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 58 results

1. Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Exodus 1:1-22, 2:1-10

Sermon

... hid among the herds and probably learned how to handle and to trade camels. He lived in the house of a priest of yet another religion. There he had a family and named his first son "Alien There." It was perhaps a lonely existence, but Moses was a master of masquerade. It was there in the hiddenness of being a fugitive that Moses met that other hidden one: the living God. We're told later in the account of Exodus: Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to ...

2. A Seeking Savior

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... was, "... born of a virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell ...;" it is attempting to underline with the boldest strokes possible his true worldly humanity: he was born, he hurt, he died, he really was one of us. No masquerade. No pretense. No ifs, ands, or buts about it! He really entered into the human condition to seek and to save the lost. To say that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19)," has less to do with the ...

3. Surprise! Surprise!

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

Michael L. Sherer

... who were invited always knew they were on a special list. One year the architect changed tactics. Instead of mailing special invitations, he simply ran an advertisement in the personals column of the Sunday classifieds in the metropolitan newspaper. "Masquerade Party!" the heading read, in type no larger - and no more eye-catching - than surrounding ads for "Help for Unwed Mothers" and "Blood Donors Needed." Underneath the heading for his party invitation, the architect explained that guests should wear ...

4. Body Sculpting and Self Shaping

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... goodness, and mostly slimness. This very focus on external, artificial, sleek for-keeps solutions to our self-image problems only serve to provide food for our demons to stay in us, not starve them out. Satan is the master of masquerade (2 Corinthians 11:14). And Satan is masquerading in the promises of an Optifast faith. A whole pantheon of deities has cropped up to feed on our doubts and anxieties, fostered by our addiction to what others (most notoriously models in GQ and Cosmopolitan) deem an acceptable ...

5. The Intimate Gospel: The Word became Flesh

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... I want to address an issue that’s more important than demon possession as it relates to evil. But there’s a more serious problem that you and I need to deal with – the dynamism of evil lies in its skill in masquerading as good. Did you get that? The dynamism, the power of evil lies in its skill in masquerading as good. That’s the second trick of the devil. The first is to convince us that the he doesn’t exist, and the second is to hide his hideous face under a cloak of evil, or a cloak of good ...

6. The Perfect Gift

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and bow and ask for her hand in marriage. But even a prince wants to marry for love, and there may be other motives for a young girl like that to marry a resplendent prince. Again, he could masquerade as a peasant and try to gain her interest. After he proposed, he could pull off the mask, but, but that masquerade would be phony and he wasn’t comfortable with that. Finally, a real solution came to his mind. He would give up his kingly robe and move into the neighborhood, and there he would take up work ...

7. How To Triumph Over Terrorism

Ephesians 6:10-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... another we learn to get along with it and adapt to it because, as we like to say, that’s life. One Halloween a guy dressed up as the devil for a masquerade ball complete with red suit, horns, and pitch fork. Unfortunately, the man mistakenly walked through the door of a church instead of the hotel door to the masquerade ball. A worship service was in progress. When the worshippers realized that the devil in person was there, they scattered. They ran in every direction. All except one elderly lady who was ...

8. Tale of the Tares

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

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in spirit, while others who may not look so beautiful on the outside, may turn out to have a beautiful heart. Mostly, when we meet people, they can all seem pretty much the same, especially in the church, where all attending are “masquerading” as “good” people. This parable isn’t about the existence of fruit, but what kind of fruit they bear. Some will bear the fruits of love, patience, kindness, mercy. Others may bear the fruit of judgements, impatience, hostility, vindictiveness. The proof will ...

9. Ask Jacob!

Matthew 6:25-34, Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... we are boiling hot to try some of them, aren’t we? Because these are the “quick fix” to happiness. Or at least we think so at the time. But these are mere distractions. Distractions that turn our heads away from Jesus, distractions that masquerade as truth, just as death masquerades as life. Only Jesus is the living Bread. Only Jesus is the One who cannot be imitated or replaced. Only Jesus can fill you up with the grace, and love, and peace that only God can bestow on you. Only Jesus can renew your ...

10. How To Treat Your Enemies

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... ." Ah! Sweet Revenge! Then there's the one I read about in "Dear Abby." A divorcee wrote to say that her newly married ex-husband threw a big party at his home. And she was formally invited by mail being told to dress as for a masquerade party. She showed up dressed like a scarecrow and the maid ushered her into the ballroom where everyone else was formally attired. Yes! Sweet revenge! We humans are well-equipped for revenge. Why, we've developed a huge stoc_esermonskpile of barbs, looks, ploys, law suits ...

11. Being A Good Doubter

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Glenn E. Ludwig

... ? Probably. Perhaps he was out somewhere wandering the countryside trying to make sense of the tragedy at Golgotha which had jarred every fiber of his being. There were doubts, for sure, and they were honest doubts. What happened to the dream? Was it all a big masquerade? How can this kingdom of peace come from the darkness of this night? Is it any wonder, then, that when he brought himself, in the midst of his questions and grief and doubt, to return to his friends, that he was totally unprepared for their ...

12. The Warrior And The Shepherd Are One!

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... the divine core. The human part somehow never seems quite real. But that is not the Christ of Scripture. When he sits beside a well, a tired traveler, asking for a drink of water, he is not pretending. He is not faking the human emotions. He does not masquerade as human to catch the woman off guard. He is as fully human shepherd as he is Divine Warrior. When, in his teachings, he says that those who mourn are to be congratulated because they shall be comforted, he is speaking of a condition he is able to ...

13. Serving With Water: The Washing

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Steve Swanson

... - he actually became - that on which they would wipe their feet. Jesus, the Son of God, dressed himself as the lowest front-door, foot-washing slave. He acted out his own lesson. He became the least of all and the slave of all. Nor was this a masquerade. Jesus didn't just slip into the towel and say, "See, see. I'm not afraid to dress like a slave." He wasn't acting a part, like one of those fashion-plate hippies who wear $125 decorator jeans with artistically arranged patches, with just the right shade ...

14. Loving

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Larry Powell

... the car is pushed deliberately along, there is the unmistakable sound of "ud-en, ud-en." A child can be many things, even a car. Occasionally, this particular exercise survives into adulthood. Some of us pretend to be someone we are not; that is a masquerade. Some of us pretend to be more than we are, entertaining delusions of grandeur. Some of us are different people at different times, not unlike a chameleon. We maintain the childhood game of pretending in an adult world. Love cannot do its work in league ...

15. Empty Prisons Without Walls

Acts 5:17-42

Sermon

Carl Jech

... demonstration in the street" is just as valid a tool for social change as is the letter to the senator. What I do not admire or respect is the "mutiny-minded" attitude which is simply the childish desire always to have one's own way masquerading under the guise of moral righteousness. 1. Prisons With Walls There are many reasons why people find themselves in very real prisons with very real walls. The apostles offended those whom they accused of misunderstanding Jesus, and they landed in jail for it. Martin ...

16. Save Us From the World-Savers

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Carl Jech

... every name." It means to believe that God is the only "world-saver" and that we must never usurp that role! It is not enough to eschew our personal glory. We must also beware of that subtle extension of personal glory which masquerades as humble witnessing. Christian evangelism all too easily deteriorates into the selling of a system of answers, a particular, narrowly defined lifestyle or a particular notion of "civilization." The stories which show Jesus affirming outcasts of various kinds are what the ...

17. Jesus Meets Buddha and Confucius

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Carl Jech

... of their day on the basis of ethical principles that transcended mere cultural prejudices. It remained for Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, to make this kind of ethical thought and critisim legitimate in China. Narrow-minded, culturally biased moralism - often masquerading under the guise of "common sense" - frequently produces the opposite of ethics. It can cause a lot of injustice and pain. In our own society I think of people who are embarrassed about medical procedures simply because of the parts of ...

18. Counterfeit Faith

Acts 14:8-20

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... to the body of the sermon and to preach about Christ as the living Lord. The people's premature reaction was that of amazement to a miracle. Plus, it was an ingrained superstition that the gods played at the game of walking among men and women while masquerading as mortals. The people actually acted before they heard the Word of Christ proclaimed. We sometimes say that a person's mouth races at ninety miles per hour before his or her mind is in gear. So, the people of Lystra went through the appearance of ...

19. The Third Sunday in Lent

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... was offering her was circumlocution. She was a literalist when she wanted to avoid the deep meaning of Jesus' words, but she knew how to talk around the issue where her personal life was concerned. "I have no husband," was a truth employed to masquerade the lie of her private life. Our generation is no stranger to such a misuse of language, words true in themselves which are designed to hide the truth of the matter from the listener. Weapons systems are "peacekeepers;" "revenue enhancement" is a tax hike ...

20. An Identity Crisis

Sermon

James Bjorge

... tiger happened along and all the goats fled in terror. But the little cub lingered behind, afraid and yet somehow unafraid. The cub bleated a bit and then nervously nibbled at the grass. The king tiger laughed and asked the small tiger what he meant by this masquerade. He said nothing, only bleating once again. So the king tiger took him to a pool of still water and forced him to look down at the two reflections side by side. But the little one failed to see any significance to it. When this failed, the ...

21. All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... baby? Or been the person in uniform? What kind of evil forces these terrible and tragic decisions upon us? We are nearing the end of our journey to the cross and to Easter. It has been suggested that the cross of Christ marks the end of the "masquerade ball of humanity." At the cross, our masks come off and we see behind our pretty poses and pious disguises. To encourage us once again to "stand beneath this cross" and contemplate its meaning for our lives, we have the mysterious, yet comforting words of the ...

22. That Carpenter Is God

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... ’s son, the one whose brothers and sisters we know - he is claiming to be a rabbi." The people took offense at the appearance of a common man - one of them, - an unlearned man, - from their own humble town, - a working man from their own class, masquerading as a rabbi. Do you feel the scandal of it? They did not know it then, but the scandal was compounded a hundredfold. Jesus did not just claim to be a rabbi. He claimed to be God. That’s authority. Authority. Jesus claimed and demonstrated authority ...

23. The Greatest Good News Of All

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... Pat Moore was not eighty-five years old at all. Not even close. She was an attractive twenty-six-year-old industrial design specialist, who was concerned about the needs of the aged. At least once each week for the next three years, Pat put on her masquerade of facial latex foam, a heavy fabric that bound her body, and a convincing gray wig. She visited fourteen states as an old woman. She met hundreds of people who never once discovered her true identity. Pat Moore wanted to have a first hand experience of ...

24. A Most Confusing Doctrine

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... God set the world in motion and then walked off and left it. We believe God visited our world in the life of a humble carpenter. Notice I did not say in the guise of a humble carpenter. I said in the life of this carpenter. Jesus was not God masquerading as a man. No, God emptied Himself and became fully human when Christ was born in the manger of Bethlehem. He cried real tears, and sweat real sweat and bled real blood. He was a real man, and yet God was in Him, "reconciling the world unto Himself." Thus ...

25. The Heart Of The Matter

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... was like, so he put over the bloated features of his face the mask of a saint. The guise worked, and he wooed and won her. After they had been married for awhile, a woman showed up from Lord George Hell's past. She was angered and scandalized by his masquerade. How dare he pretend to be good! In the presence of his wife she went up to him and stripped off his mask. And to her great surprise--and his--what she saw underneath the mask of a saint was the face of a saint he had become--while wearing ...

Showing results