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 1 to 25 of 366 results

1. The Dawn of Forever

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... we put our lives into the hands of Jesus, when we accept not only the truth and the joy of the Resurrection but let them live in our hearts and fill us with hope, we are REFINED. The old ways, the old worldly ways get slowly stripped away. As we INCLINE more and more toward God. We get REFINED more and more. And what are we REFINED into? That's easy: the image of God and the Likeness of Christ. B. A close friend and colleague of mine happened to be one of the clergy on last Kairos prison ministry weekend ...

2. Tale of the Tares

Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of community also applies within the field of your own heart. What would it mean to see human beings as both saints and sinners –a “field” of the heart that is made “good” in the image of God but that succumbs here and there to sinful inclinations? Can one destroy a person for a mistake he or she makes? For two mistakes? How many times does Jesus say his disciples should forgive? We all are good people living in a world filled with obstacles, temptations, and entanglements that can trip us up and ...

3. The Power of the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... that again –we only struggle in the relationships that matter! No friction, no relation. Can you say that after me? No friction, no relation. If you have no interest or engagement or commitment with someone, you don’t need or have any inclination to struggle with that person. No friction, no relation. Friction is necessary and salutary, not contrary and reactionary. Friction is an evolutionary sign not an obituary sign of our most valuable relationships. When one person comes in contact with another, we ...

4. Feasting on Leviathan

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... us that only God can slay the beast within! And this is the essence of the Gospel. This very theme in fact is taken up by another creative mind –John Milton. In his epic poem, Paradise Lost, Milton too describes the Hebrew idea of “evil inclination” as opposed to humankind’s creative and divine nature, the yetzer ha tov. While the yetzer ha tov pleases God, the yetzer ha Ra, defies God. But unlike Hobbes, Milton suggests that man cannot master his own leviathan. Not without God. For Milton, we were ...

5. Step Two - Hope

Mk 10:46-52 · 2 Cor 12:7-10 · Is 12:1-6

Sermon

John A. Terry

... of God's which is so much higher. They were pushed to rely on God because their national life was unmanageable. That seems to be what it takes for humankind to turn things over to God. The more confident we become of our own power, the less inclined we are to remember and give thanks to God. Consider the contrast between Narcissus, the Greek and Roman mythical character, and Isaiah, the prophet of God. Narcissus saw himself in a pond. He was so infatuated with his reflection that he desired to grasp it and ...

6. House of Prayer

Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of us want God to deal with us the way we have dealt with others sometime in our lives. Lord have mercy! And thankfully, that’s not the last line of the prayer. For Jesus then adds essentially: Lord, help me do this, guard me from falling into evil inclinations, for in my humanness, I’m going to mess up ….I know it, you know it. Lord, help me! We need the protection of God, because without God, our personal responsibility, our ability to hear and act in new ways in a new covenant with God, is just ...

7. The Rhythm of Your Heart

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of your heart? Does your soul leap with joy when you sense God’s presence around you? Does your spirit resonate with the voice of the Holy Spirit of Christ within you? If you know where your treasure lies, your deeds will always follow. Your goals, your inclinations, your empathy and compassion for others will flow from your heart like the blissful sound of the angels. And God’s voice will resonate in your spirit for all to hear! So, lift your voices and sing people of God! Let the music of God’s ...

8. Your Image of Tomorrow

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... of the dimensions of our being, Jesus says, "You are more." But generally our larger interest is in having more; we are more concerned with having than being. We tend to have a greater interest in a kind of breadth than we have in any sort of depth. Our inclination is to take a quick glance at everything and a penetrating look at nothing. It may be an epitome of our time that when we are confronted with a problem, we assemble huge masses of statistics, feed them into a computer, and ask it to tell us what ...

9. Dust Off The Throne

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Luke 1:26-38, Romans 16:25-27

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... advisors, his assistants, his generals. We might look at the national and international landscape to see what favorable circumstances permitted him to achieve such a position of security, but we would not naturally think to attribute the matter to God. David himself, however, would be inclined to give the credit to God. After all, he knew, even as a boy facing his first enemy that “the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand” (1 Samuel 17:47). Romans 16:25-27 Our New Testament lesson ...

10. The Invitation

Isaiah 55:1-9

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (v. 2). “Why do you eat out of dumpsters when I have prepared for you a free banquet of Ritz Carlton proportions? Isn’t it about time you listened to my invitation? Isn’t it about time you inclined your ear in my direction? Isn’t it about time you allowed the wise words of life I have shared to become flesh within you?” Some listen; others don’t. For there are those who would agree that more does not make people happier, but they don’t ...

11. Vendetta

2 Kings 1:1-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... out in his discussion with some Pharisees, “it is craziness to be an adversary against yourself!” Yet in a sense, at one time or another, we all do it. We don’t always act in our own best interests. Sometimes, we do rely on our lesser inclinations, and they always result in the worst outcomes. We are our own worst enemy. A similar situation happened with Saul. In our scriptures for today, we see Saul growing more and more unhinged over David’s victories in the battlefield. Saul is jealous. He thinks ...

12. God’s HS Smart App is Always Watching

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the light-filled Jedi’s will win the day. Of course, in the end, the Jedi always wins. And the power of good always prevails. And yet the battle never seems to end. Every generation, someone succumbs to the power of the dark force, is tempted by evil inclinations, greed, power, anger, doubt. And in every generation, that darkness must be faced down by the power of good. In no Star Wars movie, or in any tale worthy of being told, will we ever find that evil is made better with more evil, that darkness is ...

13. Uncommonly Good

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... obviously we all look different –we have different features, different noses, eyes, hands, body shapes, coloring, or hair texture –we also have a unique personality, a character all our own, our own motives, dreams, and aspirations, our own fears, inclinations, likes, and preferences. In scripture, the word meaning different or “set apart” from others is “holy.” To be holy for Jews and later for Christians meant to be different, unique, not simply ordinary. That’s an important distinction ...

14. God Knows!

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Sermon

Robert R. Kopp

... character of our sin and helplessness. Helpless sinners can only survive by grace. Our strength is futile in itself; we are spiritually impotent without the assistance of a merciful God. We may dislike giving our attention to God's wrath and justice, but until we incline ourselves to these aspects of God's nature, we will never appreciate what has been wrought for us by grace. Even Edward's sermon on sinners in God's hands was not designed to stress the flames of hell. The resounding accent falls not on ...

15. The Meek

Sermon

John A. Terry

... students if they were not already convinced of their own knowledge." "Blessed is the person who has the humility to know his own ignorance, his own weakness, and his own need." To be meek is to be controlled. Meekness brings with it the ability to control our feelings and inclinations so we are bridled and can act according to God's will and way. To be meek, to give ourselves over to God's will, we receive what others only long for. It was Dante who said, "In His will is our peace." It reminds me of some ...

16. Liberating Truth

John 8:31-41

Sermon

William G. Carter

... and truth" (John 1:14). According to this writer, the single watershed event in the history of the world is the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. On the one hand, it is a disclosure of sheer grace. The incarnation announces that God is recklessly, relentlessly inclined in our favor, that "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son." Yet on the other hand, the coming of Christ is also a disclosure about ourselves. Jesus reveals the truth about who we are and who we are not. In Jesus, truth comes ...

17. The Meek

Psalm 37:1-40

Sermon

John A. Terry

18. The Set Face And The Turned Head

Luke 9:51-56, Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Larry Powell

... body of Jesus for burial. He never declared openly as a follower of Christ and then when it was too late, he came around wanting to do a good work. The man bothers us because there is such about him that mirrors some of our own inclinations to be committed to being uncommitted. It is told that a missionary preached in a remote, poverty ridden area in west Africa. He appealed for support of Christian work throughout the area and encouraged those present to give what they could toward the construction of a ...

19. Tears And Ointment

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Larry Powell

... you begin to see why we do not wish to pursue a definition of faith. To do so would only tangle us up in our own feet. And clearly, the question is not, "Are there degrees of faith?" We yield our curiosity about this question to those folk who are inclined to ponder such things as "how many angels can dance on the point of a needle?" Jesus commended the woman for her faith. Rather than beat it to death, just sit back and enjoy seeing what it produced: A Generous Attitude If the woman had done only what she ...

20. God Works Through Opposites

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... , in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11)." God works through contraries or opposing means in order to achieve his glorious aims. We observe the same inclination in unambiguous clarity on Palm Sunday. In our gospel lesson we see the King, the Lord Jesus by whom God created the world, God himself comes to Jerusalem. The King; God himself! And he comes "humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the ...

21. The Empty Tomb

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... . Those of you who do not plan to be here next Sunday are already walking down the disciples' path. You and I really cannot believe that the tomb is empty, and, if we do, we are not inclined to do anything about it, but merely observe the data and return to our homes untouched by it all. Why? Why are we so often inclined to react to the Easter story in that way? In order to unpack these questions I need to give you all a brief lesson in historical-critical biblical studies (the study of the Bible the way ...

22. Competition In The Kingdom?

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... ; Matthew 16:24). Bearing the cross, however, is not a task laid on us; it is not something we have to do. It is part of our baptismal inheritance. In baptism we took on the life of the cross, whatever happened to Jesus became ours. We were given an inclination to live the life that Jesus did - a life of constantly denying ourselves (dying to self) for the sake of our neighbor (Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3ff).3 Jesus says in our gospel lesson that such a lifestyle is the true mark of greatness (Matthew 20:26 ...

23. The Road To The Cross

Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... people like you and me to do their bidding to work evil. Such is the nature of social sin. Yet we have not said enough about it in the churches of this country (not following the insights of liberation theology in Latin America). We have been too much inclined merely to dwell on the sins of individuals - on our own or on other people's misdeeds. It is for these sins, we say, that Jesus died. Perhaps our reluctance to consider social sin has to do with our good old American hang-up about not mixing religion ...

24. Fixing The Fox!

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... it is necessary to believe in him to be made right before God. In the realm of daily moral standards, we can continue to hold to God's standard of morality. We are living in a world of a new morality. We have taken up situation ethics. Now we are inclined to say that anything is good, if the parties agree to it. Whether something is good or bad depends upon majority opinion. We can do all this agreeing, but when it is all over and done, we still face the question, "But is it right in the sight of God ...

25. Wade In The Water

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... an idea. She knew of a certain man in Samaria who just might help. He was a religious man - a prophet named Elisha. There is nothing to indicate that Naaman had any religious inclinations of his own, but we know that when desperate enough, people are often willing to try something they might otherwise avoid. That inclination is where the term foxhole religion comes from, where in the heat of battle even the faithless turn to faith. Naaman was lucky enough to have influence at the top - even with the king ...

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