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 1651 to 1675 of 3128 results

1651. A Man Named Pain (Part 1)

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... that were the case. Maybe his birth was one of those extremely difficult births. Healthcare as we know it was nonexistent in those times. Maybe his mother was in labor an unusually long time. Many writers believe that Jabez’ mother’s pain was mental and emotional, rather than physical. One writer suggests that Jabez’ father had in some way disgraced the family since he is not mentioned in the genealogy. Here is a person who did not begin life with a silver spoon in his mouth. Every time Jabez’ name ...

1652. Blessings Beyond Our Dreams (Part 2 )

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... his brothers continued in that same shameful tradition. Jabez starts his life behind the proverbial eight ball. He has no property--no way to start earning a living--no way to attain to a position of honor or status in the community. In the midst of this emotional pain Jabez cries out for the eternal purposes of God. He activates his rights and privileges as a son of the covenant. With his life burdened down by a shameful past, he seeks the blessings of God for a sacred purpose-driven future. Since his life ...

1653. Whose Hand Is On Your Shoulder? (Part 4)

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... . We have learned thus far that Jabez began life under great challenges and tough circumstances. His name means pain and suffering. Every time his name is mentioned it is as though he is reminded, "I am a born loser." In the midst of this emotional pain and turmoil Jabez cries out for the eternal purposes of God. "Oh, that you would bless me," his prayer begins. Last week we examined the phrase "and enlarge my territory." Jabez realized he was born for more than his present circumstances indicated. He ...

1654. Please, Don't Let me Jabez Anyone Else (Part 5)

1 Chronicles 4:1-23

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... that Jabez began life under challenging circumstances. It was not a great time in the life of the nation of Israel or his own family. There is evidence that his father may have done something to bring disgrace upon the family. In the midst of his emotional pain and turmoil, Jabez lays hold of the promises of God. "Jabez was more honorable than his brothers," writes the chronicler. Jabez cries out, "Oh, that you would bless me indeed." Jabez realized that you don’t need to resign yourself to fate or tough ...

1655. Bread for Everyone (I am the bread of life)

John 6:1-15, John 6:25-59

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... --he gave the children a piece of bread to hold. The result was astounding. When they had the security of bread for tomorrow they slept like babies. It took away fear. Bread! There is a surplus of meaning in this word. The word evokes strong emotions like security, fellowship, the presence of God, provisions for the journey. Bread is deemed holy by peoples everywhere, and the root word for bread in most languages can be translated "food," as it is in the Bible. People invest the word bread with special ...

1656. The Lord's Prayer: A Surplus of Meaning

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... producing the desired feeling." (C. S. Lewis, THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, New York: The MacMillian Company, 1943, p. 29.) We do not pray when we feel like it. We pray because we need to have communication and relationship with our God. It does not depend on our emotions or feelings. St. Augustine, who certainly is one of the most colorful characters in God''s redemptive work, shared with a widow named, "Proba," who asked the famous Bishop for instructions on how to pray: "If you were to run over all the words of ...

1657. The Lord's Pryaer: Our Daily Bread

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... the pastor determined to meet the woman. As he greeted the worshipers at the door, the woman came by and the pastor asked her if she would wait for a few minutes and talk to him. Showing her the notes, the pastor asked what they meant. Emotionally moved, the woman hesitated before she answered. Telling the pastor she knew he would think she was silly, she replied that on one of the city buses she rode regularly she had seen the sign, "Take your worries to church and leave them there." "Pastor, I write ...

1658. The Lord's Prayer: Deliver us from Evil

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... Carlson''s theological education reflected what most of us have experienced in seminary, which is if you believe there are demons today, you are laughed out of the classroom. This idea of demons reflected what a primitive pre-literate people referred to as "emotional illness". However, even the secular publication, TIME magazine, had an issue focusing on EVIL and had to admit it was real. The woman cried out to Pastor Carlson, "If you want to do something about my condition, cast out the demons." Since ...

1659. When It Is Tough to Follow Jesus: The Third Word

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... child alone. She had been the instrument by which God had entered the world, but clearly it was God''s mission that now dominated Jesus'' life, not his family. Mary knew this day would come, but it was still difficult to accept. You can only imagine the emotions that swept across Mary''s heart as she watched her son leave his earthly family, preach his ministry, and finally come to the moment we are examining today--his painful death on the cross. So many times Jesus had told Mary and others that his hour ...

1660. Where the Bread Loaf Is Not a Stone

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... will not become stone. One of the great hymns of our Christian faith that has meant so much to me and has provided nourishment on more than one occasion is the hymn, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah." When I sing it, I am often filled with great emotions. It will be our closing word today. "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak--but Thou art mighty. Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven, Feed me now and forevermore Feed me now and forevermore ...

1661. Half-Time is Now Over

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... call Good Friday. At Golgotha their leader and friend had been arrested, tried, and crucified like a common criminal upon a cross. That event shadowed them everywhere they went. They could not get it out of their minds. They were caught in the paralyzing emotions of despair, defeat and death. The two disciples wanted answers to the deep-seated questions they had about the failure of the movement they had given so much to. As they walk, their talking is woven with moments of awkward silences. Somewhere along ...

1662. The Fifth Commandment: The Value of Family

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... ''s poem, "no man stands alone. Each man is my brother; Each man is my friend." We see this need for companionship and social responsibility in the rock and roll ballad that says: "He ain''t heavy, he''s my brother." Our economic and emotional survival is found in the proper relationships of family and friends. What the Ten Commandments do for us is to provide and establish a relationship between our faith commitments--which are deeply personal but never private affairs--and our human network. They feed and ...

1663. Nightline

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... a central symbol of worship during the Advent season. "Having heard the story of the faithfulness of the Christians in that land and the other two countries we visited, and seeing the Advent star and all that it represented, I had a deep emotional experience. The red star of the Soviet Union was gone from the Parliament Building, but here in this place among these people another star--the Star of Bethlehem--was shining brightly." (2) Remember, all names--even the names of kings, prime ministers, presidents ...

1664. The Greatest Table in the World

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... for you as part of your eternal kingdom. For you have bought us at the price of your own life." (1) Why is this table before us today the most important and greatest table in the world? What is there about this table for Christians that stirs such great emotions and energy in us? Occasionally, I am asked by those in other churches and by lay people in our own denomination, what is the one thing you would consider to be the strength of our denomination? What would you miss most if you became part of another ...

1665. Trouble: A Required Course in LIfe

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... Dancing:" "Next to the genuine fatigue of pain, possibly the most energy depriving thing I know is self-pity, when you are facing a troublesome moment in life. I know from first-hand experience that this is one of the greatest wastes of my time and emotions, but yet I confess my vulnerability to it. My greatest need at these moments of my life when I am facing trouble is for people who will listen to me compassionately but then firmly and gently encourage me out of such dreadful behavior. It is important ...

1666. Hissing in the Garden

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... a heated debate over the existence of evil, its origins, who created it and so forth. The professor even questioned if the devil/satan wasn''t only a myth and also a great mistake for the church to teach about. Was satan real? It was an emotional issue with the conservatives and liberals going after each other with vigor and vinegar. Then a student who worked at an inner-city mission program specializing in drug and alcohol rehabilitation got up and said, "I have been up for the past 36 hours wrestling with ...

1667. King of the Road

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... and traveling companion had been arrested, tried, and crucified like a common criminal at Golgotha upon a cross. The event now shadowed them everywhere they went. They could not get it out of their minds or memory. They were caught in the paralyzing emotions of despair, defeat and death. Once the cartoon character Charlie Brown was talking with Lucy about the meaning of life. Lucy asked Charlie, "Do you think life has any meaning?" Charlie Brown thought for a minute, and then started to answer her, "Well ...

1668. Love: The Greatest Commandment and the Greatest Challenge

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing. When she didn''t return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?" "Divorce?" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him." Her actions had changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion. The ability to love is established not so much by fervent promise as by repeated deeds. (2) Our commitment to love in the Christian faith is to believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. When we do this, all relationships ...

1669. Someday - Today

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... but one of my colleagues who has shared with me a slide picture of the actual synagogue where they believed this drama unfolded. As I prepared for this sermon today, I sat in my office and became very still--and began to imagine all the thoughts and emotions that must have been evoked as Jesus returned to his hometown where he had been raised and nurtured. It is fairly well accepted by scholars that Joseph (Jesus'' father) had died, which was one of the reasons Jesus didn''t start his ministry until the age ...

1670. Looks Like We're in for Stormy Weather

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... be too much for me to keep my head above water. The Gospel of Mark says, "A great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that the boat was already filling." (Mark 4:37) Think for a moment, identify that last storm of conflict and emotion in your own life. Maybe it is still raging. Perhaps it''s just over and you still have debris to clear. Let us keep that storm in mind and let this boat ride story unfold with you in it. Today, I want to share five observations on how this text ...

1671. Whose Servant Are You? (Part II)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... himself. There is no hurt or bitterness or resignation in Paul''s words here, only the fragrance of a man who has a source of joy that is greater than any source of despair. His being a servant was the result of his orientation to life, not the operating emotion of the day. Last year Kevin Osborne shared with me an excerpt that will be my closing words today: "Father, Where shall I work today? And my Love flowed warm and free. Then He pointed me out a tiny spot, And said, `Tend that for Me.'' I answered ...

1672. Christianity and Conflict: Dual Citizenship (Part VII)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

I open with two powerful stories today demonstrating conflict. "Two main roads swept out of Jericho--one north, the other south. At the moment, Jesus was standing at the outskirts of the town. From St. Mark''s simple record, we gather that some big emotion seemed to grip and possess him...He looked this way and He looked that. His soul was plainly in a great torment. "Which of these two ways would he take?... "One road, sloping gently to the north, recalled to Jesus many gracious memories of his distant ...

1673. The Test of a True Testimony

James 1:19-27

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... reflects, "Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks." When I was in Psychology class, it was popular to say, "vent your anger." The problem most of the time with that theory is that you beat and bruise yourself. You see, anger is not a pure emotion. When you are angry, you most often close yourself off from outside help--especially help from God. I know some of you have heard the biblical phrase--"righteous anger or indignation." However, unless you are a Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu or Billy Graham, you ...

1674. The Tenacity of Trouble

James 4:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... were to fight the devil, not each other. The devil is more successful when he has caused Christians to fight each other rather than him. I believe Max Lucado described this best when he stated that "resentment is the cocaine of the emotions . . . it demands increasingly larger and more frequent dosages . . . That explains why the bitter complain to anyone who will listen. They want--they need--to have their fire fanned . . . Resentment is like cocaine in another way, too. Cocaine can kill the addict. And ...

1675. The Tender Touch (Part 1)

James 5:13-20

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... "therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." There is the tender touch that each soul needs. Confession has and always will be good for the soul. Third, the concept of healing the soul and the emotions is as old as humankind. Dr. Alvarez of the famed Mayo Clinic in Minnesota stated that over 70% of the stomach problems he encounters as a specialist are not organic but originate in persons allowing circumstances to choke off the benefits that faith in God ...

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