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 1376 to 1400 of 4340 results

1376. The Tale of the Widow and the Wolves

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Red Riding Hood, The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, The Wolf and the Fox, Peter and the Wolf. These are a few of the many tales we tell with wolves in the villain’s character. Why? Because wolves are known not just as carnivores but as “opportunistic predators.” Most often preying upon their victims in packs, they attack the ill, the injured, the weak, the small, and the old, completely devouring their prey until nothing at all is left, not even ...

1377. God Is Like...a Name

Exodus 3:1-15

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

... consumed. By knowing the name, Moses would be able to call upon the deity and Moses would also get a clue to the nature of this god. In ancient time, the names of persons or gods revealed a great deal about them. Names carried with them information about character and personality. So Moses engaged in a battle of wits with this god. The voice of the deity had said it had chosen Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Needless to say, Moses was hardly thrilled at that prospect. The Pharaoh of Egypt was a ...

1378. Living A Triumphant Life

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... not come from the conquest of Jericho. It came from knowing that they were again right with God. They had taken the necessary steps for reconciliation and from this point on they would enjoy the Lord's presence with them. Abraham Lincoln provided leadership with strength and character during a difficult period in the history of our country. At one point, he was asked if he thought God was on the side of the North or the South. He answered by saying, "I am not concerned with whether or not God is on my side ...

1379. Whom Shall We Obey?

Acts 5:17-42

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... doing God's will and they were fulfilling his purpose that enabled the disciples to face the Sanhedrin with such courage. Not only were they courageous but they also preached boldly to the very ones who would forbid them from preaching. Such strength of character does not rely solely on human resources. It draws its strength from a sense of unity and oneness with the divine spirit. The disciples recognized that they relied on the confirmation of God. This is what they said: "And we are witnesses to these ...

1380. Food For The Body And Food For The Soul

John 6:25-59

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

... come into the world' " (John 6:14). Therefore, the sign does make a favorable impression on them. They see Jesus as an extraordinary person who can do remarkable things. They see him as one who fits the mold of some of the most important characters in their tradition. In fact, they see some parallel between what Jesus did with the five loaves and what Moses did when their ancestors became desperately hungry in the wilderness on their way to the promised land. "Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness ...

1381. The King On A Cross

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

... cross should come as no great surprise. Much preparation has been made for it. Those who watch and those who take part in this execution think they are crucifying a person to whom the title "king" can be applied only in derision and jest. But there is one character in the drama who has insight beyond the others. He is a most unlikely prophet. He too hangs on a cross. He is facing death because of serious crimes he has committed. He admits he is a sinner. He does not protest that he is being treated unfairly ...

1382. A Modern Day Job

Luke 13:1-9

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

... our land. It's getting to the point that when anything wrong happens to anyone the first thought is to go to court in order to assign the blame to someone else. There lives a man whose name is J. B. J. B. is a lot like an Old Testament character named Job. J. B. protests his innocence when anything goes wrong. His method of choice for assigning blame is a lawsuit. J. B. is a rugged, athletic man. He is very proud of his body. He boasts of his feats of strength. So when the local YMCA advertised a ...

1383. Disarming Evil

Colossians 2:6-23; John 8:44-45

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

... layer of self-deception around themselves. Evil people are not the same as sinful people. It is not their sins in themselves that distinguish between evil people and sinful people. The difference is that evil people refuse to acknowledge any fault at all in their character. Not being able to see and acknowledge their own faults was the characteristic of Bobby's parents. As such, Dr. Peck suggests, they were evil people. And evil, he tells us, can only be overcome with raw power. Evil, in other words, is a ...

1384. Who's The Neighbor

Luke 10:25-37

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... THE SECOND CONTESTANT, GEORGE SCRIMSHAW) Pardon me, is a Levite one of those guys who makes jeans? MILTON: (RUNNING ON STAGE) No, no. A Levite is a temple worker. LEVITE: Well, I just wanted to know. It will help me to interpret the character. MILTON: Yes, yes. May we continue now? LEVITE: By all means. (HE LOOKS AT CERTAIN MAN WITH MAGNIFYING GLASS) Hmm, yes, I see. Interesting. Quite interesting. Yes, yes. Obviously dead. CERTAIN MAN: Half dead. Half dead. LEVITE: (TAKES OUT NOTEPAD AND MAKES SOME ...

1385. Easter Jogging

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... stolen from his grave. When that happened did anyone propose that he was risen from the dead? Did his family come forward to suggest that Charlie had talked about rising from the dead or about the notion that he was immortal? Even those who suggest that the character that Charlie played in the silent movies is immortal did not suggest that his tomb is empty because he is still alive. Death Is Death Death is death. None was prepared for the event of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. He had ...

1386. Anybody Listening?

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

William G. Carter

... message, saying, "We've heard all of this before." Or, like the Galilee congregation, they might recognize the messenger all too well, observing, "This isn't anybody special. We know his family." Some people even develop routine expectations for Sunday worship. As a character in a play quipped, "Reverend, I didn't come to church to be preached to." On the other hand, people can equally resist the gospel for reasons of unfamiliarity. They hear a new message and complain, "We never heard that before; is that ...

1387. The Parables About Response

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... family forms" and "single-parent homes." But in the eyes of a child, what's nearly always happening is the loss of a father ... But a missing father means much more than a missing paycheck. A father's love and discipline are crucial to character formation. And for children growing up without that love, the statistics are grim. Fatherless children display more antisocial behavior, do worse in school, and are twice as likely to drop out than children from intact families. They are more likely to use drugs and ...

1388. From Singleness To Solidarity

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

Zan W. Holmes

... is one of the world's most beautiful stories of human solidarity in the face of trouble. Apart from the book of Esther it is the only other book in the Bible to be named after a woman. Therefore it should not be a surprise that the major characters of the book are two women, Naomi and Ruth. A major theme of the book is their common struggle to survive in the midst of a hostile and troubled environment. The stage was set for their common struggle when a food famine occurred in the city of Bethlehem. This ...

1389. Love And Money

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

William G. Carter

... professor named Stanley Hauerwas has a novel idea about how churches should receive new members. A teacher of Christian ethics at Duke University, he has written about the church's need for honesty and has called us to tell the truth as a "community of character." To this end, he has a modest proposal. Whenever people join the church, Hauerwas thinks they should stand and answer four questions: Who is your Lord and Savior? The response: "Jesus Christ." Do you trust in him and seek to be his disciple? "I do ...

1390. Rich In God's Sight

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Richard Patt

... point by telling a story we know as "The Parable of the Rich Fool." In the story Jesus tells about a wealthy man, which in his day would probably mean a successful farmer. Crops, barns; more crops, more barns. In our day Jesus might have used characters like folks who are consumed in the stock market or other investments; or those addicted to gambling, or even a young married couple who will do almost anything (like neglecting one another or their children) in order to ascend to the next rung on the ladder ...

1391. The Crux Of Being A Christian

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

Richard Patt

... only one chapter, so that the reading consists of this entire chapter, save the last two verses. In the touching story it tells, we have a wonderful illustration about what the crux of being a Christian is. What is that story? Briefly, it involves three characters: the apostle Paul, his friend named Philemon, and a servant who worked in Philemon's house with the interesting name, Onesimus. Now this servant Onesimus was really less than a servant; he was a slave in Philemon's household. Despite the fact that ...

1392. God's Passionate Concern

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

Richard Patt

1393. People With Power To Forgive

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... within us to give up the grudge, to lay aside the tired, old claims, to forgive and forget the wrongs done to us, especially if we are honest enough to see the wrongs we have done to others. In the movie, The Mission, one of the leading characters is converted from being a slave-trader of Brazilian Indians to be a Jesuit priest. But he insists on doing penance, dragging a heavy bundle through the jungle back to the Indians he used to enslave. Once back, in a dramatic, cliff-side scene, where the bundle ...

1394. Prepare The Way

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... for the throne. Caesar then adopted Tiberius as his son, so that he could become the new emperor. You could keep Days Of Our Lives running quite a while on that plot! We could go on forever if we spoke of the other characters in the plot: Pilate, Herod, Philip, Annas, and Caiaphas. It was a time of power struggles and intrigue, propaganda and dirty campaigns, political posturing and political theater. It was a time of class struggle, sabre rattling, religious superficiality, and moral decay. It was ...

1395. A Tale Of Two Cities

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... personage for the corruption of the sacred city, Herod. Herod stands for all the greed, manipulation, and fear which mark the powerbrokers of the world. We have two kings and two cities, Herod in Jerusalem and Jesus in Bethlehem. In Matthew's story, the characters who acquaint us with these two cities are the magi. When they receive the revelation that the king of the Jews is born, they go straight to Jerusalem, expecting to find him at the capital in a glorious setting. Instead, they find Herod. They ...

1396. The Silence Broken, The Bride Restored

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... from Christ. Like Israel, we have known the silence of God. It is common to think of our modern age as a time when God is distant, absent, or silent. Samuel Becket gave dramatic form to this concept in his play, Waiting For Godot. The two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, kept waiting for Godot, the god figure. Each day they expect him, and each day they are disappointed. Their lives are a picture of futility. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It's awful! In addition to the seeming silence of God in the midst ...

1397. Love Your Enemies--It Will Drive Them Crazy

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... spot. Valjean's entire life is haunted after that by seeking to find that appropriate place where he can give away that kind of love. Most of the New Testament has been written by the apostle Paul. Have you ever stopped to think of what a gross character he was before his conversion? The one who gave us the most of what we call the "word of God" in the New Testament was killing and persecuting Christians. Later on he would give some terrible understatements about what happened to him, especially on the road ...

1398. Tiny Town: Promised Power

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

Tony Everett

... more in the love of Christ and less in the stories of Horatio Alger? During the nineteenth century, Alger became famous for writing over 100 novels featuring rags-to-riches stories that became the epitome of the American dream. The principle character invariably started life in poverty, experiencing a series of rejections and failures. Then, through a refusal to give up and a renewed dedication to succeed, the hero would basically pull himself out of poverty by his own bootstraps. Success and power ...

1399. Extreme Measures

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... land to King Ahab, Jezebel sat down and wrote a letter which would solicit the support of co-conspirators in her plot. They would falsely accuse Naboth of cursing God and king and would drum up support for his execution. By besmirching his character, the stage would be set for his murder. Law required that at least two witnesses be present who could bring accusation against the perpetrator. Jezebel arranged for two scoundrels to bring false charges against Naboth. Naboth was honest about not wanting to sell ...

1400. What Money Can't Buy

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... for disease. Money can buy a house, but money can't buy a home. Money can buy information, but money can't buy knowledge. Money can solicit loyalties, but money cannot buy obedience. Money can buy good works, but money can't buy faith. All the characters of this story had something that money cannot buy. The servant girl had compassion. The wife of Naaman had loyalty. The prophet had knowledge. The River Jordan had the cure, and Naaman had the willingness and faith to be healed. All of these things money ...

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