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 1276 to 1300 of 4653 results

1276. Assured by the Certainties of Faith

1 John 5:13-21

Understanding Series

Thomas F. Johnson

... keeps them safe. That is, as the remainder of the verse explains, Christ guards his followers from the attack of the evil one, the personification of all of the spiritual forces which oppose God (cf. John 17:15; 1 John 2:13–14; 3:12; 5:19). Harm is literally “touch, or lay hold of” (haptomai; cf. John 10:28: “No one can snatch them [My sheep] out of my hand”). The Elder has already told his readers that “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (NASB; 1 John 4:4b), a reference ...

1277. Abraham and Abimelech

Genesis 20:1-18

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... reason he had intervened to restrain him from sinning against God. When one person violates another, the sin is not only against the other person but also against God (26:10; 39:9b). God’s statement that he had not allowed Abimelech to touch Sarah bears great theological force. According to Israel’s theology, no ruler, especially one who has dealings with God’s people, has any power except what God grants. Since Abimelech had acted with proper motivation, God intervened to prevent him from committing ...

1278. Do Not Forget the Lord

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... person” (as distinct from merely forgetting a fact). First, it means forgetting all the history of what God had done for them, both the lessons of the hard times (vv. 2–5) and the blessings of the good times (vv. 7–9). To forget a person is to lose touch with the story of the relationship and all it meant in the past and should still mean now. That is why it is such a hurtful and diminishing thing to “feel forgotten” by other human beings (or by one in particular) with whom one has shared a story ...

1279. Isaiah’s Commission

Isaiah 6:1-13

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... holiness can mean forgiveness. In keeping with his stress on fire as a means of judging/purging (1:25; 4:4), a coal from the incense altar touches the part of Isaiah’s body that he recognized to be the place of pollution (cf. Num. 16:46–47). The high and lofty One (the ... that earned it can escape it. The sign of cleansing that Isaiah receives is absurdly inadequate. How could being touched with a coal effect this sort of purification? The insufficiency of the sign highlights the fact that the cleansing ...

1280. Personal Accountability

Ezekiel 18:1-32, Ezekiel 19:1-14

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... lie with a woman during her period (v. 6). The precise wording here is unique to Ezekiel 18:6, 19. However, Leviticus 15:19–23 spells out the principle. During her menstrual period, neither the woman herself nor anything she lies or sits upon are to be touched, because she is ritually unclean (this is probably an extension of the prohibitions regarding blood; Lev. 12:4; 17:10–14; see Ezek. 16:6). As the NRSV of verse 6 reveals, the Hebrew text is ambiguous. It reads only that one is not to “approach a ...

1281. Jesus’s Identity as Messiah and Son of God Established

Mark 1:1-8

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... a person meets the queen of England, a complicated royal etiquette is to be followed. This includes a “no touch” rule, which all visitors, including dignitaries, are to follow. In 1992 Australian prime minister Paul Keating was assailed by ... in every detail. But this is not Jesus. Although he is our anointed king, he came as the Suffering Servant who would eat with sinners, touch lepers, and heal the broken. He came to serve us by suffering on a cross so that we might have life. Preparing the way for ...

1282. Gentiles Exemplify True Discipleship

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... . Here there is a slight “messianic secret” aspect (cf. v. 36; see also on 1:34), as Jesus does not wish the miracle to be a public event. Yet when he commands silence in verse 36, the people are unable to keep quiet (see on 1:34). Anyone who is touched by God and his Son cannot keep silent about it. The next two are symbolic actions on the part of Jesus. (2) By placing his fingers in the man’s ears, Jesus acts like a prophet, signaling the opening of the ears (cf. Isa. 35:5). It is interesting that ...

1283. The Good Life

Luke 6:17-26

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... the expectation of more healing miracles accounts for much of the crowd. 6:19 power was coming from him and healing them all. This sounds almost magical, but a specific case of such a healing by touch will be recorded in 8:43–48, and there we will find that the secret was “faith,” not magic. Other such healings by a mere touch are mentioned in Matthew 14:36; Mark 3:10; Acts 19:12 (cf. Acts 5:15). 6:20 Looking at his disciples, he said. As in Matthew 5:1–2, the specific target audience is not ...

1284. The Failure of Israel’s Leadership

Luke 11:37-54

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... different senses in 11:42 and 11:43 shows how they are out of kilter with God’s scale of values. 11:44 unmarked graves. Graves were covered with lime plaster to make them visible, so that people would not inadvertently become defiled by touching them (Num. 19:16). But the Pharisees’ outward respectability conceals behavior (“what is inside you” [11:39–41]) that is morally unclean, and there is nothing to warn other people of it. 11:45 you insult us also. Pharisaic behavior and values were ...

1285. The New-Covenant Blessings: Peace and Hope

Romans 5:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... At least two theological insights can be gleaned from Romans 5:1–4. First, Paul’s metaphor of reconciliation (v. 11) forms an inclusio with justification (v. 1) such that the two concepts are but different sides of the same coin. Reconciliation, with its personal touch, provides a nice balance to the legal language of justification that he has been using since 1:17. After all, God is the Father of Christians, and they are at peace with him. Second, suffering does not negate the fact that a person is a ...

1286. Paul, Phoebe, Patronage, and Spain

Romans 16:1-27

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... Jeff had lived a Christian life in view of the diversity of the body of Christ. Over five hundred people attended his memorial service. They represented different ethnic groups: men and women, haves and have nots, highly educated and not. During his life Jeff had touched each of those present at the service with his witness for the Lord. I felt like I was in heaven joining the worship of “every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev. 7:9). I left that day thinking how much the church should emulate ...

1287. Uncleanness Due to Childbirth

Leviticus 12:1-8

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... rest and recuperate before resuming her normal activities. Since she is unclean, her husband is not to seek to have sex with her (cf. Lev. 18:19). She cannot be asked to prepare a meal, since she would convey her uncleanness to the food by touch and thus make others in the family unclean. Thus uncleanness severely limits a woman’s activities at the very time when she most needs reduced activity to recover from her childbearing. God’s people need purity and life. God here promoted health, cleansing, and ...

1288. The Day of Atonement: Preparation

Leviticus 16:1-34

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... offering (Lev. 1:4), the fellowship offering (Lev. 3:2, 8, 13), and the sin offering (Lev. 4:4, 24, 29, 33). Leaning with two hands by the priest symbolizes transference of sin onto the animal (v. 21b; cf. Lev. 24:14). Transfer rituals in which touching an animal was thought to cause sickness or impurity to pass from a person to the animal (e.g., a puppy) are also known among the ancient Hittites.4In the Mesopotamian Asakki Marsuti incantation ritual for fever, the goat that is the substitute for the sick ...

1289. War against Midian

Num 31:1-54

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... age (between childhood and their twenties). Commenting on the attitude that Christians should have about giving, Pastor Andy Stanley writes, Whenever we sense that hesitation, it’s because we have started to view our money as our money. In those moments, we’re not completely in touch with the fact that everything belongs to God, comes from Him and is dispensed by Him. In a way, we’re buying into the myth that we own it and we’re giving it to God. But God owns it all. So I’m really just “giving ...

1290. The Ark Heads Home

1 Samuel 6:1-7:1

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... A few medieval Hebrew manuscripts and Josephus support the smaller number seventy, as read by the NIV. they looked into the ark. The standard interpretation of this text is that some of the people looked into the ark (which implies that someone touched it) and were struck down because of their lack of respect. However, this view is problematic. The Hebrew expression used here (ra’ah, “see,” followed by the preposition b-, “in”) more commonly means “look at,” not “look into.” But it seems ...

1291. Adversity of a Righteous Man

Job 1:1-22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... protector of his people (cf. Pss. 91; 121). Here, the adversary asks a question about the motivation for Job’s piety, and then he boldly charges that if Yahweh were to remove this hedge from Job and allow Job’s perfect life to be touched by calamity, then Job’s worship would morph into cursing. Interestingly, the Hebrew term that the adversary uses for “curse” typically has the opposite meaning, “bless”; the same term also has the meaning “curse” in 1:5, when Job offers sacrifices for his ...

1292. Daniel Interprets the Dream and Confronts Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 4:19-27

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... but also its duration. Bible: Judges 13–16. Samson is an example of human greatness granted and removed in God’s timing. He is raised as a Nazirite (cf. Num. 6:1–21), dedicated to the Lord, and instructed to abstain from drinking wine, touching dead bodies, and cutting his hair. Samson frequently uses abilities beyond the natural, as God’s Spirit empowers him to kill a lion barehanded (Judg. 14:5–6) and fight victoriously when greatly outnumbered (14:19; 15:14–17). Though his strength is great ...

1293. What Can I Get By With?

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... up writing Luke a letter which became his sermon. “Dear Luke,” he said: You’re a terrific writer, and through the years I’ve become more appreciative of your Gospel (along with your second volume, The Acts of the Apostles). There’s a wonderfully human touch to your writing, even in the midst of the mysterious. Your story of the birth of Jesus is a masterpiece; and our churches have listened to children read it for many Christmases. Your inclusion of the parable of the Good Samaritan is a literary ...

1294. The Fall

Genesis 3:1-24

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... these trees (i.e., raise the desire), but not let you eat any of them? A God who would do something like that certainly does not love you.” Eve responds with a little hyperbole of her own (“you must not touch it,” 3:2) in her defense of God. The serpent’s second tack is to deny the truthfulness of God’s word (3:4) and to suggest that disobedience, far from bringing any disadvantages, will in fact bring an advantage—“you will be like God” (3:5). That God has ...

1295. Isaiah’s Call

Isaiah 6:1-13

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... sees Yahweh sitting on the throne, exalted in the temple. The prophet concentrates not on the throne or on the Lord seated on it but on “the train of his robe” as it fills the temple, which is filled with the glorious presence of the Lord. He touches the earth in his power and glory, and yet the earth and the earthly temple cannot contain him. The appearance of the Lord, transcendent in his majesty and yet immanent in his presence, is represented in the language of a theophany. It affects all things on ...

1296. Addressing Prophets and their Audiences

Jeremiah 23:9-32, Jeremiah 23:33-40

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... prophets and priests (23:9–40). They are faulted for giving leadership in Baal worship, for personal immorality, and for being out of touch with God’s message for their time. Their message either is self-originated or comes by dreams or is borrowed from others. Jeremiah’ ... whirlwind of wrath from God will crash on the heads of evildoers. Meanwhile, false prophets, altogether out of touch with the purposes of God’s heart, predict peaceful times. When the future judgment comes, the people will ...

1297. Third Message: Confirmation of Blessing

Haggai 2:10-19

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... came into contact with that fold would not thereby become ceremonially clean (though the garment itself would be clean, according to Lev. 6:27). On the other hand, a defiled person renders unclean anything he or she touches. Just so has the uncleanness of Judah’s disobedience in neglecting the temple vitiated everything they touched. All areas of life are affected. The date of the message in 2:15–19 is December 18, 520 BC. The people have been at work on the temple project for some three months now, and ...

1298. A Dead Girl and A Sick Woman

Mark 5:21-43

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... her act as a sign of faith. Immediately she is healed from her long-incurable disease. Like the man in 3:1–6, in bringing her infirmity to Jesus, she is healed. The woman’s intent to touch Jesus is rivaled by Jesus’s desire, despite the disciples’ remonstrations, to know who touched him. Not content simply to dispatch a miracle, Jesus wants to encounter the woman. For Jesus, miracle must lead to meeting. Jesus’s tender response, “Daughter, your faith has healed you” (5:34), overcomes the woman ...

1299. Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

Luke 7:36-50

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... his feet and anoint them with expensive perfume (7:38). Observing the activity, Simon concludes that Jesus cannot be a prophet (7:39) because a prophet would know what kind of woman this was. Moreover, a prophet would prevent a sinner from touching him because touching a sinful person would make one ritually unclean. (Thus the story has a twofold theme, revolving around the status of the woman and the status of Jesus.) Jesus responds to Simon’s silent protest by telling him the parable of the two debtors ...

1300. Afraid of Hope

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... refused to be discouraged. He entered his new world of sight with a spirit of a child going on a great adventure. Like a child, he peppered the people around him with questions. "What is that?" Is that a tree? Is this a flower? Is that a car? May I touch it? Like a child, nothing excited Michael more than riding a hotel elevator and he rode it up and down repeatedly. He played ball games and Frisbee with his son, missing a lot before he got the hang of what was happening and was able to coordinate sight and ...

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