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 2451 to 2475 of 3082 results

2451. Mission Possible

Sermon

Robert Beringer

Almost all of us have seen the popular television program, "Mission Impossible." For many years the MI Task Force took on what seemed like an incredible assignment, and in less than an hour, they did the impossible! How wonderful it would be if carrying out the mission of Jesus Christ in this world were as easy. The challenge to us in this season of Epiphany is the ongoing proclamation that the "light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5)." But in more ways than one, this ...

2452. Ooo Boy!

Matthew 5:33-37, Matthew 5:31-32

Sermon

John Jamison

I don't know what started the argument. I don't know if anyone really knows what started the argument. In all honesty, it doesn't matter. I think we all know that most arguments never end up where they end up because of where they started. It might have started over some disagreement over the children. It might have begun over something about the in-laws, or perhaps it was her cooking again. Who knows. But it really doesn't matter how it started, what matters is that it has suddenly gotten very quiet in ...

2453. The Call To Victory

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Sims Robert

The book of Revelation is a powerful and beautiful book designed to answer one question. The people of the early church were suffering under persecution and many were being martyred. They looked for the second coming of Christ as the grand and glorious answer to their pain. They asked the question, “How long will it be before Christ returns? How long will it be before the victory is final and complete?” The book of Revelation gives a clear and simple answer: “Behold, I am coming soon (Revelation 22:12).” ...

2454. The Glorious Company

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

Harmless fun some call it. Others suggest it is never harmless or funny to joke about evil, even if we know that the witches and gremlins, devils and werewolves who roam our streets are the little children of our neighborhood, and the glaring faces in our windows are no more than hollowed-out pumpkins whose candles will not even last the evening. While there are some October Scrooges who bemoan the knocks at the door, there are many more who pile up the fruits and candies, turn on the lights and wait by ...

2455. Step Twelve - Responsibility

Lk 19:1-10 · Gal 6:1-10 · Is 61:1-4

Sermon

John A. Terry

Step 12: "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs." This is not a step inward in our own journey of life and faith. It is a step outward which we take after we have recognized where God has led us in this journey. It is, in religious language, the call of the missionary. It is the call to share the good news. For some it is the good news found in sobriety. But it is a step for anyone caught ...

2456. Reality Check

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Many of us have had them, those times when we felt like we were on top of the world, really happy, confident that we knew all the answers, could solve any problem that came up. Or we felt that we were really close to God, really in tune with God’s plan for us. In those moments we were excited and alive, and everything seemed new. The moment might have come at some exciting event in your life: graduation, baptism, your first kiss, your first day on your first job, your wedding, the birth of a child, even ...

2457. Another Tricky Question

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Johnny Dean

There is a scene in the movie Used People in which a mother/daughter confrontation occurs. In the movie, the daughter - rapidly approaching middle age (whatever that is), divorced, mother of two children - is leaving home and heading for California to make a new life for herself and her children. Naturally, Mother objects. And as mothers sometimes do, she tries to lay a load of guilt on her daughter in order to force her to reconsider this foolish notion. The daughter, however, has learned a few tricks ...

2458. Making Christmas Last

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Brett Blair

A cartoon in the New Yorker magazine said it all. In the middle of the floor is a dried up, withered, Christmas tree. The calendar on the wall reads December 26. Dad is sitting in his chair with an ice pack on his head. Mom is in a bathrobe and her hair in rollers. The floor is a virtual mountain of torn wrappings, boxes, and bows. Junior is reaching in his stocking to be sure that there is no more candy. In the background we see a table with a thoroughly picked turkey still sitting there. The caption on ...

2459. Where is the Nearest Sycamore Tree?

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Theologian John Killinger has written that Zaccheus is just about the only person in the New Testament who is singled out for comment on the basis of his physical appearance, the fact that he was small in stature. Whenever I read this passage of scripture, I can’t help but think about the song about short people that was popular a few years ago, remember? Maybe that’s part of the appeal of this story, because so many of us are not happy with our physical appearance. How else could you explain the immense ...

2460. When the Tie That Binds is a Slipknot

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above A man named John Fawcett wrote the words to that hymn in 1782. Mr. Fawcett obviously had no way of knowing what the church would be like in the year 2000. Today the "fellowship of kindred minds" is under a great deal of stress. The Methodists are still upset about their newest hymnal, mostly over the exclusion of some old favorite hymns. The average Catholic lay person continues to wage a war of ...

2461. Jesus, Mary, Gustav Mahler, Brother Martin, and the Magi

Luke 20:9-19

Sermon

Carl Jech

The scribes and the chief priests ... perceived that he had told this parable against them. (Luke 20:19) No doubt you are wondering what Jesus, his mother, Mary, the composer, Gustav Mahler, Martin Luther and the three Wise Men (the Magi) have in common. The list sounds like it comes from one of Johnny Carson's "Carnak" bits, doesn't it? The simple answer is that all of these people were willing to take a new look at the traditions they had inherited. Like Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof, they could celebrate ...

2462. A Baptism of Blood

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

We cannot go back to Calvary. The cross was an event in history. It happened, never to be repeated. It was a deed of God determined, dared, and done. Our emotions may run high when we hear the words of the familiar spiritual, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" But, there is only one honest answer. No! We were not there. We are here, with two thousand years separating us from the cross on which our Lord died. The cross is dated; but, it is not out-dated. What happened then affects us now. Why? ...

2463. Don't Just Stand There! - Get Involved!

Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

Dr. John Thompson Peters

G.K. Chesterton one time said, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. Rather it has been found difficult and not tried." It would seem strange that after almost two thousand years of history there should still be confusion about the real nature of the Christian religion, and yet there can be no question but that it is widely misunderstood and hence misinterpreted. Some men reduce Christianity to something easy, while others make it impossible. With our contemporary situation bringing ...

2464. The Role of the Father (Father's Day)

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

What's the difference between Mother's Day and Father's Day? Someone once said that Mother's Day is a much bigger deal because Mothers are more organized. Mothers say to their children: Now here is a list of what I want. Go get the money from your father and you surprise me on Mothers Day. You do that for me. For Father’s Day I give each of my five kids $20 so that they can go out and by me a present--a total of $100. They go to the store and buy two packages of underwear, each of which costs $5 and ...

2465. Do I Give Up Praying Too Soon?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

I’ve heard marvelous stories of people who’ve prayed and found their prayers answered. I’ve heard testimonies like that from some of you. I’ve heard reports from hospital chaplains. One that sticks in my mind is of a young man hopelessly sick. The physicians didn’t think surgery would help but they didn’t know what else to do. So they tried it. The young man was up and around and out of the hospital in a week. The surgeon had seen this happen before and so he asked, "Did he belong to a group and did this ...

2466. Christ Is King

John 12:12-19

Sermon

Today we have the privilege of a preview of that glory when eternity begins, when every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father. The day is Christ the King, the final Sunday in another round of time with Christ. We can hear the trumpet of the seventh angel, and the voices loudly shouting in the heavens (Apocalypse 11:15), "The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." We are in the ...

2467. Proper 9

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

The Hebrews who went down to Egypt settled there as guests of the Pharaoh. To those semi-nomadic people, the land, even though passing through a period of exceptional famine, must have seemed lush and green compared with droughtstricken Canaan and the desert which they had crossed. They were there as resident aliens, but at the time it was easy to forget that fact, because they were accorded special privileges, thanks to Joseph's position at the Pharaoh's court. However, the time came when this favorable ...

2468. Wellspring for the Soul

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Dean Lueking

When Water is Scarce Some time ago I had an experience unique in my life - living in a place for several weeks where no drinking water was piped in. On the western edge of Kenya I learned what it is to go to the village well, draw water for two buckets, and carry them back to the small house where our family was living. The African women at the well always wanted me to do it their way - carry the bucket on my head. I have neither the balance that takes, nor enough hair to give a water bucket much support. ...

2469. Proper 7

Lk 9:18-24 · Gal 3:23-29 · 1 Ki 19:9-14 · Zech 12:7-10

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY 1 Kings 19:9-14 A discouraged Elijah hears God speak in a still, small voice. This pericope is a continuation of the story begun last Sunday. We left a scared and dejected Elijah in the wilderness where an angel brought him food to give him strength to go to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. When he arrives Yahweh asks him why he is there. Elijah explains that he has been jealous for the Lord, that God's people turned to idols, and that he is the only faithful one left in Israel. Yahweh told ...

2470. Proper 10

Lk 10:25-37 · Col 1:1-20 · 2 Ki 2:1, 6-14 · Deut 30:9-14

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14 Elisha succeeds Elijah as prophet of Israel. We have just completed a series of Lessons on Elijah and now we start a series of four Lessons from 2 Kings on his successor, Elisha. This first in the series appropriately deals with the transfer from Elijah to Elisha as prophet of Israel. Elisha was a faithful and devout disciple of Elijah. So loyal was he that he would not let Elijah out of his sight. Knowing that he was soon going to depart this world, Elijah asked Elisha what he ...

2471. Boundaries or Frontiers?

Leviticus 19:1-37

Sermon

In his marvelous account, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer notes how in 1942 Hitler had stretched his frontiers so wide in Russia that he simply could not defend them anymore. Ignoring Field General Franz Halder’s advice, the Fuhrer dismissed him saying, "We need National Socialist ardor now, not professional ability. I cannot expect this of an officer of the old school such as you." Halder later described the Furhrer as "no longer a responsible warlord, but a political fanatic." The ...

2472. Healing And Forgiveness

Luke 5:17-26

Sermon

Let us pray: Gracious and eternal God, we continue our worship during this season of Lent, seeking to understand the gifts of healing which you bring to our lives. Lord, in these moments, may we catch a glimpse of the truth that your spirit can touch and heal us of our afflictions. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, Amen. There is a story about an old Maori woman in the country of New Zealand who had earned a reputation for being an argumentative, combative person, for which she received the nickname ...

2473. Is There No Balm in Gilead?

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

Brett Blair

Let me say upfront that the two men I am about to discuss with you, are, in my opinion, good Christian men who do a lot of valuable work for the Church and God's kingdom in this world. It just so happens they are both in the middle of a controversy because of a position they took with regard to our nation's tragedy. I am talking about Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. On Thursday the 13th, two days after the attack, Pat Robertson said that because of America's pursuit of financial gain, health, wealth, ...

2474. The Gathering, The Scattering

Hebrews 10:19-39

Sermon

Various Authors

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean ... (v. 22a) ... Stir up one another to love and good works. (v. 24b) It’s right there, in the name itself: communion - that which makes for unity, oneness. But if this Christian sacrament of unity has been anything through twenty centuries, it has been a sacrament of division. Let’s move backward quickly through those centuries, taking snapshots as we go. Frame 1. Christians visit in the parish of a sister ...

2475. The Nativity of Our Lord

Isaiah 9:1-7, Psalm 96:1-13, Titus 2:1-15, Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:8-20

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE As one of the major festivals of the Christian church - and probably the most popular - Christmas liturgies were shaped by gospel tradition and worship practices in the early church. In Jerusalem, by the fourth century, there were three masses of Christmas: the first was at midnight in the Grotto of the Nativity at Bethlehem, the second took place at dawn, after the faithful had walked back to Jerusalem, in the Church of the Resurrection, and, later in the day, a third and solemn mass was ...

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