you want to stay out of the rain, you need to invest in an umbrella. So the saying might go. Or in our world right now, if you want to stay clear of the “cloud,” you need to wear your mask. For what you can’t see, CAN hurt you! We can’t see it. We can’t feel it. We can’t hear it. We can’t touch it. And yet, we cower in our homes for fear of the viral invader we call COVID-19. This invisible “force” is changing the world, changing the way we do life, changing people. But not necessarily all for the worse ...

1196. A Dirt Story

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

A Sunday school teacher had been teaching about how God created Adam from the dust of the earth. A little boy in the class—who happened to be the pastor’s son—said with alarm, “You mean I’m made out of dirt?” His teacher responded, “Well, in a sense, yes.” He thought for a moment, processing this information through his four-year-old brain, then stated wide-eyed, “My Mom is NOT going to be happy about that!” (1) Today I am telling a “Dirt Story” [as opposed to a dirty story which would not, of course, be ...

All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end.

Neil Gaiman

1198. Rule of Love

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? — Matthew 22:36 In one of her books, the eloquent Episcopal priest, Barbara Brown Taylor, wrote these words about the Bible: “My relationship with the Bible is a marriage, not a romance, and one I am willing to work on in all the usual ways.”1 What she meant, of course, was that her relationship with the Bible was like any other serious relationship; it included good days as well as challenging days, days of clarity and days of confusion, days of joy ...

1199. Under the Fig Tree

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Ever hear of those infamous love stories in which someone looks at another person and immediately, they seem to recognize each other. We sometimes call this seeing your “soul mate.” Anyone ever have that happen to them? Perhaps some of you are still married to your “soul mate” –that person who just instinctively “gets you,” “knows you,” “and deeply loves you.” Some say it’s the eyes, that when you look into someone’s eyes, you can see into their soul. Others believe, it is some kind of physical pheromone ...

1200. Fever Pitch

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Lori Wagner

In this time of Covid, we all hope and pray that we avoid the virus that has killed to date more than 2,240,000 (million) people around the world, 441,000 in the US alone. As the virus mutates and infections again rise in the middle of our coldest months of winter, many are flocking to get the newly released vaccines. We feel an urgency to protect ourselves from the raging death toll and from even mildly infecting ourselves and others with an illness that seems to have no bounds as to the type of havoc it ...

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