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 101 to 125 of 142 results

101. When Religion Becomes a Laughing Matter

Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... sense. I can't do better than to share Frederick Buechner's description of the scene: The place to start is with a woman laughing. She is an old woman, and after a lifetime in the desert, her face is cracked and rutted like a six-month drought. She hunches her shoulders around her ears and starts to shake. She squinnies her eyes shut, and her laughter is all China teeth and wheeze and tears running down as she rocks back and forth in her kitchen chair. She is laughing because she is pushing 91 hard and has ...

102. Denial Ain’t a River in Egypt

Isaiah 64:1-9

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... fact — right here with us. Present, on "his" way! How would our personal behavior change? How would our spiritual lives shift? What would happen if we opened our whole being to the incredible and growing presence of God? No more denial. No more hiding from God. No more hunching down in the crowd, hoping no one will notice that we might be Christian. No. We are now standing; we are now rising tall to live intentionally in the sight of a God who comes among us. It's the first Sunday in the season of Advent ...

103. Minding Your Heart

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... heart knowledge" has generally been dismissed as untrustworthy and inferior. It was further illegitimized by confining it to one gender - i.e., "woman's intuition." Notice that when men chose to base their decisions on some unprovable urge they re-located their hunches and referred to their "gut reactions." As we enter a new Post-modern Age, it appears that some semblance of balance is beginning to assert itself once again. The discriminatory preference for head knowledge is giving way to a new appreciation ...

104. I Love Baskin' Robins

John 1:43-51

Illustration

Brett Blair

I have hunch that we have felt pretty good about letting people find their own way to God. You hear it said in families. We don't want to impose upon our children our religion, these parents say, we want them to find their own way. There is only one conclusion to this ...

105. Anybody NOT seeing red?

1 John 1:5--2:14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , and circle the wagons against an uncertain, unfathomable future. But we cannot hunker-in-the-bunker forever. Spring is finally here and the miracle of Easter reminds us that we live in a post-resurrection world. Disciples of the risen Christ are not supposed to hunch their shoulder and just try to get through the storms. Disciples are supposed to learn how to dance in the rain. When the winds of life are whipping us, we fly kites. There is no such thing as a “Christian Survivalist.” We are not called ...

106. On-Beyond-Zebra Living

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you this ‘cause you’re one of my friends, My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends! Dr. Seuss’ story goes on to offer up twenty new letters, each one a beautiful, fanciful design. In fact, I’m convinced with no more evidence than a hunch, that when the musician “formerly known as Prince” changed his name to some unpronounceable moniker, he was inspired by this book and in fact picked out one of Dr. Seuss’ extra alphabet letters. Dr. Seuss’ narrator needs all these new letters to name all ...

107. First Things First

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Gary L. Carver

... of such obvious teaching, it really is amazing that conservative Bible-believing people invest so much energy in speculating about "The End Times." I spent considerable time with these college students trying to account for this seeming contradiction. I have my own hunch at this point. Again and again in history, when events get unusually complex or threatening, the tendency has been to turn to millennial speculation out of a sense of total powerlessness. They feel that things are in such a mess that only ...

108. Be Real

Colossians 1:3-8

Sermon

John Jamison

... think about how we will share what we believe with others. We can work to memorize stories and scriptures. We can study theology to be prepared to hold our own in any argument. Or, we can figure out how to simply tell what we have experienced. I have my own hunch which is more valuable. If I were in trouble, and you came to me to help me through, I'll tell you what I would prefer. Rather than hear you say to me, "Here is what I've been told God will do," or "Remember that passage that says ..." I ...

109. Harmony and Humor: The Ties That Bind Christianity’s Many Christianities

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Nothing Much O, God, Our Enabler in Ages Past Pillow of Ages, Fluffed for Me All Hail the Influence of Jesus' Name! When Peace, Like a Trickle I'm Fairly Certain that My Redeemer Lives What an Acquaintance We Have in Jesus My Faith Looks Around for Thee Blessed Hunch Above Average Is Thy Faithfulness Spirit of the Living God, Fall Somewhere Near Me Blest Be the Tie that Doesn't Cramp My Style I began this sermon with a hymn. Now let me end it with one. Richard Leach is one of the church’s greatest living ...

110. Being Christ by Affirming and Forgiving

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , dynamic persons in the congregation live alone. They have found the answer to loneliness. But I am saying that my city and your city and your community is filled with people who live alone and are lonely. The question is; do you really care? I have a hunch that, as dynamic as our singles ministry is and tits one of the most dynamic aspects of our church life. We are probably only scratching the surface of deep need. But it is not only those who live alone who are lonely and need our touching relationship ...

111. There Is a Price for Everything

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... separated from the righteous, and the scripture says in verse 50, that the evil will be thrown into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. That’s a pretty dramatic picture, isn’t it? - the judgment. It’s a sobering picture, and I have a hunch we don’t think about it enough. When is the last time you thought about a final judgment? Is the way you live affected at all by the fact that one day you are going to stand before the judgment bar of God and give an account for your ...

112. There Is a Price for Everything, Part 2

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... man would come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it: and whosoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.” (RSV). It’s a sobering picture, and I have a hunch we don’t think about it enough. When is the last time you thought about a final judgment? Is the way you live affected at all by the fact that one day you are going to stand before the judgment bar of God and give an account for your deeds ...

113. Ministering Angels

Exodus 23:20-33

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... into the world to wish us well. Since we don’t expect to see them, we don’t. An angel spreads his glittering wings over us, and we say things like “it was one of those days that made you feel good just to be alive”, or “I had a hunch every thing was going to turn out alright,” or “I don’t know where I ever found the courage.” (Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner, Harper & Rowe, Publishers, New York, 1973, P. 1-2) We don’t talk about angels very much – Do we? When was the last time you ...

114. A Parable in a Miracle

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and sophisticated as we pretend. Will Campbell is famous in a different way than Charlie Daniels. I use the word “famous” advisedly. Will is “famous” in religious circles. Now this is a religious crowd - I mean, here we are in church doing our religious thing. My hunch is, however, that more of you know the name Charlie Daniels than Will Campbell. I don’t have time to talk about what that means, either for you or the church. Again, though, don’t feel bad if you know the secular man, but not the ...

115. Males or Females?

Acts 18:1-3, 18-19, 24-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... believers. When Paul writes his letter to Rome, he says in Chapter 16, Verse 3, “Greet Priscilla and Aquila. They risked their lives for me. Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house." My hunch is that Priscilla was the pastor of the church. How can that be? Paul himself told Timothy to let the women learn in quietness. Do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man; she must be silent (I Timothy 2:11-12). Was this ...

116. A Career in The Kingdom

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... haze. "I heard them say, ‘She won't live through the night.' I knew that if I stopped concentrating on living, I would die." But live she did. It took countless operations to put Joni back together. She emerged from the hospital two inches shorter, and so hunch-backed that when she first saw herself in a mirror she didn't recognize the image. It was during her long years of therapy that the idea of competing in the Ironman Triathlon began. Still, it took Joni a decade to work up the courage and stamina ...

117. Righting Wrong

Romans 9:1-5

Sermon

Larry Lange

... was adjourned, and he dashed out the door. Jim was still seated in his chair after all the members had filed out of the room, gathering in little swirls of anxious or angry or giddy people. He felt drained, exhausted, like he had pneumonia. He hunched forward, clasped his hands, and hung his head, shaking it slowly. He felt he had been entirely repudiated, rejected, unheard. And that by a mob of unprincipled, irresponsible ruffians. He wanted nothing to do with any of them again. Jim missed the phone call ...

118. The Elephant in The Living Room

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

John Smylie

... great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again" (v. 31). Even though Jesus spoke quite openly about this to his disciples, they were quite dense in receiving his word. My hunch is that they didn't want to hear it. Even though theologians have described this dance of teaching and not hearing as the messianic secret, I suspect there is something very basic going on here. It seems to me there's something in humanity that ...

119. The Little Golf Club

Sermon

John Smylie

... care and I'm sure had he wanted to, he could have paid the gardener to do this work for him, but rather he got down on his hands and knees to dig out the weeds so that I would not experience the pain of their prickly touch. My hunch is that my grandfather experienced some pain in digging out the weeds. Looking back at the pain of bending over, possibly straining his back, experiencing the discomfort of those hot and humid days, I recognize in that gesture that he loved me. The little golf club that he made ...

120. It Was a Dark and Stormy Night....

Humor Illustration

... medical assistance. Bob carefully picks his wife up and begins trudging down the road. After a short while, he sees a light. He heads towards the light, which is coming from a large, old house. He approaches the door and knocks. A minute passes. A small, hunch-backed man opens the door. Bob immediately blurts, "Hello, my name is Bob Hill, and this is my wife Betty. We've been in a terrible accident, and my wife has been seriously hurt. Can I please use your phone?" "I'm sorry," replied the hunchback," but ...

121. The Glory of the Cross

Galatians 6:11-18

Sermon

James Merritt

... down, he felt a presence over him. He thought it was the guard. Slowly he lifted his eyes, to see standing over him an old man with a wrinkled utterly expressionless face. This man had been in this gulag many years, much longer than Solzhenitsyn. He was hunched over from the back-breaking labor and work he was forced to do. They had never communicated one word because they were not allowed to talk. This old man took a stick, and at the sand underneath Solzhenitsyn’s feet, he traced out the sign of the ...

122. An Encounter across the Lake

Luke 8:26-39, Luke 8:22-25

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... ” leading to a “hopelessness [that] became too much to bear.” He put down his shovel and sat down on a bench, knowing full well that such an action could cost him his life. Amid his dejection he suddenly felt a powerful presence. Beside him, hunched over, an old man was drawing a stick through the sand at his feet, making the sign of the cross. Colson recounts that as Solzhenitsyn stared at that rough outline, his entire perspective shifted. He knew he was merely one man against the all-powerful ...

123. Without Christmas, Life Would Be Impossible

Luke 2:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... drugs. Loss of a job. A spouse or a child with terminal illness. For many, Christmas has not been what it was in previous years. But do we have Ann’s faith? Have we come to that saving perspective? Without Christmas, life would be impossible. My hunch is that those who have suffered most this year—those who have been through the valley of the shadow—those who may be neck deep in troubled waters right now—you know the truth better than the rest: Without Christmas, life would be impossible. Those who ...

124. A Vexing Vision

Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... !” This could be com- pared to a Jew in Auschwitz walking up to a Nazi guard and saying, “Brother,” or an African-American attending a KKK march and saying to the white hoods, “You are my brothers!” What possessed Ananias to say such a word? My hunch is that when Ananias looked upon Saul, he saw him the way Christ saw him — as Paul. Picasso painted a portrait of Gertrude Stein in 1906, which is now on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. What is so interesting about this ...

125. Dealing with Difficult People

1 Peter 3:8-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... is there was no class in seminary on how to deal with difficult people. I wish there had been! Along the way I have made mistakes when and through those mistakes I have gained some life changing wisdom about dealing with difficult people. I have a hunch that many of you would like to hear this wisdom I have learned. For some of you are dreading Thanksgiving dinner because you will have to suffer through that overbearing family member who belittles everyone. Some of you work with someone in the office who ...

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