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 1851 to 1875 of 3285 results

1851. Living Out the Promise of This Child

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... . It is not a parade of dreams or hopes; not a whirling of empty wishing that I refer to here. This is promise. This is full, abundant, new reality, about to burst forth in manifold and unexpected ways. This is certainty in a holy manner that is beyond my ability to define or control. I can't, and wouldn't try, to speak for anyone else, but I suspect that many new parents feel something akin to this. I have a visceral sense that this promise is present at the advent of new life everywhere. Does that feel ...

1852. It’s Good to Know Who Is Calling

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... . I wonder if any of us would lay claim to hearing God like that? Scripture points out that the word of God was rare, and visions were few. I have to wonder, though, if that's the case. Could it be that perhaps God's Word was present, and the ability to see visions was there, but people weren't necessarily open to it? Could it be that God's sacred Word rings always in and around us, and it's we who really aren't listening? It would certainly appear that God was the one at fault. After all, if ...

1853. A Double Share of the Spirit

2 Kings 2:1-12

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... For it is not only our own personal spirits that we pass on in these wonderful teaching relationships, we pass on the powerful Spirit of God. As we teach and model patience, as we teach and model love, as we teach and model compassion, as we teach and model the ability to laugh and sing, we pass on the Spirit of the living God! As we do this, person by person, the world is healed a little more each day. Let us be in prayer as we consider Elijah and Elisha. Let us accept the mantle of the prophet, of teacher ...

1854. Apocalypse Wow!

Isaiah 25:6-9

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... Death has been swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:54). Death and despair do not have the final word. A new day is dawning when death will no longer do the devouring. Instead, it will be swallowed up in a victory beyond our ability to imagine. With hope, the people of Judah can wait for the Lord because they now have a vision of salvation. Paul interweaves prophetic and apocalyptic responses to questions concerning suffering and hope. "Through scripture and experience we have the sure knowledge that ...

1855. The 2 Love Laws

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... telling stories. Stories about her husband, her own sons, and their grandfather. And as they broke bread together, the gravity of grief gave way to the grace of love . . . and in that cake, that bread for the journey, both families found the answer to entropy, and the ability of God to turn every tragedy into triumph. By the way, to this day Victoria tells her friends that if they are praying for anyone, they are to pray for that little boy Doug. Do you know how much God loves you? Can you even begin to ...

1856. Stepping Out on Faith

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... to earn five talents, so this was a significant act of trust. To the second servant the man gave two talents. And finally, to one servant he gave only one talent. Each of the servants was accorded his share of the money, says Jesus, according to his ability. Then the wealthy man went on his journey. Immediately the man who had received five talents went and put his money to work and gained five talents more. He was a remarkably astute manager of money. I would like to find an investment where I could double ...

1857. Some Talents are Inappropriate

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

Johnny Dean

One man in a group being received into the church heard the pastor say, "Now God has given each of you a unique talent. When you join the church, you are expected to serve God with whatever abilities you have." Well, it just so happened that this particular man was a reformed criminal. After he was released from prison, he had renounced the life of crime and gone straight. Joining the church, making a commitment to follow Jesus, was the first step in that effort. Serving God was ...

1858. Commentary

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

Archibald M. Hunter

... goal. There is not the slightest trace of gratitude that his master trusted him with so great a sum. Respect for his master is limited to a grudging acknowledgement of power. If we are correct in taking the phrase "to each according to his ability" as indicating that for Matthew the parable challenges Christians to make full use of the gifts that God has entrusted to them, the portrayal of the third servant reminds us that love for our master must be demonstrated in faithful and untiring service to other ...

1859. The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like a Professor

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

... who went off on a long sabbatical. Before he left, he called together his graduate students and gave each of them projects to work on; to one he gave five projects, to another two, and to another one, each according to their ability. The one who received five projects immediately went to work, designing experiments, building equipment, and analyzing data. She worked long and hard, and eventually she achieved good results on each project. Likewise, the one who received two projects immediately went to work ...

1860. Multiple Intelligences

Matthew 25:14-30

Illustration

King Duncan

... bodies are unusually graceful and coordinated. These are our athletes and dancers. Others are gifted interpersonally. They know instinctively how to get along well with the people around them. These are our sales persons, counselors, teachers. Some are gifted in their ability to look within. These are our philosophers--our wise people. Some are gifted musically. Here is the important point. Gardner claims that everyone he has ever tested has scored high on at least one of these seven forms of intelligence ...

1861. Surprised Saints

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

King Duncan

... would not be stilled. He once said that as far back as he could remember, the thought of all the misery in the world had deeply troubled him. He came to believe that he did not have the moral right to take his happy youth, his good health and his ability to work as a matter of course. He believed that we must all take our share of the misery which weighs so heavily upon the world. So Albert Schweitzer decided to give everything up and to study night and day to be a doctor. He went as a missionary to ...

1862. The Three Stages to Truth: A Biblical Philosophy of Education

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... that every age must have the story reinterpreted for them. Jesus must be resurrected anew for every generation. 3. In Christian life the truth is not an armchair or ivory tower affair. The third stage of engaged knowledge about truth is the ability to embody that truth. Moving from theory to practice is an essential part of the lesson Jesus teaches. As the travelers on the Emmaus Road approach their destination, they notice the stranger is going farther. Excited by their conversation and entranced by their ...

1863. Stand Together or Fall Apart

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of Babel narrative, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost makes communication between people of all languages once again possible. And judging from Peter's new posture of poise and power before the crowd, the gift of the Spirit also gave the disciples the ability to stand together in peace in spite of their violent ostracism from the rest of the old community. From the time of Pentecost on, the story of the Church is the story of its struggle to maintain this unique nature of "kingdom" community. In Acts ...

1864. A Postmodern Coat of Crayola Colors

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the tendency of societies to move toward breakdown and collapse) or "ecclesiogenesis" (Leonardo Boff's word for the movement of structures towards greater Christlikeness), there will be storms arising to upset the boat. But the meaning of "salvation" is precisely this ability to face the future in confidence and trust. "What is salvation? To be delivered from everything mean, low, despicable, selfish, cringing, fearing in my whole nature, that I may stand humble yet bold and free before the Universe of God ...

1865. The Urge to Purge

2 Samuel 12:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... may be good for the soul but they are bad for the reputation" is quaintly passe. Increasingly the quest for fleeting fame requires infamy. Ironically, while the public confession of particular, individual sins has ballooned in the past decade, our ability to acknowledge the existence of large-scale, all-permeating Sin has dramatically decreased. As the ranks swell of those involved in the plethora of "confessional" self-help groups (for alcoholics, over-eaters, co-dependents, drug abusers, etc.), the church ...

1866. Seeing the Elephant/Hearing the Owl

2 Samuel 18:24-33

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Today, as it has always, the church confronts problems that appear to dwarf both it and its abilities. In the face of issues as massive as war, global warming, the AIDS epidemic and economic recession, Christians face challenges to their personal faith so great that a kind of spiritual paralysis can set in. How can the church get people moving again and buoy up their belief that their ...

1867. The Golden Calf and the Golden Table

James 1:17-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... right worship of God. While James focuses on the idolatry or faithfulness of individual worshipers, the same choice confronts the gathered church. The church itself can be idolatrous, reveling in its self-importance and self-imposed sanctity. In our seemingly infinite ability to contort the truth, we can succeed in making an idol of either "high-church" pageantry or "low-church" paucity. M. Holmes Hartshorne once said that "religion is regularly the most subtle and the most potent expression of human sin ...

1868. Global Warming

Genesis 2:18-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... where there are virtually no buyers and certainly no shared ventures - yet the biblical suggestion that we are to give ourselves away is utterly unthinkable. Whereas there seem to be no limits to what we will do for the sake of our individuality, our ability to think and act in relationship to others has shrunk to pathetic proportions. What we are calling for this week, then, is some positive, personal "global warming." We are suggesting you let a new meaning of this phrase "global warming" build up in your ...

1869. Back to School

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... organization" must focus on in order to cultivate an environment capable of change. The first of these, "generative learning"," is about creating - trying out new ideas, and looking at the world with new eyes. The church certainly started out with this generative learning ability. When a scrawny twelve year-old Jesus joined the rest of the rabbis gathered at the temple to discuss the Torah, they didn't guffaw and close their ears. They were able to listen and respond, interact with and learn from the ...

1870. When You Think You're Finished, That's When God Starts

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... year, what hands have been/will be too strong for you? Are you in God's hands? If so, no hands are stronger than God's hands. The texts this week talk about God's enduring strength and give us reasons for believing in God's absolute ability to take care of us - come what may. If the exponential explosion of self-help groups is any indication, it appears that we have become fascinated by and fixated on defining and exposing the weakened, painful, crippled portions of our lives. We have self-help groups for ...

1871. Gutsy Joy

Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... us courage, gaiety, and the quiet mind" (Prayers Written at Vailima [New York: Scribner's Sons, 1912], 1-2). Experiencing joy, feeling the laughter of loved life well up in our spirits and burst out of our mouths is a divine gift. C. S. Lewis believed that the ability to laugh at ourselves is as close as we get to true repentance in life. Tears over our brokenness close us down, as we dwell on the empty portions of our lives. Laughter opens us up, allowing us to lift our faces to the Lord from the surface ...

1872. Grits, Grats and Gruts...Not Grunts

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of willpower are both complex and simple. As Paul made clear in this week's discussion of the resurrection, we are yet physical beings, shriveled seeds seeking refuge in the earth. Only when we assume our resurrected, spiritual bodies will we fully realize our ability to share in the new life inaugurated by the second Adam, a life which flows naturally from the Spirit. Until then we must try as best we can to splice together our physical and spiritual selves, knowing that behavior emerges from beliefs and ...

1873. Terminator 3

Acts 9:1-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... flip and click, small fingers could transform them into a car or tank or flying-killer-attack-weapon. Wheels and wings and guns were cleverly hidden inside the robot bodies of these toys giving them their dual identity. Fascinated by the toy's ability to change before their very eyes, kids made these "transformers" enormously popular. The summer of 1991 saw the release of yet another Arnold Schwarzenegger movie - "Terminator 2", or T-2 as it came to be known. All the characters from the original futuristic ...

1874. Wounding Love

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... forward to educate and inform about AIDS and its prevention while realizing that any disease that makes us look into the abyss of sex, disability, disfigurement and death is bound to make people nervous and fearful. Thus we must fall back on our historic ability to find God's compassion, and our salvation, on the other side of love's terribly wounding power. This is what is theologically "new" in the AIDS epidemic: that love has the potential not just to confuse heads, break hearts and twist relationships ...

1875. Healing in His Wings

Acts 14:8-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in effecting a healing relationship is even more unnerving and out-of-control than willfully moving toward another. No healing can occur until the healer spends time, energy and self in being with the other. In his healing encounter in Lystra Paul shows a remarkable ability to be with those who were before him. Seeing the crippled man in the crowd Paul locks his eyes, his heart and his soul onto that man. Through such concentration, Paul is able to discern that this man possesses enough faith to be healed ...

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