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 2301 to 2325 of 2747 results

2301. When Walls Shift and the Ceiling Collapses

John 8:31-36

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... (paraphrased). 3. Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Jacobsen, et. al., The Works of Martin Luther (Philadelphia: A.J. Holman Company, 1915), Volume 1, p. 29. 4. Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (New York: Random House, 2011), cited in conversations with Charles Mann on "Fresh Air," NPR Radio, August 8, 2011.

2302. The Wrong Gift

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... all displaced people, whether in little or great ways. The gospel story reminds us that God came into our world in the person of Jesus to find us and to bring us home to love and grace and eternity itself. When we actually begin to breathe the air of the gospels, they smell of home. Christopher Fry put it this way in one of his plays, The Lady's not for Burning: Margaret and Nicholas are talking about a woman who seems to be acting strangely. Margaret says, "She must be lost." Nicholas responds, wistfully ...

2303. God's Adopted Children

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... and the more they view them as individual titles. Let’s use another example. Most of us know nothing about what goes on under the hood of a car. Today, most cars come with all kinds of standard features, such as power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, cruise control, navigation systems and, of course, computers to control everything. But these features make things a lot more complicated than they used to be. Suppose we have car trouble on a deserted road? We open the hood of the car, but what do ...

2304. A Complicated Disciple

John 18:15-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... watching it go cold. Yancey expected to hear a word like love or acceptance. Instead, Tom said softly one word: dependency. “None of us can make it on our own--isn’t that why Jesus came?” Tom asked. “Yet most church people give off a self-satisfied air of piety or superiority. I don’t sense them consciously leaning on God or each other. Their lives appear to be in order. An alcoholic who goes to church feels inferior and incomplete.” Tom sat in silence for a while, until a smile began to crease ...

2305. Are You Giving Up Chocolate for Valentine's Day?

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... ; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Certainly this test would have been good for Jesus’ rJsumJ. If he threw himself from the pinnacle of the Temple and a host of angels caught him in mid-air, then everyone would know without question he truly was the Son of God. Satan even quotes Psalm 91:11-12 that prophesies that the messiah will be kept safe from harm. Satan, by the way, is a master at quoting scripture, almost as good at it as Jesus. At ...

2306. Initiating War

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... , how do wars begin?” “Well, take the First World War,” said his father. “That got started when Germany invaded Belgium.” Immediately his wife interrupted him: “Tell the boy the truth. It began because somebody was murdered.” The husband drew himself up with an air of superiority and snapped back, “Are you answering the question, or am I?” Turning her back upon him in a huff, the wife walked out of the room and slammed the door as hard as she could. When the dishes stopped rattling in the ...

I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit, coming from God, and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf; a few months hence I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing—the way to heaven … God Himself has condescended to teach the way. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that Book! At any price, give me the book of God!

John Wesley

2308. Jesus Christ - No Mere Man

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The following observation is largely attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte but not definitively verified: “I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself, Caesar, Alexander, should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant, Jesus, should be able to stretch His hands across the destinies of men and nations. I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, ...

2309. The Empty Bag

Col 2:8, 23

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... . You've put money into a machine and pushed a button for a bag of potato chips that, judging from the appearance of the package, looked as if it were full of chips. When the bag comes out and we open it, it turns out to be mainly full of air and contains only a few chips. If we had examined the bag closely before making the purchase, we would have seen it as an empty deception. The Colossians are an example of believers who were in danger of buying into an empty deception. The apostle Paul warned that they ...

2310. Jonah Proof

Jonah 1:17

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... lunatic.… At the end of the third week he had entirely recovered from the shock and resumed his duties. Bartley affirms that he would probably have lived inside his house of flesh until he starved, for he lost his senses through fright and not from lack of air. He remembers the sensation of being thrown out of the boat into the sea.… He was then encompassed by a great darkness and he felt he was slipping along a smooth passage of some sort that seemed to move and carry him forward. The sensation lasted ...

2311. The Sacrifice of A Son

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... was caught in the cogs of the two main gears! Desperately John’s mind whirled to devise a rescue plan. But as soon as he thought of a possibility he knew there was no way it could be done. Again, with alarming closeness, the train whistle shrieked in the air. He could hear the clicking of the locomotive wheels over the tracks. That was his son down there—yet there were four hundred passengers on the train. John knew what he had to do, so he buried his head in his left arm and pushed the master switch ...

2312. The Parable of Wings

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... beaks. Because the wings were heavy, the birds laid them on their shoulders. Then, to their amazement, the wings began to grow and soon had attached themselves to their bodies. The birds quickly discovered how to use these new appendages and were soon soaring through the air. What had once been a heavy burden now became an instrument that enabled the birds to soar and go where they could never go before. The story is a parable. We are the wingless birds. The duties and tasks that seem like a burden and a ...

2313. Peter’s Vision

Acts 10:9-23a

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... historic present by Luke for greater vividness) heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners (v. 11). Within it were all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air (v. 12)—the three categories of living creatures recognized in the Old Testament (Gen. 6:20, RSV; cf. Rom. 1:23). When Peter told this story later, he added to the menagerie “wild beasts” (11:6), but the all of this verse had already included them. The ...

2314. Paul in Ephesus

Acts 19:1-22

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... –42; 7:54–8:1a; 13:13–51; 21:17–26; and 27:1–12). The idea of going to Rome may have been sown in Paul’s mind at Corinth (see disc. on 18:17), but it was only while he was at Ephesus that he began to publicly air it. Clearly, he believed that it was God’s will that he should go (see disc. on 1:16 for I must; cf. also 20:22), and Luke may have intended to show this by his expression “Paul determined in the Spirit to travel,” though it could mean that he ...

2315. Paul the Roman Citizen

Acts 22:22-29

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... ” (NIV Rid the earth of him). He’s not fit to live, they declared (v. 22)—the imperfect tense implies that this had been so in their opinion for a very long time. Their rage was given expression by their throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air (cf. 2 Sam. 16:13; Job 2:12; Rev. 18:19) and shouting (v. 23). In the latter word we have another reminder of the story of Jesus. The expression is found in Acts only here, but six times in John and four times in the Johannine passion narrative ...

2316. Ashore on Malta

Acts 28:1-10

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... was St. Paul Shipwrecked?” JTS 24 [1973], pp. 190–93; but see also C. J. Hemer, “Euraquilo and Melita,” JTS 26 [1975], pp. 101–11). The theory rests on too narrow a definition of the Sea of Adria, which by the tenth century A.D., when the theory was first aired, was limited, as now, to the sea between Italy and the Balkans. In any case, it is too far from the probable route of the ship (see note on 27:27).

2317. Body

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... of the Son and finally take up residence with him, so that he becomes the firstborn “among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29; cf. Phil. 3:20–21). As Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, referring to being caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, “And so shall we be with the Lord forever.” In the interim, Paul, along with other believers, is “away from the Lord” in the sense that he does not yet dwell with Christ in heaven. This remains true for Paul even if he has gone on repeated heavenly ...

2318. Sons of God

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... with others” (Delling, TDNT 7:678). The word came to be used particularly in Stoicism to refer to the belief that the cosmos was made of four basic elements. All of matter could be explained as based on the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire. The ancients had various attitudes to these elements. Isis was thought to be a diety who controlled the “basic principles” (Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11.1). Devotion to Isis provided protection from the stoicheia. See 2 Pet. 3:10 for how the end of ...

2319. Not Circumcision but a New Creation

Galatians 6:11-18

Understanding Series

L. Ann Jervis

... or it may have been Paul’s own invention. In either case it indicates that Paul is battling with his opponents over who can correctly understand the role of the law for believers in Christ. 6:17 Paul appeals that no one should cause him trouble. He conveys an air of confidence that his letter will accomplish its task and that in the future he will no longer be troubled by this situation. Paul knows himself to be one who bears the marks of Jesus on his body. He is certain of his own integrity and that his ...

2320. Freedom From Human Regulations Through Life With Christ

Colossians 2:6-23

Understanding Series

Arthur G. Patzia

... meaning of these concepts in the NT (Col. 2:8, 20; Gal. 4:3). The term stoicheion indicates something basic or rudimentary, such as the fundamental principles of learning (the ABCs), or the elements from which the world was created (earth, air, fire, and water). These principles may have been elevated to the level of spirits or angels in the Hellenistic world. Stoicheion also designates the heavenly bodies that in some cases were personified and worshiped. The control that these elemental spirits had over ...

2321. Paul’s Longing to See the Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 2:17--3:5

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... the devil (Eph. 4:27; 6:11; 1 Tim. 3:7; 2 Tim. 2:26; cf. Matt. 4:1–11; John 8:44; Acts 13:10; James 4:7; 1 Pet. 5:8), the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4), and the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Eph. 2:2). Like other NT writers, Paul thought of him as having real existence—as a personal, malevolent being (cf. also Matt. 10:25; 12:24, 27 where he is called Beelzebub, and John 14:30, where he is called the prince of this world).

2322. The Man of Lawlessness

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... Paul was responding to a group within the church who espoused a realized eschatology (see Introduction on The Writing of 1 Thessalonians). But when we look at what Paul himself says, while there is no disputing that the idea of a realized eschatology was in the air, as far as his readers were concerned that was not the problem. The problem for them was what to make of such an idea in the light of their own firmly held belief in a future eschatology, i.e., that there was something still to come (reflected ...

2323. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... has been brought back again. God does not desire the sinner’s death, but his or her repentance. God’s grace is still available no matter how much he has been wronged (4:6). The sinner, then, is delivered from death. The jaws of hell snap shut on air as the believer once again walks the way of life. The rescue has resulted in the forgiveness of a multitude of sins, which are covered over, forgotten. The person is not branded in the church as someone who once went astray but is part of a company in ...

2324. Suffering for Being a Christian

1 Peter 4:12-19

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... , the quotation goes on with the rhetorical question “what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” What indeed! The outlook for one who acts contemptuously toward God (such is the implication of the word for ungodly: impious) is left hanging threateningly in the air. 4:19 Summing up, Peter declares that all this means that believers who suffer in the course of following God’s will are to express their trust in the Lord by a deliberate handing over of their lives to him. Meanwhile, regardless of ...

2325. The People's Confession of Sin

Ezra 10:1-17

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... reading of the Torah took place (Neh. 8:1). The weather could hardly have provided a more fitting backdrop for the grim occasion. It was December, in the season of the early rains, and up in Jerusalem it was cold and miserable at the open-air meeting. Ezra addressed his “shivering” (REB) congregation. He began with a digest of his prayer, concentrating on past and present guilt and defining the latter in terms of intermarriage. In verse 11 he turned to what should be done, although the reference to the ...

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