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 all results

1. Remembering the Name of God John W. Cobb

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... who searches our inmost being knows what the Spirit means, because he pleads for God’s people in God’s own way." (NEB) God’s initiative for man’s deliverance reverses the dictum of the rabbinic legend which seems to make religious devotion a matter of man’s choice and man’s seeking out God. Certainly the dictum of St. Augustine is true: "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee." This highlights the Hebrew-Christian understanding of the ways of God with humankind. God is the ...

2. Headed in the Right Direction

Romans 15:4-13

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... to that of the present. Under the rule of chronological snobbery, the West has convinced itself that intellectually, humanity languished for countless generations in the most childish errors on all sorts of crucial subjects, until it was redeemed by some simple scientific dictum of the last century. (1) Elsewhere, Barfield observed, "It has become to believe that ‘anything more than a hundred years old is ancient' and ‘in the world of books, or opinions about books, the age at which senility sets in has ...

3. What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Matthew 13:36-43, Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... in the long future. Only then does one realize that learning is for always, and educating yourself is something that rightly belongs to the whole of life, not just to the early morning hours. The question is, will we be able to meet this challenge? This same dictum is also true in the realm of self-knowledge: "What you don't know about the inner workings of your own personhood can hurt you deeply." What I am saying is that we need to be on several different journeys simultaneously as we move through life. I ...

4. A Law We Can Live With

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... in the Old Testament -- that the Almighty's very character concerning the chosen ones is fully revealed. In other words, we can scarcely afford to view the Ten Commandments merely as reference material whenever our day-to-day existence suddenly becomes complicated. To read these dictums as simply a compendium of do's and don'ts is to reduce them to the realm of moralisms. Morals serve a purpose, of course, perhaps even a noble one. But if that's all the Commandments represent, then they don't actually take ...

5. Life's Loose Threads and The Tie That Binds

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... but not appetite. When the final pattern is knit, the concluding stitch sown, and everything we've attempted to weave from the tapestry of life at last unfurled, there will invariably remain a few loose threads left dangling. Even the Scriptures, I think, bear witness to the dictum that regardless of one's effort or endeavor, works in progress often come to an end, and cannot or will not ever be completed. At the close of his Gospel, for example, John almost appears to throw his hands in the air, as if in a ...

6. The Good, The Bad, And The Justified

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Larry R. Kalajainen

... conformed to the image of Christ. The transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer was the chief theme of John Wesley's life and work, and a distinctive contribution the Methodists make to the rest of the church. Wesley had a four-fold dictum: "All people need to be saved from sin; all people can be saved from sin; all people can know they are saved from sin; and all people can be saved to the uttermost." It is that latter that Wesley particularly emphasized. He called it "going on to ...

7. The Deeper Meanings of The Christian Faith by Dr. Bryant M. Kirkland

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... more of the mystery of God in Christ and of Christ in your neighbor. In fact, your whole appearance, as well as your attitude in life toward your wife, your husband, your children, or your in-laws could be miraculously changed if you got rid of the dictum that facts are facts and understood that facts are only perceived through the meaning and modes given to them. When you change the mode, you apperceive more or less of the facts. We got along for thousands of years thinking that the earth was flat. Now we ...

8. Whatever Happened to those Mansions?

John 14:1-4

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . A while back I heard the story of a Roman Catholic priest who one Sunday announced to his congregation: “Every member of this parish will one day die!” Everyone sat quiet, except one fellow in the back row who chuckled. So the priest repeated his dire dictum: “Every member of this parish will one day die!” Again the man in the back row chuckled. The exasperated priest asked, “Sir, what do you find so humorous? I just told you that every member of this parish will one day die!” To which the man ...

9. Does God Give Out Blank Checks?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... p. 71) In what is perhaps Leslie Weatherhead’s magnum opus, Psychology, Religion, and Healing, a great pioneering work dealing with the relationship between the three disciplines, written in 1951, he wrote: “It is clear that in a great many matters Augustine’s dictum is illustrated, Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not.’ It seems that God waits for man’s co-operation before certain things can be accomplished. The mistake often made is that while man clearly sees that he must co-operate ...

10. Equipping the Whole People of God: Penultimate Questions

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of this conference – “Equipping the Whole People of God” – we may move too quickly to more practical questions – questions of organization and structure, how to mobilize our members or ministry partners. We give an intellectual nod to the dictum “form follows function,” but immediately disregard it, immersing ourselves in the urgent ministry needs at hand. I almost did that in preparation for this keynote address. The scriptural theme text of the conference is a powerful and challenging one ...

11. Let Me Say That Again

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... a moment on the third. Nothing is more important for us to know: we can be forgiven. Let me say that again. God loves you - you can be forgiven. Now I don’t say that casually. This is no superficial religious expression of the psychological dictum, “I’m OK, you’re OK.” This is the profound expression of the heart of the Gospel. I chose my words deliberately. I was tempted to say, “You are forgiven.” I deliberately said, “You can be forgiven.” There is a difference. God’s forgiveness is ...

12. What Making a Difference Looks Like

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... 4. Ibid., 158-159. 5. John 4:23. 6. Manser, Quotations, 247. 7. Michael Green, ed., Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1990), 240. 8. Rewritten from James S. Hewett, ed., Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton, ILL: Tyndale, 1988), 347. 9. Kierkegaard’s dictum, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” 10. James 4:8. 11. In The Problem of Pain, accessed at PreachingToday.com search under Matthew 5:8. 12. 14:19. 13. For the full treatment of the three categories, see Ken Sande, The ...

13. They Grow Up Fast

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... He was little, weak, and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew." Then she explained in the hymn why it is important for us to know that Jesus was like us. "And he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness." The hymn proves the dictum, if you can explain something to children, something abstract, that maybe even adults will be able to understand it. Jesus was like us in all respects, that's the meaning of "The Incarnation." "Day by day, like us he grew." Which is why he is our Savior. He ...

14. No Bones about It

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of make no bones about it cautioned dinner guests not to complain about the contents in their soup bowl. They were not to grouse or grumble to their host about getting a dry bone instead of a more meaty morsel. Expanded beyond the dinner table, the dictum to make no bones about it could translate into an acceptance of gross inequalities in civil life, a quiescence that kept people in their place. Yet with 500 years of cultural gossip, the phrase has moved from at best politeness (at worst wimpiness) to a ...

15. Get a Peace of the Rock

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... , knowing how to act in ways that fly in the face of God's intended creation, became a part of the human spirit. It's knowledge we have acted on ever since that moment. I like how a new book by Michael Howard begins--with Sir Henry Maine's dictum: "War appears to be as old as mankind, but peace is a modern invention." (The Invention of Peace: Reflections on War and International Order [Profile, 2000]). Maybe it's not so much that peace is a modern "invention" as it's that modernity has contrived to create a ...

16. The Spiritually Incorrect Spirit

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... correct became the measure of all things. We're living in a world of political correctness run riot. Anyone whose job requires them to communicate in public with the written or spoken word knows that they must obey the dictums of unyielding, unquestionable political correctness. Our vocabulary has become a mine-field of hyphenated approximations. For example: Anyone whom we used to call handicapped or crippled we now carefully call differently-abled or challenged, veiling whatever the genuine limitations ...

17. Joseph: Don't Bury Me Here

Genesis 50:22-26; Exodus 13:19-22; Joshua 24:32

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... all you can. Give all you can. Which, by the way, is an excellent outline for Christian stewardship. We Methodists seem to be pretty good at the first two. It's the third one that gives us trouble. This student editor's reworking of Wesley's dictum read: Get all you can. Can all you get. Sit on the lid. But spiritually, we are called to be sojourners, pioneers, travelers. Wesley called it "Christian perfection." It's the growth in grace which takes place over the lifetime of the believer, being perfected in ...

18. Get a Life!

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... accept everyone and everything at face value, may claim "peace of mind." But they cannot say they have lived their life for the cause of justice and peace. Live in the present: Grasshoppers and ants aside, there is a lot to be said for adhering to this dictum and enjoying each moment of life as it comes our way. Jesus didn't spend much time worrying about how he and his disciples were going to finance their future or feed their followers. When pressed on this issue, he simply urged worriers to "consider the ...

19. Whose Inheritance Is It?

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... , by its very nature, is humbling. It has a way of keeping you on your knees. A similar posture is due the God who grows humanity. We are best served by using our knees when it comes to our inheritance. Like Cole Porter's famous dictum that every one of his songs should have a "lemon line," so that the other lines look better, saints are advised to double their portions of humility. Catholics whose priests have "gone bad" can take heart: the sacraments withstand the sinner. Protestants whose preachers are ...

20. Testing, Testing

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... to them to think about the implications of one of their favorite messianic texts, to probe what it is they hope for and whether their ideas are big enough. Can your ideas carry the weight of the day? Test ... test.... To paraphrase an important dictum of the pioneering psychiatrist Milton Erickson, "Until you are willing to question what you already know, what you know will never grow bigger, better or more useful."2 Just as testing allows us to perfect the setup of the sound system, so these kinds of ...

21. Showing Up

Ephesians 3:1-12

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... of the Romans. But this Jesus was worse than most, because his followers claimed not just that he was a charismatic messianic figure, but that he was God's Son! Any Jew worth their salt, not to mention any devoted Pharisee, knew that this violated the basic dictum of the faith, recited every time one joined in synagogue prayers, the Shema: Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.Hear, O ...

22. A Winning Life

Hebrews 13:1-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... warning signs. For example, according to recent studies, young adults are dramatically more likely as a group to value happiness above integrity, more committed to “live for today” rather than “prepare for tomorrow,” and much more likely to live by the dictum “eat, drink and be merry” . . . Significantly, they are also much more likely to say that they have cheated on a test or plagiarized in school, have lied to a partner about romantic or sexual involvement with another person, and have lied ...

23. Monster Rehab

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... faith.” By taking the best intentions, the best qualities of piety and purity, and lashing them to nitpicking legalism, the Pharisaic mission became a “monster.” Their pride overwhelmed their piety. Their legal loads crushed simple faiths. Scribal dictums overrode spiritual needs. But perhaps the most “monstrous” quality the Pharisees embodied was also the most human — they wanted to be “large and in charge.” Recognized. Celebrated. Honored. Given pride of place at seatings; given titles and ...

24. Déjà Vu or Divine Revelation?

Luke 23:35-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... . A King who was to lay down his life for the world. In other words, the second thief saw a King whose agenda was motivated by mercy and love. That is not the way the rulers of this world normally behave. Lord Acton is famous for his dictum that, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” And yet here was one who truly did have absolute power, but his agenda was motivated by mercy and love. Many people have been captivated by the show A Game of Thrones. This show is based on the best-selling ...

25. Loving Against the Grain

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... to love without condition. We find it terribly uncomfortable to live let alone love without conditions. But Jesus’ idea of an “alternative community” is about loving against the grain! About overriding divisions, debates, politics, classes, money, illnesses, conditions, assumptions, dictums, and dogmas, and instead embracing the world’s people as family –all worthy of God’s love and grace. Jesus would go on and continue to heal, bless, and love the outcasts, the rejects, and the rankled for the ...

Showing 1 to 25 of 25all results