Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: complain, moan, groan, whine, mutter, grouse, bleat, carp, cavil, protest, rumble, gurgle, murmur, growl, roar, complaint, muttering, grievance, objection, protestation, quibble, criticism, charge, accusation

Showing 1 to 25 of 278 results

1. Fulfill Your Ministry

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... life serving lepers.” Mother Theresa looked at him with those sharp, brown eyes and with her disarming smile. “Young man,” she said, “your vocation is not to serve lepers – your vocation is to love Jesus.” If we could remember that – if we could burn and groan with the love of Jesus – those whom we serve would hear and see the Gospel and we would do the work of an evangelist and fulfill our ministry. I close with this. Back in 1716, King Charles the Twelfth of Sweden announced to the little ...

2. Life in The Spirit

Romans 8:22-27

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... and doctors worked frantically to save him, his wife came and pleaded with me to go to the hospital chapel and pray with her. We went, and she fervently prayed for God to spare her husband's life. We held hands, and I did not know what to pray. I groaned inwardly — her husband's death was imminent, yet his wife and I both wanted him to live. So, I prayed, too, for his life to be spared, though I felt inwardly that this prayer would not be answered in this way. At that moment, I felt the sting of death ...

3. How Does Religious Conduct Work?

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... and who had an impediment in his speech. They begged Jesus to "lay his hand on him." Jesus took him aside, apart from the crowd, "put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue. Then he looked up to heaven, gave a deep groan, and said to the man, 'Open up!' At once the man's ears were opened, his tongue was set loose, and he began to talk without any trouble." (TEV) This is the story. But in many similar cases in Jesus' ministry, usually a controversy preceded or followed the incident ...

4. Does God Give A Damn?

Exodus 5:22--6:12

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... Does God give a damn whether we live or die? Is God concerned about the hardship and suffering we must endure?" Our text has good news for us by telling us that God is well aware of the troubles we have. He said to Moses, "I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold in bondage ..." Indeed, God knew and was concerned about the fate of his people in a land that did not know Joseph. The Jews were captives in a foreign land. They were enslaved and subjected to forced labor, making ...

5. On Being Lifted Beyond Ourselves

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... Well, I saw the outcome last night. She was radiant and beautiful and evidently at peace. She confided in me, "You know, I have found Christ, I am a Christian now." I could see that these were not empty, routine words. The Spirit had cried out in her "with groanings that could not be uttered." God heard, and through the weeks and months he had made it clear to her. God is exciting us with these new-life experiences of our struggling young people. So often we do not know how to pray - what to say to God - to ...

6. A Prophet Among Them

Ezekiel 2:1-3:15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... you care – that you speak for a God who loves us – Who forgives our iniquities and heals our diseases – who restores us to wholeness and gives us joy. II But not only do we speak to the people for God, we speak to God for the people. Our “groaning” becomes our intercession – our pleading with God on behalf of our people. One of the symbolic actions God called for Ezekiel to perform was to lie for a considerable time first on one side and then on the other, in order to bear the guilt of the house ...

7. The Vocation of Leadership: A Prophet Among Them

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that you care – that you speak for a God who loves us – Who forgives our iniquities and heals our diseases – who restores us to wholeness and gives us joy. But not only do we speak to the people for God, we speak to God for the people. Our “groaning” becomes our intercession – our pleading with God on behalf of our people. One of the symbolic actions God called for Ezekiel to perform was to lie for a considerable time first on one side and then on the other, in order to bear the guilt of the ...

8. When Are We Most Like God?

Exodus 2:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... and when he looked upon the burdens of his people, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Isn’t there a connection here with being like God? Listen to verse 23: “In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel groaned under their bondage, and cried out for help, and their cry under bondage came up to God.” Moses was “grown up now,” he looked upon his people’s burdens. That’s the beginning of being like God; to look and see the suffering of others. Now when he ...

9. Remembering the Name of God John W. Cobb

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... takes the initiative in deliverance. About all this enslaved people could do was to cry out for help. That they did, but otherwise the story of their misery in bondage was replete with the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. Yet God saw and heard their groaning and therefore chose a leader for them. Sometimes we are caught in an impossible situation in life from which we cannot extricate ourselves. All we can do is cry out. It was to such a situation that Luther spoke when he said, "Even the Christian ...

10. Victim or Visionary

John 19:28-37

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... goes back into the shop, and we see what he is going to do. There is a paperspike before him. The old man places his hand over the spike and forces it down. Finally, with the hand bleeding, he goes away to rejoin the world in its groaning - to be not a victim but, like Jesus Ortiz, an instrument of redemption. It has been said that Jane Austen despised the greater number of her characters. George Eliot, on the other hand, suffered with each of hers. God is like George Eliot. He suffers with his characters ...

11. The Most Misunderstood Gift

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... in wisdom, in propriety, and properly. There is the use of tongues in private worship - in prayer. Paul speaks in Romans 8:26, 27 of the Spirit helping us to pray. We don’t always know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit helps us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now, this is perhaps the most helpful and also the most neglected area of speaking in tongues! God allows us to wrestle in prayer on behalf of situations, and of others and their needs. Have you not had times when your concern, your ...

12. Redemption: A Wide Angle Picture

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... with what is coming in Chapter 3 than what is going on in Chapter 2; Lets read those two verses: In the course of those many days the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel groaned under their bondage, and cried out for help, and their cry under bondage came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (Exodus 2: 23-24 RSV). Who this king of Egypt was who died in this passage is not of great importance from the standpoint of these ...

13. Coping When It Seems Impossible

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... the meaning of suffering, a God who has borne a cross himself. Here is a portion of a letter I received recently from a former parishioner who is obviously suffering from deep depression: I am writing this letter to keep from going insane! Every morning I wake up moaning and groaning! I want to run away! But I am not even able to dress and pack, and I would never be able to get my belongings together. But I’d rather die than live out the rest of my life here. Actually I am dead. I can’t function here! I ...

14. Grace in the Midst of Hopelessness

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... least eighty prominent public officials, including three governors, three senators, and a U.S. vice president. Living in hope means knowing that a God of grace is able to multiply our present modest efforts at faithfulness to bless generations to come. While today we may groan, our future will be glorious. That's not to say that God has abandoned us in our present need. The Holy Spirit who lives within those who trust Christ is forever calling out and reaching out to God -- even when our natural minds, on ...

15. The Source of Self Esteem

Romans 8:14-25

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... a nobody. Paul wants you to know that the gospel means, that's not right. You are a child of God. Now live that way. Living with a school teacher means I have heard a whole lot of stories about children. Many of them about kids who are groaning inwardly to become the persons that God created them to be. Jean has often taught eight year old's. She has told me really some of the most pitiful, and yet beautiful, stories about children, who at eight years old have already been told that they are nothing. They ...

16. God's Prescription for a Healthy Christian

Jude 1:17-21

Sermon

James Merritt

... handed it through the door. The doctor shut the door, they stood out in the hall wringing their hands; they could hear moans and groans. In a minute the doctor was back at the door. He said, "Quick, get me a pair of pliers." The farmer ran downstairs, ... a pair of pliers, came back and stuck them through the door. The doctor shut the door and they began to hear more moans and groans. In just a minute the doctor came back and said, "Quick, get me a hammer and chisel." Well, by that time the farmer had had it ...

17. How to Turn the Ballot into a Blessing Box

Proverbs 29:2

Sermon

James Merritt

... a man will not keep that most sacred vow to his wife before God, he cannot be trusted to keep a political vow to uphold the Constitution of the United States. II. A Vile Leader Burdens the Nation "But when a wicked man rules, the people groan." (v.2b) The word "groan" literally means "to mourn at a funeral." When a nation knowingly and willingly chooses a wicked leader, they are weeping at their own funeral. Now if you don't believe this, exhibit A is the nation of Israel. You back and read the history of ...

18. Just a Crazy Story

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Larry Lange

... so I can get to work around here." "Yes, sir!" "Now, that's just what I like to hear, son: obedience." Zack smiled at God, shaking his head. "Nice try, dude." Zack slapped his hands on the table so that all the dishes on it jumped and clanged. Zack groaned and brought his hands to his temples to attempt to massage the pain and dizziness out of them. God chuckled to himself as he began clearing a space at the sink, so he could fill his bucket with hot water. Zack eventually pushed himself away from the table ...

19. Breaking News: A World Gone Wild

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

James Merritt

... , NIV) God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. The desert is going to blossom like the rose. The lion will lie down with the lamb and the lamb will not be in the lion! God made this world a good creation. Today, it is a groaning creation, but one day it will be a glorious creation. In the meantime, we live in a world corrupted by sin. We live in a world that is cruel in the way it treats the people who live in it. I know the big question still out there is, “Why ...

20. And They Lived Happily Ever After... or Did They?

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Rick McCracken-Bennett

... . As their eyes met, passion filled his heart to make this woman his lover and bride. He thought to himself that his friend had outdone himself this time. So he leaned against the stone. He pushed and pulled but the stone would not move. Again he grunted and groaned but no, the stone would not budge. It became clear to him that this was not the woman that God intended for him. That did not, however, keep him from taking one more look at this exotic and beautiful woman! Again the search resumed. It was a few ...

21. Only Human?

Psalm 8:5-6

Sermon

Will Willimon

... where everything is eating and being eaten. So St. Paul spoke, not of how lovely creation is when seen from a screened in porch of his mountain cottage, but how creation -- groans. "The whole creation has been groaning in travail....not only the creation, but we ourselves," Paul wrote in Romans 8. "The creation was subjected to futility." Groaning. Futility. Those chickens on the trucks on 15/501. Me. You. In the Great Chain of Being which biologists know only as a chain of food, some creature is always ...

22. Bringing Love Close

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

George Paul Mocko

... known to us His hidden purpose, namely, that the universe, all in heaven and on earth might be brought into a unity in Christ." From Romans 8:20-21: "For the created universe waits with eager expectation for God's sons to be revealed. The whole universe groans in all its parts as if in the pangs of childbirth, because the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendor of the children of God." From Colossians 1:15-20: "Christ is the visible expression of ...

23. Walking the Valley of the Lost

2 Samuel 1:17-27

Sermon

Donald Zelle

... would grieve so much over the Saul who saw David as his enemy. From its beginning to its end, this poem is plaintive. Lostness and grief drip from every verse. Personal grief is expressed here, as well as a call for national grief, and even for nature to groan over the loss. 1. The personal loss comes from the death of a friend, Jonathan. "I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." (2 Samuel 1:26) It is one ...

24. The Power To Defy Evil

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... in such troubled times and in such hopeless circumstances that a young Hebrew mother placed her baby in a basket and set it afloat among the reeds of the river Nile. Even if the baby were to live, she could only see an intolerable existence for him as he would groan under the burden of hard labor and be driven to the point of daily exhaustion by the sting of the slavemaster's whip. Little did she know that in her desperation to save her child, the hand of God was at work. God had a plan - a great master ...

25. And You Thought God Didn't Care!

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... and found refuge in the land of Midian. There he met Jethro (also called Reuel) who became his father-in-law when he married Zipporah, one of Jethro's daughters. In the course of time, the King of Egypt died, the Hebrews groaned under their bondage, and God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the desert, Moses had the vision of the bush burning, and not being consumed. God called Moses there and commissioned him to go back to Egypt, seek an audience with the ...

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