Dictionary: Face
Synonyms: countenance, physiognomy, profile, features, expression, facial expression, look, appearance, air, manner, bearing, guise, cast, aspect, impression, grimace, scowl, wry face, wince, frown, glower, smirk, pout, moue, side, flank, vertical, surface, plane, facet, wall, elevation, dial, display, (outward) appearance, nature, image, front, show, act, false front, facade, exterior, mask, masquerade, pretence, charade, pose, illusion, smokescreen, veneer, camouflage, respect, honour, esteem, regard, admiration, approbation, acclaim, approval, favour, appreciation, popularity, estimation, veneration, awe, reverence, deference, recognition, prestige, standing, status, dignity, glory, kudos, cachet, effrontery, audacity, nerve, gall, brazenness, brashness, shamelessness, look out on, front on to, look towards, be facing, have/afford/command a view of, look over/across, open out over, look on to, overlook, give on to, give over, be opposite (to), accept, come to accept, become reconciled to, reconcile oneself to, reach an acceptance (of), get used to, become accustomed to, adjust to, accommodate oneself to, acclimatize oneself to, be confronted by, be faced with, encounter, experience, come into contact with, run into, come across, meet, come up against, be forced to contend with, beset, worry, distress, cause trouble to, trouble, bother, confront, burden, brave, face up to, meet head-on, dare, defy, oppose, resist, withstand, cover, clad, skin, overlay, dress, pave, put a facing on, laminate, inlay, plate, coat, line
Antonyms: dodge, fear, back, give way, back down, dodge, avoid, throw in the towel, withdraw, cave in, retreat, succumb to, lay down one's arms, throw in the sponge, defer, submit, escape, bashfulness, shun, evade, elude
Showing 501 to 525 of 2635 results
Sermon
Richard Hasler
A newspaper reporter once wrote about visiting a church to hear a famous Boston preacher. Later he reported in his column about the pastoral prayer. “It was the most eloquent prayer ever offered to a Boston audience,” but is it not true that prayer is to be offered to God, and to God alone? Jesus once told a parable about two men who went to worship to pray. If we had a helicopter in those days, we could have followed these two men as they left their respective homes. From our vantage point in the sky we ...
Sermon
William G. Carter
Nobody could blame the disciples for their concern. It had been a long and exhausting day. People from all over the countryside had followed Jesus with their aches and pains. Rather than retreat or rest, the gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus sat there and saved all of them, one at a time. Meanwhile his twelve followers were overwhelmed by the need. It was getting late, and all they could see was a long line of needy people who would not go away. “Lord,” they said, “there isn’t enough food to go around ...
Sermon
Carveth Mitchell
To the thoughtful reader of this Gospel two questions jump out at once: Why was Jesus invited to a dinner with the Pharisees on the Sabbath? And why did he accept? In answer to that, there are three key sentences in this Gospel, and all three come across the centuries and speak Jesus’ word to us. I "They were watching him." (verse 1) Lo! Our two questions are answered. He was invited so they could watch him. What further evidence could they gather to feed the fire of their animosity toward him? Obviously ...
Sermon
I suppose that one of the classic poems on sin is the one titled, "This Side of Calvin" and it goes like this: The Reverend Dr. Harcourt, folk agree, Nodding their heads in solid satisfaction, Is just the man for this community. Tall, young, urbane, but capable of action, He pleases where he serves. He marshals out The younger crowd, lacks trace of clerical unction, Cheers the Kiwanis and the Eagle Scout, Is popular at every public function. And in the pulpit eloquently speaks On diverse matters with both ...
Sermon
King Duncan
You may have heard about the three people who were trying to get into heaven. St. Peter asked the first, "Who's there?" "It's me, Jim Jones," the voice replied. St. Peter let him in. Then St. Peter asked the second one the same question, "Who's there?" "It's me, Sammy Smith," the voice replied. And St. Peter let him in. Finally he turns to the third, asking the same question, "Who's there?" "It is I, Ruth Randolph," answered the third. "Oh, great," muttered St. Peter. "Another one of those English teachers ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The January 2004 edition of Trail magazine has got some 'splaining to do. Trail is a British publication that provides maps and suggests particularly beautiful or challenging hiking trials to the growing number of devoted hill-walkers throughout Great Britain. Unfortunately if anyone had followed the seemingly precise, detailed directions given by the magazine to reach the summit of Britain's largest mountain, Ben Nevis, they would have hiked straight off a sheer cliff and ended up in a broken heap at the ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
Galatians is the Magna Carta of evangelical Christianity. It is Paul’s great declaration of religious freedom a freedom that involves independence from men and dependence on God. Today, I’ll be sharing with you in three sessions a series of sermons on Galatians, this landmark profession of Paul’s Christian experience. I will not be doing a verse by verse exposition, but will “preach through’ the book, concentrating on the major themes an on those signal passages that are the heart and soul of Paul’s ...
Sermon
Robert J. Elder
Every pastor, on occasion, feels the need to remind a congregation that we need not fear things that are new. Indeed, the apostle Paul declared that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation ... things that are new ought to be things in which we feel free to take part. Once, the chair of a denominational committee on worship, when speaking of new things and strong opposition to them by congregations, shared a story about a friend of his in ministry. This pastor wanted his congregation to recite the ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The end of September means . . . [you might want to Go Live here and ask your congregation to fill in the blank] . . . we are hip deep in football season. So despite the crisp fall weather, and the fashion show of turning leaves, it is not time for weekend afternoon hikes. It is time for the weekend afternoon call of “Hike, Hike!” That means every week for the next couple of months, along with tailgate food festivals and ritual chest painting, yet another “religious” ritual will be enacted by somebody, ...
Teach the Text
Grant R. Osborne
Big Idea: The central purpose of Jesus’s incarnation is his death on the cross (Phil. 2:6–8). All takes place in accordance with God’s will and plan, so divine sovereignty, not Jewish hatred or Roman might, controls the action. Jesus dies as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Understanding the Text There are four parts to the crucifixion narrative in an A-B-A-B pattern: the mockery by the soldiers (15:16–20), the crucifixion of Jesus (15:21–27), the mockery by the Jewish spectators and leaders and the two ...
511. Rule of Love
Matthew 22:34-46
Sermon
Albert G. Butzer III
Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? — Matthew 22:36 In one of her books, the eloquent Episcopal priest, Barbara Brown Taylor, wrote these words about the Bible: “My relationship with the Bible is a marriage, not a romance, and one I am willing to work on in all the usual ways.”1 What she meant, of course, was that her relationship with the Bible was like any other serious relationship; it included good days as well as challenging days, days of clarity and days of confusion, days of joy ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
Long ago on a high mountain top three trees were speaking about their future dreams. The first tree said, “I would really like to made into a cradle so that a newborn baby might rest comfortably and I could support that new life.” The second tree looked down at a small stream that was flowing into a big river and said, “I want to be made into a great ship so I can carry useful cargo to all corners of the world.” The third tree viewed the valley from its mountain top and said, “I don’t want to be made into ...
513. A Song of Promise
Zephaniah 3:1-20
Sermon
Harry N. Huxhold
In 1967 Shastokovitch, the Russian composer, wrote a symphony titled October. The work was to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. In East Germany that year the Protestant Church observed the 450th anniversary of the Reformation. However, the dominant theme in East Germany that year was “Roter Oktober,” “Red October,” because of the dominance of the Russian government. The people were to celebrate their release from the yoke of Russian tsars and the freedom they had ...
Sermon
King Duncan
If you have more than one child in your family, you have probably faced a familiar dilemma. A mother was telling about her three boys. "My boys are very loyal to each other," she said. When one of them misbehaves, the others will not tell on him." Her friend asked, "How do you know which one to punish?" "It's not too hard," she replied. "When one of them does something wrong, we send all three to bed without supper or TV. The next morning we spank the one with the black eye." Every parent wishes it were ...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
Long ago, on a high mountaintop, three trees were speaking about their future dreams. The first tree said, "I would really like to be made into a cradle so that a newborn baby might rest comfortably and I could support that new life." The second tree looked down at a small stream that was flowing into a big river and said, "I want to be made into a great ship so I can carry useful cargo to all corners of the world." The third tree viewed the valley from its mountaintop and said, "I don't want to be made ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
The homework for a Sunday school class was to read Isaiah 9. The teacher asked the class how many had remembered to read the chapter. Every hand went up. "Wonderful!" she thought, "We can have a great discussion!" "Do you remember the first verse?" she asked. The group fell into complete silence while a few of the youngsters paged furiously through their Bibles trying to find Isaiah. "I''ll give you a bit of help," said the teacher. "''The people who walked in darkness . . . ''" Still no answer. "I have a ...
Sermon
J. Ellsworth Kalas
Today we celebrate one of the most neglected passages in the Bible. It's possible that more sermons have been preached from some of the obscure places in First and Second Chronicles than from this tremendously significant scripture which describes the transfiguration of our Lord. At the time of the transfiguration, Peter finally broke the awed silence, but the Gospel writer says that he knew not what to say. I expect we preachers and teachers still feel a bit that way when we approach this story; probably ...
Sermon
Robert J. Elder
Every time I have ever studied this passage with other people, it seems to me that we have been all too willing to get ourselves distracted by the thought of first-century people walking around with what Mark called an "unclean spirit," which is rendered by the even scarier "demon" in some translations. Conversation about the passage often runs along the favorite twin therapeutic tracks of the twentieth century: psychological and/or physiological causes for illnesses which today are curable, but which then ...
Sermon
I have to admit, this is not the Jesus I'm comfortable with. All this talk about bringing fire to the earth and that he can't wait until it's set ablaze. What kind of talk is that? Then there is the part about how households will become divided because of him. For goodness' sake, that's exactly opposite from the kind of commu­nity we're trying to build here. Can you imagine if I announced an adult education program that promised to teach you how to divide your families in five easy sessions? You wouldn't ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Who doesn’t like an “attaboy!” when they do something good? It’s why we have “honor society” in school. It is the reason we have scholarship awards as we head into college. “Attaboy!” stands behind all those accolades high achievers get throughout life — Rhode’s scholarships, purple hearts, Silver stars, gold statues, merit raises for school teachers, making partner in a big firm, getting re-elected (in any organization, at any level). “Attaboys!” reward the gracious, good, above-and-beyond behaviors we ...
Sermon
David & Marian Plant
If we take away nothing new from the Passion story this year let us take away this: through it we can learn to walk in the dark and remember that the dark is as day to God. Barbara Brown Taylor titled her 2014 book Learning to Walk in the Dark. .In the introduction she pointed out, “From earliest times, Christians have used ‘darkness’ as a synonym for sin, ignorance, spiritual blindness, and death. At the theological level, however, this language creates all sorts of problems. It divides the day in two, ...
Sermon
James Angell
The Los Angeles summer of 1965 produced the frustration-generated Watts riots - or Watts "revolt" as I was taught to call those days. That was the year our family went to England for a pulpit exchange. We were in London the day after Adlai Stevenson dropped dead on Oxford Street, the victim of a heart attack. Mr. Stevenson never became president, but he won a special place in the hearts of the American people. Those of us old enough to remember his campaigns will never forget him - especially the night he ...
Sermon
King Duncan
It is an old story, but a good one. Former baseball manager Billy Martin told it in his autobiography titled NUMBER 1. He says he and Mickey Mantle were doing a little hunting down in Texas. Mickey had a friend who would let him hunt on his ranch. When they got there, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he went in and cleared things with his friend. Permission was quickly granted for them to hunt, but the owner asked Mickey to do him a favor. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind and he ...
Teach the Text
C. Hassell Bullock
Big Idea: God’s sovereign control of the universe establishes a touchstone for understanding God’s relationship to us and ours to him. Understanding the Text The content and form of Psalm 2 is generally identified as a royal psalm, composed for and used on the occasion of some Israelite king’s elevation to the throne. We do not know which king, but given the David collection that it prefaces, it could have been composed as a literary introduction to Book 1 (Pss. 3–41). Hilber has made a case for a ...
525. Smother Love
Matthew 16:21-28
Sermon
Kristin Borsgard Wee
I loved my father very much. He was my security, my hero, my knight in shining armor. But he wasn't perfect. My dad had "a plan" for each of us three kids. We were supposed to go off to college, and then come back home to teach school, preferably in the same school where my dad taught. My older brother functioned pretty much according to plan. I didn't. After college I made plans to go to graduate school in New York City. All summer I was telling my parents how excited I was about going to New York. On the ...
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