Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: take action, take steps, take measures, take the initiative, move, make a move, react, do something, proceed, go ahead, behave, function, perform, operate, work, take effect, serve, be efficacious, play, play a part, take part, be an actor, be an actress, be one of the cast, appear, pretend, play-act, sham, fake, feign, put it on, bluff, pose, posture, masquerade, dissemble, dissimulate, deed, action, gesture, feat, exploit, performance, undertaking, maneuver, stunt, operation, venture, effort, enterprise, achievement, accomplishment, law, decree, statute, bill, Act of Parliament, edict, fiat, dictum, dictate, enactment, resolution, ruling, rule, judgement, canon, ordinance, proclamation, command, commandment, mandate, measure, stipulation, direction, requirement, division, section, subsection, portion, part, segment, component, bit, turn, routine, number, item, piece, sketch, skit, playlet, dance, song, pretense, false display, show, front, facade, charade, guise, affectation, appearance

Antonyms: do nothing

Showing 1 to 25 of 34 results

1. Blind Man's Bluff

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... with Jesus so that Jesus could straighten him out to use him for kingdom building. That he is on a street called Straight is not a bluff. It is not a rumor. It is not a trick or a trap. He is really in a place where Christ has his crooked ways straight ... the road to Damascus, a street called Straight, and the laying on of hands has convinced us that the conversion of Saul was not a bluff or a game. For Christ truly came and changed his life and will change ours too on the roads of life. All things Christ can ...

2. All In: Calling Your Bluff

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

James Merritt

... was all in and the body was suffering for it. [Turn To Hebrews 10] Even back in the early days, people began to make the church just one of many options on where to spend their time, talents and treasures. The author of Hebrews confronts his readers, calling their bluff and tells them why their relationship to the church is so important. Key takeaway: Find a church where you can be all in and then go all in with that church. I. Why Should I Be A Member Of The Church? Almost every time the word "church" is ...

3. Keep Going, Today, Tomorrow and the Next

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... & Roy forgot and failed to take seriously. We all exist with a variety of illusions. We all cling to small deceptions, little fudges and fictions that help us get through our lives. Self-deception is a major capacity of the human brain. I call them brain bluffs. The greatest bluffs are those you believe yourself: No, those jeans don't make us look fat; Yes, we do still look like we're in our twenties; Today's lottery ticket will be the big winner; The next first date will be our last; The baby will sleep ...

4. A Great Love Story Gone Awry

Genesis 24:1-67

Sermon

King Duncan

... little girl with a frown, “They got married.” Married life is difficult under the best of conditions. The melding of two personalities is never easy. Ed Young tells about a spot in North Carolina where two rivers come together. “There is a bluff high above the place where you can see them moving placidly and calmly toward their meeting point, but where they converge a battle is going on. One strong, smooth, independent stream meets an equally strong, smooth, independent stream--and the water from both ...

5. Time For A New Vision

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Angela Akers

... lives. As he says, ". . . even today, there are little children growing up out there with a McNeil horizon, with parents unable or unwilling to help them understand how limiting it is to stop all your dreams at McNeil--and no Aunt to take them to Pine Bluff." (2) The apostles' vision stopped at McNeil. They were planning for an earthly throne of power. But Jesus was planning a world invasion, not of might and force, but of love and truth and peace. First, Jesus wanted them to spread his message in Jerusalem ...

6. A Life of Trust

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... that money could buy”). Buford was at his wit’s end. His search for his son took him along a limestone bluff 200 feet above the river, “as frightened as I’ve ever felt,” he said, but desperate to find his son. “ ... you can’t work your way out of . . . This is something you can only trust your way out of,” Buford thought to himself while walking that river bluff. (4) And that’s true. There are some things in life you can only trust your way out of. How can anyone ever make it through the loss ...

7. Sermons

Sermon

John R. Bodo

... ! But in Jonah's case, according to our story, it was not far enough. God stowed away on Jonah's ship. God always stows away in our conscience, whenever we are trying to run and hide. There is no alibi God cannot spot, no hiding place God cannot find, no bluff God cannot call. God found Adam in the shrubbery. God found Jonah in the ship's hold. And God finds us, every time, behind our plain or fancy excuses. Jonah did not get away with it. The Lord appointed a great storm to rock the ship in which Jonah was ...

8. The Set Face And The Turned Head

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

Sermon

Larry Powell

... fulfillment of God's will, or committing one's behavior to the glory of God; all of these are noble and highly commendable. However, if all we are committed to is the formality of making the commitment, we are, as someone expressed it, "a bluster, a bluff, an empty show." A good case could be made for the claim that our generation is the perfect example of what happens when commitments are neutralized or largely ignored. Can you think of another time in history when the "everyone for himself, grab-what-you ...

9. Mission to Unbelievers

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... that senator’s oppressive influence. In a biography of Murrow we learn that he told his future wife that what she appreciated in him was due to a handicapped college speech teacher, Ida Lou Anderson: She taught me one must have more than a good bluff to really live. I owe the ability to live to her, and to her you owe the things you like in me. She calls me her masterpiece. Christian faith directed to the unbelieving sorts like Dives, his brother, and their contemporary counterparts, will have something ...

10. Communion Is Rejoicing In Christ's Return

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

... police had received two reports - both on a particular Sunday - that a clean-cut, well-dressed hitchhiker had disappeared from cars traveling along highways in the state. The stories went like this: "A middle-aged couple was driving along US 65 between Pine Bluff and Little Rock. They were not folks prone to pick up hitchhikers, but saw this goodlooking, nicely dressed man walking along the highway. Assuming he needed transportation, they offered him a lift. He said, 'Yes, thank you, I'll ride with you for ...

11. Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Daniel 2:24-49, Daniel 2:1-23

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... in verse 26, picture this teenaged Daniel before the most powerful man on earth. The King asks, "Are you able to tell me what I dreamt?" Daniel's inspired answer was, "No I cannot, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries." He doesn't try to bluff or beg. He claims no greater wisdom than the other advisors. No, he just gives glory to God and reveals the dream. And if you skip ahead to the end of the chapter, verses 46 and 47, the King falls prostrate before Daniel and declares, "Surely your God is ...

12. The Un-Parade

Matthew 16:21-28, Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... as the song says it, "I love a parade!" A community in which we lived some years back boasted the first Bicentennial parade in the nation, and well do I remember a family’s invitation to share that event with them from the bluff upon which their home sat. For over two hours we watched that multi-divisional parade. Howling fire trucks, snappy bands, balloons, popcorn, marches - they all were there. Then, too, I remember watching another parade - an invitational parade - that was sponsored by a Volunteer ...

13. Facing Life’s Central Tests

Mark 14:32-42

Sermon

Robert Allen

... Oklahoma when my secretary told me that Oleatha was on the phone. Oleatha was 67 years old and she had been having problems. She often became confused. She had a tendency to forget. Once, she had gotten lost going from church out to her home on a bluff that overlooked the lake. At the insistence of her family, she had gone through a battery of medical tests. The reports were in and Oleatha wanted me to come by and visit her. When I drove into her driveway, I couldn’t help but notice the beauty surrounding ...

14. William Booth and His Hallelujah Army

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... is in any respect except physical strength ... inferior to man I cannot see cause to believe, and I am sure no one can prove it from the word of God" (The General Next to God, by Richard Collier). About the time Amelia Jenks Bloomer of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was calling for women’s suffrage, Catherine Booth of London was calling for women to occupy the pulpits of our churches. The Booths had quite an influence on the use of music as part of evangelistic services. In 1878, William hired three people to play ...

15. In Quest of Fire

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Larry Powell

... exist, the disillusioned seeker would at last lay himself down to die, victimized by a mirage. Similarly, those in search of a prophet, seeking living water, must take care not to be misled by a mirage, or if you please, fawn over a "bluster, a bluff, an empty show." Who is the true prophet? * In retrospect, we could ask David, his soul still smarting because his sinister intrigue against Uriah had been published to his very face, and he would answer, "Nathan was a true prophet." * We could ask the fifty ...

16. Kingdoms in Conflict

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Brett Blair

... , immediately retaliated by ordering 2000 praying Jews to surround Pilate’s palace for 6 days and nights. Pilate threatened to massacre them, and in defiance these protestors knelt before him stuck their necks out and dared him to do it. They had called his bluff. Enraged and humiliated, he ordered the images which he had erected in the Temple to be taken down. Next Pilate tried the benevolent approach. Jerusalem needed a fresh water supply so Pilate agreed to build an aqueduct. But he made the mistake of ...

17. His Trial

Luke 22:66--23:25

Sermon

Brett Blair

... , the high priest, immediately retaliated by ordering 2000 praying Jews to surround Pilate’s palace for 6 days and nights. Pilate threatens to massacre them, and they simply stuck their necks out and dared him to do it. They had called his bluff. Enraged and humiliated, he ordered the images taken down. Next Pilate tried the benevolent approach. Jerusalem needed a fresh water supply so Pilate agreed to build an aqueduct. But he made the mistake of financing this capital improvement project from funds from ...

18. You Do Have A Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

James W. Moore

... ." That afternoon, during the broadcast, the radio preacher announced prayer time. He prayed for the usual things… and then concluded his prayer with this sentence: "Lord, you know I am not here to ask for money, but my address is Box 296, Piney Bluff, North Carolina!" Prayer must be more than an emergency magical lamp rubbed in a crisis. The truth is that many people give up on prayer because they never understand what prayer is. Much that passes for prayer is irrational, superstitious, and self-centered ...

19. After The Beep

Isaiah 66:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

... ! 1. Mike Gresham, READER'S DIGEST, July 1994, p. 52. 2. READER'S DIGEST, October 1992, p. 81. 2. Adapted from Glasbergen, a cartoonist in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. 3. Hal Shymkus, READER'S DIGEST, January 1996, p. 69. 4. By Pastor Siegfried S. Johnson, Wesley United Methodist Church, Pine Bluff, Arkansas

20. When Are You Coming?

Isaiah 63:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... we get a bill for the experience as well. For some of us, of course, our problems are no laughing matter. Dr. Eugene Brice tells of standing a while back in the yard of Amelia Earhart's old home up in Atchison, Kansas. As he looked far down the bluff at the Missouri River, he thought of this Kansas girl who would learn to fly. First woman to fly across the Atlantic, first woman to fly from Hawaii to California, first woman to attempt an around-the-world solo flight. Last heard from in 1937 far out over the ...

21. On Being Picked For The "Rework"

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15

Sermon

King Duncan

... acts, we are sent to the Rework! He makes all things new. All He wants is the site! You are the SITE! 1. Life, September 1993. 2. James Hewett, Editor, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988). Pastor Siegfried S. Johnson is pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church, Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

22. Wounded, In Pain. Serving Still

Luke 22:7-38

Sermon

Siegfried S. Johnson

... 23, No. 2, p. 19-20. 4. Illustrations Unlimited, James S. Hewett, editor, Tyndale, p. 15. 5. Max Lucado, On The Anvil Stories on Being Shaped Into God's Image, Tyndale, 1985, pp. 45-46. The author of this sermon, Siegfried S. Johnson, is pastor of Wesley United Methodist, Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

23. On Names That Preach

Psalm 16:1-11

Sermon

Siegfried S. Johnson

... , one learns the value of nicknames! "Hello, my name is Flie Fornication, but you can call me Junior!" My name doesn't preach any sermons but I went through a time when I, too, thought I might prefer using initials. Few children starting school in Pine Bluff in 1960 bore the name Siegfried Sigmund. I recall cringing just a bit on the first day class at elementary school, worried how badly a new teacher might botch my name. As she called the roll, she would breeze through the more common names -- the Jims ...

24. Spelling Doesn't Count

1 John 5:1-12

Sermon

Paul E. Robinson

... to Fall: A Guide for the Spiritually Clumsy, wrote this about falling: Unlike myself, many people enjoy the emotions of falling. They jump from airplanes, hot air balloons, bridges, skyscrapers, and high mountain cliffs. They dive off 30-meter platforms and oceanside bluffs ... But if you don't have enough altitude, grabbing a parachute isn't going to help much! It is important to gain altitude in life, rise above the battle, get beyond the irritations you have hitherto felt were so important. He then ...

25. The Medicine Of A Cheerful Heart

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Saturday. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life -- but embarrassing only when I was told about it, because I was completely oblivious to when it had happened. We had guests in our home, a doctor and his wife and three children from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. They had come in to see the Wonders Series and had spent the night with us on Friday. We were visiting on Saturday morning, having coffee together before they left about 11 o'clock in the morning; and I made one of the most embarrassing faux ...

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