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 428 results

126. SURVIVAL IN THE RAT RACE

Psalm 46:1-11

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... in "Christian Century" titled "Beyond Activism," pins it down. It says, in part: "In many quarters the church is being judged by the extent of its involvements in the world - and that’s quite as it should be. And yet, somehow, the suspicion persists that something is kicking. Is something more than just activism demanded? Is activism itself a dead-end, as some are beginning to think? Is there nothing beyond this increased secular involvement? Of course there is, for the church, something beyond that ...

127. Why Should I Go On Living?

Matthew 12:38-45

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... act like the nice quiet, well-behaved guest that you bargained for. If He is really there, He starts to shake the house around in a way that really hurts. He acts as if He owned the place. You know, once in a while we might even get the frightening suspicion that He DOES. We discover that He is not making a cozy little cottage for us to live in, but He’s trying to transform us - to transform us into a palace for a KING, a LORD, a MASTER, a SAVIOR - HIMSELF! So you’re bored? So you feel that ...

128. How Do You Like Yourself?

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... your first business in life is to make YOURSELF fit to live with YOURSELF. First, one thing is certain, that you don’t make your relationship with yourself any happier by trying to get rid of yourself. For instance, the compulsive activist is always under suspicion as a person who is attempting to get rid of himself. Watch people trying to lose themselves in the hectic pace of our day. The characteristics of so many of our lives today is the triumph of trivialities. Madame Distaow insisted that a person ...

129. TRYING IT WITHOUT GOD

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... concerned. You know, it’s strange. I have never asked another man about his relationship with God, because I don’t have to. He tells me, as though I were some kind of a judge and he was testifying in my court. I have always had the secret suspicion that such persons are practicing what they are going to say to Almighty God should they ever have the misfortune of meeting Him face to face. This witness told me that he was the sales manager of a large company. He had to cover the entire nation. He further ...

130. Peace of Mind

Acts 2:1-13, Acts 2:14-41

Illustration

Duke University did a study on "peace of mind." Factors found to contribute greatly to emotional and mental stability are: The absence of suspicion and resentment. Nursing a grudge was a major factor in unhappiness. Not living in the past. An unwholesome preoccupation with old mistakes and failures leads to depression. Not wasting time and energy fighting conditions you cannot change. Cooperate with life, instead of trying to run away from it. Force yourself ...

131. Our Scheduled Appointments with God

Hebrews 10:19-39

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , and his coat was worn and frayed. The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away. In the days that followed, each noon time came this chap, Each time he knelt just for a moment, a lunch pail in his lap. Well, the minister's suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear, He decided to stop the man and ask him, “Watcha doin' here?” The old man, he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour. Lunchtime was his prayer time, for finding strength and power. ‘I stay only moments, see, cause the ...

132. Returning to Genuine Religion

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... was inherent in Israel’s religion of the Law. Remember how Luke put it concerning the Pharisees and Jesus: "The Pharisees ... lying in wait for him, to catch at something he might say" (11:54 RSV). Religion ruled by the Law was rigid, creating suspicion and tempting people to snitch on one another. But with Israel’s return from exile and bondage, God’s new covenant spelled out religion as a liberating experience, no longer a matter of being dominated by rules. Hence a new factor was inserted: the ...

133. The Easter Event - After The Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Robert Allen

... again until the smoke alarm went off. You know, smoke alarms are a pretty good way to call everyone to the kitchen. My wife and both kids came to see what was going on. I shooed them out because I had everything under control all by myself. I have a suspicion that my wife called the fire department and told them, "Don’t worry, my husband’s just cooking breakfast." I was trying to do something on my own and I wasn’t doing too well. And this is the way we are in life. We may not say we don ...

134. You Can Go Home Again!

Jeremiah 3:6-4:4

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... in our memory. Sometimes we try and are disappointed. Have you ever tried going back just to see some place where you used to live? The neighborhood looks different. The trees are bigger. Strangers who live in the house now look at you with some suspicion as you drive by very slowly, perhaps thinking you’re casing the joint. The scene looks familiar in a strange sort of way; your house usually looks smaller than you remember it, and not as warm and friendly. In fact, there is often a nostalgic sadness ...

135. Courageous Preaching

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... A Moslem country opens its doors to us and we are permitted to enter and settle down the best we can. So we are no longer refugees. Now we are exiles, learning how to start over in a foreign land. It is hard! We are accepted but with great suspicion. In addition we have the language problem. Their style of life and religious practices are strange to us and vice versa. We live "frightened" most of the time. We don’t want to run any risks which might antagonize our hosts. At home we had everything. Here we ...

136. Christian Courage

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... is how this court session began. The court wanted to know how ordinary, common people could heal a crippled beggar and stir up such a positive and growing congregation. The fact that a person had been healed could not be denied. But maybe suspicion could be directed toward the healers so they would be discredited. Perhaps they were misleading people with some sort of magic. This is the question that triggers Peter’s third sermon. Once again he seizes the opportunity to proclaim Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ ...

137. The Church Reaches Out!

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... and controversies. Some of these struggles came about because Christianity was born in a Jewish home. We Christians sometimes forget that Christ was a Jew. We owe much to the Jewish people. The debt should create a spirit of gratitude instead of suspicion, hostility, and snide remarks. Though the church began as a Jewish institution, it was not to stay that way. Old differences and distinctions were not to be perpetuated. The people of Pentecost who became the people of the Way, were called to ...

138. Bridges, Not Walls!

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... to do. In too many situations women are regarded as fair game for whistles, suggestive comments, and generally disgusting behavior. There was a wall between Jew and Gentile in the early history of our church, that created division, resentment, hate, and suspicion. It was anything but God-pleasing. Thus our text for today describes a turning point in our church that was as momentous as Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation during the days of the Civil War. Like so many significant events in our history ...

139. The Suffering Servant

Drama

Curt M. Joseph

... the face of the earth. Annas: To do any less would be to deny the purpose for which he came. Judas: That is what I thought, but I just didn’t know what to do. Caiaphas: Just tell us where he is and we will do the rest. Judas: (with suspicion) What? Annas: What Lord Caiaphas means is we want to do what we can to help you. Tell us more, and how we can be of help. Judas: My Lords, what I am about to tell you seems out of the realm of reality, but I can attest that I ...

140. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

... , Robert McAfee Brown remembered the day in 1960 when he participated in a Lutheran worship service in East Berlin, only a short time before the Berlin Wall was constructed. There were not many people present, for church attendance was viewed with suspicion by the state. The East German Republic had developed secular alternatives to replace all of the rituals of the church. Nonetheless, a young couple are there in the service, presenting their child for baptism, and Brown was amazed. Why, he wondered ...

141. Inevitabilities and the Last Days

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... . We believe that we can help you in peaceful ways to bring order to your community." The mayor and the police commissioner listened attentively. They gave qualified approval to the establishment of the church outpost in a beachfront house. Their suspicions lingered and, with some paranoia perhaps, they kept the outpost under constant surveillance. On one occasion, two policemen, without warning or warrant, invaded a bedroom where a team member and his wife were sleeping. But the outpost had a spiritually ...

142. What Do We Do Now That We’re Happy?

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... was great, but why didn’t Sam, Ed, Mary, or Sue come and share it with me? Sure, it was super, but what about...? The Master of Ceremonies didn’t look as if he really felt I was great when he handed me the award. And, so it goes, with suspicion corrupting our big event almost from the beginning. I talk often with a minister who has worked against great odds to reach a level of achievement. To the eyes of his peers he has done this. He serves two churches. In the larger one he is generously loved and ...

143. The Discipline of Witnessing

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

... ve heard people say, "I can’t talk about God, because it’s too personal, and I can never talk aloud about things this personal and this meaningful to me." Perhaps - but unless there is some time when we feel like talking about God - I have a sneaking suspicion that He’s not as meaningful to us as we imply! Most of us don’t talk about our wives too much - and the relationship with them is deep and meaningful. Remember when you first fell in love? How you buttonholed your roommate in college and told ...

144. It Might Have Been ...

Luke 22:1-6, Matthew 26:14-16, Matthew 27:1-10, Matthew 26:47-56

Sermon

... the only non-Galilean in the group and as such must have been somewhat of a loner. Anyone who is different because he lives somewhere else, is a different color, or has some other background that varies from the majority of a group - gets treated with a certain suspicion by the others. But for all of that, Judas was no automatic suspect when Jesus made his startling statement. As the outsider, he would have been the obvious suspect, but he was not. All of which indicates that Judas was as much a part of the ...

145. Focused Light

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... of Cornelius. First the light is plainly perceptible. The apostle clearly sees in Jesus Christ the "good news of peace." He sees its reflection in Cornelius. Here in God’s gospel of light all the old dark recesses of hate and suspicion and fear are illuminated, then vanquished. Wet, bloody boundaries between humans dry up and disappear. Secret lusts, closeted passions, hidden and suppressed appetites all surface as the searching brightness of Christ’s love bears in upon human lives. Nothing can long ...

146. Gentle Light

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... Snow, who wrote the provocative little book called The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, said, "The number two is a very dangerous number; that is why the dialectic is a dangerous process. Attempts to divide anything into two ought to be regarded with suspicion." Yet the world is full of those divisive influences that set man against man and cause against cause. In Christ Jesus we are made one with each other. That’s why we still sing another Wesley hymn, his best Epiphany verses: Christ, whose ...

147. OUR LORD BETRAYED

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

... Then, pointedly, he added, "but not all of you." It was a dagger thrust that caught Judas unguarded. The words pierced his soul, and he felt suddenly sick. He would have to get out of there. Was it possible the master knew? How could he? Yet, driven by suspicion, Judas hated the more. So what if he did know? He was too weak to do anything about it. Now he was at Judas’ feet. That brief moment when their eyes met, that breathless moment, and then the master knelt down, washed the disciple’s feet, but it ...

148. OUR LORD DENIED

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

... ." The others continued to stare, and he felt he was at the center of a hostile world, but in a moment they were distracted and he got up from his place by the fire and went out to the porch. Another girl, perhaps told by the first of her suspicions, followed him, and in a loud voice so the bystanders could hear, said, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." Again the silence and the stares and he swore, "I do not know the man!" "But your accent," one of the bystanders said. "Certainly you are also one of ...

149. In Quest of Fire

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Larry Powell

... evil fruit. A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:15-20). Suspicion of a prophet’s credentials is justified, but arrogant indifference can quench the Spirit in our own lives even as it did during the reign of Zedekiah. The phrase, "mocking the messengers of God ... scoffing at his prophets," conveys a response which has not been permanently ...

150. God’s Choice

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... start to finish the man who would in due course replace Saul was God’s choice. God chose to make the change. He chose the tribe - Judah. He chose the family - Jesse. And he chose the individual. Samuel was only following instructions. In order to allay suspicion, Samuel took a heifer with him as he went to the house of Jesse, so that it would appear that he was going to Bethlehem for an ordinary sacrifice. Saul was not to know about his impending replacement. Then when he arrived he would invite Jesse ...

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