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 1476 to 1500 of 2652 results

1476. Your Sins Are Forgiven

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... morning Mark tells us about the healing of a paralyzed man. This episode goes to the heart of Jesus' approach to the needs of people. Throughout the Gospels we see his concern for the physical dimensions of life and for human suffering. "He had compassion on them" is a common phrase describing his response to the people with whom he came in contact. However, this morning's event leaves no question that Jesus' primary concern was the spiritual needs of people. Not that their physical needs were unimportant ...

1477. Holy Vexation

John 2:12-25

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... If you are any age and have had contact with violence in your personal and/or family life, this story gets your attention. Or, if you are familiar with the many times in the ministry of Jesus when his behavior is marked by patience, compassion, and gentleness, again, this story gets your attention. It has that stinging quality we associate with anyone who is on a tare. Considering Jesus' usual deportment, this episode from Jesus' life seems more acute than chronic, more an unusual explosion than a lifestyle ...

1478. Together, But Not Enmeshed

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... the time. We do that through what becomes our glib use of a five-word phrase: "through Jesus Christ our Lord." The phrase points to the particular lens through which God comes for us more fully into focus. Looking through the lens that is Jesus, God's compassion, grace, overtures, hope, and mandates become visible to us. Every time we use that five word phrase we are reminding ourselves, and others, how it is that we can see most clearly. This is the vine that nourishes us and enables us to grow. God the ...

1479. What Gets Into People?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Jesus knew exactly what this troubled man needed. But we are not Jesus. Sometimes we don’t know how to respond with someone who has wandered this deep into an emotional abyss. We understand what to do when a person is physically sick, and compassion comes easy. But what about when someone is mentally tortured? Let me make some suggestions. First of all, modern medicine can help many people who are in mental pain. We call Jesus the Great Physician, but today’s physicians follow in his steps. It does ...

1480. Listen to Him

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... mentally pictured Jack Nicklaus, so that he actually sought to become all that Nicklaus embodied? A few saints perhaps, but that’s about all. And that’s sad. Christ really is the life, the truth, the way. When we live with the integrity, the compassion, the dedication with which he lived, our lives really are improved. We are delivered from guilt, from anger, from hatred and from all the baser emotions that tear down our spirit and cause us to live, as Thoreau described it, “lives of quiet desperation ...

1481. In the Hot Seat

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

... to get past those hard words: Handed over. Treated shamefully. Suffer. Die. Jesus made those words sound both inevitable and necessary. But how could the disciples, then or now, wrap their minds around that? How could One who had demonstrated the power, wisdom, and compassion of God experience suffering and death? We think we know better, of course. The phrase, "Jesus died for our sins," rolls easily from our lips. For one thing, it's been pounded into our heads for nearly 2,000 years! But, if we were ...

1482. Who Can Ask for Anything More?

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... of us, including the one who speaks, were touched with the greatness of our need for one another? May the One who is both Friend and Brother of us all provide both inspiration and strength for us to demonstrate to all who observe us the same kind of compassion and brotherly affection that once prompted a pagan leader to say of the early Christians, "Behold how they love one another!" Ralph Harlow expressed it beautifully when he wrote: Who is so low that I am not his brother? Who is so high that I have no ...

1483. The Face that Launched a Thousand Lives

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... which to conclude our Epiphany season than those penned by Charles Wesley in 1772: Love divine, all love excelling, joy of heav'n to earth come down! Fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure unbounded love thou art; Visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart. Amen. 1. "Epilogue: Dramatis Personae," quoted in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, p. 135. 2. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (New York: Rand, McNally and Company, 1923), p ...

1484. So Great a Love

Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... are going through in life, either their joys or their sorrows, until one has experienced them oneself. It's probably more on the bad side, if we are not as sensitive either to people's joy or pain, leaving them feeling lonely, either in need of more compassion or celebration than is being offered. On the other hand, one could probably make a case for it being a good thing, because to appreciate fully and to take in all the world's despair and horror and grief and disappointment fully, as though it were one ...

1485. Stop the Offerings!

Hebrews 10:19-39

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15 RSV). If this is true, then our real need is not more information about what we should do, how we should love, though it does give us a mighty goal and a great compass for our lives. What we really need is a way to deal with our terrible failure at loving, a way to deal with the ugh in the gut, the whoosh of adrenaline rush as we realize we did it again, or we know we are about to. For until we ...

1486. Training the Heart

1 John 1:1-4

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me" (v. 10 RSV). All of us can think of a person whose heart was not formed well, a person whose heart is filthy and bitter, a heart that is unable to respond to another's pain with compassion. Or, and this is the insightful gem in our scripture reading for today from 1 John, there are those who have been brought up to feel guilty about everything, who never know peace. There are those whose hearts constantly condemn them, as the writer of John puts it ...

1487. Have We Kept Our Contract with God?

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... goal of our eternal reward with the Lord. We at times may think that God is not listening, uncaring, or asleep on the job, but such can never be the case. We remember well the prophet's words, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isaiah 49:15). God provides the leadership and points the way, through the church, and we are asked to follow. The Christian community provides us with the sacraments as moments of ...

1488. The Paradox of Death

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... find any way to negotiate our world with all its vicissitudes, hurdles, and obstacles. Still, we might rightly ask why the world suffers. Why do pain, problems, and suffering exist in such abundance? We all believe that God is all good, all love, full of compassion, and all powerful. This is how we define God; we know this is true. Thus, the question bears repeating: Why does our world suffer? Why do wars exist and people die in innocence? Why do people in positions of public trust commit acts that cause ...

1489. Teammates in the Cause of the Lord

Acts 4:32-37

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... strongly as teammates when we become the Christ to others. Saint Teresa of Avila, the sixteenth century mystic and church reformer, expressed this idea powerfully in a famous prayer: "Christ has no hands but yours, no hands no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks with compassion on the world. Christ has no hands but yours." My friends, may we believe, act, and profess the same!

1490. Led by the Spirit of God

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Paul writes, "Now if we are children, then we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory." How do we share in Christ's sufferings? We do so in love and compassion for our fellow co-heirs. We understand we are very special people. We are followers of the humble Galilean. And we live our lives as he would. In love and service to others. Tony Campolo tells a wonderful story about a pastor friend of his who had a deacon in ...

1491. The Good Shepherd

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... of thinking a 99% return on our investment would be most desirable, but not this shepherd. He left the 99 to go in search of that one lost sheep. Later, when Jesus was speaking to a great throng of people, Mark tells us that he had compassion upon them because they were "as sheep without a shepherd." Throughout the Judeo-Christian faith, then, the image of the shepherd has been stamped upon our thinking. In our scripture text for this morning Jesus again taps into this imagery when he refers to himself as ...

1492. A Forgiving Presence

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . But if he doesn’t intervene, and not condemn her or prevent her condemnation, he is caught in what we down in Mississippi used to call a double whammy. If he doesn’t do that, then he is going against everything that he has been teaching about compassion and forgiveness. The problem is clear, but Jesus never allows himself to be on the horns of a dilemma, he reverses it. The problem is clear, sin and the need of forgiveness. So Jesus doesn’t deal alone with the sin of a woman, in fact, he focuses ...

1493. A Guiding Presence

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... always reject me?” Still the psalmist. “Will he never ever be pleased with me? Has he stopped loving me? Is his promise no longer good? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he taken the place of his anger and put it in the place of his compassion?” Now listen to the psalmist as he climaxes that dirge. “What hurts me most is this, that God is no longer powerful.” Do you hear what I’m saying and what the psalmist so vividly illustrates? Struggle is a part of what prayer is all about. Struggle ...

1494. Living Lightly

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Jesus sensed her plight, he dealt tenderly with her, forgiving her, sending her on her way with at least a hint of what life is all about. Now how different was his dealing with the rich young ruler, and the demands that he placed on him. With understanding compassion, he told the Samaritan woman about the water of eternal life. But with a sternness and a demand he laid down a rigorous requirement for the rich young ruler, telling him that if he was going to find meaning he had to sell his goods and give ...

1495. Confession And Supplication

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... for the poor and oppressed of the world, for the plight of persons in spiritual darkness, and for institutions and governmental systems that generate and propagate injustice, for the barriers that separate human family and ravage relationships. Somehow as Christian, we must cultivate a compassion that is so deep and so informed and empowered by the spirit of Christ that we will not only know about the pain of others, but we will actually enter in that pain. Feel it, and share it, as far as possible. We’re ...

1496. What Really Matters

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... with intellectual problems, questioning how all this suffering could be balanced out with a God who is good and who is in control. She could keep the question in a quiet corner of her mind as she did her daily work in the hospital, expressing concern and compassion for those who were suffering. But when the day was over and she was at home at night, the question would stir again and clamor for attention – where is God in all this suffering? One cold night, alone in her apartment, reading a book by a cozy ...

1497. Put My Tears In Thy Bottle

Psalm 56:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... want you for my pastor." He paused for a moment and let those words sink in, until he could see that Ellsworth wanted to hear what he was going to say next. "It's because you don't have any scars. You haven't been hurt enough to have real compassion. You've got the theory, but you don't have the pain to back it up. You'll be a different kind of preacher when you get some scars." Some years later, Ellsworth says, he learned what the man meant. The gentle man was telling Ellsworth kindly that he was ...

1498. A Love For All Seasons (i)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... God deals with us in this manner. Listen to Micah, the prophet, "Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion upon us, he will tread our iniquities under foot. Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea" (Mic. 7:18 - 19). "Under foot" and "the depths of the sea" give us a mental image of how God covers our wrongdoing. It is the ...

1499. The Day Is Not For Sleeping

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . We have become morally ill because we have become accustomed to saying one thing and thinking another. We have learned not to believe in anything, not to care about one another, and only to look after ourselves. Notions such as love, friendship, compassion, humility, and forgiveness have lost their depth and dimension; and for many of us they represent merely some kind of psychological idiosyncrasy, or appear as some kind of stray relic from past times, something rather comical in the era of computers and ...

1500. Can You Hear The Rooster Crow?

Luke 22:54-62

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... word. How Peter could respond the way he did, I'll never understand. Confidently -- in fact, over- confidently, he said, "Lord, I'm ready to go with you to prison and to death." But Jesus knew -- as He always knows. I'm sure it was with great compassion, certainly not with condemnation that Jesus said to him: "I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day until you, three times, deny that you know me." That's precisely what happened. It's important to note that the story of Peter's denial follows ...

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