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 695 results

1. The Spontaneous Routine

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... we can do. Each and every day we can raise this prayer: Of all the things we ask this day, Lord, give to us the gift of a grateful heart.5 After such a prayer, regularly prayed, our first question will answer itself. Thanksgiving is, after all, a spontaneous routine. Oh yes! There is one thing more: Those who do return to give thanks, those who respond with hearts of gratitude to God for his blessings, open themselves for God to do still more. "And he said to him. 'Rise and go your way; your faith has made ...

2. Walking The Familiar

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

... one. What had been one healing touch now was 12 plus one. Further, we often think that God's work must be through such grand events as the sun standing still, or the Red Sea being pushed aside. That may be, but much more God works in the ordinary, the routine, the undramatic. Red Skelton told this story from the stage of the Palladium in London. He said there was a terrible flood in Louisiana. The water rose so quickly that a man had no time to escape and climbed to the roof of his house. As he perched on ...

3. On Staying Awake

Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... . But if he came in and found them all asleep, he would go up to his chambers and forget all about it. Falling asleep and missing the big moment is a problem. One of the reasons we have this failing may be the numbing quality of routine. Routine can deaden us against perceiving the big moments. Wise are those who fight against the spiritual anaesthesia of the daily round. A woman called a packing house and ordered the complete carcass of a horse. She met the delivery men and asked them to put the horse ...

4. Curiosity Or Consecration

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... The way we put our professions above our families. The fanatical devotion we give to seeking entertainment. Need we go on? But most men perish inch by inch in play at little games. This says something about our Christian faith and commitment doesn’t it? The daily routine interests of our life. If I had to pick one word to describe our time, high up on the list of possible words, if not at the very top, would be the word - bored. Clifton Phataman has described our boredom as a special kind. Not unhappiness ...

5. The Wisdom of the Wise Men

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... no longer. He couldn’t stand the fellow’s carping and the fellow’s indifference. And so as not to embarrass him, he said quietly to him, ‘Mister, when you haven’t got it inside, you can’t see it outside.’ It’s easy to get trapped in the routine, to become dull and bogged down. The wisdom of the wise men admonishes you to stay alive to mystery, keep your eyes open for a star that might burst forth in the dark night of your soul. And those stars do burst forth. Sometimes it’s the star that ...

6. Heart of a Pelican

Matthew 17:24-27, Exodus 30:11-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... is our human way of living. Clocks, watches, time, place. We are a people who live our lives within a certain prescribed context. We go to jobs. We get married. We do our banking. We buy groceries. We do many things that are expected of us. We participate in a routine. But we are defined by what and whom we love. This is what truly drives us. We can go to a job we don’t much like, because it brings home the money we need to give our children a home, food, clothing, gifts. We can attend events that we ...

7. It Is Really Something New by Dr. Frank Bateman Stanger

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2, Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... questions to give eternal answers. The Scriptures say that the people of Athens spent all of their time asking questions and talking about anything that was new. That was their pastime, their routine, what they mainly did. But there is nothing routine with God. God took these routine questions from a group of people who just liked to babble about novelties and inspired his servant Paul in response to declare eternal truth. This is the truth we are talking about tonight. We are considering Paul’s answer ...

8. Still in One Peace

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... deadlines, hoped-for-donations, and hold-your-breath budget squeakers. June can be just plain busy. June can leave you jaded and evacuated. But the start of July signals a kind of collective sigh of relief. By the Fourth of July we settle into a new set of routines that aren't routine. We stay up later because it's not even dark until well after 10 p.m.. Or we get up earlier because dawn arrives around 4 o'clock in the morning. And of course, July is the first month when we really start to go on our winter ...

9. Being the Lord's Instrument

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to have a sense of uniqueness and a sense of usefulness. I want now to make another big point. To be the instrument of God of us will have to radically break our life-pattern, while others will simply intentionally add on to, or act out deliberately in our routine life what God is calling us to. By now, most of you know the story of Fred Mills. We shared it in the Courier last week. Fred is a member of our church. He and his wife, Mabel, joined about two years ago. They’ve been active Methodist Christians ...

10. The Sponge And Wine

Mark 15:33-41

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... that Jesus would stagger under the load of the cross, or that a Roman soldier had only to tap an innocent bystanding citizen with his spear to substitute for Jesus. After all, it was an occupied country. At the cross the soldiers followed the usual routine for crucifixion, which also included offering a drink of drugged wine in order to deaden the pain. A group of wealthy women from Jerusalem apparently made this potion as a project of mercy for citizens who had to suffer this awful fate at the hands ...

11. Down A Garden Path

Genesis 2:4-25, Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

... and gracious God offering to be our Lord? That's the faithful and needed response in both the garden and the desert: to let God be God. To let God be our God. With God's help, let us unravel ordinary events, test familiar impulses, unmask our habits and routines and learn whether our lives are growing in the love and grace and goodness of God, or whether we're drifting or driven somewhere else. Our faith is meant to guide and keep us in the most usual moments and places, as well as in our crises; besides ...

12. The Sponge And Wine

Mark 14:1--15:47

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

13. Jesus: The Ultimate Ordinary

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

... going in spite of obstacles and in the worst of times manage to be loving, courageous, faithful, I experience a power holding me up which I accept as truth at work in my life. I hear God’s voice in me, also. The normal order of events, the routine or usual these express the ordinary at its most dependable. As I experience chaos in my life and accept the demands which order puts upon me and do them, I grow surer that truth lies deeply embedded in order. The voice of Christ sounds even stronger in my soul ...

14. Called to Be Saints

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... to do. Extraordinary tasks boggle us because we feel so small before them, and everyday opportunities are neglected because they are always there. Who needs to be "called" or "chosen" to do these things that all persons must do whether they are chosen or not? The very routineness of everyday life gnaws at any sense we may have of being chosen people, called to be saints. Can this be what it means to "salt the earth"? Yes, it is! If Paul had not found purpose and meaning in the year and a half he originally ...

15. At the Door of the Church

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... boring for her. Now it excites her and enables her to meet God. The prayer has not changed; its words are the same as before. She has changed. She has learned to prepare herself. Worship, friends, can be an exciting affair. Or it can be very dull and routine. The determining factor is not so much what takes place inside the four walls of the sanctuary but what takes place in our hearts at the door of the church. May we never put off preparation for worship. May we find a new appreciation for something that ...

16. Christianity Can Be Fun

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... , want a minister to have some fun in Christ our Lord, to be part of the party, instead of a part of the boredom outside. This is worth preserving. It is worth our young people seeing. And it is decidely Christian. Presenting religion as a dull, routine, enjoyment-stifling affair has great consequences in the life of young people. Jesus knew that man does not live by bread alone. Man has powerful emotional needs. Among these are the need for fun and frolic, emotion, and mental elation. If we don’t fulfill ...

17. Back in the Swing

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... Leviticus 24:19-21; Deuteronomy 19:21), David should have died. Instead, divine judgment fell upon the child, according to the ideas of that day, as a special favor to David. It could have been worse. In this narrative we have a tragic death; a movement back into the routine of life; and a new life - a new promise of hope. 1. A tragic death It always hurts when a child dies. Even in this case, when David expected it - and knew he deserved it - it hurt deeply. He hurt so much when he knew his first child was ...

18. When You Reach Wit’s End

Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

... yet who had reared six children and managed to make ends meet all the way, used to say; "When you come to the end of your rope - tie a knot and hang on!" I In the first place, when you reach wit’s end, tie a knot of regular routine. Stick as closely as you can to a schedule. Follow as nearly as possible the normal activities of your life. Time itself often proves to be your great ally; insoluble problems often dissolve in the fluid of changing circumstances. Most of us would be surprised, I’d hazard, if ...

19. Tomorrow Doesn't Always Come

James 4:1-12

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... I had emerged from wherever God puts your mind while people are trying to save your life in the hospital. They said it was a miracle I had lived from what were the most complicated of complications that arose during what was supposed to have been a fairly routine heart valve replacement surgery. All I know is what I read in the papers later and what friends and those medical people told me. But it does seem that I spent days sticking one foot in and out of death''s door. "To a man and woman, those doctors ...

20. The Servant Who Delivered the Mail

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... Hollywood and Fifth Avenue types. I believe one of the great paradoxes is that life is full of dramatic moments, yet it is also comprised of many ordinary, commonplace experiences. I think Jesus and Paul would want us in the midst of our common, ordinary routines to be open to the sense of the miraculous, but they would never put down the ordinary. The tenth Chapter of Matthew''s Gospel opens up with Jesus sending the disciples into all the land. They are to proclaim the gospel to everyone, preaching from ...

21. Such As I Have

Acts 3:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... they came to pray. Perhaps he felt that people going to prayer would be more generous in their gifts. But that day, his regular routine was dramatically interrupted. He asked for one and received something else. Peter and John were going about their regular religious routine and the beggar was going about his stay-alive task of begging money. Both routines were radically interrupted and received a new dimension. The beggar asked for money, but received something else. “Silver and gold have I none,” said ...

22. God Is Amazing

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... is present, the energy, technical ability, and opportunity that generated what we have, comes from God. Yes, God is present in the miraculous, as when Jesus amazed the crowds with physical cures and his ability to control nature. But God is equally present in the routine, ordinary, and even mundane events of everyday life. God is present in our successes and joys, but the Lord is equally present in our failures and pain. God is present in every moment of every day; we must open wide our senses in order to ...

23. When It's Time to Wait

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... of the same old thing over and over again." It is one thing to be a part of a community on its high and holy days. It is another thing to be in the routines and the daily struggles. When you read the struggles of Simeon you discover he was there in the routines of time. He began to discover that rituals are not restrictive and routines have meaning. In the normal course of an ordinary day commitments are made, love is spoken, gratitude is expressed, and life is lived. If you want to be at the right place at ...

24. God Enjoys AND Enjoins Us

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... vigorously trying to maintain and protect the status quo. The chief priests were completely committed to the continuation of the temple and its lucrative administration — daily sacrifices, the temple hierarchy, rituals, routines. The Pharisees were committed to a different kind of routine — a routinized morality, prescribed and proscribed by a devotion to the details of the written Torah. Neither group could find a way to respond outside their chosen boundaries to Jesus’ message and mission. Neither ...

25. Finding Fault With God

Jeremiah 2:4--3:5

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... or family members who have judged God ... and found God lacking. Perhaps you yourself question some of God's ways. Comedian George Carlin died in June 2008, and with his death came many formal retrospectives and millions of views of some of his recorded routines on YouTube. I was a young, inquisitive teen when Carlin broke onto the national comedy scene with "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television," and I still remember watching him guest-host the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. One ...

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