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 1207 results

1. Victory and Protest

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Richard L. Thulin

... ponder. In this meal we eat and drink that which unites us with Christ and gives us a share in God's own life. That is the victory. But the bread which we eat is that bread which is given for the life of the world. And therein is the protest. We cannot eat this life-giving bread without turning from ourselves to a world in need. This bread given for the world's life connects us to all people and to their condition. We cannot eat this living bread without asking how we might be able to pass life on ...

2. A Protestant (And Catholic) Way To Confess

Romans 10:8b-13

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... an extent that he would deny his own life and all things rather than affirm himself. For in confessing God and denying himself he dies.[12] Confession is about not attributing too much to yourself and giving all the credit to God! To confess the faith in this Protestant/Catholic way gives confidence and joy. Temptation and despair don’t have a chance when we have renounced our own goodness. A confessor of the faith does not face the problems of life alone, and so he or she does not even have to be the one ...

3. Wave Riders and Deep-Sea Divers

Jonah 1:1-17, Jonah 2:1-10, Jonah 3:1-10, Jonah 4:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... sermon ever preached! Cause he figures, okay…I’ll do what God asks. But my heart won’t be in it. If I just “do” what I’m supposed to, carry out God’s request, I’ll be free of all of this, and I can still win this little protest. I’ll just make this the most wishy-washy, cool, boring, non interesting, short, milk-toast sermon these guys have EVER heard, and they’re NEVER gonna repent! And then, I’ll take my place on the hill, and I can’t WAIT to watch God destroy them!!! Woohoo! Yes ...

4. Getting out of the Doldrums

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of status, social standing, or sex. A heartfelt confession of faith in Christ, and receiving the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, was all the “intermediary” required for a new and redeemed life. In 1517 Protestantism was, then, a “pro-test” — a protest against the powers that kept the free gift of Christ at human arm’s-length from divine power. The salvation Christ offered was not something to be brokered by special groups with special powers. It was a gift offered to all who confessed ...

5. Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Carroll Gunkel

... Master, and they took seriously the injunction of that Master who is called the Prince of Peace that they should become peacemakers. On August 21, 1976, the first of what was to become many peace rallies was held. The rally brought together Protestants and Roman Catholics as Christians in peace. So often the opposing sides had marched at each other, screaming epithets, waving hate-tinged placards, throwing stones, and preparing to bloody the "enemy." On August 21, 1976, the scene was transformed. On that ...

6. Pop Verses: Isaiah 40:28-31

Isaiah 40:28-31

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... showing up in this messed up world today? Did you see what happened in Dallas this week? We posted the amazing story on our Face Book page. Here is the story: “After five Dallas police officers were fatally shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in response to the officer-related deaths of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, Americans were left wondering how divided their nation is. “If some events during this week are any indicator, then there might be more hope for unity than originally thought ...

7. A Christian's Duty in Time of War

Nehemiah 4:1-23

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... TO POST A GUARD. In other words, call out the military. We have done that and our troops are performing brilliantly. Now is the time to support them and their Commander in Chief. Americans have the right to protest and I’m sure there are protesters in front of the White House right now. But those protesters should remember that brave soldiers died at places like Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima to provide their right. The men and women of the armed services are the agents of the President as he fulfills Romans 13 ...

8. How Much Faith Is Enough?

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... in Santa Cruz, CA. Like many movements that emanate from California, this was a crusade with a difference. The protesting students carried blank signs and blank leaflets. Bryan Finch, who organized the protest, said that protests have become so common that no one reads the signs or the leaflets anyway. His group was protesting the meaninglessness of most protests. His was a protest against protests. Two extremes-passivity and mindless activity. Neither is the way of the cross. The supreme need of our lives ...

9. What Really Counts

Mark 9:38-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... ear of one of his elderly laymen, “Please get some chairs for the guest pastors.” The elderly gentleman was quite hard of hearing, so he asked the priest to repeat his request. The priest did so a little louder: “Please get up and get three chairs for the Protestants.” The old man had a puzzled look on his face as he rose to his feet. Turning to the rest of the congregation, he said with a loud voice: “This seems highly irregular, but I’ve been asked to have you stand and give three cheers for ...

10. Which Ones Were Lost?

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10

Sermon

Merle G. Franke

... in groups in ramshackle rental houses. And some people thought they needed to bathe more frequently. I don't know, I don't recall smelling any of them. But there is no doubt that the hippies were not well received by the general populace. They protested a variety of things that went on in society. They gathered in their hippie hangouts all over town. They smoked pot. And in general they were a sore embarrassment to the straight "decent" folks. Hence when some of them frequented our open church sanctuary ...

11. The Second Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Kendall K. McCabe

... reading, in unison, a prayer of confession written for them by someone else, so they are never sure if they are confessing their own sins or the sins someone else thinks they ought to have done. That is, if they even have confession at all! Protestants make such a thing about not having to confess to anyone, you wonder if they ever bother! After all, who's to know? The Roman Catholic probably knows little of the pietistic tradition in Protestantism (some of it borrowed from Roman Catholic mystics) that has ...

12. Martin Luther: the Shape of Grace

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... which could re-form into that shape again would double in size, minister to thousands around it, have an abundance of offerings to share, and probably be on the cover of Time magazine within the year. Put very bluntly, we have no right to use the name "protestant" in 1985 unless: We are deeply versed and directed by the Scriptures. We are in the world every day doing our own ministry. We are just downright thrilled with God’s free gift of grace and salvation so that we share it with everyone who will hold ...

13. The Heart Has Eyes

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... next life. It is dramatically portrayed in the architecture, and in the art, and in the drama of worship, as the worshipers gather each week. We who are the inheritors of what is called Western Christianity, especially Protestant thinking, are deprived of that. Although many Protestants would not consider it a deprivation. My progenitors certainly would not have considered it that. They were proud that they had rid their church of "adornment." That's what they called it, "adornment." There was good reason ...

14. Renewal of the New

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... to be renewed today, it needs to be renewed in faith. It is a faith in the new covenant and in the Christ who made the covenant with us. Facts prove that today’s church is anemic in faith. On an average Sunday, two-thirds of the members of the Protestant church are not present for worship. Yet worship is the most we can do for God and calls for the least effort on our part. Worship is a matter of obedience to one of the Ten Commandments: “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.” Luther explained the ...

15. The Unity Of The Church

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Erskine White

... church, which sees itself as "the one true church." The priest has little time or interest for ecumenical relations. Moreover, the pope sent a strong message not too long ago when he disciplined an Archbishop for (among other things) allowing Catholics to have communion with Protestants. Think of it! One of the Archbishop's "crimes" was allowing ecumenical communion.1 And so in this little town that Jesus is walking through, the message has been received: there is no joint worship involving Catholics and ...

16. THE NEIGHBORHOOD GAP

Sermon

William McKee Aber

... this or that church activity. Discounting this, what is your Catholic neighbor saying when he or she seems to be so vehement in defense of the faith? One hardly has to be an expert on ecumenism to note that the Catholic Church is in a turmoil. (Protestants are too, of course, but we’re a bit more used to it; we never took our ministers and General Assembly quite as seriously as our Catholic neighbors once took their priests and pope!) Ever since Vatican II, though, the Catholic Church has seemed to its ...

17. When Jesus Comes

Luke 8:22-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Jesus comes to calm that storm, and give us direction in it. Some years ago I had the opportunity of visiting Coromela in Ireland. It is a wonderful retreat center established for the renewal of Catholic and Protestant Christians working for reconciliation in that hate filled, war ravaged land. I met a protestant minister named Joseph Parker. I was moved deeply by his story. He was a minister in Belfast. In 1972 he lost his 14 year old son, killed by a terrorist bomb. The only way they had to identify ...

18. Modeling a Necessary Future

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... crusaders slaughtered a whole village of Jews just because they felt like it. The inquisition of the Roman Catholic church drove Jews and Muslims out of Spain where they had lived peaceably for centuries. Protestant and Roman Catholic hostilities of history are well known as are Protestant against Protestant intolerances. In his book, The Cross of Peace, Sir Philip Gibbs says that "Modern progress has made the world a neighborhood: God has given us the task of making it a brotherhood and sisterhood ...

19. Don’t Blow Off What Is God-Breathed!

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... sound to you, to your children, to your Sunday school students, if you told the stories instead of quoting verses? Jesus taught by drawing pictures with words. Today we call those stories “parables.” That Pew Survey found that less than half of all Protestant Christians knew who Martin Luther was, although an equally low number of Jews did not know Maimonides was a Jewish rabbi. Jesus first read the Scripture, then he lived his life according to the Scriptures. We need to defrag, re-boot, re-read, even ...

20. The Woman at the Well

John 4:1-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... Ohio and talked with the girls of the Foxhole Club. They shared their testimony and how their lives were changed by the love of God. Then JC’s Girls went to the church and did the same thing. As the church service was getting ready to start, protesters from the club were outside as usual. Inside, the people of the church were asked by the JC’s Girls if they were willing to “change the face of Christianity by standing with [them] and truly loving God’s Beautiful Girls just as Jesus would. The entire ...

21. The Gospel We Preach

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

... That we may dwell in perfect unity. (“I Greet Thee, My Sure Redeemer Art,” in The Presbyterian Hymnal [Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990], Hymn 457) Our hymnal attributes those words to John Calvin, the French lawyer and pioneer of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe. Whether Calvin actually wrote the hymn is open to some debate. But no one debates that Calvin was the genius behind the Reformed branch of theology, which forms the basis for many of our Presbyterian beliefs ...

22. A Pep Talk for the Kingdom

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... stood in solidarity against the Romanian police and army forces who were called in to disperse them. Eventually, the crowd grew to 200,000 resolute citizens who marched to the town square in protest of the Communist government. The army troops began firing on the crowds, killing hundreds, but it didn’t stop their protests. Then, a pastor in the crowd called out, “Let us pray!” and as his words were passed through the crowd, those hundreds of thousands of marchers knelt in the town square and prayed ...

23. The Perisitent Noise Of Solemn Assemblies

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... , and so on. Therefore, since such an auspicious figure as Augustine has tampered with the parable, I thought we might take a little liberty with it, to make its meaning as lucid as possible. Here is one way we might translate it. Behold, a white, middle-class Protestant deacon was going through an inner city neighborhood, when he was attacked and robbed by some drug addicts who left him half dead. Now a black minister happened by on his way home from church, but didn't want to get involved, and didn't want ...

24. Success: Ultimate and Unlimited

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

... pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church ..." Some may not agree totally with these words, but we dare not miss the wellingup of the catholicity dwelling in the Body of Christ from the beginning. Protestant hymnody is filled with the expectation of heaven. The ecstasy produced by it is a history all by itself. Charles H. Gabriel gives an example: When all my labors and trials are o'er And I am safe on that beautiful shore, Just to be near ...

25. OUR LORD TORMENTED

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

... mob that had assembled on the parade ground. All right, he thought. We’ll put it to the test. In a loud voice that all could hear he said, "I find no crime in this man." A roar burst from the mob. Arms were flung high, fists doubled, shaking in protest. Pilate was not oblivious to the subtle smirk on the faces of the priests. Now there could be no doubt. They were out to get him. If he released the man, charged with treason, he’d hear from Rome. If he condemned him - he might touch off rebellion, and ...

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