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 126 to 150 of 202 results

126. With a Firm Foundation, Application Is Second Nature

Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... and makes them stare, they forsake everything, the Word and God and doctrine, and go gaping after that.14 Those with a foundation in Christ, those caught up in his overwhelming love, are tempted to follow the crowd, to chase after what is novel and sensational. Those with Christ as their foundation do have to struggle, may sway in the wind. But the good news of our gospel lesson for today is that our firm foundation, Christ, will not give way. Take heart, friends, and rejoice. You and I are reminded today ...

127. A Career in The Kingdom

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... , Reginald Bibby. His book, Fragmented Gods (Ontario, Canada: Irwin, 1987), declared that historic Christianity was all but dead. People today are consumers, he reminded his readers. They go shopping for this and that, a new toy here, a new emotion there, a new sensation each time around. When one pastime doesn't excite them anymore they move on to a new one. Those same people have become religious consumers in the vast array of church supermarkets, said Bibby. A ritual here, a prayer there, a cause in ...

128. Acquired Taste

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... effort. But acquired tastes train the taste buds to focus on some pleasing aspect of an unusual food, while learning to ignore what might have been initially off-putting. Acquired tastes challenge us to experience the uncommon and embrace new sensations. Acquired tastes reach beyond the pantry. Appreciating opera, modern art, square dancing, Sudoku, all can be acquired tastes. In fact, some not-easy-to-love people can be acquired tastes. Singer Tori Amos, the daughter of a Methodist preacher, once admitted ...

129. He Ascended Into Heaven

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into Hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. "He ascended...." Up, up, and away. It must have been a very strange sensation for those on the hillside. What was this? A magic show? Jesus suddenly levitating above them, disappearing into a cloud? Uh-huh. What's the trick? Was David Copperfield around there someplace? Okay. You can bring him back. Anyway, we have work to do. A ...

130. Hope Lifted Up

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Ken Lentz

... parents had died at a retirement home in the Sunbelt and it was the boys' job to take care of the details at the house in the north. It had been locked up for the winter some months before. As they drove into the driveway, they had the eerie sensation that time had reversed itself and that their mother was waving at them from the kitchen window. The back door key still required just the right twist to make it work, and the throw rug still bunched up when they pushed open the door. They stepped into the ...

131. Who's the Captain of Your Soul?

Illustration

Oscar Wilde

The gods had given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease...Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation. What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or ...

132. Phantom Pain

I John 3:19-20

Illustration

Dr. Paul Brand

Amputees often experience some sensation of a phantom limb. Somewhere, locked in their brains, a memory lingers of the nonexistent hand or leg. Invisible toes curl, imaginary hands grasp things, a "leg" feels so sturdy a patient may try to stand on it. For a few, the experience includes pain. Doctors watch helplessly, for the ...

133. Thank God for Pain

Illustration

Dorothy Clarke Wilson

... shattered by his disaster. And the forced separation from his family. As night receded, he yielded to hope and in the morning, with clinical objectivity, "with steady fingers he bared the skin below his ankle, jabbed in the point and yelled." Blessed was the sensation of pain! He realized that during the long train ride, sitting immobile, he had numbed a nerve. From then on, whenever Dr. Brand cut his finger, turned an ankle, even when he suffered from "agonizing nausea as his whole body reacted in violent ...

134. Liberating the Possessed

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... the novel by Ira Levin, leaped from our culture and into our collective consciousness. Soon an otherworldly craziness shocked and horrified thrill seekers, the curious, the skeptics, and "the faithful." Another movie, The Exorcist, in 1973 portrayed a sensational, shocking horror story about devil possession and the subsequent exorcism of demon spirits from a young innocent girl of divorced parents. Earlier an exorcism true story in Mount Rainer, Maryland, performed upon a fourteen-year-old boy by Jesuit ...

135. Christmas 2

Psalm 147:12-20, Jeremiah 31:7-14, John 1:(1-9), 10-18, Ephesians 1:3-14

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... seems impossible with the huge population of the planet vying for land, food, water, and clean air. Yet, the poetry is beautiful and hopeful. For many, the hype of the Christmas buying-selling season produces a “blue” feeling, a down sensation — Via Negativa. Of course, there are other biblical stories that emphasize the sorrows of humankind — the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, Stephen’s stoning, and so on. For people who have experienced the death of a loved one during a Christmas season ...

136. When We Are Uncertain about The Future

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... throat, and chain us like a slave. Other words from the same root include the German word “angst” which means a general dread and the Latin word “angere” which means to choke or strangle, as well as the English word “angina” which means the tight sensation in the chest that accompanies dread. (4) Fear is a universal emotion. Of course, some people have more to fear than others. Mother Teresa once told about a child she picked up from the street. She could tell from the child’s face that she ...

137. Are You Part of the Scandal?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... down the length of the main hall. Coats, mittens, shoes, sweatshirts, gym clothes, are all laid down and spread out in the hopes that their owners will spot them and take them home. But the scene of all those empty clothes creates an eerie sensation, as if it is not the clothes that had been left behind, but that the children themselves have somehow been “lost” — zapped out of their clothes and transported to somewhere far away. For any parent walking down those empty halls, those empty clothes give ...

138. A Dance in the Desert

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... . For Paul, it is the essential word to speak and to live, so much so that he has to repeat himself about it. The English language has a number of similar words that relate to good feelings inside. Pleasure, for instance, reflects our delighted response to sensations that stimulate us. Happiness surrounds us because of certain happenings in our lives. And then there's joy. In a sense, pleasure is an "it" word; it mostly has to do with things that touch our senses. And happiness is a "me" word; its primary ...

At the sight of this last conflict, I felt a sensation never known to me before: a confusion of passions, an awful stillness of sorrow, a gloomy terror without a name.”

Samuel Johnson

140. The Great Blondin

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... nervously to every sharp motion of the balancing pole. But their fears and forebodings were unnecessary. The great Blondin not only went across safely, but returned as well—to the great relief and admiration of the spectators. Turning to the audience, he then made a sensational offer. He would cross the falls again, this time with someone on his back. Who was willing to go? No one rushed forward to accept the offer. Picking out a man at random, Blondin asked, “Do you believe that I am able to carry you ...

141. Sex Outside of Marriage

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... a total union of two people. There is nothing wrong with sexual pleasure, any more than there is with the pleasure of eating. However, just as attempting to enjoy the pleasures of eating and tasting without swallowing and digesting is wrong, so attempting to enjoy sex as an isolated physical sensation is wrong.

142. Personal Accountability

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

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... ’s fellow exiles are filtered through the divine perspective. While the wording may seem odd (what does it mean to have one’s teeth “set on edge”?), the proverb is based on a familiar experience: surely everyone knows the unpleasant oral sensation that comes from eating something sour. Though the saying is literally nonsensical (someone else eating sour fruit can’t make my mouth pucker up), its meaning is clear. Our suffering is our parents’ fault; we are not to blame for our circumstances ...

143. The Authority of Jesus over Sickness and Death

Mark 5:21-43

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... Immediately her bleeding stopped . . . power had gone out of him. The powerful effects of the miracle are “immediately” felt by both the woman and Jesus. Not only does the bleeding cease, but also she feels “free from her suffering,” undoubtedly a physical sensation of wellness and the lifting of the terrible burden that she had lived with for so long. The effects on Jesus are equally powerful. The woman had hoped to pass unnoticed in the crowd (for all whom she had touched, including Jesus, would ...

144. Introduction and “Hello”

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... son of a Dutch minister, the great painter Van Gogh (1853–90) is not often associated with, as writer Kristopher Kowal puts it, “Christian conviction—let alone one with missionary and evangelistic aspirations.” More often, biographers focus on the sensational sides of his personality. Nevertheless, at one period of his life, Van Gogh gained a reputation among very poor miners “for selflessly sharing their hardships and for his love of the unlovable. Anecdotes from this period illustrate the length ...

145. Victory and Serpents

Num 21:1-9

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... . Angelic seraphs have either a fire-like or a snake-like appearance. “Fiery” could also be a reference to the snake’s color, like the copper/bronze snake that Moses puts on a stick (see v. 9); or “fiery” may refer to the painful, burning sensation of its venom; or it may indicate the reddish inflammation of the bite wounds.5 The snakes may have been of the genus Echis.6 The carpet viper (Echis coloratus) is a small but aggressive animal with an extremely virulent, hemotoxic venom. The species is ...

146. “The Heavens Declare the Glory of God”

Psalm 19:1-14

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... power of God’s word and its value for life, illustrated by the two metaphors of gold and honey (see the comments on 19:10). As a further illustration, the leader may point to Ezekiel’s consumption of the scroll, which left him with the same taste sensation (Ezek. 3:3). In that vein, John reminds us that God’s “commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). On the contrary, it is our sins that are burdensome (19:12–13), from which the divine word releases us. The catalogue of qualities in verses 7 ...

147. The Writing on the Wall

Daniel 5:1-31

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... Boastful arrogance by mere mortals is foolishness before God. History: On its maiden voyage from the United Kingdom to New York in 1912, the luxury passenger liner RMS Titanicstood as a monument to human engineering in its time and was immediately an international sensation. Moreover, it was deemed by many to be unsinkable. In retrospect, such pride and arrogance were clearly misplaced, resulting in a tragic collision with an iceberg, the sinking of the ship, and the loss of more than 1,500 lives. It is one ...

148. The King and the Maiden Banter

Song of Songs 1:1-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... of his affection and the pleasure she experienced when kissing him (1:2–4a). The pleasure of the lover’s kiss is likened to wine, a connection well attested in ancient literature (4:10; 5:1; 7:9; Prov. 9:2, 5). More than the physical sensations of lovemaking, the maiden recalls and longs for the sense of belonging and security she enjoyed in the presence of the shepherd lover. A pun occurs in verse 3 in that the words for “perfume” and “name” sound alike in Hebrew. The name of a person ...

149. Addressing Prophets and their Audiences

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

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... force; dreams are inconsequential fluff. Reaching for a message to proclaim, these prophets resort to stealing a word from fellow prophets, either their contemporaries or those of an earlier time. God is against pseudoprophets who plagiarize, misrepresent him, and wish to be sensational. Prophets are called to expose evil. Those who fail to do so do not help God’s people. In the next passage the prophet puns on a word that can mean either “oracle,” a weighty message, or “burden,” something that is ...

150. Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-two

Luke 10:1-24

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... in Jesus’s authority over all forms of evil and destruction. “Snakes and scorpions” (10:19) does not refer to demonic powers but symbolizes all kinds of evil (cf. Deut. 8:15); however, Jesus cautions that the disciples are not to become enamored of the sensational. The crucial thing is not the expulsion of demons and power over evil but the assurance of having one’s name written in God’s book. The joy of the disciples after returning from their mission stimulates Jesus to express his praise to the ...

Showing results

Showing 126 to 150 of 202 results

126. With a Firm Foundation, Application Is Second Nature

Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

127. A Career in The Kingdom

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

128. Acquired Taste

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

129. He Ascended Into Heaven

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

130. Hope Lifted Up

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Ken Lentz

131. Who's the Captain of Your Soul?

Illustration

Oscar Wilde

132. Phantom Pain

I John 3:19-20

Illustration

Dr. Paul Brand

133. Thank God for Pain

Illustration

Dorothy Clarke Wilson

134. Liberating the Possessed

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

135. Christmas 2

Psalm 147:12-20, Jeremiah 31:7-14, John 1:(1-9), 10-18, Ephesians 1:3-14

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

136. When We Are Uncertain about The Future

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Sermon

King Duncan

137. Are You Part of the Scandal?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

138. A Dance in the Desert

Philippians 4:4-7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

At the sight of this last conflict, I felt a sensation never known to me before: a confusion of passions, an awful stillness of sorrow, a gloomy terror without a name.”

Samuel Johnson

140. The Great Blondin

Illustration

Michael P. Green

141. Sex Outside of Marriage

Illustration

Michael P. Green

142. Personal Accountability

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

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

143. The Authority of Jesus over Sickness and Death