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 387 results

126. News from the Flood

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... lives over again. The floods were seen always as a recreation, offered to us so that we might enjoy the life that God has given to us. I tell you, this Sunday is haunted. It is at this time, if we have retained any of the spiritual sensibility of our forbearers, we, too, will realize our dependence on a Creator whose voice was over the waters; whose voice was powerful and full of majesty. The psalm ends with these words: The Lord sits enthroned upon the flood....May the Lord give strength to his people ...

127. Shalom Shattered

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed ..." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). Whereas favoritism, envy, hatred, and murderous plans tear a family apart, the twine that binds and builds shalom is compassion, forgiveness, and love. In addition to the sensible reasoning and compassion of Reuben, Judah also shows the tender side. "Then Judah says to his brothers, 'What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands ...

128. How's the Old Complaint?

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... begin. God our Maker doth provide For our wants to be supplied. The dependability of nature, according to the Bible, is a gift given to us by God. The place we live, this land which is ours, is a gift to us by God's providence. It is that sensibility that is the origin of Thanksgiving in America. And it comes right out of the Old Testament, the covenants that God has made with us always to be faithful to us, even when are unfaithful. That's how the pilgrims saw their life. e e cummings has a wonderful ...

129. The Big Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... life in light of them. We begin this morning with the story of his temptations. I have to admit to you that I have trouble with this. The problem is very easily explained. I am not a Messiah, though sometime I suspect I try to be. But in my more sensible moments I know that I am not Jesus Christ, and his temptations are not my temptations. I have never been tempted to turn stones into bread. I don't want to be king over all the nations of the earth. And I certainly don't want to jump off any ...

130. The Offense of Grace

Matthew 5:43-48, Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... surprising moments we are changed. Yet, it is one thing for God to be gracious to us. After all, that is what God is for. It's quite another for us to do the same. After all, we live in the real world, and we must be practical, cautious, and sensible. Loving our enemies and turning the other cheek is dangerous business - foolhardy and contrary to our best interests. No, we need to be right, to be safe, to be number one, always to be in control of the situation - this is the only way to preserve one's skin ...

131. Sharing the Pain of Others

Matthew 26:14-27:66

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... the Jewish officials so much that their only recourse was capital punishment? In our society people are sentenced to death for the most heinous crimes, but Jesus did nothing of that nature. Jesus was certainly a man who challenged the sensibilities of the ruling Jewish ecclesiastical elite. The gospels provide numerous examples of how Jesus broke the law, which was so sacred and inviolate to the Jews. He ruffled more feathers when he continually associated with outcasts of various natures — sinners ...

132. Faith's Curious Dynamic

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... it is Christianity that is sane and all its critics that are mad," Chesterton concluded. The very contradictions that critics thought discounted Christianity actually, as Chesterton saw it, validated it. Chesterton further explained that Christianity was not merely the sensible thing that stood in the middle of extremes. In the case of pessimism and optimism, for example, it was not that Christianity occupied the compromise position between them, but that it embraced both optimism and pessimism "at the top ...

133. Confused as Pigeons

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... hadn't come to free Israel from the rule of Rome, but to free all creation from the grip of death. It's hard to wait for God's own good time. We find events incomprehensible. We can't comprehend the violations and violence that assault our sensibilities, and break our hearts. We can't see the reason for delay. We're confounded and confused, enraged and revolted by the hatred and fear, death and destruction that surrounds our world like a thick, choking, filthy blanket of smog. It's through that haze of ...

134. God Will Take Care of You

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is what kept people going. In Jesus' day the daily bread was the difference between a full belly and clutching hunger. The disciples' concern for the crowd's need for bread, for simple basic food at the end of a long day, was realistic and sensible. Out there at night in that deserted place all would go hungry. Yet Jesus' reply to the disciples demand that he send the crowds away (verse 15) shifts focus from the hungry crowd back to himself. If Jesus is Master and Teacher, then his twelve disciples ...

135. An Uncomfortable Comforter

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of true comfort. Too much to eat, too much to drink, too much to see, too much to do, too much of all good things--that is our comfort ideal. In today's gospel text, Jesus refuses to accommodate our 21st century Comfort Inn sensibilities. Jesus' disciples ask him to teach them an identifying prayer--a prayer that will uniquely distinguish them as his disciples. The identifying title Jesus provides them with is that of sons and daughters of the divine Father. This genealogy, however, entitles them in their ...

136. If the Shoe Fits, Wear It

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... shouldn't surprise us that there is a renewed emphasis on judging people by their shoes. If you stop to think about it, shoes have always told us a lot about the person wearing them. Cowboy boots, wing tips, Italian loafers, spike heels, flats, sensible shoes – they reveal worlds about people. So do the brands of shoes. And their appearance. We even have expressions about shoes that describe that person's personality or circumstances. We scoff, "He'll never fill his daddy's shoes!" We boast, "She's going ...

137. The Best Places to Live

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... who had established them in Israel, the promised land, so many generations ago. The word of the Lord which Jeremiah sent to the exiles offered new instructions and assured them of God's sustaining presence. Jeremiah's prophetic task was not just to offer sensible hints on how to get along in a foreign land. His oracle reasserted the divine intention of this exilic experience. The Israelites had not been abandoned by God, even though they had suffered divine judgment. In their exiled state they were still in ...

138. WaterFire Disciples

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... fountains of fire wasn't enough for the people of Providence to "come to their senses." the original meaning of that phrase was, "bring all the senses into play," and a waterfire festival that only offered something to see wasn't "sensible" enough. What about taste and smell? Food venders who would offer people experiences of the world's cuisine were solicited and contracted. Decentralized food kiosks (not one centralized food court) along the riverfront walkways provided the tastes and smells that helped ...

139. My Precious, My Precious

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... thrust his way when his lands yield a bonanza a surprise bumper crop. Faced with this largesse, the rich man must seriously and intentionally consider how he'll handle this surplus. At first his internal discussion seems to bring him to a logical, even sensible conclusion. It's what we've been doing in North America for the past 20 years. Build new, bigger storage facilities to store and safeguard our precious grains and goods. You couldn't have lost money in the stock market for the last 20 years ...

140. Building Bridges While Getting Shot at from Both Shores

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... our steps must be directed in pathways of peace and love. That's it. Very simple, but the landmines are everywhere. You can't go without addressing the global situation on your watch, but make sure you contextualize it for your congregation and its sensibilities. No one knows your people better than you do.] Among all the carefully maintained aquariums lining any big pet store's fish section, there's always one obvious slum: the over-crowded, plain, old goldfish tank. Caught in the middle of that crush of ...

141. The Longest Distance in the Universe

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... improve their status, their standing among the twelve when their master is at last recognized as Messiah and given the glory he so richly deserves. Their plotting and planning appears almost embarrassingly transparent to our twenty-first century savvy sensibilities. Quite obviously James and John could never have mastered some of the more Machiavellian machinations that define corporate structures and hierarchies today. But for their day, these brothers have it all figured out. They hit up Jesus before he ...

142. Drop It!

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , fuzzy preconceptions. No, deer are not always liquid-eyed, shy and retiring, meek and afraid. When threatened they can turn into a whirling Cuisinart of horns and hooves that inflict real injury. Jesus spent his lifetime challenging preconceptions, shocking sensibilities, upsetting apple-carts (or at least sellers' tables in the Temple), and testing traditions. Although he lived the life of a pious, observant, first-century Jew, Jesus spent his ministry teaching that those categories were not the defining ...

143. Don't Lose Your Footing

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... self. Jesus' real-life feet are dusty and dirty, pierced and bloody. Like all human feet they're an affront to the Eastern sense of decency and decorum. Since throughout his ministry their Master had always been doing and saying things that shocked common sensibilities, it may have been this action, more than anything else, that helped convince the doubting disciples that it was in fact Jesus himself standing before them. Who else but Jesus would stick his feet up in the faces of his friends and ask them ...

144. Are You Running?

John 12:12-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Put it to a vote, and they'll always vote to go back to Egypt." There's something about the anonymity of crowd decisions, the headlong, headstrong energy of the pack, that makes wrong decisions seem so right, bad choices seem so flawless, cruel actions seem so sensible. Time and again in Scripture, in story after story, when the crowd spoke and its majority vote was taken, it was a big mistake: 1. Adam and Eve's fateful decision in the Garden (They were a majority); 2. The building of the tower of Babel; 3 ...

145. The Most Important Top Ten List

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... try coloring outside established lines? Too often we're content to conclude that there's no more room at the inn for our faith to expand and be challenged to greater insights and grander hopes. Writer, preacher, teacher, pastor Erwin McManus has shaken up that snoring sensibility by daring to look at the Decalogue, The Big Ten, in a whole different way. Instead of looking at this list of do's and don'ts as the highest possible rung human beings may strive to reach on creation's ladder, McManus suggests that ...

146. In Life Nothing Works but the Impossible

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Matthew’s text states Joseph opts for not publicly shaming Mary, it is not hard to imagine that his own damaged pride and wounded respectability were also at stake. But just when Joseph has resolved to do the “right” thing, to take the smart and sensible solution, a heavenly life-jacket is heaved into Joseph’s life. This saving event is not etched in stone. This saving event doesn’t come attached to golden plates. This saving event isn’t even witnessed by anyone else. This saving event is simply ...

147. Advent 2

Matthew 3:1-12, Romans 14:1--15:13, Isaiah 11:1-16, Psalm 72:1-20

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... the difference of opinion about Christian life-style. There is a linear logic in vv. 4-6: (1) instruction in the scriptures yields (2) hope in which (3) God unifies the believers (4) who mutually glorify God. This thought pattern makes a sensible sermon outline. Verses 7-13 admonish diverse believers (Jewish and Gentile, or, to cast the matter in functional rather than ethnic terms, law-observant and non-law-observant Christians) toward mutuality, taking Christ's own acceptance of humanity as the model of ...

148. Easter 4

Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23:1-6, 1 Peter 2:13-25, John 10:1-21

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... leaders. 1 Peter 2:19-25 - "A Call to Grace" Setting. The audience addressed in I Peter 2:19-25 is stated explicitly in v. 18 as being slaves. This verse should probably be included in the lectionary reading even though it may offend modern sensibility because the writer is not politically sensitive to our agenda for advocating the overthrow of oppressive masters. The setting of slavery is crucial if we are to understand the power of grace-in-suffering that is the central argument of the text. Structure. I ...

149. Easter 5

John 14:5-14, John 14:1-4, 1 Peter 2:4-12, Acts 7:54--8:1a, Psalm 31:1-24

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... does not give sufficient information to explain the hostility of the crowd toward Stephen. A free retelling of the story in Acts 6:8—7:2 prior to the reading of the lesson or expanding the lesson to include 7:54 will help put the text in a sensible context. Structure. The scene is narrated from a third-person point of view with an alternating focus on Stephen and the Jerusalem Jews. In the lesson proper, vv. 55-56 focus on Stephen; vv. 57-58 focus on the Jerusalem Jews; and verses 59-60 focus, again, on ...

150. Proper 15

Genesis 45:1-28, Matthew 15:21-28, Romans 11:1-10, Romans 11:25-32, Psalm 133:1-3

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... Israel. Yet, the woman aith wins Jesus over, and we see, apparently along with Jesus in this story, that God's work through Jesus is destined to move beyond the confines of Israel to all persons of faith. Sermons that take their cue from contemporary sensibilities—and start from the fact that the Canaanite woman is a woman—run at least three risks: (1) they will be necessarily brief, single issue, and done more from the preacher's prejudices than from careful interaction with the text; (2) they will be ...

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