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 56 results

1. Bedlam or Bethleham?

Titus 2:1-15

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... realizing his father was not exactly handsome, the youngster added with childish candor. "Inside, Daddy, not outside." The father smiled knowingly, he had received a sublime compliment. The Christ of Christmas sees through the outside to the inside of us and our shams fall away. He wants us to express uprightness in all our relationships, the outward and the inward person as one. The third aspect of our Advent behavior involves our relationship with God, "Live a life that is godly." Me, godly? It sounds ...

2. Herod Antipas

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... and teaching of philosophy." Socrates drank the hemlock and died in regal dignity. Herod Antipas represents much of the modern world: sham and pretense. "The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible," sniffed Oscar Wilde. "What the second duty ... one with the largest church, of course - Herod’s standards. We are tired of pretense. All about us we behold sham and artificiality. Our neighbors, our friends, our family wear masks, hiding themselves. How many times we wonder who they really ...

3. The Word of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... but good, one who had revealed the power of sacred truth, one who had radiated divine love. By his words and his life he had exposed the shortcomings of men, for he had held up God’s standard of what life ought to be. He tore away the mask of sham and hypocrisy. In the mirror of his perfect life men saw themselves as they really were. They didn’t like what they saw and decided to destroy the mirror. We are no different. Much of our life is still an unredeemed jungle. Scratch modern man, it has been said ...

4. You Are My Witnesses

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... . The hope that we have because of the resurrection unto new life gives us new possibilities in dealing with this life. We do not have to spend time in this life fretting about the limitations of death. Nor, on the other hand, do we have to live a life of sham and hoax trying to pretend that death will not happen. God makes honest people out of us. We can deal with life as it really is and confess our sins. As repentant people we also can freely lean upon the grace and mercy of God and face up to our ...

5. Tempted By Good

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Don M. Aycock

... it, the stronger pull it has. Jesus was in this strong field of gravitational pull. Something important was happening to him. He was in a genuine battle for his spiritual life. We sometimes wonder if his temptations were real. Yes! They were real! This was no sham battle, but a war of wits and wills about the destiny of the one God appointed as Savior. William James, a well-known philosopher and psychologist, once thought about his life and he wrote: "If this life be not a real fight, in which something is ...

6. No Shortcut To Glory

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

William L. Self

... and wonder. Perhaps we should develop contemporary worship or high liturgy for worship -- fads and instant religion -- for quick-fix solutions for spiritual barrenness. How does one encounter religious experience and certainty without resorting to fads and quick fixes and sham credentials? We long to go to the Mount of Transfiguration. Our souls thirst to have communion with mystery. We need more than Saturday soccer games and car-pooling. We deeply yearn to go beyond careers and 401Ks, bulletin boards, and ...

7. Six Nails of the Cross IV: The Nail of Indecision

Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... plagues youth today is not that they do not choose, but that they do not carry their choice far enough. True, there is hypocrisy and materialism in our culture, and the social drop-outs may have a legitimate complaint when they regard our culture as a sham. But their lives contain no vision, no hope, for they are shaped and molded around rebellion, revolt. The child may choose to reject the authority of his parents. But he must realize that this is not enough. That will not nourish his life. He must choose ...

8. Fasting: Foolish or Fruitful?

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

... up? If you cannot stop smoking, why not try it as a Lenten discipline? If it is liquor, let the bottle alone for forty days. Could you do it? If you say you cannot, it shows the world is right by claiming that your fasting is meaningless. It is a sham. Not only that, the world notes that we who fast can find it very convenient during Lent to break the fast. If we have given up desserts, and we are eating in a friend's home, we say we must break the fast to avoid offending the hosts. Isn't ...

9. The Promise of Emmanuel

Isaiah 7:1-25

Sermon

... of the birth of Jesus, the sign of God with us. But in the baby born and placed in a straw-filled feed trough, in the young child whom we rhapsodically call Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, there is the one who shatters sham and hypocrisy. There is the one who overturns money tables in the Temple. There is the one who dies and turns the whole cosmic order upside down; for out of the death of Jesus, God raises him to new life. We stand today under God's activity ...

10. The Cunning Craftsman, God

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... nothing from God except an ear to hear his accredited achievements. Unconscious of defect, he raises no cry to that completeness "which flows around our incompleteness," and thus misses heaven whose strength is made perfect only in weakness. What utter sadness ... this sham of a man with a pretense of a prayer, worshiping at the altar of self. His very sanctimoniousness isolated him from humanity and heaven. His look of superiority criticized an unfortunate, seeking a word of hope or a hand of help. His ...

11. Facing the Glory Road

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... on the other hand, hovels; cruelty and evil in high places and filth and degradation in the slums; cheap chislers in the Temple and tyrannical tax gatherers working for Rome to squeeze out every farthing; sacrifices in worship that were a sham and blasphemy; human life cheapened to nothingness with the ravages of disease and slavery and murder; racial tension between Jew and Samaritan, between Roman and Herodian; and everywhere hatred - hatred for anyone who spoke the truth; hatred for anyone who attempted ...

12. Believable Light

2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... Christian truth and still hampers the spread of God's revelation in Christ. Far too many of us are docetic. Far too much of the time. We only seem to be Christians. We only appear to be followers of Christ. The world sees through our sham. The only cure is Christ himself. When we were children, all of us probably were fascinated with "invisible" writing. Remember how we got some tissue paper, dipped pens in citric acid, and scribbled what at first seemed invisible lettering. But when we held the tissue ...

13. Counting the Cost

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

... better that a millstone were hung around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Let this thought hit you with its full force. Some child of God was trying to find his way to the Father but I led him astray. He saw through my sham religion and turned his back to God. Where is the millstone that will enable me to hide from the wrath of God that I have deserved? Our Lord is so serious because we are the instruments with which he works to build Christian men and women. His reputation is in ...

14. Giving Everything: The Widow's Might

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . Jesus’ praise of the widow is raw sarcasm directed at the clergy. If this poor widow who enters the Temple gives everything she has and leaves poor while the institution of the Temple flourishes and the clergy go home well paid then the whole system is a sham. She has become the victim of a religious institution which was intended to benefit her. The treasury of the temple should be helping her not taking her last two lepta. How do we know this? What in this Scripture tells us that Jesus is pointing out ...

15. Choosing the Way to the Cross

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

James W. Moore

... out names like Rockefeller, Ford, Dupont, and Gates? They symbolize the “sweet smell of success.” But Webster was wrong. Money and fame are not enough. Those who have risen to the top of the heap are sometimes the most miserable. Their success is often a sham, because, you see, there is more to successful living than eating well and counting wealth and wearing crowns. Our customary standards of measuring success and value are so shoddy. How much money do you make? How many cars to you have? When was the ...

16. The Ten Commandments #4: The Sabbath

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... ) Jesus put that in perspective with his question, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?" Yes, healing is work - ask any nurse or doctor. But... No wonder Jesus got into trouble. He hated sham and hypocrisy. He despised DISPLAYS of righteousness. When it came to the observance of the Sabbath, he put everything into perspective in one sentence: "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath." All those ridiculous restrictions had nothing to do ...

17. The Nightmare before Christmas

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... history! For only the second time in our nation's history, a sitting President, rightly or wrongly, was being impeached, and, of all things, by a lame duck Congress! But, to be honest, I could not bear to watch. The so-called debate was a sham - most of the speeches were delivered to empty seats in the House chamber and were given only for their value as film clips during local newscasts around the country. No minds were going to be changed. Yesterday's vote was a foregone conclusion cast almost exclusively ...

18. True Excellence

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... winner with several books to my credit, but if I'm not able to relate to my family, I've accomplished nothing. I can be a world class athlete, totally committed to being the best I can be, but if I care not for others, my gold medals are a sham. Is that what St. Paul is saying? Gee, I can think of some people who are not going to want to hear that. But here is the first thing St. Paul says to us: THE ONLY EXCELLENCE THAT COUNTS IN LIFE IS EXCELLENCE IN LOVE. Earlier this year Amy Mulrooney ...

19. All Dressed Up

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... was usually made of metal, although it could be made of thick leather. And it was meant to protect their hearts and lungs and stomachs from injuries. Truth and righteousness. Those are the belt and the breastplate of the Christian. There is no place for the sham and shoddy in Christian living. No hypocrits need apply. Living out our faith is serious business. We are soldiers of Christ. We are to walk the talk and talk the walk. When we take seriously our task as soldiers of Christ, it shows in our business ...

20. For Future Generations

Psalm 22:1-31

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... of a Salesman. It’s the story of Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, who hits a mid-life crisis. He begins to feel the wear and tear of the years. And then he finds out that all he’s lived for, all he’s spent his life doing, is a sham, a hypocrisy, a foolish lie. He’s pretended to be something he never was. He’s pretended to believe in things that were never real. And when he looks at his children, he knows that they can see right through him. And in the end, that’s more than he ...

21. Where God Can Be Seen

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... These things I command you, that you love one another." Paul would later write: "Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing." That pretty well sums the matter up. If we cannot love, our faith is a sham. Early one Saturday morning, on her way to her downtown office, Deborah Michel saw a crowd of onlookers surrounding a police officer lying wounded on the street. As she watched the ambulance carry him away, someone told her what had happened. He had been shot by ...

22. Want To Sit At The Head Table?

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... with the trappings of success on the outside. The more unsure we are about our own self-worth, the more we need the envy of others. The less sure we are of ourselves, the greater our need to lord it over others. Yet someday we realize it is all a sham. True stature is not measured by how much we puff ourselves up, but by how willing we are to humble ourselves. But tell me. Where does a feeling of self-worth come from if not from the trappings of success? How can we prove that we are somebody if we ...

23. The Fourth King In The Christmas Story

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... ” if it weren't for the fourth king. That fourth king, of course, is King Herod. "Go and search diligently for the child," Herod said to the wise men. "And when you have found him, come and bring me word, that I may worship him, too." What a sham! What hypocrisy! Herod had no intention of worshiping the newborn king. He intended, rather, to do him harm. And thus, warned by an angel, Mary and Joseph are forced to flee in the night while the wise men, being warned in a dream, return home by another route ...

24. Two Promises For A New Year

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

Sermon

King Duncan

... men came to Christ, and today he attends Skender's church. (3) Do you understand what happened to Enver and Skender when they became Christians? Not only did they not prosper, they suffered because of their Christian commitment. The prosperity gospel is a fraud and a sham. We need to acknowledge that there is no promise in Scripture that things will always go our way when we follow Jesus. We are promised, though, that God will always be with us when we follow Jesus. Do you think Mary and Joseph were alone ...

25. Not the Seasons for Figs

Mark 11:12-19

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... tree for lying with its leaves. It looked good from the outside, but there was nothing there. Surely he must have intended a reference to the Temple. The religious folk of His day were impotent and infertile. They had taken a good thing: religion, and made it into a sham. They had dressed it up in finery, but it was a fake. But God says: (in the words of Amos) “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies....Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your ...

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