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 2151 to 2175 of 5000 results

2151. Identity Crisis

Genesis 32:1-21, Genesis 32:22-32, Genesis 33:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

We all walk with a limp. Our walk with God is a broken gait. Or at least an uneven one. God is always in the lead. Always sure. Always strong. We (on the other hand) walk with God weakly and imperfectly. Sometimes even disastrously. But as long as we continue to walk, we remain in relationship. And that’s what’s most important. In life, our limps and our scars tell our stories. Stories of the struggles we’ve survived. Stories of the wounds we’ve suffered. They leave a visible trace upon our person, a ...

2152. The Dean's Dilemma

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

When you were a kid did you ever fantasize about finding a magical being who would grant wishes for you? Kids see endless possibilities in the world, yet their power is fairly limited, so they get a lot of satisfaction from imagining a magical being, like a genie or a fairy or an angel, who can instantly give them whatever they desire. But the movies and stories along these lines almost always come with a moral: Be very careful what you wish for—you just might get it. It reminds me of the story I like to ...

2153. Possession Is Nine-tenths Of The Law

Daniel 7:1-14, Daniel 7:15-28

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

The book of Daniel belongs to that strange genre of biblical literature we call "apocalyptic." To the modern ear it sounds very different, and its language is somewhat bizarre. Some interpreters have tried to use this literature to predict with certainty the future, but some find this to be an inappropriate use of scripture. Apocalyptic literature is much easier to understand, and more helpful to us in our daily living, if we avoid trying to use it as a detailed outline of future events and simply try to ...

2154. What's So Good About Feeling Bad?

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Joann Hary

The other day as I was sitting outside the pre-surgical room at the hospital with nothing much to do but wait, I opened one of the multitude of magazines there and saw this wonderful cartoon. There were two witches on brooms flying through the air. You know how we picture witches to look. Well, one looked pretty happy while the other was obviously very upset as she complained to the other, "I told you before we started out today that it was going to rain. But no, you wouldn't listen to me, you and your ...

2155. The Only Fact That Really Matters

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

Two weeks before his first heart attack in 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower summoned evangelist Billy Graham to the presidential retreat at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After nearly four hours of conversation, the President suddenly looked Graham squarely in the eye, and said, "Billy, I want you to tell me why you believe in heaven, and why you believe in the afterlife." Dr. Graham declares President Eisenhower talked with him many times on the subject after that, including his last conversation with him in ...

2156. Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

Characters: Mr. Horton, his teenage son, James, and the Teacher. They all enter at once and stand on different levels in a closed position [their backs to the audience]. They remain in these places throughout. They do not look at each other when talking, but rather at the audience. Hold for a few seconds before beginning. FATHER: [turning to audience, speaking irritably] Look at your hands! Those nails! You’ve been out in that workshop again fooling around with a motor or some gadget, haven’t you? SON: [ ...

2157. He Rose Again

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Somewhere or other I heard of a Sunday School teacher who had just finished telling her third graders about how Jesus was crucified and placed in a tomb with a great stone sealing off the only way in or out. Then, wanting to share the excitement of the resurrection, and the surprise of Easter morning, she asked: "And what do you think were Jesus' first words when he came bursting out of that tomb alive." A hand shot up into the air from the rear of the classroom. It belonged to a most excited little girl. ...

2158. I Am Sombody!!!

Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I suspect that, having made it to mid-January, you would say that you have successfully survived the holidays. True? The celebration of our Savior's birth - Christmas; then the New Year; finally the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6th - Epiphany (which for many has become the Feast of Taking Down the Decorations!). This morning I want to suggest that there is one more holiday we should be observing - THIS day, the one the liturgical calendar designates to remember the Baptism of the Lord. If the ...

2159. Unprepared

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

You have probably seen somewhere along the way a list of some of the more colorful excuses parents have written to their children's teachers: For example, one parent wrote: "My son is under the doctor's care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him." Or the note from this parent who appears to have taken drastic action herself: "Please excuse Mary for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot." Or my favorite: "Please excuse Fred for being. It was his father's fault." Some unknown wit has ...

2160. Is Suffering Punishment for Sin?

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

One of the most helpful books of recent years has been Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In the opening pages he writes, “Like most people, my wife and I had grown up with an image of God as an all-wise, all-powerful parent figure who would treat us as our earthly parents did, or even better. If we were obedient and deserving, he would reward us. If we got out of line, he would discipline us, reluctantly, but firmly. (God) would see that we got what we deserved in life.” (New ...

2161. Will the Real Blind Beggar Please Stand Up?

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

It's easy to slap some people down. Little kids, poor people, beggars, the handicapped, foreigners, old people, minorities ... the list goes on. Sit down and shut up and be grateful for what you have. What do you know? Who asked you? You should be seen and not heard. Those are things we say -- or maybe have had said to us. That's assuming the person in question isn't being ignored into oblivion. We sinful human beings sometimes waver between abusing and ignoring someone who offends, disturbs, or makes us ...

2162. They Lied and They Died

Acts 5:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

There have been some famous names in our history. Everyone knows John and Jackie, as in Kennedy, George and Martha, as in Washington; James and Dolly, as in Madison. In the Bible, there have also been some famous couples. As I thought about some of these couples, a thought immediately came to my mind about each one of them. One famous couple was Ahab and Jezebel: about them, I thought; they lived by the sword, they died by the sword. Then there was Ruth and Boaz: The thought came to my mind; they met, they ...

2163. Thursday: Broken Bread And Broken Trust

Mark 14:10-26

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Mark 14:10-26 (NRSV) [10] Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. [11] When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. [12] On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?" [13] So he sent two of his disciples, saying to ...

2164. Characteristics of the Church, Part 2

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Somewhere I read of a Seminary professor whose last years were spent in and out of hospitals, suffering from a debilitating, incurable disease. As he reflected on his ministry, he said that when he began, he thought of himself as the expert, standing upon the bank of the stream of life, shouting instructions to the swimmers down below. In the second stage of his ministry, if he saw someone going down for the third time, he would plunge into the water, get the person started in the right direction again, ...

2165. The Messed Up

John 4:1-26

Sermon

James Merritt

In 2006, Alitalia Airlines, the official airline of Italy, made a slight mistake on its website regarding international airfare from Toronto, Canada, to the island of Cyprus. They advertised business-class seats for $39. It was supposed to be $3900, but somebody left two zeros. Two thousand tickets were immediately snapped up and it cost the airline $7.7 million. Somebody messed up. In 1990, 75 million phone calls across the United States went unanswered after a single switch at one of AT&T’s Switching ...

2166. No Excuse

Luke 14:15-24

Sermon

James Merritt

Imagine this: U2 has just made an announcement they are splitting up. They have been at it a long time, made all the money they could ever spend, and they are tired of traveling. To celebrate their long careers one of the most successful bands in the history of music are going to do one last farewell concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. For one night only, last chance to hear them doing all their best songs, they are advertising it as the greatest show they will ever put on. It is destined to ...

2167. Eliphaz Turns Up His Criticism of Job

Job 15:1-35

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

Big Idea: Eliphaz insists that Job is a sinner who deserves God’s punishment. Understanding the Text Job 15 contains Eliphaz’s second speech to Job, and it is evident that civil discussion between them has broken down considerably. In fact, in the second cycle (Job 15–21) the dialogue between Job and his friends becomes more strained, abusive, and insulting as the friends focus almost completely on the divine punishment due to wicked people like Job. In chapter 15, Eliphaz is not as courteous as when he ...

2168. Listening 101

John 4:1-26, John 4:27-38, John 4:39-42

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

Somewhere in my life I heard someone say something like, “The challenge with John (the gospel writer) is he is better at theatre than at writing.” The implications of this comment were about passages such as this one about Jesus and the woman of Samaria. Today’s reading is long enough that when read you begin to lose your place. But as drama (theatre) you can remember it well. You remember a woman coming to a well and an encounter with a strange man at a historic landmark of faith. You recognize that this ...

2169. Resurrecticity

John 20:1-18 · Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

I want to tell you a story this morning about this woman who went out and bought herself a parrot. This woman’s name was Erma, and Erma wanted in the worst way to have a bird that talked. She went to the pet store and selected what was a pretty costly bird. She took the bird home and waited for it to speak. Nothing happened. So she went to the pet shop and told the storekeeper that the bird didn’t talk. “Well,” said the man, “Why don’t you take home this mirror and put it in the bird’s cage? They like to ...

2170. For Someone Who Led A Magnificent Life

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 · 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 · 2 Corinthians 4:6-11 · Luke 24:13-35

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

A Wonderful Life [Review the places, the organizations, the committees, the individuals who would be bereft and impoverished had he or she not graced the stage of life.] This very day draws to a close the Christmas season and so I’m given the liberty of referencing a yuletide illustration, in particular, the Frank Capra’s movie classic: It’s a Wonderful Life. We all know the story. George Bailey, played by James Stewart, lives in the fictional town of Bedford Falls N.Y. where he marries a beautiful girl, ...

2171. Sabotaging The Sabath

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Richard Patt

We wish the story here would have ended another way. Yes, it was the sabbath (always meant to be a beautiful day for God's people!). And even on the sabbath people become sick or continue to be sick. Jesus notices a woman, all hunched over, obviously one who had been ill for a long time. He is a merciful Lord, so he takes the initiative to call her over and lay his hands on her. In these gracious acts, the woman is healed on the spot. Her body is straightened again, and she praises God for God's goodness. ...

2172. Mirror, Mirror ON The Wall . . .!

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Do you remember the fairy tale "Snow White"? Recall how the wicked witch peered into her magic looking glass and said, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"\n The mirror's answer was quite disappointing. "It's certainly not you, Ugly!"\n Does your mirror ever do that to you? Sad to say, but thousands of people's mirrors disappoint them each day.\n Have you ever known someone to look at a photograph of himself in his high school yearbook and say, "Golly, I take an awful picture. ...

2173. Rules For A Happy Life

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

America's premier Protestant preacher of the early part of this century, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, once told a story from his early days as presiding minister of the great Riverside Church in New York. It seems that Fosdick, liberal by theological standards of the time, was turned off by much contemporary preaching with its emphasis on sin and threat. He vowed he would place his emphasis on the love and forgiveness of God. One day a man who had attended Riverside for several months approached Fosdick to ...

2174. Persevering In The Faith

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

Many years ago, a friend of mine remarked that several years earlier he and his wife had quit attending church. I asked him why. He explained that his wife had become quite ill and, as they were occasional church attenders, they decided to pray for healing. As part of this effort, they attended worship every Sunday, became otherwise involved in their church, doubled their pledge, and in general made church and prayer a central part of their lives. However, as time went on, the wife became sicker. There was ...

2175. Pleased To Reconcile

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Larry R. Kalajainen

Did you ever secretly wish that we had kings and queens here in America? I think that must be a secret wish of many of us, if the tabloid newspapers and magazines which are always on sale at the supermarket checkout counters are any indication. Between the romantic antics of Hollywood and the goings-on of the British royal family, the tabloids do a rushing business. (I won't embarrass any of us by asking how many secretly enjoy reading those tabloids as we're standing in line.) There's hardly a week goes ...

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