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 5000 results

1851. A Glory Revealed in the Cross

John 8:12-30

Sermon

... monster, Death. Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Prize recipient in 1986, wrote, a number of years ago, an account of his experiences in a Nazi death camp - Buna - during World War II. In his book, titled, Night, I found a passage, which will help us understand the Theology of the Cross. Wiesel writes: One day when we came back from work, we saw three gallows rearing up in the assembly place, three black crows. Roll call. SS all round us, machine guns trained: the traditional ceremony. Three victims in chains - and ...

1852. A Glory Revealed in the King

John 12:12-19

Sermon

Charles M. Mountain

... , one who would conquer and rule as king over a renewed kingdom of Israel as it was in the days of David and Solomon. "Hosanna," they cried out. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." A little background on these words will help us understand why the crowds were so worked up over Jesus and what they thought was his kingship. Hosanna is a Hebrew word and is often understood to mean "praise God." It also means, "Save (us)!" Used in this way it is the cry of people traditionally given to national ...

1853. The Most Beautiful Sacrifice

Mark 14:1-11

Drama

... Why didn’t you remember them? THE WOMAN: (In an angry voice) Who are you to preach to me about the poor, or the oppressed? Do you know what it is to be poor? Do you know what it feels like to be a second class citizen? I do! I understand why the poor flocked to hear Jesus, while the rich trembled. I’m a daughter of Abraham and the daughter of Simon the leper living in a Roman occupied province, so before you accuse me of forgetting the poor, ask yourself what sacrifice have you made lately on behalf of ...

1854. My God, My God, ... Why?

Mark 15:33-41

Drama

... them obeyed so completely? (Moves next to cross) And suddenly, about 1500 hours, he cried out! I was surprised he had so much of a voice left. It was no whimper either. More like a battle cry or salute. Even though I don’t know Hebrew, somehow I understand what he was saying, something like (Loudly) "Hail God! Hail God!" Then he died. It was in that silence that I heard what this Jesus was saying. It was in the darkness that I finally saw who he was. This was no ordinary man, pretending to be an ordinary ...

1855. Good News for Exiles

Psalm 137:1-9, 2 Chronicles 36:15-23, Ephesians 2:1-10

Sermon

... come, whenever it may come again. Lent is for those in Babylon. You will recall that this sermon was supposed to be on Gospel. So far, all we’ve talked about is Law, and its consequences: exile. Well, that’s the contrast you need to begin to understand Gospel. The Good News is that when you find yourself in exile, God makes ready His move. Just as surely as Babylon was for the Hebrews God’s instrument of Law, the Edict of Cyrus was God’s instrument of grace. The Persians under Cyrus pursued a much ...

1856. Poured Out for Many

Exodus 24:1-18, Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

... don’t think so. Maybe the problem is not how you feel about blood. Maybe the problem is how you feel about ritual and encountering God through it. The great temptation with ritual is to try to domesticate it; to bring it under control; to understand everything that is going on. But this attitude toward worship violates the most basic terms of the Covenant. The Covenant is a relationship between unequals, one of whom just happens to be Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty, the Holy One, who is shrouded in mystery ...

1857. Salvation: Authentic and Powerful

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... to risk status. We all like to be comfortable. Our padded pews and clergy chairs tend to tell more about us than we want to know. It can be said with real impact, only recently has Christian unity been blessed with the vision of a balanced understanding and appreciation of what Christ expects his Body to be. Those who, at one time, would have sat smugly in church, blissfully content, with a salvation avoiding the pain in our world "out there," have grown in the ways of their Lord. The yoke of servanthood ...

1858. A DRAMA OF LOST WORDS

Drama

... 1 and Woman 1 enter to the stage left area and begin to talk to one another, quietly; the audience should not be able to understand what they are saying. After a few seconds, Man 2 and Woman 2 enter to the stage right area and stand silent, facing front. ... will be able to stop it. Isn’t it beautiful! Woman 1: O.K., suppose you can get everybody to agree to do something they don’t understand. What then? Man 1: Then I lead them into what I want them to do. Woman 1: Right, but what do you want to do? Man 1 ...

1859. All The More Reason To Give Thanks

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

Brett Blair

... that suffering reminds us that we are mortal. Think of Mayor Rudolph Guiliani and the number of firefighter’s and policeman’s funerals he has attended and officiated in these past 10 weeks. Now think about having to do that for 40 years and you begin to understand a minister’s life. I don’t know about other ministers but for me the poignant line of the funeral comes at graveside when I read the words “we are dust and to dust we shall return.” It is a sobering moment, one that should cause us ...

1860. Welcome to the Training Table!

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

... , could also be understood in that way. God calls all humanity to share his meal. Our answers to the invitation indicate whether we intend to be there or not when this life is over. While those looks into eternity are quite legitimate and indicate one proper understanding of the parable and the Sacrament, let us not "push into the future" so completely with this parable that it has no meaning for - or impact on - our present. In fact, there is a far more immediate and far more urgent way to think about this ...

1861. Naming the Divine Baby

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... buying me this thing. I wanted it badly. So, you see, when you came to me asking for a record player, I understood immediately. I had been there.” That homely illustration has a message in it. Because Jesus was an authentic human being like us, he understands us. Jesus has walked the paths we walk. He is truly Emmanuel, God with us. As the author of Hebrews declares, “Because Jesus himself was tested.. .he is able to help those who are being tested.” (Hebrews 2:18) About this time each year, people ...

1862. No! I am not a virgin!

Matthew 1:18-25

Illustration

John Thomas Randolph

... their shock, one little boy leaned over and whispered in her ear: "Kristin, I don't think you know what you are talking about!" Many of us, adults included, do not know what we are talking about when we are tasking about the virgin birth, but as I understand it, the virgin birth means that Jesus came from God. He is God's Son. The emphasis is not primarily on Mary, but on the creative life-giving power of Almighty God. As Reginald H. Fuller, the theologian, expresses it, Jesus is not the product of human ...

1863. Are There Two Baptisms?

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... Jesus." One of the questions asked in many churches at the time of baptism is, "Will you renounce the devil and all his works and ways?" Baptism truly is a divine exorcism! Once in awhile we find someone who says, "But I want to be re-baptized!" "I think I understand it better now," or "I’m going to the Holy Land, and I want to be re-baptized in the River Jordan, where Jesus was baptized!" Friend, we do not believe in re-baptism! That is to negate the work of God that was done for you at your first ...

1864. The Triune God

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... working of the Holy Spirit. We may not fully fathom or comprehend this great God, but we can know who he is and we can commit our lives completely to him without getting bogged down like the skeptic who withheld surrendering his life to God because he didn’t understand every detail about him. A clergyman once asked a skeptic: "Do you mean to say that you don’t believe the Trinity as taught in the Bible?" The skeptic answered: "I don’t know about that, but I know that I can’t get it into my head. And ...

1865. Sinners Anonymous

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Dennis Kastens

... will goof sooner or later. You may go just perfectly for weeks. Then the kids might get you down, the pressures will be very great, you will suddenly explode, and there may be shrapnel all over. You are going to feel miserable, because with that explosion your understanding of Christ is going to be blown right out of the house with you. "As soon as your husband sees you goof he will not only believe he could never be a Christian, but he will also write off the validity of your Christianity as well." Then ...

1866. No Other Way To Be Happy

Deuteronomy 11:1-32

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... fuss that her friends don’t have to come in that early, or she may cry that the rule is old-fashioned. For the child’s own security and well-being, the parent lays down the law. Likewise, there are many of God’s laws we as Christians cannot understand or agree with. Why, we ask, must we go the second mile? Why must we forgive others before we can be forgiven by God? What sense does it make to love your enemies? At the time when Peter and his associates fished all night and caught nothing, Jesus tells ...

1867. Gabriel Speaks to Mary

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

George Bass

... that it was a single angel - Gabriel - who announced the conception of Christ and his impending birth to Mary - and, subsequently, to the world. And we celebrate what that event means to all of us, hopeful that the Holy Spirit will give us the kind of vision and understanding of the promise of the Messiah that he gave to Daniel (8:16, 9:21) centuries before Christ was born. God Is About to Change the World Gabriel’s announcement was much more than a message of a birth that was soon to take place; God’s ...

1868. On Being Lifted Beyond Ourselves

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... come. We cannot handle it by ourselves. It is by God’s accepted direction and empowerment that we truly live. C. H. Dodd understands this Scripture when he writes: "Prayer is the divine in us appealing to the divine above us." This is how we prepare ... can. Sometimes, as I face problems, all I can do is to cry out to God, and strangely and beautifully the Spirit of God in me understands and passes the need on to God who is beyond me. Then God answers by opening up life to me in ways I could never do ...

1869. The Glory of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... to Jesus and applauding in approval. It is to put our foot on the way with him, to lighten the world, to be salt for the earth, to share bread with the hungry and to cover the naked. Whoever will not go that way with him in life will not understand what it means to go with him in death. "Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified." Jesus said that as his foot was set without wavering toward Calvary. He might equally well say it if he were here before us this day, commissioning us ...

1870. I Knew You’d Come

John 6:16-24

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

... nothing, If a miracle is the only way to save us - then a miracle it is. The fact that it is difficult or even impossible for us to understand how he does it, or even believe he did it, is beside the point. He doesn’t do it to present a problem for us to solve. He ... walking on the water just before he presents the controversy with the Pharisees and teachers of the law who fail to understand Jesus because of "the hardness of their hearts." This phrase - "hardness of the heart" - is a common biblical means of ...

1871. A LITURGICAL DRAMA FOR ALL SAINTS’

Drama

Tom Eberle

... . I am a Jew, but don’t look so startled. [begins slowly walking toward the front] So are you. We are all the chosen people of God. Before you were conceived I carried you from slavery out of Egypt, across the Red Sea. Before you were born I struggled to understand what it meant to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Before you came of age I built a manger to cradle the one who would reveal the fullness of God to us. [lights one of the candles] Join with me now in words ...

1872. Are You Under Arrest?

Heb 5:11-13; 10:39

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... is to say that they have ceased growing on one or more fronts. So far have they gone and no further will they go! What’s more, many so frozen go one sad step further and claim to have arrived at the plateau of truth for all times. Around their understanding of the truth they plant a wall and from that wall doggedly defend what they take to be the truth’s final word. In a sense people like that arrest themselves! It is this issue of arrest that Paul has in mind in this letter to the Hebrews, and J ...

1873. How Fares Your Christian Sight?

Is 6:8-10

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... is the fact that the Christian faith provides lenses that do just that. Paul gives expression to these lenses in the fifth chapter of second Corinthians: With us therefore worldly standards have ceased to count in our estimate of any man; even if once they counted in our understanding of Christ, they do so now no longer. When anyone is united to Christ, there is a new world; the old order has gone, and a new order has already begun. (2 Corinthians 5:16-17, NEB) It would be easy to make a case for the ...

1874. God and the Weather

Matthew 5:45; 16:2-3 · Psalm 18:7-11; 46:1-3, 11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... , and it is no easy undertaking, but then a religious posture worth its salt is one that grapples with difficult questions, and so I propose that we set out to make some religious sense out of the weather. First in discussing God and the weather, we need to understand something of the nature of God’s control over his creation, and in a discussion of this it is not a question of what God could do but a question of what God does. God’s control of nature, I suggest, is expressed in the built-in controls ...

1875. The Witch of Endor

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... they are suspect. The stigma of witch is still applied. A handsome young man, a robust athlete, talked with a minister. Sweat poured down the youth’s face as in a frenzied torrent of words he told of his living hell. Suicide seemed the only way out, "You understand, I don’t want your help or your prayers. Why won’t the world leave me alone?" He claimed that God made him homosexual, and now society was out to get him. A youth was incarcerated for use of drugs. He wrote his pastor, "I have faith - both ...

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