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 1501 to 1525 of 1964 results

1501. Aha! An Epiphany!

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... and napkins.” Without hesitation the young man got into the boat and rowed back to shore to get these missing items. This routine occurred twice more that afternoon—he rowed back to shore to retrieve items that she requested. By the end of the extremely warm day, he had perspired so much that his good suit was soaked. But he realized something that afternoon. He realized there had to be a better way. The young man’s name, by the way, was Clarence Evinrude. Later that very evening he designed the ...

1502. You Bring Me Great Pleasure

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... eyes down to earth, focused on the bottom line, fixated on the most accessible and easy. “God-pleasing” urges us to look far forward. To envision the possible and dream the improbable. Start a small urban garden, not because it will halt global warming, but because it will grow as much community spirit as it will tomatoes and lettuce. You might not change the world by choosing to be God-pleasing instead of people-pleasing, but you will change yourself. Resolve #2: Look for road signs of righteousness ...

1503. The Can’t Help Its

John 1:29-42

Illustration

James W. Moore

... friend of mine tells about a woman in his church who is so excited to be a Christian. She has a shady past and had pretty much hit bottom when a friend reached out to her… and brought her to church. The church member welcomed her warmly and loved her into the circle of their love and God's love. She started going to church faithfully. She joined a wonderful Sunday School class. She began studying the Bible daily. She started praying regularly… and in the process was converted. She realized for the ...

1504. “Your Honor:” Jesus’ Honor Code of Turning the Other Cheek

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in which soldiers had blamed Americans for recent resistance to a military takeover of the country. The soldiers had vowed to exterminate all Americans in the region. Sarah Corson prepared to die. But as the soldiers approached, she found herself offering them warm words of welcome. The commander shoved his rifle against her stomach and pushed her into the house. The soldiers began pulling everything off the shelves and out of drawers. Sarah calmly explained that she and the others were there only to set ...

1505. Your Honor: Jesus' Honor Code of Turning the Other Cheek

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

1506. Love Your Enemies

Matt 5:38-48

Illustration

Phil Thrailkill

... a box seat close to the field, and when the Red Sox were in town he would torment Boggs by shouting obscenities and insults. It's hard to imagine one fan getting under a player's skin, but this guy had the recipe. One day as Boggs was warming up, the fan began his routine, yelling, ‘Boggs, you stink' and variations on that theme. Boggs had enough. He walked directly over to the man, who was sitting in the stands...and said, ‘Hey fella, are you the guy who's always yelling at me? The man said, ‘Yeah ...

1507. Love of Enemies

Matthew 5:43-48

Illustration

Joyce Hollyday

1508. Loving Deeply (Mother's Day)

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Sermon

King Duncan

... he had always done. He put his arms around Jason and laid his head against that mean little boy’s body. “What Will did to Jason put an end to the meanness in that room,” observes Barbara Brown Taylor. “That is what love is . . . not a warm feeling between like-minded friends but plain old imitation of Christ, who took all the meanness of the world and ran it through the filter of his own body, repaying evil with good, blame with pardon, death with life. Call it divine reverse psychology. It worked ...

1509. The Receptive Heart

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... , they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” In Palestine much of the land is a thin two- or three-inch veneer of soil over limestone bedrock. Seed falls on this thin layer of soil, the warm sun quickly heats the seed, and it sprouts in feverish growth. But then the sun beats down, the plant’s roots meet the bedrock, and it withers and dies. (3) It dies because the soil is rocky ground. Who does the rocky ground refer to? How about the ...

1510. Do You Hear What I Hear?

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... : "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:52-53). Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king, "Do you hear what I hear? In your palace warm, mighty king, Do you hear what I hear? A Child, a Child shivers in the cold Let us bring him silver and gold, Let us bring him silver and gold." Something new and unexpected. A word of hope in a hopeless world. Do you hear it? That is the message ...

1511. Power!

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the Holy Spirit and a special relationship with God.[2] Why? For no reason other than God chooses to do it. Part of the message of Jesus' baptism and our own is that we are loved. Most folks understand that, and that is why they get all warm and fuzzy when it comes to presenting their little ones for the sacrament. But there is more: We have work to do. Remember, this happened at the start of Jesus' work. This was his commissioning service. Now, almost twenty centuries later, when someone is baptized in the ...

1512. The Voice

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... voice of God, and as with countless others through the centuries, that can change life, forever. Are you ready to hear the voice of God? Do not answer too quickly. You might hear something that is not what you had in mind. What Samuel heard was not something warm and fuzzy - he heard a word of severe judgment. You are very liable to hear something you do not want to hear, calling you to do something you do not want to do, and with people you WOULD rather not be around. Really listening can leave you very ...

1513. Riff-Raff

Mark 2:13-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... so often that we are not at all shocked by it anymore. From the time we were yea big, we have known that Jesus is the friend of outcasts and sinners. That is good. That is his job, we think ... to love everybody ... especially us. It is a warm, fuzzy picture, and we think, "How mean of those nasty scribes and Pharisees to object." Oh, really? Perhaps to understand the story better, we should recast that dinner party scene to the twenty-first century to see how we would react, keeping in mind that, even as ...

1514. Beating Babel

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... have not been more days like that. After all, the Holy Spirit who imparted such power on that ragtag band did not suddenly vanish. Christians continue to believe that the Spirit empowers the church. We believe that the Spirit is with us now, ready to warm cold hearts, soften stiff necks, penetrate thick skulls, and heal the divisions of Babel. What has gone wrong? If we consider that brief scene described in the beginning of the book of Acts, several things jump out at us that are different today than they ...

1515. Being a Christian “Survivor”

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the world has ever seen, know that some of our citizens have to sleep in doorways or in alleys or in dumpsters to avoid the wet or cold. Is that evil? Of course it is! Whose fault is it? Some miserable, hard-hearted building owner who refuses people a warm room? Or is it the fault of the system that even in peacetime sees its priorities as bombs before beds? Do you think it is evil to have teenagers make a better living selling drugs in the schoolyard than selling hamburgers at McDonald's? Whose fault is it ...

1516. Welcoming Jesus

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , only a small extent). Actually, I think the childlike quality Jesus means most is the sense of wonder about life, the curiosity that is evident everywhere, the obvious joy in being alive, happily ready for whatever new adventure might come along. For all the warm, fuzzy things we say about children, the other side of that coin is that children are often a big nuisance. They start out by causing incredible pain to Mom in childbirth (not to mention the equally incredible pain to the bank account). They ...

1517. When Did This Start? — Part 2

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... of using such passages, apart from the fact that they appear in the suggested lectionary passages to be read on these Sundays, is to jar us a little bit out of our comfortable, acculturated vision of the season leading up to Christmas as a season entirely of warm cozy fireplaces, Christmas trees, and jingle bells, and to remind us that when John proclaimed his role as one sent to say, "Make straight the way of the Lord," he wasn't just making up a cool line for future Christmas card content. He was saying ...

1518. Worth the Wait

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... and then again! he knew the child in Mary's womb was ready now to come, and soon! on his way, precious baby boy Jesus, the full-fledged child of joy just in time, they got the spot right Jesus Christ was cradled that night all wrapped up and warm for sleep set in a hay box, near the sheep from sky above, going bonkers nearby shepherds saw the honkers angels, that's just what they all were singing, shouting 'bout God's favor "Glory! GLORY!" they were saying "Peace for which you're always praying; Here it is ...

1519. Just Say the Word

John 1:1-9, 10-18

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... runs swiftly." One more observation about our psalm before we finish looking today at the swift-running word of God. It is significant that in this poem God intervenes to restore the helpless even though we read it over and can find no actual plea for help. The warm winds of spring do not thaw the frozen water because of human intercession, but simply because it is God's nature to restore and redeem. The same God who rebukes ice and snow also rebukes sin and evil. People may cry for help, but it is God's ...

1520. Grand Opening

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... 2 Yet, because of the story we share on Epiphany, we may know — for the first time in the church year — that God has opened the gospel of salvation to everyone. It would be the most grievous of wrongs to keep this gospel to ourselves, a warm fireside memory of family gathered, tree trimmed, dinner simmering in the oven, as though Christmas was meant to be no more than our own private experience; the coming of the foreigners bearing their load of strange gifts is meant to remind us that the nativity was ...

1521. Jesus at Home

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... good apology for all the things you won't get." But don't you wonder what would have happened if he had stood on the street corner telling those who passed by that he forgave them? Wouldn't you imagine that the responses probably wouldn't have been so warm? Some folks might even have become hostile. This is New York, after all, not generally perceived as an "I'm sorry" kind of city. Probably most of us can work up our own lists of things for which we believe we're owed an apology, but admitting that we ...

1522. The Logical Conclusion

Luke 24:44-53

Sermon

John Smylie

... wine around his altar. And may we also delight in the tangibility of loving embraces when we share the peace of God with one another. We are the body of Christ, and as surely as he comes to us in bread and wine, he also comes to us in the warm bodies gathered in this place to praise him and to worship him. Let us pray: Holy, ascended Lord, you who sit in glory at the right hand of the Father, you who come to us in the humble elements of bread and wine, you who touch us in the lives ...

1523. Actions Speak Louder than Words

John 17:6-19

Sermon

John Smylie

... . But he lived in a country that was occupied by an oppressive force, Rome. Yes, our Lord did not have the same technologies that we deal with; he likely didn't need to deal with issues like identity theft or methamphetamines or reports of global warming or even nuclear warfare. But our Lord did have to face the same corruptible human nature that causes human sin to flourish. In some small way, the questions that were asked around the dinner table and the feelings of inadequacy are not all that different ...

1524. It’s God’s Will?

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... — justification by faith through grace. You miss this, and you will forever be stuck in a quagmire of unanswerable questions and dead ends. Let's begin with a definition. Predestination. You hear two parts. "Pre" which means "beforehand" — as in a pregame warm up before the game or prehistoric, which means before there was any formal, written history. The second part is "destination." It refers to where you are headed. When I go to the airport, they ask me, "What is your final destination?" I always ...

1525. Time for the Offering

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... , and as a pleasure. In a culture like ours that is so materialistic and worships money so much, these words from the elder in Malawi and from Paul sound nice but also naive. Life just isn't like that. There are terrorists and drought and famine and global warming and guns and all kinds of things to fear. It's so hard to be grateful and gracious and generous. The Corinthians had many of these same fears, so Paul closes this passage by quoting a verse from a powerful event in Israel's collective memory: the ...

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