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 4943 results

1851. Rags and Robes

Micah 1:1-7; 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in traditional religious art. Still, her work shocks. One convent had to remove a Barrows painting after a visiting superior declared she was quite sure Jesus would never wear overalls. History and Scripture would seem to disagree with her. God has consistently focused divine concern on those who are oppressed and overwhelmed, poor in pocket and in heart, ragged in flesh and in spirit. Micah's text reminds us once again of this preference for the throng over the throne. It is the poor who wear the robes of ...

1852. The Problem of Unanswered Prayer

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... convinces the one who is praying that what was once desired is no longer desirable. Prayer makes a new person out of the pray-er. No one can feel the power of God's love and remain the same or make the same request. Once God has touched us, our concern becomes more to convey unbinding love than to receive it. Real prayer forces us to face who we are and to tell the truth about ourselves, which changes our prayers. Have you ever noticed, as did Huck Finn, that "You can't pray a lie"? When you pray, listening ...

1853. Give Us a Break

2 Thessalonians 2:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... vogue - be it insatiable yuppie consumerism or recession-shocked economic retrenchment - will have its day and then be gone, like so many hula hoops, unless our behavior finds roots in something more enduring. Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians was concerned with a similar issue. He feared that the newly popularized cult of emperor worship in the city would draw Christians away from their commitment to Christ. The pagan population of Thessalonia was more than willing to pay homage to their "sponsor ...

1854. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... attitudes can be sustained “always”, “continually,” and “in all circumstances.” Paul next turns to a particular problem, an issue of great importance to this Christian community. The Thessalonians appear to have had, as one commentator puts it, “pneumatic concerns.” Paul does not go into detail about exactly what kinds of spiritual activity are in danger of being “quenched.” But clearly there was an element within the church ready to douse any spirit-fanned flames. Paul now notes more ...

1855. The Double Cross

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... arms on the horizontal beam of the cross only because his unique vertical relationship with God, his divine Sonship, keeps him upright. In today's gospel text, James and John are not concerned about the quality of the suppers they have shared with Jesus. Their focus is neither vertical nor horizontal. It is only inward. Concerned with their own future status in Jesus' ministry, these two disciples decide to queue up early for good seats in the heavenly future. Instead of affirming the quality of their roles ...

1856. A Concert of Prayer

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Drama

Leonard Sweet

... churches? Pray in silence right now that you might toss off that straightjacket, or pray for whatever special concerns are in your life. Silence........................................ Churches with cemeteries next to them make powerful theological statements: The majority ... out of prayer with this story or one like it: There is a story that comes out of the early days of this century. It concerns a man who finally got up enough courage to ask his boss for a raise. He told his wife that morning to pray for him ...

1857. Joy and Crown

Philippians 4:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... with the business of preaching the gospel. Paul preached "Rejoice" in the face of his own difficulties. 3. Slurry The stuff that clogs up our lives and clouds our vision, making it impossible for us to see further than the tiny world of our own concerns and needs. The muck and madness that just normally infiltrate daily life can keep us from raising up our eyes and experiencing the presence of the divine in the most mundane of interactions. I complimented a woman in Rustin, Louisiana, on her jewelry. She ...

1858. Freedom in Bondedness

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , she was determined to keep her word to her friend even though the coat ended up costing her every single coin she had saved up in her piggy bank. This splurge of her carefully saved funds caught her parents by surprise and caused them some concern. But when they questioned the wisdom of their daughter's actions, she defended herself by simply stating, "But I promised her, and she needed it!" Her parents were silenced and impressed by their daughter's free spirit with her money which had been driven by ...

1859. Luke 1:26-38

Luke 1:26-38

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... , are especially “telling.” While Mark says nothing about Jesus’ parentage and birth, moving immediately into mission and message, Matthew provides an extensive genealogy and pre-history concerning Jesus. John’s genealogy isn’t even biological; it is cosmological and comprehensive. Divinity and destiny, not DNA, are his concern. Luke also provides an extensive amount of background history before the birth of Jesus himself is discussed. As today’s annunciation text demonstrates, Luke has his eye ...

1860. Ephesians 1:3-14

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... blessing portion (vv.4-10) describes just how disciples “in Christ” will experience this new reality in their lives. Though Paul introduces the idea of predestination in this blessing unit, the nature of that predestination is not his concern at this point. What is his concern is blessing and praising God for this definitive action, an action that transforms frail and faulty human beings into fully adopted children; an action that gives all those who are together God’s children “in Christ;” an ...

1861. John 10:11-18

John 10:11-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... attended by their own shepherd. The gate keeps out the "thieves and bandits" - in this context quite obviously the Pharisees who had just driven from the synagogue a man whom Jesus had healed. The thieves Jesus describes have no concern for the individual sheep. Their only concern is to perpetuate themselves, even if it means destroying others. The Pharisees cared nothing about the restored sight of the man born blind; they drove him from the synagogue community so that his testimony would not disrupt their ...

1862. 1 John 4:7-12

1 John 4:7-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... insistence that love is a sign of their relatedness. Knowledge and love grow together; each enriches the other. When John continues this knowledge by experience line of argument in verse 8, he concludes that separation from love means separation from God. Characteristic of John's concern with defining God, he now reveals "God is love." Love is not just one of God's many qualities, it is God's essence. Furthermore, God's love has now become manifest in another aspect of God's essence - God's Son Jesus Christ ...

1863. Mark 6:30-44

Mark 6:30-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... detail. The focus of this story now shifts from Jesus, the good shepherd, to the disciples, the bad sports. They are tired, hungry, cranky, and their quiet time with their teacher has been spoiled by the arrival of this pushy crowd. Their supposed concern for the welfare of the crowd is not very convincing - getting these 5000 interlopers out of the way appears to be their real agenda. The fact that the crowd is the ultimate reason for Jesus' presence escapes them. Jesus redirects the disciples' selfish ...

1864. James 1:17-27

James 1:17-27

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... straw to the mixture gives it greater strength and coherence. For James to focus on the gift of grace and not stress an accompanying offspring of good works is to seriously misunderstand God's purposes. This week's text from James reflects its author's concern with the believer's response to the good news of salvation. God does not set people up with "tests" or otherwise try to tempt believers into wrongdoing. Verse 17 restates James' earlier point in verse 5 that wisdom and all other good gifts do come ...

1865. Mark 9:38-50

Mark 9:38-50

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... a service, no matter how small, because of Christ's name becomes a member of the community and shares in its "rewards." Verses 42-48 continue this surprising and sometimes harsh series of lessons in discipleship. As in verse 36, Jesus is still concerned with nurturing the "little ones," those with the newest and most fragile faith. The responsibility for the youngest and frailest falls on his disciples, and he paints a somber picture of their task. The twelve are to maintain a strictly disciplined life, as ...

1866. Luke 21:25-36

Luke 21:25-36

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Kingdom. The Kingdom is near even as the Son of Man is present in one form, if not yet in his full role as judge and heir. Verse 32 begins with Luke's characteristic form for a direct exhortation from Jesus: "Truly I tell you." Jesus' concern with the Kingdom's imminent arrival is faithfully recorded here by the gospel writer. Yet the author's own sensitivity to the next generation of Christians has already been made apparent in Luke 19:11 where he intimates that a delayed Parousia might be the experience ...

1867. John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

John 20:19-31 [Genesis 2:5-24]

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... at 186,000 miles per second). We now know that God created thousands, even millions of galaxies even larger than the one we are in. Our God is an awesome God, a God beyond human comprehension. We also now know that as far as the Milky Way galaxy is concerned, life is not common. Planet Earth is the only planet in this galaxy in which the experiment and experience of life has taken shape. Might it not be that the Garden of Eden is not a place on the planet but the planet Earth itself? Indeed, it seems as ...

1868. Acts 9:1-20

Acts 9:1-20

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... way of life, their old habits of living. They are no longer fishers of men, they are only fairly bad fishermen. Jesus' appearance before these men might well fill them with anxiety and guilt. Instead of carrying on the Lord's work, they are concerned only with their own livelihoods. Hence Jesus' command in verse 6 holds added significance. Jesus instructs the disciples to "cast the net to the right side of the boat" - i.e., try something different. The size of the catch reveals Jesus' identity. Simon Peter ...

1869. Luke 16:1-13

Luke 16:1-13

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus' always surprising kingdom of God. Because we like the image of the effusive and extravagantly forgiving father, the parable of the Prodigal Son has become a perennial favorite. Yet the master's unexpected praise for his dishonest steward leaves us confused and even concerned that somehow the "right thing" hasn't been accomplished. Why does this parable strike such a discordant note in and to our senses? Perhaps part of the problem is that we read and hear the story of the prodigal son as a tale about ...

1870. Matthew 24:36-44

Matthew 24:36-44

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... ' commands so that when that end-time finally arrives, the Christian will have no fear of Christ's judgment. But it is difficult to discern whether the stories and parables Jesus tells on the heels of 24:36 (concluding with 25:46) are more concerned with the quality of this in-between time or if our proper focus should be on the unpredictable nature of its duration. The second theme undergirding all these words about the parousia, then, is its sudden and unexpected nature. Disciples apparently are both to ...

1871. Exodus 24:12-18

Exodus 24:12-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... -35. What had been an individual call from God to Moses is now a fully developed and institutionalized faith. Because this resident kabod becomes a formally and fully accessible presence to all of Israel, Moses' presence or absence is of no particular theological concern as regards the people's continued welfare. Ironically, it is in today's text, when Moses alone is called to the cloud-covered heights of Mt.Sinai, that the stage is set for Israel's life without Moses. The priestly reactions weave together ...

1872. Exodus 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1-7

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... confrontation that Moses seems to take the thirst of the people as a serious threat to his own position and the future of the Exodus trek. In verse 4, Moses now directly petitions the Lord - but still not specifically for water. In fact, the only concern Moses expresses is for his own continued well-being, not that of the thirsty people: "They are almost ready to stone me." Moses perceives the threats and insubordination as the only real and active danger in the present situation. Whether it is his supreme ...

1873. Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5-11

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... human sinfulness under which all men and women are born. As the emptied one is born a Jew, he is under the conviction and condemnation of the Law, a slave to sin, from the moment of his birth. Those who argue that this hymn is more concerned with the actions of the human Jesus than the divine Christ find their greatest ammunition in the assertions of verse 8. Having firmly established Jesus in genuine human form, this text now proclaims he "humbled himself" once again. This time, instead of the defining act ...

1874. Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... defined Jesus' own mission up to this point healing, teaching and preaching ("proclaiming the ... kingdom"). But as his missionary travels have taken him back and forth across Palestine, Jesus has grown more concerned about spreading his message. Matthew's text likens the "harassed and helpless" crowds to "sheep without a shepherd" a concern first voiced by no less than Moses (see Numbers 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17). This image of wandering sheep suggests the need to be gathered a task that requires the diligent ...

1875. Matthew 21:23-32

Matthew 21:23-32

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... religiously sensitive area for all of Judaism Jesus comes out swinging, driving out the merchants and money-changers (Matthew 21:12). It is not surprising, then, that the "chief priests and elders" should show great concern and great caution about Jesus' presence in the temple. One would wonder if they didn't show great concern and great caution. These are also the same men who will later stand before Jesus and condemn him to death. It is unlikely that, at this point, they would approach Jesus out of any ...

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