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 2076 to 2100 of 5000 results

2076. I’m At the End of My Rope

2 Kings 4:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

James Dobson tells the true story of a little toddler named Frankie. He was a handful to say the least. One day he pulled a chair over to the front window of his house, and carefully placed it inside the drapes. He was standing there staring out at the world when his mother came looking for him. She spied his little white legs protruding beneath the drapes, and quietly slipped in behind him to see what he was doing. She got there just to hear him say to himself in very somber terms, "I've got to get out of ...

2077. It’s Time to Grow Up

Ephesians 4:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

I want you to listen again to two lines in this song. Between who you are and who you could be Between how it is and how it should be If that tension is in your life, I am going to dare you to move. I am going to dare you to move to the next level of spiritual growth in your life – to move from where you are now to where you could be on the road to both spiritual life and spiritual maturity. What I want to say to many of you today is something that we all tell our kids (or one day you will tell your kids) ...

2078. The Revolution Against Evolution

Genesis 1:1

Sermon

James Merritt

It is the ultimate question of all questions - Where did the universe come from? Why does it exist? Genesis 1:1 simply states, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1, NASB) So the very beginning of God's word to man says man had a beginning, a divine beginning, a supernatural beginning. Believe it or not, the Christian message does not begin with "Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior." It begins with "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The Bible ...

2079. What’s the Big Deal about Baptism?

Mark 1:9-11

Sermon

James Merritt

Jesus had a ministry that lasted a little more than three years. Of all the things He could have started His ministry with and ended His ministry with, He started it by being baptized and concluded it by commanding the church to make disciples and baptize others. Now, since baptism was the bookends of the ministry of the Son of God, that alone should tell us that baptism, is a big deal. It is but not because of what some people think. There are two extreme ways that people have of looking at baptism. There ...

2080. A Puzzling Parable with a Sharp Point

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

Ron Lavin

A young boy used to describe foods like spinach by saying, "I hate it." His wise mother responded, "Don't say you hate it. Just say, ‘I'm not very fond of it.' " She also taught her son that when he really liked some food to say, "I'm really fond of this." The boy said, he was "really fond" of cookies, candy, and cake. His mother told him, "Too many cookies, too much candy, and cake can be bad for you. You can be very fond of the wrong things." Something like that is going on underneath the story of the ...

2081. Faithquakes

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

Ron Lavin

A woman who went through her first earthquake in California said, as it was happening, "I think a train just hit our apartment building. I think our foundation is gone. We better pray." A faithquake is something like an earthquake. Something comes along and shakes us up. Something shakes our very foundations. Through the foundation-shaking event, we want to know more about God and faith. Something like that is going on in our gospel. The apostles cried out, "Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5). In the front ...

2082. Our Common Life in Christ

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

It glows with light and power today as we turn to verses 1 through 4 of the second chapter of this Philippian letter. “If then our common life in Christ yields any thing to stir the heart, any loving consolation, any sharing of the Spirit, any warmth of affection or compassion, fill up my cup of happiness by thinking and feeling alike with the same love for one another, the same turn of mind, and a common care must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you, but you must humbly reckon others ...

2083. Opening and Closing Doors

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Many years ago, Dr. James Fisher, a practicing psychiatrist, wrote a very entertaining little book entitled A FEW BUTTONS MISSING . It was a light treatment of some of his experiences in psychiatric practice. However, near the end of the book, Dr. Fisher became very serious. This is what he said. “What was needed, I felt sure, was some new and enlightened recipe for living a sane and satisfying life — a recipe compounded from all the accumulated scientific knowledge acquired through study and research. I ...

2084. We Believe in the Forgiveness of Sins

1 John 1:5-2:2

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Ernest Hemingway wrote a story about a father and son who had a serious misunderstanding. In the story, the boy finally runs away from home. The father, however, is not content to let his son go. In an effort to find the boy, the father puts an ad in the Madrid, Spain newspaper. It contained these words: Dear Paco, Meet me at the town square at noon on Sunday. All is forgiven. Your father. That Sunday 800 males by the name of Paco showed up at the town square. They all came seeking forgiveness from their ...

2085. Reaching Up—Reaching Out

Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

An elderly man was critically ill when he asked to see his doctor, his minister, and his closest business associate. As the three of them gathered around the man's bed, he said to them, "I know they say you can't take it with you, but who knows for sure? So, I'm giving each of you an envelope with a $100,000 in cash, in case I need a little spending money on the other side." A few days later the old man died. On the day of the funeral, the doctor, the minister and the business man all slipped an envelope ...

2086. Hard Words to Hear at Christmas

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

We've gathered here today on the second Sunday of Advent to continue to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord. This task of preparing for the arrival of the Lord is not as easy as we might think it is. As in other areas of life, we find ourselves having to unlearn some things in order to see what the scriptures teach us about God's act in Jesus. We've let the culture around us snatch away much of the meaning of the birth of the Savior. We have to reclaim that meaning if we really want to be ready ...

2087. Whose Wife Will She Be?

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

King Duncan

A little girl walked into a pet shop. She went up to the shopkeeper and asked in a sweet little lisp, “Excuthe me, mithter, do you have any wittle wabbits?” The shopkeeper bent way down and put his hands on his knees so he would be on her level, and asked, “Do you want a wittle white wabbit or a wittle bwack wabbit? Or maybe that cute wittle bwown wabbit over there?” The little girl thought for a moment, put her hands on her knees, leaned forward and said in a quiet little voice, “Mr., I don’t fink my ...

2088. Hey, Foolish Thing!

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that some bright people can say really dumb things? When the American baseball player Bill Gullickson signed a phenomenal contract to play baseball in Japan, he was asked what daily life was like in Japan. He replied that the language was the most difficult and different feature. “It’s crazy,” he said. “The only American words I saw were Sony and Mitsubishi.” (1) Well, I guess those are American words. There is no limit to the foolish things people do and say particularly our ...

2089. Surprise!

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Do you like surprises? Some folks do. Not me, I do not like bad surprises at all and only tolerate good surprises. In general, I prefer no surprises. I realize that life is full of surprises though, so they will come whether I want them or not. Some surprises will be bigger than others, of course. Ask Mary. She surely got a major surprise. There she was, doing the dishes or sweeping the floor or sitting engrossed in the latest Harlequin Romance, or whatever young Israelite girls did in those days, when the ...

2090. Jesus and Divorce

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Tough text. In generations past, this would have provided no problem for the preacher — Jesus says, "No divorce," the church says, "Amen" (along with most polite society); case closed. But these days, things are different. Jesus still says, "No divorce," but only part of the church says, "Amen," while other parts say, "We are not so sure" (and polite society says, "Mind your own business"); case not closed at all. I recall a conversation at our dinner table one evening years ago that was so bizarre I ...

2091. Disintegration and Reintegration

Mark 14:1-15:47

Sermon

John Smylie

Today's reading is the longest assigned reading that we have the entire year. Many churches break the reading up into several parts, assigning individuals and groups to particular lines and sections. Perhaps we do this so we can keep the interest of the listener. Perhaps we do this so we can engage the drama of the reading. It seems to me the reason we have such a long reading today is because we have come to the heart and center of our faith. We need to hear the whole story. We need to be reminded not in ...

2092. The Great Inescapable Question of Eternity

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

Jeremy Bowen could not be more wrong and Bono could not be more right! Bowen, the presenter of a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary on Jesus Christ, said, "The important thing is not what Jesus was or what he wasn't — the important thing is what people believe him to have been. A massive world wide religion, numbering more than two billion people follows his memory — that's pretty remarkable, 2,000 years on."1 On the opposite end of the spectrum, Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2, asked if ...

2093. The Many Faces of God

Isaiah 6:1-8

Sermon

William J. Carl, III

Think of all the faces we show the world every day. We scrub up every morning and put our game face on. We never show our real face except to those who know us best, the ones who see through the game face to the real you and me. But with everyone else we change our faces. The doorbell rings. You're working on something, so you grimace over the interruption. Watch the contours of your face change, depending on who's at the door. Perhaps it's a door-to-door salesman and now you're stuck listening to his ...

2094. When You Are Wrongly Criticized

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Anyone here like criticism? How do you respond to criticism? Does being criticized bring you down or fire you up? Do you want to hunker in your bunker or lob your own volley of vitriol back at your critics? Learning how to respond to criticism is a lifetime journey. That’s because critics will be accompanying you from cradle to grave! In every election year there is no shortage of negative, critical remarks flying around the airwaves. Of course all politicians virtuously claim they hate “negative” ads. And ...

2095. But I Really Like the Best Seat in the House!

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon

Years ago I was a director of alcohol and drug programs in a neighboring county. Sadly, I developed a new addiction. I'll put it as honestly as I can ... I became hooked on self-help books, tapes, and videos, especially those that promised if I followed their ten simple steps I would rise to the top of my field. I practiced thinking and growing rich and I studied the magic of thinking big. You name it, and sadly, I probably read it and treated it with close to the respect I gave the Bible at that time. I ...

2096. Lust

Galatians 5:16-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Remember the furor that arose a few years ago when Jimmy Carter was interviewed by Playboy magazine and was asked if he had ever had any extramarital affairs? He said that he never had but admitted to lusting "in my heart," which as Jesus made clear, was just as bad as actually committing adultery. Now, whatever one might think about Jimmy Carter's presidency, everyone would agree that he was and is a most committed Christian. If someone like Jimmy Carter would admit to a problem with lust, I suspect that ...

2097. A Road Straight to Your Heart

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Somewhere I read about a meeting of a group of software designers. They were using typical technical jargon to discuss a data exchange interface with a vendor. One engineer said the programming that had been ordered was delayed because the vendor was suffering from a “severe nonlinear waterfowl issue.” Curious, the team leader raised his eyebrows and asked, “What exactly is a severe nonlinear waterfowl issue?” The engineer replied, “They don’t have all their ducks in a row.” On this second Sunday of Advent ...

2098. Passing the Test

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

"Students, it is time to get out your pencils, close your books and remove any notes from your desks. The test is about to begin." Those are words that make us shudder, our hearts start to pound and the palms of our hands begin to sweat. From our earliest days in school, we all have had to learn to deal with tests. It may begin with a simple first grade spelling test. But it doesn't take too long before it morphs into ISTEP, the SAT, the Bar, the Boards, or a doctoral qualifying exam. Or it might be as ...

2099. From Slave to Brother

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

We often shortchange love. We think of it as sweet and sentimental, something that is good for children and family members. We think of love as sort of soft and cuddly, nice in its place, but not very useful in the things that really matter. Do we think of love as tough, transforming, powerful? This little book of Philemon, tucked into the back of the New Testament at the tail end of Paul's letters, teaches us about the potential of love. Thomas Long, who teaches preaching at EmoryUniversity in Atlanta, ...

2100. Envision: The Great Commitment

Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

James Merritt

Envision: such a powerful word. In 1969 America did something that had only been dreamed of and fantasized about in books and novels—she put a man on the moon. How did this happen? Because John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961 envisioned putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Nearly a half-century ago, 22,000 acres just south of Orlando, Florida was a swamp where alligators outnumbered people. Porous limestone underlay the vegetal muck. It was land no one wanted until November 22, 1963 when a ...

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