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 1701 to 1725 of 2565 results

1701. Jerusalem’s Siege, in Parable and Sign

Ezekiel 24:1-14, Ezekiel 24:15-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... or festival garment, not everyday wear; the NRSV “Bind on your turban” is therefore preferable to the NIV “Keep your turban fastened.” 24:18 I did as I had been commanded. For more on the differences between Western and Hebrew literature see R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic Books, 1981), p. 126. 24:21 The stronghold in which you take pride. This expression (Heb. geʾon ʿuzzekem) appears only once outside of this book, in Lev. 26:19, where the Lord declares, as one of the ...

1702. Tyre, Sidon—and Israel

Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:1-36, Ezekiel 28:1-19, Ezekiel 28:20-26

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... stones as well. However, it is difficult to imagine that the intricately interwoven sequence in the MT is the result of scribal error. This pattern could derive from the prophet himself, playing creatively with his source text. But it is more likely that this artful disarrangement is the work of an editor, preserving the connection between the list of gemstones and the high-priestly breastplate for a careful reader but also obscuring that connection so as to keep the focus of the poem on the king of Tyre ...

1703. Jesus’ Baptism by John

Matthew 3:1-12, Matthew 3:13-17

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... teachers cannot emphasize enough the initiating work of God, with all of life to be lived in responsiveness to that work. Illustrating the Text Jesus is God’s faithful son who brings restoration from exile and inaugurates God’s kingdom. Art: Jesus’ baptism has intrigued artists across the centuries. If your context allows, display a set of different paintings portraying Jesus’ baptism or use media to display some varied examples of artwork.14You might note that various depictions of Jesus’ baptism ...

1704. The Disciples Confess Jesus as the Messiah

Matthew 16:1-4, Matthew 16:5-12, Matthew 16:13-20

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... man in the world, died in Saint-Aubin monastery. Yet it was in this place of obscurity that Theodulf wrote his best-known hymn, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor,” traditionally sung on Palm Sunday, which includes this confession about Jesus’ identity: Thou art the King of Israel, Thou David’s royal Son, Who in the Lord’s Name comest, The King and Blessed One. Although Peter and the rest of the Twelve confess Jesus’ true identity, they do not provide an exemplary portrait of discipleship. Poetry ...

1705. Jesus Is the Example of Service for His Followers

Matthew 20:17-19, Matthew 20:20-28

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... property. This situation might be used as an example of priests or pastors acting more like rulers than servants.5 Matthew reveals that Jesus’ mission is to act as the representative of Israel to bring redemption to Israel and to the nations. Art: The Bayeux Tapestry is a wonder of history. This tapestry, created in the eleventh century, illustrates epic events during the Norman invasion of England under William, Duke of Normandy. Fifty scenes woven of fabric and thread and stretching nearly seventy-five ...

1706. Jesus’s Fallible Followers

Luke 9:51-56, Luke 9:46-50, Luke 9:37-45

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... point out that both principles are valid depending on the circumstances and discuss where each applies. Illustrating the Text Self-preoccupation prevented the disciples from understanding Jesus’s message and messianic mission. Human Experience: Photography and the Art of Seeing, by Freeman Patterson. In this book (1965) Patterson (b. 1937), a top-notch Canadian photographer, instructs on photography and visual design. He describes what it takes to have vision, the vision that has power and understanding ...

1707. The Gospel of God in Christ through Paul

Romans 1:1-17

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... section that justification before God is based on faith in Christ alone, while the latter section expounds on the life that results from justification. Illustrating the Text While abhorrent to many, the crucifixion is God’s power and wisdom for salvation. Art/History: Alexamenos Graffito. The Alexamenos Graffito, also known as the Graffito Blasphemo, is an inscription carved in plaster on a wall near the Palatine Hill in Rome, close to the Circus Maximus. It depicts a humanlike figure attached to a cross ...

1708. The Story of Israel Now and Later

Romans 2:1-16

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C. Marvin Pate

... he sees that individual sins are punished in ways symbolically appropriate to their nature. Fortune-tellers, for instance, have to walk with their heads on backwards, blind to what is ahead, because of their preoccupation in life with knowing the future. Art: The Last Judgment, by Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch’s painting, created sometime after 1482, is a triptych whose middle panel reflects a vivid view of people suffering from the horrors of hell. Another work that exhibits a similar theme is the sculpture ...

1709. The New-Covenant Blessings: Peace and Hope

Romans 5:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... The hymn is a beautiful testimony to the love of God, using metaphors to illustrate, and is summed up in the refrain: “O love of God, how rich and pure! / How measureless and strong! / It shall forevermore endure / The saints’ and angels’ song.” Art: The Trinity, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. A German Renaissance painter and printmaker, Cranach (1472–1553) is famous for his woodcut designs of the first edition of the German New Testament and for portraits of Martin Luther, who was a close friend. In ...

1710. The Reversal of the Deuteronomic Curses and Blessings: Replacing Law with Faith

Romans 9:30--10:21

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Peter understands that logic; as a teen, he burned his Bible and rebelled against everything that he had been taught was good, right, and holy. But in time, he stopped avoiding churches and great religious art, leaving himself open to unsettling messages from the past. While gazing at a fifteenth-century painting of the last judgment, he was moved. “These people did not appear remote or from the ancient past; they were my own generation. Because they were ...

1711. Paul, Phoebe, Patronage, and Spain

Romans 16:1-27

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C. Marvin Pate

... of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, with Lynn Vincent. This book can make one laugh and cry, rekindling the fire for serving others in Christ’s name. It tells the stories of a most unlikely friendship between Ron Hall, a wealthy art dealer, and Denver Moore, an impoverished homeless man, and Debbie Hall, who brought them together. The two men become friends through the message of the gospel, helping one another to help others. In a follow-up volume, What Difference Do It Make?, the two men ...

1712. Introduction and “Hello”

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

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Preben Vang

... Faith must dare to confidently trust God’s grace. Doubt will cause humans to follow their own ways and will lead to strife and division (1:10). Illustrating the Text Thanksgiving and gratitude are consistent with Christian living. Human Experience: With the art of saying “thank you” disappearing, gratitude may be a lost virtue. The thank-you note is a last bastion in what Mary Killen has called an “epidemic of discourtesy.” Even with the ease of communication via email or text messages, fewer and ...

1713. Christian Success and Christlikeness

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... around on the stage!) Be illustrators of Christ’s character and imitators of other people’s godly examples. Human Experience: Ask listeners to consider an organization in which they have participated that involves advancement through ranks, such as scouting, martial arts, or various service clubs like the Rotary or Kiwanis. While many focus on the top and bottom ranks (like white belts and black belts in Karate), the really interesting growth happens in the middle ranks. This is where participants are ...

1714. Imitation and Role Modeling

1 Corinthians 10:23--11:1, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. This short verse concludes the preceding section rather than opening the following. The theme of imitation proves especially powerful when compared to the Corinthian love for sophist rhetoric. Sophists mastered the art of separation between word and deed (contrast to 4:16). Paul’s biblical examples (10:1–12) patterned how not to live before God; Paul’s own life exemplifies the pattern of a true Christ follower.9The Corinthians should imitate him ...

1715. The Four Horsemen

Revelation 6:1-17

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... without a word of protest. Psalm 2 and Isaiah 53 stand like two prophetic foci, keeping our hearts properly aligned in the orbit of worship. What is the source of our security? Hymn: “It Is Well with My Soul,” by Horatio Spafford. Powerful art is often produced by struggling hearts. Spafford had been a successful lawyer, but the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 decimated his finances. He watched as investments went up in smoke. Just two years later, the Spafford family headed to Europe, Horatio’s wife and ...

1716. The Bowl Judgments

Revelation 16:1-21

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... :9–11, 21 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God. Three times we are told that the ungodly respond to these divine judgments by refusing to repent of their evil deeds, including their demon worship, idolatry, murder, magic arts, sexual immorality, deception, and theft (16:9, 11, 21; cf. 2:20–22; 9:20–21; 21:8; 22:15). In spite of the judgments, they refuse to change their thinking or alter their lifestyles. They never accept responsibility for their own sinfulness but ...

1717. The Final Judgment

Revelation 20:11-15

Teach the Text

J. Scott Duvall

... I have commanded you,” not merely to know his commands (Matt. 28:20). This text provides a crucial opportunity to examine our own lives to make sure that our faith is a lived and expressed faith. Illustrating the Text Hell is truly horrifying. Art: It has been fashionable to lampoon older artists for their graphic portrayals of hell. These artists are often faulted for being morbidly curious about judgment, death, and hell. But the truth is, the reality will be much worse. Their attempts to graphically ...

1718. The Guilt Offering

Leviticus 5:14--6:7

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... the desecration of their holy things deeply offensive. Christians too find desecration of their holy things offensive. The work by California artist Enrique Chagoya portraying Jesus Christ in a sex act provoked outrage and protests among Christians when he displayed his art at a temporary exhibit at the Loveland Museum in Colorado in the fall of 2010.10 Some fifty protestors picketed the museum to express their objections to using taxpayer money to fund this blasphemous exhibit, and one woman broke through ...

1719. Blood: Right and Wrong Uses

Leviticus 17:1-16

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... is lacking. On an ivory found at Megiddo is an image of a predatory eagle-winged creature with a human head falling upon an ibex. Otto Eissfeldt has identified that winged creature with the demon Azazel, who devoured goats.2In Mesopotamian art goats sometimes appear rearing on a sacred tree, and sometimes they symbolize sweet, underground water.3The relevance of any of these instances for the present passage is uncertain. Later in Israelite history, worship at the “high places” had similarly to be ...

1720. The Ark Finds a Resting Place

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... . Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard.6 Hymn: “Holy, Holy, Holy,” by Reginald Heber. Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, only thou art holy; there is none beside thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

1721. The Lord Is My Rock

2 Samuel 22:1-51

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... 3). In both cases their affirmation is based on the Lord’s ability to bring down the proud and exalt his humble followers (1 Sam. 2:3–10; 2 Sam. 22:28). 22:35 He trains my hands for battle. David depicts the Lord as training him in the art of warfare and as giving him a special protective shield (v. 36). In this way he makes it clear that his military prowess found its source in the Lord’s supernatural enablement.8 22:44 the attacks of the peoples. The Hebrew text has “my people.” Here David ...

1722. Adversity of a Righteous Man

Job 1:1-22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... God Raised impious war in Heav’n and battle proud With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky With hideous ruin and combustion down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms.2 Art: Gustave Doré. French illustrator, sculptor, artist, and engraver Doré (1832–83) has illustrated Paradise Lost. Doré’s images can reinforce the power of Satan to destroy and deceive.

1723. Job Shatters the Silence

Job 3:1-26

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... , God’s character is unchanging. Illustrating the Text Job expresses his pain honestly; pain sometimes blurs his perception of God. Poetry: #50, by Gerard Manley Hopkins. In these lines, Hopkins (1844–89) expresses honest pain over God’s dealings with him: Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just. Why do sinners’ ways prosper? And why must Disappointment all I endeavor end? Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend, How wouldst thou worse, I wonder ...

1724. Zophar Rejects Job’s Complaints

Job 11:1-20

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... , Zophar is an abstract theologian who has little pastoral instinct. He misconstrues Job’s problem, so he makes an erroneous prescription to him. Historical and Cultural Background In 11:13 Zophar encourages Job to stretch out his hands to God. In ancient Near Eastern art, praying worshipers are often portrayed raising their hands as a sign of their humility and supplication. This action is found elsewhere in the Old Testament (Ezra 9:5; Pss. 28:2; 143:6; Jer. 4:31), and Paul also exhorts it in the New ...

1725. Bildad Again Beats the Retribution Drum

Job 18:1-21

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... pastor George Herbert (1593–1633) wrote the following lines indicating his trust in God’s involvement with even the deepest suffering. These are the last two verses of the poem: Oh help, my God! let not their plot Kill them and me, And also thee, Who art my life: dissolve the knot, As the sunne scatters by his light All the rebellions of the night. Then shall those powers, which work for grief, Enter thy pay, And day by day Labour thy praise, and my relief; With care and courage building me, Till ...

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