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 1826 to 1850 of 2669 results

1826. Are We There Yet?

Acts 1:6-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... today's church, "the time" referred to the return of Christ and the ushering in of a new age. It is hard for contemporary Christians to grasp the enormity of the idea of the second coming in the early church. The idea of Christ's return, the belief in Jesus' imminent return, was total. The idea that everything would soon be over and a new age begun tainted everything. Jesus wasn't just coming someday. He was going to walk in the door any second. The return of Jesus was not something about which theologians ...

1827. To Say Elohim

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... or even outright doubted the reality of this whole idea of God (and I'd have to put myself in that group). But now, here we are, gathered in church for another service of worship. That may or may not signify that you have settled the matter of belief in God, but it probably indicates that you are at least open to thinking about it. Would it surprise you if I said that as your pastor, I'm not terribly concerned about whether or not you have resolved your questions about the existence of God? But there ...

1828. Do You See What I See?

Exodus 14:19-31

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... , and not by any god." The skeptic believes that if events can be explained by nature, then they were natural; not supernatural. Meanwhile, if the events seem to contravene nature and its laws, then the report of those events must be fabricated or exaggerated. Belief came late to the skeptical Egyptians. Too late. After the Lord had blown a dry path for the Israelites, they began their journey to the other side. Meanwhile, after giving his own people a good head start, the Lord must have removed the barrier ...

1829. Show Me What’s Real

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... . A church near campus has a chapel for university students to meditate and pray. Students have the opportunity to reflect and share their thoughts in a notebook. The entries sometimes reveal an inner struggle. One young woman candidly shared, "My thoughts, ideas, beliefs, preconceptions; my ways and feelings of what is right or wrong are being challenged." We can probably all identify with her at some point in our lives. Other people sometimes challenge what we believe. We wrestle with how we can live in ...

1830. A Vision of Hope

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... have felt like to be taken from your home, to a foreign land against your will. You might have felt lost in the new place, the customs seemed so foreign. There were unfamiliar practices making it increasingly tough to hold on to your long-held beliefs. Parents would have a difficult task teaching their children what they believed when the alien culture kept creeping into their lives. The danger would be that people would lose sight of who they were amid all the outside influences. In such a situation you ...

1831. Headed in the Right Direction

Romans 15:4-13

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... been described by researchers who claim it is particularly prevalent among young people. I think it crosses age boundaries. It has been termed "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." According to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this new faith consists of beliefs like these: "A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth." "God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions." "The central ...

1832. Are We There Yet?

James 5:7-10

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... trials pure joy because of the assurance that God will give wonderfully good gifts even through the hardships. Wesleyan-type Christians are fond of saying that we need to "Pray as if it all depends on God and work as if it all depends on us." Christian belief is fundamental to Christian practice. What is the truth about God? Is God a god of grace or not? If we believe that God is, then we can patiently wait for his providential purposes to be worked out in history. Then we will never mistake patience with ...

1833. Set Apart at Christmas

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... place is Paul's introduction to his letter to the Romans in today's lesson. As you know, he was penning this letter to a church he had not only not founded but had not yet visited and so was particularly careful to lay out his beliefs. His introduction to that letter is packed with what he considered to be essentials of the Christian message, and some aspects of it are good reminders of what is really essential about the celebration of Christmas. Paul began by conspicuously calling himself a doulos of Jesus ...

1834. A Little Theology at Christmas

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... the theological trajectory of the Advent season, but the Ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future in Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol. It is conventional for preachers to point out that while he attended the Anglican Church, Dickens' personal beliefs seemed more of the Unitarian variety and that one should not expect too much real theology in this work, often dismissed as an idealization of Victorian Christmases. But why then its enormous popularity, even among Christians? I would suggest ...

1835. Small-Minded Christians in a Big World

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... those outside their clique. This was clearly a problem at Corinth and what Paul was referring to when he said that it was not his task to preach with "eloquent wisdom." He was contrasting himself with those who had developed elaborate explanations of what set their beliefs off from other Christians. Here we are walking a fine line. Does not Paul call the Corinthians to "be united in the same mind and the same purpose"? Yes. But in the context of being "saints, together with all those who in every place call ...

1836. The Way Things Are

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... congregation in Athens for a long time. Second, the "apologetic bridge" always carries traffic both ways. It is tempting to find touchpoints in the culture that can be used to convey Christian truths, but sometimes those same touchpoints can allow cultural beliefs and patterns to creep back into the faith. Paul was certainly aware of these issues in Corinth, as we read later in the letters with Christians feeling comfortable about eating food that had been offered to idols, for instance, or adopting ...

1837. A Disconcerting Sight

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... created equal and that in Christ Jesus there is no distinction? The answers to the questions are "No," "Yes," and "No." No, Christianity is not totally egalitarian. It obviously is egalitarian in one dictionary definition: "Affirming, promoting, or characterized by belief in equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people." This is what Paul talks about in Galatians when he says that in Christ social distinction such as male/female, slave/free, or various ethnic distinctions should fade ...

1838. Dust and Ashes Wednesday

2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:13

Sermon

David O. Bales

... having nothing, yet possessing everything." He shows the human opinion and the divine. He relates the worldly assessment of the Christian faith and the eternal one. He expresses the great mystery that Christians are considered as dying; yet we are alive. That's our central belief: Dying doesn't end our faith or our lives. That's what Jesus' bloody last week in Jerusalem is about and what we concentrate upon in Lent. Lent should make us serious about our faith but not about ourselves. I'll invite you at the ...

1839. In the Balance

Romans 5:12-19

Sermon

David O. Bales

... . You might not conceive of sin as the independent power that Paul does, but you have to admit that something like sin has an incredible ability to infect person after person and to replicate itself in worse and worse ways. The Bible is written in the belief that something is profoundly wrong in human life. You can call it sin, call it brokenness, or just the drifting away from life's original purpose, but it's here, around us and within us, and we look to God to fix it. The psychologist and philosopher ...

1840. For Example

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Sermon

David O. Bales

... Abraham and Sarah is outside the realm of the possible. Sarah laughs at the idea. One writer called it history's first recorded joke. Abraham has times of serious wondering about this laughable promise, but he trusts God. Faith in the Bible isn't any old belief in trivial things — like believing there's a planet, Pluto, or a dwarf planet, Pluto. So what? Will trust in a big rock in space change your life? Faith is trusting that God cares about you, when at least some evidence indicates otherwise. Faith is ...

1841. Humility: We Know It When We See It

Philippians 2:5-11

Sermon

David O. Bales

... he's the only entry. Is this a mere public relations stunt? Is he pretending, just trifling with the serfs? Through the centuries a lot of people — those who hold a lower opinion of human existence than God does — have been horrified at the Christian belief of God's becoming one of us. They reason that if God were to enter human life, God would somehow be diminished, made something less than divine. However, the scriptures clearly say: Jesus didn't disguise himself as a servant. He became a servant. It ...

1842. We Are the Champions

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Larry Lange

... wasn't Jesus and the congregation wasn't an evil mob of Nitpickers. Yet, neither was Jack the devil, and the congregation his innocent victims. Jack's story is paradoxical. This paradoxical understanding of reality is consonant with Martin Luther's belief that we are simul iustus et peccatur — simultaneously justified and precious in God's sight and sinful, simultaneously saints and sinners, simultaneously good guys and bad guys. If we are simultaneously good guys and bad guys, the apostle Paul offers us ...

1843. Just a Crazy Story

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Larry Lange

... was in the movie. He had the mop and the bucket on wheels and everything. "And I was impressed that you were so quick to hope that I was with you when you heard my voice. I like that. Hope is important. And finally, Zachary, you have some very orthodox beliefs about me despite the fact that ostensibly, you want to have nothing to do with me." "Right," said Zack, "What I want is money...." "And babes," said God. "Yeah. Babes. So it is you." "It is. And during the time you'll have all my powers, I'm going to ...

1844. The World According to Paul

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... Holy Spirit. In our world, it takes power and conviction to go against the tide of society, and it takes the Holy Spirit to get the message across to us. Faith is a gift of God, so that when those who are loved and chosen let the Holy Spirit work, belief does happen. "By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing," Paul tells us. "It is the gift of God, not the result of works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). God's grace is not earned or deserved. It is freely given, and we receive ...

1845. How, Then, Shall We Live?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... enough time, but I'll get busy right now, and you check back later." God has called us out of darkness and into God's wonderful light. Paul assures the Thessalonians and us that God has chosen us "for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13). The word of God is the good news that salvation has already been accomplished. We are called to spread the good news to those who don't know it. There is no time for sitting around merely waiting for the ...

1846. Luke 14:1, 7-14

Luke 14:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... “the resurrection of the righteous” (v.14). Introducing the concept of a resurrection of the righteous would have been particularly pertinent to Jesus’ audience. Though some factions within Judaism rejected the notion of resurrection, the Pharisaic followers taught a belief in resurrection of both “the just and the unjust” (see Acts 24:15). Those who gladly participate in incarnating the topsy-turvy social structure of God’s kingdom are to do so, Jesus suggests, because their own blessing will ...

1847. Peace and Quiet

1 Timothy 2:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the pastoral epistle of First Timothy expresses it, we are all searching for “a quiet and peaceable life.” In the first century the chorus of voices intruding on a Christian life of “peace and quiet” came from a world where the belief in one God was an aberration and where prayers offered for “everyone” were unheard of. The “peace and quiet” those Christians sought was the peace to practice their religion, the quiet of services and prayers uninterrupted by the Roman authorities. This morning ...

1848. LENT: The Passion of Christ: "Exalted"

Luke 19:28-40, John 19:14-30

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... invented and it was reserved for the worst offenders. There's no way, God could use anyone who'd been crucified, let alone, let their own Son die on the cross. That's ludicrous. But Jesus knew that our God is a God of reversal who likes to take our beliefs and stand them on their head. Who likes to take the weak and make it strong. Who loves taking the least and making it the most. Who loves taking the small and defeating the mighty. What God did through Billy at that Junior High camp is exactly what God ...

1849. LENT: The Passion of Christ: "Betrayed"

John 13:21-30; Matthew 26:14-16; 45-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... that obscure place and see the message and know that he was Judas, and realize that, despite the horror of what he had done to his father and his family, there was a way home? Or was it the boy himself, projecting upon that wall some impossible hope and belief that all could be forgiven. (2) One thing is for certain, the Good News of Jesus is that FAILURE ISN'T FINAL. FAILURE ISN'T FOREVER AND FAILURE ISN'T FATAL. That's the message Judas needed to hear. The Cross of Christ made the noose unnecessary. I ...

1850. The Parable of the Five Brothers

Luke 16:19-31

Illustration

Joachim Jeremias

... generation [Jeremias' reference to Noah's generation], living a careless life, heedless of the rumble of the approaching flood (Matt. 24:37-39), are men of this world, like their dead brother. Like him they live in selfish luxury, deaf to God's word, in the belief that death ends all (v. 28). Scornfully, Jesus was asked by these skeptical worldlings for a valid proof of a life after death, if they were to be paying heed to his warning. Jesus wanted to open their eyes, but to grant their demand would not ...

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