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 1551 to 1575 of 5000 results

1551. A Restless Spirit

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... that we see the pathetic depths to where Saul has fallen. But the storyteller keeps it light enough for us to dare look in the mirror at our own similar failings. Saul’s refusal to accept God’s answer, by consulting the very woman he outlawed, helps us to understand how blind Saul has been, and how desperate he’s feeling, and how fragile and broken he really is. By making us laugh, the story invites us to look at how we do that ourselves in our own lives too. Sometimes there’s nothing left to do but ...

1552. The Good Husband

Isaiah 54:1-17, Isaiah 55:1-13, Isaiah 56:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in the forest, come to eat. [His watchmen are blind, all of them know nothing. All of them are mute dogs unable to bark, dreamers lying down, who love to slumber; And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied. And they are shepherds who have no understanding; They have all turned to their own way, each one to his unjust gain, to the last one. “Come,” they say, “let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink; and tomorrow will be like today, only more so.”] Image Exegesis: The Barren ...

1553. The Apothecary

Isaiah 40:1-31, Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will ...

1554. Dusted

Mark 6:7-13, Matthew 10:1-42, Luke 9:1-9, Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , Jesus can help us transcend that muck of the sandpit. Because we are inbreathed by the breath of God, we have the ability to look beyond our limitations, to believe, to have faith in what we cannot see but we know can move us and sustain us. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3). Do we look around us and see only dust? Or do we see what’s really there---a rainbow, God’s sign of presence, the ...

1555. Excuse Me!

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Carl Jech

... in all their poignant humanity." The writers of the Bible confront head-on the shadows that lurk in the hearts of all of us. They picture the many ways in which we miss the mark of being what we were intended to be and they called it Sin. To understand Sin is to realize that our negative self-image is often justified. Our lives are full of dark shadows. 1. Moses said "Excuse me!" from going to Pharaoh Looking at the full story before us in chapters three and four of Exodus, we see the great Moses suffering ...

1556. Hold Me When I'm Angry

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Carl Jech

... Shadows During this Lenten season we are talking about "the cross and our shadows." Today as we consider the end of the long-running story of Israel's experience with the manna in the wilderness, I believe we are confronted with the issue of anger. How are we to understand the wrath, the anger, the disgrace which seems to be as much a part of God's nature as is love and grace? How can we cope with our own mixed feelings of love and anger toward each other and toward God? How are we to comprehend the tension ...

1557. The Secret to Happiness

John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... Bible passage today from John 14. The Book of John chapters 13-19 all take place on the last night of Jesus’ life before his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus tells his disciples that he will be betrayed, and that he is going away. His disciples are upset. They don’t understand. And so he tells them that he is going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for them and he will come back to take them to their new home in his Father’s house. In fact, Jesus won’t just show them the way to his Father ...

1558. A Dirt Story

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... gulp down any seeds that do not get washed away by the rain. Any seed that falls on the path has little chance of taking root. Jesus said the seed that falls on the path is like people who hear the Gospel but do not understand it. I believe he means more than “do not understand it.” I believe it’s more that they don’t accept it, they don’t take it into their hearts. They hear the Gospel, but do not make it their own. I was reading recently about the so-called Psychic Services Industry. It’s a ...

1559. A Disciple After God’s Own Heart

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... God fully intimately and intrinsically. And yet God calls upon many throughout the scriptures and still today to carry out the work of love, compassion, mercy, and peace in our world. All God requires is someone with a “Shepherd’s Heart,” someone who understands the heart of God, someone who will carry out God’s love and mercy in real time circumstances, even when it goes against culture, tradition, inclination, and upbringing. In the story of Abraham and Isaac that we read for today in Genesis 22 ...

1560. Soli Deo Gloria

Romans 16:1-27

Sermon

Ron Love

... a doxology because God had, in Paul’s words, “revealed the mystery that was kept a secret for ages.” The mystery revealed was that we now fully understood the gospel message. It was a mystery that the Old Testament prophets understood vaguely, but we now understand fully. It was a mystery that has been revealed through Jesus Christ. We now know, through Jesus Christ, the eternal plan of God. And what is the eternal plan of God that was revealed in Jesus Christ? It is all the theological doctrines that ...

1561. I Have Seen the Lord

John 20:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... State Prison, at the time one of the worst maximum-security prisons in the state. He was arrested, strip-searched, had his mug shot taken. He was confined to a prison cell. Ryan spent a week in Folsom, living like a prisoner so that he could understand how to create a more humane prison system. He gave up his own freedom and dignity and rights to ensure a better future for others. In his short political career, Leo Ryan dedicated himself to issues of social justice and compassion for those who didn’t ...

1562. When Storms Hit Home

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... , in his book Letter to a Man on Fire tells of getting a letter from a young man named Jim who had just been diagnosed with cancer. Price had survived his own bout with cancer a few years earlier, and Jim was writing to him because he knew Price would understand his fear and his questions. Jim wrote, “I want to believe in a God who cares . . . because I may meet him sooner than I had expected. I think I am at the point where I can accept the existence of God . . . but I can't yet believe God cares about ...

1563. Holy Hydration!

John 12:20-33 · Jeremiah 31:31-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in the image of God. And when your heart is implanted with the “seed” of Jesus, when his Spirit dwells within you, you too will grow and change, live and thrive both here and beyond. Our scripture not only from John but from Jeremiah helps us to understand this today. Listen to what the Lord says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Through the gift of Jesus, God infuses hope for salvation into each and every one of us. For true hope, knowledge, salvation, and life ...

1564. Out of the Saltshaker

Mark 9:38-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... group of women from Evanston, Illinois, heard about Martha, they jumped into action. They began giving Martha round-the-clock nursing care. They bathed her, fed her, prayed for her, and witnessed to her. Martha, who had not received Christ as her Savior, couldn’t understand how a loving God could let her get ALS. But when she saw God’s love in these women, eventually she became a follower of Jesus Christ. (5) Don’t you imagine there was rejoicing in heaven when these women jumped into action to help ...

1565. Why Did Jesus Come?

Luke 2:21-52

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... were concerned with their peers’ concept of a warrior king opposing Roman domination, but rather the one who would oppose Satan, hell, evil and sin…the spiritual warrior king. These two saints of God were prophets in their own rights as we will understand later on. Jesus came to be the Messiah (Luke 2:26b). The word “Messiah” is derived from the Hebrew word meshiach and means “anointed” or “the anointed.” The Greek term for “Messiah” is “Christos” and to us in English it is “Christ ...

1566. The Gift Of — Darn It! — Waiting

Hebrews 10:5-10

Sermon

Mary Austin

... ’s ancient promises, who changes our lives, who brings us joy. Now we have this image of Christ as our high priest — the one who intercedes for us with God, and who connects us to God. In the Jewish tradition, the high priest was human, and was able to understand human frailty and the hopes of the people. He (always a he, in those days) was also chosen by God for this role. He stood in a unique place between God and the worshipers. You can see why early Christians picked up this image for Jesus, whom we ...

1567. A Deserted Place

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... place, praying. Peter didn't say, "Lord, what are you doing out here praying? What are you wasting time doing that for, when there's so much to do and so many people to see." Peter didn't say that but his attitude sure implied it. Peter eventually came to understand that prayer was the main source of Jesus' power. B. Unlike most of us, for Jesus prayer wasn't just something you did to waste time or to pull your bacon out of the fire. We usually only pray when we need something or when we find ourselves in a ...

1568. The Baptism of the Lord

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

... Jesus Christ. When John baptized Jesus it was a visible, outward sign signifying that the word may become our own experience. This is what I believe baptism is to me. Maybe you’ll be able to find some common ground with me in our search for greater understanding of our faith. Baptism is a sign that my sins are forgiven (Acts 2:38). Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Let us go to Calvary to learn how we may be forgiven. And then let us linger there to learn how to forgive.” Christians have learned that there is ...

1569. Resurrecticity

John 20:1-18 · Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... to me that you may be thinking that you didn’t come here on this Easter Sunday to get an English grammar lesson, but bear with me as we go back to Erma and her parrot. Unfortunately, Erma did not have what? “Bird-icity?” In other words, she did not understand the character or essence of having a bird in the house. Thus, she didn’t realize that it wouldn’t live, much less talk, without food. Think about it. A rubber band, as we have made clear, has elasticity. We know and ...

1570. Why The Resurrection Makes Sense

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... ? We’ve seen the results, but not a thing called gravity. And yet because it well explains things, we endorse the supposition. How about atoms? Same. No one has seen an atom, but we widely accept the theory because it is a paradigm that helps us understand other data that we can observe. It is the same with the theory of evolution or the strings of string theory. These are scientific claims, and yet they have not been proven. What makes them scientific claims? We need to consider how the scientific method ...

1571. Preachers, All!

Acts 2:1-13, Acts 2:14-41, Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Will Willimon

... one another because, even though they all shared the same faith, they were separated by different languages. Well, the Spirit descends, people begin to talk, people begin to hear, people in that room said, ''How is it possible that I am able to hear and to understand you, even though I speak a different language?'' It was a miracle. By chance there was a crowd out in the street who heard all of this commotion going on there in the room at Pentecost. The crowd began mock, ''They're drunk!'' Earlier, in Luke ...

1572. You Can't Handle It!

John 16:12-15

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... crazy. Jesus knew the importance of timing. How many times in scripture can you remember Jesus asking people not to tell about what he had done, because it wasn’t time for the entire world to know? How many times did he say to his disciples, they would understand better after the Holy Spirit had come upon them? Jesus knew how hard it was during his last days to explain what would happen in the days and weeks and months to come, not only for him but for his disciples. They were already grieving the loss of ...

1573. Selling Out

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... into the water. Apparently pigs are not good swimmers (at least not these ones), and they drowned. I’m not sure what happens to demons when their host’s bodies pass from this life, but we never hear from them again (at least not in this story). To understand a tad better what happened to the man in this story, we should take a quick look at the name given by the demons. Legion was a common term. In a country occupied by the Roman Empire, everyone knew what a legion was. A Roman legion could number ...

1574. Christmas Is Out of Control

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

John Jamison

... it will be our time to repay them. No, I don’t think we can blame them…or fault them. Many of us have dreamed of the day we will take our steps to make the world great again. We will, once again, be in control. We still do not understand. It is not about control. It is not about controlling others by playing “gotcha!” with laws to keep others in their place, or away from our place. It is not about retaking control or welcoming a nice, new kingdom that gives us that control and opportunity to repay ...

1575. John and Frank

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

John Jamison

... Is this what faith gets you? We may shake our heads and say, “That’s not how it works. He should have known better,” but that is an easy thing to say from out here. When you find yourself in a hole surrounded by darkness, only then can we really understand Frank and John. Is this really how it was supposed to go? Did I miss something? Did I really do the right things? What did I do wrong? There are a lot of questions. Matthew tells us that John sent some of his disciples to find Jesus and ask, “Are ...

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