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 1069 results

126. Surprises

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... to an entire society. If you don't believe that evil spreads from soul to soul like an oil spill on the ocean, you need to ponder what led to World War II and what came out of it. "Keep alert," Peter warns us against evil. More important, stay sensitive to God's presence, "because he cares for you." God isn't an impersonal cloud that blindly massages life. God is at least personal, and God cares for us personally. Some people want to think of God as an impersonal force whose wagon we either leap onto or ...

127. The Scope of Love

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... ’ own path to sacrifice. “Keeping” Jesus’ commandments requires developing a love that is far more than feel‑good fuzziness. Christ-breathed love has three distinct features. It has the sensitivity of a stethoscope. It has the stability of a gyroscope. It has the sightedness of a telescope. First, Christ‑breathed love has the sensitivity of a stethoscope. A Spirit-of-truth community feels the flutter of fear in the community it serves. A Spirit-of-truth community can detect the presence of a ...

128. Be Careful What You Wish For...You Just Might Get It!

1 Samuel 8:4-11 (12-15) 16-20, (11:14-15)

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the quality of air around it than a human being. If it looked sick, drooped, or fell dead, the miners knew they had to get to the surface ...and now! Prophets, in ancient Israel and in the modern world, are like canaries in that they have a heightened sensitivity to our moral atmosphere. If there is poison in the air, the prophet knows it. No one else may have seen anything wrong, but the prophet has — thus, the warning to act before it is too late. So Samuel does. In spades! Be careful what you wish for ...

129. The Heart of the Matter Is the Heart!

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... guarantee us that worship in that church pleases God. Real worship is not measured by how it pleases me but by how it measures up to God's word. Today we use the term "seeker-sensitive" to define certain styles of worship. We must be alert to the inherent danger in this approach to worship. In our desire to be "seeker-sensitive," we must be careful to remember that our primary focus is not on the "seekers" but on the Savior, the Lord of the church. We dare not dilute the scriptural elements of worship just ...

130. The Place beyond Revenge

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... to town-and-gown and professional church leadership, where since 9/11, he has been guided by two texts. One is Jose Ortega y Gasset: "Decisive historical changes do not come from great wars, terribly cataclysms, or ingenious inventions: it is enough that the heart of man incline its sensitive crown to one side or the other of the horizon, toward optimism or toward pessimism, toward heroism or toward utility, toward combat or toward peace." Ministry is less about dealing with world affairs than with the ...

131. Living to Please God

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

... States.” (1) Sooner or later all of us have to deal with criticism. Let me ask you a second question: Has anyone ever tried to flatter you? That is, have they ever tried to praise you extravagantly? Let me guess we are not nearly as sensitive to flattery as we are to criticism, are we? I chuckled when I read a story about the late, great motivational speaker Cavett Robert. Robert was a humble, kind man who was also a successful lawyer, salesman, and founder of the National Speakers Association. Robert ...

132. The Testimony of a Good Conscience

1 Tim 1:19

Illustration

C.F.H. Henry

... what it regards as the highest authority. If I am in the habit of steadily facing toward God, my conscience will always introduce God's perfect law and indicate what I should do. The point is, will I obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk without offense. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God's Son that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed. The one thing that keeps the conscience ...

133. The Apostles Persecuted

Acts 5:17-42

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... prepared to lay blame where blame was due, but this was always merely incidental to their preaching. Far from being concerned with apportioning blame for this one sin, their great objective was to preach the forgiveness of all sins. But obviously the council was very sensitive on this point, as they had good reason to be (see Matt. 27:25). 5:29 All the apostles spoke in defense of their action, but beyond noting that Luke makes no attempt, even if he could, to reproduce what they said. Instead, Peter is ...

134. Ruth Meets Boaz

Ruth 2:1-23

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... The Aramaic text is cited from DNWSI 732. 2:12 May the Lord repay: On shalem, see BDB 1022. On Syr pr’, see PSSD 463. Under whose wings: The epithet “rewarding god” (’lh’ shkr) is found at Palmyra (DNWSI 1135). F. I. Andersen, “Yahweh, the Kind and Sensitive God,” in God Who Is Rich in Mercy: Essays Presented to Dr. D. B. Knox (ed. P. T. O’Brien and D. G. Peterson; Homebush West, Australia: Lancer, 1986), p. 82, sees Yahweh as much more than a “rewarder of good deeds.” Anat’s wings are ...

135. Disaster Because of Idolatry

Jeremiah 44:1-30

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... this letter is that it confirms a pattern of Persian involvement in the authorization of Jewish religious practices, but precisely what was at issue here (the date, the combination of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the practice of Passover in Egypt, which might be sensitive for obvious reasons) is unclear. It is some years later, 411 or 410, that we have another letter, this time from the above-mentioned Jedaniah to Bagohi (Bagoas), the governor of Judah, with the mention also that “we have set the whole ...

136. How the Gold Has Lost Its Luster

Lamentations 4:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

... children were dead or alive when cooked; either way, the picture is revolting and horrible. Deuteronomy warned that Israel’s rebellion would lead to such a consequence. In the context of the curses of the covenant, we read: The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them ...

137. The Impending Departure II

John 16:5-16, John 16:17-33

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... or oppressed church might well read it according to the first paradigm; a church rejoicing in worship, with a strong consciousness of the presence of Christ in the Spirit, would be more likely to read it according to the second. John is sensitive to the first, so sensitive in fact as to be ambiguous, but it is the second paradigm that finally represents his own interpretation of Jesus’ pronouncements. Though Jesus will one day come again for all the world to see and will raise the dead from their graves ...

138. Eschatological Discourse: Prediction of the Temple’s Destruction

Matthew 24:1-35

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... to the (sub)genre of this passage. As noted at 24:29, the cosmic language used to indicate cataclysmic historical events fits the broader pattern of prophetic, eschatological language from the Old Testament and other Jewish writings of the time. This sensitivity to genre is an important part of both interpretation and contextualization of Scripture. “We need to know what we are reading to interpret it properly. Yet concerted effort to identify and grasp the conventions of a literary genre will not help ...

139. Government and Marriage

Mark 12:18-27, Mark 12:13-17

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... . If he answers yes, the crowds will be upset at him. Either way, the leaders win. 12:15 Bring me a denarius. Jesus is completely aware of (“knew,” Gk. oida) their “hypocrisy” (see on 7:6): their purpose is to trick him on a politically sensitive issue with no desire to ascertain truth. A Roman denarius coin was required to pay the poll tax, and the emperor Tiberius’s image was on it, containing the inscription “Son of the divine Augustus.” The image on the coin was idolatrous and the ...

140. Power over Illness and Death

Luke 7:11-17, Luke 7:1-10

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... roof. See on 7:3. There is no record that Jesus ever entered a Gentile house (except under compulsion at his eventual trial). Compare Peter’s reluctance to do so in Acts 10:28–29 and the reaction in Acts 11:3. The centurion, with remarkable ethnic sensitivity, wants to spare Jesus that dilemma. 7:7 But say the word, and my servant will be healed. Another such healing at a distance is recorded in Mark 7:24–30, again involving a Gentile “patient.”1 The centurion has no doubt of Jesus’s ability ...

141. Two Testing Questions

Luke 20:27-40, Luke 20:20-26

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... s successful debates with his opponents. Ideally, however, they should be taught separately, since they have different themes and raise unique theological questions. 1. The tax question. Make sure that people have grasped the political situation underlying this question and how sensitive it was in Judea at the time. Discuss the possible repercussions if Jesus had answered with a straightforward yes or no. How would bystanders have evaluated what he in fact said? Where might they have placed him on the scale ...

142. Separation of Faith and Life

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... is that where sin can live unhindered, the church remains a social gathering and has not become a community empowered and sanctified by Christ. Corinthian Law: In order to avoid a superficial reading of 5:1–13 informed mainly by our modern sensitivities, a brief introduction to the Corinthian laws that guided these situations will prove helpful.1 Our modern notions of fairness and equality run contrary to the judicial system in Roman Corinth. In Corinth, the “county seat” of Achaia, the governor was ...

143. Consider Others Higher Than Yourself

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... with idol meat. Idol meat is morally neutral. What is not morally neutral is the behavior of the strong. 8:9 Be careful . . . not become a stumbling block to the weak. Paul’s characterization of certain Christ followers as “weak” may surprise modern sensitivities. He may, however, simply pick up the language used by the “strong” to describe those who have raised concern about their practice of eating idol meat. This is the first time Paul directly refers to a group as “the weak.” In verse 7 ...

144. Daniel Interprets the Dream and Confronts Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 4:19-27

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... and renounced. Exhort your listeners to be honest, acknowledging the sin in their own lives, as well as exposing it in the world around them. Doing what is right includes (in part) kindness to the poor and miserable. God’s people today need to develop sensitive hearts to those hurting both inside and outside the church, and to reach out to them in God’s name. We need to be messengers of grace, extending the hope of restoration with God and his people for any person who genuinely repents. What not ...

145. The Writing on the Wall

Daniel 5:1-31

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... king and the queen mother seem to understand “the spirit of the holy gods” in a pagan sense, God does not work that way. The critical gifts that Daniel possesses are the direct outworking of God’s Spirit in his life. Encourage your listeners to become sensitive to the work of God’s Spirit in their lives. Help them recognize that the gifts, abilities, and opportunities we are given as believers reflect the way God works through us, as we are faithful to him. 2. The gifts reflect on the giver. Daniel ...

146. Nehemiah's Prayer

Nehemiah 1:1-11

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... returnees are his redeemed people (1:10), (8) a plea for God to answer (1:11), and (9) a petition for favor with the king (1:12). Many of these same themes appear in the prayers of Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9. Nehemiah’s sensitivity to the people and his dedication to constant prayer indicate his godly character. He has a deep understanding of God and his word as revealed in the five books of the Pentateuch. Apparently, during this extended time of prayer, Nehemiah realizes that God is calling him ...

147. Living as Children of Light

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... separate compartments in a human being). The natural result of such a state is alienation from the life of God. The progression is downward. Out of basic human need for sensitivity and tenderness, those with hardened minds turn to sensuality. Rejecting the one in favor of the other, and with calloused sensitivity, they practice incredibly inventive impurity, with neither end nor satisfaction in view (4:19). This pagan lifestyle formerly followed by the readers does not resemble the Christ they have learned ...

148. The Weak and the Strong

Romans 14:1--15:13

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... . We relinquish the cause of judgment to Christ the merciful, for he is the incarnation of the God who causes us—and our fellow believers—to stand. Additional Notes Gaugler entitles 14:1–15:13, “Reverence for the Conscience of the Other.” See his sensitive discussion of this matter in Der Römerbrief, vol. 2, pp. 317–31. The identification of the target groups in 14:1–15:13 has been the focus of a specialized study by Paul Minear, The Obedience of Faith (London: SCM Press, 1971). Minear, who ...

149. The Birth of Samuel

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... and unable to eat, shows the extent to which it did matter. Elkanah’s love for her is undoubted, but particularly in this polygamous situation, it was not enough to replace one child, let alone the ten he suggests it might. 1:9–16 The writers clearly and sensitively portray the deep distress of Hannah’s prayer at the door of the sanctuary. Prayer is the natural response to Hannah’s situation: it is God, the giver of life, who has closed her womb, and it is only God who can open it. Hannah’s prayer ...

150. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... would be sins to be judged. As he made clear in verse 23, Job’s action is in one sense a response to his awareness of the consequence of punishment, as God condemns those who worship “sun” and “moon” to death (Deut. 17:2–7). But Job’s sensitivities are based as much on his fear of God as on his fear of punishment: I would have been unfaithful to God on high. Like “sun” and “moon,” God is “on high” in the heavens. But, as creator of all, he is worthy of worship—unlike the created ...

Showing results