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 1526 to 1550 of 4971 results

1526. On Loneliness

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... he has built around himself, a wall to keep other people from getting too close to him. Part of this wall is carefully constructed as though of concrete reinforced with steel. This represents the part of his loneliness that is almost deliberate and planned, ... other of these two extremes. On the one hand we may look for people to be dependent on, whom we can lean on and who will take care of us. But the price we pay for this kind of closeness is that we never really feel that we are people in our own right - ...

1527. Bringing the Gospel to Marriage

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... of Christian Church congregations and on the faculty of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, before accepting his present position at Texas Christian University. There he is Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Pastoral Care at Brite Divinity School and a supervisor and consultant both at the Pastoral Care Center at Brite and the Azie Pastoral Counseling Center. His sermon published here was delivered at a seminary chapel service. In Bringing the Gospel to Marriage, Bryant brings a word of encouragement to ...

1528. A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... to others. It is often used by others, but it cannot stand alone. The snake, too, lies within us - the wily self-contained part which cares nothing for anyone else. It was the snake who represented the evil one or the devil in the Garden of Eden, and tempted Adam ... live. So many of us were hurt as children that we dare not show the child within us, the one who is warm and open, caring and trusting, wishing to give and receive love. We are so afraid that we shall be hurt again. When we allow the child to live ...

1529. When You Reach Wit’s End

Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... the fluid of changing circumstances. Most of us would be surprised, I’d hazard, if we’d make a list of all the things that are worrying us, and then put the list and worries aside for a week. We’d find that many of the problems had just taken care of themselves. Robert Louis Stevenson used to say that a well-ordered mind in a time of crisis is like a clock in a thunderstorm - it just keeps up its regular ticking. There is a moving scene in the second book of Samuel (12:16f). David, the King, had taken ...

1530. Creeds or Deeds

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Brett Blair

... me." Our tradition should not kill our compassion. When people are in need and love is called upon we should set aside our human rules and act with a human heart. God prefers deeds to creeds, love over law, and hearts over habits. But we should be careful here. Jesus is not saying do away with creeds. Listen to how Jesus admonishes the rulers, he says, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.” Now listen, the greatest creed, he says, is to honor ...

1531. Happy New Year?

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... can be happy that Christ knows you and owns you. He would miss you when absent because you are precious to him. A pastor tells the story about his having had a dog named Jiggs when he was a child. He liked to play with Jiggs but not to take care of him. After some years Jiggs became old and ill. One day his mother took the dog to a vet, but Jiggs never came home again for he died there. His mother did not say anything about the dog, and after four days the boy noticed that Jiggs was missing ...

1532. God's Gifts Are Free: Enjoy

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... the good things that we have belong to God, even one’s own life, then we can be confident that he will ensure a good and happy outcome of crises that concern his property. The good things that you have are not ultimately yours. Ultimately God will take care of them. Is that not a wonderful freedom? God’s gifts really are free, friends. Enjoy! We can never get around to saying thank you enough for all these gifts. 1. Luther, Lectures on Deuteronomy, in Luther’s Works, Vol. 9, p. 141. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid ...

1533. Salvation Includes Social Justice

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... Vatican Council) has put it this way profoundly: “Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church....”6 Do you get the point? Christians are always to show a preference for the poor. That means that caring for the poor is not just a matter of charity. Of course our congregation does that. We are often approached by people down on their luck, and we respond. But the idea of a preference for the poor means putting the poor’s needs ahead of our ...

1534. A Match Made In Heaven

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... lives. That struck me as something very important, very exciting at the time. I guess it still does. Oh for a god who didn’t care, a god who didn’t get involved, a god who would just leave us alone. Oh for a god always above and beyond, out there ... wonder if that’s what Hosea thought. I wonder if between the lines and under the surface, Hosea wished for a god who didn’t care. Maybe you’ve wished for such a god. Or maybe you believe there is such a god. Out there. Disinterested. Unmoved. That may be ...

1535. At The Potter's House

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15

Sermon

John W. Wurster

... really going to punish us just because we’re trying to live our own lives, to do things our own way, to do what we can see is best for us? God did bring us out of slavery, and God did bring us into this land, and so obviously God cares quite a lot for us. And we give God our worship, too. We do get to the temple; we do perform the sacrifices and burnt offerings; we fulfill our religious duties, checking off what is required. We may not be completely loyal to God. We may not truly love God ...

1536. The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

James W. Moore

... t have time for the likes of you, so hush up – now!” But you see, they were so wrong, so blind. Jesus teaches us here one of the most important aspects of Christian love. He stops to help Bartimaeus, a poor blind beggar whom no one else seems to care about, and in so doing, he underscores for us the beauty of all-inclusive love… the beauty of seeing every one we meet as a person of integrity and worth. Recently I ran across a powerful anonymous parable which I think expresses well what I am trying to ...

1537. Dealing With The Pain of Rejection

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

James W. Moore

... the Gracious Father! Because, you see, the theme of the parable is not the revelry of the Prodigal, nor is it the bitterness of the elder brother, no; the theme here is the goodness of the father, the faithfulness of God. The message here is that God cares and that He wants both of His sons (all of His children) to come and be a part of the celebration. But the elder brother missed it. He mistakenly felt rejected and it deflated and crushed him and left him spiritually bankrupt. The reeling of rejection can ...

1538. I've Got a Strong Case of the 'Can't Help Its'

John 1:35-42

Sermon

James W. Moore

... s promise. So, because we are Christians, we can be grateful… and we can be confident. III. THIRD AND FINALLY, BECAUSE WE ARE CHRISTIANS, WE CAN’T HELP BUT BE LOVING. Again, Andrew is a great example of love. He was big-hearted, magnanimous, generous. He was a loving, caring person who was eager to share and anxious to help others. If only we could learn that lesson from Andrew, life would be better for all of us. Her name is Donna. Donna is a member of our church. She is a mentor in our Kids Hope USA ...

1539. The Apostles' Creed: Maker of Heaven and Earth

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... in the congregation as we did this morning, reading antiphonally - first the right, then the left, then all together. We use the majestic cadence of wonderful poetry to convey the ultimate truth that "I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." Look carefully at the verses again. Day One: "Let there be light." OK. Where does light come from? The sun. But you will notice that sun is not created in this passage until Day Four. And the flora and fauna that we know so depend upon the sun ...

1540. Beating Babel

Acts 2:1-13, Genesis 11:1-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... last time you heard of a ten-day prayer meeting...or even a ten-hour prayer meeting? In a society that demands instant food, instant coffee, instant banking, instant success, instant everything, prayerful waiting no longer seems to be a priority. Second, the church no longer cares as much about being "all together in one place" as it did. If that day of Pentecost were transplanted to 2003, more than half of the 120 in the room back then would probably be absent - Peter and his wife would have been at their ...

1541. The Grief Grinch

John 11:17-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... learned as children as the shortest in the Bible, "Jesus wept." But in those two words, we have the picture of a Savior who genuinely cares what happens to us and what we go through. And by joining in with that grief in Bethany, He validated the whole process for all ... to try to bottle them up for no reason other than what some other people expect of us. Jesus reacted with all the love and care and emotion that were as much a part of His nature as they are ours. And it becomes a very special picture for us to ...

1542. The Bush Is Still Burning

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... me like I am NUTS! And who could blame them? What am I gonna tell them if they ask WHICH God has sent me, what shall I say?" Here is where the rubber meets the road. God's response has gotten more theological ink over the years than anyone would care to calculate. WHICH God? "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM... Thus you shall say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.'" What could that mean? A quick and dirty language lesson here: apparently early on, someone somewhere noted the similarity of the four ...

1543. The Ten Commandments #7: No Adultery

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... this rule, it referred to a very specific sexual activity - that between a married woman and any man who was not her husband. A married man was guilty of adultery only in the case of having an affair with a married woman - nobody seemed to care if he slept with a prostitute. If it were a young, single Monica Lewinsky type, and actual sexual intercourse occurred (not just the fooling around that the Starr report so graphically chronicles), the man would have to marry the girl with no divorce ever allowed ...

1544. The Ten Commandments #10: No Covetousness

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... . There was good reason for such a rule. It had nothing to do with any emotional trauma that a family break-up might cause. It was economics. In Hebrew society, it was a man's right to have a family because children insured that the parents would be cared for in their old age. As we found when we studied the Fifth Commandment, the family was the Israelite answer to Social Security. "You shall not covet your neighbor's male or female slave, or ox, or donkey..." Again, the issue is property, but in this case ...

1545. The Shepherd Psalm

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... been able to live with confidence even in full view of those who would bring me down. It is as though "You prepare a [banquet] table before me in the presence of my enemies" - they are powerless to do anything about it; all they can do is watch. And your care has been lavish: "You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." All that I could ever ask and more, my shepherd provides. And that is why I can look to the future with such assurance. "Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life ...

1546. Integrity

Song of Songs 2:1-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... poems were the best of the bunch. Not only the passage we just read but the whole book is an ode to the joys of erotic love. It is so giddy with the intoxicating charms of sensual attraction that, like young lovers kissing in the Mall, it seems not to care who else is around or what they might think of such carrying on. The book is comprised of the love songs sung by a man and a woman who can see only each other. And see each other they do. They linger over every inch in voluptuous celebration, savoring all ...

1547. Make It Right!

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... additional point: the timeliness of settling disputes with one another. Getting along is not just a matter of letting things go until a bad situation reaches a crisis point. Do not let things fester. He uses the illustration of a trip to court and says get things taken care of before they can only be dealt with by a judge...and for a very practical reason: you might lose. The advice of the letter to Ephesians is apropos here: "do not let the sun go down on your anger."(8) There is no question that people ...

1548. What Do You Believe About Eternal Life

John 14:5-14

Eulogy

James W. Moore

... just a door that we label death that we pass through to enter into a new and larger dimension of life with God. Now, I could quote Jesus here… or the Apostle Paul, but, for the moment let me go another route and ask you to listen carefully to the words of a great scientist. Dr. Werner Von Braun once spoke on the subject, “Why I Believe in Immortality” and he said this: "In our modern world, many people seem to feel that science has somehow made the ‘religious idea’ (of immortality) untimely or old ...

1549. The Forgiveness Factor

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... packed to such an extent that the people who need to get to Jesus cannot. Too crowded. It is an interesting image of the church: a place so jammed with onlookers that they keep out those who desperately need to be there. But, finally, through the persistence of those who care about their friend, a way is found to bring the man to Jesus. The roof. It was regularly used as a place of rest and of quiet, and so there was an outside stairway or a ladder of some sort which ascended to it. With arms no doubt weary ...

1550. When Evil Wins

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... story of John's return from what. Amazing. Mark well may have inserted this story for precisely young Ian...and maybe you and me as well when we see so much wrong with this world and start wondering about God. Are you there, God? Do you care, God? If you want the answer to those questions, ask and answer a couple of other questions. First, whom is Mark's gospel all about? Jesus, of course. As Mark goes through Jesus' story, does he indicate any difficulties, any stumbling blocks, any apparent victories for ...

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