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 1326 to 1350 of 2565 results

1326. Accepting the Lord Once Again

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... . Yet, as we know, in order to share the light, we must first open the door and allow Christ to enter, permeate our being, and become one with us. The initial challenge is depicted artistically through a powerful painting in the British National Gallery in London. It describes in art a passage from the book of Revelation (3:20), "Listen! I am standing at the door knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me." Let us today respond to the knock of ...

1327. Seeing and Not Being Seen

John 12:20-33

Sermon

David T. Ball

... funny story when you paid attention to the questions they were asked, on the one hand, and the answers, quite on the other. Come to think of it, I can recall noticing this in prior campaigns, and it’s not just politicians who have mastered the art of changing the subject. It’s a skill that just about anyone who has to handle questions from the public needs to have, if only for their own survival. Jesus’ skills in this regard are probably unsurpassed, aren’t they? So many times in the gospel accounts ...

1328. The Quiet Day of Pentecost

John 16:5-16, John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

George Reed

... wants us to be in conversation. But conversation involves both speaking and listening. We are much more adept at the former than the latter. It is not uncommon to find all kinds of books on how to talk to God. Few are written and even fewer read on the art of listening to God. It is probably fitting that few books are written about listening to God because the instructions have been with us for a long time and are very simple. To hear God we need to sit quietly in God's presence and listen with our whole ...

1329. We Are Citizens of This World

Matthew 22:15-22

Illustration

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

In an invocation prayer at the United States Senate, Peter Marshall said, "Lord Jesus, Thou who art the way, the truth, and the life, hear us as we pray for the truth that shall make men free. Teach us that liberty is not only to be loved but also to be lived. Liberty is too precious a thing to be buried in books. It costs too much ...

1330. The Passion of the Servant Leader

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... what is: Please Hear What I Am Not Saying Don't be fooled by me. Don't be fooled by the face I wear. For I wear a mask. I wear a thousand masks, masks I'm afraid to take off, and none of them is me. Pretending is an art that's second nature with me, but don't be fooled, for God's sake, don't be fooled. I give the impression that I'm secure, that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without, that confidence is my name and coolness my game, That ...

1331. Chip It Away!

Matthew 22:34-46; Luke 10:25-37; John 13:31-35

Illustration

James W. Moore

There is a story about a man who had a huge boulder in his front yard. He grew weary of this big, unattractive stone in the center of his lawn, so he decided to take advantage of it and turn it into an object of art. He went to work on it with hammer and chisel, and chipped away at the huge boulder until it became a beautiful stone elephant. When he finished, it was gorgeous, breath-taking. A neighbor asked, "How did you ever carve such a marvelous likeness of an elephant?" The man answered, " ...

1332. Leading by Example

Mt 23:1-12; Mk 12:38-40

Illustration

Michael P. Green

General Eisenhower would demonstrate the art of leadership with a piece of string. He'd put it on a table and say: "PULL it and it will follow wherever you wish. PUSH it and it will go nowhere at all. It's just that way when it comes to leading people. They need to follow a person who is leading by example."

1333. An Exquisite Attitude of Gratitude

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... passed in front of him simply skittered by, oblivious, obsessed by their own agendas. (You can find this story, along with some video clips you can use, by Googling the Washington Post article “Pearls Before Breakfast”). John Lake, author of Timeless Beauty: In The Arts and Everyday Life (2003), succinctly summed up what this missed moment revealed about all those busy commuters, and about us: If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth ...

1334. Merry Christmas or Happy Kitschmas?

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

When baby boomers finally got around to having babies of their own, like everything else about this “pig-in-the-python” generation, they put their own big footprint on the art and science of childbirth. Among the host of boomer books on natural childbirth, midwifery, home birthing, came a classic that is still in print today. Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Muzel co-authored the first of what would become a series of books entitled “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” ...

1335. Twas the Beginning of Advent

Mark 13:24-37

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

... the origin of this whole holy-day season. A baby, it seems, once had been born In the mid-east somewhere on that first holy-day morn. But what does that mean for folks like us, Who've lost ourselves in the hoopla and fuss? Can we re-learn the art of wondering and waiting, Of hoping and praying, and anticipating? Can we let go of all the things and the stuff? Can we open our hands and our hearts long enough? Can we open our eyes and open our ears? Can we find him again after all of these years ...

1336. The Bonds of Love

1 John 4:7-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of people paid to think about the ingredients that combine to create love, or at least an atmosphere where love can develop, are marriage therapists and counselors. The science of psychotherapy has attempted to identify the ingredients contained in the art of love (One Couple/Four Realities, ed. Richard Chasin, Henry Grunebaum and Margaret Herzig, [New York and London: Guilford Press, 1990]). Asking the question of why marriages stay together rather than why they fall apart or how they get started (there ...

1337. Sevening

Hebrews 4:1-3; 9-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... time and place, a time set aside for quietly and carefully landscaping our souls instead of bulldozing our way through the personal, economic, and professional stumps we face the rest of the week sounds almost frivolous. But as we have increasingly lost the art of "Sevening," our lives have become more and more wound up, wounded and wrecked. It is not just America's urban zombies who live in overscheduled, overmedicated, overmediated states of existence. There is a natural rhythm to life. To work without a ...

1338. Aged to Perfection - The Third Age

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that one can only grow and come alive in youth or middle age. Old age is seen as some sort of punishing curse. But to wish aging on someone is not a curse, it is a blessing. Youth may be a gift of nature, but age is a mark of art. We do everything we can to escape the reality of life, of aging, and to fool ourselves that we can stop the process, or even reverse it. An alternative title to this sermon comes from a poem by Leona Will Caldwell, of Lakeland, Florida. It is entitled "May It Happen ...

1339. The Seduction of the Palms

Luke 19:28-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... service. In the previous centuries, when paper was an expensive commodity and letter writing the only way to keep in touch, writers found an interesting way to economize. One piece of paper could be made to hold twice as much information by practicing the art of palimpsest. After filling the page the paper was simply rotated 45 degrees and then another entire page of writing was placed on top of the existing lines. These letters could compress the maximum amount of news onto a minimum amount of paper. There ...

1340. The Compleat Christian

Romans 5:1-5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... pronounced the same, the nuances of meaning between the two are significant. Whereas complete-ness applies mainly to things and ideas, compleat-ness applies pointedly to persons. Specifically, it refers to "highly skilled, accomplished" endeavors toward "a particular art or pursuit." Being a compleat Christian for Paul entailed being able to accept the gift of justification, and then respond to that grace with such eschatologically-based expectation that the Christian is moved to hope, suffer, endure and ...

1341. Toys R Us. NOT!

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , among the Christbody community and within each believer. Yet this miraculous presence is itself nothing more than an appetizer, preparing our palate for the heavenly banquet to come. Human patriarchs and matriarchs leave their heirs cash, houses, stocks and bonds, corporations, art and properties. These are the things they have accumulated over the course of their lifetimes, but which must be lost to them when they die. The inheritance prepared for Christians is not one of "things." We are not defined by ...

1342. Welcome Home, Joseph

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to work through all of them, so Joseph's own relatives surely extended the hospitality of their home and their help to the young couple. Jesus' birth was therefore not a foreshadowing of his later rejection by the Jews. It is a lesson for all of us in the fine art of being gracious and hospitable to the stranger in our midst and in the strangeness of God's ways. Supportive roles, like Joseph's, are worthy of as much praise as are the "lead roles" in this life.

1343. Prophets or Professionals?

Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... someone trying to sell you life insurance on your credit card, solicit a donation for some charity fund, or poll your opinion on some topic you really don't care to discuss with a stranger. These telephone solicitors have so perfected their techniques into an art form over the last few years, however, that once you answer the phone it is virtually impossible to escape their clutches. The good ones begin by asking for you by your first name only "Is this you?" Quickly they ask some other innocuous question ...

1344. I Love You, Man... And I Don't Want Your Beer

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you are selling, no matter how trivial, appear at that moment to be the most important consideration consumers are facing. One of the hottest ad campaigns last year succeeded in elevating the age-old practice of bumming a beer from a friend to a new art form. You've surely seen the shots of a bunch of fishing buddies sitting around the campfire "bonding" over their experience. Suddenly one of the guys grows tearful and confessional. Coming close to one of his friends around the fire, he throws his arms ...

1345. Parable Power

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... some standard comebacks to cover ourselves and explain these freakish occurrences: "I guess you just had to be there." "It loses something in translation." "You just don't get it." But the fact is, storytelling of any sort, amusing anecdotes or tragic tales, is an unrepeatable art form. The variety of people listening, the inflections in your voice, the mood of the day, the color of the sky they all combine to create a one-time-only atmosphere for the words you speak. A story may bring a tear or a smile at ...

1346. Plaque Buildup

Romans 5:12-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , calmly chowing down our frozen dinners while images of horror flicker in front of us in surround- sound stereo. We are not really surprised when so-called "Christian militias" praise the carnage of the Oklahoma City bombing as a "work of art" every bit "as much a masterpiece as a Rembrandt painting." In The Holocaust and The Liberal Imagination (Cambridge, Mass.: Black- well, 1994), Tony Kushner shows how liberalism in its broadest definition (as we are using it here) limited our ability to comprehend ...

1347. Strength's Weakness

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... downtown Detroit, an entire side of the CadillacTower building bears the muscular image of Barry Sanders, the NFL's leading rusher and Detroit Lions running back #20. The only way you know who is responsible for this massive, looming work of people's art, this icon to a sports god, is by one symbol in the upper right-hand corner: a swoosh (Nike)! Professional athletes make their livelihood off their Herculean bodies and physical abilities. Yet those very bodies are finally an athlete's downfall. Tendonitis ...

1348. Sleep Loose

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Relax and trust God's Spirit. It used to be that when we took a family member or visitor to the airport, there was plenty of time for formal, cordial good-byes. Saying good-bye was an art. You had to work up to a high point, a final message, a last hug, at just the right time. Too soon and you would have to endure those last minutes knowing everything had already been said. Too late and you would end up shouting crucial messages at someone's ...

1349. Ten Commandments of Trust

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Isaiah 26:3 "Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace in peace because they trust in you." - Turn to I Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." - Turn to a yielded life . . . Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, While I am waiting, yielded and still. 2. Thou shalt give up the illusion of control, and trust the Spirit. If we are going to learn to trust again, we must be clear about something: You ...

1350. Paying Dues to God

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of God within us. Dues #2: Caring The biblical witness also reveals that our God is a caring God a God for whom kindness and mercy warm the breath that the Holy Spirit breathes on us. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin currently serves the Synagogue of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. In his recent book, Words That Hurt, Words That Heal (New York: William Morrow, 1996), he tells how he begins his presentations. He asks his audience how many of them can go for 24 hours without saying any unkind words about, or to ...

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