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 1351 to 1375 of 5000 results

1351. I Want To Go South, Lord

Genesis 12:1-8

Drama

Jerry Eckert

Comment: One of the great figures of Genesis, Abraham, amazed me the first time I read the story of his argument with God over His plan to destroy Sodom. With that in mind, I got to wondering how Abraham might have handled his anxiety over how his obedience to God was paying off. I chose a time early in his career when that anxiety would have been high. The first time I did this story sermon, a friend let me use a classic old black telephone that dated from the early '40s. With it, I conducted a one-sided ...

1352. Reformation Sunday

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

George Paul Mocko

That Reformation Theme of How You Can't Find God in Head, Heart, or Hands: Something Jeremiah, Paul and Luther Agree on; Our Arrogance; How God Has to Find Us and WhatFaith is All About. How do you find out what God is like? What he is supposed to be doing in this world? What he wants from it and us? How do you find out what God is like? Reason, said the ancient Greeks. Apply logic and the only possible logical conclusion is that God exists. So convinced were the ancient Greeks of the unassailable nature ...

1353. The Signs Of Salvation

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

Would that we could know what Zacchaeus was thinking as he ran ahead of the crowd that day in Jericho! What would he have known or believed about the Galilean preacher? What did he think of the crowds that thronged the streets of Jericho, straining to glimpse the teacher as he journeyed toward Jerusalem? Could he have remembered that more than 500 years earlier Isaiah had promised there would be a day like this? Probably not. Zacchaeus had other problems. To begin with, he was a short man. He had spent ...

1354. Pruning Season

Luke 13:1-9

Drama

Pamela Urfer

Cast: Landowner Head Gardener Tree (The Head Gardener, representing Jesus, should be male. The others can be of either gender.) Length: 9 minutes [The TREE is seated on the middle of three stools, wearing some sort of "tree costume, "perhaps leaves or branches in the hair. The TREE is staring placidly into space. The LANDOWNER and the HEAD GARDENER enter and walk slowly around the TREE staring at it thoughtfully. The HEAD GARDENER is carrying pruning shears. After a moment, they take their stools.] OWNER: ...

1355. People Get Ready!

Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

Brett Blair

At the height of the Civil Rights struggle Curtis Mayfield, the lead singer of The Impressions, wrote his most memorable lyrics. Listen to the Chorus: People get ready There's a train, a comin' You don't need no baggage You just get on board All you need is faith To hear the diesels hummin' Don't need no ticket, You just thank the Lord In that turbulent decade Curtis Mayfield was calling people to a higher purpose. The chaos of the 60’s left our nation in much confusion from the Six-Day War to Viet Nam, ...

1356. Fasting: Foolish or Fruitful?

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Today, fasting is a lost practice. Since Vatican II, Catholics do not require fasting. Except for Episcopahans and Lutherans, most Protestants do not know what fasting is. And very few Lutherans and Episcopalians take fasting seriously. Yet, fasting has always been a part of religious devotion, both Christian and non-Christian. For instance, the Bible takes fasting for granted. In looking for a text commending fasting, I could not find one. Fasting is assumed. Jesus took for granted that people would fast ...

1357. The Disciples’ Dumb Dream

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

The sermon text is from the Gospel of Mark, the ninth chapter, verses 33-35: "... when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you discussing on the way?’ But they were silent; for on the way they had discussed with one another who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve; and he said to them, ‘If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’ " What does one get out of being a Christian? Each of us has probably asked that of himself on occasion. Ask it again, ...

1358. God and the Weather

Matthew 5:45; 16:2-3 · Psalm 18:7-11; 46:1-3, 11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Imagine for a moment that you are a person who has a great deal of difficulty in sustaining a conversation once you have met a person. After initial introductions, you draw a blank. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit that if in 99% of these situations what you end up talking about is the weather. "Sure is hot today, isn’t it?" "Think it’s going to rain? Sure looks like it." "These weather forecasters, you can never trust them! They said yesterday there was only 10% chance of showers and our picnic was rained on ...

1359. Simon of Cyrene - Reluctant Reliever or Submissive Servant?

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

Was I there? Yes, and I’m so glad that I was. Yes, I was there on that day when they crucified my Lord. My name is Simon of Cyrene, and what happened on that day marked a new beginning in my life. Oh, I wasn’t very happy about it at first, that’s for sure. The way things happened, I resented it deeply when I was compelled to pick up the cross-beam and carry it for Jesus. After all, I had just arrived at the holy city and was about to enter Jerusalem. Then, all of a sudden, everything seemed to go wrong. At ...

1360. A Man Whose Dreams Came True

Genesis 37:1-11

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

We are seeking to tell the story of the Bible by selecting certain key people at particular points along the way. In the previous chapter, we indicated how God had decided, after the fall of man, to choose one person and through him to build a nation - a nation to be the instrument by which his message of redemption might reach the whole world. That man was Abraham. After Abraham, we pass very quickly over his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. This is difficult to do, because there are so many interesting ...

1361. The Courage to Be Me

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." There is a certain courage to be who we are built into the dynamics of Christian faith and grace. DONALD C. HOUTS (see biographical note preceding Smart, Wise, and Foolish) relates this courage to three common debilitating fears in his sermon The Courage to Be Me: The fears of doubt, self-disclosure, and failure. There is a sense in which vitality in human life is a product of the tension between fear and faith. If all were certain, then our concept ...

1362. Comfort My People

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that people are funny? It makes no difference what time of the year, people are funny. Maybe you read the story in the newspapers this time last year about a young Romeo in France who was trying to woo his girlfriend Santa Claus-style. Attempting a surprise visit to his girlfriend while her parents were away, the youth climbed down the chimney of the girl's home. On his way down, he became trapped in the narrow flue and called for help. Firemen, alerted by the girlfriend, said they ...

1363. Sinner Or Saint?

Hebrews 7:11-28

Sermon

King Duncan

May I ask you a question? Who are you? It sounds like a simple question requiring a simple answer, but it really isn't. For example, you might say, "I'm Fred Smith." And I might say, "No, that's your name. Who are you, really?" You might reply, "Oh, I'm a bank manager." "No," I would say, "that's what you do." "I'm an American," you might declare. "That's where you live." "I'm a [Baptist]," you might retort. "That's your denominational preference." You could also give your height and your weight and say ...

1364. Does God Give Out Blank Checks?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

One of my favorite authors is Father Andrew Greeley, who, when he is not writing newspaper columns, popular (and somewhat racy) novels, and technical sociological treatises, somehow finds time to write passable books on theology. Greeley is so prolific that some have suggested that he is a committee rather than one individual man. Some critics say that he has never had an unpublished thought; but perhaps some of the criticism leveled against him might come under the heading of jealousy...from folks who ...

1365. On Getting the Gospel Out

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

In 1988 former Presidential candidate Pat Robertson got extremely upset when a reporter referred to him as a “former television evangelist.” In Robertson’s camp this was considered slander. I can understand that - given the recent publicity some evangelists have gotten.One of the things which I find so puzzling is that, even after a television evangelist has been discredited, disgraced, defrocked, fired from his denomination, told not to preach, and cancelled by many of the religious TV networks, he still ...

1366. A Faith that Works with a Victorious Attitude

Philippians 2:12-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Today, we continue to preach and study through the marvelous letter of the Apostle Paul to the church and believers at Philippi. As many of you know, I often begin with a story or illustration, but today I want to begin our work by addressing and hopefully clearing up two major misconceptions or misinterpretations often associated with this text. THE FIRST MISINTERPRETATION IS THAT WE ARE SAVED BY OUR ATTEMPTS AT GOOD WORKS RATHER THAN SOLELY BY THE GRACE OF GOD revealed through the all sufficient, ...

1367. A Confidence for All Seasons

Psalm 27:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Pete Rose has been one of the big names in the news over the past few years. He's an interesting study in human nature. The way the press is dealing with him, and the public response adds immeasurably to that study. A few weeks ago, his daughter got caught up in the fracas. Newsweek Magazine reported the story. The daughter has not lived with Rose since he and his wife got a divorce some years ago. And one of the reasons is because she says her dad was a crummy father. But did you hear what Pete said about ...

1368. In the Wilderness With Moses

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a hilarious story about a man who is walking along a lonely beach when he suddenly hears a deep voice that says to him: DIG! He looks around: nobody’s there. “I am having hallucinations,” he thinks. Then he hears the voice again: I SAID, DIG! So he starts to dig in the sand with his bare hands, and after some inches, he finds a small chest with a rusty lock. The deep voice says: OPEN! OK, the man thinks, let’s open the thing. He finds a rock with which to destroy the lock, and when the chest is ...

1369. The Heart of an Intimate Matter

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

Convictions and opinions are not the same, are they? Someone has said, “Opinions are many, convictions are few; opinions change often, convictions rarely do.” Opinions live on the surface; convictions go deep. Opinions thrive around the gossipy edges; convictions live near the center of life. One way to tell the difference is to ask, What would you make a sacrifice for- of real money, of significant time, of patient suffering, even of life if necessary? The more you would pay, the closer you move to the ...

1370. Getting Your Politics Right

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

I grew up with the myth, universally absorbed but rarely argued for except by extremists with bad manners, that whites were superior. Exceptions were acknowledged, but only as exceptions that did not change the rule. Racism was one of the unspoken beliefs of my childhood culture before the Civil Rights movement rose up to challenge the great lie with the potent rhetoric of our founding documents, as in The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal ...

1371. Have You Heard about Grace?

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

On October 31, over 450 years ago, Martin Luther began what came to be known as the Protestant Reformation. If you are a United Methodist, then you stand in that Reformation tradition. Like anything that happened over 450 years ago, much of the Reformation is dated and is no longer interesting or helpful to us. It was concerned with questions raised in the 16th century, which are not our questions. But there is at least one permanent contribution that Luther has made for all of us, and that is to emphasize ...

1372. Generations

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Boosters: Pre-1946 Will all those born before 1946, please rise and remain standing? Tom Brokaw calls you the greatest generation, and he's right. Sociologists call you the boosters. You comprise both the GI Generation and the Depression Babies. The Trotsky saying that anyone who wants to lead a peaceful life has chosen the wrong century in which to be born applies to you more than any other generation. Born pre-1946, you are the generation that survived the depression, was transfixed by the 1939 New York ...

1373. How to Connect With God

1 John 5:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

In a Newsweek cover story entitled, "Talking to God", a Gallup poll reported that 91% of women and 85% of men say they pray regularly. That includes 94% of blacks and 87% of whites; 57% of Americans say they pray at least once every day.1 This survey went on to say that 32% of the people who pray, report that praying gives them a deep sense of peace; 26% said they sense the actual presence of God in their prayers.2 All of that sounded encouraging until I read this final statistic: Only 15% regularly ...

1374. Try a Little Kindness (Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness)

Galatians 5:22

Sermon

James Merritt

After Confederate General Robert E. Lee retired from the military, he was named President of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, originally named Washington Academy because of a gift from George Washington. The name was changed in 1871 in honor of General Lee. While Lee was president of the University, a new student came into his office and asked for a copy of the school's rules and regulations. Lee looked at him and said, "Son, we don't have any rules and regulations in print." The young ...

1375. He's Everything I Need

Psalm 23:1

Sermon

James Merritt

One of my favorite theologians was the late Irma Bombeck. She said something about worrying that I think we can all relate to. I’ve always worried a lot, and frankly I’m good at it. I worry about introducing people and going blank when I get to my mother. I worry about a shortage of ball bearings; a snake coming up through the kitchen drain. I worry about the world ending at midnight and getting stuck with three hours on a twenty-four hour cold capsule. I worry about getting into the Guinness World Book of ...

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